Presidential Report 2000

Presidential Report 2000

PRESIDENTIAL

REPORT

National Federation of the Blind

July 5, 2000

by Marc Maurer

During the past twelve

months, the National Federation of the Blind has been as vigorous and as active

as it has ever been. Our programs to assist blind children and adults have continued

at an accelerating rate, and we have undertaken new initiatives as well. Although

the Federation is expanding in size and diversity, we remain committed to the

principles that brought our organization into being sixty years ago.

We are the blind—from every economic segment of society

and every geographic area of our nation—blind workers in the sheltered

shops, blind vendors, blind employees in industry or the professions, blind

people seeking employment, blind college students, parents of blind children,

those who are newly blinded, and blind people who have not yet discovered what

the future can hold for them. Our movement is made up of all blind people who

possess the faith to believe that working together we can build a future that

is brighter than has ever existed for the blind. This is our dream; this is

our purpose; this is the essence of the organized blind movement; this is the

National Federation of the Blind.

The Smithsonian Institution serves as the national museum of

the United States. It has recently decided to establish an exhibit showing the

development of the disabilities rights. movement. One significant part of this

movement is the story of the National Federation of the Blind. Starting in 1940

the National Federation of the Blind was the pioneer of self-organization among

the members of any disability group. We showed the way for other organizations

of the disabled, which did not emerge until decades later. The Smithsonian Institution

has asked us to supply a number of artifacts of the Federation. These artifacts,

which are now part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian, came from

the hands of Dr. Jacobus tenBroek, the founder and first president of the Federation,

and Dr. Kenneth Jernigan, our second great president. The exhibit will be placed

on display for the public later this year. The names of our presidents and of

the National Federation of the Blind are listed as part of American history

at the Smithsonian.

In 1990, on the fiftieth birthday of the National Federation

of the Blind, we established the International Braille and Technology Center

for the blind, which contains at least one of each computer driven device or

program, of which we are aware, to provide information to the blind in Braille,

in refreshable Braille, or in speech. At the time this center was founded, we

promised ourselves that we would keep it up to date, acquiring all new products

for the blind that became available. This year we have added twelve Pentium

III computers configured as Internet workstations with T-1 capability, one Braille

music translation program and digital music keyboard, two kinds of Braille note-takers,

with speech output, three types of Braille note-takers with refreshable Braille

displays, one talking web browser called the IBM Home Page Reader, four different

software speech synthesizers for the Windows operating system, a Braille embosser

for Windows, a Braille embosser able to generate graphics using programs running

under Windows, one tactile image enhancer capable of generating raised line

drawings, three refreshable Braille displays, one book-reading device called

the Bookworm which features an 8-cell refreshable Braille display, two stand-alone

reading machines—the Portset and the Pronto, four screen reading programs

for Windows, one Scan-A-Can program to read and interpret bar codes, a Kurzweil

1000 Version 5 reading system, a laptop with a built-in refreshable Braille

display—the SuperBraille, one scientific calculator with a built-in Braille

display, and the software packages necessary to run all of these products.

Not only do we acquire technology built by others but we continue

to upgrade our own. The Newsline for the Blind Network, which first came into

being in 1994, has continued to expand from fifty-nine local service centers

to seventy-two currently in operation. We have added sites in Arizona, California,

Connecticut, Hawaii, Missouri, Ohio, South Carolina, and Texas. Newsline is

available in thirty-two states, the District of Columbia, and Toronto, Canada.

The number of papers provided on Newsline has also expanded from twenty-eight

a year ago to forty-three. Thirty-six of these papers are of local interest

and seven of them are national in scope. More than seven thousand subscribers

have been added to the Newsline network since last year, and the patterns indicate

that the pace of growth is accelerating.

The America's Jobline Network, a technology created by the National

Federation of the Blind, has continued to expand. Fourteen states currently

have Jobline sites, and we believe that sites in nine others will soon be in

operation. Because over thirty thousand job orders per day are transmitted to

each Jobline site, we have upgraded the transmission system to employ a digital

modem pool connected to T-1 lines capable of handling twenty-three simultaneous

transmissions.

We have increased our efforts to improve access to information

on the Internet. During the past year, we have received many requests for assistance

regarding technology from private companies and governmental institutions such

as: IBM, Microsoft, H&R Block, CNN, The Health Care Financing Administration,

and Citibank. Nonvisual access solutions must be incorporated in the design

of web pages. Retrofitting web sites is clumsy, expensive, and often ineffective.

