                       THE BRAILLE MONITOR



                    Kenneth Jernigan, Editor
                Barbara Pierce, Associate Editor


     Published in inkprint, Braille, on talking-book disc, 
                        and cassette by 


              THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND 
                     MARC MAURER, PRESIDENT 
 


                         National Office
                       1800 Johnson Street
                   Baltimore, Maryland 21230 

                             * * * *



           Letters to the President, address changes,
        subscription requests, orders for NFB literature,
       articles for the Monitor, and letters to the Editor
             should be sent to the National Office. 

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Monitor subscriptions cost the Federation about twenty-five 
dollars per year. Members are invited, and non-members are
requested, to cover the subscription cost. Donations should be
made payable to National Federation of the Blind and sent to: 
 

                National Federation of the Blind
                       1800 Johnson Street
                   Baltimore, Maryland 21230 

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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THE BRAILLE MONITOR
PUBLICATION OF THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND

                            CONTENTS

                                                        MAY, 1992

MORE ABOUT CHARLOTTE
by Hazel Staley

BRAILLE OR PRINT: WHY THE DEBATE?
by Jody Ianuzzi

ANOTHER LOOK AT CHANGING WHAT IT MEANS TO BE BLIND
by Michael DeAngelis

IDEAS FOR INCREASING YOUR CHANCE OF JOB SUCCESS WHILE STILL IN
COLLEGE
by Lorraine Rovig

FROM DENVER TO DOG WORLD
by Ed and Toni Eames

SIMULATED BLINDNESS AGAIN

JOIN THE NFB NETWORK AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE
by Sharon Gold

ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE FOR THE BLIND AND SIGHTED ALIKE
by Jerry Whittle

BLIND TEACHER KEEPS HIS VISION

NEWSLINE FOR THE BLIND GOES ON-LINE

BECOMING A SOCIAL SECURITY ADVOCATE FOR YOURSELF OR SOMEONE ELSE
by Barbara Pierce

BENEFIT RIGHTS FOR BLIND INDIVIDUALS: A DESCRIPTION OF SOCIAL
SECURITY'S WORK INCENTIVE PROVISIONS IN THE DISABILITY INSURANCE
AND SUPPLEMENTAL SECURITY INCOME PROGRAMS
by James Gashel

RECIPES

MONITOR MINIATURES


     Copyright National Federation of the Blind, Inc., 1992[LEAD PHOTO/CAPTION: By the time you read this issue of the
BRAILLE MONITOR it will be under two months and counting to the
beginning of the 1992 convention of the National Federation of
the Blind in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Queen City is one of
the loveliest in the South. Pictured here is the view of the
city's east side. Marshall Park appears in the foreground, and a
number of buildings which make up the Charlotte skyline comprise
the background of this photograph. See you in Charlotte.]

                      MORE ABOUT CHARLOTTE
                         by Hazel Staley

     From the Editors: It happens every year. May arrives in
Baltimore accompanied by hundreds of reservation forms for the
National Convention. This year will undoubtedly be no exception,
but you must make your reservations soon. Time and rooms are
running out. Remember that single rooms are only $30 per night;
doubles and twins, $35; triples, $38; and quads, $40. These
prices are in addition to tax. Write to: Convention '92, National
Federation of the Blind, 1800 Johnson Street, Baltimore, Maryland
21230; or call Anthony Cobb at (410) 659-9314. Room deposits of
$40 are required and may be paid by check, money order, or credit
card. For further details refer to the December, 1991, Braille
Monitor. 
     Hazel Staley, President of the National Federation of the
Blind of North Carolina and a lifelong North Carolinian, has
gathered more interesting and useful information about the
convention hotels and the city of Charlotte. Here is what she has
to say:

     Since many of you have called requesting information about
the hotels and food service in Charlotte, I would like to take
this opportunity to respond to those questions en masse.

                      The Adam's Mark Hotel

     This hotel has two excellent restaurants. Appleby's is open
from 6:00 a.m. to midnight, serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
The deli lunch is quite good.
     The Bravo restaurant is open from 6:00 p.m. until 10:00
p.m., 11:00 p.m. on weekends. As these hours indicate, only
dinner is served here. The food is primarily Italian, and meals
range in price from $10.95 to $22.95. An interesting feature of
Bravo's is that the waiters and waitresses entertain guests by
singing opera at each table during dinner every evening except
Sunday.
     The Adam's Mark has a cocktail lounge (C and J's) featuring
a band every night. There are indoor and outdoor pools and a
health room with Nautilus equipment, whirlpool, and saunas for
men and women.

                          The Radisson

     The Radisson's restaurant, the Azalea Room, is open from
6:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., serving breakfast until 11:00 a.m. The
food here is primarily American. Specialties include seafood,
pastas, savory grilled items, steaks and aged prime beef, and an
extensive wine list.
     The Lobby Court Lounge overlooks the new glass gallery. It
is a great place to relax, enjoy conversation, and watch people.
There is a new exterior amphitheater with a seating area and a
bubbling fountain. Great for a friendly, comfortable outdoor
gathering. The rooftop pool deck has all new furnishings, ready
for swimming and sunning.
     Guest rooms have all new facilities, including new space age
TV sets with remote control and state-of-the-art telephones with
computer accessibility. Every guest room has complimentary HBO,
CNN, and ESPN.
     The Radisson is connected by a skywalk to unique specialty
shops, dining and business services, and the convention center.
Room service is available daily from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. Ice
and soda machines are located on every guest floor. There are
also facilities for people with physical disabilities.
     The North Carolina suite will be located in the Radisson.
Please come by to see us.

                 The College Street Holiday Inn

     This hotel has a lounge; a deli; and a full-service
restaurant, the College Street Station. Room service is available
from 6:30 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. It has complimentary coffee service
and a daily newspaper, USA Today, available Monday through
Friday.
     All guest rooms have safe deposit boxes and cable TV with
HBO and ESPN. Non-smoking rooms are available. The hotel offers
same-day valet service and complimentary airport shuttle service.
There are also facilities for people with disabilities.
     Fitness facilities feature rooftop track and spa. Also on
the roof are a pool and pool-side bar. This is where we plan to
have our beach party on Sunday evening, June 28. Gary Luper and
the Shuffle will provide beach music for the party. Beach music
is very popular in the Carolinas. Please plan to join us for what
we believe will be a great way to kick off our convention.
     Within walking distance of all the hotels, except perhaps
the Adam's Mark, are the public library, the Overstreet Mall,
Spirit Square, and Discovery Place. Located at 301 North Tryon
Street, between 6th and 7th Streets, Discovery Place is a hands-
on science and technology center. One of its features is the
Spitz-Voyager Planetarium, one of two of its kind in the world
and the largest in the United States. Both children and adults
will enjoy a visit. 

                          The Marriott

     You will love the delightful atmosphere, excellent service,
and delicious food at the Marriott. The Sweet Bay Dining Room
serves traditional American favorites in the spirit of Carolina
hospitality. Chatfield's English pub atmosphere makes it a
popular meeting place, where you can get your favorite drinks and
snacks.
     There are an indoor heated pool and health club, which has a
sauna, whirlpool, weight room, locker rooms, StairMaster, and
exercise bikes. Each Mariott guest room has color TV, in-room
movies, individual climate control, and Yale door lock security. 
Other amenities of the hotel are a gift shop, rooftop garden, and
sidewalk cafe in the atrium lobby. Laundry and valet service are
available.
     Adjoining the Mariott is the Independence Center, an office
building with one floor of retail space, which includes the
following stores: Hallmark Cards, Walden Books, The Limited (a
young people's clothing store), Charley and Barney's restaurant,
Stand 'n' Snack, Take a Break, Todd's Flowers, and a print shop.

                       Other Entertainment

     Newton Thomas and his Big Band Group will provide music for
the dance on Wednesday evening. This is an eighteen-piece band
composed of high school teachers and college professors in the
area who just enjoy playing together. Mr. Thomas's wife, Wanda,
is the vocalist. The dance will be held in the ballroom at the
Adam's Mark.
     A country band called Winchester will provide entertainment
for the barbecue on Thursday evening. The barbecue will be held
in the Walton Center at the Master's Inn, which is approximately
three or four miles from uptown. Bus transportation will be
provided.

                       Outside the Hotels

     At the information desk in each hotel there will be
information about entertainment and dining in the area. We can
also suggest restaurants only a short cab ride away, where you
can get meat-and-vegetable dinners for five and six dollars. If
your taste runs to hamburgers, hot dogs, and tacos, you may
obtain these from street vendors. Oh, yes, there is a McDonald's
in the area. There is something for everyone. 
     Some people have expressed interest in visiting in North
Carolina either before or after the convention. For assistance in
planning this part of your vacation you may call (800) 847-4862.
     Here is one useful reminder for guide dog users to keep in
mind. Charlotte requires dog owners to pick up after their dogs
when they defecate. Failure to do so could result in a fine. We
will have plastic bags and paper towels available at the
information desks in each hotel to assist you in meeting this
requirement. Twenty-four hour veterinary service is available if
needed. Call 376-9622. 


                BRAILLE OR PRINT: WHY THE DEBATE?
                       by Jody W. Ianuzzi

     From the Associate Editor: Let us begin by conceding that
there really are some legally blind children who are
appropriately being taught to read print. If the child can truly
engage in sustained reading of normal print in most light with
comfort, and if the strong likelihood is that the youngster's
vision will remain stable, there is no sensible argument for
insisting that Braille be taught unless the child or parents wish
to have it done. But there are thousands of blind adults today
(and our numbers are growing) who deeply regret that no one
required us to learn Braille at a period in our lives when
mastering it would have been relatively easy. 
     Many parents and children, wrestling with the denial that is
an inevitable part of coming to terms with significant vision
loss, cling to the presence of whatever tiny amount of residual
sight there may be as an indication that their worst fears at
least have not come to pass. To the public mind blindness is
synonymous with helplessness, hopelessness, and incompetence.
Facing their children's blindness for the first time, parents,
who are after all members of the general public, can be forgiven
for reacting out of ignorance and on incorrect information. 
     The betrayal of blind children that is harder for
knowledgeable blind adults to forgive is that of the special
education teachers who should know better. But even here we must
remember that they too are the product of their past inadequate
education and their current environment. These educators are not
the first professionals to confuse correlation with causation:
Given a choice between learning print and Braille, children with
residual sight will usually choose print. The conclusion to which
every teacher incompletely trained in Braille is eager to jump is
that the cause of this behavior is the difficulty and complexity
of Braille. Or again, offered the chance to be excused from doing
assignments in Braille, blind children will almost always opt for
less work. The conclusion is that Braille is slow and
inefficient. The actual cause in both these examples is that
blind youngsters are normal kids, who like to be a part of the
gang and who are delighted to get out of homework whenever
possible.
     A little honest reflection about this situation suggests
that the real culprit here is the inadequate and inappropriate
education of the special education teachers, who are not
competent or confident themselves in using Braille and who also
believe that their students should not be expected to compete
successfully in school or in life.
     We of the National Federation of the Blind know just how
damning and demeaning such a wholesale dismissal of blind
students really is. There are too many studies of children's
conforming exactly to their teachers' expectations for us to
observe this phenomenon with unconcern. Recognition of what is
happening to today's blind students fuels the Federation's state-
by-state effort to require teacher competence in Braille reading
and writing for those educators devoting their careers to
teaching blind and visually impaired students. We must take every
opportunity to educate and encourage good teachers about what
they can do to assist and support their blind students, and we
must confront those who would dismiss our efforts to improve the
educational possibilities for these youngsters. 
     Jody Ianuzzi is the President of the Monadnock Chapter of
the National Federation of the Blind of New Hampshire. She knows
firsthand about limited opportunities and disappointed
expectations. She is articulate and outspoken, and her message is
compelling. She sent a copy of the following article to Secretary
of Education Lamar Alexander, who wrote to her about her concern
for literacy among blind children. Mrs. Ianuzzi has suggested
that those with personal stories about Braille literacy or
difficulties faced because of the denial of Braille instruction
write letters to her describing their experiences so that she can
pass them on to Secretary Alexander. Her address is Jody Ianuzzi,
55 Castle Street, Keene, New Hampshire 03431. Here is what she
has to say about teaching Braille to children with a little
residual vision:

     Literacy has become a fashionable issue in the United States
today. So many people have slipped through the educational system
unable to read that it has become an embarrassment to their
educators. Most of these people hid their illiteracy from their
teachers or simply dropped out of school at an early age. This
situation exists all across the country, but what about the one
student population illiterate due to the decisions and actions of
their teachers? These students are the blind children of America.
     I would like to address the resource and itinerant teachers
with the adult voice of their students. I consider myself to have
been functionally illiterate for most of my life! When I was
growing up as a blind child in the public school system in
Connecticut, I didn't have to learn Braille; I could read print.
I was a high partial, and with my nose in the book I could read
my first grade primer. It was work, but I could make out the
letters. By the fourth grade the print began to get smaller, so I
had to try even harder. In the seventh grade I was assigned to
remedial reading classes because my reading speed was still at
the third grade level. In high school I got all my work done; it
just took me four times as long as my classmates. I loved
learning, and I wove wonderful dreams for myself of academic
success after high school. 
     I went off to college, but instead of succeeding, I fell
flat on my face! There was no way I could keep up with the work
load using the reading skills I had been taught. My totally blind
friends had little trouble taking notes, reading, organizing
their readers, etc. I told myself that I should have done better
than they; after all I had some vision. But the fact was that I
couldn't study as a sighted student, and I didn't have the skills
to study as a blind one.
     When I was a child, I had an itinerant teacher. She came to
visit once or twice a week to help me with my class work and to
evaluate my progress. I remember that she spent the majority of
her time tutoring me when I fell behind. My mother was upset
because the totally blind students always had priority over the
partials. We got the teacher's leftover time. We weren't really
blind, but we weren't really sighted either.
     I am thirty-eight years old, and I am now learning Braille.
It isn't a difficult task; memory is reinforced by using the
signs. I love Braille! My reading time and speed are not limited
as they are in print. I find Braille to be a refreshing
experience with endless possibilities.
     Reading print has always been like trying to listen to music
on a distant radio station: the sound is so faint and there is so
much static that it is hard to appreciate the music itself
because listening is so much work. Reading Braille is more like
sitting in a symphony hall. The music fills you without your even
having to work. My well-meaning teachers thought they had made
the right decision for me. Oh how I wish I had learned Braille as
a child.
     My story is not unique or exceptional. Hundreds, perhaps
thousands, of blind adults now recognize that they missed out on
a proper education. Perhaps this is because the retrolental
fibroplasia generation (people born prematurely after World War
II and exposed to too much oxygen in incubators) was the first to
attend public school in numbers, and the methods of educating
blind children who did not attend residential schools had not
been established. Itinerant teachers of blind children were
pursuing a brand new specialty. Now the next generation of blind
students is attending public school, but the methods of teaching
them haven't improved over the years. Instead, some of the
misguided attitudes and ideas that were born in the infancy of
this new profession have been institutionalized as established
methods. When I was a student, fifty-two percent of blind
students were learning Braille; now only twelve percent of blind
children are doing so. Clearly illiteracy is increasing.
     I was recently a speaker at a conference for itinerant
teachers of blind children, where I attended a seminar on the
subject of Braille or print for low vision students. I left this
seminar feeling bitter, not for my own experience (I am changing
that) but for the blind children of today. There are blind
children with less vision than I have who are being taught print
only. Their teachers believe that they are making the right
decision. These children will be able to get by using their
vision, but they will never be able to compete successfully with
their peers.
     The impression I got from listening to these teachers of
blind children is that they perceive Braille to be a difficult
system to learn. Imagine what would happen if music teachers
decided not to teach their students to read music because they
had come to believe that musical notation was too difficult to
learn, much less to teach. How much music would students learn to
play if their music teachers couldn't read the notes?
Unfortunately, not very many teachers of blind children are
fluent in reading and writing Braille themselves. No wonder so
few blind youngsters are mastering the code. 
     Blind children are like all others; they don't want to
appear different. If they are given a choice, they prefer print
because their friends read print. But a low vision child already
looks different while struggling to read with his or her nose
inching across the page, collecting printer's ink. Wouldn't
teachers do better helping to instill confidence in their blind
students as competent Braille readers instead of insisting that
they become poor print ones? Sighted children are delighted to
learn about Braille, but they have little understanding or
compassion for the poor print reader, who can't keep up with
them. The sooner the blind child realizes that it is no big deal
to be different, the easier his or her life will be. 
     At this conference I was also told that the low-vision child
might not want to learn Braille and that it is impossible to
teach these kids what they don't want to learn. Suppose a sighted
child didn't want to learn print, or the music student didn't
want to learn musical notation. What would the teacher's response
be? How much can any child be expected to learn if he or she is
permitted to impose their own preferences on their early
instruction in the fundamentals?
     I believe that unconsciously teachers of blind students give
children a choice posed like this: Which will it be? the easy,
acceptable, right way to learn, using print, or the difficult,
different, old-fashioned way of reading, using Braille. Given any
choice in the matter at all, which would any child select? Why
can't teachers make Braille special in a positive way? Braille
was originally based on a system devised by the French army to
send secret messages at night. The night writing was later
perfected by Louis Braille for use by the blind. Why not give
children the feeling that they are learning a secret code? The
blind child can read in many places where his or her sighted
friends can't: under the covers without the use of a flashlight,
in a car traveling at night. You can read Braille books without
people reading over your shoulder. You can even read your Braille
book in your desk without your teacher's knowing it. Why not make
Braille fun!
     The debate at this conference included discussion of the
question whether or not a blind child could learn print and
Braille at the same time. Wouldn't the child become confused? But
the two systems don't compete for the same space in the brain.
Can a child learn to use a calculator and a touch telephone at
the same time? The two keyboards are reversed, but children don't
find this confusing. The child knows that one is a phone, the
other a calculator. I know a two-year-old who is learning English
and German from her bilingual parents. She is having no
difficulty learning the differences. If children can learn all
these things simultaneously, why should educators draw the line
at learning Braille and print at the same time?
     Many teachers believe that there are so many new high tech
aids available for blind children that it is no longer necessary
to teach them the out-dated system of Braille. But how practical
are some of these expensive, bulky devices like the closed
circuit television when a child has to use it in a very limited
and special environment? Will such devices be useful for
obtaining all the information the child needs? Braille is
portable, lightweight, and versatile.
     The slate and stylus and the Brailler are simple, low-tech
devices, but if you want to consider high-tech, portable
equipment, there are new laptop Braille note-taking devices, such
as the Braille 'n Speak. These aids were never mentioned at this
conference. The only aids discussed were those that depended on
some limited sight. 
     There are many tools available for use by blind people, and
none should be relied on exclusively or ignored. Each has its own
place. Just as a carpenter needs many tools to build a house, a
blind person can use many tools to acquire information. The
Optacon, for example, is a slow but useful device for reading
mail, and there are many other technical aids to assist a child
who cannot use print efficiently and comfortably. But just as a
carpenter can't be expected to build a house using only a hammer,
no one tool should be used as the single device to help a blind
child. 
     Conducting an evaluation to determine the reading method for
a child is usually done under ideal reading conditions and in
short periods of time. Is it reasonable to expect that a child
will always have ideal lighting for reading and writing? How long
can the child read before headaches or eye strain make it
impossible to continue? Does the eye strain of reading contribute
to increased eye problems? For example, when I was growing up, we
didn't realize that my straining to read was inducing acute
glaucoma attacks which have further decreased my vision. First
and foremost a reading method should be comfortable and enjoyable
to the reader. How much would you read if it always hurt or was
always work?
     When selecting a reading method, it is natural to think of
the primary use to which we put it, reading books. But there are
many other applications for reading and writing that have to be
considered in choosing the most efficient method. Taking notes in
class, doing research, labeling, maintaining recipes, filing
addresses--these are all examples of the way we use reading.
Thus, someone who can read print to a limited degree might not
use print for note-taking because of the amount of time it takes
to write legibly or to decipher the notes later. In this example
Braille would be faster. Labeling in Braille is more practical in
many cases simply because it is impossible to get close to the
labeled items to see them or to shine enough light on the print
to read it--the back of an appliance or an array of canned goods
on a storage shelf, for example. Blind children may not be
dealing with these problems now, but they will as adults. The
very purpose of education is to prepare youngsters for what they
will face in the future! 
     One can reasonably ask whether today's older blind students
are being taught how to order their own books from Recording for
the Blind, whether they are learning to hire, supervise, and use
readers for study and research in preparation for college. Blind
students must know how to balance their schedules to accommodate
their special study needs, whatever they happen to be. If blind
students are to compete successfully in college and in life, all
these are necessary skills.
     I told conference participants about my experience as a low-
vision student and about how I was learning Braille as an adult.
Without thinking of the implications of her statement, one
itinerant teacher turned to me and said, "If you're learning
Braille, then good luck!"
     Too many teachers of the visually impaired are limited by
their own visual perception of the world. If they woke up
tomorrow with low vision, many would try to funnel all the
information they need through woefully inefficient eyes rather
than learning to maximize their unimpaired senses. It is past
time for them to think blind and not be limited by their vision.
     If I could speak directly to open-minded teachers, I would
say to them: When you evaluate your students, don't just think of
how they are coping at the present; think ahead. What will happen
to your students in college and as adults? Are you giving them
all the skills they need to prosper in life, or will they have to
be content with just getting by? Remember, if that is their fate,
it will not have been because of their blindness but because they
lacked the skills they needed to conduct their lives effectively
as blind people. Ask yourselves this question: In twenty years
will your students be grateful to you for teaching them the
skills they needed, or will they be learning them on their own
and trying to make up for lost time?


