     THE BRAILLE MONITOR
Vol. 44, No. 2     February, 2001

     Barbara Pierce, Editor


     Published in inkprint, in Braille, and on cassette by

     THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND

     MARC MAURER, PRESIDENT


     National Office
     1800 Johnson Street
     Baltimore, Maryland  21230
     NFB Net BBS: http://www.nfbnet.org
     Web Page address: http://www.nfb.org



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     THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND IS NOT AN ORGANIZATION
     SPEAKING FOR THE BLIND--IT IS THE BLIND SPEAKING FOR THEMSELVES





ISSN 0006-8829


     Philadelphia Site of 2001 NFB Convention!
     **********
     The 2001 Convention of the National Federation of the Blind will take place in 
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, July 1-7. Arrangements have been made to hold our 
convention at the Philadelphia Marriott, a first-class convention hotel. Room rates are 
excellent: singles $55 and twins, doubles, triples, and quads $65 a night, plus tax. The 
hotel is accepting reservations now. A $60-per-room deposit is required to make a 
reservation. Fifty percent of the deposit will be refunded if notice is given to the hotel of 
a reservation cancellation before May 29, 2001. The other 50 percent will not be 
refundable. For reservations call the hotel at (215) 625-2900 or the Marriott toll-free 
number (800) 228-9290.
     Rooms at the Marriott will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. 
Reservations may be made to secure these rooms before May 29, 2001. After that time 
the hotel will not hold the block of rooms for the convention. In other words, you should 
get your reservation in soon. We will probably need rooms beyond those we are 
holding at the Marriott, so those who get their reservations in first will get the rooms we 
have reserved there.
     Participants in the 1999 and 2000 conventions can testify to the gracious 
hospitality of the Marriott. The Philadelphia Marriott has excellent restaurants, first-rate 
meeting space, and other top-notch facilities. It is in downtown Philadelphia across the 
street from the Reading Terminal Market, an establishment which combines the sites, 
smells, experiences, and tastes of Philadelphia cuisine and the Amish Farmers' Trading 
Center. Other attractions of Philadelphia are immediately at hand, and of course the 
convention will be occurring in the spacious ballroom of the Marriott.
     The 2001 Convention will follow a Sunday-through-Saturday schedule:
               Sunday, July 1          Seminar Day
               Monday, July 2      Registration Day
               Tuesday, July 3      Board Meeting and Division Day
               Wednesday, July 4     Opening Session
               Thursday, July 5      Tour Day
               Friday, July 6      Banquet Day
               Saturday, July 7     Business Session
     **********
     Plan to be in Philadelphia.
     The action of the convention will be there!


Vol. 44, No. 2 February, 2001
     Contents

AOL Progress Report     
     by Marc Maurer

The Way We Think of Ourselves     
     by Peggy Elliott

Randolph Case Featured in National Disability
Law Reporter     

Diggs and Capps Meet with Pickens County
School Board on Coffman Issue     

NFB of South Carolina Successful in the Coffman Issue     

Actor or Object     

The Much-Dreaded Spill     
     by Chris Kuell

Comparing the Openbook and the Kurzweil 1000     
     by David Andrews

NFB Scholarship Winner Named Rhodes Scholar     

The Philadelphia Story: Chapter Two     
     by Suzanne Waters and Jim Antonacci

Rights, Life,
And Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches     
     by Seth Leblond

Asking for It     
     by Charlie Brown

Recipes     

Monitor Miniatures     

     Copyright (c) 2001 National Federation of the Blind


     The first week of August last summer the NFB of Maryland parents division, the 
National Federation of the Blind, and Blind Industries and Services of Maryland (BISM) 
jointly sponsored a Kids' Camp. Activities included an overnight at the National Center 
and various activities at both the Center and BISM. Even though the kids had to make 
beds and clean up, they had a wonderful time.
     **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Rachel Becker studies the Braille labels on laundry caddies in the 
dirty-linen room on the Mezzanine level of the National Center.]
[PHOTO/CAPTION: In the courtyard Ellen Ringlein helps while Jenna Johnson tightens 
a screw in the birdhouse she is assembling.]
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Loretta White supervises campers as they make individual pizzas 
at tables in the Harbor Room.]
[PHOTO/CAPTION: John Cheadle teaches campers about tools in the Center's 
workshop.]