Providing equal access to information is not merely good corporate strategy—it

is required by law.

In 1991, guidelines were adopted under the authority of the

Americans with Disabilities Act that require automatic teller machines to be

independently usable by people who are blind. These guidelines have now been

in place for nine years, and the technology has been developed to comply with

the requirements. However, compliance is almost nonexistent.

Last year the National Federation of the Blind of Pennsylvania,

along with several individual blind people, filed suit against the Mellon Bank

to require it to install accessible ATMs. In May of this year, the National

Federation of the Blind and the National Federation of the Blind of the District

of Columbia (along with several blind individuals) commenced litigation in the

District of Columbia to demand that Chevy Chase Bank, Rite Aid Corporation (a

drugstore chain), and the Diebold Corporation (a manufacturer of ATMs) install

accessible machines. Some of the ATMs manufactured by Diebold can be programmed

to provide information to the customers verbally. However, although Diebold

has agreed with Rite Aid that it will install and operate ATMs in Rite Aid stores,

the machines it has installed are not independently usable by the blind.

ATMs currently provide cash, financial transaction information,

and the opportunity to transfer funds from one place to another to customers.

However, manufacturers of these products anticipate that the number of services

which will be provided through these machines will increase. Tickets to the

theater, to a ball game, or to ride on the train will be (we are told) issued

by the ATM. Information about restaurants and directions to reach such establishments

will be found at the ATM. Payroll checks will be accepted and cashed at the

ATM. SmartCards will be purchasable at the ATM.

If these machines are not usable with nonvisual mechanisms,

the entire class of people who are unable to read the screen will be shut out

of an increasing percentage of business transactions as well as opportunities

for entertainment and leisure. We have been told repeatedly that equal access

to information is the policy of our nation, and we insist that this policy be

enforced. Blind people have historically been systematically prevented from

full participation in the economic sector of our society. This must change.

We will avoid confrontation if we can. We will cooperate with our neighbors

if they will cooperate with us. However, If we can find no way to achieve our

ends peacefully, we will fight. We are simply not prepared to be ignored or

intimidated or forgotten. It is not only good business; it is required by law.

Then, there is the Internal Revenue Service—the arm of

the Department of the Treasury that seems always to be outstretched to seek

yet further sums of money from the taxpayers. The Internal Revenue Service has

decided to place considerable emphasis on having taxpayers file documents and

make payments electronically. To assist in this process the IRS contracted with

a number of financial software development companies to build tax-filing software

programs on the Internet. These companies (H&R Block, Intuit, H.D. Vest,

and Gilman & Ciocia) created their tax-filing programs without making them

accessible to the blind.

Perhaps it should be said that the blind have no more interest in paying taxes

than the rest of the citizenry, but we have no less interest in paying our fair

share. However, when we have made our payments and met our obligations, we expect

to have as much access to information and as much ease in using it as others

do. The creation of the Financial Management Systems sponsored by the Internal

Revenue Service will inevitably alter mechanisms for dealing with commerce,

and the blind will not be shut out. We joined forces with the Attorney General

of the State of Connecticut, Richard Blumenthal. We sent letters of demand to

the contractors hired by the Internal Revenue Service. In these letters we informed

the contractors that we had examined the webbased tax-filing programs, that

we had found them to be unusable by the blind, and that this was a violation

of the law. Within two weeks from the time that our letters were dispatched,

we had received responses from all concerned. Tax programs to be used for filing

returns in the spring of 2001 will be usable by the blind. H&R Block has

already visited with us to discuss methods of making their tax programs usable

by blind taxpayers, and the other companies have promised to work with us in

the months to come. This is only the beginning. It is essential that programs

accessible on the web can be used by the blind. It is especially important that

this be true when such programs are created by our own tax dollars. We do not

intend for the money that we pay to be used to create a system that shuts us

out. It is not only good business; it is the law.

Another part of the computer world in which we expect to be

included is America Online (AOL). Blind people have complained about the inaccessibility

of AOL for years. In many instances, computer-based information is offered in

a fashion that permits access technology to present the material in Braille

or speech. However, AOL offers its information only in pictographs without identifying

text labels. Consequently, it is virtually impossible for blind people independently

to use the AOL system.

