Presidential Report, 7/94

Presidential Report, 7/94

PRESIDENTIAL

REPORT

National Federation of the Blind

DETROIT, MICHIGAN, JULY 4, 1994

by Marc Maurer

The activities of the National Federation of the Blind during

the past year have been extensive and diversified. The change in the scope and

breadth of our undertakings from the time we first organized has been dramatic.

We have become much bigger, much more complex, and much more vigorously involved

in a broad spectrum of endeavors than we were even as recently as a decade ago.

The Federation might seem to be different from its former self to those who

have known it only superficially, but our essential character as a nationwide

movement of the blind working on a volunteer basis, along with our sighted colleagues

and friends, has never altered. The spirit which is the driving force of our

organization is as clear, as distinct, and as alive today as it was when our

founder Dr. Jacobus tenBroek and those few other blind people established the

Federation at Wilkes- Barre, Pennsylvania, in 1940.

We are the blind, organized in every part of the nation—those

who have recently become blind and those who have been blind for a long time;

the older blind; the parents of blind children and the children themselves;

those in the field of work with the blind; blind students; those blind people

who are hunting employment and those who have employment (the teachers, the

lawyers, the factory workers, the vending operators, the office employees, the

farmers, the day laborers)—volunteers from every level of society, from

every ethnic background, from every kind of employment, and from every cultural

setting. As we assemble in the largest gathering of blind people that will take

place anywhere in our country this year (probably the largest that has ever

taken place in the history of the world), our dedication is strong; our purpose

is unified; and our mood is harmonious.

A few weeks before this convention, the television program

"Jeopardy!" asked us to verify that the National Federation of the

Blind initiated White Cane Safety Day. This day was first established in 1964

by Congressional resolution, which had been introduced at the request of the

National Federation of the Blind to encourage official public recognition of

the white cane as a symbol of the right of blind people to be fully independent

and to be an equal part of the community. National White Cane Safety Day and

the National Federation of the Blind, we were told, would be included in the

questioning on the "Jeopardy!" program. The white cane has sometimes

been regarded as a mark of inferiority rather than an emblem of independence.

The National Federation of the Blind is the vehicle for gaining acceptance and

recognition of this independence, and our message is being carried, even on

the "Jeopardy!" program.

It is vital that an in-depth understanding of the real meaning

of blindness be internalized in the thinking of society. Our publications, especially

our Kernel Books—What Color is the Sun, As the Twig Is Bent, The Freedom

Bell, Making Hay, The Journey, Standing on One Foot, and soon When the

Blizzard Blows—are among the most powerful tools that have ever been

created for illustrating the innate normality and ability of blind people. Not

all families in the United States have one of our Kernel Books, but an increasing

number do. Since our last convention we have distributed over four hundred thousand

of them—approximately fifty million pages of information about what we

are and what we are doing. Blindness is not the crippling malady that many people

think it is. Our Kernel Books are disseminating a positive understanding about

blindness.

The Kernel Books are not our only method of public education.

There are the radio and television spots which we have transmitted by satellite

to thousands of stations this year for broadcast to the homes of an estimated

hundred million people. There are the news and information programs on television

which have featured prominently the work of the National Federation of the Blind,

including NBC's "Today Show." Our television appearances have numbered

more than fifteen hundred in the last twelve months. There have also been more

than five thousand newspaper articles about us.

Paul Kay is a lawyer in Washington, D.C., and a dedicated member

and supporter of the Federation. He and I were interviewed on the Larry King

radio program last winter about the programs of the Federation and our efforts

to gain equal opportunity.

For most of recorded history blindness has been synonymous

with disadvantage, isolation, and inability to compete. However, we are changing

that mistaken image one article, one mailing, one book, one public service announcement,

one television appearance, one radio program, and one daily life of a Federationist

at a time. The combined impact of all of this public education is immeasurable

and sweeping. The new understanding throughout the nation is not yet complete,

but we are getting there.