[PHOTO/CAPTION: Marc Maurer]
     AOL Progress Report
     by Marc Maurer
     **********
     On November 4, 1999, the NFB filed a lawsuit against America Online (AOL) 
demanding that AOL make its computer information service accessible to the blind. At 
that time AOL had nineteen million subscribers throughout the world. Its system of 
presenting information was fast becoming a standard to be used by the computer 
industry, and this de facto standard was completely unusable by the blind.
     The day the lawsuit was filed, AOL representatives indicated to the press that 
AOL had been working hard on accessibility issues for the disabled for some time. The 
assertion was a brave statement, but a number of blind people were inclined to regard 
it primarily as a way for AOL to save face. Requests for AOL to make itself accessible 
to the blind had been ignored for years.
     Negotiations between counsel for the National Federation of the Blind and 
lawyers for AOL commenced shortly after the filing of the lawsuit. In July, 2000, an 
agreement was reached to suspend the suit because AOL indicated that it would have 
accessibility provisions built into its computer information service within a few months. If 
the accessibility provisions were inadequate, AOL agreed to fix them. By April of 2001 
they would have an accessible system, they said. If the Federation didn't think the 
system adequate to meet the needs of the blind, it should explain why. If the defects 
had not been repaired by the end of July, 2001 (one year from the suspension of 
lawsuit), the Federation would then be free to ask the courts to settle the matter.
     Because active cooperation always achieves more than determined opposition, 
the Federation accepted the agreement. In addition to other things, AOL promised it 
would work with Federation representatives to make CompuServe and Netscape 
accessible as well as the primary AOL service. This is how matters stood in July of 
2000.
     By December AOL convened a gathering to report to the disabled on the 
progress it was making. Representatives from many, many groups were present along 
with senior personnel from AOL. The gathering occurred at the AOL installation in 
Northern Virginia. Representatives from the company began by showing us the real 
estate.
     AOL operates three data centers. The building housing the one we toured 
contains 235,000 square feet of floor space, 90,000 of which is used for computer 
rooms. Altogether AOL manipulates information using 25,000 computers. The facility 
we toured contained a battery backup system to operate computers in case of a power 
failure. Four thousand lead-acid batteries, weighing 1,000 pounds apiece, can run the 
data center for approximately fifteen minutes. Nine diesel-powered generators provide 
backup to the batteries. When power to the data center is interrupted, the generators 
start automatically within fifteen seconds. Forty thousand gallons of diesel fuel stored 
on site can run the generators for two-and-a-half days.
     In one sense the computers operated by AOL are similar to those used by many 
other entities. However, the size is greater than I had anticipated, and I found the tour 
impressive. Curtis Chong, on the other hand, had been employed to assist in the 
management of the data center for American Express. He said that American Express 
had data management equipment that is more extensive than AOL's. He did not say 
"been there, done that," but his attitude expressed the sentiment.
     In the afternoon AOL presented information about its new products and its work 
regarding accessibility to those who had been invited to attend. AOL 6.0, the current 
release, can to some extent be used by the blind; and we are told that a future version 
of the software will be even more accessible. This indicated significant progress. 
However, other products are being developed by AOL that are scheduled for release in 
the near future which are not yet accessible.
     One of the corporate vice presidents for the company indicated that work on 
accessibility to AOL products had been underway for two years. However, the director 
of product development for AOL TV (AOL will soon be providing a product, it says, 
which will permit subscribers to get at the AOL information system through their 
televisions) indicated that AOL TV had been initiated eighteen months earlier, and the 
accessibility provisions for AOL products had, therefore, not been included. The 
television service is not accessible to the blind.
     An interactive telephone service is also being created. E-mail and other 
computer-based information can be gathered by using a touch-tone telephone. AOL 
anticipates providing sports and weather by phone. There is some talk about using the 
telephone to browse the Internet, but representatives of the company indicated that 
much work would need to be completed before this service would be ready for 
distribution to the public.
     After presentations about new products on the drawing board and plans to 
include accessibility provisions, AOL representatives accepted a question or two from 
participants in the meeting. In-depth exploration could not occur, but some of the 
questions elicited useful information.
     Where do we stand on AOL at the beginning of 2001? It is a bit early for a 
definitive answer. However, a number of AOL representatives have visited the National 
Center for the Blind, and programmers for AOL are in communication with us regularly. 
By the time this report appears, a meeting to discuss accessibility to CompuServe and 
Netscape will have occurred. Furthermore, the currently distributed version of the AOL 
access system is, in many respects, usable by the blind. In other words, progress is 
being made. A great deal of work remains, but much has been accomplished.
     Is it likely that the de facto AOL standard will become a model of accessibility? 
Who can say? We would prefer to work in partnership with AOL to assist in bringing 
information to the blind. Whether we will be able to do this or not depends on the 
actions and attitude of AOL. However, we will do what we can to build the partnership--
a partnership that offers greater accessibility to information for the blind and an 
additional market for AOL.
     **********
     **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Peggy Elliott]
     The Way We Think of Ourselves
     by Peggy Elliott
     **********
     From the Editor: One of the hallmarks of maturity is honesty with oneself. 
We pretend with children, young teens, and those of diminished responsibility 
that they are what we are perfectly certain they are not--grown up and 
responsible. With kids the strategy is, I think, that we can help the youngster 
grow into adult behavior. With adults whom we believe to be incapable of 
assuming responsibility for themselves, the mechanism is different. When we see 
no hope of eliciting the responses of an equal, we tactfully ignore the 
inappropriate, assume responsibility when we can, or in extreme cases simply 
treat the person like the child he or she resembles.
     I have observed this reaction in myself when confronted with immaturity or 
inappropriateness in others, and I have seen others behave in the same way. I 
have also been on the receiving end of such treatment from those who assume 
that a blind person has no business out alone and had better be protected. 
Fending off intrusive efforts to help, invasions of privacy and space, and 
assumptions of incapacity are things that all independent blind people get lots of 
practice doing.
     What may be even harder to master is devising effective methods for 
getting controlled amounts of information or assistance when it is needed. 
Tactfully setting limits for would-be helpers is not easy and requires patience and 
a sense of humor. But the fundamental necessity for responsible blind adults is 
honesty with oneself.
     My Braille skills are not what they should be. That is not because Braille is 
too difficult for me to master. It is that I did not bother to work on my skills when I 
was young enough for it to come easily to me. If you have trouble figuring out 
where you are or getting where you need to go, perhaps you have trouble making 
and keeping mental maps, or maybe you need practice paying attention to your 
surroundings. There is some reason for your problem, and it is not simply that 
you are blind, for many blind people know exactly where they are when they are 
traveling. We accomplish nothing but self-delusion and headaches for everybody 
else when we refuse to admit the truth about our skills to ourselves, particularly 
when the truths in question have to do with blindness.
     Peggy Elliott, Second Vice President of the National Federation of the 
Blind, has been doing some serious thinking along these lines. Those who 
believe that blind people should be shielded from unpleasant truths will not care 
for her conclusions, but the rest of us would do well to think hard about what she 
says. Here it is:
     **********
     I have known for a long time that there are two basic ways of thinking about 
blindness. One way, simply put, is that the blind person is responsible. The other way 
is that someone other than the blind person must be responsible.
     I think we have all become familiar over the years with this second view. It is 
most commonly exhibited in two places: blindness service providers and potential 
employers. Those blindness service providers who believe that someone else is 
responsible for the blind person commonly assign the responsibility to themselves, 
make decisions which the blind person should make, and try to get his or her 
agreement either by convincing the blind person that blindness is a barrier to decision-
making or by use of the power of withholding services to get the agreement. It's never 
pretty to see a blind person either willingly or by coercion giving up control of basic 
decisions, but it's more common than we would like to think.
     The other place where we too often find the attitude that someone else is 
responsible for the blind person is in potential employers who do not inquire about the 
blind person's qualifications to perform the job but focus on ability to arrive at work, 
plans for finding the rest room, and other tasks of daily living that such employers 
assume the blind person cannot perform. The assumption of these employers is that, 
since the blind person cannot possibly perform such tasks independently, he or she 
cannot become a valued and efficient employee. The potential employer fails to hire the 
blind person without ever articulating the reasons why.
     We in the Federation have long recognized both sources of the basic 
misconception that blind people cannot function responsibly. While we have often 
criticized specific instances of this attitude, our major thrust for years has been to focus 
on blind people ourselves. We have talked with each other, explained our ability to be 
responsible for ourselves, given each other demonstrations, offered tips for more 
efficient performance of a myriad of tasks without sight, and, most important, stressed 
the learning and mastery of basic blindness skills such as reading and writing Braille 
and learning to move safely and independently through our environment as the 
cornerstones of our ability to take responsibility for ourselves.
     It's working. More and more of us every year move with confidence, offer 
invaluable role models to others, read our speech and work notes in Braille, get 
computers with Braille displays, and build lives of independence and dignity based on 
these foundations. By doing so, we're changing what it means to be blind and changing 
the future for all blind people.
     Just in the last few years, I have noticed a third source for the notion that 
someone else is responsible for blind people. As I have said before, I think the fountain 
of this attitude often resides in the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which has all 
too often been interpreted as a federal instruction to the able-bodied to take care of all 
disabled people. Much good has come from the ADA, especially in the area of 
accessibility for people using wheelchairs. But I detect a distressing whiff of 
custodialism developing in the public perception of the ADA as it applies to blind 
people and not much of a diminishing effect on those potential employers' attitudes. 
They still think we need someone else to take care of us. They now know that they 
have been nominated for the duty, and they are not excited about it.
     The truly distressing recent development is among blind people ourselves. It 
revolves around the word "need." I have dutifully perused the terms of the Americans 
with Disabilities Act once I noticed this trend, and I can find no single use of the word 
"need" among the many words of this eighty-page law. Yet I hear it commonly used to 
describe what individual blind people want. In the minds of such blind people, turning a 
personal desire into a "need" somehow seems to endow the desire with the force of 
law.
     It has long been my experience that, for every personal desire or need--
whichever way you term it--that one blind person may utter, you can find a blind person 
expressing exactly the opposite personal desire or need and a whole range of blind 
people articulating an infinite range of variations on the opinions of the first two.
     This has always led me back to a contemplation of the fundamental role of the 
Federation as defined in its constitution as a vehicle for social action for blind people. 
Individual blind men and women can and do express a variety of opinions about what 
blind people need that is as wide as the galaxy. The Federation applies logic to the 
situation and seeks through discussion and experience to determine the maximum 
degree of independence for blind people and the minimum degree of intervention by 
other people that will bring about the best result for blind people. The answers aren't 
always obvious, and we often discuss issues for years, sometimes heatedly 
disagreeing while we work out the terms of the problem and the framework of the 
solution. But we carefully do it together, using our common knowledge and experience 
rather than that all-too-often erroneous personal opinion based on a constituency of 
one: "what I want" or "what I need."
     But back to this newest development: the blind person as source of the opinion 
that someone else is responsible for the blind. I suppose it's always been around. I 
even suppose that most blind people have passed through a stage in which they 
devoutly hope that someone else will take responsibility for them. Most of us who 
belong to the Federation have passed beyond that stage, have realized that we are 
responsible for ourselves, and have set about to acquire skills and practice them 
toward mastery that sets us on the road to independence. Most importantly, we have 
studied and practiced the mindset of responsibility. We have watched other blind 
people, asked advice, quietly challenged ourselves to do things we once thought 
impossible, cheered others who are making such tries, and gradually come to the 
realization that, looking back, for quite a time we have relied upon ourselves for 
decisions and used as our method of making choices the fact that we are responsible 
for ourselves. But it appears that some of us blind people do not seek to change and 
grow, do not seek personal responsibility, have quite literally decided that it is easier to 
have someone else be responsible and that the Americans with Disabilities Act can be 
used to enforce this decision.
     For example, I have noticed an increasing emphasis by blind people not in the 
Federation upon their "needs" being met by transportation providers. I recently read a 
description by one blind person of what he thought had been a nightmarish experience 
in an airport and another by a woman who felt that her treatment on a train trip was 
inexcusable. As I absorbed the details of each story, characterized by their authors as 
failures of the transportation providers to meet their "needs" appropriately, I felt greater 
and greater astonishment. It appeared to me that both blind people seemed to believe 
that they could enter the transportation system without travel skills or effort on their part 
to try, simply expecting one-on-one entry-to-exit personal-attendant service by 
employees of the transportation system. In the mind of each, it seemed to me, was the 
unspoken belief that a blind person cannot travel independently in an airport or on a 
moving train--a fact that should be so obvious to all that employees of the companies 
should have leapt to their sides at any point when the passenger was in motion, 
offering an elbow and a smile, pleased to be able to serve and delighted to do it without 
a request or demonstration of need, which should at all times, according to these blind 
people, be assumed.
     I was astonished. I have traveled internationally through the air transport system 
and throughout the country on trains. Personally I have never needed or wanted 
assistance from airline or airport personnel or train employees. In fact, I have found it a 
rather tedious descant to my travels that I must continually refuse help I didn't ask for 
and then refuse it again and again, often from the same person, often as the person 
puts his or her hands on me and begins to move me bodily in some direction--never the 
one I have chosen but one the sighted employee has decided upon for me.
     So here is a perfect instance of that difference of opinion I mentioned a minute 
ago. I want no help unless I specifically ask for it. When I ask, I am prepared to help the 
person I am questioning to give me useful information (that is, no pointing) so that I can 
achieve my goal of getting where I am going. I want the people I ask to know I am blind 
because that's the only way I can get them to provide useful information.
     On the other hand, these two stories I recently read were written by people who 
wish help as the default setting--everywhere, every time movement is required, without 
their request and without anyone mentioning that they are blind. In fact, one of the 
authors reported with disapproval that the person who was supposed to help him told 
him that "you people always expect us employees to drop everything and do whatever 
you want, regardless of other duties"--just what I thought of the blind person's request. 
He obviously thought this was not only rude but a near-breach of the unspoken 
agreement he hopes for that no one will mention the reason he "needs" this help.
     I am tired of hearing blind people say they have "needs." So does everybody 
else. The special use of this term by and about blind people is supposed to help all of 
us avoid the nasty little task of mentioning that the blind person "needs" something 
because he or she is blind. The reason for the "need" is supposed to be obvious, and 
politeness should keep all people in our vicinity from mentioning it. Moreover, our 
"needs" are assumed by all who use this formulation to be very specific and well-
understood and to involve not only silence on the subject of why the need exists but 
also silence on any aspect of the blind person's situation he or she doesn't want 
discussed.
     For example, the story about the blind person in the airport involved his 
returning to his home airport late at night when the airline employee was charged with 
locking up after that flight. Walking the blind person to the baggage carousel, finding 
his luggage, and then walking him and the luggage to the curb to find a cab for him 
were not in the employee's expectation and were being added to his duties of closing 
up the gate to which he would then return after having left it unattended. I could 
certainly see why the employee was irritated. But the thing I really couldn't understand 
was why the blind person, returning to his own home airport in a city where he had 
lived for a number of years, couldn't perform these tasks for himself and wanted an 
airline employee to do them for him.
     Instead of taking the time to learn how to get around the airport for himself, this 
blind person expected others to help him every time he entered the airport and further 
expected that the help would be provided without his having to ask for it and with a 
smile.
     The woman who rode the train told of being placed in the handicapped car. I 
didn't even know there was one, and I certainly wouldn't ride there. Her criticism of the 
train employees involved their not responding when she pushed her button for help and 
their not coming to tell passengers when food was being served since the intercom was 
not working. I think I would have found out about the food myself. And I can't imagine 
wanting to summon a train employee to my seat. If I for some reason want a train 
employee, I get up out of my seat and go find one, just like everyone else. Why should 
they come to us and to no one else? Apparently this blind train rider wanted assistance 
not accorded to any other train rider, wanted it instantly, and wanted it without having to 
call attention to her blindness. As far as I can tell, she had a long, hungry trip, but to 
her the problem was lack of train-employee focus on "meeting her needs."
     Then there was the story written by the woman who was dropped off at the 
corner she requested by the bus company. The only complaint I hear from blind people 
about buses involves being able to find the right corner with the driver's help. But this 
woman found the right corner on the first pass--no question about it. But that wasn't the 
problem, according to her. You see, she couldn't figure out how to cross the street. 
That seems clear enough to me--bad training, lack of confidence, whatever. Do some 
brush-up work.
     But the woman who wrote this story saw it differently. She asked the bus driver 
to get off his bus and to "line her up" to cross with the traffic light. The bus driver, quite 
reasonably in my opinion, declined to get out of his bus and "line up" a blind person. As 
she writes the story, then, due to the bus driver's cruel refusal to help her, she could 
not get across the street and so was compelled to begin a forced march along the 
sidewalkless side of the street upon which she was stranded with snow and mud 
underfoot as companions in a futile search for another traffic light she could figure out.
     This woman diagnosed the second problem, in addition to the cruelty of the bus 
driver, as one of lack of buzzing traffic lights telling her when to cross. She is now on a 
campaign to fix both problems. It has apparently never occurred to this woman that her 
own skills are the deficiency in this story, not the cruelty of the bus driver nor the lack of 
buzzing traffic lights.
     That's not a world I would choose to live in. I believe that my needs are my own 
to take care of and my responsibility, not that of someone else. Furthermore, I don't 
want other blind people to stamp their feet and demand that we all be helped every 
time we move more than an inch or two, without question and without any conversation 
about it. I don't want train employees hovering over me, shoving me into handicapped 
cars, and jumping to serve my every need or want. I don't want traffic engineers and 
bus companies leaping to help me whenever I turn up, even to the point of leaving an 
idling bus with other passengers to "line me up" and making traffic lights buzz in case I 
might pass by.
     And I have worked too long and hard to be able to pass through the airline 
system as just another passenger treated just as badly as all the others and no 
differently to want to go back to the bad old days when, the minute my nose appeared 
in an airport, airline personnel were leaping out to put their hands on me and move me 
about according to their decision about what I needed as a blind person. In other 
words, I specifically and exactly want precisely the opposite of what the blind airline 
passenger, the blind train rider, and the blind bus rider say they want.
     Most of all I do not want to live in a world in which everyone else is constantly 
responsible for meeting my "needs." In fact, I don't want anyone in the world to worry 
about my "needs" to try to meet them, or even to think about them. They're mine, not 
public property. They have not been federalized with the passage of the Americans 
with Disabilities Act. And I think we have enough trouble with the blindness service 
providers and the potential employers who presume we are not responsible. The last 
thing I want is for blind people to start standing up and saying that they're right, that we 
blind people--all blind people--have "needs," the exact same "needs," which must be 
met by somebody else, anybody else but the blind person. If that's what the ADA gives 
us, it will be a long, long step backward for blind people. There are now blind people 
abroad in the land advocating exactly that.
     I continue to believe that the Federation has been right all along. Sure, it takes 
work. What in life worth having doesn't? But I refuse to believe, as an official of the 
American Council of the Blind told me recently, that most blind people cannot get 
around very effectively or safely right now and moreover never will. My own personal 
need is for blind people with those kinds of attitudes about the capabilities of blind 
people to re-examine them and to realize that claiming we blind people have "needs" is 
just a cop-out, a way of refusing to learn and to grow. I hope that thousands of my 
fellow Federationists need the same thing. Are you out there?
     **********
     **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Carol Randolph]
     Randolph Case Featured in National Disability Law Reporter
     **********
     From the Editor: Many of us have been aware for more than a year that the 
South Carolina affiliate has been fighting a discrimination case for a blind teacher 