       ANOTHER LOOK AT CHANGING WHAT IT MEANS TO BE BLIND
                      by Michael DeAngelis

     What should a conscientious, well-adjusted blind person do
when he or she is confronted, not with the perverted and twisted
caricature of blindness as portrayed in George of "Good and Evil"
fame, but rather the accurate but powerfully negative
representation of blindness in a scrupulously produced commercial
selling equipment that can occasionally lead to the restoration
of sight? This is the dilemma that faced Michael DeAngelis of
Waterbury, Connecticut, last fall. The General Electric Company
began airing an advertisement filled with pathos for its Magnetic
Resonance Imaging system, which, among other things, can identify
tumors on the optic nerve.
     In a clumsy allusion to the old Bette Davis movie of the
same name, the ad was originally entitled "Dark Victory." Recent
enquiries about it have uncovered the interesting but disquieting
information that the name has been altered to "Blind Ambition,"
also a title already used, this time for a book and a made-for-
television movie about Watergate. If this change was supposed to
be an improvement, the writers have missed the mark rather badly.
The blind can hardly feel flattered by a switch that abandons
maudlin sentimentality for a bad pun, pointlessly applied, along
with a suggestion of political shenanigans. In any case, the ad
consists of a vignette about a patient mysteriously losing sight,
complete with a happy ending when the sufferer has his vision
restored.
     Mr. DeAngelis wrote a thoughtful letter to General Electric,
and the answer he received underscored one of the problems blind
people face. General Electric maintained that it had fulfilled
its obligation to the public by making sure that the outline of
the story the ad told was true to the original patient's
experience. Moreover, to be certain that they did things
correctly, the producers arranged for an optometrist to be
present on the set during the entire filming process.
     It is not reasonable for us to expect that education will
enable the general public to abandon its conviction that becoming
blind would be a fearful tragedy. At least corporations trying to
make money from developing procedures that may restore sight will
not be eager to downplay the disruption of life associated with
the onset of blindness. But surely they can be taught not to make
the tiresome mistake of assuming that a medical professional is
the best, even the only, expert to advise on the content of
advertising which includes blind people. "Dark Victory" would
certainly have benefited from the presence of a well-adjusted
blind person to provide advice. At least the most maudlin aspects
of the film might have been diluted.
     Perhaps more to the point, we must begin to insist that
sponsors take some responsibility for incorporating blind people
in advertising as normal consumers of products. No one faced with
the personal crisis of vision loss is likely to adopt an upbeat
attitude just at first. But the steady appearance of competent
blind people in commercial land would send the message that life
does go on with or without vision. The Huxtable family on "The
Bill Cosby Show" does not accurately represent the average
African-American's lifestyle. The deprivation of the inner city
is no less agonizing because of this program, but the fact that
American culture has evolved to the point at which the Huxtables
can provide a role model gives hope to us all. Perhaps the day
will come when blind people will not have to lodge protests in an
effort to achieve justice from corporate America. Here is Michael
DeAngelis's experience as he tells it:

     On September 23, 1991, I joined the organized blind's
protest against the ABC Television network's sitcom, "Good and
Evil." My own role in the successful protest against the ABC
fiasco was relatively small. I did not take my place in the front
lines by picketing outside the ABC television studios. But I did
manage to fire a verbal salvo from my home by expressing my sense
of outrage at the inane sitcom in a telephone call to ABC
Television Productions in New York City. I shared the sense of
vindication when I learned that the organized blind's efforts to
remove this obscenely unfunny program from the air were
successful. This victory was appropriately celebrated in several
articles which appeared in the December, 1991, issue of the
Braille Monitor. As important as this victory was, however, a
little reflection indicates that victory in one battle will not
guarantee success in a war and that winning a war does not
necessarily secure a harmonious and lasting peace. The prudent
strategist assesses objectives achieved and casualties suffered.
Successful on one front, do we remain vulnerable on others? These
considerations confronted me with some urgency when I became
aware that, at the same time as the organized blind were engaged
in a protest against ABC's absurd sitcom, two representatives of
the U.S. power structure were affronting me, as a blind person,
with two other equally pernicious distortions of what it means to
be blind. 
     Though dismayed and outraged by ABC's caricature of
blindness in "Good and Evil," I was not surprised that such an
inane distortion should exist in a sitcom. The program must have
seemed funnier to a chimpanzee than to a reasonable human, but it
was rudely sobering to see both a widely-acclaimed political
analyst and a paragon of American corporate power blithely
publicize no less distorted caricatures of blindness. Appearing
on national best seller lists and discussed widely on radio and
television talk shows, Ken Auletta's book, Three Blind Mice: How
the Networks Lost their Way, was a jarring reminder of the depth
of discriminatory and stigmatizing attitudes toward blindness,
which remain imbedded in all levels of our society. 
     Even more jolting was the weekly appearance of the
television commercial by the G.E. Corporation during the programs
of three high-profile, inside-the-beltway media kingpins: NBC's
"The McLaughlin Group," ABC's "This Week With David Brinkley,"
and CNN's "Crossfire." The commercial, ironically entitled "Dark
Victory," depends as much on audio tone and visual imagery as on
verbal content to convey its message. 
     In the world of television, as Marshall McLuhan accurately
observed, "the medium is the message." 
     On November 7, 1991, I addressed the following letter to Mr.
James Harman, Manager of Corporate Advertising for the G.E.
Corporation, expressing my deep concern over the effect of this
commercial on the lives of blind and visually impaired persons in
America:

                                           Waterbury, Connecticut
                                                 November 7, 1992

Mr. James Harman
G.E. Corporation
Fairfield, Connecticut

Dear Mr. Harman:
     Until recently I had believed with millions of Americans
that G.E. "brings good things to life." Unfortunately, I have now
discovered that this trust has been somewhat misplaced. As a
member of the National Federation of the Blind, a fifty-thousand-
member organization, and of a community of a million and a half
blind and visually impaired Americans, I am appalled and outraged
by a television ad which G.E. has aired repeatedly on all of the
major television networks. It is an ad which distorts and
grotesquely caricatures the quality of our lives, accompanied by
appropriately lugubrious sound effects. The ad states: 

     NARRATIVE VOICE: He was fifty when it happened. In three
months he went from perfect vision to almost total blindness.
     PATIENT: You know, you can never appreciate the beauty in
your life until you can't see it anymore. My wife, my family, my
life--everything I cared about--just turned to darkness, and no
one can tell me why.
     NARRATIVE VOICE: In test after test, doctors were at a loss.
     PHYSICIAN: I can't find a thing.
     NARRATIVE VOICE: There seemed to be no answer. [Finally, a
test was done.] The doctors discovered a tumor affecting his
optic nerves, and he was treated. Within days he got his vision
back.
     PATIENT: Hey, how about a smile! 
     NARRATIVE VOICE: And everything that came with it.

     Contrary to the impression conveyed by this ad, millions of
blind and visually impaired people throughout the world have
lived productive and personally fulfilling lives while countless
others blessed with normal vision have not discovered a nirvana
of bliss. The prevention of blindness is a concern we all share,
but G.E.'s exploitation of blindness as a desert of loss and
meaninglessness in order to sell a product, regardless of how
well-intentioned its purpose may be, is an unconscionable act.
May I urge G.E. to withdraw the patently offensive portions of
this ad from the air and join companies like IBM and Hewlett-
Packard, which have made use of their resources to provide an
equal opportunity for the blind to participate fully in our
society.

                                                       Sincerely,
                                                Michael DeAngelis

     That was my initial letter, and later that month I received
the following letter from Mr. Harman.

                                           Fairfield, Connecticut
                                                November 22, 1991

Dear Mr. DeAngelis:
     Thank you for your letter of November 7 detailing your
concern about our "Dark Victory" TV commercial. Although this is
the first letter of this kind we've received since airing the
commercial in June, your points are valid, and I'd like to take a
moment to give you our response.
     The commercial developed from an actual situation when an
individual began losing his sight because of a tumor on his optic
nerve. In fact, several tests were performed which yielded no
results. It was only after a GE MRI scan that the tumor was
located and surgery performed that allowed the patient to
actually regain his sight.
     In the development of the commercial we took special care to
review the case and the commercial premise with Dr. Ronald Laws,
chief of neurosurgery at George Washington University in
Washington, D.C. Dr. Laws both agreed with the premise and
encouraged the development of the commercial as an accurate
portrayal of real life clinical situations involving this
hardship. Following this and interviews with the actual patient
on which the commercial was based, we felt confident that our
commercial was both accurate and sensitive to both parties. In
addition, we contracted with a licensed optometrist to be present
during each day of filming of the commercial to ensure that all
aspects of the commercial are accurate and portray realistic
clinical situations.
     The points stated in your letter are quite valid. However,
we did not set out to give the impression that blind people do
not live full and productive lives. Rather, we attempted to show
the intense concern expressed by this patient at the prospect of
losing his sight and the technology available to all patients who
might experience a similar situation. Please rest assured that we
will sell none of these products to individuals. However, we may
be able to educate people who might be faced with this situation
and enlighten them to ask their physician for further
information. As your letter pointed out, the prevention of
blindness is an objective we all share, and we feel this
commercial is, in fact, well-intentioned and based on actual and
clinical fact.
     We, too, strive for equal opportunity for the blind, and all
others, to fully participate in our society. We don't believe
that this commercial inhibits that goal.

                                                       Sincerely,
                                                  James R. Harman
                                   Manager, Corporate Advertising
                                         General Electric Company

     There you have Mr. Harman's answer. Early in December, in
what may have been G.E.'s condescending confession to the wrong
understanding of equal opportunity for the blind, a public
service announcement regarding the use of dog guides for the
blind accompanied the "Dark Victory" commercial during the "This
Week with David Brinkley" program. 
     On January 7, 1992, I addressed the following letter to Mr.
Harman:  

Dear Mr. Harman:
     Thank you for your letter of November 22, 1991, responding
to my letter of November 7, 1991, in which I expressed concern
regarding the effect of G.E.'s television commercial "Dark
Victory" on the lives of blind and visually impaired persons in
America. Your willingness to review the commercial is a hopeful
sign of G.E.'s constructive intentions in this matter.
     Regretfully, however, your review has not recognized that
the value of such a commercial must be judged, not by its intent,
but by the objectivity and accuracy of its perceptions and the
devastating effect it may have on the ability of the blind and
visually impaired to have an equal opportunity to participate
fully in all areas of our society. Whatever else the ad conveys,
its overwhelming impression is that blindness condemns a person
to the loss of what people most value highly in life. In the
words of the ad, "My wife, my family, my life--everything I cared
about just turned to darkness." The message of the ad, as well as
your description of it, fails to comprehend that the real tragedy
being addressed is not physical blindness, but the moral,
intellectual, and emotional blindness of a society incapable of
acknowledging the many and varied ways in which all humans truly
see. 
     Ironically, the same medical authorities whom you cite as
lending credibility to your ad all too often become stumbling
blocks to their patients by propagating irrational fears of loss
of vision and withholding from them knowledge of the many
alternative techniques for overcoming the effects of visual loss.
Much more common than the rare incidents in which impending
blindness may be prevented by an MRI are the numerous instances
of visual loss, which need not become tragic disasters conceived
in hysteria. I am confident that G.E. can become more enlightened
in the use of its marvelous array of technological and commercial
resources, living up to its promise to "bring good things to
life."

                                                       Sincerely,
                                                Michael DeAngelis

     While it is always disturbing for the blind to be affronted
by such stigmatizing caricatures as appeared in the sitcom, "Good
and Evil," in the title of a book called Three Blind Mice: How
the Networks Lost Their Way, and in G.E.'s "Dark Victory"
commercial, the continued appearance of such distorting images
should be neither surprising nor discouraging to the community of
the blind, who struggle to free themselves from the bondage of
discrimination, endured not for months or years, but for
millennia. We would be naive to believe that such stereotypes
will completely disappear as long as bigotry and ignorance,
companions of discrimination, lurk in any area of society. 
     While continually challenging the stereotypes which inhibit
their freedom, the blind must be careful to avoid the danger of
turning moral victories into Pyrrhic victories. If our immediate
goal is to suppress and obliterate all negative stereotypes,
rather than to confront and challenge them with moral and
intellectual clarity and righteous indignation, is our struggle
being waged more in the spirit of Jesus confronting the Pharisees
when they identified blindness with sin, or in the spirit of the
fanatics who have placed the author of Satanic Verses under
sentence of death? The blind who battle for freedom under the
banner of democratic ideals can never have common cause with the
tactics of tyrannical minds, no matter how noble the goal may be.
The Grand Inquisitors of the Middle Ages burned heretics at the
stake, convinced that the cancer of heresy should not be allow to
spread to others. One of the first acts of those who received
power in Germany in 1933 was to burn books expressing ideology
opposed to their own. In a day when Berlin Walls are crumbling in
the realm of political ideologies, we must avoid erecting new
barriers to communication with those views we find unacceptable
or threatening. 
     Now and for the foreseeable future, the blind will need to
confront and challenge, not suppress and obliterate, the shadows
and ghosts of discrimination. There are times when life seems to
imitate art. The blind may find wisdom in the advice of a good
poker player. As singer Kenny Rogers aptly puts it, "You got to
know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk
away, know when to run. You never count your money when you're
sittin' at the table. There'll be time enough for countin' when
the dealin's done." For the blind the time has come to deal a new
hand.


[PHOTO: Lorraine Rovig standing at podium microphone. CAPTION:
Lorraine Rovig, Director of the Job Opportunities for the Blind
program.]

         IDEAS FOR INCREASING YOUR CHANCE OF JOB SUCCESS
                     WHILE STILL IN COLLEGE
                        by Lorraine Rovig

     From the Associate Editor: At this year's Mid-Winter
Conference of the National Association of Blind Students held on
Saturday, February 1, in conjunction with the annual Washington
Seminar of the National Federation of the Blind, one of the many
interesting presentations was a talk given by Lorraine Rovig,
Director of the Job Opportunities for the Blind (JOB) program.
Miss Rovig was addressing an audience chiefly composed of college
students, so her remarks were aimed particularly at that group.
They were, however, appropriate for job seekers of every age and
circumstance. Here in large part is what she had to say:

     "Ideas for Increasing Your Chance of Job Success--While
Still in College." That's easy! contacts, competence, variety,
and jobs while still in school.
     If you haven't started yet, despair not: just start now--
this weekend.

                            Contacts 

     Good grades versus good contacts--how much time should you
spend studying? For most professions, but not all, a B average is
as good as an A. Try to maintain a B in most of your courses. And
for most professions you need to average at least a B in a
majority of the courses in your major; or you better change your
major. If you can get a 4-point grade average while crafting a
well-rounded, more sophisticated you, so much the better. If
something's got to give, a well-rounded you and a 3-point will
often serve you better than a 4-point with no frills added.
     There are exceptions to the rule that a 3-point is good
enough, by the way. For example, if you want to become a high-
priced lawyer in a prestigious law firm or jump into a better-
than-average position in management, you will need superior
grades along with a well-rounded social life; but, if you wish to
become a research scientist, multitudes of interests not
connected to science might work against your presenting the image
of the focused, brilliant researcher. 
     As blind students you will need to spend time on activities
your sighted peers never think about--recruiting and organizing
readers, having textbooks prepared in alternative media, getting
an early start on term papers. You need time to learn to use the
Braille 'n Speak, computer screen review programs, the slate and
stylus, an optical character recognition reading system, and
other devices to increase your efficiency and ability to work
independently. How can you find the time?
     1) Register for morning classes. Don't be like some I met
during my college years. They acted as if any class that started
before noon was a personal attack on their beauty sleep. Getting
in the habit of a late start is something you can't afford. They
couldn't either; but they didn't know it.
     2) Don't allow yourself to get in the habit of an afternoon
nap. I saw students do this when I lived in dormitories.
     3) Read the book How to Get Control of Your Time and Your
Life by Alan Lakin (L-A-K-I-N). NLS has it on disc--RD 8361. This
is the best time management/life planning book I've found. And
it's short--160 pages in print.
     4) Join the National Federation of the Blind. Check out
your local chapter and your state affiliate. Try to go to at
least one National Convention early in your college years. If you
can't make it to the national convention, come to an NFB
Washington Seminar or attend your own and nearby state
conventions. 
     At these events make contact with blind people who are
professionals in any field that interests you. Sit down with them
and find out what they recommend for success. Talk to me here or
call me on the JOB WATS line if you would like to be introduced
to possible mentors. That number is 1-800-638-7518.
     5) Look for mentors, blind or sighted, in your college
community.
     6) Look for ways to combine having fun with making contacts.
Most people who find jobs do so through personal contacts.
Joining college groups is a good way to increase your skill at
personal interactions. And it's a very good investment of your
time for the eventual job hunt.
     7) Study ways to make friends. If you feel you have a hard
time doing so, try this. Attend two or three meetings of some
group that meets weekly, especially one that has lots of friendly
camaraderie, and don't talk, just smile politely at your fellow
students and offer the shortest possible friendly replies to
direct questions. While you're being a quiet bump on a log,
analyze the conversations and interactions you observe. Then, try
to use your observations and the resulting understanding of the
group's subculture to become a part of the group. 
     Do not, however, allow yourself to remain a bump on a log.
If one group doesn't fit you, try another. These years at college
are an ideal opportunity to try out several new yous or just put
some polish on the standard model. 
     8) Join something formal. If I were you, I'd look for a
minimum of two groups per semester that will do two or more of
the following:

* Train you in a new skill (canoeing, debating, singing German
beer hall songs, whatever);
* Increase your ability in a skill already learned; 
* Give you a brag on your resume; 
* Introduce you to fellow students in a cooperative environment; 
* Afford you the chance, sooner or later, to become an officer;
* Introduce you to professors one-on-one;
* Provide entre to people at work in the profession that
interests you;
* Introduce you to possible future employers in a way that will
give them a chance to get to know you personally (and this is
important too);
* Join groups that help you enjoy life at college. We do better
what we enjoy doing.