More and more the influence of the National Federation of the

Blind is being felt not only in the United States but in other parts of the

world as well. A letter which came to us this spring requests permission to

translate into the Russian language Dr. Kenneth Jernigan's banquet address entitled

"Blindness: The Pattern of Freedom." This request came from the City

Library for the Blind of St. Petersburg, Russia. If you want to know about the

real meaning of blindness, look for our literature in the libraries. From Boise

to Baltimore, from San Francisco to St. Petersburg, you can look us up in the

library.

Dr. Kenneth Jernigan serves as President Emeritus of the National

Federation of the Blind and President of the North America/Caribbean Region

of the World Blind Union. Our participation in international meetings during

the past year has provided unprecedented opportunities for interaction with

organizations of and for the blind and with blind individuals throughout the

world.

At a meeting of the World Blind Union Executive Committee in

Melbourne, Australia, held earlier this year, Dr. Jernigan learned that the

birthplace of Louis Braille, the blind Frenchman who invented the Braille system

more than a hundred and fifty years ago, had been closed to the public because

of needed repairs. This historic structure, now a museum, must be saved. Louis

Braille gave us literacy, which opened to our minds the great panoply of learning.

Joining people and organizations from many parts of the world, we in the United

States committed ourselves to provide leadership and financial support in the

restoration of the museum. Dr. and Mrs. Jernigan traveled to Coupvray, France,

to visit the Louis Braille home to examine the condition of the building and

to discuss renovations. They carried with them the initial gift from the blind

of the United States—$10,000.

Dr. Jernigan stood on the threshold of the Louis Braille home

and spoke for the blind of the United States. While he was there, in the place

where the system of writing for the blind was invented, he reached back in spirit

to touch the events of a former time—to be at one with the creator of the

Braille system—and he reached forward to a time when Braille literacy will

be available not only for five or ten or fifteen percent of blind people, but

for all of us. The commitment that we reaffirmed forty miles outside of Paris

in Coupvray, France, is that we will never forget our heritage. We will never

relinquish the right of the blind to meaningful education, the right to full

participation in society, the right to equality—in short, the right to

read.

Several years ago we initiated a nationwide Braille literacy

campaign, which continues today. We drafted model legislation which declares

that blind students have the right to learn Braille and that the school systems

everywhere in the country must provide both Braille textbooks and instruction

in Braille whenever this is warranted. Furthermore, textbook publishers wishing

to sell materials in print to the school systems are required to provide an

electronic copy of the text in a format that can be used by the school system

to produce the book in Braille. Comprehensive Braille literacy statutes sponsored

and promoted by the National Federation of the Blind have been adopted this

year in New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah, Ohio, Georgia, and Colorado.

This brings the number of states that have Braille literacy laws to twenty-five.

We continue to fight for the introduction and passage of these bills, and we

will not rest until every state has adopted our model law.

Braille literacy legislation was adopted in Wisconsin in 1992,

but the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (along with a number of teachers

of the blind who said they represented the Wisconsin Association for the Education

and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired), decided to nullify the

law by regulation. Although the clear language of the statute declares that

teachers of the blind must be able to demonstrate their competence in reading

and writing Braille, the proposed regulations to implement the law said otherwise.

Teachers of the blind could receive certification, these proposed rules said,

without demonstrating the ability to read and write Braille. A passing grade

in a college course that dealt with the subject of Braille would be enough.

The blind were not buying it. We could not be bamboozled. Those

who are supposed to teach Braille must know it. Led by Bonnie Peterson, the

able President of the National Federation of the Blind of Wisconsin, the blind

of that state gathered to protest. Members of the legislature were contacted;

testimony was prepared; articles were written; and the experiences of blind

men and women who had been denied the opportunity to learn Braille were recounted.

On June 3, 1994, the regulations were finally completed. Those who seek certification

as teachers of the blind in Wisconsin will be required to take and pass the

National Literary Braille Competency Test administered by the Library of Congress.