We sought the opportunity to discuss the importance of making AOL information

accessible to the blind, but officials at the company seemed uninterested. When

we insisted, they told us that they would get back to us. However, we are not

prepared to wait indefinitely. On November 4, 1999, we brought suit in Federal

District Court against America Online, asking that the company be ordered to

make its Internet computer system accessible to the blind.

AOL has something in the neighborhood of twenty million subscribers. It has

decided to become the company that will create the standard for providing information

to the public. That standard excludes the blind. We have repeatedly asked in

the past that this standard be modified to include blind participants. Sympathetic

responses have been made, but modifications have not come. How long should we

wait? How much patience should we have? How much tolerance should the blind

be expected to possess? Why should other people have what the blind can never

get? We are not prepared to be shut out or ignored, or intimidated, or forgotten.

If the information age is important (and we are repeatedly told that it is),

we who are blind intend to be as much a part of it as anybody else. This is

the message we sent through the filing of the lawsuit.

The AOL lawsuit was filed in November, and it generated substantial interest

in the applicability of nondiscrimination law to the Internet. Commerce, education,

entertainment, and communications are increasingly dependent on Internet providers.

On February 9, 2000, members of Congress held a hearing dedicated to considering

the applicability of the Americans with Disabilities Act to the Internet. A

number of people in the business community argued at the hearing that the Act

does not apply and that there is no obligation to make the Internet accessible

to blind consumers. However, we the National Federation of the Blind vehemently

opposed this position, and we were able to place a member of our own board of

directors, Gary Wunder, on the list of witnesses to provide testimony. The cogent

and incisive report he gave to the members of the committee was compelling.

Blind people need access to the Internet at least as much as other people do.

Although there were those who had predicted that the hearing would be used as

a method for attacking and defeating our lawsuit against AOL, the outcome has

been more in support of our position than against it. Sometimes, our success

on Capitol Hill is measured not by what happens but by what does not happen.

In this case, the proposal to galvanize public opinion against our position

failed. The arguments we made were strong enough to prevent actions from being

taken against us.

The Randolph-Sheppard Act provides a priority for blind persons operating cafeterias

on federal property. However, this priority has been under attack by the Department

of the Army and by agencies that run workshops for people with severe disabilities.

NISH, formerly known as National Industries for the Severely Handicapped, is

a non-profit organization which distributes federal contracts to such workshops.

NISH asserts that the priority under the Randolph-Sheppard Act does not apply

to government dining facilities such as military mess halls because the government

(not individual employees of the government) is buying the meals.

NISH filed a lawsuit late in 1999 claiming that the Randolph-Sheppard Act does

not apply to military dining facilities at Fort Lee, Virginia. We intervened

on behalf of all blind vendors. Although the case is less than a year old, a

decision has now been reached. The Federal Court for the Eastern District of

Virginia has a reputation for speed. Lawyers sometimes call it the rocket-docket.

The opinion of the court, which was issued on April 25, 2000, held that mess

halls are cafeterias as defined by the RandolphSheppard Act, that blind people

have a priority to operate them, and that other government procurement regulations

do not supersede the Randolph-Sheppard Act. You will not be astonished to learn

that NISH has filed an appeal. However, we intend to pursue the case as far

as is necessary to preserve the rights of blind vendors, and we intend to win.

During the past year, Mrs. Mary Ellen Jernigan and I have continued to serve

as delegates to the World Blind Union from the National Federation of the Blind.

I am also president of the North America/Caribbean Region and a member of the

World Fundraising Committee. To conduct the business of the organization and

to represent the members of the National Federation of the Blind, Mrs. Jernigan

and I traveled to Lewes, England; Stockhlom, Sweden; and Beijing, China.

At the Fundraising Committee meeting, which occurred in Lewes, England, we discussed

the urgent need for additional participation by blind individuals and organizations.

In one sense the World Blind Union has not lacked funding. Tens of thousands

of dollars are channeled through the organization each year to support this

or that favored project or priority established by the funding organization.

However, virtually no money exists to be spent on needs identified through democratic

policy determinations made by the organization itself. We believe this is wrong

and perpetuates an unwholesome and undemocratic class system among the members

of the world organization. The National Federation of the Blind has taken the

lead in trying to open the WBU to full participation for all of its members

by making an unearmarked challenge grant in the amount of twenty-five thousand

dollars on the condition that a number of other organizations do likewise. The

World Blind Union can become the voice of the blind of the world only when it

can determine its own priorities and policies, and it can do this only when

it controls its own treasury. We will continue our participation because we

need a world organization to change opportunities for the blind in our own country

and throughout the world.

