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: Good evening, fellow Federationists. Today is Tuesday, October 15th, 2024, and this is Presidential Release live number 46 from the Crown Plaza San Francisco Airport.
[Applause]
[Cheering]
Definitely with a live audience here celebrating. All right. Folks of all ages here in the room. Celebrating blind American equality day or what we sometimes refer to as White Cane Awareness Day. The white cane of course is a symbol of independence and freedom of movement and self-determination by the blind. And it was 60 years ago that we celebrated the very first of these days thanks to an effort led by Dr. Jacobus tenBroek of California.
[Applause]
And the Federation's founding President and really the leader of the Federation's efforts to protect our right to live in the world. And because of those efforts, the United States Congress adopted a joint resolution in 1964 designating October 15th of each year as white cane safety day.
[Cheering]
And this was part of recognizing the significance of the white cane and its symbolism amongst the blind to travel safely and independently in society. President Johnson during that first white cane safety day noted the importance of the white cane and the symbol of freedom and independence that it stood for for blind people. Independence, self-direction, determination, and dignity of blind people are all aspects that we celebrate on this day, which we have started referring to as White Cane Awareness Day because our job of course is to educate people about the importance of the white cane.
But on this 60th anniversary, we have stood strong together for the rights of blind and other disabled people to access transportation systems with their guide dogs or service animals or white canes. And our dignity will not be taken from us. And today we have stood together against the power of the rideshare companies who continue to discriminate against us. And we have demanded that they recognize our right not only to live in the world but our right to ride!
[Applause]
We have had a very successful day. We're going to talk about the day in a little bit. But many others have stood with us today, and it's a very notable thing. We should talk about folks that have added their voice to our work. Of course we had a number of representatives from the media who came to our rideshare rally in San Francisco today, but also representative Steny Hoyer, who represents the fifth congressional district of Maryland was the lead sponsor, lead House sponsor of the Americans with Disabilities Act, who offered this quote on this day. Quote, "Equal access to transportation was one of my motivating factors when I championed the Americans with Disabilities Act. It is essential that all Americans with disabilities have equal access to all forms of public transportation. On this day, Blind Americans Equality Day, I urge all transportation companies, especially companies that provide rideshare services, not to discriminate against blind Americans who use white canes or guide dogs."
[Applause]
Thank you very much to Congressman Hoyer for his continuing work. Before we talk further about our rideshare rally in San Francisco, I just want to take a brief moment to pause and recognize all of our members and others who have been impacted by the hurricanes during the past month. I want to continue to send our deep prayers, positive thoughts, and positive energy for all of the cleanup and healing that might need to happen from the impact of those hurricanes. So I encourage all Federation members to continue to keep those individuals impacted in your thoughts and prayers.
We do continue to coordinate with our affiliates, and if we learn about blind people who have been impacted and have needs that we might be able to help with, we will put out the word on that. But otherwise, I do encourage you to keep them in your thoughts and prayers.
With that said, we should talk about the incredible day that the Federation has had here in San Francisco!
[Applause]
So as I've noted, I've asked Raul Gallegos, the President of our division for guide dog users, to be up here, as well as Jessica Beecham, who serves as President of the National Federation of the Blind of Colorado, is a guide dog user, is a member of our national board and served as our emcee for our Federation rideshare rally, to be up here with me.
[Applause]
Before I invite them to make some comments, let me just say these things. First of all, we had a whole team of folks who helped to put this National Federation of the Blind rideshare rally together. We've had many members of the Federation staff but here on the ground we've had close to a dozen individuals. I want to acknowledge our communications group, Stephanie Cascone and Chris Danielsen, who were quite busy today. Also Danielle McCann who is a rideshare member, works in membership, and works in social media for this event. Making sure that we can be heard in all the places, we have Will Schwatka. And doing everything logistics, we have Tammy Helm. And the rally, in charge of the rally has been John Pare who has worked hard supporting that from our advocacy and policy group, Kyle, Lindsay, and Dr. Justin Young.
