                       THE BRAILLE MONITOR



                     Barbara Pierce, 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 

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



ISSN 0006-8829THE BRAILLE MONITOR
A PUBLICATION OF THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND

                            CONTENTS

                                                   NOVEMBER, 1993

MAINSTREAMING, SCHOOLS FOR THE BLIND, AND FULL INCLUSION: WHAT
SHALL THE FUTURE OF EDUCATION FOR BLIND CHILDREN BE?

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS IN THE WORKPLACE
by Curtis Chong

CALIFORNIA VENDORS WIN RIGHT TO INDEPENDENT ELECTIONS
by Sharon Gold

UPDATE ON A DOWNFALL: NAC'S SLIDE CONTINUES
by Barbara Pierce

CENTERING ON SUCCESS

BRAILLE READERS ARE LEADERS CONTEST FORM

COMING TO TERMS WITH MYSELF AT THE COLORADO CENTER FOR THE BLIND
by Jaime Fradera

BLIND, INC., BUDDIES GIVE THUMBS UP

ART AT THE 1993 CONVENTION
by Janet Bixby

PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST AS A YOUNG GIRL
by Heather Kirkwood

THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND 1994 SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM
by Barbara Pierce

MORE ABOUT JURY SERVICE

RECIPES

MONITOR MINIATURES











    Copyright  National Federation of the Blind, Inc., 1993
[FOUR LEAD PHOTOS: (1) Blind child on skis. (2) Blind child
singing during musical competition (accompanied by men on guitar
and violin). (3) Blind child on floor reading Twin Vision
(print/Braille) book. (4) Blind teenager crossing street with
cane.  CAPTION: All normal children are active and curious, and
blind children (being as normal as anybody else) are no
exception. If they are discouraged from expanding their horizons
and mastering new skills, children give up and cease to push at
the boundaries of their abilities. Again, blind youngsters are no
different from their sighted peers in this respect. Too often,
however, the low expectations of parents and educators of blind
children discourage the child's sense of adventure and eagerness
to learn. The educational challenge facing us all is to provide
the opportunities to learn what will enable blind youngsters to
keep up with their sighted friends and classmates. There is no
single solution to this problem, but we must find a way to work
together to solve it if all blind youngsters are to have the same
chance to learn confidence and independence that the kids
pictured here have been given.]


              MAINSTREAMING, SCHOOLS FOR THE BLIND,
            AND FULL INCLUSION: WHAT SHALL THE FUTURE
               OF EDUCATION FOR BLIND CHILDREN BE?

     From the Editor: Probably the most vehement discussions and
potentially dangerous struggles going on among those concerned
about the education of blind children today involve instructional
options for these youngsters. Full inclusion is the term that has
replaced mainstreaming in special education circles. Those who
espouse the most responsible articulation of this concept refuse
to condone warehousing any disabled children at all in segregated
classrooms because there they can too easily be forgotten by
other educators and children alike, who are then free to learn in
the regular classroom, without the complications that disabled
children are generally presumed to cause. These theorists intend
to include all disabled students fully in the regular classroom
in such a way that they will fully benefit from the instruction
and that all members of the class will learn and grow through
both the educational opportunities and the social interaction. 
     Unfortunately, it is becoming obvious to many that this
theory is being enthusiastically embraced by local education
officials, not because they recognize that they have been short-
changing the disabled students in their schools, but because they
see in it the chance to eliminate all special instructional
programs in favor of saving money by dumping everyone into the
regular classroom. Properly implemented, full inclusion is not a
cost-cutting measure because the responsibility remains to
provide every child with the services he or she requires in order
to take full advantage of regular classroom learning. But the
concept that full inclusion must meet all the needs of every
child is being lost in the mad dash to combine all children in
one educational setting, regardless of the consequences. 
     At the other extreme of the discussion are the advocates of
residential schools for the blind. At their best, such
institutions can teach the skills and positive attitudes
necessary for blind students to take full advantage of all
educational opportunities available to them. All too frequently,
however, these schools have become both centers of
undistinguished teaching and nonacademic repositories of
youngsters with low expectations for themselves and poor
attitudes about blindness. 
     Between these two extremes are proponents of a range of
instructional options from occasional itinerant instruction to
full-time resource rooms and teachers in the public school.
Others propose teacher's aids or outreach programs to assist
blind students and their teachers. In short, possible solutions
to this critically important problem proliferate because, while
all of them are effective occasionally and in some settings, none
has so far been demonstrated to deliver marked success
consistently and widely. 
     There is no doubt that the full inclusion faction is growing
in strength and power. The result is that with every passing
month blind children are less and less likely to receive the
Braille, abacus, cane travel, keyboarding, and other skills they
need. While almost none of us familiar with today's residential
schools is prepared to argue that they offer the obvious and
universal educational solution for blind students, we freely
admit that they can and sometimes do provide skills training that
many blind youngsters simply will not get in the foreseeable
future in any other school setting. It seems foolish to dismantle
this component of the educational system for blind students in
favor of full-inclusion programs that have not yet produced many
successfully educated and integrated blind students and certainly
are responsible for many poorly educated and socially inept ones.
     Until recently such discussions as have taken place on this
subject appear to have been less than constructive. Many of the
most dedicated full inclusionists are parents of youngsters with
developmental delays or orthopedic problems. They know little
about the complications that blindness imposes on early learning
in the regular classroom. Those committed to special programs for
blind children are convinced that the inevitable result of full
inclusion would be the eradication of residential schools and
special programs for the blind. 
     In late September several leaders of the National Federation
of the Blind met with an equal number of distinguished full-
inclusion theorists to discuss the needs of blind children and
how they might be met in an educational setting in which full
inclusion--genuine participation of blind children--might take
place. The group hopes to draft a set of principles and write
several articles for publication in the coming months.
Participants in the discussion hope that in retrospect this
meeting may prove to have been the first significant step forward
in the effort to resolve the serious differences that are
endangering the educational future of blind children. The Braille
Monitor will continue to report on this effort in the coming
months. 
     At the NFB's 1993 National Convention a panel of educators
looked at the question of full inclusion versus residential
schools and other options for educating blind children. The four
panelists were Fred Schroeder, Executive Director of the New
Mexico Commission for the Blind and former Director of Low
Incidence Programs for the Albuquerque Schools; Dr. Phil Hatlen,
Superintendent of the Texas School for the Blind and Visually
Impaired; Dr. Michael Bina, Superintendent of the Indiana School
for the Blind and President of the Association for Education and
Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired; and Ralph
Bartley, Superintendent of the Arizona State Schools for the Deaf
and Blind. They examined the concept of full inclusion as it
affects the parents and children with whom they work, and they
pointed to possible new opportunities for residential schools to
assist in the education of tomorrow's blind adults. Here are the
remarks they made on Thursday, July 8, 1993: 

[PHOTO: Fred Schroeder standing at podium microphone. CAPTION:
Fred Schroeder.]

                         Fred Schroeder

     Three years ago in this very room in Dallas, we celebrated
the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the National
Federation of the Blind. We were celebrating a half-century of
progress, and we renewed our commitment. As we celebrated the
past, we also celebrated the emergence of a new philosophy of
blindness growing from an understanding of our fundamental
normality. As an organization and as a movement we have been
blessed with leaders who could refine and sharpen our philosophy
and articulate it in ways which helped give it life. By
understanding our philosophy and believing in its essential
truth, we as blind people have been able to put our beliefs into
action in the way we live our lives. Consequently, we have grown
in ourselves and grown as an organization, developing deeper
conviction and sharper definition to our beliefs. As we
celebrated our past, we celebrated the evolution of a new vision
of blindness and a new vision of our potential. Through the
leadership of Dr. tenBroek; Dr. Jernigan; and, most recently,
President Maurer, we have come to understand that the major
problem of blindness is not the lack of eyesight, but rather
societal misunderstanding about blindness. In President Maurer's
banquet address last year he described the "mysterious ten
percent"--an understanding that learning is a process of building
new information upon a foundation of knowledge already acquired.
Hence, our philosophy could not have emerged full-grown, but
rather developed steadily over time. Yet President Maurer pointed
out that "learning cannot occur unless there is a teacher with
the wisdom and the capacity to dream of the other ten percent." 
We in the National Federation of the Blind have had leaders
capable of envisaging a new truth about blindness. Through our
philosophy we are able to understand and withstand the prejudice
we face. Our philosophy gives us the strength and the courage to
assert a new conception of blindness. In other words, what we
believe about blindness determines how we will act, and what
society believes about blindness determines how we are treated.
Not surprisingly, therefore, the programs and services available
to the blind are conceived and developed out of society's beliefs
about blindness.
     At the time residential schools for the blind were founded,
it was commonly assumed that blind children could not be educated
alongside the sighted. Yet this thinking led to the creation of
an educational system which, over time, resulted in tremendous
benefit to the children it served. Many of the best educated and
best prepared blind people in our society attended schools for
the blind. As these institutions began experiencing overcrowding,
the practice of mainstreaming blind students, particularly at the
high school level, became increasingly widespread. During this
time schools for the blind generally maintained high academic
standards. So students mainstreamed into the public schools were
expected to maintain academic excellence. 
     In the 1970's, as Public Law 94-142 came into being, a
greater push for mainstreaming occurred. Yet P.L. 94-142 went
beyond mainstreaming of children based at residential schools for
the blind. With its provision for educating children in the
"least restrictive environment," P.L. 94-142 put forward a new
philosophy about the education of blind children. On its face,
this new philosophy seemed to embody a more enlightened view of
blindness. Certainly it is good if a blind child is educated
alongside the sighted, having normal social interaction and
competing academically. Yet the experience of the past two
decades appears to suggest that the real goal of mainstreaming
is, at best, illusive. Today the literacy rate among blind people
is at an all-time low. Many reasons have been put forward to
explain this decline, including advances in low-vision
technology, shortages of trained teachers, and an increase in the
number of blind people with multiple disabilities. Yet many of us
in this room did not have multiple disabilities, did not have a
lack of access to itinerant or resource room teachers, and did
not have sufficient vision to read print competitively. Yet we
were not taught to be literate.
     In my view the decline in Braille literacy is directly tied
to the low expectations of society. If society expects very
little from blind children, then it is not surprising that these
youngsters perform at a low level. 
     In the 1970's, when I was in graduate school, a commonly
held view was that blind children should be placed in classrooms
with sighted children of the same age to facilitate social
interaction. The unspoken and unquestioned assumption was that
blind children could not compete academically but, lacking this
ability, should be encouraged to develop socially. I remember
frequently hearing that "we live in a sighted world, and blind
children need to learn to live with the sighted."  No mention was
made of blind children competing with the sighted. 
     There exists, therefore, a seeming dichotomy. Residential
schools, while appearing more restrictive, historically have had
strikingly stronger academic programs. On the other hand,
mainstreaming programs premised on integration, while appearing
more progressive, seem to have had strikingly weaker academic
programs. 
     However, this apparent contradiction is only dichotomous
because it is incomplete. While residential schools for the blind
separated blind children, they did believe that the blind could
be educated. These educators recognized that, given the right
tools and encouragement, blind children could become literate
and, therefore, proficient in all of the academic disciplines.
The belief that blind children could be educated drove the
development of the program as well as the expectations teachers
had for their students. 
     The mainstreaming movement, on the other hand, was driven by
a belief that children raised in isolation were ill-equipped to
fit in socially and, therefore, seriously disadvantaged as they
sought integration as adults. The push for social integration was
premised on a positive assertion that the blind should not be
segregated from the sighted, while simultaneously embodying the
false belief that the blind could not truly compete.
     What we need is a system that believes in blind children--a
system that promotes fundamental literacy, academic excellence,
and social integration premised on the blind child's ability to
give, as well as to receive. We need a system rooted in the
philosophy of the National Federation of the Blind--a system that
believes in the capacity of blind people to become educated and
to live full and active lives. Schools for the blind and
mainstreaming programs can today be both viable and progressive.
What is needed is not a new model of service delivery, but rather
an overarching philosophy driving the delivery of services. 
     I ran a mainstreaming program in a large public school
system for five years. All of our children received intensive
training in the skills of blindness, including Braille, cane
travel, abacus, and typing. But, more important, the children in
our program knew that we believed in them and, over time, learned
to believe in themselves. It is the element of believing in
oneself that gives a person confidence and the courage to
withstand and overcome society's low expectations.
     The real challenge, therefore, is not in restructuring
schools or developing new systems for service delivery but rather
the same challenge we met when we organized as blind people
fifty-three years ago. It is the challenge of changing the
public's perception of blindness and, by so doing, raising
expectations for what we can accomplish as blind people. Real
integration is an expression of real acceptance based on the
understanding that blind adults can carry their own weight and
pay their own way. The same is true for blind children. 
     There is today a new extension in mainstreaming philosophy
known as "full inclusion."  Inclusionists believe in full
integration of blind and other disabled children in regular
school programs, and as with the adherents to other movements
inclusionists believe both in the efficacy and the morality of
their cause. Yet as has been noted of schools for the blind and
the mainstreaming movement, the future for blind children still
depends directly on what is expected of them. Inclusionists say
they value diversity and believe that the diversity of our
society must be reflected in our schools and classrooms. Yet I am
afraid that this concept will be misinterpreted and misapplied to
create a philosophy, not of valuing diversity, but of
institutionalizing prejudice. What we believe determines what we
do, and what society believes about us determines how we are
treated. 
     To be effective, full inclusion must begin with positive
beliefs in, and high expectations for, blind children and the
ability to train them in the skills they need for full
participation. We live in a diverse culture, and the ordinary
classroom should reflect our diversity, but it should not
trivialize it. The ordinary classroom, by virtue of being
ordinary, represents society in microcosm and hence embodies all
of society's prejudice and misunderstanding. Children need
teachers who can train them and who can make demands upon them.
The ordinary classroom teacher has no experience upon which to
base expectations, nor does he or she have knowledge of the
specialized skills of blindness. 
     I grew up as a blind child educated in the public schools.
Because of the remaining vision I had at the time, I did not
learn Braille. From the time I was very young the pattern of
diminished expectations was evident. I was required to do only
those things I could see well enough to do. The message was
clear. To see was to be capable, and to be blind was to be
incapable. To see was to participate, and to be blind was to sit
quietly while others worked and learned. To see was to be
included, but to be blind was to be left on the sidelines. This
is not valuing diversity, but training inferiority. This is not a
recognition of the fundamental value of all human beings, but the
perpetuation and inculcation of prejudice. Blind children must
have a core of skills upon which to build if they are to be
competitive. With these skills they can develop the confidence
they need to compete. If they can compete, then society will
learn to view them differently.
     Inclusion is not a place or an event, but a process--a
process embodying the acquisition of skills and the development
of self-confidence. The blind lawyer who beats his or her
opponent in court, the blind teacher elected to a position of
leadership in a local union, the blind farmer with the highest
yield--these are the expressions of what we have learned to
believe about blindness, and these are the events that will lead
to real social integration. I do not want society to value
diversity if that means gentle feelings toward those perceived to
be less fortunate. What we believe determines what we do, and
what society believes about us determines how we are treated. 
     We cannot allow our educational system to perpetuate
negative attitudes and diminished expectations. We must demand of
our educational system both good training and positive attitudes.
The only way we can ensure the future for ourselves and for
today's blind children is through the National Federation of the
Blind. We must pass on our philosophy, our skills, and our
confidence. If today's blind children hold true to the faith,
they will build on this foundation and create new and greater
opportunities. If they hold true to the faith, they will achieve
full inclusion, not as a special education strategy, but through
their ability and actions. If they hold true to the faith and
build upon what the blind before them have accomplished, then
collectively we as blind people will achieve dignity, self-
respect, and true equality.

[PHOTO: Phil Hatlen seated at head table microphone. CAPTION: Dr.
Phil Hatlen.]