This would not have happened without the efforts of the organized blind. We

know Braille works; we want the teachers of the blind in Wisconsin and elsewhere

to know it too. And we intend to have something to say about what is in the

curriculum.

Our Braille Literacy Training program is a joint effort between

the National Federation of the Blind and the American Printing House for the

Blind. In this program we are developing teaching materials which incorporate

the experience of competent educators and literate blind persons. Those lessons

go beyond the formal academic setting to our daily lives. Although an eminently

sensible idea, this approach to the study of Braille is completely novel. Sometimes

blind people have taught each other to read. Sometimes teachers of the blind

have done it. In our Braille Literacy Training program, the teachers and the

blind are working cooperatively, both in the teaching of the skill and in the

development of the materials to be used in the classes. Is there any doubt that

expanded literacy for blind readers will be the result? Of course not.

In 1991 the first U.S./Canada Conference on Technology for

the Blind was convened at the National Center for the Blind. It was an historic

meeting because, for the first time, every major organization of and for the

blind in the United States and Canada participated. Hosted by the National Federation

of the Blind, the Second U.S./Canada Conference on Technology for the Blind

occurred in the fall of 1993. This meeting was even more far-reaching than the

first had been. Cooperative interaction among producers of technology, service

providers, and blind consumers stimulates accelerated development of new products

and innovative technology for the blind. The Second U.S./Canada Conference on

Technology for the Blind was an overwhelming success, and we are pleased to

have been able to host and chair it. Its value can be seen in both the new attitudes

and the new technology that are now emerging.

The proceedings of this conference were printed in the January,

1994, issue of the Braille Monitor, which has received broad distribution.

One indication of the value of this conference is contained in a letter from

the Executive Officer of the United States District Court for the Central District

of California to the Assistant Director of the Administrative Office for the

entire federal court system. The letter says:

The enclosed magazine, titled Braille Monitor, is

a publication of the National Federation of the Blind. A management analyst

from the Bankruptcy Court, Donovan Cooper, sent me a copy of the publication.

The contents focus on the subject of twenty-first-century technology for the

blind.

I thought you might wish to share this publication with appropriate

members of your division staff that might be called upon to address hardware/technology

issues for special needs court personnel.

Besides being a very talented statistician [the letter continues],

Mr. Cooper is extraordinarily active in the blind community and knowledgeable

of the issues challenging the non-sighted in the work force.

Mr. Cooper would be an excellent court resource if the need

arises.

This letter shows what can be done when we use the resources

that we have. Throughout the entire administrative structure of the federal

court system, the resource in matters dealing with blindness is the organized

blind movement, the National Federation of the Blind.

In conjunction with the Second U.S./Canada Conference on Technology

for the Blind, we opened the newly renovated and expanded International Braille

and Technology Center for the Blind. After this major upgrade, the IBTC consists

of a main display hall two-and-a-half times as large as the area previously

used, an office for the director, ten additional offices, conference facilities,

a kitchen, a pantry, space for a museum, an office for the museum director,

and a maintenance area. The construction in the International Braille and Technology

Center for the Blind is typical of what we have done and continue to do at the

National Center for the Blind. The interior walls are over six inches thick,

made of paneling over heavy-duty dry wall for extra strength. In this one operation

we used 33,728 square feet of paneling and over a hundred thousand pounds of

dry wall.

The main display hall of the International Braille and Technology

Center for the Blind, which is truly the gem of the renovated area, has a number

of custom-designed features. More than sixteen hundred square feet of built-in

desk-top space is available to display the technology. Forty-four electrical

circuits feed over six hundred different outlets for the approximately one hundred

and seventy-five technological products now on display.

We have installed thirty-one new products and upgraded thirty-five

others this year. These include five Braille embossers, six Braille translators,

six speech synthesizers, sixteen screen review programs (three of which are

for Microsoft Windows), five refreshable Braille displays, two money identifiers,

one color identifier, two telecommunications devices for the deaf-blind, one

note taker, six stand-alone reading machines or PC-based reading systems, a

number of software packages, and several new computers to operate these devices,

as well as associated peripherals, cables, connectors, and related material.

