The Braille Monitor January, 1990

The Braille Monitor January, 1990

The Braille

Monitor

Vol. 33, No.

1 January

1990

Barbara

Pierce, Editor

Published in inkprint, Braille, on talking-book disc,

and cassette by

THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND

MARC MAURER, PRESIDENT

National Office

1800 Johnson Street

Baltimore, Maryland 21230

NFB Net BBS: (612) 696-1975

Web Page Address: http//www.nfb.org

Letters to the president,

address changes,

subscription requests, orders for NFB literature,

articles for the Monitor, and letters to the editor

should be sent to the National Office.

Monitor subscriptions

cost the Federation about twenty-five dollars per year.

Members are invited, and non-members are requested, to cover

the subscription cost. Donations should be made payable to

National Federation of the Blind and sent to:

National Federation of the Blind

1800 Johnson Street

Baltimore, Maryland 21230

THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF

THE BLIND IS NOT

AN ORGANIZATION

SPEAKING FOR THE BLIND--IT IS

THE BLIND SPEAKING FOR THEMSELVES

ISSN 0006-8829

Contents

Vol.

33, No. 1 January

1990

OF RESOLUTIONS AND RETROSPECTION

SOUTH CAROLINA DIRECTOR PERMITTED TO RESIGN:

ORGANIZED BLIND PREVAIL

by Donald C. Capps

SWEEPING UP THE KRUMS: CALIFORNIA STATE POLICE

INVESTIGATE THE BUSINESS ENTERPRISE PROGRAM

by Barbara Pierce

BLIND FAITH

by Mike Pearson

SCHOLARS ARE SOMETIMES STUMBLING BLOCKS

by C. Edwin Vaughan, Ph.D.

STATE DEPARTMENT THINKS TWICE ABOUT

THE WISDOM OF BREAKING FEDERAL LAW

THE BLIND SCIENTIST AT LOS ALAMOS

by John Rowley, Ph.D.

TECHNOLOGY AND THE JOB

by Curtis Chong

LITERACY: THE KEY TO OPPORTUNITY

by Fred Schroeder

ETHEL INCHAUSTI: LOCAL LEADER

FROM FARCE TO SLAPSTICK: HOW MUCH LOWER

CAN THE IOWA DEPARTMENT FOR THE BLIND SINK?

SHACKLED IMAGINATION: LITERARY ILLUSIONS ABOUT BLINDNESS

by Deborah Kent Stein

BLINDNESS: IS LITERATURE AGAINST US?

by Kenneth Jernigan

SOCIAL SECURITY, SSI, AND MEDICARE FACTS FOR 1990

LETTER FROM A STATE DIRECTOR

WHITE CANE/GUIDE DOG SAFETY DAY

RECIPES

MONITOR MINIATURES

Copyright, National Federation of the Blind, Inc., 1990

OF RESOLUTIONS AND RETROSPECTION

From the Editors: We wrote it; we believe it; and we hope you

will do something about it. Here it is:

Whether you are a purist, believing that no new decade begins

until the date ends in the number 1, or whether your view is the

simpler one that, when the digit in the tens place changes, the

new decade has arrived, we can all agree that the Nineties really

are here. The National Federation of the Blind enters the last

eleven (or is it ten) years of the century and, for that matter, of the millennium

in a much more vigorous and active position than it did the

Eighties. Our growth since the National Center for the Blind

opened for business in February, 1979, has been meteoric. We came

from Iowa with a staff of three in the spring of 1978 and rented

an office which doubled as a bedroom. The boxes of material were

stacked so high that the spaces between them seemed more like

tunnels than pathways. When we took possession of 1800 Johnson

Street with somewhat under 10,000 square feet of office space for

our use, we thought ourselves incredibly lucky, and so we were.

But the best still lay ahead. In the almost eleven years that we

have occupied the Center, we have renovated for our own use an

additional 140,000 square feet of space, as well as remodeling

virtually all of the areas rented by our tenants. At the

same time our staff has grown more than a thousand percent. This

personnel expansion has occurred in an effort to keep pace with

the explosion of crises and challenges demanding our attention.

Luckily, with hard work and dedication on the part of committed

Federationists at every level of the organization, our income has

increased enough thus far to keep pace with the cost of our

escalating programs. In 1989 the National Federation of the Blind

raised more money than ever before in a single year. This would

be a statement worthy of rejoicing if our expenses had not

increased at a still greater rate.

We are doing what we can to conserve our resources since, unlike

the federal government, we cannot print money when we find

ourselves running a little short. But everyone will have to help

if we are to avoid slashing programs that blind people have come

to depend upon.

If you are a frequent reader of the Braille Monitor , you will

remember reading the notice that says, Members are invited and

non-members are requested to cover the costs of their

subscriptions. Though the cassette and Braille editions cost

considerably more than either the print or the disc versions, we

have established $25 as the subscription rate for the Monitor .

If you enjoy reading this periodical and truly cannot afford to

contribute the cost of your subscription, we want you to continue

to receive the publication anyway. Getting the information

included in these pages into the hands of the blind of the nation

is one of the most important services we perform. But if

remembering to send your subscription check for the Monitor is

one of those little tasks that keep slipping your mind, this is

the moment to drop everything and go write it. While we are

mentioning small notices that readers begin and then skip,

remember the one that starts, If you or a friend would like to

remember the National Federation of the Blind in your will,... ?

Have you taken the time to do something about that suggestion?

Almost all of us have a little financial worth, and even a token

remembrance will help us carry on our struggle for justice and

equality in your memory. Together we can insure that the work of

the Federation continues, but it will take all of us to

accomplish this goal.

You can help by working with your local and state affiliates to

strengthen the organization and to meet the needs of blind people

in your area. You can recruit your friends and acquaintances as

members-at-large and invite them to become associates of the

Federation. You can also contribute whatever you can to support

our work, and you can pay for your 1990 subscription to the most

influential publication in the field of work with the blind right

now.

Together we can insure that none of our programs has to be cut

back painfully in the coming year. Happy New Year to you, and may

1990 be filled with accomplishment and prosperity for us all.

SOUTH CAROLINA DIRECTOR PERMITTED TO RESIGN:

ORGANIZED BLIND PREVAIL

by Donald C. Capps

As Monitor readers know, the National Federation of the Blind

of South Carolina has been engaged for a number of years in a

struggle

to improve the quality of service provided by the South Carolina

Commission for the Blind. (See the February, 1989, Braille

Monitor story about audit shenanigans and telephone abuses in

the Commission.) William James, Director of the Commission, has

never been a friend to the blind. He has refused to be

accountable to the people he serves, and beyond that, he has done

everything he could to make life difficult for the organized

blind movement.

When word began filtering out, therefore, on September 20, 1989,

that the Commission Board had permitted James to tender his

resignation provided that he clear out his desk within two days,

there was rejoicing among the blind of the state. The straw that

broke the camel's (or in this case the Commission's) back was a

nasty problem with a senior staff member who was making racial

slurs and in other ways setting a tone in which charges of racial

discrimination were rocking the agency. James did nothing

decisive to clean up the situation despite an outcry made by

virtually all the Commission's black employees. (See the Monitor

Miniature section of the October, 1989, issue of the Braille

Monitor .) The situation provided the excuse the Board needed to

respond to the growing pressure brought by the National

Federation of the Blind of South Carolina for the removal of the

Commissioner. The temperature had been rising steadily on Board

members since the NFB of South Carolina's legislative banquet in

February, 1989, where legislators were given copies of a brochure

detailing the serious problems within the agency and making clear

the Federation's contention that James was ultimately

responsible.

In the two days James was given to wind things up, he apparently

intended to call a staff meeting for Friday the 22nd, but

hurricane Hugo canceled that plan. Instead James wrote a bizarre

farewell message to the staff, part of which is reprinted in this

article. It is not surprising that a man who had just been fired

should try to put the best, most cheerful face he could on the

situation, but the tone of William James's comments is peculiar,

to say the least. He is clearly a bitter man with little

judgment, who is striving to appear to have a sense of humor.

Perhaps if he had treated the blind of South Carolina with

respect and dignity, if he had been committed to working with

them to solve their problems, he would not have found himself in

this difficult and painful situation. Perhaps, too, his

successor will have the intelligence to learn from James's

mistakes. Let us hope so. The blind of South Carolina deserve

better than William James.

Here is the article that appeared in the Fall, 1989, edition of

The Palmetto Blind, the publication of the National Federation

of the Blind of South Carolina:

On Wednesday, September 20, in Executive Session the Board of

Commissioners of the South Carolina Commission for the Blind

accepted the resignation of William K. James, who had served as

commissioner of the agency since July, 1984. The resignation was

not unexpected by the NFB of South Carolina. At the August

convention of the NFB of South Carolina, the state president told

the members that the Commission was actually sitting on a powder

keg. A few days following the Federation convention a lengthy

article appeared in the [Columbia, South Carolina] State which

covered racial strife at the Commission caused by the racial

slurs by Paul Jones, Director of Administrative Services, who was

hired by Mr. James only a few months ago. News of Mr. James's

resignation was carried by several newspapers. The State

contained the following comments by Mr. James. He said that he

felt powerless to bring about a speedy solution...[to] a serious

racial problem within the agency. I feel that somebody can,

James said, I think it is very important that it be done for the

agency to continue on course. I would like to say I have

enjoyed working for the agency...I think it's an excellent

agency certainly one of the best in the country...I can't say

enough good things about the staff. The September 22 edition of

USA Today stated the following: William James, 58, head of

State Commission for the Blind that's been investigated since

four black workers cited bias in August, leaves office today. He

said he felt, `powerless to solve agency's racial problems.'

One obvious thing the NFB of South Carolina believes Mr. James

could and should have done was to fire Paul Jones immediately

when his racial slurs were brought to James's attention. After

all, the Commission for the Blind has a number of black staff

members and also serves hundreds of black blind people across

South Carolina. Had Mr. Jones been immediately discharged by Mr.

James, the terrible and damaging press received by the Commission

for the Blind would have been avoided. No doubt the concerns and

grievances of black staff members have validity and should be

fairly and effectively addressed. At the same time, the NFB of

South Carolina is concerned that the public now has the

perception that Mr. James's resignation was based entirely upon

racial strife, which of course is not the case. It is also unfair

to the black staff members to be blamed solely for the

resignation of Mr. James as reported by the media. The NFB of

South Carolina supports graceful resignations whenever and

wherever possible, but at the same time, the affairs of the blind

are too important for the public to be given a distorted picture.

At last January's legislative dinner

the NFB of South Carolina presented brochures to all legislators

containing well-researched and documented information outlining

the very serious problems associated with the administration of

the Commission for the Blind. Copies of these brochures are still

available.

That is what The Palmetto Blind had to say about the exit of

William James. It is interesting to consider what Mr. James

thought it worthwhile to say to his staff upon the occasion of

his precipitous departure.

Memorandum from William James

September 22, 1989

I deeply regret having to cancel the scheduled staff meeting

because

of the pending hurricane. I wanted to have the opportunity to

personally express my appreciation to all of you for the

outstanding job that you have done and for the support which you

have given me. I also wanted to have the opportunity to pick a

few bones with you before I left.

First of all, you need to have a funny bone. Most of us take

ourselves too seriously but do not take life seriously enough. If

anybody wants to know why I resigned, you can tell them it was

because of illness and exhaustion. The Board said they were sick

and tired of having

me around. I want you to know that I carry a grudge against no

one I

just get even. I must admit that I do have mixed feelings about

leaving joy and ecstasy.

Next, you need to have a wishbone. That's what sets us apart from

other animals. We can catch a glimpse of how life can be better

for others, as well as ourselves. The clearer this vision is and

how our portion fits into the overall scheme of things, the more

likely we are to realize our dreams. All of you have the

opportunity to make your dreams come true. Don't let them slip

through your fingers.

The remaining portion of Mr. James's statement was the

conventional commendatory sentiment about the staff and the work

they have done. We certainly wish Mr. James no ill, but it seems

clear to an outside observer that the South Carolina Commission

for the Blind as well as the blind of South Carolina will be

better off starting over. Let us hope that this time those

charged with searching for and selecting

a new Commissioner will avail themselves of the experience and

expertise of the organized blind movement.

SWEEPING UP THE KRUMS:

CALIFORNIA STATE POLICE INVESTIGATE

THE BUSINESS ENTERPRISE PROGRAM

by Barbara Pierce

Anyone who has ever suffered an injury knows that, unless you

take great care to rehabilitate and strengthen the affected part,

you will always experience twinges of pain and weakness in the

area. Unfortunately, the same phenomenon is also frequently true

of institutions. Old habits of sloppy practice and impulses to

cut corners and blur distinctions die hard in bureaucracies. New

brooms must sweep very carefully and very zealously indeed if

they are to clean up old messes.

Early in 1977 the San Francisco Examiner ran a series of

articles exposing to the light of public notice a number of

unsavory problems in California's Business Enterprise Program

(BEP). Briefly, these included overpricing of equipment and

supplies, disappearance of millions of dollars of inventory, and

misappropriation of considerable amounts of the trust fund

intended to assist the vendors in the BEP. Despite

the then Director of the Division of Rehabilitation Ed Roberts's

characterization of the problems as minor administrative and

bookkeeping difficulties, major investigations were undertaken,

and heads rolled as a result.

One Roger Krum was brought in to head the BEP, and many thought

that he was being demoted or punished (according to his own

statement in the Examiner ) by being handed this assignment. But

he went

on to assure the reporter that he wanted the job because he knew

that the man who could clean up this mess and did so would have

his reputation made. He allowed as how he welcomed the challenge,

or was it the opportunity.

In the light of recent events in California, it is instructive to

read the final article in the newspaper series. It appeared in

the San Francisco Examiner on January 14, 1977. Here it is:

Brown's

Help to be Sought on Blind Mess

by Jim Wood and Larry Kramer

Senator Bill Greene, D-Los Angeles, says he will go personally to

Governor Brown in an attempt to straighten out the state's

tangled program for blind businessmen.

Greene also has called on the state auditor general's office for

a full report on the Business Enterprise Program.

Greene said he was requesting action because the Department of

Rehabilitation has never been able to present an accurate,

definitive accounting of the BEP trust funds.

For well over 10 years requests for precise figures have been

met with evasions, he said.

Greene also noted that there are compelling reasons to believe

that accepted accounting and fiscal procedures have been

violated. He said that disbursements have been made for purposes

other than those spelled out in the state and federal laws

concerning the BEP. Some of these have been challenged and

others have been arbitrarily continued for lack of challenge, he

said. Greene met last week with critics of the fund's management

and with representatives of the auditor general's office to plan

the investigation.

Greene urged that particular note be taken by the auditors of

using trust funds for administrative purposes and consultants'

fees. Calling the program a morass of mismanagement, he said

that the department had used single source vendors when

competitive bids could have been obtained, spot purchases made

for expediency, and obsolete equipment continued in use in the

name of economy.

All the foregoing has been done at costs far beyond any

reasonable standards of good business practices and management,

he said. Greene also told the auditor general's office that

there is no precise central inventory of BEP equipment.

Over the years, a considerable amount of BEP equipment has been

disposed of in one way or another, he said. The accounting for

this equipment, if any, is very suspect.

At a news conference yesterday, Edward Roberts, director of

rehabilitation, said the state auditor general has been quoted

as saying there is no scandal in the fund.

John Williams, the state auditor general, said, however: There

is no way I can say at this time whether allegations that have

been made are or are not true. That is the purpose of this audit.

We don't have any documentation at this point that indicates any

form of scandal, but we've just barely begun our field work,

Williams said.

At the news conference, Roberts called reports in the Examiner

concerning the program false and misleading and said he fears

they may do irreparable damage to our service for the blind

generally.

Roberts said he was proud of the program and regretted seeing it

bruited in the public press.

The program has minor administrative and bookkeeping problems.

These have been rectified and have been corrected. he said. The

series, quoting from taped interviews, said that Roger Krum, the

program administrator, called the problem mind boggling and an

eightball situation, and former administrator Robert Melody said

the program faced a hell of a serious problem.

At the news conference Elliott Allen, deputy director for

administration, was asked whether it was possible for an

individual to misappropriate funds or property from the program.

The series had quoted a state report noting such a potential.

The potential does exist. Allen answered. We are concerned

about it. That is one of the things we are working on.

Roberts added, however, that he is convinced that no corruption

exists, even though central inventory is not complete.

Krum was asked if the existence or location of equipment could be

verified. He replied:

The equipment in location can be verified. The equipment in the

warehouses, most of it, can be covered. One of the things we're

working on is a problem of having stuff not show up on a

printout, or show up two or three times.

Roberts said that we think of it in terms of a problem in

accounting and the inventory system. We are in the process of

rectifying these problems by establishing a new system.

That's what the Examiner had to say twelve years ago. And what

it is fair to ask has happened in the intervening years to

rectify

the situation? Surely with the computer revolution an

inventory-management system has been put in place to keep track

of the materials in use and warehoused in the nation's largest BE

Program. At the very least the Trust Fund is now safe from sticky

fingers, and the administrative staff has come to work with the

BEP business people in an atmosphere of mutual respect and good

will. After all, Mr. Krum came in intending to make his

reputation for better or worse on what he could do with the

Business Enterprise Program. And so he has!

His attitude toward vendors has been clear for years. The BEP

vendors report that he refers to them as the boys, a term which

even the male vendors find demeaning. Mr. Krum also enjoys

putting his feet up on his desk in his office and on tables when

he is taking part in meetings in other rooms. Participants in

these gatherings report that he points the toe of one shoe at the

person whom he is addressing, particularly if he does not agree

with or respect the individual. These are small things, but

Californians find them indicative of his general attitude toward

blind people who are not willing to be subservient.

On May 5, 1989, the Vendors' Chapter of the NFB of California

conducted a seminar for interested business people with an

emphasis on issues of concern to those associated with the

Business Enterprise Program. Jim Gashel, Director of

Governmental Affairs for the Federation, was

the keynote speaker, and the seminar was scheduled so that those

interested in attending the spring meeting of the California

Vendors Policy Committee (CVPC) could do so since both events

were taking place in Sacramento at different times on the same

day. The seminar was by all accounts

a great success, and most of the attendees went on to the CVPC

meeting.

The regulations that established the Vendors Policy Committee

stipulate that the Director of the Business Enterprise Program or

his or her designee should attend this meeting, but Roger Krum

has always brought a crowd of staffers (six were present on May

5) to participate in the meeting and, many vendors feel, to keep

the Policy Committee in line. But this time a number of CVPC

members requested that Mr. Krum or his designee stay in the room

and that the rest of the staff members leave. Instead of

complying with state regulations, Krum, his staff, and several

members of the CVPC (including Krum's hand-picked Chairmen of the

Policy Committee) walked out.

A quorum of the Committee was left, however, and John Friesen was

elected as chairman. So the group got down to work on the agenda

of the meeting. Without the usual help of the BE Program support

staff, minutes were taken, duplicated, and circulated. But Krum

has steadfastly refused to recognize the actions of the Policy

Committee taken that day, and one more festering problem has been

added to the concerns of blind people in California.

Sharon Gold, President of the NFB of California, wrote a long and

informative letter to the state's vendors on May 20, 1989. She

reviewed for them several issues and cases of general interest to

blind vendors and offered the Federation's assistance to those

who needed it. Then, in an effort to prepare the ground generally

for the dispute that

was clearly on the horizon, she raised several points for vendor

consideration. The concluding paragraphs of her letter read as

follows:

As you know, the California Vendors Policy Committee (CVPC) is

mandated by federal and state law. The CVPC is to function

separately from the Business Enterprise Program to present the

views of the vendors

to the licensing agency and is to represent the interests of the

vendors in the policy- making decisions of the agency.

Recently, certain disputes have arisen between the CVPC and Roger

Krum, the Administrator of the Business Enterprise Program.

Throughout California vendors are being prevailed upon to pass

judgment and take sides. Information from both sides has come to

me as well, and I have considered the following:

Has the CVPC been functioning separately from the Business

Enterprise Program as mandated by federal and state law?

Have members of the CVPC been free to express their concerns

during committee meetings without a threat of reprisal?

Do vendors want a committee which is free to present the views of

vendors to the BEP administration or a committee which is

expected to transmit to the Business Enterprise Program policy

suggestions which have been planned and solicited by the BEP

administration and which rubber stamp the actions of the

administration?

Are the elected delegates taking an active part in the Vendors

Policy Committee meetings?

Does the Business Enterprise Program administrator have a moral

or legal right to declare a CVPC meeting concluded when the

delegates have not chosen to adjourn the meeting?

Should the elected delegates be required to submit to the orders

of the administrator and leave a CVPC meeting without carrying

out the business on the agenda?

To whom do the set-aside fees belong, and should the Policy

Committee or the Administrator of the Business Enterprise Program

have control over the expenditure of these funds?

Do the delegates to the CVPC have authority to choose the chair

of

the Committee, or does the chair serve at the pleasure of the

Administrator of the BEP, to be automatically accepted by the

committee?

These questions sent me to reread federal and state statutes

relevant to the Business Enterprise Program. For the Vendors

Policy Committee to function properly, it must be free to hold

its meetings and conduct its business without undue influence of

the licensing agency. It is not an accident that neither federal

nor state statutes or regulations mandate that the licensing

agency send a representative to the meetings of the Vendors.

Policy Committee Bylaws (as amended January 17, 1989) do not

mandate the presence of an agency representative but state that

(m)eetings of the Committee may be attended by the Director

or his designated representative... [not Directors or

representatives]. The responsibility of the Licensing Agency is

to provide to the Vendors Policy Committee such information as

may be necessary for the Committee to make reasonable and

educated decisions on behalf of the blind vendors. Further, the

Licensing Agency must consider and respond to the recommendations

of the Vendors Policy Committee. Where a licensing agency makes

an effort to intimidate or otherwise to control the process of the

functioning of the Vendors Policy Committee, it is almost certain

that vendors will eventually notice the development of dissension between the

administration and the vendors.

A final note: following the May 5th CVPC meeting and under dates

of May 8th and May 9th, letters were sent to Westley Whitelaw

[the CVPC Chairman who walked out of the May 20 meeting] stating

the Department's position concerning the chair of the Vendors

Policy Committee. One letter was signed by Roger Krum,

Administrator of the Business Enterprise Program, and one was

signed by Hao Lam, Deputy Director, Program Management and

Support Division. In reading the two letters, one finds much

identical language. One also finds that the letters were prepared

by the same secretary and that they were both printed on

letterhead bearing the telephone number of the Office of the

Business Enterprise Program.

The program for blind vendors is an old and respected business

opportunity for blind persons. The National Federation of the

Blind of California stands firm in support of this program and

the California vendors who are striving to bring their program

into conformity with federal and state statutes and regulations.

Cordially,

Sharon Gold, President

National Federation of the Blind

of California

____________________

That is what Sharon Gold wrote on May 20, in the wake of the

high-handed actions of Roger Krum and company. Life in the

Business Enterprise Program apparently went on pretty much as

usual across the summer.

Then, on September 2, the Friday of the Labor Day weekend, the

California State Police blew the whistle on what had been going

on under the table. Officers escorted Krum and three others from

their offices and off State property, and they changed all the locks on the

warehouse doors so that no one could tamper further with the

equipment and supplies supposed to be available for vendors. A

Department of Rehabilitation spokesman repeatedly assured the

Braille Monitor that the disappearance of 1.2 million dollars

worth of inventory had been discovered during

an internal Department audit and not by the police. Given the

department's track record in identifying fraud, embezzlement, and

payoffs in the past, perhaps the fact that the 1989 problems were

discovered through an internal audit is worthy of commendation,

but it hardly generates confidence in the objective observer or

the vendor whose livelihood depends in significant measure upon

the honesty of the Business Enterprise Program managers.

Regardless of who discovered the discrepancy, however, the fact

of the missing material was of real importance to California's

blind vendors, so the NFB of California circulated a letter to

them that weekend. Here it is:

September 2, 1989

Dear California Vendors:

An investigation has been launched in Sacramento which is of

great importance to blind vendors in the Business Enterprise

Program (BEP). According to the Sacramento Bee , Channel 3

News, and other informed sources, on September 1, 1989, four

executives of the Business Enterprise Program were escorted from

the Department of Rehabilitation BEP Office by State Police after

an internal audit revealed that part of the Program's

multi-million dollar equipment inventory is missing. While the

news reports did not cite names, informants have identified the

officials as Roger Krum, BEP Administrator; Jim Flint, Assistant

Administrator; Joe Parlio, Supervising Business Enterprise

Consultant (SBEC); and Tony Budmark, Property Manager. The four

officials were placed on administrative leave until State Police

can complete their investigation. During the investigation Hao

Lam, Deputy Director,

Program Management and Support Division of the Department of

Rehabilitation, is serving as Acting Administrator of the

Business Enterprise Program. The investigation reportedly

involves 1.2 million dollars worth of allegedly missing BEP

equipment equipment purchased with California Vendor Trust Fund

monies. The National Federation of the Blind of California has

received anonymously a copy of the Conference Notes concerning

the missing equipment, which outlines eight findings concerning

BEP equipment:

1. Physical Inventories

2. Correction Documents

3. Decal Tagging

4. Surveys and Dispositions

5. Transfers to Outside State Agencies

6. Lack of Monthly Reconciliation

7. Volunteer in Los Angeles Office

8. Notification of Alleged Theft of Equipment

For your information a copy of the Conference Notes is included

herewith. All five Business Enterprise Program equipment

warehouses have been searched, and State Police have changed the

locks on each warehouse

to prevent tampering. The Department has announced that the BEP

officials have been notified not to return to their BEP offices

until further advised, not to go to BEP locations, and not to

communicate with BEP staff, vendors, and contractors.

A similar situation was discovered in 1976, shortly before Roger

Krum became Administrator. During the week of January 10, 1977, a

series

of articles which revealed much about the 1976 investigation was

published in the San Francisco Examiner . For your information,

the 1977 series of articles is included with this letter. It is

amazing how easily one could shift the date from 1977 to 1989 and

have the content of the articles apply to the many problems which

continue to plague the Business Enterprise Program today.

For some time there has been rising dissension throughout the

Business Enterprise Program between the vendors and the

administrator. Blind vendors throughout the state have expressed

concern about the unwillingness by the BEP Administration to

disclose information relevant to the Vendors Trust Fund, into

which each blind vendor pays the monthly six percent set-aside

fee. An increasing number of vendors have been speaking out about

irregularities and unfair practices in the Selection Committee

process used to assign vendors to locations.

The California Vendors Policy Committee Bylaws (as amended

January 17, 1989) do not mandate the presence of an agency

representative but state that meetings of the Committee may be

attended by the Director or his designated representative...