[Applause]
And of course we've had many other members helping out with this. And this is not a new issue. It's interesting. Some people we heard say today, well it's about time the Federation did something! (Laughing) Well, you know, we've been debating about whether to take to the streets for some time. We have sued these companies. We have urged the Department of Justice to take action. We've been collecting data on these companies and passing it along to folks to try to get them to do something. We've been negotiating with these companies. We've invited them to our convention. Lyft has never come in an official executive capacity, but Uber of course was at our 2023 convention in Houston. They ran out quite quickly after their presentation.
[Laughter]
So we have done many, many things over more than a decade. Earlier after our convention, I did have a call with Raul, and we decided, no, you know, the time has come for us to take to the streets.
[Applause]
[Cheering]
And so Raul, I guess I'll throw it to you first if you have any reflections on this process today, things you want to share.
RAUL: Thank you, President Riccobono.
Hello, everybody!
[Applause]
So change is slow. It's easy when we're facing a denial in that moment that we might be late, miss our flight, be late to a doctor's appointment, it's easy to think nothing is changing. I get these denials, I report them, I talk to Uber, I talk to Lyft about it. All we get is a generic "we will educate the driver" and we don't hear anything about it. So change, you know, it's slow.
As President Riccobono said, things have been done for years, and we still need that data. So even though you might still face a denial, still continue to submit the rideshare form with your information. Continue to make those complaints with Uber and Lyft. Continue to file the DoJ reports.
I know that it's frustrating. I've experienced it myself. I've missed out on things, been late to holiday gatherings. I've missed appointments that were extremely important. All I can say is, keep it going. With that momentum that we have, with the energy that we pour into this, we will see results. I believe in positive thinking. I believe in collective effort, and I think the more effort we put into it, the better that's going to be in the big picture in the long term. Today was wonderful. I have to say, for the first part in the morning, I did a lot of the march, held a sign, and then for the second part, I participated primarily as a talking sign and got a good perspective.
One of the things which I did not hear, which I thought it was kind of cool, is I didn't hear any dogs yelping, whether from stress or from getting stepped on, which I thought it was a cool thing. So let's give ourselves a hand for that.
[Applause]
MARK RICCOBONO: Two paws up.
RAUL: Some dogs may have gotten stressed over it. Some dog handlers may have gotten stressed over it. And that's all right. But I think in the overall grand scheme of things, things went well.
Speaking on behalf of myself and my dog, I mean, he's over here crashed out. He's like chill. Didn't show any signs of stress. You know your dog best. You're a team with your dog. And so nobody approached me or any of the NAGDU board members that were here as far as I know with any questions about, hey, what's going on with my dog being stressed or I need to step away for a bit. So I thought that was a good thing.
So what do we do from here? As President Riccobono said, things don't end today. Just because the rally is done doesn't mean that our work is done. So let's keep it going, everybody!
[Applause]
Thank you.
MARK RICCOBONO: All right. Thank you, Raul. And just for those who were not with us here in San Francisco, we started this morning -- well, we started before this, but we started at about 10:00 Pacific Time in front of Uber's front door on 3rd Street, and we had about 200 people. We had three buses of people we took over there from the hotel here. So we had about 200 people and we had signs. Some of them I've described are up here. And some others. And we had music, we had great support from the police. Hats off to the San Francisco police who did a great job.
[Applause]
They supported our effort. They weren't custodial at all. They let us do our thing and they were very supportive, so that was cool.
And we had a program of people led by Jessica Beecham. Now, Jessica, I think we have some sound clips if you want us to roll those first.
JESSICA: Sure. Sounds like fun. I love sound clips
(Chanting: Right to ride and we won't be denied! Right to ride and we won't be denied!)
[Applause]
[Cheering]
(Chanting: Hey hey, ho ho!)