     During the first weeks at college go through every bulletin
board at the student union and at your dorm. Read the local
student newspaper, the local town paper, and any handouts from
the student union offices. Check for the location of bulletin
boards in the office suite or the building which houses the
professors in your major and minor areas of study. Check bulletin
boards in the university library and, if you use it, any sub-
library, such as a law library or other specialized materials
center. The object is to discover what local groups are available
to you.
     Consider the comparative merits of local student groups--an
honor society, Hoofer Outing Club, the Apple Biters computer
users group, the Society for Creative Anachronisms, the Natural
Belly Food Co-Op, the No Nukes Is Good Nukes roundtable, Sierra
Club, Friends of the Library, the university chess club, the
community hot-line for people at risk, campus political groups,
and so on.
     Check out available student activities--student government,
the special services office advisory board, the debate society,
the Writers Association, the student newspaper, the school radio
station, sororities, fraternities, the yearbook staff.
     Consider ways in which you could take an active role in
yearly special events--such as annual parades, local big deal
football games, Drake Relays Week, Spring Fling.
     9) Participate in Something. Some of the groups you join
won't be formally organized--should never show up on your resume-
-but offer ideas and training you won't get in your room or while
studying in the library.
     For instance, back at UW-Whitewater I found myself a regular
member of the crowd that showed up faithfully once a week in the
student union TV lounge. Laughing along with the regulars
watching "Batman and Robin" taught me that my sense of humor was
shared by other people. What a relief! That lounge was also a
free education in current dating customs of American college
students while in public view. (You never know what data will
come in handy.)
     During your years at college try to join groups that will
demonstrate to future employers that you get along well with
others, have some mental or athletic ability (or both), and are
interested in more than--as I see on too many resumes--"Other
Activities: Reading and Music." If your only "Other Activities"
are "Reading and Music" or "Poetry," for heaven's sake, don't
tell that to a prospective employer! 
     Another thing, even if you plan to take a job working for
the particular religious denomination you belong to, you are
better off if you do not narrow your choices to only clubs or
offshoots of that faith. 
     Furthermore, for the same reason, don't join only those
groups that are associated with blindness or with handicaps. Even
if you plan to get a job in a disability-connected field, you
will be more valuable to an employer and to those you plan to
serve or help, if you stand out as one who moves easily between
groups of handicapped people and the broader society.
     10) Sometime during your college years, become an officer of
something. Something is better than nothing here. Being an
officer of anything points to leadership qualities. Some club
positions and some groups, of course, give you better brag
material for certain professions than others. 
     If you plan to succeed in business, having been elected
treasurer of the judo club is useful; having worked on a
successful fund-raising campaign for a campus literacy center or
a P.R. campaign for the local Spring Fling might be better. 

                           Competence

     On Monday I spoke to President Maurer about ideas for this
presentation. He said he believes the most important thing for
students in college is to learn basic competence in something. I
said, I remember some guys at Whitewater that seemed to major in
playing poker in the union. Mr. Maurer remarked, if you can
become competent at poker, you can make a living at that. 
     He said, "Learn to be a competent traveller, learn to write.
No matter what you study, those two skills will help you get a
good job. Most people can't write. Fortunately," he said, "the
more you do it, the better you will get." 
     I agree. I'd add to that--more important than any one grade
in any one class is competence in your use of the English
language. Make no excuses for yourself. If you make mistakes in
grammar, in use of commas, in spelling, in word choice or
pronunciation--go thou and learn to do it right. Most schools
these days have a remedial language lab. However they disguise
its name, find it and take advantage of its services. If it is
there, but fails to teach well, look around for a better option.
If you must, hire a retired English teacher as a tutor. 
     Here's one more thing that could make more difference in
your ability to get a good job than a 4-point GPA. Using non-
standard pronunciation of words, for any reason, is not expected
from an educated person. Users of non-standard English must
upgrade their speech if they wish to succeed. If you say, "Ax me
another question" or "Me and him are gonna study in the libary,"
you will have to change if you want to make an impression as a
college-educated professional, worth a professional's salary. 
     I've read interviews with actors from places like Brooklyn
or Texas who say they taught themselves to speak standard English
without their down-home accents in order to get more jobs. If
they can, you can. The bottom line is that a little accent can be
an asset in a professional job, but non-standard English will be
a detriment your whole life long. And unless you wish to stay in
the environment that taught it to you, a heavy accent of any
kind, which makes your conversation difficult for non-compadres
to understand, will be a detriment. Write like a professional;
sound like a professional; you'll have a better chance of
becoming one.
     A word about increasing your competence as a traveller.
While you are at this conference, observe the travel skill of
those around you. Is someone traveling better than you can?
Analyze his or her technique; talk to that person; learn from the
best.

                             Variety

     Let me ask you a question: If you were the boss looking at
the following two resumes, whom would you rather hire as a
reporter? Whom would you rather hire as a buyer for your towel
factory? Whom would you invite to interview for an Independent
Living Specialist position in your rehabilitation agency? Let us
presume that both resumes show the basic degree required for your
particular business.
     The first resume shows a 4.0 GPA with honors; a one-year
position on the Mayor's advisory board for People with
Disabilities; seven years membership in the St. Paul Evangelical
Mixed Choir, and "Other Activities: Reading and Music."
     The second resume shows a 3.1 GPA; a reading knowledge of
French and German; two years as a reporter for the college paper,
one year as editor; one year on a swim team; three years in a
folk dance club; membership and an elected office in the National
Federation of the Blind, which provided opportunity to plan a
fund-raising campaign, make speeches to groups as large as 300
people, and participate in legislative activity on both state and
national level; membership in Pets on Wheels; an award for
leadership of the dorm committee designing and building the best
float in the 1990 Pufferbilly Days Parade; and six different
part-time jobs--all at low levels but two using computer skills.
Under "Hobbies" is listed: "Visiting Civil War museums and
battlefields" and "Collecting Elvis memorabilia."
     If you were the employer hiring the reporter or the buyer or
the Independent Living Skills teacher, which resume best tells
you the applicant is likely to have the ability to learn the job
you wish to fill and gets along well with all sorts of people?
     I suggest that, over the course of your attendance at an
institution of higher learning, you join and participate in at
least one group in each of the following categories: professional
or pre-professional organizations; groups associated with the
outdoors or physical activity; groups involved with mental
activity; clubs that give you a chance for leadership; and, of
course, the National Federation of the Blind. Depending on your
field, I'd suggest a group involved with theater, art, music, or
great literature. Some groups will combine two or more of these
attributes, so that is a bedrock minimum of three groups over
four or five years of college. For most resumes, more would be
better.
     
                   Jobs While Still in School

     It is very, very, very, very important that you get and
succeed in some job or jobs while you are still in college. The
more job experience you can obtain before you graduate, the
easier it will be to convince first yourself and then the
interviewer that you can competently handle whatever comes. You
say you know how to study, but you don't know how to handle a
job? Start talking!--especially with blind mentors. I refer you
again to item one: contacts.
     You won't add to your resume by going home to your parents'
rural farm or not-on-the-busline aunt's home in the suburbs and
letting yourself vegetate over the summer. If you are stuck at
home somewhere without transportation, consider ways to turn that
possible lemon into lemonade. Can you write? Will it sell? Is
there a skill you need to learn?
     Look for internships in your field. Look for work in your
major departmental office and try to parley that into contacts
that lead to internships. Train some or all of your readers to
tell you about notices of jobs and internships in your field that
are posted on departmental bulletin boards or in school papers.
Some such jobs are likely to be found in the magazines written
for your specialty. Whether you are planning to become a systems
analyst or a water hydrologist, there are magazines dedicated to
your field. Build in reader time on a regular basis to skim these
professional journals.
     Find the alumni or career office in your college. Do these
folks have a list of alumni who are available for informational
interviews? If you've never done one before, can they advise you
how best to proceed? (If not, ask JOB.) What other services do
they offer? What reference books do they recommend? Does your
college subscribe to a computer bulletin board service that
features job openings?
     Have you ever asked a friendly professor in your specialty
to introduce you to visiting speakers or to his or her
acquaintances at work in your field? Have you asked directly for
help making useful contacts at professional meetings? Have you
studied ways to make the rounds, to locate and talk to the movers
and shakers in group meetings, business breakfasts, seminars, job
fairs? JOB can give you a list of ideas a blind person can use to
make contacts in such gatherings.
     Something is better than nothing. One job is okay, more is
better. Look for jobs that will demonstrate skill with people,
skill in organizing, and skill in supervising and flexibility.
(Of course, any blind student using readers and drivers, whether
paid or volunteer, can demonstrate all that.) Here are some
specific places to get job leads:

     1) Ask your fellow students at this national conference
these next two days how they found their jobs. Ask the blind
adults you sit next to or stand beside in line what jobs they
have found. If you discover a good contact, ask that person or
persons to join you for breakfast or dinner here. Grill them! 
Remember to take down their home addresses and phone numbers. 
     2) Sign up for the free JOB Recorded Bulletin, or if you
can't handle one more taped magazine coming to your address right
now, go borrow an occasional copy from the state library for the
blind. Eight times a year that bulletin is as full of ideas as we
can stuff it. 
     3) Talk with friends or friendly acquaintances you know in
these clubs and groups you've joined. Let them know you are
looking. 
     4) Talk with your departmental professors. What is available
right there on campus or in the community?
     5) Talk with the university office in charge of arranging
work-study assignments.
     6) Have a folder or a drawer just for job leads, job
contacts, and other information to help you find jobs at college
and between semesters.
     7) Ask your relatives for help. Has anybody noticed any job
openings? Whom does your father know? Your mother? Your uncles?
Your long-time neighbor?
     8) If you want a summer job as an aide in a Congressional
office in Washington or in a state district office, have you
talked to Dan Frye or to Judy Sanders? 
     9) Would you benefit from a part-time job in a federal
government lab or agency? The government has some special
opportunities for college students as part of its effort to hire
them before they get spoiled by working for commercial entities.
Have you talked to Jim Willows about working at Livermore Labs in
California, to Karen Edwards or Dr. John Rowley about the Los
Alamos National Labs in New Mexico? Have you talked to John
Halverson, President of the Public Employees Division of the NFB?
     10) Have you explored the metro area your college is in?
What would give you an edge in job hunting there?
     Contacts, Competence, Variety, and Jobs While Still in
School--Do you want more ideas? Register with JOB (Job
Opportunities for the Blind). Read the free JOB Recorded
Bulletin. This program was designed by the blind for the blind.
Our number again is (800) 638-7518. Read the Braille Monitor on
cassette, on disc, in print, or in Braille. If you are diabetic,
read The Voice of the Diabetic. It is available on cassette or in
print.
     Mr. Maurer said one more thing I want to pass on to you:
"Get used to working hard, and get used to succeeding in what you
do." Thank you.















                 ******************************
     If you or a friend would like to remember the National Federation of the
Blind in your will, you can do so by employing the following language:
     "I give, devise, and bequeath unto National Federation of the Blind,
1800 Johnson Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21230, a District of Columbia
nonprofit corporation, the sum of $_____ (or "_____ percent of my net estate"
or "The following stocks and bonds: _____") to be used for its worthy purposes
on behalf of blind persons."
                 ******************************
[PHOTO: Head table and first two rows of participants in NFB
Writers Division seminar, Dallas, 1990. CAPTION: You can never
tell what opportunities will arise from seminars and division
meetings at the annual conventions of the National Federation of
the Blind. Like those who attended the Writers Division seminar
pictured here, Ed and Toni Eames picked up valuable tips about
writing for general interest publications at the 1989 convention
in Denver, Colorado.]

                    FROM DENVER TO DOG WORLD
                      by Ed and Toni Eames

     From the Editor: Ed and Toni Eames, who are among the
leadership of the National Federation of the Blind of California,
have an interesting story to tell about how the Federation has
affected their lives and about their experiences in writing a
column for a commercial magazine. Here is what they have to say:

     When we were making arrangements to attend the 1989 NFB
Convention in Denver, we anticipated meeting old friends, making
new ones, getting acquainted with current issues, listening to
the presidential report, and participating in the policy-making
process of our organization. We could not anticipate the impact
this convention would have on the course of our careers.
     One of the pre-convention activities we signed up for was a
writers' workshop, organized by Tom Stevens. The central topic of
the presenter, a free-lance writer from the Denver area, was
selling one's material in the commercial magazine market. We had
already sold a few articles to Dog World, the nation's largest
circulation pet magazine, as well as several smaller circulation
magazines. However, we were still quite naive in the business of
selling the articles we were writing.
     During the workshop session the presenter, Sue Vider,
devoted a considerable amount of time to our issue. We wanted to
write about assistance dogs (guide dogs for the blind, hearing
dogs for the deaf, and service dogs for the physically disabled)
for a general audience in order to educate them and foster a
greater public acceptance of these working dogs. Since Ed had
retired as a professor of anthropology and Toni was no longer
working as a rehabilitation counselor, we were seeking an
additional source of income.
     Sue suggested a monthly column would best suit our needs and
encouraged us to contact the editor of Dog World. If successful,
we would have a steady outlet for our work and a steady income.
She told us to prepare several potential column topics if the
editor was interested. We followed this excellent advice and
impressed the editor when we presented her with a portfolio of
future columns.
     By October of 1989 our column had been approved, and we
signed a contract. Our first column appeared in February, 1990,
and we have now completed more than two years of our Partners in
Independence column. In November, 1991, we featured our
activities with our guide dogs, Kirby and Ivy, at the convention
in New Orleans. 
     This magazine has a monthly circulation of more than 70,000.
Every month we are gratified by the mail and phone calls we
receive from our many readers. An unexpected fringe benefit has
been our recognition as members of the press. At an international
veterinary medical conference in San Francisco, we received press
passes. As reporters, we were welcomed at a women's maximum
security prison in Gig Harbor, Washington. On this occasion, we
interviewed inmates who trained service dogs. We have been
invited, all expenses paid, to speak at the World Congress of Dog
Clubs in Bermuda. Were it not for the convention and the
workshop, we doubt we would have taken the steps necessary to
establish ourselves as contractual writers for the nation's
largest pet magazine.


[PHOTO: Portrait. CAPTION: David Andrews.]

                    SIMULATED BLINDNESS AGAIN

     With the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act
(ADA) has come increased recognition of the importance of
education about people with disabilities. Elementary school
teachers are conducting units on disability, and business people
are taking seminars designed to make them more sensitive to the
needs of current or future disabled employees.
     In theory all this is good, and perhaps on balance it will
eventually be positive. But this is far from certain. Too often
these programs rely for their effectiveness on planting seeds of
fear and half-truth in the ready soil of pity and guilt. The
resulting harvest is labeled as understanding and sympathy but is
all too often nothing more than diminished expectations. 
     On July 23, 1992, the Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, Press-
Enterprise published three stories by Arthur Olsen. The first was
about a university class of students assigned to spend a day
under blindfolds. The second consisted of profiles of two
university students who are themselves blind, and the third was
about the reporter's own experience getting ready for the day
while wearing a blindfold. Here are the three articles:

       Blind Insight, Sightless Day Shows Much to BU Class

     Being blind for a day made Annissa Brown, twenty, a
Bloomsburg University junior, feel like there were hundreds of
people laughing at her missteps, though there were probably only
a handful.
     To Jim Toohey, twenty-five, who is studying for his second
degree, it seemed more like there was no one around.
     "I felt like I was the only one on campus," he said.
     About twenty Bloomsburg University students spent all day
Thursday--from their first waking moments until 8:00 p.m.--
blindfolded as a lesson in teaching handicapped children.
     Gary Doby, an assistant professor of teaching, gave them the
assignment. He's done it before, and students usually rebel,
objecting on the grounds that they have to do something that day
for which they will need to see. He doesn't let them off the
hook, and they usually find it rewarding in the end.
     "I think that's the whole thing. Go on with your life, but
do it differently," he said.
     Personality traits come out in the way each student copes,
he said. Some students insist on having guides, while others
insist on being left to their own devices.
     Carole Behling, forty, a non-degree student, doubled up on
guides by bringing her mother-in-law and her eleven-year-old son
to class.
     Peter Shiner, twenty-four, who, like Toohey, is studying for
his second bachelor's degree, used only a walking stick.
     Shiner and other students discovered that walking with one
foot on the grass and one on the sidewalk helped them keep track
of where they are going. Until they hit open asphalt, such as the
basketball courts on campus.
     Class members also felt fear and mistrust of their friends,
whom the blindfolds inspired to become pranksters.
     Robert Mikesell, a twenty-six-year-old second-degree
student, confined his breakfast mostly to bananas and an orange.
"I ate things I knew people couldn't mess with," he said.
     But Richard Schofield, twenty-one, a senior, described
eating pizza on a previous day with a friend who is permanently
blind. The man paid for the pizza in his usual way--holding out
two bills, he said one is a ten and the other is a one and asked
the delivery man to choose the right one and make change.
     "I guess you have to learn to trust people," Schofield said.
     Some found their senses of smell and hearing heightened.
     Doby and a reporter sat without talking in the classroom as
students filed in, hoping to listen unobserved.
     But Melissa Toth, twenty-four, a second-degree student, knew
there was someone next to her.
     As Julie Steffen, thirty-five, a junior, came in late,
people in the room went silent, listening as she haltingly
searched for an empty chair.
     Students in the rows near her started calling out: "There's
one over here." "There's one behind me."
     "How do you guys know?" she said in exasperation.
     "We're all staring at you," a young woman joked. 
     In a way, they were.

         BU Students Learn How Much Blind People Can Do

     A Bloomsburg University class of future teachers who spent a
day blindfolded learned more than how much blind people can't do.
They found out how much they can do.
     "I found I was able to do things I didn't think I was able
to do," said Julie Steffen, thirty-five, a non-degree student.
     That's a lesson that blind BU freshman, John Schucker,
nineteen, hopes they take with them. Schucker was born blind and
attended public schools. He considers himself a mostly normal
teenager who does many of the same things sighted guys do, such
as riding (but not driving) dirt bikes.
     "Going to work or school is as normal a part of life for the
blind as the sighted," he said.
     "It's one of those situations where you have to either do it
or go and sit in a corner somewhere," he said.
     His attitude in class has always been: "Here I am. I'm
another kid. Teach me. Just realize that there are going to be
some differences."
     The differences are primarily technical, like taking tests
by Braille or having a tutor give the test orally.
     A computer science major, he has used a talking calculator
and an abacus for math classes.
     Larry Hess, forty-seven, of Orangeville, said being blind
was harder for him when he lost his sight thirty years ago than
it is now.
     With practice and experience, the blind students would find
they could do more and more, he said.
     Those who are born blind, like Schucker, are the best at it,
he said.
     "If a person lost their sight after they were twenty or
thirty, it would be much harder to grasp it," he said.