(not Directors or representatives). Therefore at the May

California Vendors Policy Committee meeting, the delegates

insisted that the Bylaws of the Committee be followed and invited

Mr. Krum or his designee to remain in the meeting and instructed

that the remaining six staff members leave in the past there have

been as many as 8 staff members present at a given CVPC meeting

for which there are 14 elected delegates. When Roger Krum tried

to cancel the meeting, an intimidated few Policy Committee

delegates followed Mr. Krum's orders and left the meeting,

leaving behind a quorum to conduct the May business of the CVPC.

Since the Committee meeting, Roger Krum has failed to recognize

the CVPC's selection of its new Chairman, John Friesen. He has

refused to address the new Chair or to recognize the other

Committee-elected officers.

This is a critical time for the Business Enterprise Program. If

there was ever a time for vendors to unite, it is now! Inquiry

should be made as to the management of the Vendor Trust Fund

monies and the management of the equipment purchased with these

monies. If a new administrator is to be chosen, vendors should

insure that they play

a role in the selection process. Some vendors have suggested the

establishment of an Escrow Account to handle Vendor Trust Fund

monies until the completion of the current investigation and

until vendors receive assurances from the Department of

Rehabilitation that proper audit controls are established for the

Vendor Trust Fund and the equipment purchased from the Fund.

Vendors wishing to join the Merchants Chapter of the National

Federation of the Blind of California or to make a donation to

help with the distribution of these materials may send $10.00

annual dues and/or donations to Nick Medina, Treasurer, Merchants

Chapter, NFB of California, 2018 Newton Way, Concord, CA 94518.

Vendors may also contact Frank Rompal, Jr., President of the

Merchants Chapter of the NFB of California, at 415-236-3800.

Cordially,

Sharon Gold, President

National Federation of the Blind of California

____________________

That was the news that the NFB of California communicated to the

vendors around the state the day after the police escorted Roger

Krum and his minions off State property. Federationists were

pleased to know that state government was prepared to hunt for

the missing inventory and assign responsibility for the

disappearances, but there were very real fears that the trouble

ran still deeper. As in the late Seventies there was worry about

the trust fund. Vendors pay a monthly charge (six percent of net

proceeds in the case of California). This is called a set-aside,

and out of this pool the Department of Rehabilitation pays

certain costs of conducting the Business Enterprise Program.

With so much else going wrong in the BEP, Vendors were naturally

worried about the safety of the trust fund. Blind people began

asking whether it wouldn't be prudent to appoint a conservator to

manage the trust fund until the investigation was completed.

Sharon Gold approached Congressman Robert Matsui's staff with our

concerns, and they too were alarmed. As a result, on September 11

Congressman Matsui's office asked the Attorney General of

California to appoint a conservator, and he agreed to do so

within ten days.

Meanwhile, the NFB called a meeting of all interested parties for

September 22 so that vendors could hear from everyone involved

and make up their own minds about what was happening. A staffer from

Congressman Matsui's Sacramento office came, as did Sharon Gold

and other Federationists; John Friesen, the newly elected

chairman of the California Vendors Policy Committee; and

concerned vendors approximately fifty in all. Some of these were

concerned about Department practices, and some (about ten in

number) were there to cause trouble and stir up ill-feeling any

way they could. The one group that was conspicuous by its absence

was the Department of Rehabilitation. Neither Hao Lam nor those

whom he appointed to administer the Business Enterprise Program

during the crisis were available to explain things to the vendors

or reassure desperately worried people that the Department wanted

to preserve their livelihoods perhaps no one in the Department

was prepared to give such comfort.

An attorney representing the Department of Rehabilitation did try

to slip in unobserved, but he was forced to introduce himself and

admit who he was and whom he represented. According to Federation

participants, at one point during the meeting the Matsui staffer

said to the Department's attorney that he was glad that the

attorney had come because he had a message he wanted carried back

to the Department. He said that he, as Congressman Matsui's

representative, found it outrageous that members of the

Department of Rehabilitation staff were not present, and he then

announced that the Attorney General had indicated that he

intended to appoint a conservator for the trust fund very soon.

This article is being completed in late October. The California

Attorney General has changed his mind about appointing a

conservator, having decided (with who knows how much

externally-applied encouragement)

that, since the Department of Rehabilitation is undergoing an

investigation, he will wait until it is completed before

determining whether or not a conservator is necessary. There is

no way of telling how long the investigation will take. The State

Police recently told Sharon Gold that it would probably be eight

months to two years, during which time the trust fund continues

to be vulnerable. And in the meantime, the people of California

will pay Roger Krum's salary and those of his cronies sharing his

administrative leave. No one can know with certainty whether the

trust fund is safe, and no one is looking into the question of

whether funds have disappeared from it in recent months or years.

But Roger Krum is keeping busy despite his paid leave from state

employment. Again this year he is the director of a local jazz

festival, for which he receives a hefty salary of some $43,000,

according to sources in the community. It is comforting to know

that his cultural work this year runs no risk of interfering with

his state job. In the past some people have expressed concern

that a man who was holding down two full-time jobs might be

tempted to short-change one employer or both, but the festival

people, at least, seem satisfied with Roger Krum's performance.

In many ways the saga of the California Business Enterprise

Program

is a disturbing story. It is far from over, and the vendors of

California are very far from being able to count on their state

agency to help them or protect their interests. The good news is

that the National Federation of the Blind is still on the job,

working with the State Police, attempting to persuade the

Attorney General to protect the trust fund, and informing vendors

about what is happening and what their rights are.

In the midst of all this, the affiliate goes right on doing all

the other things that Federationists should be doing week in and

week out. In September the state organization contacted Governor

Deukmejian to request his annual proclamation of October 15 as

White Cane Safety Day. The Governor wrote the proclamation, but

he also wrote a letter to the NFB of California. It is clear that

the work of the organized blind movement is not going unnoticed,

and it is good to know also that at some levels of state

government our efforts are receiving the recognition they

deserve. Here is what the Governor of California spontaneously

and without solicitation wrote:

____________________

October 4, 1989

TO: National Federation of the Blind

of California

On behalf of the citizens of California, I would like to commend

your dedicated efforts to provide services and programs to meet

the special needs of visually impaired citizens throughout our

state.

Visually impaired citizens rely on organizations such as the

National Federation of the Blind of California to provide

counseling and support, job training, and employment

opportunities so that they may realize a greater sense of

independence and self-sufficiency. As October 15, 1989, is White

Cane Safety Day in California, I would like to join in this

celebration by honoring your many contributions to the health and

productivity of blind and visually impaired citizens throughout

our state.

Your efforts are most commendable and have earned the respect and

appreciation of all Californians. Please accept my best wishes

for every future success.

Most cordially,

George Deukmejian

Governor of California

BLIND FAITH

by Mike Pearson

From the Associate Editor: On July 2, 1989, just as delegates to

the convention of the National Federation of the Blind were

beginning to gather in Denver, the Rocky Mountain News Sunday

Magazine printed a feature article about the technical

rock-climbing course offered to the students at the Colorado

Center for the Blind. The pictures were breath-taking, and the

story (reprinted here by permission) was positive and well done.

For those of us who had signed up to go rock-climbing with a

group the next day or one a week later, it was

also sobering. I, for example, began to doubt whether I had the

necessary strength to haul myself up rock faces as sheer as the

ones described by the writer. Judy Nichols, the secretary of the

Public Relations Committee, realized for the first time that her

fear of heights might be a problem since she was not going to be

scrambling over rocks as she had assumed.

Reports circulated through the convention that the group who went

climbing on July 3 had had a wonderful time. Those of us who

gathered out front of the Radisson Hotel early on the morning of

July 10 were excited and a little nervous. We were all bone-weary

after the stimulation of the convention. Several admitted to

feeling some anticipatory fear, but I did not worry at all about

danger. Our instructors were climbers who had tackled cliffs all

over the world, and they said that we could trust the ropes, so I

was prepared to believe them.

Everyone talks about the beauty of the Rockies, but somehow I was

unprepared for it when we arrived at the International Alpine

School. We were fitted with climbing boots, harnesses, and hard

hats. Stowing this equipment, our water bottles, and lunches in

our backpacks, we began hiking. The air was incredibly clear, and

though it was hot, the shade was cool and the breeze

invigorating. There were thousands of birds who had had the good sense to take up residence in this

ruggedly beautiful country, and not many insects. Much of the way

we were accompanied by a noisy little stream rushing over rocks

and generally adding a great deal to our appreciation of the

place. The guides had been busy before our arrival

placing ropes at several points on rock faces for us to climb. As far as

I could

gather, this entailed someone's climbing without the protection

of a rope to the top of the rock to fix an anchor into the

ground, through which the rope was then passed. When one of us

decided to try a particular climb, an experienced climber would

sit down at the bottom and control one end of the rope. The other

end was passed through the special loops on the novice climber's harness and

tied securely and quite mysteriously. We were shown how to tie these knots,

but I, for

one, was happy to

let the experts do the job for me. Then, with the rope securely

connecting climber to stationary belayer by way of the anchor at

the top of the rock, one began to climb. The early rock faces had

obvious hand and foot holds as well as some slant. These were

steeper scrambles than I had ever tried before, but with a rope

and climbing boots, they were physically taxing but not hard.

Then came an all but vertical rock face with a few a very few

cracks in it. The people from the climbing school protested that

these were not very challenging, but they seemed pretty

formidable to us. The October, 1989, issue of the Braille

Monitor includes a picture of me walking backwards down this

climb a process which requires the climber to lean backwards

until he or she is perpendicular to the rock face. The rope holds

the climber in this position, enabling him or her to walk

backwards down the distance that has so laboriously been crawled

up. My grin in that picture is a measure of the exhilaration one

feels after having pitted oneself against the rock and won.

Those of us who wanted to try something even more difficult were

then directed to a small cliff I use the word advisedly. As

President Maurer commented incredulously, it was absolutely

vertical, and there was almost nothing to stand on. He was the

first one to pit himself against that rock, and he made it

further than any of the rest of us who were new at the game. When

it was my turn, I began to understand what he had been talking

about.

I did not get more than ten or twelve feet off the ground, though

at the time that seemed quite an accomplishment. My undoing came

while I was sprawled across the rock. My left foot was more or

less anchored in a shallow hollow in the rock, and my hands were

spread wide far above my head, clinging to outcrops that were no

wider than a quarter of an inch. The guide who was holding my

rope said in a calm (not to say placid) voice, Now find a place to put your right foot,

(which was, as I remember it, flailing around in a frantic effort

to do just that). She told me to look higher, that there was a

nice hold about two feet above my out-thrust foot. Eventually, I

found what she was talking about. It is no exaggeration to say

that the crack in question was at the level of my right shoulder.

When I got my foot up there, it felt like it was above my head.

Then the guide said, Now, just transfer your weight to your

right foot.

She was so calm about it, as if such a thing could be done. I

suggested that she had better begin singing Climb Every

Mountain, and several folks obligingly began doing so. This was

the point at which the absurdity of the situation made me begin

to laugh, and I peeled off the rock and hung there, helpless with

laughter.

My guide told me to rest before trying again. I did so, but by

this time my limbs were shaking with fatigue, and eventually I

asked her to lower me to the ground.

If I had been a member of a real class, however, I would not have

been able to get off so easily. For the only time that day I was

glad that I was not engaged in a real rock-climbing course.

This entire experience is a small jewel in my personal collection

of memories. Beauty; the camaraderie of adventure shared with

good friends; the encouragement and help of warm, calm, and

unsentimental experts; and the exhilaration of testing myself

against a formidable challenge: these things set that day apart

in my memory. I can readily understand how valuable a whole

course of rock-climbing would be as a part of a rehabilitation program. One emerges from such an

experience more confident and self-assured. This is the very

essence of rehabilitation.

One word must be said about the International Alpine School and

its staff. Joanne Yankovich, the Director of the Blind Program,

and Alison Sheets, who works with her, are dedicated to providing

climbing experience to blind people. They and their other

instructors are wonderful people to work with. They begin with

the premise that all climbers can benefit from experience on the

rocks. They are unflappable and very encouraging without being at

all supercilious, but above all, they are inspiring climbers, who

believe that there is no reason why blind people can't learn to

climb well too.

Climbing programs can be established for any organizations that

are interested. For more information about the International

Alpine School contact: Alison Sheets, International Alpine

School, Boulder Mountain Guides, Inc., Box 3037, Eldorado

Springs, CO 80025, (303) 494-4904.

Here is the story that was printed in the Sunday Magazine of the

Rocky Mountain News on July 2, 1989:

F aith and fear are fraternal twins born a heartbeat apart. On

a cold May morning at the tail end of sunrise, the twins lie in

wait in a canyon in Eldorado Springs. They watch silently as a

group of seven students disembark a bus and prepare for their

first climb up a jagged rock wall.

Muscular, cheerful instructors from the International Alpine

School scurry around untangling ropes, threading harnesses, handing out

soft-soled shoes. The students are a bit more tentative in their

enthusiasm.

The scent of a challenge hangs heavy in the air, and casual

conversation masks their apprehension.

The idea of scrambling up the face of a 200-foot-high rock would

take most mortals aback. Falling is not a pleasant concept. But

these mortals, armed with backpacks and water bottles and guts,

are more extraordinary than most.

They're from the Colorado Center for the Blind in Denver, and on

this morning they will defy the conventional wisdom of the

sighted and stalk the mountain sky.

As instructors make last-minute adjustments to equipment and

brief their charges on the quarter-mile hike up the canyon, Diane

McGeorge stands off to one side smiling as though she has just

won an Academy Award. As director of the Center for the Blind,

McGeorge has accompanied two previous groups of students through

the six-week program. She is a veteran mountain tamer, no less

fierce for her lack of sight, with unshakable praise for the

program.

This has really been great for our students, she says, a hint

of anticipation in her voice. One of the neatest things it's

done for blind students is challenge their self-discipline. It's

also been a great way of teaching team travel and building

confidence in skills they don't get an opportunity to use in the

city. Sure, the students are worried. All of us come here with a

lot of fear and a lot of misgivings.

But perhaps the most important part of the program is that it

teaches us that we can reach way down inside and do a lot of the

things we didn't think we could do. We can overcome our fears

physical, mental, and emotional.

The best way to undermine a stereotype is to confront it head-on,

she says pointedly. Don't argue the absurdity of the notion that

blind people should be shuttled off to schools and quietly cared

for. Prove it wrong.

I really believe this program dispels stereotypes, she says.

People say, `How can you do that when you're blind?' They don't

expect blind people to be out tramping around in the wilderness

using their white canes. They think of us on a hike as having to

hang onto a sighted guide or use a bell. Well, we are using our

canes to see what's in front of us to give us that freedom.

One of the most common things I hear people say is, `It's

probably easier for you because you don't have to worry about the

fear of looking down.' I tell them everybody has fears, and it

doesn't have anything to do with being blind.

If you're climbing and you realize, `My God, I'm 100 feet in the

air,' or you hear the river rushing way down below, you really

learn the meaning of trust. This is an extremely safe sport, or

we wouldn't be doing it. But fear is inside you all the time. If

you're afraid, you're afraid whether you're sighted or not. And

you have to conquer that fear every day.

The sun has finally burned off the morning mist as the caravan

starts down the trail into the canyon. The students can't see the

sheer beauty of their surroundings, the angry curve of the rock,

the sliver of sky that forms a canopy as they hike farther along

the trail. But they can hear and smell and touch the world around

them. The chatter of birds, the thrashing of a swollen stream are

as vivid as any colors known to man. As the wind brushes by with

a soothing sigh, they know the adventure has just begun.

In the summer of 1983 Paul DiBello was working with handicapped

youths in North Conway, New Hampshire, when he thought of

teaching them rock climbing.

People immediately thought it was a great idea; it was just a

little surprising because you don't normally expect blind people

to participate in a program like that, he recalled.

But I got together with some other climbers, and we took seven

kids out to White Horse Ledge with the idea of having them do

rappelling: nothing very strenuous or dangerous. It was a

two-day program where

we taught the history of rock climbing and some of the basic

mechanics. At the end of the first day, the other climbers and

I realized that the kids were adapting to being on the rocks

faster than anyone had expected. We thought they could probably

handle climbing up, rather than just rappelling down. So the next

day we scrapped our original plan and took them to the first

pitch of a standard ridge, and they completed it. The instructors

and kids were equally elated.

That was the first and only time the program was run in New

Hampshire. Yes, it was a success. But it was temporary an

exciting, one-time occurrence. Nobody imagined or even suggested

that it could be done on a regular basis and provide more than

esthetic thrills. No one saw it as a tool for teaching mobility.

Still, DiBello knew there was more potential to the program than

the first group of students had realized. They had spent only two

days on the rocks. What if a group of blind students were to

spend a week, even eight days, climbing?

By 1984, after DiBello moved to Winter Park and became director

of

the Handicapped Competition Program, the concept of blind rock

climbers became an obsessive pursuit mild but persistent. He

joined forces with Paul Sibley and Sandy East, who owned the

International Alpine School in Eldorado Springs, and they made a

video guide for those interested in leading blind rock climbers.

A year later DiBello met Homer Page, a blind Boulder County

commissioner who was toying with the idea of opening a school for

the blind in Denver, a school of limited enrollment with a

curriculum that stressed self-reliance.

The meeting occurred in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where Page had

gone to cover the ski competition for The Handicapped Coloradan

, a newsletter he runs when he's not teaching experiential

education at the University of Colorado.

When Paul told me that he'd been trying to get a rock-climbing

program started for the blind, I said: `That sounds really

interesting, but I'm not interested,' Page recalled. Why should

I want to go out and kill myself when I've got a lot of life left

to live?

Paul said, `I think blind people can do this, but all these

professionals tell me that they can't.' Immediately that changed

my position. While I hadn't thought much about climbing, the idea

that blind people can't climb was insulting. So I said, `Let's do

it.' I got two of my students, and the three of us climbed with

Paul.

Convinced of the sport's benefits, Page made the rock-climbing

class mandatory when he launched the Colorado Center for the

Blind in January, 1988. Students would learn to read Braille.

They'd learn how to travel independently, cook for themselves,

and live on their own. And they'd learn to climb rocks.

The most recent class was the third to complete the course (it's

offered in the spring and fall). About 20 students have

participated in the program, the only one of its kind in the

country, and so far no one has been seriously hurt.

Most blind children growing up today don't receive the kind of

education, positive attitudes, and skills needed to become solid

adults, Page said. In most cases, families love the children,

but they don't really know how to relate to a blind child. They

tend to protect them, and they don't understand that a blind

person can be a competitive part of society. They try to make

life easier rather than making it realistic.

Students at the Colorado Center for the Blind will spend six to

12 months learning to cope with life in an urban environment. By

the time they graduate (each course is individualized), they are

prepared to go to college or enter the job market.

Page believes rock climbing forces blind students to confront

their fears.

Some of them never do like it, whereas others want to continue

climbing for years, he said. You can tell people that blind

people aren't limited by lack of sight, and it goes in one ear

and out the other. It's just not the same as going out and

tackling a tough physical challenge. We want them to come away

with a feeling that they can do many things they never imagined.

They don't have to quit. They don't have to be afraid of life.

I t's high noon on a sweltering June day in Gregory Canyon on

the outskirts of Boulder. The sun bleeds sweat from the pale pink

rock, banishing shadows to the safety of an occasional crack.

This

is the fabled amphitheater, where the last class of each session

takes place.

And today is graduation day.

The group's composition has changed somewhat. A few of those who

started six weeks earlier are gone. In their place are some new

faces. Eager. Anxious. Unbowed.

The objective is for students to top-rope it up this unforgiving

rock and rappel back down. By this final day, the instructor's

primary role is to offer encouragement from below. It will be a

test of blind faith. Courage and commitment.

Yet, unlike the first day of class, when anxiety was the

prevalent emotion, today the talk is boisterous, the laughter

common, and the energy level high.

For 40-year-old James Wolcott, the six-week span has brought a

big change.

This is the first time I've ever taken a class like this, and I

think it's great, he said, lightly stepping over a carpet of

broken rocks. It's definitely been a challenge. The hardest part

has been forcing myself beyond what I thought I could do. Society

probably doesn't understand what we're doing here. They probably

don't think something like this is possible, but I know it's very

possible. I'm scared every time I climb up there. But afterward

I feel really great.

For group leader Joanne Yankovich, who has been leading the class

since its inception, such an endorsement makes the long hours and

tiring regimen including a couple of 3-mile death marches to

condition the students worthwhile.

The funny thing is how much I learn about myself through this

class, she said, securing a top rope for the first of the

students. The climbing issues are the same as any other class

fear, athletic self-doubt, and learning to trust your equipment

and your partner. But the fact that these are people who don't

have sight brings up special issues, especially social

stereotypes about what they can or can't do. Whenever I tell

(sighted) people about this class, they're surprised. They've

just never considered a blind person's being able to climb a

rock, or even wanting to.

Of course, the school's main objective is mobility. If they can

get through this, it gives them a lot of confidence to try other

things. This is probably the most complicated set of mobility

problems you can give anybody, blind or sighted. I mean, in an

urban environment everything is normally square or rectangular.

When you're climbing a rock wall, a cane isn't of much use.

Every challenge provides an opportunity for growth.

It's about assuming responsibility for one's self in an age when

people are more and more willing to abdicate that, she said.

Yes, there is risk involved. But it's like anything else: if you

want to test your limits it can be hard. But ultimately, it is

also rewarding.

For Tom Anderson, 36, who teaches typing and Braille at the

Center for the Blind, there's nothing quite like the thrill of a

climb.

I think a person goes through different feelings when climbing,

he said of his third time in the class. At first, it's kind of

scary because a person may not be sure where the footholds and

handholds are. But as one gains more confidence, the feeling

changes from one of being really scared to one of exhilaration.

It's reminiscent of when I was a kid and used to climb around on

things. Some climbs are

plain hard work, but once you make it, there is a real sense of

accomplishment. There is also a valid practicality to the

course, he added. If you can climb a rock, crossing Broadway

and Evans in Denver isn't so scary, he said. Something like

this gives you a sense of perspective.

SCHOLARS ARE SOMETIMES STUMBLING BLOCKS

by C. Edwin Vaughan, Ph.D.

In his presidential address to the 49th Annual Convention of the

National Federation of the Blind, July 1989, President Marc

Maurer focused on the importance of language to the future of the

blind. One of the major purposes of this largest consumer

organization of blind persons

is to change the meaning of blindness in this society. Images of

blindness carried in our popular culture, earned from

advertising, humor, newspaper accounts, etc., provide the symbols

which prospective employers, new friends, or strangers use to

guide their behavior toward and treatment of blind people. Maurer

noted, If the language is positive, our prospects will be

correspondingly bright. If the words used to describe the

condition of the blind are dismal, we will find that our chances

for equality are equally bleak.

In addition to folk or popular images of blindness existing in a

society are the images or symbols created by the intellectuals or

experts

who make careers out of studying the peculiar conditions of the

blind. Symbols, created by experts, frequently guide or at least

are a part of public policy decisions about programs for the

blind. Scientific protocol, the creation of complex new

constructs to further explain the problems of blind people, and

the frequent use of mathematical manipulation of newly created

data all lend heightened status to the images of blindness

created by professionals. This article will examine one such

academic effort to explain the concept of self-esteem as

it applies to the development of the self-concept of blind people

a book by Professor Dean Tuttle of the University of Northern

Colorado entitled Self-Esteem and Adjusting with Blindness.

This book attempts to interpret self-esteem and the development

of the self of blind persons using a wide array of concepts from

the history of developmental psychology ranging from William

James to contemporary writers. Tuttle also analyzes problems

encountered in adjusting to the trauma of blindness. Using trauma

either as a medical or psychological concept, the book describes

a severe condition requiring significant intervention and often

having lasting or permanent consequences.

At four different places in the book, Professor Tuttle briefly

mentions that no special psychological principles are necessary

to understand blind people. He notes that personality traits are

as variable among the visually impaired as among the sighted

(Page 38). After his brief statements about no new psychological

principles being required he goes on to write a 300-page book

describing the special and peculiar problems blind people

encounter as they experience self-development. To support or

illustrate his arguments he uses quotations from more than fifty

biographical and autobiographical works of blind individuals. A

social scientist and educator in the field of blindness and a

blind person as well would presumably present a fair balance and

evenhanded approach as he described the peculiar and special

situations of blind people. I will analyze several aspects of

this book to illustrate

how supposedly scientific and scholarly work can contribute

unnecessarily to negative images about blindness. I will also

show how the narrow focus displayed by this book can create an

artificial and restricted picture of the world in which blind

people are socialized.

He supports his argument by more than 250 quotations from the

approximately 50 biographical and autobiographical books and

articles cited in his text. These biographies and autobiographies

usually describe the lives of fairly successful, and sometimes

quite successful, blind people who have published their life

stories for sale to the general public. Most of these life

stories reflect successful adaptations to blindness. Whether one

is illustrating the concept of self- esteem, relationships to

significant others, or any other of the dozens of psychological

concepts illustrated by Professor Tuttle, one could have

selected, at least, one half of the illustrative citations which

would have reflected positive or successful adaptations. When I

first read Professor Tuttle's book, I was so struck by the

pervasiveness of the negative language about blindness reflected

in these biographical quotes that I re-read the text. Of his more

than 250 quotations, less than 25 reflect positive images of

blindness. Another 20 could be called neutral with respect to

positive or negative images about blindness, while approximately

200 portray negative or dismal images about blind people. The

following are three examples of quotations of the type I judge to

be negative:

I got along the pavement as best I could and that is another

frightening experience difficult to describe to anyone who has

not been blind, because though you are surrounded by noise, you

have no coherent mental picture of what is around you.... I

walked along in an enclosed gray little world a two-foot-square

box of sounds around me. p. 22), No other day in my life stands

out quite so clearly or so horribly as the day on which I got the

verdict. His manner had kept full realization at bay until I was

out in the street, then it struck with such force as to make it

touch and go whether

I did not go raving and screaming through the heart of Melbourne.

