This is being provided in a rough-draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings.
MARK RICCOBONO: Greetings, fellow Federationists. Today is Thursday, January 4, 2024. This is Presidential Release 534, and this is World Braille Day. It is so great to be back together, and looking forward to a fantastic year together. I do have a ton of things to share here at the beginning of the year. And a lot of things very positive to be hopeful about. But also some things that will cause us to reflect. So I'm going to go ahead and jump right in, but I must talk about the fact that January 4 is World Braille Day, and that commemorates the birth of Louis Braille of course in 1809. This is a special World Braille Day I guess because the lore is that Louis invented his code when he was 15. This being the 215th anniversary of his birth, kind of a special year for promoting and celebrating Braille.
You know, Braille also represents the power of alternative techniques, which Federation members know so well. And while not every blind person reads Braille, Braille itself is a clear example of the fact that alternative techniques are not inferior techniques. And Braille makes a difference in so many ways. As all of you know, it's not simply about reading. It has value in so many areas of life, whether it's music, drawing, labeling. So many things that Braille is used for and empowers in our lives besides the important symbol that it is for the capacity of blind people.
Here at our national office, Braille occupies a valuable space for us, both in our library, in our conference room, but also in our hearts as I know it does across the country in the lives of so many blind people.
I would encourage you and remind you that you can check out Braille.day, which we launched I think it was just last year. Feels like locker ago. Braille.day. We like to say when you check out Braille.day, you can help us cell-ebrate with two Ls the beloved code that Braille is. At Braille.day, you can look at a special list we put together just for this occasion that gives just a sampling of the thousands of ways that Braille can be used, but this being 215 ways to use Braille. So that's pretty cool. Maybe we can figure out how many ways there are. Every time I start talking about the subject, someone brings up a new way to use Braille. I'm sure we'll be talking about Braille more on this release in a little bit.
I want to talk to you now about the commitment that we made as an organization 30 years ago. We made a strategic decision to affiliate ourselves with training programs that exemplify the philosophy, spirit, and policies of the National Federation of the Blind. Our affiliated training centers in Louisiana, Colorado, and Minnesota are very similar to our state affiliates. They affiliate with the national organization through an agreement, and they're run by independent boards. The responsibility for running the programs at our training centers belongs to those independent boards, and they're responsible for raising the money needed and managing the staff and the program. The Federation supports the work through our national infrastructure, but we don't financially support those training center programs in the same way that we're not responsible at the national level for supporting the fundraising and program expenses of the affiliates.
Sometimes people say, why three training centers? Well, truth is, that's because we've only to this point the board has only approved three training centers as meeting the standards of the National Federation of the Blind and exemplifying our work and what we do. There's nothing that prohibits us from having more training centers, but the fact of the matter is that it's hard to put together and sustain quality programs that meet the very high standard that blind people in the National Federation of the Blind set.
Why am I bringing this up? Well, in December I sat with the board of our training center in Minnesota, BLIND, Incorporated, as that board worked through some pretty difficult decisions. And in the end, they set forth a direction for the training center in Minnesota that includes this statement, which was released by the board there in late December. It reads as follows: "The board of directors at Blindness: Learning in New Dimensions, BLIND, Incorporated, regrets to announce that we will temporarily suspend all of our programs and services as of January 1, 2024."
Now, I know that this action was taken with very heavy hearts by all of the members of that board as I spend time with them in this process. However, this board, I sat with them as they deliberated extensively about the decisions they had to make, and they came to the conclusion that suspending operations at this time in order to make future plans to reimagine and reconstitute the center in a responsible and bigger and better way, this was the best available alternative they had.
I support and agree with the decision that the board made, even though it is really hard and painful and disruptive to the students, staff, and many of us, including myself, who have supported this program over the years. I've continued to work closely with the board and believe that they are doing all that they can to make this transition, this pause in programs, as easy as possible. And that's not an easy task in and of itself, but I commend the board at BLIND, Incorporated for doing what they can, even as they're suspending programs to help make sure that the future continues to be bright in the state of Minnesota and that opportunities are created. You know, their decision comes after a series of compounding events that left them without the resources adequate to operate a center in the way that we want a center to be run.