I emphasize that all of what I have mentioned has been added

during the past year. It is in addition to the main body of technology that

we already had in place. The added value of this new technology represents a

great deal of money, but it represents an even greater asset to the blind of

our country and the world. The replacement cost for our technological products

is approaching two million dollars. This, of course, does not count the value

of the structural upgrade, the furniture, and the built-in desks and circuitry.

When we opened the International Braille and Technology Center

for the Blind in 1990 on our fiftieth birthday, we undertook a tremendous task.

We said that we would get and keep current a truly awesome collection of technology.

We would provide (for examination, study, and evaluation) at least one of every

device for producing hard copy and refreshable Braille being made anywhere in

the world, and we would do the same for speech-producing devices. We would do

likewise for reading machines that would convert the printed page to spoken

words, and we would also keep current on other devices, such as money identifiers,

communication devices for the deaf-blind, and calculators.

The pledge that we made to ourselves and the world in 1990

has been kept. No other comparable collection of technology has ever been assembled,

and regardless of the cost we will continue the program and keep the technology

current. The International Braille and Technology Center for the Blind serves

as a testing and learning center for manufacturers of devices for the blind,

for educators and administrators, for governmental officials, for employers,

for the general public, and (by no means least) for the blind themselves both

here and abroad. Technology is being built. We will collect it; we will help

design it; we will help distribute it; and we will work to see that it truly

serves the needs of the blind—the purpose for which it was created in the

first place.

Our computer bulletin board service, NFB NET, continues to

expand. More than 8,000 calls were made to the board during the past year. Approximately

500 new users registered with the service. Discussions of blindness and the

National Federation of the Blind are not only carried on NFB NET but are also

distributed through our bulletin board service to almost 250 other bulletin

boards. In addition to the Braille Monitor, Future Reflections, and a

wide variety of other NFB literature, our bulletin board carries substantial

collections of computer information, electronic magazines, reference materials,

computer programs, and electronic copies of classical literature. Some of the

books we have on the bulletin board are the writings of Aristotle, Aristophanes,

Confucius, Shakespeare, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Rice Burrows, and Mark

Twain. To handle all of this information we have increased our telephone lines

and obtained a new, faster computer, with lots of memory and multi-gigabytes.

Because we are the organized blind, we serve as a watchdog

over programs for the blind. At times this role causes certain agencies and

institutions to feel uneasiness, or worse. However, more and more of the agencies

in the blindness field are coming to recognize the positive value of this function

and are working with us. Cooperation is growing among agencies and organizations

dealing with the blind. In March of this year Dr. Kenneth Jernigan, our President

Emeritus and the most prolific writer and brilliant philosopher in the field

of work with the blind, was invited to make a keynote address to the American

Foundation for the Blind's Josephine Taylor Leadership Institute. This invitation

is one more indication of the shifting emphasis and balances in the blindness

field. It is a signpost on the road of progress which we are traveling. Not

all of the disagreements between the organized blind and the agencies serving

the blind are at an end, but there is now a mechanism for handling disagreements

and a climate to make it possible.

Along these lines it should be noted that we went with three

other groups last fall to meet with Judy Heumann, the newly appointed Assistant

Secretary of Education for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative

Services. The meeting was harmonious and resulted in positive outcomes. It is

illustrative of an increasing number of joint activities that we are undertaking.

There have been many legal cases this year. Our files indicate

that in the course of our history we have assisted blind people in over eleven

hundred legal matters. A number of them were actively pursued during the last

twelve months.

Carol Ducote has served as an assistant principal at Brunswick

High School in Glynn County, Georgia, for eight years. She became blind during

the 1992-93 school year but continued to perform her duties. Evaluations of

her performance indicate that she is competent at handling her job.