with more credentials and teaching experience than you can shake a stick at. Not 
too surprisingly the case was successfully settled last March, much to the 
satisfaction of everyone who believes in the right of blind people to teach in the 
public schools.
     The following article first appeared in the August 24, 2000, issue of the 
National Disability Law Reporter. It was then reprinted in the November, 2000, 
issue of the Palmetto Blind, the publication of the National Federation of the 
Blind of South Carolina. Here it is:
     **********
     Blind Teacher Signs Contract Ending Suit Against School District
     **********
     A blind woman who applied for more than a dozen positions with a South 
Carolina school district before suing for disability discrimination signed a teaching 
contract earlier this month as part of the suit's settlement.
     Carol Randolph was already a certified, experienced teacher when she applied 
for approximately seventeen different teaching and administrative positions with the 
Greenville County School District, said one of her attorneys, Christopher Danielson of 
Myrtle Beach. Denied each time, she filed a disability discrimination lawsuit under Title 
II of the ADA in July of last year.
     The school district initially maintained that Randolph was not qualified for the 
position that she sought because she presented a safety threat and would be unable to 
discipline students effectively. But a preliminary order in the case, pursued on the 
plaintiff's behalf primarily by Robert P. Wood of Columbia, South Carolina's Rogers 
Townsend and Thomas, PC, determined that there is "overwhelming evidence" that 
blind people can function effectively as teachers. Wood strengthened that conclusion 
by deposing two teachers with stellar qualifications and teaching records.
     The case was resolved earlier this year when the school district agreed to pay 
Randolph $130,000 and offer her the teaching contract that she signed earlier this 
month. In addition, the district agreed to retain the services of the South Carolina 
School for the Deaf and the Blind, the South Carolina Commission for the Blind, or a 
similar organization for the purpose of providing "a program of sensitivity instruction" to 
the school district's principals and other personnel involved in hiring decisions.
     **********
     **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Parnell Diggs]
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Don Capps]
     Diggs and Capps Meet with Pickens County
     School Board on Coffman Issue
     **********
     From the Editor: As you read in the previous article, for over a year the 
South Carolina affiliate and member Carol Randolph fought hard to win the right 
for Carol to teach in the Greenville school district. With astonishing eagerness 
the Greenville schools set aside her experience and her credentials seventeen 
times, but in the end officials were forced to hire her and pay her a significant 
sum because of their past discrimination.
     During that struggle the expert witness the Greenville schools brought in 
to bolster their continued refusal to consider Ms. Randolph for a job was the 
Director of Special Services from the Pickens County school system next door. 
This fine example of fair-mindedness and up-to-date training was Miriam Gant 
Coffman, whose attitudes and opinions as expressed in her deposition belonged 
squarely in the nineteenth century.
     Despite the damage Coffman's deposition might have done, Carol 
Randolph got her job and her damages, which was the first order of business for 
everyone on Carol Randolph's side. But once that was done, the affiliate turned 
to the Pickens County situation and the impact that Coffman was necessarily 
having on the lives of the blind students unlucky enough to fall under her 
influence. First NFB officials tried writing to the superintendent, but he refused to 
consider their request. Then NFB of South Carolina President Parnell Diggs and 
President Emeritus Donald Capps made an appointment to talk to the school 
board. They had done their homework thoroughly before their appearance. This 
is the way it happened as recounted in the November, 2000, issue of the Palmetto 
Blind, the publication of the NFB of South Carolina:
     **********
     President Parnell Diggs and President Emeritus Donald Capps appeared before 
the Pickens County School Board Monday evening, October 23, 2000. The hearing was 
to consider testimony given by Pickens County Schools Director of Special Services, 
Mrs. Miriam Gant Coffman, in a deposition taken March 17, 2000. Others present at the 
hearing included Betty Capps; David Houck, executive director of the Federation 
Center of the Blind; and Tracey Bryant Bundy, a vision teacher at Crayton Middle 
School in Columbia. Portions of a cassette recording of Mrs. Coffman's deposition were 
played for the nine-member Pickens County School Board and Dr. Mendel Stewart, 
Superintendent. A bound book of pertinent materials and documents related to Mrs. 
Coffman's testimony was given to the School Board and Dr. Stewart. This material was 
also given to the media, including the Greenville News, the Easley Progress, and the 
Pickens Sentinel.
     The hearing was held in executive session. Dr. Stewart told Diggs later that the 
board had referred the matter to Dr. Stewart to handle. No doubt the board gave 
specific instructions to him. However, at this writing (late October) we do not know what 
the final action will be. In addition to Mrs. Coffman's recorded testimony, Mr. Diggs and 
Mr. Capps made brief comments regarding the seriousness of Coffman's demeaning 
testimony, given under oath. The material given to board members, Dr. Stewart, and 
the media included the following letter:
     **********
October 23, 2000
     **********
BY HAND DELIVERY
Mr. Joe Tankersley, Chairman
and Members of the Board
School District of Pickens County
Easley, South Carolina
     **********
Dear Mr. Tankersley and Members of the Board:
     The topic which we are here to discuss tonight is of critical importance to the 
blind students in Pickens County. The principle which is involved is of critical 
importance to the blind in South Carolina and to the over 50,000 blind Americans in this 
country. We thank you for the privilege of bringing to your attention facts which, if 
uncorrected, present unacceptable discrimination against the blind students of this 
county and, as a precedent, affect Americans throughout the country.
     The time available for our oral presentation is limited. We, therefore, in fairness 
to the decision-making process, present these materials so that you will have all of the 
facts. One of your employees has expressed opinions that are unacceptable for 
someone supervising those who teach blind students. We therefore ask you to remove 
her from any supervisory position with control over the education of blind students in 
Pickens County. Please review the facts which follow. These facts can be neither 
contradicted nor denied.
     **********
     Background
     We ask that you please review the Order of the Honorable G. Ross Anderson, 
Jr., which is attached hereto. [1] We also attach correspondence between the NFB of 
South Carolina and the Pickens County School District which shows the progress of the 
matter to date. [2] The opinions of your director of special services [3] were called to 
our attention when she was offered as an expert witness in a case where a blind school 
teacher in Greenville County had applied for some seventeen positions with the 
Greenville County School District and was denied most of those positions at least in 
part because she was blind. Ultimately a suitable job was offered to the blind teacher, 
damages of well over $100,000 were paid, and sensitivity training was agreed to by the 
Greenville School District. These facts are uncontradicted and undenied and are true, 
accurate, and correct. [4] Your director of special services's unacceptable opinions and 
beliefs supported the view of the Greenville County School District and came to the 
attention of the National Federation of the Blind from testimony given by her under oath 
in a deposition taken under the discovery rules of the United States District Court on 
March 17, 2000.
     What are Ms. Coffman's opinions on the abilities of the blind? As an overview of 
her testimony we enclose an article from the Palmetto Blind. [5]
     What we learned that afternoon about her views was shocking. She testified 
under oath, "Carol Randolph looks like a blind person. She, if you want to use the word 
mealy, she's submissive." [Coffman Deposition, page 145, lines 8-10]. Ms. Coffman 
testified that the professors at Clemson who are teaching Ms. Randolph her doctorate-
level courses, are "wasting their time." [Page 140, lines 21-23.] It's not fair, Ms. 
Coffman testified, to students or their parents for students to have a blind teacher. 
[Page 141, line 25, through page 142, line 6.] Ms. Coffman declared that she would not 
want a blind person teaching her child. [Page 142, lines 7-8.]
     If Ms. Coffman will say such things under oath when she knows that her words 
are being recorded and listened to by an advocate for the blind, what lies beneath the 
surface? What does she really think? What actions does she take because she 
discriminates against blind people? We know that Ms. Coffman has taken one action 
against a child solely because he was blind: she discouraged him from becoming what 
he wanted to be--a high school history teacher. [Page 103, lines 6-104, line 7,] And that 
was solely because he was blind. What impression is she conveying to the special 
education teachers whose job it is to provide an appropriate education to students in 
the least restrictive environment?
     Yet your School District's own Web site for Special Services states: "It is the 
goal of the School District of Pickens County in conjunction with the Individuals With 
Disabilities Education Act, to provide full educational opportunities to all children with 
disabilities."
     There are additional quotes from Ms. Coffman's testimony of March 17, 2000, 
which are included herein: [6]
Q: Why are people afraid of blind people?
A: Lack of contact.
Q: And if they had more contact--
A: Lack of appropriate behavior from a blind person.
Q: Is that a trait of blind people? They engage in inappropriate behavior?
A: Yes, they do.
[Page 73, lines 4-11.]
Q: I was not following what you were saying. You've watched blind people have these 
difficulties--
A: Hurdles--
Q: And hurdles--
A: And see these difficulties, and incur them many times, many cases. Therefore, I 
know, or I feel that there are definite walks in life that they would be and could be very 
suited for.
Q: But one of which is not teaching?
A: One of which is not teaching at the middle-school or high-school level.
[Page 102, line 21, through page 103, line 6]
Q: I was asking before the break if you were going to testify as to whether Carol 
Randolph herself were qualified to teach in any of these positions as opposed to blind 
people in general, and I understand that you are now willing to give an opinion on that. 
Is that true?
A: That's true.
Q: What is your opinion?
A: Carol Randolph looks like a blind person. She acts like a blind person. She--if you 
want to use the word mealy, she's submissive. She is non-authoritative. She doesn't 
have spunk.
[Page 144, line 25 through page 145, line 11]
Q: You used the word mealy. What do you mean by the word mealy?
A: Mousey. You know, keel over and die if you fuss at me. Not strong-willed. Not self-
confident.
[Page 150, lines 17-20]
A: Can you imagine a seventeen-year-old with that person [Ms. Randolph] as their 
teacher? They would say something about her hair. They would say something about 
the way she flicks her fingers against her glass. Did you hear that?
Q: I didn't notice.
A: She has mannerisms. Blind mannerisms. They all do. And you overlook them. If you-
-
Q: They all do what? I'm sorry.
A: They all have ticks. They do.
Q: Blind people do?
A: Blind people do.
Q: And all blind people have these mannerisms?
A: But some are more pronounced than others.
[Page 153, line 19 through page 154, line 10]
Q: But to relate all this to the ability of a blind person to teach, are you saying that 
that's one of the distracting things that makes her less appealing as an applicant for a 
teacher?
A: Yeah. So a blind person that already is subservient, that has a little something that 
they do, you know, that's just one more thing to give a child not to like you, or to have 
disrespect for you. You have to earn your respect with children.
Q: And blind people have trouble doing that?
A: In the role of teaching.
Q: In fact, can blind people earn respect as teachers?
A: At the elementary level.
[Page 155, line 21 through page 156, line 16]
Q: What else is it about the way blind people are that makes them inappropriate--or 
ineffective, I should say, as middle or high school teachers other than what you've 
described so far today? I'm talking about personality things, appearance things, respect 
things. Stuff like that?
A: I think I covered--well, don't you think I have pretty much put her down as low as I 
could do. Isn't that terrible? God, that's awful. Blind people have a tendency to not be 
very stylish.
[Page 159, lines 11-22]
A: So if your ego as a blind person is not strong enough to get you through the burdens 
of being dependent on someone else, you become submissive. You become 
subservient.
[Page 160, lines 10-13]
A: They're just different people. Just like you and I are different. Blind people are 
different, and the way they handle their walks in life are very different. That's why they 
have different jobs that they need to be into.
[Page 160, line 24 page 161, line 3.
     **********
     How do those opinions create unacceptable discrimination against the blind?
     By her testimony Ms. Coffman bore witness to the fact that she does not fully 
appreciate or understand what the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1997 
really means. But, more importantly, her testimony shows that she believes that 
Americans should feel sorry for blind people, that Americans should protect blind 
people, and that Americans should make blind people tax receivers instead of 
taxpayers. You have as your director of special services a person who may as well 
have said that blind people should throw up the white flag of surrender, give up all 
hope of self-respect, and resign themselves to a lifetime of self-pity.
     But, as United States Federal District Judge G. Ross Anderson stated in his 
Order in the Randolph case: "Discrimination is more often based on ignorance and 
unfounded fear than it is on bad faith and hatred." As Dr. Kenneth Jernigan, a leader of 
the organized blind, stated in 1970:
     **********
Of all the roadblocks in the path of the blind today, one rises up more formidably and 
threateningly than all others. It is the invisible barrier of ingrained social attitudes 
toward blindness and the blind--attitudes based on suspicion and superstition, on 
ignorance and error, which continue to hold sway in men's minds and to keep the blind 
in bondage. [7]
     **********
     This kind of ignorance and unfounded fear might be understandable from an 
uneducated layman on the streets, but for a certified teacher--your director of special 
services, who is in charge of the district's programs for blind students and supervises 
other teachers--to hold such opinions is unacceptable.
     **********
     How her opinions affect blind students and others (above and below her) with 
responsibility for educating the blind.
     In order to have excellence in school systems, leaders must provide symbolic 
leadership. [8] Through symbolic leadership top-level education administrators signal 
and demonstrate what is valued and what goals override all others. These leaders 
communicate a vision for followers. The symbolic school leader establishes a sense of 
order and direction and provides a clear and unified vision of the organization. [9]
     **********
     The Pygmalion Effect
     Ms. Coffman's opinions of the blind are infused into her subordinates and blind 
students. The Pygmalion Effect is a well-recognized psychological doctrine in 
education and management. Under the Pygmalion Effect one's expectations about a 
person lead that person to behave and achieve in ways that confirm those 
expectations. Her low expectations for the potential achievements of blind people are 
communicated both directly and indirectly to blind students. She has counseled at least 
one blind student directly not to pursue a career that the student was capable of 
performing. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy that trickles down through her subordinates to 
blind students. [10]
     As the U.S. Supreme Court noted in Adler v. Board of Education, 342 U.S. 485, 
493 (1952), a teacher "shapes the attitude of young minds towards the society in which 
they live. In this, the state has a vital concern. It must preserve the integrity of the 
schools. That the school authorities have the right and the duty to screen the officials, 
teachers, and employees as to their fitness to maintain the integrity of the schools as a 
part of ordered society cannot be doubted."
     Ms. Coffman administers the district's program for educating disabled students 
(including blind students) of Pickens County. As the leader of this program she sets the 
tone for all of those under her regarding the education of blind students. She signals to 
them what is valued and what goals override others. To her subordinates Ms. Coffman 
is the most salient, tangible representative of the school district's management actions, 
policies, and procedures regarding blind students. She is the filter that provides the 
basis for their perceptions of the views of the superintendent and the Board of Trustees 
toward the blind. [11]
     **********
     The Cat's Paw Theory
     Under a theory called the "cat's paw," employers who themselves did not engage 
in discriminatory practices have been held vicariously liable for the actions of their 
supervisory-level subordinates. From the perspective of the person discriminated 
against, the supervisor and the employer merge into a single entity. [12] When a review 
committee, unaware of a manager's discrimination, acts as a conduit of the manager's 
prejudice--his cat's paw--the innocence of the committee members does not spare the 
company from liability. [13] The imputed liability also exists where a subordinate is able 
to manipulate the decision-making process and influence the decision by concealing 
relevant information from a higher decision maker. [14]
     **********
     Our Concerns
     We have presented our concerns to the district superintendent with a request 
that he take corrective action. The superintendent responded in his letter of August 22, 
2000, as follows:
     **********
     I must respectfully deny the request made through the resolution that this District 
take steps to "ensure that Ms. Gant-Coffman no longer directly participates in the 
instruction of blind children in the District or has direct contact with blind students in the 
District. Ms. Coffman has served this District well in her position as Director of 
Programs for Exceptional Children, and I see no basis for changing her assignment or 
her responsibilities in any way.
     **********
     On September 1, 2000, he wrote: "I have no intent of carrying out the actions 
you requested and, at this point, of proposing any other alternative resolutions."
     The superintendent's failure to take decisive action to prevent Ms. Coffman from 
being involved with the education of blind students in Pickens County is tantamount to 
drinking water from the well she has poisoned.
     **********
     What Does The Law Provide?
     If you were to choose to limit your director of special services's duties so that 
she no longer has any direct or indirect contact with blind students, you would be going 
a long way to avoiding violating numerous federal laws and regulations. With her you 
have working for you someone who is on record, under oath, saying reprehensible 
things about blind people. Someone who has said, "Blind people are different" and 
blind people "have different jobs that they need to be into." Do you want that millstone 
hanging around your neck when a federal judge is asking whether in fact your blind 
students are being treated consistently with your director of special services's opinions 
about blind people?
     Do you want that millstone hanging around your neck when a federal judge is 
asking whether you've complied with the requirement of the Americans with Disabilities 
Act that no blind person be excluded from participation in or be denied the benefits of 
the services, programs, or activities of a public entity, or be subjected to discrimination 
by any such entity?
     Do you want that millstone hanging around your neck when a federal judge is 
asking whether you've complied with the requirement of the Rehabilitation Act that no 
otherwise qualified individual with a disability, solely by reason of that disability, be 
excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to 
discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance?
     Do you want that millstone hanging around your neck when a federal judge is 
asking whether you've violated the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act by 
denying blind students free and appropriate education services in the least restrictive 
environment appropriate to their unique needs?
     Do you want that millstone hanging around your neck when a federal judge is 
asking whether you've violated the regulations promulgated to administer the 
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, for example, (1) by denying blind students 
the ability to learn to use appropriate technology to obtain access to information; (2) by 
denying blind students access to orientation and mobility services; or (3) by denying 
blind students a variety of assessment tools and strategies to gather functional and 
developmental information about the blind child?
     Do you want that millstone hanging around your neck when a federal judge is 
asking whether you've complied with the requirements of the IDEA in terms of 
evaluating a blind child's health, vision, social status, emotional status, general 
intelligence, academic performance, communicative status, and motor abilities?
     **********
     Conclusion
     We submit that, if this director of special services were in charge of Clemson 
University, Ph.D.-level blind students would not be admitted. If she were in charge of 
the USC Law School, blind lawyers would not be practicing law. If she were in charge 
of hiring middle- and high-school teachers, there would never be a blind school teacher 
at that level without an order of the court mandating it and overruling her prejudices.
     If this director of special services were in charge of the South Carolina 
educational system, Dr. John E. Swearingen could not have entered the University of 
South Carolina. He would not have been permitted to teach in the public school system, 
and he never would have been elected to seven separate terms as the Superintendent 
of Education in South Carolina, because he was totally blind. His contribution to the 
State of South Carolina is best described by Francis W. Bradley in the Foreword of Dr. 
Swearingen's biography, A Gallant Journey, published by the University of South 
Carolina Press in 1959:
     **********
     The story of Mr. Swearingen's life is the history of education... when he laid the 
solid foundation for the much-needed growth and development out of the three-month 
school into the standardized nine-month schools we now have. Without his brilliant 
intellect, his iron will, and his unshakable faith the task could not have been 
accomplished....
     He taught the children not only what was in the books but also what was more 
important to them, the determination to use their intelligence and perseverance to 
overcome their handicap and rise to the stature of useful, independent, and self-
respecting citizens.
     **********
     The blind students of Pickens County and their parents are entitled to 
knowledgeable, sensitive teachers and supervisors, not just because the protections 
accorded blind students demand it, not just because the ADA requires it, not just 
because the State of South Carolina insists upon it, but most importantly because it's 
the right, honorable, decent human thing to do.
     We urge you to take action so that Ms. Coffman will no longer be in a position to 
influence the blind students in Pickens County and so that she is removed from any 
supervisory capacity or control over others involved with the education of blind students 
of Pickens County.
     **********
Respectfully submitted,
Donald C. Capps
President Emeritus
Parnell Diggs
President
Footnotes:
[1] Please see the Order dated November 1, 1999, of U. S. District Court Judge G. 
Ross Anderson, Jr., at page 14
[2[ Letter from Dr. Mendel Stewart to Mr. Donald Capps, dated 8/22/00 at page 36; 
letter from Mr. Capps to Dr. Stewart dated 8/25/00 at page 37; letter from Mr. Diggs to 
Dr. Stewart dated 8/31/00 at page 39; letter from Dr. Stewart to Mr. Capps dated 9/1/00 
at page 40; letter from Mr. Capps and Mr. Diggs to Dr. Stewart dated 9/6/00 at page 41; 
letter from Mr. Capps and Mr. Diggs to Mr. Joe Tankersley, Chairman of the Pickens 
County School Board dated 9/6/00 at page 43.
[3] Miriam Gant Coffman
[4] See the Order of Judge Anderson referred to at page 14, along with the Consent 
Order discussing the case at page 34.
[5] "Victory In The Lawsuit Against The Greenville County School District," the Palmetto 
Blind, (The Voice of the National Federation of the Blind of South Carolina), published 
May, 2000, at page 44.
[6] A copy of the entire transcript of Miriam Coffman's deposition is available but is 
