                       THE BRAILLE MONITOR

                         April-May, 1989

                    Kenneth Jernigan, 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. 

                             * * * *
 


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 

                             * * * *

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

ISSN 0006-8829

                  NFB NET BBS:  (612) 696-1975
               WorldWide Web:  http://www.nfb.org
                      THE BRAILLE MONITOR
       PUBLICATION OF THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND
                            CONTENTS
                         April-May, 1989

YES, IT'S LATE

                 WHAT IS THE CHANCE FOR BRAILLE?
                         by Marc Maurer

                 I JUST HAPPEN TO HAVE A PICTURE
                        by Barbara Pierce
 
SIGHT
                       by Mark Schulzinger

                      DOES REACHING OUT WORK

                     BRAILLE: A TOUCHY ISSUE

                   GIVING THE WRITE IMPRESSION

   CONGRESS TAKES A HAND IN THE FIGHT AGAINST DISCRIMINATION 
BY THE STATE DEPARTMENT

                     LEGISLATIVE AGENDA 1989

                    SPECULATIONS ABOUT CD ROM

                    EDUCATION FOR THE BLIND, 
MENTALLY RETARDED CHILD: WHERE AND HOW
                         by Colleen Roth

                 OF SURVEYS AND TRAFFIC HAZARDS
                        by Seville Allen

                 SEMINAR FOR COMPUTER BEGINNERS
                         by Curtis Chong

                        FIGHTING BLIND: 
Bonnie Peterson Challenges Stereotypes About the  Visually
Impaired 

Recipes

Monitor Miniatures

Copyright, National Federation of the Blind, Inc., 1989

                         YES, IT'S LATE

 From the Editor:  And some of you have not yet made your
reservations for the National Convention in Denver. I am writing
this in March, and you won't be reading it until some time in
late April or early May but I know that some of you haven't.
There is still time, but not much. You don't want to miss our
first convention in Denver since 1949 the program, the tours, the
hospitality, and the overall excitement. There will not only be
prizes but surprises. Better hurry.WHAT IS THE CHANCE FOR BRAILLE?
                         by Marc Maurer
Recently I received a letter from a woman who aspires to be a
Braille teacher. She took what she regarded as the first logical
step in her plan she learned Braille. Although she does not yet
have a teaching certificate, she thought that her knowledge of
this skill might be useful in her local school district and,
therefore, might help her get a job. So she went to the
administrator of the program for blind
students and asked for a job as a teacher's aide. The result was
unfortunately all too predictable. The administrator could not
imagine why blind students should be taught Braille, and when the
aspiring teacher began
to explain (apparently her explanation was both spirited and
enthusiastic), the administrator announced that she was being
defensive and that the interview was at an end.
As I read the letter, I wondered again what the chances are for
blind students to learn Braille. The attitude of this
administrator is so commonplace as to be the norm. It is shocking
not because of its occurrence but because of its prevalence. In 
widespread among school officials that I think there is a real
possibility that this woman's having learned to read Braille (not
only with her eyes but also with her fingers) may be a real
disadvantage to her as she begins to look for jobs.  Some
administrators believe that teachers who have achieved fluency in
Braille will spend too much time trying to teach it. They assume
that using Braille is an outmoded skill and that such teachers
are trying to rely on techniques that may have been acceptable in
the 1800's but are no longer sufficiently up-to-date.
I attended a school for the blind in Iowa for the first five
years of my education. Students there were introduced to Braille
in the first grade, but I did not learn it. First graders were
given a little Braille primer with stories about Dick and Jane
and Sally. For a week this primer sat on my desk each day. The
person in the front seat of my row (there were two rows in my
class) was asked to read the first page. Then the second person
was instructed to read the same page. After that it was the turn
of the third person. By the time the teacher came to me (as I
remember it, I was the next to the last in the row), I had
memorized the words on the page. I recited them to the teacher
and the class, after which the teacher put a gold star on the
first page of my book. It was the only gold star I ever received
from first grade through law school.
The teacher suggested that I take the book home and show it to my
mother. I very often was able to go home on the weekends because
we lived only a little over a hundred miles from the school for
the blind.  So I took the book with me and proudly displayed my
gold star. My mother asked me to read the page, so I recited the
text. Since she has always been a suspicious woman, she borrowed
the book from me.  Later, my mother, who had received
certification from the Library of Congress as a Braille
transcriber, brought me a Brailled sheet of paper and asked me to
read it to her, but I could not. She then explained that it was a
copy of the first page of my Braille book.  I regret to say that,
despite my mother's early detective work, I managed to finish the
first grade without learning any Braille. During the following
summer, however, she took me in hand. I complained as loudly and
vigorously as I knew how, but it did me no good. My mother
insisted on teaching me how to read.
As I write this article, I am returning to the National Center
for the Blind from California, where I have delivered a speech to
the Southern California Safety Institute about the airline
problems faced by blind passengers. The speech was written in
Braille, and without it I could not have done the job
effectively. My mother was right; I needed Braille.
My Braille problems are solved or at least partly so. I can read
and write effectively. Of course, there is not enough Braille,
and there are an increasing number of professionals who would
argue that its use has diminished because it is no longer
necessary. The real cause of its decline, however, is that the
teachers who are supposed to teach it do not know it, and
administrators do not recognize that
the ignorance of these teachers is a shocking disgrace. In this
environment what chance does the blind student have?
Of course, the National Federation of the Blind is committed to
the teaching of Braille. Some states now require by law that it
be offered to blind students. There are other states with
regulations mandating that interested youngsters be taught it.
These laws and regulations did not come about by accident. The
National Federation of the Blind recognizes the importance of
Braille and has worked to make it possible
for students to learn it. If many of those who are teachers and
administrators of educational programs for the blind had their
way, Braille would not only become obsolescent but obsolete. But
the blind simply will not let it happen. Literacy is necessary
for a full life. Without it many opportunities cannot be grasped,
and many challenges cannot be met. We will help enlightened
teachers and would-be teachers, and we will encourage blind
students.
Here is what one aspiring teacher, Beth Marsau, describes as her
experience in trying to bring more Braille to blind students. Her
first effort failed, but she has made a start. In the long run
she will succeed because we will help her do it. Her letter
expresses the determination of the Federation to obtain a decent
education for blind students and to enable them to participate
fully on terms of equality with the sighted. Here are excerpts
from Beth Marsau's letter:

 Because I want to serve and survive until I can achieve teacher
training, I have been applying for teacher aide positions in the
public schools.  I feel that I have the right kind of attitude to
help students learn Braille and the knowledge and ability that
are necessary. I have had teaching experience with pre-schoolers,
youth groups, and adults, and I feel confident. I have met Dr.
Sally Mangold and have purchased her teaching manuals for study.
[ Monitor  readers will recognize Dr. Mangold's name from the
article about Charles Cheadle in the January, 1989 issue. Dr.
Mangold recommended Braille for Charles after evaluating him at
the request of the State of Maryland, the school district, and
his parents. But back to Beth Marsau's letter.] I know I need
more formal training, but I feel that I have the right attitude,
the love, and the knowledge of Braille literacy, and I could use
four years of teacher aide experience while I am enrolled in the
formal university teaching program. I do not know if the local
school district administrator or the state service for the blind
program would hire me.
I have been interviewed by one special services administrator,
and I was surprised by the situation I found. I have learned that
in the small town where I live, three high school students who
are severely visually impaired are receiving no Braille
instruction. One of the students, age nineteen and still a junior
in high school, has been blind for several years. She can read
print if she holds it close
to her face, but I do not believe she has ever been given the
opportunity to learn Braille. I know that she has been asked by
friends of mine who have been substitute teacher aides if she
would like to learn it. She said yes. But the teaching of Braille
has not been provided.  When I offered my services to teach
Braille and even when I offered
to provide a free demonstration to the three students and their
parents, I was told by the administrator of the special services
program that he wanted to wait and think it over. When I showed
him a slate and stylus and explained that it serves as a pencil
or pen for the blind, he asked me what value there is for a blind
student in writing Braille.  Why not give each student a
dictaphone?  He insisted that I predict the writing speed of a
slate user. When I argued that we ought to encourage basic
literacy in school, that the value of writing notes is important,
that I could not predict individual writing speed but that I had
personally witnessed speedy note takers who use the slate and
stylus, that giving a dictaphone to a blind person as the only
alternative to writing is as ridiculous as telling kids to forget
about fourth grade arithmetic because there are calculators, and
that to offer dictaphones to the blind means a lifetime supply of
cassettes and batteries, not to mention denying literacy, the
administrator stopped the interview. He told me that I was
defensive and that no job opening was available at this time.
Rest assured that I come to you as a friend and an advocate for
the blind. I will pursue this situation in my home town and keep
you posted on what happens. I hope to be hired because I want to
serve and survive.  But even if I am not hired in this particular
situation, I will do what I can to reach these students. Perhaps
the public schools will end up hiring some other, more qualified
teacher, who will help better than I could. It would be good for
these students to have a qualified teacher. But my gut feeling is
that it won't happen, so I will strive to locate them privately
outside the school system.

 This is what Beth Marsau says, and we should ponder carefully
the implications and nuances. As we struggle (sometimes pleading,
sometimes arguing, sometimes reasoning, and sometimes fighting)
for the right of our blind children to be taught Braille, the
circumstances are remotely reminiscent of the situation of the
Christians in the catacombs of Ancient Rome. Let us take a lesson
from that early minority, and let our opponents also take a
lesson from it.
                 I JUST HAPPEN TO HAVE A PICTURE
                        by Barbara Pierce
Occasionally one of the regrets but, more frequently, one of the
pleasures of being blind is never having people offer to show you
their family snapshots. This ranks in the minds of most of us
with the delight of having a built-in excuse for avoiding those
interminable evenings filled with neighbors' vacation slides
consisting mostly of out-of-focus shots of strangers doing absurd
things and of undistinguished scenery taken when the light had
been perfect ten minutes before.
The people who are really interested in looking at one's
pictures, of course, are members of the family, and the
Federation family is no exception. This is the reason we began
including photographs in each issue of the  Braille Monitor . It
is why we report weddings, births, and deaths among our members.
Love is the glue that binds us together as a movement, and the
details of each person's life are important to us all. Our NFB
scholarship winners are people of whom we are most proud. We
chose these men and women from among the most outstanding
American students, and we have worked with them and given them
ourselves and our experience. As we are fond of saying, the
greatest gift we have to offer each year's class of scholarship
winners (and, indeed, every new member of the Federation) is the
NFB itself and its life-enriching philosophy.
With all this going for them, it is no wonder that our
scholarship winners are accumulating an impressive stack of
honors and employment records. So here is a chance to flip
through the NFB album of word snapshots. The list is only
partial. After all, our winners are many and varied, and it is
hard to keep up with them. Most are still in school, but here are
some of the most interesting reports we could find in a quick
survey.
Michael Baillif was a member of the scholarship class of 1984. He
was then a freshman at Claremont College in California from which
he has now graduated with honors.  He traveled in Europe on a
Watson Fellowship in 1988, and he has now been one of the first
students admitted to the Yale University School of Law for the
fall, 1989, semester.
In early December of 1988 Steve Benson, President of the NFB of
Illinois, was making a Job Opportunities for the Blind call on
the personnel director for the Pandex Division of the Baxter
Health Care Corporation, a pharmaceutical company. She mentioned
that Pandex would be interested in hiring blind employees and
that at the moment they were looking for a chemist and a software
engineer. Mr. Benson knew a blind chemist with a background in
business who is now actually being considered for a job, but he
could not think of a software engineer. Still, he gave the woman
a general pep talk about the importance of Pandex's willingness
to consider blind candidates, and he promised to keep his ears
open for the name of a blind applicant for the job. When he
called back six weeks later to see what the situation was, the
personnel executive mentioned that they had hired a blind
software engineer. It was Larry Silvermintz, a graduate of Johns
Hopkins University and a 1984 NFB scholarship winner.
Chris Chaltain was also a member of the scholarship class of
1984.  When he completed his master's degree in mathematics at
the University of Wisconsin at Madison, he applied widely (to
more than fifty companies) for jobs.  IBM was the only one to
offer him a job, and they gave
him the choice of two. In August of 1988 he became an Associate
Programmer in the General Technologies Division.
Eileen Rivera (scholarship class of 1986) and Mildred Rivera
(class
of 1988) are sisters, both of whom have become active in the
Federation since learning about it through the scholarship
application process.
Eileen, a graduate of the Wharton School's Master's of Business
Administration Program, now lives with her physician husband in
Baltimore and works as the Administrative Director for the Wilmer
Vision Research Center of the Johns Hopkins University. Mildred,
who is finishing her law degree this semester, has chosen from
among three San Francisco area law firms. She will begin working
for Bronson, Bronson, and McKennan in the fall of 1990. Her new
employers have given her a year's leave of absence to attend the
Louisiana Center for the Blind for several months and then,
perhaps, clerk for a judge for half a year.
Patti Gregory won a scholarship in 1985, the summer before she
entered law school. She has now graduated and begun work in
November of 1988 for the City of Chicago as Assistant Corporation
Counsel in the Traffic Division. She is in court every day,
resolving several hundred cases, including twenty to thirty
disputes before the bench. She will move on soon to another area
of city case work, but her experience already has prepared her
better and faster, she says, than most of her law school
classmates.
Chris Kuczynski, scholarship class of 1985, will graduate from
the Temple University School of Law in June of 1989. Though most
blind law students are denied the opportunity to work for faculty
members as researchers, Chris has been lucky. In the fall of
1987, during
the first semester of his second year, one of his professors
approached him with an invitation to do research for her. She was
a little hesitant about whether or not he could do the work, but
she told him that he was clearly the student with the best grasp
of the subject and also of the way in which her mind worked. He
did so well at the job that he was asked to continue full-time
during the summer and again during the current academic year. She
also convinced the university to increase her research grant by
enough money to pay Chris's reader. Now he has accepted a job
beginning in September of 1989 with the Philadelphia law firm of
Dechert, Price, and Rhoads.
Ken Silberman also received a scholarship in 1985 at the
Louisville convention. He subsequently received his master's
degree from Cornell in aeronautical Engineering and now works for
the Naval Ship Systems Engineering Station as a mechanical
engineer. He says that his job
is actually writing data bases in order to keep track of ship
records.

Two scholarship winners are breaking new ground in the field of
nutrition and dietetics. Sandy Ryan is working as the Clinic
Supervisor for
the Mid-Iowa Community Action, Inc. WIC (Women, Infants, and
Children) Program. She does nutritional counseling, as well as
running the clinic.  Bonnie Zoladz will graduate in June of 1989
from Cornell University with a master's degree in clinical
nutrition. She has been offered two jobs in the Rochester, New
York, area where she has been doing her clinical work, but she is
being married in June and will settle in Falls Church, Virginia,
where she is now looking for work. Her clinical work went well
during the fall semester. She was delighted to discover that
hospital personnel were flexible and reasonable when working out
accommodations for her dog guide. She expects to find
a job in the greater Washington, D. C., area once she has moved
there.

All of these scholarship recipients are confident, competent
people, who truly believe that it is respectable to be blind.
They have faced the difficulties in their paths as so many
challenges to be solved, and they have succeeded. They are truly
an inspiring and an inspired group. They are changing what it
means to be blind in America.    
SIGHT
                       by Mark Schulzinger
From the Editor: This copyrighted story is reprinted with special
permission of the author. It appeared in the November, 1986, 
Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact  magazine, and we are
carrying it so that  Monitor  readers can see how blindness is
being handled
by some of today's authors. Although the story has some of the
traditional stereotyped notions (such as the foolishness that
blind persons feel
the faces of their acquaintances to see what they look like), it
contains much that is positive. Above all, it departs from the
traditional mold the notion that the blind are either totally
helpless or altogether wonderful. It shows that we still have a
long way to go in educating the public (including authors), but
it also indicates how much progress we have made.
As  Monitor  readers know, I have done some research (see the
1974 banquet speech) concerning the way blindness is treated in
literature.  When you compare this story with the way we were
almost universally portrayed in pre-NFB story and song, the
contrast is pleasantly obvious.  Anyway, here it is.

 Now Jason, try again. 
Jason McNab pressed his forehead against the cool metal of the
head rest and concentrated on the images he  saw  before him.  
Do you see the threads? 
 Damn it, Carlie, I don't see anything that looks like anything.  
Relax, Jason,  said Carlie Skriver.  Hyperspace `looks' different
from anything you ever saw before. Sometimes you just have to let
the impressions flow before you can see it. 
 I can't see it, Carlie. Just like I can't see anything else. 
Jason pushed himself angrily away from the head rest and felt
himself bob against the seat restraints in the weightlessness of
the training ship.
 Okay, Jason. I'll ask the captain to rotate us back to normal
space. We'll rest a bit and talk, then try again.  Jason heard
her blow into a speaking tube and tell the bridge talker of the 
Lobachevsky  that it was safe to re-enter normal space. There was
brief silence
and then he heard the power systems of the ship start up, felt
the faint breeze of air being circulated again and his body sink
back into the couch as the artificial gravity was restored. He
exhaled and realized that he had been holding his breath.
 What was that?  Carlie asked.   Did you see something?  Jason
snorted.  Don't make me laugh. I can't see in normal space, and
I'm sure I'm blind to hyperspace as well. 
 There's no reason why you can't see in hyperspace,  said Carlie.
She reached out until she touched Jason's arm. He turned toward
her, the smell of fear reaching her nostrils as he did so. 
Listen,  she continued.  The only things damaged in the accident
were your eyes.  She felt him stiffen as she spoke the words and
rushed
on.  The nerves from the eyes through the optic chiasm were
undamaged.  Since that's the part of the visual system used to
`see' hyperspace, you should be able to do as well as any other
navigator once you get the hang of it. 
 Why do you keep using the word `see'?  Jason shook her hand away
from contact with him and sank back into the couch.  I'm blind I
can't see. I'll never be able to see again, and what good is an
artist without eyes? I can't see the canvas or the pigments, I
can't see the brushes or the subject. Hell, forget it Carlie, I'm
useless. 
Carlie listened to his anger and his despair and felt herself
tightening inside in response. She fought her body for control
and spoke, keeping her voice deliberately mild.  Take a break,
Jason. The crew has to freshen things up before we can try again
anyhow.  There was a knock on the door, and she called out an
invitation to enter.   Hi gang.  She heard the breezy voice of
Hank Wells, the ship's surgeon, as the door opened.  How'd it go?

 Not bad for starters,  she answered more confidently than
she felt.  I think Jason needs a little rest before we continue.  
Sounds reasonable. Jason, do you want something to help you
sleep?   No.  The voice was still bitter but with an edge of
tiredness to it.  Just leave me alone for a while. 
 I could use some coffee,  Hank said brightly.  Join me, Carlie? 
Carlie nodded, then said  Sure, Hank,  for Jason's benefit.  She
unbuckled her straps and followed the man out of the cabin.  
He's not doing well is he?  asked Wells once they were in the
wardroom.
 No. I'm sure he's resisting the whole process.  Carlie felt for
the mug before her and raised it carefully to her lips.   It's a
shame. He was a brilliant artist before the accident and there's
every indication he could be an excellent navigator. From
what I've read, the ability to grasp spatial relationships is
essential to such work. He's got a leg up on all the other
trainees.   That's the problem, Hank. He was `brilliant' as an
artist. Now he's nothing just another blind man.  She sipped the
warmth of the liquid again.
 It doesn't make sense to me. The discovery of hyperspace opened
up a whole new world to the sightless. In an environment where
electricity won't work, where rotation equals linear movement,
and where the sighted are visionless, the blind navigator is the
only person who can tell the captain how to steer the ship.  He
laughed.  I remember how I felt the first time I shipped out,
having to sit in the dark without gravity, afraid to move. That
was the first time I envied the blind. 
Carlie turned to face him.  Never envy us, Hank. Don't pity us
either. We're handicapped but we got along pretty well before
hyperspace travel came along. Sometimes the ability to `see'
hyperspace reminds us of all the things we can't see in normal
space.  She smiled.   On the other hand, it feels nice to be
indispensable.
Jason lay on his bunk, his eyelids closed against the polished
plastic hemispheres that filled the sockets where his eyes had
been before
they were destroyed in that silly accident. He thought back to it
he was casting some gold charms using the lost wax technique. The
centrifugal caster, designed to hurl the molten metal into the
wax mold, malfunctioned and threw its contents across his face.
He couldn't remember the pain, but he remembered the sound of his
screams.
Reconstructive surgery helped. The surgeon assured him that the
scars had been erased from his face and that the insertion of
acrylic eyeballs would give him a normal appearance. There was
nothing, though, that could give him back his sight. His gift was
still there but his eyes, the organs that guided his hands toward
the turning of talent into tangible reality, were gone.
He heard the door to his cabin cycle and then the soft tread of
feet.  It was Carlie's walk his sense of hearing had increased
dramatically since the loss of his vision.
 May I sit down?  she asked softly.
Jason shrugged.  It doesn't matter. 
He felt the bunk give way beneath her mass.  Tell me what you
saw, Jason. 
 I saw my house,  he said.  The house where I had my studio.  It
was an old house with a tin roof streaked with sienna and
cerulian.  It showed glints of gold where the sunlight reflected
from it and reflections of green from the old maples growing
alongside it.   No, I meant what you saw when we were in
hyperspace.   That's what I'm telling you. I saw the house.  
Jason.  He felt the light touch of her hand on his, warm and dry. 
What you saw was what you wanted to see. Hyperspace looks
different from anything we've seen before... before we lost our
sight. To me it looks like colored threads on a black background. 
To some others it looks like connect-the-dot patterns.   I saw
the house,  Jason repeated stubbornly.   Okay,  she squeezed his
hand.  Try and get some sleep.  We'll make another run in a few
hours.  The bunk rebounded as she rose, and Jason heard the door
open and close as she left. He put one hand over the one she had
touched and tried to visualize how she looked. He got no message.
Hoarsely he began to sob. 

We're going to make a short run now,  said Carlie.  Four lights
to Centaurus. It's a straight run if you go by ship's drive but, 
she chuckled,  an awfully long one. In Hyperspace it's shorter
but more complex.   Explain it to me again,  said Jason.
 Hyperspace seems to fold differently from normal space. In
normal space if you wanted to walk two city blocks, you'd start
at point
`A' and walk directly to point `B.' If you were doing it in
hyperspace, you might have to go straight for two steps, turn 45
degrees and walk ten steps, turn 60 degrees and walk five
steps.That's a poor analogy, but it serves as well as any. 
 It doesn't make any sense. 
 No, it doesn't. But it's the way things work. Are you ready to
try? 
Jason nodded, then remembered she couldn't see the gesture. 
Okay. 

Carlie gave the talker the request to enter hyperspace and felt
the almost subliminal hum that meant the ship's gyroscopes were
being brought up to speed. Then the sound of motors stopped as
all electrical systems were shut down. A whistle over the
speaking tube told her that translation had been accomplished.
 Now look,  she told Jason.  What do you see?  He concentrated on
the blackness before him.  Alicia,  he replied.
 Huh? 
 Alicia as I painted her ten years ago. She was sitting on a
chair under one of the maples. I dressed her in a yellow sundress
and a
broad straw hat. The shadows chased around her in the spring
breeze.  Carlie sighed.  Just follow along with me, Jason. Our
first thread goes off at an angle to the left.  She blew into the
speaking tube.  Ten degrees port.  There was a slight
disorientation as the helmsman cranked the handles that rotated
the gyroscopes and
moved the ship in the proper direction.  Stop... Two units
thrust.  Microweight gripped them as hyperbolic jets were valved
on.  Reverse thrust.  On the bridge the helmsman, timing by his
own pulsebeat, followed her directions.  Thank you. 
 Now, Jason, we moved along the first thread. I can see our
transfer point here. We're going to have to swing almost fifty
degrees starboard.  Do you see it? 
 I see the old rowboat I painted in Kennebunkport. It was drawn
up on land and placed upside down next to a building. The
weathered wood was streaked with white and the shadows were cool
blue.   Forty-eight degrees starboard... A little slower... One
unit thrust... Reverse thrust... Thank you. There's the last leg,
about two degrees down and to the left. 
Again Carlie questioned Jason about what he saw and again he
described
a painting he had created. She ran through the rest of the trip
mechanically, trying to tell him what she saw but not demanding
any responses from him.
 It's frustrating, Hank,  she told the ship's surgeon at supper.  
He just doesn't seem to see anything but his own art. Is it
possible that the medical results were incorrect, that he can't
see in hyperspace?   I don't know how that could be, Carlie. The
rehab centers do a pretty thorough job of testing potential
navigator candidates. I can run him through the on-board
equipment, though, if you think it'll do any good. 
 I'd appreciate it. Without the ability to do navigator work
he'll be handicapped  all  the time.  She bit nervously at her
lower lip.  That's something I want to spare him. 
Later he asked her to come into his surgery.  I can't see
anything that would interfere with his ability,  he told her.  I
can stimulate the optic nerves and get signal registration in the
optic centers of the brain.  He shuffled through test readouts. 
I can even get some photic driving. By every test available to me
he shows up fit. 
 By every test available to  you , Hank. Maybe what we need is a
psychologist. 
 This bucket doesn't rate one. Remember, we only do training runs
boring stuff, but we get to sleep in our own beds on weekends. As
the trainer, you've got to fill that slot yourself. 
Carlie made a face at him.  Thanks. I usually have enough trouble
teaching the candidates what to look for and how to estimate
angles and thrusts. Well,  she shrugged,  maybe a little personal
reminiscence would help. 
 Carlie,  Hank placed his hand over hers,  do you think you
should? 
She reached out and felt his face, touched the frown lines around
his mouth.  You really care, don't you? 
 I always have.  He smiled, and her fingers trapped it.  You're a
great gal, and I admire you tremendously. I just don't want you
to hurt yourself more than you have to. 
 Do you say that to your wife, too? 
 Uh, huh. Less than I should, I'm afraid. 
She laughed.  If it's too much for me, I'll come and cry on your
shoulder. Okay? 
 Agreed. 