A year ago Carol Ducote was told by the school district superintendent

not to return to work in the fall of 1993 because she was blind. The superintendent's

directive was, of course, a violation of the law. The school system had offered

this blind teacher a contract for the 1993-94 school year, and she intended

to fulfil it. Carol Ducote contacted leaders of the National Federation of the

Blind of Georgia, and we in the National Office also assisted with the case.

At a meeting in mid-November last fall, we told the school board that their

choices were simple—either Carol Ducote could be returned to her position

as an assistant principal, or the National Federation of the Blind would go

with her to federal court. The school board did not take long to make up its

mind. Within a week Carol Ducote was back at work. She completed her assignments

for the school year that has just ended, and she has signed a new contract for

the one that is about to begin. Blindness didn't stop her, and we didn't let

prejudice stop her either.

Richard Stanley had been a police officer for the city of Winter

Haven, Florida, before he lost his sight. Although he had become blind in the

line of duty, he was denied disability benefits through the police department

because the officers in charge of disability payments concluded that Richard

Stanley was not blind. The evidence for this conclusion is contained on a videotape

which shows Richard Stanley trimming his shrubbery. Blind people, so the argument

went, cannot trim shrubbery, so Richard Stanley must be faking it. We explained

the facts to the pension board and assisted in gathering evidence to establish

the nature of the injury that resulted in disability. Richard Stanley is now

receiving benefits, and he can trim his shrubbery in peace.

For several years Geneva Teagarden worked at Foley's department

store in Fort Worth, Texas. A year ago, before she became blind, Geneva Teagarden

had been one of the most valuable employees at Foley's. When she reported her

blindness to store management, they asked her to retire. But Geneva Teagarden

did not want to retire. She felt that she had much to contribute, but she needed

training in the alternative skills of blindness. We helped her arrange for the

Texas Commission for the Blind to send her to our Louisiana Center for the Blind,

where she is presently a student. We also assisted her to secure a leave of

absence. She can return to her job at Foley's in December. The training is essential,

but so is the job, and so is the part played by the National Federation of the

Blind. Geneva Teagarden is succeeding because of the collective efforts of all

of us, because of the National Federation of the Blind.

Eric Baenen is a twenty-nine-year-old blind man living in North

Dakota. He has been trying for many years to get financial assistance from the

state rehabilitation agency to help him go to college. Last winter, when his

plans for attending school were disapproved because the rehabilitation agency

told him there was only money for priority cases and that he wasn't one, he

contacted the National Federation of the Blind to find out what could be done.

On a Friday afternoon we communicated with the North Dakota office of rehabilitation

to insist that the long years of waiting come to an end. By the following Monday

the decision of the agency had changed. Eric Baenen received his chance to go

to school with full funding for tuition and related services.

In the name of providing equal access to education, a number

of universities have established an office for assisting disabled students.

Sheila Ritchhart (formerly Sheila Hall) discovered while she was attending Indiana

University that she could not make her own arrangements for taking tests, planning

schedules, and arranging for readers. The office for disabled students did that,

she was told. And in addition this office routinely scheduled special psychological

examinations for blind students as a part of the intake process. Sheila objected

to having the disabled students' office arrange her life for her, and she most

certainly objected to having to take special and extra psychological tests.

But the people who ran the disabled students' office told her that they knew

best.

When, however, it became clear to decision makers at the University

that the National Federation of the Blind was involved, attitudes changed. Sheila

Ritchhart reports that the custodial policies have been dropped, not only for

her but for others as well. Blind students now attend their classes and take

their tests without interference, and there are no special psychological examinations

because of blindness. As a tangible demonstration of the responsiveness of Indiana

University, officials from the Office of Adaptive Educational Services, including

the director, Pamela King, are with us at this convention—and so is Sheila

Ritchhart.

Last year I reported to you on the case of Henrietta Brewer,

a blind child-care provider living here in Michigan. When she applied to the

Michigan Department of Social Services for a license to provide child care,

the application was denied—because blind people (they said) cannot safely

provide this service. With our help Henrietta Brewer filed a complaint, charging

the licensing department with discrimination. The Justice Department has now

issued its decision. The denial of the day-care license violated federal law.