            Seeing What It's Like Not to See--Briefly

     Blindness gives you a strong memory and a soft touch.
     This I learned after spending Thursday morning blindfolded,
trying to see what it's like to be blind.
     The idea came from Bloomsburg University professor Gary
Doby, who assigned his class of future teachers to spend the
entire day blindfolded.
     They need to know what their blind students will be going
through. I wanted to know what they were going through. So I
decided to do one thing blindfolded: get ready for work. This
included making breakfast, eating breakfast, showering, dressing,
and--in a fit of brash self-confidence--shaving.
     Strong memory--I had to work at remembering exactly where
everything was the night before and where I put it that morning.
A soft touch--I had to use my hands like an insect's antennae--
lightly brushing them across doorjambs, utensils, food.

The day before
     The problems started when I got a phone call late Wednesday
afternoon.
     A Danville man wanted me to call him Thursday morning at
about 9:00 a.m., then go and interview him before he started a
jail term at 11:00 a.m.
     The stakes had been raised painfully. I couldn't take my
time getting ready for work; I had a major, early appointment.
     And time, Doby warned his class, was the hardest thing to
keep track of when you are blinded.
     If I took too long getting dressed, the interviewee would
vanish for two and a half years into the state prison system.
Suddenly, this project didn't seem so quaint.
     This was why Doby's students sometimes call him at midnight
to try to win a reprieve because of some work or appointment or
problem the next day.
     His response: If you were blind, you'd have to think of a
way to handle the problem.
     I did all sorts of things Wednesday evening, trying to seize
back control of my day. I set my alarm hours before I went to
bed. Though I had recently changed my morning radio station, I
tuned it back to the old one because I could gauge the time by
their newsbreaks.
     In lieu of a note, I left a message on my answering machine
to my blinded self with the Danville man's phone number.
     Still, my image of the morning--usually the most clearly
envisioned part of the work day--had been smacked out of focus
and fogged over with uncertainty.
     As I got into bed I laid a black, rolled-up kerchief on my
nightstand in the place usually reserved for my glasses.

Waking Up: The First Challenge
     I woke from a fitful sleep when the clock-radio started
blaring. A quick glimpse at the clock and I tied the kerchief
around my eyes.
     Heading for the bathroom, I told myself this was a trip I
had made plenty of times in the dark. Sure enough, it was
accomplished with accustomed skill.
     I was ready to essay breakfast.

Breakfast: A Success Story
     When you have to look for a toaster with your fingers, all
that stuff cluttering up the kitchen counter that seemed out of
the way the day before becomes very much in the way.
     Making toast and a bowl of cereal went smoothly, as I found
myself constantly using my fingers for confirmation of the
location of the bowl, the level of the milk, the butter on the
knife.
     A little messy, but it got the job done.
     I scorched my fingers only once, when I was trying to
retrieve the toast, and vowed to find a better place for the
glass cleaner, the pitcher, the napkins, and all the other
counter clutter.
     Time to hit the shower.

Showering: A Perilous Adventure
     Taking my blindfold off so it wouldn't get soggy, I realized
there were two dangers: I might slip and fall, in which case I
might inadvertently open my eyes and blow the whole project.
     Neither happened.
     Again leaning on habit, I noted that I commonly close my
eyes in the shower to wash my hair. This time, I just didn't open
them again.
     I noticed that I let my calf brush the side of the tub as I
stepped out of the shower. More confirmation.

Shaving: A Test of Courage
     To shave or not to shave?
     Flushed with confidence at the completion of my shower, I
decided to go for it.
     Besides, I reasoned, not all blind men wear full beards. If
they can shave, I can shave.
     I managed the feat without cutting myself or ruining the
shape of my beard. It wasn't bad for a blind guy's first try.
     Later, I noted with satisfaction that none of the men in
Doby's class had shaved. One brave woman had shaved her legs.

Dialing for Speed
     One more challenge remained: calling the Danville man.
     I had been listening closely to the radio to watch the time.
Close to 9:00 a.m., I sat down at my rotary phone.
     I was surprised to find I remembered his phone number
without the audio cheat sheet I had left on my answering machine.
     Even so, it took four tries on my rotary phone before I was
quick enough to get through the entire number before the computer
voice came on to cut me off.

Out the Door in Triumph
     Having set up a meeting with the man, I headed for the front
door. After I got outside, I finally took off my blindfold and
headed back in for damage assessment.
     No stubbed toes, no banged shins, no spilled milk or stray
corn flakes, and the breakfast dishes were washed and left in
their proper places.
     But that doesn't mean it would be as easy to be blind.
     I did not have to go into the less-controlled environment of
the town outside.
     I did not have to deal with friends trying to deal with my
problem. And in the end, I could open my eyes.
                      ____________________
     There you have it. Blindness is difficult but inspiring:
just ask those who have had a nodding acquaintance with it. David
Andrews, Director of the International Braille and Technology
Center for the Blind, read the piece and decided that it could
not go unanswered. Happily the Press-Enterprise decided to
publish the entire letter. Perhaps it did some good. Here it is: 

Press-Enterprise
Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania
August 13, 1992

Dear Editor:
     I am writing in response to a series of articles which
appeared in the Press-Enterprise on July 23, 1991. The articles,
by reporter Arthur Olsen, concerned an exercise by Bloomsburg
University Professor Gary Doby. In this exercise his students
were blindfolded for a day to simulate blindness.
     I am a member of the National Federation of the Blind (NFB),
a 50,000-member nationwide organization of blind persons. The NFB
is a vehicle for collective action to improve the lives of all
blind persons through advocacy, public education, and self-help.
In general we are opposed to exercises such as Doby's for two
reasons. First, they are not realistic. The people involved will
return to seeing at the end of the day, and throughout the
exercise they know that they can peek or take off their
blindfolds at any time. Second, and more important, these people
have had no instruction in the skills of blindness, what we call
alternative techniques, such as cane travel and reading and
writing Braille. Consequently most participants are able to
perform even the smallest tasks of daily living only with great
difficulty or not at all. Thus the lasting impression of most
people that take part in such simulations is that being blind is
hard, and there isn't much you can do. Their initial fear of the
unknown (blindness) is compounded by their experience. 
     When I was employed by the New Mexico Commission for the
Blind, we taught new sighted employees about blindness by
blindfolding them for eight hours a day and sending them to the
state's Adult Orientation Center for the Blind so that they could
overcome their fear of blindness and learn enough of the
alternative techniques of blindness to know that they could
prosper as blind persons. It was our experience that it takes
most people at least four weeks to begin to overcome their basic
raw fear of blindness. 
     Like most exercises this one is not all bad or good.
Professor Doby is quoted as saying, "I think that's the whole
thing. Go on with your life, but do it differently." The NFB
contends that alternative techniques are available to accomplish
most things, except those that overtly require sight, such as
driving a car. These techniques are not better or worse than
sighted techniques, just different. Doby is quoted as saying
about his students, "They need to know what their blind students
will be going through." This is exactly why his exercise is so
damaging. Most, if not all, of these future teachers' students
will not "be going through" these things, because they will have
had at least some training in alternative techniques. While
Doby's motivations are positive, probably all he has done is to
increase most of his students' fear of blindness. They will pass
their fears and negative attitudes along to their students.
Because during their short period of simulated blindness they
could do little successfully, these teachers will expect less of
their blind students in the future. The unemployment rate for
blind persons is approximately seventy percent. In large part
this is because of society's diminished expectations of us,
including those of the blind people who have absorbed the
negative views of teachers, parents, and friends. Because of
these diminished expectations we are rarely given the chance to
compete on terms of equality.
     For up-to-date and accurate information on blindness and the
capabilities of blind persons, I urge you to write Dr. Kenneth
Jernigan, Executive Director, National Federation of the Blind,
1800 Johnson Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21230; or call (410)
659-9314.
     The final article in the blindness series was written by
your reporter, Arthur Olsen. In the article Olsen recounts his
experiences with acting as a blind person while preparing for
work. The article is replete with negative language concerning
his performance of daily tasks and reactions to being blind. He
eloquently makes my case for teaching alternative techniques and
for making people--future teachers as well as the public--aware
of their existence. He goes on and on about waking up, showering,
dressing, shaving, preparing and eating breakfast, and making an
important phone call. I did all these things this morning without
forethought, trauma, or great planning--just as you did.
     As I said earlier, the intent of Doby's exercise was good.
However, I contend that he may have done more harm than good by
increasing people's fear of blindness. I urge him to reconsider
his actions.

                                                       Sincerely,
                                                    David Andrews
cc:  Professor Gary Doby
     Dr. Kenneth Jernigan


           JOIN THE NFB NETWORK AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE
                         by Sharon Gold

     From the Associate Editor: Sharon Gold is the capable
president of the National Federation of the Blind of California.
President Maurer has asked her to chair the NFB Network project.
Here is what she has to say:

     Today in our changing world, the telephone and specifically
long-distance telephone service are becoming increasingly
important. Where families once grew up in small communities with
well-seated roots put down by their forefathers, today families
are spread throughout our vast country. The telephone has become
an important tool to bring families together from across the
miles. 
     In our rapidly changing business world, the telephone is
also becoming more important. Facsimile machines, which are
attached to telephone lines, are used to transmit letters to and
from businesses and homes. Data are transmitted between computers
by telephone, and frequently individuals access data stored in
computers by way of the touch-tone telephone. 
   Today we know that one in five hundred persons is blind.
Because of the increased longevity brought about by advances in
medical science, blindness is on the increase. It is anticipated
that within this decade an average American family will have a
living blind member. Thus the need for the National Federation of
the Blind has never been greater. 
     An important new opportunity has been developed which links
the use of long-distance telephone service and the National
Federation of the Blind. NFB Network has been established by the
National Federation of the Blind in cooperation with Convergent
Communications of Tulsa, Oklahoma. People using NFB Network as
their long-distance carrier can donate up to ten percent of their
monthly charges to the National Federation of the Blind and help
to fund our response to the ever growing demands placed upon us.
     Convergent Communications guarantees that its basic rates
are never higher than AT&T's standard Dial 1 rates. In addition,
Convergent Communications offers a ten-percent discount to
subscribers. This discount can be donated in total as a tax-
deductible donation to the National Federation of the Blind, or
subscribers can choose to split the discount with the NFB,
keeping five percent and donating five percent. Each month the
subscriber's statement will include an accounting of the
tax-deductible donation to the NFB.
     Convergent Communications uses AT&T lines and the AT&T
calling card validation databases for NFB Network. If a
subscriber's local telephone company charges a fee to switch to
the NFB Network long-distance service, upon notification
Convergent Communications will credit the subscriber's long-
distance account with the amount charged. If the subscriber is
not satisfied with the NFB Network long-distance service,
Convergent Communications will pay to return the subscriber to
his or her old long-distance carrier. 
     NFB Network is an outstanding way for Federationists, our
families, and friends to accrue regular tax-deductible donations
to the National Federation of the Blind while speaking with other
family members and friends and while carrying on our routine
business activities. An NFB Network recruiting program has been
established. Federationists are encouraged to complete the NFB
Recruiter box located in the lower right-hand corner of the
enrollment form when completing their personal enrollment in NFB
Network and when recruiting family members, friends, and business
associates to this new long-distance network. 
     To sign up on NFB Network, complete the self-addressed,
postage-paid donor enrollment form at the bottom of this page and
mail it to Convergent Communications. If you wish to use the
telephone to sign up for NFB Network, you may dial Convergent
Communications at 800-848-2661. Convergent will do the rest. 



*****************************************************************
     INCLUDE NFB NETWORK DONOR ENROLLMENT FORM WITH ARTICLE.
*****************************************************************


[PHOTO: Jerry Whittle and Cheryl Domingue in costume on stage
during the play, "Look Homeward Angel." CAPTION: Jerry Whittle
and Cheryl Domingue are pictured here in the Louisiana Center for
the Blind 1987 production of the play, "Look Homeward Angel."]

     ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE FOR THE BLIND AND SIGHTED ALIKE
                        by Jerry Whittle

     From the Associate Editor: Jerry Whittle is a member of the
staff at the Louisiana Center for the Blind in Ruston. He is also
a frequent contributor to Slate and Style, the magazine of the
Writers Division of the National Federation of the Blind. It is
clear, however, from the following article reprinted from the
Winter, 1992, Pathfinder, the publication of the NFB of
Louisiana, that he has been bitten by the drama bug as well. Here
is what he has to say:

     It all started in the Blue Ridge Mountains of South Carolina
back in 1983. Perhaps the love of acting had started before that
year for some of us who had performed in plays in high school or
college before we lost our sight. A small band of Federationists
from South Carolina decided to produce a play at a mountain camp
near Clemson University. The camp had a very large assembly hall
that could seat well over two hundred persons, and it also had a
small stage with two tiny rooms on each end that could serve as
dressing rooms. We did not have any lighting; however, a
mechanical friend, Jerry Darnell, said he could build a lighting
panel, install some lights, and use a remote control to switch on
and off the stage lights as needed. We were set.
     With the full cooperation of Donald C. Capps, President of
the National Federation of the Blind of South Carolina, we chose
the popular Tennessee Williams play, The Glass Menagerie. After
the four blind actors met together, we decided to do three
performances as a fund-raiser for the state affiliate. None of us
had any experience as blind actors. We had heard about blind
actors in New York who did readings (no stage movement), but we
wanted to act it with blocked movements on stage and without our
canes so that we could play sighted characters convincingly. It
was much easier than we anticipated. Each of the actors simply
learned his or her way around the sets as if walking around a
familiar room. One of the actresses, who had some residual sight,
requested that a white line be painted across the front edge of
the stage so that she could see it and not wander too near the
edge. No other special aids were needed in the performance of
this play; however, some very memorable moments related to
blindness occurred during the three performances. 
     One came when Suzanne Bridges Mitchell, who played the
crippled girl Laura, was supposed to trip and fall on some steps.
When Susanne did this scene, some members of the audience almost
ran forward to pick her up, thinking she had fallen because she
was blind. All in all, the play was great fun. The South Carolina
Commission for the Blind radio station recorded the performance
and played it to the statewide blind radio network. Also the
South Carolina Education Television Network videotaped it and
broadcast it over its television network. We proved to ourselves
and to many others that we could move about a stage and perform
with very little difficulty, and some members of the cast got
hooked on the theater.
     When I came to work at the Louisiana Center for the Blind in
October, 1985, I set myself a goal of getting some of the
students and staff at the center involved in doing a play. After
I convinced some of them to give acting a try, we started
learning lines for Look Homeward, Angel, at a local community
theater in Ruston as a fund raiser for the Louisiana Center for
the Blind, but more important, we wanted to do it to build
confidence and poise in our students and to show the local
community that we could produce and act in a legitimate play.
Having no one on staff with experience in directing, we enlisted
the help of some graduate students in the Theater Department at
Louisiana Tech University. We borrowed some costumes from the
Theater Department of Centenary University in Shreveport, and we
did three performances with little difficulty. 
     The acting space we used was divided into three levels. We
entered at the ground level, where the audience sat, and at the
stage level. To get the third, a local building contractor
constructed a porch for us across the entire front edge of the
stage. To assure that the actors could find the different steps,
doormats were placed in front of each set. That was the only
special accommodation needed to assist mobility. At one point in
the performance, my wife Merilynn had to make an entrance into a
puddle where some water was standing on the ground level from the
previous night's downpour. Before the performance, we discovered
that one of the electrical cords was also lying in this puddle.
Merilynn crossed her fingers, stepped before the audience, and
began sloshing through the water while I mentally went over all
the insurance policies I had on her, searching for electrocution
clauses; but fortunately, nothing happened. The rest of the
actors in the scene entered behind her, making what was
potentially the most electrifying entrance of their lives. Over
eighteen actors appeared in the play--fifteen of whom were blind-
-and several more blind people got hooked on the theater.
     Perhaps the most personally rewarding time of my life as a
would-be actor came as the result of an accident. One of the
instructors at the center, who had performed in Look Homeward,
Angel, decided that he wanted to audition for a play being
produced by the Louisiana Tech University Players. He persuaded
Merilynn and me to go with him to audition so that he would not
feel so uncomfortable trying out for a play with a predominantly
sighted troupe. The play was William Saroyan's The Time of Your
Life, a play that I had seen at the Warehouse Theater in
Greenville, South Carolina, many years before and one that had
impressed me greatly. So Merilynn and I acquiesced and ventured
to the theater with our friend. We had obtained a copy of the
script about a week before, and I had spent much time memorizing
the lines the director wanted us to recite. 
     When we arrived at the audition, the director seemed very
nervous in our company. He did not expect to see two blind men
walk in to audition for his play, but he asked us to come up on
stage to read our lines. Merilynn was also asked to do some lines
in (of all things) an Italian accent. All three of us gave it our
best. Since I had memorized my lines, I was able to give them
added emphasis. The director thanked us for coming and told us
that he would post the list of those who would be in the play
outside the auditorium the following day. 
     We left the audition feeling that there was no way that any
of us would be chosen. The next day we went by the auditorium
after work and discovered to our delight and surprise that
Merilynn and I were on the list. I was to play an Arab and
Merilynn was to be an Italian mama. Our friend was not selected,
but he took the disappointing news good-naturedly.
     What we didn't realize was that this particular play would
be in the American College Theater Festival competition. In
addition to the five performances in Ruston, we would act in
Hammond, Louisiana, as part of a statewide competition. We did
the play before sellout crowds in Ruston and in Hammond, and it
was one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. We won the
competition in Hammond and did one performance in Lubbock, Texas,
competing against universities from New Mexico, Oklahoma,
Arkansas, and Texas. We did not win the competition there, but we
did perform before an audience of more than four hundred.
Needless to say, I was the only blind actor there, but everybody
saw my long white cane and knew that I was blind.
     The next year I got to play old Adam in William
Shakespeare's As You Like It for the Louisiana Tech Theater by
merely making a phone call to the director. I did not have to
audition for it.
     Recently a director from the Ruston Community Theater came
to the Louisiana Center for the Blind and asked some of our
students to audition for a play he was producing. Jennifer
Dunnam, President of the Student Chapter of the National
Federation of the Blind of Louisiana and a former student at the
center, auditioned and got the part in Wait Until Dark. She did a
superb job and plans to be in other plays in the future. She has
already performed in four of our plays.
     Since that time the staff and students at the Louisiana
Center for the Blind have produced at least one play per year. We
did one production for an outdoor theater, and we have done three
at state conventions and one at a national convention. Many blind
people have gained confidence and much stage presence from these
performances.
     What started in South Carolina has certainly grown into a
success story, one greater then we could ever have imagined when
we began doing plays at the Louisiana Center for the Blind. Since
the center opened in 1985, we have had over sixty students
participating in plays and gaining confidence and poise as a
result. Blind people can act and do it with enough grace and ease
to be invited to do other plays by local community theaters. If
any blind person has an interest in trying out for a play in his
or her local community theater, I would strongly recommend that
he or she obtain the lines ahead of time and memorize them so
that greater expression can be used. Most important, have the
confidence to audition; you may gain a whole new experience from
such a venture, and a whole new segment of the sighted community
may be better educated about the talents and abilities of blind
persons.




[PHOTO: Portrait. CAPTION: David Ticchi.]