                           Phil Hatlen

     President Maurer, Dr. Jernigan, it is a pleasure and honor
for me to be here. And it is my first NFB convention. I can't
explain why; it certainly won't be my last. 
     While I want to acknowledge and tell you how much I like and
respect my new NFB friends in Texas, I'd like to begin by saying
today and tomorrow I'm most anxious to get reacquainted with my
long-time friends from California, Sharon Gold and my dear friend
Hazel tenBroek, whom I've known for many, many years. It's good
to be here, and I'm proud to be here.
     I also would like to acknowledge that, as an educator of
blind children, I respect and deeply appreciate the material and
the contributions of the NFB to the field of education of the
blind. Mrs. Cheadle, you've done a lot for us who work in
education. Fred, of course, has done a lot. Future Reflections,
the Braille Monitor, Doris Willoughby's writings: all of these
things have made me a better educator and helped me to serve
blind children better. Fred, you're an impossible person to
follow. I've done this a lot of times with Fred, and this is
really tough. I feel like just saying, "Ditto," and sitting down.
     I am going to present to you, though, a few comments and
observations about inclusion. I'll begin by telling you just a
very brief definition of me. And I'm going to start with an
anecdote that happened very recently. You'll read this in an
article in the upcoming Journal of Visual Impairment and
Blindness. A student from the University of Texas came to the
Texas School for the Blind one day, and she said to me, "Oh, I
remember you; you were the one who came to our class at the
University to talk about schools for the blind versus public
schools." I stopped in my tracks and thought to myself, "I really
said that; I really gave her that impression?" If I did, I
certainly didn't want to. I am a firm believer in an array of
services for blind children. I'm an educator of blind children
who happens to be practicing his profession at the moment in a
school for the blind. That doesn't make me a proponent of schools
for the blind only. It makes me a proponent of the highest
quality of services for every individual blind child in this
country.
     Let me give you some information about educational settings,
because that's truly how full inclusion represents a threat to
us. Very briefly I'm going to go through what was, what is being
presented at the present time, and what I think should be. First
of all, what was, we can cover very quickly. If we go back far
enough, and I can join some of you in this exercise (I've been
called older than dirt by some of my colleagues), by far the
majority of blind students were provided a high-quality education
in schools for the blind. Of course, the down side to this was
that children were separated from family and community, sometimes
by many miles and for many months. In the 1950's changes began;
and, as we all know, within a brief period of time more blind
children were receiving their education in public day schools
than in residential schools. Then some additional changes began
in the late sixties and early seventies. I mention this because I
think that at one time we had a better array of service options
than we do today. 
     When public school programs first began for blind children,
we had resource rooms, where there was a teacher of blind
children in the school building all day, every day. The way in
which decisions were made about the placement of children in
public schools was that blind children were provided a resource
room and a resource teacher. Partially seeing (low-vision)
children were provided an itinerant teacher. These two systems
prevailed for many years side by side. As the retrolental
fibroplasia population began graduating from high school in the
late sixties, school districts suddenly found themselves with one
or two blind children and a resource room that they could no
longer fiscally afford. What happened was these children were
absorbed into itinerant programs with no pre-planning, with no
real thinking about whether this was the best and the highest
quality education for the child. 
     This was an evolution that should probably never have
occurred. What is today? Well, if you go out in public school
programs in most communities, you'll find itinerant programs, and
that's about it. To me, that's not acceptable in terms of
responding with an array of services.
     Let me just share with you a little item that I got about
the State of Kentucky:
      Special education services specifically tailored to the
needs of children who are blind is in dire shortage in Kentucky.
While over 1200 children, birth to twenty-one, are registered in
the Kentucky Instructional Materials Resource Center's 1991 count
of children throughout the state, only 373 of these 1200 were
reported by local school districts as receiving service. Only
twenty-four school districts out of a hundred seventy-eight had
some type of certified teacher of the blind. Yet a hundred four
school districts requested materials from the resource center
(which I can't explain).
     If we are serving children in itinerant programs--and let me
emphasize the fact that I believe in an array of services, and I
believe that itinerant programs are appropriate for some
children--but to say that that's the only service delivery system
we have is where I really have some problems. Fred mentioned
literacy. I would have loved to hear the speaker this morning who
spoke on Braille literacy; I would love to continue that
discussion. My issue about Braille literacy has to do with the
single blind child in a fifty-mile radius who sees the teacher of
the blind an hour a week. Let me tell you that that child is
going to be illiterate. That's happening all over this country.
That is not good itinerant services.[applause]
     Let me share with you some comments from parents. I'm going
to extract a couple of paragraphs from some letters from parents.
This is one who wrote: "Immediately following elementary school,
it was obvious in spite of everyone's high intentions
mainstreaming was not working for Tom. A few missing elements
were: (1) Most teachers lacked skills to work with students who
read and write Braille. Braille is not a crash course. (2) Some
classroom teachers refused to work with our son. (3) Adequate
support services for teachers of blind students are not
maintained. (4) Textbooks and materials are frequently
unavailable. Tom shed tears over this and eventually developed
the attitude that books were only for other children. (5)
Appropriate P.E. classes were non-existent. (6) No instruction in
independent living skills. (7) No teacher available with good
mastery of Nemeth code Braille and abacus. (8) No orientation and
mobility training available. No teacher available to teach
Braille music. There are no visually impaired role models,
teachers, or mentors. Please understand the heartache and
struggle each item represents. The missing resources and services
are scarce commodities. Protective legislation cannot make
schools provide resources if they do not exist in sufficient
quantity. Even more significantly for some students, social and
emotional needs cannot be met in the traditional setting. 
     "My son was not learning what he needed to become a
productive, independent, happy adult. He was aware of the way
that differences cannot be mainstreamed. In eighth grade he chose
not to run for student council again, `because they will have to
vote for me. I am the only blind student.' Teachers instinctively
expected less from him, and he acclimated by lowering his
standards. Despite our determination to integrate Tom, his needs
could not be met in the local system." This young man is now at a
school for the blind.
     Another letter from a parent: "John's acceptance at the
school for the blind was his salvation. From the very start he
was encouraged to work independently and do for himself. He
wasn't allowed to just get by. He was expected to do his work
like everyone else with help being there when it was needed. His
classes are small with his classmates being in his age group. He
has blossomed with the help of wonderful teachers and school
staff. He has realized that he can learn, and that change has
been remarkable. He does his homework without being told or
assistance and is proud of his accomplishments. His self-esteem
has soared. One of the hardest and most significant changes
brought on by our son's transfer to the school for the blind was
the separation adjustment we were forced to make. Until that time
he and I had never been apart for any extended length of time. He
made the adjustment quicker than I did. I am deeply, deeply
grateful for the efforts of the houseparents who have to balance
making the children feel comfortable and loved while encouraging
them to be independent."
     A third letter from a parent: "Mainstreaming should always
be the goal whenever possible, but only in those situations where
the child's education will not be compromised. I'm concerned that
the concept of full inclusion without provisions for exceptions
in the event that a child does require assistance outside the
regular classroom will take us a step backward. Full inclusion
has been defined as providing all special education and related
services in the regular classroom. I do not believe that the
needs of blind or visually impaired children can be adequately
met in all instances by having to remain in the regular
classroom."
     These are letters from parents indicating that they too are
very concerned about full inclusion and about the direction in
which special education seems to be going today. Let me assure
you that full inclusion is not a fad. Full inclusion will not go
away. Full inclusion is being promoted by the federal government,
by state governments, and by local school districts. Full
inclusion to the zealot means: all means all. If we say full
inclusion means every handicapped child, then we mean every child
with a disability, not some. There is no footnote to the full
inclusionists' definition. Full inclusion means, don't research
it; just do it. All means all, and just do it, is full inclusion.
I want to assure you--and some of my colleagues disagree with me
on this--I am frightened by the full-inclusion movement. We need
your help. We all need to be working together to make sure that
we continue to have options for children who are blind.
     The Texas Education Association in this state, my fellow
Texans, has decided to monitor school districts on the basis of
full inclusion. The school district will receive a lower rating
if they send children to the school for the blind or if they pull
out children from regular classrooms. We need to do something
about that. We need to do it on the national level too.[applause]
     Before I spend a couple of minutes on what should be, let me
just try explaining something to you in a slightly different way,
in terms of full inclusion. Public Law 94-142 set up a system, a
four-stage system that determines the education of a child:
identification, assessment, IEP development, and placement.
Remember that--identification, assessment, IEP development, and
placement. What full inclusionists say it should be is
identification, placement, assessment, IEP development. So the
child is assessed based on the placement decision that's already
been made. That's full inclusion, folks, and that's pretty
frightening.
     Let me conclude by emphasizing to you the fact that the NFB
and a number of other organizations have collaborated on a full-
inclusion position statement that's very, very good. I hope all
of you will read it. I hope you will take it to heart, and I hope
you will help in whatever way you can individually and as groups,
to get the message across as to what constitutes a quality
education for blind children.
     Many, many years ago parents of blind children and educators
of these students discovered a very important fact--there is no
one best educational placement for a blind child. However, there
is a best placement for a particular child at a particular time
in her or his life. If the education profession is to meet the
needs of all children, then there must be a number of placement
options. Children must be able to move back and forth within
these placements, depending on their needs at a particular time.
To offer only one option is to shoehorn kids. There is a
tremendous difference between making a program fit a child and
making a child fit a program.[applause]
     The lesson we have learned in my thirty-five years in this
profession is that, if inclusive education is to work, IEP
development must be comprehensive and include all the needs of
the child. Placement should never be determined by a general
philosophic position. Placement should always be determined by
the individual needs of each child. Only when a full array of
placement options is available will there be assurance that each
child's needs will be met.

[PHOTO: Michael Bina standing at podium microphone. CAPTION: Dr.
Michael Bina.]

                          Michael Bina

     Both of the previous excellent speakers spoke about full
inclusion, but really the best definition, and the most concise
definition, I've heard of full inclusion is by Dr. Jernigan. Dr.
Jernigan refers to full inclusion as mainstreaming with a
vengeance. I'd like to ask Dr. Jernigan if I could continue to
quote him on that. 
     Perhaps I will shock some of you today when I say
residential schools are a thing of the past. But, before you
think I have lost my mind, I also want to add that residential
schools are also very much a thing of the present and most
definitely a very much needed provision in the future. 
     As a residential school superintendent nowadays, I have to
be very honest; my colleagues and I sometimes feel apologetic.
Others would have us think we run second-class operations, things
of the past, dinosaurs on the verge of extinction. Rather I
contend we are places of distinction, and therefore I make no
apology. I am proud that in the past and today and clearly in the
future these schools are and will continue to be valid,
beneficial, and very necessary for kids. Who can deny the success
of our many graduates, like so many of you in the audience today?
Please do not consider any of my comments today as anti-public
school. I worked in public schools, and I strongly believe that
they definitely have their place also. 
     Residential schools today, though, unfortunately are
considered placements of last resort. The presumption under the
law is that public schools are considered the first and many
times the only option. The playing field needs to be leveled so
that residential schools can be viewed in the same positive light
the public schools currently enjoy. Residential schools (please
listen carefully to this because I feel very strongly about this)
also need to be rightfully on the menu so that parents and others
who make decisions can fully consider and ultimately choose this
option if it is in the child's best interest. 
     In Indiana, unfortunately, we had the parent choice
provision taken away by OSEP (the Office of Special Education
Programs) last year at a time when President Bush was calling for
parent choice in regular education as a method of reform. Taking
choice away from parents of blind kids and giving it to parents
of non-handicapped students is what I call adverse
discrimination.[Applause] While school for the blind programs
have adjusted and changed, many people's attitudes about them
have not changed. Today many myths persist which negatively
influence decision makers, but most disturbing to me is that many
children are being excluded from attending these schools to the
point that today only seven percent of blind children in our
country attend schools for the blind.
     I'd like to go over some of these myths that make the
playing field unlevel. This first one is that residential schools
segregate blind children from society. We are told by others,
most of whom have never set foot on a school for the blind
campus, that we are segregationists. Well this to me is a very
negative and inflammatory word choice. These well-educated
experts are advocates for severely handicapped individuals and
are not trained in blindness. Yet they are more than very
strongly pushing for elimination of residential schools and, as
the other speakers have already said, even public school resource
rooms. These full-inclusion initiatives are counter to federal
law, which mandates a full array of services.
     Think of this as an analogy: in medicine it would be gross
malpractice if doctors removed any proven reliable treatment or
medicine from their arsenal which would have the potential to
benefit even one patient and they substituted an unproven drug. I
contend we should be widening our options and not in any way
reducing them. Education, as well as medicine, would be taking a
step backwards by doing so. 
     Residential schools do not segregate or restrict in a
discriminatory manner, but rather positively and purposefully
bring together children as do science, math, and music magnet
schools, which consolidate students with special interests and
aptitudes. And, interestingly, magnet schools are being advanced
as a way to improve America's schools. Yet, in spite of schools
for the blinds' proven track record as very productive places for
boosting self-image, confidence, and solid skills for future
success, they continue to be underutilized and not given the
respect I feel they deserve. Doctors separate people needing
medical treatment in hospitals, so is it inappropriate that we at
some times, for some students when they need specialized
placements, do so in special schools? 
     I am extremely proud of the Committee on Joint
Organizational Effort and the position paper which Dr. Hatlen
mentioned. This position paper challenges very strongly the
requirement in the law that says, to the maximum extent possible,
handicapped children must be educated with non-handicapped
students. I feel that blind children shouldn't avoid contact with
other blind children and that such contact is clearly beneficial.
This requirement just doesn't make sense to me, but I guess the
lawmakers are a whole lot smarter than I am. 
     One parent said it best: "How dare the lawmakers tell me who
my child's friends will be! Is my child someone who should be
avoided by other children?" I have seen in my experience awfully
good friendships and counseling going on between blind students
that our Ph.D. psychologists couldn't begin to match.[applause]
     A 1991 study showed that fifty percent of residential school
students were integrated in public school programs, where they
could have the best of both worlds. We are vastly under-utilizing
our residential schools. We have some classrooms which are nearly
empty at a time when blind children in public schools are not
receiving all of the services specified in their IEP's. Both
placements should be used to benefit the child. Many would agree
that all blind children can clearly benefit from residential
school some of the time and that some can benefit from
residential schools all of the time.
     Meaningful integration is very possible in segregated
settings, and just because a child lives at home, attends a
neighborhood school, and is in physical proximity to non-
handicapped children, that doesn't necessarily mean that they are
truly integrated.[applause] We are all aware of integrated public
school students who are isolated islands in the mainstream, but
our critics don't call this inappropriate isolation segregation.
It is less important to me where children go to school than that,
wherever they go, they get what they need when they need it in a
positive climate.[applause] 
     Today we hear calls for full inclusion in schools, but I
contend the goal needs to be full inclusion in society. For too
long we have been preparing students for graduation when we
should have been preparing them with skills for life.[applause]
Without this solid foundation like Braille and mobility skills,
positive integration into schools now or later in life becomes
extremely difficult. Swimming teachers (and I used to be one when
I was younger) have long since abandoned throwing their students
into the deep end of the pool to teach them to swim without
carefully developing prerequisite skills. But our policy makers
keep over-zealously pushing integration before the regular
education staff are trained, attitudes are adjusted, and the
blind child has the skills to survive--much less to be
successful. The standard must be thriving and purposefully going
in a positive forward direction as opposed to just surviving or
just keeping your head above water. Integration should never
become submerging.
     We must admit and also address the fact that we have large
numbers of under-served students in many programs throughout our
country that are advertised as comprehensive when they are not.
Two hours of Braille instruction per week, or worse, per month is
clearly an intolerable injustice.[applause] In many cases these
students are being shortchanged, and fortunately a strong outcry
from parents, consumers, and professionals is increasing in
intensity. An Indiana parent summed it up beautifully for me. She
said, "We need to decide if we want our kids to be social or to
be educated." 
     There is another myth, that our schools are only for
students with multiple disabilities. I've had parents come to our
school after many, many years of public education and say we wish
we could have sent our son or daughter earlier. You have high
functioning students there, and our child could have thrived in
your environment, but our local district kept telling us that
your school was only for multi-handicapped children. There was a
study done in 1985 that predicted that by 1991 all residential
schools would be primarily for multi-handicapped students. 
Another study done last year showed that over forty-five percent
of the students in residential schools are in academic programs
and that over thirty-nine percent of these students went on to
college. 
     Another myth is that residential schools are too expensive.
We spend approximately $30,000 per child on a national average,
and the public schools spend about $3,000 per child per year. Our
per capita costs are high, yes, but we likewise offer more than
bare bones service. Using another medical analogy, we don't seem
to worry about the cost for medical treatment when we roll our
child, our spouse, or ourselves in for life-saving surgery. Why
do we keep letting our pocketbooks rather than our consciences
drive our educational decisions? I'd rather pay now than have
some of our students pay for it later in life. 
     Quality and intensive programs come with a price tag, and I
contend most strongly that not learning to read and write Braille
or other skills well, when they should be learned, to me
qualifies most clearly as life-threatening. Would you
agree?[applause] 
     Also myth number four: local programs are better than
center-based programs. We don't have a college or university in
every city or town across the United States; yet in our field we
are trying, even in light of the personnel shortage, to apply the
chicken-in-every-pot, car-in-every-garage, vision-program-in-
each-public-school-building philosophy. When we centralize like
this, I feel we are spreading our services so thinly that we can
barely tell that the services exist.
     Also myth number five: residential schools are old-
fashioned. To that I want to say, yes, to the extent that we
model, require, and encourage old-fashioned basic skills, values,
and manners. On solid skills I'd have to say we are old-
fashioned. 
     In conclusion I want to say that we have made many changes,
and I only hope that we succeed in educating the public that we
are proud places for children to be educated and also that public
attitudes need to be changed so that children can have the
benefit of all options for them. Also, as AER President, if I
could just add this little plug right here. I am very optimistic
about the Committee on Joint Organizational Effort (JOE), and I'm
excited about the JOE position paper on inclusion. We are
developing another position on categorical services, and I pledge
very strong leadership in AER to coming together as a field,
consumers and professionals. That is our goal; and, as we have
been cooperatively doing recently, I hope that we can continue to
make the progress we have been. Thank you very much. 

[PHOTO: Ralph Bartley sanding at podium microphone. CAPTION: Dr.
Ralph Bartley.]

                          Ralph Bartley

     I'd like to express my thanks to President Maurer for the
invitation to be here today and to participate in the panel. You
have heard three speakers previously go through many of the
issues that deal with mainstreaming, schools for the blind, and
full inclusion. Briefly, before we get into questions today, I
would like to give you an example of what one state is doing to
try to move the schools for the blind so that they can positively
impact what we see as the needs in the future. How do we move
from some of the old and current stereotypes to taking a pro-
active stance in the education of the blind? As Dr. Bina was
saying, so that we can get away from being apologetic? 
     One of the things we need to do together is to start
addressing some major issues out there, full inclusion being one
of them, and together attack that particular issue. If we do not,
serious problems will face our children.  The NFB must find more
people like Fred Schroeder and Mrs. Cheadle. There need to be
people with their dedication and vision in every state--people
who will see that in the years ahead the education of blind
children does not falter. I know that each and every one of you
is up to that challenge. 
     Let me share with you some of the things that have started
in Arizona. Some of them started prior to my arrival there in
September, 1992. Approximately three years ago, during the time
that Bruce Gardner from Arizona was on the Board of Directors for
the Arizona Schools for the Deaf and Blind, the legislature of
Arizona authorized the establishment of a pilot program of three
regional cooperatives, which were to allow the Arizona State
Schools for the Deaf and Blind to provide educational services in
the local school districts. In the State of Arizona I am not only
in charge of the School for the Blind; I hire teachers in the
Northern Regional Cooperative, which is made up of thirty-one
school districts. Those local school district teachers work for
the Arizona School for the Blind, and they work with children in
the local school districts in northern Arizona. We can be assured
that our attitudes and the skills that we require of our students
on the center-based campus are going to continue in those local
school district programs. That program was started with the
support and the advocacy of the National Federation of the Blind.
That's what it means.
     This was not an afterthought. This wasn't trying to start
something and failing and coming to the NFB later. This was
starting a process early. This past October we had only one
regional cooperative. Our goal in Arizona is to have eight
regional cooperatives. We had asked our legislature to establish
two additional cooperatives. I went to the Arizona affiliate
state meeting this past October, and they were kind enough to
provide me with a resolution supporting our request to the
legislature, and in March of this year, despite the fact that
we're going through a major downsizing and having some major
economic problems, with the support from the NFB there will be
two additional regional cooperatives in the State of Arizona--one
serving the Southeast and one serving the Southwest.[applause] We
will be able to continue the work that Bruce Gardner, Jim Omvig,
and many others in Arizona have started.
     Part of what we need to talk about here is some of the
actions that we're going to take for the future. We here must
give you more information about full inclusion and our concerns
about the adverse impact that it can have on our children. We can
also share with you some things that do work. In Arizona prior to
the start of the Northern Regional Cooperative, which operates
out of Flagstaff, there were thirty-one school districts that
were serving approximately sixty or seventy deaf or blind
students, according to their records. If you're familiar with the
geography of northern Arizona, it starts with the Grand Canyon
and goes north to Utah and Colorado. It is a large area. In those
thirty-one school districts covering northern Arizona, there were
only two teachers of the deaf to cover tens of thousands of
square miles, and there was only one part-time teacher of the
blind to serve that geographical area. Today we are serving one
hundred four students, sixty-three of them blind, with a staff of
seventeen. I do not believe that Arizona was unique in having
populations of students that were underserved. We are gathering
the data that say, "Look folks, you cannot have one teacher of
the blind." We talked today here about students getting an hour a
week. I think students in northern Arizona were probably lucky to
get one hour a year of instruction in Braille with those demands.
This is something that schools for the blind can do, and these
are things that are going on now. The future can be now. We can
do better.
     This is one of my favorite topics, and I could go on
forever. But I know that there are some important questions that
people would like to ask in the audience. I definitely want to
ditto the earlier remarks of my distinguished colleagues here.
There is a lot to do. I know together that we can do it. I thank
you for inviting me here, and I look forward to answering your
questions.[applause]

     At the close of these presentations President Maurer said:

     It occurred to me as I was listening to these panel members
today that there is a solution to many of the problems we are
discussing, in fact all of them. That solution has to do with a
cooperative effort between the organized blind and the schools.
If it doesn't happen, the problems will continue; if it does, we
can solve anything coming. And I thought, "Somebody ought to say
that, and Ralph Bartley got up and did."



[PHOTO: Curtis Chong seated at computer, reading Braille
documents. CAPTION: Curtis Chong.]

             POLITICAL CORRECTNESS IN THE WORKPLACE
                         by Curtis Chong

     From the Editor: Curtis Chong is First Vice President of the
National Federation of the Blind of Minnesota and President of
the National Federation of the Blind in Computer Science. He is
also a Federationist who is constantly mindful of the ways in
which he can educate the public about blindness every day. This
is the way he describes his latest adventure:

     One day early in August of this year, a memorandum came
across my computer terminal (the age of electronic mail has
arrived with a vengeance). A project leader was seeking a meeting
with me to discuss plans to make corporate computer systems
accessible to "sight disabled" financial planners. Although I was
pleased to meet with the project leader to discuss something
which I felt was important--namely, enabling blind financial
planners to use the computer systems of IDS Financial Services
with existing screen reading technology--I cringed at the use of
the term "sight disabled."
     This was not the first corporate communication I had
received which consciously avoided the use of the perfectly
respectable term "blind." However, it was this last experience
which prompted me to take some decisive action. I simply had had
enough. I therefore sent the following note to one Julie Johnson,
the person at IDS charged with helping the company comply with
the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

To:       Juliann Johnson
From:     Curtis Chong, Communications Software Group
Subject:  The Word "Blind"

Hello, Julie:
     I am becoming concerned of late that corporate
communications I am receiving feel it necessary to duck the use
of the word blind. I have heard terms such as sightless, sight
impaired, and other such nonsense being used.
     As a person who is blind and who feels no shame at using the
word blind, I am disturbed that people may be getting the
impression that blind is an inappropriate term to use. This has
to be stopped!
     One person who is working with OP&D [Organizational Planning
and Development] was kind enough to tell me that the training she
received regarding the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) made
it specifically clear that blind was a word to be avoided at all
cost. Why?
     At a recent convention of the National Federation of the
Blind, the nation's largest organization of blind people, a
resolution was passed which affirmed that the use of the term
blind was a good thing to be encouraged at all levels. When I can
get hold of a copy of the resolution, I will forward it to you.
     Can you help? Every time someone refers to me as "sight
impaired," "visually handicapped," "sight disabled," and the
like, I have to grit my teeth in order not to come back with a
caustic rejoinder. As you may know, I am planning a presentation
for DAN [DisAbilities Employee Network] in September having to do
specifically with blindness. One of the points I intend to make
at that seminar is exactly the point I am making here--namely,
that it is OK and even preferable for the term blind to be used
when referring to persons who are legally or totally blind. There
are individuals who are truly visually handicapped--meaning that
they have a visual disability--but who are not classified as
legally blind. For these individuals terms such as visually
disabled and visually handicapped may (and I emphasize may) be
appropriate.
     All I know is that, when referring to my condition, the term
blind is infinitely preferable to euphemisms that seek to avoid
the use of a word with which a lot of people seem to be
uncomfortable.