She knocked softly on the door to Jason's cabin, entering when he
invited her.  I wanted to talk with you again,  she explained as
she entered.
 Suit yourself. 
His voice told her he was on the bunk, so she moved toward the
chair bolted to the cabin deck.  Do you have much trouble getting
around the ship?  she asked as she seated herself.
 Some,  he admitted.
 Do you ever wonder why I seem to get around so well? 
A rustle told her he was moving his head.  No. I never thought
about it. 
 One of the reasons has to do with the fact that I've served on
this ship for a few years, but there's another reason.  There
was no response. Carlie took a breath and continued.  Do you
remember Carlotta Russel, the ballerina? 
 Yes. 
 That was me. My stage name. 
 But you  
 Yeah. Mugged, raped, blinded right in the lobby of my condo.  
You were wonderful.  There was awe in his voice.
 I was, wasn't I? But no more. No more  pas de deux  with some
tight-bummed hunk. No more  entrechats . No more pirouettes while
the crowd applauded and begged for more. Jason    Huh? 
 I wanted to kill myself. I wanted to dance because I knew that
if I danced I could feel cleansed of the other things that were
done to me I could burnish it out of my soul through my art. But
I couldn't dance. 
 Damn! 
 Yes, damn. And now, when we're in hyperspace, I can feel myself
dance among the stars. I can  feel  up and down and right and
left and all the other positions. Jason, navigating saved my
life.  I'm still blind in the real world, but when I'm doing my
job, it's as if I'm whole again. 
Jason stood up and cautiously moved toward her voice, reached
out, and found her.  Did it hurt? 
 What, the mugging? 
 No, the learning. 
 I felt uncomfortable until I got used to it. Then it felt
wonderful. 
 Do you miss dancing? 
 More than I can ever say.  She felt tears start from her
eyes.
 I feel the same way about painting. 
 I know. 
 Can I try again? 
 You bet! Give me time to freshen up, and I'll show you the way
back home. 

Don't feel so bad about it, Jason.  Carlie sat back in the
trainer's couch and forced herself to relax.   I could tell you
were really trying. 
 I feel like a total failure.  Jason's voice sounded strained, as
if he were holding back tears.  No matter what you did to help me
I still couldn't see anything but paintings. 
 Yeah, but this time you got away from your own works. Once at
least. Remember you said you saw Van Gogh's `Starry Night' on the
second leg. 
 I remember, but it wasn't Van Gogh's, it was my own copy of it. 
Carlie,  she heard him shift in the couch,  I'm still too focused
on my painting on myself. I can't let go!   I can't accept that,
Jason. 
 You don't want to accept it. 
 Yeah, that's true,  she said reluctantly.  I  want  you to
succeed. I want you to have a use for your abilities the way I
do. I don't want you to be blind forever. 
 You pity me. 
 I don't know,  she admitted.  Maybe I pity myself because I'm
not as good a teacher as I thought I was. Maybe I want you to
see so much that I've developed a different kind of blindness
myself a blindness to why you can't see hyperspace. 
 Blindness and sight,  Jason's voice was reflective.  You use
those terms a lot. 
 That's how I think about it. 
 But what did you tell me you felt in hyperspace?   Floating? No,
dancing. I'm dancing in hyperspace.   And you feel the
directions. 
 Right.  She paused.  Maybe you see hyperspace differently
because you're used to seeing paintings. 
 Um. That's what I thought. But I see a different work every
time.   No repeats? 
 No. 
 I wonder.  She grasped the speaking tube and blew into it,
then asked the normal space navigator for a position check. 
Jason,  she said,  we're going to make another Earth-Centaurus
run, just like the first one. This time just describe what you
see.  She gave the order for rotation.  Well? 
 I see one of the maples that grows next to my house. I painted
it in the fall when its leaves were deep into scarlet.   Can you
see the house? 
 Yes, a small corner of it. Carlie? 
 What? 
 I don't remember painting the house when I painted the tree.  
Okay, remember that fact.  She gave the order for the first leg
of the journey.  Now what do you see? 
 Alicia.  His voice was tense.  Carlie, I saw this painting
before. 
 Yeah, on the last trip out. 
 But not in this way. The shadows are different. Wait a moment. 
Hey, her position has changed! It's subtle, but it's there.   Uh
huh. Let's go on. 
At each leg of the journey the pictures repeated themselves but
with subtle differences. Carlie, excited by what was happening,
ran the ship through the round trip without stopping, and her
head ached a little from the fouled air by the time they rotated
back to normal space near Earth.
 So I  can  see in hyperspace,  Jason's voice was elated.  
That's for certain,  Carlie began unfastening the straps that
held her to the couch,  but it certainly is a different way of
seeing it. 
Jason laughed.  I see my own paintings. I suspect the differences
between one trip and the next are due to slight positional
changes.   That's what I think.  She got up from the couch and
reached out a hand for him.  I also think there's another
problem.   How I can tell the proper `line' for each leg of a
voyage?   That's it.  She took his hand and began to walk toward
the wardroom.
Jason stopped and turned her toward him.  You're thinking with a
dancer's mind,  he said.  For you everything is position and
posture and muscle balance. For me, a visual artist, things are
light and shadow and color and orientation on the canvas.   You
mean, the way I orient myself is postural and way you do it is
visual? 
 Yeah. Each one of us `sees' something different out there and
translates it into something familiar. I guess I'm the first
oddball trainee who was so visually oriented he couldn't
translate into any other terms. All I have to do is learn the
various routes, then I can reposition the ship to reproduce what
I saw on each leg. It won't be easy, but we artists are used to
doing difficult things.   As opposed to dancers?  Carlie's laugh
was soft.   Ouch, I deserved that. Carlie? 
 What, Jason. 
 May I touch your face? 
 Of course. 
He brought his hands up, ran them lightly over her features. 
Thanks,  he said.  I just wanted to see the person who gave me
back my sight. 
                      DOES REACHING OUT WORK
 From the Editor:  We are sometimes told that there is no
possibility of ever communicating or working co-operatively with
agencies doing work with the blind.  We are told this in spite of
the fact that there are a number of rehabilitation centers in the
country now being run by our own people who, incidentally,
continue to be as strong as ever in their Federationism.  In
truth it is not where one works that counts, nor is it the name
of the employer.   Rather, it is what one believes and does and
is.  It is not form but substance that makes the difference.
These comments result from a letter which appeared in the
December, 1988,  Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness , the
publication of the American Foundation for the Blind.  As Mr.
Petrini (the author of the letter) says, he attended the 1988
Convention of the National Federation of the Blind.  He was not
only impressed by what he heard and saw but was willing to talk
and write about it.  The fact that he is a sighted rehabilitation
specialist and that his article was printed by the American
Foundation for the Blind should give pause to that minority among
us that believes nothing ever changes and no one ever listens.
Obviously one letter does not cure the ills of the agency system
or change the pattern of our whole way of life, but it does show
what is happening and what is possible.  We have had differences
with the American Foundation for the Blind, and we will
undoubtedly have more in the future; but we should always be open
to changing conditions and new circumstances.  The fact that
today is different from the world of even ten years ago is a
truism, but this should not cause
us to close our minds to its truth and, for that matter, its
reality and implications.  Be that as it may, here is Mr.
Petrini's letter:

_____________________
To the Editor:
I am writing this letter as a private citizen. I work as a
sighted blind rehabilitation specialist in the Eastern Blind
Rehabilitation Center, V.A. Medical Center, West Haven,
Connecticut.
I attended the recent National Federation of the Blind (NFB)
Convention, July 2-9, in Chicago, as an observer. As a
rehabilitation teacher and concerned citizen, several issues were
raised at the convention that require discussion.
The first concerns the quality and appropriateness of
rehabilitation agencies for blind/visually impaired people. NFB
believes that many blind rehabilitation agencies are providing
poor services which are
not addressing the needs of blind people. As a concerned blind
rehabilitation professional, I would like to address this issue
which was raised at the convention.
Many blind rehabilitation agencies need to become more current
and appropriate in their services for the blind consumer. Some
need to emphasize computer technology and low vision services for
their clients.  The rehabilitation programs of twenty years ago
need to be modified to address the needs of blind people in the
1990's. Yet, while change is important, let's remember to keep
techniques and approaches that have stood the test of time.
Braille continues to be important for blind and extremely low
vision people. Braille and computer Braille help blind persons to
remain literate a goal we must continue to support.
Since the blind/visually impaired population is getting older, we
need to develop more rehabilitation programs for elderly visually
impaired persons. These would include skills dealing with
independent living, coping with aging (leisure and health
knowledge skills), and socialization skills if needed. Let us
answer NFB's criticisms by looking at our rehabilitation programs
and analyzing how they can be improved. Let's get feedback from
peer agencies and clients to help us meet the needs of blind
clients more effectively.
NFB has begun its own rehabilitation centers in Louisiana and
Colorado.
At these centers they reported that the instructors teach blind
rehabilitation skills and help their clients to develop good,
positive attitudes about blindness. In addition to the
traditional blind rehabilitation skills, the students are
challenged by preparing sit-down dinners
for thirty people, and taking technical rock climbing classes or
karate.  One NFB rehabilitation student said it was like 
bootcamp for
the blind.  I was impressed by how the NFB centers tried to
encourage positive attitudes about blindness in their students.
These attitudes include believing in themselves as blind persons.
We rehabilitation professionals need to encourage our clients to
develop similar attitudes.  The second issue which came to my
attention as a result of the NFB convention was the issue of
civil rights for the blind population.  As blind rehabilitation
professionals and private citizens, we have the obligation to
support blind people in their quest for full civil rights in
society. We must educate the public that negative stereotypes of
blind people as incompetent and helpless are wrong. We know that
blind/visually impaired people can be productive, independent
members of society; blind people are like everyone else except
that they have a visual handicap.
We need to support self-help groups for blind people like NFB and
ACB in their quest for full civil rights. We may disagree with
some of their ideas and practices, but we should certainly
support their struggle for equal rights in our society.

                                                   Joseph Petrini
                     BRAILLE: A TOUCHY ISSUE
 From the Editor:  This article by Tim Lucas appeared in the
January 31, 1989,  Indianapolis Star.  It is worth reading for a
number of reasons, not the least of which is its underscoring of
the fact that there is a beginning of public awareness that
Braille is being underemphasized in the education of the blind.
Ironically it seems easier for the sighted than for some of the
professionals in the blindness field to understand the simple
truth that those who
are blind or who have extremely impaired vision need to learn
Braille:  Sometimes the words still come slowly for Aaron Cook.
Syllable by syllable, one letter at a time, he makes his way
across the line of Braille type, pausing frequently when the
pattern of raised dots and spaces becomes too complex.
Aaron, 14, is a first-year Braille student at the Indiana School
for the Blind. After only a few months' instruction, his grasp of
the writing system is, understandably, still limited.
But for all his mistakes, the Indianapolis boy is already doing
better than most of Indiana's blind population.
Although many of us assume that Braille literacy is universal
among the blind, the truth is far from that.
 Today, only about ten percent of all legally blind people can
read Braille,  says Ronald G. Matias, President of the National
Federation of the Blind of Indiana.
 The Braille literacy rate keeps going down and down,  Matias
warns.  And if something isn't done to reverse it... we are going
to become a nation of Braille illiterates. 
A paper published earlier this month by the Council of Executives
of American Residential Schools for the Visually Handicapped
echoes Matias's concern.
The paper  strongly recommends  a re-emphasis of Braille skills
for the blind, and suggests that some teachers of the blind may
themselves be deficient in Braille and thus cannot effectively
teach it to their students.
Matias agrees.  The public assumes everyone who's blind learns
to read Braille in school. That's a logical assumption, but
unfortunately, it's not true. 
Instead, he says, most schools today favor an educational
philosophy that encourages students who are not totally blind to
read large print instead of Braille.
 It's part of the whole mainstreaming philosophy,  Matias
explains.
Before the 1930's, teachers of the blind were often blind
themselves and read and wrote Braille on a daily basis. State
certification wasn't required; a proficiency in Braille was.
Then, after the thirties,  Teachers had to be educational
professionals with college degrees. Sometimes they were blind,
but more frequently they were sighted teachers... who had taken
instruction in Braille but who did not read or write it on a
daily basis.
 They emphasized large print type or sight reading of Braille in
the classroom because that's what they knew,  Matias says.
Moe Haralson, principal at the Indiana School for the Blind,
agrees to a point.
 There was a de-emphasization of Braille teaching for a period, 
he says.  But it was because researchers came out with a low
vision study saying people (who aren't totally blind) are better
off reading print.
 That philosophy, as we've seen, hasn't worked,  Haralson says, 
so now we've gone back to working with students in two modes
large print and Braille. 
 Braille is based on a six-dot unit which, when arranged
variously, forms more than 200 different signs and letters.
Of the Indiana School for the Blind's 162 students, 61 (or about
38 percent) can read Braille. About the same number rely on large
print materials, while 20 percent are multiple handicap students
who cannot read either Braille or large print.
The decision to teach a student Braille is based on his abilities
and desire, Haralson says.
 If he wants to learn it, it's available to him,  he says, adding
that it generally takes a student two or three years of study to
become fluent in Braille.
Despite the initial difficulties, though, students, teachers, and
blind advocates alike agree that it's worth the effort.
 I used to read large print pretty well, but now my vision (is
weaker), so I can only pick up one word at a time and I make a
lot of mistakes,  says Aaron, a near straight-A student.  
Learning Braille will prepare me for the future in case I go
totally blind or can't read print anymore. 
                   GIVING THE WRITE IMPRESSION
 From the Associate Editor:  I never cease to be astonished at
the occupations that sighted people presume to be off-limits to
the blind because (in their minds) there is some mystical
connection between the activity in question and the means usually
employed by the sighted to accomplish it. The most recent job to
be brought to my attention as beyond the restricted abilities of
the blind is that of writer.  Since I have spent a significant
portion of every day for the last several years seated at my
computer engaged in composition in order to justify receiving my
paycheck, I greeted the discovery of this piece of information
with amused incredulity.
This was not always so. Though I made A's in high school English,
when I hit my college composition course, I quickly drew one
conclusion.  Although I might not have the least idea what I
would eventually major in at Oberlin College, it would not be
English. I soon discovered that it was not writing that I found
so hard but thinking logically.  As soon as I resigned myself to
taking the time to plan my sentences, paragraphs, and essays, I
discovered that it was possible to survive as an English major.
My emergence into the field of magazine editing has been the
result of a gradual evolution, but there was never a time when I
felt that blindness created a bar to my writing. Throughout the
fifteen years of my active involvement with the National
Federation of the Blind, I have found a few people who write
well, a number more who write competently, and lots of people who
would rather avoid the activity altogether. My husband, who
teaches composition as well as other English courses at Oberlin,
confirms my impression that in this, as in so much else, the
blind are simply a cross section of society at large.

In the summer of 1988 Lori Stayer (Vice President of the Writers
Division of the National Federation of the Blind and Editor of
its magazine,  Slate & Style ) received first a phone call and
then a letter of inquiry from a graduate student in Michigan. He
was doing research on blind writers. Were there any good ones? If
so, was it necessary for them to have had sight originally in
order to write well now?  How could a blind writer revise his
work? Could he write convincingly about something he had never
actually seen? Mrs. Stayer is a patient woman, dedicated to
teaching and to destroying misconceptions wherever and whenever
she can. Here is the letter she received, and her response:

____________________
                                                      Akron, Ohio
                                                    July 19, 1988

Dear Ms. Stayer:
In regard to our telephone conversation this afternoon, I am
enclosing a check ($2.50) for the purchase of a copy of  Slate &
Style  magazine.
I am currently working on a graduate paper that deals with sight
and writing. I have had interviews with blind people including a
talented writer and musician; however, many questions I have are
still unanswered.  Perhaps you could help with the following
ones:
1) Janet Emig states in her book,  Web of Meaning  that she  has
not found a single case of a noted writer in any genre who was,
or
is, congenitally blind.   She adds that  neither
lyricist-composer Stevie Wonder nor dramatist Harold Krentz, for
example, was born , blind, ...James Thurber and John Milton did
not become blind until midlife. Helen Keller, perhaps the best
known case of all, did not become blind until eighteen months of
age.  In a recent international writing contest for the blind,
sponsored by the Jewish Braille Institute, not one writer
adjudged a winner was born blind.  (p.115) I find this very
difficult to believe. Do you know of any professional or talented
writers who were born blind?  Can a congenitally blind person
write about abstract notions that a sighted person could relate
to?  In other words, would a sighted reader know from the text
alone that the writer is blind?  Could a blind person write about
a sunset which he or she had never seen or experienced before?
2) How do blind writers write, revise, and critique their work? 
A sighted person can tell if a word is misspelled by looking at
it.  What does a blind person do?  Sighted writers usually read
phrase by phrase and often read a sentence out loud in order to
revise it.  How does a blind writer revise?  (Do they erase the
braille or simply retype?)
3) A blind person told me in one of the interviews that most
blind people are not interested in any type of writing.  Is this
true?  If so, why?
4) What disadvantages, do you think, blind writers have (if any)
as opposed to sighted ones?  How do they overcome them?
Thank you very much for offering to help. Any information you can
provide will be greatly appreciated.

                                                       Sincerely,
                                                                 
____________________
                                                Merrick, New York
                                                    July 22, 1988
Dear   :
I have sent you a copy of  Slate & Style  under separate cover. 
You did not tell me when your paper is due, so I don't know how
much time we have to get you the answers you want. If, for
example, it
is not due until January of 1989, then we have the option of
publishing your letter in  Slate & Style  and soliciting some
correspondence from our membership. I have already shared your
letter with Tom Stevens, who is the President of the Writers
Division, and who was the winner of its fiction contest before
his election.
It is difficult to know where to begin answering your letter. You
have made certain assumptions which underlie your questions, so
perhaps I had better deal with these first. Your first assumption
seems to be that because Ms. Emig says a thing, it is so. One
needs to ask what sort of research she did and what her
assumptions were before she began her book. You express doubt in
her conclusions, but they seem to have colored your own later
thinking. Your second assumption
is that blind people using Braille are in some fundamental way
different from sighted people using print. I wonder if it would
have occurred to you to ask your question concerning writing and
revising about those who read only Italian, because they don't
speak English.
In response to your first question, I have not read Janet Emig's
book,  Web of Meaning . I do, however, personally know a number
of distinguished blind writers. Deborah Kent (Stein) is an
acclaimed writer of Young Adult books. Dr. Kenneth Jernigan,
Executive Director of the National Federation of the Blind and
President of the North America/Caribbean Region of the World
Blind Union, is considered by many to be the outstanding blind
writer and thinker in the blindness field today. He has edited
the  Braille Monitor  magazine for years, writing a goodly
portion of each issue. He has also written numerous speeches that
have shaped the thinking of a generation about blindness. I shall
pass your letter on to him for possible response, though I can't
guarantee that he will have the time to answer you.

I should point out to you that in the blind community the
distinction between congenital and adventitious blindness seems
spurious. It strikes people as mostly irrelevant. If you're
blind, it's generally agreed that you can't see. The feel for
language, the ability to craft a phrase, is seated in the brain,
not the eye. And research can be done by anyone, so Debbie Kent
assures me.
I do not believe a reader could know from the text that the
writer
was blind unless the author mentioned the information. Read the
magazine I sent you. Except for June Derks and Gayle Sabonaitis
(who mention their blindness), you probably won't be able to tell
who is and who is not blind. As for writing a description of
something you have never seen, many writers do just that all the
time; they research their subject, then create a description that
fits the details.
By the way, how does Ms. Keller's losing her sight and hearing at
the age of eighteen months make her different from someone blind
and deaf from birth?  Eighteen months is a pretty young age. I
myself don't remember anything before my third birthday.
Your second question was,  How do Blind writers write, revise,
and critique their work.   The answer is that it varies. One man
told me that he uses two tape recorders. Crescence Stadeble, who
is
a member of our division, uses a typewriter and sighted readers.
Nancy Scott uses Braille. Some legally (but not totally) blind
writers use print-enlarging devices. Some use word processors
that talk or produce Braille output.
Braille readers with real expertise usually those who have read
and written Braille since first grade read the way any sighted
person does: phrases and sentences at a time. People who are
totally blind from birth probably have the advantage here of
never having had anyone try to teach them using visual methods.
My husband reads Braille at 300 words a minute, which is faster
than many seeing people read print. It all depends on practice.
The prolific Braille reader has the same advantages in learning
to spell (and therefore being able to correct a text) as the
sighted reader does. It will help you if you think of Braille as
an alternative to print rather than an inferior method of reading
and writing.  Braille readers read letters and abbreviations,
words and phrases, sentences and paragraphs, just as you read
print. Those who read letter by letter have had an inferior
education, and here, by the way, you can blame sighted educators
who have never placed the value on Braille that literate blind
people do.
Braille does have a few limitations. It is bulky and not as
readily available as print. Most blind people don't own their own
books because of the cost, though we are working to change that.
It is possible to erase a mistaken letter or two in Braille, but
it must be done dot by dot, so most people just fill in all six
dots in the Braille cell as one way to eliminate an error. A
blind professional writer will probably opt for the newer
technology by investing in a word processor, just as a sighted
writer would.
As for the person who told you that most blind people are not
interested in any type of writing, he doesn't know the blind
people I do. The answer to your question is, no, it is not true.
How could it be?  Blind people aren't a different species from
you and me. They are a cross section of society and have a cross
section of interests. How could it be otherwise?
As to your question what disadvantages blind writers have as
opposed to sighted writers, there is one very important problem.
Until Braille is taught to all totally and partially blind
children, we will raise generations of illiterate blind people,
people who can't spell or write or read. This is a tragic problem
that cuts across America today.