(p. 161), and ... A numbing terror fastened itself upon me when

I was thus brought to realize that I was doomed to live the rest

of

my life in complete darkness. There was an agonizing feeling of

helplessness

and dismay at the thought of going through day after day without

eyesight... (p. 175). I am not arguing that any

scholar should necessarily present a positive interpretation about blindness,

although it would be

refreshing. I do suggest that the overwhelming preponderance of

negative imagery reflects an unrecognized bias on the part of

Professor Tuttle. Despite his claim to a sociological

perspective on self- development, Mr. Tuttle also completely

ignores the organized blind as a source

of influence on blind people being socialized in our society. In

discussing significant others and reference groups, he advises

that a blind person should be introduced to a teacher, school

superintendent, counselor, friend, etc., and at one point he goes

so far as to suggest meeting another blind person to learn some

practical strategies. However there is a time when the

credibility of a message is much stronger coming from another

blind person. The professional may want to arrange for a

competent blind person to meet with the individual who is

mourning. Areas of concern to be discussed with the recently

blinded might include some `tricks of the trade' or some quickly

and easily learned adaptive techniques (pp. 179-8O). He does not

suggest that it would be useful for a blind person to encounter

groups of blind people who

have positive images about blindness and who are committed to

assisting themselves and others in the development of their human

potentials. Richard Scott and Father Caroll made this same

mistake that of ignoring the organized blind in their major works

about blindness. However, I would have hoped that by 1984 a

specialist in the field

of blindness such as Mr. Tuttle would have been aware of the

sociological importance for images about blindness and for the

importance that the organized blind movement has been in the

lives of a great many blind people. He seems almost to go out of

his way to interpret the influence of high technology gadgetry as

a potential influence on the lives of blind people, but he has

not a single quote from Jacobus tenBroek and Kenneth Jernigan or

countless hundreds of other people who have published successful

stories of adaptation in the Braille Monitor or other

periodicals about blindness. In fact, after he departs from the

mainstream of literature about self-development, most of his

scientific material about blindness comes from a very narrow

range of publication outlets usually associated directly or

indirectly with the American Foundation for the Blind. How are

we to explain the negative imagery that characterizes this text

and the lack of attention to a major positive influence in the

lives of many blind people as well as the general public? This

book

is just one more example of the self serving nature of much that

passes for scientific research about blindness it provides, to

the true believer, much additional evidence about the special and

peculiar problems that blind people encounter and which require

the exclusive attention and assistance of especially trained

professionals. Professionals are needed in the education of blind

persons, just as they are for anyone else, but they, as a minimum

requirement, must be knowledgeable about the organized blind. In

his dozens of pages of advice to professionals he neglects to

instruct them to learn about the positive philosophies, programs,

and legislative successes of the several consumer organizations

that should be a part of the professionals' understanding as he

or she approaches rehabilitative relationships. Positive

attitudes and images on the part of rehabilitation workers and

educators can make a major contribution to the developing

self-understanding of a blind person.

It is an example of professional ideology in the sense described

by Carl Mannheim in his book Ideology and Utopia. Thus, it is

not men in general who think, or even isolated individuals who

do the thinking, but men in certain groups who have developed a

particular style of thought in an endless series of responses to

certain typical situations characterizing their common position.

He analyses the relationships between the intellectual point of

view held and

the social position occupied. Sociologically and historically he

clarifies how the interests and purposes of certain social groups

come to find expression in certain theories, doctrines, and

intellectual movements. My interpretation of Mannheim's work

would locate Professor Tuttle's effort as one more example of the

creation of images about blindness that serve the self-interests

of a social network of professionals and academicians who are

making careers out of the study of and care of blind people.

It is also an example of the narrowness and departmentalization

of the social sciences that leads scholars to focus narrowly on

some aspects of self- development while being oblivious to major

social movements that are changing the conditions in which blind

people live. It is a shame that the vast resources represented

by the agencies and professionals are so irrelevant, sometimes

even harmful, to the education and rehabilitation of many blind

people. These vast resources will be better used when agencies

and their employees drop defensive posturing and educate

themselves in the positive views and aspirations reflected in the

organized efforts of blind people themselves.

References:

Mannheim, Karl. Ideology

and Utopia. Harcourt Brace, 1936.

Tuttle, Dean W. Self-Esteem

and Adjusting with Blindness. Charles C. Thomas, Publisher. 1984.

STATE DEPARTMENT THINKS

TWICE

ABOUT THE WISDOM OF BREAKING FEDERAL LAW

At its annual banquet on July 8, 1989, the National Federation of

the Blind presented its Newel Perry Award to Congressman Gerry

Sikorski of Minnesota for his outstanding service to the blind of

the nation in championing our struggle to establish the right of

blind citizens to serve in the United States Foreign Service.

During his address to the convention (see the December, 1989,

issue of the Braille Monitor ) Mr. Sikorski pledged that he

would continue this fight for justice until the State Department

changed its policy.

Sikorski has been as good as his word. In mid-October he and

Congressman Merwin Dymally arranged a joint hearing before their

respective committees: the Sub-Committee on Civil Service of the

Post Office and Civil Service Committee and the Sub-Committee on

International Operations of the Foreign Relations Committee.

On October 12 the Undersecretary for Management of the Department

of State, Ivan Selin, was called to testify before the two

committees at their hearing. There he announced that the

Department had reversed its earlier decision to prohibit blind

applicants from taking its written and oral examinations using

Braille or human readers and notetakers. He went on to say that

the Department of State had also abandoned its opposition to the

concept of employing blind foreign service officers and would

soon make a job offer to a qualified blind candidate. It was

soon clear that the qualified candidate was Rami Rabby, whose

case triggered the most recent round of controversy between the

Federation and the State Department over its policy of

discrimination against the blind.

Within the week Mr. Rabby was contacted and offered a contract

for his consideration. Already a diplomatist with all of the

requisite negotiating skill, Rabby countered with alternative

language that more clearly delineated his specific requirements

for reader and computer support. Before these negotiations could

be completed, however, Rabby was required to leave the country

for a number of weeks on business. But assuming that all goes

well and one can never be certain that it will he will return to

begin two months of intensive training and ongoing talks about an

appropriate assignment in the Foreign Service. In an interview

with Congressman Sikorski the Associate Editor of the Braille

Monitor asked him why he thought that the Department of State

had changed its policy concerning the blind. He replied that he

believed that Department of State officials were eventually

convinced that they were going to have to deal with an irate

Polish Congressman from Minnesota, and that I was in it for the

long haul. He also pointed out that the Department was in an

embarrassing position. The National Federation of the Blind had

made it look bad, and public officials do not like to be on the

short end of the public relations stick.

When asked whether he thought that the State Department was

serious about its decision to hire blind foreign service

officers, Mr. Sikorski said, I don't care whether they think

they're serious or not; they're going to be serious. The door is

now open, and it's not going to close, ever.

So there it is. Whether or not the Department of State yet

recognizes the fact, the day is past when it can pretend that the

laws prohibiting discrimination against the disabled by the

federal government do not apply to it. Here is the press release

circulated by the National Federation of the Blind on the day

following Undersecretary Selin's history-making announcement:

Foreign Service Open to Blind:

State Department Says

Baltimore, October 13/PRNewswire/ In a dramatic (180 degree)

turnaround Undersecretary of State Ivan Selin has announced that

his agency will begin to offer positions in the Foreign Service

to qualified blind persons. Selin's announcement came Thursday

during a hearing on Capitol Hill.

Congressman Gerry Sikorski, who chairs a House civil service

panel, has been pressing the State Department to employ qualified

blind people in overseas posts. Selin told Sikorski, Thursday,

We have considered your objections to our former policy and

decided that we agree with you. You are right.

One year ago, the State Department decided that its Foreign

Service qualifying examinations could not be taken by blind

persons who were unable to read the printed tests by themselves.

At that time, and for several years before, State Department

officials had come under fire from the National Federation of the

Blind for pursuing discriminatory hiring practices, Federation

leaders said. Marc Maurer, President of the 50,000-member Blind

Federation, hailed Thursday's announcement as a Victory for

equal rights and human rights. Blindness should not be a barrier

to service in foreign lands, Maurer said. The Federation

President cited the case of Mr. Avraham Rabby, a blind applicant

already found qualified for the Foreign Service. Rabby's case

caught national attention last year when State Department

officials refused to allow him to have a sighted person present

to read printed documents during a test. Rabby had previously

passed identical tests and had been designated as qualified for

the Foreign Service. Under pressure from Congress at the time,

State Department officials admitted that Rabby's blindness was

considered to be a barrier to any overseas assignment. Maurer

said of Thursday's change in policy: The State Department would

now show its good faith and a true change of its policy if Mr.

Rabby is offered a job to serve our country abroad.

That's what the press release said, and the story was picked up

all over the country. The Cable News Network conducted a lengthy

interview with Rami Rabby about the change of events, and their

coverage of the story included a good bit of footage showing

Rabby walking around Washington, D.C., and discussing the

competence of blind people. And still people ask why the

National Federation of the Blind? What does it do for blind

people? The answer is clear and unequivocal. Without the

National Federation of the Blind the Department of State would

still be discriminating against blind applicants and calling it

common sense. Tomorrow's corps of Foreign Service officers will

be stronger and more effective because of the work of the

Federation. The United States of America has established for

itself a little more integrity now that its international pleas

for human rights are no longer being made by those whose agency

refuses to admit or respect the qualifications of its country's

blind citizens. Make no mistake about it: the National Federation

of the Blind is responsible for what has happened. And we will

continue to fight for the right of every blind person to

demonstrate his or her individual capacity to contribute to the

well-being of this nation. This victory is one more reason for

the National Federation of the Blind.

THE BLIND SCIENTIST AT LOS ALAMOS

by John Rowley, Ph.D.

From the Associate Editor: We in the National Federation of the

Blind remind ourselves often that we are changing what it means

to be blind in America, and it is most certainly true. But some

things seem to take more time to alter than others. We

successfully work for the passage of a law, and the conditions

affected by that law change relatively swiftly. We persuade one

educator teaching blind children of the importance of early

Braille and cane instruction, and those youngsters are

immediately better off. We establish one training center that

bases its instruction on a sound philosophy of blindness, and

suddenly the blind of the entire area receive a new lease on

life.

But some things take a very long time indeed to change. When

attitudes are involved, when an individual or a family must

struggle to find the private courage to take a difficult course

of action, then we are reminded just how slowly progress is made.

Nearly fifty years ago Dr. Jernigan was told by his

rehabilitation counselor that his ambition to be an attorney was

not feasible. Twenty-five years ago I was told that Advanced

Placement high school English would be too difficult for me.

Fifteen years ago a Federationist in Ohio, who did not then know

about the NFB, was denied enrollment in an advanced college

chemistry course which she needed for a pre-med major. And it

still happens every day all across this country.

Experts, friends, family, and blind people themselves conduct

well-intentioned campaigns to protect blind youngsters from the

strain and stretch of serious challenge. Social work, teaching

blind children, rehabilitation: these are today's safe

occupations the ones that make sense for blind people. In fact

some people are gifted in these areas, and some such individuals

happen to be blind. But it is no accident that most of the blind

engineering and science majors who have applied for Federation

scholarships in recent years have had a good bit of residual

sight.

It is desperately important that we not close off the options for

blind children before they have a chance to determine for

themselves whether or not they have what it takes in the

vocational fields they find attractive, whatever they are. Dr.

John Rowley, who addressed the 1989 convention of the National

Federation of the Blind on Saturday afternoon, July 8, made this

point very clearly when he said that anyone interested in science

had better want to do science and be prepared to work hard at it,

but that he saw no reason why blind students should not pursue

such careers if they had the dedication to do so. He knows what

he is talking about.

A scientist and engineer for many years before the onset of

blindness, John Rowley returned to the Los Alamos Laboratory

after completing several months of hard work at the Louisiana

Center for the Blind in October of 1988. He was given his choice

of several projects and chose one that required his special

combination of scientific and engineering skills. He was charged

with moving to Las Vegas, Nevada, for about two years to

establish and strengthen the management office for the High Level

Waste Project conducted by the University of California Los

Alamos National Laboratory on the west side of the Nevada test

site. The Department of Energy's project here is supported by the

University of California, and Dr. Rowley's task is to hire staff,

establish the office, compile large technical documents, and

generally bring to bear his expertise to get the project started

efficiently. When he finishes this project late in 1990, he will

be assigned another trouble- shooting job. Here is what he had to

say about his work as a blind scientist:

What I want to talk about I have titled Reflections at the

Interfaces. There are really two interfaces I want to talk about.

One is the type of science I practiced for a third of a century

(well, actually, forty years is probably closer), and the second

one, of course, is the interface between sight and blindness.

I'll try to touch on two other questions in the meantime. Should

young blind people consider a career in science, and is blindness

an important issue in studying for being a scientist? I will

assert the answer to those two now, and then I'll try to convince

you, through my example, that indeed I would encourage young

blind people to go into science, but only under certain

conditions. You must really want to practice science. You must

prepare yourself thoroughly, and you must be prepared to work

very hard. I don't believe and I think I can speak from

experience that blindness is a very important issue at all in

practicing science. Here I must be very careful because I've

only been practicing science for about a year as a blind person.

Actually I think it's added a little bit of spice to the game.

Some people might say challenge, but science is enough challenge

already, so I think really spice might be a better term.

The first interface I want to talk about had to do with the type

of science I practiced. Probably it's true that scientists and

engineers (and I'm both) do as many different things as there are

individuals. By the way, there aren't many of us scientists. I

think there are only a half a million or so (maybe a little more)

in the country. It's a pretty specialized trade. One of the

things that I tried to do when I was young was to learn

everything there was about science. My parents just thought I

couldn't make up my mind, which actually was the truth. You know,

many young people can't decide exactly what it is they want to

do. But I hid that very nicely by studying chemistry and

mathematics and chemical engineering and physics and I've

forgotten what all else. As a graduate student I worked on many

applied projects. I found applications of science that is,

engineering quite fascinating. So I really trained myself in a

lot of areas during that process of not being able to make up my

mind.

When the time came to look for a job, I found it very difficult

because it turns out the job market in physics, chemistry, and

many other fields of engineering is really very narrow, and that

wasn't my game. So I looked around the country (this was in

about 1955), and I found a place which takes concepts, ideas,

findings, discoveries that

is, the research aspects of science and converts them into

hardware prototypes, working models. That happened to be the Los

Alamos National Laboratory.

I've practiced that interface between the two areas that is,

research discovery (findings if you will) and the application of

these for a third of a century.

Now I'd like to talk about the other interface, which is a more

recent one the interface between blindness and sight. I perhaps

was quite fortunate. When I was a teen-ager before the second

world war, I had an ophthalmologist who very carefully explained

to me the risk factors to my vision. I was very, very near

sighted, and I used an alternative technique all those years. I

used glasses refraction, you know. And I actually had no

problem. My retinas did not detach, which was one of the risks.

And I did not avoid all the things he said not to do. I enjoyed

football, parachuting, and a number of other activities. But he

also mentioned that maybe, later on in life, the retinal material

would deteriorate, although he suggested (and the literature I

read at that time suggested) that I might outlive all that or die

before it happened. And so I really didn't ignore it; I think I

was forewarned and prepared.

However, in 1982 I noticed my right eye was clearly starting down

hill, and I lost my peripheral vision. By 1984 I believe I was

essentially blind. The testing was a little nominal, but I gave

up driving at that time. And soon thereafter, I had to start

making a decision. At first I thought it was simple. In my

laboratory, as far as I'm able to determine, everyone who was

blinded or had gone blind before had retired. It turns out that

our laboratory has a very generous medical retirement program

and, quite frankly, has a very, very tough safety program. Ours

is a very hazardous workplace. By the way, we're also extremely

safe people. The two go hand in hand, I might add. So everyone

else prior to my case (I use the word lightly, although my view

of it was a little tougher than that) had retired. So I thought I

would retire. Maybe that was the alternative to take. But you

know, I really liked work. In fact, I wasn't really bothered by

the second interface although I was having a little trouble

getting to work, and my productivity was dropping. I found myself

doing different kinds of work still interesting, still productive

in some ways, but certainly not with the amount of reading and

writing that I was used to. So what did we do?

Well, my wife Mary and I went to a nice retirement seminar two

days delightfully done by our laboratory. At the end of those two

days, I was totally convinced I didn't want to retire.

Now, how does one manage? What is the tactic? Well I started

getting books out of the library on blindness. I opened a

notebook on retirement on the one hand; I opened another notebook

on blindness on the other hand. And I found you can learn

Braille. So I signed up for a correspondence course. I got hold

of the New Mexico Commission for the Blind. An itinerant teacher

came up and said, Why you know, there's orientation and

mobility. (You see, I got the buzz words right away, too, and I

got a white cane.) By the way, I got some literature about the

National Federation of the Blind at the same time, I might add. I

went down to the drugstore and got a pair of sleepshades because,

even now, I have a little bit of vision in my left eye, and I

started practicing. After a few months of that, I figured that it

might take five years if I worked rather diligently at it, and I

was starting to work quite diligently. So clearly that wasn't a

very good way to get from where I was across this interface. I

wanted to be a working scientist, but how to do it?

Well, pretty soon my supervisor got worried, and with good

reason. I was bumping into things, particularly in unfamiliar

areas. I was having trouble in low-light conditions. My

productivity in reading and writing (even though I tried to

divert some of my activities away from that) was getting lower.

Fortunately, he brought up the issue of safety. I was clearly a

safety hazard to my laboratory. What was to be done? I

must say I was a little bit upset about that, but on the other hand, I realized

they really were talking about liability

(although, of course, that issue never really came up). However,

I thought, there must be a way around this. Then it dawned on me

that our laboratory has a policy that will pay for safety

training. I don't believe they're allowed to pay for

rehabilitation training access, accommodation, all kinds of

things, but not rehabilitation. So I explored the possibility of

getting orientation and mobility training at the laboratory. I

thought, well I'll take a month or two off, I'll get somebody

good in here. They'll take me all over the lab and my home area

all that. And I'll be safe. I started calling around the country,

and I was very, very fortunate in contacting, among other people,

Mary Ellen Reihing (at that time) on the staff at NFB

Headquarters. And she said, It's an interesting idea. I'll try

to find you an O&M instructor.

How lucky I was that she didn't find one! She also said in her

own very persuasive (well, not too subtle but very persuasive)

way, Really you need six to nine months or perhaps a year of

good rehabilitation training if you're going to do what you want

to do. I was convinced. I admit that I think I was very

receptive. I have never in my life believed that blind people

couldn't do what they wanted to do. I find out now there are many

people who do. I was fortunate, so what to do next? I made many

phone calls, talked to many institutions, and finally I heard

about the Louisiana Center for the Blind. To make a long story

short, I called Joanne Fernandes. In November of 1987 we visited

the Center around Thanksgiving time, and I'm very thankful I

might add. We found it precisely as described.

One of the criteria that I established at that time was that I

wanted instructors who were blind. I was anxious for that. I've

trained myself in many, many areas before. I've also trained many

other people. And I'm firmly convinced that's the absolute best

way to go. I found the Center to be exactly as represented. I

felt it would totally satisfy my needs. It did, absolutely. I

spent from January to July last year, 1988, at the Center; and I

believe I graduated with some honors. I really enjoyed that

experience. I've heard it called a boot camp. Now let me tell

you that if you do go through a boot camp, you're going to know

precisely what it is you want to do along with being able to do

it. So, if you have any hesitation about one of the centers,

please come and speak to one of the graduates. I assure you that

this has changed my life because I think I probably would have

had to retire had I not gone to that center.

What happened when I returned to my laboratory? Well there is

some indication you can be a nice senior science advisor you

know, kind of a soft nice job demanding in a way, but not too

taxing. After a few months, however, they offered me a position

in Las Vegas to solve a very tough problem. I couldn't resist. I

have solved lots of problems in the last third of a century from

my laboratory. But what a delightful challenge this was, what a

blessing. Here I had to do all those things that Joanne and her

staff had taught me. I had to find an apartment. I had to cook

for myself, and the cane travel! I must confess, I've tried to

reach as far out into Las Vegas as I can. The strip is a thing

you wouldn't believe. I must say, I could tell you a few stories

well never mind. That's a fascinating thing to do. I've been able

to extend every one of my skills and use it. The only one I'm

deficient in still is Braille, and I'm going to get back at that.

But I suspect it's going to take me perhaps another year to

complete solving this problem. We've hired a number of people,

got the office set up, and the projects moving. We're starting to

produce deliverables. The science is coming together. The people

are coming together. And soon, I think, we'll close this one.

Could I have done that without the NFB? No way! There is no way.

I've looked back and said, Oh, I could have learned all that.

There is no way. And I certainly want to thank you all.

I want to share in closing one small bit of philosophy that I

think we share in common: scientists and the NFB. That is the

old, time- honored phrase: You shall know the truth, and the

truth will set you free. Thank you.

TECHNOLOGY AND THE JOB

by Curtis Chong

As Monitor readers know, Curtis Chong is the President of the

National Federation of the Blind in Computer Science (the NFB's

computer science division) and an active member of the NFB

Research and Development Committee. In recent months he has been

asked to address groups of potential employers of the blind in

conjunction with Job Opportunities for the Blind seminars

sponsored by several state affiliates. The following article is

drawn from these speeches. Mr. Chong's expertise and solid common

sense make his remarks valuable to everyone who is interested in

the subject of technology and the blind. Here is what he has been

saying to employers about technology and the blind:

T here is no question that with the advent of so-called high

technology, more jobs have been opened up to blind people. What

kind of jobs are we talking about? Consider these for starters:

electrical engineer, computer programmer, systems analyst,

software developer and marketer, airline reservationist, customer

service representative, technical consultant the list could go on

and on. Just as technology has created jobs for the sighted and

eliminated others, so it is with the blind. It seems, however,

that in the latter case technology has come to be regarded with

an almost unhealthy fascination. Part of the reason for this lies

in the lack of information about what technology can really do

for a blind person. The other part is closely related to

society's basic notions about blindness and what we believe blind

people are capable of doing.

Here are some of the more useful devices that technology has

spawned: the talking clock; the talking calculator; the talking

scale; the talking cash register; the Braille 'n Speak; the

VersaBraille; the Braille Blazer; the Speaqualizer; the Kurzweil

Personal Reader; the Optacon; the Romeo Brailler; the Thiel

Braille embosser; the speech synthesizer; talking programs for

the Apple computer; Grade 2 Braille translation systems; optical

character recognition systems; and a tremendous variety of

speech, Braille, and large print screen reading systems for the

IBM Personal Computer (PC). In fact, when viewed in perspective,

technology can also be said to have brought us the slate and

stylus, the long white cane, the Braille writer, the Braille

watch, the cassette recorder, and every other mechanical or

electronic device that blind people have found useful.

You may be surprised to know that two of the most valuable assets

in my job as a systems programmer are my Perkins Braille Writer

and my sighted reader, and they have nothing to do with

technology. Yes, I have access to a variety of talking computers

and a Braille embosser. I can even connect to my employer's

mainframe from anywhere in the country to access my electronic

mail and diagnose some network problems. However, my Braille

writer enables me to take notes without electricity, and my

sighted reader allows me to visit any office in the company to

assist users who are having trouble with one or more of their

terminals or PC's.

Let's examine some of the technology that has resulted from the

so-called computer age. The Braille 'n Speak, a portable talking

note taker, has captured the imagination of a lot of blind

people. It is the one piece of technology that appeals even to

the person who classifies him or herself as a computer

illiterate. For about a thousand dollars a blind person can

purchase his or her very own Braille 'n Speak, including clock,

stopwatch, and four-function calculator. What can a user do with

it? It's easy to take notes; store names and addresses; perform

some basic text editing functions; transmit data to and receive

it from a computer; and carry around the equivalent of 180

Braille pages of information in a single portable unit. The

Braille 'n Speak can be attached to a Braille embosser; and if

the notes have been entered in Grade 2 Braille, they can be

embossed that way. The Braille 'n Speak can even be hooked up to

a standard printer in order to print the material entered.

What are some of this device's limitations? For those of us who

have used commercial, off-the-shelf word processors such as

WordPerfect or WordStar, the Braille 'n Speak simply cannot

compete nor is it meant to. The Braille 'n Speak cannot run

commercial programs written for other computers. Proficient

Braille readers might well have difficulty studying for final

exams with their notes stored only in the Braille 'n Speak.

Without a Braille printer, the only way of reviewing what has

been entered is to use the built-in synthetic speech. The Braille

'n Speak has a limited amount of storage: about 180 Braille

pages. A typical college student will fill that up in less than

a week. How does the Braille 'n Speak compare to the good old

slate and stylus? To put some perspective on the matter, let me

say that I still carry around a slate and stylus everywhere I go. Although

I find that the Braille 'n Speak is much more convenient for taking notes

in bulk, I also find that I cannot do without

the slate and stylus for communicating information to other blind

people and for providing a backup system for note-taking when the

Braille 'n Speak fails, as any piece of technology will. I firmly

believe that, before anyone acquires a Braille 'n Speak, he or

she should be a competent slate and stylus user not to mention

being proficient in the reading and writing of Braille. The

Apple computer is an interesting and useful piece of technology

for those blind people who can't be bothered with screen layouts

and disk operating systems but who still require the power of a

full-fledged computer. A whole series of talking programs for the

blind have been developed to run on the Apple II series of

computers. These programs are significant in that one need not

learn anything about a screen review system. They are designed to

talk when they are supposed to. The user doesn't have to move a

review cursor around the screen to hear what the computer has to

say. If the goal is to acquire a working system that will bring

the user into the computer age and if there is no need to run

software that sighted people use, check out the Apple computer.

Particularly, check out Raised Dot Computing, located in Madison,

Wisconsin, and Computer Aids Corporation, located in Fort Wayne,

Indiana, to see what kind of talking programs they market.

Speaking of the microcomputer, I think we can safely say that no

one type of computer has played as significant a role in our

entrance into the computer age as has the IBM PC and related

compatibles. A tremendous variety of speech, Braille, and large

print mechanisms now exist which permit blind people to have

independent access to most text-based programs that a PC can run

programs such as word processors, spreadsheets, database systems,

and terminal emulators. Consider these popular software

packages: WordPerfect, WordStar, Lotus 1-2-3, DBASE III, PROCOMM,

QMODEM, Attachmate Extra!, IBM 3270 Entry Level Program, and

Novell. With the proper combination of hardware and software,

every single one of these packages can be used by the blind

without the assistance of a sighted reader, and this list is far

from complete.

Beyond the programs themselves, there are the systems and

networks to which they provide access. Using PROCOMM, for

example, a blind person can dial into a variety of mainframe

systems and, using the proper terminal emulation facilities of

PROCOMM, can work with just about any mainframe online

application. Even more exciting to blind people is the very real

ability to have that information converted into Braille, simply

by attaching a Braille embosser to one of the computer's

communication ports.

Using the Novell network operating system, a blind person can

share information over a local area network with colleagues in

the office and can do so with the same programs that everybody

else uses. With a 3270 emulation system a blind person can

independently access text applications on just about any IBM

mainframe. This hitherto impossible task has tremendous potential

benefit for the blind when one considers the widespread use of

IBM equipment in this country.