MARK RICCOBONO: Okay. Those are just two small sound bites. And at about 11:30 or so, we packed up all the signs and the sound equipment. It's unusual for a protest. We're used to doing one location for some period of time but we have two. We packed everything up, got people back on the buses. Some people elected to walk, and we went over to Lyft where we unloaded and set up in front of the Lyft headquarters. Some people were able to grab a quick bite to eat, and we had a great time there. As noted, we had a number of media outlets that covered us. And Jessica shepherded us through all of that with energy up until the end.
So Jessica, do you want to share any reflections from the day?
JESSICA: I hope when each of you got to hear those audio clips you could hear how amazingly powerful you sounded all day long. I want you to give yourselves a big round of applause.
[Applause]
[Cheering]
Anybody can hold a mic and act like a goofball on it and chat on it, but you have to have that energy reflected right back at you, and you guys reflected the energy and you brought the noise and you brought the energy. And we made a clear message to Lyft and Uber that we're done with guide dog denials, and I am so proud to be a Federationist.
[Applause]
Sometimes I get tired. I don't know if any of you all get tired, but sometimes I get tired. I get tired of filling out the forms. I get tired of the daunting process ahead.
But when we have days like today when our whole big old family is together and we are bringing that tremendous energy that only the Federation knows how to bring, it gives me energy and it gives me strength to keep pushing up that hill. So thank you guys for sharing your energy and your strength.
[Applause]
And we're going to end guide dog denials! End guide dog denials! End guide dog denials! (Chanting continues). All right. Thank you, guys.
MARK RICCOBONO: Thank you, Jessica. And I just noticed a text from board member Tom Page who was supposed to be here but because the airlines held him up, kept him back in Kansas, but he just said "Sounds great on ABC News."
[Cheering]
Tom I know helped to contribute to the chants and other things from a distance, as did many other people. I should say that we appreciate that Ira covered our event on the Ira Live channel. I know it's a little bit of a challenging environment and way to offer some coverage, but Jeanine Stanley did a great job and I know it allowed a number of people to tune in live to both of our protest sites.
I should share with Federation members that at least at Uber, we did have a member of the equity team that came down and chatted with us for a while and said they were happy that we were there and appreciated it and wondered if we had heard about the pilot program that they were putting together. And then I encouraged them to take one of our protest signs up to the office.
[Applause]
Which they did do. So I don't know what they did with it once they took it. Also want to acknowledge that we did have representing the American Council of the Blind Kim Charlson, who also serves as President of the North American Caribbean region of the World Blind Union, so we appreciated Kim being with us, both in the morning and in the afternoon.
Now, we did invite guide dog schools to be with us at this event, and a number of them had representatives hanging around. Some of them were there to watch the dogs and do other things. But only one of the guide dog schools made a real commitment to support us in this effort, and that was Guiding Eyes out of New York.
[Applause]
It's maybe no surprise since the CEO there is a blind person, but I do want to call Guiding Eyes out as the only entity outside of the Federation that put real financial resources into this effort. And this was not a small undertaking.
[Applause]
And so we did invite Tom Panek from Guiding Eyes to send us a recording. He could not be here today because they had a board event planned for Guiding Eyes. He would have definitely been here otherwise and he tried to work it out but he just couldn't change his schedule. So he did send a little statement, recorded statement for the Federation. So we're going to play that now.
SPEAKER: Hello, my name is Thomas Panek, President and CEO of Guiding Eyes for the Blind, a guide dog school that has graduated over 10,000 guide dog users since our founding. I admire the advocacy efforts of the National Federation of the Blind. I defer to NFB on important issues and trust we as guide dog school leaders are in good hands through your community advocacy, which most often surpasses my pulse on topics outside of my expertise.
The rideshare issue is a topic I am personally vested in making better for all guide dog users. It is not acceptable to discriminate against a guide dog user in private vehicles chartered under rideshare apps such as Uber and Lyft. I stand with you in your rally to hold rideshare companies accountable for failing to address discrimination against me and other passengers based on the presence of a guide dog.