Blind people can care for children. Henrietta Brewer knows it; we know it; the

Justice Department knows it; and the Michigan Department of Social Services

is learning it.

In the fall of 1992 Monica Horodenski, a blind student, was

finishing her work for a teaching degree at Edinboro University in Pennsylvania.

One of the requirements for the degree is successful student teaching. The supervising

professor for student teaching failed Monica Horodenski because the professor

believed that a blind teacher could not assure the safety of the students in

the class or adequately supervise them. All other courses were completed satisfactorily.

The only bar to the teaching license was this one student teaching course. We

have assisted Monica Horodenski with an appeal. The matter has now been resolved.

Monica Horodenski will have the opportunity to demonstrate her competence in

a setting which will measure her abilities without prejudice. Edinboro University

will pay the tab, not only for the student teaching course but also for her

living arrangements. She will have the chance to succeed or fail according to

her ability, her ingenuity, and her willingness to work. That is all she asks.

That is all we ask. It is all we ever ask for. It is all we want, in this or

any other case. I have every confidence that Monica Horodenski will get her

teaching credential.

Four years ago Scott LaBarre, Curtis Chong, and several other

Federationists in Minnesota decided to challenge the so-called safety policies

of Valleyfair Amusement Park, which declared that blind visitors must be accompanied

by a responsible adult or be denied boarding on the rides and access to many

areas of the park. A responsible adult, according to Valleyfair Amusement Park,

is anybody who is at least four feet tall, as long as that person can see. In

most places being an adult means attaining the age of majority—twenty-one,

or at least eighteen. But not at Valleyfair. Age has nothing to do with it—it

is length that matters. Four feet tall, and you're in. Do they measure them

with or without their shoes, I wonder?

A complaint was filed with the Minnesota Department of Human

Rights, and the decision has now been rendered. The Valleyfair policy concerning

blind people exists no more. We are welcome to visit the park and to ride the

rides on the same terms and conditions as others. There are no longer any special

rules or procedures for the blind. The four-foot theory has been abandoned.

Because of the work of the National Federation of the Blind, Valleyfair Amusement

Park is a good deal more amusing and a lot more fair.

About fifteen years ago the National Federation of the Blind

introduced white canes for blind children. Although it had been the popular

wisdom in rehabilitation circles that cane travel should be taught only to adults,

canes for children soon became extremely popular—because they work. In

the fall of 1992 the parents of Linda Perez Delker asked school officials in

South Dakota to teach cane travel to their seven-year-old blind daughter. Officials

responded that this was not appropriate, that a pre-cane travel aid should be

used, and that Linda Perez Delker would not be permitted to have a cane with

her at school. The Delkers requested an independent evaluation, but the school

district refused.

This did not stop the Delkers. They know Karen Mayry, President

of the National Federation of the Blind of South Dakota, and they have become

part of the Federation family. A Federation member provided private lessons

to Linda. Prior to her using a white cane, Linda would not venture off the front

porch. After she had learned to use it, this little girl traveled independently

outside her home both on her parents' property and in public places. Yet she

was refused the opportunity to carry her cane at school, to use it on the school

grounds, or to receive further instruction. We helped with the appeal, and the

decision has now been reached. The independent evaluation has been completed.

It shows that Linda should be using a white cane. This blind student will be

receiving the cane travel instruction she needs in school because of the efforts

of the National Federation of the Blind.

We have assisted a number of blind vendors during the year.

Two years ago Paul Howard, President of the National Federation of the Blind

of Indiana, was operating a vending facility at the main post office in Gary.

In September of 1992 he was summarily ordered by the state rehabilitation agency

to leave the facility because post office officials had requested his removal.