However, if the blind are educated in the alternative techniques
of blindness, including Braille, effective use of readers, and
reliance on a well-trained memory, then, no, there are no
disadvantages. I note with regret that you didn't ask me what the
advantages of being a blind writer are. Your assumptions about
limitations of blindness may color your work.
As I mentioned, I will share your letter with members of the
division and see what other answers I can get for you. I
acknowledge that I am not blind. However, my experience includes
having a blind husband and attending conventions of the National
Federation of the Blind for fifteen years. I have met hundreds,
if not thousands, of blind people. You would find it helpful to
speak to some who have had good experiences of blindness. I shall
see what I can do to have them get in touch with you.
I hope I've been of some help.
                                                       Cordially,
                                      Lori Stayer, Vice President
                                                 Writers Division
                                          Editor,  Slate & Style 
                     CONGRESS TAKES A HAND 
IN THE FIGHT AGAINST DISCRIMINATION 
BY THE STATE DEPARTMENT
In the February, 1989,  Braille Monitor  we printed an article
entitled:  State Department Declares the Blind Unfit.  It gives
details concerning the discrimination being practiced by the
State Department against blind applicants for career appointments
in the Foreign Service.  Monitor  readers will remember that Rami
Rabby, one of the leaders of the NFB in New York, received
particularly shabby treatment from the State Department and took
his story to the press.
Simultaneously the National Federation of the Blind brought the
matter to the attention of Congress, and during the Federation's
Washington Seminar (held January 29 through February 1, 1989) we
were able to get a Congressional hearing. On Wednesday, February
1, Congressman Gerry Sikorski held what is technically called a 
briefing  before his Subcommittee on Human Resources of the
Committee on Post Office and Civil Service. As will be seen from
the testimony, members of both the blind community and the State
Department were present to give their views.
Since this issue goes far beyond the case of Rami Rabby or even
the specific actions of the State Department, it seems worthwhile
to let  Monitor  readers know in detail what occurred. Here is
how the briefing went:

                            Briefing 

 Congressman Sikorski . This is a public briefing organized for
the members of the Subcommittee. I've requested and received
authorization from Chairman Ford to conduct these proceedings,
which will be recorded.  The full committee will be requested to
authorize the printing of the transcript once we officially
organize. We have scheduled this briefing to examine the
Department of State's hiring policy regarding blind individuals
who seek entry into the Foreign Service.  In recent years the
Department has provided readers to assist blind applicants for
Foreign Service Officer positions. Exams were also provided in
Braille. However, as we will hear later from some of our
panelists, blind individuals who successfully passed both the
written and oral portions of this very difficult exam were
nevertheless denied entry into the Foreign Service for
subsequently failing the Department's physical examination. That
examination requires  visual acuity.  Now, concerns about these
policies date back to at least 1975. In 1982 a complaint was
filed against the State Department with the Equal Opportunity
Commission (the EOC), and in 1987 the EOC completed a staff
report which highlighted the Department's contradictory hiring
and testing policy opening the door to opportunity, equality, and
hope with one hand and closing that door with another. The EOC
report concluded:  It would be unwise for the Department of State
to conduct a recruitment program that would raise false
expectations of handicapped individuals hoping to enter the
Foreign Service.  It went on to add:  Recruitment that leads to
exclusion based
on handicap will increase the possibility of discrimination
complaints.   The report recommended that the Department modify
its recruitment program to comply with the Foreign Service Act of
1980, as well as the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended with
respect to hiring, placement, and advancement of handicapped
individuals. Now we see that instead of opening doors to the
Foreign Service Department, the Department of State installed a
dead bolt lock.
Instead of changing the medical requirements or examining the
practical application of the Department's so-called world-wide
availability policy, the Department decided it would no longer
provide the exam in Braille. Blind applicants would not be
permitted to use readers, and any blind people who made it
through the test would still be washed out on the physical exam
even though blind people have honorably served our government and
the citizens of the United States in highly sensitive
intelligence areas, the Peace Corps, the civil branches of the
Armed Services, and even the Foreign Service.
This morning our distinguished group of panelists includes the
honorable Tom Campbell from the State of California and several
very talented blind individuals, who have been or will be
affected by the Department's policy; Commissioner Kemp of the
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; and representatives from
the Department of State. All of these people are here to help us
understand and examine the needs of the Foreign Service and those
of qualified blind applicants who seek entry into the ranks to
represent our country overseas, and we thank all of them for
being with us this morning.
It's the tradition and almost a requirement that we begin with
the members of Congress, and with us this morning at his request
and with the subcommittee's great appreciation is Tom Campbell, a
member of Congress from California. Welcome.
 Congressman Campbell . Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. It's a
pleasure to be here. My name is Tom Campbell. I'm the newly
elected Congressman from Silicon Valley, California. But more
important for today's purposes, Mr. Chairman, I am an
eighteen-year veteran reader for Recording for the Blind. And
that's what I want to talk to you about this morning. In the
course of those eighteen years, I have worked with blind people
in very many different ways as they obtain information to carry
on their functions. I've worked with students at Harvard Law
School, who used an Optacon to scan not involving another person,
but allowing them to read as though they had sight.  I've worked
with readers for Georgetown Law School, trying to get them help
to get their law degree and assisting them as they became lawyers
and succeeded in the federal practice.
As a professor at Stanford, occasionally I would teach blind
students, and I had the opportunity to teach economics. (I have a
Ph.D in that field.) The question arose: Could a blind student
manage the supply and demand graphs?  You know, with just a
little accommodation, the answer is,  You bet.   All it takes is:
trace the graphs on the palm of the student's hand, and I did
that after every lecture.  Mr. Chairman, on the basis of those
eighteen years of experience working with blind persons, the one
thing I am most sure of is that there is nothing a blind person
cannot do except see.
I have a personal reason for appearing here today as well. In
1980 I had the high honor to be a White House Fellow. In that
class was Hal Krentz, the first White House Fellow who was blind.
Hal Krentz had epilepsy, and he could not see. Nevertheless, he
became a lawyer, a songwriter, and a playwright. His life was the
inspiration for  Butterflies Are Free.  He wrote the screen play
for  To Race the Wind.   Hal was appointed to the White House,
and I think his experience is particularly important as this
committee investigates this most important area, to explore
exactly how he managed to succeed so very well. He was assigned
to Elizabeth Dole, Mr. Chairman, and I think it might be useful
to ask Secretary Dole how she was able effectively to use Hal
Krentz working in the White House Office of Public Liaison. As
his colleague White House Fellow, let me tell you that there was
no more productive, efficient member of our White House Fellows
class than Hal Krentz.
In earlier arguments about the importance of keeping
confidentiality in the State Department and how difficult it is
to have outside readers well, I think all of those arguments
apply in the White House as well. And yet Hal Krentz succeeded.
Mr. Chairman, two years ago Hal Krentz passed away. And when he
did, I made a silent pledge (as a number of my fellow White House
Fellows did) that whenever any of us had a chance to speak at a
circumstance where we knew Hal would have spoken, we would do so.
I'm here today to redeem that pledge. I'm here today to speak as
Hal would if he had been here. And even more importantly, we're
all here today to redeem America's pledge that the best message
we can send to the other countries of this world through our
diplomats is that America is a country where any obstacle can be
overcome. That is a message which will be sent by reversing the
State Department's policy.
Mr. Chairman, I applaud your holding these hearings, and I urge
you and all members of Congress not only to put as much influence
as we can on the State Department to change this particular
policy, but to come to the personal recognition of the vision
impaired segment of our population as I have and come to that
realization that there is nothing they can't do. Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
 Congressman Sikorski . Thank you, Congressman Campbell. Let me
just for the record introduce you as a new member of the 101st
Congress. You've taken a leave of absence from your duties at
Stanford University, where you've taught for seventeen years, I
believe.   Congressman Campbell . I taught there only for six and
a half.  I had to learn something before I could teach.
 Congressman Sikorski . You've come here as the new Republican
member of the House of Representatives. You've served as a White
House Fellow, as you mentioned in your statement. You have a Ph.D
in Economics.  You specialized, in part, in discrimination law
and discrimination economics. You've been a reader for Recording
for The Blind for eighteen years. That's it.
Your statement says a whole lot about the issue that we're
dealing with here today and we thank you for your assistance and
ask you if you want to join us up here if you'd like and if your
schedule permits.
 Congressman Campbell . I'd be pleased to, Mr. Chairman.  
Congressman Sikorski . Apparently there has been some
miscommunication as to who is going when and what this consists
of today. We have (let me introduce for the record) copies of
letters of January 25, 1989, to Mr. Charles Stout, United States
Department of State, and to Mr.  Sheldon Yuspeh, United States
Department of State, who will be on the first panel. I'm sorry.
They will be on the second panel. Apparently their rules don't
allow them to appear with just citizens.  The first panel will
be: Mr. Avraham Rabby, who is a human resources consultant. Mr.
Rabby, I had occasion last night to read your statement, which is
exceptional and of great value. We're beginning with you so that
you can set the stage as to how we got here this morning.

Mr. Rabby passed the written portion of the Foreign Service Exam
three times and the oral exam twice, yet has been denied entry
into the Foreign Service as an officer despite his
qualifications. As I recall, you speak four languages and have
been involved in international issues for a long time. You
currently manage your own consulting firm, which helps disabled
individuals find employment. You were born in Israel.  You lived
in England for fifteen years and have also lived in Paris and
Madrid. Mr. Rabby received a B.A. Honors Degree in French and
Spanish from Oxford University in England, a master's degree in
business administration from the University of Chicago, and has
been a Fulbright scholar. Welcome, Mr. Rabby.
 Mr. Rabby . Thank you, Mr. Sikorski. Let me begin by giving a
very brief account of my involvement with the State Department,
after which I shall analyze point by point the five principal
arguments which the State Department has advanced during the last
two or three months as to why they believe blind people cannot or
should not be employed in the Foreign Service.
Since December, 1985, (that is to say, within the last three
years or so) I have taken the written exam for the Foreign
Service a total of three times. I have passed them all and have
done so with the help of Braille papers provided by the State
Department, as well as an amanuensis provided by the State
Department to mark my answers. In addition, I have taken the oral
assessment twice, again using for those examinations a reader and
an amanuensis, also provided by the State Department. I have also
been granted a security clearance by the State Department's
diplomatic security office.
In October, 1986, I went for my medical examination, and during
the middle of my examination the State Department doctor read to
me a paragraph from his medical standards manual, which said that
any candidate having any kind of serious loss of vision, not to
mention being totally blind as I am, would be disqualified on
medical grounds. In November of 1988, just a few months ago, I
was about to sit for my third oral assessment, when three days
before the time came, I received notification from the State
Department saying that their policy had changed and they were no
longer going to provide me a reader or let me bring my own. Let
me, as I said, go through the five principal points, the
arguments that they have made.
First of all, let's deal with the issue of world-wide
availability.  The State Department seems to make a distinction
between blind people on the one hand and sighted people on the
other. They seem to say that sighted people can and should be
obligated to serve world-wide and that blind people cannot.
Mr. Chairman, I, as well as my colleagues in this room, reject
that kind of distinction; and we also reject any thought of
relaxing the principle of world-wide availability in order to
accommodate the so-called needs of blind people. We do not
believe that blind people need or should have the principle of
world-wide availability relaxed for them.  The fact is that,
while the State Department would like to think that at no more
than a moment's notice it can shift its Foreign Service Officers
from one place in the world to another, in reality it goes
through a very laborious and very correct and careful process of
analyzing the characteristics of each Foreign Service Officer and
his or her applicability and suitability to a particular location
and a particular profession. This may vary according to the FSO's
education, experience, family involvement, languages, and very
often to the desires of the FSO himself or herself. The State
Department does this because Foreign Service Officers are not
like Fords and Chevrolets that roll off the assembly line, each
one identical with the other. Each FSO has his or her own unique
strengths and weaknesses. We believe that, in the case of blind
people, blindness should be just one more of those
characteristics that enter into the mix of the decision-making
process determining where to place the Foreign Service Officer.
Let me go on to the second point: the use of assistance to read
material particularly, classified documents. The State Department
says that mechanical means
are available for blind people to do that. Let me tell the
subcommittee some truths about the technology that is now
available. It is true that there are devices, such as the Optacon
mentioned by Congressman Campbell and the Kurzweil Personal
Reader, which enable blind people to read print. However, these
machines are limited in their scope and value. They do not read
some type faces. The Optacon, particularly, is extremely slow. A
blind person using it usually can't read more than fifty or sixty
words a minute. The Kurzweil Personal Reader is hardly a portable
piece of equipment, so you can see that there are some very
definite limitations to this technology. All blind professionals
and management-level people, both in the public and private
sectors, have recognized that although these machines have their
uses, there is nothing that beats an effective human reader to
make one fully efficient, speedy, and competent on the job. What
we are looking for in employment in the Foreign Service is not so
much independence, because none of us is truly independent, but
rather efficiency and competence, speed and productivity on the
job.
The third point has to do with the issue of security and personal
safety on the job. There is absolutely no evidence to suggest
that blind people in proportionate numbers are any more prone to
accidents and hazards than sighted people are. We know this. The
National Federation of the Blind has conducted studies with the
insurance industry to demonstrate it. Beyond this fact, however,
we need to talk about the social benefits involved in employing
blind people. Let me make an analogy with women Foreign Service
Officers. If personal safety and security were the overriding and
paramount factors in employment of FSO's, women FSO's would not
be hired since, as a group, women are physically weaker than men.
Women are slower than men, as a group.  And yet the Foreign
Service...
 Congressman Sikorski . (interrupts)  I don't know if you would
be able to prove that. I doubt that...
 Mr. Rabby . (interrupts) ...I don't see why women are separated
in the Olympic games or in sports, for example, unless for that
reason.   Congressman Sikorski . Probably for the same reasons
that you've been separated out. It has to do with people's
prejudices and biases and...
 Mr. Rabby . ...The times don't show that, Mr. Chairman. The
times are for running and jumping and so on.
 Congressman Sikorski . I expect that will change, too.   Mr.
Rabby . In any case, women still are hired by the Foreign Service
because, presumably, it believes that the social benefit from
employing women FSO's and demonstrating to the world the equality
and respect with which we treat women in this country outweighs
any security consideration. Well, we believe that blind people
should be given exactly the same consideration and treatment. 
The fourth point has to do with blind people operating in
unfamiliar settings and cultures. It is really amazing to me and
to my colleagues in this room that this point should be brought
up at all. The State Department only had to look for leadership
on this issue to the Peace Corps, which has for years employed,
as volunteers, blind people in all parts of the world in
unfamiliar settings and cultures and has done so very, very
effectively. There are people here this morning to whom this room
itself was unfamiliar territory until today, and yet we managed
to arrive here and find our seats, and we shall leave here.
There's no reason to believe that we couldn't do it in France or
China or Japan or any other country.
Finally, the fifth point has to do with the visual cues and
indicators that the State Department feels are a necessary part
of diplomatic negotiations and which blind people cannot
interpret. Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, there
are in this country blind judges, blind lawyers, blind
psychiatrists, blind people who in their day- to-day work have to
interpret what the State Department would call visual cues and
indicators. And they do so very effectively. So how do they do
it?  Well, one way they do it is by using audible information. 
Now, the State Department hasn't learned it yet, but most visual
cues and indicators are accompanied by their audible
counterparts, such as a smile when one is talking, the rustling
of paper, the shifting about uncomfortably in one's seat, and so
on. But beyond that, it is important to recognize that, in
diplomatic negotiations particularly, if there is a wink or a nod
by the person sitting across the negotiating table, the blind
person who cannot hear some part of the visual cue is certainly
not going to go on with any discussion until he or she does hear
verbal response. In any case, to the best of my knowledge, no
international treaty or agreement has ever been signed on the
basis of a wink or a nod. Everything has to be written on paper,
with the i's dotted and the t's crossed.
Mr. Chairman, those are the five points that I've been able to
glean from various letters and statements made by the State
Department officials to members of Congress and to the media, and
those are my answers to them.
 Congressman Sikorski . Thank you very much. Without objections
your entire statement will be placed in the record as you
provided it. We will move quickly to the second panel and the
officials.  Before you leave, Mr. Rabby, I do have a couple of
quick questions.  Your points were dealt with logically and
nicely in your statement.  I did want to hit on a couple of them.
I know that the State Department has made the claim that their
Foreign Service Officers must be, by virtue of their
organization, their statutory authorization, available on a
world-wide basis. This is the so-called world-wide availability
argument. Does the Department actually follow this policy in
application today?
 Mr. Rabby . That, of course, you will have to ask them. All I
can tell you is that, to the logical mind of a human resource
management specialist (which is what I claim to be, Mr.
Chairman), it simply cannot be. As I said in my oral testimony,
and as you will find in the written testimony, any placement of a
Foreign Service Officer simply cannot be done the way you place
so many identical widgets that come off an assembly line in a
factory. Foreign Service Officers have specific educations. One
may have an expertise in East European political history. Another
may not. One may have experience in the African environment.
Another may be a complete novice. One may be fluent in Hebrew;
another may be fluent in Chinese, and so on. All of these are
taken into consideration when they place any Foreign Service
Officer in a particular post. What we would like to see is
blindness treated as one characteristic and put into the mix of
all the blind Foreign Service Officer's characteristics being
considered each time he or she is to be stationed anywhere in the
world.   Congressman Sikorski . People, in fact, are looked at
based on their talents, their resources, their frame of mind at
the time, their family situations, and a host of personal
idiosyncratic facts and whims, and then decisions are made on
that basis. Are they not?   Mr. Rabby . Exactly.
 Congressman Sikorski . Let me ask you: One of the State
Department's concerns that strikes a responsive cord in a lot of
hearts is that concerning classified information. You hit that in
your statement.  I don't recall that you detailed it in your
summary this morning.  The argument is that a blind individual is
not able to recognize when such information is classified, and
that it can be easily intercepted if a blind individual requires
a reader who would read that classified information aloud. How
does that concern strike you?
 Mr. Rabby . Oh yes, they say that the reading aloud of
classified information which is used by political and economic
officers is bad, except in specially designed acoustical rooms at
posts abroad.  I think it would be fair to ask them a number of
questions. Are classified materials only used by political and
economic officers as they have said, and, if so, what about
public affairs officers and cultural officers and administrative
officers and consular officers?  Why aren't they willing to
consider blind people for those positions?  If out-loud reading
of classified materials is prohibited, what about the oral
interpreting of classified materials to FSO's who are not
familiar with the language of the classified documents?  Does
that not ever take place?  And if out-loud reading of classified
materials is prohibited, what about discussion of them? Surely
that goes on. It simply does not make sense. But if all
discussion or reading aloud of classified material has to take
place in this specially-designed acoustical room, put the blind
person and the reader in there.
 Congressman Sikorski . The point you're making is that if it's
an issue, it's an issue for sighted and blind people alike
because classified information is not simply read and it's not
simply written.  It's interpreted; it's translated (in some
instances out loud); it's discussed out loud. If that's only done
in contained acoustical rooms, then there's nothing wrong with
putting the blind person in these rooms.
 Mr. Rabby . That's right. The broader point that I am making,
Mr. Chairman, is also that the State Department has so far been
totally unwilling to acknowledge the valuable contribution that
blind people can and should be making in the Foreign Service. If
they're initially unwilling to make that kind of policy
statement, they will find all kinds of reasons for which blind
people should not be hired. These are just some of them.
 Congressman Sikorski . You commented on unfamiliar
circumstances.  You've lived in New York City for how long?
 Mr. Rabby . Eleven years.
 Congressman Sikorski . Eleven years and it's not the kindest,
most user-friendly city in the world.
 Mr. Rabby . Yes. On the issue of personal safety and security,
New York City in 1988 had 1,900 murders, which is the largest
number of murders in any city around the world, that's to say in
peace time.   Congressman Sikorski . Washington, D.C., is where
we are sitting this morning. It is not the friendliest place. Is
there any place in the world that you would not go, refuse to go,
or personally not want to go based on the fact that you are
blind?
 Mr. Rabby . Not based on the fact that I am blind. There are
plenty of places in the world where I wouldn't like to go, but
the State Department ought to realize that in all of those
places, there are blind people living and working very happily.
 Congressman Sikorski . In fact, there are blind people who are
serving in our Foreign Service today. Is that correct?   Mr.
Rabby . Mr. Chairman, I don't have much information about blind
people...
 Congressman Sikorski . I know one. I met Ambassador... just a
few weeks ago who was legally blind, and there are blind people
in the Foreign Service ...
 Mr. Rabby . However, I do know, Mr. Chairman, that there is a
full-fledged blind, totally blind, Foreign Service officer
working for the Canadian Foreign Service who has done so for at
least ten years. He has served in Tokyo and is now in India. He
has a reader/secretary assigned to his position so that wherever
he is assigned, the reader/secretary goes with him.
 Congressman Sikorski . And those include both industrialized
nations and...
 Mr. Rabby . And so-called third world countries, yes.  
Congressman Sikorski . I spent a year in India a few years ago
during college, and I can appreciate the fact that if someone
does serve there in the Foreign Service, they probably have
experienced a wealth of wonderful and challenging opportunities.
They probably have proven the capacity to survive in any country.
Mr. Rabby, do you have anything to add?
 Mr. Rabby . No, I don't think so, Mr. Chairman. I think my
written testimony includes just about all of the thoughts that I
have ever had on this subject.
 Congressman Sikorski . (laughing) Will you be available for us
this morning should we want to come back and ask you some
questions?   Mr. Rabby . Absolutely.
 Congressman Sikorski . Our second panel will include Mr. Evan
J. Kemp, Jr. (Commissioner, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission); Mr. Charles Stout, who is the director of Policy
Coordinations Staff with the Director General of the Foreign
Service, Department of State; and Mr. Sheldon Yuspeh, who is the
Coordinator for Handicapped Employment Programs in that same
office at the Department of State. Gentlemen, welcome. Come on
up.
In the beginning, Commissioner Kemp was unanimously confirmed by
the Senate in July of 1987. He's a tireless spokesperson for
independent living by disabled people and for an end to
paternalism that too often keeps disabled people dependent.
Again, it's a pleasure to welcome you here this morning. Your
prepared comments will be placed in the record as you wish them.
You may summarize as you wish, Mr. Kemp.   Commissioner Kemp .
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, staff. This
briefing is very important to disabled people because I think
again it shows the attitude that excludes us from the mainstream
of society. The State Department's actions refusing a blind
applicant the right to take a test, either Braille or with a
reader or something else, sends a wrong message at the wrong time
to both government agencies and to the public sector. The federal
government is supposed to be a model employer of disabled people,
and I don't think it's reached that very often. We do have a new
administration. President Bush is committed to integrating
disabled people into society and giving disabled people control
over their own lives. He's talked about the 70% unemployment of
disabled people. We would like disabled people to get back into
the work force. Our 1986 EOC report on the State Department
concluded that somebody that was disabled very rarely gets
through the twin barriers of the medical standards and the
world-wide availability standards. I don't know how much these
standards cause the problems or whether it's the attitudes of the
State Department. I do think attitudes are still the biggest
barrier that people with disabilities have in getting integrated
into society.
I don't have (and the EOC does not have) really adequate
information on how the world-wide availability standards work.
Are there exceptions to that standard?  It is written into the
law. Sometimes these are followed by agencies very closely, and
sometimes not at all. We do know that from the September 30,
1988, report that there are two Foreign Service Officers that are
blind. Are they treated differently, or do they still have
world-wide availability? There are a lot of things that we need
to know, I think, before we can make a determination that the
State Department is violating Section 501 of the Rehabilitation
Act of 1973.
From my own experiences as Executive Director of Ralph Nader's
Disability Rights Center from 1980 to 1987, the State Department
has a dismal record of hiring people with disabilities. It seems
to me that their attitude is that they want to hire what I call
the mythical American, the five-foot ten-inch, one hundred-sixty
pound, male WASP in perfect physical and mental health. And I
think that this is the attitude that they are going under. This
does exclude disabled people and other people that are different.
The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 is different from the Civil Rights
Act of 1964. It says look at the individual.  Look at the
individual's ability and disabilities, and then look at the job.
See if those two can mesh. The State Department still has the
medical standards that are vague and exclude disabled people. 
They look at blindness and they look at groups and still exclude
them.  I think that this briefing is terribly important. I think
that there should be hearings on this, and I think that the
Congress should pass specific laws for the State Department in
this area. Thank you.   Congressman Sikorski . Thank you,
Commissioner Kemp. I think there are specific laws dealing with
handicapped individuals, and your 1987 report highlights those.
We'll get into questions after Mr. Stout has had his say.
Director Stout is director of the Policy Coordination staff and
the Office of the Director General of the Foreign Service and the
director for personnel at the State Department. That's one
office. I kind of made you two different things, but that's one
office, and Mr. Stout comes to us at the recommendation of and as
a replacement for Mr.  George Vest, who after a long and
successful career, has recently retired from the State
Department. Mr. Stout is also accompanied by Mr. Sheldon Yuspeh,
who is the State Department's coordinator for Handicapped
Employment Programs, and I understand that Mr. Yuspeh will not
make a formal presentation but is available for us today to make
any comments and answer any questions.
If I may interject at this point, Congressman Dymally is here,
and we'll turn it over to him for a statement.
 Congressman Dymally . Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. I come
to you and my friends, especially those in California, as a long
supporter of those with sight handicaps. As a member of the
California legislature since 1962, I have a keen interest in this
matter.
I also wear another hat, Mr. Chairman, as the new chairman of the
Subcommittee on International Operations of the Foreign Affairs
Committee, which has some jurisdiction over the old questions of
employment practices of the State Department. And after you have
concluded your hearing, the subcommittee would like to join with
this committee at subsequent hearings some time after the mark-up
of the International Office Bill.  We will work jointly on this
effort. The subcommittee is committed to pursuing this matter,
and I want to give my friends some assurance that the
Subcommittee on International Operations, which has jurisdiction
over the State Department, is going to pursue this matter with
the help of Chairman Sikorski in the hope that we will have a
successful resolution of this very troubling problem. So I am
very pleased to join you in and want to commend you on these
hearings.   Congressman Sikorski . Thank you. The Chairman has
been a great help and a good friend as we have gone through this
Post Office and Civil Service Committee on a whole host of
issues, and we thank him for his past activities and promise of
future activities as well.  We know that all of us can feel
better because of it. Mr. Stout, do you want to make your
statement?
 Director Stout . Mr. Chairman, Commissioner, I have a short
statement. In recent years the Department of State has
facilitated the Foreign Service candidacy of disabled persons by
providing accommodations that enable such candidates to complete
the written and oral assessment process. The relationship of the
candidate's disability to performance and safety is not
considered unless the candidate successfully passes the oral
examination. If disqualified because of a medical or disabling
condition, the candidate may request a review by an employment
review committee. The ERC (Employment Review Committee) reviews
such requests on a case-by-case basis to determine whether the
Department can reasonably accommodate the candidate's condition
without sacrificing the performance, safety, or assignability
needs of the service. Generally speaking, this policy has
provided a useful mechanism for giving fair and equitable
consideration to many candidates with medical and/or disabling
conditions.