I hope that together we can find solutions that can improve the likelihood that a driver will not refuse a passenger who is blind on the basis of a guide dog. I am certain that there are many drivers who do a great job at accommodating a person using a white cane or a guide dog in a private vehicle driving for Uber and Lyft. In fact, I've had many great experiences with Uber as a service, but I've also had terrible experiences that have left me abandoned on the roadside. When drivers cancel or refuse service because they say they have the right to refuse my scheduled ride in advance just because I have a guide dog, it is not only wrong; it is unlawful.
Further, I have never received any answer as to the findings of an investigation when this has occurred. Let me tell you a story. My wife and I were celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary in Washington, D.C., where we met in college at American University. We visited our wedding hall, and on the way back to our hotel, we could not get Uber to pick us up because I had a guide dog. The first driver canceled a few feet away from the pickup location. The second driver refused to move with my wife and I sitting inside the car. I called the police.
They never came. Police have more important work to do than chase down Uber drivers. After 25 years of asserting my rights with taxi drivers, I was right back to 1997 with my first guide dog. We must make progress on this issue. If we stand together, we will be heard.
I would like that thank Mark Riccobono for his leadership and all of you for taking this important issue to heart in making a difference.
Thank you so much.
[Applause]
MARK RICCOBONO: So thank you again, Tom, and to Guiding Eyes for the support. And I also want to thank our California affiliate that did a great job in supporting our work.
[Applause]
Especially our President here, Tim Elder, who helped with the permits and rallying volunteers and definitely hats off to people that came from around the country. Some of them already had to leave, they had to get on flights to go back to work, but people came from many corners of the nation to be here. So really great day, really historic, and let's keep up the good work. Congratulations to all of us.
[Applause]
[Cheering]
So a few Federation announcements before we get to some Q&A if we have any. And the first is about our “Where The Blind Work” seminar series. You can register for the next "Where the Blind Work" webinar which will be held on October 24th from 8:00-9:00 p.m. Eastern Time. In this episode, you'll be able to learn from blind people who work as blindness rehabilitation professionals, and of course if we're going to raise expectations in the blindness field, we need to have blind professionals be core to it. So we'll have three prominent speakers who work in the blindness rehabilitation field.
You can get registration details on the NFB employment web page at NFB.org. Registration closes on the 24th at 5:00 p.m. If you have questions about this webinar, you can reach out to Nikki Jackson, who deals with our national employment programs, [email protected] or you can reach her at extension 2404 at our national office.
Now, our Independence Market group would like you to know that we have begun selling the Versa Slate. This is a 4-line, 20-cell paperless slate which is good for quick notes or phone numbers. You can also get it with a nice leather case which is sold separately. You can now purchase it from the Independence Market for 100 dollars.
Now, I have for folks in the room, I have the Versa Slate here. If you haven't had a chance to put your hands on it, we'll get and pass it around. You can't keep it. Sorry. You can contact the Independence Market to get more details on the Versa Slate. Sorry, no door prizes.
[Laughter]
Now, this is October 15th, and that means we're just 3 weeks away or so from election day. And so this is going to be my last opportunity to encourage all Federation members to get out and vote. But there's a lot of work that we can do for the Federation at this time as well because members of Congress are back in their district offices. And because Congress has left D.C. for the time leading up to the election, this is a great time to get in front of members of Congress potentially in their district offices.
So please take advantage of the opportunity of members of Congress working from their district offices to talk to your representatives and Senators about our Federation issues and try to get them to cosponsor during this congressional session. If they to, it might also help because when we get to next congressional session, we can say to them that they supported us during this session. So don't neglect keeping the heat on to members of Congress to support our many important legislative priorities.
Now, the 2024 election is coming up, and many of us may still be lacking for election information to make decisions. So our NFB-NEWSLINE group wants you to know that a number of publications have been put together and are now available on our breaking news section, including all politics now. This is a dedicated section on NFB-NEWSLINE for the 2024 election cycle. Content will be available to all subscribers, including subscribers who currently reside in states that do not have an NFB-NEWSLINE sponsor. We want everybody to have access to election information.