There was no hearing, no discussion, no negotiation—just an order. With

our help Paul Howard filed a complaint. The law is clear. A state agency is

prohibited from removing a vendor unless there is just cause, and even then

it cannot be done unless there has been a hearing to evaluate the rights of

the vendor. The Paul Howard case took more than two years, but it has come to

an end. The State of Indiana paid for improperly removing Paul Howard from the

vending facility. In the meantime he has become a teacher in the Gary public

schools, but he received the back pay which he had been denied—all $10,728.95

of it.

On several previous occasions I have reported on the Dennis

Groshel case. He operates a vending facility located at the Department of Veterans

Affairs Medical Center in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Although the Randolph-Sheppard

Act grants to blind vendors an unequivocal priority to operate vending facilities

on federal property, officials at the veterans hospital attempted to dismiss

Dennis Groshel from the vending facility because he would not pay almost fifty

percent of his income to the hospital. Working with the Minnesota attorney general's

office, the Minnesota rehabilitation agency, and Dennis Groshel, we took legal

steps to prevent this injustice. At each step in the proceedings, we received

favorable rulings, but the Department of Veterans Affairs continued to balk.

On March 11, 1994, the United States Court of Appeals for the

Eighth Circuit ruled decisively on the Groshel case. The Randolph-Sheppard Act,

they said, does apply to the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in St. Cloud. Dennis

Groshel is secure in his vending facility. This decision also applies to many

other veterans medical centers. It is likely that the ruling of the court will

be precedent-setting for the nation. This ruling has already been followed in

an arbitration in Maryland. The decision of the arbitration panel was unanimous.

Blind vendors are entitled to a priority in the operation of vending facilities

in the veterans hospitals. It will not surprise you to learn that one of the

arbitration panel members is also a member of the National Federation of the

Blind.

In this past year we have continued to help blind people with

Social Security claims. Marc Graff is a blind person living in Oregon. Three

years ago he applied for Social Security disability benefits, but his claim

was rejected because officials said he had not met eligibility requirements.

However, these officials had not applied the special rules for the blind. The

President of the National Federation of the Blind of Oregon, Carla McQuillan,

with assistance from the National Office represented Marc Graff. In a hearing

before an administrative law judge, she insisted that the special rules for

blind applicants be applied. Marc Graff is now receiving monthly disability

benefits, and he has received a back pay award of $34,764.20.

We continue to welcome visitors to the National Center for

the Blind. The questions we are asked and the information we provide help to

instill a greater understanding of blindness and bring a wider range of opportunity

to blind people. More than twelve hundred people visited the National Center

for the Blind this year, including visitors from Australia, Austria, Canada,

Czech Republic, Cyprus, England, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Mongolia,

New Zealand, Norway, Russia, Singapore, Slovak Republic, South Africa, South

Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, Tobago, Uganda, and Ukraine.

There are also the ongoing activities of the Federation. We

publish in print, in Braille, and in recorded form more literature about blindness

than anyone else in the nation. In our recording studio we produce the master

tapes for our magazines—the Braille Monitor, Future Reflections,

the Voice of the Diabetic, and a number of other publications. To ensure

high quality for these publications, we have upgraded the recording equipment

with a computer- driven studio audio digital editor. This is a word-processing

system for sound. It can handle eight different tracks at one time. The computer

screen displays the sound as a series of lines. Errors can be eliminated electronically;

noise can be reduced; and alterations in volume, frequency, and pitch can be

made by reshaping the lines. This is the same system being used by the British

Broadcasting Company, Voice of America, and a number of music studios in Nashville.

From our Materials Center we have continued to distribute aids,

appliances, and materials. There are now over 400 different kinds of aids and

appliances and over 800 different publications. Included in these items are

extra-long carbon fiber canes—up to sixty-nine inches; jackets and t-shirts

bearing the name and logo of the National Federation of the Blind; all of our

Kernel Books; our general information publication, If Blindness Comes,

which is the most comprehensive quick reference guide regarding blindness now

available; our general information publication for the parents of blind children,

Future Reflections, Introductory Issue; and a collection of special Christmas

recordings. We are producing our catalogs of literature, and aids and appliances

in large print, in Braille, and on computer disk. Within the last year we have

shipped from the Materials Center two million separate items with a total weight

of more than thirty-one tons.