However, expressions of dissatisfaction from candidates with
severe disabilities prompted a review of the overall policy. The
Department established a working group in late 1988 to begin a
self-evaluation of our existing pre-employment standards with
respect to disabled candidates. The direction of the evaluation
is two-fold. Our medical division has been reviewing the
department's pre-employment medical standards with an eye towards
recommending the elimination of any standard which is not based
upon clear, medical management considerations.  For example, an
applicant who is blind or deaf but otherwise perfectly healthy
would not present a medical management issue. If the functional
loss, however, is due to a disease process or other medical
condition, the applicant's condition would be considered in terms
of the Department's ability to provide adequate medical care in
the field.
In addition to this medical standard review, the Department is
re-evaluating functional performance and safety requirements for
all Foreign Service positions. The Department has asked the
Educational Testing Service (ETS) to collect information on
essential Foreign Service Officer duties in functional terms as
part of a job analysis survey that ETS has contracted to do for
us in the coming year. This survey and information already
collected by our standards review working group will be used to
complete an evaluation of our ability to accommodate persons with
disabilities in the future. It must be recognized that it is not
always possible or reasonable to accommodate every type of
functional loss in every job situation.
Our goal here is to link directly the accommodations we provide
during the written and oral assessment process to job functions
which are essential to satisfactory performance in the Foreign
Service. Where it is conclusively determined that an
accommodation requested in the examination process is
incompatible with the performance of essential functions in the
field, the requested accommodation will be denied.  This approach
will help early in the examination process to reduce unrealistic
expectations for disabled persons who have functional losses that
cannot reasonably be accommodated in the Foreign Service
Environment. As you may know, that environment includes the
legislative requirement that members of the Foreign Service are
available to serve in assignments throughout the world, as put in
the 1980 Foreign Service Act. While this process is still in the
early phase, our review has shown that the ability to work
independently and effectively from original source documents is
an essential job requirement for all Foreign Service officer
positions.
For this reason the Director General of the Foreign Service
decided that the December 3, 1988, written examination would not
be given in Braille or with a reader. The policy decision
provides, however, that any visually impaired applicant may
utilize any accommodation, medical or otherwise, which
facilitates working independently from original examination
documents. Foreign Service Officers, for example, must
necessarily work from original source documents in the field: 
passports, birth certificates, contracts, what have you. Of all
the visually impaired persons who applied to take last December's
examination, only one chose not to take it under these
circumstances. All other visually impaired applicants took and
completed the examination. Our policy also allowed the same
applicants extra time and, where necessary, assistance in marking
the answer booklet.
Clearly, the current policy does not impose a blanket exclusion
on any protected group. This policy only affects persons applying
for Foreign Service Officer positions, which comprise
approximately 20% of the Department's work force. Over the past
several years the Department has met all applicable standards in
hiring and retaining persons with disabilities for positions in
the United States. The Department employs visually impaired and
blind persons in domestic positions and, where appropriate,
employs readers. Thus, the policy change the Department has made
is not an effort to exclude any group. It is, however, a
carefully derived recognition of our limitations to accommodate
in one specific way, with a reader, and takes into account job
requirements which demand world-wide availability and the ability
to function in a wide range of work environments. Mr. Chairman, I
will be glad to take questions for the record or to go into
general background questions if you have any.
 Congressman Sikorski . We thank you, Mr. Stout, for your
statement; we appreciate it and your willingness to assist us.
Let me, using the EOC findings, just kind of run through a couple
of things so that we're all at the same place, and correct me if
I'm wrong. According to your report, Commissioner Kemp, the
application process for becoming a Foreign Service Officer is
lengthy and includes a written and oral examination, medical
examination, and background examination. The Foreign Service Act
of 1980 mandates affirmative action, equal employment opportunity
for handicapped individuals in the Foreign Service. Under Chapter
One, Section 101, the Act states that people won't be
discriminated against, that there will be equal opportunity and
fair and equitable treatment for all without regard to political
affiliation, race, color, national origin, sex, marital status,
age, or handicapping condition.  Under Section 105 of the same
act, it discusses merit principles and protections for members of
the service and minority recruitment. This is the Foreign Service
Act of 1980 again. It says that the Secretary of State shall
administer the provisions so that the people in the service are
free from discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion,
sex, national origin, age, and handicap.
In addition, the State Department, according to your findings of
1987, established a committee to explore changing the current
medical standards to standards that measure functional
limitations of handicapped individuals.  In that order (EOMD
712), it says,  agencies are to analyze selection procedures in
order to identify those that impede hiring placement, and
advancement of handicapped individuals.  As selection barriers
are identified, alternatives are to be instituted. Now as I
understand, the Department of the State policy here is consistent
with the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and even broadens it, and
there is no exemption for the Department of State from the
Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Is that correct, Commissioner?
 Commissioner Kemp . Yeah, that's true. I do think that Congress
was very specific in 1980, but I do think that for Federal
agencies and departments, especially the State Department, I
think these are sort of a hortatory law, like either grapefruit
week or national poultry month. And they don't take that into
consideration.
 Congressman Sikorski . Oat bran. That's the big wave now.  
Commissioner Kemp . Yeah. And they're not taken seriously, and so
that's why I was calling for specific laws to really start
outlining what they're supposed to do. The Federal Government's
been talking about hiring the handicapped since 1947. Of the
fifteen million disabled people of working age, less than 1/3 of
us work. That's a very dismal record.
 Congressman Sikorski . Director Stout, the Department of State
has a policy and maybe you can read it for me, on world-wide
availability.  Can you give me the exact language?  I think
you're mandated under your statute, is that correct?
 Director Stout . As I read in my statement, the act provides
that members of the Foreign Service are  available to serve in
assignments throughout the world. 
 Congressman Sikorski . Can you read for me the words before
that?
 Director Stout . I don't have that before me, Mr. Chairman.  
Congressman Sikorski . So we have the interposing issue of
world-wide availability, and as I recall, we have an interposing
issue of medical capacity and security (personal security) and
security of information that needs to be transmitted classified
information specifically.  These are arguments that are made to
support the elimination of blind people for Foreign Service
Officer positions. Is that correct?   Director Stout . I don't
believe so. There are many factors that go into the assignability
of a person. Obviously, not every officer is going to be assigned
at every Foreign Service Post, 135 or so, whatever there are in
the world. But we try to make assignments equitably based both on
service needs (there are requirements to fill positions), and the
preferences and various personal considerations of officers.  
Congressman Sikorski . The EOC report was done in 1987, and it is
my understanding that the Department told them that they'd
establish a committee to explore changing the current medical
standards to standards that measure functional limitations of
handicapped individuals.   Director Stout . If I may quote,
Chairman, our medical division has been reviewing the
Department's pre-employment medical standards with an eye towards
recommending the elimination of any standard which is not based
upon clear, medical management considerations.   Congressman
Sikorski . No, I understand that. In one of your letters to me,
you gave me credit for instituting that policy, but I am talking
about 1987 and the State Department telling the EOC that they
have a committee that's looking at current medical standards. 
That was two years ago.
 Mr. Yuspeh . Mr. Chairman, if I might, we have had an ad hoc
group working on this for quite some time. The group....  
Congressman Sikorski . What's quite some time?   Mr. Yuspeh .
Dating back to the date that you gave, sir.   Congressman
Sikorski . Oh, that ad hoc group that you are referring to now is
the one that the EOC was talking about.
 Mr. Yuspeh . That did some of the background.
 Congressman Sikorski . What did they decide?
 Mr. Yuspeh . The group that is currently working?   Congressman
Sikorski . No, the ad hoc group. What did this group do that the
State Department told the EOC it had established to explore the
change in the current medical standard...
 Mr. Yuspeh . (interrupts)  Chairman, if I might, the Department
has been undergoing the review. We are working, and we have been
reviewing drafts of revised medical standards, and we're making
an effort at this time, Sir, which is still early on in the
process of reviewing our standards, with an eye towards
eliminating unnecessary exclusion as required under the act.
 Congressman Sikorski . Let me mention a suit with the EOC by
Donald Galloway,  who is blind and had served in the Peace Corps
in Jamaica; it was settled in 1985 for about $167,000. In that
settlement, the State Department had said it was committed to the
policy of affirmative action with respect to the hiring,
placement, and advancement of qualified handicapped individuals
as mandated by Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act and its
regulations.
Further, the Department agreed to  develop and implement uniform
methods by which qualified handicapped applicants for Foreign
Service employment are afforded an opportunity to provide
relevant information to the Department for its consideration when
a review of the specific relationship between the applicant's
medical status and the Foreign Service employment is conducted.  
When did you begin your investigation that led to your 1987
report?
 Mr. Yuspeh . In the summer of 1986.
 Congressman Sikorski . So then in 1986 there is another
investigation going on. In 1987 the report comes out (in it the
State Department is credited with having established a committee
to explore changing the current medical standards to standards
that measure functional limitation of handicapped individuals),
and then in the fall of 1988 we have a report of an individual
who has passed the written test three times, the oral
examinations twice, who, as it turns out, has passed the security
investigation, but can't make it over the hurdle of visual acuity
in the medical standards and is washed out. He speaks four
languages, has a degree from Oxford, and a graduate degree from
Chicago, and then, when we ask questions about it, we're told
that there is a kind of a group looking at it. (laughter)
My point here is I don't think that is good faith evaluation of
the problem, and if we're to take the State Department's
statements that they want to move ahead and clear this up and
make sure that there aren't any standards or barriers (standards
that act as barriers), I don't have a lot of faith in those.
 Director Stout . Mr. Chairman, in the statement that I read I
gave you what we were authorized to say in this briefing. And, as
far as I can see, the statement is straight-forward. These are
commitments that we're working on, and we intend to carry them
through.   Congressman Sikorski . Who do you think you are
negotiating with here, the Japanese?  I think the American people
have a right to know the conduct of the State Department and that
their tax-paying money is not being used to discriminate against
other American citizens.  Let me back up and begin again. What
came out of the settlement agreement in the Galloway case that
you can point to that, as actions consistent with the sincerity
of that agreement, has been taken by the State Department to
lessen barriers?
 Director Stout . Mr. Chairman, with respect, we are not
authorized to go beyond this statement.
 Congressman Sikorski . Do you know?
 Director Stout . I don't, myself.
 Congressman Sikorski . Do you, Mr. Yuspeh?
 Mr. Yuspeh . Mr. Chairman, I don't think it would be proper
for us to discuss any...
 Congressman Sikorski   Do you know, Mr. Yuspeh, what the
Department of State did subsequent to the 1985 settlement saying
that it would implement uniform methods to allow people to
provide information to the medical review people?
 Mr. Yuspeh . Mr. Chairman, I'm sorry. It would be inappropriate
for me to comment on that.
 Congressman Sikorski  Why would it be inappropriate? Let me know
why it's inappropriate. I'm not asking you about individual
cases.  I want to know what uniform methods were established
subsequent to 1985 by the Department of State so that a qualified
individual on everything else, but with questions on medical, can
provide to the review board information on his or her medical
status.   Mr. Yuspeh . Mr. Chairman, I think in our statement we
were quite clear. We have an Employment Review Committee
established in which candidates who make it through the entire
exam process can present written information to that committee so
that that committee can determine whether or not we can
accommodate. It's in the statement, sir.   Congressman Sikorski .
The statement that was not provided to us prior to the hearing?
 Commissioner Kemp . We have it here if you'd like a copy, sir.  
Congressman Sikorski . We requested it, but were not provided it.
Just as the written statement barring blind people from Foreign
Service was not provided to us until I had to jump through three
different hoops last year, and finally it came in January of this
year. And now you're telling us that you're not authorized and
you don't know about some things that the State Department
entered into and pointed to as good faith efforts to clear up
this problem? I don't find that very reassuring.
 Commissioner Kemp . Mr. Chairman?
 Congressman Sikorski . Commissioner.
 Commissioner Kemp . I have a suggestion. I think that what the
State Department is doing now is done by other government
agencies that are really thumbing their noses at Congress. I
think you should submit your questions to the Chairman of the
Appropriations Committee for the Department of State before they
get their money in the next budget. I think then they'll answer
the question.
 Congressman Sikorski . Well, we'll get the answers. (laughter
and clapping) I've been around the legislative process ...now
this is my thirteenth year six years in the state Senate, six
years and going on seven years in Congress. When I came here in
1982, I was put on the Oversight Investigation Committee of the
Energy and Commerce Committee. That was Sam Rayburn's fiefdom. My
chairman during that time has been John Dingle, and he's taught
me that the issue is not whether we're going to get answers to
questions. The issue is whether we're going to get them clearly
with the least amount of discomfort to the parties involved and
as quickly as we should.  Now the topic of this morning's hearing
is not only common knowledge and publicly discussed and debated.
Not only by representatives of the blind community, but by
representatives of the State Department and in the public media
on radio. I have a transcript of discussion by Mr. Vest, the head
of the Foreign Service Office, and National Public Radio here.
And these questions are not new. As we know, they were raised as
early as 1975. They were raised in the 80's. They were raised in
legal settings. They were raised in formal settings. So the
answer shouldn't be that hard to come up with. The fact of the
matter is, the State Department hasn't lived up to its legal
obligations under the Rehabilitation Law, its legal obligations
under the Foreign Service Act, the legal obligations it's taken
in response to the EOC concerns and other complaints. I'm sure
it's discomforting to the people here, and I'm sure they don't
want to be in a position where they look as though they
personally haven't been doing their work because I'm sure they're
fine people with tough jobs doing the best they can. But the
point is, the State Department isn't living up to its obligations
and eliminating barriers to handicapped individuals and
(specifically in these instances) to blind people, and I find
that disheartening and disappointing, and I'm obligated to raise
it in this kind of forum.
I'm going to insist that the State Department answer the
questions.  The first question is, what has it done pursuant to
the settlement in 1985 in the Galloway matter to live up to that
agreement?  That is the first question. The second question is...
 Director Stout . Mr. Chairman, may we take these questions and
give you a written reply?
 Congressman Sikorski . Yes, that's why I'm...The second question
is, what are the results of the 1987 ad hoc (well you called it
ad hoc; the EOC calls it a committee) established to look at the
medical applicability on a personal individual basis and make
adjustments there. I'd like a written statement on the world-wide
availability that establishes why it is applied in the blind
situation on a somewhat academic or theoretical basis, but
doesn't look at the application for non-blind, non-handicapped
people in actual practice. And on that, I think I can ask you a
question that you may or may not have knowledge of. Are there
blind people in the Foreign Service today in active posts?
 Mr. Yuspeh . We have legally blind individuals, two at the
moment who have self-identified themselves as being visually
impaired.   Congressman Sikorski. And if they had applied now to
work, one of them is Ambassador to Kenya, is she not?
 Mr. Yuspeh . I'm not aware. I said of those who have self
identified themselves, sir.
 Congressman Sikorski.  Okay. Of these blind people who are in
active service today,   were they applying today, they would not
be hired by the Foreign Service. Is that correct?   Mr. Yuspeh .
It would depend on the outcome of their exam process and the
individual review.
 Congressman Sikorski . Well, they don't have visual acuity.

 Mr. Yuspeh . We did not exclude blind people from the Foreign
Service, Mr. Chairman. What we did is, we recognized the
limitation providing one accommodation as we've stated in our
statement, Sir.  What we have done is, we have determined that we
could not provide readers for people overseas. That's all we did.
We did not exclude blind people from serving in the Foreign
Service.
 Congressman Sikorski . Well, I know you don't want to talk about
the Rabby case, but that's just what happened in the Rabby case.
He passed the written exam three times, passed the oral exam
twice. He has passed the security investigation, and the doctor
simply told him he's out because of visual acuity. Am I missing
something here?   Mr. Yuspeh . Sir, I cannot comment on Mr.
Rabby's case.   Congressman Sikorski . Are you familiar with the
Peace Corps, Mr. Stout?
 Director Stout . I've never worked with it myself or been in it.
I know what it is obviously.
 Congressman Sikorski . The State Department works on an intimate
basis with the Peace Corps. They work together all over the
world, and the Peace Corps is kind of, what do they say, the
hardest job you'll ever love. It's as demanding physically and
culturally and emotionally as the State Department job, the
Foreign Service job.  Is it not?
 Director Stout . Yes.
 Congressman Sikorski . And yet there are blind people who have
served overseas in the Peace Corps. We know of blind people in
other countries' Foreign Service. We know of blind people that
are in the Foreign Service today who became blind, as I
understand the facts, after they were in the Foreign Service, and
they are subject to world-wide availability requirements, are
they not?
 Mr. Yuspeh . Mr. Chairman, are you asking us if the Peace
Corps...   Congressman Sikorski .  No. Are there any Foreign
Service Officers currently serving who are not subject today to
the full breadth and parameters of world-wide availability?
 Director Stout . Oh, there are a number of people who are
medically disqualified from going abroad.
 Congressman Sikorski . Going abroad?
 Mr. Yuspeh . Yes. They are working in the Department of State.
 Congressman Sikorski   But not in the ...
 Mr. Yuspeh . Foreign Service officers who are not medically
qualified to go abroad.
 Congressman Sikorski . Okay. The question becomes, are the blind
people that are in the Foreign Service subject to the same
world-wide availability requirements as anyone else?  These
people that became blind in the Foreign Service...
 Mr. Yuspeh . I'm sorry. We don't have that personal information. 
 Congressman Sikorski . That's another question. The question is,
has world-wide availability been in any way diminished, weakened? 
 Mr. Yuspeh . In theory, of course, these people are available
and should be available on a world-wide basis.
 Congressman Sikorski . Okay. Let me just say, there's no reason
for those blind applicants not to be treated the same as these
blind people who are in the Foreign Service office.
 Director Stout . Agreed.
 Congressman Sikorski . But they are not. You can't hold up
world-wide availability as this magic guard off- screen to
protect your unwillingness, refusal to admit blind people into
the Foreign Service, and at the same time...
 Director Stout . Mr. Chairman, we do not insist that...there's a
misconception here. Someone who enters the Foreign Service must
be automatically available for world- wide assignments. That is
for everyone by definition.
 Congressman Sikorski . Then why do you hold up world-wide
availability as an argument that blind people can't serve for the
Foreign Service?   Director Stout . I don't see it myself as an
argument.   Congressman Sikorski . Did you not, in your
statement, hold up world-wide availability this morning as a
rationale for the State Department's position?
 Director Stout . No.
 Congressman Sikorski . Okay. Has it not been...   Director Stout
. I mentioned, Mr. Chairman, if I may...   Congressman Sikorski .
I thought you quoted from it...   Director Stout . I did indeed,
and I said that this is in terms of reducing unrealistic
expectations of disabled persons whose functional losses cannot
reasonably be accommodated in the Foreign Service environment. 
Part of that environment is the world-wide availability.   But
that is not a unique matter. Everyone has to be available
world-wide.   Congressman Sikorski . That's the problem. I think
what I see from this vantage point (and maybe my eyes aren't
clear; maybe I don't see as well as some other people) from this
vantage point is that world-wide availability becomes the
argument to hold up blind people from the Foreign Service.
 Director Stout . No, sir. This is just bringing to your
attention that there is this specific provision.
 Congressman Sikorski . Then, it is no barrier?
 Director Stout . An additional barrier. It is a barrier. Well,
it's not a barrier. It's a requirement of the Foreign Service
Act.   Congressman Sikorski . But there are Foreign Service
officers who are active today who are blind and are by definition
world-wide available. Somehow,  someone's got the idea that
because someone's blind, they can't be available world-wide.
 Director Stout . I certainly don't make that.  I don't posit
that statement, Mr. Chairman.
 Congressman Sikorski . I think that's what your statement said
this morning and that's what Mr. Vest and others have said in
defense of the State Department's position eliminating Mr. Rabby
or any other blind person.
 Director Stout . We're in difficulty in the specific point
because we don't know these two blind Foreign Service personnel.
We have to identify them, see where they are, what they are doing
and we will provide a written response, a written comment.
 Congressman Sikorski . And on the general question of world-wide
availability, it's a subjective classification, is it not? A
subjective determination?
 Director Stout . It's subjective in the broad sense. An awful
lot of factors go into an assignment as you know.
 Congressman Sikorski . Someone's desire to serve?   Director
Stout . Of course. And family. And schools.   Congressman
Sikorski . People won't go to the Soviet Union, for example, or
they won't go to South Africa, or they won't go to France.
 Director Stout . Mr. Chairman, it's not a matter of people
saying they will not go because if there is a requirement for
them to go, they will be assigned there.
 Congressman Sikorski . People have input to that assignment?  
Director Stout . Of course.
 Congressman Sikorski . And if you want a person to remain in the
Foreign Service, and that person doesn't want to honor an
assignment, that assignment will not be made?
 Director Stout . Not necessarily, Mr. Chairman.   Congressman
Sikorski . But that does occur?
 Director Stout . Oh yes. It does occur.
 Congressman Sikorski . People's interest, their capacities are
looked at. It's not a take X in Brazil and put Z in Moscow.  
Director Stout . The person has to be qualified for one.  
Congressman Sikorski . And so one part of the qualification is
language, and not everyone speaks one hundred and (how many
countries are there that we...)
 Director Stout . One hundred and thirty five.
 Congressman Sikorski . And not everyone speaks the hundred or so
different languages that are available around. So that restricts
world-wide availability.
 Director Stout . Of course, we do train people in different
languages.
 Congressman Sikorski . I understand that.
 Director Stout . Particularly Junior Officers, and indeed we
encourage them to get as many languages as they can....over a
consistent period, but it doesn't mean that once an officer has
one of these difficult languages he must serve for the rest of
his career in that area of the world. On the contrary, it's wise
to give people a chance to move elsewhere and do different
things.
 Congressman Sikorski . You and I both know Foreign Service
officers who won't go to certain countries for family reasons,
for personal reasons, for a host of reasons, and we know people
that wouldn't be considered for placement in various countries
based on an analysis of their talents and where they could best
be used, and they'd run into problems in certain countries. Is
that correct?   Director Stout . Of course.
 Congressman Sikorski . Now, where is the world-wide availability 
in that situation?
 Director Stout . It becomes sometimes a matter of negotiation.  
Congressman Sikorski . Okay. I think what we're just saying is
maybe you should look at that negotiation process as applies to
blind people and handicapped people generally. And I think you
have sometimes promised to do that before, but we don't see any
track record on it, and the most recent case was just presented
here. The guy that gets washed out, who from every...if your
testing process means anything, this guy is very well-qualified.
If your security means anything, he's okay from a security
standpoint. If the oral examination process means anything, he's
very well qualified from there, and where he runs into problems
is that he happens to be blind. We get the response he's not
world-wide available. Not he, specifically, because you don't
want to talk about that specific issue, but he happens to be
blind, and he can't meet the visual acuity. Or a person in his
similar situation couldn't meet the visual acuity situation. So
we're back to where we began this conversation.
 Congressman Dymally . Just one comment. I regret I have a
conflicting meeting. I must leave. I simply wanted to state to
Mr. Stout and Mr.  Yuspeh that your inability to respond to some
of the questions prompts me to suggest to you that I want to give
you some notice that the Subcommittee On International
Operations, in conjunction with this committee, is going to hold
hearings on this matter sometime after the mark-up of the State
Department bill late this spring. I hope, by then, you will have
been prepared to respond to some of the questions which you have
been unable to answer today, and I remind you that the Post
Office Committee and the Foreign Affairs Committee, as you are
well-aware, wrote the Foreign Service Act of 1980. So there's
continuing interest on both of these committees, and I'm very
pleased that the Chairman has seen fit to hold these hearings
because there is a problem here, obviously. Just the mere absence
of any people with sight impairment in the Foreign Service
suggests where there is smoke, there is some fire and we need to
look at it, and I'm just giving you some grace period to come up
with some...I hope that when we hold our hearings, you will have
some specific recommendations to correct this problem.
 Director Stout . I take your point, Mr. Chairman.   Congressman
Dymally . Thank you very much, indeed.   Congressman Sikorski .
Thank you, Mr. Dymally. The EOC made two recommendations in its
1987 report: that the Department develop and implement medical
standards to focus on functional requirements rather than the
medical conditions in all flexibility in analysis of
applicability of requirements to specific jobs and posts. That's
the first. My question is, what has the Department done to
develop and implement those medical standards, and I'd like that
in writing.