[Applause]
Yeah, absolutely. So election information is a collection of searches based on political candidates. These searches scan a range of news sources including the top hundred newspapers, breaking news, international newspapers, and magazines for each presidential and vice presidential candidate. So we collect the articles together for you so you can access them all together. You can access this via the telephone by selecting option 1 from the main menu and then option 5 for the 2024 candidate search. On the NFB-NEWSLINE mobile app, just go to information sources and then select the all publications, and then lack for the candidate 2024 section.
If you use the web news on demand online area, you go to publications organized alphabetically and then find the candidate searches.
For more information or to subscribe to NEWSLINE if you're not already, call 866-504-7300, or you can send an email to [email protected]. Thanks to our NEWSLINE group for putting that awesome information together, and again, I do encourage all of us to get out and vote or stay in and vote with your electronic ballot delivery and ballot return.
[Applause]
And closely related, it is time to start thinking about our 2025 Washington Seminar which is around the corner. It will be coming up on Monday, February 3 through Thursday, February 6, and it will be at our host hotel, the Holiday Inn Washington, D.C. Capitol. And we will have our Great Gathering-In at the traditional time, 5:00 p.m. Eastern, on the 3rd of February.
For more information, general information about Washington Seminar, you can visit the website NFB.org/washington-seminar. The hotel registration information will be coming later this year as well as our legislative priorities. As you may remember, in an election year like this, we wait to see how the elections turn out, what Congress, what the composition of Congress is going to look like, as part of determining our legislative priorities for the next Congress because depending on the composition of Congress, we may alter our top three priorities to make sure we're taking full advantage of getting the right bills in front of Congress at the right time.
Going into the beginning of a new congressional term, it's always a little difficult because the committee assignments don't come out until very close to when we go to Washington, but we will be determining our legislative priorities hopefully before the end of the year.
So I hope you'll all join us at the 2025 Washington Seminar!
[Applause]
Now, it being the last quarter of the year, we are talking about our end of year efforts to encourage donations to the National Federation of the Blind, and so I want to present to you our recipe for living the lives we want.
SPEAKER: Hi, I'm Danielle McCann. I want to share the ingredient for living the life you want. That is dignity. It is respectful to be blind. Now I'm going to finish chopping up this onion for my salad.
SPEAKER: Hi, I'm Jesse with the National Federation of the Blind. Today I'm going to make a salad for lunch, and I'm also going to share the ingredients to live the life you want. The first ingredient is courage. And now I'm going to cut up some celery for my salad.
SPEAKER: Hi, I'm Karen Anderson, the education programs coordinator here at the National Federation of the Blind, and I want to share some ingredients for the recipe to live the life you want. The first ingredient that I would share is confidence. And now I'm going to finish making some chocolate chip cookies for dessert this evening.
SPEAKER: Hello, my name is Kwale Ford. Today I'm going to share with you the recipe to live the life you want. My favorite ingredient in this recipe is dignity. Tonight I have a dinner party, and so I'm going to be boiling water for some pasta I will be making.
SPEAKER: Hey, everybody, this is Peter, director of strategic partnerships at HumanWare and I'm making lunch for my family in my kitchen and I've got my roast beef, I've got salami, provolone, mustache art for myself, mayo, all kinds of good stuff for my sandwiches. The one ingredient I would add is resilience because in the face of everything we have to conquer as blind people, we often need some true resilience to help us get through tough times and live the life we want.
Speaking of that, we are thrilled at HumanWare to be a part of the end of year gift matching challenge and we will be donating so that every dollar you donate will be doubled. So please donate, and I am going to make the best sandwich you have ever eat ten.
SPEAKER: Hello, I'm Mark Riccobono, President of the National Federation of the Blind, and I'm here at our Jernigan Institute in Baltimore to talk to you about the recipe to live the life you want. One of the things we do in our organization is bring people together in community.
