3598 lines
193 KiB
Plaintext
3598 lines
193 KiB
Plaintext
THE BRAILLE MONITOR
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Barbara Pierce, Editor
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Published in inkprint, Braille, on talking-book disc,
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and cassette by
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THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND
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MARC MAURER, PRESIDENT
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National Office
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1800 Johnson Street
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Baltimore, Maryland 21230
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* * * *
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Letters to the President, address changes,
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subscription requests, orders for NFB literature,
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articles for the Monitor, and letters to the Editor
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should be sent to the National Office.
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* * * *
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Monitor subscriptions cost the Federation about twenty-five
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dollars per year. Members are invited, and non-members are
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requested, to cover the subscription cost. Donations should be
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made payable to National Federation of the Blind and sent to:
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National Federation of the Blind
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1800 Johnson Street
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Baltimore, Maryland 21230
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* * * *
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THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND IS NOT AN ORGANIZATION
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SPEAKING FOR THE BLIND--IT IS THE BLIND SPEAKING FOR THEMSELVES
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ISSN 0006-8829 THE BRAILLE MONITOR
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A PUBLICATION OF THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND
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CONTENTS
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FEBRUARY, 1994
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ARE SPECIALIZED EDUCATIONAL SETTINGS FOR CHILDREN WITH
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DISABILITIES IMMORAL?
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by Barbara Pierce
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STAYING THE COURSE, SHIFTING THE EMPHASIS: THE BLIND IN THE
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1990'S
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by Gary Wunder
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GEORGIA EDUCATOR TEACHES SCHOOL SYSTEM NOT TO DISCRIMINATE
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by Scott LaBarre
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THE OREGON BRAILLE BILL: AN EXERCISE IN COOPERATION
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by Carla McQuillan
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WALKING ALONE AND MARCHING TOGETHER IN ALAMOGORDO
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THE NFB IN ACTION
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by Kevan Worley
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BASIC RIGHTS AND HIGHER PRINCIPLES
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by Fatos Floyd
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EXPECTATIONS: THE CRITICAL FACTOR IN THE EDUCATION OF BLIND
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CHILDREN
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by Fredric K. Schroeder
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1994 CONVENTION BULLETIN
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MICHIGAN: THE FIRST, THE BIGGEST, AND THE BEST
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FEDERATIONIST HONORED
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RACE AND REASON: A BLACK PERSPECTIVE ON A DARK ISSUE
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by John W. Smith
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NEW FACULTY MEMBER MAKES A PLACE FOR HIMSELF
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SOCIAL SECURITY, SSI, AND MEDICARE FACTS FOR 1994
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RECIPES
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MONITOR MINIATURES
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Copyright <20> 1994 National Federation of the Blind, Inc.
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[2 LEAD PHOTOS: PHOTO 1) Four men in National Center for the Blind kitchen,
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cleaning and doing dishes. PHOTO 2) President Maurer and Mr. Cobb stand on
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ladders cleaning walls in an office. CAPTION: Whether it's walking a picket
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line, stuffing envelopes, or helping to clean at the National Center for the
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Blind, Federationists have never been afraid of hard work. Above, members of
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the Board of Directors of the National Federation of the Blind wash dishes
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after a meal during the Board's annual Thanksgiving weekend meeting. Below,
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President Maurer and Tony Cobb of the National staff wax the paneling in the
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new street-level area at the National Center. Working or playing, members of
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the National Federation of the Blind enjoy spending time together.]
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[PHOTO: Barbara Pierce standing at microphone. CAPTION: Barbara Pierce.]
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ARE SPECIALIZED EDUCATIONAL SETTINGS
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FOR CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES IMMORAL?
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by Barbara Pierce
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The nation's highest ranking governmental official dealing
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directly with disability issues is Judy Heumann, Assistant
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Secretary for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services in
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the Department of Education (DED). The fact that Ms. Heumann uses
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a wheelchair and therefore understands and shares the views of a
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significant number of the people whom her programs ultimately
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affect is fairly novel and frequently helpful. But despite Ms.
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Heumann's firsthand knowledge all is not harmonious sweetness and
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light in the field of education of children with special needs.
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The present difficulty is yet one more manifestation of the
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same old problem: in a field in which there are many different
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disabilities and in which even students with the same deficit
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have very different needs, no one educational solution will ever
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fit everybody. Clearly a continuum of learning environments from
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full inclusion in the regular classroom to the specialized
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residential school must be available and acceptable educational
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alternatives if disabled children are not to be the losers. Yet
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even when a range of options is available, we human beings have a
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near genius for doing the wrong things for the right reasons as
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well as the occasional possibility of doing the right thing for
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the wrong reasons. All this complicates even the best-intentioned
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effort to find the right educational setting for each disabled
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child.
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Add to all this the instinct on the part of many public
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school officials to cloak their fears and misconceptions about
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disabilities in fashionable educational jargon and excuses about
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limited financial resources, and you have a situation in which
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what is best for the individual disabled child is often
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completely disregarded. Knowing that many children with special
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needs could thrive in the regular classroom if there were only
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some architectural modifications or some special instruction
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(Braille, sign language, speech therapy, etc.), some advocates
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maintain that disabled students will never be truly accepted in
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the regular classroom until schools are required to include them
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in regular classes as a matter of course. On the other hand both
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mainstream teachers who recognize that these children almost
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never get all the support services and specialized instruction
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they need and those who believe that disabled students can never
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fit in and always cause complications and disruption in their
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classrooms are frantic to keep all such children out. Sometimes
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with good reason and sometimes not, they say that they can't give
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disabled students the time and attention they require.
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There is no easy solution to this mess. But in an article
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printed elsewhere in this issue, Fred Schroeder discusses the
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first step to finding the answer. All teachers of disabled
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children must begin with a fundamental belief in the abilities of
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the children they work with. Teachers, parents, and ultimately
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the students themselves must come to have real confidence in the
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youngsters' ability to compete academically and socially with
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their nondisabled peers of comparable ability.
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Sufficient funds must be found to insure that the necessary
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skill instruction and services are available for disabled
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students. If these conditions were met and schools were fully
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accessible to students using crutches or wheelchairs, most
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youngsters with sensory or mobility impairments could certainly
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fit into the regular classroom with little problem and special
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services that decrease as they mature. Whether or when children
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with severe mental, emotional, or behavioral disabilities belong
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in the regular classroom is to my mind a different question and
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one which we in the National Federation of the Blind are not
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equipped to discuss knowledgeably.
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In 1994, however, we are very far from being at this ideal
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level of educational enlightenment. It is fair to say that not a
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single element of the educational continuum is currently
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providing consistently excellent service, which is to say that
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improvement is necessary in every regular classroom and in every
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alternative setting. Enter Assistant Secretary Heumann and her
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predisposition in favor of full inclusion. As a youngster whose
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only problem was the necessity to use a wheelchair, she
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undoubtedly belonged in the regular classroom, an option which
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for part of her education, at least, she was denied. It is
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understandable that today she feels keenly the importance of
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seeing that prejudice, ignorance, and sloppy design will never
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again prevent disabled students from benefitting from the
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educational opportunities she was denied. And certainly the
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Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) includes
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language that strongly encourages the mainstreaming of special
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education students. In fact, the Department of Education is
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preparing to send appropriate officials in every state copies of
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a brief it recently submitted in a court case together with an
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important court decision, the Oberti case, handed down last
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September. The Oberti lawsuit ended when the Clementon, New
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Jersey, school district chose not to appeal a court order that it
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must try to educate a student with Down's Syndrome in a regular
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classroom by providing support services. According to statements
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made by Judy Heumann, the rightness or wrongness of inclusion is
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not a legal question. The legal issue is what the IDEA requires,
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and the Department of Education concurs with the Oberti decision
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on this point. The decision reads in part:
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"We construe IDEA's mainstreaming requirement to prohibit a
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school from placing a child with disabilities outside of a
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regular classroom if educating the child in the regular classroom
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with supplementary aids and supportive services can be achieved
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satisfactorily. In addition, if placement outside of a regular
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classroom is necessary for the child to receive educational
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benefit, the school may still be violating IDEA if it has not
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made sufficient efforts to include the child in school programs
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with nondisabled children whenever possible. We also hold that
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the school bears the burden of proving compliance with the
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mainstreaming requirement of IDEA, regardless of which party (the
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child and parents or the school) brought the claim under IDEA
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before the district court."
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Such language can all too easily be (and, in fact, has
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already been) interpreted by school districts as justification
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for eliminating resource rooms, itinerant teachers, and special
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programs of all kinds. Then, as if this possibility were not
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dangerous enough, Ms. Heumann made a statement in a speech in
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California early last fall to the effect that she considered
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segregated special education immoral. Her statement and a
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subsequent exchange with a member of the audience were reported
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in the November 2, 1993, issue of the publication, The Special
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Educator. In an article entitled "Oberti Decision is Core of the
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ED's Inclusion Position," the exchange was reported as follows:
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At one point Heumann compared the IDEA's mandate [for full
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inclusion] with the landmark Supreme Court case on racially
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segregated education, Brown v. Board of Education, stating
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"separate but equal is not acceptable." She also called
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segregated special education "immoral."
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During a question and answer period following Heumann's
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address, one special education administrator challenged that
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term.
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"I don't support full inclusion and I'm not immoral," an
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administrator said, drawing the applause of many in the audience.
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"I think special education students will lose in the regular
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classroom. These kids don't really learn anything there. Their
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needs are lost."
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In her reply Heumann said, "If special education segregated
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classes were working, these kids wouldn't be dropping out of
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school in record numbers."
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That's what Heumann said, and the outcry in the special
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education community was immediate. Sherry Kolbe, Executive
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Director of the National Association of Private Schools for
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Exceptional Children, wrote first to Ms. Heumann and then to
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Senator Edward Kennedy, Chairman of the Committee on Labor and
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Human Resources, to express the Association's dismay and deep
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concern. Here are the two letters:
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Washington, D.C.
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November 17, 1993
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Judith Heumann
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Assistant Secretary
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Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services
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U.S. Department of Education
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Washington, DC
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Dear Assistant Secretary Heumann:
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On behalf of the National Association of Private Schools for
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Exceptional Children (NAPSEC), I want to express our
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disappointment in learning of your recent classification of
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separate settings for children with disabilities as "immoral."
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Obviously, your using the term "immoral" to describe
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separate settings for children with special needs is disturbing
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to all who are involved in providing specialized services to
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children outside the regular classroom. NAPSEC schools and the
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services that they provide are both necessary and critical to the
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special education system.
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I find it most disturbing that, upon having met with me, you
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acknowledged the need for our schools in the special education
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system, yet would subsequently make such an inflammatory
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statement. At no time during our meeting at the Department did
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you even insinuate that you felt our schools were "immoral."
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These are obviously conflicting statements. I am also
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disappointed that you cannot see any of the good things that have
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happened and continue to happen in separate special education
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settings. Maybe it would be beneficial for you to visit some of
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our schools so you can see first hand that your comment is
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unfounded.
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Also, in your statement regarding segregated special
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education, you mentioned that, if these settings were working,
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then children with disabilities would not be dropping out of
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schools in record numbers. The Department of Education's
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Fourteenth Annual Report to Congress on the Implementation of the
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Individuals with Disabilities Education Act states that students
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who attend larger schools and those who spend relatively more
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time in regular education classes are more likely to fail
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courses, and those who failed a course in their most recent
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school year were almost three times more likely to drop out than
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students who had not failed a course. Also how do you explain the
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drop-out rate for regular education students being educated in
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the regular classroom? In 1991 the drop-out rate in New York City
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was 17.2%, in Chicago it was 51.1%, and in Los Angeles it was
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38.1%. If the regular classroom worked for everyone, wouldn't it
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also work for these students?
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NAPSEC is not anti-inclusion, but pro-child. It is our
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concern that, by taking the "individual" out of the Individuals
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with Disabilities Education Act, children with disabilities will
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not receive the timely services necessary to address their unique
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needs. With the passage of P.L.94-142, we won the fight against
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one system of education for all children, and now the education
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system is able to provide a continuum of services to ensure that
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each child's individual needs are appropriately met.
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All NAPSEC schools operate on this fundamental belief: to
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guarantee that each child's unique needs are met on an individual
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basis in order to achieve his/her maximum potential. The goal of
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each NAPSEC school is to provide a learning environment in which
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the child can establish and develop the skills necessary to allow
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him/her to function successfully in society. Further, our belief
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is that there is nothing "immoral" about providing options for
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children and families with special needs.
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Sincerely,
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Sherry L. Kolbe
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Executive Director
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cc: Michelle Doyle, Office of Private Education
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____________________
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Washington, D.C.
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November 17, 1993
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Dear Chairman Kennedy:
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On behalf of the National Association of Private Schools for
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Exceptional Children (NAPSEC), I want to call your attention to
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the recent comments made by the Assistant Secretary of Special
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Education and Rehabilitative Services, Ms. Judith Heumann,
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regarding educating children with disabilities in separate
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settings.
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Ms. Heumann made her feelings clear when she stated at a
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meeting in California that segregated special education is
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"immoral." Obviously this is very offensive to all of those
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dedicated special education teachers who have devoted their lives
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to working with children who have special needs. It is
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unacceptable for someone who is supposedly representing all
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children with disabilities, regardless of placement, to call
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those who provide educational services in separate classrooms and
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facilities, both public and private, "immoral." It is also very
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unsettling to know that these views are coming from someone who
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represents the Department of Education. It has been our belief
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that the Department both recognizes and respects the necessity of
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choices and options for individuals who cannot better themselves
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without special services to address their individual needs.
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NAPSEC represents over 200 private special education schools
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that provide special education services for both publicly and
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privately placed students. The majority of our schools serve
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publicly placed children who are referred to our schools because
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they need individualized services that are not available in the
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public school setting. These students are funded through the
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Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and the
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Chapter 1 Handicapped Program. As you can see, if separate
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settings for children with disabilities are indeed immoral as
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stated by Ms. Heumann, the funding for these "immoral" services
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is being provided by law. IDEA requires that each child have an
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individual education program (IEP) designed to meet his/her
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unique needs. The determination of educational placement is based
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upon the student's IEP. The law also requires that students have
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access to a full continuum of special education services,
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provided in both public and private settings. Placing every child
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with disabilities in the regular classroom regardless of his/her
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needs is not only inconsistent with the law but may be
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detrimental to the child's ability to learn.
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There is a group of individuals that believe that all
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children with disabilities should be educated in the regular
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classroom and that all other options and choices should be
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eliminated from the law. These individuals use the term
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"segregation" when they speak of children with disabilities that
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are placed outside the regular classroom. This word immediately
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conjures up ugly visions of discrimination and racial prejudice.
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The term is inappropriately borrowed from the civil rights
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movement and is not applicable to children with disabilities.
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Children being served in separate classrooms and schools are
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receiving the type of additional assistance necessary to help
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them succeed--not keep them from succeeding.
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At this point we are unsure of what to believe. The
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Assistant Secretary for Special Education and Rehabilitative
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Services states that separate settings for children with
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disabilities is "immoral," while the Director of the Office of
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Special Education Programs, Dr. Thomas Hehir, has stated publicly
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that the inclusion of all children with disabilities in the
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regular classroom will not work for all special needs children.
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These are conflicting statements, yet both are coming from the
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Department of Education.
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Ms. Heumann's statement is very disturbing to those of us
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who see educators of children with disabilities, in any setting,
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as persons who should be applauded for their efforts and
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devotion, not be called "immoral" by the person who is in charge
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of the programs that make their function possible.
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It is our sincere hope that the Congress will work to
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maintain a continuum of services for children with disabilities,
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as stated in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, to
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ensure that children with special needs will continue to receive
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services that appropriately address their individual needs.
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Sincerely,
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Sherry L. Kolbe
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Executive Director
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It did not take Assistant Secretary Heumann long to respond
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to Ms. Kolbe's letter, and Senator Kennedy was not far behind. In
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his letter the Senator commended all those who work with
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exceptional children and explained that there had been confusion
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over Ms. Heumann's California remarks. He then enclosed a copy of
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Ms. Heumann's letter written to Sherry Kolbe. Here is that
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letter:
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Washington, D.C.
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December 2, 1993
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Ms. Sherry Kolbe
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Executive Director
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NAPSEC
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Washington, D.C.
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Dear Sherry:
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I received your letter regarding my comments about
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educational placements in separate settings for students with
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disabilities, and I am pleased to have this chance to clarify my
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position. During the five months since I was confirmed as
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Assistant Secretary for the Office of Special Education and
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Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), I have had the opportunity to
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meet or talk with the leadership of numerous organizations
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involved in advocacy for disabled children and adults. I have
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also met with hundreds of parents of disabled children across the
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nation. I firmly believe that within the last twenty years there
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have been major accomplishments in the education of disabled
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students in this country. However, I know more needs to be done.
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The primary concern I have heard expressed during these
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conversations is that for many disabled children the full range
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of placement options is not available.
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The continuum of alternative placement is an integral part
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of the IDEA regulations which Office of Special Education
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Programs Director Tom Hehir and I are bound, both by our
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positions and by our own beliefs, to enforce. Tom and I both
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believe, consistent with IDEA, that the regular classroom in the
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neighborhood school should be the first placement option
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considered for students with disabilities. We also believe our
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education system must provide administrators and teachers with
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the training and support they need to make the regular classroom
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in the neighborhood school the appropriate placement, and we aim
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to provide strong leadership to help make that happen.
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Being disabled myself and having received part of my
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education in segregated settings for no other reason than that I
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happened to use a wheelchair, I do not shrink from describing
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such placements as wrong--when the placement is made for reasons
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other than the educational needs of the child. With fifty percent
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of physically disabled students still receiving their education
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in some type of separate setting, I will continue to make strong
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statements in support of regular classroom placements. At the
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same time we fully appreciate and support the important role of
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other options on the continuum for some students.
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I also know of the critical need for parents of all disabled
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children to receive more and better information about the
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available options and the supports that may be needed for their
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children. I believe that the more information parents have, the
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more effective they will be in the decision-making process
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affecting their children's education. There is a role for all of
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us in this empowerment process.
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I regret that my schedule does not accommodate my
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participation in the annual meeting of NAPSEC next month. Still I
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would welcome the opportunity to visit a NAPSEC member school
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that you consider especially effective in providing educational
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services to disabled students. It may be easier to schedule a
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visit to a site in the Washington, D.C., area, but I could also
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consider such a visit in another part of the country. I hope you
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will identify some potential sites for my review.
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I am convinced that we hold in common the most basic
|
||
interest: better outcomes for all disabled students through
|
||
appropriate and high quality education services. It is
|
||
unfortunate that a few statements from my presentation in a
|
||
public forum have been interpreted as a lack of support for
|
||
ensuring that a full range of placement options is available for
|
||
each disabled child and his or her family. My record, both past
|
||
and future, will show that I fully support the availability of a
|
||
continuum of placement options for students with disabilities. I
|
||
look forward to working with you to achieve our mutual goals.
|
||
Sincerely,
|
||
Judith E. Heumann
|
||
United States Department of Education
|
||
Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services
|
||
____________________
|
||
That is what Ms. Heumann wrote, and it was reassuring to
|
||
have her commit to paper her belief in the importance of a
|
||
continuum of special education settings. One cannot help pointing
|
||
out, however, that it would be helpful if she were to make this
|
||
commitment more publicly and more often. Here is the letter that
|
||
Sherry Kolbe wrote Ms. Heumann in response:
|
||
|
||
Washington, D.C.
|
||
December 6, 1993
|
||
|
||
Judith E. Heumann
|
||
Assistant Secretary
|
||
Special Education and Rehabilitative Services
|
||
Washington, D.C.
|
||
|
||
Dear Judy:
|
||
Thank you for your recent letter. I appreciate your taking
|
||
the time to clarify your position on the continuum of options for
|
||
children with disabilities.
|
||
I agree with you wholeheartedly when you say that the full
|
||
range of placement options is not currently available to children
|
||
with disabilities. I too have talked with hundreds of parents
|
||
regarding the lack of appropriate services for their children.
|
||
Some of the conversations are very sad and unsettling. I have
|
||
talked with teachers who have told me that they are not allowed
|
||
to tell parents that there are any other options available for
|
||
their children besides those that are offered in the public
|
||
schools, regardless of whether they are appropriate or not. I
|
||
have talked with children in NAPSEC schools who have told me that
|
||
they did not have any friends before they came to the school. All
|
||
of these conversations are equally disheartening. Yes, I agree,
|
||
there is still much to be done.
|
||
NAPSEC has always strongly supported placements based solely
|
||
on a child's Individual Education Program (IEP) and like you,
|
||
does not excuse those placements based on other unrelated
|
||
judgments. However, it is imperative that, when you make strong
|
||
statements against "such placements as wrong" as described in
|
||
your letter, it is done on an individual-by-individual placement
|
||
basis to avoid promoting the concept that all placements in
|
||
separate settings are wrong for children with disabilities. As
|
||
you well know, using an all-or-nothing approach that disregards
|
||
individual educational needs often leaves us with nothing. You
|
||
also stated in your letter that "the continuum of alternative
|
||
placements is an integral part of the IDEA regulations which
|
||
Office of Special Education Programs Director Tom Hehir and I are
|
||
bound, both by our own positions and by our own beliefs, to
|
||
enforce." This is a message that has not yet been clearly
|
||
expressed. The majority of articles in which you are quoted deal
|
||
with your support for full inclusion. The importance of
|
||
maintaining a full continuum of options for children with
|
||
disabilities is not discussed. This could be an area where you
|
||
can help to provide parents with "more and better information
|
||
about the available options and the supports that may be needed
|
||
for their children" by publicly discussing the options available
|
||
through the continuum, of which inclusion in the regular
|
||
classroom is just one of many options available to address the
|
||
individual educational needs of children with disabilities.
|
||
Enclosed for your review are copies of NAPSEC Directory
|
||
pages that provide program descriptions of nine member schools in
|
||
the metropolitan area that you may wish to visit. I will be happy
|
||
to work with your office to schedule school visits and any other
|
||
arrangements that you may need. You may be particularly
|
||
interested to know that the Ivymount School in Rockville,
|
||
Maryland, and the School for Contemporary Education in Annandale,
|
||
Virginia, have recently been recognized as Schools of Excellence
|
||
by the Department of Education.