One of the factors in their evaluation was the fact that BLIND, Incorporated is operated in a building which is the Pillsbury mansion, which is on the national historical registry. And if you know anything about that, that means that maintaining that building comes with certain obligations to preserve the historic nature of the building. And currently what that amounts to is millions of dollars in renovations that have to be done to utilize the building, maintain it in the fashion that it's supposed to be kept in, and run a structured discovery program, which is the goal of our centers, right? We're not there to run historic buildings; we're there to run programs.
And the board at BLIND, Incorporated had many factors to consider, this being one.
The training is of course the most important thing, and I believe that we will find ways to reimagine and build an even stronger training program in the state of Minnesota. I'm looking forward to meeting with members of the Federation in Minnesota to see what their hopes and dreams are for the future. I think our community is strong enough to work through this and to reimagine what the future should be. This is pretty disruptive though, right? Because this really has not happened in our Federation community in the time that we have had affiliated training centers. We haven't had one of our training centers suspend its operation for a period of time like this in such a dramatic way.
What I would encourage Federation members to know and to believe and to steer toward is that this is a great opportunity for us to reimagine what Federation-influenced training can be like going forward, and to reimagine the future we want, and then to help build it through a new BLIND, Incorporated, program. I know that many in our Minnesota affiliate are dedicated to that, and I know many of you across the country have already reached out to BLIND, Incorporated to offer that kind of support.
You know, sometimes our circumstances require us to make very difficult decisions. And sometimes we need to make changes based on the resources we have available and on the requirements of the time. That's not unique to BLIND, Incorporated. That's a challenge we face as an organization, having limited time, money, and talent to put into all the things that we want. So this is a strategic opportunity for us to refocus and imagine and then build what we want training to be in the future. I do want to let you knee if you are interested in helping with the BLIND, Incorporated, effort, especially reimagining the training and thinking about putting together some new resources, I would encourage you to reach out to the board of directors at BLIND, Incorporated. The best way to do that would be to send an email to Ryan Strunk. He's Chairman of the board. And you can do that by sending an email to [email protected].
Now, I want to follow that with some really good news that we got just today, actually. Very good to get news on World Braille Day. We got word that a case has hit an important milestone. in 2015, National Federation of the Blind supported blind individuals in the state of Ohio being paid subminimum wages in a sheltered workshop under a 14c certificate. We helped them file a petition with the Department of Labor to review the subminimum wage payments they were receiving. After a week-long hearing in early 2016, an administrative law judge found that the clients that we've been working with are not disabled for the work they perform and awarded back pay and liquidated damages. This was a historic finding by the Department of Labor.
The sheltered workshop appealed to the Department of Labor's administrative review board and eventually filed a federal lawsuit seeking judicial review of the ALJ's decision. Just today the district court upheld the administrative findings and entered judgment in the client's favor a total charge of $87,025.64 to cover the back pay for these employees. Although we do expect the workshop to appeal this decision to the sixth circuit, this is truly a major victory that upholds the first of its kind finding by the Department of Labor. But this also sets a very important tone and warning bell for sheltered employment and those using 14c certificates that we're watching and that abuse of these certificates will not be permitted and will not be permitted under the law.
So congratulations to the Federation on this victory. A case that goes on for almost 10 years, a lot of people would give up on. But we don't give up. And we certainly don't give up on the people that we support. So congratulations to all of us, and certainly to our legal team. Many people have been involved in that over the last decade. It's not over, as I indicate, but it is a really great victory for us to start 2024. Now, January of course is the lead up time for our Washington Seminar. And I do want to let you know that the fact sheets for our three Washington Seminar issues, priorities, have been posted to our Washington Seminar web page. The fact sheets are currently available in both Word and HTML format. The audio and BRF formats will be coming soon. So please continue to check the website for updates.