                                                       Cordially,
                                                     Curtis Chong

     That is what my note said, and I can tell you that it took
on a life of its own. Copies of it were transmitted around the
organization to literally hundreds of individuals. Within two
days of the time I sent out the note, statements of support began
pouring into my electronic in-basket. Here are some
representative samples:

To:       Curtis Chong and Glenn Hansen
From:     Jay McKinney
Subject:  The Word Blind

     Three cheers for Curt and his common sense. They are
refreshing in this day and age. When can we get rid of other
nonsensical, demeaning, politically correct terms like "people of
color" and "differently abled"? These also have the opposite
effect of that intended. They earn snickers, not respect.

                                                     Jay McKinney
                                                Software Engineer
                                                       HR/FINANCE
                      ____________________

To:       Curtis Chong
From:     Anna Ravenscroft, Administrative Assistant
          Field Communications
Subject:  The Word Blind

     Thank you for the clarification. I appreciate your honesty
and willingness to confront this issue. It seems to me that there
are so many issues out there that considerate, conscientious
people get caught in the middle of trying not to offend but not
knowing what will or will not offend. With the plethora of terms
out there, the temporarily-abled get pretty confused after a
while. It's nice to have someone speak up and let us know what's
okay and what's not.

                                                       Thank you.
                      ____________________

To:       Curtis Chong
From:     Julie Johnson
Subject:  The Word "Blind"

     Curt, I think your message has taken on a life of its own.
It has gotten passed around to pages of people via PROFs [IDS'
electronic mail system]. Because of that I think the message has
been spread and will impact many people across the organization.
You raise an important point and one which people have been
struggling with for quite some time when addressing disability
issues. Your feedback and perspective on the issues are very
important and should be shared with the group when you do your
DAN presentation.
     I have gone to many different seminars on the ADA and other
employment law issues, and to tell you the truth, each one tells
you something different, and it makes one hesitant and unsure of
what to say. I'd also like to say that some people are hung up on
terminology, and others have an attitude like yours and are
comfortable with being referred to as blind. Any feedback or
assistance you can offer on this subject is appreciated.
                      ____________________

     In late August someone from Corporate Communications called
me to ask if I would mind having my note on the word blind
printed in Contact Magazine, the corporate publication of IDS
Financial Services. Naturally, I said that I wouldn't mind in the
least, so my note was ultimately published in the Opinions
section of Contact Magazine for the month of September, 1993.
     What effect did all of this correspondence and exchange of
information have? The overwhelming flood of support I received
has convinced me that average corporate employees felt glad and
relieved that, finally, someone had the courage to stand up and
tell them that it was OK to use the word blind within the
company--and outside of the company, for that matter. Because
they felt uncomfortable using the term blind, they naturally
assumed that we, the blind, would feel the same. When they
discovered that a blind person within their own organization was
willing to stand up and adopt a strong position against
euphemisms, many of their doubts and fears could not help being
laid to rest.



[PHOTO: Portrait. CAPTION: Sharon Gold.]

      CALIFORNIA VENDORS WIN RIGHT TO INDEPENDENT ELECTIONS
                         by Sharon Gold

     From the Editor: With the support and guidance of the
National Federation of the Blind of California, the state's
vendors have recently won an important right, one that may be of
significance to vendors in other states. Sharon Gold explains
what happened and what the vendors won. Those in other areas
having trouble with nominee agency personnel inclined to take too
active an interest in Vendor Policy Committee election results
should take note. The California victory may well be useful to
you. Here is what Sharon Gold has to say: 

     In 1936 Congress adopted the Randolph-Sheppard Act to
establish a priority for blind persons to operate vending
facilities on federal property. This was during a time when
employment for blind people was virtually nonexistent. As it
still is today, the program was federally funded and administered
by state agencies for the blind, which trained and licensed
qualified blind persons to work in vending stands. It promised
jobs for blind people; but in 1940, when the National Federation
of the Blind was founded, only a few blind persons across the
country had so far been able to establish businesses under the
Randolph-Sheppard Act. 
     In the years to follow, the program created by the Randolph-
Sheppard Act grew, and vending stands that sold candy,
cigarettes, and magazines appeared in the lobbies of federal
buildings throughout the nation. The nature of the contacts
between the blind vendors and the personnel of the state
rehabilitation agencies administering the program encouraged
relationships in which agency personnel could easily control the
lives of the blind vendors, who depended on the program for their
livelihood. 
     Since its founding in 1940, one of the major efforts of the
National Federation of the Blind has been to protect the rights
of blind vendors. To ensure that vendors would have a voice in
their own program, in 1977 the NFB proposed an amendment to the
Randolph-Sheppard Act to have Congress include a statutory
provision for the creation of a committee of blind vendors within
each state licensing agency. The purpose of this committee is to
allow vendors elected by their peers to work in concert with the
licensing agency in the management of the program. 
     When the amendment to the Randolph-Sheppard Act was adopted,
the California Business Enterprises Program (BEP), like the other
state programs, was required to establish a vendors policy
committee. Districts were defined, and a vendor was elected to
represent each. Unfortunately, since the establishment of the
California Vendors Policy Committee (CVPC), the BEP
administration has viewed the committee as a threat to its power
over the program and thus has spent a good deal of effort and
energy controlling the membership and work of the committee,
rather than allowing it to be truly representative of the
interests of the blind vendors. 
     In December, 1991, a regular election of the delegates to
serve on the CVPC for the ensuing two years was conducted. It was
administered by the Business Enterprises Program and the Client
Assistance Program, both of which are under the umbrella of the
California Department of Rehabilitation. Many vendors were
displeased with the procedures established for the election.
Questions arose about the Department's receipt of the ballots,
the handling and certification of those ballots, and the counting
of the votes. 
     Following the election, some of the vendors filed
grievances. Although state and federal statutes provide that a
vendor may grieve "any action" taken by a licensing agency
concerning the operation of the vending program, the BEP made an
arbitrary decision to prevent the vendors from filing their
grievances by proclaiming them to be "challenges" rather than
"grievances." There is no provision for "challenges" in either
state or federal law. By renaming the "grievances" as
"challenges," the Department of Rehabilitation and its Business
Enterprises Program prevented the vendors from following the
usual grievance procedure, which included the right of each
grievant to file for a full evidentiary hearing before the
Rehabilitation Appeals Board. 
     One of the grievants was Frank Rompal, Jr., President of the
Merchants Chapter of the NFB of California.  Mr. Rompal brought
the matter to the attention of Region IX of the Rehabilitation
Services Administration. The Commissioner, Gilbert Williams,
advised William Tainter, Director of the California Department of
Rehabilitation, that the Department was in violation of state and
federal statutes when it failed to accept the vendors' grievances
and that "a full evidentiary hearing process must be available as
a condition of the Randolph-Sheppard Act, its implementing
regulations, and your State licensing agreement under which you
are authorized to fund and administer the Business Enterprise
Program." This directive forced the Department to reopen the
grievance process concerning the election. As a result forty-four
vendors filed grievances against the Business Enterprises Program
for its election procedures. 
     In response to the forty-four individual grievances that
were filed, the administration of the Business Enterprises
Program made an arbitrary decision to consolidate forty-two of
them and left individual grievances standing for Frank Rompal,
Jr., and Tom Linker, Jr., Secretary of the NFB of California
Merchants Chapter. Pursuant to California regulations, an
informal conference was arranged for each of the three
grievances. Notwithstanding the fact that the grievants resided
and worked in every part of the state, the informal conference
was scheduled for Sacramento in an apparent effort to prevent the
vendors from attending the conference. The informal conference
was to be tape-recorded, and the BEP planned to be represented by
legal counsel. Both of these procedures may be part of a full
evidentiary hearing but are not customarily a part of an informal
conference. 
     The grievants and their representative refused to
participate in the unusual informal conference, and instead the
grievants filed for full evidentiary hearings before the
Rehabilitation Appeals Board. The hearings were scheduled; but,
before they could take place, the California Department of
Rehabilitation issued new regulations, taking full evidentiary
hearings on grievances filed by blind vendors out of the
jurisdiction of the Rehabilitation Appeals Board and placing the
responsibility for such proceedings within the jurisdiction of
the California Office of Administrative Hearings. 
     The three cases were assigned to an administrative law
judge. At the request of the grievants, Judge Denny Davis set a
preliminary hearing and mandatory settlement conference for June
24, 1993, which was eighteen months after the first grievances
were filed and eighteen months following the disputed election.
During this hearing a settlement was negotiated between the
representatives of the Department of Rehabilitation and its
Business Enterprises Program and me as the representative for the
grievants.
     The Settlement Agreement provides that the vendors will
cease all claims against the Department of Rehabilitation in
exchange for the following: (1) the Department will provide for
the biennial election of delegates in a fair and unintrusive
manner; (2) to ensure fairness and unintrusiveness, the
Department will contract with a totally independent third party
to handle all aspects of the election, including the mailing of
nomination forms, the mailing of ballots, and the receipt and
counting of the completed ballots; (3) the Department will cover
the expenses for the third-party administration of the CVPC
election from funds budgeted to administer the BEP; (4)
Department and BEP staff will be in no way involved with the
election procedures and will refrain from influencing vendors to
seek election and from encouraging or discouraging vendors in
casting their votes; (5) the Department will expeditiously handle
all grievances, reviews, and hearings in accordance with state
and federal laws and regulations; (6) when an informal review
requires a conference between a vendor and the department, the
conference will be held at a time and location convenient to the
vendor, and no legal counsel will be present on behalf of either
party; however, the vendor may bring an advocate of his or her
choosing; and (7) if common issues and judicial rules allow for
the consolidation of a grievance at the full evidentiary hearing
level, the Department will pay from funds allocated for the
administration of the Business Enterprises Program all reasonable
travel expenses for vendors required to travel to the hearing,
including a prepaid travel ticket, so as to afford every vendor
an equal opportunity to participate in his or her hearing. 
     As this article is being written in late July, the Business
Enterprises Program has just contracted with the County of
Sacramento, Voter Registration and Elections, to administer the
1993 statewide elections for the California Vendors Policy
Committee. The County will handle the verification of districts
and mailing addresses; the nomination process; and the
distribution, collection, certification, and counting of the
ballots. 
     Now there will be third-party administration of the CVPC
election by officials qualified and accustomed to handling voting
by mail. This change in supervision of the election process,
together with the termination of influence in the nomination and
election process by BEP administrators, should make the election
fair to all vendors and should be a significant step in returning
the California Vendors Policy Committee to the blind vendors
working in the California Business Enterprises Program. In case
vendors in other states find themselves in a similar situation,
with Business Enterprises Program officials taking unfair
advantage of them in the election of representatives to their
Vendors Policy Committees, here is the text of the California
settlement: 

                           BEFORE THE
                OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATIVE HEARINGS
                       STATE OF CALIFORNIA

                OAH Cases Nos. R-2, R-3, and R-4
                      SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT

In the Matter of:
Tom Tabar, et al., Appellants,
vs.
DEPARTMENT OF REHABILITATION, Business Enterprises Program,
Respondent.
____________________
In the Matter of:
Frank Rompal, Jr., Appellant,
vs.
DEPARTMENT OF REHABILITATION,
 Business Enterprises Program, Respondent.
____________________
In the Matter of:
Tom Linker, Jr., Appellant,
vs.
DEPARTMENT OF REHABILITATION, Business Enterprises Program,
Respondent.

     1. Tom Tabar, et al.; Frank Rompal, Jr.; and Tom Linker,
Jr., appellants, and the California Department of Rehabilitation
Business Enterprises Program (BEP), respondent, enter into this
agreement to settle all claims relating to or arising out of
these proceedings. 
     2. Appellants agree to cease all claims against the
Department of Rehabilitation arising out of the 1991 election of
delegates to the California Vendors Policy Committee (CVPC) and
the original grievances that were filed during the period of time
between December, 1991, and February, 1992, the subsequent
grievances filed in September, 1992, and the Requests for Fair
Hearing filed in November, 1992.
     3. In accordance with 20 U.S.C. Section 107b-1, 34 C.F.R.
Section 395.14, California Welfare and Institutions Code Section
19638, and Section 7222 of Title 9 of the California Code of
Regulations, respondent agrees to provide for the biennial
election of the California Vendors Policy Committee in a manner
that is fair and unintrusive. To assure fairness and
unintrusiveness, the respondent will contract with a third-party
totally independent of the California Department of
Rehabilitation for the administration of the election (e.g. the
Office of the Sacramento County Registrar of Voters). The third
party will handle all aspects of the election process including,
but not limited to, the distribution and collection of nominating
forms, the distribution and collection of ballots, the
certification of the authenticity and the timeliness of receipt
of the mailed-in ballots, and the counting of said secret
ballots.
     4. Respondent agrees to expend funds budgeted for the
administration of the Business Enterprises Program to cover all
expenses for the third-party administration of the biennial
election of the delegates to the California Vendors Policy
Committee.
     5. Respondent agrees to assume a neutral position with
respect to the delegate nominees and to provide written
notification to all Department of Rehabilitation and Business
Enterprises Program staff that all personnel are to be in no way
involved with the CVPC election procedure and to otherwise
refrain from influencing the outcome of the election (i.e. to
refrain from encouraging or discouraging any vendor to seek
election to a delegate position and to refrain from encouraging
or discouraging any vendor in the casting of his or her vote). 
     6. Respondent agrees to abide by 20 U.S.C. Section 107d-1,
34 C.F.R. Section 395.13(a), California Welfare and Institutions
Code Section 19635, and Sections 7227, 7227.1, and 7227.2 of
Title 9 of the California Code of Regulations, in the processing
and expeditious handling of grievances, informal administrative
reviews, and full evidentiary hearings for all licensed vendors. 
     7. When an informal review requires a conference between the
vendor and the respondent, the conference shall be held at a time
and location convenient to the vendor. Both parties shall refrain
from having legal counsel present at the conference so as to
allow for the greatest opportunity for full discussion and
resolution of the grievance. Nothing in this paragraph shall be
construed as preventing a vendor from appearing with an advocate
of his/her choosing.
     8. In accordance with Section 7227.2 of Title 9 of the
California Code of Regulations, full evidentiary hearings shall
be held at a time and place "accessible to both the hearing
officer and the licensee/vendor and at a geographical location
convenient to the licensee/vendor." If more than one vendor has
filed a grievance with common issues and judicial rules allow for
the consolidation of the grievance at the full evidentiary
hearing level causing a single location to be established for the
hearing which is not in the geographical proximity to all
licensee/vendor grievants, respondent shall pay the reasonable
travel expenses for all licensee/vendors required to travel for
the hearing from funds allocated for the administration of the
Business Enterprises Program. The Department agrees to purchase
all needed travel tickets in advance of the hearings to afford
every licensee/vendor the equal opportunity to participate in his
or her hearing. A vendor receiving a prepaid travel ticket and
not attending the hearing must immediately return said ticket to
respondent. All other travel and per diem expenses shall be
reimbursed in accordance with the applicable state rules.

Date: June 24, 1993

Sharon Gold, Authorized Representative for Tom Tabar, et al.;
     Frank Rompal, Jr., and Tom Linker, Jr.

Brenda Premo, Deputy Director 
Independent Living Services Division
California Department of Rehabilitation

John Erickson, Acting Administrator
Business Enterprises Program
California Department of Rehabilitation

Gwynne Pratt Bacigaluppi, Staff Counsel
California Department of Rehabilitation




[PHOTO: Outline of map of United States, colored as follows:
Unshaded states: Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware,
District of Columbia, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts,
Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island,
South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia, and Wyoming. States with dots,
indicating the cities where the NAC agency is located: Alabama,
Hawaii, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota,
Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota,
Puerto Rico (not shown), South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and West
Virginia. Shaded states: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida,
Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, Mississippi, New York, Ohio,
Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Washington, and Wisconsin. 
CAPTION: States shaded black have more than one NAC-accredited
agency. The states marked with a black dot are down to one NAC-
accredited agency. The dot marks the location of that single
agency. It should be noted that Puerto Rico, which is not
pictured on the map, also has one NAC-accredited agency. The
unshaded states can boast a NAC-free environment.]

           UPDATE ON A DOWNFALL: NAC'S SLIDE CONTINUES
                        by Barbara Pierce

     With each July comes the mid-year report of NAC (the
National Accreditation Council for Agencies Serving the Blind and
Visually Handicapped). The list of member agencies this year
continues to tell the same story as did the year-end list in
1992. (See the May, 1993, issue of the Braille Monitor.) What
follows is a brief summary of the data we can glean from the NAC
mid-year 1993 list of members. 
     From NAC's point of view, there was one bit of good news
during the first half of 1993. Two agencies were accredited by
NAC for the first time. These were the Center for the Visually
Impaired, Daytona Beach, Florida, and the Greater Pittsburgh
Guild for the Blind, the agency directed by Dr. Richard Welsh,
President of the NAC Board of Trustees. Since Dr. Welsh announced
in February of 1992 that his agency was about to become a member
of NAC, we have been waiting for a year and a half for this name
to appear on the list. In addition, during the first six months
of 1993 four NAC member agencies appear to have accepted
reaccreditation for at least four years. These are the Miami
Lighthouse for the Blind; Royal Maid, Mississippi; Kansas City
Association (now Alphapointe Association); and the Catholic Guild
for the Blind, New York.
     At the same time, however, four current NAC members
(including two that severed their connection with NAC in the
middle of their terms of accreditation) decided not to accept 
reaccreditation. The four were the Northeastern Association for
the Blind at Albany, New York (actually scheduled for
reaccreditation in June of 1996); the Jewish Guild for the Blind,
New York (accreditation not scheduled to expire until June of
1994); the Mississippi Division of Vocational Rehabilitation for
the Blind; and the Texas School for the Blind and Visually
Impaired.
     This brings down to seventy-eight the number of NAC member
agencies in the United States. Of a total of 130 agencies that
have ever been willing to affiliate themselves with NAC, fifty-
two (forty percent) have now thought better of it and left. This
means that of the 500 agencies serving the blind that NAC itself
proclaimed as its universe for accreditation, only twenty-six
percent have ever been associated with it; and the number of
those currently affiliated has now fallen to 15.6 percent. 
     Twelve member agencies were scheduled for reaccreditation
during the first half of 1993, according to NAC's year-end list
for 1992. As we have seen, one of these left, and four accepted 
reaccreditation. Of the remaining seven, two (the Savannah
Association for the Blind and the Toledo Sight Center) had their
memberships extended until December of 1994. Two more (Guiding
Eyes for the Blind and the Oklahoma League for the Blind) were
extended one year to June of 1994. And three (the Alabama
Institute for Deaf and Blind, Independence for the Blind-
Tallahassee, and the Visually Impaired Center-Flint, Michigan)
had their reaccreditations postponed to December of 1993. 
     According to the December 31, 1992, NAC list, the
accreditations of twenty agencies were scheduled to expire during
the second half of 1993. Of these, one (Mississippi's state
vocational rehabilitation agency) has dropped its affiliation,
and five more have been postponed until sometime in 1994: St.
Joseph's School for the Blind (New Jersey), June, 1994; Wisconsin
School for the Blind, June, 1994; Foundation for Blind Children
(Arizona), December, 1994; Georgia Industries for the Blind,
December, 1994; and Illinois Bureau of Rehabilitation Services
for the Blind, December, 1994. Including the three agencies that
were pushed back to the second half of 1993, there are now
seventeen member agencies scheduled for evaluation before
December 31 of this year. Considering that NAC apparently managed
to evaluate only six agencies (two new and four reaccredited)
during the first half of the year, it seems unlikely that it will
be able to handle the pile-up. Meanwhile, NAC's repeated claim
that it makes a periodic assessment of the services performed by
its member agencies and that this ongoing surveillance guarantees
excellence is revealed ever more clearly as the sham it has
always been.
     Here is the list of the seventeen agencies slated to undergo
reaccreditation before the end of the year: Alabama Institute for
Deaf and Blind; Arkansas School for the Blind; Lions Blind
Center, Oakland, California; Sacramento Society for the Blind;
Center for the Partially Sighted, Santa Monica, California;
Florida School for the Blind; Independence for the Blind-
Tallahassee; Visually Impaired Persons Center, Fort Myers,
Florida; Georgia Academy for the Blind; Illinois School for the
Blind; Wichita Industries for the Blind; Visually Impaired
Center-Flint, Michigan; Duluth Lighthouse (Minnesota);
Mississippi School for the Blind; Oklahoma Division of Visual
Services; Tennessee Volunteer Blind Industries; and Wisconsin
Industries for the Blind. 
     NAC member agencies can be divided into four groups: schools
for the blind, state vocational rehabilitation agencies,
workshops on the National Industries for the Blind/General
Council of Workshops for the Blind list, and everything else--
which can be loosely characterized as agencies that are either
(a) private regional or (b) city-based. With the latest additions
and deletions, the sub-group figures now look like this: 

      Twenty schools out of a total of seventy-one (twenty-eight
percent) are still on the NAC list. Thirty-four percent of all
the schools ever accredited by NAC have now thought better of
that affiliation and dissolved it. 
      Twenty-one workshops out of eighty (twenty-six percent)
are still accredited. Forty-eight percent of all workshops ever
accredited, nineteen of forty, have now left NAC. 
      Five out of fifty-one state vocational rehabilitation
agencies (just under ten percent) are currently affiliated with
NAC. Only thirteen such agencies were ever accredited, and eight
of them have disassociated themselves, which is sixty-two
percent. The last-ditch five are Arkansas, Florida, Hawaii,
Illinois, and Oklahoma. Oklahoma's term expires in December of
1993; Florida's and Illinois's expire in December of 1994 now
that Illinois has been given an extension.
      In the catch-all category, thirty-two agencies out of a
total of seventy-eight (forty-one percent) are still in the NAC
fold. This means that fifteen out of the total of forty-seven
regional agencies ever associated with NAC (thirty-two percent)
have now gone their own way. 