expensive to reproduce. We are confident that the director of special services has a 
copy.
[7] See Order at page 31 thereof.
[8] Seregiovanni, T. (1984). Leadership and Excellence in Schooling. Educational 
Leadership. 41(5). 4-13.
[9] Haplin. A. & Croft, D. (1967). The Organizational Climate of Schools. USC Office of 
Education Project. 543-8639.
[10] See "Good or Bad, What Teachers Expect From Students They Generally Get!" 
from the ERIC Clearinghouse of Teaching and Teacher Education about the Pygmalion 
Effect at page 67.
[11] See articles documenting the effects of a supervisor's opinion on subordinates at 
page 73. Kozlowski, S, & Doherty, M. 1989. Integration of climate and leadership: 
Examination of a neglected topic. Journal of Applied Psychology. 74: 546-553., at 
pages 547 and Scott, S. and Bruce, R. The Influence of Leadership, Individual 
Attributes, and Climate on Innovative Behavior: A Model of Individual Innovation in the 
Workplace. pp. 3-5 of 22 total.
[12] Burlington Industries, Inc. v. Ellerth. 534 U. S. 742 (1988)
[13[ Shager v. Upjohn Co., 913 F.2d 398, 405 (7th Cir. 1990).
[14] Wallace v. SMC Pneumatics, Inc., 103 F.3d 1394, 1400 (7th Cir. 1997).
     **********
     **********
     NFB of South Carolina Successful in the Coffman Issue
     **********
     From the Editor: After the Pickens County school board listened to Parnell 
Diggs and Don Capps, as described in the preceding article, they sat down to 
read the materials given to them and to search their souls or at least to consult 
their attorney about the likelihood of their being sued and losing the case 
because of what Mrs. Coffman had said and done and what the superintendent 
had so far failed to do. They then clearly gave the superintendent his 
instructions. Here is the very satisfactory conclusion of the story as it appeared 
in the Palmetto Blind of November, 2000:
     **********
     The NFB of South Carolina is pleased to report that it was successful in its 
presentation to the Pickens County School Board of Trustees on Monday evening, 
October 23, in which the Federation requested the School Board remove Mrs. Miriam 
Gant Coffman from any supervision of or contact with blind or visually impaired 
students. The decision by the School Board was swift and decisive. Following is a letter 
written by Dr. Mendel Stewart which is self-explanatory.
     **********
School District of Pickens County
October 26, 2000
     **********
Mr. Donald C. Capps
Mr. Parnell Diggs
National Federation of the Blind of South Carolina
Columbia, South Carolina
     **********
Dear Mr. Capps and Mr. Diggs:
     I have been asked by the Board of Trustees to provide a written response to the 
concerns you raised before the Board at its meeting on October 23, 2000, related to 
Miriam Coffman, an employee of the District. After careful consideration of the 
information you presented to the Board as well as your expressed desire to bring 
closure to this matter, the Board has asked me to communicate the District's desire to 
also bring closure to this matter. In an effort to do so the District is willing to make 
arrangements for all administrative responsibilities related to the District's visually 
impaired students to be removed from the areas of responsibility currently assigned to 
Miriam Coffman.
     The District will now consider this matter concluded and trusts you do likewise.
     **********
Sincerely,
Mendel H. Stewart, Ed.D.
Superintendent
cc: Board of Trustees
     **********
     **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Kevan Worley]
     Actor or Object
     **********
     From the Editor: A rather touching story is making its way around the 
Internet. It goes like this:
     **********
     In Brooklyn, New York, Chush is a school that caters to learning-disabled 
children. Some children remain in Chush for their entire school career, while others can 
be mainstreamed into conventional schools.
     At a Chush fund-raising dinner, the father of a Chush child delivered a speech 
that will never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the school and its 
dedicated staff, he cried out, "Where is the perfection in my son Shay? Everything God 
does is done with perfection. But my child cannot understand things as other children 
do. My child cannot remember facts and figures as other children do. Where is God's 
perfection?"
     The audience was shocked by the question, pained by the father's anguish, and 
stilled by the piercing query. "I believe," the father answered, "that, when God brings a 
child like this into the world, the perfection that he seeks is in the way people react to 
this child."
     He then told the following story about his son Shay: One afternoon Shay and his 
father walked past a park where some boys Shay knew were playing baseball. Shay 
asked, "Do you think they will let me play?"
     Shay's father knew that his son was not at all athletic and that most boys would 
not want him on their team. But he also understood that his son's being chosen to play 
would give him a comfortable sense of belonging. He approached one of the boys in 
the field and asked if Shay could play.
     The boy looked around for guidance from his teammates. Getting none, he took 
matters into his own hands and said "We are losing by six runs, and the game is in the 
eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team, and we'll try to put him up to bat in the 
ninth inning."
     Shay's father was ecstatic as Shay smiled broadly. Shay was told to put on a 
glove and go out to play short center field. In the bottom of the eighth inning Shay's 
team scored a few runs but was still behind by three. In the bottom of the ninth inning 
they scored again. Now they had two outs and the bases loaded with the potential 
winning run on base.
     Shay was the batter up. Would the team actually let Shay bat at this juncture and 
give away their chance to win the game? Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat. 
Everyone knew that it was all but impossible because Shay didn't even know how to 
hold the bat properly, let alone hit with it. However, as Shay stepped up to the plate, 
the pitcher moved up a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shay should at least be 
able to make contact.
     The first pitch came, and Shay swung clumsily and missed. One of Shay's 
teammates came up to Shay, and together they held the bat and faced the pitcher, 
waiting for the next pitch. The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball 
softly toward Shay.
     As the pitch came in, Shay and his teammate swung at the ball, and together 
they hit a slow ground ball to the pitcher.
     The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could easily have thrown the ball to 
the first baseman. Shay would have been out, and that would have ended the game. 
Instead, the pitcher took the ball and threw it on a high arc to right field, far beyond the 
first baseman's reach.
     Everyone started yelling, "Shay, run to first; run to first." Never in his life had 
Shay run to first. He scampered down the baseline wide-eyed and startled. By the time 
he reached first base, the right fielder had the ball.
     He could have thrown the ball to the second baseman, who would tag out Shay, 
who was still running. But the right fielder understood what the pitcher's intentions 
were, so he threw the ball high and far over the third baseman's head.
     Everyone yelled, "Run to second; run to second." Shay ran towards second base 
as the runners ahead of him deliriously circled the bases toward home.
     As Shay reached second base, the opposing short stop ran to him, turned him in 
the direction of third base, and shouted, "Run to third."
     As Shay rounded third, the boys from both teams ran behind him screaming, 
"Shay, run home!"
     Shay ran home, stepped on home plate, and all eighteen boys lifted him on their 
shoulders and made him the hero because he had just hit a grand slam and won the 
game for his team.
     "That day," said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face, "those 
eighteen boys reached the level of God's perfection."
     **********
     One would have to be a pretty confirmed cynic not to feel a tug at the 
heartstrings when reading that story. When I first received this e-mail, I faithfully 
passed it along as I was challenged to do, but I must admit that, even so, it gave me 
some moments of discomfort.
     If we think about it, most blind people can remember situations in which we have 
been cast in Shay's role by one or more people. After all, isn't that what undeserved, 
unnecessary preferential treatment is all about? When a blind musician is pressed to 
perform and then praised out of proportion to the talent displayed, when a teacher 
excuses a blind student from doing all the work the other students have been assigned, 
when everyone conspires to push a blind person to the front of the line--the 
unavoidable message is we are changing the standard or the rules just for you.
     The truth is that decent, generous people often find it pleasant to go a bit out of 
their way or take extra trouble to be kind to someone less fortunate. But most of us, 
even when we are demonstrably less well off, do not appreciate assuming the role of 
recipient of charity or charitable intentions if we recognize what is happening.
     Complicating the situation is that sometimes the most charitable thing we can do 
is quietly accept the kindness in the spirit in which it was offered. But sometimes, in 
order to maintain our integrity or educate others, we must find the courage courteously 
to refuse the kindness. For the more often we compromise our standards or accept 
undeserved preferences, the easier it becomes to do the same thing the next time. At 
the bottom of that slippery slope lies certain second-class status. Besides, selfishness, 
self-delusion, and laziness frequently result from being the consistent recipient of such 
good deeds. How many blind people do you know who have an inflated notion of their 
own abilities and a strong tendency to blame others when they don't get their way?
     In this e-mail anecdote Shay had no capacity to play baseball as an equal; if he 
was going to join the game, the boys had to throw out the rules and bend their efforts to 
hand him the gift of successful participation. Very often sighted people assume that we 
are in precisely that position. Without their changing the rules altogether, they think we 
cannot take part in ordinary activities.
     Heaven knows there is enough inhumanity loose in the world today that one 
hesitates to caution people against allowing such selfless impulses more or less free 
rein. But I am reminded of Dr. Jernigan's warning that we "are tired of having our road 
to hell paved by other people's good intentions." I can find no simple test to help us 
decide when to grit our teeth and accept kindly meant gestures and when, on the other 
hand, to insist on pulling our weight. For the most part I try to keep a firm grasp on my 
abilities and politely insist on carrying out my duties and meeting the requirements I 
can. I take my turn hosting coffee hour at church, stand in lines, and pay full fare. And 
when people want to spend time describing visual detail so minute or complex that I 
can't possibly follow it, I listen with what enthusiasm I can muster and thank them for 
the information.
     But I am an adult and have worked out my methods over long years of dealing 
with experiences of all kinds. Children can be dragged into patterns of unhealthy 
behavior simply because their parents don't know any better, and strangers are 
particularly inclined to respond to the pathos of the poor, lonely blind child. Parents of 
blind children must be particularly vigilant to insure that their blind youngsters don't 
receive preferential treatment when they are capable of working to a higher standard. 
And the rest of us must do our part to help parents and kids maintain those high 
standards.
     Kevan Worley does what he can to educate the public about what constitutes 
appropriate behavior toward blind people. He is acutely aware that this part of our 
message is not always happily received and that it must be delivered with great tact 
and understanding. The following is a letter he wrote to a woman who had been 
compassionate but less than helpful in responding to the mother of a blind child. Here it 
is:
     **********
     Aurora, Colorado
     June 7, 2000
     **********
Jacquelyn Thurman
Focus on the Family
Colorado Springs, Colorado
     **********
Dear Ms. Thurman,
     I understand from a recent article in the Denver Post that Focus on the Family 
receives almost 200,000 pieces of mail each month. That indicates to me that someone 
in your position, a correspondence assistant, must be incredibly busy. However, I write 
in hope that you will take the time to consider assisting me with a problem I discovered 
in this same Denver Post article.
     The article states that the mother of a nine-year-old blind boy "was writing about 
the `Adventures in Odyssey' tapes, the radio drama series produced by Focus that 
encourages children to solve problems using God's principles. Her son didn't have any 
friends, she said. His only playmates were the characters he came to know through the 
'Adventure' tapes. At night he didn't snuggle with his favorite stuffed animal or blanket. 
He took his cassette player to bed and listened to `Adventures in Odyssey.' `Thanks for 
producing them,' the mother wrote. The letter landed on the desk of Jacquelyn 
Thurman, a correspondence assistant at the Colorado Springs-based ministry. `I just 
cried,' Thurman said. `I just pictured that little boy not being able to see, but holding this 
radio.' Thurman sent the boy a box full of tapes--at no charge--and dashed off a note to 
his mom: `Give him a big hug from all the `Adventures in Odyssey' gang."
     Ms. Thurman, I am the first vice president of the National Federation of the Blind 
of Colorado, and after reading that portion of the article, forwarded to me by Doris 
Willoughby, a special education teacher and sighted wife of a blind electrical engineer, 
I too wanted to cry. I truly understood your heart going out to a nine-year-old blind boy 
holding his little radio filled with `Adventures in Odyssey,' and I can appreciate your 
need and willingness to help. But I suggest that good intentions and a box of tapes will 
in fact probably do more to cripple the child in question than it will help him. As 
wonderful as the radio programs are, they cannot take the place of real friends for this 
blind child (peers, both sighted and blind); role models; social interaction; education; 
and life experience.
     I wish you had known about the National Federation of the Blind so that, along 
with tapes of his favorite program, you could have sent him and his mother information 
about our organization of parents and teachers of blind children. Had you known of our 
Federation, we would have been able to introduce this child to successful blind adults 
from all walks of life, vocations, hobbies, and interests. I would love to have had the 
opportunity to take this child to our Buddy Club, a little club started by our National 
Federation of the Blind Denver chapter, which pairs energetic, successful blind adult 
role models with blind children and teens.
     The Buddy Club is facilitated by Julie Hunter, a longtime member of the 
organization and officer in our National organization of Parents of Blind Children. For 
more than two years I and my little buddy William, who is blind and in a wheelchair, had 
all kinds of real-life adventures and odysseys together traveling throughout Denver, 
playing games, reading books, making cookies, and much more. By the way, last year 
William and his mother were very excited to tour the Focus on the Family headquarters 
there in Colorado Springs. In fact, we also have a very active NFB chapter in Colorado 
Springs, of which I was president for many years, until I moved to Aurora for a new 
business opportunity last October.
     Ms. Thurman, please trust me when I say blind children can grow into active, 
engaging, successful adults if they're given the means to do so. But many times blind 
children are expected just to sit in their little rocking chairs with their little radios, being 
waited on and pitied. But I think we can make a difference, you and I and the caring 
members of the National Federation of the Blind. If you still have the name and address 
of this family, how about forwarding this letter to them? Ask them to contact me for 
more information about the hope, dignity, respectability, and promise possible for their 
blind child.
     I am also sending you some pamphlets about the National Federation of the 
Blind as well as one of our Kernel Books full of true-life stories about real blind people. 
Thank you for taking the time out of your incredibly busy schedule to consider my 
comments.
     **********
     Cordially,
     Kevan Worley
     **********
     We will probably never know whether or not Ms. Thurman learned anything from 
this letter. She wrote a response which suggests that she missed the point. She 
assured him that "Adventure in Odyssey" personnel are very aware of the courage and 
capacity of blind people, and to prove it she sent him a tape of a program in which a 
blind woman described her gradual recovery after being raped. She had learned to 
forgive her attackers. But we can also report that subsequently one of the "Adventures 
in Odyssey" had to do with a blind child who had friends and was part of the crowd. So 
maybe the word is out that there is a better way than pity when the object of that 
emotion is capable of appropriate action. In any case, we must be alert to the problem 
and quick with compassion when that is appropriate, determined always to carry our 
part of the load, and willing to help the public understand why it's important for us all to 
do both.
     **********
     **********
*****************************************************************
     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 the 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/CAPTION: Chris Kuell]
     The Much-Dreaded Spill
     by Chris Kuell
     **********
     From the Editor: Some years ago now, before food processors were made 
more or less idiot-proof, I reached into mine to try to make some vegetables 
stand up again so that I could create thin slices. In my efforts to grab hold of the 
fallen, I managed to turn on the motor, and the spinning disk then demonstrated 
just how well it could slice by taking off the end of my index finger. I immediately 
realized that I needed to get to the hospital, but my first reaction was a mixture of 
astonishment and fury at my stupidity. I had known perfectly well what could 
happen, but a split-second's inattention had caused permanent modification of 
my hand. I was just lucky that I had been the victim and not someone else. I 
wanted in the worst way to live those seconds over again, but we don't often get 
those second chances.
     Chris Kuell is an up-and-coming leader in the Connecticut affiliate. He is 
bright and energetic. He is also very thoughtful about the process of coming to 
terms with blindness. Many of us have grappled with the emotions he talks about 
in the following story. Perhaps his insight will help others to deal with their own 
emotional roller coasters. This is what he says:
     **********
     It happened again this morning, a different scenario with the same result. The 
breakfast dishes were cleared from the table, and I was using a damp cloth to wipe 
crumbs into my hand before depositing them into the trash. I wasn't focused on the 
task, just going through motions I had performed a thousand times before, when I felt a 
slight pressure against the knuckle of my right thumb. My brain leapt back to the 
current moment, processing and interpreting what was happening. A glass, left 
stranded in a corner by my three-year-old daughter, had evaded my pre-wipe scan, 
which I performed just moments ago. The glass launched over the edge of the table. My 
reflexes, still pretty good, I stabbed my left hand out into the void in an attempt to 
retrieve the doomed glass. I touched it ever so briefly along its descent but wasn't even 
close to catching it. Pulling out an old soccer move, I shot out my foot in an attempt to 
prevent the impending crash. I succeeded only in jolting the cup and splattering it's 
contents over a larger area. Then, in a final blow to my ego, the glass shattered into 
tiny little shards on the recently washed kitchen floor. In a fraction of a second a 
peaceful morning had been changed into a thankless job of sweeping and vacuuming 
the floor; washing down the table, chairs, and floor; and removing the glass fragments 
from sticky, pulpy orange juice.
     An amazing transformation then occurred within me. I immediately became 
enraged. "How could you be so stupid?" I yelled at myself. "Now, what a mess! This is 
going to take forever to clean up!" I knew I had to do a really good job of cleaning 
because my family walks around barefoot most of the time. My blood pressure rose, 
and I felt such aggravation that I had to yell profanities through clenched teeth. Boy, I 
hate it when this happens!
     This was not the first time this Jekyll and Hyde transition has overtaken me; it 
happens more often than I'd like to admit, when I spill or break things. I tried to get 
myself under control, knowing how ridiculous it was to feel anger and simultaneously 
hearing the distant voice of my mother saying, "No need to cry over spilled milk." But 
still it persisted, this dormant anger within me surfacing in an instant like an erupting 
volcano. Where does it come from? Am I really like this? Most of the time I am a fairly 
carefree, even-tempered guy. Am I abnormal or psychotic? After I had finished cleaning 
up the mess and my blood pressure had returned to normal, I settled in to wash the 
unbroken dishes and contemplate this rage.
     My excessive feelings of aggravation are due in part to my high expectations of 
myself. I hate to make mistakes. However, there is also a part that takes me back to the 
time not long ago when I first lost my sight. For me the transition from the sighted world 
into blindness was difficult. I had trouble accepting my loss of vision and problems 
adjusting to a sightless world. There were the physical challenges of mobility, reading, 
and finding things, to name just a few. With time, creativity, and adequate training, I 
resolved these issues. The mental and emotional challenges, for me, were much more 
difficult.
     I am somewhat ashamed to admit that, before I lost my sight, I had never known 
a blind person and shared some of the misconceptions believed by many sighted 
people. When I first became blind I had no concept of what blind people could 
accomplish, and I felt inferior. For the first several months after I lost my vision I 
dwelled on the loss of my sight, consumed by feelings of sorrow and inadequacy. I 
moped about, banging into things, hurting myself, and making messes by knocking 
things off the table. To put it candidly, I was miserable.
     Then, with some not-so-gentle prodding from my wife, I began to get my act 
together again. I knew I had a long life ahead of me and a family who needed me, so I 
had better find out how blind people do it--building happy and productive lives. I made 
a point to meet with several members of our state NFB, and with that encounter I turned 
the corner on my depression. I met blind people who were living examples of the truth 
that people could get along fine without sight. They answered my many questions 
about how to do things that had baffled me and gave me hope that one day soon I, too, 
could be independent. I started to work harder at my blind skills and reached out to as 
many blind people as I could to pick their brains regarding blindness issues. As I grew 
more competent and confident, I found that rather than thinking of my vision loss one 
hundred percent of the time, I was doing so thirty, then twenty percent of the time. I 
stopped thinking of myself as blind but rather as just me.
     What does any of this have to do with spilled orange juice, broken glass, and my 
maniac within? The sensible part of my brain realizes that sighted people knock things 
over all the time as well, perhaps even more than blind people do. And it is really not a 
traumatic event. So what's the deal with the outburst of anger?
     It is simply that I have spent a lot of time and energy trying to destroy feelings of 
inferiority, to accept blindness for what it really is. The spill took me back a few steps, 
and I was lashing out against the perceived retreat.
     To be honest, events like this morning happen less and less often. I would say I 
now think about being blind maybe fifteen percent of the time, and that time is mostly 
productive as I help out in my local NFB chapter or try to offer support to others who 
are losing their vision. Perhaps it is even a good thing to have an occasional reminder 
that I'm blind, that blindness can be an evolutionary change for the previously sighted. 
It is a challenge that can be overcome, and a tremendous amount of strength and 
insight can be gained from the experience.
     My wife still thinks I'm a bit of a lunatic, but that has little to do with spilling. And I 
certainly can't promise I won't explode the next time I knock a glass over. But I commit 
to trying always to do better. Hopefully I can turn the energy into positive action--or at 
least spectacularly clean floors! And on the bright side, I now have fewer dishes to 
wash.
     Now, where is that sponge?
     **********
     **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Dave Andrews]
     Comparing the Openbook and the Kurzweil 1000
     by David Andrews
     **********
     From the Editor: The following is another in Dave Andrews's series of 
comparative examinations of access technology. For some years Dave directed 