|
||
Again, I appreciate your taking the time to state your
|
||
support for a continuum of options. I will share your views with
|
||
the NAPSEC membership. I look forward to working with you to
|
||
ensure that options and choices for children with disabilities
|
||
and their families remain available and accessible in the future.
|
||
Best wishes for a happy and healthy holiday season.
|
||
Sincerely,
|
||
Sherry L. Kolbe
|
||
Executive Director
|
||
____________________
|
||
|
||
The most recent group to weigh in with its views on full
|
||
inclusion is the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). In the
|
||
December 17, 1993, edition of the publication, Disability Funding
|
||
News, the AFT called for a moratorium on full inclusion. One is
|
||
forced to question whether this call is based on a disinterested
|
||
concern for all children or panic at the prospect of facing new
|
||
challenges. The answer is undoubtedly some of both. Here is the
|
||
article:
|
||
|
||
AFT Urges Moratorium On Full Inclusion Programs
|
||
|
||
The American Federation of Teachers urges a moratorium on
|
||
school inclusion policies that integrate all special needs
|
||
students in regular classrooms.
|
||
AFT proposes a strategy for making inclusion work more
|
||
effectively where appropriate, beginning with a reappraisal of
|
||
federal, state, and local policies.
|
||
"A moratorium means that the abuse must stop and give common
|
||
sense and sound educational policy a chance to prevail," says AFT
|
||
President Albert Shanker. "We must put the brakes on a helter-
|
||
skelter, even tumultuous, rush toward full inclusion so that
|
||
everyone involved--parents, school boards, legislators, Congress,
|
||
and the Clinton administration--can develop a policy based on
|
||
what is best for all children in our public schools."
|
||
|
||
But Advocates of Inclusive School Policies Disagree
|
||
|
||
"Inclusion benefits all students in schools where careful
|
||
planning has taken place and training and support are provided
|
||
for teachers," responds Brenda Welburn, executive director of the
|
||
National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE).
|
||
"Schools with successful inclusion environments are
|
||
characterized by active teacher involvement in decisions about
|
||
scheduling, staffing patterns, and staff development. These
|
||
schools should be used as models for other schools to proceed in
|
||
implementing inclusion, rather than putting the whole reform
|
||
effort on hold."
|
||
The move toward inclusion is most aggressive in California,
|
||
Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, New
|
||
Hampshire, Minnesota, Utah, and Vermont. And inclusion was
|
||
gathering momentum in Ohio and West Virginia until teachers began
|
||
campaigning against it, Shanker says.
|
||
New inclusion initiatives currently in the works could
|
||
potentially place up to 4.7 million special education students in
|
||
regular classrooms. Some 34 percent of those 4.7 million children
|
||
were taught in regular classrooms in 1990-91, according to the
|
||
Department of Education.
|
||
AFT maintains that placing disabled students who yell,
|
||
scream, and are prone to violent outbursts in regular classrooms
|
||
threatens the academic achievement of the other students.
|
||
"More and more teachers are catheterizing children, fixing
|
||
feeding tubes, giving medications, and performing other
|
||
procedures on medically fragile children, while across the room a
|
||
violently disruptive student is on the verge of getting away with
|
||
mayhem because he can't be disciplined without a court order,"
|
||
Shanker says. He notes that a recent AFT survey of the one
|
||
hundred largest school districts finds only five percent of
|
||
schools train their general classroom teachers to deal with
|
||
special needs children.
|
||
While NASBE agrees that providing little or no support to
|
||
teachers to handle children with special needs or implementing
|
||
inclusion without adequate support is inappropriate, Welburn says
|
||
"To stop the entire effort to include students with special needs
|
||
in general education classrooms is an overreaction."
|
||
Andrew Stamp, spokesman for NASBE, says the concern that
|
||
teachers spend too much time disciplining special needs students
|
||
is unfounded. In fact, the majority of students causing the
|
||
problems in the classroom are not special needs students.
|
||
"We cannot lay the ills of society or the problems in the
|
||
classroom on the backs of students with disabilities," he says,
|
||
adding that one Louisiana school district, in its third year of a
|
||
five-year move toward full inclusion, reported a 50 percent
|
||
decrease in K-6 discipline referrals to the principal.
|
||
The motivation for inclusion is often based on budgetary and
|
||
ideological motivations, Shanker says, not educational reasons.
|
||
"Schools claim to do it [inclusion] for idealistic reasons,"
|
||
Shanker says. "It's simply a budget savings device using the fig
|
||
leaf of altruism."
|
||
Due to budget shortfalls in the federal government, school
|
||
systems are under financial pressure to cut back expensive
|
||
programs for students with special needs, and inclusion is one
|
||
such budget-cutting measure. As a result, services are bound to
|
||
be reduced or eliminated once students are scattered throughout
|
||
the school system, Shanker explains.
|
||
But inclusion advocates say many states actually reward
|
||
school districts financially if they keep disabled students in
|
||
separate classes. They contend that special services can continue
|
||
for these students if they attend regular classes.
|
||
The AFT strategy calls for:
|
||
A reappraisal of federal laws and policies that encourage
|
||
inappropriate inclusion.
|
||
Congress to fulfill its pledge to fund 40 percent of costs for
|
||
special needs children, as provided in the Education for All
|
||
Handicapped Children Act (now the Individuals with Disabilities
|
||
Education Act). Congress currently provides only seven percent of
|
||
this funding.
|
||
Giving teachers the authority to help determine which special
|
||
needs students should be placed in regular classes.
|
||
Limits on the number of special needs children in regular
|
||
classes.
|
||
Removing limitations on disciplining special needs students who
|
||
are disruptive or dangerous to others.
|
||
While the moratorium is in existence at the state and local
|
||
level, Shanker says, policy makers at all levels must work to
|
||
balance the needs of special education and regular students for
|
||
the future.
|
||
|
||
There it is--a complicated and varied situation in which
|
||
there is no clear way of protecting the disabled child's right to
|
||
a free and appropriate education. Clearly there is no one
|
||
solution for all children or even for a single youngster
|
||
throughout his or her educational life, and that means there is
|
||
no one course of action for knowledgeable parents and advocates
|
||
to take. We must continue to fight for improvements at every
|
||
point on the special education continuum, and we must resist
|
||
efforts to drop blind youngsters into regular classrooms without
|
||
giving them instruction in the skills of blindness or support
|
||
services to provide the educational materials they need in
|
||
accessible form. There is still much for informed, thoughtful,
|
||
and caring members of the National Federation of the Blind to do
|
||
to protect the rights of today's blind children.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PHOTO: Gary Wunder stands with microphone in hand. CAPTION: Gary Wunder.]
|
||
|
||
STAYING THE COURSE, SHIFTING THE EMPHASIS:
|
||
THE BLIND IN THE 1990'S
|
||
by Gary Wunder
|
||
|
||
From the Editor: Gary Wunder is the President of the
|
||
Missouri affiliate and a leader at every level of the National
|
||
Federation of the Blind. In November of 1993 he was the national
|
||
representative at the NFB of Ohio convention, and the banquet
|
||
address he delivered still has those who heard it thinking and
|
||
talking about it. Here is what he said:
|
||
|
||
This past weekend I had the good fortune to work with ninety
|
||
high school and college students who attended one of our seminars
|
||
to learn about the skills which would benefit them in their
|
||
education. The name of the event was Student Network, and it was
|
||
jointly hosted by Missouri's state agency, Rehabilitation
|
||
Services for the Blind, and the National Federation of the Blind
|
||
of Missouri. In general terms, they pay; we present--a nice
|
||
arrangement, and one which they encourage.
|
||
The reactions we get from students are almost uniformly
|
||
positive. They are quick to say they appreciate our time; think
|
||
our speaking is at least passible, if not entertaining; are
|
||
encouraged by our accomplishments; and say they would attend the
|
||
next Network should we decide to have one. Interspersed with this
|
||
praise, however, are statements like the following: We would like
|
||
to hear more from students; we spend too much time listening to
|
||
old people. Sometimes I think the presenters are too rigid; it is
|
||
as though they think they know all the answers. I wish you'd talk
|
||
more about problems and how you solved them and less about
|
||
philosophy and life. Then there is the all-important request:
|
||
"Tell us more about how we can get our own Braille 'n Speaks and
|
||
computers."
|
||
Since we ask for the evaluations in an attempt to improve
|
||
our program, we have to wrestle with ways to keep the good while
|
||
incorporating the criticisms in something positive. The
|
||
difficulty we face is one which buffets us everyday as
|
||
Federationists, workers, parents, and members of American
|
||
society. How can we convey the meaningful values which have made
|
||
us what we are, while at the same time recognizing the changes
|
||
that have taken place between the past we describe and the
|
||
present we occupy as we speak? In more concrete terms, how do we
|
||
stress the importance of old-fashioned educational values without
|
||
telling that worn-out story about walking seven miles to school
|
||
each day in snow up to our hips?
|
||
All of this preamble leads me to what I want to talk about
|
||
tonight--the changes which have occurred in recent decades for
|
||
blind people, the ways in which we have brought about these
|
||
changes, and our current role in this new reality. Even though
|
||
our history reveals a change in emphasis from decade to decade,
|
||
never have we lost the vision which brings continuity to it all:
|
||
our vision of a world in which the blind are treated as normal,
|
||
capable people who simply do not see, a vision of a world in
|
||
which every blind person can have a job, a family, and a valued
|
||
place in his or her community.
|
||
When we began our movement over fifty years ago, our first
|
||
task was to establish a means of subsistence-level support for
|
||
the blind. Most blind people in 1940 lived with family members
|
||
and had no means of self-support. As long as their care and
|
||
support were the responsibility of relatives, they would continue
|
||
to be treated like children and would likely regard themselves as
|
||
inferiors, lesser beings whose thoughts and opinions were of
|
||
little significance. Our work then was to provide a monthly state
|
||
payment for the blind, and this we were successful in securing.
|
||
After a minimal income was provided by law, our next job was
|
||
to see that blind people got training. Not only was it necessary
|
||
to learn the skills of blindness that would allow for independent
|
||
travel and self-care, but additional academic and job skill
|
||
training would be required if the blind were to secure
|
||
employment. At first the training we received was minimal and
|
||
rarely adequate, but each year saw new victories, and hope grew
|
||
as the blind of that generation witnessed the changes.
|
||
Once we had won the right to an education and some training,
|
||
our emphasis shifted once again, and we turned our attention
|
||
toward changing the attitudes of a skeptical public who simply
|
||
did not believe the blind could work and make a contribution to
|
||
society. In the fifties you will remember our struggles with the
|
||
Civil Service, our demand that we be given the right to take
|
||
tests, our demand that our test scores be posted, our demand that
|
||
we be interviewed when our test scores were competitive, and
|
||
finally our demand that we be hired when we were the most
|
||
qualified candidates available. Through this lengthy and at times
|
||
frustrating process, we continued to do what we had always done
|
||
for one another--reminding ourselves that we truly were competent
|
||
human beings. At times we had our doubts, for few were those who
|
||
believed as we did. Each day we hoped and dreamed, sharing with
|
||
our blind cohorts our little triumphs and defeats, clinging to
|
||
the progress of each of our brothers and sisters as proof of the
|
||
rightness of our belief in ourselves.
|
||
Throughout the sixties and seventies we did much in the
|
||
legislatures of the land to provide basic civil rights protection
|
||
for the blind. White Cane laws soon declared that blind people
|
||
could travel where we wished with our canes and our dog guides.
|
||
Landlords could not deny us a place to live or charge us more to
|
||
live in their establishments. Public transportation systems were
|
||
not only obliged to permit us to ride but were compelled to make
|
||
reasonable accommodations for us such as announcing stops and
|
||
giving us the name of the route the bus was traveling.
|
||
Restaurants were ordered to seat and serve us without regard to
|
||
our use of a dog guide, and even insurance companies were
|
||
compelled to review their policies regarding the sale of
|
||
insurance to the blind, being required to justify any higher rate
|
||
by statistically demonstrating that we were a greater risk than
|
||
others. This, of course, they could not do.
|
||
Having made substantial gains in securing basic civil rights
|
||
protection, our emphasis gradually shifted, and the seventies and
|
||
eighties witnessed landmark legislation designed to assure that
|
||
we would be considered for jobs in the public sector without
|
||
regard to our blindness. Many of us found work as a result of
|
||
amendments to the Federal Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973
|
||
and some state laws which were similar in intent.
|
||
We found, of course, that legislation was not enough. A
|
||
major portion of our energy and funding was given to enforcing
|
||
the laws we had introduced and passed, and reports of successful
|
||
court challenges were a major staple in our annual presidential
|
||
reports, our banquet speeches, and our governmental affairs
|
||
activities.
|
||
In the nineties there is little I have mentioned that cannot
|
||
still be found in the work we do. We continue to press for a
|
||
guaranteed and adequate income for the blind, for quality
|
||
affordable housing, and for the special programs which teach the
|
||
skills and attitudes required to function independently as blind
|
||
people. We still take problems which the blind of the nation
|
||
bring, and these often result in administrative challenges,
|
||
arbitration hearings, and court battles. You will have noticed,
|
||
however, that, as our message becomes ever more widely accepted
|
||
and our legal protection more firmly secured by precedent, these
|
||
issues appear with some less frequency than they did in the past.
|
||
What then is our major task to fulfill in the 1990's? I
|
||
believe it is to strengthen the confidence our brothers and
|
||
sisters have in themselves so that they are able and willing to
|
||
risk the possibility of failure on the chance of success. We must
|
||
deepen the faith we have come to feel in one another so that it
|
||
extends beyond faith in our power as a body and fills those areas
|
||
of our lives where doubt or contentment with the status quo now
|
||
resides.
|
||
Let me turn for a moment from this abstract discussion of
|
||
the challenges which face us to share with you a few specific
|
||
examples which concern me, because of what they illustrate in the
|
||
way of changes we must address. I have been a member of the
|
||
Federation for twenty years, and in that time have listened to
|
||
and worked on behalf of many people who have had grievances
|
||
against the education and rehabilitation establishments. Often in
|
||
my early years the conflicts came about because the
|
||
rehabilitation counselor simply didn't believe that a blind
|
||
person could do what the client insisted he had the right to try.
|
||
Often there were elements of custodial treatment which also
|
||
aggravated the situation, and in most instances the blind people
|
||
pressing their cases were supremely qualified to do what they
|
||
wanted to do. This didn't mean that winning was easy or that the
|
||
victories were always everything we wanted, but it did mean that
|
||
every advance brought us that much closer to enjoying true
|
||
equality with the sighted.
|
||
In the last few years I have seen a change in the kinds of
|
||
issues brought to us for resolution. Let me give you two examples
|
||
I find disturbing.
|
||
Jim is a man who would like to get his Ph.D. in educational
|
||
administration and work as a high school principal or
|
||
superintendent. He came to us when it appeared he would be denied
|
||
admission to graduate school. He was interested in discussing
|
||
with me the problems blind people have when taking tests
|
||
administered by the Educational Testing Service. When tests are
|
||
administered under nonstandard conditions such as with the use of
|
||
readers or Braille or the provision of additional time, the ETS
|
||
sends with a blind person's test score a letter noting that it
|
||
cannot say with certainty just what the score means. Our concern
|
||
about this disclaimer is that it may be used to diminish the
|
||
learning indicated by our scores. Jim asked that I note our long-
|
||
standing objections to this attachment in a letter he might use
|
||
before the graduate admissions board, and this I did.
|
||
When Jim came to me several weeks later to ask that we hire
|
||
an attorney to help him sue the university for its denial of his
|
||
request to enter the graduate program, I did a little research so
|
||
that I would have a better understanding of his case and could
|
||
decide how we should be involved.
|
||
In denying Jim admission to its degree program, the school
|
||
gave four reasons: (1) his high school and undergraduate grades
|
||
were too poor for admission, (2) his grades while in graduate
|
||
school on a trial basis were mediocre, (3) he did not have
|
||
teaching experience, and (4) his Graduate Record Exam scores were
|
||
far too low. The school argued that it had tried to be flexible
|
||
in evaluating Jim as a candidate for a degree and that it had
|
||
tried to take into account the special problems which might be
|
||
faced by people who are blind. It argued that it had admitted Jim
|
||
provisionally, without first requiring him to take the GRE; that
|
||
it had overlooked his lack of work experience in the field; and
|
||
that it had been willing to put aside Jim's poor performance in
|
||
high school and college and was prepared to judge him on his work
|
||
in graduate school. The school further argued that it had
|
||
attempted to accommodate Jim in taking the GRE, that initially
|
||
accommodation had been refused, and that later it had been
|
||
accepted and provided. In short, the school argued that it could
|
||
have overlooked any one of Jim's shortcomings and admitted him,
|
||
but that the cumulative record simply went beyond reasonable
|
||
accommodation.
|
||
Jim argued that his high school and college grades were poor
|
||
because at the time he was sighted and did not take school as
|
||
seriously as he would have had he been blind. He said his lack of
|
||
job experience should be obvious, for blind people just could not
|
||
find employment in the public schools. With regard to his GRE
|
||
scores, Jim argued that he was disadvantaged the first time he
|
||
took the test by the failure of those who administered it to
|
||
provide him with accommodation--a reader. His second score, he
|
||
said, was not a reflection of his true ability specifically
|
||
because of his accommodation--a reader. Jim said that he was not
|
||
accustomed to taking tests with readers and that this should
|
||
invalidate his score. In short, the school should understand that
|
||
he was a blind man and abandon trying to give him the test
|
||
altogether since there was obviously no good way to measure what
|
||
he knew.
|
||
After talking with Jim and members of the department which
|
||
rejected him, I suggested that his lack of the skills of
|
||
blindness played a real role in his lack of success and that we
|
||
could help. He had argued that discrimination caused by blindness
|
||
kept him from getting teaching experience. I gave him the name of
|
||
Tom Ley, a math teacher in Louisiana, and Fred Schroeder, a
|
||
former teacher and the current Director of the New Mexico
|
||
Commission for the Blind. I discussed with him the possibility of
|
||
getting training at a center; learning to use readers,
|
||
magnifiers, and Braille; requesting mobility training; and
|
||
brushing up on academic skills to improve his test scores and
|
||
overall performance in school.
|
||
In the end, Jim had no interest in anything I said and made
|
||
it clear that he was angered by what he viewed as interference.
|
||
Jim hotly told me that he was interested in information
|
||
pertaining to discriminatory treatment by the Educational Testing
|
||
Service and nothing more. Blindness meant all requirements and
|
||
standards should be waived. The law was on his side, and he'd use
|
||
that law with or without us. Never mind the test scores, the
|
||
grades, the experience, or the skill deficits. He wasn't
|
||
interested in any of it. The test scores were indicative of
|
||
nothing. The value of having experience as a teacher before
|
||
becoming a school administrator was not important either. He
|
||
wanted what he wanted, and if blindness provided an avenue to
|
||
further his complaint, then that's the road he would travel.
|
||
Forget the training that would make him truly competitive and
|
||
equal. That would take too long. What he wanted was admission to
|
||
school, and he wanted it now and without unsolicited
|
||
interference. He had defined our role, and now we should function
|
||
within the boundaries he had set. We refused to take part, but he
|
||
persists.
|
||
About this same time I was contacted by a woman I will call
|
||
Ardith. Ardith said that she was a writer of plays and movies and
|
||
that she had been working on her productions since 1987. She
|
||
wanted our help because she needed a loan for word-processing
|
||
equipment. She said she had requested the equipment from
|
||
Missouri's Rehabilitation Services for the Blind without results.
|
||
She complained about being thwarted by the bureaucracy, about the
|
||
rehab establishment's lack of faith in the blind, and about the
|
||
way in which these poor excuses for public servants were robbing
|
||
the world of good entertainment and robbing her of a lucrative
|
||
livelihood.
|
||
Now I've been a Federationist long enough to know when it's
|
||
my turn to come on stage, so recognizing my cue, I began
|
||
encouraging her and planning how I would present her case to the
|
||
Director of Rehab Services. Just as a precaution--being a middle-
|
||
aged rather than a very young and inexperienced Federationist--I
|
||
asked if I might see something she had written. I said that,
|
||
while I was no authority on what was or was not a good play, I
|
||
knew one person who would be glad to review her work for me and
|
||
share with both of us her opinion of its worth. Ardith's response
|
||
was slow in coming, but eventually she said, "Well, maybe I could
|
||
show you something, but I wouldn't want you or anyone else to
|
||
steal it, so I'll have to get it copyrighted first. Okay?" Then
|
||
she said that I'd have to overlook any misspellings, problems
|
||
with grammar, and mistakes in typing. That, of course, was
|
||
because she didn't have a word processor. Then I asked the really
|
||
tough question: has anyone expressed an interest in your work,
|
||
offered you any money, or performed one of your plays? I asked it
|
||
with a bit more tact than I've shown here, but the answer was an
|
||
insulted "no," as though that really didn't matter.
|
||
Again I did some research, still prepared to get my exercise
|
||
by beating on Rehab if I needed to, but thinking at this point
|
||
that a little caution might be in order. I learned that Ardith's
|
||
relationship with Rehab was a long-standing one and that her case
|
||
had been closed following her pronouncement that her counselor
|
||
should go straight to hell. Okay, Ardith might lack something in
|
||
tact, but how could a Federation leader be upset by someone
|
||
spirited enough to tell off Rehab? Then I discovered that
|
||
Ardith's request for a word processor had been greeted with
|
||
enthusiasm, the counselor having feared that there was nothing
|
||
Ardith was interested in pursuing.
|
||
Knowing that Ardith had no word processing skills, and
|
||
feeling that something besides Ardith's declared intention to be
|
||
a writer should appear in the file as justification, the
|
||
counselor presented Ardith with two options, either of which
|
||
Rehab would fund. One option was to go for a one-month evaluation
|
||
at a rehab center where Ardith could use many different kinds of
|
||
adaptive equipment and choose which device best suited her. The
|
||
evaluation could also be used to determine her aptitude as a
|
||
writer, and the recommendations of the rehab staff and Ardith's
|
||
own preferences would result in the purchase of a talking word
|
||
processor. The second option for Ardith was to enroll for a
|
||
semester as a student at the university near her home. She could
|
||
take an English class and use the equipment in the Student
|
||
Services labs; and at the end of the semester, provided she
|
||
passed, the equipment she wanted would be delivered.