And second, the second recommendation of the EOC is that the
Department broaden its interpretation of world-wide availability
to allow flexibility in assigning individuals posted, or
appropriate to their qualifications.  And I want to know what the
Department has done on that, and why (under that flexibility
approach), Mr. Rabby or someone who is blind cannot be admitted?
That's the second question.
Mr. Stout, the final question: the Department's interest, as I
understand, is having Congress provide an exemption from the
Rehabilitation Act for the Department which would forever
preclude handicapped individuals from entering into the Foreign
Service. Is this true?
 Director Stout . That's news to me, Mr. Chairman.
 Congressman Sikorski . You're not aware of the Department
requesting or asking for or preparing a request for the Congress
to exempt the Department of State's Foreign Service, or any part
thereof, from the Rehabilitation Act?
 Director Stout . No.
 Congressman Sikorski . Thank you, all of you. I want to give you
an opportunity or whatever to make any concluding comments. Mr. 
Yuspeh, Mr. Stout, do you have any concluding comments? I suspect
that we'll get, in a reasonable amount of time, written answers
to the questions that have been left unanswered.
 Director Stout . You will get them.
 Congressman Sikorski . Okay. Commissioner Kemp, you get to clean
up here.
 Commissioner Kemp . I think this briefing is very, very
important,
but I've been in this field...
 Congressman Sikorski . Before you leave, Mr. Stout, I want to
thank you, so if you'll just hold with us for one second...  
Director Stout . Of course.
 Commissioner Kemp . I've been fighting for the rights of
disabled people for over twenty years. Congress has talked about
the federal government being a model employer. There have been
hearings like this when an agency really stubs its toe. But until
Congress, I think in the appropriation hearings, really gets
serious about this, the federal government is not going to be a
model employer. So I think that one suggestion from this briefing
I'd like to see is that the appropriations committees be asked to
really delve into this area.
 Congressman Sikorski . You've made that recommendation, and I
heard it the first time and the second time and the third time,
and I couldn't agree more. What we intend to do is provide the
appropriations people in both the Senate and the House with
copies of the transcript of this briefing this morning and ask
them to insist through the appropriate process that appropriate
changes be made. We can keep having meetings like this, and they
can be about the blind in one instance, and they can be about
another disability in another instance, but until the changes are
made, we're just going to have a lot of hearings, a lot of
briefings, and a lot of meetings. We'll make sure, and I think
you heard Mr. Dymally and the Civil Service Component of Post
Office, Civil Service, and Foreign Affairs; and we'll get the
appropriations people on it and follow through.
Commissioner, thank you very much. Director, Assistant Director,
and Coordinators, thank you very much for your assistance this
morning.  We will begin the second panel. We appreciate the
opportunity to talk about this matter this morning. Thank you,
Mr. Dymally.
Our third panel this morning consists of Mr. Marc Maurer, the
President of the National Federation of the Blind; Ms. Heidi
Sherman, a student at BLIND, Inc. and a student at the University
of Minnesota; and Ms.  Elizabeth Schuster, a graduate student of
international relations at the American University. On my left is
Judy Sanders who is my District Director, runs my Minnesota
operation, and has sensitized me to a few of these problems.
She's here as my special advisor.  Ms Heidi Sherman is our next
panelist. She's a fellow Minnesotan, here in Washington to
participate in the Federation's current seminar.  She's a student
of BLIND, Inc., which is Minnesota's new comprehensive training
program for the adult blind. She's also a student at the
University of Minnesota, majoring in Russian area studies and
German area studies, and I know she has a plane to catch back to
Minnesota so she can attend class and not get thrown out. We're
going to turn the microphone over to you, Heidi, for a few
comments. Your statement will appear in the record as you
submitted it, and I ask that you make your comments now.
 Ms. Sherman . Mr. Chairman, two weeks ago I was informed that,
due to current State Department policy, I would be denied
employment in the Foreign Service. At first I was outraged
because of yet another case of prejudice against the blind
allegedly because of safety. I have always seen myself to be as
qualified as any of my peers in my field. I've spent ten months
as a foreign exchange student in Austria, and last summer I spent
two months in Zagreb, Yugoslavia, conducting research.
Currently I am also enrolled in BLIND, Inc., an orientation
program.  The students at BLIND, Inc. develop alternative
techniques with which we will be able to compete on an equal
basis with our sighted peers.  Through Braille and independent
cane travel, I will be able successfully to handle any tasks
encompassed in Foreign Service positions. It is my
responsibility, not that of my employer, to work out the
techniques which I will use.
The State Department's policy, as I see it, is one of overt
prejudice.  Any qualified blind individual is just as capable as
any qualified sighted individual. Yet, the sighted continually
deny us equality due to the misconception that blindness and
helplessness are synonymous.  I resent the discriminatory actions
of the State Department, which stem from ignorance of the true
essence of blindness. The State Department has no knowledge of
and does not understand the alternative techniques that I will
use to handle classified documents and travel independently in
any foreign country. It is up to the blind individual and no one
else to assess his or her own capabilities.
The United States prides itself in serving as a leader in the
international struggle for human rights. American embassies every
day around the world are packed with people hoping to procure an
American visa and to visit  the land of the free.   Yet, isn't it
ironic that, for the American blind person seeking a position in
the Foreign Service, these same embassies are enemy territory?  I
sometimes wonder whether the American government is ashamed of
its blind citizens. To the State Department I would like to say: 
Your policy of discrimination is hurtful to many.  However, we
the blind are able and accustomed to dealing with institutions
such as yourself, uneducated in the area of blindness. We will
fight until this policy of discrimination is abolished, and then
you shall see us representing the finest of our government in the
Soviet Union, Zambia, Pakistan, Chili, China, and anywhere else
in the world. However, until that time you are denying the State
Department the opportunity to work with qualified and capable
individuals, due to your outdated superstitions.
As I see it, we must recognize and use each other's talents to
the benefit of both the State Department and ourselves. With the
simple step towards the elimination of bigotry, we will also aid
in the restoration of the reputation of the United States in the
fight for human rights.  In the last few days, hundreds of blind
people have come to speak to you of problems facing us as blind
citizens. We have come with a voice united. We will settle for
nothing less than first-class citizenship in the area of the
State Department and any other governmental matter.

And lastly, to the State Department I would like to say that I
look forward to the day when we will address each other as
colleagues.   Congressman Sikorski . Thank you, Heidi. Marc
Maurer has served as the President of the National Federation of
the Blind since he was unanimously elected to that post in 1986.
It means he does better than most of us. He is a member of the
Bar of Maryland, Indiana, Ohio, and Iowa; and he currently
specializes in civil litigation with an emphasis in business,
equal employment opportunities, aviation, and civil rights. I
want to thank you for coming this morning and welcome the members
of the Federation attending the briefing this morning.  Your
testimony and any other materials you wish to submit will be
placed in the record to be authorized when the committee
organizes, and I ask you to summarize your comments. Welcome.
 Mr. Maurer . Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman I am Marc Maurer,
President of the National Federation of the Blind. The National
Federation of the Blind is a nationwide organization with over
50,000 members, who have come together to take collective action
to improve opportunities for the blind throughout our society.
The subject of concern before this committee is the policy of the
United States Department of State not to employ blind persons in
the Foreign Service.  A few months ago the State Department was
honest enough to say that inasmuch as it was not going to hire
blind persons anyway it would not offer its Foreign Service
examination to the blind. We think it is praiseworthy for the
State Department to be honest. However, to claim that this
blatantly discriminatory policy is both required by law and in
the national interest seems to be the height of chicanery.
All blind people are excluded from the Foreign Service those with
extensive experience in international travel, those with facility
in several languages, those with understanding of international
relations, and those with superior ability to negotiate with
people and handle personnel. It has nothing whatsoever to do with
legitimate job requirements.  Blindness is the only reason that
they are not allowed to serve our country with distinction.
Mr. Rami Rabby has testified this morning. The circumstances of
his exclusion from Foreign Service candidacy are so striking that
they attracted national attention last fall. However, I would
emphasize that Mr. Rabby's case is only one among many instances
of blatant discrimination against the blind in the Foreign
Service. The actions taken regarding Mr. Rabby are inconsistent
with our national policy that the handicapped should not face
discrimination in hiring. Blindness is not a bar to competent
service for our government. The State Department should not be
permitted to make it become one.
In mid-November, 1988, Mr. Rabby was notified that the State
Department had changed the testing conditions for blind people.
Use of Braille or the assistance of a sighted person to read the
printed text would no longer be permitted. Apparently, other
blind candidates were also notified of this decision. Since that
time various representatives of the State Department have claimed
that their new policy is not discriminatory. This new policy
(they say) does not exclude all blind people from taking the
Foreign Service test. Their reasoning seems to go like this:  We
do not discriminate against the blind. However, candidates must
be able to see to read our tests.  And these are the government
officials who are protecting the safety of Americans abroad.
If similar logic were permitted outside the State Department, any
employer could refuse to hire blind people and hope to get away
with it. We are here today because we believe our government must
uphold a standard of fairness, and this means that
nondiscrimination laws apply to the State Department just as much
as they do to any other agency of the United States. By its
action, the State Department has said to all employers
(government agencies or otherwise) that all blind people (no
matter how well qualified) are not competent to perform jobs that
are security-sensitive or in unfamiliar settings. Thousands of
blind people already do jobs that require top security
clearances.  Some blind persons now working for the government do
translation and decoding of sensitive national security and
intelligence information.

However, they do not work for the State Department. And on the
subject of work in unfamiliar places, I ask you: How many jobs
are there with which the employee is familiar beforehand? If the
State Department can do it, all of the jobs of all of the blind
people who are working in unfamiliar locations or who are
handling sensitive information are in immediate jeopardy. Should
there be a double standard one for the State Department, and one
for everybody else? If the State Department is permitted to make
these arguments stick, what job security will there be for the
blind?  No blind person anywhere can hope to avoid the twisted
logic of the State Department. Every other employer will say: If
it is good enough for the State Department, it's good enough for
us.
Mr. Chairman, because the State Department has demonstrated such
a firm determination to evade the clear intent of the law, we are
asking for your help. The State Department should come to
understand that the law applies to it as well as to other
segments of our society and that an exaggerated claim involving
national security does not automatically put the decisions of the
State Department beyond scrutiny.  The State Department must be
brought to its senses. The blind have faced stereotypes,
injustice, and inflexibility before. But we are not discouraged.
All minorities face these manifestations of discrimination on
their way to freedom. Recognizing them for what they are is the
first step in eliminating the prejudice. We have called these
misdeeds by their true names, but we have also done something
else. We have come to recognize our own abilities, and we will
insist that others see us as we are capable human beings with the
same talents and strengths possessed by others. The State
Department will have to come to terms with reality. We have
contributions to make, and we will fight for the right to make
them.
Mr. Chairman, I want to thank you for permitting me to come here
this morning to present information to the committee, and I want
to congratulate you on an excellent hearing.
[After Mr. Maurer's testimony Ms. Elizabeth Schuster spoke as
follows:]  Ms. Schuster . Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you,
all of you who have taken the time and effort to come to this
hearing.  I would like to tell you a little background about
myself and then about the process of my application for the exam
and the results.  All of my life I have been very interested in
international affairs.  In my family, we had many international
visitors, and when I was sixteen, after I finished high school, I
spent an exchange year in Switzerland where I learned French,
German, and Italian and did a lot of other exciting things. After
that I attended college and subsequently finished one master's
degree in journalism and, as the chairman has said, I am working
on my second master's studying international relations focusing
on the Soviet Union in International Communications.  My future
goal is to work either with government or the humanitarian sector
with international communications in some way. Subsequently my
interests have led me to want to take this Foreign Service exam. 
I went through the normal application procedures and received an
admission ticket. Although I had sent a letter with my
application explaining that I would need some special testing
conditions as a legally blind person, there was no special
indication of that on the ticket so I called back and was told, 
Well, we'll get back to you in about a week, and we'll let you
know. 
About two weeks later I called back, and I was talking with
Marleen Freeman, who is one of the secretaries, and she said, 
Well, we're sorry we've had this new ruling which does not allow
either readers or Braille. 
I was very surprised. I said,  Well, what about cassette?  And
she didn't know how to answer that, so she referred me to her
superior, Paul Canney, who told me that cassette was also not one
of the options. I talked with him for some time, and he in turn
referred me to Mr. Yuspeh who called me back the next day (this
was in late November) and explained a similar line of argument to
what we've heard this morning.
One interesting statement that he did make to me in terms of
functional independence of the blind was,  Well, would you like
to have...would you like to be on a bus that has a driver that
has to have someone standing beside the driver saying `Turn left?
Turn right? Do this?  Do that?'  I was, needless to say, very
surprised.   Congressman Sikorski . Who said this?
 Ms. Schuster . This was Mr. Yuspeh on the telephone in the late
November conversation. It's in my statement. I was very surprised
to hear this as I said, and, as a result of realizing that
reading the exam by magnifying glass letter by letter would take
slightly longer than the time allowed us, I chose not to take the
exam.
 After this decision I again contacted Mr. Canney and requested a
letter of explanation, which I (in due process) received. In
conclusion, at this point I feel barred from one of the ambitions
of my life which is working with the Foreign Service, work
abroad, work not as a  handicapped person  but as an American
citizen, who longs to serve her country.  I have been accepted by
the Peace Corps, and I plan to go either this summer or possibly
next year as an English teacher, and I'm very much looking
forward to this chance of being in an unfamiliar environment
teaching English, an unfamiliar language to some people. But I
hope that this decision will be reconsidered, not only for
myself, but for other blind people, all of us who would like to
take the exam and stand a competitive chance of entering the
Foreign Service. I know that the Foreign Service is an extremely
competitive process, not only for the blind but also for the
sighted. But I think that we deserve as much of a chance as
anyone else, and I thank you for your time and attention today.
 Congressman Sikorski . Elizabeth, thank you. I've asked Mr. 
Rabby to join us at the panel and do some clean up here.   Mr.
Maurer . Mr. Chairman?
 Congressman Sikorski . Yes, Mr. Maurer.
 Mr. Maurer . As I was sitting here listening to Mr. Stout this
morning, he described the circumstance for taking the
examination, and he said that one person, after being offered the
opportunity to go and read the test personally, had decided not
to take it. I wondered who the person was. I now discover that
there are two people in this room. Consequently it is the same
logic that I have found from the State Department before.
Apparently, Ms. Schuster was there, and apparently she decided
not to take it, but Mr. Rabby was told not to come. So perhaps
there were two who chose not to take it under those
circumstances.  I don't know how you'd say it, but it does seem
to me that sometimes the statements get stretched somewhat in
this room.
 Congressman Sikorski . Well, not mine.
 Mr. Maurer . No, no, Mr. Chairman. I didn't mean that.  
Congressman Sikorski . That's not uncommon for this vocation,
Marc. On the issue of classified information, do you have any
reason to believe that blind people will be less protective of
national secrets, classified information, than sighted people?
 Mr. Maurer . No, Mr. Chairman, I have no reason to believe that. 
I had, not a top security clearance, but a security clearance
from the government of the United States when I was employed in
the office of the General Council at the Civil Aeronautics Board.
I have practiced law for some time, and handling confidential
documents has been part of the bread and butter of the practice.
I understand that some people are concerned about being able to
recognize anomalies, such as whether a signature might be valid.
If you are intending to introduce a document with a signature on
it, and there's any question about the validity of the signature,
and you aren't a court of the United States, you are advised that
you had better get a handwriting expert to tell you about the
validity of the signature.  I suppose that being able to see it
might help somewhat, but the testimony of someone who looks at it
is not as valuable, at least the lawyers believe, as the
testimony of a handwriting expert. Consequently, it does seem to
me that both the ability of a human being to handle security
documents, however they may appear, and the likelihood that they
would handle them with discretion and propriety is as great for
the blind as it is for any other group.
 Congressman Sikorski . Thank you. Ms. Schuster, about how many
words a minute can a sighted person read?
 Ms. Schuster . A college graduate usually reads, I believe,
three to four hundred words a minute.
 Congressman Sikorski . About how many words a minute can a blind
person read with an Optacon, the one of the two remaining
mechanical devices that's open to an applicant taking the test?
 Ms. Schuster . There are different estimates, but it's certainly
not in excess of one hundred words per minute, which is slower
than one speaks.
 Congressman Sikorski . Do you know what percentage of blind
people in this country use Optacons?
 Ms. Schuster . That I don't know. It's probably quite a low
percentage because it's a very expensive and high tech machine.  
Congressman Sikorski . And the other one is...what's that called? 
 Ms. Schuster . The Kurzweil Reader.
 Congressman Sikorski . And that's an expensive, bulky machine? 
And, as I understand, that one translates from writing to voice? 
And the Optacon translates from writing to pinprick kind of
writing?   Ms. Schuster . Right.
 Congressman Sikorski . Both of them are bulky or expensive and
would be very difficult to utilize in the testing situation. Has
anyone figured out why it would be inappropriate for a blind
person taking the Foreign Service test not to have a reader, but
to have a marker?  I ask that because, as I understand, the
testimony is that readers can't be provided willy-nilly on the
job, and we want to make the test as close as possible to an
equivalency of the job, so we're not going to allow readers
anymore, but we will allow markers. Did I miss something, or am I
on-line on that one? Elizabeth, will you move the mike over to
Mr. Rabby for a second?
 Mr. Rabby . Mr. Chairman, I think you are absolutely on-line. 
It's something which puzzles me. I'm sure it puzzles everyone in
this room, but I have learned over the past few months, at least,
that some of the State Department arguments are just
unfathomable.   Congressman Sikorski . Well, you sound like a
diplomat. Let's go on. Heidi, have you thought about changing
your career plans now that the State Department has made it
virtually impossible to take the exam?
 Ms. Sherman . No, I've never thought that, and I do not intend
to change my career plans because I do expect that the policy
will be changed.
 Congressman Sikorski . If you were selected into the Foreign
Service, what kind of difficulties do you expect to encounter as
a blind person abroad? You've been abroad, you commented in your
opening statement. I just want to highlight that again.
 Ms. Sherman . In the past when I have traveled abroad, I have
never experienced any problems which any normal sighted person
would not encounter. I won't encounter any problems because I
feel that I will be trained enough to handle them.
 Congressman Sikorski . Well, we've heard about world-wide
availability.  We've heard about the need for reader assistance,
and that's just unlike what the job involves. We've heard about
security and personal safety issues. We've heard about unfamiliar
settings and unfamiliar cultures, and we've heard about visual
cues and indicators that are being missed by blind people. But it
seems to me that blind people can be just as available world-wide
as anyone that is currently in the Foreign Service. Functioning
today, we have Foreign Service people who are blind who are
working under the definition of world-wide availability.  Other
countries have Foreign Service officers who are blind, and I'm
sure it applies to other disabled people as well, that there are
disabilities and there are things that prevent people from
functioning in a job.  They are not automatically the same. In
fact, in many cases they are not the same at all. We have blind
people who can be available world-wide as readily available
world-wide as people currently in the foreign service.  We have
blind people that are just as trustworthy and just as protective
of national security as sighted people.
Blind people can fend for themselves anywhere in the world today,
and they do so. There are blind people who, as Mr. Rabby (I
think) pointed out, are now living in all parts of the world
today and don't have any more difficulties than sighted people.
We have blind people in the Peace Corps, which is probably, in my
opinion, a much more demanding job than the Foreign Service and
for a lot less pay.  We have blind people who are no less capable
and probably more capable of dealing with unfamiliar settings.
These issues are not new. They've been raised now for over a
decade, and it's only reasonable to expect that we get full
answers. Blind individuals are serving in the U.S.  Foreign
Service. Blind people are serving in the Foreign Services of
other countries. There are blind individuals decoding sensitive
national security information and serving world-wide as
volunteers in the Peace Corps. I'm deeply concerned about what
I've heard this morning even more concerned about what I've not
heard. People expect that their tax dollars will not be spent on
discriminatory programs.
My committee and I, along with Mr. Dymally, will see to it that
any qualified people, regardless of their visual acuity, will
have the same chance as any other applicants to the Foreign
Service. I want to say that this nation was founded on the
principles of liberty and equality, and wherever you go abroad,
our embassies stand as a monument to human rights and freedom. It
is ridiculous for blind applicants to the Foreign Service to be
reduced to begging and pleading for an opportunity to serve their
country. It's inconceivable to me that the State Department
should deny the right to serve to those who are perfectly capable
of doing so. It's wrong. It's cruel to people who have a visual
disability, to people who have other handicaps, to prevent them
from serving where they could do (as Congressman Campbell pointed
out earlier) so much good.
The Director of my district office, Judy Sanders here, is more
than capable. She works in a congressional district in a state
where it's not always physically easy to get around in the middle
of winter, in the cold, in frigid, snowy Januaries. She helps
desperate people, people with no money, no homes, no families to
support them. These folks don't know where to turn. To bar the
door of Foreign Service to people with capacity for getting
things done like Judy Sanders is wrong.
Thank you all for coming.
                     LEGISLATIVE AGENDA 1989
 Early this year a new Congress and a new President of the United
States took office, and on Sunday, January 29, the blind of the
nation came to Washington to present their legislative agenda and
concerns.  As has been the case in recent years, we used the
Holiday Inn Capitol as our headquarters. Almost 400 people
(including Stevie Wonder) were present at the Sunday evening
briefing to review position papers and plan strategy.

(Note)  During the next three days we visited almost every
Congressional and Senatorial office and participated (see
elsewhere in this issue) in a committee hearing. It was an
exciting and productive occasion.  Here are the materials we
distributed to Congress and the media.  

                 Legislative Priorities for the
               First Session of the 101st Congress


One-half million people in the United States are blind, and fifty
thousand Americans become blind each year. Millions of others
friends, neighbors, family members, business associates, and
co-workers (although not blind themselves) are nonetheless
affected by blindness and its social and economic consequences. 
As a result, public policies and laws concerning the blind have a
profound impact throughout our society.  The blind as a group
share a unique struggle.  If a blind person has proper training
and opportunity, the physical loss of eyesight itself can be
reduced to the level of a mere nuisance.  Misconceptions about
blindness, coupled with lack of good training and limited
opportunities, are the real handicaps.  Although most sighted
people have had some contact with blindness, it is still largely
misunderstood and continues to be more a problem of public
attitudes than physical disability.

Public policies and laws that result from misconceptions about
blindness or lack of information are often more handicapping to
the blind than loss of eyesight. This is why we have formed the
National Federation of the Blind (NFB).  NFB is a private-sector
resource of knowledge, encouragement, and support for the blind
and for all people (blind or not) who seek greater freedom and
opportunity for the blind.  We
are proud of our self-help traditions, philosophy, and
achievements.  The vast majority of our members are blind.  We
join NFB through local chapters and statewide organizations
everywhere in the United States.

We are the voice of the nation's blind the blind speaking for
themselves.  Our priorities for the first session of the 101st
Congress express our assessment of current issues in need of
solution to improve the lives of the blind of all ages:
(1) Congress should amend the Federal Aviation Act of 1958 to
assure fair treatment for the blind in air travel.  This request
seeks enactment of legislation to make unmistakably clear the
Congressional intent
that persons who are blind may not be subjected to unfair and
discriminatory restrictive seating practices of airlines.  The 
Air Carrier Access Act  (Public Law 99-435) already prohibits
discrimination against  the handicapped  in air travel, but most
airlines are still ignoring the law, which the Department of
Transportation (DOT) has yet to enforce by regulation.
The airlines and federal authorities appear to have little regard
for the law or the will of Congress.  It is outrageous that blind
people are still subjected to arrests when they take seats
assigned to them by the airlines.  Law- abiding blind citizens
have been hauled
off to jail for not accepting discriminatory orders of airline
personnel.  Yet, DOT enforcement authorities refuse to intervene
to protect the personal liberties and safety of blind passengers. 
The fact sheet entitled  Air Travel Rights for the Blind  gives
more details and suggests specific legislation that the 101st
Congress should enact.  There would be no cost to anyone,
including the government and the airlines.
(2) Congress should amend the Act of March 3, 1879,  To Promote
the Education of the Blind  to give qualifying institutions a
choice in selecting items to be purchased from the American
Printing House for the Blind or from other suppliers.  This
proposal seeks to modernize and improve options available for
obtaining textbooks and educational materials for blind students. 
The American Printing House for the Blind (APH) is a private,
nonprofit agency chosen by Congress 110 years ago to receive
federal funds in order to manufacture and furnish instructional
materials specially adapted for use by the blind. Under existing
law the Printing House is the exclusive, federally funded
producer of educational products for the blind.
In the years since 1879, other suppliers of books and devices
have become available.  Their products, in some instances,
represent the latest and best technological advancements.  Also,
other producers of Braille books have been able to reduce prices
below those charged by APH for producing comparable items. 
Purchasing demands for APH products were once centralized through
statewide schools especially set up for education of the blind. 
Now, however, with the integration of the blind throughout the
educational system, the demands for materials are quite diverse. 
Purchasing from APH exclusively is increasingly inefficient and
costly.  All institutions are in need of expanded sources of
supplies of materials at the lowest possible cost.  The
fact sheet entitled  Access to Education: Reforms Needed in
Services to Blind Children and Youth  explains what Congress can
do now to help provide more materials for the federal dollar
while meeting the new demands.
(3) Congress should amend the Social Security Act to give blind
persons the flexibility they need in choosing acceptable and
desirable sources of post-secondary training and employment
services.  This request
seeks enactment of legislation to allow blind persons to select,
design,
and pursue the assistance required to become employed and self-
supporting.  Under existing law, beneficiaries of Social Security
programs (and all other blind people seeking training and
employment services) are blocked in most cases from obtaining
this help through any agency other than the one agency designated
to provide rehabilitation services to the blind in each state.
Existing law authorizes Social Security to reimburse the state
agencies when a beneficiary achieves employment, but states are
reluctant to participate substantially in this  results-oriented 
program.  Funding participants (rather than programs) would be a
better option.  That can be done by letting each beneficiary
choose which agency or training sources will be most responsive. 
The beneficiary (not a government agency) is often in the best
position to know which training sources can best meet the need. 
Under a plan which gives blind beneficiaries greater freedom to
choose among providers for their training and employment
programs, cost-effective reimbursement for services could be made
to private agencies and training sources as well as to state
rehabilitation agencies.  The fact sheet entitled  Breaking the
Monopoly: Expanding Choices in Rehabilitation for Blind Adults 
gives more details and an outline of the specific legislative
changes that the 101st Congress should enact.
Blind people are asking for your help in securing positive action
by Congress in the areas outlined here.  Legislative proposals to
achieve these objectives are prepared and available for
consideration
by the 101st Congress.  Many priorities confront this session of
Congress, but the needs of the nation's blind must not be
neglected in the legislative agenda this year.
We of the National Federation of the Blind stand ready to assist
our Representatives and Senators in understanding our needs and
taking meaningful action to address them.  In partnership with
the National Federation of the Blind, each member of Congress can
help build better lives for the blind, both today and in the
years ahead.