the International Braille and Technology Center at the National Center for the 
Blind. He has moved on from that position, but he continues his willingness to 
share with the rest of us what he has learned from his knowledgeable 
comparisons of competing products. This time it is reading systems. This is what 
he says:
     **********
     Introduction
     **********
     As computers become an ever-increasing part of our lives, we can divide what 
we do with them into a few categories. As blind people we use computers to read or 
write text, to communicate with others using e-mail and other methods, to surf the 
World Wide Web, and to keep track of things. This article will concentrate on one of 
these areas, the reading of text--more specifically, the reading of printed paper 
documents such as books, magazines, bills, and letters. In particular we will compare 
and review the Openbook produced by Arkenstone--a division of Freedom Scientific, 
Inc. and the L&H Kurzweil 1000 produced by Kurzweil Educational Systems Group--a 
division of Lernout and Hauspie Speech Systems, N.V.
     **********
     Background
     **********
     Unless you follow the machinations of the access-technology field, these names 
may be unfamiliar to you. The L&H Kurzweil 1000, which we will call the K1000, was 
formerly known as the Omni 1000. It was developed by Kurzweil Educational Systems, 
Inc., a company founded by Dr. Raymond Kurzweil, who is familiar to most of us who 
are blind. Dr. Kurzweil sold this company to Lernout and Hauspie Speech Systems in 
the fall of 1998. L&H is a Belgian company involved in speech and language 
technologies worldwide.
     Open Book, also known as "An Open Book" and "An Open Book Ruby Edition," 
was developed by Arkenstone, Inc. Earlier this year the holdings of Arkenstone were 
acquired by Freedom Scientific, a new access-technology conglomerate which also 
includes Henter-Joyce, Inc., and Blazie Engineering. Now that you know who's who,we 
can begin.
     For this review we looked at version 4.9 of Open Book and version 5.0.02 of 
K1000. At the time of this writing, September, 2000, Freedom Scientific is selling 
version 4.02 of An Open Book Ruby Edition. However, in mid-August it released a 
public beta of version 5.0, numbered 4.9. While it is not normally our practice to review 
beta copies of software, we decided to do so in this case for a couple of reasons. First, 
this is a public beta, which means it will receive wide distribution aimed at uncovering 
major bugs or defects. It is unlikely that we will see additional features or major 
changes between versions 4.9 and 5.0. Except for major fixes, what we now see is what 
we are likely to get. Freedom Scientific expects to release version 5.0 in late 
September or early October of 2000. [It has, in fact, now been released and is 
available.] If we were to review version 4.02, it would be outdated by the time you read 
this. The K1000 folks are also working on an upgrade but don't expect to have 
something out until around the first of the year. It should also be noted that there are 
other adaptive reading systems on the market; however, Open Book and K1000 
dominate the market in the United States, hence our concentration on them.
     **********
     Similarities
     **********
     When one works with these two systems, it soon becomes obvious that there are 
more similarities than differences between the two because both programs are fairly 
mature; that is, they both have been out for a while and have had time to develop large, 
similar-feature sets. The PC-based reading software market is quite competitive; and, if 
one major player comes up with a good feature, the other one is likely to implement 
something similar in its next release. Yes, there are differences in philosophy, 
approach, and implementation; and we will discuss them. But the similarities are more 
numerous.
     **********
     Speech Considerations
     **********
     Both programs are self-voicing applications. This means that you do not need a 
screen-review program such as JAWS for Windows or Window-Eyes to use them. You 
also do not need a dedicated hardware-based speech synthesizer. While you will need 
a sound card, such as a Creative Labs Sound Blaster or equivalent, each package 
comes with one or more software-based speech synthesizers. Open Book comes with 
IBM's ViaVoice Outloud 4.0, and K1000 comes with RealSpeak and TTS3000 from 
Lernout and Hauspie. ViaVoice Outloud is based on the same technology as 
Eloquence, which comes with JAWS for Windows. However, its performance seems 
somewhat sluggish to me; that is, it doesn't respond to commands as quickly as the 
JFW Eloquence does. Further, with a top speed of 350 words per minute, it isn't fast 
enough for some power users. But at the price it isn't bad.
     RealSpeak is a new speech engine developed by Lernout and Hauspie--
Kurzweil Educational Systems Group's parent company--which became available with 
version 5.0 of K1000. Personally, I have very mixed feelings about this speech engine. 
The technology apparently uses digitized human speech sounds to create the 
synthesized speech. On the plus side its inflection and flow are quite human-like and 
an improvement over any synthesized speech I have heard to date. On the negative 
side its performance or response to keystrokes is very sluggish. It takes a good deal of 
system resources, and overall I find individual letters and numbers difficult to 
understand. Is it saying "tab" or "tap"? Or is it saying "53" or "63"? Overall RealSpeak 
sounded muffled; it didn't have good high-frequency response, which in large part 
accounts for the difficulty in understanding some things.
     It also has some artifacts typical of digital synthesized speech. The system 
requirements are a 300 MHz processor and 64 megabytes of RAM above the basic 
requirements for K1000 itself. People with inadequate memory or a slow processor 
have reported excessive speech stuttering, an observation that my experience bears 
out. I did most of my testing with a Dell Pentium 300 MHz computer with 192 megs of 
RAM. While my memory was more than adequate, my processor speed was just 
adequate, and I found using RealSpeak an unsatisfying experience. Its natural 
inflection is a technological achievement worth noting, one which we will benefit from in 
the future, I am sure. However, for now most of us will probably prefer another speech 
engine.
     **********
     Self-Voicing Application Considerations
     **********
     While it can be convenient to have self-voicing applications, especially if you do 
not have a screen reader, using them in conjunction with a screen reader can also get 
complicated. The Open Book install program does a good job of detecting whether or 
not you have a screen reader running. It will speak or not speak, whichever is 
necessary. The install program will also install appropriate files to put your screen 
reader to sleep while using Open Book as long as you use JFW or Window-Eyes. 
Open Book has an informative file on screen-reader compatibility in its Help folder. It is 
possible to get Open Book to do all its own speaking or to use your screen reader to do 
this. It is also possible to get different speech engines to share the same sound card 
and more, although it can get a bit tricky. The file tries to explain it all.
     K1000 can be used with or without a screen reader. In its default mode it will be 
self-voicing and will take over the numeric keypad. You can get it to be quiet and 
relinquish control of the keypad, or you can put your screen reader to sleep. However, 
you will have to do this configuring yourself; K1000 does not automatically install any 
sleep-mode files as does Open Book.
     An alternative approach, which avoids potential conflicts, involves launching 
either program with a hot-key command, a feature both systems offer. You first unload 
your screen reader from memory, then execute the hot key command. You have to 
relaunch your screen reader when you exit Open Book or K1000, a task you can also 
perform with a hot key. Nevertheless, both Open Book and K1000 are designed so that 
they can be used by computer neophytes. The potential conflicts between self-voicing 
applications and screen readers are numerous and complicated. In addition to these 
programs, other self-voicing applications include PW Web Speak and IBM's Home 
Page Reader. Everybody, including application developers and screen-reader 
developers, needs to cooperate and work out a system that is automatic and seamless 
for the end user so that all these programs can work together.
     **********
     Common Features
     **********
     Several common features shared by both these programs include a speech-
friendly and simple install process, automatic scanner detection, multiple OCR (optical 
character recognition) engines; two major control systems, including one using the 17-
key numeric keypad and a second using standard Windows commands; support of 
multiple speech engines; file management and library systems; multiple scanning 
modes including scan and read, batch scanning, image scanning, repeated scanning, 
support of automatic document feeders, etc.; editing of recognized text; importing and 
exporting of multiple file formats; bookmarks; dictionaries; thesaurus; OCR error 
correction lists; spell checking; pronunciation dictionaries; identification of paper 
currency; deleting, inserting, and renumbering of scanned pages; visual display 
settings designed to assist low-vision users; ability to scan from within another 
application; find-and-find and replace? text; the launching of other programs from within 
Open Book or K1000; and more.
     As you can see, this is quite a long laundry list of common features and includes 
virtually everything that a scanning/reading program needs. However, there are some 
differences between the two programs, even with the commonly held features. I will 
discuss some of these, including those that are noteworthy. I will also talk about 
features unique to each program.
     **********
     Installation
     **********
     Open Book and K1000 will both perform an automatic install, that is, using a 
default set of choices which are right for most people. Also either will allow you to do a 
custom install, making installation choices yourself. Of the two programs K1000 has the 
simpler, more automatic install even in the custom mode. It presents you with an option, 
and, if you want to change it, you hit the Enter Key. If you want to accept the choice, 
you can either hit the Escape Key or do nothing, and that choice will then be accepted. 
Open Book's custom-installation process uses a more standard Windows approach, 
allowing you to make choices from controls such as dialog boxes and check boxes.
     **********
     Scanner Considerations
     **********
     In the past most people purchased Hewlett-Packard scanners for use with 
programs like Open Book and K1000. However, some of the newer HP scanners do not 
work well with Open Book or K1000. Like most things with computers, a standard which 
isn't completely standard has emerged for communicating between scanners and the 
software applications they use. This standard, called "TWAIN," stands for a 
"technology without an interesting name," an acronym I always get a kick out of. There 
are many good TWAIN scanners on the market. Some work with Open Book and 
K1000, and some don't. I conducted my tests with an Epson Perfection 1200U, a 
TWAIN scanner using a USB connection. You should check with Freedom Scientific or 
Kurzweil to see if your scanner or proposed scanner is compatible.
     **********
     OCR Engines
     **********
     Until recently programs like Open Book or K1000 came with one optical 
character recognition engine, the software that takes an image from a scanner and 
turns it into actual text. In version 4.5 Kurzweil Educational Systems Group upped the 
ante, adding a second engine, and now Arkenstone has upped it again, adding a third. 
Version 4.9, soon to be 5.0, of Open Book ships with CAERE MTX, FineReader, and 
Recognita engines while K1000 includes RTK and FineReader OCR engines. Kurzweil 
tells us that it added a second recognition engine because in some instances the Fine 
engine offers improved accuracy at the cost of longer processing times. I found this 
true during my tests in at least one instance. Using RTK, I got quite a good scan of a 
hardcover book. There were a few mistakes, though. When I switched to the Fine 
engine, I got perfect text, although the processing time was approximately 10 seconds 
a page longer.
     Now Open Book includes a third engine, Recognita, but I am not sure why. 
Recognita, while inexpensive, is not considered one of the better performers on the 
market, such as the CAERE, RTK, or Fine engines. In my limited tests I was never able 
to get better results with Recognita, so besides its marketing value it seems to offer 
little else at this time. Jim Fruchterman, President of Benetech--the nonprofit company 
doing development on Open Book for Freedom Scientific, told me that they had hoped 
for better performance from Recognita. He also said that it offers support for additional 
languages and that an upcoming release is supposed to offer better OCR performance. 
Let's hope so.
     **********
     User Interfaces
     **********
     Open Book and K1000 have two major user interfaces. One uses the 17-key 
numeric keypad found on the right side of a standard 101- or 103-key PC keyboard. 
These user-interface systems were originally developed for PC-based stand-alone 
reading systems, which both companies sold at one time. Both programs now also 
include a more standard Windows-style user interface employing a menu bar and pull-
down menus. These systems also have a variety of hot keys for common commands or 
operations in addition to the use of standard Windows commands for cut, copy, paste, 
selecting text, and the like. Additionally the programs supplement the standard 
Windows menuing system with a variety of function-key commands to perform a 
number of common operations. Some of these commands use shift, control, or alt 
function key modifiers for other tasks. K1000 in particular has a rich, if sometimes 
overwhelming, set of commands for navigating and editing documents, managing files 
and folders, etc.
     Open Book and K1000 both state that their keypad interfaces do not support all 
commands and functions present in the programs, although they do allow you to 
execute most of them. They are present for the sake of compatibility and consistency 
with past versions; however, most users are probably better off using the Windows-
style menus and commands. I found myself using keypad commands for a few things, 
but the Windows interface is richer and more familiar to experienced users. The Open 
Book keypad command structure, as I have noted in the past, can be a little confusing 
with all the going up and down menus and in and out of choices. Likewise, I find the 
three-layer approach that K1000 uses for its keypad commands--layers for reading, 
settings, and file management--to be a little overwhelming with the number of keys that 
must be remembered or found.
     The keypad interface for the Open Book was extensively described in a review 
published in the January, 1995, Braille Monitor, and the K1000 interface was 
extensively described in a January, 1998, Braille Monitor article. Much of the user-
interface information in these articles is still valid, so I won't go into a lot of detail here. 
These articles also provide good information on the purpose and components in a PC-
based reading system and discuss why a person would want to choose Open Book or 
K1000 over an off-the-shelf OCR package such as OmniPage Pro or Text Bridge. 
Monitor reprints are available from the NFB's Materials Center for $2. You can also find 
them on the NFB's Web site, <http://www.nfb.org>, or on NFB NET, 
<http://www.nfbnet.org>.
     **********
     Speech Engines and Synthesizers
     **********
     Open Book supports a variety of SAPI and SSIL speech synthesizers. K1000 will 
automatically detect any speech engine that is SAPI-version-4 compliant. What does all 
that mean, you might ask? SAPI stands for the Microsoft Speech Application 
Programming Interface and is a standard for speech engines and applications to 
communicate. It provides a common method for a screen reader or a self-voicing 
application to use a speech engine with your sound card. Both IBM ViaVoice Outloud 
and RealSpeak are SAPI-compliant speech engines. K1000 also ships with Lernout 
and Hauspie TTS3000 and FlexTalk from AT&T. However, FlexTalk is a SAPI-version-
3 application and doesn't work well with SAPI version 4 and will not install if you have a 
SAPI-version-4 engine already present.
     Both programs also support the SSIL standard developed by Arkenstone. This 
stands for the Speech Synthesizer Interface Library, a de facto standard used by 
screen review programs and self-voicing applications to communicate with hardware 
synthesizers such as the DEC-Talk, Double Talk, and the like. Because they developed 
it, Open Book supports the full range of synthesizers for which SSIL drivers exist. On 
the other hand, K1000 supports only a few of the most common SSIL synthesizers. 
Unfortunately this did not include my Audapter from Personal Data Systems. Kurzweil 
has mentioned the possibility of additional SSIL support in the past, and I for one would 
like to see it. They did provide me with instructions for interfacing my Audapter with 
their program; however, this process isn't for the faint of heart. You would need either 
to be an experienced computer user or to have the assistance of one.
     Open Book allows you to change speech engines or synthesizers on the fly, but 
you can choose only from the ones you have previously installed. It also allows you to 
set different voices for reading text and menus, as well as choosing a voice for 
emphasized text. While these three voices can be different, they must all be from the 
same synthesizer or speech engine. While K1000 has only two voice choices for 
reading voice and system voice, each of these can use a different speech engine or 
synthesizer.
     **********
     Files
     **********
     The two programs each have their own proprietary file format, with an .ARK 
extension in Open Book's case, and .KES in K1000's. These formats allow you to 
preserve text and bookmarks. Both programs import and export files in a variety of 
formats. Open Book imports its own files, text files, RTF files, HTML documents, and 
Word and WordPerfect files. K1000 imports its own files as well as Word, WordPerfect, 
RTF, HTML, and Grade II Braille files--which it back-translates as it imports them. It 
bases conversion on the file extension, and, if it is unable to determine the proper 
format, it presents you with a list to choose from. This list, as well as the export list, is 
based on any available file converters already on your system. It exports in these 
formats as well as in Microsoft Excel. It will also search your system for any file 
converters you may already have and in my case came up with an additional 150 file 
formats I could save as--many of which I had never heard of.
     K1000's support of Grade II Braille is a useful addition. It has a built-in version of 
NFBTRANS inside itself. As you may remember, the National Federation of the Blind 
put NFBTRANS into the public domain in 1992, and it has gone through improvements 
ever since. K1000 will import and back-translate Grade II files automatically or output to 
a Grade II file or printer. It is easy to print directly to your Braille embosser; all you have 
to do is set up a generic text printer under Windows 95 or 98. It took me about two 
minutes to do so--including finding my Windows 98 CD-ROM. Formatting of documents 
is not perfect; NFBTRANS has little formatting information to base its decisions on. 
However, I found its work adequate for quick and dirty personal use. Open Book, like 
K1000, has the ability to launch another application from within itself, passing text to 
this application. You can use this function to launch a Braille translation program such 
as Mega Dots or the Duxbury Braille Translator. In fact, during its install process Open 
Book can search for launchable applications on your system. On mine it found 
Microsoft Word, Word Pad, and Turbo Braille--a DOS-based Braille translation 
program I sometimes use.
     Open Book supports the Library System it has used for file storage in several 
previous versions of the program through a dialog box off the File Menu. K1000 has a 
complete file-management system, which is a variation of the file tree used in Windows 
Explorer and other programs. It uses a grid of drives, folders, and files, through which 
you navigate with the arrow keys, but dispenses with the "open" and "closed" states 
that Explorer uses. It took me a little while to get used to but worked well once I got the 
hang of it.
     **********
     Scanning Modes
     **********
     Open Book has a wider variety of scanning modes such as Scan and Recognize, 
Batch Scanning, Batch in Background, Express Batch, Express Batch in Background, 
Preview Scan, Orientation Only, and more. Most people will use Scan and Recognize 
or one of the Image/Batch modes if they have an automatic document feeder. The 
Preview Scan is unique to Open Book and scans just the top of a page, facilitating 
identification of a document.
     **********
     K1000 simplifies the process. You can Scan and Recognize text, repeatedly 
scan based on a period of time, and also scan an image and later recognize it. Both 
programs will work with a number of graphics-file formats, including files from a 
computer-based faxing system. We didn't test this capability, although we did test the 
recognition of a regular paper-based fax--read on for the scanning and recognition test 
results.
     **********
     Text Edition
     **********
     Either program allows for the editing of recognized or imported text, either from 
within itself or by calling another application. The use of standard Windows editing 
commands makes this a straightforward task for most experienced users. The presence 
of spell-checking, a dictionary, and a thesaurus in both products makes these programs 
competent editors. They do not have the full feature set of WordPerfect or Microsoft 
Word but will do fine for many basic editing and correction tasks.
     **********
     Bookmarks
     **********
     Both programs allow you to set bookmarks within text. However, for these 
bookmarks to be retained, you must save in each program's proprietary file format. 
K1000 has used bookmarks extensively in its manual file, and they provide a good way 
to navigate. Further, the program has a function that will extract a summary of a 
document based on bookmarks you set or on a list of keywords you assign. With some 
planning and forethought this could be a useful outlining and study tool.
     **********
     Identification of Money
     **********
     If you are like me, occasionally you will be in a store and a clerk will thrust a 
stack of unidentified bills into your hand. You may not have the time to have them 
identified so you can fold them properly. Well, Open Book and K1000 can come to the 
rescue. Both programs contain utilities that will identify paper money. Open Book 
contains Buck Scan, developed by Noel Runyan of Personal Data Systems--a longtime 
Arkenstone dealer and systems integrator; and K1000 contains Money Talks, a utility 
written by Stephen Baum and released into the public domain. Some users have 
reported having problems identifying money. If a bill is excessively worn or wrinkled, 
identification may be difficult or impossible. Open Book also advises you to hold the bill 
on the scanner glass by hand, not to put it on the glass and shut the lid as you would 
do for a regular full-sized document. Because of its small size a bill may move when 
you shut the lid without your knowing it. Buck Scan has the advantage of making 
repeated scans easy, and it works quickly. The K1000 utility works more slowly than 
BuckScan and must be rerun each time you want to identify a bill.
     **********
     Visual Appearance
     **********
     One area that Open Book in particular has concentrated on is visual 
appearance, especially for low-vision users. K1000 has done work in this area too and 
has additional plans for the future. Open Book in Version 5.0 has added a Low-Vision 
menu. It has settings for background, foreground, and cursor color; font style and size; 
and spacing between characters, words, lines, and sentences. The range of choices for 
these settings seems quite broad, giving many low-vision users the flexibility they need 
to customize the display for their use. Open Book will also print text with the display 
settings you choose. It has an "Exact View," which is an image of the paper document, 
not a representation that has been passed through the optical-character-recognition 
process. You can change the size of this view, which may be appealing or useful to 
some users.
     With a couple of exceptions K1000 has not concentrated as heavily on the 
needs of the low-vision user. First, all K1000 dialog boxes are created with a larger font 
than that used by Open Book and other Windows programs. This means that K1000 is 
able to get fewer controls in each dialog box, but their larger size appeals to many low-
vision users. Second, K1000 does have settings to control the color of text, 
background, and highlighting; and you can increase the size of recognized text up to 
eight times. You can have K1000 display text or print text using the fonts and point 
sizes it finds in the original document. You can also have it use one font and increase 
or decrease the size as Open Book does.
     Finally, L&H Kurzweil Educational Systems Group has announced a product 
(which should ship in late September) called MagniReader. This $349 product, which 