So one of the key elements for us to live the lives we want is to bring a community of blind people together. The other key, just like making a pizza, is that everybody gets to bring the ingredients that they like to the table in our organization. And so we bring lots of diverse individuals with individual preferences, backgrounds, diversities, to work together in a shared experience as blind people. And so just like sitting around a table sharing a pizza, our organization allows us to bring our unique qualities to a shared experience.
Thank you to HumanWare and our anonymous donors for supporting this year's end of year giving campaign to make sure that into the future we can continue to empower blind people to live the lives they want and to fulfill this key recipe for success.
SPEAKER: Build the recipe to live the life you want. Give online at NFB.org/donate. Mail a check to National Federation of the Blind 200 East Wells Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21230 or contribute by calling 410-659-9314 extension 2430.
Thank you for your support.
National Federation of the Blind, live the life you want.
[Applause]
MARK RICCOBONO: Okay. Now, this video can be found on the Federation's YouTube channel and in our social media. I encourage you to share it. It's a really powerful way to encourage individuals and organizations to give to us. And thank you again to HumanWare and our anonymous donors for making available up to $100,000 to be matched here at the end of the year. So that means any donation is doubled automatically. So really important opportunity because most of the giving happens here at the end of the year.
Now, if you still need more kind of incentives and things to do to give, we still want to encourage people to be part of the Bay Bridge run which is being headed up by the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children. They're leading an effort to organize a team to run or walk the Bay Bridge in Maryland. But you don't have to be there to do it. You can participate virtually. And we're encouraging every chapter in the Federation to have at least one person who sponsored to be the chapter representative to walk or run the 5 miles that it would take to support it. And of course many members of the chapter can do it, but all members of the chapter can help to raise money to support the Federation's effort and have a designated person who can represent the chapter. Wouldn't it be awesome if the team NFB, the blind dreamers, had a representative from every single Federation chapter and every dollar that we're able to raise through those efforts will be doubled through our end of year giving campaign.
[Applause]
So please consider having your chapter participate. You can get more information about what to do and how to do it from visiting our web page NFB.org/baybridge. If you have questions, you can talk to Rachel Held at our national office. Rachel's email is [email protected]. Or you can reach Rachel at extension 2423 at our national office. Rachel can also send you a fundraising tool kit to help with this. So please get out and participate in the Bay Bridge run/walk. I say /walk because I'm going to walk; I'm not going to run. But I am going to do it in person. So that will be great.
And I do want to, as long as we're talking about fundraising, mention our Pre-Authorized Contribution program and note that I want to welcome the NFB of Maryland's at large chapter as the newest chapter contributing to the PAC program. Thank you, Maryland, for jumping in on that. NFB.org/PAC to get involved with our Pre-Authorized Contribution program.
Now I do have a few Federation family notes before we get to questions from Tennessee. I'm sorry to inform you of the passing of Patrick Duffy and Frederikka Maxwell. And from Virginia, Jim Green passed away on September 15th. He served as our recording secretary for 28 years of the Winchester chapter.
And from Maryland, I really regret to inform you of the passing of Liam Lindsay on October 9. He was 48 years old. Liam had been a member of the Federation for a number of years having been around the Baltimore chapter for some time, but on October 7, he had started as an Independence Market specialist at our national office. You will observe that his passing was two days later. It hit our national staff and many of our members in Maryland hard. So I to encourage you to keep Liam's family and friends in your thoughts and prayers.
As well as other Federation family members who I might not have had notes about before preparing for this live event.
With that, Pam, I think I want to turn it back to you to see if we have any questions.
PAM ALLEN: Okay. Thanks, President Riccobono. Wow, that was a jam packed Presidential Release live. And it's so great to hear. Everybody sounds so loud and proud. We can hear you very clearly. So it's great to hear the update on today and what a successful day and proud day for all of us.
So we do have a few questions. I know you're probably all hungry after a day.
MARK RICCOBONO: Especially after hearing about that pizza.