                 BLIND TEACHER KEEPS HIS VISION
                      by Marie C. Franklin

     From the Associate Editor: This article appeared in the
March 8, 1992, edition of the Boston Globe. The subject of the
portrait is David Ticchi, President of the Boston Chapter of the
National Federation of the Blind of Massachusetts. Dr. Ticchi
lives his Federationism every day, and as a result he is teaching
his students more than mathematics. Here is the profile as it
appeared in the Globe: 

     It is time for Algebra II at Newton North High School, and
David Ticchi asks one of his students to take attendance for him.
     "Here's my clipboard, Heather," the teacher says, handing
his roster to a male student in the front row.
     But the real Heather pipes up from another spot in the room:
"I moved. I'm in the third row."
     "What are you doing in the third row?" the bearded teacher
asks jokingly. "You know I can't talk to moving targets."
     The confusion in this classroom is understandable: Ticchi is
not the regular classroom teacher; he is a substitute. And he is
blind.
     He is also very quick to say, "I'm a teacher who is blind,
not a blind teacher."
     For Ticchi, the distinction is important. His classroom is
probably one of the most disciplined ever for a substitute, but
he says the students don't behave "because I'm blind, but because
I conduct myself in a competent manner and demonstrate to them
that I know what's going on."
     As if to demonstrate, he suddenly asked a student one recent
afternoon, "Is that a Walkman I hear?"
     "No," said the student, who was, indeed, wearing headphones.
"I could swear I hear music," Ticchi continued gently, but
firmly.
     "He hears everything," another student said.
     The teenager with headphones unplugged.
     Classroom discipline is a function of a teacher's rapport
with students, said Ticchi: "You don't have to have 20/20 vision
for that."
     "Mr. Ticchi doesn't have to ask for respect," said James
Marini, Jr., seventeen, whose father is the principal. "He just
gets it."
     Ticchi, said Principal James Marini, Sr., is "an outstanding
teacher, who has a real ability to communicate with kids."
     He is a teacher with "a terrific sensitivity to kids,"
according to colleague Charles Kramer, and "a wicked good
teacher," in the words of student Jennifer Martell, seventeen.
     It wasn't always so. A 1967 graduate of the College of the
Holy Cross, Ticchi, who had gone to public schools in West
Bridgewater, was rejected by numerous school systems when he
first tried to get into teaching. "There was prejudice against me
in the job market," he said.
     In 1971, after serving in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, Ticchi
found a job teaching English at Day Junior High School in Newton.
"This community will always be special to me because they gave me
a chance," he said.
     For the next seven years he taught full time while pursuing
master's and doctoral degrees in education from Harvard. As part
of his postgraduate work he produced and starred in "A Blind
Teacher in a Public School," a documentary film about his
experience as a public school teacher. The project was aired
several times on the Public Broadcasting Service.
     The film was so successful, in fact, that when Ticchi left
teaching in 1978 to begin an eleven-year career in corporate
training and marketing, he could not escape it.
     "Wherever I went, someone recognized me from the film," he
recalled. "It convinced me of the power of the documentary."
     Today, Ticchi blends his love of teaching as a permanent
three-day-a-week substitute with his love of film. He is
currently executive producer of a PBS documentary called "Out of
Sight," a biographical portrait of a blind person.
     There are, to be sure, certain tasks that Ticchi performs
differently from other teachers. For example, he grades papers
with the help of readers or his students. He relies on Braille
textbooks and audio tapes for curriculum information. He rarely
writes on the board, although he is able to, asking students to
take the chalk instead.
     "Having them put the math problem or paragraph on the board
engages them in their learning," Ticchi said.
     "When I first told my parents I had this math teacher who
was blind, they were surprised because math is so visual," said
John MacWilliams, eighteen. "But Mr. Ticchi's real good, and he
explains things real well."
     During class Ticchi is a modern-day teacher who would make
Socrates proud. Tweed jacket off, he finds time to kneel or sit
by each student's desk to talk about their work. "Part of that is
my style and personality," he said, "but it's also my way of
being with their work."
     "Make my day," he said to a struggling student who finally
finished the problem. "Music to my ears," he complimented
another. "That's it; that's it," he called to a third student
working at the board.
     "When kids come into my classroom, I want them to feel good
about themselves," Ticchi said. "Regardless of their academic
records or how they're feeling about themselves, I want them to
feel my classroom is a good place to be."
     Marini, the principal, is effusive with praise: "To every
discussion he has with kids, he brings a passion about what it
means to get an education."
     At Newton North High School, many would say, having sight is
not what makes a good teacher; having vision is.

[2 PHOTOS: 1) New NEWSLINE FOR THE BLIND sign; 2) Don Capps and Sharon Gold
standing in front of NEWSLINE FOR THE BLIND office. CAPTIONS: 1) The sign
about to be installed outside the offices of NEWSLINE FOR THE BLIND in
Sacramento, California. Sharon Gold, President of the NFB of California, and
Lane Shapiro, Coordinator of Volunteers at NEWSLINE, stand beside the sign,
which is propped against the truck that delivered it. 2) Donald Capps, member
of the Board of Directors of the National Federation of the Blind, is pictured
here with Sharon Gold outside of the NEWSLINE office, which he toured on a
recent visit to the west coast.]

              NEWSLINE FOR THE BLIND GOES ON-LINE:

     From the Associate Editor: One of the most exciting new
manifestations of the technology revolution for blind people has
been the recent availability of daily newspapers through
telephone hookup in several states. The first program began
several years ago in Michigan with the Talking Newspaper based in
Flint. Then the New Mexico Commission for the Blind organized a
NEWSLINE FOR THE BLIND in that state. In recent months both
Minnesota and the District of Columbia have instituted services.
     The latest program to go on-line is that established by the
National Federation of the Blind of California. Like the New
Mexico Service, it is called NEWSLINE FOR THE BLIND, and the
National Federation of the Blind has begun proceedings for
protecting this name with a trademark. Here is the notice that
was circulated statewide in California in mid-February: 

     The National Federation of the Blind of California is proud
to announce the establishment of the NEWSLINE FOR THE BLIND. This
new project of the NFB of California makes it possible for blind
persons to have access to the newspaper twenty-four hours a day,
seven days a week, from a touch-tone telephone. NEWSLINE FOR THE
BLIND officially went on-line February 17, 1992, with the
Sacramento Bee. During the first week of March, we will begin to
read the Los Angeles Times.
     If you would like to be among the first to be a NEWSLINE
reader, you may telephone the National Federation of the Blind of
California to enroll. Once you are registered with NEWSLINE FOR
THE BLIND, all you need do is dial the NEWSLINE telephone number
and enter your personal identification numbers. You can then
choose which of the two newspapers you wish to read and scan
through the paper to find the desired articles. Since the
NEWSLINE service is operational twenty-four hours a day, you can
read what you want to read, when you want to read it. The
NEWSLINE computer allows the blind reader to enter a category
number for the subject matter to be read and to fast-forward or
review the article at will.
     The NEWSLINE service is being made available to the blind of
the entire state through local and in-WATS telephone numbers. No
fee is being charged to in-state subscribers; however, donations
to help defray the cost of the NEWSLINE service are invited. It
is essential that each subscriber have a personal identification
number, which is not to be given to anyone else.
     Interested persons are invited to call the NFB of California
Office at (916) 424-2226 or (800) 345-2226; or to FAX at (213)
661-4903 to register with NEWSLINE and obtain their personal
identification numbers.

     That notice was sent to thousands of Californians in late
February and has been reprinted in the publications of many
service delivery agencies across the state in the weeks since. By
late March nearly 500 subscribers had already signed up, and the
phones were still ringing steadily. On April 2 the Sacramento Bee
printed a story about NEWSLINE in its Neighbors section. It was
written by Katherine Martinez. Here it is: 

         Sight-Impaired Now Able to Listen to Newspapers

     While most people are still sipping their morning coffee, a
few men and women are reading the newspaper aloud so that
thousands of blind Californians can experience what the rest of
us take for granted.
     Until February 17 the 60,000 blind people in this state had
to rely on friends, relatives, and hired assistants to read the
daily newspapers to them. But the National Federation of the
Blind of California, Inc., spent two years planning NEWSLINE,
which allows people to hear recordings of the Sacramento Bee
(including Neighbors) and the Los Angeles Times through their
touch-tone phones.
     Similar to BeeLine, which offers information and minute-long
snippets of news, the menu-driven, computerized service allows
callers to scan the newspaper and read the articles twenty-four
hours a day. Only four other states have a similar program.
     "We've changed the way blind people look at the news," said
Paul McIntyre, the computer technician.
     Blind people in California have not had this opportunity
before, said Sharon Gold, president of the organization, who has
been blind since birth.
     "We're out in the public, in the mainstream," said Gold, who
wore a medallion bearing the NFB logo. "We have the same dreams
and goals as everyone else. We need to read the paper at our own
leisure. We don't want to wait for anyone."
     The group has recruited about sixty volunteers to make
weekly visits to the NEWSLINE office at 4431 Freeport Blvd. Seven
carpet-lined sound booths each contain a headset, telephone, and
keypad that enable volunteers to record sections of the newspaper
onto the computer system.
     McIntyre, who has been legally blind for five years, said
the system contains 1,000 megabytes of memory in its hard drive,
whereas others contain twenty to forty.
     Volunteers begin reading as early as 6:00 a.m., throughout
the morning and early afternoon, with some continuing to 8:00
p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays. They read all sections of the
newspaper, including the comics and the grocery ads, which the
blind can record and take with them when they go shopping.
     "The grocery section is more popular (than other sections)
to the blind readers because it's something we've never had,"
Gold said.
     Callers within Sacramento use a local telephone number,
while all others use an 800 number. They must punch in a personal
security code to access the service, to protect the copyrights of
the newspapers. A menu asks them to press certain numbers to read
each newspaper, to listen to directions, or to leave a comment.
Different buttons allow callers to scan forward ten seconds,
backward ten seconds, repeat the story from the beginning, or go
on to the next story.
     The system can handle twelve calls at once, which will
expand to twenty-four when the organization receives more
funding. The NFB is funded entirely by public donations. It used
a trust fund gift to start NEWSLINE, which will operate on a
yearly budget of $100,000.
     Scanning to the comics section, a caller will hear a
volunteer read "Peanuts." On one particular day, a man's voice
described each frame of the comic strip: "Snoopy is behind a
stone wall, and Linus is standing nearby...."
     It takes about ninety minutes to read the Sunday comics
section, said Lane Shapiro, the volunteer coordinator.
     And people appreciate the effort. Gold said they are signing
up about one hundred subscribers a week for the free service.
They have more than 450 subscribers so far, but have the
potential to sign up to 60,000. As NEWSLINE recruits more
volunteers, it will add the metro or local sections of other
California newspapers, making local news throughout the state
available to the blind population.
     Shapiro said volunteering for NEWSLINE allows people of all
ages and backgrounds to meet for a worthwhile cause.
     "The reasons range from giving back to the community to
having a relative who is blind," he said. "It's an outlet for
meeting people."
     Pat Scofield stepped out of a sound booth and asked Shapiro
how to pronounce a certain word.
     "Just spell it out the first time," Shapiro said. Reading
the paper is not as difficult as it was a month ago.
     "I'm so glad the Olympics are over," he said with a laugh,
referring to the trouble volunteers had with pronouncing foreign
names.
     Scofield used to volunteer at Audiovision, a radio-reading
service that has closed temporarily.
     "This is an excellent operation," said the Campus Commons
resident. "The organization; the setup; the nice, patient
people...."
     Anne Huff of Land Park volunteers three hours a week because
she knows it fills a need. Her mother, who lives in New Jersey,
is going blind.
     Television newscasts do not give blind people the details
and depth of stories that newspapers provide.
     "I feel it's a worthwhile job," Huff said.
     The NFB is seeking more volunteers. A few weeks ago, a
church youth group came in and read sections of the newspaper.
Another time a Boy Scout troop visited the office for a lesson in
telecommunications.
     The staff and volunteers know the program is working because
of the messages they have received.
     "Every day someone calls us up to tell us how they can use
it to advance their daily activities," Gold said.
     Students use the service for research, and professionals
augment their jobs by staying informed on local and world events.
     One man from Santa Monica, whose voice was full of
gratitude, simply said, "I wanted to tell you this is the nicest
service a blind person can have. Thank you."
     Those interested in volunteering for NEWSLINE can call 456-
4446. Donations may be sent to the National Federation of the
Blind of California, Inc., at 5982 South Land Park Drive,
Sacramento, California 95822.


               BECOMING A SOCIAL SECURITY ADVOCATE
                  FOR YOURSELF OR SOMEONE ELSE
                        by Barbara Pierce

     Since more than seventy percent of blind working-age
Americans are either unemployed or severely underemployed, it is
not surprising that many of us have important dealings with the
Social Security Administration. Both the Social Security
Disability (SSDI) and the Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
Programs are available to eligible blind citizens. Bureaucracy
being what it is, however, individual recipients frequently find
themselves in disagreement with Social Security officials about
eligibility, overpayments, or other serious problems. 
     It is easy for an individual to feel intimidated. The Social
Security Act is complicated, and the regulations written to
explain it fill volumes. The regulations are spelled out more
completely in the Program Operations Manuals (POMS); and, as if
all this were not enough, Social Security officials have
summarized particular parts of this body of information in
special rulings. 
     Not surprisingly, even Social Security personnel fail to
master all the subtleties of the programs they administer. The
regulations that affect the blind are different in some ways from
those applying to recipients with other disabilities, and it is
easy for an official who works with blind recipients infrequently
to forget the exceptions that apply. 
     As a result the National Federation of the Blind has always
worked closely with the Social Security Administration and with
blind recipients to see that the latter receive the benefits to
which they are entitled. It is always necessary for SSI and SSDI
recipients and their advocates to know as much as possible about
the regulations governing these programs. 
     The following article has been written to provide interested
people with an overview of the benefits available to blind
citizens through Social Security Administration programs. You can
order the volume of the Social Security regulations that includes
Parts 404 and 416 from the Superintendent of Documents, United
States Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402. The appropriate
sections of the POMS are available for review and/or photocopying
(usually without cost) from your nearest Social Security Office,
listed in your telephone directory. The National Federation of
the Blind is preparing a pamphlet, which includes the following
article together with the text of SSA Rulings 83-33 and 83-34,
which explain most of the relevant POMS. 
     Studying these materials will enable Federationists to
assist blind recipients in need of help and advocacy. Remember
that each year the earnings limits, SSI and SSDI contribution
amounts, and other figures are likely to change. That is why we
publish a Social Security update in the Braille Monitor early
each year. The figures listed in the following article are
correct for 1992, but they will have to be revised in subsequent
years. Regulation references may also become outdated, but
knowledgeable Federationists will be able to explain subtle
changes to you. Good luck; investing time in understanding this
material is important and useful work. 

[PHOTO: James Gashel reads from a Braille magazine. CAPTION:
James Gashel, National Federation of the Blind Director of
Governmental Affairs.]

              BENEFIT RIGHTS FOR BLIND INDIVIDUALS:
  A DESCRIPTION OF SOCIAL SECURITY'S WORK INCENTIVE PROVISIONS
                IN THE DISABILITY INSURANCE AND 
              SUPPLEMENTAL SECURITY INCOME PROGRAMS
                         by James Gashel

                          Introduction

   This paper examines the work incentive provisions for blind
persons who receive (or may receive) Social Security Disability
Insurance (SSDI) benefits or Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
checks as well as those who might be made eligible by applying
the provisions. The two programs have somewhat different work
incentive features for the blind as well as for other
beneficiaries. Because of a statutory definition of blindness
(found in both titles II and XVI of the Social Security Act),
blind people are treated as a separate category in both programs.

               The Statutory Blindness Definition

   As a practical and legal matter the statutory definition of
blindness is itself a work incentive. The definition removes the
discretion which the Social Security Administration (SSA) would
otherwise have in determining who is blind and, by virtue of that
fact, under a disability. By law, a person is statutorily blind
if the visual acuity in the better eye is no greater than 20/200
with the best correcting lens or if there is an accompanying
restriction in the field of vision such that the widest diameter
subtends an angle of no greater than twenty degrees. There are
objective ophthalmological examinations that are used to
determine the extent of vision loss, and the measurements provide
a fairly reliable standard to follow in proving blindness. 
   Those who are blind by this definition are considered to be
disabled under SSDI if they are not engaged in substantial
gainful activity. Substantial gainful activity for blind persons
is also defined by law. In the SSI program, on the other hand, no
definition of substantial gainful activity exists for the blind.
In that program people who are blind as prescribed by the
definition are eligible if their countable income and resources
do not exceed the otherwise applicable limits. 
   For recipients who are not blind, anxiety over the loss of
disability status is perhaps the greatest work disincentive. In
fact, by responding to the work incentive features of the law,
many non-blind disabled individuals worry that they will prove
their future ineligibility for cash benefits. For blind people
this should be no concern because of the statutory definitions of
blindness in titles II and XVI. As long as blindness continues,
approval of an application for benefits should be relatively
automatic, provided that the other eligibility criteria are met.
Therefore, a blind person can feel less constrained in making
repeated work attempts by fears that SSA will use successful work
efforts as evidence in disapproving future claims. 
   The work incentive features for the blind under the SSDI
program differ from those available in SSI. What follows is a
description of the details of the work incentives available in
each program and the differences that one must understand.
 
                Work Incentives for the Blind in
                 Title II, Disability Insurance

   Many beneficiaries report that SSA personnel do not give them
accurate or complete information about the ways in which working
will affect their entitlement to benefits. One of the most common
misconceptions is that any work at all causes ineligibility.
Beneficiaries say that this is what they are told by SSA's claims
representatives. In some cases there may be a misunderstanding of
the answer, or the question may not have been precisely put. In
other cases it may be a matter of miscommunication. The SSA
representative may not consider that a person is working if the
work does not represent substantial gainful activity. That
interpretation would certainly be understandable, but it tends to
leave the beneficiary confused. 
   Not all work activity affects entitlement to SSDI benefits.
Some work activity does affect entitlement to the extent of
causing ineligibility. Some work activity affects entitlement
only after several months. Beneficiaries must receive competent
counseling in order to understand the ways in which working
affects their benefit rights. The following sections will
describe the relevant eligibility conditions for blind persons
and explain the effects of working. 

              The Substantial Gainful Activity Test

   The statutory definition of blindness has already been
discussed. Those whose vision is limited enough to meet this
definition may be eligible for SSDI benefits if they are not
performing substantial gainful activity (SGA). SGA is a primary
evaluation factor used to measure the extent of an SSDI
beneficiary's work activity. The regulations include SGA
guidelines for persons who are not blind and a separate set of
guidelines for blind people. This paper focuses primarily on the
latter provisions. Some attention will also be paid to the
differences in the ways in which the guidelines apply to
employees and to self-employed persons. 

             SGA Evaluation Guides for Blind Persons

   The SGA evaluation guides for blind persons are found in SSA's
regulations at 20 CFR section 404.1584. The provisions in that
section amount to an earnings test for work activity performed in
1978 or later. For all years before 1978 the work activity of
blind persons was evaluated under exactly the same standards as
are still used for non-blind disabled beneficiaries. The current
earnings standards are a clear SGA guideline, following the
concept of a monthly exempt amount, although that term is never
used. Earnings which are below the monthly standard applicable
during any year will not be found to represent SGA. Earnings
above the monthly standard do represent SGA. Only countable
income is considered, so certain deductions apply. 
   The 1992 SGA guideline for blind persons is average monthly
countable income of $850. Annualized, this is precisely the same
as the exempt amount for retirees sixty-five to seventy. That was
no accident. The amendment which created the statutory SGA
guideline for blind persons established a linkage between
earnings permitted under the senior citizens' retirement test and
SGA for the blind. The reasoning was that blindness and
retirement age (age sixty-five) are both defined and readily
determinable. Therefore, the same basic exempt earnings
principles should apply. 
   One major inconsistency must be pointed out, however, between
the age sixty-five retirement test and the blind persons' SGA
guideline. For senior citizens who earn above the basic exempt
amount, the benefit payable is reduced by one dollar for every
three dollars of earnings. As earnings climb, the amount payable
as a retirement benefit is reduced and more than replaced by the
earnings. For blind persons, however, the SGA guideline is a
barrier to higher earnings. Blind persons who have average
monthly countable income of $855 per month this year will become
permanently or temporarily ineligible to receive benefits and
will sacrifice several hundred dollars for earning five dollars a
month over the exempt amount. The SGA guideline for blind persons
has no earnings offset provision as does the retirement test.
Advocates and beneficiaries must be aware of this difference.