What impact does this have on the world of work? Consider that,

with the IBM PC and the proper screen reading mechanisms, chances

are very high that the blind person will be able to use the same

software as his or her sighted co-workers. The blind secretary is

now in an excellent position to use the same word processor as

others in the office. The blind programmer or engineer has access

to most of the mainframe applications, even to the point of

putting up with the annoying flood of notes, messages, and

documents occasioned by electronic mail systems. Consider the

blind executive whose sighted secretary regularly uses a word

processor to type memos and reports. Technology now exists that

enables the secretary to convert those memos and reports into

Braille without having to know anything about the Braille code

itself. Or consider the blind secretary who is required to

proofread documents before printing them in final form. With a

word processor, a Braille translation program, and a Braille

embosser, this task is a snap. In my office everyone

uses IBM's Display Write 4 word processors to produce memos and reports that

are eventually printed on

paper. I sometimes ask my coworkers to furnish me with a diskette

containing their documents. I can then feed them into the PC on

my desk. From there it is a simple matter to convert the document

into Braille or to read it using synthetic speech. Let me hasten

to point out, however, that in most cases I find that a sighted

reader is far more efficient to handle the mountain of paperwork

that comes across my desk. I find the technology useful when it

is necessary for me to lift passages from someone else's work for

inclusion in a report that I am preparing. The blind themselves,

through the National Federation of the Blind, are taking a hand

in helping to shape the technology that is being developed. When

it became clear that the IBM PC would play a significant role in

today's industry, the Federation embarked upon the development of

a hardware-based screen-reading speech-output system for the IBM

PC and compatibles. We searched long and hard to come up with a

name for this system, and it was our own Rami Rabby who proposed

the name Speaqualizer. The Speaqualizer can be obtained from the

American Printing House for the Blind for about $800 and works

with more programs than any software-based screen reading system

for the PC. Recently the National Federation of the Blind, in

cooperation with officials from the Discover Card Company,

developed a talking card-verification system that can be used by

blind retail clerks to check on credit cards. The actual

development consisted of attaching a speech synthesizer to an

already-existing credit card checking computer and slightly

modifying the system software in order to send verbal prompts to

the synthesizer. It is important to note that the Discover Card

Company wisely chose to discuss the project with the people whom

it was designed to benefit namely, the blind, themselves.

Consequently, the system that has emerged is one that is truly

useful to blind people across the country.

Any time one considers applying technology to solve a problem

involving a blind person, it is important to keep in mind that

the technological solution may represent a long and painful road

fraught with many obstacles and problems. Not all screen reading

systems for the IBM PC are equally flexible, and not all screen

reading systems for the IBM PC work with all programs that need

to be used in the office. In other words, one must consider the

issue of compatibility. For example, I know from personal

experience that if a blind person needs to use a 3270 emulation

system, a great deal of care needs to be exercised in the

selection of a screen reading system for the PC. I also happen to

know that people wishing to use Microsoft Word as their word

processor are likely to experience problems with its relationship

to their screen-reading software. Consider, too, that only

recently has the Apple Macintosh computer become accessible, even

partially, to the blind. The problem is to find the right person

who has all of the information about what works with what all in

all, a rather difficult task.

Some of you may have heard about optical character recognition

systems and reading machines that supposedly convert printed

information into speech or electronic digital media that can be

processed by a computer. It is true that equipment (costing

anywhere from five to ten thousand dollars) is available to

convert print into a form that can be used by a blind person.

However, this technology still has a number of significant

limitations. For one thing, although it can read a lot of printed

information, it can't handle handwriting or poor-quality print.

For another, reading machines and optical character recognition

systems lend themselves to sequential reading that is, reading a

document from cover to cover. They are not at all useful to a

blind person who has to read small amounts of information

scattered across a large number of pages that are not arranged in

sequence. In my job, I am often placed in a position where I have

to glean information from three or four computer manuals at a

time. I am often forced to scan each manual repeatedly, lifting a

bit of information from, say, page 150, going back to page 50 to

look at something else, and then turning to another book to page

45 to round out my research. This task would be extremely

cumbersome and time-consuming with an optical character

recognition system.

We must be careful, I think, not to fall into the trap of trying

to solve every problem with a piece of technology. Recently, in

my home state of Minnesota, I heard a story about a blind person

who, after four months, was in danger of losing his position as a

programmer because some technology had failed to arrive. Simply

put, the problem was that the blind programmer did not have

independent access to the company's mainframe system. Further

investigation revealed that no one not even the blind person had

considered the possibility of hiring a sighted reader while

waiting for the technology to arrive. In other words, the blind

person did virtually nothing for four months. If the programmer,

the employer, and the rehabilitation agency had not been lulled

into a false sense of security because of the availability of

technology, the short- term solution for the problem would have

been apparent early on.

Many employers do not really believe that the blind can be just

as productive, mobile, and competent as their sighted peers. They

are too quick to accept the notion that the technology is the

determining factor when it comes to productivity. For example, it

never occurs to many of them that in order for a writer to use a

word processor effectively, that person must, first and foremost,

be a decent writer. It never occurs to some of them that a fancy

computer terminal does not a programmer make. And I would bet you

that a lot of employers never even knew that thousands of blind

people held professional, high-paying jobs long before the

Braille or talking microcomputer was invented.

Is technology the total answer when we are considering the

employment of the blind? I don't believe so. Although technology

can help a lot of blind people to better their lives and has done

so and although technology has opened up some jobs for the blind,

it can in no way be viewed as the total answer to the problem of

the seventy-percent unemployment rate that now plagues blind

Americans of working age. Employers still require information

and education about the competence and innate normality of the

blind. Rehabilitation officials need to stop regarding technology

as a panacea for the blind and recognize it for the tool that it

is. Sure, technology can be a tremendous help. But more

important than any technology are acceptance; equal treatment; a

positive attitude toward blindness and blind people; and a belief

on everyone's part that we, the blind, are just as capable as the

sighted of living normal productive lives and getting the job

done.

LITERACY: THE KEY TO OPPORTUNITY

by Fred Schroeder

On February 3, 1989, Fred Schroeder (member of the Board of

Directors of the National Federation of the Blind, Director of

the New Mexico Commission for the Blind, and authority on the

education of blind children) addressed the Josephine Taylor

Leadership Seminar, sponsored by the American Foundation for the

Blind. The seminar was held in Atlanta, Georgia. Mr. Schroeder's

remarks were insightful and very much to the point, so we have

decided to print his entire text. Here it is:

I n today's information age there can be no question that

literacy represents the primary tool by which individuals

compete. Literacy unlike other skills is not an end in itself,

but rather the means to a virtually unlimited variety of ends. It

is the very key to prosperity since literacy opens the way to

information by tearing down barriers of myth and ignorance.

Blind people have come to value Braille, recognizing its role as

the primary means to literacy for the blind. Dr. Abraham Nemeth

has described Braille as having liberated a whole class of

people from a condition of illiteracy and dependency and given

them the means for self-fulfillment and enrichment.

Nevertheless, large numbers of blind people do not know Braille

and, therefore, find themselves in a state of functional

illiteracy. As a result, blind people have lacked many of the

fundamental opportunities which enable them to become

self-supporting, contributing members of society.

It is estimated that seventy percent of working-age blind people

are unemployed. Those who are employed are frequently

under-employed or trapped in entry level jobs. While it would not

be fair to say that the staggeringly high unemployment rate among

the blind is due solely to lack of Braille literacy, Dr. Nemeth

observes that, Braille makes it possible for a blind person to

assume a role of equality in modern society, and it can unlock

the potential within him to become a contributing member of his

community on a par with his sighted fellows. Many professionals

have sought to explain away the low level of Braille literacy

through claims that Braille is too complicated and difficult to

learn, too bulky and costly to produce, and made obsolete by

tapes and speech technology. In addition, they argue that many of

today's blind children are multi-handicapped and therefore cannot

be expected to master Braille reading. Finally, modern pedagogy

has asserted that many blind people, given appropriate low vision

aids, can become competent print readers, thereby rendering

Braille unnecessary.

Yet, alternatives to Braille frequently come with problems of

their own. Tapes, while helpful for reading large quantities of

text, do nothing to enhance spelling or teach a child about

punctuation or format. Similarly, while tapes may be relatively

compact and inexpensive, it is difficult to skim a tape or turn

readily to a specific section of the text. In terms of writing,

unlike tapes, Braille allows the individual a portable means of

making notes, keeping name and address files, making grocery

lists, keeping recipes, and so on. This is not to say that tapes

have no place. My point is simply that their role is not to

replace Braille. Other alternatives, such as low vision aids,

often reduce reading speed and comprehension by virtue of

diminishing the amount of material that can be seen at one time.

Still other low vision aids (the closed circuit television, for

example) are certainly large and cumbersome. Nevertheless, as

with the use of tapes, low vision aids have an important

function, provided that their use is kept in perspective.

Braille, tapes, low vision aids, and speech technology comprise a

cadre of techniques which, when applied correctly, enables the

blind person to function on terms of real equality.

The small number of blind people using Braille is a problem

receiving increasingly sharp attention from the National

Federation of the Blind. We believe that, given proper training

and opportunity, blind people can compete on terms of equality

with the sighted. Central to this conviction is the understanding

that true equality is a product of having the skills necessary to

compete and the confidence to put those skills into practice. It

is our conviction that, while blind people need training,

training alone is not sufficient. For it to be effective, the

blind person must believe that it is respectable to be blind and

that he or she possesses the capacity to compete on an equal

footing with his or her sighted peers. As with many other issues

facing the blind in education and rehabilitation, blind people

and professionals often have strikingly different views

concerning the cause of this problem.

The profession tends to view problems from the perspective of the

technocrat. Declining Braille literacy indicates a flaw in the

code, a problem of cost, or proof that Braille is antiquated.

Similarly, the profession may acknowledge a lack of skilled

personnel, summing up the Braille literacy problem as merely a

training issue. Given

this orientation, the solutions proposed by the profession are

predictable provide more money for teacher preparation, simplify

the Braille code, or

replace Braille with low vision aids or speech technology. The

blind, however, believe that the real cause of Braille illiteracy

is rooted in societal beliefs and misconceptions about blindness.

What professionals believe about blindness has direct bearing on

both their methodology and their expectations. As a result, if a

teacher does not believe that a blind child can truly compete on

terms of equality, the teacher will settle for and even praise

inferior performance. The teacher's conception of blindness

becomes the yardstick by which performance is measured.

Professional judgments become clouded and are ultimately shaped

by age- old myths and misconceptions about the abilities of the

blind. Dr. Kenneth Jernigan, Executive Director of the National

Federation of the Blind, observed that Many of the very people

who administer and work in the governmental and private agencies

established to provide services to the blind have all of the

misconceptions and false notions about blindness possessed by the

public at large. If a teacher harbors negative attitudes about

blindness, then he or she may wish to avoid dealing directly with

blindness and, therefore, avoid the teaching of Braille. As a

result, parents and educators find themselves increasingly at

odds over the question of which children should be taught to read

print and which should be taught to read Braille.

A case in point concerns a young blind child who possesses a fair

quantity of residual vision. When this child began kindergarten

the school he was attending felt that his vision was not adequate

for all of his reading needs and, therefore, began the process of

teaching the child to read Braille. In the first grade his family

moved to another state. Being convinced of the importance of

Braille they sought Braille instruction from the new school

district in which their child was enrolled. The new district

agreed and continued Braille instruction throughout first,

second, and third grade.

Beginning in fourth grade the family again moved, enrolling their

child in yet another school district. This one conducted its own

educational assessment and determined that Braille instruction

was not needed. If the story were to end here, it could be

written off as nothing more than a lack of precision in generally

accepted assessment criteria. However, the story does not end

here. The district in question not only refused to teach Braille,

but launched a vicious attack against the parents, accusing them

of treating their child as if he were blind, thereby causing him

significant emotional and educational damage. The district

asserted that a child could not be taught to learn both print and

Braille. To do so (they alleged) would result in the child's

functioning poorly in both reading media. When the parents

pointed out that their son would never be a fully competent print

reader because of his impaired vision, the district argued that

they were wrong, pointing to the fact that their son was reading

print at grade level at least for short periods of time. This

shows the first in a long series of ensuing contradictions. If the child

was reading at grade level in the fourth grade and

yet had received both print and Braille instruction from

kindergarten through third grade, then what evidence is there to

show that simultaneous instruction in print and Braille will

reduce efficiency in both? The parents, concerned for their

son's future, sought three independent evaluations by qualified

professionals to determine whether their son should, in fact,

receive instruction in Braille reading and writing. I conducted

one of the evaluations in November of 1987. I hold a master's

degree in the education of blind children from San Francisco

State University and have worked as a teacher of blind children

and as a special education administrator responsible for programs

for blind children in the Albuquerque Public Schools. The other

two evaluators were similarly qualified, experienced teachers of

blind children. Although each of the evaluations was done

independently, all three of us agreed that this child should be

instructed in Braille. The basis of our findings was not a

wild-eyed fanaticism that all children, regardless of degree of

visual functioning, should be taught Braille. Instead, our

conclusions were based on experience and direct observation of

the child's visual functioning. For my own part I considered such

factors as the child's suffering eye fatigue after a period of

only 20 to 30 minutes of reading. In addition, the child had

great difficulty copying material and was virtually unable to

read back his own handwriting. He was unable to read small print

such as a conventional dictionary and was not helped by low

vision aids. Large print was not beneficial since this child's

eye condition includes a field restriction. Large print simply

reduced the number of words or letters he could see at a time,

reducing his reading efficiency. Again, because of his particular

eye condition, glare was a problem making him highly dependent on

particular lighting conditions. In short, I concluded that this

child needed Braille both as a reading and writing system. Armed

with three independent evaluations and a renewed conviction that

their child needed Braille, the parents again approached the

district. Nevertheless, the district persisted in its refusal to

teach Braille, resulting in the matter's being brought to a

hearing. The hearing officer, appointed by the district,

concluded that the district was correct in refusing to teach the

child Braille. In spite of the fact that the child had received

Braille instruction for four years and in spite of the fact that

three qualified evaluators had independently arrived at a

recommendation for Braille instruction, the hearing officer

brushed the evidence aside and concluded that the district was

correct in refusing Braille instruction. To add insult to injury,

the hearing officer dismissed my evaluation by saying that since

I knew the parents through my affiliation with the National

Federation of the Blind, my report contained the smell of doubt,

thereby discounting its validity.

At this point, fourth grade had drawn to a close. The child had

lost an entire year of critical instruction. Last August, in a

final attempt to secure Braille instruction, the parents arranged

for a hearing before a panel representing the State Board of

Education. At that hearing the parents presented all of the

relevant documentation, including the three independent

evaluations which they had secured. The district, presumably

operating on the smell of doubt principle, stated that the

evaluations were not independent. In particular they discounted

my evaluation as being suspect because of my affiliation with the

National Federation of the Blind. The district's representative

stated that the National Federation of the Blind believed that

any visually impaired child regardless of circumstance should

automatically receive Braille instruction.

The district asserted that it had alternatively proposed its own

impartial evaluation which the parents had refused. It came out

that the district had given the parents a list of names prepared

by the district and had offered to allow the parents to select

any name they chose from the list. As could be anticipated, the

parents questioned whether this process would truly yield an

independent, impartial evaluation. It was finally agreed that

the parents and the county would jointly select an individual to

conduct the evaluation. The individual selected was perhaps the

most renowned expert in Braille instruction in the United States.

The parents hoped that by employing a professional of her caliber

the question of Braille instruction could be settled once and for

all. It looked promising since the district agreed during the

hearing to accept the findings of this expert as representing a

truly independent evaluation. In late September, 1988, the

evaluation was conducted and shortly thereafter the report

received. It contained a recommendation for a minimum of

three-forty minute periods of Braille instruction each week. Was

it finally over? No.

In November, the district proposed an Individualized Education

Program (IEP) that included a grudging provision for including

Braille in the curriculum. Rather than recognizing the validity

of Braille as a reading system and the need for Braille for this

particular student, the district characterized Braille as a

subordinate, substandard, laborious method only to be used as a

last ditch alternative. One of the short term instructional

objectives identified in the proposed IEP was that to alleviate

fatigue, the child will use his existing Braille skills when

occasionally appropriate. Regardless of the technical

inadequacies of this instructional objective, the tone is very

clear. The district, in a cloud of bitterness and professional

arrogance, persists in its conviction that Braille is nothing

more than a second-class reading medium, connoting inferiority.

It is interesting to observe that, while the district accused the

National Federation of the Blind of holding an arbitrary view

that all visually impaired children be taught Braille, the

district, on the other hand, seemed unshakably rooted to the

equally arbitrary albeit opposite point of view that a low vision

child, regardless of need, should be taught print to the

exclusion of Braille. It is not difficult to understand what

drives this kind of thinking. To the district and to many others

in society, Braille equates to blindness while print equates to

sight, and on an emotional level, be it conscious or unconscious,

the attitude persists that to be sighted is the be normal while

to be blind is to be dependent and inferior. This thinking, not

learned research and educational theory, drives the

decision-making process of selecting which children will be print

readers and which will be Braille readers. Dr. Kenneth Jernigan

tells the story of visiting a classroom of blind children and

being told by the teacher: This little girl reads print. This

little girl has to read Braille.

The development of negative attitudes toward Braille can be

traced back to the instruction provided in some of our nation's

teacher preparation programs. Many teacher preparation programs

regard the slate and stylus as a relic of bygone days, assuming

that they are mentioned at all. Throughout the nation it is not

unusual to see blind children using Braille writers for taking

notes in class. As recently as a generation ago, teachers of the

blind would have thought it ridiculous to use Braille writers in

class. Braille writers are awkward and heavy to carry around, not

to mention noisy and disruptive to others. The truth of my

assertion can be seen in the marketing strategies being used by

manufacturers of portable Braille note taking devices. They

point out that these high tech, portable Braille writers are

smaller and quieter than Braille writers, making them superior to

Braille writers for note taking. While I cannot disagree that

many high tech devices offer advantages over lugging a Braille

writer from class to class, it strikes me as significant that the

profession does not automatically recognize the important role

that the slate and stylus play in personal note-taking. The slate is certainly more

economical $10.00 as compared to $1,000.00 or more and is still

the smallest and

most portable note-taking device. The battery never gives out and

I have never known a slate to crash. I do not mean to suggest

that high tech devices do not offer real advantages in specific

situations. Instead I believe it is necessary to understand that

for a blind person the slate and stylus is equivalent to the

sighted person's pen or pencil. The sighted, as well as the

blind, are finding laptop computers convenient and efficient, yet

use of the pen and pencil is not a vanishing skill for the

sighted.

Why then is use of the slate and stylus virtually a lost art? I

believe it is because today's teachers of blind children have

never worked with a slate long enough to become comfortable with

it and thereby convinced of its usefulness. Instead, I am

frequently told that the slate is too difficult because children

have to learn to write backward. Problems with

teacher preparation are not limited to the slate and stylus. In a very real

sense teachers of blind children

receive only nominal instruction in reading and writing Braille.

Poor mastery of Braille coupled with prevailing social attitudes

about blindness combine to lead teachers to seek alternatives to

Braille. In my professional life I started as a teacher of blind

children. I have observed children using print in situations and

under conditions which defy reason. In particular I can vividly

remember watching a child being instructed in print using a

closed circuit television at full magnification. This child

could not see well if there was any glare in the room, so before

he started reading, the blinds were closed. To complicate matters

further, this child could not read letters that were at all

stylized. Therefore, the teacher would first retype all of the

child's material, using a sans serif, large print typewriter,

which made very plain typewritten letters. After the teacher had

retyped the child's material, closed the venetian blinds, and

turned the CCTV to full magnification, this child was able to

read a few letters at a time with excruciating slowness. In

another case, after a dispute with parents, a teacher was

compelled to instruct a young blind child in Braille. The teacher

attempted to comply with the order in a way which would seem

laughable if it were not so painfully tragic. The child had

almost no sight. Yet she tried to teach him Braille by using

flash cards with large print representations of Braille dots. I

do not wish my comments to be construed as an attack on all

professionals in the field of work with the blind. There are many

professionals who have devoted their lives and talents in the

fields of education and rehabilitation. It is not simply lip

service to say that dedicated professionals have made significant

contributions to the advancement of work with the blind and

specifically in the area of Braille instruction. Were the

problems not so widespread it would be enough to say that all

chains have their weak links and that the good work of the many

should not be overlooked because of the failings of a few.

Unfortunately, the problem of Braille literacy is not isolated to

a few poorly trained individuals. It is for this reason that the

profession finds itself at odds with blind adults and parents of

blind children over the question of Braille instruction.

Many parent organizations throughout the nation have sought

introduction of Braille bills in their respective states. These

Braille bills have been viewed by the profession as an attack

against the role of professionals in identifying which children

should receive instruction in Braille. As a result, opposition to

various Braille bills has been widespread and intense. I believe

the introduction of Braille bills is perhaps the best example of

the gulf that exists between modern educational thinking and the

desire of parents to prepare their children for a complex and

competitive future. Each of the Braille bills with which I am

familiar holds as its primary purpose to make Braille instruction

available to any legally blind child upon the request of the

child's parents. Opponents of Braille bills invariably argue that

these bills would require that all visually impaired children,

regardless of need, would be forced to learn Braille, often

against their will, resulting in educational and psychological

harm. They argue that the decision to teach Braille must, as a

matter of law, be decided individually through the IEP process.

They argue that the IEP is collaborative between teachers and

parents. In the case previously described it is not hard to

understand why parents might feel that the IEP process is only

collaborative when parents agree with the recommendations of

professionals.

No Braille bill that I have seen requires Braille to be forced on

visually impaired children. In fact, Braille bills do not even

require that all legally blind children be taught Braille.

Instead, they simply provide that a legally blind child, as a

matter of right, have available Braille instruction upon the

parent's request.

Why should such a simple and eminently reasonable provision be

fought so forcefully? What should have ever brought us to the

point where parents of blind children would feel it necessary to

take the decision of Braille instruction out of the hands of the

IEP process? The answer is simple. There clearly exists a large

segment of parents who cannot get their local school districts to

provide Braille instruction to their children. As in the case

discussed earlier, many parents are frustrated by the lost time

and wasted energy of pursuing lengthy hearing processes to obtain

simple literacy for their children. If the problem were isolated

or limited only to the views of a few radicals, then it would not

be receiving the concerted action reflected in the introduction

of numerous Braille bills. Instead, the problem is widespread.

Today, adult rehabilitation centers throughout the nation are

teaching Braille not only to the newly blinded, but to young

adults who grew up as legally blind children. Many of these young

adults attended public school programs for the visually impaired

and others are graduates of schools for the blind, yet they never

received instruction in Braille reading and writing. As a

consequence they find themselves functionally illiterate and

unable to pursue meaningful careers. The Braille bills represent

a commitment to seizing opportunity for blind children of today.

As Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the

Blind, has said, We have come to understand the importance

(indeed, the necessity) of knowing when to refuse to wait, when

to reject patience, when to say no to delay the courage and

judgment to insist that freedom and opportunity must be now, not

tomorrow!

A parent wishing to have his or her child read print, no matter

how slowly or inefficiently, is routinely encouraged in this

conviction. On the other hand, a parent wishing to have his or

her child be instructed in Braille is accused of causing

psychological damage by treating the child as if he or she is

blind and threatened with being responsible for educational harm

on the grounds that Braille and print reading taught together

will cause a child to be deficient in both. A number of years

ago a leading professional organization circulated a proposed

position paper prepared by a nationally recognized expert in the

field of education of blind children. This expert, who heads up a

teacher preparation program, proposed that if a child could read

print at a minimum of ten words per minute, then that child

should be taught to read print to the exclusion of Braille. The

message is clear. Use of vision, regardless of efficiency, is

preferable to techniques associated with blindness. Last May, a

parent of a blind child attended an awards ceremony at a

residential school for the blind. One of the awards given was a

mobility award. The parent expected that the award would have

something to do with improvement in on-campus travel. Instead,

the mobility award was given to a student who had demonstrated

the most advancement in the use of his residual vision.

Astounding as it may be, the school offered no award for Braille

reading.

When we as blind people seek to change the conception of

blindness held by professionals and by society at large, we meet

resistance founded in the belief that it is the professional who

knows what is best for the blind. Never mind high unemployment

and lost opportunity we are asked to accept that the training and

technology with which we are plied are the best that can be

offered. Never mind that many of us lack the basic dignity that

comes from true literacy. As Dr. Jernigan puts it, For all the

good will beamed at us by public opinion; for all the aids and

services, boosts and assists, props and prosthetics pressed upon

us, we, the blind people of this great society, are not yet

really free not yet fully independent not yet truly equal. What

bars us from first-class status is not inferiority inherent in

blindness, but rather the tacit acceptance of a diminished role

with minimal expectations and minimal opportunity for full

participation. The message I wish to bring is not one of

bitterness or hopelessness. Instead, it is my conviction that

out of strife and conflict can emerge a new image of the blind as

able to compete on terms of equality. To do this we must have

available the tools to make it possible. We must develop an

attitude that it is respectable to be blind and that the tools

associated with blindness constitute the very foundation on which

first-class status can be based. It is the negative conditioning

of society which leads us to believe that blindness constitutes

inferiority and that the tools of blindness likewise equate to

inferiority. When we rid ourselves of this false doctrine, then

we will be able to free ourselves from

the failure concept associated with Braille a concept which

promotes the idea that Braille is a last alternative only to be

used when all else fails.

Braille has been proven time and time again to be the way to

literacy for the blind. It can be produced more easily and more

cheaply than ever before in history. With Braille and the other

skills of blindness, we as blind people can fulfill our potential

and take our true place

as contributing, participating, taxpaying members of society. To

achieve this goal will take concerted and collective action. As

Mr. Maurer has said, The blind of this nation (organized in the

National Federation of the Blind) are committed to achieving

equality and first-class citizenship. We regret that there is

apparently a certain amount of conflict built into the transition

from second- to first-class status. But we know that blind

individuals, blind people as a group, and our entire society will

benefit if the worth we represent is recognized and given its

proper place.

ETHEL INCHAUSTI: LOCAL LEADER

From the Editor: The Federation has many strengths, but one of

the greatest is its growing corps of local leaders. They build

the chapters, make the telephone calls, and carry on the daily

activities. They constitute the base of power, the foundation of

strength upon which our movement is built.

Here (as reported in the Fall, 1989, Gem State Milestones, the

publication of the National Federation of the Blind of Idaho) is

a profile of one of these local leaders, Ethel Inchausti. Of such

as Ethel Inchausti is the Federation made, and the future is in

good hands.

If Ethel had time, she could tell us many stories about Idaho

sixty years ago or more. She has been independent and resourceful

all her life. At eighty-one she still is. Elected president of

the Magic Valley Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind

of Idaho last spring, Ethel Inchausti is part of the reason the

membership

of that chapter has multiplied several times during the last six

months. Someone told her she looks younger than she did five

years ago, and Ethel wasn't surprised.