|
||
When I called Ardith to talk with her about what I'd been
|
||
told, I fully expected to hear that the counselor had exaggerated
|
||
the offer she had actually made or that in presenting it she had
|
||
been rude or short or negative. Ardith, however, made no such
|
||
accusations. She confirmed, in fact, that these were the options
|
||
she had been given but said she found both totally unacceptable.
|
||
I asked her why, and she said she had no obligation to prove
|
||
herself to anybody. She further said she didn't have time to
|
||
waste going for a month to a center and thought she'd get very
|
||
little out of spending a semester in a university class. "You
|
||
have to understand," she said, "that I'm very busy here trying to
|
||
get out my made-for-television movie. I just don't have time to
|
||
screw with them. Now let's talk about a loan from the
|
||
Federation."
|
||
All of you who are here tonight know how strongly we feel
|
||
about the need to serve the blind and to be advocates for those
|
||
in need. Our role in standing up for blind people and fighting
|
||
against the agencies is well known. For a long time, if someone
|
||
had asked me what the primary work of the Federation was, with
|
||
great enthusiasm I would have said it was to defend the blind
|
||
individual against the custodial, stingy, and patronizing
|
||
professionals who work with them. While from time to time we
|
||
certainly do find ourselves in these situations, today they are
|
||
the exception rather than the rule, and with ever-increasing
|
||
frequency we find the agencies and the organized blind working
|
||
together to create opportunities and change lives.
|
||
What I want for myself and others who are blind is a chance
|
||
to compete. I want people to listen and discuss with us the
|
||
accommodations we need, but I don't expect them to throw away the
|
||
standards they use in determining what it takes to do the job
|
||
competitively. If their job descriptions say "must be able to
|
||
read," rather than "must be able to understand written material,"
|
||
then we ought to be ready for a fight. If a training program
|
||
denies a blind person access because they say he cannot draw flow
|
||
charts, even though he can write an efficient computer program,
|
||
then we ought to champion his case.
|
||
Our task in the 90's is to get blind people to look not only
|
||
at the forces allied against us in the pursuit of a home, a job,
|
||
and a family, but to look at the opposite side of the coin and
|
||
recognize with equal attention those forces we have rallied in
|
||
support of our ambitions. When Dr. Jernigan presented his paper,
|
||
"Blindness: Handicap or Characteristic," he challenged us to look
|
||
upon blindness as only one of many characteristics that make us
|
||
what we are. He demonstrated that some characteristics are
|
||
positive, some negative, and others neutral, depending on what it
|
||
is we wish to do. If most of us had been given the choice, we
|
||
would not have elected to be blind; but given that we are, what
|
||
problems and possibilities does this characteristic present?
|
||
What group's members today in American society can receive a
|
||
monthly maintenance check while attending college with books and
|
||
tuition paid by the Government? What group can request and
|
||
receive special equipment simply by expressing the intention to
|
||
use it in pursuing employment?
|
||
Having won through the law so much of what we have sought,
|
||
we must now shift our emphasis from what society must do for us
|
||
to what we as blind people can do for ourselves. It is critical
|
||
that we understand what the organization we have created can and
|
||
cannot do for us. Organizations are well equipped to spotlight a
|
||
problem, to bring injustice to the attention of the public, and
|
||
to work collectively to remove the barriers that block whole
|
||
classes of people from full participation. We can march together,
|
||
united in our demand that the colleges and universities of
|
||
America let us in. We can mobilize the anger of the public in
|
||
fighting the injustice that exists when a qualified blind woman
|
||
is denied a place in the classroom. What we cannot do is
|
||
accompany her into her freshman composition class and ensure
|
||
through our collective action that she will do the work
|
||
competitively. We can articulate the injustice which exists when
|
||
a blind man is denied participation in his chosen field of study
|
||
because some administrator mistakenly believes the sciences to be
|
||
off-limits for the blind. What we cannot do is ensure that the
|
||
blind man seeking entrance to an electrical engineering program
|
||
will have developed the Braille skills that will enable him
|
||
efficiently to take notes, manipulate equations, and communicate
|
||
his answers to an anxious professor.
|
||
Our challenge in this decade is to use the incomes we have
|
||
been provided to advance, and not merely to exist. We must take
|
||
advantage of the educational resources placed at our disposal,
|
||
not simply as a method of planning the way we will spend the next
|
||
four or five years, but as a means to provide our own support.
|
||
When we elect to attend a technical school or an institution of
|
||
higher learning, we must do so with the clear intention of
|
||
pursuing a career once the training is complete.
|
||
The agreement we make with our fellow Americans is not a
|
||
God-given right which we accept without obligation. By our
|
||
acceptance of training, we are agreeing to make the task of
|
||
finding a job our first priority, meaning that we will not place
|
||
so many artificial restrictions and conditions on our prospective
|
||
employment that we never find a job we think we want to do. How
|
||
many unemployed sighted people can argue that they turned down a
|
||
$15,000-a-year job because it would require a move? How many out-
|
||
of-work sighted people could turn down a $25,000 job because they
|
||
felt it just wasn't worth the trouble? How many sighted people
|
||
without a job could turn down work because commuting took an hour
|
||
each way and just didn't seem worth the bother? I have personally
|
||
helped blind people find entry-level jobs, only to have them tell
|
||
me they rejected the job offer because they didn't have time to
|
||
start at the bottom. Where do they believe most people make their
|
||
entry into the work force? But, of course, this question really
|
||
misses the point because the real issue is not inconvenience or
|
||
even economics, but confidence.
|
||
As an organization we can do much when those who oppose us
|
||
tell us no; but when we reach the point where society says yes,
|
||
it must be the individual who goes forth to take advantage of the
|
||
rights we have secured. Can he proceed in the knowledge that
|
||
others have gone before? Can she work to win a degree, confident
|
||
that we will stand by her should she encounter discrimination
|
||
when she looks for her first job? Can the blind graduate move to
|
||
another town, knowing that he is one of many who have dared to
|
||
live independently, the protection of family and friends being
|
||
hundreds of miles distant? The answer to these questions is yes,
|
||
but the choice to risk must be made by the individual, and only
|
||
through the positive choices of individuals can we remain strong.
|
||
Having said all of this, am I making the case that the world
|
||
is now an easy place in which to be blind and that the only
|
||
barriers standing between us and first-class citizenship are
|
||
issues of individual choice? No. As long as there are more
|
||
sighted people than blind ones in the world, we will have special
|
||
problems with which we must cope, and we will always have need of
|
||
our organization to solve problems requiring collective action.
|
||
Am I saying that everyone here is capable, if he or she decides
|
||
to do so, of going out of this room and getting an education and
|
||
a job? No, I am not, for nothing I can say will undo the scarring
|
||
some of us have endured, and no matter how hard it is to admit,
|
||
for some of us it is too late.
|
||
Our job as Federationists is to do many things for many
|
||
different people, and no one prescription will serve us all in
|
||
this task. Some Federationists desperately need our honest
|
||
assessment of their strengths and weaknesses. Some Federationists
|
||
need our encouragement as they undertake this painful assessment
|
||
themselves. Some Federationists deserve our understanding of
|
||
where they have been and of the life experiences which have
|
||
placed them where they are. All Federationists, ladies and
|
||
gentlemen, can benefit from two things we can give in abundance:
|
||
love and hope. These two ingredients have bound us together for
|
||
more than fifty years, and they will continue to unify and
|
||
strengthen us through the 90's and through the many decades to
|
||
come. As we celebrate our past and embrace our future, let us
|
||
rededicate ourselves this evening to the work which has brought
|
||
us to this place. When we do, there is no force on earth which
|
||
can stand against us.
|
||
I would like to leave you with a thought from Ralph Waldo
|
||
Emerson which I find both inspirational and instructive: "There
|
||
is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the
|
||
conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide;
|
||
that he must take himself for better or worse as his portion;
|
||
that though the wise universe is full of good, no kernel of
|
||
nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on
|
||
that plot of ground which is given him to till. The power which
|
||
resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that
|
||
is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried."
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PHOTO: Scott LaBarre stands at podium microphone. CAPTION: Scott LaBarre.]
|
||
|
||
|
||
GEORGIA EDUCATOR TEACHES SCHOOL SYSTEM
|
||
NOT TO DISCRIMINATE
|
||
by Scott LaBarre
|
||
|
||
From the Editor: Scott LaBarre is the Assistant Director of
|
||
governmental Affairs for the National Federation of the Blind. He
|
||
often works with people who are facing discrimination of various
|
||
kinds. In recent months he has spent a good bit of time working
|
||
with Carol Ducote, a high school administrator from Georgia who
|
||
recently lost her sight. Here is the story:
|
||
|
||
As I write this article, the National Federation of the
|
||
Blind is celebrating its fifty-fourth year as an organization.
|
||
Our history is filled with victories, both large and small, that
|
||
have changed what it means to be blind. But despite our many
|
||
successes, we still have a long road to travel before blind
|
||
people can say that we are truly equal and first-class citizens,
|
||
but the fact that the Federation is strong and healthy means that
|
||
one day our dream of first-class citizenship will without doubt
|
||
be realized. Ignorance and misconception about blindness are
|
||
certainly two of the most significant barriers we face because
|
||
they often lead directly to discrimination and injustice.
|
||
In the coastal town of Brunswick, Georgia, last year a blind
|
||
woman found herself facing a major case of discrimination of the
|
||
sort with which we have become all too familiar. Carol Ducote is
|
||
an assistant principal at Brunswick High School. She is now
|
||
serving her eighth year in that position, but she would not be
|
||
doing so if it were not for the National Federation of the Blind.
|
||
Several years ago Ms. Ducote contracted Stevens-Johnson
|
||
syndrome as a result of an adverse reaction to medication. Over
|
||
time her vision grew worse, and she lost almost all of her sight
|
||
in 1992. She received a little training in the alternative skills
|
||
of blindness and returned to her job at the Brunswick High School
|
||
in the fall of 1992.
|
||
Before proceeding with Ms. Ducote's story, it might be
|
||
helpful to review briefly the protections which the law
|
||
guarantees blind people. Both the Americans with Disabilities Act
|
||
(ADA) and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 apply in Carol Ducote's
|
||
case. These laws clearly state that it is unlawful for an
|
||
employer to discriminate against a disabled individual on the
|
||
basis of that person's disability. Additionally, both laws make
|
||
it clear that refusing to provide reasonable accommodations is a
|
||
form of discrimination. What is a reasonable accommodation? The
|
||
answer is not always clear, but for a blind person it often means
|
||
that he or she may be entitled to a reader or some assistive
|
||
technology.
|
||
From the start in Carol Ducote's case there was virtually no
|
||
doubt that the Glynn County School System had a duty to provide
|
||
her with reasonable accommodations. When she returned to school
|
||
in the fall of 1992 after having lost virtually all her sight,
|
||
the school system made no effort to accommodate her in any way.
|
||
There was never any talk about providing her with a reader or
|
||
assistive technology. Despite this fact Carol Ducote did what it
|
||
took to get her job done. Her friends and others volunteered to
|
||
read to her in their free time. She spent many extra hours making
|
||
sure that she fulfilled her duties. In other words she was
|
||
determined to do her job and to do it well. She simply would not
|
||
allow her blindness to hold her back.
|
||
As the year progressed, Ms. Ducote received no indication
|
||
that her work was in any way inferior or not up to her previous
|
||
standard. In fact all evidence indicated exactly the opposite. In
|
||
the Glynn County School System all administrators and teachers
|
||
are signed to one-year contracts. In April of 1993 the School
|
||
System and Carol Ducote entered into a contract for the '93-'94
|
||
school year. If the School System had felt that Ms. Ducote had
|
||
not been doing her job, there is no reason why it should have
|
||
entered into yet another contract with her. At the end of the
|
||
school year Ms. Ducote received her annual review. In it the
|
||
Principal, Derrick Hulsey, indicated that every aspect of her job
|
||
had been carried out satisfactorily or better. The only unusual
|
||
item in the review was the statement that Ms. Ducote had done her
|
||
job with some assistance. In other words Mr. Hulsey had included
|
||
the fact that Ms. Ducote's friends and colleagues had offered her
|
||
assistance on a completely voluntary basis during their
|
||
unscheduled and free time. Ms. Ducote would never have needed
|
||
such assistance if the school system had met its obligation under
|
||
the law to provide reasonable accommodation.
|
||
Over the summer Ms. Ducote discovered that the school system
|
||
had developed reservations about her employment. Dr. Weaver, the
|
||
Superintendent of Schools at that time, met with Carol to discuss
|
||
the perceived difficulties she had on the job. He said that Carol
|
||
could not fulfill her disciplinary roles at school functions like
|
||
dances and football games. According to the School System it was
|
||
unsafe for a blind person to maintain discipline among high
|
||
school students. Furthermore, school officials alleged that Carol
|
||
could not properly evaluate teachers because she could not see
|
||
them. They further concluded that Ms. Ducote was no longer
|
||
qualified for her job because other people had helped her do her
|
||
reading. At this meeting Dr. Weaver informed Ms. Ducote that she
|
||
had two choices. Either she could retire and take her disability
|
||
pension, or she would be terminated. At that point Ms. Ducote
|
||
contacted the National Federation of the Blind to learn about her
|
||
rights. After speaking to us, she informed the school system that
|
||
she had no intention of taking her disability pension and that
|
||
she had every intention of returning to school and doing the job
|
||
for which she was under contract.
|
||
On August 24, 1993, Dr. Weaver wrote the following letter to
|
||
Ms. Ducote:
|
||
|
||
Dear Ms. Ducote:
|
||
Based on Mr. Hulsey's recommendation relative to your
|
||
responsibilities as Assistant Principal/Registrar of Brunswick
|
||
High School, it has been determined that you cannot effectively
|
||
and efficiently fulfill those responsibilities. You are hereby
|
||
notified that you are immediately placed on administrative leave
|
||
with full pay and benefits. The administrative leave will not be
|
||
subtracted from any other form of authorized leave. The
|
||
administrative leave will continue until such time as the Board
|
||
of Education can formally act on a recommendation that you be
|
||
terminated.
|
||
In the near future you will receive a formal letter of
|
||
recommendation that your contract be terminated. The letter will
|
||
detail your rights under the Fair Dismissal Act.
|
||
|
||
Sincerely,
|
||
Jeffrey W. Weaver, Ph.D.
|
||
Superintendent of Schools
|
||
____________________
|
||
After Ms. Ducote received that letter, she again called upon
|
||
the NFB, and we became deeply involved in her case. Both Pat
|
||
Munson, President of the National Association of Blind Educators,
|
||
and Sharon Gold, President of the NFB of California and a member
|
||
of the Board of Directors of the National Federation of the
|
||
Blind, spoke to Ms. Ducote about her case. As a result James
|
||
Gashel, NFB Director of Governmental Affairs, and I became active
|
||
in the case. We immediately contacted the school system to
|
||
determine whether or not the matter could be amicably resolved.
|
||
As soon as we spoke to the school's lawyers, Foster Lindberg and
|
||
Jim Bishop, school officials immediately suspended their plans to
|
||
terminate Ms. Ducote. It is no coincidence that they suddenly
|
||
wanted to begin talking as soon as the National Federation of the
|
||
Blind became involved in the case.
|
||
One afternoon in early September I had a long conversation
|
||
with Foster Lindberg. I explained to him that both the ADA and
|
||
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act made it unlawful to
|
||
discriminate against a blind person based on disability.
|
||
Furthermore, I reminded Mr. Lindberg that the school system had a
|
||
duty to provide reasonable accommodations to Ms. Ducote. After
|
||
this conversation Mr. Lindberg went back to talk seriously with
|
||
the school board. When he called again, he said that the school
|
||
system was leery of hiring someone to read for Carol. They
|
||
apparently believed that she would need a full-time reader. We
|
||
explained that she would require only a part-time reader and some
|
||
assistive technology.
|
||
Despite this the school system apparently concluded that
|
||
reasonably accommodating Ms. Ducote would be far too expensive.
|
||
Furthermore, it became obvious that they believed that no blind
|
||
person could ever do the job of an assistant principal.
|
||
Consequently Mr. Lindberg wrote to us in September saying that
|
||
the school system thought that Ms. Ducote needed a psychological
|
||
evaluation and training at a rehabilitation center and that after
|
||
she completed such training the school system might be able to
|
||
place her in a comparable job elsewhere in the district. We
|
||
informed the School System in no uncertain terms that Ms. Ducote
|
||
had already received some training and that she therefore already
|
||
possessed the skills necessary to fulfill her job
|
||
responsibilities. Furthermore, we told Mr. Lindberg that
|
||
blindness in and of itself was not such a tragedy that it
|
||
required Ms. Ducote to undergo psychological counseling.
|
||
At this point Mr. Lindberg and the school board realized
|
||
that their proposal was not going to be successful. Consequently
|
||
they came forward with yet another one. This time they did not
|
||
suggest that Ms. Ducote go through psychological counseling, but
|
||
the school system still did not offer to return her to the
|
||
position of assistant principal. Instead, they proposed that she
|
||
become the head of vocational counseling. This is what their
|
||
letter said:
|
||
|
||
Brunswick, Georgia
|
||
October 25, 1993
|
||
|
||
Dear Mr. LaBarre:
|
||
Pursuant to your recent telephone conversations with Jim
|
||
Bishop and myself, I wanted to confirm in writing that we are
|
||
authorized to discuss with you the possibility of Carol Ducote
|
||
becoming the head of vocational counseling for all high schools
|
||
in the Glynn County Public School System (Brunswick High School,
|
||
Glynn Academy, and the Night High School). Ms. Ducote would have
|
||
a salary comparable to her salary as Assistant
|
||
Principal/Registrar of Brunswick High School. Additionally, she
|
||
would be provided with a secretarial assistant.
|
||
Of course this written communication is offered in the
|
||
context of settlement negotiations and does not constitute an
|
||
admission of liability on behalf of the Glynn County Board of
|
||
Education or admissible evidence in any administrative or court
|
||
proceeding in the event this matter cannot be resolved among our
|
||
clients.
|
||
|
||
Very truly,
|
||
C. Foster Lindberg
|
||
____________________
|
||
That is what it said, and although the letter makes it sound
|
||
as if Ms. Ducote would be assuming many responsibilities, we knew
|
||
they had no intention of giving her any significant authority.
|
||
The school system already had a guidance counseling program in
|
||
place, which included a vocational component. Furthermore the
|
||
position of head of vocational counseling actually represented a
|
||
demotion from her original position in that it carried with it
|
||
fewer overall responsibilities. We also feared that the position
|
||
would be created for one year only and then Ms. Ducote would be
|
||
released on the grounds that the position was no longer needed.
|
||
Most important, we rejected the school system's offer because Mr.
|
||
Lindberg had informed me that school officials felt that as a
|
||
blind person Ms. Ducote simply was not up to the challenge of
|
||
being an assistant principal. Based on the school system's
|
||
position, we sent them the following letter:
|
||
|
||
Baltimore, Maryland
|
||
October 26, 1993
|
||
|
||
Mr. C. Foster Lindberg
|
||
Bishop and Lindberg
|
||
Brunswick, Georgia
|
||
|
||
Dear Mr. Lindberg:
|
||
I have received your letter of October 25, 1993, and I have
|
||
shared its contents with Ms. Ducote. After considering the
|
||
matter, Ms. Ducote has decided that the position of head of
|
||
vocational counseling is unacceptable primarily for the reason
|
||
that a counseling position is not in line with the career track
|
||
which she has established with the Glynn County School System. As
|
||
you may know, in addition to her experience, Ms. Ducote has
|
||
acquired additional educational qualifications in the area of
|
||
school administration. Currently she is under contract with the
|
||
Glynn County School System to serve as an assistant principal.
|
||
She desires to continue in such a position and to take advantage
|
||
of the promotional opportunities which come with it.
|
||
As both a sighted and a blind person, Ms. Ducote has fulfilled
|
||
the responsibilities assigned to her. By moving her to a position
|
||
with fewer overall responsibilities or by refusing to offer her
|
||
reasonable accommodations to her current position, the Glynn
|
||
County School System is discriminating against Ms. Ducote on the
|
||
basis of blindness. Unless the Glynn County School System honors
|
||
its contract with Ms. Ducote or offers to place her in a position
|
||
which is truly equivalent, she will have no recourse but to
|
||
secure her employment rights under the law.
|
||
Sincerely,
|
||
Scott C. LaBarre
|
||
Assistant Director of Governmental Affairs
|
||
National Federation of the Blind
|
||
____________________
|
||
As our letter stated, we began exploring legal options. If
|
||
we filed under the ADA, we would be restricted to filing a charge
|
||
with the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission, a process
|
||
which would take months before even a preliminary investigation
|
||
would begin. If, however, we brought a lawsuit in federal court
|
||
under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, we could seek
|
||
immediate relief in the case and request that the judge order the
|
||
school system to place Ms. Ducote back on her job. We hired the
|
||
Baltimore law firm of Brown, Goldstein, and Levy to handle the
|
||
case. Andrew Levy flew down to Brunswick, Georgia, to meet with
|
||
Ms. Ducote and the school system's lawyers. They began by telling
|
||
Mr. Levy that we did not have a case and that the school system
|
||
would clearly win any legal battle. Mr. Levy pointed out to Mr.
|
||
Lindberg that the school system had never consulted Ms. Ducote
|
||
about her accommodation needs and that officials had never lifted
|
||
a finger to provide reasonable accommodations. After seeing that
|
||
we simply were not impressed by the attorney's attempts at
|
||
intimidation, Mr. Lindberg acknowledged that the school system
|
||
may have fallen short of its responsibilities under the law. He
|
||
further suggested that it might be helpful for a representative
|
||
from our organization to address the school board directly to
|
||
explain the situation.
|
||
On Monday, November 8, 1993, Mr. Gashel and I flew down to
|
||
Brunswick to meet with the school board. That afternoon we met
|
||
with Carol Ducote; our local counsel, John Bumgartner; Foster
|
||
Lindberg; and school officials. Again Mr. Lindberg began by
|
||
telling us that the school system had an airtight case, but we
|
||
dispelled that myth rather quickly. We made it clear to everybody
|
||
present that Carol Ducote had been discriminated against and
|
||
that, when one blind person faces discrimination, all of us face
|
||
it together. We further told the school officials that the NFB
|
||
could not and would not tolerate such discriminatory actions
|
||
against this blind woman. We were prepared to do whatever it took
|
||
to secure a victory for Carol Ducote or for any other blind
|
||
person facing such flagrant discrimination. At the conclusion of
|
||
that meeting, the school officials suggested that we make the
|
||
same sort of presentation to the district's board of education.