     A total of nineteen states can now boast a NAC-free
environment. Eighteen more have only one NAC-accredited agency.
And only fifteen have more than one. This takes into account
fifty states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Of the
fifteen states with more than one NAC-accredited agency, seven
account for half of all NAC agencies in the United States. They
are Florida, ten; New York, six; Georgia, five; Illinois, five;
Pennsylvania, five; Ohio, four; and Tennessee, four. 
     The National Accreditation Council (at this stage the name
seems ironic) continues to cling to existence by every desperate
measure it can take. As the larger and better known agencies fall
away, attempts are made to replace them with the smaller and more
obscure. Even so, with every semiannual report, NAC's claim to
plausibility--never mind professional integrity--becomes more
precarious. As this article goes to press, groups that formerly
supported NAC are meeting to discuss new initiatives in
accreditation. One is left with the sense that NAC is a ghost at
the accreditation table which everyone else wishes would quietly
disappear.


                      CENTERING ON SUCCESS

     One of the presentations at the Mid-Winter Conference of the
National Association of Blind Students in February, 1993, was a
panel of three people discussing the National Federation of the
Blind adult rehabilitation centers. The presenters were Diane
McGeorge, Director of the Colorado Center for the Blind and
member of the Board of Directors of the National Federation of
the Blind; Ollie Cantos, then a student at the Louisiana Center
for the Blind and member of the Board of Directors of the
National Association of Blind Students, and now its president;
and Jennifer Lehman, then a student at BLIND, Inc., and President
of the Minnesota Association of Blind Students. Each brought a
personal perspective to this discussion. Here is what they had to
say: 

[PHOTO: Portrait. CAPTION: Diane McGeorge.]

                         Diane McGeorge

     Over and over again today I have heard presenters say in
various ways that if you intend to compete and succeed and
genuinely be a player in life, you must have the necessary skills
and a competitive edge. It may come as a shock to some of you,
but as a blind person you had better be just a cut above. You can
tell me that it isn't fair, but nobody ever said that life was
fair. 
     One of my favorite parts of these conferences is "The Young
and the Skill-less," because there is so much common sense as
well as humor in those little plays. But look at the people who
performed in the episode we saw today. I believe that one hundred
percent of them have been students, teachers, or counselors at
one of the three NFB adult training centers. And they show it.
When you have the opportunity day in and day out, week in and
week out, morning, noon, and night to have someone confront you
with "What do you mean that's good enough? That is not good
enough; you can do better than that," you can't help beginning to
do better than that. 
     Recently one of our students came into my office to tell me
exactly what was wrong with the Colorado Center. That's all
right; any student is free to do that. I told him that every
center is shaped by all the people who are a part of it, not just
the staff. Each student brings his or her unique perspective,
which he then proceeded to give me. In short he thought we were
doing a pretty rotten job; center students conclude this from
time to time. The heart of his complaint was that we just pushed
too hard. We expected more than was reasonable. The constant
pressure to stretch and change old attitudes demanded too much of
people. People, he said, needed to be COMFORTABLE. I am about to
declare that the C word and get it out of the language! In my
opinion that's what's wrong with about ninety-seven percent of
blind people; other folks have been making us comfortable for
years. You don't get anywhere being comfortable. We make the
strides forward in our lives when we push against that edge of
comfort. 
     That is what good center training is all about, and that is
what separates our centers from traditional rehabilitation
training. I tell prospective students that we are not
traditional, that we are innovative, and they say, "Yes, I know."
But they haven't a clue--they haven't a clue, until they get
there. The same thing happens when I hire summer staff. I tell
them what I expect, and they say, "No problem." But it can be a
problem when you have several junior or senior high kids who
don't want to go rock climbing and you have to step out and be
the role model even if you're scared to death. But it adds that
sharp edge to your self-confidence. That's what NFB centers do
for you, and that in turn provides the key to success. 
     I want to say one last thing. Somehow we must get across to
people that it is respectable to attend one of our NFB centers.
It does not broadcast the message that you are not a competent
blind person. A belief is abroad in this land that, if you decide
to go to a center, you must have some fault, some weakness, that
there must be some areas that really need a lot of work--you
can't cut up your meat; you can't butter your bread; you fell
down the stairs because you didn't use your cane properly. That's
crazy! The smartest people, the ones who really want that
competitive edge, are the ones who decide to take the time out to
come to one of the NFB centers.
     Of course we work on skills, but the real emphasis is on
helping people get to the point where they aren't afraid to get
out there and do what they want to. Every single one of us has
come from the same place. Not everybody has the courage to stand
up and admit it, but I do. And I know a lot of other leaders of
the Federation who will say, "There was a time when I backed away
from doing things because I was afraid, but my involvement in the
NFB is what got me over it." My involvement with the NFB and my
experience in developing and running an NFB training center lead
me every day of the world to question my own attitudes: Am I
selling myself short? Am I selling the students short? Am I not
expecting the highest goals? That edge of expectation is what we
all need to develop if we are going to be successful. The key to
success is pushing the edge; the key to success is not always
looking for comfort and the way out; and the key to success is
the National Federation of the Blind. 


[PHOTO: Portrait. CAPTION: Ollie Cantos.]

                          Ollie Cantos

     Several days ago I went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner.
When I broke open the fortune cookie at the end of the meal, it
said, "Yes, do it with confidence!" That is the perfect summation
of the philosophy of the NFB training centers. Last year at this
time I was struggling with the decision of whether or not to take
a year out of my life, delaying law school, to attend the
Louisiana Center for the Blind. I had been pretty successful in
college, so I wondered if I couldn't go on to graduate school
using the same techniques. I knew I had to learn Braille, of
course, but perhaps I could work on that on my own. But in the
end I decided to go to Louisiana. I must tell you that it has
been the most incredible experience of my life. 
     Every day is full of classes, each of which lasts two hours
and is filled with hard work on various skills. But in addition
we spend four hours a week, students and staff alike, discussing
issues connected with blindness, and we struggle to find ways of
applying what we learn to our own lives. This is revolutionary.
This philosophy becomes the foundation that allows us to put the
rest of what we learn to full use. 
     For me as a blind person with some useable vision, wearing
sleepshades during my training has been very important. I know
that lots of professionals think that sleepshades are
unnecessary, even foolish. But my experience has taught me that
working under sleepshades has enabled me to gain the maximum
benefit from the alternative techniques I am learning. In home
economics, for example, I could use vision to help me light the
stove or determine whether or not the water or oil was hot
enough, but putting my head down close enough to see would be
dangerous. I never knew how many alternative techniques there
are. For the two years I have been a member of the Federation I
have been told that blindness can be reduced to the level of a
physical nuisance, and I believed it. But learning these skills
has brought home to me the real truth of this statement. 
     Before I came to the Louisiana Center, I thought of myself
as confident and fairly competent, but my training is making me
truly competent and therefore genuinely confident. Sometime in 
the coming months my training at the center will end, but in a
real sense it will never end. The NFB training centers open their
students up to possibilities that we would never otherwise have
had the courage to consider. To those of you who may be thinking
about attending one of these centers, I would encourage you in
the strongest terms to go for it. Certainly you will learn new
skills that will be invaluable, but you will also learn to live
life in a whole new way. Like me you will find that this is the
biggest blessing of your entire life. 



[PHOTO: Jennifer Lehman stands with microphone in hand. CAPTION:
Jennifer Lehman.]

                         Jennifer Lehman

     Imagine standing at the bottom of a giant canyon and looking
up at the world above. There are two ways to get yourself out:
one looks smooth and easy, but everything along the route is the
same, and you can't actually tell if the path makes it to the
top. The other path is rocky and steep. It looks difficult, but
you can see that it goes to the top and that there will be
spectacular scenery along the way. Last year my life resembled
this canyon. I could have kept living my life the way I had been-
-coasting along, letting other people and situations shape me. Or
I could choose the challenge and stimulation of becoming a
student at BLIND, Inc., in Minneapolis. Eventually I chose BLIND,
Inc., because I got tired of always taking the easy way out. 
     I was born in Watertown, Wisconsin, where I was the first
blind person to attend public school. In fact, I was the first
blind person in the whole town. My parents expected me to go to
public school and to do a lot of things. They are great parents,
but there were some things that they didn't expect me to do. They
assumed that I would get good grades, which I did, and take part
in extra-curricular activities, which I also did. But I wasn't
expected to run to the grocery store or cook a meal. I could put
something into the oven for my mother, but I was not to get close
to the open flame of the burners. 
     When I went places with my friends, I was not expected to
use a cane and be responsible for myself. I was to hang on to
someone's elbow because that was easier. I grew up relying on
other people. Yet I thought of myself as an independent blind
person. I told myself that I was normal. After all, my friends
were sighted, and I could go everywhere with them. Somehow I
failed to notice that my mobility method was to find someone who
was going where I wanted to go and hang on to them so I could get
there. 
     Sometimes I realized how unsatisfactory this method was. I
got tired of hunting for people who were going--or whom I could
convince that they wanted or were willing to go--where I needed
to go. It could get very complicated, so sometimes I didn't go.
That sacrifice seemed a lot easier than learning to use a cane
and looking conspicuous and perhaps hitting something with the
tip. And it was certainly better than getting a little lost,
which seemed scary. 
     I graduated from high school and got ready for college. I
knew that life on campus would be different. I would have to
learn more about how to use a cane. For one thing, I had to get
myself to classes. But I hated using that cane, and whenever I
could, I quickly folded it up and stuck it in my purse so no one
would notice it. When I was getting ready to go to college, a
mobility specialist came to teach me routes--how to get to this
class and how to get to that one. No matter where I wanted to go,
he always began at my dorm because it was easier for him to teach
me to find the cafeteria or a classroom building, for example,
from a single starting point. It wasn't important to him that I
be able to find one building from another. His idea was that I
should learn one route to each building and be able to reverse it
in order to get back again. 
     When I got to campus in September, there was construction on
one of my routes, and I panicked. Very quickly I found a person
who was going to the class in that building, and I was very
friendly to her because I needed her help. Of course I never
admitted that motive to anybody, least of all myself. 
     That's how things went for me until I got to my first
National Federation of the Blind convention. Suddenly I was among
thousands of blind people, and there was no way to manipulate
them into helping me because there was no one around who could
see. When I listened to them talk, they were discussing doing
things I would have loved to do for myself. The thought crossed
my mind that perhaps I could learn to do these things too, but
then I rejected the idea. I was fine the way I was even though I
couldn't cook or go to the store. 
     Then one day in January of last year I was walking back to
my dormitory on campus. It was snowing hard. A friend had dropped
me off in the parking lot, which is only about fifty feet from
the door, if you go the right way. But I wasn't going the right
way; I wandered in circles for a half hour because I didn't want
to admit to anyone that I didn't know my way around this very
small campus. That was the night I decided that I needed to go to
BLIND, Inc. I needed to stop being afraid to go places because I
couldn't find my way back. I had to stop depending on everyone
else to do things for me and to show me what to do. I didn't know
what kind of career I could have. I told my dad that I wanted to
be a lawyer, and he said, "Oh you can't do that; you'd never be
able to read all that stuff." I accepted what he said, but I knew
that there had to be something different. 
     So after a lot of wavering I did come to BLIND, Inc., and I
was right; there is a difference. It's a different world out
there when you take control of your life and start to shape
things for yourself. Now, if I have an errand to do, I go do it.
If I want to ask someone to come with me because I enjoy the
company, that's great, but I don't have to do it because I need
them to get me there. 
     I want to say to any of you who may be considering going to
a center, there is nothing wrong with you. There is something
wrong with you if you are constantly selling yourself short,
staying home, being alone, or saying I can't do that because I'm
blind and I don't have the skills. If you don't have the skills,
go some place where you can get them. 

               NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND
                            1993-1994
               Braille Readers are Leaders Contest
                          Sponsored by:
           Parents of Blind Children Division and the 
       National Association to Promote the Use of Braille

PURPOSE OF CONTEST 
The purpose of the NFB's annual Braille reading contest is to
encourage blind school children to read more Braille. It is just
as important for blind children to be literate as it is for other
children. Good readers can have confidence in themselves and
their abilities to learn and to adapt to new situations
throughout their lifetimes. Braille is a viable alternative to
print, yet many blind children are graduating from our schools
with poor Braille skills  and low expectations for themselves as
Braille readers. They do not know that Braille readers can be
competitive with print readers. The NFB's Braille reading contest
helps blind children realize that reading Braille is fun and
rewarding. 

WHO CAN ENTER THE CONTEST
Blind school age children from kindergarten through the twelfth
grade are eligible to enter. The student competes in one of five
categories. The first category is the print to Braille beginning
reader. This category is for former or current print readers  who
began to learn and use Braille within the past two years. This
includes: 1. formerly sighted children who became blind after
they mastered print, and 2. partially-sighted print readers who
are learning Braille. (NOTE: Kindergartners and first-graders are
NOT eligible for the print to Braille category.) The other
categories are: grades K-1; 2-4; 5-8; and 9-12. Students in
ungraded programs should select the category which most closely
matches their age and performance level. 

PRIZES FOR THE CONTEST
First-, second-, and third-place winners are selected from each
of the five categories. All winners receive a cash prize, a
special certificate, and a distinctive NFB Braille Readers Are
Leaders T-shirt. In each category first-place winners receive
$75.00, second-place winners $50.00, and third-place winners
$25.00.  All contestants receive a Braille certificate and a
special token for participating in the contest. Schools are
encouraged to schedule public presentations of the certificates.
Alternatively, presentations may be made in the classroom, or at
the local National Federation of the Blind Chapter meeting, or in
some other appropriate setting. Members of the National
Federation of the Blind will award the certificates and other
prizes whenever possible.

MOST IMPROVED BRAILLE READER
Special recognition will be given to the top five contestants,
regardless of category, who demonstrate the most improvement over
their performance in the previous year's contest. To be
considered for the Most Improved Braille Reader award the
contestant must enter the contest for two consecutive years and
cannot be a winner in the current, or any previous, Braille
Readers are Leaders contest. Winners of the Most Improved Braille
Reader award receive ten dollars ($10.00). RULES FOR THE CONTEST
Winners will be chosen based on the number of Braille pages read.
The one who reads the largest number of Braille pages will be the
first-place winner; the second largest the second-place winner;
and the third largest the third-place winner. The completed
contest entry form must be received by the judges no later than
February 15, 1994. Contestants must submit with the entry forms a
print list of the materials read. Entry forms without this list
will be returned to the sender. This list must contain the
following information: 1. student's name and contest category; 2.
title of book or magazine; 3. magazine date; 3. author of book or
article; 4. number of Braille pages read in each book, magazine,
or article; 5. total number of pages read; and 6. signature of
the certifying authority. 

CERTIFYING AUTHORITY
The certifying authority is responsible for: verifying that the
student read the Braille material listed and that the material
was read between November 1, 1993, and February 1,1994; filling
out and sending in the contest entry form in an accurate,
complete, and timely fashion; assisting the student in finding
Braille materials to read for the contest. 

Teachers, librarians, and parents may serve as certifying
authorities. The certifying authority must also be prepared to
cooperate if the contest judges have any questions or need
additional information about an entry. All decisions of the
judges are final.

For more information contact: Mrs. Sandy Halverson, 403 West 62nd
Terrace, Kansas City, Missouri 64113; evenings: (816) 361-7813;
or Mrs. Barbara Cheadle, National Federation of the Blind, 1800
Johnson Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21230; day: (410) 747-3472 or
(410)659-9314. 

COMMON QUESTIONS
     1. What if I didn't know about the contest until after it
began. Can I still enter?  YES
     2. If I enter late, can I still count the Braille pages I
have read since November 1?   YES, if your certifying authority
will verify that you read those pages.
     3. Can I count my Braille Textbooks? NO
     4. Can I count textbooks if they are not the textbooks I am
now using for my regular classwork? YES.
     5. What if I don't finish reading a book? Can I count the
pages that I did read? YES. However, be sure to note this on the
entry form when you list that book.
     6. Can supplemental reading books to beginning reading
series be counted for the contest? YES.
     7. What constitutes a Braille page? EACH side of an embossed
piece of paper is considered one page. If you read both sides,
then you have read two pages. This is true even if there are only
two Braille lines on one side. On the other hand, you can only
count the pages you have actually read. If a book has 35 pages,
but you just read 10 of them, then you can only count 10 pages.
     8. Can I count title pages, tables of contents, Brailled
descriptions of illustrations, etc.? YES
     9. I have to transcribe books for my beginning reader. Most
of these books have only a few words on a print page. If the
print book has more pages than my Braille transcription, how do I
count pages for the contest? For the purposes of this contest,
the number of Braille pages counted per book should never be less
than the number of print pages in that book. This is so even if
the teacher has transcribed the entire book onto one Braille
page. To avoid confusion we suggest that the books be transcribed
page for page--one Braille page for each print page--whenever
space permits.


                       CONTEST ENTRY FORM
                NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND
               BRAILLE READERS ARE LEADERS CONTEST
              November 1, 1993 to February 1, 1994

                         Mail entry to: 
                      Mrs. Sandy Halverson
                     403 West 62nd Terrace, 
                   Kansas City, Missouri 64113

Student's Name  Age  Grade
Address  City  State  Zip
Parent's Name  Phone (Home) (Work) 
Certifying Authority:  Name Address 
Position:  Parent [ ]   Teacher [ ]   Librarian [ ]
City State Zip Phone(Home) (Work)
School Name Address City State Zip Phone 
[ ] YES [ ] NO  Did you enter last year's contest (1992-93)?  
[ ] YES [ ] NO  Have you been a winner in a previous Braille
Readers are Leaders contest?

