                       THE BRAILLE MONITOR
Vol. 41, No. 7                                         July, 1998

                     Barbara Pierce, Editor


      Published in inkprint, in Braille, and on cassette by

              THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND

                     MARC MAURER, PRESIDENT


                         National Office
                       1800 Johnson Street
                   Baltimore, Maryland  21230
                   NFB Net BBS: (612) 696-1975
              Web Page address: http://www.nfb.org



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




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made payable to National Federation of the Blind and sent to:


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





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





ISSN 0006-8829

                            Contents

President Maurer Honored
     by Barbara Pierce

On Ethics and Maxi-Aids
     by Kenneth Jernigan

JOB Employer's Bulletin 1998

Meet Dwight Baum: NEWSLINE(R) Fan and Loyal
Supporter of the NFB
     by Betsy Zaborowski, Psy.D.

Big Enough to Ride the Bike
     by Doug Elliott

Audio Description: Accessory or Accessibility?
     by Peggy Chong

Teacher Overcomes Obstacles
     by Lisa Beilfuss

Meeting the Challenge
     by Mary Willows

The Runaway Author
     by Barbara Pierce

Love Is Blind
     by Liz Corcoran

Concerning Books, Lawn Mowers,and Bus Rides
     by Marc Maurer

A Time to Heal
     by Greg D. Trapp

Blind Woman Wins, But Wins What?
     by Linda L. Rhinehart

Jennings Randolph Dies at 96
     by James Gashel

Recipes

Monitor Miniatures

        Copyright  1998 National Federation of the Blind


[LEAD PHOTO DESCRIPTION: President Maurer stands outdoors in
academic gown, hood, and mortar board with tassle. He is holding
his cane in one hand and a bound Braille copy of his commencement
speech in the other.
CAPTION: President Marc Maurer on the campus of Menlo College.]

[PHOTO/CAPTION: Left to right Tony Coelho, Chairman of the
President's Committee on Employment of People With Disabilities;
James Waddell, President of Menlo College; Jim Willows, President
of the National Federation of the Blind of California; Fredric
Schroeder, Commissioner of the Rehabilitation Services
Administration; and President and Mrs. Maurer]

                    President Maurer Honored
                        by Barbara Pierce
                           **********
     In the late morning of May 9, 1998, the friends and families
of the graduating seniors at Menlo College in Atherton,
California, began gathering on the lush campus preparatory to the
2:00 p.m. commencement ceremony. The scene was similar to
thousands that took place across the country throughout the late
spring.

     But for members of the National Federation of the Blind the
Menlo College ceremony was different. For one thing Dr. Fredric
Schroeder, Commissioner of the Rehabilitation Services
Administration, and Tony Coelho, one of the authors of the
Americans with Disabilities Act and the Chairman of the
President's Committee on the Employment of People with
Disabilities, were the most prominent of many dignitaries present
from the disability field. Also present was Dr. C. Edwin Vaughan,
Professor of Sociology at the University of Missouri at Columbia,
who has written extensively about the blindness field and has
drawn on President Maurer's writings. 

     Menlo College is a small four-year institution founded about
seventy years ago in the Silicon Valley. Its emphasis is on
business, and it maintains a special relationship with nearby
Stanford University in Palo Alto. A member of the Packard family,
of Hewlett Packard fame, sits on the college's board of trustees,
and the HP Foundation has actively supported a number of college
projects through the years.

     The commencement speaker at the 1998 Menlo College
graduation ceremony was Marc Maurer, President of the National
Federation of the Blind and recipient that day of the honorary
degree of Doctor of Humane Letters. Those familiar with President
Maurer's writings would have recognized many of the ideas in the
speech, for it was vintage Federation philosophy, offered to the
graduates as a way for them to set and achieve their own goals in
the years to come.

     At 11:00 a.m. the college president, Dr. James Waddell,
hosted a brunch honoring the Maurers. Jim Willows, President of
the NFB of California, shared master-of-ceremonies duties with
Dr. Waddell at the event and facilitated group discussion over
the meal. A number of NFB of California leaders were invited to
this celebration and helped educate college dignitaries about
blindness and the work of the Federation.