|
||
Because the school board had to conduct all of its public
|
||
business before discussing a personnel matter, we had to wait
|
||
until midnight to make our case. Mr. Bumgartner began by
|
||
introducing Mr. Gashel and me. He then pointed out to the board
|
||
that the school system had clearly violated the law by
|
||
discriminating against Carol Ducote. Then Mr. Gashel delivered an
|
||
impassioned presentation. He explained what the National
|
||
Federation of the Blind is and why we are dedicated to protecting
|
||
the rights of blind persons all across this country. He made it
|
||
clear that we were prepared to stand beside Carol Ducote and to
|
||
fight for her rights until she was back at work. He went on to
|
||
say that the biggest problem blind people face is the perception
|
||
that we are incapable of participating in the mainstream of life.
|
||
He pointed out that the school system had never once described a
|
||
specific problem Carol Ducote had experienced in fulfilling her
|
||
job duties; rather all of the problems raised were merely
|
||
perceived difficulties based on the school officials'
|
||
misconceptions and stereotypes about blindness. But Mr. Gashel
|
||
also expressed our willingness to work with the school system to
|
||
ensure that Ms. Ducote could receive and use all the tools she
|
||
needed to be competitive on her job, but we had no intention of
|
||
doing so until the school system had agreed to return her to her
|
||
former position. Then he said very clearly that the school system
|
||
had about one week to make up its mind; otherwise, we would see
|
||
them at the federal courthouse.
|
||
After we left the meeting, the board took a few moments to
|
||
discuss the issue. Then they voted to place Ms. Ducote back on
|
||
the job by Monday, November 15, 1993. The board further
|
||
instructed the school system to work with both her and the
|
||
National Federation of the Blind to ensure that she would receive
|
||
proper accommodations.
|
||
Needless to say, we were all very happy that the school
|
||
officials had changed their minds and decided to give Ms. Ducote
|
||
a true opportunity to succeed, but we knew that our work was far
|
||
from finished.
|
||
Shortly after Ms. Ducote returned to her position, Mr.
|
||
Hulsey informed her that she could not enlist the support or help
|
||
of any other school personnel to complete her job duties. In
|
||
other words it appeared that Mr. Hulsey was determined to make
|
||
Ms. Ducote's job so difficult that she was bound to fail.
|
||
After Thanksgiving Allen Harris, Treasurer of the National
|
||
Federation of the Blind and an experienced high school teacher in
|
||
Michigan, flew down to Georgia to work with Ms. Ducote and the
|
||
school system. Mr. Harris met with all the appropriate school
|
||
officials, including Mr. Hulsey, to explain the way in which
|
||
particular accommodations would allow Ms. Ducote to fulfill her
|
||
job duties. He explained that these accommodations would not be
|
||
particularly expensive. All she needed was someone to read for
|
||
her on a part-time basis and a few pieces of assistive
|
||
technology.
|
||
Apparently school officials finally got the message. In mid-
|
||
December they sent Carol Ducote and the district's technology
|
||
expert to our National Center to spend two days in the
|
||
International Braille and Technology Center for the Blind
|
||
evaluating which pieces of technology would be most helpful for
|
||
her to use on her job. Based on their visit to Baltimore, they
|
||
recommended that certain devices be purchased, and the school
|
||
system has pledged to do so.
|
||
Even though it took several months for the school system to
|
||
recognize its responsibilities under the law, school officials
|
||
now seem willing to work with Carol Ducote and the National
|
||
Federation of the Blind to give her a full and fair opportunity
|
||
to fulfill her responsibilities as an assistant principal at the
|
||
Brunswick High School. The Glynn County School System has learned
|
||
that it cannot make personnel decisions based on old and
|
||
unfounded stereotypes about the abilities of the blind.
|
||
Furthermore, they have learned that, if they give Ms. Ducote the
|
||
opportunity to succeed, she is likely to do her job as well as
|
||
she did it when she was sighted.
|
||
Carol Ducote has learned firsthand about the power and
|
||
effectiveness of collective action. Before the NFB became
|
||
involved, the School System stood ready to terminate Ms. Ducote,
|
||
but when we entered the case, school officials learned that they
|
||
simply could not terminate a blind person based on discriminatory
|
||
and unfounded reasons.
|
||
Carol Ducote has learned that when you face discrimination
|
||
alone, it is frightening and very hard (if not impossible) to
|
||
win, but with the support and experience of the organized blind
|
||
movement behind you there is virtually no discrimination that
|
||
cannot be defeated. Carol Ducote is now ready to help other blind
|
||
people in Georgia learn about their rights so that they will not
|
||
have to face the same problems which she has already confronted.
|
||
As an educator Carol Ducote wants to teach everyone one
|
||
lesson she has already mastered: when it comes to knowing about
|
||
and securing the rights of blind people, there is no greater
|
||
force for justice than the National Federation of the Blind.
|
||
Through collective action we as blind people will take our place
|
||
as first-class citizens in our society. The Carol Ducote case
|
||
clearly demonstrates that a great deal of discrimination is still
|
||
aimed at the blind and that we still have a long way to go before
|
||
we can rest, but the fact that we have won her case also shows
|
||
that we will ultimately be victorious.
|
||
For the past fifty-four years members of the National
|
||
Federation of the Blind have worked tirelessly to spread the
|
||
message that, once we are given the chance, we can be just as
|
||
successful as any other members of society. We must continue our
|
||
work; otherwise, employers like the Glynn County School System
|
||
will be able to discriminate and destroy the dreams of the blind
|
||
without having to account for their actions. As long as we remain
|
||
vigilant and true to our cause, we will continue to secure the
|
||
rights of blind people in all areas of life. As Carol Ducote will
|
||
tell you, the key to first-class citizenship for the blind is the
|
||
National Federation of the Blind.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PHOTO: Portrait. CAPTION: Carla McQuillan.]
|
||
|
||
THE OREGON BRAILLE BILL:
|
||
AN EXERCISE IN COOPERATION
|
||
by Carla Mcquillan
|
||
|
||
From the Editor: Carla Mcquillan is the President of the
|
||
National Federation of the Blind of Oregon. Like the presidents
|
||
of many other Federation affiliates, she has led a statewide
|
||
effort to pass legislation that would protect the right of blind
|
||
children to receive appropriate and timely instruction in Braille
|
||
from teachers competent to teach it and to have Braille text
|
||
materials at the same time that their sighted peers receive print
|
||
ones. That passage of such common-sense legislation should be a
|
||
battle is astonishing to any objective observer, but many of us
|
||
know firsthand just how bitter, almost hysterical, the resistance
|
||
to this concept can be. Yet occasionally an affiliate has an
|
||
experience that renews one's faith in the education,
|
||
rehabilitation, and legislative establishments. Passage of the
|
||
Oregon Braille bill is such a story. It is not lengthy or
|
||
particularly dramatic, but it provides hope to us all. This
|
||
article first appeared in the December issue of the Oregon
|
||
Outlook, the publication of the National Federation of the Blind
|
||
of Oregon. Here it is:
|
||
|
||
In the spring of 1992 a task force determined that the
|
||
Oregon State School for the Blind (OSSB) and the Oregon State
|
||
School for the Deaf (OSSD) were serving far too few children for
|
||
the total dollars spent. The recommendation from the task force
|
||
was that both schools be closed and all the students in those
|
||
facilities be mainstreamed. In an effort to preserve the
|
||
programs, Superintendent of Education Norma Paulis developed a
|
||
plan wherein the two facilities would co-exist on a single
|
||
property, without compromising the integrity of either of the
|
||
programs. For more than ten years the School for the Blind has
|
||
been a target in budget wars, and this year's proposed cuts were
|
||
the deepest yet. Closure of the school had been prevented in the
|
||
past because of the protests of the blind community. For the
|
||
battle this time, however, we believed that some creative
|
||
negotiating would be needed to preserve the program.
|
||
At our Members' Seminar in the fall of 1992 we took a
|
||
careful look at the quality of education for blind children in
|
||
Oregon. We agreed that there was room for improvement,
|
||
particularly with regard to the programs and curriculum through
|
||
OSSB. We considered the ramifications of relocating the blind
|
||
school and concluded that the greatest loss would be the physical
|
||
building itself. We concurred that a major restructuring might
|
||
well be the best way to make sweeping improvements in the
|
||
program. Our primary concern was to insure that the two programs
|
||
(OSSB and OSSD) remain totally separate and intact.
|
||
We approached Norma Paulis, offering support for her
|
||
proposal to relocate the School for the Blind, if the Department
|
||
of Education would involve us in the restructuring and planning
|
||
of the new facility and if they would help improve the quality of
|
||
education of all blind children in Oregon by working with us on a
|
||
Braille Literacy Bill.
|
||
We worked closely with Maurine Otis from the department on
|
||
the language of the bill, using the Texas bill as our model. In
|
||
February, 1993, Senator Bill Dwyer of Springfield sponsored the
|
||
bill. In early March eighteen members of the NFB of Oregon
|
||
visited the offices of all ninety Oregon legislators. We were
|
||
prepared with folders containing a copy of the Braille bill; a
|
||
Braille alphabet card; a few pieces of NFB literature on Braille
|
||
literacy; an NFB of Oregon brochure; letters of support from the
|
||
Commission for the Blind, the director of OSSB, the director of
|
||
the Oregon Textbook and Materials Center for the Visually
|
||
Impaired, and the President of the Alliance for Blind Children;
|
||
and a fact sheet describing the Braille bill and the proposed
|
||
relocation of the OSSB.
|
||
Representatives from the Text Book and Materials Center, the
|
||
Department of Education, and the National Federation of the Blind
|
||
of Oregon testified at each of the hearings on the Braille bill.
|
||
The Confederation of School Administrators (COSA), was present at
|
||
one of the hearings in the Senate and testified in support of the
|
||
bill, focusing on the untimely fashion in which Braille textbooks
|
||
are made available to blind students. The President of COSA
|
||
testified that the textbook section of this bill would expedite
|
||
the process of textbook production and improve teacher
|
||
effectiveness tremendously.
|
||
The proposal to use the money from the sale of the School
|
||
for the Blind to fund the building of the new school on the
|
||
fifty-two-acre School for the Deaf campus was brought before the
|
||
legislature. The legislators felt that they had insufficient data
|
||
to determine the feasibility of the relocation, so they deferred
|
||
the decision to close or relocate the Schools for now.
|
||
But following all the debate and discussion, the Oregon
|
||
Braille Bill passed unanimously through the Senate and with only
|
||
four dissenting votes in the House. On July 14, 1993, Senate Bill
|
||
934 was signed by Governor Roberts, eloquent testimony to the
|
||
power of cooperation. It will take effect September 1, 1994.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PHOTO: Norm Peters stands in office at New Mexico Commission for the Blind.
|
||
CAPTION: Norm Peters displays the t-shirt and medallion he was presented as a
|
||
participant in the White Sands Alamogordo Marathon Walk.]
|
||
|
||
WALKING ALONE AND MARCHING TOGETHER IN ALAMOGORDO
|
||
|
||
From the Editor: The philosophy of the National Federation
|
||
of the Blind inspires thousands of blind men and women to stretch
|
||
themselves and grow in new ways every day. Our struggles against
|
||
fear and uncertainty are often unique. But although the
|
||
expression of this struggle may be highly individual, the actual
|
||
process each person faces is usually similar to the experiences
|
||
of others. We learn about things that other blind people do every
|
||
day that we would dearly love to do. We come to realize that
|
||
these people believe blindness need not stop them from going
|
||
about their daily lives or even dreaming great dreams or
|
||
accomplishing ambitious goals. Then, with attention firmly fixed
|
||
on the example before us, we step out in some new way and dare to
|
||
do something that we have never tried before. And, as we discover
|
||
that we actually can succeed in new ways, we begin to find
|
||
ourselves serving as role models for other blind people.
|
||
For some time Norm Peters has been the President of the San
|
||
Diego County Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of
|
||
California. In the June, 1993, issue of the Braille Monitor he
|
||
described how he lost 130 pounds by eating healthily and walking
|
||
significant distances every day around his neighborhood. His most
|
||
recent project was walking the distance to Baltimore, home of the
|
||
National Center for the Blind. Because the Federation had come to
|
||
mean so much to Norm, he enjoyed imagining himself actually
|
||
traveling to see its headquarters.
|
||
In the meantime he was providing his neighbors with an
|
||
excellent example of the way in which blind people walk safely
|
||
through the streets of their communities. He has worn out many
|
||
cane tips in the process of walking those thousands of miles, and
|
||
he has also demonstrated to everyone just how good a cane
|
||
traveler he has become.
|
||
When the time came for the NFB of California to begin
|
||
planning for the opening of the Lawrence Marcelino Orientation
|
||
Center for the Blind, it was not surprising that Sharon Gold,
|
||
President of the California affiliate, asked Norm if he would be
|
||
interested in training to become the Center's cane-travel
|
||
instructor. Norm said yes and departed several months ago for
|
||
intensive training at the Adult Orientation Center at the New
|
||
Mexico Commission for the Blind.
|
||
Whether one is a new student, mastering the skills of
|
||
blindness for the first time and learning about NFB philosophy,
|
||
or a veteran Federationist preparing for some challenging
|
||
assignment, spending time as a student at one of the NFB training
|
||
facilities is an exhilarating and stimulating experience. The
|
||
challenges are very real and often difficult, but one comes to
|
||
understand that in the Federation one is never alone, that there
|
||
is always a cheering section to help one over the hard places,
|
||
and that every victory one wins strengthens us all. Those are the
|
||
lessons that Norm Peters learned in early December. Here is the
|
||
story he told President Maurer in a letter he wrote two days
|
||
after the experience:
|
||
|
||
Alamogordo, New Mexico
|
||
December 6, 1993
|
||
|
||
Dear President Maurer:
|
||
I have thoroughly enjoyed my staff training at the
|
||
Orientation Center here in Alamogordo, New Mexico, in preparation
|
||
for becoming the cane-travel instructor at the Muzzie Marcelino
|
||
Orientation Center in Sacramento, California. I want to add my
|
||
voice to those of the many others who have had the opportunity to
|
||
attend NFB centers. Being here has changed my life in many ways,
|
||
not just because of having the chance to do things I have never
|
||
done before and now know I can, but because everything I have
|
||
learned in and out of class has helped to raise my self-esteem
|
||
and my recognition that it is respectable to be blind.
|
||
Because of the way I feel about myself and the training I
|
||
have been getting here, I want to tell you of an experience I
|
||
participated in this last Saturday, December 4. I do not believe
|
||
I would ever have considered taking part in it before my training
|
||
here at the Orientation Center. Perhaps you remember from reading
|
||
the article about my weight loss in the June, 1993, issue of the
|
||
Braille Monitor that I have done a fair amount of walking daily
|
||
for the past few years. About a week before the Thanksgiving
|
||
break here in Alamogordo, I heard an ad on the radio that said on
|
||
Saturday, December 4, 1993, Alamogordo would sponsor various
|
||
walks and runs--everything from a one-mile competition to a
|
||
marathon walk or run.
|
||
When I heard this ad, I began to think long and hard. I had
|
||
done a lot of walking for exercise before, mostly 5.75 miles a
|
||
day, sometimes twelve. I wondered, should I, could I attempt the
|
||
marathon walk?
|
||
I talked to the physical education instructor here to get
|
||
his advice on whether I should try such a distance, never having
|
||
done it before. He told me that, if I had walked as much as
|
||
twelve miles at a time in the past, I should be able to do a
|
||
marathon walk. So with his advice and my determination to go for
|
||
it, I paid my $5.00 and entered the White Sands Alamogordo
|
||
Marathon Walk.
|
||
Once I had put down the money, not only did I begin to
|
||
prepare myself mentally and physically for the event, but I began
|
||
to think about all the blind people in this country and around
|
||
the world who are better off because of the National Federation
|
||
of the Blind. I also began thinking about the many blind
|
||
individuals who are still struggling, not understanding or
|
||
believing that it really is respectable to be blind. I thought
|
||
maybe it would be good for them to have a blind person do
|
||
something to show them that blind people can achieve any goal we
|
||
really set our minds to.
|
||
With these thoughts in mind, I determined that I would
|
||
finish this race, knowing full well that I would not be first. I
|
||
also made up my mind that I would dedicate this race to all the
|
||
blind people in the world to let them know that it is respectable
|
||
to be blind and that we really can do what we want to.
|
||
The marathon walk began in the White Sands Monument Park at
|
||
7:00 a.m. The temperature was a crisp 16.5 degrees. The first ten
|
||
miles were in the White Sands Monument Park. The next thirteen
|
||
miles lay along Highway 70, a major highway in this part of New
|
||
Mexico. The last 3.2 miles brought us back to the city, and the
|
||
finish line was right inside the Alamogordo Zoo.
|
||
I began at 7:00 a.m. and finished at 6:07 p.m. Yes, I was
|
||
one of the last participants to cross the finish line, but the
|
||
fact that I did it was the important thing. The thing that kept
|
||
me going mile after mile was the Federation. I knew that, if they
|
||
had been here, thousands of Federationists around the country
|
||
would have been cheering me on to the end. With those thoughts in
|
||
mind, I finished the White Sands Alamogordo Marathon Walk.
|
||
I do not know whether I will ever do a marathon again. But I
|
||
do know that in this instance it was a privilege for me to be
|
||
walking alone and marching together, marching with Federationists
|
||
all over the country to further the independence of blind people.
|
||
Seasons greetings to you and Mrs. Maurer, David Patrick,
|
||
Diana Marie, and the entire Center staff.
|
||
Sincerely,
|
||
Norm Peters
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
******************************
|
||
If you or a friend would like to remember the National Federation of the
|
||
Blind in your will, you can do so by employing the following language:
|
||
"I give, devise, and bequeath unto National Federation of the Blind,
|
||
1800 Johnson Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21230, a District of Columbia
|
||
nonprofit corporation, the sum of $_____ (or "_____ percent of my net estate"
|
||
or "The following stocks and bonds: _____") to be used for its worthy purposes
|
||
on behalf of blind persons."
|
||
******************************
|
||
[PHOTO: Kevan Worley standing at microphone. CAPTION: Kevan Worley.]
|
||
|
||
THE NFB IN ACTION
|
||
by Kevan Worley
|
||
|
||
From the Editor: Kevan Worley is a member of the Board of
|
||
Directors of the National Federation of the Blind Merchants
|
||
Division. At the 1993 convention of the National Federation of
|
||
the Blind of Colorado Kevan was elected Vice President of the
|
||
Colorado NFB Merchants Division and was also elected to the Board
|
||
of Directors of the National Federation of the Blind of Colorado.
|
||
He made the following remarks to that convention in September,
|
||
1993. Here they are:
|
||
|
||
I am very happy to have been asked by our state president
|
||
Homer Page to participate in our affiliate's traditional Sunday
|
||
morning presentation, "The NFB in action," for to me the NFB
|
||
means action. The first time I really paid attention to the
|
||
National Federation of the Blind was in the late 1970's while
|
||
working at a small radio station in west Texas. Stories began to
|
||
come over our wire services about these blind people led by a
|
||
charismatic Dr. Kenneth Jernigan. These blind folks were
|
||
picketing the Federal Aviation Administration. They were taking
|
||
action to demand the right to carry long white canes on
|
||
airplanes. At that time I was twenty-two years old, insecure with
|
||
myself and my blindness, and that was a little too much action
|
||
for me.
|
||
As the Nobel-Prize-winning poet Mellosch has observed, "We
|
||
have a command to participate actively in our history." So by
|
||
1982 I realized that it was in my best interest to learn about,
|
||
join, and become active in this dynamic organization. My reasons
|
||
for choosing to become involved in our social action movement
|
||
were probably as complex, varied, and personal as yours. I
|
||
joined, began to learn, and have been more or less active over
|
||
the years.
|
||
I wonder now, without the National Federation of the Blind,
|
||
what I would have done this past spring when the job I had
|
||
relocated to take was apparently snatched away from me by an
|
||
insensitive and unknowing governmental bureaucracy.
|
||
Let me briefly tell you the story and by doing so provide
|
||
another example of why it was necessary to form an organization
|
||
in 1940, as Dr. tenBroek put it then, "...for creating the
|
||
machinery which will unify the action and concentrate the
|
||
energies of the blind, for an instrument through which the blind
|
||
of the nation can speak to Congress and the public in a voice
|
||
that will be heard and command attention."
|
||
In May of 1993 Paul Pichardo, a licensed blind vendor in
|
||
Colorado Springs, Colorado, was granted a promotion to manage a
|
||
business at Falcon Air Force Base, a high-security installation
|
||
just outside of Colorado Springs. I was then awarded the vending
|
||
facility at Kaman Sciences/Instruments, vacated by Mr. Pichardo.
|
||
My fianc<6E>e, Karen Cox, and I relocated to Colorado Springs and
|
||
settled in to begin our new business venture. But one week prior
|
||
to our taking over, I received a call from the state licensing
|
||
agency informing me that the Air Force had just told Paul that he
|
||
would not be able to start at his new location. It would take
|
||
nine to fifteen months for the Defense Investigative Service to
|
||
grant him a security clearance, which is necessary for him to
|
||
operate his new facility on the base. Paul's initial response
|
||
was, "Well, I guess there's nothing we can do about it." While
|
||
the agency did make a phone call or two to the Air Force, their
|
||
posture was much the same: sympathetic yet powerless.
|
||
I told you earlier that I joined the NFB in 1982. I had
|
||
joined, I had learned, and I had been more or less active over
|
||
the years. My first reaction was, "Nine to fifteen months for a
|
||
security clearance to operate a convenience store to sell soda
|
||
pop, chips, and Gummy Life Savers--come on! There must be
|
||
something we can do." The state agency assured me that I could
|
||
temporarily manage a cafeteria which was then being operated by a
|
||
colleague of ours who is with us this weekend, Mark Meusborn.