Category: (Check one)
[ ] Beginning Print to Braille
     (This category is for former or current print readers,
grades 2-12, who began to learn and use Braille within the
past two years.)

[ ]Kindergarten and First Grade
[ ] Second through Fourth Grades
[ ] Fifth through Eighth Grades
[  ] Ninth through Twelfth Grades

     One of the prizes for the contest is a special T-shirt.
If you should be a winner, what size would you require? (Check
one)
Children's:  S (6-8) _______ M (10-12) ______ L (14-16)
Adult: S (34-36) _______ M (38-40) ______ L (42-44) ______

Name   Category   Total Braille Pages

     Please use this form when turning in the list of books,
magazines, and articles read. If additional paper is needed, be
sure to put the student's name and his/her contest category at
the top of EACH page and staple the papers together securely.

BOOKS 
Title  Author  Number of Braille pages read 

MAGAZINES
Name and date of magazine  Number of Braille pages read
Total Braille Pages 
     To the best of my knowledge, this student did read these
Braille pages between the dates of November 1, 1993, and February
1, 1994.                                                    

Signature of Certifying Authority

Mail entries to
Mrs. Sandy Halverson
403 West 62nd Terrace
Kansas City, Missouri 64113 
For more infomation, call Mrs. Halverson
evenings at (816) 361-7813; or Mrs. Barbara Cheadle days at:
(410) 747-3472 or (410) 659-9314.

ENTRIES MUST BE RECEIVED NO LATER THAN FEBRUARY 15, 1994




[PHOTO: Jaime Fradera seated at table communicating with a
Tellatouch machine. CAPTION: Jaime Fradera.]

                   COMING TO TERMS WITH MYSELF
              AT THE COLORADO CENTER FOR THE BLIND
                        by Jaime Fradera

     From the Editor: Jaime Fradera is a Federationist who has
been deaf and blind for some years. Like too many other disabled
people, Mr. Fradera knows the anger and frustration of years
wasted in vain attempts to achieve successful rehabilitation. For
some twenty years he has been a client of the Texas Commission
for the Blind. His vocational rehabilitation counselor has
continued to work with Mr. Fradera to obtain genuinely effective
training. When he became convinced that the Colorado Center for
the Blind was the one rehabilitation facility available to him
that might truly help him to become independent, his counselor
assisted in the long bureaucratic battle to obtain the necessary
approval to send him to Denver. 
     Jaime Fradera was a student at the Colorado Center for the
Blind for a year. It was not an easy twelve months, but looking
back, he now believes that it was the most rewarding and
exciting, even life-changing, period of his life. Since
graduating from the Colorado Center, Mr. Fradera has been hired
as a staff member of the Center to do outreach work with deaf-
blind people in the state. He travels independently several times
a week to Boulder to teach a deaf-blind woman, and he is working
hard to make the Colorado Center's program accessible to other
deaf-blind people.
     As Jaime Fradera was completing his rehabilitation program
at the Colorado Center for the Blind, he felt compelled to put
the story of his rehabilitation down on paper. It is moving and
eloquent of both the pain of dreams left unfulfilled for years
and the struggle to learn the skills and habits of thought and
action that lead to independence. Here is that story: 

     I am a deaf-blind student at the Colorado Center for the
Blind. Coming to Colorado is the realization of a personal dream
that has taken many years of work, patience, and persistence to
fulfill. My purpose in writing this article is to share with
others part of that dream, my experiences as a student in the
Colorado Center, and the way that applying the philosophy of the
National Federation of the Blind has changed the direction of my
life and my hopes for the future. I write this in the hope that
others may find these experiences and observations about life in
an NFB center interesting and maybe even helpful. Finally, I
would also like to stimulate a discussion about the real meaning
and definition of rehabilitation of blind people and to encourage
traditional rehabilitation professionals to rethink and re-
examine their beliefs about and expectations for the blind people
they serve. 
     My story is not unusual, and my experiences in
rehabilitation are shared by many blind people who are still
suffering the soul-destroying effects of inactivity, lack of
opportunity, and hopelessness. The orientation centers operated
by the National Federation of the Blind have a proven record of
success in equipping blind people to take their rightful places
in society; and, if writing this article can help free a single
blind person from the cycle of despair and help him or her
believe that there is indeed hope, it will have been worth the
effort. 
     I grew up in Texas, first attending public school through
third grade, then the school for the blind in Austin. In 1965 the
Texas school was a gloomy and forbidding place and, like most
residential schools for the blind, very custodial. But all things
considered, I got a pretty good general education there. While I
was in high school, my Texas Commission for the Blind counselor
sent me to the Criss Cole Rehabilitation Center for evaluation.
After leaving high school, I was sent there again for training.
Three years later I was sent there yet again for still more
training. Nine years after that I was encouraged to go to the
Helen Keller Center on Long Island for what turned out to be six
dehumanizing months of still more training, testing, and
evaluation. During these years I also worked with home teachers
and mobility instructors sent by the Texas Commission for the
Blind. There are no words to describe the pain, disappointment,
anger, and despair I have known during the twenty years I have
been a client of the Texas Commission. 
     As a result of that twenty years of rehabilitation, I
learned to suspect and mistrust anyone in the blindness field who
came to work with me; I learned that their words could not be
taken at face value. And I learned that, unless I worked with
someone who really believed in me as a blind person, I was never
going to learn the things I needed to know to live and work in
the real world. Reluctantly I came to believe that I had no
future in Texas, that I needed a new climate and opportunities,
that it was time for me to move on.
     In 1987, with the help of my friends in the National
Federation of the Blind, I spoke with Homer Page, now President
of the National Federation of the Blind of Colorado, to explore
the possibility of coming to Colorado to study at the University
of Colorado at Boulder. I found Homer very encouraging and
resolved that I would move to Colorado regardless of the time and
effort it might take to do so. 
     Coming to Colorado turned out to be a considerable task. The
Texas Commission claimed that the help I wanted was already
available in Texas; and, although this was technically true in
that they had field workers with certain job titles, I had by
then totally lost faith in the Texas rehabilitation system. But
after five years, the hard work of my vocational rehabilitation
counselor, and a long series of meetings with other Commission
staff, it finally became possible for me to enroll as a student
at the Colorado Center for the Blind (CCB), and on January 8,
1992, I began my training.
     The pace of life at the Colorado Center for the Blind is
much faster than it is in other programs I have known. We live in
an apartment complex located in suburban Englewood and commute to
the Center in Denver via public transportation. We are expected
to come to class on time and prepared, and we are to keep our
apartments in livable condition after school hours. A thirteen-
or fourteen-hour work day is typical here at the Center, and we
learn to work and travel under weather conditions that are
sometimes nothing less than horrendous.
     Learning to travel in the snow has been an interesting
experience. After a heavy snowfall curbs, sidewalks, and other
features can be completely obscured, especially when the snow has
been drifting. During the winter I am learning new techniques for
finding these landmarks by observing the way the snow is banked. 
For several weeks after my arrival, the weather was bitterly
cold, with temperatures in the teens and single digits. I quickly
learned to dress appropriately.
     I have found a number of significant differences between the
training program here and the rehabilitation programs in Texas
and New York. The Colorado Center staff believe that students
must continually be pushed beyond what they think they can do in
order to make progress and, indeed, that in order to improve
skills students must learn to push themselves continually. The
idea is not only to learn new skills, but also to form and
internalize new habits of living and even thinking, so that the
guidance and encouragement of the Center instructors will no
longer be necessary to accomplish new things. This was hard for
me to get used to because, although I knew I was making great
progress, more and more was always expected. 
     At the CCB there is a free exchange of ideas between the
students and staff. My ideas about what should be in my program
were actually taken seriously. On my first day at the Center we
had a discussion about whether I should travel using a guide
since I cannot hear well enough to use many auditory cues. (It
should be borne in mind that students at our NFB centers, unlike
other places, are not usually taught to use sighted guides for
traveling.) I had given this some thought and decided that in
general I should not use a travel guide as long as I could follow
directions because I could too easily become dependent on a guide
to make decisions. With a guide to depend upon, I might stop
paying attention to where I was or not use my travel skills to
figure things out for myself. To my surprise, everybody seemed to
agree with my thinking, and at no other time in my life have I
done as much traveling without using guides as I have done here.
It is gratifying to realize that I really have control over where
I need to go and how I get there, using little more than the
time-honored methods of riding busses and taxis, exploring,
asking questions, and following directions. The problems of deaf-
blindness are not as profound or complex as I had been led to
believe. Basically they boil down to poor training, negative
attitudes, and lack of opportunity. 
     At the Colorado Center there is also little distinction
(except for administrative purposes) between students and staff.
Diane McGeorge, our Director, and two of the teachers are blind,
and they serve as good role models. None of the sighted staff
show the snobby, condescending attitudes toward blind people to
which I had become accustomed in Texas, and we all socialize and
have fun together. Since I had become completely disgusted and
disillusioned by the rehabilitation system and everything
associated with it, it was interesting and refreshing to learn
that our training included such things as learning to ski and
hike high in the mountains or shooting rapids on a rubber raft--
about as far away from traditional rehabilitation as you can get.
     Another interesting concept at the Center is the practice of
peer teaching, having students teach and work with each other to
pass on skills learned in the program. This is an important
difference from traditional centers, in which only properly
certified, professionally trained (and, yes, almost always
sighted) teachers are qualified to work with the blind. We
believe that the people most qualified to teach the skills of
blindness are teachers who have already mastered these skills and
use them every day. 
     During my first two months at the center I got much of my
travel training and orientation from other blind people, and my
Braille teacher, who is blind, showed me how to travel from our
apartment complex to the Center every day until I learned to do
it myself. When I came to the Center, I was nervous about
trusting a blind person to teach me to travel, even though I had
used blind people to guide me around at Federation conventions.
One day early in my training my travel teacher was called away
and assigned me to work with another student, who was to teach me
how to cross the intersection down the street from the Center.
This gave me the creeps. How could a blind person, with no
teaching credentials or professional expertise, show me how to
walk through an intersection? This could be dangerous! 
     After the teacher left us, we did the crossing three or four
times, which was enough for me to make up some story about why
there wasn't much point in doing this anymore. At the time I
didn't tell anyone my real reason for quitting, which was that I
didn't think that a blind student (who after all still hadn't
graduated from the program) could be trusted. This was one
example of the ways in which I had unknowingly internalized a
stereotypical view of blind people--in other words, myself--even
while believing myself to be a really progressive thinker. I soon
recognized and understood what was happening, however, and after
that thought nothing more about it.
     At the NFB centers there is no lengthy, intrusive,
condescending testing or evaluation procedure for new students.
Time is not wasted on traditional rehabilitation fun and games
with people's lives, and the only presumptions made are that we
are normal, intelligent adults capable of controlling our own
lives and that we are deserving of dignified treatment,
consideration, and respect. This often meant that I had to deal
with issues concerning personal management, self-discipline, and
organization which were sometimes unpleasant. Changing old habits
is never easy, but telling myself that the teaching methods used
at the Center were based on the philosophy of the National
Federation of the Blind made it easier to believe that everybody
was genuinely interested in my welfare.
     The most significant difference I have found between the CCB
and other programs has been what has happened to me--what I have
gained in the year I have spent at the Center. In the twelve
months I have been in the program, I have made considerable
progress in personal growth and in learning new skills. When I
came to the Center in January of 1992, I had been discouraged
from doing much traveling on my own, and as a result my cane
skills had deteriorated. After a year in this program I now
routinely ride public transportation and travel freely throughout
the Denver metro area and beyond, scarcely giving the matter a
thought. The freedom to travel has given me a feeling of control
over my own life that I have never had before. A year ago, I
hardly ever used a slate and stylus for writing, whereas now I
use the slate almost exclusively for taking down information, and
my writing speed and accuracy have greatly improved. In less than
a year I went from cooking mostly frozen dinners to preparing
meals for twenty people, and on several occasions I have cooked
lunch for students and staff. I now feel more confident about my
ability to understand and follow recipes and cooking directions.
I am also learning to use a word processor in a limited way but
will have full access to the computer as soon as I can begin
working with a Braille display. Through challenges to my personal
beliefs, I have been learning that I can understand and follow
directions and instructions for doing such things as changing a
bandage or cooking a meal.
     I had always thought of myself as a really progressive,
together Federationist, ready to go out and do battle with the
old stereotypes of blindness and deaf-blindness; yet I had
internalized the belief that as a blind person I must certainly
be too stupid to remember or learn to perform the ordinary tasks
of daily life. Learning that some of my beliefs might not
necessarily be true was sometimes deeply embarrassing, but I am
grateful now to have been liberated from many of these
misconceptions. Even more important than the instruction and
skills training I received, however, has been my new recognition
that I am really a lot smarter and tougher than I thought I was
when I came to the Center.
     This progress has not come easily, and the price in
emotional terms has been very high. I have had a number of
problems during my training, among them difficulty adjusting to
and keeping up with the often grueling pace of life here and the
many demands made on me in the program. This has been the down
side of my Colorado Center experience. At no other time in my
life have I been expected, prodded, and even pushed to make so
many decisions about so many things so quickly. My seeming
inability to keep up with the demands of school, do all the
things expected of me, and meet the high standards for students
in the program has sometimes left me going home at the end of a
day or a week feeling disheartened and exhausted. Now that I have
the perspective of twelve months at the center, the benefit of
hindsight, and the capacity to appreciate the long view, I think
this is without question the healthiest and most supportive
atmosphere in which I have ever lived. But in the day-to-day,
routine demands and pressures of school and daily life, the
Colorado Center has not always been pleasant or fun. On the other
hand, even on many of the hardest, roughest, most exhausting days
of my life here, something usually happens to make everything
come around and help me understand that my future was worth my
struggle to grow, that I really was making progress, that things
really were going to work out.
     Another problem I have had as a student at the Colorado
Center for the Blind has been confusion over deciding when to
work on projects important to me and when to work on assignments
I was expected to complete during class time. Too often I have
had a distressing tendency to slip into a pattern of passive
dependency (as if I was in another institution), doing only what
I was told, even when I knew my time would have been better spent
doing something else. Of course, there were also planned
activities scheduled by the teachers in which we all
participated. For months after I arrived here, I realized that
this confusion and anxiety over agendas and priorities was
seriously interfering with the independent thinking and
initiative I needed to develop and must continue to exercise
every day if I were to benefit fully from the Colorado Center
program. I think that at the gut level I was still afraid of
asserting myself too much, getting into trouble in the program
(as happened at another rehab center), being somehow exposed or
embarrassed if I talked too much.
     We make the analogy here between the demands of training and
the demands of holding down a job. The idea is to learn good
habits of time, money, and personal management that you can then
carry over into employment. My experience in other rehab centers,
in which many of the same phrases and rationales were used to
justify what was done, had taught me that the best way to stay
out of trouble was to be quiet and do what I was told, accepting
that whatever it was was for my own good. I was assured that
conformity to the rules and enduring the unpleasant situations
was analogous to meeting the demands of an ordinary job and that
therefore I must learn to accept the regimentation and structure
of the program. Nothing I said or thought mattered. My response
to this heavy-handed control was either open rebellion or passive
and indignant resistance, putting most of my life on hold until I
could leave the program. Although I knew that the CCB was an NFB
center and that it would be profoundly different from the centers
I had known, I began to respond according to the old patterns, as
I would have done in other institutions--with suspicion,
skepticism, and anxiety. Being in yet another rehab center
brought back the memories of losing control over virtually all my
privacy and personal affairs to the counselors and social
workers. Such experiences were still vivid and painful. 
     I found conditions at the Center over which I had no control
to be demoralizing. I eventually concluded that this was one of
the tradeoffs I had to make in order to get the help I needed.
Learning that at the CCB I really could believe what was said by
the staff, that personal initiative was expected and highly
encouraged, and that everyone loved and cared about me as a
person, regardless of the way I had been treated in the past, has
been without question the most difficult personal challenge I
have ever had to face.
     As I conclude this article, it is March of 1993. I have just
graduated from the Colorado Center program. Ahead of me is a
lifetime of learning, so this story is not yet complete. My
Colorado Center experience has been so complex and intense that
describing much of it is beyond the scope of a single article.
The Colorado Center is not for everyone; some students,
particularly those unfamiliar with the philosophy of blindness
that presupposes normality and fundamental competence, leave the
program feeling that they have been mistreated. But speaking for
myself, I can safely say that, in spite of all the problems,
inconvenience, and hardship, I have gained immeasurably from
having gone through the program. It has demanded much of me but
given more. The Center has succeeded in doing something that
twenty years of conventional rehabilitation utterly failed to do:
it has given me the self-confidence and the inner toughness I
will need to live in the world, pursue my lifelong dreams, earn
my own living, and assume the privileges and responsibilities of
full citizenship. 
     It is to those who have supported me and brought me along in
this movement, to those of you who believed in me even when I
couldn't believe in myself, that this article is dedicated. You
have taught me that I am living for more than just myself, that I
have something to contribute to the human race, and that I have a
duty and responsibility to help leave the world a better place.
We are joined together in a great crusade, and little by little,
day by day, hour by hour, each of us in our own unique and
special way is changing what it means to be blind.


[PHOTO/CAPTION: Joyce Scanlan, Director of BLIND, Inc., presents
a certificate to Erin Elliot at the graduation ceremonies which
marked the completion of the 1993 Buddy Program. Other members of
the group, their families, and friends look on.]

               BLIND, INC., BUDDIES GIVE THUMBS UP

     From the Editor: All three National Federation of the Blind
adult rehabilitation centers conduct summer programs aimed
especially at providing their unique brand of loving, demanding,
high-expectation instruction to youngsters. At Blindness Learning
in New Dimensions (BLIND), Inc., this past summer was the first
time that students as young as nine were enrolled, and the
program was a huge success. On Thursday, August 12, the
Minneapolis Star Tribune carried a story about the five-week-long
program. Here it is:

                        A Unique Outlook
                Buddy Program Allows Blind Adults
             to Teach Blind Youth Independent Living
                        by Karine Michael

     Erin Elliot listens closely as the traffic whizzes past her.
     When the din of moving cars stops, she and six other youths
and their instructor begin walking across the congested downtown
intersection at 4th Street and Marquette Avenue.
     Erin, thirteen, sweeps her white cane along the sidewalk in
front of her as she crosses, using its metal tip as a sensor to
determine where the curb begins to rise.
     The pedestrians, ranging in age from nine to thirteen, smile
as they walk, cherishing their independence as they learn to
navigate city sidewalks and streets.
     The survival-skills lesson is one of several that the youths
have gotten this summer. But unlike other programs, the lessons
have been taught by those who have firsthand knowledge of the
life skills they will need--blind adults.
     BLIND, Inc., a Minneapolis-based learning and resource
center for the blind, created its unique Buddy Program last
winter, after receiving a $30,000 grant from the Minneapolis
Foundation.
     It paired a dozen blind youths from across the country with
blind adults, who serve as teachers and guides. They have spent
the past five weeks learning from the adults, who continually
reinforce the idea that the blind can successfully live on their
own.
     Coordinator Judy Sanders said the program was created
because of a need to serve kids who might not have exposure to
essential skills, such as Braille, traveling with a cane, and
home management. They also wanted the kids to have the
opportunity to build close relationships with their peers. It is
one of only three such programs in the country. 
     "Most programs are taught by sighted adults, who can relate
to students on a limited level, but in this program students live
with blind adults and can experience their day-to-day routine,"
Sanders said.
     Seth Leblond of Portland, Maine, credits the program with
boosting his assertiveness.
     Seth, eleven, had already learned to use a cane from his
mother, who is also blind, but he said the program has given him
more of an opportunity to experience large public settings, such
as the Mall of America, the farmers' market in downtown
Minneapolis, and the Metrodome, where the group watched a Twins
game.
     "I really liked going to the grocery store without a sighted
person guiding us [the group]," said Seth. "At home my dad always
shops with me and my mom and guides us, so this was a new
experience. Our group split up, and I got to walk around the
store with three others and ask others where the food I wanted
was."
     The students live in a south Minneapolis apartment building,
where nine of the twelve residents are blind. For the past month
the building has served as a minischool, where students rotate
through the halls to the four one-hour classes.
     One apartment has been converted into a computer room, where
voice-equipped computers teach typing skills.
     Another class teaches Braille and gives students a chance to
increase their Braille reading speed. Home management includes
such things as grilling hamburgers, washing dishes, and making
meals from scratch.
     Students in the travel class take long walks every day to
learn how to use the bus system and how to monitor traffic flow.
     Russell Anderson, a travel and mobility teacher for BLIND,
Inc., said blind people must know streets, traffic, and
directions better than a sighted person.
     He said he learned to navigate streets from the "school of
hard knocks" and has invented innovative methods of traveling.
     Anderson often designs a map of his destination with rubber
bands tacked to his office bulletin board. That way he can feel
the streets that he needs to travel and visualize his
destination.
     The program has attracted a diverse group of kids. Sanders
said they come from vastly different learning environments. Some
are attending schools for the blind, and others are going to
public schools with sighted students.
     Erin lives in Lombard, Illinois, and attends a public
school. The thirteen-year-old is comfortable walking inside
without a cane and has gotten involved in many activities, such
as track and student council. Since she is the oldest in the
group, she said this camp has given her the opportunity to show 
others that they too can have can-do attitudes.
     "My blindness was a special gift from God; I like being
unique," she said.
     Erin said the one valuable new skill that she learned this
summer is how to use a slate and stylus. A slate is a small paper
holder with indented rows of holes that slides under the paper.
The stylus is a small pick that punches holes in the paper to
make perforated Braille messages.
     Together the tools can be used to take class notes, create
lists, and write letters--the same function a paper and pencil
serve. In many schools, the Perkins Brailler, which is similar to
a typewriter, is used to take notes. But the kids say it is
heavy, loud, and not easily portable.
     Erin says the new skill will allow her to take notes in
class instead of waiting for all her schoolwork to be converted
into Braille.
     Sanders said some schools don't teach blind students
Braille, but only work with computers.
     "The level of independence is stifled because they can't
enjoy reading and communicating with others," she said.
     Outside activities have included tubing down the Apple
River, going to the Como and Minnesota zoos, and visiting the
Science Museum of Minnesota.
     The group rides MTC buses as much as possible so students
will become comfortable with public transportation.
     Lisa Kidder, ten, attends the School for the Blind in
Faribault, Minnesota. Although she has attended for seven years,
there are some things that she didn't learn until she joined the
Buddy Program.
     "I never used a slate or stylus either, only a Brailler in
school," Kidder said. She also learned to give herself a
manicure.
     Sanders said the program has been a positive experience for
the teachers, as well as for the students.
     "I hope we can obtain the funds to provide this program next
year for students," she said.