Five years ago Ethel was struggling with blindness which seemed

almost overwhelming. Cooking, dialing the telephone, and many

other activities had become complicated or frightening. Ethel

didn't know where to go for help.

One day John Cheadle and Ramona Walhof, part of an organizing

team for the NFB in the Magic Valley, knocked on Ethel's door.

She told them of her concern, and they told her about the

National Federation of the Blind. They also told her of other

services. Ethel says that was a turning point for her. Within a

few months she had enrolled at the Orientation Center of the

Idaho Commission for the Blind. She made friends with blind

people who were members of the Federation, and she attended her

first national convention in Denver, Colorado, in 1989.

In 1926 Ethel moved from Norwich, Kansas, to Twin Falls, Idaho,

bringing her three-year-old son with her. Since then she has

worked as a cook

for the Wells Sheep Ranch; she managed the Green Spot Cafe in

Castleford, Idaho; and she sorted beans and did a variety of jobs

that women did in rural Idaho.

Shortly after arriving in Idaho, Ethel married her husband of

more than thirty years (now deceased), who was a farm worker. In

addition to her son, Robert, Ethel and her husband had a

daughter, Billie Rae. Now Ethel has seven grandchildren, fifteen

great grandchildren, and two great great grandchildren.

Ethel remembers when Blue Lakes Boulevard had no businesses, only

houses along it. When you stop to think of it, she says, it is

hard to believe the change! I got lost every time I went

to town. Twin Falls was little then. Now I know my way

everywhere. And she does. Traveling with a white cane, directing

a driver, or catching the bus Ethel Inchausti goes wherever she

wants.

She thinks maybe she talks on the phone as much as anything. I

spend a lot of time talking to blind people. I know what they can

do for themselves. I threatened to quit calling one lady if she

didn't come out to a meeting, which I knew would be good for her.

Of course, I wouldn't have quit calling, but she came and was

glad she did. Ethel Inchausti local leader, woman of strength.

FROM FARCE TO SLAPSTICK:

HOW MUCH LOWER CAN THE

IOWA DEPARTMENT FOR THE BLIND SINK?

The Iowa Commission for the Blind was the focus of worldwide

attention and admiration during the years when Dr. Jernigan was

its director, blazing a new trail for services to the blind.

Today, people who have never even heard of Dr. Jernigan model

their library services after the program he established.

Orientation and job placement workers

are all aware of the high standard he set in Iowa a standard

which has drawn them all a little closer to real service and a

little further away from lip service. Dr. Jernigan left Iowa to

devote his full-time effort to leading the entire national

movement of blind people to

its current flourishing state. Some Iowans, too timid or too

lethargic, failed to expand their horizons with him, but they

continued to yearn for importance and still today believe that

Iowa has never once moved from center stage. The blind of the

nation know better.

In one sense the Iowa agency continues to occupy the center of

the stage, but it is now a stage on which most agencies would not

choose to star. It is instructive to check on the Iowa agency

every year

or so to learn what new arena of poor judgment, misconduct, or

malfeasance it has stumbled into. One year, the director figured

out a way to be her own boss in defiance of both state and

federal provisions. Another, the hiring pattern made it clear

that no blind people need apply for jobs at the Department for

the Blind. This year the focus of public attention is theft.

During Dr. Jernigan's administration both federal and state

audits

of the agency's basic fiscal operations were always filled with

glowing praises of the thoroughness and accuracy of fiscal

management and detail. After he left, the audits changed, and now

the simple rule of probity has changed, too.

The chief accountant, one Terry Pepper, has given indication for

some years of poor judgment and unscrupulousness. At the close of

the 1984 fiscal year, he discovered that the agency would have

surplus funds. He therefore decided independently that he would

order new office chairs for members of the staff. Moreover, he

arbitrarily established a pecking order among his colleagues

awarding increasingly elegant chairs to staff members according

to his estimation of their importance. It wasn't long before the

employees realized what he was doing and began bartering their

chairs for other perquisites. The chaos that ensued was ludicrous

and embarrassingly unprofessional.

Several years later someone noticed that a number of long

distance telephone calls had popped up on the phone as having

been made from Terry Pepper's office. Since a number of these

were to South Dakota and others to Switzerland, and since to no

one's knowledge was the agency doing business with entities in

either location, Pepper was asked for an explanation. He

explained that his finger had slipped, and instead of dialing 0

as he had intended, he had inadvertently dialed a 1. Apparently

the agency director concluded that it was a mistake that anyone

could have made because Pepper was allowed to pay for the calls

and then forget about the intellectual (or, perhaps more

accurately, the ethical) lapse.

But let us return to the most recent adventure in the accounting

department. It seems that, back in August, 1989, Pepper

deposited a check into his own personal account in excess of

$346,000 made out to the agency. While few details have emerged,

it is rumored that this was a big chunk of the agency's federal

money. An alert bank official, noticing an agency check going

into a personal account, called the director, who called Pepper,

who said he was sorry and that it had all been

a mistake. Eventually that check found its way into the correct

account. Then, two weeks later, the same thing happened again,

this time with

a check worth $12,000 generated by the sale of equipment from a

vending facility. The check was apparently deposited by Pepper

into his personal account on the same day it was written. This

means that Pepper must have handled the transaction entirely on

his own, driving to the sale so that he could be sure of picking

up the check in person. It is most unusual for the accountant to

handle matters belonging to the Business Enterprise Program, let

alone driving from Des Moines to a small outlying town to get his

hands personally on a check.

Now, six weeks later, another check has been found in the wrong

place, this one in the amount of $49,000, donated by an Iowa

citizen to assist blind Iowans. This bequest check, it seems, was

also deposited by

Pepper into his personal account. Internal and external audits

stretching over several months are reportedly under way, with

officials privately skeptical that the actual loss can ever be

determined. Two of the three checks that have been publicly

discussed came to the agency from outside the rehabilitation

system, making it easy for anyone so inclined simply to

obliterate all traces of the check in official records and take

off with the money. Talk around the agency now suggests that the

proven loss tops $80,000 and that unknown additional losses will

never be traced.

Here is what the Des Moines Register had to say on October 26,

1989, while the magnitude of the story was still unfolding:

Amount Raised in Theft Case

by Lou Ortiz

Prosecutors have increased the amount of money a former

administrator for the Iowa Department for the Blind is accused of

stealing from the agency.

Terry G. Pepper pleaded innocent Wednesday to two counts of

first-degree theft in the disappearance of more than $61,000 from

the department. Pepper, 40, originally was charged last month

with stealing $12,000. But prosecutors now also accuse Pepper of

stealing $49,346 in May, 1987, court records show. His trial is

scheduled for Jan. 16.

Pepper, of 1100 50th Street in West Des Moines, was the agency's

senior program administrator.

Records show that R. Creig Slayton, the department's director,

was contacted on August 28 by a representative of Valley National

Bank and informed that a check to the department for $346,145 had

been deposited in Pepper's personal account.

When Mr. Slayton confronted the defendant, the defendant

admitted that it was his checking account, records show. But he

told Slayton, a big mistake had been made, and the money was

returned. On September 12 Slayton learned that a check for

$12,000 also had

been deposited in Pepper's account. According to records, Pepper

admitted taking the $12,000 check.

Pepper told Slayton he felt sorry about the incident and desired

to make restitution, records show.

Slayton said Pepper resigned when it became apparent charges

would be filed. If found guilty of the theft charges, Pepper

faces up to 20 years in prison.

That's what the Register had to say, and it is all pretty

routine, grubby, everyday theft, you say. True enough. But the

reaction of

one of the agency's commissioners provides the instructive

counterpoint. In a meeting shortly after the fate of the second

and third checks had been revealed, Commissioner Bob Martin had

something to say on the subject. Martin is a legally blind

accountant who has worked at the federal government's arsenal in

Rock Island, Illinois, for a number of years. Martin and the

other commissioners oversee agency policy, including fiscal

policy, for which they bear statutory responsibility. In

addition Martin, during his tenure on the Commission, had made

a point of closeting himself with Pepper before meetings and of

offering opinions and analysis on the financial statements

presented at public meetings. His comments were usually

restricted to fulsome praise for Pepper's hard work and

high-quality product along with strong assurances to his

non-accountant colleagues on the Commission that the financial

statements, reviewed personally by him, were splendid. At the

recent Commission meeting, with stories of the three checks on

the table and audits still vigorously under way, Commissioner

Martin told his colleagues and the members of the public in the

audience that he wanted everyone to know that he was fond of

Pepper and had respect for his work. He also wanted everyone

to know that he cared about what happened to Pepper and planned

to call him periodically to check on his situation.

How do you go about explaining reality to a person like that? How

do you convey that he, along with the other two commissioners and

the director, bear responsibility for effectively supervising

agency activity and that such supervision includes preventing

employees from stealing money? How do you convince such a man

that his respect for Pepper's work is respect for a man who has

admitted that he stole at the very least $12,000? And how do you

explain that a little less respect for fawning staff members

and a little more respect for blind people could improve the

agency's performance in serving

the blind? But, never mind. Explanations are the last thing the

Department for the Blind wants. All we can say is: Tune in next

year to find out what new shenanigans or chicanery the Iowa

Department for the Blind has gotten itself into.

SHACKLED IMAGINATION:

LITERARY ILLUSIONS ABOUT BLINDNESS

by Deborah Kent Stein

To the members of the Chicago Chapter of the National Federation

of

the Blind of Illinois, she is known as Debby Stein, but to the

thousands of fans of her dozen books for young adults, she is

Deborah Kent, an author who understands what it's like growing up

in the 1980s. In addition to her fiction Deborah Kent has

written thoughtfully and with insight about blindness and

disability in general as well as authoring several in a series of

children's books about the states of the Union.

After earning a master's of social work from Smith College, Debby

Stein worked for several years in community mental health. Then,

in 1975, she decided to spend a year in a writers' colony in San

Miguel de Allende, Mexico, learning whether or not she could make

it as a writer. Her year stretched into five, and the answer to

her question was a resounding yes. Her first book, Belonging ,

was published in 1978. It is an exploration of the struggles of a

blind teenager to fit into her high school. Four of Ms. Kent's

books are part of the National Library Service collection:

Belonging, Te Amo Means I Love You, Heartwaves, and Jody. One

Step At a Time, published in September, 1989, is the story of a

teenage girl who learns that she has retinitis pigmentosa. It may

soon become part of the NLS collection as well. Deborah Kent lives in Chicago with her

husband, Dick Stein, and their six-year-old daughter Janna. She

is an active member of the National Federation of the Blind.

The following is an expanded version of a paper presented in

February, 1988, at the Second International Symposium on Vision

Loss sponsored jointly by the American Foundation for the Blind

and the Foundation for the Junior Blind. One hundred eighty

speakers were brought to the Beverly Hills Hilton in Los Angeles,

California, to take part in the five-day-long program. Ms. Kent's

analysis of the literary handling of blind characters down

through the ages and particularly today is both penetrating and

accurate. It seems useful to print this successful blind author's

assessment of historic and current literary treatment of blind

characters. Here it is:

T here isn't much to tell, says Hester when asked to describe

herself. When you're blind it's all inside. ...People wait on

me. They have to. And I think a lot, listen to music, I'm fond of

flowers. (Sontag, 1967, p. 45).

Hester, in Susan Sontag's novel, Death Kit , has many of the

traits commonly found in literary representations of people who

are blind. She is almost helpless, she does not contribute to

society,

and she is miserable beneath her tranquil veneer. Sontag depicts

Hester here as inhabiting a world of darkness akin to a living

death.

In his study, The Meaning of Blindness (1973), Michael Monbeck

identifies 15 traits frequently ascribed to blind characters in

literature through the ages. Nearly all these traits are

negative, reflecting

the low social status blind people are usually accorded. These

fictional blind characters are miserable, helpless, useless,

maladjusted, mysterious, evil, or pitiful. They may be fools or

beggars. On the one hand, they live in a terrifying, death-like

world of darkness, are being punished for past sins (often sexual

in nature), and are to be feared and avoided. On the other hand,

they may possess superhuman powers and insights, to compensate

for their blindness, or they are morally superior to sighted

people because they are not tarnished by the shallowness of the

visual world (Monbeck, 1973, p. 25).

Other traits can be added to Monbeck's list. Blind characters are

asexual or not allowed to express their sexuality because of

their disability. They are bitter about their condition and

envious of sighted people. When they are cheerful and

well-adjusted, they are merely concealing a profound depression.

Contradictions abound in these lists. Blind characters may be

diabolically evil or sublimely good: blindness may be divine

punishment or it may be compensated for with heavenly gifts. But

whether the blind character is inferior or extraordinary, she or

he is set apart; to most writers, as well as to the general

public, blind people are a unique class because they are blind.

Regardless of gender, age, or social origin, blind people are

thought to have much in common with one another and little in

common with anyone else.

Some blind people do reflect the popular literary image, failing

to adjust to vision loss and remaining helpless and miserable. A

few are beggars, and some like a number of sighted people are

fools. But most of the traits possessed by blind characters have

no factual basis. Blind people do not have extraordinary powers,

and

they fall prey to the same vices that sighted people do. After a

period of adjustment lack of sight is not comparable to darkness,

and it is not connected to death. In short, fiction's blind

characters have little to do with real blind people. Blind people

comprise a random sampling of individuals with all the diversity

of the general population. It is ironic that writers creative

people who pride themselves on their powers of observation and

their insight have embraced

such commonly held beliefs about people who are blind. Leonard

Kriegel's remarks about the writer's concept of the cripple are

equally true for the writer's concept of the blind person:

Writers, by and large, view the world from the vantage point of

the normals. Writers like to think of themselves as rebels, but

the rebellions they are interested in usually reinforce society's

concepts of what is and what is not desirable. And most writers

look at the cripple...with the same suspicion and distaste that

are found in other normals. ...The world of the crippled and

disabled is strange and dark, and it is held up to judgment by

those who live in fear of it (Kriegel, 1987, p. 33).

Perhaps one reason writers insist upon such views of blindness is

that their experience with blind people is limited. Blind people

have always constituted a tiny minority, about one percent of the

total population (Twersky, 1955, p. 10). Deafness, orthopedic

disabilities,

and a host of other handicaps are far more common. Yet blindness

especially fascinates the public, perhaps because of a primordial

dread of the dark and the conviction that blind people live in a

world of perpetual gloom. Writers choose to portray blindness

more often than any other disability.

The blind character can be a shortcut to pathos or horror or

both. Blindness is also a rich mine for metaphor: it can

represent blind prejudice; it may stand for purity or for

freedom from the tainted, physically viewed world; or, it, as it

does for Sontag, can symbolize forces of darkness and death.

Writers' imaginations are shackled to notions about blindness

that they have accepted as literary fact, despite all evidence to

the contrary.

Several scholars (Twersky, 1955; Kirtley, 1975; Monbeck, 1973)

have analyzed hundreds of works in which blind characters appear.

The period of these works ranges from Classical Greece to modern

times. A few

of their findings are offered here, before some recent works are

discussed. In these contemporary representations the use of old

themes, as well as interesting new trends in the portrayal of

blind characters, are examined.

A well-known early depiction of a blind man appears in Sophocles'

Oedipus at Colonus . Oedipus, who put out his eyes when he

discovered that he had murdered his father and married his

mother, wanders for

20 years, scorned and pathetic, unable to care for himself, and

depending on his daughter, who must lead him everywhere. Here

blindness is seen as a fate worse than death.

In Antigone , Tiresias' sight is destroyed by the gods, but

he is granted the gift of prophecy in recompense, and he is also

able to travel because he has a magic staff to guide him.

The image of the helpless blind person reappears in Elizabethan

English literature. Shakespeare, ordinarily the master

interpreter of the human condition, presents the Earl of

Gloucester, blinded as punishment for adultery and led about by

his son, Edgar. Blindness renders Gloucester so unaware of his

surroundings that Edgar convinces him that they

are climbing a hill overlooking the sea, when in fact they are

crossing level ground inland. Wishing to die, Gloucester attempts

to leap to his death. Edgar persuades him that he has fallen a

great distance. By the nineteenth century, the pioneering era in

the education of blind children, at least one author has a

different attitude. Elizabeth Maclure, in Sir Walter Scott's Old

Mortality , is an elderly blind woman who operates a successful

boardinghouse, assisted only by her twelve-year-old

granddaughter. Another Scott character, Old Alice, in The Bride

of Lammermoor , supports herself by keeping bees. Though both

characters are idealized and are held up to the

reader as examples of what can be accomplished through faith and

perseverance, they are a vast improvement over Oedipus and

Gloucester.

Such portrayals of competent blind people, functioning in society

through the use of their ears and hands, and through common

sense, are all the more remarkable because they are so rare.

Through the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth,

blindness remains synonymous with pathos. In Lord Bulwer-Lytton's

The Last Days

of Pompeii (1834; reissued by Dodd Mead in 1946), the blind

flower seller Nydia travels throughout the city. A fairly complex

character, torn between love and jealousy, she is always called

the poor blind girl. Rejected by the man she loves, who cannot

comprehend that a blind girl could entertain romantic feelings,

she commits suicide. The association of blindness with death is

demonstrated in Nydia's song to prospective customers:

Ye have a world of light,

Where love in the loved rejoices;

But the blind girl's home is the House of Night, And its beings are empty

voices.

... Hark! How the sweet

[flowers] sigh

(for they have a voice like ours),

The breath of the blind girl closes

The leaves of the

saddening

roses--

We are tender, we sons of light.

We shrink from this child of night.

From the grasp of the blind girl free us

We yearn for the eyes

that see us... (Bulwer-Lytton, p. 6)

Blind characters as special beings blessed by God appear

frequently in nineteenth-century literature. In The Man Who Laughed ,

Victor Hugo writes of the blind girl Dea:

[She was] absorbed by that kind of ecstasy peculiar to the

blind, which seems at times to give them a song to listen to in

their souls and to make up to them for the light they lack by

some strain of ideal music. Blindness is a cavern to which

reaches the deep harmony of the Eternal (Hugo, quoted by

Twersky, 1955, p. 32).

Also in the nineteenth century are some first examples of the

blind character as evil. The pirate Pew in Robert Louis

Stevenson's Treasure Island , the villain Stagg in Charles

Dickens' Barnaby Rudge , and malevolent Captain Wolf Larsen in

Jack London's The Sea Wolf are superbly competent as they

pursue their evil goals. Their agility renders them particularly

horrifying, as though they were aided by Satan himself.

This image of the blind character (usually male) as evil survives

deep into the twentieth century. In Thomas Wolfe's You Can't Go

Home Again (1940), George is chilled by his encounter with the

wicked Judge Rumford Bland:

At the corners of the mouth he thought he also caught the shadow

of a smile faint, evil, ghostly and at the sight of it a sudden

and unreasoning terror seized him.... He just sat quietly,... the

sightless eyes fixed in vacancy, the thin and sunken face

listening with that terrible intense stillness that only the

blind know; and around the mouth hovered that faint suggestion of

a smile which...had in it a kind of terrible vitality and the

mercurial attractiveness of a ruined angel (Wolfe, p. 60).

Sinister blind characters appeared at a time when blind people

were becoming educated, participating members of society. It's as

though authors believed God intended blind people to remain

helpless but pure. While they stayed in their place they could be

pitied and given charity, or even admired for their innocence.

But if they entered the real world to compete on equal terms with

sighted people, then perhaps they came as disciples of the devil.

All the stereotyped notions described here persisted well into

the 1950s. However, one might hope to find some improvements

during the 1960s and 1970s. During these crucial decades minority

groups, including disabled people, became a political force and

demanded equal access to education, employment, housing, and

other amenities. In a growing body of work, minority authors

spoke with new voices about issues

and feelings long suppressed and previously considered too

inconsequential or too offbeat for literary treatment. Blacks,

Native Americans, women, and gays molded their life stories into

fiction and drama.

As shown by the blind characters discussed so far, the public has

long held negative stereotypes about blind people stereotypes

that have helped to keep blind people from realizing their full

potential. Though in every historical period some blind people

have been assimilated, the blind, generally, have been subject to

discrimination. Blocked by protective parents, skeptical

teachers, and employers who refuse

to accept their credentials, blind people know about the dream

deferred. Blind people and others with disabilities often spend

a lifetime searching for their niche in society, for good

feelings about themselves.

A host of articles and personal essays written by people who are

blind and directed at a blind audience emphasize again and again

that public prejudice is the most relentlessly difficult aspect

of being unable to see. An era obsessed with political and

personal liberation should afford a perfect opportunity for blind

writers to channel their experiences into fiction aimed at the

public at large. The actual experiences

of blind people, rather than assumptions about what those

experiences must be, might even spark the imagination of a

sighted writer or two. Keeping these possibilities in mind, I

will examine the portrayal of blind characters in a number of

works, both popular and serious, which appeared between the mid

1960s and late 1980s.

The blind character as evil has nearly disappeared in

contemporary fiction. The only such character who comes to mind

is Margaret Durie

in Stanley Ellin's suspense novel, Very Old Money (1985).

Margaret is helpless, depressed, and sinister. After losing her

sight at the age of eighteen, she retires to her room for 50

years to brood before taking horrifying revenge on the woman who

caused her blindness.

The sweet, innocent blind girl, blessedly removed from an impure

world, is alive and well in Charlton Ogburn's novel, Winespring

Mountain (1973). Raised in rural West Virginia, Letty is at home

among the birds and flowers, but has had little contact with

people outside her family. Wick Carter, a young man from the

city, is stunned by her beauty when he sees her from a distance.

But when he realizes

that she is blind, he rejects her as a romantic partner. Their

platonic friendship does not blossom into true love until Letty's

sight is miraculously restored. Then Letty is deluged with

invitations from people who never paid her the slightest

attention when she was blind. No one in the novel expresses a

glimmer of resentment at such treatment, and seemingly Ogburn

never questions it himself. Blindness made Letty an outcast;

sight made her acceptable to society.

This novel notwithstanding, recent fiction has carried blind

characters a long way toward full participation in society.

Sexuality is one

realm that reflects a change in attitude. Once treated as almost

neuter, blind characters have benefited from the sexual

revolution. Letty is one of the few fictional characters in the

past two decades who while blind is denied sexual expression.

If anything, contemporary authors are inclined to endow blind

characters with extraordinary sexual prowess and sometimes tilt

toward the ancient theme that blind people are amoral. Even the

helpless, passive Hester in Sontag's Death Kit , described at

the opening of this article, is not only sexually active, but

also aggressive and uninhibited. Within half an hour of meeting

Dalton on a train, she leads him into an empty washroom for a

scene of passion.

Hester's sexuality is a metaphorical land mine. Rather than

establishing her as a bona fide woman, it allows Sontag to

explore an underlying theme the psychic and spiritual connection

between sex and death. Hester's blindness, we are told, is a

suffocating darkness that gradually extinguishes Dalton's life

force.

Several other works break free of the tragic image, fostered by

Bulwer-Lytton's rejected Nydia, of the isolated blind woman who

is destined never

to be loved by a man. In Blind Love (1975), Paul Cauvin

recounts the summer affair between Jacques, a quiet French

schoolteacher, and Laura, his blind love. Jacques accepts Laura

without reservation at once, but it is Laura who objects to their

relationship. Her adventurous spirit masks a profound depression

over the loss of her sight, a loss she says she never forgets. In

one scene Laura puts on dark glasses and gets out the white cane

she normally refuses to use, trying to shock her lover with the

insignia of her infirmity. Convinced that she would only be a

burden to him, she warns him that he is not cut out to play

nursemaid for the rest of his life. Laura never breaks free of

this self-loathing, and the novel never examines the social

landscape that brought it into being.

Two best-selling authors, Irving Wallace and Fred Mustard

Stewart, also depict attractive, desirable blind women. In

Stewart's Ellis Island (1983), Georgie O'Donnell's lover,

Marco, rejects her not because she is blind but because he

succumbs to another woman's wealth and prestige. Devastated,

Georgie prepares to spend the rest of her life alone. Stewart

makes it clear, however, that she has other options. Her family

wants to introduce her to suitable men, but Georgie takes no

interest in them. Then, after years of unhappy marriage, Marco is

widowed; and he and Georgie are reunited. Georgie proves to be

an ideal mother; and when Marco is elected to the Senate, she is

perfect in the role of senator's wife. Though this novel is

superficial, it does present a blind woman who is not an outcast,

but rather fulfills the feminine role as it is idealized in

popular fiction. Wallace's portrayal of Nataly Rinaldi in The

Miracle (1984) relies more heavily on conventional devices.

Nataly, a beautiful actress who lost her sight three years

earlier, hastens to Lourdes when the Pope announces that the

Virgin Mary will reappear to effect a cure. She promptly wins

the love of a young man staying at her hotel but does not suspect

that her lover is a Basque terrorist intent upon dynamiting the

shrine. At last the Virgin appears to her and restores her sight.

The would-be terrorist is also redeemed, and the two go off

together, in the standard happy ending.

Nearly all these fictional blind women, though attractive to men,

are passive and helpless. Only Georgie O'Donnell in Ellis Island

learns even minimal travel skills. The use of a cane is generally

pictured as degrading. These women are easily victimized, too,

and in need of help and protection. On the night of their first

meeting, Nataly's soon-to-be lover rescues her from a would-be

rapist.

The depiction of these blind women as sexual beings marks an

enormous stride from the portrayal of Nydia. It is interesting,

however, that blind women are cast as romantic leads at a time

when women in general are increasingly independent. Even in

romantic fiction, female characters are in control of their

lives. Perhaps the perceived helplessness of blind women appeals

to writers and readers who feel uneasy with today's liberated

woman.

Blind men, too, are sexual beings in contemporary novels.

Mitchell Ashley, in Robert O'Neill Bristow's Laughter in

Darkness (1974), scandalizes his landlady by entertaining a

stream of female readers

and housekeepers. His lover Georgia, though hurt and outraged by

Mitchell's conduct, cannot bring herself to leave him, for no

other man has ever

so gratified her. And rerunning the myth that blind people are

compensated with extraordinary insight, she wondered if God had

given him a sense, and he was seeing her as no man would ever see

her, deep, deep inside where there were no lies. (Bristow, 1974,

p. 114).

Though Mitchell's competence in bed is well established, he is

astonishingly helpless in nearly every other activity. Unlike the

female characters described above, Mitchell insists on being

allowed to do things for himself. In the novel's opening scene,

he drops several bags of groceries on the sidewalk. Though a

friend offers to assist him, Mitchell refuses all help as he

proceeds to step on the bread and slither about in the eggs.