|
||
"Now," I thought, "let me see if I have this straight. For
|
||
the next year or so I am to take a job for much less money; I am
|
||
to take some of Mr. Meusborn's livelihood away from him; Karen
|
||
Cox will not have her job, or will get very few hours of work at
|
||
most; and the promotion earned by Paul Pichardo will be
|
||
significantly delayed." The ripple affect would have impact on
|
||
four people--only four blind people. No sighted people were
|
||
affected at all. After discussing the matter with the state
|
||
licensing agency and officials at the U.S. Air Force in Colorado
|
||
Springs; San Antonio, Texas; and Washington, D.C., I determined
|
||
that working alone I could not move the great weight of
|
||
bureaucratic apathy. It was time for the NFB in action.
|
||
I called my state president, Homer Page. I consulted with
|
||
our Director of Governmental Affairs, James Gashel, and his
|
||
assistant, Scott LaBarre. We decided that the best action we
|
||
could take at this point was to contact our Congressional
|
||
delegation to enlist their assistance. President Page suggested
|
||
this course of action and agreed to write letters to our Senators
|
||
and House members detailing the situation and urging their
|
||
assistance. With the support of the organized blind behind us,
|
||
Karen and I each wrote letters to our Congressional delegation.
|
||
Then I told Paul Pichardo that he could have some impact if
|
||
he, too, would write letters. This he did with our assistance.
|
||
Paul wrote to Congressmen Hefley from Colorado Springs and
|
||
McGinnis from Pueblo. I then made personal phone calls to both
|
||
Congressmen whom, incidentally, I had met at our February
|
||
Washington Seminar--all part of the NFB in action.
|
||
The legislative aides from Congressman Hefley's office and
|
||
Congressman McGinnis's office assured us that others had had
|
||
their delays caused by the Defense Investigative Service. They
|
||
said there was cause for optimism because they were often
|
||
successful in expediting security clearances. Paul and I received
|
||
phone calls several times over the next few weeks to assure us
|
||
that both offices were still working on the problem. By the way,
|
||
when we wrote our letters to the Congressional delegation, we
|
||
copied our colleagues in the movement: President Maurer,
|
||
President Emeritus Dr. Jernigan, Jim Gashel, and state President
|
||
Homer Page. We also copied Stan Boxer and Ron Landware from our
|
||
state licensing agency, just so they would know someone could
|
||
take action.
|
||
The letters we received from our legislators were reassuring
|
||
and supportive. They told us that they understood our plight,
|
||
were sympathetic to our situation, and had great respect for the
|
||
National Federation of the Blind. As Dr. tenBroek had put it
|
||
fifty-three years ago, "...an instrument through which the blind
|
||
of the nation speak to Congress and the public in a voice that
|
||
will be heard and command attention."
|
||
Six weeks from the day I had received the news from the
|
||
state licensing agency that Paul's security clearance would be
|
||
delayed from nine to fifteen months, Paul was granted his
|
||
security clearance--not nine to fifteen months, but six weeks!
|
||
Two weeks later he took over his new job at Falcon Air Force
|
||
Base, and Karen and I took on our present jobs, running a small
|
||
cafeteria at Kaman Science/Instruments. Mark Meusborn took back
|
||
his temporary satellite, and the lady from the Congressman's
|
||
office in Pueblo called to make sure I would still get my
|
||
promotion.
|
||
Stan Boxer, the director of the Business Enterprise Program
|
||
in Colorado, commented on the depth and "reasoned tone" of our
|
||
letters. I, of course, expressed my feeling that the state
|
||
licensing agency should have done more to lend their voices to
|
||
our attempt to speed up the process, rather than taking a
|
||
business-as-usual attitude. Perhaps it was that the lives of four
|
||
blind people were affected and not their own which caused their
|
||
failure to act.
|
||
It was the National Federation of the Blind which took
|
||
action. Thank you, Homer. Thank you for writing the letters.
|
||
Thanks for your advice and support. Thanks to Jim Gashel and
|
||
Scott LaBarre for taking time to talk to me and for researching
|
||
the issue. Thanks to all of you. Whether you knew it or not, you
|
||
were with us as part of our great collective, the NFB in action.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PHOTO: Portrait. CAPTION: Faots Floyd.]
|
||
|
||
BASIC RIGHTS AND HIGHER PRINCIPLES
|
||
by Fatos Floyd
|
||
|
||
From the Editor: Fatos Floyd is one of the leaders of the
|
||
National Federation of the Blind of Missouri and a dynamic and
|
||
energetic Federationist who works to assist blind people wherever
|
||
she goes. She was born and received her early education in
|
||
Turkey, and she maintains close links with friends and family in
|
||
Istanbul. The following is a report she made shortly after
|
||
returning from a visit to Turkey last year. Here it is:
|
||
|
||
For my vacation this year I went to Turkey for six weeks to
|
||
visit friends and family. I also spent a lot of time with the
|
||
blind community. As you may remember from President Maurer's 1993
|
||
Presidential Report, in September of 1992 the Federation provided
|
||
some training to several of the leaders in Turkey's blind
|
||
movement. After my visit I can assure you that our assistance to
|
||
those leaders is paying off.
|
||
As a result of my observations in Turkey, I begin to realize
|
||
the size and number of the obstacles Federation leaders and
|
||
members had to overcome in the past to create a better future for
|
||
all blind people in the United States. Today we are no longer
|
||
fighting for simple survival but for higher principles because
|
||
for the most part our basic rights have been established by law.
|
||
On the other hand, in Turkey the fight for fundamental rights is
|
||
just beginning. There it is hard to talk about important issues
|
||
like information access when by law a blind person's signature is
|
||
not acceptable. As you can imagine, this law causes lots of
|
||
problems for blind people, who are denied the privilege of
|
||
writing checks, getting a bank card, receiving credit cards, and
|
||
even getting phone service.
|
||
But do not worry. The seeds of Federationism that we planted
|
||
through the training of the Turkish blind leaders are
|
||
flourishing. An organization with the same philosophy as the NFB
|
||
is working to make changes in Turkey that will affect the future.
|
||
I was proud to be with this group and work with them for a short
|
||
time while I was in the country. When I was there, I attended the
|
||
opening of their computer training center. They are in the
|
||
process of establishing English, Braille, and telephone operating
|
||
training for the blind. They believe that the way to change the
|
||
system is to train blind individuals to get competitive jobs and
|
||
be taxpayers. At the same time they are working to change the
|
||
demeaning laws that control the lives of blind people.
|
||
As I have said, it was great to be part of this movement,
|
||
even for a short time. I conducted workshops for blind women
|
||
dealing with the issues of marriage, cane use, and the future of
|
||
women in the blindness movement. Although Turkey has its first
|
||
woman prime minister, in the blindness movement women are still
|
||
in the background. I talked with the parents of blind children
|
||
about integration, Braille materials for the students, cane use
|
||
in the school and outside it, and the effect on blind kids of
|
||
parental sheltering. After the workshop we went out with our
|
||
canes and had an independent travel experience. These women and
|
||
children had never had a cane in their hands. For the first time
|
||
in their lives they were walking freely in Istanbul traffic. Of
|
||
course, this was just a start. With time, training, and equipment
|
||
they are going to be as independent as many of us here because
|
||
they have the same spirit.
|
||
You may wonder whether any exciting things happened to me
|
||
while I was in Turkey. The answer is yes. Of course, no one
|
||
hesitated to accept the Visa card of a blind individual, even
|
||
though I had been the one to sign it. I guess that the prospect
|
||
of payment in dollars overrode the signature law. Since blind
|
||
people in Istanbul can ride buses free, I had to argue constantly
|
||
with the bus drivers about taking my ticket. But the big
|
||
challenge came just before I left the country. I went to a notary
|
||
public to give my power of attorney to my brother. Of course,
|
||
knowing the law, I took two witnesses with me. But even so, the
|
||
head clerk almost threw me out of the office, saying that as a
|
||
blind person I could not give power of attorney to anybody. I
|
||
explained to her that I had done it three times before and that,
|
||
according to the law, I can give it to anybody, as long as I have
|
||
two witnesses. She was loud and ugly about the whole matter, so I
|
||
took her name and left. In the same block I went to a second
|
||
notary and got the power of attorney with no difficulty. After
|
||
this incident I filed a formal complaint against the first notary
|
||
for her violation of my rights.
|
||
Overall, the trip was exciting, motivating, and thought-
|
||
provoking. It is wonderful to see the effect of the Federation's
|
||
love, friendship, and philosophy growing in my own country. I
|
||
would like to thank you all for the changes that you have brought
|
||
about in me and for the help you are giving people thousands of
|
||
miles away.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PHOTO: Family portrait. CAPTION: Fred and Cathy Schroeder with their children
|
||
Matthew and Carrie.]
|
||
|
||
EXPECTATIONS: THE CRITICAL FACTOR
|
||
IN THE EDUCATION OF BLIND CHILDREN
|
||
by Fredric K. Schroeder
|
||
|
||
From the Editor: The following is a banquet address
|
||
delivered at the eighth International Conference on Blind and
|
||
Visually Impaired Children which took place in Edmonton, Alberta,
|
||
Canada, on October 1, 1993. Fred Schroeder, who is the Executive
|
||
Director of the New Mexico Commission for the Blind and a member
|
||
of the Board of Directors of the National Federation of the
|
||
Blind, also serves as President of the International Council on
|
||
English Braille and is a noted expert in the education of blind
|
||
children. Readers of the Braille Monitor will be familiar with
|
||
some of his ideas from previous articles in these pages, but,
|
||
given the current debate over full inclusion, this speech seems
|
||
particularly relevant. Here it is:
|
||
|
||
Perhaps no issue has been more hotly debated than the
|
||
question of which educational placement or array of services
|
||
represents the best alternative for blind children. We tend to
|
||
view this debate as a contemporary issue--full inclusion versus
|
||
residential placement. Yet this debate is not new in character or
|
||
substance. In 1865 at the laying of the cornerstone of the New
|
||
York State Institution for the Blind at Batavia, Samuel Gridley
|
||
Howe stated:
|
||
|
||
|
||
I am constantly applied to by teachers to know how to
|
||
proceed with a blind child; and I always encourage them to keep it
|
||
at home, and let it go to the common school as long as possible.
|
||
(1866, in Blindness 1865, p. 185)
|
||
|
||
While Howe suggests that public school education is preferable to
|
||
residential placement, his lifetime devotion to establishing
|
||
schools for the blind reflects his understanding that neither
|
||
system is wholly adequate to meet the educational needs of blind
|
||
children.
|
||
Perhaps the real difficulty in the debate stems from the
|
||
complexity of its issues. Residential schools have certain
|
||
natural advantages in designing and implementing programs for
|
||
blind children. With the students concentrated in one place,
|
||
curricula can be adapted and special media prepared, allowing for
|
||
instruction comparable to that available to sighted children.
|
||
Residential schools offer Braille libraries and are generally
|
||
noted for their athletics programs. Additionally, by being in an
|
||
environment with other blind children, the blind child has better
|
||
prospects for social interaction than is often the case in public
|
||
schools.
|
||
Alternatively, inclusionists put forward the compelling
|
||
argument that segregation from society fosters separation and
|
||
isolation. They believe that blind and other disabled children
|
||
are part of a diverse society and should not be separated from
|
||
it. They assert that our educational system can and must be
|
||
available to all and must adapt itself to varying needs rather
|
||
than excluding those with differences.
|
||
There is a tendency to view the individual placement as
|
||
responsible for the blind child's positive or negative
|
||
experience. Yet the quality of the individual child's experience
|
||
is not fully explained by the placement model itself. Children
|
||
going through the very same program frequently have dramatically
|
||
different feelings about the education they received. Individual
|
||
children bring with them individual human characteristics. Some
|
||
adjust readily to change, while others have great difficulty. In
|
||
other words, the particular placement is only part of the
|
||
equation.
|
||
I believe that the debate over residential versus integrated
|
||
placement asks the wrong question. There is no one structure or
|
||
particular type of program placement that is best for blind
|
||
children. All models and all systems will inevitably succeed with
|
||
some children and fail with others. What is needed, therefore, is
|
||
not the refinement or fine tuning of this system or that.
|
||
Instead, all systems must be premised on a fundamental belief in
|
||
the ability of blind children to compete--each system must begin
|
||
with this belief and translate it into expectations.
|
||
Without a clear vision of what can be achieved by blind
|
||
children, no reasonable planning can take place. Without certain
|
||
fundamental values, no overarching philosophy can emerge. Since
|
||
its founding the National Federation of the Blind has embodied a
|
||
clear philosophy of blindness rooted in the basic belief that the
|
||
blind can compete on terms of equality with the sighted. Marc
|
||
Maurer, President of the Federation, has stated:
|
||
|
||
In 1940 we organized to speak for ourselves through the
|
||
National Federation of the Blind.... We have replaced the ancient
|
||
terms of negativism with a new language of hope, and society has
|
||
increasingly come to accept us for what we are--normal people with
|
||
normal aspirations and normal abilities. (1990, in Walking Alone
|
||
and Marching Together, p. 718)
|
||
|
||
I administered a public school program for five years. What
|
||
distinguished our program was our fundamental belief in blind
|
||
children. When I speak of a fundamental belief in blind children,
|
||
I mean just that--a shared personal conviction that our children
|
||
are inherently normal and capable of assuming an active role in
|
||
society, a belief that they can grow up and marry and have jobs
|
||
and raise families and live a normal life, a belief that they
|
||
will have strengths and weaknesses and, if encouraged to build on
|
||
those strengths, can excel, establishing for themselves a place
|
||
of real equality.
|
||
It is important to distinguish what I call a fundamental
|
||
belief in the ability of blind children from the less-defined,
|
||
generalized belief which exists throughout our educational
|
||
system. Certainly teachers as a whole seek to train and encourage
|
||
their students to learn and achieve. What separates a fundamental
|
||
belief in the ability of blind children from a generalized belief
|
||
is the matter of clear expectations.
|
||
In the program I administered we strove to put into practice
|
||
our fundamental belief in blind children. We believed that, given
|
||
the right training, our students could compete in all subject
|
||
areas on terms of real equality. We were not satisfied with the
|
||
methods we used to teach the students unless they met this
|
||
criterion. For this reason we concentrated intensively on the
|
||
basic skills needed by blind children. We instructed them in
|
||
Braille reading and writing, cane travel, typing, handwriting,
|
||
and use of the abacus. These core skills represented the natural
|
||
expression of our philosophy of blindness. We believed that our
|
||
children could compete and therefore gave them the tools
|
||
necessary to put that belief into action. By giving them skills
|
||
and holding high expectations for them, we enabled our students
|
||
to develop the self-confidence to participate fully, both
|
||
socially and academically.
|
||
We held a fundamental belief in the ability of our students
|
||
and translated that belief into action. We believed that our
|
||
children could compete and gave them the skills necessary to make
|
||
this belief a reality. When they were given the skills to meet
|
||
our expectations, they developed confidence and learned to
|
||
achieve. By succeeding and believing in themselves, they began
|
||
the process of internalizing our belief in them. In time our
|
||
expectations of them became their expectations of themselves; our
|
||
fundamental belief in their inherent normalcy became their own.
|
||
What blind children lack is not access to services, but
|
||
access to high expectations. Society holds only minimal
|
||
expectations for blind people. Consequently the blind child is
|
||
rewarded for virtually any level of performance. Even the most
|
||
forward-looking people rarely hold more than tenuous and
|
||
uncertain expectations for the blind. It is not surprising,
|
||
therefore, that blind children lack a clear image of their own
|
||
potential. To develop a real sense of their own ability, blind
|
||
children must be in an environment with clearly defined
|
||
expectations.
|
||
When I began administering a public school program, I found
|
||
a lack of clear expectations for blind children. The staff
|
||
certainly had good intentions for their students and were doing
|
||
their best to train and motivate them. Yet they had a generalized
|
||
rather than fundamental belief in their students. None of the
|
||
children used canes, and therefore they were at a real
|
||
disadvantage in getting around the school. They had been taught
|
||
to trail walls and use their feet to find steps. Blind children
|
||
were allowed to start out five minutes early for recess so that
|
||
they could get to the playground before the other children. By
|
||
and large, partially sighted children were responsible for
|
||
leading the totally blind ones. At lunch time they went early to
|
||
the cafeteria and sat together while the cafeteria workers
|
||
brought them their trays. They were integrated primarily into
|
||
non-academic subjects, except for those students who had enough
|
||
vision to use print. This program was not, and is not, uncommon.
|
||
Personnel in these programs did not have bad motives, were not
|
||
poorly trained, and were not lazy. In fact, they had the very
|
||
best of intentions. In other words, they had a generalized rather
|
||
than fundamental belief in their students.
|
||
In restructuring our program, we began by integrating a new
|
||
philosophy about blindness. Our fundamental belief in blind
|
||
people expressed itself through high expectations. We believed
|
||
that, if blind children were to compete, we must first
|
||
demonstrate (through our actions) our belief in their ability. We
|
||
stopped the practice of having partially-sighted children lead
|
||
the totally blind. Rather we taught children to use white canes
|
||
and encouraged them to walk quickly and confidently. Wall-
|
||
trailing went by the wayside. We stopped releasing our children
|
||
early for recess, believing that, if we treated them as though
|
||
they were vulnerable, they would learn to act as though they were
|
||
vulnerable and would begin to believe it.
|
||
School personnel had some initial difficulty adjusting to
|
||
these changes. I remember the principal's telling me that we
|
||
needed to build a sidewalk leading from the main building to the
|
||
swings. She said that our students liked to swing during recess;
|
||
but, since we no longer let them go early, the swings were all
|
||
taken by the time they arrived. She thought a sidewalk would help
|
||
them find the swings more quickly. When I asked how the children
|
||
were currently getting to the swings, she told me that they had
|
||
been taught to trail the fence around the perimeter of the
|
||
playground. At the point closest to the swings, a rag had been
|
||
tied into the chain-link fence. When they found the rag, the
|
||
children were to stand with their backs to the fence and walk
|
||
straight out to find the swings. No wonder our children were
|
||
always the last to arrive at the swings.
|
||
I told her that what the children needed was, not a sidewalk
|
||
across the playground, but more practice orienting themselves in
|
||
large open spaces. When leaving the building, the children should
|
||
head out across the playground in the general direction of the
|
||
swings. Over time they would learn to recognize certain natural
|
||
landmarks such as other playground equipment and slopes in the
|
||
ground. With practice they would get better at judging the
|
||
distance and direction to travel. Additionally, since swings are
|
||
a high-interest activity stimulating much competition, our
|
||
students would have to be quick if they were to nab a swing.
|
||
The principal was apprehensive at the prospect of a half
|
||
dozen blind children running at top speed with their canes in a
|
||
crowd of three hundred youngsters. What she had not considered
|
||
was that, when the recess bell rang, there were three hundred
|
||
children running at top speed, but they were all running in the
|
||
same direction--from the building onto the playground. Expecting
|
||
that the blind children in our program could compete on terms of
|
||
real equality and giving them the tools to make it possible, we
|
||
found that they met and surpassed our expectations. When the
|
||
blind children in our program first learned to use canes, we did
|
||
not teach them to run. They taught themselves to run because they
|
||
felt a compelling need to get to the swings first. When they were
|
||
released early from class, they walked slowly and carefully--
|
||
those with some sight helping those with none. They had no need
|
||
to run and no belief that they could. When they learned to use
|
||
canes and went to recess with everyone else, they found a need to
|
||
run and hence learned to do so.
|
||
But this was only the beginning. Sometimes they weren't fast
|
||
enough. Sometimes the swings were all taken when they got there.
|
||
Consequently, they looked for other things to do. They found and
|
||
used other pieces of playground equipment. They met other
|
||
children and made new friends. They began to believe that they
|
||
were normal children; acted accordingly; and, as a result, were
|
||
viewed by others as normal.
|
||
We also stopped the practice of letting the children go
|
||
early to lunch. We taught them how to get in line with the other
|
||
children and use their canes (gently) to keep track of the person
|
||
in front of them. We taught them how to carry a tray while using
|
||
a cane and how to find an empty seat. Finally, we taught them to
|
||
bus their own trays on their way out of the lunchroom. By being
|
||
part of the crowd, they naturally ended by sitting with a variety
|
||
of students, which contributed to expanded circles of friends.
|
||
In academic areas we applied the same fundamental belief in
|
||
the basic equality of our students. When I was in graduate
|
||
school, the concept of social integration was very popular. The
|
||
basic concept was that placing blind children in an age-
|
||
appropriate setting, we were assured, would facilitate social
|
||
integration. Yet this concept was incompatible with our overall
|
||
philosophy. If we believed that blind children were normal and
|
||
that, given proper training, they could compete on terms of
|
||
equality, then social integration would send a contradictory
|
||
message. If blind children are in classrooms and unable to
|
||
perform the same work as the other students, how can they learn
|
||
to believe that they are equal?
|
||
We determined, therefore, to concentrate first on the skills
|
||
of blindness and mainstream children only in those areas in which
|
||
their skills allowed them to function competitively. This meant
|
||
that our children received intensive training in Braille reading
|
||
and writing, as well as training in typing, handwriting, use of
|
||
the abacus, and of course cane travel. As children were able to
|
||
read at grade level, they were integrated into language arts and
|
||
social studies. As they became skilled in the use of the abacus,
|
||
they were integrated into math. Consequently, they were able to
|
||
perform competitively and thereby internalize a vision of
|
||
themselves as inherently normal.
|
||
Let me reiterate that the key was not the educational
|
||
placement; the critical element was our belief in their essential
|
||
normalcy and the tangible demonstration of our belief through our
|
||
actions. By believing in blind children and having high
|
||
expectations for them, we enabled them consistently to reach and
|
||
surpass our expectations.
|
||
One day one of our students came to his teacher to complain
|
||
that his friends had begun playing tag during recess. When
|
||
playing tag, one child is "it," and his or her objective is to
|
||
tag or touch another child, thereby making the other child "it."
|
||
Since none of the children wishes to be "it," the game moves at a
|
||
fast pace. The problem for a blind child is that it is difficult
|
||
to know who "it" is at any given moment and, more important,
|
||
where "it" is. This blind child complained that, since he didn't
|
||
know where "it" was, he didn't know which way to run and thus
|
||
spent much of the game being "it."