PAM ALLEN: Exactly. Exactly. So thank you, everyone, who has submitted questions. We really appreciate that. So President Riccobono, we were talking about the importance of voting and sharing our feedback. And we have a question about when will our voter survey be posted.
MARK RICCOBONO: That is a great question that I don't know the answer to. I'm sure, I'm confident, though, that you will -- we will push an email to all members. It will definitely be up by election day. We do try to post it, though, sometime before election day, especially to start getting people who do early voting to start filling it out. So look for that in the next week or two, but it will definitely be up by election day. And trust me, it will hit all the listservs, social media, it will be hard to miss it.
PAM ALLEN: Excellent. Awesome. Okay. We've got another, we have a couple questions of people curious if anybody, any updates on Waymo and if people were using Waymo cars to travel from the airport.
MARK RICCOBONO: How many people got to use Waymo while they were here.
[Cheering]
PAM ALLEN: I thought so.
MARK RICCOBONO: There are people in the room. And I know a number of them posted to social media about it. I rode with some folks yesterday taking Waymo from our site visit to Uber over to Lyft, and I did note that at the rally earlier today, Pam, that the same question was asked of the group that was there. And a second question was asked, of you who took Waymo, how many experienced a guide dog denial. And not a word was said!
PAM ALLEN: Yeah.
MARK RICCOBONO: We do continue to appreciate that Waymo is deeply interested in engaging with the National Federation of the Blind and getting feedback from our membership and leadership about their platform. Their app is beautifully accessible. I was able to change the music on our ride yesterday. And they're pretty good about their warnings. You know, we got a little alert about someone not wearing their seat belt, and, you know, it wasn't like a visual alert. They were very explicit auditorily. So hats off to Waymo for doing a great job. I know Waymo is coming to Austin, Texas, and it's coming to Atlanta, Georgia. So I have a feeling that those attending our 2026 convention will be using a lot of Waymo in New Orleans.
PAM ALLEN: We're hoping it will come to all of our cities soon. Stay tuned. We'll see. Great. Thanks for advertising that our convention will be in the great city of New Orleans July 8-13th. Appreciate that.
So another question, as we are celebrating today independence and freedom, and your remarks talked about white canes at the beginning of our history. Could you share a little advice, maybe something that helped you? We have some people that are just brand new to using canes that are still struggling to feel comfortable. And what helped you, and what advice would you give somebody that is new?
MARK RICCOBONO: That's a great question. So I know that the thing that made the biggest difference for me was being able to work with another blind person and understand what they do with the cane. What are the things that they look for. So not, you know, I'm not encouraging people to get together and rush out to cross six-lane highways, but this is where if you're wanting to figure out what to do with a cane, find a member of your local chapter in the National Federation of the Blind. I know they'll come out and visit with you and talk to you about their cane and show you how to use it and how you can get confident in using it.
I had no idea until I had a blind person show me, you know, the different techniques for holding the cane. And also what was meaningful in the characteristics of the cane. You know, I had a -- I received a cane for the first time when I graduated from high school. I was given a fold up aluminum cane. I don't know why. But it was a graduation gift. And I didn't exactly know what to do with it. It was heavy and it was awkward.
And when I went to my first convention in Anaheim, California, in 1996, blind people were sitting around talking about their canes. And I thought, well, that's kind of odd. But I listened. And they said, you know, they were debating about the length of the cane and how fast it allowed them to walk. And so I started testing what I heard them talk about. And it showed it was true.
So find a blind person that can help you understand the tools and techniques that blind people use, how we use the cane. Try out some different canes. Don't let someone tell you this cane is the one for you. Try them out. I know for me, I have found what works best for me. And don't just go by the first experience either. You know, just because you had one bad experience with a cane getting, I don't know, caught in a sidewalk and jabbing you in the arm or something doesn't mean you should reject that cane. Try some things out, and what's important is what gets you out and moving. And understanding that you are in charge of your own movements, and blindness should not be the thing that prevents you from going where you want to go.