We do encourage you to review the fact sheets so that you're prepared to meet with members of Congress, but also review the fact sheets if you're planning to participate in any of the training sessions leading up to Washington Seminar so that you can ask any questions that you may have. You can access the fact sheets and all of the other Washington Seminar information on NFB.org/washington-seminar. As I indicated, there are a number of trainings on Washington Seminar topics that are happening in the month of January. I won't go through those here on the release, but if you need to get information about them, I would encourage you to contact the legislative director for your affiliate. Now, a lot of times we talk about the positive work that we're doing and the things that we're pushing forward. It's rare that we talk about the things that we're opposing. But I do want to talk to you on this World Braille Day about an item that we are opposing.
For years the National Federation of the Blind has raised concerns about a bill that continues to be reintroduced into Congress without changing its content and addressing any of the concerns that we've raised literally over more than a decade now. The bill is known as the Cogswell-Macy Act. It was again introduced in the 118 Congress. The bill has a number of problems that we are concerned about, seen today in honor of World Braille Day and protecting the rights of blind students, we sent a letter of opposition to the leaders in Congress outlining our concerns about the Cogswell-Macy Act. You can find that letter on the policy pages of our website, and I'm sure we'll be distributing it through other means.
In short, I won't go through all the details, but the Cogswell-Macy Act attempts to amend the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act by adding new sections that we firmly believe negatively impact blind students. In specific, our concerns include that the proposed bill will create new assessments that are not in concert with the current IDEA assessment standards. In addition, the current language does weaken the Braille provision, which this organization worked very hard to get into IDEA in the late 1990s. Also, the bill as proposed fails to leverage dear colleague letters and recent rulings by the Supreme Court that we would love to see codified in the law to the benefit of students with disabilities and certainly blind students.
For more information about our opposition to this bill, you can contact Justin Young, our governmental affairs specialist. You can reach him at [email protected] or extension 2210 at the national office.
Coming back to the Washington Seminar, we are very excited about it and apparently you are too because all of our room block at the Holiday Inn is gone. In fact, the whole hotel is sold out on the night of the 29th, which will be our Great Gathering-In. If you have not yet secured your rooming arrangements and you really are planning to attend the Washington Seminar, we want to help. So you can contact Lindsey Walsh in our governmental affairs department, and she'll help you identify some nearby options for hotels at a comparable cost. She can be reached at [email protected], and certainly our governmental affairs team will answer any questions you have. If you don't have a room, I hope you work to get one nearby because this could be a record breaking Washington Seminar for us.
I want to congratulate all of you on some fantastic movement on the Access Technology Affordability Act. In the House, we have HR 3702. And we gained 28 new cosponsors during the month of December. That brings the total number of cosponsors in the House up to 72. In the Senate, Senator Booker, Ernst, and Tillis all added their names to the cosponsor list for S 1467. This brings the total number of cosponsors on the Senate side up to 17. So this is really tremendous progress. Congratulations to all of us for getting that done. Now, on the last release I talked about an opportunity to get the ATAA into the National Defense Authorization Act. Now, that didn't happen, but there will be a number of opportunities coming up, and our lead champions on these bills continue to be clear that they are working all possible angles to get our bill attached to one of the tax packages that everybody expects to be coming up during this congressional session. So keep the pressure on, keep those calls coming. It would be awesome to have another month like we did in December in terms of gaining cosponsors. Those cosponsors are going to make all of the difference when this bill comes to be attached to another tax package or any other vehicle that our sponsors find because the more cosponsors that the bill has, the more likely it is to be maintained in any negotiation. So keep up the great work, and let's not forget the Access Technology Affordability Act even though it's not one of our priorities for the Washington Seminar.
January 1 is when our member year in the Federation turns over. Our database of members that we maintain flips all members to what we call grace status after December 31st. So this is my opportunity to remind membership coordinators from chapters and divisions to make sure that you go in during this month and use our member management module to update the members for your chapters and divisions who have paid dues for 2024. If you don't update them in January, on January 31st the membership moves from the grace setting to expired. Now, this is just a technical item in the database, but since we have a membership database and we're trying to track this carefully and membership matters, I encourage membership matters to use this month to update the list for 2024. And I encourage all members to pay your dues for 2024 so you can take advantage of all the great work and opportunities in the National Federation of the Blind.