Through our Job Opportunities for the Blind Program (JOB) we

continue to assist blind people in finding employment. Because of our efforts

more than a hundred blind people who were not employed last year are now reporting

for work. The jobs of those who have been hired range from accountant to administrative

assistant, from bill collector to busboy, from teacher to tool grinder—and

all of them are above the minimum wage.

Many thousands of calls come to the National Office of the

Federation each year. Most are what might be called routine, but some are of

special significance. Just before our last convention we received a series of

calls from Connecticut. A child, Aaron McCullon, had been born to a blind couple,

Tammy and Jim McCullon. But the baby was premature and small enough that he

must wear a heart monitor. The blind parents requested information about how

to handle the situation. The infant's grandmother called to ask about techniques

used by blind parents. Officials at the hospital where the baby was born wanted

to know whether blind parents can competently care for children—especially

premature children. These officials at the hospital thought that the baby should

be kept in the medical center to ensure proper care. If the baby were sent home,

they believed that either a full-time nurse or the child's grandparents should,

perhaps, live with the McCullons.

As it happens, this situation is not new. In 1984 my wife Patricia

and I became the parents of a premature infant, David Patrick. He needed a heart

monitor. When David Patrick was born, hospital officials wondered if we, his

blind parents, Patricia and I, had the ability to care for him—a tiny,

premature infant. We did—and we have. Our experience and understanding

from the 1980's helped these blind parents in the 1990's. Aaron McCullon received

his heart monitor and wore it home. His parents were the ones to bring him and

to give him the care he needed. The heartache and pain of family separation

never happened. The support, the information, and the encouragement that these

parents needed were readily provided. We in the National Federation of the Blind

showed the officials at the hospital that blind parents have as much ability

to care for their children as sighted parents. Having the right to raise our

families—this, too, is why we have organized.

As I consider the activities of the National Federation of

the Blind during the past year, I have every confidence in our future. The problems

we face are many—gaining an education, finding recognition, attaining equal

treatment, changing the negative attitudes of the public about blindness, and

finding enough money to finance it all. All of these demand our attention. Our

goal is nothing short of altering the beliefs and modifying the behavior of

the entire society. The administrators of programs for the blind, the educators,

the hospital officials, the government personnel, and the sighted public must

come to accept a new belief and a new understanding.

And we must accept it too—we who are blind. We must grow

in it, embrace it, and live it with increasing fullness every day. The task

ahead of us is monumental. But so is our need and so is our determination. We

have a pact with each other, you as members and I as President. You have the

right to expect from me that I will give all that I possess in the way of ability

and work and commitment to this organization; that I will stand in the front

line where danger threatens and not ask you to take more risks than I am prepared

to take or make more sacrifices than I am willing to make; that I will lead

with firmness, make decisions, and stand by those decisions. And I have the

right to expect certain things from you—your work to make our programs

possible, your unified support to give our policies strength and credibility,

and your trust to make my presidency viable. These things we have the right

to expect from each other; but there is something more, something which cannot

be demanded but which is the essential ingredient that makes us what we are,

that binds us together as a family, a movement, and a power. It is the love

and care we have for each other. Let us lose that love, and we lose more than

political strength. We lose our organizational soul, our right to be called

a movement. But let us keep our love for each other, and no force on earth can

stand against us. And, of course, we will keep it.

We have kept faith with the founders of our movement and with

the tens of thousands of members who have joined through the decades. We have

pledged to support each other, and we have promised that the commitment and

dedication which come to us from those who have made this organization what

it is will remain unshakable. No matter what comes, I know as surely as I know

the members of this organization that we will find the strength, gather the

resources, and muster the spirit to meet the challenge. I am absolutely certain

that we will gain equality and go the rest of the way to freedom. This is the

meaning of the National Federation of the Blind. And this is my report to you

for 1994.

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Updated: March 14, 2002