The work of the National Federation of the Blind continues to receive recognition

in our own country and in other lands, as well. In February of 2000, I was invited

to give lectures on civil rights for the blind at Oxford University and Birmingham

University, England. Fundamental within these lectures was the attitude of independence

and selfreliance of the blind that is at the heart of Federation philosophy.

The Oxford lecture was videotaped and is available for all students on campus.

While I was in England, I spoke with members of the National Federation of the

Blind of the United Kingdom. The great joy that we feel in attaining self-sufficiency

is reflected in our colleagues in that country, and it is a pleasure to know

that we can join hands with others in different parts of the world. In fact,

we have considered conducting seminars on leadership for the blind in different

nations. How can we gain independence for the blind in other countries and in

our own? Create a movement of the blind; find friends who will share our burdens

and join with us to accomplish what we had formerly thought could only be a

dream.

Shortly before last year's convention, I asked Dr. Norman Gardner, a long-time

leader of the National Federation of the Blind, to travel to Mexico to speak

on behalf of the Federation at a congress of individuals that had been brought

together to consider programs for the disabled. An increasing quantity of our

Federation literature has been translated into Spanish. Several members of our

organization contribute to this effort: Michael Marucci, husband of Marie Marucci,

who is a staff member at the National Center for the Blind; Angela Ugarte, mother

of Ana Ugarte, a scholarship winner of the National Federation of the Blind;

and Alpidio Rolon, president of the National Federation of the Blind of Puerto

Rico. Norman Gardner informed me that the Spanish literature he took with him

to Mexico was collected with astonishing speed. It was as valuable, he said,

as water in the desert.

We will continue to produce more literature in Spanish. I have asked Dr. Gardner

to coordinate and expand this effort. Those who make the translations are volunteers,

but their contributions are changing lives for people not only in the United

States but also throughout much of the rest of the world. One of our translators,

Angela Ugarte, has personal experience with this kind of change. She tells us

why she is committed. Her letter says: "When my daughter Ana Marie lost

her vision, I became her eyes in many ways. However, my constant concern was,

'what will she do when I die?' Then, the National Federation of the Blind offered

the opportunity to go to Denver to become an independent person. After she finished

the training, and I saw the different person she had become, I thought, 'I can

now die in peace because the National Federation of the Blind is behind her.'

I offered Dr. Jernigan to do translations because I felt from the bottom of

my heart I had to give something back to the NFB."

This mother of a blind daughter discovered a solution to what she had thought

was an insurmountable problem. Her daughter also gained immeasurably. She found

freedom.

Our Job Opportunities for the Blind Program has continued to grow. During the

last year we have enrolled more than two hundred new participants and placed

dozens in competitive employment with entities such as Amerix Corporation, Cendant

Travel, Sears, the Social Security Administration, Travelers Insurance, the

Department of Veterans' Affairs, Service Master Aviation Services, WESLA Federal

Credit Union, Catholic Charities, the General Services Administration, and the

Baltimore Harbor Court Hotel. Other employers have asked us to find applicants

for them to consider.

Protecting and defending separate and identifiable programs for the blind is

part of the ongoing work of the National Federation of the Blind. Our experience

has shown that better service is provided for a greater number of people when

the administrative structure of state governmental programs for the blind is

separate and accountable to the blind. During the past year, programming for

the blind has been attacked in South Dakota, Florida, and Louisiana. In South

Dakota the outcome is particularly definitive. In a memorandum dated August

26, 1999, John Jones, Secretary of the Department for Human Services, announced

that he was scrapping a plan to combine rehabilitation services for the blind

with other functions of government. This was done despite the fact that Mr.

Jones and others had indicated that the plan to eliminate separate programs

for the blind could not be stopped. Karen Mayry and our members in South Dakota,

working with me and others in our National Office, combined our efforts to oppose

elimination of separate programs for the blind. The reason Mr. Jones decided

to change his mind is clear from his own words in the memorandum he issued:

"Hard core opposition from the blind."

In Florida, too, the proposal to eliminate separate programs for the blind died.

In Louisiana, the president of the National Federation of the Blind of Louisiana,

Joanne Wilson, brought together a massive public protest in the capital. More

than five hundred people attended, and the proposal to privatize rehabilitation

there was killed. This is the power of the National Federation of the Blind.