I also want to remind everyone, especially our membership coordinators, that you should continue to add new members of chapters and divisions using our new membership form which is online, is working. It was down for a time, but it has been working for some time and we have already gotten some good feedback about the form and things that we can continue to do to improve it. We will continue to make those improvements over time, but you should continue to get new members into our databases as soon as possible, especially so that we can get their membership packet and membership coin out to them in the mail.
I would encourage all members to use the membership profile on the website. You can log in and you'll have access to your membership record and be able to make updates. If you haven't taken the time to check out your membership profile, your log in is simply the email address you have connected to your membership. So you can use that address, and if you haven't been in yet, you haven't set it up, go to members on the website and opt to reset your password even if you haven't set it up before, and it will prompt you to log into your program. And you can do that by selecting the opt to change password option. If you have questions, you are encouraged to send an email to [email protected], but we've gotten some great feedback on the membership profile feature. I've checked out my profile myself and made some changes, so I would encourage you to do that.
Now, I wanted to let you know that the national board met in early December, and one of the things that the board undertook to do was to establish a model policy for state affiliates regarding providing accommodations. We have an accommodations accessibility policy. You can remember it at www.NFB.org. A number of affiliates have asked us for guidance and to strengthen the work that affiliates are doing to make sure that we're doing all that we can to properly accommodate folks and to help them participate in our organization. So we'll be rolling that affiliate policy out to Presidents at their meeting in late January. I do want to remind you, though, that for any Federation meeting, if there is an accommodation you need, you should contact the organizer of that meeting as early as possible so that arrangements can be made. I was asked to make this announcement, particularly by Maurice Mines, who is President of our deafblind division and wants to make sure that everybody wanting to participate in the deafblind division makes their needs known as soon as possible so the division can do their best to work it out.
It's always great to start with various pieces of good news from the new year, so I want to highlight our Dream Maker Circle, which is an opportunity for people to make a commitment to an end-of-life gift to the National Federation of the Blind. And in doing so, I want to welcome Anil and Kiran Chaturvedi from West Palm Beach, Florida, as the newest members of the Dream Maker Circle. Thank you for your commitment. And thank you to all of our Dream Maker Circle participants. That commitment makes a big difference when we go out and talk to people about giving gifts to the Federation and potentially including us in their bequests.
Now, it is World Braille Day. And I want to have a discussion about Braille to. Do that, I've invited the Federation's director of Braille advancement to join me here on the release. I first met her when I was a student at the University of Wisconsin. I was very new as a member of the National Federation of the Blind, but I had been hired by the university to work on making materials accessible for blind students at the university. And we did most of our work on cassette tape at that time. We were looking at starting a program to scan books and make them available digitally. And I knew that there was great work happening in Minnesota, so I called the university there, and I talked to this woman. And I said, well, now, how would I do that as a blind person? And she said, well, I can tell you that. I'm a blind person.
And she was one of the early ones to really help me understand the real value that Braille could play in my life and the advantages that it could give me. That was before I had started learning Braille. So I give her credit for my journey in Braille. And she has been directing the Federation's work since December 2006, our work to operate the Braille transcription and proofreading certification program on behalf of the National Library Service. That's a contract that we have had since that time, and she's been the manager of it. So I would like to welcome Jennifer Dunnam to our virtual stage here. Are you out there, Jennifer?
JENNIFER DUNNAM: I'm here. Good evening.
MARK RICCOBONO: Good evening. Good evening. This is my official thank you for starting me on the road to Braille.
JENNIFER DUNNAM: Well, my pleasure. Certainly we've come a long way since those days.
MARK RICCOBONO: It's a long time ago. Let's not talk any more about that. It's great to have you. And mostly when we have Braille questions, especially complicated ones, Jennifer is the first one to go to. But let's start I guess Jennifer by making sure that everybody is on the same page. Can you give us a little history about the program for Braille transcription at the National Library Service?