                 Comparable Skills and Abilities
                 Test--Age Fifty-Five and Older 

   Under the SGA guidelines, some blind persons who have attained
at least age fifty-five are treated somewhat more favorably than
those under age fifty-five. They are subject to a comparable
skills and abilities test, rather than a strict SGA standard.
This means that the benefit eligibility of many blind persons age
fifty-five to sixty-five is never actually terminated, although
benefits are not due for any month during which SGA is performed.
Conversely (and this is the important work incentive point),
benefits are due for any month when SGA is not performed. There
is no need for a new application or a new disability
determination. Benefit eligibility is only suspended during
periods of SGA. 
   Subsection (c) of section 404.1584 notes that SSA will compare
the work of a blind individual who has attained age fifty-five
with the skills and abilities used by the individual in the work
most commonly performed by the individual before reaching age
fifty-five. If the skills and abilities used in working at age
fifty-five or later are less than or different from those used in
previous work, payment of cash benefits is only suspended during
periods of SGA. If the skills and abilities used by a blind
worker at age fifty-five or later are about the same as those
used before, performance of SGA would actually terminate
eligibility after the trial work and extended eligibility periods
had been used. 

          Comparison to Non-Blind SGA Evaluation Guides

   The SGA guidelines for non-blind beneficiaries are found in
sections 404.1574 and 404.1575 of SSA's regulations. These
sections present guidelines for employees and for self-employed
persons respectively. The tests described here involve
evaluations of significant services, substantial income, and a
comparability and worth-of-work analysis (not to be confused with
the age fifty-five and over blindness provision just discussed).
However, section 404.1584 on evaluation guidelines for the blind
does contain a cross reference to specific portions of these
non-blind provisions. The referenced portions deal with the way
to determine substantial income. It is important to underscore
the fact that the significant services and worth-of-work tests do
not apply to blind persons, whether they are employees or self-
employed persons. 
   Social Security Rulings 83-33 and 83-34 clearly delineate the
differences in the evaluation of SGA for blind and non-blind
beneficiaries. The test for blind persons is substantial income
only. Substantial income is referred to as a primary evaluation
guide. The test for non-blind persons involves both primary and
secondary evaluation guides. The primary SGA evaluation guideline
for non-blind persons is still substantial income, but the amount
is determined by SSA regulations, not by statute as with the
blind persons' SGA guideline. The statutory guideline for blind
persons is higher than the primary guideline for non-blind
persons in SSA's regulations. Also, the statutory guideline is
raised annually in accordance with increases in the taxable wage
base, whereas the regulation guideline is raised less frequently,
without regard to taxable wage base changes. 
   Both primary and secondary evaluation guides apply to
non-blind persons. Use of the secondary evaluation guides is
triggered by earnings amounts specified in the regulations.
Secondary evaluation guides include assessments of the extent and
nature of the individual's work activity and a determination of
the worth of the work, regardless of the amount of the
individual's gross pay. 

                  SGA Evaluation for Employees

   The evaluation of SGA begins with the determination of gross
pay in cases of both blind and non-blind people, but countable
earnings may often be less than the amount of gross pay for both
types of beneficiaries. In employment cases, countable earnings
will approximate gross pay, but the amount of any subsidies and
impairment-related work expenses must be determined and deducted.
Sources of subsidy are discussed extensively in the Social
Security Rulings identified in this paper. Subsidies include
employer-provided services or pay that does not represent
compensation for actual productivity. Impairment-related work
expenses, which are deductible from gross pay, will be discussed
in detail in a later section. 
   The subsidy and impairment-related work expense provisions can
have important work incentive effects on beneficiaries. If a
blind person has gross pay of somewhere in the range of $900 to
$1000 per month, it is possible to compute countable earnings of
below $850 by applying these provisions. Also, some blind
individuals can continue to receive cash benefits while they are
purchasing needed blindness-related devices or paying for
necessary reader services. These features allow individuals the
opportunity to have income and test their ability to work even
beyond the trial work and extended eligibility periods. 

             Blind Employees of Sheltered Workshops

   Blind employees of sheltered workshops are in a special work
situation. Most major cities in the United States have a workshop
in which blind people are hired to produce products for use by
the federal and state governments. There are about 5,000 blind
people working in these plants. Their wages are often not
substantial, and sometimes they are actually below the federal
minimum wage. These workers earn Social Security quarters of
coverage for their employment, and most should become eligible to
receive SSDI checks. Those at the low end of the income scale can
work as much as they are asked to and not be in danger of running
afoul of the SGA evaluation guides. Full-time earnings at the
minimum wage are also below the SGA income guidelines for blind
persons. But overtime work or earnings in excess of the minimum
wage can bring earnings close to the limits. 
   According to SSA's regulations and rulings, the possibility of
subsidy should be explored in the case of employees of sheltered
workshops. Subsidy is not automatic in such cases, even though
the workshops do receive government grants and charitable
contributions which are used to maintain their operations. It is
actually the individual's productivity that must be known in
order to make an SGA determination. A portion of the income may
be deducted as already described, if it represents a payment in
excess of the value of the productivity. Other work situations
may also include subsidies, but such contributed earnings are
most likely to be found in sheltered workshops. 

            SGA Evaluation for Self-Employed Persons

   There are certain specialized considerations which apply to
the evaluation of self-employment earnings, as opposed to wages
paid to employed beneficiaries. First, self-employment earnings
are not the individual's gross income. Surprisingly, most
beneficiaries are totally unaware of this. The person's net self-
employment income is the figure which compares to gross pay in
employment cases. However, in self-employment cases there are
several other types of deductions which can be made. Subsidies
and impairment-related work expenses are still deductible to the
same extent as in employment cases. However, the cost of
impairment-related work expenses cannot be applied against net
self-employment income, if the expense was already paid for by
the business. Subsidies do occur in self-employment cases, and
their value should be deducted from net earnings. The subsidies
do not represent the value of any work activity performed, so the
value of subsidies should not be included in countable earnings.  
Many blind persons are involved in special work situations in
which the possibility of subsidies should be carefully
investigated. There are approximately 3,600 blind people who
operate vending facility and food service businesses in public
buildings throughout the United States. Their right to do
business in these areas is established by law, and their work is
significantly supervised by an agency of the state in which the
business is located. Space, utilities, equipment, furnishings,
and business counseling are all contributed to the blind vendor
as prescribed by law. In some instances outright payments of
money from vending machines not operated by the blind vendor are
also contributed to the blind person's business. These payments
are required by law and are unrelated to productivity. 
   The cost of any services or goods given to the blind self-
employed person must be deducted from net self-employment income
to determine countable earnings under the SGA guidelines. Social
Security Ruling 83-34 explains the sequence of deductions. After
determining net self-employment income, the first subtraction
from that figure is the reasonable value of any unpaid help.
Unpaid help is necessary assistance provided by another person
without compensation, whereas an employee's wages would already
have been deducted as a business expense. The next subtraction is
the actual amount paid by the individual as impairment-related
work expenses, if not already taken as business expenses. The
third deduction is the value of unincurred business expenses,
including items such as contributed space, utilities, equipment,
and business counseling. 
   The purpose of these deductions is to identify the remaining
portion of net income, which represents the actual value of the
disabled person's productivity. Therefore, any portion of the
individual's income which results from significant assistance or
outright contribution of services or goods must be excluded from
consideration under the substantial income test in the SGA
guidelines. The amount remaining is compared to the income
guidelines in subsection (d) of section 404.1584 to determine if
the individual's work activity is or is not SGA. It is a good
idea to prepare a table to display net self-employment income,
monthly expenses, and the resulting countable income. A sample of
such a table is included as Appendix A.
   By applying these deductions and income standards, it is
possible for a blind self-employed person to have what may appear
at first glance to be a fairly substantial income and still be
eligible to receive SSDI checks. Blind persons who receive the
vending machine income subsidy, for example, may be paid in
excess of $20,000 a year from that source, and none of this
subsidy amount counts as income under the SGA guidelines. The
deductions of unpaid help, contributed space, and other
unincurred business expenses often mean that the individual can
have net self-employment earnings of $15,000 or more and still be
found eligible under the SGA guidelines. The blind vendor who
also receives vending machine income subsidies of $20,000 or more
in addition to self-employment earnings of $15,000 could still
have countable earnings below the SGA guidelines. 

          Deduction of Impairment-Related Work Expenses

   Impairment-related work expenses are described in section
404.1576 of the SSA regulations and in the Social Security
Rulings identified. Impairment-related work expenses for blind
persons may include costs of special transportation to, from, and
during work, provided that the expenses are work-related and are
not paid or reimbursed by someone else. Normal transportation
(public or otherwise) to and from work is not considered to be
impairment-related. Taxicab service is often considered an
impairment-related work expense if other public transportation is
not conveniently available. Payment of readers and purchase of
specialized blindness-related devices are other typically
deductible impairment-related work expenses for blind persons. 
   The actual cost of impairment-related work expenses is an
allowed deduction for both employees and self-employed persons.
In self-employment cases, however, these costs are frequently
paid by the business, in which case they could not be taken
again. It is important to emphasize that the expense must be for
a service or item purchased by the individual. Contributed
services or goods cannot be counted under this deduction, but
they may still be considered as subsidies. In self-employment
cases as already described, the value of services and goods given
to the individual may also be deducted as contributed help or
unincurred business expenses. It is important that these types of
deductions not be confused with impairment-related work expenses.

                   Unsuccessful Work Attempts

   The SGA guidelines disregard income resulting from work which
a beneficiary was forced to stop because the employment effort
was unsuccessful. Normally a work attempt which exceeds six
months will not be considered as unsuccessful. Income can be
exempted as an unsuccessful work attempt if the individual's
disability causes an involuntary cessation of work or a reduction
of work activity below the SGA income guidelines. 

                        Trial Work Period

   The trial work period is a long-standing work-incentive
feature of the SSDI program. The initial period allowed for trial
work consists of nine months, not necessarily consecutive. Months
of intermittent work with fairly low earnings can use up all of
the nine trial work months. On the other hand, there is
absolutely no limit on earnings during any of the nine trial work
months, and SGA is not a consideration during any part of this
period. 
   At the low end of the scale, earnings of $200 in a single
month cause that month to be counted as one of the nine trial
work months. In self-employment cases a month is counted if at
least fifteen hours of services are performed, regardless of the
compensation, and if the work done is of the kind normally
performed for pay or profit. Work done purely for training, home
care, or therapeutic purposes is not counted as services. These
guidelines are often confused with the SGA evaluation guides
because they both involve evaluation of work activity. However,
it is clear that individuals can easily use all of their trial
work months without ever performing SGA. 
   One problem is that beneficiaries sometimes fail to report
their work activity during months of trial work because they know
that it does not represent SGA. SSA representatives also have
been known to advise people not to report their work until it has
lasted for at least nine months. These approaches can lead to
significant overpayments. Beneficiaries are disappointed when
they have been misled into thinking that they have nine months of
SGA-level work coming while still receiving benefits.
Incidentally, the amount of earnings necessary for a month to be
counted as trial work was $75 for months prior to January, 1990.
But even the higher amount of $200 is still well below the SGA
income guidelines. To be on the safe side, beneficiaries should
report all work as soon as it begins. 
   The work done during the initial nine months of trial work is
used to evaluate the individual's ability to perform SGA in the
future. In blindness cases the evaluation is strictly an earnings
test as already described. If earnings exceed SGA during the nine
initial trial work months, there are no benefit consequences
whatsoever. If average monthly earnings exceed SGA after the nine
initial trial work months, benefits will be terminated. The
termination month is actually the twelfth month of work,
including the initial nine months, the tenth month (in which it
is said that the disability ends because of SGA), and two
adjustment months. There is no limit on earnings during the
tenth, eleventh, and twelfth months of work.
   When benefits begin after an initial five-month waiting
period, the individual is entitled to a trial work period. The
waiting period applies when benefits are received for the first
time. A waiting period will also be required for any subsequent
eligibility period if the receipt of cash benefits was stopped
for at least five consecutive years. Beginning in January, 1992,
a trial work period will be provided whenever benefits are paid
during a new period of disability, whether or not there is a
waiting period. Until January, 1992, a trial work month was any
month in the past when services or earnings exceeded the amounts
described. Now trial work months more than sixty months in the
past will not be counted. 

             Trial Work During Extended Eligibility

   Extended eligibility refers to a period of thirty-three months
during which an individual can work while benefits are suspended,
not terminated. The individual is actually entitled to a benefit
check for any month in which SGA is not performed in accordance
with the income guidelines. Entitlement is suspended for months
when SGA is performed. This extended eligibility status begins
with the thirteenth month of work and ends thirty-three months
later. After that point a new claim must be filed if future work
activity falls below SGA. Re-entitlement is virtually automatic
in blindness cases when future earnings are below the SGA
evaluation guides. 

             Period of Disability--Disability Freeze

     Blind persons who work should not be concerned that the
amount of their future benefits will be reduced because of
periods of low or no earnings. If a person is not blind, the
benefit computation years include virtually all of an
individual's working life, even though earnings may not have been
very high some of the time. Years during a period of disability
(for non-blind disabled persons) are excluded from the earnings
record. However, years following the period of disability must be
counted even if earnings are very low because of the disability.
     A disability freeze provision exists in the case of blind
persons. This means that the period of disability begins in the
year when the individual is blind and also has fully-insured
status. The individual may not actually be eligible for benefits
during that year (or for many years) because work activity
exceeds the SGA income guidelines. However, the disability freeze
may still be applied in a later benefit computation. If it is
applied, all years within the period of disability (blindness)
are excluded from the earnings record. This is done so that the
individual's highest years of earnings (outside of the period of
disability) can be used to compute the highest benefit payable.
If the computation of an individual's benefit would be higher by
using years of earnings within the period of disability, the
freeze is not applied. Thus the blind individual is not penalized
by receiving lower future benefits because of attempts to work.

               Continuing Eligibility for Medicare

   Other than the continued payment of cash benefits in the
circumstances already described, extended coverage by Medicare
can be an important work incentive. Medicare eligibility for both
blind and disabled persons can continue beyond the trial work and
extended eligibility periods if entitlement to cash benefits
stops due to work activity. The individual must pay the Medicare
premiums and may refuse the extended coverage without future
penalty in the payment of Medicare premiums. 
     Extended coverage is available under both parts A and B of
Medicare, but the premium payments which apply to part A (health
insurance coverage) are different from those which apply to part
B (supplementary medical insurance coverage). For the first
forty-eight months of working (which include the trial work
months), the individual is covered under part A of Medicare
without paying a premium. During the same period the individual
may retain part B coverage, but the monthly premium (normally
subtracted from the Social Security benefit amount) must be paid.
After forty-eight months of work, the individual whose benefits
have stopped because of work can retain Medicare coverage under
both parts A and B by paying the premiums applicable to each type
of coverage.

           Work Incentives for the Blind in Title XVI 
                  Supplemental Security Income

     Unlike the SSDI program, there are three categories of
eligible recipients involved in SSI--the aged (age sixty-five and
older), the blind (using the definition of blindness already
described), and the disabled. Blind people are categorically
eligible for SSI, but they must also meet the income and resource
limits of the law. Nonetheless, categorical eligibility has
enormous significance. 
     There is no test of SGA in the case of blind applicants or
recipients under Title XVI. Monthly payment amounts are limited
by income but not by SGA. Because of the income disregards and
the deduction of allowed work expenses, the payment amount for
the individual or couple may decrease gradually as income
increases. It is important to note that eligibility never
terminates abruptly as the result of earning above the SGA
guidelines. Of course, eligibility can terminate abruptly if the
resources of the individual or couple exceed the limits. There is
no offset of benefits in the case of excess resources as there is
in the case of income. 

                     Basic Income Disregards

   SSI payments are based on financial need. Therefore, all
income must be considered, but not all income affects the payment
amount to the same extent. A work incentive is given by
disregarding earned income to a much greater extent than unearned
income. Almost all unearned income is counted and reduces the SSI
payment amount dollar for dollar after disregarding up to $20.
SSI follows a monthly accounting period, so the values used are
monthly. 
   The same $20 disregard can count as earned income if there is
no unearned income. In addition, $65 of earned income is
disregarded altogether. Beyond this, half of the earned income
remaining after the first two subtractions is also deducted. In
other words, more than half of all of a recipient's earned income
is exempt. This income remains the recipient's and is not counted
in determining the SSI payment amount. The sequence of these
earned income exclusions can be found in SSA's regulations at
section 416.1112(c). 

                   Work Expenses for the Blind

   Paragraph (7) of the above-cited subsection allows the amount
of actual expenses reasonably attributable to working to be
deducted from the remaining earned income, in the case of blind
recipients only. This subtraction is to be made after the
previously-described deductions. Work expenses that qualify under
this exclusion are the amount withheld or paid in federal, state
or local income taxes; FICA or self-employment contributions to
Social Security; the cost of any transportation necessary to
travel to and from work (ordinary transportation is included);
the cost of meals consumed while at work; the care and feeding of
a dog guide; the purchase of special devices, equipment, or
supplies; payment of readers used on the job; payment of
professional fees and union dues; and any other costs that are
necessary and work-related. Self-care expenses do not count. 
   This deduction of reasonable work expenses for the blind is a
work incentive feature unique to blind recipients under SSI. It
differs from the impairment-related work expense deduction
allowed for the blind and disabled under SSDI and for the
disabled under SSI. One difference is that the expenses do not
have to be impairment-related. Even ordinary tax withholding,
transportation costs, and meals while at work can be counted.
This is an important monetary difference from the more
restrictive impairment-related work expense standard. 
   Another important difference is the placement of the
subtraction of work expenses for the blind in the sequence of
deductions. It follows the subtraction of half the remaining
earned income. By contrast, the impairment-related work expense
deduction for disabled persons under SSI precedes the subtraction
of half the remaining earned income. This means that the
remaining income to be divided in half is smaller, and with the
work expense deduction taken out early the resulting countable
income is therefore higher. The goal of making these subtractions
is to achieve the lowest possible countable income and therefore
the highest possible SSI check for the recipient. Work expenses
for the blind are therefore a major deduction and a strong work
incentive. The blind recipient should not lose financially by
working. 