In Nebraska, the Federation urged members of the legislature to create a separate

commission for the blind, and legislation to establish this agency has been

adopted and signed by the governor. On July l, 2000, the Nebraska Commission

for the Blind came into being. It is governed by a five-member board. One representative

is a long-time member of the National Federation of the Blind, Barbara Walker.

The Fair Labor Standards Act contains a provision that allows employers to pay

blind workers less than the minimum wage. For decades we have fought to eliminate

this unfair discriminatory provision. Earlier this year at our request, Congressman

Johnny Isakson of Georgia and Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut introduced

bills in the House of Representatives and the Senate to eliminate subminimum

wages for the blind. Our efforts to bring pay equity to blind people have been

reported by CNN, The Washington Post, and many other news outlets. Support

for ending the policy that permits subminimum wages for the blind is growing

in Congress, and we are creating the momentum.

A proposal has been introduced in Congress to authorize officials within the

Library of Congress to shift money from one line item within the budget to another.

What difference does this make to the blind, you may ask. Funds appropriated

to provide books for the blind could be used for other purposes if this bill

is adopted. Almost all of the reading material available to the blind comes

from the Library, and the blind of the nation need it urgently. If we do not

have the full range of information available to us that others have, our capacity

for participation is severely restricted. The proposal to permit shifts in allocated

funds within the budget of the Library of Congress is not new, and it constitutes

a severe threat to one of the most important and vital programs for the blind

currently in existence. Therefore, we have opposed this proposal in the past,

and we are continuing to do so today. For ourselves, for blind children who

cannot readily speak for themselves, for the blind who will come after us, we

say: maintain the funds; give us books; let us read!

We have also been active in supporting the rights of blind people through the

courts. As I reported a year ago, Monica Stugelmeyer is a blind woman living

in Spokane, Washington, and a long-time member of the National Federation of

the Blind. Sometime ago she became employed at the Cowles Publishing Company,

which produces the Spokesman Review Newspaper. After working on the paper

for some time, she sought a promotion to become an inserter operator, but her

request was denied because of blindness. We assisted Monica Stugelmeyer in filing

a complaint of discrimination. In late October last fall the case was settled.

The settlement agreement says that we cannot disclose the amount received by

Monica Stuglemeyer. However, it is big enough that Cowles Publishing will not

soon forget.

Norwegian Cruise Lines offers pleasure voyages that originate in United States

ports. However, several members of the National Federation of the Blind have

recently been informed that blind people are unwelcome onboard unless they accept

conditions of travel laid down by Norwegian, that do not apply to the sighted.

Robert Stigile and Joy Cardinet are members of the Federation from California

who were planning a honeymoon cruise with Norwegian. However, the cruise line

demanded that they sign waivers of liability, that they obtain advice from a

physician regarding risks of travel for those who are blind, and that they purchase

special travelers' insurance to cover the supposedly added risk of damage faced

by blind passengers. If this set of conditions seems onerous, it is not all

that was demanded. Robert and Joy were informed that they would not be permitted

onboard unless they agreed to make the cruise accompanied by a non-disabled

passenger, who would stay with them in their cabin. Does this condition sound

particularly impressive for those planning a honeymoon cruise?

We are assisting with the case. We have asked the Department of Justice to take

an interest. We reject every single one of the conditions imposed by Norwegian

Cruise Lines, and we will find a way for the blind to sail along with others

without restraint, without harassment, and without some snoopy sighted person

to bother us in our cabins.

Dr. Daryush Sattari is a blind teacher living in Georgia. For two years he has

taught earth sciences in Jonesboro. All six of his performance evaluations give

him the highest rating, and his supervisors have consistently indicated that

he is a good teacher. However, a new principal has been assigned to the school

where he teaches. Shortly before this convention, Dr. Sattari was informed that

he will not be retained as a teacher because there are problems with his classroom

management. Although all other teachers in the school received a letters from

the district superintendent requesting that they continue to teach, Dr. Sattari

was told to pack up and leave. We are working with the teachers union to file

a complaint of discrimination. The union is with us; it recognizes unfairness;

and it is prepared to fight. Good performance demands recognition, and we intend

to get this for Dr. Sattari along with a renewal of his contract or damages

for discriminatory behavior.