     It was clear from the comments of Menlo College officials
and from the text of the citation presented to President Maurer
that the members of the Honorary Degree Committee had done their
homework. They clearly recognized the importance of the NFB's
work and Marc Maurer's contribution to it. They had also read the
Kernel Books. Here is the text of the citation presented to
President Maurer:
                           **********
                            Citation
                           Marc Maurer
             Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa
                           May 9, 1998
                           **********
     Marc Maurer, distinguished graduate of the University of
     Notre Dame and the University of Indiana School of Law;
     internationally respected President of the National
     Federation of the Blind; erudite legal counsel to nonprofit
     organizations; insightful author and articulate speaker;
     master of informational technology and chain saw expert;
     recipient of the United States Presidential Medal for
     Leadership, the Heritage Award from the Canadian National
     Institute for the Blind, and the Leadership Award from the
     Black Caucus of Maryland; committed family member and
     community servant: Menlo College lauds you for your
     extraordinary educational, legal, and service
     accomplishments to make our world a place of independence,
     respect, and dignity.
     Menlo College, therefore, with great esteem, calls you into
     the fellowship of its scholars, students, and alumni by
     admitting you to the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters,
     honoris causa.
                           **********
     We can all feel pride at the honor bestowed by Menlo College
upon the President of the National Federation of the Blind and
pride, too, in knowing that the NFB's message of hope and
opportunity in the future for all people, the blind included, was
articulated on that day of celebration with clarity and wit.
                           **********

[PHOTO/CAPTION: Stylized Maxi-Aids title]
                     On Ethics and Maxi-Aids
                       by Kenneth Jernigan
                           **********
     Some time this spring (I think it was around May 1) an event
occurred that deserves comment and careful consideration. Elliot
Zaretsky of Maxi-Aids called President Maurer to ask that the
Federation sell him Braillers. President Maurer refused to do so,
and Zaretsky expressed surprise, which in itself is surprising.

     Since we believe that Zaretsky and Maxi-Aids do not behave
ethically and are a destructive influence in the blindness field,
the National Federation of the Blind will have no dealings with
them at all. Even if their prices are lower than their
competition, we will not buy products from them. We will not sell
them any products, and we will not permit them to exhibit at our
conventions. This is a matter of principle.

     For background on the Maxi-Aids story see the December,
1994, and March, 1998, issues of the Braille Monitor. Late last
year in the Federal District Court of Eastern New York a jury
decided that Maxi-Aids was guilty of unethical business practices
and assessed penalties of $2,400,000.06 against them. The six
cents has special significance, not because of the amount, but
because of the message the jury wanted to send (see the March,
1998, Braille Monitor). In the trial the Zaretsky family (Elliot
and his children, the owners of Maxi-Aids) evaded, dodged, and
weaved. They showed remarkable lack of memory. Among other things
Elliot Zaretsky said under oath that he had never given the
Department of Veterans Affairs a document concerning ownership of
shares in Maxi-Aids by his daughter. Yet that very document was
obtained from the VA under the Freedom of Information Act.

     Since the trial, which came about because of unfair
competition by Maxi-Aids, both sides have presented motions to
the court. Maxi-Aids has asked that the jury verdict be reversed,
that the monetary penalties be reduced from $2,400,000.06 to
$14,132, and (assuming those motions are denied) that a new trial
be granted. Independent Living Aids has asked that the Maxi-Aids
motions be denied, that it be given more than $400,000 in legal
fees, and that all of the Maxi-Aids catalogs and the plates to
print them be confiscated and destroyed. Oral arguments on these
motions are scheduled for June 19. In the circumstances it seems
most unlikely that Maxi-Aids will prevail on any of its motions.