JENNIFER DUNNAM: Absolutely. And I'll give just a very rough time line because there's a lot of interesting details and I would really encourage people who are interested to read up on it. But the Braille certification program really had its roots all the way back in 1897 when the Library of Congress had what they called a reading room for the blind. And one of the programs they did there was that blind people would take dictation from sighted readers and transcribe books into Braille. So between 1897 and 1912, they did about 300 books that way. So some books were added to the Library of Congress.
Then if we fast forward a little bit to World War I, there was a program in conjunction with the American Red Cross and the Library of Congress.They began to train sighted volunteers to provide Braille recreational material for people who had been blinded in the war. So that sort of led to a larger correspondence course that was provided, and by about 1925, they had a training manual and a whole bunch of volunteers. The next sort of big landmark was 1931, the Pratt Smoot Act, which provided funding for the Library of Congress for the purchase and distribution of books for blind people nationwide. That's really how it all got started at NLS, National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled which has had a variety of names over time.
In the '40s the American Red Cross kind of changed their focus so at that point it was all the Library of Congress that did it. They started doing certifications and music certifications started in about 1965. We got involved at the end of 2006. We have been operating the courses since then. There are courses in literary transcribing and proofreading and several variants of that for mathematics and music. And we've watched the program change and grow and been part of having it change and grow ever since then.
MARK RICCOBONO: Interesting note on the Red Cross. Especially considering our resolution about accessible materials from Red Cross from this summer. So you know, sometimes things have ebb and flow. A little connection I hadn't made before. But there is a lot of rich history there. I guess, Jennifer, can you tell us, what does it mean to be certified?
JENNIFER DUNNAM: Yes. So when a person is certified, it means that they have gone through a very rigorous set of assignments and completed all of them successfully. Regardless of which course it is. The people who are successful understand that this is not a program that you can rush through. You've got to really take your time and practice and understand that each of the assignments and the lessons kind of build on each other, and are very detailed, very rigorous. But once a person has completed all those things, they have experience and practice and they're qualified to provide a document in Braille on whatever subject is covered by that certification. And they work very hard to do it, and it's something to be really proud of.
MARK RICCOBONO: So you said rigorous. So it's not just like easy, right?
JENNIFER DUNNAM: No. Easy is not a word that I would apply to these courses at all. The people who succeed have a pretty strong command of written language. There's a lot of intensive reading that's required. And a lot of patience and a lot of detail orientation.
MARK RICCOBONO: Yeah. Really important work. So I mean, is this program just for blind people?
JENNIFER DUNNAM: That's a great question. I get that a lot. Most of the students in the program, and we have several hundred students at any given time. Most of them are sighted, but that being said, we do have many successful folks who go through it who are blind, and there again, if you have the right skill set and the right tools, you know, in a lot of fields Braille is a strong predictor of success. Being a fluent Braille reader already, tactile Braille reader, is an important factor in being successful as a blind person. You also need to have an understanding of print conventions, be able to access the print in whatever way that may be, and be a very resourceful person who can understand the sort of anomalies that happen in documents and can work around that and make sure to keep the focus on providing an accurate document for the end user who is relying on that Braille.
MARK RICCOBONO: And if someone wants to be employed doing Braille, the certification is pretty important, right?
JENNIFER DUNNAM: It is. It is. It really is. Because again, it states that the person really has gone through the paces and is qualified to do the work. There's a lot of ways to shortcut Braille, a lot of ways to put out some dots, but if you don't have a very strong understanding of what those dots should look like, what needs to happen with the formatting, then you're not necessarily doing a service to the person who relies on that Braille to be read.
MARK RICCOBONO: And so all of these courses can be accessed for the low price of what?
JENNIFER DUNNAM: Free! No charge at all. They're available for download. The materials are downloadable on our website at www.NFB.org/transcribers. To actually enroll in the course, you need to fill out an application form. There are eligibility requirements that I would urge everybody to read before applying to take the course. And understand that it does take time. Some of them can take a year or more to complete. It's really something you have to love and be patient with. But there is no charge for them.
MARK RICCOBONO: Excellent. I want to not wrap it up, but I want to make sure we do this before I forget. Jennifer, I know people might have more questions so how can they reach you to ask those questions?