[PHOTO: Portrait. CAPTION: Janet Bixby.]

                   ART AT THE 1993 CONVENTION
                         by Janet Bixby

     From the Editor: Janet Bixby is a member of the National
Federation of the Blind of Virginia and the force behind the art
show and sale at the Dallas convention last summer. Here is her
description of the event: 

     It was twenty minutes before the opening of the eight-hour
exhibit of the work of blind artists, and all was in readiness. 
The space was completely filled with the work of nine artists,
plus the work of a number of students from the New Mexico adult
rehabilitation center, who exhibited woodworking as a group. 
Steve Handschu chipped painstakingly away, demonstrating the
carving of a briar pipe, while artists chatted with each other
about their work.
     Then the visitors began to come.  What they saw was a
diversity of work: acrylic and three-dimensional paintings,
jewelry, ceramic sculpture, weaving, and woodwork. And the
artists were as diverse as their work. They ranged in age from
twenty to seventy-seven. Some had no formal training in art,
while others had been trained as professionals.
     The work brought forth excited exclamations from visitors.
Some, seeing the paintings, asked if the artists were really
legally blind. Others, touching three-dimensional paintings for
the first time, said things like, "Wow, that's neat! I never saw
anything like that," and "I never thought about it, but it would
be nice to have a picture on my wall that was really for me."
     Even small children touched some of the work and seemed to
enjoy it. Yet some adults had to be encouraged to touch, even
though that was the whole purpose of some of the work. It was a
reminder that, not only must we educate people to accept the
notion of blind artists, but we must educate blind and sighted
people alike to appreciate art tactilely.
     For the artists the exhibit provided a chance to sell their
work and, perhaps even more important, a chance to share their
creativity with others and get feedback. One artist who had
refused to consider trying to sell his work found, for the first
time, that he could and said excitedly, "I think I'll do more of
this." Another person said, "My success here helps me think of
myself more as an artist." One artist summed it up when she
wrote, "Thanks for this chance to share my work. It's nice to
have someone see it besides the dustbunnies under the bed."
     At the end of eight hours, about two hundred visitors had
seen the exhibit, and close to a thousand dollars worth of work
had been sold, which benefitted NFB as well as the artists. Some
people went away with a new appreciation of what art is, and some
went away with a new appreciation of what blind people can do.
All in all, it was a good beginning, and we plan to do it again
next year. It's not too early for artists to begin work. For
further information, contact Janet Bixby on tape or in Braille at
208 W. Boscawen St., Winchester, Virginia 22601; or call (703)
722-4712.












                 ******************************
     If you or a friend would like to remember the
National Federation of the Blind in your will, you can
do so by employing the following language:
     "I give, devise, and bequeath unto National
Federation of the Blind, 1800 Johnson Street,
Baltimore, Maryland 21230, a District of Columbia
nonprofit corporation, the sum of $_____ (or "_____
percent of my net estate" or "The following stocks and
bonds: _____") to be used for its worthy purposes on
behalf of blind persons."
                 ******************************
[PHOTO: Portrait. CAPTION: Heather Kirkwood.]

[PHOTO: Drawing of young boy in baseball uniform, with ball and
glove. CAPTION: Heather Kirkwood did this pen and ink drawing of
a baseball player while she was a high school student in
Germany.]

[PHOTO: Drawing of Indiana chief. CAPTION: Heather Kirkwood did
this pencil sketch of the Indian chief Two Moons from a postcard
she bought in Colorado.]

              PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST AS A YOUNG GIRL
                       by Heather Kirkwood

     From the Editor: Heather Kirkwood is a college student and
an active member of the National Federation of the Blind. Her
primary interest is journalism, but she is also interested in
art. It seems clear to me that she must have artistic ability
since she enjoys sketching, drawing cartoons, and painting. I
make this observation because, when I was a child with some
residual vision, no one (least of all me) was interested in or
showed admiration of my artistic endeavors. 
     Heather has not found it easy to establish herself as a
serious amateur artist. It is the same old story: either she is
dismissed out of hand because of her blindness, or fellow
students are annoyed by her ability because they and the faculty
assume that all sighted art students should certainly produce
better work than she can. Luckily Heather is not easily
discouraged, and she has learned from the Federation the tenacity
wherever she is to keep working and keep educating. Here is what
she writes: 

     As soon as I was old enough to grip a jumbo crayon in my
small fingers, my mother bought a huge roll of newsprint and a
set of eight Crayolas. When she was working in the kitchen, she
would spread the newsprint on the floor and lay me in the middle
of it. She placed a crayon in my fist and went about her work.
Perhaps this was not the typical approach to nurturing a blind
child, but that is what she did.
     When I was old enough to attend birthday parties, I would
often come home with coloring books. Within a few days, however,
these would disappear. In later years I learned that my mother
was the coloring book thief. She didn't steal my prizes out of
cruelty, but rather out of what she considered kindness. As an
art major in college, she had been taught that coloring books
stunted creative development. She was determined to nurture
creativity in her child. Visually impaired or not, her child
would have the chance to grow up to be an artist.
     This began the great contradiction of my life. In essence, I
was a blind child who grew up sighted. Although I had been
legally blind since birth, no one bothered to mention to me until
the fourth grade that painting and drawing were two things at
which I wasn't supposed to succeed.
     Although this freedom from externally imposed limitations
should have been an advantage to me, often the denial from which
it sprang has been a great obstacle. Like many other legally
blind children, I was not told that I might try a white cane
until I was seventeen and was not introduced to Braille until the
age of eighteen. Whenever such things were brought up, the
experts, and even my family, dismissed them. As evidence that I
did not require such alternative techniques, the experts held up
my art work as supporting evidence. After all, shouldn't it be
obvious that a child who could draw signs, animals, and even
faces in such detail could see where she was going or what she
was reading?
     Because no one else considered me blind, I never considered
myself to be blind either. I took all sorts of art classes, read
art books, and participated in all of the other things that
interested me. This is not to say that no one was aware that I
was visually impaired; I had stacks of eye doctor reports to
demonstrate my very limited visual acuity. It is to say that my
lack of vision was considered a minor fact of my existence.
     Sounds great, right? After all, the National Federation of
the Blind has long maintained that blindness is only one of many
characteristics of a person, like having blond hair or brown
eyes. The problem was that the other half of the picture was
missing. Blindness can be reduced to the level of a nuisance only
when the proper alternative techniques are mastered. Because my
blindness was considered so minor, I was never taught any of
these skills. As a result, I went through high school with very
few large print books, few books on tape, and no knowledge of
Braille. When I had trouble in my German class seeing all the
letters in words that were totally foreign to me, no one offered
any help. In fact, my German teacher remarked that she forgot
that I had a vision problem. When I couldn't see the examples in
Algebra and asked the teacher to write in black, he was less than
understanding.
     No one was willing to help me work out alternative
techniques because no one understood how much I needed them; not
even I was aware of how difficult things were. I thought it was
part of life to spend six hours on homework and go to bed every
night with a headache. That was, after all, the price one paid
for having good grades. When report cards came out, those good
grades were held up as further proof that I didn't need any help.
I didn't dispute the status quo because I assumed that was the
way it was.
     I sold my art work to pay for my debate trips. Life
continued on this course until my senior year. It was not a
change in my vision that caused a gradual change in my
understanding of my situation. Instead, it was reality looking me
in the face that scared me spitless. We were living in Germany,
and I realized that at the end of the year I would have to return
to the United States to go to college alone. I knew I would have
to become more independent if this endeavor was to be successful.
     We talked with my mobility teacher, but she seemed to have
no adequate answers. She brought me a long cane (an NFB cane, in
fact) and began teaching me to use it. I thought she had lost her
marbles! As I walked down the street, tapping the cane back and
forth on the pavement, I became more worried and frustrated. I
could see the bike rack, the lamp post, the curb, and the street.
That wasn't the problem. The question was, how would this long
white cane make me more self-reliant? When she left, I put the
thing behind the wardrobe. It only came out when I wanted a
microphone with which to sing in front of the mirror. I was not
learning to use the cane with sleep shades, so I really wasn't
learning to do anything different. I was still trying to see
where I was going.
     As time passed, I became more frightened. I supposed that
such fears were normal and went on humoring my mobility teacher
in the hope that I might learn something besides the white cane.
In fact I did. I learned to use landmarks and to read a map. I
learned to listen for traffic patterns and not to be so shy about
asking for directions (in German, of course). Still, in my
opinion this was far from adequate.
     As winter progressed to spring, I came upon the National
Federation of the Blind while looking for scholarships. Not
having a state president to contact in Germany, I called Joanne
Wilson for help. My mobility teacher had known Joanne when she
worked for the Louisiana School for the Visually Impaired. While
I was talking with Joanne, she invited me to come to Louisiana
that summer. In view of my insecurity about leaving home, I
jumped at the chance. Here was a woman who seemed to know what
she was talking about and who had real choices to offer. I really
didn't know what I was getting into, but being a military brat, I
adapt to change well.
     I learned a lot in Louisiana and should have stayed longer.
I learned to use a white cane and read Braille for the first
time. I learned to make great red German cabbage and to use a
computer with ease. In short, I learned to be a blind person.
Most people think that blindness is something you are born with,
but for many of us it is something that you learn to come to
terms with.
     I started out for college with a new-found sense of security
about my future. Ready to take on the world, I walked into Basic
Drawing 115--cane, pencil, and paper in hand. After the first
class, I tried to talk to the professor about certain things.
Would he mind if I moved my seat so that I could see the still
life, and could I close the blinds because the light was too
bright? He listened to me with a bewildered look on his face.
After I was finished, the professor sighed and said that he
supposed I would be able to draw after a fashion. I could
probably express shapes or light and dark. I offered to let him
see some of my work. I knew that this class would be useless if I
could not instill in him any expectation or understanding of my
work. I had to make him understand that I had alternative
techniques for doing art work, just as I had alternative
techniques for doing other things. I had not brought a lot of my
art work to college because I did not plan to major in art. But I
turned my room upside down looking for something I could show him
and, after a while, returned with three pieces of my work. One
look, and that was the end of that problem.
     The next week I attended the first meeting of the newspaper
staff. I was interested in journalism and wanted to participate.
The paper was in need of a cartoonist. No one volunteered.
Instead they hooted and hollered about how they couldn't draw a
stick figure if their lives depended on it. Being a freshman, I
was worried that I might inadvertently step on someone else's
turf at the paper. Timidly I volunteered. The jovial room fell
silent. No one knew what to say to the girl with the white cane.
As a result, I was temporarily given the job for what eventually
turned out to be two years.
     Other than the paper, I had no way to display my art work.
No one even seemed to know that I was the cartoonist. That might
have been to my advantage since most of my cartoons were of a
political nature, including campus politics.
     I remained the phantom cartoonist until one day my art
professor was defending the art requirement for graduation at a
faculty meeting. He told his colleagues that I was one of his
best students and that, if I could complete the requirement, any
other student should be able to do the same. When I heard about
this comment, I finally understood why I had so few friends in
art classes. If I had demonstrated a lack of talent, I would have
conformed to everyone's expectations. Life would have gone on,
but because I displayed talent, suddenly expectations were raised
for everyone else. I realized that I had done a poor job of
educating this professor. He had failed to understand that there
is no necessary relationship between the ability to see well and
the ability to draw or to do anything else for that matter. He
was a prisoner of the old stereotype instead of embracing a new
evaluation.
     At the recent NFB convention I had an opportunity to show my
work (excluding my cartoons) for the first time since beginning
college. I can't tell you how much that chance meant to me. The
under side of my bed is not a rewarding audience. I do not claim
to be a Picasso, nor do I even know how my work compares to that
of others. That is not relevant to me. Art is a means of self-
expression, not an exact replica of reality. Cameras can
reproduce exact images. I enjoy doing my art work and am pleased
to offer it to other people. But this talent has caused me
trouble because blind people aren't supposed to be able to
communicate a visual experience. I have not put down these
stories from an impulse to brag or to receive recognition, but
only to share a lesson. After all, that is what the NFB is all
about.
     So what is the moral of my story? As blind people we often
fall into the trap of believing that we must conform to the
expectations of sighted people, and, without questioning, we do
so. I can't help wondering how many blind children have been
denied the enjoyment of art for that reason, but the NFB has
always pushed against the outer limits of expectation. I consider
that it is a worthy mission for me to continue to do so even in
what is considered to be an exclusively visual realm. I am proud
to be an artist and a member of the National Federation of the
Blind.



              THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND
                    1994 SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM 
                        by Barbara Pierce

     The members of the National Federation of the Blind have
long recognized its responsibility to see that the next
generation of blind people has an opportunity to acquire a first-
rate education. The organization established its first
scholarship in 1965, when it received a bequest from the estate
of Thomas E. Rickard. Mr. Rickard was a blind attorney who
attended the California School for the Blind and was a student at
the University of California at Berkeley, where he studied under
Dr. Jacobus tenBroek, founder of the National Federation of the
Blind. The scholarship was named to honor Mr. Rickard's father,
Howard Brown Rickard, and is awarded to students studying in the
fields of law, medicine, engineering, architecture, or natural
science.
     In 1980 the organization received another bequest for the
specific purpose of adding to our scholarship program. The
bequest was from the estate of Dr. Isabelle Grant, a high school
teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District. After losing
her sight, Dr. Grant became very active in the National
Federation of the Blind and took a great interest in blind people
overseas. This bequest established the Hermione Grant Calhoun
Scholarship for blind women and is a living memorial to Dr.
Grant's daughter.
     This program was expanded in 1984 to twenty scholarships.
For the past nine years the NFB has annually awarded more than
twenty scholarships to distinguished blind students. This
academic year the NFB will present twenty-six awards to
outstanding blind scholars. 
     For the most part, people do not believe that blind post-
secondary students who have the same dreams as their sighted
counterparts are quite right in the head. If they are so foolish
as to pursue such fields as international relations, electrical
engineering, or medicine, they are dismissed immediately as "out
of touch with reality." Even if they major in education,
counseling, or computer science, but do not express a burning
desire to "help other blind people live more satisfying lives,"
obstacles are still often placed in their paths. 
     We in the National Federation of the Blind begin with the
premise that blind students have as much right as anybody else to
try to fulfill their dreams, and we believe that blindness as
such is no reason to assume that a given individual cannot do a
designated job or enter a particular profession. The individual
may not have the intelligence, dexterity, stamina, creativity, or
alternative skills to do the work successfully, and some of these
limitations may well prove insurmountable; but blindness, which
is so often held up as the obvious explanation for any failure,
is not really the culprit. 
     The National Federation of the Blind's 1994 scholarship
program seeks to find the twenty-six most outstanding blind post-
secondary students in the United States today and honor them for
their ground-breaking work. We want to help them on their way as
much as we can. We will present them with awards ranging in value
from $2,000 to $10,000, and we will bring them as our guests to
the 1994 convention of the National Federation of the Blind to
experience firsthand the excitement and stimulation of a
gathering of the largest and most dynamic organization of blind
people in the country today. 
     Every state affiliate and local chapter can help in
spreading the word of this extraordinary opportunity for
America's blind students. Scholarship applications have been or
soon will be mailed to financial aid offices in educational
institutions around the country, but many of these will be filed
for reference when students come to ask about financial
assistance. It is very helpful to have local representatives
deliver or mail forms to the actual college administrator who
works with blind students. Being identified with such a valuable
national scholarship program gives the local chapter and state
affiliate prestige and respect, and the local touch insures that
more blind students will actually have an opportunity to apply
for these scholarships. 
     Anyone can order scholarship forms from the Materials
Center, National Federation of the Blind, 1800 Johnson Street,
Baltimore, Maryland 21230. State Presidents and members of the
1994 Scholarship Committee will be sent scholarship forms. These
may be copied as long as both sides of the form are reproduced. 
     Here is the text of the 1994 National Federation of the
Blind scholarship application form: 

                National Federation of the Blind
                    1994 Scholarship Program

     Each year at its National Convention in July, the National
Federation of the Blind gives a broad array of scholarships to
recognize achievement by blind scholars.  All applicants for
these scholarships must be (1) legally blind and (2) pursuing or
planning to pursue a full-time post-secondary course of study. 
In addition to these restrictions, some scholarships have been
further restricted by the donor.  Scholarships to be given at the
National Convention in 1994 are listed here with any special
restrictions noted:

     1. American Action Fund Scholarship -- $10,000; given by the
American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults, a nonprofit
organization which works to assist blind persons.  No additional
restrictions.
     2. National Federation of the Blind Scholarships -- sixteen
to be given: two for $4,000; five for $2,500; nine for $2,000. 
No additional restrictions.
     3. Anne Pekar Memorial Scholarship -- $4,000; given in
loving memory of Anne Pekar by her parents, who say:  "The
purpose of the scholarship is to help others as Anne had tried to
do in her various volunteer endeavors.  ...It is our hope that
this small gesture in her name will remind us of the wonderful
things about Anne and, in particular, her concern about other
people and her desire to help." Winner must be a woman between
the ages of 17 and 25.
     4. Melva T.  Owen Memorial Scholarship -- $3,000; given in
memory of Melva T.  Owen, who was widely known and loved among
the blind.  She and her husband Charles Owen became acquainted
with increasing numbers of blind people through their work in the
"Voicepondence" Club.  Charles Owen says:  "There shall be no
limitation as to field of study, except that it shall be directed
towards attaining financial independence and shall exclude
religion and those seeking only to further general or cultural
education."
     5. Howard Brown Rickard Scholarship -- $2,500; winner must
be studying or planning to study in the fields of law, medicine,
engineering, architecture, or the natural sciences.
     6. Frank Walton Horn Memorial Scholarship -- $2,500; given
by Mr.  and Mrs.  Charles E.  Barnum, the mother and stepfather
of Catherine Horn Randall.  No additional restrictions, but
preference will be given to those studying architecture or
engineering.
     7. National Federation of the Blind Humanities Scholarship -
- $2,500; winner must be studying in the traditional Humanities
such as art, English, foreign languages, history, philosophy, or
religion.
     8. National Federation of the Blind Educator of Tomorrow
Award -- $2,500; winner must be planning a career in elementary,
secondary, or post-secondary teaching.
     9. Hermione Grant Calhoun Scholarship -- $2,000; Dr. 
Isabelle Grant endowed this scholarship in memory of her
daughter.  Winner must be a woman.
     10. Kuchler-Killian Memorial Scholarship -- $2,000; given in
loving memory of her parents, Charles Albert Kuchler and Alice
Helen Kuchler, by Junerose Killian, dedicated member of the
National Federation of the Blind of Connecticut.  No additional
restrictions.
     11. Ellen Setterfield Memorial Scholarship -- $2,000; given
in memory of Ellen Setterfield by Roy Landstrom, who says:
"During the course of her life, she gave of herself to defend the
dignity and self-respect of those around her." Winner must be
studying social sciences at the graduate level.