                  Plans to Achieve Self-Support

   The plan to achieve self support (PASS) is another form of
work incentive deduction under SSI. It is available to both blind
and disabled recipients. A PASS can be used to exclude any amount
of income that would otherwise have to be figured into the
determination of countable income. The income which is segregated
into a PASS has no bearing on the amount of SSI payable for any
month during which the PASS is in effect. However, the same
income must be counted if it is received during any month
preceding approval of the PASS or after its expiration. 
   Resources may also be excluded under a PASS. The resource
limit for an individual, for example, is $2,000. Under a PASS the
individual could save additional money to be used later for
buying necessary equipment, paying educational expenses, or
starting a business. There is actually no limit on the amount of
money that can be excluded and retained as a resource under a
PASS. 
   To have an approved PASS, a recipient must develop a self-
support goal and a specific plan designed to achieve that goal.
The amount of income and resources to be devoted to the plan are
also specified by the recipient. The normal approval period for a
PASS is eighteen months with two extensions--one for an
additional eighteen months and another for twelve months. There
have been cases in which individuals were approved for more than
one PASS due to changes in the self-support goal. The result of
such changes may be a PASS that runs for more than forty-eight
months, but this is unusual. 
   Recipients who can work can benefit from having a PASS by
retaining SSI while increasing their work activity. Income from
work devoted to the PASS can then be used for vocational or
professional growth. During the period of the PASS the income and
resources devoted to it must be retained, used, and accounted for
as separate funds of the recipient. The funds can be used only
for the purposes approved by SSA and identified in the PASS. A
PASS is not approved for normal living expenses. Nonetheless,
having a PASS can help a person meet normal living expenses by
retaining or even increasing the SSI payment amount. 

                  Determining Countable Income

   Appendix B presents a step-by-step approach to determining
countable income in SSI blindness cases. These steps are a
helpful way of presenting the sequence of deductions which can be
applied. If all of the income is earned, a very low figure of
countable income can be obtained even though total income may be
$1000 per month or more. The SSI payment amount for the
individual or couple is the difference between countable income
and the payment rate for the state in question. There is a
standard federal payment amount for individuals and a slightly
higher amount for couples. States may supplement SSI above the
standard federal payment amount, and some do. The standard
federal payment amounts for 1992 are individuals, $422; and
couples, $633. These amounts are tied to increases in the
consumer price index determined annually, with higher payments
effective in January of each new year. 

                       A Word to the Wise

     There are many individual considerations that may apply in
particular circumstances and that may significantly affect
eligibility or benefit amounts. All of the facts must be
presented to the Social Security Administration for a formal
determination. Any determination can be reconsidered or appealed
in a hearing. 
     The National Federation of the Blind has made a concerted
effort to assist blind people in dealing with SSI issues. It is
no accident that blind people are legally one of the three
categorical groups under SSI, and the distinctions made between
the blind and others have significance. Working with the Congress
and the Social Security Administration over a period of many
years, the National Federation of the Blind has been responsible
for bringing about many of these distinctions. Sometimes we
understand the application of the SSI law better than
representatives at the Social Security office. 
     No one can seriously challenge the role that the Federation
has played in this area. We have successfully attempted to shape
and direct the SSI program toward offering blind people a hand
up, rather than strictly providing a handout.     

                  Continuing Medicaid Coverage

   Medicaid eligibility is generally linked to receipt of SSI
cash benefits. Thus, persons who become ineligible for SSI will
usually also become ineligible for Medicaid. However, as a work
incentive feature, Medicaid eligibility may often be continued
for blind or disabled persons who work enough to lose entitlement
to monthly SSI checks. To qualify for this extended Medicaid
coverage, an individual must continue to be disabled or blind,
need Medicaid in order to work, not be able to afford benefits
equivalent to the SSI and Medicaid coverage, and meet all SSI
eligibility requirements other than earnings. 
   The provisions for this special Medicaid coverage are found in
section 1619(b) of the Social Security Act. Details of the
eligibility requirements and coverage may vary from state to
state. Specific information should be obtained from SSA district
offices and from state agencies administering Medicaid. SSI
recipients who might lose Medicaid eligibility because their
income from work exceeds the SSI limits can retain their Medicaid
entitlement as long as they continue to meet the nonearnings
requirements under SSI, provided that they were entitled to an
SSI benefit and Medicaid in the month prior to becoming
ineligible because of income from work. 

                        Concluding Notes

   Work incentives are increasingly emphasized by SSA.
Beneficiaries who attempt work should not find that they are
later penalized for their efforts. However, the practice of
sending notices alleging substantial overpayments due to work
activity performed is still prevalent. Upon appeal the alleged
overpayments are often found to be incorrect. The most common
reason for this is that the file does not contain the complete
development of the information necessary to apply the work
incentive provisions. Even when an overpayment determination is
correct, the circumstances often justify a waiver. The most
important fact in this regard is that the beneficiary must report
all work activity and any subsequent changes that occur. Failure
to report means that the individual was at fault in causing the
overpayment and recovery by SSA is then required. 
   Can a blind person work while receiving SSDI or SSI benefits?
The answer is definitely yes. Moreover, working while receiving
benefits from either program can continue indefinitely under
certain circumstances. In many instances earnings of $900 to
$1000 per month will not significantly affect continued receipt
of cash benefits. Earnings exceeding these amounts place SSDI
beneficiaries in great risk of losing entitlement altogether,
while SSI recipients are only affected through their benefit
amounts. The specific effects of working need to be evaluated in
individual circumstances. If beneficiaries and their advocates
know the law, working is definitely advantageous both financially
and psychologically. 

                           APPENDIX A
                 SSDI Countable Income Worksheet

Year Net Self-Employment Income
Annual    Monthly


Contributed Space
Annual    Monthly


Contributed Equipment
Annual    Monthly


Contributed Stock
Annual    Monthly


Contributed Services
Annual    Monthly


Vending Machine Income
Annual    Monthly 



Countable Income
Annual    Monthly


                           APPENDIX B
                SSI Schedule of Income Disregards

     The following steps should be used to determine countable
income and the resulting SSI payment amounts for individuals and
couples. Monthly values are used.
     Step 1: Begin by obtaining the total monthly income from all
sources. Some forms of income, such as housing subsidies and food
stamps, are not counted as income, but it is safe to assume that
all other forms of income must be included. If the calculation is
being done for an eligible couple, use the couple's combined
income.
     Step 2: Divide the total monthly income into two
categories--unearned and earned. These categories will be treated
somewhat differently, so it is necessary to know the amount of
income in each. It is possible that one category or the other
will have no income. 
     Step 3: Use this step to determine countable unearned
income. Some unearned income can be excluded from the total
amount of unearned income. Go to step 4 if there is no unearned
income.
     (a) In all cases in which there is unearned income, up to
$20 is subtracted (or excluded) from the total. If the unearned
income is less than $20, the remaining portion of this $20
deduction is subtracted as described in step 4 (a). The deduction
of $20 does not increase if the calculation is being made for a
couple. Use $20 for an individual or $20 for a couple. 
     (b) Some SSI recipients participate in a program called PASS
(plan to achieve self support). For a recipient to have a PASS,
Social Security must approve a plan in advance. Any amount of
unearned income being used in a PASS should be subtracted from
the remaining unearned income at this point. If there is no
approved PASS (or no unearned income being used in an approved
PASS), go to step 4. For a couple's calculation, all unearned
income being used in a PASS for either or both members of the
couple should be combined and subtracted from the unearned
income. 
     (c) The remaining unearned income is countable. Save this
figure for use under step 5.
     Step 4: Use this step to determine countable earned income.
Some earned income can be excluded from the total amount of
earned income. Make the following subtractions in the order
indicated, stopping whenever the resulting figure reaches zero: 
     (a) Subtract any remaining portion of the unearned income
deduction not used under step 3. If the unearned income were $15,
$5 would be left over for use in this step. If the unearned
income were $20 or more, none of it would be remaining for use in
this step. If there were no unearned income, the entire $20
deduction should be taken in this step.
     (b) Subtract $65 from the remaining earned income. The
deduction of $65 does not increase if the calculation is being
made for a couple. Use $65 for an individual or $65 for a couple.
     (c) Divide the remaining monthly earned income in half. One
half is excluded, and the other half is countable. From this
point forward deal only with the countable half. This is the
remaining countable earned income, but there are more deductions
to be made. 
     (d) Subtract the full amount of any ordinary and necessary
work expenses for blind persons. If both members of an eligible
couple are blind and if both are working, subtract the total
amount of their combined work expenses. Costs that may be
included are: 
     1. Income tax payments or the amount of taxes withheld from
an employee's wages, including FICA and self-employment Social
Security contributions; 
     2. The cost of transportation to and from work or of any
work-related transportation not paid for by someone else, such as
an employer; 
     3. The cost of meals while at work; 
     4. Dog guide expenses; 
     5. The cost of purchasing any equipment or supplies used in
the performance of the work; 
     6. Professional fees or union dues; and 
     7. Any other expenses that are reasonably necessary and
work-related. Self-care expenses do not count. 
     (e) Subtract from the remaining earned income the amount of
any earned income being used to fulfill a PASS. As described in
step (3), the PASS must have been approved in advance by the
Social Security Administration in order for this subtraction of
earned income to be made. 
     (f) The remaining earned income is countable. 
     Step 5: Determine the total countable income by adding the
resulting figures from steps 3 and 4. 
     Step 6: Subtract the total countable income from the monthly
payment amount for individuals or couples. Use the couples' rate
only if both persons are eligible for SSI. Subtract the countable
income from the combined federal and state payment amounts.
Contact a Social Security office in your state to determine
whether state supplementation applies. The resulting figure after
subtracting the countable income is the monthly SSI benefit
amount that should be paid. 
     By following this explanation step by step, you should be
able to calculate SSI payment amounts in many circumstances. Try
computing an SSI payment amount with a simple example such as a
blind person having monthly earned income of $1,000. Apply the
subtractions called for in steps 3 and 4. It is reasonable to
expect that the resulting countable income would be approximately
$87.00 per month. This $87 must be subtracted from $407--the
payment amount for an individual in a state without
supplementation. It would be subtracted from a higher amount in a
state with supplementation. 
[2 PHOTOS: Activities during recent bake sales organized by the
NFB of California. CAPTIONS: 1) Members of the National
Federation of the Blind of California are experienced hands at
conducting bake sales and informational fairs. Members of the
Sacramento Chapter are pictured at a local mall handing out
literature and Brailling names. In the background a table display
of baked goods awaits sale. 2) At the bake sale Linda Milliner,
President of the Sacramento Chapter of the NFB of California,
presents a local child with a Braille copy of her name.]

                             RECIPES

     This month's recipes are provided by the National Federation
of the Blind of California. Sharon Gold, who has served as
affiliate president for nearly fifteen years, organized the
recipes and provided the commentary. Here is what she has to say:

     The National Federation of the Blind is comprised of more
than 500 chapters that hold regular monthly meetings to promote
the advancement of the blind to full partnership within society.
We know that the major ingredient of our quest for equality is
public education. Therefore, we spend much of our local NFB
meeting time planning activities that will afford us the
opportunity to spread our message to members of the public. Bake
sales are among the more successful events at which we can
distribute NFB literature, show Braille to children, and answer
questions about blindness, while augmenting our chapter
treasuries from the sale of baked goods. 
     Cookies, candies, and breads are among the more popular
items for bake sales. The following recipes have been prepared by
California Federationists for use at NFB public education
activities which include bake sales. 

                         FLYING SAUCERS
                         by Sharon Gold

     When I was in high school, the Flying Saucer was the most
popular cookie on our campus. This recipe came from the
Supervisor of Cafeterias for the Kern County Schools, Val Valena.
Miss Valena was a good friend, and she used to talk to me of her
friend, Elena, who was blind and owned a very successful
restaurant in San Francisco.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 egg beaten
1/4 cup honey
2-1/2 tablespoons milk
1/4 cup raisins
1-1/2 cups oatmeal
1-3/4 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt

     Method: Cream shortening and sugar until fluffy. Add egg,
honey and milk. Continue creaming. Soak raisins in hot water;
wash and drain. Combine oatmeal and raisins; add to mixture. Sift
together dry ingredients and add to mixture, mixing well. Using
1/4 cup measure, drop batter onto greased or Teflon cookie sheet.
Flatten cookie with bottom of glass dipped in water. Bake at 300
degrees for 10 to 15 minutes. Cool 3 minutes and loosen from
cookie sheet. 

                TWO-HUNDRED FIFTY DOLLAR COOKIES
                         by Mary Willows

     Mary Willows is the president of the Ala-Costa Chapter which
serves the southern tips of Alameda and Contra Costa Counties.
She reports that this recipe is alleged to be that of a famous,
nationwide cookie franchise.

Ingredients:
2 cups butter
2 cups white sugar
2 cups brown sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 cups flour
5 cups oatmeal, blended 
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
24 ounces chocolate chips
1 8-ounce Hershey bar, grated
3 cups chopped nuts

     Method: Blend oatmeal by pouring dry oatmeal into a blender
or food processor and grind until texture is that of a fine
flour. Set aside for later use.
     With beater, cream butter and both sugars. Add eggs and
vanilla. Mix in flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and baking
soda. Add chocolate chips, grated Hershey bar, and nuts. Stir
well. Roll into balls a little smaller than a golf ball. Place 2
inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 10 minutes at 375
degrees. Makes 112 cookies. 

                      PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES
                       by Sheryl Pickering

     For more than sixteen years, Sheryl Pickering has served as
a chapter officer. She is currently the secretary of the
Sacramento chapter. About this peanut butter cookie recipe, she
says: 
     "Peanut butter cookies were a very popular weekly dessert on
the student's cafeteria trays during the 20 years that I taught
in the Special Education Department of the Kern County
Superintendent of Schools Offices. They were also a favorite
among the teaching staff. One day I asked the cafeteria baker for
a copy of the recipe so that I could make peanut butter cookies
for an NFB bake sale. I received a recipe that made over 800
cookies and used 10 pounds of peanut butter, 10 pounds of butter,
20 eggs, 5 quarts of white sugar, 5 quarts of brown sugar, and
over 2 gallons of flour. I quartered the recipe, which made the
volume more manageable but still required a large mixer. The
larger numbers in parenthesis in the list of ingredients make the
large version of the recipe; the first number listed in each
ingredient is part of the smaller recipe."

Ingredients:
1 (2-1/2) pound(s) peanut butter
1 (2-1/2) pound(s) butter
2 (5) eggs
2 (5) cups white sugar
2 (5) cups brown sugar
3-5/8 (9) cups flour
1-1/4 teaspoons (1 tablespoon) soda
1/2 teaspoon (1/2 tablespoon) salt
1/8 (1/2) cup powdered milk

     Method: Cream butter and peanut butter. Add sugar and
continue beating. Add eggs and mix well. Sift dry ingredients
together and add dry ingredients to the butter and peanut butter
mixture. Mix well. 
     Use a pair of tablespoons or a #40 ice cream scoop to drop
the dough on a cookie sheet. Place cookies about 2 inches apart.
Dip a dinner fork in ice water. Press the back side of the
chilled fork tines across the top of each scoop of dough to
flatten the scoop to about 1/2 of its original height. The
pressure from the fork tines can be used either to make parallel
lines across the top of the cookie dough or to make an "X" on the
dough. To prevent the dough from sticking to the fork tines, dip
the fork in the ice water before beginning to flatten each
cookie. 
     Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for approximately 15
minutes. Makes 50 (200) 3-1/2 inch cookies. 


                          SUGAR COOKIES
                       by Sheryl Pickering

     Sheryl has used this sugar cookie recipe to make a variety
of cookies for many NFB bake Sales. The cookies can be made plain
or decorated to represent a special holiday or the season of the
year. Sheryl used this recipe to make Easter bunnies, Easter
eggs, and other spring decorated cookies for the 1986 Sunrise
Mall Spring Charity Benefit Day. These cookies joined with spring
goodies and decorations made by other chapter members to decorate
the booth. More that 50 Sacramento charities were represented at
Charity Benefit Day, and the NFB of Sacramento won third prize
and a check of $50.00 in the competition for the booth which best
carried out the theme of the day.  

Ingredients:
1-1/3 cups shortening or margarine
1-1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 eggs
8 teaspoons milk
3-1/2 to 4 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt

     Method: Cream shortening or margarine with sugar. Add
vanilla, eggs, and milk; beat together. Sift dry ingredients
together. Add to the creamed ingredients. Mix well. 
     Place the dough in a bowl; seal well with plastic wrap and
refrigerate. Once chilled (at least 4 to 6 hours or, better,
overnight) the dough can be rolled on a floured pastry cloth to
about 1/8 inch thickness and cut with cookie cutters for fancy
holiday cookies. Place cut cookie dough on ungreased baking
sheet, leaving space between the cookies for the dough to spread
while baking. Sprinkle with colored sugar or other holiday
sprinkles before baking or decorate with colored frosting after
baking. For variation in this basic sugar cookie recipe,
substitute lemon or almond extract for the vanilla. 
     Bake in a preheated oven at 375 degrees for 6 to 8 minutes
or until the cookies become golden brown around the outside
edges. Allow cookies to cool before attempting to remove from the
cookie sheet. 
     This dough can be dropped by the spoonful onto a cookie
sheet and baked as everyday sugar cookies. Dropped cookies should
also be baked at 375 degrees but require more time to bake. If
stored in a sealed container in the refrigerator, this cookie
dough can be kept for several days and baked fresh as needed for
children coming home from school, for family company dinner, or
for today's NFB bake sale. 



                    MICROWAVE PEANUT BRITTLE
                          by Lynn Coats

     Lynn Coats is the president of the Santa Clarita Valley
Chapter and the first vice president of the California
Association of Blind Students. She packages pieces of this candy
in ziplock bags for quick sale at bake sales and other Federation
functions. This Peanut Brittle also has been a popular item in
the hospitality area of the NFB of California Convention. 

Ingredients:
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup white Karo syrup 
1-1/2 cups roasted (unsalted) peanuts
1 teaspoon margarine or butter

     Method: Mix Karo syrup and sugar together, and microwave on
high for 4 minutes. Add nuts and microwave on high for another 4
minutes. Stir in butter or margarine and vanilla. Microwave on
high for 1 minute and 15 seconds.* Stir in baking soda (this will
cause a foaming action).
     Pour onto a metal cookie sheet (Note: Do not grease cookie
sheet or use foil.) When candy is cool, it will easily come loose
from cookie sheet with a slight twisting action on the pan.
     * Microwave ovens vary, so if in doubt, test candy at this
stage by spooning a small amount of candy into ice cold water. It
should form hard brittle threads. If not, cook an additional 20
seconds or so. 

                         MICROWAVE FUDGE
                        by Stephanie Rood

     Stephanie Rood is the treasurer of the San Fernando Valley
Chapter and an active member of the California Association of
Blind Students. After this delicious fudge is made and cut,
Stephanie packages it for sales on seasonally decorated paper
plates covered with plastic wrap.

Ingredients:
3 cups sugar
3/4 cup margarine
1/2 cup evaporated milk
12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
1 7-ounce jar marshmallow cream
1 cup chopped nuts
1 teaspoon vanilla

     Method: Microwave margarine in a 4-quart bowl or casserole
dish, preferably Pyrex, on high one minute or until melted. Add
sugar and milk and mix well.

     Microwave on high for 3 minutes or until mixture begins to
boil. Scrape the sides of the bowl, stirring and mixing well.
Microwave for 2 minutes. Stir and mix again. Microwave for 3
minutes. Stir and mix. Microwave for 2-1/2 minutes. 
     Gradually stir in chocolate until melted. Add remaining
ingredients and mix well. Pour into greased 9- by 9-inch or 13-
by 9-inch pan. Cool at room temperature. Cut into squares. Makes
about three pounds. 

                     DIXIE'S ALMOND BRICKLE
                        by Dixie Meacham

     Tom Niles is an active member of the Glenn-Tehama Chapter,
which serves the blind in the northern Sacramento River Valley,
an area known for its almond crops. Tom met Dixie, introduced her
to the NFB, and now they are making wedding plans. Dixie has
become an active NFB member and shared her family recipe for a
very successful Christmas NFB sale. Diane Starin, President of
the Glenn-Tehama Chapter, reports that by noon of the first day
of the sale the chapter had sold 16 pounds of Almond Brickle in
1/2 pound packages. Dixie and Tom went to Dixie's home and spent
the afternoon making more candy. The following morning, when they
returned to the sale, customers were lined up waiting to buy the
candy.