JENNIFER DUNNAM: The best way is to email me at [email protected]. Our extension at the NFB number is 2510. And that actually reminds me before I forget, I want to shout out, it's not just me who run there's course. There's a whole team of people, and I especially want to thank our program assistant, our Braille production specialist, and about a dozen contractors that we work with to grade the course lessons, keep everything organized, keep all the organization going. Thanks to the whole team.
MARK RICCOBONO: Absolutely. It's all connected into the work that we do in the Federation. Jennifer, I did want to ask you if you might comment on, I notice that people seem more reluctant these days to request Braille in certain situations. Either hard copy Braille or electronic Braille. I think with all the digital tools that are available, I've heard from a number of people that they just feel it's easier if they don't request Braille in certain settings.
But I wonder if you could comment on the importance of making those requests, especially when that's the format that's going to be best suited for you because it has an impact on the availability of Braille and the resources people put into it.
JENNIFER DUNNAM: Absolutely. I think it is really important. For a couple of reasons. Of course to keep it visible. But to make sure you're getting all of the information that you need. A lot of times if you have a document that's print based or on your phone, even if you're using a refreshable Braille display, you might not get all the information. For example, we had a resolution this last summer urging that screen readers put more effort into making sure that the italics and other type of format comes through in their Braille display.
There are a lot of things like that. If it's important to have a really accurate, full-fledged version of a document, it's a good idea to request it in Braille. And Braille is so much more available now. Electronically, hard copy. People can make Braille in, you know, the south and it can be available in the north. It's just, it's easier to distribute Braille now. It's not necessary to be geographically close necessarily. Really encourage people to utilize Braille and think about the ways that it can be helpful.
MARK RICCOBONO: So it was just last month I interviewed someone to work here at the National Federation of the Blind, and they showed up and they said, I have my resume here in Braille. Do you want it? I thought, well, since you went through the trouble, of course I want it! But that's the first time anybody ever showed up with a Braille copy of their resume. That's pretty cool.
JENNIFER DUNNAM: Excellent.
MARK RICCOBONO: Yeah, yeah, it made an impression. Jennifer, did you have anything else you wanted to add before we move on?
JENNIFER DUNNAM: I did. I would just love to say, the Braille certification program is such a pleasure to work with. We have a lot of other programs in the National Federation of the Blind. Braille really permeates everything that we do, but we're a member, for example, we're a member organization of the Braille Authority of North America, we have the NFB BELL programs that we talk about for kids, we participate on the E-braille file standard for more dynamic display of Braille, working on the Monarch with HumanWare and APH. A lot of places where Braille is the focus. It's a pleasure to work with everybody on it, and I encourage everybody to check it all out.
MARK RICCOBONO: And as usual, it's important that blind people lead the way in what happens with Braille, and I appreciate, Jennifer, your work in representing the Federation on the Braille Authority of North America and being a resource for all things Braille. I know that you're always willing to pass on the knowledge that you have and help others get it. So we appreciate that about you. And happy World Braille Day.
JENNIFER DUNNAM: Happy World Braille Day to you and everybody!
MARK RICCOBONO: Thank you very much. You're going to stick around in case we get Braille questions, right? You're the expert.
JENNIFER DUNNAM: Absolutely.
MARK RICCOBONO: Thanks for your time. I do have a few Federation family news items here on this release before we close. And the first comes from Ohio, where we have learned that Terry Ann Moore passed away on December 23rd, 2023. Terry was a member of the Miami Valley Chapter. From Idaho, we received news that Mary Ellen Halverson passed away on December 17th, 2023, at her home surrounded by her family. She was one of the founding members of the NFB of Idaho and described as a pillar of the Treasure Valley Chapter. Also from Ohio, we learned of the passing of Joe Jeffrey, who passed away on October 26th of 2023. I encourage you to keep all of these individuals in your thoughts and prayers and their friends and family and those who we might not have known about that we lost during the past holiday season. Pam, I think that's what I have for now. I'm flipping it back to you.