     CRITERIA:  All scholarships are awarded on the basis of
academic excellence, service to the community, and financial
need.
     MEMBERSHIP:  The National Federation of the Blind is an
organization dedicated to creating opportunity for all blind
persons.  Recipients of Federation scholarships need not be
members of the National Federation of the Blind.
     MAKING APPLICATION:  To apply for National Federation of the
Blind scholarships, complete and return the application on the
reverse side of this sheet, attaching to the application all the
additional documents there requested.  Multiple applications are
unnecessary.  Each applicant will be considered for all
scholarships for which he or she qualifies.  Send completed
applications to: Miss Peggy Pinder, Chairman, National Federation
of the Blind Scholarship Committee, 814 - 4th Avenue, Suite 200,
Grinnell, Iowa 50112; (515) 236-3366.  Form must be received by
March 31, 1994.
     REAPPLICATION:  We have often awarded scholarships to
persons applying for the second or third time.  Even if
previously submitted, current applications must be submitted to
be considered for current scholarships.  Those who have
previously applied are encouraged to apply again.
     WINNERS:  The Scholarship Committee reviews all applications
and selects the scholarship winners.  These winners, the same
number as there are scholarships to award, will be notified of
their selection by June 1 and will be brought to the National
Federation of the Blind convention in July at Federation expense. 
This is in addition to the scholarship grant.
     The National Federation of the Blind Convention is the
largest gathering of blind persons (more than 2,000) to occur
anywhere in the nation each year.  You will be able to meet other
blind students and exchange information and ideas.  You will also
be able to meet and talk with blind people who are successfully
functioning in your chosen profession or occupation.  Federal
officials, members of Congress, and the makers and distributors
of new technology attend Federation conventions.  Above all, a
broad cross section of the most active segment of the blind
population of the United States will be present to discuss common
problems and plan for concerted action.  It is an interesting and
exciting week.
     AWARDS:  The day before the convention banquet the
Scholarship Committee will meet to determine which winners will
receive which scholarships.  The scholarship awards will be made
during the banquet.

                National Federation of the Blind
                  Scholarship Application Form

     Read reverse side of form for instructions and explanation. 
Form may be photocopied but only if reverse side is also
included.
     To apply for a scholarship, complete this application form
and mail completed application and attachments to: Miss Peggy
Pinder, Chairman, National Federation of the Blind Scholarship
Committee, 814 - 4th Avenue, Suite 200, Grinnell, Iowa 50112;
515-236-3366.  Form must be received by March 31, 1994.

Name (please include any maiden or other names by which you have
     been known):
Date of birth:
School address:
School phone number:
Home address:
Home phone number:
Institution being attended in spring semester, 1994, with class
     standing (freshman, senior, etc.):
Cumulative grade point at this institution:
Institution to be attended in fall of 1994, with class standing.
     Send by separate letter if admitted to school after
     submitting completed application:
List all post-secondary institutions attended with highest class
     standing attained and cumulative grade point average: 
High school attended and cumulative grade point:
Vocational goal:
State your major:
Awards and honors (attach list if necessary):
Community service (attach list if necessary):

     Attach the following documents to completed application:
     1. Send us a letter: What schools have you attended?  What
school do you plan to attend during the coming year?  What honors
have you achieved?  What have you done to deal with situations
involving your blindness?  What are you like as a person?  What
are your goals and aspirations?  How will the scholarship help
you?
     2. Send two letters of recommendation.
     3. Provide current transcript from institution now attending
and transcripts from all other post-secondary institutions
attended.  If you have not yet attended such an institution or
have not completed one year of study, send high school
transcript.
     4. Send a letter from a state officer of the National
Federation of the Blind evidencing the fact that you have
discussed your scholarship application with that officer.  We
prefer that you discuss your application with the Federation
state president, but a letter from any Federation state officer
will suffice.  President's address provided upon request.


                     MORE ABOUT JURY SERVICE

     From the Editor: In the July, 1993, issue of the Braille
Monitor we published an article about recent developments in the
ongoing struggle of blind people to win the right to serve on
juries. Shortly after publication we received the following
letter from Beatrice Simonds, who chairs the Governor's Advisory
Council on the Blind in the state of Delaware. She pointed out
that for some time now Delaware has had legal protection of the
right of blind people to serve on juries. In fact, Earlene
Hughes, then President of the NFB of Delaware, actually served on
a jury as a result of the law Mrs. Simonds describes. Here is her
letter: 

                                              Millsboro, Delaware
                                                    July 27, 1993

Dear Dr. Jernigan:
     I have read the article "Blind Citizens One Step Closer to
Jury Service in the District of Columbia" in the July, 1993,
issue of the Braille Monitor.
     In 1979 one of our visually impaired clients was embarrassed
in open court in Wilmington, Delaware, because he was told very
emphatically by a judge that, because he was blind, he could not
serve on a jury, even though he had been summoned to appear for
jury duty.
     The Director of the Division for the Visually Impaired in
Delaware was Norman Balot, who was totally blind. Mr. Ballot and
I received many, many calls about this. As a result the
Governor's Advisory Council on the Blind, of which I am Chairman,
instructed me to have legislation prepared and introduced in our
State Legislature whereby a blind or visually impaired person
could not be disqualified from jury duty. The Bill was Senate
Bill No. 63. It passed the Senate with S.A. 3 on 2/1/79. We
encountered strong opposition from the State's judiciary, and it
did not pass the House of Representatives until April 1, 1980. It
was signed into law by Governor Pierre du Pont on April 11, 1980,
at 10:30 a.m. Delaware became the fifth state allowing the blind
to serve on juries, joining California, Oregon, Minnesota, and
Washington. Copy of this legislation, remarks made by Senator
Charles E. Hughes, and a write-up appearing in the News-Journal
paper on Saturday, April 12, 1980, are enclosed herein.
     In the write-up in the Braille Monitor no mention was made
of Delaware's enacting this law: therefore my reason for writing
you.
     In closing I hope that all fifty states will soon have
enacted this same law. I would much rather have a blind or
visually impaired person serving on a jury for me than some
sighted people. This same sentiment was expressed in our State
Legislature by many Senators and Representatives.
     Kindest personal regards.
                                                       Sincerely,
                                  Mrs. Beatrice P. Simonds, Chair
                         Governor's Advisory Council on the Blind



                             RECIPES

     The recipes this month come from Louisiana, a state which is
renowned for its hot cuisine, particularly Cajun and Creole
dishes, and many fine Federationists from the Pelican State have
learned to prepare various tasty recipes.

                        LEMON CHEESE CAKE
                        by Jewel Banning

     Don and Jewel Banning have been loyal Federationists for
many years. Don currently serves as President of the New Orleans
chapter of the NFB of Louisiana and as the affiliate's Second
Vice President. Jewel works for Project Independence and is known
as an excellent cook. She submitted the following New Orleans
favorite.

Ingredients:
1 18 ounce package lemon cake mix
4 eggs
1 cup butter, melted
1 8-ounce package cream cheese
1 pound confectioner's sugar

     Method: Prepare the cake mix according to package
directions, but use a spoon rather than the electric mixer. Stir
only until the mixture is crumbly. Add two eggs and  cup butter.
Press into lightly greased and floured 9 by 13-inch baking dish.
Blend the remaining ingredients with electric mixer and pour
evenly over pressed cake batter. Bake at 350 degrees no more than
45 minutes. Remove cake from oven. When it is entirely cooled,
cut into small squares. Laissez les bons temps rouler!

                      FRIED GREEN TOMATOES
                          by Carol Sapp

     Carol Sapp has worked at the Louisiana Center for the Blind
since 1986. She has taught both home economics and cane travel.
She hails from Arcadia, Louisiana, which is in the north central
section of the state. Her recipe is simple but tasty and is
enjoyed by us country folk on a regular basis, particularly when
the tomatoes start to ripen.

Ingredients:
4 medium green tomatoes, sliced
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup corn meal
 cup cooking oil

     Method: Season sliced tomatoes with salt and pepper. Coat
both sides of each tomato slice with corn meal. Fry in hot oil
until each side is golden brown. Place on paper towels to drain.


                  MS. NEITA'S PINK FLUFFY SALAD
                        by Neita Ghrigsby

     Neita Ghrigsby is the office manager at the Louisiana Center
for the Blind. Staff and students at the center look forward each
year to the annual Thanksgiving dinner because Ms. Neita brings
this delicious dish:

Ingredients:
1 cup strawberry pie filling mix
1 large can fruit cocktail, drained
1 small can crushed pineapple, drained
1 can condensed milk
1 large container Cool Whip
1 cup chopped pecans

     Method: Mix the strawberry pie filling mix and the condensed
milk together. Stir in the drained pineapple and fruit cocktail.
Add the chopped pecans. Fold in Cool Whip. In order for this
recipe to be successful, you must refrigerate it overnight.

                        SHRIMP FETTUCINI
                        by Fannie Soileau

     Harold and Fannie Soileau are long-time Federationists.
Fannie is currently President of the Parents Division of the NFB
of Louisiana and is the mother of Nicole, a recent graduate of
the Louisiana Center for the Blind. The Soileaus live in Ville
Platte, the heart of the Cajun country. Fannie is known for her
spicy and delicious dishes, and the following recipe is a
favorite in the Cajun culture.

Ingredients:
1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 8-ounce package egg noodles
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1 cup sour cream
 cup green onions, chopped
 cup bell pepper, chopped
1  teaspoon dried dill weed
1  teaspoon pepper
 teaspoon salt
 cup shredded cheddar cheese or Velveeta

     Method: Drop shrimp into boiling, salted water. Reduce heat
and simmer for five minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water.
Cook noodles as directed on package and drain well. Combine
noodles with soup, sour cream, onions, green pepper, dill,
pepper, and salt. Fold shrimp and cheese into noodle mixture.
Place in baking dish and cover. Bake at 350 degrees for twenty
minutes. Bon appetit.
 
                          HUSH PUPPIES
                       by Mabel Businelle

     Many students at the Louisiana Center for the Blind have
prepared delicious meals as part of their home economics
requirements. The recipes have been compiled into a cookbook
which will soon be available in both print and Braille.
     Mabel Businelle is from Lake Charles, and she attended the
Center in 1986. While she was a student, she excelled in the
kitchen and submitted several recipes to the student cookbook.
Every Southerner loves his or her hush puppies, and Mabel's
recipe is one of the best.

Ingredients:
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 onion, grated
 cup green onion, chopped
 cup milk
1 egg 
oil

     Method: Mix all ingredients together until moist. Drop by
tablespoons into a deep-fat frier in which the oil has been
heated to 375 degrees. Cook hush puppies until golden brown.

                  BAKED RED FISH IN WINE SAUCE
                        by Muriel Vasquez

     Muriel Vasquez was born in Belize in Central America, but
she has lived in New Orleans for many years. While a student at
the Center, she prepared many tasty New Orleans-style meals as
evidenced by the following recipe:

Ingredients:
1 medium red fish
2 onions, sliced
1 cup white wine
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 bay leaves
 cup butter, melted
1 pinch dill
1 pinch thyme
1 pinch basil
juice of 1 lemon
salt and pepper to taste
Cayenne pepper

     Method: Clean fish well. Season both inside and out with
cayenne pepper. Place onion slices inside fish and put fish in
shallow baking dish and set aside. In a sauce pan combine wine,
garlic, lemon juice, thyme, basil, bay leaves, and butter. Saute
for about ten minutes. Pour mixture over fish and bake at 375
degrees for twelve minutes per pound.



                   * * MONITOR MINIATURES * *

[PHOTO: Portrait. CAPTION: Jim Willows.]

**Jim Willows Honored:
     On July 20, 1993, Newsline, a publication for employees of
the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory published an article
about long-time National Federation of the Blind of California
leader Jim Willows. It speaks for itself. Here it is: 
     Jim Willows, a software engineer in the Safeguards and
Security Engineering and Computation Division, has been named
employee of the year by the California Governor's Committee for
Employment of Disabled Persons.
     A Laboratory employee since 1954 and blind the past thirty-
two years, Willows will receive the award at a reception October
11 at the Anaheim Hilton. The committee recognizes one non-
manager and one manager each year. Willows received the statewide
award for a non-manager.
     Willows, a member of the Advisory Committee on Services for
the Blind of the California Department of Rehabilitation, took a
few minutes Friday to think about his years at LLNL and his work
with the blind.
     "I've always been grateful that several of my friends,
fellow engineers, went to our department head when I became blind
and said, `Look, Jim may have lost his sight, but he hasn't lost
his brain.'
     "It's not always the big organized efforts that have an
impact," said Willows, who is also first vice president of the
National Federation of the Blind of California. "Sometimes the
work of just a few people can make a big difference. And that's
what I want to say at the awards banquet."
     Willows himself is one of those people who make a big
difference. Greg Davis, deputy associate program leader of the
Fission Energy System Safety Program (FESSP), put it this way:
"Over the years, Willows has been a role model for Livermore
Laboratory employees who have become disabled and has helped
those who have lost their sight to continue working," Davis wrote
in support of Willow's award.
     Davis noted that Willows has been a member of the Lab's
Advisory Committee on Disability for a number of years. The
committee is charged with expanding opportunities for disabled
people at the Lab and serves as a steering committee for bringing
more disabled persons into the Lab work force.
     "Willows is an inspiration to both the disabled and able-
bodied who know him and work beside him," Davis said. At the lab
and "within the community, he has facilitated and promoted
employment opportunities for the blind and disabled persons and
has encouraged the blind and disabled to seek new or maintain
current employment," Davis wrote.
     Asked how he felt about receiving the award, Willows paused
a moment. "I feel good," he said. "I'm pleased that someone saw
fit to nominate me and talk about the things I do.
     "I guess while you're doing those things, you don't think
much about it," he said.
     Willows, his wife Mary, who is also blind, and the couple's
two sons, Jim, twelve, and Don, nine, attended the National
Federation of the Blind national convention in Dallas, July 1-10.
     And they're all looking forward to October and the trip to
Anaheim. "The hotel is right across the street from Disneyland,"
said Willows.
     That's what the article said, and we can only add our
congratulations to those of Jim's colleagues.

**Wedding Bells:
     The following wedding invitation was received at the
National Center for the Blind:

                      Two lives, two hearts
                  joined together in friendship
                     united forever in love.
                       Laura Mae Boisselle
                               and
                      Douglas Todd Trimble
                    together with our parents
               request the honour of your presence
                  as we are united in marriage
                on Saturday, August twenty-eighth
                nineteen hundred and ninety-three
                 at one o'clock in the afternoon
                 at the home of Laurene Simpson

Doug Trimble is one of the leaders of the NFB of Washington.
Congratulations to the Trimbles.

**Attention Chapters Doing Community-Access Television
Programming:
     We have been asked to carry the following announcement:
     The Tampa Bay Chapter of the National Federation of the
Blind of Florida is producing a public access television show
entitled 20/200. We are interested in hearing from others who are
doing, or planning on doing, similar programs. We would like to
share program ideas and formats and even exchange segments to air
on each other's shows. Please correspond in any format, including
ASCII files, with Marion Gwizdala, 820 Valley Hill Dr., Brandon,
Florida 33510; or call (813) 684-8981.

**GW Micro Bulletin Board Now Online:
     We have been asked to carry the following announcement:
     GW Micro (manufacturer of Vocal-Eyes, Sounding Board, and
other computer products for people who are visually impaired) has
completed the installation of its Bulletin Board Service (BBS).
The BBS will be available for use seven days a week, twenty-four
hours a day with a maximum BAUD rate of 14,400 BPS for fast,
efficient operation.
     GW Micro started the bulletin board with offerings of demo
versions of its software, product information, new Vocal-Eyes SET
files, and electronic mail for questions, open discussions, and
bulletin board suggestions.
     For further information contact Crista Shaikh, the GW Micro
BBS SYSOP, by telephone at (219) 483-3625; or call the BBS with
your modem at (219) 484-0120.

**Elected:
     Don Morris, Secretary of the Merchants Division of the
National Federation of the Blind, reports the following changes
in leadership which occurred during the Division's meeting at the
1993 NFB convention in Dallas. Larry Posont, who has served as
Division President for a number of years, stepped down from that
demanding position for personal reasons. Charlie Allen, First
Vice President of the Merchants Division, became President; and
the following people were elected in a complicated game of
electoral musical chairs: Joe Van Lent, First Vice President; Don
Morris, Secretary; and Larry Posont, Treasurer. Donna Posont,
Kevin Worley, Fred Wurtzel, and Barbara Swygert were elected to
fill two-year board positions. Andy Virden was elected to
complete Joe Van Lent's term on the board. Wayne Shevlin, Second
Vice President, and Norman Bolton, Carl Jacobson, and Ben Snow,
board members, hold their positions for another year. Don
Morris's report on this complicated election concludes with the
following statement: "Blind vendors from across the country owe a
debt of gratitude to Larry Posont for his leadership and hard
work on our behalf. Congratulations to Charles Allen. We know
you'll pick up the challenge and build on the accomplishments we
achieved under Larry."

**West Virginia School for the Blind Directory in Preparation:
     We have been asked to carry the following announcement:
     The West Virginia School for the Blind Alumni Association is
now gathering data for a directory of former students and friends
to be published in April, 1994. Former students and alumni
wishing to be included should send complete name, mailing
address, phone number, date of entry to the school, and date of
graduation or exit. This information should be sent prior to
March 15, 1994, to Laura Collier, Directory Chairperson, 3470
S.E. Cobia Way, Stuart, Florida 34997.

**Lease/Purchase Program for the David Computer Now Available:
     We have been asked to carry the following announcement:
     BAUM USA announces that a Lease/Purchase program is now
available for the DAVID Braille Computer. This low-interest
program has been designed to help blind employees, small
businesspeople, professionals, and students to increase
productivity using high-efficiency equipment. This lease program
is administered and funded by BAUM USA. The number of leases
extended may be limited. Availability will be on a first-come,
first-served basis.
     The DAVID Lease program features two- and three-year
lease/purchase options. It is based on low-interest financing, 8%
APR, and carries no cost of lease administration (if carried full
term). Initial deposit and payments to start the lease are in the
range of $6,750. Monthly payments start as low as $275.
     BAUM USA also has other promotional programs for the DAVID
Braille Computer, in effect until the end of 1993:
     - Credit towards the purchase of the DAVID for old Braille
     equipment, such as Versabraille.
     - Free future upgrades for some exciting new software now
     under development for DAVID.
     For lease details, qualification requirements, and other
information, please contact BAUM USA, 17525 Ventura Blvd., Suite
303, Encino, California 91316-3843; or call (818) 981-2253, or
(800) 225-3150. The Fax number is (818) 981-7124 and the number
for CompuServe is 71155,3552.