|
||
We had spent considerable time and energy convincing our
|
||
children that they were normal and could compete on terms of
|
||
equality. We had taught them through our words and deeds that,
|
||
given the right training, they could function competitively with
|
||
their sighted peers. We now had a seven-year-old putting our
|
||
philosophy to the test. In the game of tag he didn't feel very
|
||
equal, yet he had an expectation that he was capable of full
|
||
participation, so he came to us in the absolute certainty that a
|
||
technique must exist which would allow him to compete. After
|
||
considerable soul-searching, we determined to talk to the
|
||
youngster and explain to him that the world had been constructed
|
||
largely by the sighted with sight in mind, and after all there
|
||
are some things that the blind cannot do (such as driving)
|
||
because the activity itself is premised on the ability of the
|
||
driver to see. We hoped we could explain to him that tag was like
|
||
driving--constructed by the sighted for the sighted and that it
|
||
did not mean that he was inferior. We hoped that we could
|
||
explain, in a way that a seven-year-old would understand, that
|
||
the blind were not less capable merely because there were some
|
||
activities in which sight was an overwhelming advantage.
|
||
In the meantime this young fellow had grown tired of waiting
|
||
for us to come up with a solution. He believed he was as capable
|
||
as anyone else and believed that full participation was a product
|
||
of having or thinking up the right technique. He realized he
|
||
could not see, but, rather than feeling bad about it, he had
|
||
learned to meet the situation head-on. Soon thereafter, before we
|
||
had a chance to talk with him, he came to school with a small
|
||
glass jar. At recess he put a few pebbles in it and replaced the
|
||
lid. He told his friends that, when they were playing tag,
|
||
whoever was "it" had to shake the jar; and, if he or she did not,
|
||
the tag did not count. He still did not know who "it" was, but at
|
||
least he knew where "it" was.
|
||
All of us with our master's degrees and years of experience
|
||
were prepared to sell a seven-year-old blind child short--not out
|
||
of malice, poor training, or even lack of imagination. Presumably
|
||
as a group we had at least average powers of creativity. What
|
||
limited us was a subtle, almost unrecognizable, internalization
|
||
of society's diminished view of blindness. Even though we
|
||
actively worked to promote a positive philosophy of blindness, we
|
||
were subject to the negative conditioning of society. No matter
|
||
how hard we fought it, we were still ready to accept partial
|
||
participation while intellectually wishing to believe in full
|
||
participation.
|
||
This student solved his own problem primarily because he
|
||
believed in himself. The critical factor was his own expectation
|
||
and fundamental belief in himself as a blind person. He believed
|
||
that he was equal and acted accordingly. He would not settle for
|
||
a lesser role but thought and questioned and tried until he had
|
||
an answer. Our challenge is to develop a clear vision in
|
||
ourselves of what we believe about blindness. We must replace our
|
||
generalized belief in blind children with a fundamental belief.
|
||
This represents an overarching philosophy guiding our programs
|
||
but, more important, guiding our expectations. If we have a clear
|
||
vision of what blind children can achieve, they will invariably
|
||
reach and surpass our highest expectations for them.
|
||
Inevitably our programs and services develop from our
|
||
beliefs, explicitly and implicitly reflecting our expectations.
|
||
The real problem with today's programs for blind children is
|
||
their lack of an effective philosophy. Education of the blind has
|
||
become trapped by its own thinking, which has resulted in a
|
||
system in which children are encouraged to progress from where
|
||
they are, without a vision of where we want them to be. We have
|
||
become complacent, using progress as our measure of success. We
|
||
have taken this lack of clear vision and embraced it as a virtue.
|
||
We have become the champions of individualized programs without
|
||
clearly defined expectations. Yet doing better today than
|
||
yesterday is simply not good enough. By using progress as the
|
||
measure of success, we mislead ourselves into believing that our
|
||
educational systems are working effectively. The real problem of
|
||
a generalized belief in blind people is that it lacks definition.
|
||
The progress measure of success rewards forward movement
|
||
irrespective of whether it is constructive.
|
||
Today's Braille literacy problem did not emerge from a
|
||
negative view of blindness, but rather from a lack of any
|
||
specific view at all. If a child has some sight and is struggling
|
||
to read print and if he or she begins to read better by using a
|
||
CCTV or stronger magnifier, the goal of progress is achieved. The
|
||
child is reading better, which is of course what we want. This
|
||
satisfies our generalized belief in blind children. The progress
|
||
standard is not so much wrong as incomplete. A child's making
|
||
progress is good, but only if it is progress toward a worthy
|
||
goal, premised on a fundamental belief in the ability of blind
|
||
people to compete. I believe that blind children are
|
||
fundamentally normal, so I expect that they can become literate.
|
||
Since I believe that they are normal, my expectation for their
|
||
literacy is that they will read and write like their sighted
|
||
peers. For this reason I am not satisfied by a child's
|
||
progressing from reading ten words per minute to twenty or thirty
|
||
words per minute if this is the best that he or she will achieve,
|
||
given a particular medium.
|
||
Progress is not enough. It must be coupled with expectation.
|
||
If a child is trained to read Braille knowing that it is
|
||
reasonable to expect that child will learn to read at a rate
|
||
comparable to that of his or her sighted peers, then progress
|
||
takes on a new and positive dimension. Progress in response to
|
||
substantive expectation is progress worth applauding. Progress
|
||
from a position of inferiority to a position of less inferiority,
|
||
without the prospect of full participation, is not only
|
||
insufficient but damaging because it erroneously teaches the
|
||
child that, due to blindness, he or she is less capable. Dr.
|
||
Kenneth Jernigan, President Emeritus of the National Federation
|
||
of the Blind, expressed it best:
|
||
|
||
We have learned that it is not our blindness which has put
|
||
us down and kept us out, but what we and others have thought about
|
||
our blindness. (1990, reprinted in Walking Alone and Marching
|
||
Together, p. 428)
|
||
|
||
As educators, teacher trainers, and parents we must actively
|
||
work toward developing a strong and positive conception of
|
||
blindness within ourselves. This can only be accomplished by
|
||
spending time with blind adults who can help us reshape and
|
||
redefine our expectations. Ruby Ryles, a nationally recognized
|
||
teacher of blind children in the United States, pointed out:
|
||
|
||
The average V.I. teacher has had little or no contact with
|
||
competent blind adults and therefore does not imagine, cannot
|
||
imagine, the tragic results of the omission of basic skill
|
||
training. (June, 1989, in the Braille Monitor, p. 308)
|
||
|
||
We must strive to replace our generalized beliefs with
|
||
fundamental beliefs in the capacity of blind people. With these
|
||
fundamental beliefs our philosophy of blindness will guide us
|
||
intuitively to do what is right. Through our philosophy we will
|
||
naturally hold high expectations for our students and replace
|
||
undirected progress with that which is goal-driven. We will
|
||
automatically know whether a decision or strategy is the right
|
||
one by the degree to which it accomplishes the objective of full
|
||
participation for the child.
|
||
But, most important, a personal fundamental belief in the
|
||
ability of blind people will result in the passing on of this
|
||
belief to our children. If we believe in them and demonstrate
|
||
that belief in all that we do, they too will learn to believe in
|
||
themselves, internalizing our expectations. The skills we teach
|
||
are not a complete package, but a starting point. If our children
|
||
learn to believe in themselves, they will draw from these skills,
|
||
applying them in new ways and in new situations. They will build
|
||
on this foundation and integrate themselves into society. No
|
||
master's-level educator will have to teach them the correct
|
||
method for playing tag. By believing in themselves and assuming
|
||
that they can function competitively, they will automatically
|
||
look for the techniques to put their beliefs into action. The
|
||
critical factor is expectations--expectations stemming from an
|
||
overarching philosophy rooted in a fundamental belief in the
|
||
capacity of blind people to live full and productive lives.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PHOTO/CAPTION: The Ambassador Bridge, linking the city of Detroit with
|
||
Windsor, Ontario, Canada.]
|
||
|
||
1994 CONVENTION BULLETIN
|
||
MICHIGAN: THE FIRST, THE BIGGEST, AND THE BEST
|
||
|
||
From the Editor: The members of the National Federation of
|
||
the Blind of Michigan are working to make this summer's
|
||
convention truly memorable. Certainly our rates at the Westin
|
||
Hotel in the Renaissance Center are extraordinary. They are
|
||
singles, $38; doubles and twins, $43; and quads, $48. In addition
|
||
to the room rates, there will be a tax, which at present is
|
||
twelve percent. There will be no charge for children in a room
|
||
with parents as long as no extra bed is required. Make your
|
||
reservations by writing Westin Hotel, Renaissance Center,
|
||
Detroit, Michigan 48243, Attention: Reservations; or call (313)
|
||
568-8000. Westin has a national toll-free number, but do not use
|
||
it. Reservations made through this national number will not be
|
||
valid. They must be made directly with the Westin in Detroit. The
|
||
hotel will want a deposit of $45 or a credit card number. If a
|
||
credit card is used, the deposit will be charged against your
|
||
card immediately, just as would be the case with a $45 check. If
|
||
a reservation is cancelled prior to June 20, 1994, the entire
|
||
amount of your deposit will be returned to you by the hotel.
|
||
Requests for refunds after June 20, 1994, will not be honored.
|
||
And just to spur you on to make your plans to attend the 1994
|
||
Convention of the National Federation of the Blind, here are some
|
||
things the members of the NFB of Michigan think you should know
|
||
about their state:
|
||
|
||
|
||
As you read in the December Monitor, the Michigan affiliate
|
||
is ready for the "Roar of '94." We are busy with plans to make
|
||
sure that the 1994 convention of the National Federation of the
|
||
Blind is the biggest and best convention ever.
|
||
When we were in Dallas last July, we kept hearing that
|
||
"everything in Texas is big." While this may be true, Michigan is
|
||
also the biggest, the first, or the oldest in many areas. Since
|
||
our affiliate President, Allen Harris, is a history teacher, we
|
||
feel obliged to teach each of you a little history about Michigan
|
||
and the Detroit area while at the same time having some fun with
|
||
Michigan trivia. We hope you enjoy the following facts which we
|
||
have dug up. If you are a Trivial Pursuit fan, you know that the
|
||
categories of that game are geography, sports and leisure,
|
||
science and nature, arts and literature, entertainment, and
|
||
history.
|
||
In the category of geography, did you know that--
|
||
Michigan is the only state that touches four of the five Great
|
||
Lakes?
|
||
Lake Superior is the largest fresh water lake in North
|
||
America?
|
||
Detroit is one of the five largest ports in the country?
|
||
Michigan boasts over 3,000 miles of shoreline?
|
||
The Mackinac Bridge connecting the Upper and Lower Peninsula
|
||
is the largest expansion bridge in North America?
|
||
The Detroit/Windsor border crossing is the busiest
|
||
international border crossing in North America?
|
||
|
||
In the category of entertainment (and shopping is certainly
|
||
entertainment), did you know that--
|
||
Detroit's Northland Mall was the first shopping mall in the
|
||
nation?
|
||
Michigan is home to Bronner's, the world's largest and most
|
||
famous year-round Christmas store?
|
||
Michigan's State Fair is the oldest continuously running state
|
||
fair?
|
||
Detroit is the birthplace of the Motown Sound and Motown
|
||
Record Company?
|
||
Interlochen, Michigan, is the world's largest music education
|
||
school?
|
||
|
||
In the category of history, did you know that--
|
||
Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, is the
|
||
country's oldest land grant college?
|
||
Detroit was the site of the first traffic light?
|
||
The Ford Rouge plant is the largest industrial manufacturing
|
||
complex in North America?
|
||
Detroit is the birthplace of the Model A Ford and the home of
|
||
the first automobile assembly line?
|
||
The largest stove in the world is at the Michigan State
|
||
Fairgrounds in Detroit?
|
||
The Detroit Department of Transportation operates one of only
|
||
four street car systems in the world using double decker
|
||
trolleys?
|
||
Detroit's Ponchartrain Hotel is built on the site of Detroit's
|
||
first permanent settlement?
|
||
The Westin Hotel, where our convention will be held, is the
|
||
tallest hotel in North America at 747 feet, and it houses the
|
||
highest revolving restaurant in North America?
|
||
St. Anne's Catholic Church in Detroit is the second oldest
|
||
continuous Catholic parish in the nation?
|
||
America's largest indoor/outdoor museum is the Henry Ford
|
||
Museum and Greenfield Village in Dearborn? It has twelve acres of
|
||
exhibit space in the museum itself and eighty-one acres of land
|
||
in the village?
|
||
The Cobo Hall Conference Center in Detroit is the fifth
|
||
largest in the country?
|
||
Selfridge Airbase in Mt. Clemens, Michigan, is one of the
|
||
nation's oldest and most historic military museums and operating
|
||
air bases?
|
||
|
||
In the category of sports and leisure, did you know that--
|
||
Detroit is the home of the country's first ice cream soda,
|
||
made by an employee of the Sanders company in 1875?
|
||
Detroit is the home of the world's first automatic
|
||
coffeemaker?
|
||
Michigan has the most registered bowlers in the country as
|
||
well as the largest number of recreational boats registered?
|
||
Detroit leads the nation in potato chip consumption?
|
||
Detroit is the pizza capital of the world?
|
||
The Pontiac Silverdome, home of the Detroit Lions, is the
|
||
world's largest domed stadium?
|
||
Battle Creek, Michigan, is the cereal capital of the world?
|
||
The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor boasts the largest
|
||
football stadium operated by a university, holding over 106,000
|
||
people?
|
||
|
||
In the category of arts and literature, did you know that--
|
||
The Detroit Institute of Arts is one of the largest museums in
|
||
the country?
|
||
The Fox Theater opened as America's largest movie theater in
|
||
1928 and was recently renovated to its original form for theater
|
||
and concert productions?
|
||
The Chene Park outdoor music amphitheater ranks as the
|
||
country's most beautiful?
|
||
|
||
In the category of science and nature, did you know that--
|
||
Traverse City, Michigan, is the cherry capital of the world?
|
||
The Atheneum Hotel in Greektown is home to the world's tallest
|
||
indoor waterfall?
|
||
Belle Isle Park in Detroit is the largest island park within a
|
||
city in the country?
|
||
The Aquarium on Belle Isle is the nation's oldest, dating back
|
||
to 1904?
|
||
The Uniroyal tire, located above I-94 in Detroit, is the
|
||
world's largest tire?
|
||
But most important of all, Detroit, Michigan, is the only
|
||
site of the biggest and best 1994 convention of the National
|
||
Federation of the Blind. We hope to see you all here. We are
|
||
planning exciting tours and excursions during convention week.
|
||
Details will appear in the Monitor next month.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PHOTO: Tony Burda and daughters seated at table during award ceremony.
|
||
CAPTION: This picture of Tony Burda and his daughters Natalie and Valerie was
|
||
taken by photographer Steve Gadomski at the Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's
|
||
Hospital award ceremony. Photo by Steve Gadomski]
|
||
|
||
FEDERATIONIST HONORED
|
||
|
||
From the Editor: Tony Burda is a long-time leader of the
|
||
National Federation of the Blind of Illinois. His commitment to
|
||
the organization goes back to the days when he was fighting for
|
||
the right to take the Illinois licensure examination which all
|
||
pharmacists in the state must pass in order to hold any job that
|
||
requires a licensed pharmacist. The NFB assisted Tony in that
|
||
fight, and the result was that, when he eventually took the test,
|
||
his was one of the highest scores in the state. The battle did
|
||
not end there, however. State officials continued to refuse to
|
||
issue Tony's license until, working together, we forced them to
|
||
do so.
|
||
Through the years, Tony Burda has more than justified the
|
||
Federation's faith in him. His work in the poison control center
|
||
of one of Chicago's busiest hospitals has been exemplary. His
|
||
coolness in emergencies and wide knowledge of pharmacology have
|
||
saved who knows how many lives.
|
||
But in addition to the professional contribution Tony has
|
||
made to his community, he is also an impressive athlete. Tony has
|
||
used his interest in physical fitness to raise funds for the
|
||
National Federation of the Blind, first in a triathlon and then
|
||
in a nearly 500-mile bicycle ride across Iowa and Illinois.
|
||
At the moment Tony and his cycling partner are preparing to
|
||
take part in the Denver Post's competition, Riding the Rockies.
|
||
This event will begin June 17, 1994, and wind its way across 400
|
||
miles of Colorado, some of the way at 9,000 feet. As with his
|
||
other activities, Tony will use this event to demonstrate that
|
||
blind people are like everybody else, and he will also be raising
|
||
money for the NFB.
|
||
Tony Burda is an outstanding member of his community and a
|
||
fine Federationist. Last September he was presented with the
|
||
Thonar Award by Rush Presbyterian Hospital. Here is the story
|
||
that appeared in the October, 1993, issue of RushRounds, a
|
||
publication of the Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center:
|
||
|
||
Thonar Award Goes to Rush Poison Expert
|
||
by Sara Parker Floyd
|
||
|
||
Anthony Burda, R.Ph., wonders what the fuss is all about.
|
||
Burda is the winner of the Eugene J.M.A. Thonar, Ph.D., Award,
|
||
which honors individuals who have overcome disabilities to
|
||
distinguish themselves in their careers.
|
||
"I'm flattered and humbled by the award. But, from the
|
||
bottom of my heart, I consider myself just an average person,
|
||
doing the best I can for my family and my profession," says
|
||
Burda, a poison information specialist in the Poison Control
|
||
Center.
|
||
On September 23, Burda--blind since 1975--accepted the award
|
||
in the second annual ceremony organized by the Rush Americans
|
||
with Disabilities Act Task Force. The award gets its name from
|
||
its first recipient, Rush biochemist Eugene Thonar.
|
||
By all accounts, Burda, thirty-eight, is not average.
|
||
Blinded in an accident while a student, he nonetheless pushed to
|
||
complete the program at the University of Illinois College of
|
||
Pharmacy, where he was enrolled. He finished at the top of his
|
||
class and scored a 91 percent on the licensing exam, one of the
|
||
highest scores in the state. He then had to wage a two-year court
|
||
battle to get his pharmacist license, which he was at first
|
||
denied because he was blind, he says.
|
||
A poison information specialist at Rush since 1981, Burda
|
||
uses his expertise as a pharmacist in handling the thousands of
|
||
calls that come into the Poison Control Center each year.
|
||
"The majority of the calls come from parents with young kids
|
||
who have been exposed to household toxic substances. I have to
|
||
calm and relax the parent," he says. "To do well on this job, I
|
||
have to have a good handle on pharmacology as well as have good
|
||
communication skills."
|
||
Burda must also work fast. Often juggling many frantic calls
|
||
at once, he has stored in his memory information about thousands
|
||
of poisonous substances people can be exposed to at home or on
|
||
the job.
|
||
Calls often come in from emergency room physicians treating
|
||
people who've overdosed on drugs.
|
||
"I want to do the best I can and always be conscientious
|
||
about the people who are entrusted to my care," says Burda.
|
||
His colleagues respect him for his wealth of knowledge.
|
||
"He's anybody's definition of an expert," says Jerrold Leikin,
|
||
M.D., medical director of the Poison Control Center. "He's well
|
||
aware of the toxicology literature and easily translates
|
||
scientific findings into layperson's terms."
|
||
Burda keeps up a busy pace outside of work, too. An avid
|
||
athlete, he took part in a twelve-hour, 175-mile cycling marathon
|
||
in August. Three years ago, he completed a triathlon. Both events
|
||
raised money for the National Federation of the Blind, in which
|
||
Burda has been active for several years.
|
||
Fellow pharmacist Jon Lager, R.Ph., has been a partner in
|
||
these endeavors. In the bicycling events, the two share a tandem
|
||
bicycle, with Lager in front, navigating the way.
|
||
"It's a reality check for me to see what can be accomplished
|
||
when you put your mind to it," says Lager. "Tony humbles me. He's
|
||
simply amazing. There's nothing he wouldn't try to accomplish at
|
||
least once."
|
||
A little flustered by the recent attention given him, Burda
|
||
says he's not one to seek awards and praise. Rather, he's
|
||
grateful for the blessings in his life--which, he emphasizes,
|
||
include his wife and two daughters.
|
||
"Seventy percent of all employable blind people are either
|
||
unemployed or underemployed," says Burda. "I'm blessed because
|
||
I'm one of the thirty percent who have a satisfying career."