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1 cup white Karo syrup
pinch salt
1 tablespoon margarine
2 cups chopped almonds
1 teaspoon baking soda

     Method: Combine sugar, syrup, salt, and margarine. Stir well
and cook over medium heat until sugar dissolves, being careful
not to scorch.
     Add chopped almonds. Stir well. Cook 10 to 15 minutes or to
the hard crack stage (296 degrees) stirring occasionally.
     Add soda and stir well. Pour the mixture onto a buttered
cookie sheet and spread. It is important to complete this step
very quickly, because the liquid mixture will immediately begin
to stiffen and then harden as it begins to cool.

                         ZUCCHINI BREAD
                         by Sandy Ritter

     Sandy Ritter is the long-time President of the Antelope
Valley Chapter. For fifteen years chapter members have enjoyed
this Zucchini Bread as refreshments at chapter meetings. Sandy
brings loaves by the bagful for enjoyment in the NFB of
California Convention Hospitality Room. In addition, many, many
loaves have been sold at NFB bake sales.

Ingredients:
3 eggs
1 cup oil
2 cups sugar
2 cups grated zucchini
1 tablespoon vanilla
3 cups sifted flour
1 teaspoon salt
1-1/4 teaspoons soda
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup chopped nuts

     Method: Butter two 9- by 5-inch loaf pans and line with wax
paper. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Beat eggs until light and
foamy. Add oil, sugar, zucchini, and vanilla. Mix gently but
well.
     Sift flour, salt, soda, cinnamon, and baking powder
together, and add to egg mixture. Blend before and after, adding
nuts. Pour into prepared pans.
     Bake for one hour or until toothpick inserted in center
comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Remove from pans, and cool on
wire racks. This bread freezes well. 


                   * * MONITOR MINIATURES * *

**Elected:
     Norma Gonzales Baker of the Austin Chapter of the National
Federation of the Blind of Texas reports the following:
     The Austin Chapter elected officers at its January meeting
to serve a one-year term. Elected were Tommy Craig, president;
Jeff Pearcy, first vice president; Jeanine Lineback, second vice
president; Norma Gonzales Baker, secretary; Zena Pearcy,
treasurer; and Aundrea Moore and Buddy Brannan, board members.
Our chapter continues to grow, and our presence is being made
known in endless ways. We were proud to have been instrumental in
helping to pass our Braille bill in the last Texas legislative
session. We continue to advocate for the rights of and for first-
class citizenship for the blind.

**Medical Computing Resource Guide Available:
     We have been asked to print the following:
     The Medical Computing Resource Guide (a semi-annual, disk-
based periodical) is a directory of information, resources, and
services which support the use of computers in health care. The
third edition contains descriptions of more than 600 products,
services, and organizations. The Guide also contains several
articles on various topics about the use of computer technology
in health care.
     In addition to its general index of information, the third
edition of the Guide will feature custom indexes of nursing,
dental, educational, office, bioscience, and disability-related
health care computing resources; general, on-line, and
acronym/abbreviation glossaries; and introductory information for
new computer users. The Guide is the most comprehensive
collection of this material available anywhere.
     Production of the Guide is fully sponsored by CIBA-GEIGY
Corporation as an educational service to the health care
community. Producers of products and services listed in the Guide
do not pay a fee to be included.
     NOTE: What the Guide is not. It is not a software directory;
it is not a CD-ROM; it is not sold by subscription; and it is not
a simple text file.
     The Guide is available for IBM-compatible computers. It
requires a minimum of 256K of RAM and DOS 2.0 or higher.
Installation on a hard disk drive is not required for the 5 1/4"
1.2 MB format, but it is recommended. Installation on a hard disk
drive is required for the 3 1/2" 720K format.
     The Medical Computing Resource Guide is $15 postpaid ($20
U.S. for foreign orders). Send a check or money order to Resource
Systems Management, Inc., 3300 Mitchell Lane, Suite 390, Boulder,
CO 80301. For more information call (303) 441-2836.
     That is the text of the notice we received. Mr. Andrews,
Director of the International Braille and Technology Center for
the Blind has looked over the Guide and reports that it works
fairly well with speech output screen review systems.

**JOB Help Available:
     Looking for a job presents a challenge to the esteem of
every job seeker, yet self-confidence is one of the most
important assets during the hunt. Without it you decrease your
ability to communicate effectively during an interview as you
present your skills and talents. It is easy to become discouraged
during a job search. It is difficult not to allow negative
thoughts to undermine your confidence. Job Opportunities for the
Blind offers its help.
     The National JOB Seminar for 1992 will be held in Charlotte,
North Carolina, on Sunday, June 28, from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Join in a positive, learning experience as blind speakers share
their tips for success in a job search and on the job.
     The JOB Recorded Bulletin and other Job Opportunities for
the Blind publications can help bolster your confidence while
giving you valuable ideas on techniques for job searching. To
receive your list of free JOB publications, write JOB, 1800
Johnson Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21230, or call Lorraine
Rovig, Director of JOB, at (800) 638-7518.

[PHOTO: Portrait. CAPTION: David Schuh.]

**Powerlifter Heads to Australia:
     From the Editor: David Schuh, president of the Northcentral
Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of Wisconsin,
sends us an item about his brother, Dennis Schuh. He says that
Dennis will be going (his letter is dated April 1) to Perth,
Australia, to compete in a world powerlifting championship. David
goes on to say that Dennis is "not only a good athlete but also
an excellent member of the Northcentral Wisconsin Chapter, having
been treasurer since the chapter was formed. Here is the
announcement David Schuh sends us:
     Dennis Schuh is a member of the United States Association
for Blind Athletes. On April 6 he will be heading to Perth,
Australia, to compete in the U.S.A.B.A. World Powerlifting
Championships held on April 9. He qualified for that event by
taking second place in the 148-pound weight class at the
organization's United States Powerlifting Championships held in
St. Louis, Missouri.
     Dennis is married to Margie Schuh, who is also a
Federationist. They have a ten-month old daughter named Theresa
and are expecting another baby.

**JOB Artists' Breakfast:
     Tina Blatter of Lafayette, Colorado, is organizing and
chairing a breakfast for artists and crafts people at this year's
national convention at 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday, July 1, exact
location to be announced. In conjunction with the Job
Opportunities for the Blind program, Ms. Blatter hopes that
anyone who is trying to sell artwork or crafted items will plan
to attend. It is called for the purpose of sharing ideas for
networking, building an audience of customers, finding or
creating good publicity, and turning a hobby into a business. The
breakfast will be held at the Holiday Inn. Additional details
about the breakfast will be announced at the Board of Directors
meeting, Tuesday morning, June 30, and will be available at the
NFB information desks in the four convention hotels.

**Elected:
     On January 4, 1992, the Citrus Chapter of the National
Federation of the Blind of Florida conducted installation
ceremonies for its chapter officers. They were installed by
Melody Lindsey, legislative chairwoman for the NFB of Florida.
     The new officers are Hazel Patterson, president; Mike
McDonough, vice president; Pete Bliss, secretary; Betty Owens,
treasurer; and Grace Thayer, Elizabeth Males, and Bill Hallavan,
members of the board of directors. The chapter is busy with many
civic projects, including sponsoring White Cane Safety Day and
distributing Guide Dog information to the public.

**Free Eye Examinations Available:
     We have been asked to print the following:
     If you are a U.S. citizen or a legal resident, sixty-five or
older, and do not have an ophthalmologist, you may receive a
comprehensive medical eye examination and care for any condition
diagnosed at no out-of-pocket expense. For free information send
a self-stamped, addressed business envelope to the Jewish
Heritage for the Blind Outreach Program, P.O. Box 336, 1655 East
24th Street, Brooklyn, New York 11229-9968.

**Pre-Convention Seminar on Concerns of the Deaf-Blind:
     The Committee on Concerns of the Deaf-Blind will conduct a
day-long seminar on Sunday, June 28, at the Radisson Hotel in
Charlotte, North Carolina. The pre-convention meeting will begin
at 9:00 a.m., break at noon for two hours, and adjourn at 5:00
p.m. Everyone interested in the concerns of deaf-blind people is
cordially invited to attend. Consult the pre-convention agenda
for room location. For more information contact Boyd Wolfe,
chairman of the Committee on Concerns of the Deaf-Blind. See
following Miniature for Mr. Wolfe's address and phone number.

**Convention Assistance for Deaf-Blind Members:
     Boyd C. Wolfe, chairman of the National Federation of the
Blind's Committee on Concerns of the Deaf-Blind, and Brenda
Mueller, a member of the committee, have asked that we urge all
deaf-blind people who will be attending this summer's national
convention and who would like assistance to contact Mr. Wolfe as
soon as possible so that the committee can make plans to help all
those needing assistance. His contact information is 944 West
Main Street, Apt. 1010, Mesa, Arizona 85201; telephone (602) 890-
8061. Please call after 6:00 p.m. weekdays or anytime on the
weekends. Both voice and TDD calls can be handled. 
     The committee is planning a seminar on concerns of the deaf-
blind to take place sometime during the convention in Charlotte.
Please consult the preregistration material, the convention
agenda, or members of the Committee on Concerns of the Deaf-Blind
for the time and place of the seminar or for the time and place
of the meeting of the Committee on Concerns of the Deaf-Blind.

**Assistance with Usher syndrome needed:
     We have been asked to print the following announcement:
     The geneticists at Boys Town National Research Hospital
(BTNRH) are currently conducting a study of Usher syndrome in an
effort to locate the gene(s) which causes the disorder. In 1989
this research group, led by William J. Kimberling, Ph.D.,
localized the gene for type II. Usher type II is the first
autosomal recessive form of retinitis pigmentosa to be localized.
It is also the first localization of an autosomal recessive gene
causing deafness. This discovery is important because now the
gene can be isolated and its mechanism of action understood.
Someday it might even be possible to treat or prevent some of the
effects of Usher syndrome.
     In conjunction with the RP Foundation and the National
Institute of Deafness and Communication Disorders, a consortium
was recently created with the goal of localizing the gene for
Usher type I. This collaboration will facilitate the enrollment
of families with affected members as well as aid the collection
of clinical information and subsequent DNA analysis.
     Research on Usher syndrome depends upon the participation of
families with Usher type I and II. To date more than 250 families
have participated in this project. Dr. Kimberling's research
group welcomes the participation of families with one or several
members with Usher syndrome. Participation involves completion of
a family medical history form, release of medical records
documenting the diagnosis of Usher syndrome, and, in most cases,
donation of blood samples by various family members. There is no
cost to participating families. 
     If you would like to discuss participation in the research
project, please contact any of the investigators listed below:
Dr. Kathleen Arnos, Gallaudet Research Institute (202) 651-5258;
Dr. Fielding Hejtmancik, National Institutes of Health (301)
496-8300; Dr. Bronya Keats or Dr. Mary Pelias, L.S.U. Medical
Center (504) 568-8088; Dr. William Kimberling, Boys Town National
Research Hospital (800) 835-1468; Dr. Richard Lewis, Baylor
University (713) 798-3030; or Dr. Richard Smith, University of
Iowa (319) 356-3612.

**For Sale:
     We have been asked to print the following:
     Duran Dots Braille Embosser/Printer with cable and software
for IBM-compatible systems for sale. Asking $1500 or best offer.
Interested persons may write to John Bailey at 4300 Shattalon
Drive, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27106; or call after 6:00
p.m., EDT at (919) 922-4245.

**Honored: 
     On March 11, 1992, women members of the American Federation
of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) celebrated
National Women's Day. At this event Hermelinda Lopez Miller, an
active member of the National Federation of the Blind of New
Mexico, was awarded the organization's Outstanding Woman of the
Year Award. Hermelinda Miller has served as secretary of Local
2839 (Human Services) and is the current treasurer. She has
served on various committees within her local, including the
contract negotiation team, which negotiated a two-year contract
with New Mexico Human Services.
     Ms. Miller has worked for New Mexico Human Services as a
Social Worker since 1983. She became blind at the age of twenty-
two and is the daughter of a migrant family.  She knew no English
at the time but enrolled in evening classes, beginning at the
third-grade level. She completed high school requirements in six
years with an A average. In 1974 she received a B.A. degree in
social work after three years of study, and in 1981 she earned a
master's degree in public administration from the University of
New Mexico.
     She moved to New Mexico in 1979 and led the effort to
reorganize the National Federation of the Blind of New Mexico,
which was the organization that advocated for the establishment
of the New Mexico Commission for the Blind now directed by Fred
Schroeder, member of the Board of Directors of the National
Federation of the Blind. 

**Elected:
     Jody Ianuzzi, President of the newly-organized Monodnock
Chapter of the NFB of New Hampshire, reports that on March 8,
1992, the following officers were elected: Jody Ianuzzi,
president; John Perry, first vice president; Ken Benson, second
vice president; Ralph Elliot, treasurer; and Alice Reimers,
secretary. The new chapter is working hard and growing.

**Book Auction:
     The Writers Division will hold an auction of new,
autographed books at its annual meeting on Tuesday, June 30,
1992. Some of the books are in print and some on tape. Those
interested in participating in the silent auction portion of the
bidding should contact Tom Stevens, 1203 Fairview Road, Columbia,
Missouri 65203 for a list of the items in the auction.
     The Writers Division will conduct a workshop for writers on
Sunday, June 28, on non-fiction publishing. Magazine and
newspaper writing will be stressed. Presenters include Barbara
Pierce and free-lance writer David Jones. See your pre-convention
agenda for details.

**Furniture:
     We have been asked to carry the following announcement:
     In the exhibit hall at the National Convention in Charlotte,
the NFB of Nebraska will have wood products at its table. The
lamps and plaques will be made out of exotic woods such as ebony,
tulipwood, purpleheart, rosewood, padauk, teak, etc. Also, wood
furniture pieces (such as small desks, spice cabinets, living
room tables, etc.) can be ordered. These products are made by a
blind member of the affiliate, and profits will be going to the
NFB of Nebraska. For more information contact: Gary Doty, 1812
South Cotner Boulevard, Lincoln, Nebraksa 68506, (402) 489-2494.

**New Chapter:
     We have just received the news that the Pinelas Chapter of
the National Federation of the Blind of Florida was formed
Saturday, March 14, 1992, in St. Petersburg. The group is
enthusiastic and should have a bright future. State president
Wayne Davis and a number of state board members were present for
the meeting. The following people were elected to office: Doug
Towne, president; Charlotte Vogady, vice president; Anne
Aussiker, secretary; Lisa Towne, treasurer; and Dean Douler,
board member. Congratulations to the new Pinelas Chapter.

**WordPerfect Tutorial Now Available:
     We have been asked to print the following:
     Here, at last, is a book that teaches word-processing skills
while you simultaneously work with speech. Until now, visually-
impaired people who wanted to learn introductory word-processing
concepts had to contend with complex and challenging voice-output
operations. Much of the information was presented in a visual
format with very little screen description. Learning WordPerfect
5.1 Using a Voice Output Program teaches you how to use today's
most popular word-processing program with a minimum of computer
expertise.
     This manual can be used independently as a self-tutorial or
as a teaching tool for instructors. It was written by Kathleen
Beaver, who for more than six years has been training blind
people to use WordPerfect with speech at the Adaptive Technology
Assessment and Training Center in Buffalo, New York. Simple
guidelines for setting up a voice program to work with
WordPerfect 5.1 are provided, and generic commands enable the
user to select his or her own personal voice program.
     Detailed instruction in cursor location and placement,
editing techniques, and screen description, which are missing
from most commercially available manuals, are included in
nineteen easy-to-follow lessons. Rounding out the package are an
exercise disk and a data disk, giving the user immediate hands-on
experience using WordPerfect with a speech system.
     Learning Wordperfect 5.1 Using a Voice Output Program is
available in print and Braille. The one-volume Braille and print
editions each cost $15.95 (plus $3 for shipping.) Both editions
include two diskettes (please specify 3 1/2" or 5 1/4" disks).
Prepaid orders can be placed with National Braille Press, 88 St.
Stephen Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02115; or call (617) 266-
6160.  

[PHOTO: Eileen Tscharner presents charter of affiliation to
president of Spearfish Chapter, NFB of South Dakota. CAPTION: At
the March meeting of the Spearfish Chapter of the NFB of South
Dakota Eileen Tscharner, vice president of the affiliate,
presented a charter to chapter officers. Pictured here (left to
right) are Stan Kaitfors, Vice President; Ivan Hix, President;
Louis Graslie, Director; Eileen Tscharner; Beryl Goodwin,
Treasurer; and Lois Wintemute, Secretary.]

**Elected:
     Karen Mayry, president of the National Federation of the
Blind of South Dakota, writes to say that at its January meeting
the members of the affiliate's Spearfish Chapter elected the
following officers: Ivan Hix, president; Stan Kaitfors, vice
president; Beryl Goodwin, treasurer; Lois Wintemute, secretary;
and Louis Graslie, member of the board of directors.
     President Ivan Hix is eighty-four years old, and he is using
his years of experience to build and strengthen the chapter. More
than twenty members usually attend the organization's monthly
meetings. Spearfish is a retirement community, and there are many
people who need to hear the Federation's message of hope and
optimism. In the months since the Spearfish chapter was organized
last August, this energetic group has planned and executed a
number of projects and special-interest meetings. Congratulations
to the Spearfish chapter; keep up the good work.

**Profile of a Senior:
     This profile was passed on to us from the Toledo Federation
of the Blind:
     Who is a senior citizen? What is one?
     A senior is one who was here before the pill and the
population explosion. We were here before television, penicillin,
polio shots, antibiotics, and frisbees. Before frozen food,
nylon, dacron, xerox, Kinsey, radar, fluorescent lights, credit
cards, and ball-point pens. For us time-sharing meant
togetherness, not computers; a chip meant a piece of wood,
hardware meant hard wear, and software wasn't even a word. Co-eds
never wore slacks. We were before pantyhose and drip-dry clothes,
before ice makers and dishwashers, clothes dryers, freezers, and
electric blankets. Before Hawaii and Alaska became states. Before
men wore long hair and earrings and women wore tuxedos.
     We were before Leonard Bernstein, yogurt, Ann Landers,
plastic, the forty-hour week, and minimum wage. We got married
first and then lived together. How quaint can one be?
     Closets were for clothes, not for coming out of. Bunnies
were small rabbits, and rabbits were not Volkswagens. We were
before Grandma Moses and Frank Sinatra and cup-sizing for bras.
Girls wore Peter Pan collars and thought cleavage was something
butchers did. We were before Batman, Rudolph the Rednosed
Reindeer, and Snoopy. DDT, vitamin pills, Cheerios, instant
coffee, decaffeinated anything, and McDonald's were all unheard
of. We thought fast food was what you ate during Lent. We were
before Boy George, J.D. Salinger, and Chiquita Banana. Before FM
radios, tape recorders, electric typewriters, word processors,
Muzak, electronic music, disco-dancing, and that's not all bad!
     In our day cigarette smoking was fashionable, grass was for
mowing, coke was a refreshing drink, and pot was something you
cooked in. If we'd been asked to explain CIA, MS., NATO, UFO,
NFL, JFK, ERA or IUD we'd have said alphabet soup.
     We are today's senior citizens--a hardy bunch when you think
of how our world has changed and of the adjustments we have had
to make.

                               --Courtesy of Ameritech Publishing