Later, Mitchell forces his friend to stand silently by as he

attempts to make himself a sandwich. He first slathers the bread

with horseradish, believing he is using mayonnaise. When he

realizes his mistake, he gets a fresh slice of bread and daubs it

with bacon grease. Even in his own apartment, Mitchell cannot

move about freely without the help of his dog guide.

Nevertheless, despite its misrepresentations, Laughter in

Darkness depicts blindness with a refreshing twist of humor.

There is an adolescent quality to much of Mitchell's behavior he

rewards his guide dog

with slurps of beer and boasts of his involvement in a barroom

fight but he also has a genuine sense of wonder and adventure.

Central to Mitchell's story and to several other recent works

portraying blind characters is the theme of independence. After

Mitchell loses his sight, his mother begs him to move back home,

but he is determined to make his own way in the world. He trains

with a dog guide and lands a teaching job at a small college. Yet

he still finds:

people preconditioned to serve him and the only way, unless one

surrendered, was to fight for independence. Because he suspected

at first and knew later that surrender was like, exactly like the

loss of his sight, gradual, more and more, and if he let them,

they would feel virtuous, close to God while they destroyed him

(Bristow, 1974, p. 67).

Writing at the height of the Me Generation, Bristow tries to

demonstrate that no man is an island, that all human beings need

love and support. Unfortunately, however, Mitchell's need for

closeness is tied to his blindness. His pleas for independence

are absurd when he is clearly unable to handle responsibility and

to care for himself. At last, after a cathartic LSD trip during

which he imagines that he can see again, Mitchell is reconciled

to his blindness and to his need for Georgia's love. When he

invites her to live with him, he tells her he needs her to help

grade student papers as well as to share his bed. In the end

Bristow indicates that Mitchell must bow to his limitations by

living with a woman who will nurture him.

The theme of independence pervades the Broadway play Butterflies

Are Free , by Leonard Gershe (1969). Don Baker, a young blind

man, has been coddled by his clinging, domineering mother, but he

finally persuades her to let him rent an apartment in Greenwich

Village on a two-month trial basis. As the play opens, he meets

Jill Tanner, his next-door neighbor a free spirit. After some

light banter and a picnic of apples and cheese on the floor, Jill

seduces Don, and he looks forward to an ongoing relationship.

When Don's mother warns her about his needs and limitations,

however, Jill is frightened away. Don is so depressed by this

that he is ready to abandon his dreams of independence, and he

implores his mother to take him home again. It is Mrs. Baker,

however, who insists that he accept life's disappointments and

learn to survive on his own. Jill learns an essential lesson as

well. In a confrontation, Don tells her that she needs him as

much as he needs her, and she joins him for another picnic.

This work, too, avoids depicting blindness as a tragedy, and

injects some humor into the story. Yet the premise seems to be

that for Don, as for Mitchell, independence is an illusion. After

a month in his apartment, he must leave his door unlocked so that

visitors can let themselves in, since it would take him too long

to answer the door himself. In his neighborhood he has learned

only to travel to the delicatessen and the laundromat, and this

only by counting steps. Tutored at home, he has no experience of

the world, no training that would equip him to hold a job. Don's

only salvation is a link with a woman who will tend to his needs.

Preposterously, Gershe implies

that Jill, whose greatest commitment to date has been a six-day

marriage, must and will become that woman.

The old theme of blindness as retribution surfaces in Jonathan

Penner's novel of guilt and atonement, Going Blind (1977).

While his

close friend August is slowly dying of cancer, Paul Held becomes

sexually involved with August's wife, Ruth. Like Oedipus, Paul

brings about his own blindness through an automobile accident

caused by his own carelessness. Again, blindness is compared with

death. Having lost the vision of his right eye, Paul ponders:

And my Ruth?...How could she marry a Cyclops,...or any man less

than whole after her life with August? If something happened to

my remaining eye, she would be worse off with me than she had

been with him (Penner, pp. 29-30).

For a time Paul manages to conceal the gradual loss of vision in

his remaining eye. As expected, Ruth is aghast when she learns of

his impending blindness and tearfully leaves him. Paul also faces

the loss of his college teaching position, and he again hides his

visual loss. Only when his tenure is secured does he admit his

disability. News of his tenure brings Ruth back into his life,

and when she becomes pregnant they joyfully plan to marry.

By the novel's close, Paul has learned Braille and can travel

with

a cane. After his months of anguish, blindness is no longer an

obstacle in his professional or personal life. He emerges, a man

restored after a sojourn in purgatory. But he never even thinks

to challenge the attitudes of Ruth, the college, or the world.

The problems lie not

in society but rather in Paul himself. He feels that it is only

natural that he be rejected because of his blindness.

James Dickey's novel, Alnilam (1987), offers a different

perspective on a blind character's relationship to society. A

loner most of his life, Frank Cahill feels that he has tacit

permission to live outside the law when be becomes blind. In the

opening scene Frank is unable to find the bathroom while spending

the night at a rooming house. Without compunction he makes his

way outside and relieves himself in the yard. Later he reflects,

[Blindness] placed him beyond

or to one side of the law. He knew that everyone who came into

contact with him...would sense this to be the case. It was

provable and he was living it (Dickey, p. 26).

Blindness, according to Dickey, also gives Frank a unique window

on the truth. A doctor tells him:

... you're headed for the big dark, the solution to the

universal puzzle...You'll be seeing in other ways now....Your

other senses will become far more acute. You'll be able to hear a

baby cry through a stone wall. Music, any music, will have so

many levels it'll be like whole buildings, floors or sounds. And

your nose...is going to be an entirely new implement. Whatever's

in the wind or in the air of a room, you'll know and the others

won't. (Dickey, p. 16).

To heighten the sense that Frank is privy to special knowledge,

Dickey frequently divides the pages of the book into two columns,

DARK and LIGHT. In the LIGHT column the narrator recounts events

as they occur; in the DARK, Frank himself interprets these

events.

Before the novel opens, Frank had received a telegram that his

son Joel had died in a training accident at an Air Corps base.

Though he had never seen his son, since his wife had left him

before Joel was born, out of curiosity he begins an odyssey to

learn what he can of Joel.

At the training base Frank gradually unravels the truth about his

son that he had inspired a secret cadet society, Alnilam, bent

on the spread of anarchy. The members of Alnilam's inner circle

perceive Frank as a seeker and bearer of truth and revere him as

a being free of the constraints of law. After they cause a fatal

flying accident, the cadets are triumphant, telling Frank that he

has become the symbol they will carry with them forever.

Alnilam offers a complex portrait of a blind character. Frank

Cahill, often abrasive and self-indulgent, has moments of

gentleness and sensitivity as well. With no close connections to

other people,

he nonetheless is intensely interested in everyone around him. A

seeker of truth, he is also a master of deception as the owner of

an Atlanta carnival.

Frank's almost egotistical self-confidence helps him adapt

quickly to his blindness, rarely regarding it as an impediment

but rather taking each situation in stride. Blindness is a loss

but not a tragedy; it simply requires that he learn new

techniques for such activities as traveling and carpentry. But

this realistic portrait is distorted by Dickey's conviction that

blind people, as a class, have a direct line to truth. Even in

his exploration of Frank's relationship to law and anarchy,

Dickey never perceives him as a member of a minority group

forcibly excluded from society.

Most of these works concentrate on the individual's adjustment to

vision loss, as though once she or he has come to terms with

blindness on a personal level, there are no more issues with

which to grapple. Even Don Baker in Butterflies Are Free ,

though he has been blind all his life, is entering the adjustment

process as he tries

for the first time to survive on his own. This emphasis on the

adjustment period keeps blindness at center stage in most of

these works. It is seldom allowed to recede into the background,

to blend in with the other aspects of a character's life and

situation.

All of the works I have discussed so far have been written from

the outside, by sighted authors trying to depict the experiences

of people who are blind. In many cases the author does not even

try to enter the blind character's world but conveys it

indirectly, through the perceptions of sighted people in the

story. To my knowledge only two authors who are themselves blind,

Gary Adelman and Jacob Twersky, have written adult novels which

involve blind characters.

In Honey Out of Stone (1970), Adelman recounts the inner

journey of Ben Storch, who lost his sight from diabetic

retinopathy. Ben, a poet and a professor of literature, at the

opening of the book is in prison for aiding draft resisters

during the Vietnam War. Through intricate flashbacks and poems,

Adelman braids together the many strands of Ben's past and

present his loves and friendships and his political convictions

and artistic passion. Blindness brings no mystical compensation;

he is neither better nor worse than other people. After an

initial period of mourning, he resumes his life where it had left

off. Yet, as in Penner's Going Blind , the loss of sight

becomes a metaphor for death, and Ben's adjustment to blindness a

kind of resurrection. In his opening paragraph Adelman writes: I

would describe this place. I am blind, yes, but that coffin had

its key. (Adelman, 1970, p. 1).

The other novel by a writer who is blind is The Face of the Deep

by Jacob Twersky (1953). It precedes the period under discussion

by more than a decade, yet it is the only novel written in any

era which focuses squarely upon the issue most crucial to people

who are blind: the struggle for genuine equality. Twersky tells

the interlocking stories of five blind men and women from

childhood to adulthood. Through many vivid incidents the reader

is shown blind children rejected by their families and educated

by teachers who regard them as inferior and unable to compete in

the world. Twersky recounts the patronizing remarks of strangers

on the street and shows the devastating rejections of would-be

employers. Yet this novel is far more than a tract about negative

attitudes, for its main purpose is to explore the effects of

prejudice upon blind people themselves.

Though all these characters Rosie, Ken, Fred, Clare, and Joe

perceive themselves as stigmatized, they respond in a variety of

ways. Rosie and Ken cling to the blindness system, cultivating

only blind friends, and working in sheltered shops; they never

attempt to find a place

in broader society. Fred, on the other hand, tries to dissociate

himself from his blindness to prove that he is superior to

ordinary blind people. Clare pretends to be the sweet bringer of

sunshine most sighted people want and expect her to be.

The most powerful theme here is the divisiveness of self-hatred.

Fred and Clare dream of finding sighted partners, and their

deepening love for each other is destroyed because neither of

them wants a blind mate. Fred, who has entered his father's

business, refuses to give Ken a job when he is out of work,

fearing that his colleagues will not respect him if he is

supervising only blind workers. Ken also represents everything

Fred despises about blindness. In the novel's closing scene Ken

stands on a corner with a tin cup, the victim of another blind

man's prejudice and contempt.

The novel's last blind character is Joe, who earns a doctorate in

history and, after a series of rejections because of his

disability, obtains a teaching position. He also marries one of

his readers. Despite his success Joe continues to feel a profound

kinship with other blind people. Contemplating the good things in

his life, he realizes how easily he might not have had any of

them. Joe describes himself as a man at a banquet, surrounded by

starving people.

Blindness is never a tragedy in The Face of the Deep , but the

discrimination that blind people encounter is shown to have

devastating consequences.

As this brief sampling shows, the blind characters in Western

literature of the past two decades are more competent, mobile,

attractive, and well-rounded than ever before. Nevertheless, the

old stereotypes flourish. Ironically, such popular authors as

Fred Mustard Stewart seem best able to avoid stereotyped images.

Georgie O'Donnell is neither a saint nor a villain, neither a

bearer of truth nor a harbinger of death.

A young Irish immigrant, disappointed in love, she happens to be

blind. Writers of serious fiction, however, almost inevitably

write about their blind characters using all the old images and

ideas, in part because serious fiction is founded upon metaphor.

Thus such writers as Sontag, Penner, and Dickey included their

blind characters for their metaphorical value. Yet serious

literature is learning new ways to interpret what it means to be

black or female. It is time for writers to question their

hackneyed notions about blindness and to discover new ways for

blind characters to function within a literary context. One of

the most serious problems in depicting blind characters is the

tendency of both author and reader to assume that a particular

character is a blind Everyman, though there are novels, such as

The Face of the Deep , which present more than one blind

character and thus convey the diversity of the blind population.

However, if an author takes the trouble to become educated about

blindness, and has a sincerely positive attitude, even the

portrait of a single depressed, helpless blind person need not

stand for all blind people. White-Eye Ramford, a minor character

in Anne Tyler's novel, Searching for Caleb (1976), is a blind

street musician in New Orleans. In The String-Tail Blues, he

laments his life of dependence: Once I walked proud, once I

pranced up and down/Now I holds to a string and they leads me

around (p. 278).

But Tyler does not accept this helplessness as inevitable. She

explains, He had lost his sight at twelve, or maybe twenty, his

stories differed; and by the time he reached middle age he should

have learned how to navigate but he hadn't. He was hopeless. In

two sentences, Tyler shows that Ramford's life could have been

different, that not every blind person sings The String-Tail

Blues. Ramford is resigned to hopelessness, but he does not

speak for the millions of other blind people who walk the earth.

If writers come to follow Tyler's example, they might break the

shackles of stereotype and free themselves to portray blind

people as the diverse collection of individuals they truly are.

POSTSCRIPT: Since I wrote this article in 1988, several new

novels which include characters who are blind have appeared on

the scene. Blindsight by Michael Stewart is based on the

notion that blindness is a fate worse than death. Stewart's

protagonist submits to a series of painful, life-threatening

experimental treatments which may restore his sight, though major

brain damage is a possible side effect. This novel perpetuates

some of the worst and most bizarre notions about blindness

Stewart even has his hero cut his toast diagonally, because it is

easier for him to angle it into his mouth point first. Overall,

however, the most recent books veer away from the tragic mode,

portraying blind people who are self-assured, inventive, and

adventurous. In Loving Little Egypt by Thomas A. McMahon, a

brilliant student at a school for the blind sabotages the

telephone system and triggers a series of madcap escapades across

the country. In Peggy Payne's Revelation , a twelve-y ear-old

boy adjusts

to the loss of his sight after he meets a group of active blind

children his age. John Moon in Joanne Greenberg's powerful novel

Of Such Small Differences is a deaf-blind poet who struggles for

dignity in a world which would prefer to keep him out of sight.

Greenberg exposes the custodialism of sheltered workshops and the

misconceptions of the general public and depicts some acutely

painful moments between John and his guilt-ridden family.

These books seem to be setting an encouraging new trend,

portraying people who are blind more honestly than ever before.

Let us hope that the trend will continue as we carry on the work

of educating the public about the realities of blindness.

BLINDNESS: IS LITERATURE AGAINST US

AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BY

KENNETH JERNIGAN

President, National Federation of the Blind

AT THE BANQUET OF THE ANNUAL CONVENTION

Chicago, Illinois, July 3, 1974

From the Editors: In view of the article in this issue by

Deborah Kent Stein we thought it might be appropriate to reprint

the 1974 banquet speech, which deals with the same subject and

which is as timely now as it was then so here it is.

History, we are told, is the record of what human being have

done; literature, the record of what they have thought. Last

year I examined with you the place of the blind in history not

just what we have done but what the historians have remembered

and said we have done. The two, as we found, are vastly

different.

This year I would like to talk with you about the place of the

blind in literature. How have we been perceived? What has been

our role? How have the poets and novelists, the essayists and

dramatists seen us? Have they told it like it is, or merely

liked it as they've told it?

With history there is at least a supposed foundation of fact.

Whatever the twisting or omission or misinterpretation or

downright falsehood, that foundation presumably remains a tether

and a touchstone, always subject to re-examination and new proof.

Not so with literature. The author is free to cut through facts

to the essence, to dream and soar and surmise. Going deeper than

history, the myths and feelings of a people are enshrined in its

literature. Literary culture in all

its forms constitutes possibly the main transmission belt of our

society's beliefs and values more important even than the

schools, the churches, the news media, or the family. How, then,

have we fared in literature? The literary record reveals no

single theme or unitary view of the

life of the blind. Instead, it displays a bewildering variety of

images often conflicting and contradictory, not only as between

different ages

or cultures, or among the works of various writers, but even

within the pages of a single book.

Yet, upon closer examination the principal themes and motifs of

literature and popular culture are nine in number and may be

summarized as follows: blindness as compensatory or miraculous

power; blindness as total tragedy; blindness as foolishness and

helplessness; blindness as unrelieved wickedness and evil;

blindness as perfect virtue; blindness as punishment for sin;

blindness as abnormality or dehumanization; blindness as

purification; and blindness as symbol or parable.

Let us begin with blindness and compensatory powers. Suppose one

of you should ask me whether I think there is any advantage in

being blind; and suppose I should answer like this: Not an

advantage perhaps: still it has compensations that one might not

think of. A new world to explore, new experiences, new powers

awakening; strange new perceptions; life in the fourth dimension.

1 How would you react to that? You would, I suspect, laugh me out

of the room. I doubt that a single person here would buy such

stereotyped stupidity. You and I know from firsthand experience

that there is no fourth dimension to blindness no miraculous

new powers awakening, no strange new perceptions, no brave new

worlds to explore. Yet, the words I have quoted are those of a

blind character in a popular novel of some time back. (I don't

know whether the term has significance, but a blind private eye,

no less.)

The association of blindness with compensatory powers,

illustrated by the blind detective I have just mentioned,

represents a venerable tradition, reaching back to classical

mythology. A favorite method

of punishment among the gods of ancient Greece was blinding

regarded apparently as a fate worse than death following which,

more often than not, the gods so pitied the blinded victim that

they relented

and conferred upon him extraordinary gifts, usually the power of

prophecy or some other exceptional skill. Thus, Homer was widely

regarded as having been compensated by the gift of poetry. In the

same way Tiresias, who wandered through the plays of Sophocles,

received for his blindness the gift of prophecy.

The theme of divine compensation following divine retribution

survived the passage of the ages and the decline of the pagan

religions. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (one of the most eminent

novelists of the last century, and the creator of Sherlock

Holmes) conjured up a blind character with something of Holmes's

sleuthing talents, in a book entitled Sir Nigel . This figure is

introduced as one who has the mysterious ability to detect by

hearing a hidden tunnel, which runs beneath the besieged castle.

His compensatory powers are described in a conversation between

two other people in the novel:

This man was once rich and of good repute [says one], but he was

beggared by this robber lord who afterwards put out his eyes, so

that he has lived for many years in darkness at the charity of

others.

How can he help in our enterprise if he be indeed blind? [asks

his companion.]

It is for that very reason, fair Lord, that he can be of greater

service than any other man. For it often happens that when a man

has lost a sense, the good God will strengthen those that remain.

Hence it is that Andreas has such ears that he can hear the sap

in the trees or the cheep of the mouse in its burrow... 2

The great nineteenth-century novelist Victor Hugo, in The Man

Who Laughs , reflected the view of a host of modern writers that

blindness carries with it a certain purity and ecstasy, which

somehow makes up for the loss of sight. His blind heroine, Dea,

is portrayed as absorbed by that kind of ecstasy peculiar to the

blind, which seems at times to give them a song to listen to in

their souls and to make up to them for the light which they lack

by some strain of ideal music. Blindness, says Hugo, is a

cavern to which reaches the deep harmony of the Eternal. 3

Probably it is this mystical notion of a sixth sense

accompanying blindness that accounts for the rash of blind

detectives and investigators in popular fiction. Max Carrados,

the man who talked of living in the fourth dimension, first

appeared in 1914 and went on

to survive a number of superhuman escapades through the nineteen

twenties. In 1915 came another sightless sleuth the remarkable

Damon Gaunt, who never lost a case. 4 So it is with Thomley

Colton, Blind Detective, the brainchild of Clinton H. Stagg; and

so it is with the most illustrious of all the private eyes

without eyes, Captain Duncan Maclain, whose special qualities are

set forth in the deathless prose of a dust jacket: Shooting to

kill by sound, playing chess with fantastic precision, and, of

course, quickening the hearts of the opposite sex, Captain

Maclain has won the unreserved admiration of reviewers. 5

Even the author is carried away with the genius of his hero:

There were moments, he writes, when powers slightly greater

than those possessed by ordinary mortals seemed bestowed on

Duncan Maclain. Such moments worried him. 6

They might worry us, as well; for all of this mumbo jumbo about

abnormal or supernatural powers doesn't lessen the stereotype of

the blind person as alien and different, unnatural and peculiar.

It makes it worse.

Not only is it untrue, but it is also a profound disservice to

the blind; for it suggests that whatever a blind person may

accomplish is not due to his own ability but to some magic

inherent in blindness itself. This assumption of compensatory

powers removes the blind person at a stroke of the pen from the

realm of the normal the ordinary, everyday world of plain people

and places him in a limbo of abnormality. Whether supernormal or

subnormal does not matter he is without responsibility, without

rights, and without society. We have been conned into this view

of second-class status long enough. The play is over. We want no

more of magic powers and compensations. We want our rights as

citizens and human beings and we intend to have them!

It is significant that, for all his supposed charm and talent,

Maclain never gets the girl or any girl. The author plainly

regards him as ineligible for such normal human relationships as

love, sex, and marriage. Max Carrados put it this way in replying

to an acquaintance who expressed great comfort in his presence:

Blindness invites confidence, he says. We are out of the

running for us human rivalry ceases to exist. 7 This

notion of compensatory powers the doctrine that blindness is its own reward

is no compliment but an insult. It robs us of

all credit for our achievements and all responsibility for our

failings. It neatly relieves society of any obligation to

equalize conditions or provide opportunities or help us help

ourselves. It leaves us in

the end without the capacity to lead a regular, competitive, and

participating life in the community around us. The blind, in

short, may (according to this view) be extraordinary, but we can

never be ordinary. Don't you believe it! We are normal people

neither especially blessed nor especially cursed and the fiction

to the contrary must come to an end! It is not mumbo jumbo we

want, or magical powers but our rights as free people, our

responsibilities as citizens, and our dignity as human beings.

Negative as it is, this image of compensatory powers is less

vicious and destructive than some others which run through the

literature of fiction and fantasy. The most damaging of all is

also the oldest and most persistent: namely, the theme of

blindness as total tragedy, the image summed up in the ancient

Hebrew saying, The blind man is as one dead. The Oedipus cycle

of Greek tragic plays pressed

the death-in-life stereotype to its farthest extreme. Thus, in

Oedipus Rex , in which the king puts out his own eyes, the

statement occurs: Thou art better off dead than living blind.

It remained, however, for an Englishman, blind himself, to write

the last word (what today would be called "the bottom line") on

blindness as total disaster. John Milton says in Samson

Agonistes:

Blind among enemies, O worse than chains, Dungeon, or beggary,

or decrepit age!... Inferior to the vilest now become

Of man or worm; the vilest here excel me, They creep, yet see;

I, dark in light, exposed To daily fraud, contempt, abuse, and

wrong, Within doors, or without, still as a fool, In power of

others, never in my own; Scarce half I seem to live,

Dead more than half...a moving grave, 8

What is most striking about this epic poem is not the presence of

the disaster concept (that might have been expected) but the fact

that Milton of all people was the author. His greatest writing

(including Paradise Lost ) was done after his blindness. Then

why did he do it? The answer is simple: We the blind tend to see

ourselves as others see us. Even when we know to the contrary, we

tend to accept

the public view of our limitations. Thus, we help make those

limitations a reality. Betrayed by the forces of literature and

tradition, Milton (in his turn) betrayed himself and all others

who are blind. In fact, he actually strengthened and reinforced

the stereotype and he did it in spite of his own personal

experience to the contrary. The force of literature is strong,

indeed!

The disaster concept of blindness did not stop with Milton.

William Tell , the eighteenth-century play by Schiller, shows us

an old man, blinded and forced to become a beggar. His son says:

Oh, the eye's light, of all the gifts of Heaven the dearest,

best!... And he must drag on through all his days in endless

darkness!... To die is nothing. But to have life, and not have

sight Oh, that is misery indeed! 9

A century later the disaster concept was as popular as ever. In

Kipling's book, The Light That Failed , no opportunity is lost

to tell us that blindness is worse than death. The hero, Dick

Heldar, upon learning that he is to become blind, remarks: It's

the living death.... We're to be shut up in the dark .and we

shan't see anybody, and we shall never have anything we want, not

though we live to be a hundred. 10 Later in the book, he rages

against the whole world because it was alive and could see,

while he, Dick, was dead in the death of the blind, who, at the

best, are only burdens upon their associates. 11 And when this

self-pitying character finally manages to get himself killed (to

the relief of all concerned), the best Kipling can say of him is

that his luck had held till the last, even to the crowning mercy

of a kindly bullet through his head. 12

Joseph Conrad, in The End of the Tether , kills off Captain

Whalley by drowning, as a fate much preferable to remaining alive

without sight. In D.H. Lawrence's The Blind Man , there is a

war-blinded casualty named Maurice, whose total despair and

misery are unrelieved by any hint of future hope; and Rosamond

Lehmann, in

her novel Invitation to the Waltz , goes Lawrence one better or,

rather, one worse. Her war-blinded hero, although he appears to

be living a respectable life, is portrayed as if for all

practical purposes he were a walking corpse. He leads, we are

told, a counterfeit of life bred from his murdered youth. And

when he brings himself somehow to dance with a former sweetheart,

it is a sorry spectacle: She danced with him, says the author,

in love and sorrow. He held her close to him, and he was far

away from her, far from the

music, buried and indifferent. She danced with his youth and his

death. 13 For writers such as these, the supposed tragedy of

blindness is so unbearable that only two solutions can be

imagined: either the victim must be cured or he must be killed. A

typical illustration is Susan Glaspell's The Glory of the

Conquered , of which an unkind critic has written: It is a

rather easy solution of the problem to make her hero die at the

end of the book, but probably the author did not know what else

to do with him. 14

Let us now leave tragedy and move to foolishness and

helplessness. The blind man as a figure of fun and the butt of

ridicule is no doubt as old as farce and slapstick. In the Middle

Ages the role was regularly acted out on festive holidays when

blind beggars were rounded up and outfitted in donkey's ears,

than made to gibber and gesticulate to the delight of country

bumpkins. Reflecting this general hilarity, Chaucer (in The

Merchant's Tale ) presents a young wife, married to an old blind

man, who deceives him by meeting her lover in a tree while taking

the husband for a walk. The Chaucerian twist

is that the old man suddenly regains his sight as the couple are

making love in the branches whereupon the quick-witted girl

explains that her amorous behavior was solely for the purpose of

restoring

his sight. Shakespeare is just as bad. He makes the blinded

Gloucester in King Lear so thoroughly confused and helpless

that he can be persuaded of anything and deceived by any trick.

Isaac, in the Old Testament, is duped by his son Jacob, who

masquerades as Esau, disguising himself in goatskins, and

substituting kid meat for the venison his father craves all

without a glimmer of recognition on the part of the old man, who

must have taken leave of the rest of his senses as well as his

sense of sight.

An unusually harsh example of the duping of blind people is found

in the sixteenth-century play Der Eulenspiegel mit den Blinden .