                           FACT SHEET
                 Air Travel Rights for the Blind

A bill to amend the Federal Aviation Act of 1958 to prohibit
discrimination against blind individuals in air travel.
The Problem: Arbitrary restrictions on seating of blind
passengers are a most common form of degrading discrimination
against the blind in air travel.  The restrictions are not the
same for each airline but generally apply to seats near emergency
exits.  There is no way to know from airline to airline (or from
flight to flight on the same airline) which seats are expected to
be  off limits. 
Airline personnel routinely humiliate and bully blind people for
sitting in their assigned seats near the exits.  Law- abiding
blind passengers are even arrested and hauled off to jail for
taking seats assigned to them by the airlines.  Flight delays
beyond two hours are common in these incidents, during which
airline personnel incite anger in other passengers toward the
blind.  When police will not arrest a
blind passenger (because sitting near an emergency exit is not a
violation of the law), flights are purportedly  cancelled  just
long enough to deplane everyone. Then, the same flight is
reboarded and dispatched without the blind passenger.  Air
transportation for the blind is thus denied.
Existing Law and Regulations:  Section 404(c) of the Federal
Aviation
Act of 1958 (enacted by Public Law 99-435) already prohibits
discrimination against qualified handicapped individuals in air
travel.  Proposed rules were issued last year, but the final
regulations (required by law to be issued by January 31, 1987)
have not yet been published.
DOT's proposed rules are the first step of a plan to legalize
discrimination against the blind in air travel by means of
restricted seating.  The second step of the plan is being
developed in another rulemaking by the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA).  The entire procedure and approach is
deliberately deceptive.  On the one hand DOT's proposed rule says
that no one may be excluded from any seat on the basis of
handicap unless otherwise determined by the FAA.  The deception
is that FAA's rule will require a seat restriction.  Officials
say that
the rule will  not discriminate against the blind,  but  sight
will be required  for any passenger to be seated near an exit. 
FAA has never had a regulation to limit seat assignments of the
blind
before, and there is no present or known justification for a new
regulation now.
Proposed Legislation:  Congress should amend the Federal Aviation
Act of 1958 to assure fair treatment for the blind in air travel. 
Identical Senate and House bills entitled  The Air Travel Rights
for Blind Individuals Act  have been introduced by Senator Ernest
F. Hollings and Congressman James A. Traficant, Jr.
The bill calls for inserting a new sentence at the end of
paragraph
(1) of section 404(c) of the Federal Aviation Act of 1958 as
follows:   An air carrier shall not restrict seating in aircraft
on the basis of the visual acuity of a passenger or the use by a
passenger of a white cane, dog guide, or other such means of
assistance. 
This measure would not interfere with the FAA's responsibility to
require safe air travel.  Criteria that have a safety-based
justification could be used to support policies that exclude
passengers from seats
near emergency exits.  Restrictions based on blindness or visual
impairment have no safety basis and would therefore be
prohibited.
Need for Legislation:  This bill provides a clear-cut solution
to a problem that must be addressed.  In all of the history of
air travel, blindness has not been a hazard. Some airlines have
not excluded blind persons from seats near emergency exits. 
Others have done so.  They have used the nondiscrimination law to
convince the FAA to make rules to restrict seating of the blind.
Airline personnel admit that they cannot accurately determine
passenger abilities (or disabilities) to act as required in
emergencies.  In many instances they do not challenge passengers
who pose obvious safety problems for themselves and others. 
Excessive carry-on luggage, although hazardous, is routinely
permitted by the airlines as a passenger convenience.  Also,
passengers who have already had too much to drink before they
reach the plane are often seated near emergency exits without
question.  Once on board the aircraft, these passengers may
continue to consume liquor while seated near emergency exits.  By
allowing and condoning this unsafe behavior, airlines and airline
personnel are placing millions of air travelers at risk.
Some passengers who are now given seats near emergency exits have
poor judgment and cannot act responsibly during evacuation
procedures.  Others will panic and may not act at all.  Unknown
heart conditions are common but not visible in passengers given
seats near emergency exit doors.  These passengers have safety
risks that the airlines knowingly accept or negligently do not
attempt to identify.  Instead they target the blind for
exclusion.
The attempt to impose seat restriction regulations on the blind
disregards the will of Congress expressed in Public Law 99-435
and its underlying legislative history.  The statute, which was
intended to remove unfounded limitations on the blind, is being
turned on its head and used against the blind by the airlines. 
FAA's rulemaking procedure represents
an aggressive attempt by the airlines to legalize discrimination. 
Congress should resolve this issue in favor of safe and
discrimination-free air travel by passing  The Air Travel Rights
for Blind Individuals Act. 


                           FACT SHEET 
Access to Education: Reforms Needed 
in Services to Blind Children and Youth


Background: The American Printing House for the Blind (APH) is
by law the only federally funded supplier of instructional
materials and equipment for the blind in elementary and secondary
education.  The funds annually appropriated directly to APH are
used to produce textbooks in Braille and large type versions. 
Certain types of adapted equipment, educational materials, and
supplies are also provided.  This has been the case since 1879,
when APH first began manufacturing books for the statewide
residential schools for the blind that existed at that time.
This year there are about 40,400 blind or visually impaired
youngsters attending elementary and secondary schools and another
4,000 blind persons in adult programs.  Only a fraction of the
students enrolled
in elementary and secondary schools attend state residential
schools.  The vast majority are taught in their home communities. 
The textbooks they need are selected locally.  Collaboration by
state schools to supply the same books for each state at all
grade levels is no longer possible.
Existing Law: The Act of March 3, 1879, entitled  An Act To
Promote the Education of the Blind,  first granted federal
financial support to APH for manufacturing and furnishing books
and other materials specially adapted for instruction of the
blind.  The law in its present form has a  such sums 
authorization, with an actual appropriation of $5,345,000 for FY
1989.  At the beginning of each year APH counts the number of
blind students attending public and private nonprofit
institutions for the education of the blind in the United States. 
These census figures are then used by APH to establish each
institution's allotment for books and materials from APH during
the ensuing fiscal year.  Some of the federal dollars are used
for research and development activities, and a small amount goes
for advisory services.  The current appropriation provides each
institution with an allotment of approximately $111 per student.
The situation with respect to producers of books and educational
devices for the blind has dramatically changed since 1879.  One
hundred years
ago the American Printing House for the Blind was the only major
producer.  Today there are at least one half dozen other sources
of books and materials which are at least as effective as APH. 
Some of them offer materials at lower costs and some offer
products which APH does not supply.  If blind students are to
have the benefit of the best and the most for the dollars, then
the one hundred-year-old monopoly of APH must be eliminated. 
Examination of the continued use of APH as a single supplier is
now urgently required.
Proposed Legislation: Congress should amend the Act of March 3,
1879,  To Promote the Education of the Blind  to give qualifying
institutions a choice in selecting items to be purchased from APH
or other suppliers.  The amendments being proposed would maintain
APH as a primary manufacturing facility and central clearinghouse
of information about available books and materials.  However, if
an item meeting a qualifying institution's requirements is
available from a source outside of APH, the federal funds
provided through APH would have to be used for any purchase, at
the option of the qualifying institution.  Under existing law as
described, the federal funds can only be used for products that
APH manufactures or sells directly.  The appropriation cannot be
used to buy products from other suppliers.  This provides a
strong incentive to the institutions not to purchase items from
other suppliers, even though products that more nearly meet the
need (or better fit within the institution's budget) might be
available somewhere else.  Also the present situation encourages
high prices and inefficiency at APH, as is almost always the case
with monopolies.  Improvements Needed: Equal access to education
for blind persons
means having the books and materials necessary to compete and
learn.  APH has provided these items responsibly for many
decades.  However, changing demands require changing approaches. 
Increasingly, it is necessary to expend federal dollars to obtain
quality materials at the most favorable price possible.  Faced
with competition, APH may not be the lowest priced book producer
in all instances.  For example, the Library of Congress, National
Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, buys
large quantities of Braille and recorded books and magazines from
several manufacturers, including APH.  But the prices charged by
APH for Braille book production currently exceed those of all
other suppliers.  Like APH, all of the other suppliers are
nonprofit, but unlike APH, none of them receives a federal
appropriation.  Prices charged by APH are usually not the lowest
among competing suppliers.  In 1879, APH was the only producer of
instructional materials for
the blind, and there were a relatively small number of schools
needing these items.  Now there are thousands of schools with
varying demands for materials.  The schools need more materials
at less cost.  They also need the new devices to aid the blind,
representing the most up-to-date applications of modern
technology that are being made by a growing number of small
nonprofit and profit- making groups.  Costs for these items are
quite favorable, and in some instances unbelievably low.  Some of
the more exciting innovations include pocket-sized computers
that talk, large type display terminals, and Braille output
devices.  Communications technology using computers now makes
possible the cost-effective production of Braille books to meet
individual demands.  These developments and more have happened so
rapidly that APH as a single supplier cannot hope to keep pace
and provide in-house the most up- to-date items
for everyone.  Therefore, the demand could better be met by
permitting qualifying institutions to use the federal funds
available to obtain products from APH and other sources.  This
expansion would be a modest improvement in the law, would save
federal dollars, would increase the number and type of materials
available, and pose no administrative problems.  It is a
cost-effective approach that Congress should now enact.

                           FACT SHEET
                     Breaking the Monopoly: 
Expanding Choices In Rehabilitation 
for Blind Adults

A Bill:  To amend titles XVI and II of the Social Security Act to
promote the rehabilitation of blind beneficiaries under the SSI
and OASDI programs, and to assure that the blind receive the most
appropriate employment and training services which are available
by permitting them to select the agencies to which they will be
referred for such services. 
Background:  Federal support for rehabilitation of the disabled
began in 1920, but programs for the blind were not eligible to
receive federal assistance until 1943.  Current rehabilitation
services include various forms of medical, social, recreational,
vocational, educational, and research- oriented programs that are
intended to improve the living conditions and life styles of all
disabled persons in America.  Employment (once the principal
focus of the law) is now one of many objectives.  This shift in
emphasis has taken attention and financial resources away from
supporting the individual employment needs of the blind in favor
of serving the broader disabled population.  The result is that
the employment goal is now subordinate.  However, recreation,
social services, and even medical care needs will almost all be
met for the vast majority of blind people if they get suitable
jobs with pay and responsibilities commensurate with their
individual abilities.
Existing Law: The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Pub. L. 93-112),
as amended, authorizes most of the current federally supported
rehabilitation programs.  Recipients and beneficiaries of
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability
Insurance (SSDI) can also obtain rehabilitation services (paid
for with SSI and SSDI funds).  Not counting the funds for
rehabilitation provided by Social Security, almost 1.5 billion
dollars in federal financial assistance is distributed to the
states under Title I of the Rehabilitation Act.  The designation
of a specific state agency to serve the disabled and blind is a
prerequisite for receipt by any state of its share of the federal
funds.  Titles XVI and II of the Social Security Act also require
that SSI and SSDI beneficiaries must be served through the same
state agency system.  Under these arrangements the designated
state agencies control the money (and in many respects the lives)
of blind people who are trying to become productive citizens free
from government support.  Options
for most blind people to choose among sources of training are
realistically nonexistent.  This lack of a free choice for each
blind person to obtain needed services from a public or private
source that will meet his or her own individual needs is a major
deterrent to effective, responsive training and employment
services, leaving almost 80 percent of employable blind people
largely outside of our nation's workforce.  Proposed Legislation: 
Congress should amend the Social Security
Act to give blind SSI and SSDI beneficiaries greater freedom to
choose and design their own training and employment programs.  A
bill to accomplish this objective has been introduced in the
House by Congressman Harold Ford.  It presents a natural
alternative to the present Social Security funding arrangement by
allowing recipients of SSDI or SSI benefits to designate for
themselves individually selected agencies, public or private. 
Under the bill, each blind beneficiary could choose a
rehabilitation agency to provide services directly or obtain
services from other programs.  This approach (funding the
participants and letting them choose their programs) would give
each person a wider selection of relevant training and employment
opportunities.
Since most blind people who are not employed receive either SSDI
or SSI cash benefits, they would be immediately eligible under
the bill to obtain individually needed training and job-related
assistance.  A beneficiary could continue with a rehabilitation
program under the existing state agency structure. 
Alternatively, with the help of an individually chosen agency, a
beneficiary could obtain training and employment services through
a personally selected program.  In either case SSI or SSDI funds
would eventually pay the costs as is now done through state
rehabilitation agencies only.  The outlays from the Social
Security funds would not be increased.
Need for Legislation:  Expansion of the Rehabilitation Act to
support a broader range of services (including those of a social,
recreational and independent living nature) has brought about
demands for training and employment services for the blind which
the single state agency system is ill-equipped to meet.  The
program just described would be a natural adjunct to the current
structure.  It would leave the existing funding arrangements and
services under the Rehabilitation Act intact with all of the
present financial support.  The advantage would be greater
selection of relevant services not limited to those available
through assistance by a single agency in each state.  State
boundaries (and limits on out-of-state expenditures) would not
prevent finding the best program for each individual.  Under the
improved program a source of funding (not tied to any state or
any agency) would be available for anyone who wanted to exercise
a free choice.  By stimulating competition among agencies to make
their philosophies and programs attractive to potential
participants, funding through Social Security would create a
healthy, new environment of services full of new opportunities
and vitality.  In addition, Social Security funds paid to achieve
training and employment goals would reduce demands for continuing
cash outlays from the SSI and SSDI programs.  This is a
cost-effective approach that Congress should now enact.  

                      THE SECRET OF SUCCESS
               by Suzanne Bridges & Paul Lorensen

 This article is reprinted from the Spring-Summer, 1988, issue of 
The Student Slate,  the newsletter of the National Federation of
the Blind Student Division. Suzanne Bridges and Paul Lorensen are
staff members at the Louisiana Center for the Blind. 

It should not come as a surprise to any of us that the public
exaggerates the successes and accomplishments of blind people.
The real problem exists when we, as blind people, do the same
thing. How easy it is to believe that ultimately we will be
successful simply because we have completed college or have
become employed. The degree of our success depends as much upon
our attitudes toward ourselves as blind people as it does upon
our accomplishments and credentials. To think otherwise is both
naive and foolish.
Consider the blind professor who regards himself as successful.
Suppose that he is of the sort who prides himself on the fact
that his colleagues are unaware that he is blind (or so he
thinks). He refuses to use a cane and has never bothered to learn
Braille, even though he can only read magnified print at little
more than ten words a minute.
In class he lectures without notes, and he requires that his
students sit in assigned seats, which he memorizes. His wife
helps him by reading all of his students' papers and homework
assignments, and she records his comments and grades as well.
When she is unavailable or angry with him, he adjusts his
fluorescent lamp and painstakingly corrects his papers himself,
using a magnifier or his closed circuit television.  Since he
lives outside of town, he relies upon his wife to drive him back
and forth to the campus. Of course, the professor must restrict
himself to teaching activities during the day, because his wife
does not drive after dark. Even if she did, however, he would
still teach only during the day since he has retinitis pigmentosa
and does not see anything at night. To his few friends and
colleagues, who know about his  sight problem,  our friend the
professor is amazing.  To his wife, he is an exhausting
taskmaster. Is he a success? He would regard himself as such.
Now, consider the young blind woman who is employed in the
computer field. She resides with her parents who have provided
her with every technological advantage throughout her years of
education. As a result, she is an expert on virtually any piece
of equipment to be found for the blind. Praised to the hilt for
her accomplishments  in spite of her blindness,  by both her
family and her employer, she has been recognized through numerous
awards such as  handicapped citizen of the year.  So impressed
with her abilities are her employers
that they accommodate her every need, ranging from providing
transportation to and from work to limiting her job functions to
those which can
be easily accomplished with the special technology which she
requires.  Co-workers have been heard to remark on her dedication
since she works through coffee breaks and even eats her lunch at
her desk. Her parents and friends admire her loyalty to her
family since she prefers to spend her evenings at home with them
instead of going out. And her parents righteously acknowledge the
many praises from their friends and acquaintances concerning
their own bravery and sacrifice in raising such a special child.
Is she a success? She and her parents would regard her as such.
In both of these examples blindness has been viewed as an
obstacle to be overcome at all costs in order to be successful.
In the first example blindness has been carefully concealed like
a criminal record.  Under no circumstances should anyone know
about it. But if blindness should rear its ugly head, then others
should recognize how well-adjusted our blind professor is, how
successfully he has compensated for his blindness and overcome
adversity, and how well he  passes  for normal. In our second
example blindness has become a badge of courage, signifying
triumph over tragedy. In both instances success hangs
precariously on self-deceit and distortion. In reality neither
the professor nor the computer expert is as fully successful as
either believes.
So, exactly who is successful? Suppose we were to tell you that
one of the most successful people we know is a young divorced
woman with two children, who is completing her college degree and
who happens to be blind. Her story is not unlike that of many
women, blind or sighted, so what makes her a success? The major
ingredients are not her accomplishment in the face of adversity
or her courage, but rather her self-confidence, her belief in
herself, and her attitude toward blindness. From a background
which included a failed marriage, an unfinished college
education, and chronic illness, this woman dared to aim for
something that no one else could see and she hit it.  Her husband
doubted her; her rehabilitation counselor doubted her; and, at
times, she doubted herself. But her instinct would not give way
to the doubts and misconceptions of those around her. Somewhere
she would find others who knew how to help her get where she
wanted to be.
This young blind woman was sent to a traditional, paternalistic
orientation center, where she was exposed to every conceivable
negative attitude and stereotype about blindness and given only
brief exposure to some of the skills she would need. Realizing
that her expectations were clearly greater for herself and blind
people in general than those held by the traditional,
paternalistic orientation center, the young woman departed that
program and entered a more progressive orientation center
operated by the blind, which solidly followed the philosophy of
the National Federation of the Blind. She not only learned skills
which were essential to her success in college and her future
career, but she learned that it is respectable to be blind.
In this  attitude factory  her belief in herself was nurtured,
and she developed self-confidence. She came to regard blindness
not
as an obstacle or a tragedy but as a characteristic. Using her
alternative techniques and her positive attitude toward
blindness, she began to succeed. Unlike the professor or the
computer expert, she placed her confidence and reliance upon
herself and not upon technology or limited vision or a spouse.
Her accomplishments were her own, and she orchestrated her life
in such a way as to include all of the experiences of college
life, both social and academic. She learned how to hire and use
readers, how to take notes in Braille, how to arrange
transportation, how to manage her household and her children in
the midst of her college
career, how to approach professors and the public concerning her
blindness, how to travel independently at any hour, how to
socialize, and how to take control of her own life. She learned
through her involvement
in the National Federation of the Blind to give to others and to
believe in herself.
Success is a process which, for blind people, is as dependent
upon the proper attitude toward blindness as it is upon
accomplishment.  To become successful, we must learn, use, and
believe in the skills of blindness: Braille, cane travel, etc. We
must view blindness as a respectable characteristic, which
neither must be hidden out of shame nor distorted for personal
recognition or gain. We must take a hard critical look at
ourselves and evaluate our competence. If
we can do better, then we must. Through our involvement in the
National Federation of the Blind and proper training at
orientation centers which believe in blind people, we can be
successful in every sense of the word.
Think about it the college professor, the computer expert, or the
young woman on her way to a new life what kind of successful
blind person do you want to be?

                    SPECULATIONS ABOUT CD ROM

 From the Editor : I sometimes think that I don't know the
difference between a RAM and a ROM or, for that matter, a BIT
from a BYTE and, for that further matter, that I don't want to.
There is (so I am told) a PROM, an E-PROM, and an EE-PROM none of
which has anything to do with a dance. But when all of the
ribbing is done, life would be a great deal less pleasant than it
is without computers and computer technology. There is hardly an
aspect of our daily existence which isn't being altered on an
ongoing basis by the computer.
And, of course, what is true for the sighted is also true for the
blind talking clocks, talking calculators, Speaqualizers, and the
rest. With respect to reading we have been feeling the effects
of technology for a long time. First it was the hard disc 33-1/3
talking book record, then the 16-2/3, and finally the flexi disc
8-1/3, with proportionate savings every step of the way. But that
was yesterday.  Where do we go from here? What will library
service and production for the blind be like in the years ahead?
Yes, I know we must continue to have Braille in fact, more of
it than we now have. And no, I am not advocating a retreat from
literacy.  But recorded material has a definite place (a very
important place)
in the future of the blind to get information. We can't have an
either/or (Braille or recorded) situation. We must have both and
(good as it is) we can't be satisfied with the status quo.
When I was a child I was repeatedly bombarded with a statement
which went like this:  I used to complain because I had no shoes
until I met a man who had no feet.  That bromide, which was
calculated to keep me from complaining and make me happy with
what I had, always bothered me.
There is certainly something to be said for gratitude, and one
should not expect the impossible; but I was often tempted to
respond to the lecture about being grateful for feet with the
flip comment:  I
used to be content because I had feet until I met a man who had
shoes.  There is probably merit to both points of view. It
depends on the circumstances and the particular propaganda you
are trying to push
at the moment. Maybe the most sensible (and even the most moral)
approach is a mixture of both.
We as blind people should unquestionably be glad and grateful for
the advances which have been made in technology and the
increasing access we have to the printed word, but we should not
spend so much time being thankful that we stop striving for
progress. Along this line, Tim Cranmer recently wrote a letter to
Curtis Chong which I think is particularly relevant. Before I
share it with you, let me say that our Research and Development
Committee is about as impressive a group as I have ever come
across. They are brainy and innovative, and when it comes to
technology, neither we nor they have to take a back seat to
anybody.
But back to the matter at hand. Here is Tim Cranmer's letter:

                                              Frankfort, Kentucky
                                                November 28, 1988

Dear Curtis:

The CD ROM technology continues to evolve and may be approaching
a state of development that may make it attractive as a medium
for producing talking books and other materials for the blind.
Sony of Tokyo and Philips of the Netherlands have announced
standards for CD interactive (CD- I) applicable to animated
graphics, stereo, and speech recordings.  This latter standard
may be of great interest to us it may place us at a position
analogous to where we were just a few years ago with respect to
the cassette playback systems now used by the National Library
Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS).
Costs are rapidly coming down. The master for a CD ROM is now
advertised at $1,500 while per-copy duplication is now offered at
$2. Keep in mind that these are street prices today. With
competitive bidding on large orders and the lapse of another year
or two, these prices could drop by a very large factor. I'm
sending you under separate
cover commercial advertisements and news items from the Source
supporting these observations. [We inject for the computer
illiterate that the Source is a national computer database but
back to Tim Cranmer's letter.]
The last price I heard quoted for flexible disc duplication was
something like a quarter. Our National Office has firm
information on this item.  Be that as it may, it should be
possible successfully to compete with flimsies soon. Consider the
fact that one CD ROM currently stores 650,000,000 bytes of data.
High fidelity stereo sampling rates permit storing a little more
than one hour of music on one disc. Double this when recording
monaural speech; multiply by four when you cut frequency response
to five kilohertz; and right away you get eight hours plus per CD
ROM. All this is achievable without changing any hardware or
firmware already standard in the industry. Unfortunately we
cannot record books for the blind using public standards and
expect permission from copyright holders. So, as we did with
cassettes, we will need to reduce rotation speed or some other
hardware parameter so that books for the blind can't be played on
the public's unmodified CD players.
This is a trivial technical problem. Setting a standard for our
market is a larger undertaking and is clearly a task for NLS, and
you as
NFB representative to the NLS audio committee are in the best
position to encourage a feasibility probe of the CD potential for
our recording needs.
It should be pointed out that retail prices of less than $200 are
now appearing for CD ROM players. This means a price well below
$100 is assured should NLS seek a bid for a few thousand machines
for a Beta test machine to demonstrate feasibility of the
technology.  There are many other interesting possibilities such
as mixing digital audio with digitized ASCII text to replace the
cumbersome tone indexing sometimes used to mark chapter headings.
Sections in a book, chapters, pages, and the like could then be
located in a second or two.  Consider storing only digitized text
in a compressed format, yielding thirty-five or forty percent
space saving over ASCII. With this arrangement, about a billion
characters of text could be stored on a single disc.  Assuming an
average word length of five characters and assuming an audio
listening rate of 150 words per minute, you could listen to that
disc 222,000 hours! So what if I'm off by one or two orders of
magnitude? (The TSR version of the NFB Calculator won't be here
for another week.) Oh, yes, this last blue sky presumes an
optimum speech synthesizer, like a DECtalk.
Putting aside imaginings of things to come some day, let's urge
NLS to take the first tentative step into the immediate future
and embrace the CD ROM technology as it emerges on our scene.