Bob Clark lives in Indiana and is a blind father of a three-year-old daughter.

In a custody battle with his former wife, he was denied the opportunity to have

unsupervised custody of his child because of blindness. If he wanted to see

her, he must have with him a full-time sighted supervisor, the court ruled.

We learned about the case and assisted him by filing a brief on his behalf in

the Indiana Court of Appeals and by appearing for him in the court. On March

10, 2000, the Court of Appeals issued its decision reversing the lower court.

Bob Clark can visit with his daughter without the necessity of a sighted person

to supervise the two of them. Blind people have as many family obligations and

rights as others possess, and this was made clear by the decision of the Court

of Appeals:

Rose Tillis is a blind person living in a rural community of Georgia called

Ellavell. This spring she gave birth to her daughter, Angel La Rose Tillis.

When it was time for her to leave the hospital, personnel there said blind parents

could not competently care for newborn children, and they insisted that Rose

Tillis sign papers to grant custody of her new baby to her sighted sister. The

National Federation of the Blind learned of the matter. We investigated and

found that Rose Tillis is competent. We sent lawyers to Georgia along with dozens

of blind parents to serve as witnesses, and we filed a petition of Habeas Corpus

demanding that the child be released to her mother. As we gathered in the court

room for the hearing, with the blind parents prepared to give testimony and

the newspaper and television reporters prepared to write the story, the sister

of Rose Tillis and hospital officials agreed to do what should have been done

in the beginning. They released Angela La Rose Tillis to her mother. The family

has been reunited through the efforts of the National Federation of the Blind.

Carol Randolph is a blind teacher in Greenville, South Carolina, who was informed

that she would not get a job teaching in the district because she is blind.

Negotiations failed so we assisted with the lawsuit, and the matter has now

been resolved. Carol Randolph has been offered a contract, and she will be teaching.

In addition, the school district has paid for the harm it caused. Carol Randolph

received more than one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars.

At our convention last year, we announced a campaign to raise capital to construct

the National Research and Training Institute for the Blind. This is one of the

most ambitious endeavors we have ever undertaken. We estimate that the construction

will cost approximately eighteen million dollars. Concept documents have been

drafted, and we have asked for support from thousands of individuals, dozens

of companies, and many foundations.

The purpose of the campaign is to bring into the field of work with the blind

an emphasis in research which recognizes the fundamental capacity of blind people.

We also intend to include within this facility the Jacobus tenBroek Library,

which will collect documents and writings on blindness from all over the world.

It has been said that revolutions begin in the libraries. Our revolution was

initiated in the hearts and minds of the blind, but it is not finished. We intend

to promote it within the research library we plan to build. As we come to this

convention, we have raised approximately four and a half million dollars in

outright gifts and pledges for the construction of this facility. We hope to

have sufficient funding to begin construction in a little more than a year's

time. We must build our own future: With the National Research and Training

Institute for the Blind, we intend to do exactly that.

In 1991, 1993, and 1996, we conducted at the National Center for the Blind jointly

with the Canadian National Institute for the Blind US-Canada Conferences on

technology for the blind. The fourth of these occurred in the fall of 1999,

once again being hosted by the National Federation of the Blind at the National

Center. This conference, as did its predecessors, invited decision-makers from

all major manufacturers of products for the blind and organizations involving

blindness in the United States and Canada. New technology was discussed along

with trends in development of access systems for the blind. Joint efforts to

shape policy so that blind people are considered when systems are developed

was a high priority. Exchange of ideas and information has been a fundamental

force in bringing these conferences together. However, the fourth US-Canada

Conference on technology for the blind also encouraged an exchange of mutual

support. It brought greater harmony and cooperation to matters dealing with

technology for the blind than has previously existed. A full report of the proceedings

appeared in the January 2000 issue of the Braille Monitor.

Last fall we hosted a meeting of the International Council on English Braille

inviting representatives from all English-speaking parts of the world to support

Braille programs for the blind everywhere. Promoting independence of the blind

through increased literacy was a favorite mission of Betty Niceley, who served

as President of the National Association to Promote the Use of Braille and who

had formally been a member of the Nation Board of Directors of the National

Federation of the Blind. Betty was elected president of the international Council

on English Braille last November. Within weeks of her election, we learned that

she had serious heart disease; she died within a few short months. However,

her dream of greater Braille literacy for the blind of the world remains, and

we give it our full support.