The hero meets three blind beggars and promises them a valuable

coin to pay for their food and lodging at a nearby inn; but when

they all reach out for the money, he gives it to none of them,

and each supposes that the others have received it. You can

imagine the so-called funny ending. After they go to the inn

and dine lavishly, the innkeeper demands his payment; and each of

the blind beggars thereupon accuses

the others of lying, thievery, and assorted crimes. The innkeeper

shouting You people defraud everyone! drives the three into his

pigsty and locks the gate, lamenting to his wife: What shall

we do with them, let them go without punishment after they have

eaten and drunk so much, for nothing? But if we keep them, they

will spread lice and fleas and we will have to feed them. I wish

they were on the gallows. 15 The play has a happy ending, but

what an image persists of the character of those who are blind:

criminal and corrupt, contagious and contaminated, confounded and

confused, wandering homeless and helpless in an alien landscape.

Their book of life might well he called Gullible's Travels.

The helpless blind man is a universal stereotype. In

Maeterlinck's play, The Blind , all of the characters are

portrayed as sightless in order to make a philosophical point;

but what emerges on the stage is a ridiculous tableau of groping,

groaning, and grasping at the air.

One of the very worst offenders against the truth about blindness

is the eminent French author of our own day, Andre Gide, in La

Symphonie Pastorale. A blind reviewer of the novel has described

it well: The girl Gertrude at fifteen, before the pastor begins

to educate her, has all the signs of an outright idiot. This is

explained simply as the result of her blindness.... [Gide]

asserts that without physical sight one cannot really know the

truth. Gertrude lives happily in the good, pure world the pastor

creates for her.... Gertrude knows next to nothing about the evil

and pain in the actual world. As a sightless person she cannot

consciously know sin, is blissfully ignorant, like Adam and Eve

before eating of the forbidden fruit. Only when her sight is

restored does she really know evil for what it is and recognize

sin. Then, on account of the sinning she has done with the pastor

without knowing it was sinning, she is miserable and commits

suicide. 16

In literature not only is blindness depicted as stupidity but

also

as wickedness, the very incarnation of pure evil. The best-known

model is the old pirate Blind Pew, in Stevenson's Treasure

Island . When the young hero, Jim Hawkins, first encounters Pew,

he feels that he never saw a more dreadful figure than this

horrible, soft-spoken, eyeless creature ; and when Pew gets the

boy in his clutches, Jim observes that he never heard a voice so

cruel, and cold, and ugly as that blind man's. 17 A

much earlier version of the wicked blind man theme is seen in the picaresque

romance of the sixteenth century, Lazarillo de

Tormes . Lazarillo is apprenticed as a guide to an old blind

man, who is the very personification of evil. When the blind man

told the boy to put his ear to a statue and listen for a peculiar

noise, Lazarillo obeyed. Then the old man knocked the boy's head

sharply against the stone, so his ears rang for three days.... 18

Throughout the ages the connection between blindness and meanness

has been very nearly irresistible to authors, and it has struck a

responsive note with audiences audiences already conditioned

through folklore and fable to believe that blindness brings out

the worst

in people. Given the casual cruelty with which the blind have

generally been treated, such villainous caricatures have also

provided a convenient excuse and justification. After all, if the

blind are rascals and rapscallions, they should be handled

accordingly and no pity wasted. Alternating with the theme of

blindness as perfect evil is its exact reverse: the theme of

blindness as perfect virtue. On the surface these two popular

stereotypes appear to be contradictory; but it takes no great

psychological insight to recognize them as opposite sides of the

same counterfeit coin. What they have in common is the notion

that blindness is a transforming event, entirely removing the

victim from the ordinary dimensions of life and humanity.

Blindness must either be the product of sin and the devil or of

angels and halos. Of the latter type is Melody, in Laura

Richards' novel

of the same name: The blind child, we are told, touched life

with her hand, and knew it. She knew every tree of the forest by

its bark; knew when it blossomed, and how.... Not a cat or dog

in the village but would leave his own master or mistress at a

single call from Melody. 19 She is not merely virtuous; she is

magical. She rescues a baby from a burning building, cures the

sick by her singing, and redeems alcoholics from the curse of

drink.

It is passing strange, and what is strangest of all is that this

absurd creature is the invention of Laura Richards, the daughter

of Samuel Gridley Howe, a pioneer educator of the blind. Like

Milton, Mrs. Richards knew better. She was betrayed by the forces

of tradition and custom, of folklore and literature. In turn she

betrayed herself and the blind, and gave reinforcement to the

stereotype. Worst of all, she doubtless never knew what she had

done, and thought of herself as a benefactor of the blind and a

champion of their cause. Ignorance is truly the greatest of all

tragedies.

The sickest of all the romantic illusions is the pious opinion

that blindness is only a blessing in disguise. In The Blind Girl

of Wittenberg , by John G. Morris, a young man says to the

heroine: God has deprived you of sight but only that your heart

might be illuminated with more brilliant light. Every blind girl

I know would have slapped his face for such insulting drivel; but

the reply of this fictional female is worse than the original

remark: Do you not think, sir, she says, that we blind people

have a world within us which is perhaps more beautiful than

yours, and that we have a light within us which shines more

brilliantly than your sun? 20

So it goes with the saccharine sweet that has robbed us of

humanity and made the legend and hurt our cause. There is Caleb,

the little blind seer of James Ludlow's awful novel, Deborah .

There is Bertha, Dickens' ineffably sweet and noble blind heroine

of The Cricket on the Hearth , who comes off almost as an

imbecile. There is the self-sacrificing Nydia, in The Last Days

of Pompeii;

and there is Naomi, in Hall Caine's novel, Scapegoat. But

enough! It is sweetness without light, and literature without

enlightment. One of the oldest and cruelest themes in the

archives of fiction is the notion of blindness as a punishment

for sin. Thus, Oedipus was blinded as a punishment for incest,

and Shakespeare's Gloucester for adultery. The theme often goes

hand in hand with the stereotype of blindness as a kind of

purification rite an act which wipes the slate clean and

transforms human character into purity and goodness. So Amyas

Leigh, in Kingsley's Westward Ho , having been blinded by a

stroke of lightening, is instantly converted from a crook to a

saint.

Running like an ugly stain through many of these master plots

and, perhaps, in a subtle way underlying all of them is the image

of blindness as dehumanization , a kind of banishment from the

world of normal life and relationships. Neither Dickens' blind

Bertha, nor Bulwer-Lytton's Nydia, when they find themselves in

love, have the slightest idea that anybody could ever love them

back nor does the reader; nor, for that matter, do the other

characters in the novels. Kipling, in a story entitled They,

tells of a charming and apparently competent blind woman, Miss

Florence, who loves children but of course cannot have any of

her own. Kipling doesn't say why she can't, but it's plain that

she is unable to imagine a blind person either married or raising

children. Miss Florence, however, is magically compensated. She

is surrounded on

her estate by the ghosts of little children who have died in the

neighborhood and have thereupon rushed to her in spirit. We are

not meant to infer that she is as crazy as a hoot owl only that

she is blind , and therefore entitled to her spooky fantasies.

The last of the popular literary themes is that which deals with

blindness not literally but symbolically, for purposes of satire

or parable. From folklore to film the image recurs of blindness

as a form of death or damnation, or as a symbol of other kinds of

unseeing (as in the maxim, where there is no vision, the people

perish ). In this category would come H.G. Well's classic The

Country of the Blind ; also, The Planet of the Blind , by Paul

Corey; and Maeterlinck's The Blind . In the short story by

Conrad Aiken, Silent Snow, Secret Snow, blindness becomes a

metaphor for schizophrenia.

In virtually all of these symbolic treatments, there is an

implied acceptance of blindness as a state of ignorance and

confusion, of the inversion of normal perceptions and values, and

of a condition equal to if not worse than death. The havoc

wrought upon the lives of blind people in ages past by these

literary traditions is done, and it cannot be undone; but the

future is yet to be determined. And that future, shaped by the

instrument of truth, will be determined

by us. Self-aware and self-reliant neither unreasonably

belligerent nor unduly self-effacing we must, in a matter-of-fact

way, take up the challenge of determining our own destiny. We

know who we are; we know what we can do; and we know how to act

in concert.

And what can we learn from this study of literature? What does it

all mean? For one thing, it places in totally new perspective the

pronouncements and writings of many of the so-called experts

who today hold forth in the field of work with the blind. They

tell us (these would-be professionals, these hirelings of the

American Foundation for the Blind and HEW, these pseudoscientists

with their government grants and lofty titles and impressive

papers) that blindness is not just the loss of sight, but a total

transformation of the person. They tell us that blindness is not

merely a loss to

the eyes, but to the personality as well that it is a death, a

blow to the very being of the individual. They tell us that the

eye is a sex symbol, and that the blind person cannot be a whole

man or, for that matter, presumably a whole woman either. They

tell us that we have multiple lacks and losses. 21 The American

Foundation for the Blind devises a 239-page guidebook22 for our

personal management, with sixteen steps to help us take a bath,

and specific techniques for clapping our hands and shaking our

heads. We are given detailed instructions for buttering our

bread, tying our shoes, and even understanding the meaning of the

words up and down. And all of this is done with federal

grants, and much insistence that it is new discovery and modern

thought.

But our study of literature gives it the lie. These are not new

concepts. They are as unenlightened as the Middle Ages. They are

as old as Oedipus Rex. As for science, they have about as much of

it as man's ancient fear of the dark. They are not fact, but

fiction; not new truths, but medieval witchcraft, decked out in

modern garb computerized mythology. What we have bought with our

federal tax dollars and our technology and our numerous

government grants is only a restatement of the tired old fables

of primitive astrology and dread of the night. And let us not

forget NAC (The National Accreditation Council for Agencies

Serving the Blind and Visually Handicapped). When the members of

NAC and its accredited minions try to act as our custodians and

wardens, they are only behaving in the time honored way of the

Elizabethan keepers of the poor. When they seek to deck us out

in donkey's ears and try to make us gibber and gesticulate, they

are only attempting what the country bumpkins of 600 years ago

did with better grace and more efficiency.

We have repudiated these false myths of our inferiority and

helplessness. We have rejected the notion of magical powers and

special innocence and naivete. Those who would try to compel us

to live in the past would do well to look to their going. Once

people have tasted freedom, they cannot go back. We will never

again return to the ward status and second-class citizenship of

the old custodialism. There are many of us (sighted and blind

alike) who will take to the streets and fight with our bare hands

if we must before we will let it happen.

And we must never forget the power of literature. Revolutions do

not begin in the streets, but in the libraries and the

classrooms. It has been so throughout history. In the terrible battles of the

American Civil War, for example, the writers and poets fought,

too. When the Southern armies came to Bull Run, they brought with

them Sir Walter Scott and the image of life he had taught them to

believe. Ivanhoe and brave King Richard stood in the lines with

Stonewall Jackson to hurl the Yankees back. The War would have

ended sooner except for the dreams of the poets. And when the

Northern troops went down to Richmond, through the bloody miles

that barred the way, they carried with them the Battle Hymn of

the Republic and Harriet Beecher Stowe. It was Uncle Tom and

little Eliza who fired the shots and led the charges that broke

the Southern lines. Never mind that neither Scott nor Stowe told

it exactly as it was. What they said was believed, and believing

made it come true.

To the question IS LITERATURE AGAINST US, there can be no

unqualified response. If we consider only the past, the answer is

certainly yes.

We have had a bad press. Conventional fiction, like conventional

history, has told it like it isn't. Although there have been

notable exceptions,23the story has been monotonously and

negatively the same.

If we consider the present, the answer is mixed. There are signs

of change, but the old stereotypes and the false images still

predominate and they are reinforced and given weight by the

writings and beliefs of many of the experts in our own field of

work with the blind. If we turn to the future, the answer is

that the future in literature as in life is not predetermined but

self-determined. As we shape our lives, singly and collectively,

so will we shape our literature. Blindness will be a tragedy

only if we see ourselves as authors see

us. The contents of the page, in the last analysis, reflect the

conscience of the age. The structure of literature is but a hall

of mirrors, giving us back (in images slightly larger or smaller

than life) exactly what we put in. The challenge for us is to

help our age raise its consciousness and reform its conscience.

We must rid our fiction of fantasy and imbue it with fact. Then

we shall have a literature to match reality, and a popular image

of blindness to match the truth, and our image of ourselves.

Poetry is the song of the spirit and the language of the soul. In

the drama of our struggle to be free in the story of our movement

and the fight to rid the blind of old custodialism and man's

ancient fear of the dark there are epics which cry to be written,

and songs which ask to be sung. The poets and novelists can write

the words, but we must create the music.

We stand at a critical time in the history of the blind. If we

falter or turn back, the tragedy of blindness will be great,

indeed. But, of course, we will not falter, and we will not turn

back. Instead, we will go forward with joy in our hearts and a

song of gladness on our lips. The future is ours, and the

novelists and the poets will record it. Come! Join me on the

barricades, and we will make it come true!

FOOTNOTES

1. Ernest Bramah, Best

Max Carrados Detective Stories, p. 6.

2. Arthur Conan Doyle, Sir

Nigel, p. 102.

3. Victor Hugo, The

Man Who Laughs, p. 316.

4. Isabel Ostrander, At

One-Thirty: A Mystery, p. 6.

5. Baynard Kendrick, Make

Mine Maclain, dust jacket.

6. Ibid ., p. 43.

7. Bramah, op. cit., p. 7.

8. John Milton, The

Portable Milton, pp. 615-616.

9. Friedrich Schiller,

Complete Works of Friedrich Schiller, p. 447.

10. Rudyard Kipling,

Selected Prose and Poetry of Rudyard Kipling, p. 131.

11. Ibid ., p. 156.

12. Ibid ., p. 185.

13. Rosamond Lehmann,

Invitation to the Waltz, p. 48, quoted in Jacob Twersky, Blindness in

Literature.

14. Jessica L. Langworthy,

Blindness in Fiction: A Study of the Attitude of Authors Towards

their Blind Characters, Journal of Applied Psychology,14:282, 1930.

15. Twersky, op. cit., p. 15.

16. Ibid., p. 47.

17. Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure

Island, p. 36.

18. The Life of

Lazarillo de Tormes, summarized in Magill's Masterplots, p. 2573.

19. Laura E. Richards, Melody, pp. 47-48.

20. John G. Morris, The

Blind Girl of Wittenberg, p. 103.

21. Reverend Thomas J.

Carroll, Blindness: What It Is, What It Does, and How to Live With It. This

entire book deals with the concept of blindness as a dying, and with the

multiple lacks and losses of blindness.

22. American Foundation

for the Blind, Inc., A Step-by-Step Guide to Personal Management for

Blind People. This entire book is taken up with lists of so-called how to details

about the routines of daily living for blind persons.

23. There is a tenth theme to be found here and there on the

shelves of literature a rare and fugitive image that stands out

in the literary gloom like a light at the end of a tunnel.

This image of truth is at least as old as Charles Lamb's tale of

Rosamund Gray, which presents an elderly blind woman who is not

only normally competent but normally cantankerous. The image is

prominent in two of Sir Walter Scott's novels, Old Mortality

and The Bride of Lammermoor, in both of which blind persons are depicted

realistically and unsentimentally. It is evident again, to the

extent at least of the author's knowledge and ability, in Wilkie

Collin's Poor Miss Finch, written after Collins had made a

serious study of Diderot's Letter on the Blind (a scientific

treatise not without its errors but remarkable for its

understanding). The image is manifest in Charles D. Stewart's

Valley Waters, in which there is an important character who is

blind and yet there is about him no

aura of miracle nor even of mystery, no brooding or mischief, no

special powers, nothing in fact but naturalness and normality.

Similarly, in a novel entitled Far in the Forest, H. Weir

Mitchell has drawn from life (so he tells us) a formidable but

entirely recognizable character named Philetus Richmond who had

lost his sight at the age of fifty but could still swing an axe with the best of the

woodsmen.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

American Foundation for

the Blind, Inc., A Step-by-Step Guide to Personal Management for Blind

People,

New York, 1970.

Barreyre, Gene, The

Blind Ship, New York, Dial, 1926.

Bramah, Ernest, Best

Max Carrados Detective Stories, New York, Dover, 1972.

Bronte, Charlotte, Jane

Eyre, New York, Dutton, 1963.

Caine, Hall, The

Scapegoat, New York, D. Appleton and Company, 1879.

Carroll, Reverend Thomas

J., Blindness: What It Is, What It Does, and How To Live With It, Boston,

Toronto, Little, Brown and Company, 1961.

Chaucer, Geoffrey, Canterbury

Tales, Garden City, translated by J.U. Nicolson, 1936.

Collins, Wilkie, Poor

Miss Finch, New York, Harper and Brothers, 1902.

Conrad, Joseph, The

End of the Tether, Garden City, Doubleday, 1951.

Corey, Paul, The

Planet of the Blind, New York, Paperback Library, 1969.

Craig, Dinah Mulock,

John Halifax, Gentleman, New York, A.L. Burt, nd.

Davis, William Sterns, Falaise

of the Blessed Voice, New York, The Macmillan Company, 1904.

Dickens, Charles, Barnaby

Rudge, New York, Oxford University Press, 1968.

Dickens, Charles, Cricket

On the Hearth, London, Oxford University Press, 1956.

Diderot, Denis, Lettre

sur les Avengles, Geneva, E. Droz, 1951.

Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir

Nigel, New York, McClure, Philips and Company, 1906.

Gide, Andre, La Symphonie

Pastorale, Paris, Gallimard, 1966.

Glaspell, Susan, The

Glory of the Conquered, New York, Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1909.

Hugo, Victor, The

Man Who Laughs, New York, Grosset and Dunlap, nd.

Kendrick, Baynard, Make

Mine Maclain, New York, Morrow, 1947.

Kipling, Rudyard, Selected

Prose and Poetry of Rudyard Kipling, Garden City, Garden City Publishing

Company, 1937.

Kingsley, Charles, Westward

Ho!, New York, J.F. Taylor and Company, 1899.

Lamb, Charles, The

Tale of Rosamund Gray and Old Blind Margaret, London, 1798.

Langworthy, Jessica L.,

Blindness in Fiction: A Study of the Attitude of Authors Toward their Blind

Characters, Journal of Applied Psychology, 14:282, 1930.

Lawrence, D.H., England,

My England and Other Short Stories, New York, T. Seltzer, 1922.

Lehmann, Rosamond, Invitation

to the Waltz, New York, 1933.

Life of Lazarillo

de Tormes,

1553, summarized in Frank Nathen Magill, Magill's Masterplots, New York, Salem

Press, 1964.

London, Jack, The

Sea Wolf, New York, Grosset and Dunlap, 1904.

Ludlow, James M., Deborah,

A Tale of the Times of Judas Maccabaeus, New York, Fleming H. Revell Company,

1901.

Lytton, Bulwer, The

Last Days of Pompeii, Garden City, International Collectors Library, 1946.

Maeterlinck, Maurice,

The Plays of Maurice Maeterlinck, translated by Richard Hovey, New York,

Duffield, 1908.

Marryat, Frederick, The

Little Savage, New York, E.P. Dutton and Company, 1907.

Milton, John, Paradise

Lost, New York, Heritage Press, 1940.

Milton, John, The

Portable Milton, New York, Viking Press, 1949.

Mitchell, H. Weir, Far

in the Forest, New York, Century Company, 1899.

Morris, John G., The

Blind Girl of Wittenberg, Philadelphia, Lindsay and Blakison, 1856.

Ostrander, Isabel, At

One-Thirty: A Mystery, New York, W.J. Watt, 1915.

Richards, Laura E., Melody, Boston, Estes and Lauriat, 1897.

Sachs, Hans, Der Eulenspiegel mit den Blinden.

Schiller, Friedrich, William Tell, translated by Robert Waller Deering,

Boston, Heath, 1961.

Schiller, Don Carlos, Infant of Spain, translated by Charles

E. Passage, New York, Ungar Publishing Company, 1959.

Scott, Sir Walter, Old

Mortality, London, Oxford University Press, 1925.

Scott, Sir Walter, The

Bride of Lammermoor, London, Oxford University Press, 1925.

Shakespeare, William, King

Lear, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1947.

Sophocles, Oedipus

Rex, translated by Robert Fitzgerald and Dudley Fitts, New York, Harcourt

Brace, 1949.

Sophocles, Oedipus

at Colonnus, translated by Charles R. Walker, Garden City, Anchor Books, 1966.

Stagg, Clinton H., Thornley

Colton, Blind Detective, New York, G. Howard Watt, 1925.

Stevenson, Robert Louis, Treasure

Island, Keith Jennison large-type edition, New York, Watt, nd.

Stevenson, Robert Louis, Kidnapped, New York, A.L. Burt, 1883.

Stewart, Charles D., Valley

Waters, New York, E.P. Dutton and Company, 1922.

Twersky, Jacob, Blindness

in Literature, New York, American Foundation for the Blind, 1955.

Wells, H.G., The Country

of the Blind, Strand

Magazine, London, 1904.

West, V. Sackville, The

Dragon in Shallow Waters, New York, G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1922.

SOCIAL SECURITY, SSI, AND MEDICARE

FACTS FOR 1990

The beginning of each year brings with it certain annual

adjustments in Social Security programs. The changes include new

tax rates, higher exempt earnings amounts, Social Security and

SSI cost-of-living increases, and changes in deductible and

co-insurance requirements under Medicare. Here are the new facts

for 1990:

FICA (Social Security) Tax Rate: The tax rate for employees

and their employers during 1989 was 7.51%. The rate will be 7.65%

in 1990. The maximum FICA amount to be paid by an employee during

1990 is $3,855.60, up from $3,604.80 during 1989. The increase

results from a higher ceiling on earnings subject to tax,

effective January 1, 1990. Self-employed persons will pay a

Social Security tax of 15.3% during 1990, and their maximum

Social Security contribution will be $7,711.20.

Ceiling on Earnings Subject to Tax: Social Security

contributions will be paid during 1990 on the first $50,400.00 of

earnings for employees and self-employed persons. This compares

to the 1989 ceiling of $48,000.00.

Quarters of Coverage: Eligibility for retirement, survivors,

and disability insurance benefits is based in large part on the

number of quarters of coverage earned by an individual during

periods of work. Anyone may earn up to four quarters of coverage

during a single year. During 1989 a Social Security quarter of

coverage was credited for earnings of $500.00 in any calendar

quarter. Anyone who earned $2,000.00 for the year (regardless of

when the earnings occurred during the year) was given four

quarters of coverage. In 1990 a Social Security quarter of

coverage will be credited for earnings of $520.00 for a calendar

quarter, and four quarters can be earned with annual earnings of

$2,080.00.

Exempt Earnings: The earnings exemption for blind people

receiving Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits is

the same as the exempt amount for individuals age 65 through 69

who receive Social Security retirement benefits. The monthly

exempt amount in 1989 was $740.00 of gross earned income. During

1990 the exempt amount will be $780.00. Technically, this

exemption is referred to as an amount of monthly gross earnings

which does not show substantial gainful activity. Earnings of

$780.00 or more per month before taxes for a blind SSDI

beneficiary in 1990 will show substantial gainful activity after

subtracting any unearned (or subsidy) income and applying any

deductions for impairment-related work expenses.

Social Security Benefit Amounts for 1990: All Social Security

benefits, including retirement, survivors, disability, and

dependents benefits are increased by 4.7% beginning January,

1990. The exact dollar increase for any individual will depend

upon the amount being paid. Under pressure from senior citizens,

Congress has repealed the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act.

Among other things, that Act required Medicare beneficiaries to

pay additional monthly premiums. Beginning January 1, 1990, both

the benefits and the premiums resulting from the Catastrophic

Coverage Act are gone. Therefore, monthly Social Security checks

for Medicare beneficiaries will be increased to reflect lower

Medicare premiums. Beneficiaries should expect the decrease in

Medicare premiums to be reflected in Social Security checks some

time during 1990. A Medicare premium refund check should also be

sent to each beneficiary for excess premiums withheld during

1990. Standard SSI Benefit Increase: Beginning January, 1990,

the federal payment amounts for Supplemental Security Income

(SSI) individuals and couples are as follows: individuals,

$386.00 per month; couples, $579.00 per month. These amounts are

increased from: individuals, $368.00 per month; couples, $553.00

per month.

Medicare Deductibles and Co-insurance: Medicare Part A

coverage provides hospital insurance to most Social Security

beneficiaries. The co-insurance payment is the charge that the

hospital makes to a Medicare beneficiary for any hospital stay. Medicare then pays

the hospital charges above the beneficiary's co-insurance amount.

The basic co-insurance amount for Medicare Part A was $560.00 for a

hospital stay in 1989. There was no co-insurance amount for

beneficiaries to pay for hospital stays longer than sixty days.

This was one of the benefits of the Medicare Catastrophic

Coverage Act, which became effective January 1, 1989. That Act

has now been repealed, effective January 1, 1990. As a result,

the Part A co-insurance amount for hospital stays from sixty-one through ninety days is $148.00 a day. Each

Medicare beneficiary has sixty reserve days for hospital stays

longer than ninety days. The co-insurance amount to be paid

during each reserve day is $296.00.

The Medicare Part B (medical insurance) deductible remains at an

annual $75.00. The Medicare Part B basic monthly premium rate

will be reduced from $31.90 charged to each beneficiary during

1989, to $28.60 per month during 1990. This reduction results from the repeal of the

Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act. The Part B premium is

automatically deducted from Social Security checks. The monthly

deduction for the first several months of 1990 will be $33.90.

All beneficiaries can expect to receive a refund some time during

1990 for excess Medicare premiums paid. For anyone who pays the

basic Medicare Part B premium, the refund should be the

difference between $33.90 and $28.60, times the number of months

of higher premium payments.

LETTER FROM A STATE DIRECTOR

From the Editor: David Miller is the Director of State Services

for the Blind in South Dakota. For several years Karen Mayry,

President of the National Federation of the Blind of South

Dakota, has been trying to get him to attend an NFB national

convention, telling him

that he would find it both pleasant and beneficial. In 1989 he

responded. Here is his reaction:

Pierre, South Dakota

August 14, 1989

Dear Karen:

Previously I promised to send you a letter concerning my thoughts

on attending the National Federation of the Blind national

convention this past year. In an attempt to organize my thoughts,

I have divided my observations into three areas.

The programming was outstanding. As director of a state agency

serving the blind, each year I have the opportunity to attend

several national meetings or conferences concerning issues

affecting the blind. The program at these meetings tends to be

quite specific. The program

at the National NFB convention was broad, current, and

authoritative. It was a pleasure to have the opportunity to

listen to national leaders in government and business discuss the

issues facing blind citizens. The opportunity to visit with so

many different individuals who are blind is rare. The informal

visits, the exchange of views, and the sharing of experiences

possibly outweighed the program in terms of personal benefit to

me. Although I am an active participant in the blind community of

our state, most of my interactions evolve around

the business of administering a state agency for the blind. The

convention gave me an opportunity to meet with consumers in their

backyard. Over lunch at McDonald's I gained new insights into

the needs and concerns of the elderly blind while visiting with

an 84-year-old NFB member. At dinner I discussed what goes into a

good rehabilitation center for the blind with a 24-year-old NFB

member.