will be available free to all K1000 users under warranty, will scan a printed page and 
put its image on your computer screen. MagniReader will have a user interface that is 
designed entirely for the low-vision user. The size of its menu buttons and the number 
of buttons presented on a screen are readily configurable. You will be able to use it to 
scan pages and display them at varying levels of magnification in black and white or in 
color. OCR can be performed, and the text can be read aloud. MagniReader will come 
with the RealSpeak and TTS3000 speech engines. Display options will include smooth-
scrolling Marquis display, magnification of individual words as they are spoken, and 
presentation at varying magnifications of a bitmap of the page or of the recognized text. 
Files cannot be opened or saved, and text cannot be edited. You should think of this 
program more as a CCTV on steroids than as a typical computer-based scanning and 
reading product.
     Stephen Baum, K1000's principal developer, feels strongly that extensions to the 
basic reading product, such as extensive low-vision support, should be offered as add-
ons. They can then be used or ignored at the end user's discretion. This is why 
MagniReader, which was announced at our 2000 convention in Atlanta, will be a 
separate product which can be integrated into K1000. Baum is considering other 
additions to the K1000 product, but final decisions have not yet been made. One 
addition that he feels confident we will see is the ability to export text to other access 
devices such as a Braille 'n Speak, Road Runner, or Braille Note.
     **********
     Refreshable Braille Support
     **********
     Support of refreshable Braille displays, or the lack thereof, is a feature that both 
programs have in common. Neither one directly supports refreshable Braille displays. I 
could get Braille output on my Power Braille at work by putting JFW in sleep mode, not 
unloading it completely, and running either Open Book or K1000. Direct Braille support 
would certainly be a nice addition to either of these programs. Open Book did offer this 
feature at one time and even has a setting to turn off the Spotlight, which they say 
helps with Braille tracking; however, they do not directly support Braille displays without 
a screen-review program.
     **********
     Differences
     **********
     While I have extensively discussed some of the common features shared by 
Open Book and K1000, other features are unique to each program. Probably the most 
notable of these in the new Open Book version, which we haven't discussed yet, is the 
ability to send and receive e-mail. What does this have to do with the scanning and 
reading of text, you might ask? Good question. Jim Fruchterman says that this is one of 
the most common requests Arkenstone has received from its users, even more 
common than surfing the Web. He adds that this capability allows people to send and 
receive e-mail from within a familiar environment.
     **********
     E-mail
     **********
     The mail system is of course not as full-featured as Outlook Express or Eudora 
Pro but should meet most people's needs. It will allow you to send and receive e-mail, 
reply to and forward messages, send and receive file attachments, maintain an address 
book, and send messages to individuals or groups. You can establish different folders 
for mail and move messages into these folders. There is, however, no way to filter or 
move messages into specific folders automatically.
     As an experienced computer and e-mail user I found it easy to set up the e-mail 
system and to send and receive mail. I had no trouble using any of the features after I 
read the instructions.
     The e-mail option seems to be aimed at beginning users who may have trouble 
setting up or using e-mail, but you must have an e-mail account somewhere and an 
Internet Service Provider, ISP, or direct network connection. You must also use Dial Up 
Networking, a program that comes with Windows, to set up your computer for your ISP 
and e-mail account. Open Book will not help you with this process; you will need a 
screen reader or sighted assistance. Once you have a working connection to the 
Internet, you can set up your Open Book e-mail. You will need a little technical 
information like the addresses for your SMPT and POP3 mail servers, but the manual 
explains all of this fairly well.
     **********
     The addition of e-mail in Open Book is an interesting move. On the plus side 
Arkenstone is attempting to meet an expressed need of many of its users. On the minus 
side they are trying to re-invent the wheel to a great extent. A number of very good 
commercial mail packages are on the market, one of which, Outlook Express, comes 
free with Windows. People are likely to request additional features, and this, combined 
with evolving and changing standards for all software, means that there will be 
pressure to maintain and improve the e-mail applet. Also Arkenstone has chosen not to 
deal directly with the whole issue of getting connected to the Internet. However, some 
customers will call for help with this process, so e-mail support may cost the Open 
Book technical support staff dearly in the long run. Also the next logical extension after 
e-mail is Web surfing. However, at some point Open Book with too many features 
would start to cannibalize the market for JAWS for Windows or JFW Lite, which is 
supposed to be released in the near future.
     **********
     Page Layout Description and Navigation
     **********
     Yet another interesting new addition to Open Book version 5 is Page Layout 
Description. In this mode Open Book will tell you about the different layout elements on 
a page, allow you to navigate from element to element, and read the text within a given 
element. The page elements that the system identifies include Columns, Headings, 
Text Blocks, Graphics, Captions, Tables, Headers, and Footers.
     You first need to adjust a few items in the Settings Dialog Box. The manual 
explains this completely. You next scan and recognize a page. Then you can get a 
summary of the layout elements on a page or go into one of two layout-description 
modes. The magazine page which I used in the scanning tests, for example, told me 
that it had eight text blocks, five graphics, four columns, and four headings. The two-
page layout modes are Guided Tour and Explore Layout.
     In the Guided Tour Mode, Open Book automatically takes you from element to 
element, announcing them as you go. You can adjust the speed it uses to move 
through the document. You can stop it at any time, read the text in an element, or go 
into Explore Mode, where you control the movement from element to element. You can 
read or edit text from Explore Mode and jump to Text or Exact View.
     One interesting sidebar of the page layout description features is the way it 
gathers its information. It uses information from two recognition engines, the CAERE 
and FineReader Engines, deciding for each element which engine is the most sure. In 
other words it lets the two engines vote on all decisions. While this adds time to the 
recognition step, it presumably gives you a better picture of what is happening. As 
computer power improves and technology evolves, I can see some of the voting 
techniques being applied to the recognition of text, giving us still more accurate 
documents.
     **********
     Force Feedback Mouse
     **********
     Arkenstone has added a cool new feature to this area of the program. If you 
have a Logitech Wingman force feedback mouse, you can explore the page elements 
tactually. The Wingman, which costs approximately $100, is a mouse that tries to give 
you a feel for things by providing resistance (force feedback) as you move the mouse. It 
consists of a hard plastic mouse-pad-sized device with a mouse permanently affixed to 
its surface. The mouse moves around in about a three-inch square on the surface of 
the hard plastic pad but will not come off. The device connects to your computer by a 
Universal Serial Bus, USB, port and must also be plugged in to electrical power.
     I successfully installed the device on an IBM PL-310 computer but was 
unsuccessful at installing it on my Dell. The computer seemed more prone to crashing 
after this installation, but I did not have enough time to work through all the possible 
issues.
     With the Wingman force feedback mouse connected and the page-description 
features turned on, you can move the mouse around, exploring the page layout 
elements on the page you have just scanned. The field of movement is fairly small, 
somewhat smaller than the total area in which the mouse can be moved around. As you 
move the mouse, you encounter areas of resistance. It could be, for example, a large 
area denoting the edge of the document or a smaller area marking the boundary of a 
column of text. Each layout element--text block, heading, or graphic, for example--is 
supposed to have a unique feel. Also the size of the element and its position in 
relationship to the other elements on the page are reflected in the feedback you 
receive.
     Does it work? Yes and no. I certainly was able to explore the general layout of 
the document. I did get information on relative position and size. However, the tactile 
distinction between different elements was only minimally discernible to me. The 
differences are subtle at best.
     Is this a useful tool? It depends on your needs. I can certainly see that, if you do 
page layout, teach, do demonstrations, or work on layout with sighted people, this 
device might be useful. This is in large part because, once you have navigated to a 
specific element, you can press the left mouse button on the Wingman, and the text 
within that element will be read to you. The Wingman force feedback mouse is an 
interesting first development but one that won't change most people's lives. Like the 
improvements cited above with RealSpeak from L&H, I think we will benefit in the future 
from this work, and I hope that Arkenstone, Benetech, Logitech, and others keep it up.
     **********
     Other Open Book Features
     **********
     Open Book version 5.0 has a number of other new features which we haven't 
discussed, such as the addition of a pronunciation dictionary and an OCR correction 
list. Other improvements such as a third OCR engine, Preview Scan, and the Low-
Vision Menu, have already been discussed. The program has two simple scanning 
settings: Scan for Accuracy and Scan for Speed, which are useful. You can quickly 
make one choice instead of having to change several things. However, overall its most 
important additions, in my opinion, are the inclusion of e-mail support, page layout 
description and navigation, and support of the Logitech Wingman force feedback 
mouse.
     **********
     Unique K1000 Features
     **********
     Like Open Book, the L&H Kurzweil 1000 system has several unique features. 
You can establish both a favorites list for folders and one for files. It is then easy to 
jump to these frequently used areas or files. K1000, as mentioned earlier, has the 
ability to summarize the contents of a document. It does this either by using bookmarks 
you establish yourself or by using keywords you give it. It will also go through a 
document making its best guesses about what is important, presumably based on 
layout. I tried this, but the results were not particularly impressive. It is an interesting 
and potentially useful idea though, and, depending on the document itself, could be 
quite useful.
     Reading tables can be difficult. In version 5.0 K1000 has added settings and 
commands to help with this task. With the proper settings made, K1000 automatically 
identifies tables. A set of commands is available to read within a table, by cell, column, 
row, and the like.
     Support of ZIP files is another unique feature K1000 offers. A ZIP file is a 
compressed version of one or more files. It is a way to store things so that they take up 
less space. Many programs and files are zipped prior to transferring them to another 
computer on-line because the files are smaller and contain multiple files. K1000 will 
treat any ZIP file like a folder, allowing you to look at and manipulate the files within the 
archive. It will also add files to a ZIP file.
     Finally, K1000 comes with some extras. When you purchase the program for the 
first time, you get a CD-ROM with hundreds of electronic books on it. These text files 
are of books that are now in the public domain. Also your K1000 CD-ROM contains a 
folder of extras. This is a collection of DOS and Windows programs, games, and 
utilities, some of which are freeware and some of which are shareware. There are 
plenty of things to play with if you are so inclined, and you may find some useful 
programs there.
     **********
     Scanning Tests
     **********
     Now let's get down to what you have been waiting for: the results of the scanning 
tests. I was no longer able to locate the documents I used in my last tests back in 1995, 
so I came up with a new set of documents, ten in all. These included a laser-printed 
letter; a relatively poor-quality fax; a bad photocopied page; a page from a magazine 
which had multiple columns, graphics, headlines, and color printing; a page from a mail 
order catalog containing graphics and small print; a relatively high-quality newspaper 
page; a paperback book; a hard-cover book; a page from a bank statement; and a one-
dollar bill that I crumpled up.
     While these tests are not exhaustive (they do not test how well the systems 
preserve formatting information, for example), they are practical. The test pages 
represent a cross section of the kinds of documents each of us wants or needs to read. 
For these tests we established a scoring system. We scanned each page and assigned 
the document one of the following five point values, based on where it fell in the 
continuum:
1. Garbage: random characters and indecipherable results.
2. Poor text: mostly garbage with a few understandable words sprinkled randomly 
throughout.
3. Fair text: mostly understandable text, but still a relatively high number of mistakes. 
Familiar or simple text can be followed, but unfamiliar or difficult material or material 
with numbers or computer commands may not be useable.
4. Good text: very understandable results with only a few mistakes; problems may 
occur only with numbers or computer commands and the like.
5. Excellent text: few if any mistakes, no more than one or two per page.
If the results fell between two numbers, half a point was awarded.
     We started with the default settings for each software package and changed 
them only if the results were bad or if there was a specific setting for the type of page 
being scanned (fax or degraded text, for example). So, unless otherwise indicated, 
brightness, contrast, and print style settings are at their default or automatic values for 
all tests.
     To end the suspense, here are the scores: Open Book scored a 44, and K1000 
got a 41.5. Below are the document types, scores for each program, and an 
explanation where necessary.
     **********
DOCUMENT TYPE OPEN BOOK               K1000
Laser printing     5                    5
Fax               3.5                    3
Photocopy          2                    2
Magazine          5                    4
Catalog          5                    4.5
Newspaper          4.5                    4.5
Paperback book     5                    4.5
Hardcover book     5                    5
Bank statement     4                    4
Money          5                    5
     **********
     As you can see, many of the document types scanned identically or nearly so. 
The photocopy and fax were difficult for both programs. I got a somewhat better result 
with the fax on Open Book by switching the document type to typewritten/dot matrix. 
The K1000 made some OCR mistakes and missed a little text on the magazine page, 
which was complex. I turned on dynamic thresholding and changed the document type 
to "Degraded Text." I also used the Automatic-Contrast setting with Open Book. Finally, 
I was able to improve the OCR quality when scanning a hardcover book with K1000 by 
switching to the FineReader engine. Otherwise I used the RTK OCR engine.
     **********
     Scanning Conclusions
     **********
     I urge you not to base your purchasing decision on my scanning scores. The 
scores are for the specific documents I chose only, and more time and experience with 
the software might have yielded better scores for one or both systems. Further, the 
point separation between the two systems is not really very great when you look at the 
overall scores. Both companies have demos available, and I urge you to get the demos 
and try some of your own documents.
     You should also consider other factors including price, special discounts, 
dealers, technical support, what your friends or colleagues use, features, and more. 
We hope that these tests and reviews can give you some guidance, but they won't 
make the final decision for you.
     **********
     Conclusions
     **********
     You would probably like to know which system to buy. I can't tell you. The right 
answer for me isn't necessarily right for you. While I do have access to both programs, 
I would be perfectly happy with either if I had to give one up.
     Open Book has been around a long time and has a loyal following. The company 
made great advances in the PC-based reading market in the early and mid 1990's. 
They seemed to lose some steam for a while, but things have picked up again in the 
past year or so, and they have a competitive product. Arkenstone's acquisition by 
Freedom Scientific is likely to make some difference in the future, although at this time 
it is impossible to know exactly how. Both Arkenstone and Kurzweil have relied on a 
network of dealers. Many dealers sell both products, a practice that many think 
Freedom Scientific will bring to an end. Around the time of this writing, we learned that 
Freedom Scientific has terminated all dealer relationships with HumanWare. Other 
dealers are concerned that they will follow.
     K1000 on the other hand is a newer product, one that has matured quickly and 
nicely. For several years Kurzweil was putting out two upgrades per year. As the 
product has matured and the development team has taken on more projects, this pace 
has slowed somewhat, but the program is still a competitive and feature-rich program.
     Overall, I think K1000 is probably best for beginners. The manual explains 
things in great detail, including scanning and reading concepts and Windows 
commands, and it seems to do a little more hand holding than Open Book. The 
program, for example, most of the time remembers where you left off reading a file 
when you reload it. Depending on your perspective, though, you may find the manual 
long and tedious. It reads more like a reference than a narrative and takes thirty-five 
pages to get to the point of scanning a document. I have previously discussed 
RealSpeak, which you are likely either to love or to hate. Overall, I find K1000 a little 
sluggish in its response to keystrokes, a situation exacerbated by RealSpeak. 
However, the program has a wealth of features and is likely to be able to do almost 
anything you need. I have had good experience with its technical support staff; the 
developers are very accessible by e-mail, and it runs an Internet Mailing List which 
yields good answers. The staff monitors the list and responds quickly. Many 
knowledgeable users also help out. Further, several experienced users who regularly 
work with both K1000 and Open Book tell me that they can more quickly scan and read 
a pile of materials with K1000 than with Open Book.
     In late November we learned that Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products NV has 
filed a chapter 11 petition for reorganization protection under the U.S. bankruptcy code. 
So how does that affect the Kurzweil Educational Systems group, its products, and the 
people who use them?
     The following answer to this question was posted to the K1000 listserv by 
Stephen Baum. "The short answer is that it hasn't. We are all still here at work, and our 
responsibilities and goals have not changed. The engineering group is working on the 
next releases of the Kurzweil 1000, MagniReader, and the Kurzweil 3000. Marketing 
continues to market, sales continues to sell, and all of us continue to assist the 
customer support group in serving our customers. We were acquired by Lernout & 
Hauspie a little over two years ago. The acquisition gave us access to some great 
technology, but in other ways we have changed very little. We are a small, focused, 
and remarkably stable group. We look forward to continuing to make great products 
and to providing excellent support for them."
     It should be noted that a Chapter 11 filing for reorganization is just that, 
protection from creditors while the company reorganizes. It doesn't mean that L&H or 
KESI is going away, but we will have to wait and see what, if anything, it means to 
those of us who use products from Kurzweil.
     It is difficult to judge the Open Book manual from the beta. It was concise and 
seemed to cover all features. What we were provided was entirely in the Help system 
although Arkenstone personnel indicate there will be a separate manual on disk and in 
print. There will also be print, Braille, and a taped command reference. Overall I like the 
design and feel of Open Book. It is fairly responsive with ViaVoice Outloud and has 
good accuracy and a variety of tools and settings to make adjustments. Some of my 
comfort may come from the fact that I have used it longer. We have heard mixed 
reports lately about tech support although my experience over the years has been 
good. Further, technical support and other operations have moved to the Henter-Joyce 
site in Florida, and we don't yet know if this has made or will make any difference.
     Arkenstone also runs a mailing list, and Jim Fruchterman is quite accessible and 
responsive. We haven't seen much participation from other staff members, and 
Freedom Scientific recently posted a message to the list stating that, if you want e-mail 
support, you should write to the <support@hj.com> address. It further said that the list 
would be used for posting announcements, technical support bulletins, and the like. 
Until recently Arkenstone had a toll-free support number. Freedom Scientific has ended 
this to the chagrin of some.
     If you have an e-mail address, joining one or both mailing lists offered by 
Arkenstone or Kurzweil can be a good idea. To join the Open Book list, send e-mail to 
<majordomo@lists.arkenstone.org>. Put the words "subscribe users" in the body of the 
message, without the quotes. To join the K1000 list, send a message to 
<majordomo@kurzweiledu.com>. In the body put "subscribe K1000," without the 
quotes. These lists can be a good place to have questions answered, find out what is 
going on, get suggestions from experienced users and staff, and more. There is also a 
list for discussion of scanning and reading issues which isn't product-specific. It is 
called "scan-talk." To join, send a message to <listserv@topika.com> and put 
"subscribe scan-talk" in the body of the message.
     For assistance with this and other technology considerations, contact the 
National Federation of the Blind's International Braille and Technology Center for the 
Blind. Since they have and use everything commonly available, they can help you sort 
through the issues you need to consider. You can reach them by calling (410) 659-
9314.
     Whether you choose to buy Open Book from Arkenstone or K1000 from L&H 
Kurzweil Educational Systems Group, you can't go wrong. They are both strong, 
competitive products that deliver what they set out to do within the confines of today's 
technology, and they keep getting better.
     **********
     Contact Information
     **********
     Freedom Scientific Blind/Low Vision Group, Arkenstone Division, 11800 31st 
Court North, St. Petersburg, Florida 33716, Sales: (800) 444-4443 (U.S. and Canada), 
Phone: (727) 803-8000, Technical Support: (727) 803-8600, FAX: (727) 803-8001, 
TDD: (800) 444-4443, e-mail: <info@hj.com>, Web: <http://www.arkenstone.org>, 
Price: $995, Competitive Upgrade: $500
     Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products, Kurzweil Educational Systems Group, 52 
Third Avenue, Burlington, Massachusetts 01803, Phone: (781) 203-5000, toll free: 
(800) 894-5374, sales: either of the above numbers at extension 5037 or 5359, 
technical support: (800) 995-9905, fax: (781) 203-5033, Web site: 
<http//www.LHSL.com/kurzweil1000/>, price: $995 ($1,195 with DECtalk Access32), 
competitive discount: $595 ($795 with DECtalk Access32)
     **********
     **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Zach Battles]
     NFB Scholarship Winner Named Rhodes Scholar
     **********
     From the Editor: Zach Battles was a 2000 NFB Scholarship winner. He's a 
quiet guy, but those who know him say he is funny, lively, and interesting. He is 
also very smart. This year he will finish undergraduate majors in computer 
science and math and a master's in computer science. The 2001 Rhodes Scholars 
were named on December 10, and Zach's name was on the list. Here is the article 
that appeared on December 12 in the Philadelphia Inquirer:
     **********
     Rhodes Scholar's Blindness Gave Him a Will to Succeed
     by Ralph Vigoda
     **********
     Zachary J. Battles has ambition, guts, and an extraordinary brain. He is a math 
and computer whiz, loves the theater, and he leaves tomorrow for a second stint 
teaching English in Ukraine. He is also blind.
     Without sight almost since birth and adopted from a South Korean orphanage 
when he was four, Battles, a twenty-one-year-old senior at Pennsylvania State 
University, has spent his life proving that a lack of sight need not be a deterrent. On 