                                                 Sincerely yours,
                                              T. V. (Tim) Cranmer


                    EDUCATION FOR THE BLIND, 
MENTALLY RETARDED CHILD: WHERE AND HOW
                         by Colleen Roth

 Colleen Roth is a member of the Board of Directors of the
National Federation of the Blind of Ohio and President of that
affiliate's Parents Division. She also serves as President of the
Wood County, Ohio, Association for Retarded Citizens. Her
daughter Monica was killed in March of 1988 in a tragic school
bus accident. Colleen's faith, courage, and Federation spirit
continue to be an example to us all.  She is eager to assist
anyone who may need advice or counsel in raising or working with
a blind, multihandicapped child. Her address is 1912 Tracy Road,
Northwood, Ohio 43611, and her phone is (419) 661-9171.  Here is
what Colleen has to say: 

I am the mother of a blind, retarded child who would have been
seven
and a half years old if she had lived. I am also totally blind.
Understanding blindness as I do and having dedicated my life to
working with and loving multihandicapped youngsters (my husband
and I are preparing to adopt and provide foster care for such
children), I thought my expertise in educating and caring for
these blind youngsters might be useful to other parents making
difficult decisions.
When it was apparent that Monica was mentally retarded, I
contacted the Board of Mental Retardation in my county. Later,
other parents asked me why I had not contacted a program serving
the blind instead.  In the first year of Monica's schooling I
summed up the reasons for my decision this way: If Monica had
been a normal blind child with
no other disability, I would have placed her in an appropriate
educational setting near our home. I would have insisted upon
cane travel, early introduction of Braille, and tactile skills.
Working with the school or battling alone, I would have fostered
in Monica a positive attitude about her own capabilities and the
alternative techniques which she would have been mastering. I
would gladly have helped teachers find materials and would have
provided them with information guiding them toward an
understanding that it is respectable to be blind. I would also
have demanded that Monica be expected to do work equivalent to
that of her sighted classmates and would have assisted with
Monica's class when called upon.
But Monica could not compete with children in a regular
classroom.
She needed to be with others whose primary disability was not
blindness but mental retardation. In teaching a blind youngster,
you can present material and ideas as you would to any normal
child, merely using
a few alternative techniques. Monica, however, needed a lot of
special training. Mentally retarded children learn things more
gradually than those with higher intelligence. In fact, they may
not learn anything academic at all. In the early years a good bit
of time is devoted to teaching basic self- care skills, and
blindness does not make the teacher's task more difficult. You
can place blind, retarded children in a class with other retarded
youngsters, and they will fit in and learn with a minimum of
extra effort on the teacher's part.
The same cannot be said when trying to place blind, retarded
youngsters in a setting where the other children are merely
blind. Yet parents and professionals continue to conduct this
experiment with our blind children. Schools with classes for the
visually impaired in my county have become a dumping ground for
children whose parents believe that blindness is the most
profound of their children's disabilities. Others cannot or will
not deal with the complexities which arise when multiple
disabilities are involved. People sometimes excuse themselves by
saying that at least they did not abandon their children by
putting them up for adoption, but it seems to me that when a
parent refuses to demand humane and appropriate treatment for the
child, it is almost worse. There is always the possibility that
an adoptive or foster parent would have found the right school.
I recognize that some parents truly do not know where to turn or
what educational setting would be best, but just because a child
is blind,
a residential school for the blind or a local class for visually
impaired youngsters is not necessarily the best choice. When one
disability
is mental retardation, the child should be taught in a setting
structured for the mentally retarded.
Schools for the blind then could be required to increase their
expectations of their students by demanding greater academic
prowess. They should, as a matter of course, be expected to meet
the graduation standards accepted in other schools in the state
or region.
We in the National Federation of the Blind must rise up and fight
together to change the current sorry state of affairs. We must
remember that while we are emphasizing the normality and
competence of the blind and are insisting upon their intellectual
capacity, we cannot forget blind children who are mentally
retarded. They are also part of our family and deserve to be
welcomed. They too need to receive our help and support.
Sometimes we forget that we possess information and have mastered
techniques that would immeasurably assist and encourage parents
of multihandicapped children. These youngsters deserve care and
education appropriate to their actual needs, and  very often it
is not and should not be available in programs primarily for the
blind.  Let us all fight together to protect our blind, mentally
retarded children from this manifestation of public ignorance and
misconceptions.

                 OF SURVEYS AND TRAFFIC HAZARDS
                        by Seville Allen

 As Monitor  readers know, Seville Allen is the editor of the
Newsletter  of the National Federation of the Blind of Virginia. 
She is thoughtful and quick to notice the implications of inane
agency activities affecting herself and her blind friends and
colleagues.  Recently she received a questionnaire produced by
the Columbia Lighthouse for the Blind in Washington, D.C. In the
January, 1989 NFB of Virginia  Newsletter,  she reported on the
document and shared her reflections.  Here is what she had to
say: 

After settling myself at my desk to put in my eight hours, my
phone rang. What to my wondering... but news of yet another
blindness survey.  This time, a familiar Washington area agency
for the blind had compiled a questionnaire entitled:  Blind
Pedestrian Survey.  To complete it, the blind person was asked to
rank various environmental factors
on a scale of 1 to 5, most hazardous being 1. The purpose was to
determine the worst pedestrian hazards and problem areas. To
assist the agency, such factors as  insufficient warning at metro
platform edges,
no designated pathways in metro stations, location of bus stops,
boarding and alighting buses, missed bus stops  were to be
ranked. This was just the public transportation category. In that
of dangerous intersections, the questionnaire went on to have one
rank such items as  nonstandard traffic patterns, cars blocking
intersections,
and short duration traffic lights.  For construction sites, 
closed walkway without clear pedestrian walkways, excessive
noise, and potholes  were to be ranked.
A bizarre and useless questionnaire, I hear you say. But it is no
more peculiar than the obviously uneducated beliefs of the
creator of this survey, who apparently assumes that the
environment harbors
many hazards unique to blind people such as missed bus stops,
nonstandard traffic patterns, short traffic lights, and cars
blocking intersections.  Think about it not one of these
so-called hazards is unique to blind people. For example, if a
person is unable to hurry, the light is too short, regardless of
blindness. When cars block intersections, everyone is endangered
by having to step into oncoming traffic. Here careful judgment is
needed. Whether blind or sighted, one can miss a bus stop by
reading, sleeping, or day-dreaming. Although noise at
construction sites is a nuisance, there is no technology to
prevent it.
Reading over this survey, I wondered how the agency proposed to
eliminate all of those hazards. The real answer is obvious. If
they believe
(as we do) that blindness can be reduced to a nuisance, the
environmental obstacles identified in this survey would cease to
be profound problems in seconds. Mysterious technology and
expensive modifications would not be needed. Agency personnel
would simply train blind people to use alternative techniques to
function in an imperfect environment.  Two reflections on the
design of this survey occurred to me. First, surveys can be
useful tools. This one would be no exception if it emphasized
real hazards to the blind, such as receiving unsolicited and
inappropriate directions; being grabbed while boarding moving
escalators; and colliding with attitudes that deny opportunity
for competent, qualified blind people. Second, I gather from
these questions that the agency has a preconceived idea of what
the hazards are. Presumably all obstacles would have to be
eliminated for the blind to travel with the ease of the sighted.
There were parts of this survey I did not understand, e.g. what
is meant by  a closed walkway at a construction site without a
clear pedestrian walkway ? And what is  a designated pathway in
the metro train station ? Perhaps I am baffled by it all because
(although I am blind) I am not a  professional in the field.  It
occurs to me, however, that, instead of conducting silly surveys,
the most constructive act of charity this agency could perform
with its millions would be to fill the city's potholes, thereby
eliminating a nuisance to us all.

                 SEMINAR FOR COMPUTER BEGINNERS
                         by Curtis Chong

Have you ever thought about buying a computer? Perhaps you are
one of those people who is being required to learn how to use a
computer, either at work or at home. Maybe you are just one of
the many confused and frustrated individuals who have heard that
computers are simply marvelous! You've started thinking about
getting one for yourself, perhaps, but you find that there is so
much information available
about  hardware,   software,   screen review programs,  and the
like as to daunt even the most determined computer neophyte. 
What kind of computer should you buy? IBM? Apple? Another brand?
What is a good word processor? What is the  best  screen review
program? What should you buy if you want to communicate with
other computer systems over the phone? And then, once you have a
computer, what is the best way to go about learning how to use
it?
Well, the National Federation of the Blind in Computer Science is
conducting a  Seminar for Computer Beginners  at this year's
National Convention to deal with the concerns, questions, and
frustrations of people just like you. Although we don't guarantee
to answer all of your questions about computers, we will
certainly try to deal with
as many concerns and questions as we can. We may even have some
interesting computer hardware for you to look at and you won't be
bothered by someone who is trying to sell you something.
The seminar will be held on Monday, July 3, from 9:00 a.m. to
1:00 p.m. somewhere in the headquarters hotel. If you have
questions about the seminar or would like to suggest a topic that
would be helpful to you, please contact Curtis Chong, President,
National Federation
of the Blind in Computer Science, 3530 Dupont Avenue North,
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55412, phone: (612) 521-3202.

                        FIGHTING BLIND: 
Bonnie Peterson Challenges Stereotypes About the  Visually
Impaired 

From the Editor: This article by Jill Zuckman appeared in the
February 5, 1989,  Milwaukee Journal.  As  Monitor  readers know,
Bonnie Peterson is the active and energetic President of the
National Federation of the Blind of Wisconsin. She takes her
Federationism seriously. Therefore, no matter how gently she may
work to change misconceptions about blindness and regardless of
how reasonably she may try to achieve improvements in programs
for the blind, she will necessarily create a certain amount of
resentment and opposition.  As we have so often said, no minority
ever goes from second-class status to first-class citizenship
without passing through a zone of hostility. In fact, properly
viewed, the hostility is an indication of progress.
While it is true that Bonnie Peterson has created her share of
antagonism because of insistence that programs serving the blind
provide quality services, the overwhelming response has been
positive. She much prefers persuasion to confrontation, and
because of her leadership the blind of Wisconsin have greater
hope and more opportunity than they have ever had. Discounting
the natural tendency of the news media to feature the
sensational, the controversial, and the questionable anecdote,
this article still gives a clear picture of what is beginning to
happen in Wisconsin. Bonnie Peterson is a leader, and the public
and the blind of the state are responding to that leadership.
Here is the  Milwaukee Journal  article:

The taxicab driver was moving along through traffic with his
passenger, Bonnie Peterson. He eyed her through the rear- view
mirror, taking in the long white cane leaning against the seat
beside her.   He was the one-thousandth, one-millionth,
20-zillionth person to ask, `What's it like to be blind?'  she
recalls.
Peterson, a tiny woman whose 5-foot-1 3/4-inch height belies her
energy, went on the attack.
 Did you know that a person with 20/20 vision is two- thirds
blind?  she asked her driver. You can't see far away without a
telescope.  You can't see close up without a microscope. You
can't see through things; you need X-rays.
 So you're two-thirds blind. How does it feel? It doesn't feel
like anything,  she said, concluding her harangue.
Looking back on her outburst and feeling slightly contrite, she
grins.   I scared the poor cab driver. He said, `Jesus, Lady, I
should pull the cab off to the side of the road.' 
The point, Peterson says, is that being blind is not such a big
deal.   It just doesn't matter. It isn't something I dwell on. 
Peterson is trying to change the attitudes of the sighted toward
the blind. She's trying to do it through her work as President of
the Wisconsin chapter of the National Federation of the Blind, a
national advocacy and resource organization. The Federation has
50,000 members across the country and about 350 members in the
state.  In the process, she is stirring up controversy with her
outspoken and aggressive approaches. Some critics within the
blind community say Peterson's tactics keep her from working
within the system that already exists to help blind people.
The attitudes she wishes to change that blind people need help,
that they are incapable of managing on their own contribute to a
70% unemployment or underemployment rate for blind people in this
country, she says.  I think people believe blind people are
useless.  Peterson herself is hardly useless. She teaches public
speaking at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside in Kenosha; she
is completing a master's degree at Marquette University in
interpersonal and intercultural communication; she is chairwoman
of the resource development committee at Woodland School
(formerly Alverno Elementary School and Children's Place); and
she is married and raising two young daughters.  Sitting
cross-legged on her living room floor in her South Side home,
with a mug of coffee by her side and a cigarette in her hand, she
talks about growing up partially blind and about her goals for
blind people. With bilateral atrophy of the optic nerve, Peterson
can see only shadows and some colors, although she can read print
from a paper if it's held so close to her face that it touches
her nose.  Peterson, who turns 36 this month, was elected
president of the Wisconsin Federation in November after serving
as acting president.  Her husband, Joel, 37, a sergeant with the
Milwaukee Police Department, listens from the couch. Lindsay, age
3, plays with her toys and alternately runs from mother to
father, climbing onto his lap or cuddling under her arm.
Some day, Bonnie Peterson says, she would like society to stop
treating blindness as a daunting handicap. Once, in Madison,
while she was transferring from one bus to another going to
Portage, a man walked up to her and grabbed her arm. He said,
`I'll take you to the ladies' room. I know where it is,'  she
recalls.
Her reply:  I know where it is, too, Sir, and I don't need to go
to the ladies' room. 
She took his hand from her shoulder, shook it, and thanked him
for his concern.
And Peterson won't forget the woman who noticed she was pregnant
and asked:  How did you do that? 
Peterson acknowledges that many people are curious or simply want
to help. But she argues that a blind person should have the right
to make an error and correct it, just like anyone else.   I don't
think blindness is that much more difficult than any other thing, 
she says, noting that it's also hard to be obese or to have a
speech impediment.
 Everybody's got their own sadness. 
About a month after Adeline and Chester Szortyka brought Bonnie,
their first-born, home from the hospital in 1953, they realized
that something was wrong.
She never grabbed for the baby bottle when she was hungry; she
just cried. And her eyes would not follow people moving around
her.  Adeline Szortyka now suspects that the daughter's loss of
vision was caused by medical treatment given when Bonnie was born
prematurely.  She was placed in an incubator with extra oxygen
for a couple of days.  Medical studies later showed that extra
oxygen to babies caused blood vessels to enlarge. When the oxygen
was taken away, the vessels shrank, causing blindness.
Their daughter was fortunate she still had some vision. The
Szortykas raised Bonnie to be independent, and Bonnie pushed
herself hard.   We were amazed at some of the stuff she would try
and do, but she was a fierce competitor,  says her father.
Adds her mother:  She would try anything. Whatever anyone wanted
to do, she wanted to do, too. 
And though her parents encouraged her to try new things, they
also worried.  We tried to get her to realize that some of these
things, they're not possible to do,  her father says.
He was referring to activities such as riding a bike, which
Bonnie learned to do with friends and still does on occasion.
When she was growing up on the South Side, Peterson recalls, she
wanted to be like all the other kids at the (now-defunct) St.
Stanislaus grade school on Mitchell St. So she put up with
headaches caused by eyestrain and used what little vision she had
for school work.  In between classes, she would rush to the
bathroom to wash the ink off the tip of her nose the only way to
read or write was to press her nose to the paper so her eyes
could decipher the print.
Although there were frequent trips to the eye doctor, she never
considered herself blind. When one teacher suggested that she
learn Braille, Peterson automatically rejected the idea, and no
one mentioned it again.
 That's what blind people did, and why would I want to do that if
I wasn't blind?  she remembers thinking at the time.  She was
doubly hesitant to think of herself as blind, because her image
of blind people was distorted. She thought that blind people
stood on street corners selling pencils. And she had once seen a
horror movie (her nose pressed to the TV screen) with  scary
blind people  walking with their arms outstretched, bumping into
each other.  Her dreams did not include selling pencils. She
wanted to be somebody some day and to marry a  nice, handsome
guy,  she says, gesturing to Joel.
It took her first child Candice, now eight years old, to show
Peterson that she is indeed blind.
When Candice was just a baby, Peterson memorized her books and
read them back to her. With the rhymes and short phrases meant
for children, it was not a difficult feat.
But as her daughter got older, the books became too difficult to
memorize.  So Peterson would hold a book to her face, read a
page, then show the picture to Candice.
Finally, at age three and a half, Candice had had enough. She
pulled away a book her mother was reading to her and took it to
her father.   I just felt so stabbed,  Peterson says, hitting her
fist against her heart, the pain on her face as visible as if the
incident
had happened just that morning.  Oh, it was bad. It took a
three-and-a-half-year-old to be honest with me. 
Within two months Peterson had learned Braille. After that, when
she read to her daughter, Peterson read from her Braille books
and Candice followed along with her printed books.
It was these experiences of growing up without learning to read
and write Braille and without learning to move around with a cane
that have laid the foundation for much of her work with the
National Federation of the Blind.
Peterson believes that all blind children, whether partially
blind or totally blind, should be taught to read and write
Braille and to move around with a cane. (She didn't learn to use
a cane until the Federation taught her in 1985.)
 I will go to my grave fighting  for the right of a blind child
to be taught to use a baby cane as soon as he or she is able to
walk, she says.
But the public schools' practice generally has been to wait until
a child loses all sight before teaching the child Braille,
Peterson says. And  mobility training,  or using a cane, is often
put off until a child is at least nine or ten years old.  She
once accompanied a mother to a meeting of educators in Racine to
discuss the woman's nine-year-old daughter. The girl's vision was
20/400, which is legally blind.
The mother wanted her daughter, as well as her other children and
herself, to learn Braille. The educators were opposed.  Peterson
says the vision teacher responded:  It's almost like you want
your child to be blind. Do you know what blindness is? It's a
cancer. 
In Portage another family with a three-year-old boy asked the
school to teach their son to use a cane, in addition to reading
and writing Braille. The educators objected, saying that a cane
was too technical and could be used incorrectly by a young child.
Peterson jumped up, grabbed her cane, and said:  This is a stick;
that's all this is, a stick. You tap it, it reverberates up your
arm and to your brain. It's not sophisticated, technical
equipment.  Andrew Papineau, a state Department of Public
Instruction consultant for the blind and visually impaired, says
educational decisions are made based on the individual child.
The DPI has no set policy on whether a child must be totally
blind to learn Braille and no policy on how old a child must be
to learn to use a cane, he says.
Those are philosophical questions that are left to the teachers
and the local school district to decide, Papineau says. Parents
who disagree may appeal the decision.
 It's not for me or Bonnie to say yes or no or, `They're right'
or `They're wrong,'  Papineau says.  We have to have confidence
in the teachers' evaluations. 
On another front, Peterson criticizes the state Division of
Vocational Rehabilitation, which helps disabled people adjust to
their disabilities and then finds them work.
She says the agency is more interested in placing people in jobs
and closing their files than in helping people establish careers
with good jobs.
 There are no checks and balances on this place,  she says.  
It's like a rambling colossus with tentacles in every part of the
state. 
She was particularly angry when a division counselor told her
years ago that if she wanted the agency to pay her college
tuition, she had to enroll in the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Peterson already had decided to attend
Alverno College it was close to her home and offered a course of
study she wished to pursue.
So she stood her ground and went to Alverno, but the agency paid
her tuition only for her first year and part of her second. If
she had gone to UWM, the agency would have paid for everything,
she says.  To earn money for tuition, she got a full-time job at
Industries for the Blind, making pens and pencils. Later she
filed a complaint with the U. S. Labor Department that Industries
had violated affirmative action rules by not recruiting and
advancing women and blind people for management jobs. The Labor
Department Office of Federal Contract Compliance agreed, though
it said there was insufficient evidence to show that Industries
for the Blind had discriminated against Peterson.  Michael
Nelipovich, who works in the state Division of Vocational
Rehabilitation's office of the blind, says Peterson's
characterization of his agency is unfair.
 Too often people look at those of us in government as not
caring, as bureaucrats, and I take exception to that,  he says. 
However, he says,  It's always good in having consumer advocates
to look over our shoulders, to give us gentle reminders or rattle
our cage once in a while. 
But he insists the agency staff who work with blind people are
highly dedicated.  If folks were in the work world to make big
bucks, they wouldn't be devoting their life to civil service. 
Training for newly blind adults is another area that needs
reform, Peterson says. She quarrels with the Division of
Vocational Rehabilitation for sending people to its visually
impaired program at the Milwaukee Area Technical College. Each
year the program offers courses in Braille, mobility skills,
grooming, cooking, and house cleaning to about 120 blind adults.
During the last three years, Peterson says, twenty-eight students
have complained to the Federation that the curriculum is
inflexible, some of the instructors are patronizing, and there is
no mechanism for students' evaluations. The Federation also says
that MATC's accreditation comes from an unreliable organization,
NAC (the National Accreditation Council for Agencies Serving the
Blind and Visually Handicapped).  Says Peterson:  They [MATC
officials] said, `We don't have to change anything because the
program has been accredited by the Council (NAC) and we meet
their standards.'  MATC, she claims, is using the accreditation
as a shield against criticism rather than responding to the needs
of individuals in the program.
Besides meeting with MATC officials and writing the state
Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, the Federation picketed
MATC in early October and passed a resolution November 5
condemning the  repressive policies at MATC which demean the
blind.  The group also demanded that the state agency withhold
funding from the MATC program temporarily.  Adds Peterson: 
They're not bad people [at MATC]. They just think blind people
need to be treated with kid gloves. It's like a big baby-sitting
service. 
MATC officials recently issued a five-page statement criticizing
the National Federation of the blind for using  questionable
tactics  in an attempt to discredit the program. They say they
are skeptical that the 28 complaints Peterson says she received
really exist. Peterson won't release the names of the
complainants to protect their identities.   It is obvious that
the real issue in this case is not the MATC Visually Impaired
Program but an attempt by the National Federation of the Blind to
take over accreditation from the National Accreditation Council, 
the MATC statement said. Peterson denies that.   It is also quite
evident that the NFB will use any means whatever to accomplish
its ends, including distortion and defamation,  the MATC
statement concluded. School officials say they plan no changes in
the program.
John Conway, who coordinates services for hearing impaired and
visually impaired people at the state Division of Vocational
Rehabilitation, says his agency plans to review the MATC program
this year.  Meanwhile, when budget hearings on state funding of
the MATC program are held later this year, Peterson says
Federation members plan to testify against state funding.
Reaction to this controversy from some other members of the blind
community, who historically have disliked the National Federation
of the Blind, has been negative. They object to the Federation's
tactics, saying it is radical and unable to compromise.
 It appears to some people that they tend to want us to destroy
the system and rebuild it rather than remodel it from within, 
says Adrian DeBlaey, president of the Midwest Association for the
Blind, a Wisconsin group with about 400 members.
 I wouldn't want to say the National Federation of the Blind is
all bad,  DeBlaey says.
DeBlaey, who is legally blind, also disagrees with Peterson and
the Federation's view that blindness should not be considered a
disability.   It isn't a devastating disability that can't be
dealt with,  he says, but then adds:  Anyone who says blindness
isn't a handicap is kidding themselves. 
For example, he says, a trip from Southridge Shopping Center to
his home on N. 57th St. takes two hours on the bus.  If I could
see better, I could drive. It would certainly be easier to get
around.  Gordon Haldiman, president of the Milwaukee-based Badger
Association of the Blind, says there seems to be  some
anti-sighted feeling  at the National Federation of the Blind.
Both DeBlaey and Haldiman say they believe the MATC program is
essentially good, though it may need some fine tuning. They say
Peterson and the Federation have overstated the case against the
program.  But Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation
of the Blind, headquartered in Baltimore, says criticism of
Peterson is inevitable.   I think Bonnie is making change, and I
don't think it's going to be entirely peaceful,  he says.
He says Peterson is pushing the system to become more responsive
to the people it serves. And she and the Federation are trying to
change the public's perceptions of the blind.  No group can go
from second-class status to first-class status without making
some people annoyed,  says Maurer.
Peterson's lecture for her Parkside class today is on persuasion. 
She tells the students that threats can change what a person does
but only persuasion can change what's in someone's heart.  After
class in the student union, she is back to her coffee and her
Benson & Hedges. She says she's not discouraged, that  this
business of changing attitudes is a day-by- day effort.
 Is it any different than the struggle with women?  she asks.  
This is the same thing blacks were going through and still are
going through. 
On the philosophical side, she looks to philosopher Rene
Descartes, who first said,  I think, therefore I am. 
 What you do with your mind is the essence of a person,  she
says.  Not, I see, therefore I am. Not, I'm pretty, therefore I
am. It's what you do with your mind. 