I know that when we have people visit our building in Baltimore, you know, I tell them, look, there's no seven-foot cliffs here. Roam around all you want. Get lost. And that's my other tip. Go somewhere with someone where you can get lost and no one is going to bother you about it.
[Applause]
Because getting lost, yeah, understanding that sometimes you are just going to work it out. And when people keep interfering with you trying to learn about it takes away from the experience.
So give it time, trust yourself, and get some folks around you who believe that you can do it.
PAM ALLEN: That is great. What great advice. Thank you, President Riccobono.
And I think we have time for another question. We have several people who are asking they were not able to be at the rally but they really want to continue to help. What's next and what can they do going forward to keep this momentum going?
MARK RICCOBONO: Yeah, absolutely. So I would say continue to use the hashtag right to ride in social media. Continue to amplify the stories that people have shared.
If you have videos of rideshare denials, please send them to our communications group at the national office. We're getting quite a great collection of rideshare denials and this is really helpful because when media asks us about it, we can say, sure, here's 200 videos of blind people who have been denied.
[Applause]
But not just the media. You know, Department of Justice or other people, you know, this is really powerful content. So continue to tell your stories. I know it's, as Jessica said, it can be daunting and disheartening to keep doing it, but we really need you to keep filing the complaints, keep logging the incidents that happen because if we don't collect that data, we don't want the companies to get away with saying, well, it's better now. We know it's not.
But educate the public. And I would say any time you're in a Lyft or an Uber whether with a guide dog or not, it's an opportunity to talk with the drivers about it. And there are many great drivers out there doing a great job. The more they understand the true impact that this has on blind people, the more that they can be advocates with other drivers and with the company that they should do more.
I guess the last thing I would say is, also remember that in terms of supporting our blind brothers and sisters, it's not really the ride denial that's the worst part. What I've noticed is that the worst part is the next ride that you need. And all of the anxiety and struggle and concerns that come with, well, what's going to happen when I call that next ride and should I even call the next ride because I don't want to face that problem again.
So reminding ourselves that we can help support our blind brothers and sisters in this effort. We will get this done. We will hold these companies accountable. Keep up the work and just know that we are stronger together.
[Applause]
PAM ALLEN: Excellent. Thank you. Thank you so much, everyone, who submitted questions. And if we didn't have a chance to answer your question this evening, our outstanding communications team will be following up with you.
What an awesome day, President Riccobono. We really felt the love and the leading courageously our values and championing collective action. So thank you so much, everyone, who has joined us this evening. Please join us for our next Presidential Release live which will be on Monday, November 11th at 7:30 p.m. Eastern. You can contact President Riccobono at 410-659-9314 or via email at [email protected].
Thank you so much, and I will pass it back to you!
MARK RICCOBONO: Thank you very much, Pam. Great to be with you. And an opportunity here as we close to remind people that we have moved to this new Presidential Release format with the shorter focused topical question for our chapters. And I notice we've been getting some great feedback on the October recorded Presidential Release so please keep that feedback coming. And if you have suggestions of topics, our goal is to shoot for 15 minutes. I know we didn't make it to 15 for October. We really tried. You can blame Dr. Jernigan. His part was a little long. It's what put us over. But our goal was 15 minutes. We were close. So if you have suggestions, that would be great.
So that means we're moving to this new format with the live events. They may not be at a consistent time of the month. We will look for the opportunities. If you want to suggest Presidential Release live events that we can do, please write to me at my email address about that.
Now, to close this Presidential Release which does cap a very wonderful October 15th White Cane Awareness Day, we do have some customary endings!
Where did the guide dog park its Uber?
Well, in the barking lot, of course.
[Laughter]
And how did the dog get from L.A. to San Francisco?
No, it wasn't in a Lyft. It was in a Greyhound.
And what's Dracula's favorite dog?
Why, a bloodhound of course.
Let's go build the National Federation of the Blind!