Saturday the latest affirmation came when he was named one of thirty-two Rhodes 
Scholars, earning one of the most prestigious academic fellowships in the world.
     Next summer he will go to Oxford, England, where he will spend at least two 
years pursuing a doctorate in numerical analysis.
     He expects to graduate from Penn State in spring, 2001, with three degrees: a 
bachelor's in math, and a bachelor's and master's in computer science. And a minor in 
French.
     Taking six to seven courses a semester, he has maintained a near-perfect 
grade-point average.
     "I've always wanted to go to Oxford," said Battles, whose family lives in State 
College, a few blocks from campus. "This is just one of the ways of getting there. But I 
didn't focus on aiming for a Rhodes, because they're so difficult to get."
     The winners, officially announced Sunday, came from 950 applicants 
nationwide. Battles learned of his selection Saturday, after being interviewed in New 
York City by a nine-member Rhodes board.
     Three of the thirty-two scholars are from Pennsylvania, the most from any one 
state. They are Battles; Seth A. Bodnar of Franklin, who attends the U.S. Military 
Academy; and Brandon Miller of Mohrsville, a student at Princeton University.
     The University of Pennsylvania's Lipika Goyal of Scotch Plains, North Jersey, 
and Thomas M. Pallathy of Newark, Delaware, and the University of Delaware, also 
were selected.
     Applying for the Rhodes was actually an afterthought for Battles, said Mary 
Gage, who coordinates undergraduate fellowships at Penn State. Battles came to her 
after the school already had decided on its nominees. She told him he might want to 
apply next year.
     "But I thought about it overnight and told him to try for it," she said. "When you 
look at what he's done to get there, he has to be looked at as a campus phenomenon."
     Battles was adopted by Richard and Barbara Battles, becoming part of a family 
that eventually would grow to eighteen children--fifteen of them adopted--who now 
range in age from five to thirty-one.
     "We saw right away how bright he was," said Barbara Battles. "I worked with him 
part of each day, because we wanted to mainstream him into the school district, not 
send him to a special school. He learned Braille way before he started school."
     His academic prowess was evident early on, and he thrived on challenges, his 
teachers say. After graduating from State College High School in 1997, he entered 
Penn State's Schreyer Honors College.
     "He's been a very dedicated and committed scholar for many years," said Cheryl 
Achtenberg, the dean of Schreyer. "He has a tremendous power of concentration, so 
he can pick up different things very quickly. Usually you only have to show him how to 
do something once, and he has learned it forever.
     "And he fends very well for himself. He doesn't lean on people to help him at all. 
He was well-known in school, well-liked, and an inspiration for anyone who's 
acquainted with him."
     Battles said his blindness--it is caused by the rare genetic eye disorder Leber's 
congenital amaurosis--played a part in his drive to prove nothing could hold him back.
     "Every blind individual has a responsibility to show everyone else that they are 
just as capable of doing things," Battles said.
     He has designed teaching tools for the blind. Last year he was part of an 
international delegation that traveled to Costa Rica to exchange ideas with disabled 
residents of that country. Besides returning to Ukraine, he plans to take a two-week 
course in theater in London during his winter break before beginning the spring 
semester at Penn State.
     "I've grown up loving the theater and wanted to expand my horizons," Battles 
said.
     He is not sure whether he eventually will teach or continue with his research. He 
is sure he wants to continue to work with the disabled.
     "There are different paths I can take," Battles said. "I'm just willing to help, 
however and whenever I can."
     **********
     **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: A view of a racing scull on the Schuylkill River with Boathouse 
Row visible in the background]
[PHOTO/CAPTION: The Philadelphia Museum of Art with the old Fairmount Water 
Works in the foreground on the Schuylkill River]
     The Philadelphia Story: Chapter Two
     by Suzanne Waters and Jim Antonacci
     **********
     From the Editor: Here is the second instalment of useful information about 
Philadelphia. Read about the city where the sixty-first convention of the National 
Federation of the Blind will take place July 1 to 7, 2001. Jim Antonacci, President 
of the host affiliate, joined Sue Waters in compiling this cornucopia of 
information for your enjoyment and instruction.
     **********
     In the January issue we introduced you to Pennsylvania, the Keystone State, 
and to Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love and host of the 2001 Convention of the 
National Federation of the Blind. We provided a teaspoon of history and a dash of what 
the future holds for our city. In this issue we will highlight some of Philadelphia's most 
famous and distinctive sites and let you in on a few secrets we share only with our best 
friends. Sit back and enjoy another taste of Philadelphia!
     Although 400 years have seen a great deal of expansion, there are still places 
where you can walk on the original cobblestones traversed by Washington and 
Jefferson and see the places where the seeds of democracy were sown. Even though 
we have been careful to preserve those areas in which our richest heritage abounds, 
we have also been able to grow to the fifth largest city in the United States and the 
second largest city on the East Coast.
     Philadelphia reigns as the cradle of independence since it was the place where 
the First and Second Continental Congresses were held, where the Declaration of 
Independence was first read, and where the Constitution was written. Perhaps the most 
acclaimed symbol of our country's independence is the Liberty Bell, which rang out for 
all of the City of Brotherly Love to hear on July 8, 1776, to summon the people to hear 
John Nixon read the Declaration of Independence aloud for the first time. Much had 
occurred prior to this date, however, concerning this icon of freedom. The bell was 
ordered by the Pennsylvania Assembly in 1751 to commemorate the fifty-year 
anniversary of William Penn's 1701 Charter of Privileges. This charter, which was 
Pennsylvania's original Constitution, was very progressive, addressing issues of 
religious freedom, citizen participation in enacting laws, and Native-American rights. 
Inscribed on the bell are the following quotations:
"Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof,"
"Lev. XXV X"
"By order of the Assembly of the Province of Pensylvania for the State House in 
Philada,"
and, centered on the bell, the words, "Pass and Stow Philada  MDCCLIII."
(Notice the Spelling of Pennsylvania. In those days there was still controversy 
concerning how the Keystone State's name should be written.)
     The bell was ordered from Whitechapel Foundry, arriving on September 1, 1752. 
It was not hung, however, until March 10, 1753, when the crack was first discovered. 
Although no one could say with certainty why the crack had appeared, it was thought to 
have been a result of either a flaw in the bell's casting or the brittleness of the metal. In 
an attempt to remedy the problem, John Pass and John Stow, two local foundry 
workers, were commissioned to melt down and recast the bell. The new bell was raised 
on March 19, 1753, but those who heard its ring were still dissatisfied. A second try at 
recasting yielded more disappointing results. As a consequence the Whitechapel 
Foundry cast a new bell, which garnered results that did not please the citizens any 
more than had the original bell. Therefore the old bell remained in the State House 
steeple, and the new one was placed in the cupola on the State House Roof and 
attached to the clock to sound the hour.
     The citizens' lukewarm attitude toward the bell's tonal quality did not prevent 
them from ringing it on many significant occasions. It tolled when Benjamin Franklin 
went to England to voice Colonial grievances, when King George III ascended to the 
throne in 1761, and when Philadelphians had to be called together to discuss the 
Sugar Act in 1764 and the Stamp Act in 1765. In 1772 residents sent a petition to the 
State Assembly stating that people in the bell's vicinity were "incommoded and 
distressed by the constant ringing of the great Bell in the steeple." Yet the bell was 
rung for the First Continental Congress in 1774; the Battle of Lexington and Concord in 
1775; and, in its finest hour, on July 8, 1776, for the reading of the Declaration of 
Independence. In the fall of 1777 the bell was transported to Allentown, Pennsylvania, 
in order to protect it from the danger of being melted down and recast as a cannon by 
the British.
     During the ten years in which Philadelphia was the nation's capital, the Liberty 
Bell was rung to call the State Legislature into session, to summon citizens to hand in 
ballots, and to commemorate Washington's Birthday and Independence Day. In the first 
part of the nineteenth century, the bell was used by the Abolitionist Movement as a 
symbol of their abhorrence of slavery. It traveled to many cities beginning in the 1880's, 
and its new permanent home in the Liberty Bell Pavilion was constructed for the 
bicentennial celebration in 1976.
     Each Independence Day the Liberty Bell is symbolically tapped in unison with 
bells throughout the country in celebration of our freedom. You might want to stop at 
the visitors' center in Independence National Park at 5th and Chestnut Streets to see a 
short movie about our heritage and pick up information about the area. Independence 
Hall and the Liberty Bell are at the same intersection.
     You will find that the Philadelphia of Ben Franklin and the other founding fathers 
coexists happily with the businesses and shops of today. You can take a carriage ride 
around town or explore gardens maintained by the Horticultural Society at your own 
pace. Don't forget the U.S. Mint, which operates around the clock, seven days a week, 
producing the coins in your pocket, or Old Christ Church, which has held services 
continuously since colonial times.
     Boathouse Row is an area on the east bank of the Schuylkill River just past the 
Museum of Art. Aside from storing racing sculls for local colleges and racing clubs, 
these picturesque buildings paint serene images as their lights reflect off the surface of 
the river. Two major regattas are held on the river every year.
     Philadelphia's City Hall is only one block from the Marriott Hotel. It is the largest 
and most elaborate city hall in the country, featuring a 548-foot tower topped by a 37-
foot bronze statue of William Penn. It is open to visitors.
     Reading Constitutions, ringing bells, and rubbing shoulders with our nation's 
history can't be done long without another essential part of Philadelphia: food, of 
course. And no one does food better than the historic Reading Terminal Market. 
Located at 12th and Arch Streets, just a block from the Marriott Hotel, the market is a 
must-see for those who want to pay homage to history or for those who just want a 
terrific selection of delicious edibles.
     For those who fall into the first category, here's a brief history. The market 
opened on January 29, 1893, and area farmers came by train to sell their produce in 
the city. It is the only single-span train shed still standing in the U.S. About eighty 
thousand people visit the market each week to purchase fresh produce, spices, dairy 
products, flowers, arts and crafts, and many other gift items. The Reading Terminal 
Market got its name from the railroad which operated trains from this building until 
1976. Since the railroad went bankrupt, the building has been renovated, although 
many of the historic stands are still in evidence. Three of them are operated by direct 
descendants of the original owners. The market is also a great place to get a taste of 
the Amish and Pennsylvania Dutch foods produced in the more rural parts of our state.
     Once you're fortified with a good meal from the market or any of the 200 or so 
restaurants and shops in the immediate neighborhood of the Marriott, why not visit 
some of the places which contribute to Philadelphia's reputation as a world-class center 
of culture? If you or your kids love dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures generally, the 
Academy of Natural Sciences, located at 19th Street and the Benjamin Franklin 
Parkway, gives you an opportunity to dig for fossils and features many other exhibits 
focusing on the environment and diverse species. It is the oldest continuously 
operating institution of its kind in America.
     You might visit the home of Betsy Ross at 239 Arch Street, where the woman 
rumored to have designed and made the first U.S. flag lived. Or how about seeing the 
home where Edgar Allan Poe, celebrated horror, suspense, and detective-story author, 
resided from 1843 to 1844? The house is located at 532 N. 7th Street.
      The Philadelphia Museum of Art, located at 26th Street and the Benjamin 
Franklin Parkway, is one of the five best in the world and displays decorative art from 
Europe, Asia, and North America from the past 2000 years. Admission is free before 
1:00 p.m. on Sundays. When you're done viewing the paintings, sculpture, drawings, 
furniture, and glassware, why not have someone snap a photograph of you running up 
the Art Museum's steps, just like Rocky did in the film of the same name? And if you 
have a hankering to examine sculpture up close, visit the Rodin Museum at 22nd Street 
and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, which contains the largest exhibition of Rodin's 
work outside Paris. Admission is free.
     Want to have fun while learning about science at the same time? the Franklin 
Institute is for you. Included are the Fels Planetarium, a large IMAX theater, and a laser 
show. It is located at 20th and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
     The Gallery is a multi-level shopping mall which stretches between 8th and 11th 
Streets and Market and Filbert Streets. An extensive food court is on the lower level as 
well as access to Philadelphia's subway and regional rail system.
     Just a short trip south of the hotel on 9th Street between Wharton and Christian 
Streets, you can visit the Italian Market, the area made famous in those Rocky movies. 
Shops and pushcart merchants line the street. Here you can purchase anything 
necessary for a true Italian feast.
     No visit to Philadelphia would be complete without a taste of that South Philly 
delicacy known as the cheesesteak. At the intersection of 9th Street and Passyunk 
Avenue, Pat's Steaks opened for business in 1930 and since 1966 has been 
challenged by Geno's Steaks, across the street. Why not sample both and determine 
for yourself which is better?
     Stretching south from Spring Garden Street along the Delaware River is Penn's 
Landing, which has hosted many concerts and festivals. The Maritime Museum is 
located here as well as the Flagship "Olympia" and a World War II submarine you can 
tour. The Philadelphia Zoo is our nation's first zoo, a forty-two-acre Victorian garden 
which is home to over 2,000 animals.
     Rittenhouse Square runs between 17th and 19th Streets and Walnut and Locust 
Streets. It is the site of some of the ritziest shops this side of 5th Avenue. There are 
classic boutiques such as Ann Taylor, Banana Republic, Jones of New York, and 
Urban Outfitters. The area is a shopper's paradise. South Street, Philadelphia's answer 
to Greenwich Village, really comes alive at night. You will find it just seven blocks south 
of the Marriott Hotel, between Front and 7th Streets. Browse the many shops or enjoy 
restaurants, bars, and cafes.
     So that you won't feel out of place upon arrival in Philadelphia, here is a list of 
terms you will want to study so you can understand the local language.
Black and white shake: A milk shake made with chocolate syrup and vanilla ice cream.
Downashore: That area of the southern New Jersey coastline which includes Atlantic 
City. Since these areas are generally south of Philadelphia, one would travel down the 
shore to get to them.
Hoagie: The name given to a sandwich having its origins in Philadelphia during the 
early 1900's. During the excavation to build the tunnels for the extensive city subway 
system, the earth which was removed was transported to Hog Island and dumped. This 
heavy, physical labor was performed mostly by European immigrants who became 
known as "hoggies." Their typical lunch was a large piece of bread sliced lengthwise 
stuffed with many different meats and cheeses. Tomato, lettuce, onions, oil, oregano, 
and hot peppers could also be added.
Parkway: The short name for the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, which runs on a diagonal 
between 15th and 26th Streets. It was modeled after the Champs Elysees in Paris.
Phils: The Philadelphia Phillies National League baseball team. It is one of the few 
teams still playing in the city where they began over 100 years ago. The schedule 
shows them playing the Florida Marlins on the evening of June 30.
Scrapple: Neck meat and other scraps of pork ground and boiled, to which cornmeal 
(as thickening) and spices are added. After cooling in a small loaf pan, it is sliced, deep 
fried, and eaten as a delightful breakfast treat.
Soft pretzel: A piece of dough about a half-inch in diameter which has been formed into 
the shape of a pretzel and boiled in salt water and then baked slightly. Coarse salt is 
usually sprinkled on them after boiling. They are best eaten warm, and gourmets prefer 
mustard on top.
Steak sandwich: frozen steak sliced thin, fried in oil, and placed in a large Italian roll 
sliced lengthwise. Additional toppings, some of which are usually fried with the steak, 
are onions, green peppers, mushrooms, tomato sauce, or cheese. When cheese is 
added, the sandwich is referred to as a "cheesesteak."
Tastykake: A brand of snack cakes and pies indigenous to Philadelphia. These can 
also be used as a form of barter when traveling around the country and encountering 
people from Philadelphia. Relatives who visit Philadelphia natives now residing outside 
of the local area are always encouraged to bring Tastykakes with them.
Yo: When used to initiate a conversation with a Philadelphian, this greeting can mean 
"Hello! How are you today?" If used as an initial response, it can mean "I am fine. How 
are you?"
     Whether it's a healthy dose of history, a great meal, terrific cultural spots, or 
learning to speak the language, we have it all in Philadelphia. The only person we're 
waiting for is you. Come explore our city, discover America's roots, and be a part of our 
future. We can't wait to see you in July. Make your reservation today. Consult the first 
page of this issue for details.
     **********
     **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Seth Leblond]
     Rights, Life,
     And Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches
     by Seth Leblond
     **********
     From the Editor: Seth Leblond is a freshman at Goucher College. He was a 
2000 NFB Scholarship winner, and he is the son of longtime Federation leaders 
Connie and Bob Leblond. At the parents seminar last summer in Atlanta Seth 
took part in a panel presentation by blind young people of various ages. His 
remarks were very much to the point and contained excellent advice for all 
parents, but particularly for the parents of blind children. This is what he said:
     **********
     Freedom, Rights, Responsibilities: these are three concepts with which all 
children must inevitably become familiar before they may properly enter the world of 
adulthood as contributing members of society. It is natural for anybody to assume that, 
since parents are the primary caregivers to their children, parents should be 
responsible for teaching their children about these basic concepts. But we live in a 
world in which a good many professionals in the field of work with the blind believe that, 
since they have been "specially trained" to work with blind children, they are better 
equipped to raise them than their own parents. Many of them are kind, compassionate, 
intelligent individuals. Nearly all of them mean well. But all of the courses they may 
have taken, all of the books they may have read, and all of the warmth they may feel 
are no substitute for parenting.
     Several years ago I attended a seminar for parents of blind children in 
Massachusetts. During the course of the meeting, a panel of parents and a 
professional or two in the field of work with the blind assembled to discuss raising blind 
children. After the members of the panel had made brief speeches, the members of the 
audience began asking questions. One woman raised her hand and asked in a 
somewhat frightened voice, "Who's going to teach my son how to make a peanut butter 
and jelly sandwich?"
     I had consciously to keep myself from laughing as I recalled my own first foray 
into the world of culinary arts, which was, coincidentally, the making of peanut butter 
and jelly sandwiches. I could practically see my mother hovering over my shoulder, 
watching as I flailed my knife around, trying to transfer the sticky peanut butter from the 
dull blade onto the bread. I remembered her calm voice, filled with amusement, telling 
me that I would have to clean up the enormous mess I had managed to make all over 
the counters and cupboards of the kitchen. I remembered painstakingly cleaning up 
that mess. I remembered how good my peanut butter and jelly sandwich tasted when I 
finally seated myself and began to eat. I fairly beamed with pride when my mother 
calmly informed the scared mother at the seminar that she should be the one to teach 
her son how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
     As I got older, I came to realize that life itself is really much like cooking. Nobody 
in this world lives a perfect life. People, by their very nature, make mistakes, regardless 
of their background or circumstances. Sometimes we even make enormous messes of 
things. But it is the way we as individuals deal with our mistakes and clean up our 
messes that defines us as human beings.
     In my experience people often exhibit a strong tendency to make mistakes and 
then try to place as much blame on factors outside their control as possible, thus 
diminishing or eliminating the blame due themselves. Since a good portion of the public 
does not understand blindness in and of itself, it is often extremely easy for us to blame 
certain of our errors or objectionable actions on our lack of eyesight.
     In the spring of 1997 I received a letter from a friend that illustrates the tendency 
of many sighted members of the public to allow us to do just that. The person who 
wrote the letter, having been stopped by some friends in the hall of her school, arrived 
a few minutes late for a class. Ordinarily, this would have been an offense warranting 
detention at the school in question. However, the teacher informed my friend that she 
would not, in fact, have to spend any of her time staying after school. Since she was 
blind, he told her, he could understand why she might be late for class as a matter of 
course. He would simply overlook the incident. Being a responsible individual, 
however, my friend told him that she wanted to serve her detention because that is 
exactly what was expected of her peers. The teacher couldn't understand, but he let her 
stay after school at her insistence.
     I keep the letter describing this anecdote where I can easily find and read it. It 
serves as a reminder to me that the blind of the world may never receive equal 
treatment in society unless we also accept equal responsibility in society. It also serves 
as a reminder to me that I have at least one truly great and responsible friend.
     The question some might ask is, "What's in it for us?" We as blind citizens 
clearly have certain responsibilities in society, but what are all these rights I mention? 
Perhaps Jefferson said it most succinctly at the beginning of the Declaration of 
Independence when he wrote that "All men are created equal" and are endowed with 
certain rights such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Most of us are all too 
familiar with the stories of blind people denied employment solely because of 
blindness. We have seen agencies for the blind deliberately try to keep blind clients 
from choosing their own destiny. The more responsibilities we take, the more quickly 
will we, the blind of America and of the world, achieve true equality in society. The 
more we do to help ourselves, the more clearly will the public recognize our potential. 
As we assert our voices, those few who still seek to repress us will realize that we are 
not wrong when we say that we are their equals.
     So what of your children? What can you tell them? Tell them that they are 
responsible for dealing with their own mistakes as best they can. Tell them that, 
whenever they can, they ought to take the responsibility to educate the public about the 
true abilities of the blind. Tell them to share what they learn about doing this with their 
colleagues and their children. And, when they make their first peanut butter and jelly 
sandwiches, make sure they clean up the mess.
     **********
     **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Charlie Brown]
     Asking for It
     by Charlie Brown
     **********
     From the Editor: Charlie Brown is President of the National Federation of 
the Blind of Virginia and a member of the NFB Board of Directors. He is also now 
a capital campaign volunteer. This is what he says about his experience:
     **********