**Updated Baseball Computer Game Available:
     We have been asked to carry the following announcement:
     The award-winning World Series Baseball Game and Information
System is now being played in forty-one states and four foreign
countries on IBM-compatible computers with screen readers and
synthesizers. It comes with two baseball games, eighty-three
teams, four ancillary programs, and six information programs.
Following each season updates are released including the two
pennant-winning teams and many improvements. Cost is still only
$15 for the entire system and only $5 for updates. Write for more
details or send your check to Harry Hollingsworth, 692 S.
Sheraton Drive, Akron, Ohio 44319; or call (216) 644-2421.

**New Baby:
     Congratulations to Ken, Gloria, and Adam Canterbery on the
latest addition to their family. Tyler Canterbery was born on
July 27, weighing 7 pounds 8 ounces and 20 1/2 inches long. Ken
is the energetic president of the Baltimore County Chapter of the
National Federation of the Blind. He attended his first National
Convention this year.

**Braille and Recorded Books Wanted:
     We have been asked to carry the following announcement:
     If any readers have Braille or recorded cookbooks on tape or
records that are no longer wanted or needed, I would like to have
them. I am also looking for a cookbook for the crock pot and for
the book New England Cookery, which has recipes for dishes
originally from England.
     I would also like to have folk music of the British Isles. I
am currently searching for good sources for where to get music of
the British Isles on compact discs and cassettes. I lost my
collections of cookbooks and recordings. I miss all my favorite
artists like Hart, Pryor, Battlefield Band, Silly Wizard, and Zeb
Redpath, to name a few. Please contact Belle M. Rousseau, 2209
Oddie Blvd., #128, Sparks, Nevada 89431 in Braille or cassette.
No print, please.

**New Organization at Work and Growing:
     Recently Mary Ellen Gabias, a long-time leader of the
National Federation of the Blind now making her home in Canada
with her husband Paul and their two young children, wrote to
report the following: 
     Just a little over a year ago, June 8, 1992, to be precise,
a new organization of the blind was officially chartered in
Canada. That organization is the National Federation of the
Blind: Advocates for Equality. The NFB:AE is a distinctively
Canadian organization. We work at the local, provincial, and
federal levels to resolve problems affecting the blind. Though
our identity is clearly Canadian, our philosophy is immediately
recognizable as Federation in origin. We are bringing the
Federation home to Dr. Jacobus tenBroek's country of birth. 
     In the brief time since our founding, we have begun
publishing a national newsletter. As far as we know, our
newsletter called The Canadian Monitor is the only English
language publication produced and circulated on the national
level by any organization of the blind in Canada. A provincial
organization in Quebec called le RAAQ, le Regroupement des
Aveugles et Ambliopes du Quebec, produces and distributes an
excellent French language publication.
     Subscriptions to the Canadian Monitor are available on
cassette and in print to all interested persons in Canada and the
United States. It costs the NFB:AE approximately $10 per year to
produce our publication. Members are invited and non-members are
requested to help to cover the subscription costs. Free copies of
our brochure "What is the NFB:AE" are also available on cassette
and in print. To subscribe, write to P.O. Box 5058, Station A,
Kelowna, B.C., Canada, V1Y 7P5; or call (604) 862-2352 or (604)
764-8005.

**Christmas Cards Available:
     We have been asked to carry the following announcement:
     Braille-print Christmas holiday cards now available in four
colorful holly designs. Specify star, cross, wreath, heart, or
assorted package. $9.95 postage paid. Free name personalization
in calligraphy, if desired. Check, MasterCard, or VISA, phone and
mail orders, prompt delivery. Contact Prophecy Designs, P.O. Box
84, Round Pond, Maine 04564; or call (207) 529-5318.

**Correspondents Wanted:
     We have been asked to carry the following announcement:
     My blindness is due to a neurological condition called
Refsum's Syndrome. I would like to communicate with other people
who have the same condition. You may contact Jack Cheslow, 2719
W. 178 Street, Torrance, California 90504-4116 in print or on
cassette tape, but no Braille please; or you may call (310) 329-
5132.

**For Sale:
     We have been asked to carry the following announcement:
     Kurzweil Personal Reader, Model 73-15, Software 2.1, hand
and auto scanners, $3,000. Artic Business Vision, version 2.4,
$100. If interested, call Katie Ward at (818) 341-7201.

[PHOTO: Portrait. CAPTION: Ray Manchester.]

**In Memoriam:
     Mary Main, a member of the Stamford Area Chapter of the
National Federation of the Blind of Connecticut and a beloved
elder stateswoman of this organization, reports with sorrow the
death of Ray Manchester.  He died on September 10, 1993, just a
year after his wife Sue's death. Sue had served as President of
the Manchester Area Chapter. Both Ray and Sue suffered from
diabetes. Ray will be greatly missed.

**Voice Label Now Available:
     We have been asked to carry the following announcement:
     Easier Ways, Inc., (formerly Aids Unlimited, Inc.) recently
introduced the Voice Label, an electronic breakthrough based on
digital recording. The Voice Label greatly enhances the
accessibility to large segments of the population of everyday
information that is presented in printed form. Blind and visually
impaired, functionally illiterate, and dyslexic people all will
benefit as well as many others. The various models of the Voice
Label make many extremely valuable applications possible. For
example, the Voice Label mounted in a city bus will automatically
announce the number and route of the bus to all passengers
waiting on the corner; a particular store in a mall can be
identified orally; the front entrance to a building along the
street can be located orally and the name of the building
announced; instructions for the operation of equipment can
automatically be presented orally. It can act as an aural
pathfinder for getting from one point to another in a building,
announce the entrance of an intruder or someone sneaking around
the outside of the house, direct you to an object forty or fifty
feet away--even though you may not be pointing the remote in the
right direction, and handle many other specialized tasks aurally.
     The Voice Label is now in production. For further
information contact Easier Ways, Inc., 1101 N. Calvert St., Suite
405, Baltimore, Maryland 21202; or call (410) 659-0232 or FAX
(410) 659-0233.

**Agency Director Beats a Retreat:
     Monitor readers will remember the article in the June, 1993
issue of the Braille Monitor which described the struggle between
the organized blind of South Carolina and Isabel Ewing, the
Executive Director of the Charleston Association for the Blind.
Ewing was determined to establish a sheltered workshop employing
blind people at low wages, and the National Federation of the
Blind of South Carolina was opposed to having such a facility in
the state. The following is an excerpt from a newspaper article
in the Charleston Post & Courier, August 23, 1993:
     A woman who has led efforts to establish a manufacturing
plant in Charleston to employ blind workers in the tri-county
area has resigned her post.
     Isabel Ewing, executive director for the Association for the
Blind, will leave the non-profit organization September 30.
     "It's just time for me to make some changes in my career,"
Ewing said. "It's time for someone else to come in and move it to
the next level."
     Ewing has come under fire from those opposed to establishing
a manufacturing plant in Charleston, associated with the National
Industries for the Blind.
     "Basically this has not been about doing something for me,
but this effort has been about blind people getting good paying
jobs," said Ewing, who has been with the agency about four years.
     "I knew I didn't want to be there to head the industry; I
just wanted to get it started."
     Ewing has been at the center of debate over opening an
industry for the blind. National Federation of the Blind of South
Carolina chapter president Donald Capps may have been her biggest
adversary. 
     Capps has contended that such a business is merely a
sweatshop that separates and exploits blind workers.
     That is what the article said, and those who believe in the
innate normality of blind people can only breathe a sigh of
relief to think that a proposed workshop employing the blind has
probably been stopped before it could begin.

**Computer Products Available:
     We have been asked to carry the following announcement:
     Ferguson Enterprises is proud to announce the following new
products and services: Vocal-Eyes and other GW Micro products are
now available in our store. We also stock Richard De Steno's
games, which work well with speech. Purchase your WordPerfect 6.0
upgrade, and receive in Braille, cassette, or large print a 6.0
reference card, installation instructions, and your disks labeled
in Braille or large print at no extra charge. You will find many
new products in our Fall Catalog, which is available at no charge
in large print, cassette, and on disk. Call about our monthly
specials. We now accept the following credit cards: Visa,
MasterCard, Discover, or American Express. Call (605) 546-2366
from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, and 9:00 a.m.
to 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, Central Time.

**Elected:
     Pamela Yaney, Secretary of the Marion County/City of
Indianapolis Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of
Indiana, reports the following results of the chapter's annual
election: Susan Jones, President; Joe Money, First Vice
President; Pam Schnur, Second Vice President; Pamela Yaney,
Secretary; and Steven Linn, Treasurer.

**In Memoriam:
     Elsie Appleby, President of the Worcester Chapter of the NFB
of Massachusetts, reports the death of Leona Goguen on April 11,
1993. She writes that Leona was a charter member of the chapter,
which was formed in 1948. She was serving as President at the
time of her death. She had served several other terms as
President through the years. Leona taught Braille and crafts to
many and was an inspiration to all who knew her. Mrs. Goguen will
be missed by all.

**New Baby:
     We are delighted to pass on the following announcement: 
     Gary and Mary Doty are pleased to announce the birth of
Rebecca Jane Doty on August 5. She weighed 7 pounds, 14 ounces
and was 20 inches long. Congratulations to all three Dotys.

**Reminder to Ask for Braille:
     Several people have recently pointed out the importance of
asking whether or not Braille or large-print menus, service
brochures, and the like are available in public places. One
producer of these materials reports that would-be customers often
tell him that blind people don't express any interest in special
format menus, so they have no intention of considering Braille
materials until they see some indication that people want them.
Places of public accommodation are not required by the Americans
with Disabilities Act to provide Braille and large-print versions
of their printed material for the public, only to make the
information accessible to people who cannot read regular print.
But it makes sense for those of us who prefer alternative format
materials to use them if they have been prepared and to make a
point of thanking the proprietor for providing them when they are
available. Otherwise, despite the fallen costs of providing such
materials, there will never be a groundswell of interest in
acquiring them.  Let's all form the habit of asking whether
Braille or large print is available and using it when it is.  
     Here is a list of organizations that have made arrangements
to provide Braille and large-print menus or service brochures: 
Embassy Suites Hotels and Fairmont Hotel chains, Olive Garden
Italian Restaurants, Harrah's Casino Hotels, some Popeye's
Chicken franchises, Cracker Barrel Restaurants, and McDonalds
Restaurants. From time to time we will add to this list in the
Miniature Section. Let us know where you have found Braille and
large-print customer information.

**For Sale:
     We have been asked to carry the following announcement: 
     Romeo Braille embosser, model RB-20 (20 characters per
second). Like new, about one hour of use, works perfectly. It
cost $3,000 in 1988, asking $1,500, including Braille and print
manuals. Hot Dots Version 1.5 also available. If interested,
contact Jim or Becky Skinner, 707 Bridger Road, Lincoln, Nebraska
68521; or call (402) 474-9055.

**Graduate Research Fellowship in the Blindness Field Available:
     We have been asked to carry the following announcement:
     The Anne Sullivan Macy Fellowship is awarded annually to a
doctoral student who is interested in conducting research in the
field of blindness. We are particularly interested in visually
impaired applicants who have work experience in a rehabilitation
agency setting. Interested students would need to apply to the
Mississippi State University Graduate School and the Department
of Counselor Education and Educational Psychology doctoral
program. Applications and supporting material must be received
prior to March 1, 1994. A paid graduate assistantship of $650.00
per month is included, and the fellowship recipient would have an
opportunity to participate in a variety of research projects at
the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Blindness and
Low Vision. 
     For more detailed information about the Anne Sullivan Macy
Fellowship, contact J. Elton Moore, Ed.D., Director,
Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Blindness and Low
Vision, P.O. Drawer 6189, Mississippi State University,
Mississippi 39762; or call (601) 325-2001 or FAX (601) 325-8989.

**NABS President Wins Important Election:
     Ollie Cantos is the President of the National Association of
Blind Students (NABS) and a first-year student at the Loyola
University School of Law in Los Angeles. He is also a member of
the Board of Directors of the National Federation of the Blind of
California. For almost three years Ollie has served as the NFB of
California representative on the Los Angeles Legal Aid Board,
which is comprised of several lawyers from the Los Angeles area
and several people who are described as client-eligible and
represent client-eligible populations. These latter also sit on
the Client Board. Early in September of 1993 Ollie was elected to
the chairmanship of the Client Board. Congratulations to Ollie
Cantos!

**Seeking Pen Pals:
     We recently received a letter from Vera Honc of New Orleans,
Louisiana. She says that she believes she is the only blind Czech
in America. This thought makes her feel somewhat lonely, so she
is eager to hear from any blind person who speaks Czech. 
     She also wishes to assist two friends who would like to
correspond with Americans but who do not speak English at all.
Ms. Honc is prepared to translate letters in Braille or print or
on cassette for anyone who would be interested in establishing a
correspondence with either of her friends. The gentlemen in
question are: Lubomr Proke, thirty-one years old, living in a
small town in northern Moravia, part of the Czech Republic
(former Czechoslovakia), who was born blind. He is interested in
international politics, American literature, and the American way
of life in general. Most of all, he is a computer enthusiast
(quite knowledgeable, I might add) and would like to get in touch
with another Eureka owner(s).
     William Kraus, an elderly man, born in Germany, grew up in
Prague (the Czech Republic) and now lives in Germany. He is an
accomplished violinist and composer. Those interested in
corresponding with either of these men or with Ms. Honc herself
should contact her at P.O. Box 30065, New Orleans, Louisiana
70190.

**Networking Opportunities for Blind, Multiply-Handicapped
Adults:
     Colleen Roth, Chairwoman of the Parents of Blind Children
committee on the Blind, Multiply-handicapped Child, reports that
the Committee has been asked by some blind multiply-handicapped
adults if we can arrange networking for them. If you are a blind
multiply-handicapped adult who would like to network with other
adults with similar disabilities, with parents of children with
the same diagnosis, or with blind multiply-handicapped teenagers,
please request our new questionnaire. You will be able to share
the how-tos, the strategies you use in everyday life, the links
you have forged, the opportunities you have found, and the
volunteer and employment activities you have engaged in. Those
interested in this networking opportunity may contact Colleen
Roth at 1912 Tracy Road, Northwood, Ohio 43619; or call (419)
666-6212.

**Elected:
     Robert Olsen, President of the Weber/Davis Chapter of the
National Federation of the Blind of Utah, reports the following
election results: Wayne Tippets, Vice President; and Mary
Wilmeth, Secretary/Treasurer.

**Correspondents Wanted:
     We have been asked to carry the following announcement:
     I can knit and will gladly take orders for the following
items: baby sets (sweater, bonnet, and booties, size 6 to 9
months), sweaters (for children and adults), shawls, afghans,
dish cloths, potholders (both made of 100% cotton), and crocheted
covered hangers for ladies' dresses, blouses, coats, and
sweaters. Price information is available; please ask for it and
for color cards, if desired. These cards also contain samples of
yarn.
     If you have lost contact and friendship with me and would
like to renew friendship, please write to me in Braille or send
letter-cassette tape. I will be happy to hear from you and will
respond. I wish to correspond with blind people who have the
following interests: working for the blind and deaf-blind, making
new friends by correspondence, crafts and knowing about new types
of crafts. I enjoy taking long walks. I can play the piano and
plan to memorize hymns and some classical music. I also wish to
correspond with blind and deaf-blind people who have OCD. Contact
Adelaide E. Wink, 59 S. Lee Street, Beverly Hills, Florida 34465-
9130; or call (904) 746-3087.

**Braille Chocolate Greeting Bars Available:
     We have been asked to carry the following notice:
     THE CHOCOLATE EXPERIENCE, INC., has introduced a new and
unique gift idea--Braille chocolate greeting bars. The eatable
greetings are also available for fund-raising purposes and for
resale. The Braille message is an integral part of the bar. A
printed transcription is written in the bar too.
     The handcrafted, gift-packaged chocolates are made to order
of quality semi-sweet, milk, or white chocolate, and sugar-free
milk or white chocolate (includes Mannitol as sugar substitute).
The message is read through a plastic window in the box.
     The available chocolate greetings are "Love You"; "Happy
Birthday"; "Merry Christmas"; Happy Holiday"; and, new as of
September, 1993, "Have a Nice Day"; and "Thank You."
     Size: 7 inches by 4 inches. Approximate weight: 4.6 ounces
to 5 ounces. Wholesale price: $2.25 for regular chocolate, $3.25
for sugar-free. A discount is available on orders of 100 bars or
more.
     Handling and shipping charges are additional; there is a
$5.00 minimum shipping charge for the first 4 bars (via UPS).
There is no minimum purchasing. For more information, please
contact Judith Geva, 150-57 Bayside Avenue, Flushing, New York
11345; or call (718) 461-1873 or FAX: (718) 321-0217.

**Fat Gram Counter Now Available:
     We have been asked to carry the following announcement:
     Counting calories is out; counting grams is in. People
everywhere are dropping pounds simply by knowing which foods to
avoid--namely, those high in fat.
     Some experts have gone so far as to say, "If you cut down on
your fat, you will lose weight. It's as simple as that."
     Discover for yourself which foods to snack on, like
chocolate cake, and which foods to avoid, like graham crackers
and corn muffins. Sometimes the advice is as simple as saying,
"Cut your fat in half by switching from 2% milk to 1% milk." Find
out why air-popped popcorn is better than peanuts, why pretzels
are preferable to potato chips.
     It's all in Harriet Roth's Fat Counter, which contains over
3,000 entries, including frozen entrees, listing the calories,
grams of fat, cholesterol, and percentage of fat for each. Two
volumes in Braille for just $6.95. New from National Braille
Press, 88 St. Stephen Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02115; or
call (617) 266-6160.

**Elected:
     Sandy Jo Hansen, Secretary/Treasurer of the Black Hills
Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of South Dakota,
reports the following election results: Noble Mellegard,
President; Konnie Hoffmann, Secretary/Vice President; and Sandy
Hansen, Treasurer. Jean Thompson and Joe Bolwerk were elected to
serve on the Board.

**New Catalog of Low-Cost Braille Children's Books Available:
     We have been asked to carry the following announcement:
     Seedlings Braille Books for Children's new 1994 catalog is
now available. Our first catalog ten years ago contained only
twelve titles. Now we are pleased to offer close to 200 low-cost
Braille books for children, ages one to fourteen!
     Over thirty new books have been added this year including
some book and tape sets for preschoolers, some new print-and-
Braille easy-readers, as well as some great fiction for older
children like The Hardy Boys, Boxcar Children, and Bunnicula. 
     These books are kept in stock, and prompt shipping is a high
priority, but please order early to avoid the holiday rush. This
year you can use your VISA or MasterCard.
     To obtain a free catalog, contact: Seedlings, P.O. Box 2395,
Livonia, Michigan 48151-0395; or call toll-free 800-777-8552.

**Self-Inking Stamp For Sale:
     We have been asked to carry the following announcement:
     The Albuquerque Chapter of the National Federation of the
Blind of New Mexico is selling self-inking "Free Matter for the
Blind" stamps. The self-inking design makes it easy to obtain a
perfect impression and eliminates the need for messy ink pads.
The stamp is also refillable. Please send $10 along with your
name and address to Greg Trapp, 1330 Louisiana Blvd., N.E., Apt.
410, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87110.

**Home Shopping Available:
     We have been asked to carry the following announcement:
     Shop in the convenience and privacy of your home. Jett &
Smith's Discount Shopping Service has gifts and products that are
sure to please. Our catalogs include jewelry, luggage,
kitchenware, flatware, sheets and towels, handmade sweaters,
sweat outfits, toys, security products, etc. Cassette tapes and
catalogs may be obtained free by calling (619) 325-9770.

**Oops!:
     In the August, 1993, issue of the Braille Monitor, a
Miniature appeared requesting both stories about the ways in
which Federation literature has helped people and reports on
efforts to distribute our literature more widely. Kathy
Kannenberg, chairwoman of the NFB Distribution of Publications
Committee, asked that this information be sent to her. The
correct address to which correspondence should be sent is: Kathy
G. Kannenberg, 601 Dixie Trail, Raleigh, North Carolina 27607.

**From the Former Editor:
     I got it at the National Convention: "C M ducks? M R N
ducks. M R 2 ducks. L I B M R ducks." For those who care, the
letter N stands for not in Braille.