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PHOTO: Portrait. CAPTION: Dr. John Smith.]
|
||
|
||
RACE AND REASON:
|
||
A BLACK PERSPECTIVE ON A DARK ISSUE
|
||
by John W. Smith
|
||
|
||
From the Editor: Dr. John Smith is Assistant Professor of
|
||
Speech Communication at Ohio University. He is an active
|
||
Federationist and a member of the board of directors of the NFB
|
||
of Ohio. He has thought long and hard about the Federation and
|
||
racial and ethnic relationships among Federationists. Here is
|
||
what he has to say:
|
||
|
||
I often refer to myself as belonging to a double minority. I
|
||
am a blind African American. This double minority status presents
|
||
me with both obstacles and opportunities--fortunately, more
|
||
opportunities than obstacles. Since joining the National
|
||
Federation of the Blind, I have come to realize that many others
|
||
share this distinction with me. It is from this perspective that
|
||
I want to address the issue of race within the NFB.
|
||
First, let me explain why I am using the term African
|
||
American. Of course, it is politically correct; but more
|
||
important, some African Americans find the term "black" or "the
|
||
blacks" offensive. However, African Americans active in the
|
||
sixties insisted on being called "black" rather than "colored" or
|
||
"Negro." Therefore, it seems okay to me to use the term. Some
|
||
black Americans still prefer to have it that way. Throughout this
|
||
article I will use the terms interchangeably. Strictly speaking,
|
||
no one is really black or white. The correct terms of description
|
||
are "caucasoid" or "negroid."
|
||
Racial differences have too often, and increasingly of late,
|
||
preoccupied the communities in which we humans live. But we in
|
||
the Federation must not allow the issue of race to fracture the
|
||
unity and solidarity of our movement. We must address this issue
|
||
openly and frankly and cut off its ugly head whenever and
|
||
wherever we find it. Racial bigotry (regardless of which race
|
||
practices it and regardless of whether the terminology used is
|
||
nigger and honky, black and white, or African-American and Euro-
|
||
American) is a poison that, left untreated, will corrupt the very
|
||
essence of a person, group, organization, or movement. It will
|
||
debilitate and destroy.
|
||
I want to dispel two myths about this issue as it relates to
|
||
the Federation. Myth number one is that no racism exists in the
|
||
NFB. I have heard well-meaning Federationists exclaim, "I have a
|
||
hard time telling a person's race, especially those from the
|
||
South." Can a blind person discriminate based on the sound of
|
||
someone's voice? Yes, indeed. Sometimes we make bad choices based
|
||
on erroneous information or at least incomplete information,
|
||
e.g., someone sounds black or white or acts in accordance with
|
||
the cultural stereotypes attributable to a given ethnic group. We
|
||
as individuals choose (sometimes unintentionally or because we're
|
||
not sure) to include or exclude this or that person from our
|
||
circle of friends. I think this unintentional discrimination is
|
||
easier to forgive than the intentional discrimination that occurs
|
||
when we validate our information and knowingly choose to include
|
||
or exclude on the basis of race, but it is still racism.
|
||
And if you think I am only talking about whites, you are
|
||
wrong. Racism can be practiced by any group or individual. It
|
||
comes from the caste of the mind, not the pigment of the skin. In
|
||
some senses I believe that all of us to one degree or another are
|
||
racists, because I define racism as the making of choices based
|
||
on race. Such choices can be either positive or negative. They
|
||
are positive when they are grounded in pride, mutual advancement,
|
||
and the reinforcement of a sense of belonging and self-worth.
|
||
The problem occurs when we cease to concentrate on race-
|
||
based pride, dwelling instead on our ignorance and bigotry
|
||
concerning other people. I define bigotry as the belittling of
|
||
another's race to enhance one's own race and culture. It's
|
||
appropriate to have pride in one's own ethnic and cultural
|
||
identity and achievements, but not at the expense of any other
|
||
ethnic or cultural group.
|
||
If nothing else, our coming together as members of the
|
||
National Federation of the Blind has demonstrated to all of us
|
||
that we are simply people who cannot physically see. Despite what
|
||
some have thought and written, we are first and foremost human
|
||
beings with all of the shortcomings and inadequacies that plague
|
||
mankind. Let us then agree as Federationists that, while it is
|
||
possible for us to practice bigotry, we should make every effort
|
||
not to do so.
|
||
The second myth is that everyone in the Federation is a
|
||
bigot and that most of the organizational decisions made are
|
||
racially motivated and designed to keep one group from succeeding
|
||
in the movement. This classic song of victimology has become
|
||
tiresome and evermore discordant in our society at large. I don't
|
||
like to hear African American Federationists sing it, but sing it
|
||
some of us do. In fact, some black Federationists are saying that
|
||
we need a black caucus within the NFB. At the risk of being
|
||
labeled an Uncle Tom, I want to go on record as strongly opposed
|
||
to this idea. We have too many battles to wage as blind people to
|
||
allow our energies and focus to be fractured. Besides, compared
|
||
to the sighted, our numbers are few. Our common bond and burden
|
||
are our blindness and society's misconceptions about it. The
|
||
sighted see us as blind people first and then as black or white.
|
||
My fellow Federationists, we cannot afford to discriminate
|
||
against each other. If (whether you are black or white) you are
|
||
guilty of racial bigotry in your chapter or state affiliate, I
|
||
urge you to rethink your behavior. Most social movements that
|
||
have been destroyed have been torn apart from within. Rome was
|
||
not built in a day, and it was not destroyed in a day either.
|
||
Over the course of almost two centuries, its very foundations
|
||
were pulverized and hammered to pieces by inner conflict and
|
||
strife so that, when the barbarians came, there was little to
|
||
overrun.
|
||
Our strength in the Federation is rooted in our unity of
|
||
purpose and our capacity to bring undivided commitment and
|
||
attention to issues affecting the blind. We have too much to
|
||
fight for and against to allow ourselves to get bogged down in
|
||
contentious matters that could divide us into warring factions.
|
||
Those of you who are familiar with our history are aware of the
|
||
civil war of the late 1950's. It was the greatest threat that our
|
||
movement has ever faced, one that almost destroyed us. Let
|
||
history not record that we had a second civil war, one based on
|
||
racial conflict.
|
||
Those Federationists who claim to find racism in every
|
||
corner of our movement should decide now whether or not to
|
||
continue in it. Why should people who vehemently and
|
||
unconstructively criticize the movement and its leaders remain in
|
||
the organization? I suspect that down deep inside, even these few
|
||
Federationists know in their hearts that in this movement we
|
||
cannot be divided or separated into racial or ethnic units but
|
||
are inextricably linked together by our blindness. They know that
|
||
each victory and each defeat impacts the entire blind community,
|
||
regardless of race, ethnicity, or cultural identity.
|
||
To all true Federationists I would say in the strongest
|
||
possible terms: Never use racism as an excuse for lack of
|
||
initiative or integrity. Among the attractions of this movement
|
||
for me were the integrity of its leaders and the genuine
|
||
commitment to working together of the rank-and-file members. It
|
||
is this emphasis on honesty, openness, and unity that will
|
||
continue to serve us well as we enter the twenty-first century. I
|
||
challenge each one of us at every level of our movement to take a
|
||
good, hard look at our attitudes about racism--not practicing it,
|
||
not condoning it in others, and not using the claim of its
|
||
existence in somebody else as an excuse for practicing it
|
||
ourselves. Let us agree to continue to be united as one to ensure
|
||
equality, security, and opportunity for all blind people. We can;
|
||
we must; and I pray that we will.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
NEW FACULTY MEMBER MAKES A PLACE FOR HIMSELF
|
||
|
||
From the Editor: Dr. John Smith joined the faculty at Ohio
|
||
University in Athens, Ohio, in September of 1993. The January,
|
||
1994, issue of Outlook, the university's faculty publication,
|
||
carried an article about this dynamic young blind professor. Dr.
|
||
Smith says that the student newspaper will also soon do a story,
|
||
this one focused on his efforts to organize a new NFB chapter in
|
||
the Athens area. Here is the newspaper story published in early
|
||
January:
|
||
|
||
INCO's Smith Overcomes Challenge of Blindness
|
||
by Emily Caldwell
|
||
|
||
Present John Smith with a challenge, and he will embrace it
|
||
as he has embraced life.
|
||
Add a little music to the mix, and Smith considers himself
|
||
inspired.
|
||
Smith, a first-year assistant professor of interpersonal
|
||
communication who has been blind since he was a toddler, now is
|
||
in a position to be a source of inspiration. He accepts that
|
||
being the only blind faculty member on the Athens campus might be
|
||
inspiring in itself, but he says his talent as a teacher is what
|
||
counts in the classroom.
|
||
"Blindness is just a nuisance. It's just a characteristic,"
|
||
says Smith, thirty-four. "It's not the issue, but it's something
|
||
I don't avoid.
|
||
"All I'm doing is living my life the best I can. I don't get
|
||
up and say, `Who can I inspire today?' (But) I do make it a goal
|
||
to brighten anybody's life that I happen to come in contact
|
||
with."
|
||
By many accounts, Smith is doing just that. Junior Richard
|
||
Cornell, who took Smith's School of Interpersonal Communication
|
||
(INCO) 206 class--Communication in Interpersonal Relationships--
|
||
fall quarter calls him a "great teacher" who "cares about the
|
||
students."
|
||
Students say Smith's impaired sight doesn't hinder his
|
||
teaching; instead, his dynamic style livens up lectures and group
|
||
projects.
|
||
Smith is also open to questions about his blindness, senior
|
||
Cori Yost says.
|
||
"He mentioned it right away. He always encouraged people to
|
||
ask about it," Yost says. "I just think he was a great
|
||
instructor, whether he was blind or not. For the first couple of
|
||
weeks it was interesting, but after that I didn't think about it
|
||
any more."
|
||
Smith was born with glaucoma and was blind in one eye at
|
||
birth. When he was three, he lost sight in his good eye in an
|
||
accident while playing with his brother.
|
||
Smith, who says he comes from a Chicago family of talkers
|
||
and singers, has known since his sophomore year in college at
|
||
Indiana University's Gary campus that he wanted to teach college
|
||
speech communication.
|
||
That was in 1979. He completed a double major in history and
|
||
speech communication, received a master's degree in speech
|
||
communication from Purdue University, and earned a doctorate in
|
||
speech communication at Wayne State University in Detroit.
|
||
Finishing his Ph.D. included the one and a half years it took to
|
||
dictate his dissertation to his wife, Regina.
|
||
Smith taught at Indiana University's South Bend campus for
|
||
five years before coming to Ohio University this fall.
|
||
As in the fall, Smith will teach two sections of INCO 206
|
||
winter quarter and then add a course in the history of rhetorical
|
||
theory this spring.
|
||
Outside the classroom Smith is trying to organize a
|
||
Southeast Ohio chapter of the National Federation of the Blind.
|
||
About 500 Ohioans are members of the advocacy and peer-support
|
||
organization. The closest existing chapter is in Columbus.
|
||
Smith credits the organization, which he joined four years
|
||
ago, with filling a void in his life and helping boost his
|
||
career.
|
||
"All my life I've been a blind person who hung out in the
|
||
sighted world," Smith says. "When I found the organization, I
|
||
discovered there are blind people all over the world who have
|
||
done things I never dreamed of. They gave me incentive to go on
|
||
and do even greater things."
|
||
The College of Communication and the Affirmative Action
|
||
Office combined to buy a $10,000 voice-synthesized computer that
|
||
allows Smith to read mail and student assignments by transferring
|
||
printed words into sound. Smith also receives E-Mail through the
|
||
computer. The computer is the only special accommodation Smith
|
||
needs.
|
||
"He's very independent," says INCO Director Sue DeWine.
|
||
"He's really fascinating. You forget he's blind. You just
|
||
forget."
|
||
It took Smith only one tour of Lasher Hall with DeWine and
|
||
he was able to get around without guidance or a cane. "One trip
|
||
will usually do it for me," he says.
|
||
The school offered to convert memos and handouts into
|
||
Braille, which takes about four or five pages for each type-
|
||
written page. Smith says after he received a memo in seventy-five
|
||
pages of Braille, he told the school's support staff to convert
|
||
only those documents he requests.
|
||
But the extra effort by the INCO staff on his behalf is part
|
||
of the accommodation and flexibility he praises.
|
||
INCO also has provided a work-study student to read for
|
||
Smith and a graduate student to help with Smith's research on
|
||
rhetoric and issues dealing with the African-American community.
|
||
When he's not teaching, Smith delivers motivational speeches
|
||
and conducts workshops in interviewing, motivation, and stress
|
||
management throughout the country. He also is a singer and
|
||
songwriter and has recorded a gospel tape titled "One Day" under
|
||
the name "Dr. John" and on his own independent label.
|
||
Smith says his motivational messages are aimed at the
|
||
sighted as well as the blind.
|
||
"Everybody is handicapped in some way, either physically or
|
||
emotionally," he says. "If I put you in the right circumstances,
|
||
you'll be handicapped.
|
||
"My message is that you can overcome anything.... I don't
|
||
let anybody or anything get me stressed out. I'm just having a
|
||
ball, enjoying life."
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
SOCIAL SECURITY, SSI, AND MEDICARE FACTS FOR 1994
|
||
|
||
The beginning of each year brings with it adjustments in
|
||
Social Security programs. The changes include new tax rates,
|
||
higher exempt earnings amounts, Social Security and SSI
|
||
cost-of-living increases, and changes in deductible and
|
||
co-insurance requirements under Medicare. Here are the facts for
|
||
1994:
|
||
FICA and Self-Employment Tax Rates: The FICA tax rate for
|
||
employees and their employers remains at 7.65%. This rate
|
||
includes payments to the Old Age, Survivors, and Disability
|
||
Insurance (OASDI) Trust Fund of 6.2% and an additional 1.45%
|
||
payment to the Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund from which
|
||
payments under Medicare are made. Self-employed persons continue
|
||
to pay a Social Security tax of 15.3% which includes 12.4% paid
|
||
to the OASDI trust fund and 2.9% paid to the HI trust fund.
|
||
Ceiling on Earnings Subject to Tax: During 1993, the ceiling
|
||
on taxable earnings for contributions to the OASDI trust fund was
|
||
$57,600, and the ceiling on taxable earnings for contributions to
|
||
the HI trust fund was $135,000. The taxable income ceiling for
|
||
contributions to the OASDI trust fund during 1994 is $60,600.
|
||
Beginning with January, 1994, there is no ceiling on earnings
|
||
subject to the HI trust fund tax contribution of 1.45% for
|
||
employees or 2.9% for self-employed persons.
|
||
Quarters of Coverage: Eligibility for retirement, survivors,
|
||
and disability insurance benefits is based in large part on the
|
||
number of quarters of coverage earned by any individual during
|
||
periods of work. Anyone may earn up to four quarters of coverage
|
||
during a single year. During 1993 a Social Security quarter of
|
||
coverage was credited for earnings of $590 in any calendar
|
||
quarter. Anyone who earned $2,360 during the year (regardless of
|
||
when the earnings occurred) was given four quarters of coverage.
|
||
In 1994 a Social Security quarter of coverage will be credited
|
||
for earnings of $620 during a calendar quarter. Four quarters can
|
||
be earned with annual earnings of $2,480.
|
||
Exempt Earnings: The earnings exemption for blind
|
||
people receiving Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI)
|
||
benefits is the same as the exempt amount for individuals age
|
||
sixty-five through sixty-nine who receive Social Security
|
||
retirement benefits. The monthly exempt amount in 1993 was $880
|
||
of gross earned income. During 1994 the exempt amount will be
|
||
$930. Technically, this exemption is referred to as an amount of
|
||
monthly gross earnings which does not show "substantial gainful
|
||
activity." Earnings of $930 or more per month before taxes for a
|
||
blind SSDI beneficiary in 1994 will show substantial gainful
|
||
activity after subtracting any unearned (or subsidy) income and
|
||
applying any deductions for impairment-related work expenses.
|
||
Social Security Benefit Amounts for 1994: All Social
|
||
Security benefits, including retirement, survivors, disability,
|
||
and dependents' benefits are increased by 2.6% beginning with the
|
||
checks received in January, 1994. The exact dollar increase for
|
||
any individual will depend upon the amount being paid.
|
||
|
||
Standard SSI Benefit Increase: Beginning January, 1994, the
|
||
federal payment amounts for SSI individuals and couples are as
|
||
follows: individuals, $446 per month; couples, $669 per month.
|
||
These amounts are increased from individuals, $434 per month;
|
||
couples, $652 per month.
|
||
Medicare Deductibles and Co-insurance: Medicare Part A
|
||
coverage provides hospital insurance to most Social Security
|
||
beneficiaries. The co-insurance payment is the charge that the
|
||
hospital makes to a Medicare beneficiary for any hospital stay.
|
||
Medicare then pays the hospital charges above the beneficiary's
|
||
co-insurance amount.
|
||
The Part A co-insurance amount charged for hospital
|
||
services within a benefit period of not longer than sixty days
|
||
was $676 during 1993 and is increased to $696 during 1994. From
|
||
the sixty-first day through the ninetieth day there is a daily
|
||
co-insurance amount of $174 per day, up from $169 in 1993. Each
|
||
Medicare beneficiary has sixty "reserve days" for hospital
|
||
services provided within a benefit period longer than ninety
|
||
days. The co-insurance amount to be paid during each reserve day
|
||
is $348, up from $338 in 1993.
|
||
Part A of Medicare pays all covered charges for services in
|
||
a skilled nursing facility for the first twenty days within a
|
||
benefit period. From the twenty-first day through the one
|
||
hundredth day within a benefit period, the Part A co-insurance
|
||
amount for services received in a skilled nursing facility is $87
|
||
per day.
|
||
For most beneficiaries there is no monthly premium charge
|
||
for Medicare Part A coverage. Persons who become ineligible for
|
||
Social Security Disability Insurance cash benefits can continue
|
||
to receive Medicare Part A coverage premium-free for thirty-nine
|
||
months following the end of a trial work period. After that time
|
||
the individual may purchase Part A coverage. The premium rate for
|
||
this coverage during 1994 is $245 per month.
|
||
The Medicare Part B (medical insurance) deductible
|
||
remains at $100 in 1994. This is an annual deductible amount. The
|
||
Medicare Part B basic monthly premium rate will increase from
|
||
$36.60 charged to each beneficiary and withheld from Social
|
||
Security checks during 1993 to $41.10 per month during 1994.
|
||
Medicare Part B coverage may be continued for people who complete
|
||
a trial work period and become ineligible to receive Social
|
||
Security Disability Insurance cash benefits. This monthly premium
|
||
rate is $41.10, the same amount paid by Social Security
|
||
beneficiaries through withholding from their monthly Social
|
||
Security checks.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PHOTO: Marie Cobb holds infant baby. CAPTION: Marie Cobb holds Michigan
|
||
Federationist Paul Posont.]
|
||
|
||
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Arthur Segal (right) shakes hands with Baltimore Mayor Kurt
|
||
Schmoke in President Maurer's office.]
|
||
|
||
RECIPES
|
||
|
||
The recipes this month come from Maryland and are
|
||
contributed by two of the affiliate's best gourmet cooks, Marie
|
||
Cobb and Arthur Segal. Anyone who has attended a seminar or
|
||
committee meeting at the National Center for the Blind can attest
|
||
to Mrs. Cobb's culinary talents. She offers three favorite
|
||
seminar recipes. Arthur Segal, who is famous for his role as
|
||
Santa Claus at the Baltimore Chapter Christmas parties,
|
||
concentrates on the delicacies that make Maryland famous.
|
||
In May and June raspberries and strawberries from the
|
||
Eastern Shore are plentiful. During the summer white silver queen
|
||
corn, tomatoes, and many other vegetables are available. In the
|
||
fall the northern and western parts of the state produce great
|
||
apples for both eating and making cider. In addition to
|
||
strawberries, the Eastern Shore has melons in the summer,
|
||
pumpkins in early fall, and yellow and white peaches. White
|
||
peaches are extraordinary. However, it is the Chesapeake Bay that
|
||
gives Maryland its greatest reputation and most delicious
|
||
products, for in the Chesapeake are found the famous blue crabs,
|
||
rockfish, soft shell crabs, and a wide variety of oysters.
|
||
|
||
|
||
MARYLAND CRABCAKES
|
||
|
||
Ingredients:
|
||
1 pound crabmeat
|
||
1 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
|
||
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
|
||
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
|
||
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
|
||
1 tablespoon baking powder
|
||
generous grinding of fresh white pepper
|
||
1 <20> teaspoon dried ground mustard
|
||
2 generous size pieces of bread with crust removed, broken into
|
||
small pieces moistened with milk so that bread is moist but
|
||
not sopping wet
|
||
|
||
Method: In a large bowl mix all ingredients thoroughly and
|
||
form into 8 patties for sandwiches with a 2-patty presentation; 4
|
||
large patties for a dinner serving; or 32 small balls for
|
||
appetizers. Heat <20>inch oil (preferably peanut) in an iron
|
||
skillet, frying cakes or balls on both sides until golden or
|
||
crisp to touch. Marylanders eat their crabcakes on crackers or
|
||
hamburger buns and with mustard or hot sauce.
|
||
|
||
|
||
CRAB IMPERIAL
|
||
|
||
Ingredients:
|
||
1 pound blue crab backfin meat
|
||
1 cup mayonnaise
|
||
2 tablespoons ketchup
|
||
2 tablespoons prepared mustard
|
||
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
|
||
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
|
||
2 tablespoons chopped dill
|
||
a generous grinding of fresh white pepper
|
||
8 to 10 drops hot sauce (approximately)
|
||
|
||
Method: In a large bowl combine all ingredients. Butter a
|
||
2-quart baking dish and put mixture in it. Sprinkle with a small
|
||
amount of bread crumbs and dot with butter; bake at 375 degrees
|
||
for 20 minutes. You can also use individual dishes and handle in
|
||
the same manner. Crab Imperial also makes a good stuffing. This
|
||
recipe can be used to stuff 8 Cornish hens, 8 squab, or fish
|
||
fillets.
|
||
|
||
MARYLAND ROCKFISH
|
||
|
||
Have your fishmonger debone rockfish. Get individual fillets
|
||
or large fillets that would serve two people.
|
||
|
||
Blackened Rockfish
|
||
|
||
Generously season with Old Bay or New Orleans blackened fish
|
||
seasoning. Heat cast iron skillet with nothing in it; drop in the
|
||
fillets and cook 2 minutes on each side or until fish feels crisp
|
||
at the edges.
|
||
|
||
|
||
Baked Rockfish
|
||
|
||
Butter and season the rockfish in the same manner as above.
|
||
Arrange fillets on a large baking sheet. Cook them at 440
|
||
degrees. If using a gas oven, start with it cold. If using an
|
||
electric oven, preheat it. If the fillets are over an inch thick,
|
||
cook them approximately 12 minutes; if they are under an inch
|
||
thick, cook them for approximately 10 minutes.
|
||
|
||
Rockfish Stuffed With Crab Imperial
|
||
|
||
Spread the crab imperial mixture on rockfish fillets,
|
||
approximately <20> inch thick and to the edges; pack it firmly on
|
||
the fish fillets. Sprinkle surface lightly with bread crumbs and
|
||
dot with butter. Bake them in the same manner as rockfish but add
|
||
an additional 1 to 2 minutes to allow for cooking the crab
|
||
imperial topping. Crab Imperial can be used to stuff any kind of
|
||
good fish, including flounder, salmon, and swordfish, three of my
|
||
favorites.
|
||
|
||
DESSERT
|
||
|
||
Use some of Maryland's famous fresh fruit such as sliced
|
||
fresh strawberries or peaches. Serve in large wine goblets with
|
||
champagne. For dessert pour one ounce of Grand Marnier over the
|
||
same two fruits. For an extra special gourmet dessert, mix heavy
|
||
whipping cream until half whipped; add two teaspoons of Grand
|
||
Marnier and finish whipping until stiff peaks form. Top the
|
||
strawberries with the whipped cream.
|
||
To serve raspberries, put them into large wine goblets; pour
|
||
an ounce of Chambord Liqueur over berries. Follow same
|
||
instructions for whipping cream as above but replace Grand
|
||
Marnier with Chambord Liqueur.
|
||
|
||
SEMINAR TUNA SALAD
|
||
by Marie Cobb
|
||
|
||
Ingredients:
|
||
1 large can water-packed tuna
|
||
4 hard-boiled eggs chopped fine
|
||
1 medium onion chopped fine
|
||
1<EFBFBD> cup chopped green olives
|
||
1<EFBFBD> cup chopped dill pickles
|
||
salt and pepper to taste
|
||
1<EFBFBD> cup mayonnaise--more if desired
|
||
|
||
|
||
Method: Mix all ingredients together and chill before
|
||
serving.
|
||
|
||
SEMINAR ROAST PORK
|
||
|
||
Ingredients:
|
||
1 6- to 9-pound boneless pork loin roast, rolled and tied
|
||
2 cups olive oil
|
||
1 cup coarse ground black pepper
|
||
1<EFBFBD> cup salt
|
||
|
||
Method: Use a roasting pan with a rack and enough space
|
||
under the rack to place two inches of water in the pan and still
|
||
have the rack at least an inch above the water. Preheat the oven
|
||
as hot as possible. Prepare the pan before preparing the roast.
|
||
Combine the oil, salt, and pepper. Rub this mixture all over the
|
||
roast to make a good coating. Place the roast on the pan and
|
||
insert a meat thermometer. Place the pan in the middle of the
|
||
oven. Roast for 20 minutes and then reduce the heat to 425
|
||
degrees. Cook until meat thermometer reaches 120 degrees. Remove
|
||
roast from oven and wrap tightly in foil. Let stand for one hour
|
||
before slicing.
|
||
|
||
|
||
SEMINAR BANANA PUDDING
|
||
|
||
Ingredients:
|
||
1 small box instant vanilla pudding
|
||
2 cups milk
|
||
1 can Eagle brand condensed milk
|
||
1 carton (9 or 10 oz.) Cool Whip, thawed
|
||
10 bananas, peeled and sliced
|
||
1 pound vanilla wafers
|
||
|
||
Method: Beat together the pudding mix and milk. Stir in the
|
||
sweetened condensed milk and Cool Whip. Blend until smooth. Line
|
||
a large dish with vanilla wafers. Add a layer of sliced bananas.
|
||
Pour a layer of the pudding over the cookies and bananas.
|
||
Continue this process until all the ingredients have been used.
|
||
Chill for at least 12 hours.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
<20> <20> MONITOR MINIATURES <20> <20>
|
||
|
||
[3 PORTRAIT PHOTOS. CAPTION 1) Don and Nancy Burns. CAPTION 2) Kathy and Kevin
|
||
Carpenter. CAPTION 3) Peggy and Doug Elliot stand with Dr. Jernigan at their
|
||
wedding reception.]