I visited with people from California, Washington, Florida,

Oklahoma, Minnesota, New York, and Maryland concerning their

communities, their ideas, and their hopes for the future.

Lastly, there was a great exchange of professional information

through both formal and informal means. The exhibit area was

excellent. I

was surprised by the scope and variety of specialists in the

blindness field attending the convention. In one brief exchange

concerning computer software I gained information that assisted

me in saving several thousand dollars for a local agency. That

information alone made the cost of attending the convention a

real bargain.

In closing I would like to thank you for your dogged persistence

in encouraging me to attend the NFB national convention. It was

an excellent investment of my time all the more so in light of

the camaraderie, enthusiasm, and hospitality. I wish that all

learning could be conducted in such pleasant surroundings.

Sincerely,

David L. Miller, Division Director

Services for the Visually Impaired

WHITE CANE/GUIDE DOG SAFETY DAY

From the Editor: Dr. Ed Eames is President of the Fresno Chapter

of the National Federation of the Blind of California. Under date

of October 23, 1989, he wrote me as follows:

I am enclosing a copy of the proclamation signed by our mayor on

October 13, proclaiming October 15 White Cane/Guide Dog Safety

Day. I have had the feeling that our guide dogs are given short

shrift in the format of prior proclamations and hope we can put

them on an equal footing in the future by changing the language

used. The tremendous significance of language is a point noted by

you many times in the past and central to President Maurer's 1989

presidential address.

Dr. Eames makes a point that is worth pondering. Here is the

proclamation:

Whereas, the white cane or guide dog, which every blind citizen

of our city has the right to use, demonstrates and symbolizes his

or her ability to achieve a full and independent life and her or

his capacity to work productively in competitive employment, and

Whereas, the white cane and guide dog, by allowing every blind

person to move freely and safely from place to place, makes it

possible for him or her fully to participate in and contribute to

our society, and

Whereas, every citizen should be aware that the law requires that

motorists exercise appropriate caution when approaching a blind

person carrying a white cane or using a guide dog, and

Whereas, California law also calls upon employers, both public

and private, to be aware of and utilize the employment skills of

our blind citizens by recognizing their worth as individuals and

their productive capacities, and

Whereas, the State of California through its public agencies and

with the cooperative assistance of the National Federation of the

Blind of California can look forward to continued expansion of

employment opportunities for and greater acceptance of blind

persons in the competitive labor market.

Now, Therefore, I, Karen Humphrey, Mayor of the City of Fresno,

hereby proclaim October 15, 1989, as

White Cane/Guide Dog Safety Day

in the City of Fresno and call upon our schools to offer full

opportunities for training to blind persons and for employers and

the public to utilize the available skills of competent blind

persons and to open new opportunities for the blind in our

rapidly changing society, and

all citizens to recognize the white cane and the guide dog as

instruments of safety and self-help for blind pedestrians on our

streets and highways.

RECIPES

January is a time for recovering from the excesses of the

holiday season. Springtime begins to be on the horizon of the

mind, and taking off a few pounds in preparation for the swimsuit

season makes increasing sense. Here are a few recipes that may

help some will assist in the calorie-counting more than others.

But all are delicious.

LOW-CALORIE CHICKEN SALAD MOLD, MICROWAVED

by Carlene McKenzie

Carlene

McKenzie is an active member of the Mountain City Chapter of the National

Federation of the Blind of Maryland.

Ingredients:

1 envelope unflavored gelatin

1 cup water

1 can (10 3/4 oz.) condensed cream-of-chicken or cream-of-mushroom soup

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 can (5 ounce) boned chicken

3 hard-cooked eggs, chopped

1/2 cup diced celery

1/4 cup diced green pepper

2 tablespoons chopped pimento

2 tablespoons minced onion

crisp lettuce leaves

Method : Soften gelatin in 1/2 cup water in medium- size glass

bowl. Cook uncovered for 1 minute on high in microwave until

dissolved. Blend in soup, remaining water, lemon juice, and

pepper. Cook uncovered for 3 minutes on high in microwave,

stirring after 2 minutes. Chill slightly. Fold in chicken, eggs,

celery, green pepper, pimento, and onion. Pour into individual

1-cup molds and refrigerate until set. Unmold and serve on

lettuce leaves. Serves 4.

SHRIMP

SALAD

by Karen S. Mayry

Karen Mayry is the energetic president of the National

Federation of the Blind of South Dakota and the Diabetics

Division of the National Federation of the Blind. She is also an

excellent cook.

Ingredients:

1 cup grated carrots

1/2 cup finely chopped celery

1/4 cup minced onion

2 hard-cooked eggs, chopped

2 small cans shrimp, cleaned

1 box or 1/2 9-ounce can shoestring potatoes

Mayonnaise (mixed with prepared

mustard) to moisten

Method : Combine first

6 ingredients and blend with mustard-flavored mayonnaise to taste. Chill.

LINGUINI

ITALIAN SALAD

by Doris Sharp

Doris Sharp of North Ft. Myers, Florida, was a loyal volunteer

for several years at the National Federation of the Blind of

South Dakota office. She has now moved to Florida to be near her

son, but she still clips articles about diabetes for the

publication of the Diabetics Division, the Voice of the

Diabetic.

Ingredients :

1/2 package linguini

1 10-ounce package frozen peas

1/2 Bermuda onion, sliced

1/2 pound sliced cooked ham,

cut into small pieces

1 bottle Italian dressing

Method : Cook linguini 10 minutes in salted, boiling water or

until noodles are just barely done (al dente). Stir frequently.

Drain linguini by pouring the noodles and boiling water into a

colander containing the frozen peas. Allow colander to drain for

a few minutes. Place linguini and peas in a large bowl. Add ham

and Bermuda onion. Pour the entire bottle of Italian dressing

over the salad and allow it to sit for several hours. You may

substitute chicken for the ham.

ORIENTAL NOODLE CASSEROLE

by Cherry King

Cherry King is an active member of the Sligo Creek Chapter of

the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland. She is always

ready to put her hand to any task that needs doing, including

cooking or providing the Monitor with good recipes.

Ingredients :

2 (3-ounce) packages of oriental noodles 2 stalks celery, cut into 1/2-inch

slices 2 thinly sliced carrots

1 pound fresh mushrooms, cleaned and sliced

1 medium onion, sliced

1 cup canned, frozen, or fresh crab meat

1/2 cup slivered almonds

1 tablespoon corn starch

1 teaspoon soy sauce

Method : Steam vegetables in 1 cup of water until tender, adding

mushrooms 2 minutes before end of cooking time. Drain vegetables

and save liquid. Cook and drain noodles, according to label

directions, adding package of seasoning sauce which comes with

the noodles. Stir corn starch and soysauce into the reserved

liquid in which vegetables were cooked. Cook this mixture,

stirring constantly, until sauce is slightly thickened and clear.

Combine noodles, vegetables, crab meat, and almonds. Pour sauce

over mixture and toss thoroughly. Reheat briefly in microwave

before serving.

BRUNCH POTATO BAKE

by Arthur Segal

Arthur Segal is one of the leaders of the National Federation of

the Blind of Maryland. He also has a well-deserved reputation as

a gourmet chef. An invitation to his holiday brunch is a prize

much treasured by his acquaintances.

Ingredients:

5 pounds potatoes, peeled, cubed, and boiled

8 ounces grated cheddar cheese

8 ounces butter

1 pint sour cream

4 tablespoons horseradish

1 teaspoon chives

freshly ground pepper, to taste

3 ounces grated fresh parmesan cheese

Method : Combine all ingredients except parmesan cheese and

blend well using an electric mixer. Pour into buttered baking

pan. Sprinkle with 3 ounces grated parmesan. Bake uncovered at

350 degrees for 35 minutes. For variety, try adding crumbled

bacon, other cheeses, or seasoning.

BLACKENED SWORDFISH

by Arthur Segal

Method : With sweet (unsalted) butter, liberally coat 4 large,

thick fish fillets. In a small bowl mix 1 tablespoon ground red

pepper; 1 teaspoon white pepper; 1 tablespoon onion flakes;

pinches of dill, parsley flakes, fennel seed, and dry mustard.

Press mixture evenly into fish with fingers. When skillet is very

hot, melt 2 ounces sweet butter and drop the fish in. Cook 2 to 3

minutes on each side.

MONITOR MINIATURES

**Salems Receive Miller Service Award:

Earl and Elaine Salems of Morris, Illinois, received the Miller

Service Award at the annual Christmas dinner of the Prairie State

Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of Illinois. The

award was named in honor of the chapter's first president, Carl

Miller. It is given in recognition of outstanding service and

dedication. Gary Jones of Joliet, Award Chairman, made the

presentation. Since 1985 the Salems have been active in the

Prairie State Chapter. Elaine serves as Vice President and Earl

is on the Board of Directors. Their work has been outstanding in

membership and financial development. In addition to their

Federation work, they are both active in the First Presbyterian

Church of Morris, and Earl serves as Secretary of the Morris Boat

Club. They have two sons and four grandchildren. The Salems

received many tributes from Federationists in appreciation of

their outstanding contribution to the blind of Illinois and the

nation.

**New Computer Game:

We

have been asked to carry the following announcement:

There is a new computer game for IBM and IBM compatible

computers. It is called CASINO. It actually is three games in

one: blackjack; slot machine; and a four-card poker game called

flash poker. It is fully usable with a screen-reading program and

a speech synthesizer or by a sighted person from the screen. It

has sound effects and other features. For your copy, send a check

in the sum of $15 to: Richard De Steno, 20 Meadowbrook Road,

Short Hills, New Jersey 07078; or call (201) 379-7471 for more

information. The game will be sent on a five

and a quarter inch diskette unless a three and a half inch is

requested.

**Comptuer Aids Closes:

We

have received the following letter from William L. Grimm, President of

Computer Aids Corporation:

It is with great sadness that I must inform you of the immediate

closing of Computer Aids Corporation. Eight years of pioneering

efforts and tremendous support from the blind community just has

not been enough to make our company profitable. We all want to

offer our heartfelt apologies to anyone who may be inconvenienced

by our closing. We also want to express our warmest appreciation

to the many who have allowed us to serve.

The spirit of Computer Aids will live on through its people. Doug

Geoffray, author of most of our current software products and

Technical Support Specialist, will be continuing to sell and

support our Apple Software as well as Braille-Talk IBM through

his own independent business. To contact Doug, you may call or

write: MicroSolutions, 5805 Breconshire Drive, Fort Wayne,

Indiana 46804; (219) 436- 4391.

Dan Weirich, our Chief Engineer, will be providing service for

Computer Aids products and other related products. He is also

interested in providing custom engineering services for your

individual needs. Dan will be acting as an independent business

person and may be contacted at: Renaissance Engineering, 1731

Graham Drive, Fort Wayne, Indiana 46818; (219) 489-2733.

Soon I hope to be able to offer a new and advanced PC screen

reader. You may correspond with me at: William L. Grimm, Post

Office Box 150685, Altamonte Springs, Florida 32715- 0685; (407)

339-3980.

**A Wish for Leaders:

From the Editor: Recently Barbara Cheadle, Editor of Future

Reflections, shared the following item with me. She says it was

written by Earl Reum and that it came from the publication of the

Iowa Pilot Parents. Whoever said it and wherever she got it, I

think it is worth passing on. It's a good way to start the new

year. Here it is:

I sincerely wish you will have the experience of thinking up a

new idea, planning it, organizing it, and following it through to

completion, and then have it be magnificently successful. I also

hope you'll go through the same process and have something bomb

out. I wish you could know how it feels to run with all your

heart and lose...horribly!

I wish that you could achieve some great good for mankind, but

have nobody know about it except for you.

I wish you could find something so worthwhile that you deem it

worthy of investing your life within it.

I hope you become frustrated and challenged enough to begin to

push back the very barriers of your own personal limitations. I

hope you make a stupid mistake and get caught redhanded and

are big enough to say those magic words: I was wrong. I

hope you give so much of yourself that some days you wonder if

it's all worth the effort.

I wish for you a magnificent obsession that will give you reason

for living and purpose and direction in life.

I wish for you the worst kind of criticism for everything you

do, because that makes you fight to achieve beyond what you

normally would.

I wish for you the experience

of leadership .

**Married:

Ellen Robertson is one of the long-time leaders of the National

Federation of the Blind of New York. We recently received the

following item in the National Office:

Ellen Robertson of Wappingers Falls, New York, was married to

Frank di Nardo of Albany, New York, on September 9, 1989, at the

chapel at Castle Point, Virginia, where Ellen worked for 13-1/2

years. The couple plan to live in Albany, and Ellen will be

looking for a job as a social worker as soon as they are settled.

**Attention Parents and Educators:

Boyd Wolfe, Chairman of the Committee on Concerns of the

Deaf-Blind, asks that we carry the following announcement:

Attention, educators and parents. We would like to know how many

of you are either educating now, or have experience in educating,

deaf-blind children and youth. Please send us your name, a

summary of your experience, and the name of the school or agency

where you taught. Please tell us how many children you taught,

and include any other pertinent information. The Committee on

Concerns of the Deaf-Blind would like to know what kind of

education deaf-blind children are receiving. Please contact me

at: 1314 North 1st Street, Apartment 214, Phoenix, Arizona 85004.

**Buy:

We have been asked to carry the following announcement:

I would like to buy a Braille dictionary. Contact: C. Ronnie

Strote, 1711 Notre Dame Road, Rockford, Illinois 61103.

**Vital Speeches:

Vital Speeches of the Day is the most prestigious speech

magazine in the United States. It is received by most colleges

and many high schools and is a standard reference for students

studying debate and oratory techniques. The October 15, 1989,

issue of Vital Speeches carries Language and the Future of the

Blind, President Maurer's 1989 banquet address. This is one more

evidence of the standing of the National Federation of the Blind

and the caliber of its leadership.

**Iowa Growth:

The Fall, 1989, Barricades (the publication of the National

Federation of the Blind of Iowa) reports as follows:

On Saturday, September 23, 1989, the Northeast Iowa Chapter of

the National Federation of the Blind of Iowa was formed at the

MHI Canteen in Independence. Leonard and Mary Oberlander had been

planting the seed for a new Federation Chapter in northeast Iowa.

Now that seed has sprouted, and a new chapter has been formed,

with the following officers elected: Leonard Oberlander,

Independence, President; John Gipper, Fairbanks, Vice President;

Jeannette Delagardelle, Jesup, Secretary-Treasurer; Arlo Knoploh,

Sumner, Board Member; and Myron Chapman, Independence, Board

Member.

**Appointed:

The November, 1989, edition of the Alaska News , the publication

of the National Federation of the Blind of Alaska, includes an

announcement that Corinne Whitesell, editor of the Alaska

newsletter, has been appointed to the Board of the Louise Rude

Center for Blind and Deaf Adults. As Ms. Whitesell comments,

Having a member of the NFB on the board is part of the outreach

efforts of this affiliate to contribute to the betterment of the

blind of Alaska wherever those opportunities occur.

**For Sale:

Franklin Ace 1000 computer. Single disc drive, software, text

talker, Echo speech synthesizer, print and tape instructions.

$1,200 or best offer. Contact: Dennis Turner, 700 North Denning

Drive #104, Winter Park, Florida 32789.

**Elected and Proclaimed:

At the October, 1989, meeting of the Greater Baltimore Chapter of

the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland the following

persons were elected: Eileen Rivera, President; Fred Flowers,

First Vice President; Raymond Lowder, Second Vice President;

Patricia Maurer, Treasurer; and Shirley Trexler, Secretary.

Kathleen Chapman, Michael Harris, Doris Johnson, and Carol Smith

were elected to serve on the Board of Directors. Also at that

meeting the Honorable Kurt L. Schmoke,

Mayor of Baltimore, presented a proclamation, declaring October

National Federation of the Blind Month in Baltimore.

**Literary Competition:

The

Writers Division of the National Federation of the Blind makes the following

announcement:

The Writers Division is again holding both a fiction and a poetry

contest. Deadline for submission is March 31, 1990. Fiction

should

be sent to: Tom Stevens, 1203 Fairview Road, Columbia, Missouri

65203, and should be accompanied by a $3 entry fee. Stories

should be no more than two thousand words or approximately eight

pages, typed and double-spaced. Send poetry entries to: Lori

Stayer, 2704 Beach Drive, Merrick, New York 11566. Each entry

must be accompanied by a $3 entry fee. You may enter either

contest as often as you like. Entries should be typed and should

not exceed 35 lines. Previously published material will not be

considered. Entries may not be sent elsewhere for publication

until 60 days after the contest ends. First prize in each contest

is $35. Second prize is $15. Entrants do not need to be members

of the Division. Include self-addressed, stamped envelope if you

wish your work returned.

**Appointed:

Don Morris, one of the long-time leaders of the National

Federation of the Blind of Maryland, was recently appointed by

the Governor of the State to serve on the Board of Blind

Industries and Services of Maryland. Mr. Morris operates a

vending facility at the National Fire Academy at Emmitsburg,

Maryland, and was formerly the Vice President of Blind Industries

and Services of Maryland. He is also one of the leaders of the

Merchants Division of the National Federation of the Blind.

Congratulations to Don Morris. His appointment to the BISM Board

has been universally acclaimed by the blind of Maryland as a

positive and constructive step.

**Honored:

The following item appears in the Fall, 1989, issue of the

Oregon Outlook, the publication of the National Federation of

the Blind of Oregon:

On Thursday, October 5, 1989, Michael Bullis was named as

Disabled Citizen of the Year in a ceremony with Governor Neil

Goldschmidt and Secretary of State, Barbara Roberts. Michael

currently serves as secretary of the NFB of Oregon and has held

numerous offices in the organization over the last twelve years.

During 1988 Michael administered the Governor's Task Force on the

Disabled, which produced some fifteen bills that went before the

Oregon Legislative Assembly. In 1989 he shepherded the bills

through the Legislative Session and saw several of them enacted

into law. In his acceptance speech Mike noted that the real

problem of disability is one of attitude. In an interview with

the Salem, Oregon, Statesman Journal newspaper Michael said,

Disabled people should be hired (and, for that matter, fired)

just like any other employee. Employers are in business to make money, and the

employee who produces will be retained, regardless of disability.

**Dies:

On Friday, September 29, 1989, Jerry Hemphill died of cancer.

Jerry and her husband Victor worked hard to help bring about the

phenominal growth which the National Federation of the Blind of

Louisiana has experienced in recent years. Jerry first learned

that she had cancer in 1987. She waged a courageous battle

against the disease, undergoing four operations in eighteen

months and also having extensive chemotherapy and radiation.

Victor was with her at the time of her death. She was a brave and

dedicated woman, who will be greatly missed.

**New Chapter:

Bernadette Krajewski recently wrote to us as follows:

Saturday, September 30, 1989, at 1:27 p.m. marked the beginning

of our first chapter meeting of the Green Bay Area Chapter of the

National Federation of the Blind of Wisconsin, which was held at

the home of Bernadette Krajewski. The following people were

elected to office: Bernadette Krajewski, President; Robert

Heiser, Vice President/Secretary; and Martin (Pete) Howe,

Treasurer. Present were as follows: Bernadette Krajewski, Robert

Heiser, Martin (Pete) Howe, Kathleen Howe, Lori Compton, Wilfred

Thomas Callahan, Jr. all from Green Bay. I am extremely proud to

acknowledge our participants from Milwaukee, who are as follows:

Bonnie Peterson, President of the National Federation of the

Blind of Wisconsin; Joel Peterson, Bonnie's delightful husband;

and Judith K. Congdon, all from the Milwaukee Chapter of the

National Federation of the Blind of Wisconsin. Items on the

agenda included: state and national reports, both given by

Bonnie Peterson. Lots of participation and questions concerning

this information followed.

**Promising Career Ahead:

Dan Frye is the President of the Student Division of the National

Federation of the Blind of South Carolina. He is also a senior at

Erskine College and an active participant in campus life. The

impression he is making on his fellow students and the public in

general can be seen from the article which appeared in the Greenwood, South

Carolina, newspaper on October 3, 1989. Here is how the article

begins:

Two terms on the judicial council; one term in the student

senate; staff reporter for the college newspaper; three years as

a bass in the Choraleers, a traveling musical group. A 3.0

average as a History major and Government minor. Strong

credentials for a college senior with law school as a goal. The

strength of these activities is amplified by the fact that the

student is totally blind. But Erskine College senior Dan Frye

doesn't dwell on the handicap, or as he prefers to call it, the

inconvenience ... or characteristic.

**Appointed to Important Post:

We are constantly urging our members to become involved in

community affairs, particularly political activities. Every time

a blind person makes a public appearance or is placed in an

important position, all of us benefit. Harold Snider, long-time

Federationist and President of the National Federation of the

Blind of the District of Columbia, has been appointed Director of

Outreach for Persons with Disabilities at the Republican National

Committee in Washington. This is a key position with broad

implications. The person who holds this job will have access to

top congressional and administration leaders and will have input

at the decision-making level.

**Operatic Giants:

One never knows what interesting things Federationists have been

up to. Peggy Pinder, who was recently the national representative

at the convention of the National Federation of the Blind of

Wyoming, discovered that Ernie Hagen, treasurer of the Wyoming

affiliate, is

a composer and librettist with a full-length opera score to his

credit. Beret and Per Hansa, a work based on the O.E. Rolvaag

novel, Giants in the Earth , had its world premiere in April of

1978. It was performed at the University of Arkansas at Little

Rock while Ernie Hagen was a rehabilitation student at Arkansas

Enterprises for the Blind. The opera received a good deal of

acclaim in Little Rock, and Mr. Hagen is currently revising it

with plans to show it to European opera companies in hopes of

performances there.

**Christian Material:

We

recently received the following letter:

Jefferson, Ohio

October 16, 1989

Dear Mr. Maurer:

I am writing to inform you that our Christian radio station WCVJ

90.9 FM has free, nondenominational Christian Bible lessons

available for the blind. The lessons are available on cassette or

in Braille. They are available through the mail to any blind

person who requests them. We just wanted you to be aware of this

service.

Very truly yours,

Carolyn Stracola

Program Coordinator

WCVJ 90.9 FM

Post Office Box 112

Jefferson, Ohio 44047

**Interest-Free Software and Hardware Purchase Program:

R. Clayton Hutchenson, founder of Computer Conversations, Inc.,

sent us the following information:

Computer Conversations announces the availability of a special

interest-free payment plan to assist visually impaired

individuals in purchasing the company's interactive voice output

software, The Verbal Operating System. The VOS program, which

sells for $550, and VOS Basic, which costs $350, can be purchased

with a $100 downpayment followed by monthly installments of at

least $50. If hardware such as voice synthesizer, keyboard,

modem, or interface card is purchased with VOS or VOS Basic, the

purchaser can put down half the cost of this equipment and pay it

off in monthly installments along with the software. Purchasers

of VOS Basic can upgrade to the complete Verbal Operating System

at any time for $200. In addition, certain VOS modules (Verbal

Macros, Verbal Rainbows, Verbal Master, and the Verbal File

document reader) can be purchased separately for $49.95 each.

This means that VOS users can purchase precisely the voice output

capabilities they need. The company has recently released VOS

5.0, an update of its Verbal Operating System software, providing

improved speech output capabilities for the IBM PC and compatible

computers, including 286 and 386 machines and all models of the

IBM PS/2. The software works well with the MS

DOS and PC DOS operating systems and a wide variety of speech

synthesizers to create speech output with about 95 percent of the

software available for MS DOS computers. The program is

completely interactive, making review modes obsolete. It is

extremely transparent, which allows it to work with more

applications. The Verbal Operating System uses only one cursor.

It is not copy protected. Updates of The Verbal Operating System

are available to current users for $30. For further information,

contact Computer Conversations at (614) 924-2885.

**Greek To Me:

Robert Greenberg, winner of the $10,000 Ezra Davis Memorial

Scholarship at the 1986 convention of the National Federation of

the Blind, is making a notable splash in his chosen field of

Slavic linguistics. In April of 1989 he delivered a paper before

the American Association of Slavic and East European Languages at

Yale University, where Robert is earning a Ph.D. His review From

Common Slavic to Slovenian will appear in the 1987 edition of

the International Journal of Slavic Linguistics and Poetics ,

one of the leading journals in the world in the field of Slavic

linguistics and philology, even if it is not remarkably punctual.

The 1987 edition of the journal is expected to appear during the

current academic year, but don't look for it on your favorite

newsstand. We congratulate Robert Greenberg heartily, even if we

can't understand what he is talking about.

**Hospital Audiences,

Inc.:

We have been asked to carry the following announcement:

Hospital Audiences, Inc.'s (HAI's) Audio Description Service

provides trained volunteer describers to assist blind and

visually impaired theatergoers to `see' a play. Through the use

of tiny radio receivers, the blind or visually impaired audience

hears a live description of the action, scenery, costumes, and

actors' nuances. These devices are non-obtrusive (the size of a

cigarette box) and can be used almost anywhere in the theater.

HAI's Audio Description Service is now available for any

individual in the New York metropolitan area who wants to take

advantage of the service. For further details, please contact

Trisha Hennessey at (212) 575-7660 or write: HAI, 220 West 42nd

Street, New York, New York 10036.

**International Dining:

Cheryl McCaslin asks that we carry the following announcement:

The Cultural Exchange and International Program Committee of the

National Federation of the Blind is venturing forth with a new

fund-raising project. We are planning to produce a cookbook, and

guess the title? It will be called International Dining . We

will have it for sale in both print and Braille. And guess how

each of you can help us with this project? You're right. We are

asking for recipes from each and every one of you. Be sure these

foreign recipes that you

send have ingredients that can be purchased in the States. After

selecting a wide delicious variety of recipes, please send them

to: NFB of Minnesota, Attention: Joyce Scanlan CEIP Committee

Chairman, Suite 715 Chamber of Commerce Building, 15 South 5th

Street, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55472. We will be anxiously

awaiting to hear from each and every one of you with your

delicious foreign recipes. See you at the National Federation of

the Blind convention in Dallas, Texas, in 1990!

**New York Convention:

At the 1989 fall convention of the National Federation of the

Blind of New York the following people were elected to office:

David Arocho, President; Gisela Distel, First Vice President;

Carl Jacobsen, Second Vice President; Laura Herman, Secretary;

and Ray Wayne, Treasurer.