     In any case the National Federation of the Blind feels that
it must stand and be counted. Neither directly nor indirectly
should we support those in this field that we believe behave
unethically. In the long run this is a matter not only of
principle but also of practical common sense, for if Maxi-Aids
can drive its competition out of business, then it can (and we
believe will) raise its prices to unconscionable levels and take
advantage of blind consumers. We want no part in supporting such
practices.
                           **********
                           **********
[PHOTO DESCRIPTION: Accompanying this article are several
graphics representing businessmen and women.]
                  JOB Employer's Bulletin 1998
                           **********
     From the Editor: Each year the Job Opportunities for the
Blind (JOB) Program produces useful publications to educate
employers about the abilities of blind workers. These are
available upon request from JOB Director Lorraine Rovig at the
National Center for the Blind. The materials are packed with
useful information and a positive philosophy about blindness. The
Cleveland office of the Ohio Bureau of Services for the Visually
Impaired recently circulated a number of copies of this
publication to area employers, who expressed their interest and
gratitude. In case Braille Monitor readers are not familiar with
this resource, we are reprinting the most recent of these
publications. Here it is:
                           **********
                The Blind Secretary-Receptionist:
            An Office Guide to Non-Visual Techniques
                           **********
Are you looking for one of these?
                           **********
Secretary/receptionist: A motivated self-starter with a pleasant
phone voice; demonstrated success in working on multiple tasks to
meet deadlines. Duties include general secretarial tasks (sort
mail, file, dictation), extensive travel arranging, and
scheduling. Must type 50+ wpm, present a good appearance, and
deal well with a sometimes difficult public. Must be proficient
in ____ [name your computer system]. Occasional
evenings/weekends.
                           **********
Would you hire a blind secretary for this job? How about a blind
receptionist or office clerk?
                           **********
     Businessman: Wait a minute. That doesn't make sense! There's
no way a blind person can do this job. This is one of those
foolish `everybody's-equal' things that goes overboard. I know
this job, and I couldn't do it if I were blind!

     Of course you couldn't. You haven't had training in blind
techniques. However, an executive secretary we know, a woman who
is totally blind, has worked very successfully for several
different companies in Colorado, Maryland, and Missouri. She is
consistently rated "outstanding" on her performance reviews.
Currently she is working as a medical transcriptionist for a firm
which has a standing offer to her to locate more blind persons
with her skills. Here is what she and others like her told JOB
about a few of their non-visual techniques:
                           **********
                         Airline Tickets
     Mrs. H: I call our travel agency to order tickets and set up
the car rentals. When the tickets arrive by messenger, if there
are only one or two, I ask the messenger to read the important
data to me while I compare it to my Braille notes. If there are
multiple tickets or complications, I go over the data with my
reader.

     For UPS, Postal Express, flower shop deliveries, or such,
I'll usually ask the messenger to identify the recipient of the
package before I'll sign any receipt form. Then I use common
sense and company policy to decide how fast to deliver the
package to the correct staff member.
                           **********
               Typing Letters, Memos, and Reports
     Mrs. H: It varies. I can work from direct dictation using my
portable notetaker keyboard or type directly on my office
computer or take down Braille shorthand or--my favorite
method--work from dictaphone tapes. With dictaphone tapes, my
boss's thinking time and revisions won't slow me down.

     I have no problem filling out pre-printed forms after I make
myself a Braille template, but it's more efficient to fill out
forms on the computer.

                           **********
                          Proofreading
     Mrs. H: I'm a good typist, so I usually know when I've hit a
wrong key. Spellcheck helps, of course. Then, with my
voice-output device attached to my office computer, I can listen
to it read back to me what I have typed: either word-by-word or
letter-by-letter. If I type "The" it can say,
"Capital-T-h-e-space" and so on. Beyond that, my office has
always required that a second person proofread whatever the first
person types before the material leaves our office. In every
office I've worked in, my boss proofreads my copy before signing
it. I expect my bosses to be just as hard on my errors as they
would with any other staff person; and, I am glad to say, I miss
very few errors.
                           **********
                          Filing Papers
     Miss L: I always preserve the print marking systems used in
my office because others in the office are print-dependent. For
myself I keep looking for techniques that work to maximize my
liberation from print.

     Remember the "80-20 Rule"? It generally works out that only
20 percent of something is the essential part that is used most
often. For example, in most offices only 20 percent of your files
at any one time are in constant use. Those are the files I, as
the secretary, will label. If my boss asks me to retrieve the
letter she received from John Smith on May 8 last year, I can
retrieve it in less than four minutes. If the file is from before
I began work here, I will ask the other secretary to retrieve it.
We often help each other out.

     For the files I keep in my office, I Braille the folder's
name on 3-by-5 cards, then staple the card upside down on the
back of the folder label area (or consistently on some other
chosen spot on the back of the folder).

     Mrs. G: The card is upside down because fingers will easily
curl over the top of the file to the back of the label. It just
doesn't work to staple the Braille label to the front.

     Mr. B: I put Braille labels on the front tab of file
folders, but only 2 or 3 words will fit. Occasionally I Braille
words on a product called Dymotape, which is a clear, plastic,
half-inch-wide tape with a sticky back. Print labels can be read
underneath the plastic Braille dots. The tape sticks on metal
cabinets, paper folders, and plastic report covers. I place
Braille Dymotape labels on the vertical file drawers too.