     I'm not much of a salesman. Sure, I've sold my share of candy, raffle tickets, and 
the like. I've even signed up an occasional Associate for the Federation. But if I had to 
make my living in sales, I'd be in tough shape. So about a year ago I had serious 
worries about how I could bring myself to ask people to make sizable gifts to our capital 
campaign--the Campaign to Change What It Means To Be Blind. Wouldn't it be difficult 
(even embarrassing) to ask close friends? How could I summon up the nerve to ask 
perfect strangers? If I was afraid to ask friends and strangers to contribute, who else 
was left for me to ask?
     I was absolutely convinced that we need to build the National Research and 
Training Institute for the Blind. I also knew that Dr. Maurer was right that we should not 
ask others to contribute if we were not prepared to give ourselves. My wife Jacki and I 
had made our own five-year pledge. Still I worried about how to ask others.
     The Federation training session I attended certainly helped. Fortunately I also 
had the opportunity to spend time with Vince Connelly, who is working with us on the 
campaign. He's a bright young man, and he definitely knows what he's doing. Basically 
we drove around asking people for money. Contrary to my expectations, I actually had 
fun doing it. Mr. Connelly and I also talked about football, politics, careers, cars, dogs, 
etc.
     Mr. Connelly always says that the main reason a person gives to a capital 
campaign is that someone asks him or her to give. If we don't ask people to give, they 
almost certainly won't. I was amazed that Mr. Connelly and I actually had the nerve to 
sit down with folks and ask them to pledge large amounts of money to the campaign. I 
had to pinch myself--was I really doing this?
     So what was the worst thing that happened? Some folks said no. I thought that 
would be tough, but it really wasn't. After all, we got no less from them than we would 
have if we had not asked them to give.
     No matter what, Mr. Connelly was cheerful, and a lot of that rubbed off on me. 
We also had some very satisfying visits. We answered folks' questions about the 
proposed Institute. We explained how people could structure gifts over an extended 
period. We got to know folks better; and, yes, we raised some much-needed funds. 
Surprisingly, I enjoyed asking friends to give.
     This experience also emboldened me to ask some folks on my own. For 
instance, I asked a family member if he'd consider making a gift. He'd given us some 
money here and there in the past, but he was not a regular financial supporter. So 
imagine my surprise when he agreed on the spot to give the campaign more than 
$10,000. In his case stocks were involved, and Dr. Zaborowski of our National Office 
made sure that the shares were successfully transferred.
     Friends and family are one thing, but I've also begun to ask for money from 
strangers--although nobody is really a stranger. I try to get mutual friends or 
acquaintances to help me introduce our campaign. Again people have said no, but that 
no longer bothers me much. After all, they're just missing out on an opportunity to 
support something truly worthwhile.
     As important as it is to raise funds for our campaign, I've learned that I have 
received other, unanticipated benefits from being a campaign volunteer. I've had the 
chance to meet and get to know Mr. Connelly and learn a lot from him. I've also had the 
opportunity to spend time in serious conversation with long-time colleagues. 
Sometimes we Federationists spend so much time on day-to-day Federation business 
that we don't take enough time to talk about the most important business of the 
Federation--our hopes and dreams for the future. The campaign has given me the 
opportunity to do just that. It has also given me the opportunity to introduce a few 
corporate leaders and others to our movement. Yes, I'm now convinced that we will 
build the new Research and Training Institute, but in the process of doing so we can do 
even more for our cause.
     **********
     **********
     **********
     Have you made your campaign pledge yet? We need everyone's help. The 
construction cost of our projected National Research and Training Institute for the Blind 
is eighteen million dollars. Please take this opportunity to complete your pledge form. 
Without you our job will be just that much harder.
     **********
     The Campaign To Change What It Means To Be Blind
     Capital Campaign Pledge Intention
     **********
Name:_______________________________________
Home Address:_______________________________
City, State, and Zip:_______________________
Home Phone: Work Phone:_____________________
E-mail address:_____________________________
Employer:___________________________________
Work Address:_______________________________
City, State, Zip:___________________________
     **********
     To support the priorities of the Campaign, I (we) pledge the sum of 
$___________.
     **********
     My (our) pledge will be payable in installments of $ __________ over the next 
____ years (we encourage pledges paid over five years), beginning _____________, 
on the following schedule (check one): __ annually, __ semi-annually, __ quarterly, __ 
monthly
     I (we) have enclosed a down payment of $ ________________
___ Gift of stock: _____________________ shares of _____________
___ My employer will match my gift.
     Please list (my) our names in all Campaign Reports and on the Campaign Wall 
of Honor in the appropriate Giving Circle as follows:
__ I (We) wish to remain anonymous.
Signed: ________________________________ Date: __________________
     **********
     **********
     **********
     Recipes
     **********
     This month's recipes come from leaders of the NFB of Georgia.
     **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: McArthur Jarrett]
     Cinnamon Crumb Cake
     by McArthur Jarrett
     **********
     McArthur Jarrett is the President of the National Federation of the Blind of 
Georgia and President of the Chatham County Chapter.
     **********
Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup chilled stick margarine (half a stick), cut into small pieces
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
Cooking spray
     **********
     Method: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. To measure flour, lightly spoon it into dry 
measuring cup and level with a knife. Combine flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt 
in a bowl. Cut in margarine using a pastry blender or two knives used scissor-fashion. 
Reserve 1/2 cup flour mixture for topping, and set aside.
     Combine remaining flour mixture with baking powder and baking soda and add 
the buttermilk, vanilla, and egg. Beat with electric mixer at medium speed until blended. 
Spoon batter into an 8-inch round cake pan coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle 
reserved 1/2 cup flour mixture over batter. Bake at 350 for thirty minutes or until cake 
springs back when touched lightly in center. Remove to rack to cool.
     **********
     **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Wayne High]
     Banana Split Cake
     by Wayne High
     **********
     Wayne High is First Vice President of the NFB of Georgia and President of 
the Decatur Area Chapter.
     **********
Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (3 medium)
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup shortening
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups sweetened whipped cream
1 cup sliced fresh strawberries
1 8-1/4 ounce can crushed pineapple, well drained
1 11- to 12-ounce jar fudge ice-cream topping
1/2 cup chopped pecans
     **********
     Method: Grease and flour two 9-by-1-1/2-inch round baking pans and set aside. 
In a large mixing bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add 
banana, buttermilk, shortening, eggs, and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer on low 
speed till ingredients are combined. Then beat on medium speed for three more 
minutes. Pour into prepared pans. Bake at 350 degrees for thirty minutes or until 
wooden toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. For best results, cool on wire 
rack.
     To serve, divide whipped cream or dessert topping in half. Fold berries into half 
of the whipped cream and drained pineapple into the other half. In a small saucepan, 
stirring constantly, heat fudge ice-cream topping over low heat just until warm, not hot. 
Using a serrated knife, split each cake layer in half horizontally. Place bottom of one 
split layer on a serving plate. Top with the strawberry-cream mixture, spreading to edge 
of cake layer. Place other half of cake layer atop. Spread with half of the warm fudge 
topping, letting it drizzle down the sides. Sprinkle with half of the nuts. Place the bottom 
of the other split cake layer on top, split side up. Spread with the pineapple cream 
mixture. Top with remaining split cake layer, split side down. Spread remaining warm 
fudge topping over top surface of cake, letting some of it drizzle down the sides. 
Sprinkle top of cake with remaining nuts. Serve immediately, or cover with loosely fitted 
plastic wrap and chill till ready to serve.
     **********
     **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Max Parker]
     Carrot Cake
     by Max Parker
     **********
     Max Parker is the Second Vice President of the NFB of Georgia and President of 
the Southwest Chapter.
     **********
Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole-wheat flour
2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
6 egg whites
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
8-ounce can crushed pineapple, undrained
2 cups coarsely shredded carrots
2/3 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup raisins
1 3/4 cups light cream cheese frosting
     **********
     Method: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray a 13-by-9-by-2-inch baking 
pan with no-stick spray. Set the pan aside. In a large bowl stir together the all-purpose 
flour, whole-wheat flour, cinnamon, baking soda, nutmeg, and cloves. Set aside. In 
another large bowl beat the egg whites with clean, dry beaters until soft peaks form. 
Slowly beat in the sugar. Then slowly beat in the applesauce, buttermilk, and vanilla. 
With spoon gently fold in the flour mixture, until just combined. Then, stirring in one 
ingredient at a time, fold in the crushed pineapple, carrots, raisins, and walnuts. Spread 
the batter in the prepared pan. Cook fifty minutes. Cool completely, then frost.
     **********
     **********
     Apple Spice Cake
     by Stephanie Scott
     **********
     Stephanie Scott is the Secretary of the NFB of Georgia and President of the 
South Fulton Chapter.
     **********
Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups sugar, divided
1/2 cup stick margarine, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 ounces block-style fat-free cream cheese, softened (about 3/4 cup)
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 cups chopped, peeled Rome apples (about 2 large)
Cooking spray
     **********
     Method: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat 1 1/2 cups sugar, margarine, 
vanilla, and cream cheese at medium speed in an electric mixer until well blended. Add 
eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine flour, baking powder, 
and salt. Add flour mixture to cream cheese mixture, beating at low speed until 
blended. Combine 1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon. Combine two tablespoons of the 
cinnamon mixture with the apples in a bowl, and stir apple mixture into batter. Pour 
batter into an 8-inch springform pan coated with cooking spray, and sprinkle with 
remaining cinnamon sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for one hour and fifteen minutes. 
Cake is done when a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on rack. 
Remove side of springform pan shortly after cooling begins.
     **********
     **********
     Just Dip It
     by Stephanie Scott
     **********
Ingredients:
2 pounds ground chuck (may substitute ground turkey)
1 pound Mexican Mild Velveeta cheese
1 can Pace Picante, medium salsa
     **********
     Method: Brown ground chuck or turkey. Cut Velveeta cheese into slices. 
Combine picante salsa, beef, and cheese in bowl. Place bowl in microwave oven for 
ten minutes. Note: stop microwave every two minutes to stir. Enjoy.
     **********
     **********
     Monitor Miniatures
     **********
2001 Convention Scholarships Available:
     Allen Harris, Chairman of the NFB's Jernigan Fund Committee, writes to 
announce the criteria for the 2001 Kenneth Jernigan Philadelphia Convention 
Scholarships. The following factors will be considered when awarding these twelve 
convention scholarships:
*Previous convention attendance (preference given to first-time attendees)
*Activity at the local, state, or national level
*Recommendation from the state president (formal letter not required; we will contact 
him or her)
*Amount of assistance requested
*Other sources of funding sought
     **********
     When applying for a convention scholarship, please write a brief paragraph 
about why you wish to attend the convention. Submit your application letter and 
statement to Allen Harris, 4 1/2 Garden Alley, Albany, New York 12210 by April 15, 
2001. Recipients will be notified on or about June 1. If you have questions about this 
program, call Allen Harris at (518) 436-7867.
     **********
Win an Expense-Paid Trip to the 2002 Convention in Louisville:
     The Jernigan Fund Committee will conduct a drawing again this year for a lucky 
pair of people to attend the 2002 convention with all expenses paid! A limited number 
of tickets will be in the hands of state presidents and ready for sale by April 1. Don 
Morris is chairing the Drawing Committee this year. Questions may be directed to him 
at 16547 Old Emmitsburg Road, Emmitsburg, Maryland 21727-8927, phone (301) 447-
6380 The drawing will take place during the banquet on July 6 in Philadelphia. You 
need not be present to win.
     **********
Three New Magazines to Be Recorded:
     We have been asked to carry the following announcement:
     Associated Services for the Blind announces that it is adding three more 
magazines to its inventory of recorded magazines: the Family Handyman, the Oprah 
Magazine, and monthly selections from the New Yorker magazine. Each magazine will 
be $36 per year. To add your name to the list, contact Recorded Periodicals, 
Associated Services for the Blind, 919 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 
19107, or call (215) 627-0600, extension 3206.
     **********
For Sale:
     Zoomtext V.5 screen magnification for computer plus WordPerfect in a Compaq 
486 computer with monitor and keyboard, mouse, and manuals. Asking $400. Call 
Steve Waltke at (517) 347-7046.
     **********
Elected:
     The St. Louis Chapter of the NFB of Missouri announces its new officers. They 
are Rhonda Dycus, President; Loretta Boavidez, Vice President; Kathy McCracken, 
Recording Secretary; Brian Schultz, Treasurer; Kerry Smith, Corresponding Secretary; 
and Delores Watson, Member at Large.
     **********
Magazine on Tape:
     We have been asked to carry the following announcement:
     WeMedia Inc. has recently partnered with the Jewish Guild for the Blind to 
provide WeMedia magazine on audiotape for people who are blind and visually 
impaired. You may order the November/December issue by calling (212) 769-6233. For 
further information contact Caryn Kaufman, Director of Communications, WeMedia, 
Inc., (646) 769-2837/TTY: (212) 375-6235, e-mail: <carynk@staff.wemedia.com>. 
Contact Peter Williamson, Director of Communications, the Jewish Guild for the Blind, 
(212) 769-6237, e-mail: <pwilliamson@jgb.org>.
     **********
Elected:
     The Greater Orlando Chapter of the NFB of Florida has elected new officers. 
They are Jerry Heichelbeck, President; Paulette Gordon, Vice President; Leol Williams, 
Secretary; Ruth Heichelbeck, Treasurer; and Marilyn Baldwin, Evelyn Dawursk, and 
Katie Hicks, Board Members.
     **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Nathanael Wales]
Congratulations:
     On October 28, 2000, Nathanael Wales (a 1997 NFB Scholarship winner, a 
2000 tenBroek Fellow, and a young leader of the NFB of California, passed the 
Engineer in Training examination, the preliminary step to taking the Professional 
Engineer license examination. It is the first licensure examination taken by civil 
engineers in the United States. After four years of full-time work, passing a second 
examination, and obtaining the Professional Engineer license, licensed civil engineers 
can advance in civil-service positions and in the private sector.
     Working with the detailed advice of NFB leaders, Nathanael successfully 
negotiated with the State of California's testing agency to use readers of his choice to 
take the exam. Nathanael attributes his success as much to the work of the National 
Federation of the Blind's efforts to ensure the right of blind examinees to readers of 
their choice as to his own hard work.
     Congratulations to Nathanael and to all of our student members who continue to 
push for necessary and sensible reforms in academic and licensure testing.
     **********
New Chapter:
     The Kitsap County Chapter of the NFB of Washington was formed on September 
30, 2000. The officers are Ivan Weich, President; Sharon Maalis, Vice President; and 
Jessamyn Ladby, Secretary/Treasurer. Congratulations to this new chapter in the NFB 
family.
     **********
Braille Fortune Cookies Available:
     We have been asked to carry the following announcement:
     Lucky Touch Fortune Cookie Company is a student-operated business 
specializing in special order Braille and large-print fortune cookies. The company can 
customize your order to fit your event, whether it's a birthday, anniversary, convention, 
holiday, wedding, etc. Place your order by phone. If items are in stock, allow two weeks 
from the receipt of payment. Customized orders require a week longer. To order, 
contact Lucky Touch advisor Judith Lesner, (510) 794-3800, extension 300; fax: (510) 
794-3813; 500 Walnut Avenue, Fremont, California 94536.
     **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Joe Ruffalo]
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Carol Castellano]
Honored:
     We are pleased to announce that Joe Ruffalo, President of the NFB of New 
Jersey, received the Partner for Progress Award as part of the recent New Jersey 
Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired's ninetieth-anniversary celebration. 
Carol Castellano, President of New Jersey's Parents of Blind Children Division, was the 
recipient of the Mary O'Donnell Advocacy Award. Each honoree was inducted into the 
Believe and Achieve Hall of Fame and was presented with a plaque. The awards were 
presented at a gala awards banquet, the culmination of a two-day ninetieth-anniversary 
conference held at Harrah's Hotel in Atlantic City, which featured workshops and 
exhibits. Joe and Carol were also workshop presenters, with Joe speaking on taking 
the initiative in a job search and helping blind teens achieve independence and Carol 
on the importance of Braille to blind students. Congratulations to Joe and Carol.
     **********
Elected:
     The Kansas City Chapter of the NFB of Missouri has elected new officers. They 
are Ruby Polk, President; Sheila Wright, First Vice President; Willa Patterson, Second 
Vice President; Alice Hebert, Secretary; Jeremiah Wells, Treasurer; and Samual 
Baldwin and Robert Gehlmeyer, Board Members.
     **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Robert and Liane Reese]
Wedding Bells:
     We are delighted to report that Liane Surbrook, who directs the Materials Center 
at the National Center for the Blind, and Robert Reese were married on December 30, 
2000. One of the memorable aspects of the ceremony was that the Rev. Melvin Ray, 
who is himself a longtime Center staff member, performed the wedding. 
Congratulations and best wishes to the Reeses.
     **********
New Chapter:
     Sioux Falls, South Dakota, is the home of the newly formed Falls Chapter. The 
officers are Mike Klimisch, President; Brian Dokken, Secretary; and Jeanette Stadfeld, 
Treasurer. We congratulate the members on becoming the fifth chapter in the South 
Dakota affiliate.
     **********
ADA Debate Update:
     We recently received a press release from the ABA Journal summarizing current 
issues being debated concerning the Americans with Disabilities Act. Since the ADA 
affects the lives of all blind Americans and since the ADA Notification Act will be 
introduced again this session, we thought it might be useful to reprint most of the 
release. Remember that the NFB records the ABA Journal as a service to those 
interested in reading the publication. To subscribe, Contact NABL President Scott 
LaBarre, (303) 504-5979 or e-mail, <slabarre@interfold.com>. The cost is $5 a year for 
students and $10 for others.
                         **********
Press Release:
     The Americans with Disabilities Act was passed in 1990 mandating that public 
places be made accessible to disabled citizens. A decade later proposed changes to 
the act promise to enhance it--or threaten to defang it, depending on whom you ask. 
The debate surrounding these proposed changes to the ADA is the subject of an article 
in the December, 2000, issue of the ABA Journal.
     According to the Journal, the most prominent of the current proposals to amend 
the act is the ADA Notification Act, which would mandate that no one could sue a 
business for violating the ADA unless they notify the business in writing or in person of 
the alleged violation and then wait ninety days before filing suit. Lawyers who file suit 
prematurely would be sanctioned, and plaintiffs who violate the ninety-day notice 
requirement would be prevented from collecting attorney fees, even if they win the 
case. "This bill would allow small business owners to be made aware that they might be 
out of compliance before they have to hire an attorney and be forced to settle," Scott 
Vinson, policy analyst for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, told the Journal. The U.S. 
Chamber of Commerce supports the measure. Former U.S. Attorney General Richard 
Thornburgh, an ADA supporter since its inception, told the Journal that disability 
advocates should consider agreeing to the ninety-day notice period, if for no other 
reason than good public relations. "As a practical matter, most suits cannot be 
prepared and filed within ninety days, anyway," he said.
     But according to the Journal article, not everyone agrees that the amendment is 
a good idea. James Carr, chair of the ABA Commission on Mental and Physical 
Disability Law, told the Journal about his concerns. "I worry that this amendment as 
proposed would reward delay and penalize people who are proactive about enforcing 
the ADA." John Kemp, vice president of the disability resource Web site 
<Halftheplanet.com>, says the ninety-day notice period is unnecessary because the 
ADA's requirements have been clear since the law was passed ten years ago. 
Business owners have already received sufficient notice of the statute's requirements, 
he told the Journal.
     The ADA Notification Act isn't the only proposed change stirring up debate. In 
the past year a handful of other measures have been proposed to amend the act--and 
according to the Journal article this fact has some disability activists concerned. They 
fear that amending the act would open the floodgates for numerous business-friendly 
changes that would erode its landmark protections.
     According to the Journal article an upcoming ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court 
may also have wide-ranging impact on the law. In October the court heard oral 
arguments in the case of University of Alabama v. Garrett, No. 99-1240, which asks 
whether the ADA applies to state governments. The plaintiff, an employee of the 
University of Alabama, was demoted upon her return to work after receiving treatment 
for breast cancer. Alabama argues that the Eleventh Amendment protects states from 
being sued in federal court for violating the ADA. A decision in the case is not expected 
before spring.
     According to the Journal disability activists are concerned that the Court may 
continue its recent trend toward exempting states from federal laws and rule in favor of 
the school. Such a ruling, activists fear, could allow states to ignore the ADA in matters 
of employment as well as in the treatment of the disabled in state institutions and with 
regard to accessibility on municipal and state-owned property. The Journal reports that 
the American Bar Association has filed a friend-of-the-court brief arguing that the ADA 
protects fundamental constitutional rights and is therefore applicable to states.
     Still many would welcome measures that would curb the ADA's reach. "The way 
the law is now, it benefits no one but the class action trial attorneys, who file suits in 
hopes of getting quick settlements out of cornered business owners," Vinson told the 
Journal. He also argues that the ADA is filled with technical requirements that many 
small-business owners should not be expected to decipher and implement. He cites 
examples such as exact heights of restroom grab bars and inclines on wheelchair 
ramps. It is yet to be seen whether a workable balance between the rights of the 
disabled and the cost of compliance for businesses can eventually be reached, but as 
the Journal article demonstrates, ADA enforcement will remain a contentious issue for 
the time being.
     **********
     NFB PLEDGE
     **********
     I pledge to participate actively in the effort of the National Federation of the 
Blind to achieve equality, opportunity, and security for the blind; to support the 
policies and programs of the Federation; and to abide by its constitution.
 

 
 