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD> Wedding Bells:
|
||
This fall and early winter have been filled with the sounds
|
||
of wedding bells around the Federation. Don Burns of New Mexico
|
||
and Nancy Marcello of California write to advise their Federation
|
||
friends of their marriage. The wedding took place in Reno,
|
||
Nevada, on October 9, 1993. Don and Nancy first met at the
|
||
National Convention in Charlotte and were reunited at the Dallas
|
||
convention. Nancy has relocated from Burbank, California, to
|
||
Alamogordo, New Mexico. Both she and Don are employed by the New
|
||
Mexico Commission for the Blind. Nancy is a field teacher, and
|
||
Don teaches mobility at the Commission's adult rehabilitation
|
||
center. Then, on November 20 Kathy Kannenberg, President of the
|
||
National Federation of the Blind of North Carolina, and Kevin
|
||
Carpenter were also married. And, as if this wasn't enough
|
||
excitement for the close of 1993, on December 28 Peggy Pinder,
|
||
Second Vice President of the National Federation of the Blind and
|
||
President of the NFB of Iowa, and Doug Elliott, President of the
|
||
NFB of Nevada, were married at Peggy's home in Grinnell. We all
|
||
wish the three couples much joy in their new lives together.
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD> Resource Directory Being Compiled:
|
||
We have been asked to carry the following announcement:
|
||
The American Association for the Advancement of Science
|
||
(AAAS) Project on Science, Technology, and Disability invites
|
||
scientists and engineers with disabilities to be included in the
|
||
third edition of the Resource Directory of Scientists and
|
||
Engineers with Disabilities. Potential candidates for the
|
||
directory must hold, or be working toward, a degree in a
|
||
scientific, engineering, or medical discipline or currently be
|
||
employed in a scientific field.
|
||
Funded by the National Science Foundation, the project's
|
||
Resource Directory of Scientists and Engineers with Disabilities
|
||
has assisted hundreds of individuals to enter and advance in
|
||
scientific disciplines. The directory helps to connect persons
|
||
with disabilities and their families with professors, teachers,
|
||
and counselors who can serve as role models and mentors.
|
||
The Resource Directory lists scientists, mathematicians, and
|
||
engineers from all parts of the country with their disciplines,
|
||
degrees, and disabilities. Individuals include professionals who
|
||
were born with a disability and those who acquired their
|
||
disability mid-career. Those listed in the directory are also
|
||
asked to consult for academia, government agencies, and industry
|
||
as well as serve on peer-review panels and symposia.
|
||
Established in 1975, the AAAS Project on Science,
|
||
Technology, and Disability has sought and shared expert advice
|
||
from scientists and engineers with disabilities. Since the
|
||
passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the AAAS
|
||
Resource Directory has become a valuable source of expertise.
|
||
To be included in the directory or for more information,
|
||
please contact Laureen Summers, Program Associate, or Patricia A.
|
||
Thompson, Editorial Specialist, AAAS Project on Science,
|
||
Technology, and Disability, AAAS, 1333 H Street, N.W.,
|
||
Washington, D.C. 20005; or call (202) 326-6645 (voice or TDD).
|
||
Information can also be sent by fax to (202) 371-9849.
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD> Elected:
|
||
Ruth Swenson, President of the National Federation of the
|
||
Blind of Arizona, reports the following election results from the
|
||
November 13 meeting of the Phoenix Chapter: Captain Lewis,
|
||
President; Carrie Taylor, First Vice President; Hazel Plummer,
|
||
Second Vice President; Tom Johnson, Secretary; Donna Silba,
|
||
Treasurer; and Fred Rockwell and Harlene Anderson, members of the
|
||
Board of Directors.
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD> Hoping To Buy:
|
||
We have been asked to carry the following announcement:
|
||
I would like to buy a second-hand Braille English dictionary
|
||
in good condition. I am also looking for a used dictionary of
|
||
idioms and proverbs. In addition, I would like to borrow or be
|
||
given any Braille or recorded notes or books on linguistics or
|
||
other directly or loosely related material. If you have any of
|
||
these items, please contact Muhammad Fazil, 1802 S.W. Tenth
|
||
Avenue, Apt. 322, Portland, Oregon 97201; (503) 725-7929.
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD> New Chapter:
|
||
Don Capps, President of the NFB of South Carolina, reports
|
||
that the National Federation of the Blind of South Carolina
|
||
continues to be the national pacesetter in chapter development
|
||
and membership growth. The Dillon County Chapter became the
|
||
forty-first chapter of the NFB of South Carolina on December 2,
|
||
1993. An election was held, and the following are the new
|
||
officers: Melvin Barrentine, President; and Margaret McDaniel,
|
||
Treasurer. Congratulations to the Dillon County Chapter and to
|
||
the entire South Carolina affiliate.
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD> Elected:
|
||
At a recent meeting the Southern Maryland Chapter of the
|
||
National Federation of the Blind of Maryland elected the
|
||
following: Kenneth Silberman, President; Polly Johnson, Vice
|
||
President; Gerelene Womack, Secretary; Wilma Smith, Treasurer;
|
||
and Alfred Wilson and Mary Skattie, Board members.
|
||
|
||
[PHOTO: Portrait. CAPTION: Cherie Heppe.]
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD> New Baby:
|
||
Cherie Heppe, a long-time Federation leader in Connecticut,
|
||
recently wrote to announce that she and William Schiavo became
|
||
the parents of a baby daughter, Tiara Michelle, born on August
|
||
13, 1993. She weighed nine pounds, five ounces and measured
|
||
twenty inches long. Congratulations to the proud parents.
|
||
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD> Attention Braille Proofreaders and Transcribers:
|
||
Mary Donahue, an active Federationist from San Antonio,
|
||
Texas, writes to say that, following the great success of the
|
||
networking breakfast for Braille proofreaders and transcribers at
|
||
the 1993 Convention, the group is planning another breakfast at
|
||
the Detroit convention. Mary also hopes to include people who
|
||
work in the bindery departments of Braille production facilities
|
||
at the breakfast. Look for information about a network breakfast
|
||
at this year's convention in upcoming issues of the Braille
|
||
Monitor. She is interested in hearing from those interested in
|
||
this network. Contact her at 100 Lorenz Road, Apt. 1205, San
|
||
Antonio, Texas 78209; or call (210) 826-9579 (evenings and
|
||
weekends) or (210) 299-2400, extension 322 (during the day).
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD> Information Needed:
|
||
We have been asked to carry the following announcement:
|
||
Graduate student doing dissertation research involving
|
||
disability interest groups urgently seeks information about the
|
||
following organizations which have been instrumental in pursuing
|
||
disability legislation in the past:
|
||
|
||
Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund
|
||
American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities
|
||
National Council of Independent Living Programs
|
||
Open Doors for the Handicapped
|
||
Consortium of Citizens with Developmental Disabilities
|
||
Rehabilitation Coalition
|
||
National Association of State Directors of Special Education
|
||
Vermont Coalition of the Handicapped
|
||
Metropolitan DC Candlelighters Childhood Cancer Foundation
|
||
Association for the Advancement of Rehabilitation Technology
|
||
Coalition on Technology and Disability
|
||
National Council on Independent Living
|
||
Americans Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation
|
||
(ADAPT)
|
||
|
||
Information about the organization's current status (does it
|
||
still exist?), a knowledgeable point of contact, and the group's
|
||
operations and objectives are of particular interest. Anyone with
|
||
such information about any of these groups is asked to contact
|
||
Cheryl Allee at 3921 Seminary Road, Apt. 1201, Alexandria,
|
||
Virginia 22311; telephone (703) 379-1283.
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD> Elected:
|
||
Paul Howard, President of the National Federation of the
|
||
Blind of Indiana, reports that at its state convention the
|
||
following officers were elected: Paul Howard, President; Ron
|
||
Brown, First Vice President; Anthony Schnurr, Second Vice
|
||
President; Sylvia Fadden, Secretary; and Pamela Schnurr,
|
||
Treasurer. Mamie Harris, John Stroot, Harold Bradley, and Barbara
|
||
Schmidt were elected to serve as board members.
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD> Assistance Needed With Sleep Research:
|
||
We have been asked to carry the following announcement:
|
||
Men and women, ages eighteen to eighty-five, without light
|
||
perception and using no prescription medications, are invited to
|
||
participate in a study on circadian rhythms and sleep patterns in
|
||
the blind. The study is being conducted at the Brigham and
|
||
Women's Hospital and the Harvard Medical School. The study
|
||
involves wearing an ambulatory monitor while you live at home and
|
||
spending four to five days in the laboratory each month.
|
||
Participants will be paid for their efforts and may also find out
|
||
valuable information about their eyes and their sleep-wake
|
||
patterns. For more information, call Dr. E. Klerman at (617) 732-
|
||
4012, extension 3948. Calls at all times of day are welcomed.
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD> Nutrocookies Available:
|
||
Dorothy Goodley, Secretary of the NFB of Southwest Georgia
|
||
Chapter, has asked us to carry the following announcement:
|
||
Would you like to try a Nutrocookie? These are large cookies
|
||
made from various types of grains, honey, and chocolate chips.
|
||
They do not have additives, are nutritious, and make a whole meal
|
||
in themselves, as well as being convenient to carry around in
|
||
your briefcase or pocketbook. For further information contact in
|
||
Braille or cassette Dorothy Goodley, 615 Fifth Street, S.E.,
|
||
Moultrie, Georgia 31768; (912) 985-4064.
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD> Elected:
|
||
Belle Rousseau, Secretary of the Reno Chapter of the
|
||
National Federation of the Blind of Nevada, reports the following
|
||
election results: Melissa Lisfield, President; Julie Deming,
|
||
First Vice President; Michael Kirkpatrick, Second Vice President;
|
||
Belle Rousseau, Secretary; and Dennis Deming, Treasurer.
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD> Home Products Delivered:
|
||
We have been asked to carry the following announcement:
|
||
Interested in having laundry detergent, paper towels, and
|
||
other paper and home products delivered to your door? Call (302)
|
||
366-8060 and ask for Charlotte, or write to Michael Greenway, 234
|
||
Cherry Street, Second Floor, Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania 19079-
|
||
1308.
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD> New Technology Available:
|
||
We have been asked to carry the following press release:
|
||
Until now it has been difficult for blind people to take
|
||
advantage of voice recognition systems (voice-activated
|
||
computers). Terry Martin, who is blind, has built a system that
|
||
will allow blind people to use a voice-activated computer. The
|
||
system is called MetaVOICE<43>, and it provides an audio
|
||
confirmation of what the computer has heard, making it possible
|
||
for print-disabled people to access the computer by voice.
|
||
MetaVOICE is an add-on product for Kurzweil VOICE<43>. It has
|
||
been under development for over ten months. Kurzweil VOICE is a
|
||
voice-recognition system. It is typically used for dictation--by
|
||
emergency room physicians, for example. Such computer systems
|
||
rely heavily on displaying the dictated information on the
|
||
computer screen. Martin thought that a voice output component
|
||
would be a tremendous help to a blind person who wanted to use a
|
||
voice-recognition program. Because blind people process
|
||
information by listening instead of by using their eyes, he began
|
||
working on MetaVOICE to provide voiced confirmation of the
|
||
commands spoken to the computer.
|
||
For more information about this product call Adaptek
|
||
Systems at (716) 475-9770 or (800) 685-4566 and ask for Terry
|
||
Martin or Dr. Robert Hill. The address is Adaptek Systems, 2320
|
||
Brighton-Henrietta Town Line Road, Rochester, New York 14623.
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD> Elected:
|
||
Ray Sewell, Secretary of the Merchants Division of the
|
||
National Federation of the Blind of Maryland, reports that the
|
||
division has changed its name to the National Federation of the
|
||
Blind Maryland Business Division. At a recent meeting an election
|
||
was held with the following results: Barry Hond, President; Ken
|
||
Canterbery, Vice President; Ray Sewell, Secretary; and Don
|
||
Morris, Treasurer. Ray Lowder and Leon Rose were elected to Board
|
||
positions. Joe Byard merits a sincere thank you from Maryland
|
||
vendors for his service and much hard work while President of the
|
||
Maryland Merchants Division.
|
||
|
||
|
||
[PHOTO: Portrait. CAPTION: Dottie Neely.]
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD> New Chapter:
|
||
On October 9, 1993, the Greater Greensboro Chapter of the
|
||
National Federation of the Blind of North Carolina held its first
|
||
meeting. The following officers were elected: Dottie Neely,
|
||
President; Martha Deloatch, Vice President; Jackie McNeely,
|
||
Treasurer; and Jerry Moton, Board member.
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD> For Sale:
|
||
We have been asked to carry the following announcement:
|
||
I have a used Perkins Braille Writer that has been serviced
|
||
and cleaned and is in good working condition. I would like to get
|
||
$300 for this equipment. For more information contact Martin
|
||
Howe, 1164 Cherry Street, Green Bay, Wisconsin 54301; or call
|
||
(414) 437-3316.
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD> Elected:
|
||
On September 11, 1993, Bonnie Peterson, President of the
|
||
National Federation of the Blind of Wisconsin, was elected by
|
||
acclamation to Chair the Council on Blindness, which is a nine-
|
||
member advisory body, appointed by the Secretary of the
|
||
Department of Health and Social Service (DHSS) in Wisconsin.
|
||
Wisconsin Act 435, Sec. 47.03(9) states as follows: "The Council
|
||
on Blindness shall make recommendations to the Department and to
|
||
any other state agency concerning procedures, policies, services,
|
||
activities, programs, investigations, and research that affect
|
||
any problem of blind and visually impaired persons."
|
||
Congratulations to both Bonnie and the Council.
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD> Resource List Available:
|
||
An (adult) toy resource list addendum for 1993 is now
|
||
available from the National Federation of the Blind Parents of
|
||
Blind Children Committee on the Blind Multiply-Handicapped Child.
|
||
The list gives ages for toys using the developmental age rather
|
||
than the chronological age of the child. Families and
|
||
professionals with a special interest in the blind multiply-
|
||
handicapped child or adult are cordially invited to write to us
|
||
for information and materials. We also match families and
|
||
professionals who wish to network. Our newsletter, "Update," is
|
||
published bi-monthly. To request information or materials, write
|
||
or call NFB POBC Committee on the Blind Multiply-Handicapped
|
||
Child, 1912 Tracy Road, Northwood, Ohio 43619; (419) 666-6212.
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD> Returned to Office:
|
||
Peggy Pinder was re-elected a Councilwoman in Grinnell,
|
||
Iowa, in November, 1993. Peggy Elliott will take her seat in
|
||
January, 1994.
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD> Elected:
|
||
Kerry Smith, Secretary of the St. Louis Chapter of the
|
||
National Federation of the Blind of Missouri, reports the
|
||
following election results: Daryel White, President; Susan Ford,
|
||
Recording Secretary; Kerry Smith, Corresponding Secretary; Thelda
|
||
Borisch, Treasurer; and John Ford, member at large.
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD> A Movement for All Seasons:
|
||
Ramona Walhof, Secretary of the National Federation of the
|
||
Blind and President of the NFB of Idaho, reports the following:
|
||
We know that the blind are a cross section of society and
|
||
that the NFB is made up of all kinds of people. This was
|
||
demonstrated vividly by the group that gathered December 11,
|
||
1993, for the Christmas party of the Western Chapter of the NFB
|
||
of Idaho in Boise. Thirty-two people attended. Of these, three
|
||
were in their nineties, one in the eighties, three in the
|
||
seventies, two in the sixties, one in the fifties, six in the
|
||
forties, seven in the thirties, and four in the twenties. In
|
||
addition there were one teenager and four children under ten.
|
||
Thus we had ten decades represented. One couple brought a huge
|
||
hubbard squash from last summer's garden, and every bit was
|
||
eaten. I was struck by the diversity of the group. It occurred to
|
||
me to wonder if most of our chapters are not very much like this
|
||
one. I believe they are. But it is especially at Christmas time
|
||
that we take the time to appreciate one another and turn
|
||
acquaintance into friendship.
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD> BANA News:
|
||
We have been asked to carry the following information:
|
||
At the annual meeting of the Braille Authority of North
|
||
America (BANA) in November, 1993, officers were elected for 1994.
|
||
Dr. Hilda Caton (Association for the Education and Rehabilitation
|
||
of the Blind and Visually Impaired) was re-elected as
|
||
chairperson. Also confirmed were Fred Sinclair (California
|
||
Transcribers and Educators of the Visually Handicapped), Vice-
|
||
Chair; Eileen Curran (National Braille Press), Secretary; and
|
||
Phyllis Campana (American Printing House for the Blind),
|
||
Treasurer.
|
||
English Braille American Edition, which is the official
|
||
literary Braille code book of BANA, is being reprinted and will
|
||
be available in the spring of 1994. This reprinting will
|
||
incorporate the appendices containing the 1980, 1987, and 1991
|
||
code changes. There will be some editorial changes, but no other
|
||
significant alterations.
|
||
BANA established a new committee, the Public Relations
|
||
Committee. Mary Lou Stark, the BANA representative from the
|
||
Library of Congress, will chair it. It will be working hard to
|
||
provide as much information as possible about what BANA is and
|
||
what it does.
|
||
Darleen Bogart, who chairs the Ad Hoc Unified Braille Code
|
||
Research Committee, reported on the International Council on
|
||
English Braille (ICEB) meeting held in Sydney, Australia, in
|
||
June, 1993. The ICEB voted on, and unanimously approved, a
|
||
proposal presented to them by BANA which recommended that the
|
||
Unified Braille Code Research Project (UBC) become international.
|
||
International members were added to all the UBC committees and
|
||
are now working with the previous members to attempt to develop a
|
||
unified Braille code for all English-speaking countries.
|
||
The spring, 1994, BANA meeting will be held on April 24-27,
|
||
1994, in Costa Mesa, California, in conjunction with the
|
||
California Transcribers and Educators of the Visually Handicapped
|
||
meeting.
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD> Specialized Mail Order Pharmacy Services Available:
|
||
We have been asked to carry the following announcement:
|
||
Orphan Medical introduces a specialized mail order pharmacy
|
||
service for patients requiring hard-to-find medicines and those
|
||
needing unique medicines seldom stocked by traditional
|
||
pharmacies. Services include:
|
||
Consultation with specially trained pharmacists.
|
||
A unique system for finding and purchasing any prescription
|
||
medicine sold in the U.S. Once requested, these medicines will be
|
||
stocked for future rapid delivery.
|
||
Competitive prices due to efficiency and low overhead.
|
||
Assistance with insurance billing and acceptance of insurance
|
||
co-payments.
|
||
UPS or Federal Express delivery.
|
||
Full-service pharmacy assures patients of access to all
|
||
prescription medicines.
|
||
Total commitment to service and customer satisfaction.
|
||
Orphan Medical is a division of CHRONIMED, Inc. (CHMD).
|
||
CHRONIMED is a health care company specializing in the unique
|
||
needs of patients with chronic diseases. CHRONIMED provides
|
||
patient education materials, pharmaceuticals, nutritionals, and
|
||
general medical products directly to the individual and to the
|
||
patients of managed care companies nationwide.
|
||
To place an order, call the toll-free number, (800) 636-
|
||
1133. For additional information about Orphan Medical services,
|
||
write Bert Spilker, Ph.D., M.D., Executive Director, 13911
|
||
Ridgedale Drive, Suite 250, Minnetonka, Minnesota 55305; or fax
|
||
(612) 541-4969.
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD> Elected:
|
||
Roberta Jensen, Secretary of the Tucson Chapter of the
|
||
National Federation of the Blind of Arizona, writes that the
|
||
following Federationists were elected to serve as chapter
|
||
officers during 1994: Wayne Miller, President; Lee Kerr, Vice
|
||
President; Roberta Jensen, Secretary; and Mary Miller, Treasurer.
|
||
Cindy Heun and Joe Mora were re-elected to serve on the board. |