                             RECIPES


                        SWEET POTATO PIE
                         by Jenny Smith

 Jenny Smith is a member of the Anderson Chapter of the National
Federation of the Blind of South Carolina. 

Ingredients:
1-1/2 cups mashed sweet potatoes
1/3 stick butter or margarine
2 eggs
1/3 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
Dash of mace
1 teaspoon vanilla
Pie shell

Bake at 450 degrees for ten minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees
for twenty to thirty minutes.

                       CHEESY SPINACH PIE
                        by Eileen Rivera
 Eileen Rivera is a former NFB scholarship winner and is now a
resident of Maryland, where she actively participates in
Federation work and holds (see elsewhere in this issue) a
responsible position with the Wilmer Eye Clinic at Johns Hopkins.


Ingredients:
1 single pie shell
1-1/2 cups shredded
cheddar and/or swiss cheese
1 chopped onion
2 minced garlic cloves
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 packages frozen spinach
2 tablespoons crushed oregano
1 teaspoon each: pepper, sweet basil, salt
3 beaten eggs
2/3 cup milk
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 cup cottage cheese

Prepare pie shell. Bake at 350 degrees for twelve minutes. Remove
shell from oven and spread grated cheese in the hot shell. In a
large sauce pan, saut  the onion and garlic in the olive oil.
Next, add the defrosted spinach and spices. Stir the mixture over
medium heat for about five minutes. Then, combine the eggs, milk,
and parmesan and cottage cheeses in the pot. Stir until mixture
thickens. Pour filling into the pie shell and bake for thirty to
forty minutes. Great with a crisp garden salad and warm rolls.
                      CHOCOLATE PIE FILLING
                         by Mary Hartle
 Mary Hartle is a long-time member of the Federation from
Minnesota. 

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Prepare and bake pie shell.

Ingredients:
1 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
2 tablespoons corn starch
3 egg yolks (save whites
for meringue topping)
1 cup milk

Method: Combine dry ingredients in a pan, straining them as you
pour them into the pan (straining prevents corn starch from
forming lumps). Beat by hand egg yolks and milk together in a
bowl. Slowly stir yolk and milk mixture into pan of other
ingredients. Cook all ingredients over medium heat, stirring
constantly, until mixture thickens.  Pour mixture into baked pie
shell. Spread meringue topping over chocolate mixture. Bake for
twenty minutes.

Meringue Topping:
Gradually combine egg whites saved from chocolate filling above
with one cup of white sugar and beat together, using electric
beater, until stiff peaks are formed. Spread over chocolate
filling.

                    HOW TO PRESERVE A HUSBAND
                        by Gwen Rittgers
 Gwen Rittgers, one of the most steadfast and faithful members
the Federation has ever had, lives in Kansas City. She says:  I
submit this recipe just for fun.  

Be careful in your selection. Do not choose too young. When
selected, give your entire thoughts to preparation for domestic
use. Some wives insist upon keeping them in a pickle; others are
constantly getting them into hot water. This may make them sour,
hard, and bitter. Sometimes even poor varieties may be made
sweet, tender, and good by garnishing them with patience,
well-sweetened with love and charity. Season with kisses, wrap
them in a mantle of devotion, and serve with peaches and cream.
Thus prepared, they will keep for years.  

                       Monitor Miniatures


**E. U. Parker Hospitalized:
From the Editor: I was sitting in my office one morning late in
February when I received a call from E. U. Parker. He was his
usual cheerful self, but he was not calling from Mississippi. He
was in the Tulane Medical Center in New Orleans. He checked in on
February 23 and had surgery to fuse vertibrae in his neck on
February 24. He said he would be home soon and back at it full
speed.

**Mardi Gras:
The following Associated Press story was widely printed
throughout the country in early February of this year:
New Orleans - Ernestine Morais and her classmates were having as
much fun grabbing for beads as anyone at the Carnival parade. But
they came for a serious lesson.
 This is one of our biggest confidence builders. Mardi Gras is
the ultimate,  said Joanne Fernandes, director of the Louisiana
Center for the Blind.  If you can travel through a Mardi Gras
crowd, you can go through any crowd and you can go to any place. 
And even though they couldn't see the gaudy floats or the plastic
beads and aluminum doubloons thrown from them, the members of her
group were having a blast.
 It's a lot of fun. Time just to cut loose and anything goes, 
said Ms. Morais of Central, California.  California has nothing
on New Orleans. We look like we're throwing a tea party compared
to down here. ....

**PROVOX:
Dr. Charles Hallenbeck, one of the leaders of the NFB of Kansas,
writes
as follows:
This announcement from KANSYS, Inc., 1016 Ohio, Lawrence, Kansas
66044
- Important news for PROVOX users. Version 3.0 of the PROVOX
Screen Review Program is now available to registered users for
the asking and to others for $295. PROVOX is small, simple,
inexpensive, and habit-forming. It now supports a great variety
of speech devices and has many new conveniences. Get a full
featured demonstration copy for $25. Manual available in Braille,
on diskette, in print, and on cassette if you insist. Write for
more information or call Dave at (913) 843-0351, or Chuck or
Cindy at (913) 842- 4016.

**Elected:
Norma Beathard writes: Elections were held at the January 21,
1989, meeting of the Houston Chapter of the National Federation
of the Blind of Texas. Those elected were: Norma Beathard,
President; Lawrence Doiron, First Vice President; Joe Triplett,
Second Vice President; James Skelton, Treasurer; Diane Paine,
Secretary; and Azilee Floyd and Ora Handy, Board Members.

**Dies:
David Brownell, Secretary of the Gate City Chapter of the
National Federation of the Blind of New Hampshire, writes:  It is
with sadness that I must inform you of the December 19, 1988,
passing of Gate City Chapter President Edna Heaps. She was an
active, loyal member and leader of the New Hampshire affiliate
for many years. Despite her limited income and declining health,
she was able to attend the Kansas City convention in 1983. 

**Elected:
David Walker writes as follows:  At the January, 1989, meeting of
the National Federation of the Blind of Jefferson City, Missouri,
the following officers were elected: President, Betty Walker;
Vice President, Rita Lynch; Secretary, Dave Walker; Treasurer,
Alvin Toebben; and Board Members: John Crisp, George Bushman, and
Brian Wekamp. 

**Writers Division Workshop:
The National Federation of the Blind Writers Division will hold a
Writer's Workshop featuring author and lecturer, Sue Viders, on
Monday, July 3, 1989, in conjunction with the national convention
of the NFB in Denver, Colorado. The six- hour workshop will focus
on non-fiction writing, with a special emphasis toward marketing
authors' work. The cost is $35, which inlcudes all workshop
material. For more information about this workshop or other
workshops available through the Writers Division, contact Tom
Stevens, 1203 Fairview Road, Columbia, Missouri 652203. Advance
registration is encouraged. Please make all checks payable to the
NFB Writers Division.

**Buy:
We have been asked to carry the following announcement: I would
like to buy a Perkins Brailler. A second-hand one in good
condition would be fine. Write to: Ronnie Strote, 1711 Notre Dame
Road, Rockford, Illinois 61103.

**Honored:
Most  Monitor  readers know Margaret Warren, who lives in Iowa
and is deaf-blind. For many years she has read aloud to the
children in her church. Mary Ann Martin travels with and
interprets for her.  Margaret is an active member of the
organized blind movement. In a recent letter she said:
Mary Ann Martin and I were nominated as the most outstanding
volunteers by the Methodist Hill Children's Center. We were
interviewed and filmed by Channel 13 yesterday for a special
program they are doing on volunteers every Friday this year. Our
presentation will be seen tomorrow night at 5:00 p.m. I have been
reading to the children for seventeen years as of January. I love
doing volunteer work and wish I had more of it. I feel I am
wasting my life just reading and writing letters every day, so it
is a real joy to me when I can do something useful.

**Radio Reading Services:
The following item is taken from the February, 1989, issue of 
Hearsay , the publicaiton of the Association of Radio Reading
Services:   During the winter of 1987 a survey of radio reading
services throughout the country was undertaken. At the time of
the survey forty states had radio reading services, with 101 in
operation. All services have an affiliation with some type of
not-for-profit organization.  About one-third are affiliated with
a university/college/library, one-third with various
not-for-profit agencies, and a fourth with the Agency for the
Blind and Public Broadcasting. 

**Elected:
On January 21, 1989, the Memphis Federation of the Blind elected
the following: President, Ruth Broadnax; First Vice President,
Lev Williams; Second Vice President, James Broadnax; Secretary,
June Mangum; Treasurer, Rosa Young; and Board Member, Willie Mae
Northington.

**Fulbright Grant:
Recently President Maurer received a letter from Robert Greenberg
(one of the leaders of the National Federation of the Blind of
Connecticut), which said in part:  I have been nominated for a
Fulbright Grant for Eastern Europe, and I will, therefore, spend
next academic year in Yugoslavia, conducting research for my
dissertation. 

**Congratulations and Commendations:
Ed Meskys, President of the National Federation of the Blind of
New Hampshire, writes in the first edition of the  New Hampshire
Federationist , newsletter of the NFB of New Hampshire, that he
and Sandy Parker, who have known one another for twenty years,
will be married on April 29, 1989. He also announces that two
members of the NFB of New Hampshire have just had books
published. Ed Meskys of the Lakes Region Chapter has brought out 
The Once and Future Arthur , an anthology of original articles
about King Arthur in legend and literature, and Rick Holmes of
Merrimack Valley has published a history of the town of Derry.
Meskys continues to publish  NIEKAS , a magazine about science
fiction. He has edited and published it since 1962, and in 1967
he received the Hugo Award for the best fanzine or magazine about
SF.

**Dog Guide List Wanted:
Priscilla Ferris, President of the National Federation of the
Blind of Massachusetts, recently sent the following letter to all
NFB state presidents. It has equal relevance to chapter
presidents and individual dog guide users. Here it is:
 During our national convention, held in Chicago, our Dog Guide
Committee became the National Association of Dog Guide Users.
Robert Eschbach, President of this Division, has asked me to
compile a list of names and addresses of as many dog guide users
as we can possibly locate. I am asking your assistance in
compiling such a list.   Our goal is to inform dog guide users as
to what is available to them as a member of our dog guide
division. It would be to their advantage if they became a member
of our division. We have a division newsletter entitled  Harness
Up , which is very informational.  A mailing list would enable us
to send out advance information to those planning to attend our
national conventions. As a dog guide user, I know that advance
information would help me to plan my schedule to accommodate
myself but mostly to consider the needs and comfort of my
four-footed friend. Also, the Division is a sounding board for
problems which are not unique to just a few but concern all who
have chosen dog guides as our mode of independence. 
 Your cooperation in this endeavor will be very much appreciated. 
Lists may be sent in Braille, print, or cassette (cassettes not
to be returned) to the attention of Priscilla Ferris, NFB of
Massachusetts, 72 Bank Street, Fall River, Massachusetts 02720.
Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. 

**Through the Looking Glass:
We very often find interesting, informative, stimulating, and
worthwhile items in the  New Beacon  magazine, the publication of
the Royal National Institute for the Blind in England. However,
we sometimes find announcements which at the very least bring a
smile and in the most astonishment. Here is one of the latter. It
appears in the December, 1988, issue; and it seems to us that the
very least we can do is to try to lend a hand in publicizing this
expressed need. Here without further comment is the announcement,
just as it was published:   Bachelor  very much wishes to meet,
view marriage, short-sighted girl with very strong lenses for
high myopia. Absolutely genuine, healthy, sense of humor,
professional artist. Please ring 01-602-4799. 

**Elected:
Steve Zielinski writes:  On January 3, 1989, the Detroit Chapter
conducted its annual elections. The following results occurred:
Ray Roberson, President; Donald Drapinski, First Vice President;
Steve Handschu, Second Vice President; Steve Zielinski,
Secretary; Donna Posont, Treasurer; Board Members Angele Curvin
and Charlie Hortin; and Chapter Representative, Alberta Brown. 

**Widely Available:
Ed Bryant, Editor of  The Voice of the Diabetic , writes to tell
us of increasing public interest in the  Voice of the Diabetic ,
the publication of the Diabetics Division of the National
Federation of the Blind. Majors Scientific Books, Inc., which
handles subscriptions for libraries throughout the United States
and Canada, has requested permission to list the  Voice of the
Diabetic  in their publications.

**Eclectic Dining:
 From the Editor : In my work as Editor of the  Monitor  I come
across wondrously diverse documents and bits of information. 
Recently Revanne Duckett, one of my former students in Iowa, gave
me a book which I thought I should share with  Monitor  readers. 
I have it in my hand as I write. It is a paperback and thoroughly
unpretentious, but its contents compensate for any lack of
glamour which it may fail to exude. As a beginning, consider the
title:  Entertaining With Insects /or:  The Original Guide to
Insect Cookery.  No, the authors are not speaking allegorically
or in metaphors. They mean every recipe of it. Just in case the
book is still available and you might like to buy it, here is the
pertinent information. The authors are Ronald L. Taylor and
Barbara J. Carter. It is published by Woodbridge Press Publishing
Company, Santa Barbara, California 93111.

**New Chapter:
Ted Young, President of the National Federation of the Blind of
Pennsylvania, writes:  The Lancaster County Chapter was formed on
Friday, December 16, 1988. Cindy Handel, state treasurer and a
leader in the Pennsylvania affiliate, was elected chapter
president. This is an energetic, enthusiastic group, and we look
forward to many good things from this chapter.

**Elected:
Mary Ellen Halverson, editor of the  Gem State Milestones , the
newsletter of the NFB of Idaho, reports that the newly elected
officers of the Magic Valley Chapter are: President, Marge
Ehresman; Vice President, Walt Hine; Secretary, Kathryn Ward; and
Treasurer, Kent Ireton.

**Teachers of Blind Children:
Doris Willoughby writes as follows:  During the 1988 NFB
convention four teachers of blind children had lunch together.
Discussing common concerns was very rewarding, and the idea of
some kind of group or network was discussed. If you are a teacher
of blind children high school age or younger (whether blind or
sighted yourself) and interested in discussion with other
teachers who share the NFB philosophy, please write to: Doris M.
Willoughby, 2711 54th Street, Des Moines, Iowa 50310. A
get-together will be announced during the National Convention
week in Denver. Suggestions for other activities are welcome.

**Relocated:
According to  The Pathfinder , the newsletter of the National
Federation of the Blind of Louisiana, Dave and Debbie Robinson,
recently of Omaha, Nebraska, have moved to Ruston, Louisiana. Mr.
Robinson has joined the staff of the Louisiana Center for the
Blind as a Job Placement Specialist. Believing that the average
blind person can do the average job as well as the average
sighted person if he or she is given the proper training and has
the proper attitudes, his challenge will be to help blind people
to evaluate their own abilities and needs and then assist them
either to find work or to help them get the necessary skills to
do so. Good luck to the Robinsons.

**Library:
We have been asked to carry the following announcement:  The
Plough Publishing House Free Braille Lending Library warmly
invites readers of the  Braille Monitor  to borrow our Braille
catalogue. The books available, both fiction and nonfiction, deal
with current issues such as social concerns for justice, peace
and war, personal commitment to Christ, children's education,
marriage and faithfulness, personal relationships, and racial
issues. It will be noticed that these are serious subjects, and
the library does not contain matter for light entertainment but
is concerned with life issues from the standpoint of the
Christian message. All inquiries to: BMO Department, Braille
Lending Library, Hutterian Brethren, Deer Spring Bruderhof,
Norfolk, Connecticut 06058; or BMO Department, Braille Lending
Library, Hutterian Brethren, Darvell Bruderhof, Robertsbridge,
East Sussex TN32 5DR, ENGLAND. 

**Product Announcement:
Tim Cranmer submits the following: The Institute on Applied
Rehabilitation Technology (IART) in cooperation with Digital
Equipment Corporation (DEC) announces a version of DECtalkTM,
which is portable and smaller in size and weight than the
original model. DECtalk is a versatile speech synthesizer,
featuring eight standard  human- sounding  voices (four male,
three female, one child) and a sophisticated text-to-speech
algorithm. DECtalk is recognized as a useful tool for the
visually impaired in providing audible feedback of material
displayed on a computer monitor. The portable DECtalk is an
external serial device enabling it to be used with most computer
systems.
This version weighs only seven pounds (with C batteries), and its
dimensions are 11 inches by 8.5 inches by 3 inches. On a full
charge, the portable DECtalk can be used constantly for up to
twenty-four hours. The anticipated cost of the unit will be
approximately $2,000.  Only a limited number of units will be
available. For more information contact: Dr. Howard C. Shane,
Institute on Applied Rehabilitation Technology, The Children's
Hospital, 300 Longwood Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, (617)
735- 6466.

**For Sale:
We have been asked to carry the following announcement: 
VersaBraille II+ For Sale - VersaBraille II+ only one year old,
barely used. Everything from mailing packages to manuals in
perfect condition. $5,750 brand new will sell for $3,599. If
interested, please contact Jon Deden at (800) 333-2858 extension
248 (days) or (303) 722-2529 (evenings).  

**Elected:
We recently received a letter from Robin McFarland, Vice
President of the National Federation of the Blind of Northern
Kentucky, saying that  On January 12 the National Federation of
the Blind of Northern Kentucky held their 1989 elections. The
officers are as follows: President, Bill Deatherage; Vice
President, Robin McFarland; Treasurer, Margaret Yancy; and
Secretary, Jerry Rader. 

**Help From Campers Requested:
We have been asked to carry the following announcement:  Over the
past three years I have become blind and unable to drive. My wife
is now driving our thirty-foot fifth wheel and truck. I would
like to hear from any other blind campers to see if they continue
to enjoy camping and to request any special hints they might have
to make their camping more fun. Contact: Fred Hawkins, 328
Shappee Street, Horseheads, New York 14845. 

**Recipes Analyzed:
 From the Editor : Sandra (Sandy) Ryan was a student at the Iowa
Commission for the Blind during the time I was director. She went
on to become a registered dietitian. She recently wrote me as
follows:   I am writing to offer an exciting new service to  
Monitor  readers and friends. As you may know, I am a Registered
Dietitian.  One of the things I can do is analyze recipes for
their nutrient content and determine diabetic exchanges for the
recipe. I can analyze recipes in print, Braille, or on cassette.
My price for print or Braille is $1.50 per recipe. I will also do
cassette recipes for $1.50 each if a cassette is included with
the order. Otherwise, the $3 cost of the cassette will be
included with each recipe after the first costing $1.50.
 Please have interested individuals contact me at 5117 Schubert,
Ames, Iowa 50010 or call (515) 292-2328 (evenings only). I am
very excited about being able to offer this service to persons
interested in eating a nutritious, balanced diet, and especially
to diabetics.  Analaysis can help everyone to select recipes
suitable to their individual lifestyles and needs. 

**For Sale:
We have been asked to carry the following announcement:  Eureka
A4 in very good condition, $1,995, which includes UPS shipping to
anywhere in the U.S. Purchased in October, 1988. Price also
includes manuals on cassette and disk, plus over 200 games and
utilities programs.  Contact me in Braille, by cassette, or
phone. Mr. Keith Bucher, Box 130, Reader, West Virginia 26167,
phone (304) 386-4332. 

**New Chapter Organized:
The following announcement appeared in the January, 1989, issue
of  The Pathfinder , the newsletter of the National Federation of
the Blind of Louisiana: A team of organizers, including Joanne
Fernandes, Ernie Morais, Cora Corwin, Harold Wilson, Zach Shore,
and Rachel LeBlanc ventured down to Jennings, Louisiana, in
November, 1988 to help found the South Central Chapter of the NFB
of Louisiana. Several enthusiastic people from Jennings and the
surrounding area were on hand to begin this chapter. The newly
elected officers are: Loretta Washington, President; Vernon
Breaux, First Vice-President; Lena Vasseur, Second
Vice-President; Marissa Perry, Secretary; Shirley Breaux,
Treasurer; and Claude Boudreaux and Warren Vasseur, Board
Members.

**The Way Of All Flesh:
The spring issues of many monthly magazines include suggested
diets designed to inspire or shame readers as they contemplate
their summer wardrobes or shop for swimwear. Margaret Warren of
Iowa sent us a diet with a difference. We offer it here as an
antidote to your other reading. It comes neither recommended nor
denigrated. It has struck us, however, as having about it the
whisper of truth. Here it is:  Breakfast: one half grapefruit,
one slice whole wheat toast, eight ounces skim milk
Lunch: four ounces lean, broiled chicken breast, one cup steamed
spinach, a cup of herb tea, and one Oreo cookie
Mid-Afternoon Snack: the rest of the Oreos in the package, two
pints rocky road ice cream, one jar hot fudge sauce, nuts,
cherries, and whipped cream
Dinner: two loaves of garlic bread with cheese, one large
sausage, mushroom, and cheese pizza, four cans or one large
pitcher of beer, and three milky way bars
Evening Snack: one entire frozen cheesecake, eaten directly from
the package

Rules:
1. If you eat something and nobody sees you eat it, it has no
calories.

2. If you drink a diet soda with a candy bar, its calories are
canceled out by the soda.
3. When you eat with someone else, calories don't count unless
you eat more than they do.
4. If you fatten everyone around you, you'll look thinner.
5. Cookie pieces contain no calories; the process of breaking
them causes calorie leakage.
                       CONVENTION SPECIAL
                        by Diane McGeorge
The National Federation of the Blind convention in Denver is
where the action will be in early July. Remember the tours! Don't
forget to make your reservations for the incredible Georgetown
tour on Friday afternoon, July 7. For this exciting tour we board
the bus in Denver and head for the hills. Just fifty miles west
of Denver is the old mining town of Georgetown (no relation to
Diane or Ray). The Georgetown Loop Railroad, a narrow gauge steam
train, will be boarded in Georgetown, and from there we'll take
the six-mile, one-hour round trip to Silver Plume and back.
On to Georgetown. Many have called it a Swiss village tucked away
in the Rockies. Full of quaint shops and excellent restaurants,
we'll have hours of fun here.
So, go back in time with us, relive the trip, and experience
American heritage on our 1885 railroad. This seven-hour western
history experience (which includes round trip transportation from
Denver, the railroad ride, and shopping in Georgetown) is yours
for $26 per person. Reservations for the train are limited and
must be made no later than June 16, 1989, with: Nancy Richardson,
The Western Wanderer, Inc., 6343 South Monaco Court, Englewood,
Colorado 80111. Make your reservations now!  If the mountains are
not your preference, then a double decker bus to Coors brewery
might be your cup of tea or should we say might be your stein of
beer! Other tours will be available on Friday afternoon, July 7,
so be sure to check our tour desk concerning information for
Central City or Estes Park.
Join us Friday evening for a visit to the Comedy Works in
downtown Denver. Many famous comedians got started at the Comedy
Works for instance, Roseann Barr. So, for an evening of laughs,
come to the Comedy Works.
Jazz it up! Something you won't want to miss. On Wednesday
evening, July 5, at the Hyatt Regency, for your listening
pleasure, Colorado is proud to present the best jazz band in the
West. The Queen City Jazz Band plays traditional Dixieland Jazz,
Kansas City Jazz, and any other jazz you can think of. So jazz up
your evening! Come see the Queen City Jazz Band. Tickets are $5
per person in advance, $6 per person at the door. We'll see you
there.
One last comment. The NFB of Colorado is having a surprise night
for all of you. Let your curiosity get the best of you. Attend
this year's National Convention in Denver, Colorado.