We have continued during the past year to conduct programs and activities that

have come to be a part of the Federation. We have taught seminars to parents

and educators of blind children and given classes in Braille and nonvisual technology.

We have assisted in creating a training video on the handling of blind passengers

for United Airlines. We have supported a blind mountain climber, Erik Weihenmayer,

in his efforts to scale the tallest peaks in the world. We have conducted seminars

for blind high school students from New York and New Jersey at the National

Center for the Blind. We have increased our scholarship program to provide thirty

students with scholarship grants that range in amount from four thousand to

twenty-one thousand dollars. We have commenced conducting community education

breakfasts at the National Center for the Blind to which we invite business

and sports leaders. The tennis champion and news commentator Pam Shriver served

as one of the keynote speakers.

We are currently upgrading our web site, nfb.org, which offers three thousand

four hundred and twenty-six files to the public. Four hundred and twenty-two

thousand nine hundred and sixty visitors from one hundred and thirteen different

countries sought information from our site in the last year, and the requests

for information numbered one million three hundred fifty-four thousand and ninety-seven.

From our Materials Center we filled more than six thousand orders, distributing

approximately two million items to blind people in the United States and throughout

the world. A record number of visitors came to the National Center for the Blind,

almost two thousand from twenty-one different countries. We have continued to

distribute the Braille Monitor, with a circulation of approximately thirty-five

thousand per month, and Voice of the Diabetic, which is now being distributed

to more than two hundred and eighty thousand readers each quarter. We continue

to produce and distribute the Kernel Books, those volumes of firsthand accounts

about blindness that offer a depth of understanding about the problems we face

to members of the public. The eighteenth Kernel Book, Oh Wow!, is being released

at this convention, and the nineteenth book, I Can Feel Blue on Mondays,

will be released later this fall. Blindness is often misunderstood, but with

the distribution of our Kernel Books we are having a powerful impact in bringing

greater understanding. There are currently more than four million of these volumes

in circulation.

Then, there are Future Reflections, the magazine for parents and educators

of blind children; the American Bar Association Journal, recorded edition;

and a number of other newsletters and magazines of divisions and affiliates

of the Federation.

As I reflect upon the activities of the Federation for the preceding twelve

months, I believe that we have never been in better health—never been more

active—never been better able to promote our own goals and carry out our

own programs. Some of the programs we undertake change from year to year, but

the fundamental purposes of the Federation do not. I came to be a part of the

movement over thirty years ago, and my first convention was a revelation to

me—it was fresh, exciting, stimulating, challenging. It placed the responsibility

for our future squarely within our own hands, and it demanded that we find a

way to make that future bright both for us and for those who would come after

us. The convention insisted that we recognize and adopt a pattern of behavior

which would give to our lives independence and productive accomplishment. We

knew it wouldn't happen overnight. We knew it would be demanding. We knew it

would require sacrifice and the capacity to believe in ourselves and our blind

brothers and sisters. But we also knew that the faith we shared could never

be crushed; the progress we made could never be thwarted; and the dreams we

possessed could never be extinguished if we would only maintain the proper spirit.

It was true when I came to the Federation. It is true in this convention today.

It will be true when we come together in the decades to come!

What causes our dreams to become real? Why do we continue to gain greater success?

We in the Federation have a bond of shared love and trust. As long as we share

our sorrows, our disappointment, and our burdens, none is too great for us to

bear. And of course, with the sharing of work and responsibility comes also

the sharing of triumph and joy.

I have said in the past, and I repeat today, that we in the Federation have

a mutual commitment—you as members and I as President. As long as you want

me to do so, I will lead our movement with as much wisdom and firmness as I

am capable of bringing to the task. I will give my time, my energy, my interest,

my imagination, and my resources. I will not shirk or duck responsibility or

try to cut corners, and I will be prepared to stand in the front line of the

battles and to take whatever comes.

You, too, have a responsibility to our movement, and I will not hesitate to

ask that you meet it. You must believe in what we are doing and give of your

time, your imagination, your resources, and your dedication. You must also support

me when the challenges come. With this bond—this commitment—there

is nothing on earth that can prevent us from reaching our objectives. I have

looked into the hearts of Federation members, and I know the spirit that burns

within them. We the National Federation of the Blind are absolutely unstoppable.

This is my faith in our future. This is my commitment, and this is my report

to you.

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Updated: March 14, 2002