PAM ALLEN: Okay. Thank you so much, President Riccobono. And that was a great discussion about our Braille program. I loved learning some of the history I didn't know too. That's awesome. That's great. Thank you, everyone, for sending in questions. We really appreciate the questions that we received from everybody and all the various channels. So have a couple to share. First of all, President Riccobono, in relation to Washington Seminar, we had a question about whether we will be hosting tours of the national center at any point during the Washington Seminar.
MARK RICCOBONO: Yeah, great question. The answer is yes. The tours continue to follow the traditional schedule. So if you're coming to Washington Seminar, the tour bus will leave from the Holiday Inn, and this I'm sure will be also reflected in the agenda for the Washington Seminar that lists all the meetings that will come out later this month. The bus will leave from the front of the Holiday Inn at 7:00 a.m. Now, the bus is first come first serve. So you want to be there early.
The bus doesn't always fill up, so you have a good chance. But it does sometimes fill up. So if you miss the bus because of that, we're sorry. It's hard to predict how many people will want tours. But the bus will leave the Holiday Inn at 7:00 a.m. from the front doors, and it will leave the national office here at noon on Monday the 29th so that those who came for the tour can get back to D.C., especially for the afternoon meeting training that our governmental affairs staff will do.
If you haven't been to our national office, I would encourage you to come. I'll look forward to welcoming you home for that. And of course that's not the only time that you can visit, but it is a great opportunity. My first tour of the national office was during a Washington Seminar, so I definitely recommend it.
PAM ALLEN: Excellent. Thank you. I know we'll have a lot of interested people that will be lining up bright and early at 7:00 a.m. We have another question related to advocacy wondering if we have worked at all with ESPN or what might be some tips for advocating for audio description for sporting events that are broadcast on ESPN. We know there's been a recent resolution in respect to access at live sporting events, so just wondering about anything happening with ESPN broadcasts or other similar channels.
MARK RICCOBONO: Yeah, so that's a great question. So we are distributing letters to the major sports leagues based on the resolution, and of course that is to make sure they're taking steps to facilitate us having access to the radio broadcast which is usually the best kind of description that you can get at a live sporting event. And of course it's the delay that's a problem. We haven't done any specific advocacy work in terms of online sports, ESPN providing enhanced description during those broadcasts. What I would say as a starting point is that as a blind person, you can certainly write to any of the entities, ESPN being included, and tell them what you would like to see happen. I would certainly encourage you to copy that correspondence to our national office, to our advocacy team, so we can track that.
You know we have a lot of issues to work on, and ESPN is not a relationship that we have. But if they hear from enough people, they may decide to do some work on it. And especially once we get some traction with some of the major franchises on the radio broadcasts, we may be able to use that as a lever to get some traction with entities like ESPN. So great question. Don't discount your ability to do some individual advocacy where you're interested, but copy that to the Federation. I would say if you live in a community that is big with one of these sports networks because they're based there, that's another opportunity to do some local advocacy work that we can leverage up to the national organization.
PAM ALLEN: Okay. Excellent. And this question is from one of our members in California who is interested in learning about opportunities where she can share her words to help educate people about the Federation. What are ways for someone who enjoys writing and is interested in spreading our message.
MARK RICCOBONO: Well, many ways. First and foremost, Gary Wonder is always looking for content for the Braille Monitor. We always need different ideas, different perspectives, and so that is just one of our communications tools that you can use. You know, writing our stories is really important, and it's not just in our national publications. There's opportunities for you to write and get information out in your local community. Community newspapers. Other spaces. You may find an ability to put your stories about blindness and the normalization of the blindness experience into places in your local community. So that would be another thing I would offer.
And of course our affiliates, many of them have newsletters that are always looking for interesting articles, content. You know, I think sometimes today because of the fast pace social media environment, we forget that, you know, writing substantive pieces about our story and our experience as blind people can still be very valuable and very meaningful to changing public perception. So those are some of the ideas. Would definitely network with folks in your chapter about where there might be other opportunities to spread positive stories about blindness.
PAM ALLEN: And this question, a comment and a question we've gotten for you and Jennifer related to Braille, we touched on this a little too, but just to elaborate. In 2024, some people think that because of the advances in technology, Braille is obsolete or not needed. And wondering about any comments.
MARK RICCOBONO: Jennifer, you want to take a shot at that?
JENNIFER DUNNAM: More than happy to.
[Laughter]
I cannot begin to imagine -- even though I'm very technologically inclined, I enjoy my technology. Braille is integral to my technology. It isn't an either/or thing. It's I have a Braille display, I have actually a couple of Braille displays. Running meetings, taking notes for things. I label things around my house still in Braille. That's low tech. But it's all, I still need the ability to read something directly quickly when I'm cooking, have those spices available in Braille labels. There's just no question that Braille thrives and lives and is very necessary. I wonder if this is on our 215 list. If I'm watching a movie on my iPhone, a movie in a language that I don't understand, I can read the subtitles in Braille now with the technology that we have. These are just, there's all kinds of ways to use Braille.
MARK RICCOBONO: Yeah, I don't know that I have anything new to that. I agree with Jennifer completely. I think the other component of it is that Jennifer's comment about having various tools I think is really the most powerful, right? I mean, why would we want to limit ourselves to simply one modality? And even if you're just using Braille for basic labeling like Jennifer's pointed out -- and I can tell ya, I spent a lot of my holiday break making sure all the stuff in my kitchen that I've been lazy about got labeled. So I have a certain appreciation for it, especially right now. You know, there's so many even little uses for Braille. If you're not going to read books or use it on a day-to-day basis like I do, there's still many functional ways that you can incorporate Braille into what you do.
What I would say is, why would you want less tools, right? I mean, we need all the tools at our disposal. When we think about 2023 and where we've been with artificial intelligence, and there's a lot of opinions about it, but the fundamental thing is, it's another tool that we can use to leverage how we use knowledge bases in our lives. I think helping people understand that Braille is a tool. And sometimes people get hung up on, well, I am not going to sit down and read books in Braille. I'm just not going to do that. That doesn't mean Braille wouldn't have many, many benefits for you. And I think the work that we've done also, technology is still expensive but, man, it's come a long way and I agree with Jennifer. Having a Braille display that's connected to my phone but I can just hit a key and flip it over to read what's on my computer, I mean, that's really powerful in so many settings. And why would you want to limit the possibilities on what we can do because we're only using other means. We should use all of the tools and try to maximize them.
PAM ALLEN: Hear, hear. I could not agree more. Braille screen input for texting too. So many ways. Great discussion and wonderful, especially on World Braille Day.
MARK RICCOBONO: That's right.
PAM ALLEN: So thank you, everyone, so much for your comments and your questions tonight. We really appreciate it. If we did not have a chance to answer your question this evening, our awesome communications team will be following up with you. Thank you again so much for all the great contributions. We appreciate you being here with us tonight. Join us next time for the Great Gathering-In on Monday, January 29th, at 5:00 p.m. Eastern via Zoom. The nation’s blind YouTube channel, our internet stream, or by asking your Amazon device to open nation's blind. You can contact President Riccobono at 410-659-9314, or via email at [email protected]. Thank you, and I will pass it back to you, President Riccobono.
MARK RICCOBONO: Thank you, Pam. And once again, happy Braille day. That's what I have for this Presidential Release. A lot of good news. Some hard news. But that is the story I think of the organized blind movement over our 80 plus years. There is a lot of reason to have hope for 2024. We continue to make good progress, and just like Louis Braille, I know that we have the determination to overcome the adversity that we might face in getting our priorities, getting our authentic understanding of blindness understood and accepting in society. So I'm looking forward to an excellent 2024. It's already started without some great news, and I look forward to being together with many of you at the Washington Seminar. Let's go build the National Federation of the Blind.
MARK RICCOBONO: Happy World Braille Day, Oriana. Got any customary endings today?
SPEAKER: I have two jokes.
Why didn't the quarter roll down the hill with the nickel? Because it had more cents.
What did one strawberry say to the other strawberry?
MARK RICCOBONO: What?
SPEAKER: If you weren't so fresh, you wouldn't be in this jam.
MARK RICCOBONO: You know what blind people read in religious settings? Holy Braille