     I like to open a file in my computer which lists the names
and contents of each folder. For "hot" files that I use a lot, I
may place a sheet inside at the front of each folder which lists
the folder's contents in Braille.
                           **********
[Sidebar] It is our belief that equal opportunity is the
opportunity to succeed or to fail based on one's own efforts, not
society's preconceptions. This applies to the hiring process and
the job itself. Equality is supported by the flexibility of the
employer and of the employee to use reasonable accommodation for
some of the tasks that would otherwise be done with a sighted
technique. [End sidebar]
                           **********
     Businesswoman: How will he know what the print says so that
he can Braille the label correctly?
                           **********
                When Is a Sighted Reader Needed?
     Mrs. H: Good question! Sometimes there is no cheap
substitute or any substitute for sight. A blind friend of mine
calls mystery print items "UPOs" for Unidentified Print Objects.
We will need some print read to us by what we call a reader
before we can apply these blind techniques, but less often than
the sighted would think.

     Mrs. G: What a lot of employers don't grasp when blind
persons apply for office jobs is that this is not always and
necessarily a monstrous, time-consuming, and expensive
proposition. Where there is a will, there is often a way. My
alternative techniques for a variety of office jobs have not led
to more expense for my company than is received back in value
from my work.

     Dr. A: (This blind university professor uses the same
practical method for dealing with "UPOs" that is used by many
blind secretaries.) Usually our first task is sorting what needs
to be attended to quickly, what can wait, and what is junk and is
going to be thrown out summarily. Anything I'm not going to
attend to immediately or anything that I think I'll need to find
myself, I try to label in Braille.

     Miss L: I Braille and type locator numbers on 3-by-5 cards.
My reader takes them, a tape recorder, and a stack of print
documents (letters, airplane tickets, incoming mail, staff memos,
reports) to the conference room each morning. As she reads into
the tape recorder the information I need off each document, she
will affix one card to each item and use that number as the key
to each of her descriptions.

     Mrs. G: It's different when I start a new job than it is
later when I have it set up. At first I will likely use some
additional time outside of regular office hours, in the evenings
or on weekends, to label files I inherit and to work out my
systems. Once I have my plan in place, I batch my reading tasks.
It's best to schedule my reader at the same time each day. The
goal is to function more independently but also to make efficient
use of my time. This means that occasionally I will need more
reading help, and sometimes I will need less.

     If the boss wants a file that I cannot find, I have her
permission to request help from a sighted co-worker. This same
co-worker will read any mystery print messages that I find
dropped on my desk after lunch or breaks. This takes very little
of her time. There is no resentment because I often take messages
for her and assist her in other ways.
                           **********
        Who Hires the Reader? For How Many Hours of Work?

     JOB: This is not set in stone (or in law). In many cases a
sighted clerk in the office is assigned a set number of hours for
the provision of reading assistance to the blind secretary. In
others a part-time worker is hired by the employer for minimum
wage and no benefits. In other cases the blind office worker will
pay for her own readers. Generally, the higher on the pay scale a
blind person works, the more reader time will be supplied by the
company. Blind adults who use readers know how to train someone
to do this job. In general it is best to give the blind person
veto power over who the reader will be, because not everyone who
can read will do a good, efficient job reading aloud.
                           **********
              The Blind Receptionist, A True Story

     Last summer, as part of her training while learning to
handle her blindness at a special summer camp, a totally blind
high school girl was placed as a part-time (unpaid, work-study)
receptionist on the front desk for a large retirement center and
nursing home. As a reader read the print, she Brailled the
complete list of telephone extensions the night before she
started her job. She memorized the names and extension numbers of
nearly all twenty staff persons as she Brailled them. In her
first four-hour shift, she learned to run the five-line
switchboard plus the fax machine.

     By Brailling incoming messages, she always read the right
message to the correct person. She kept track of who was in or
out with Braille notes. She used a typewriter to type print
copies of messages when necessary and delivered them to the
correct staff mailboxes thanks to her Braille nameplates. When
she heard the fax machine delivering a message, she'd retrieve
it. She'd ask the first staff person passing the switchboard to
read whose name was on the fax; then she'd deliver the fax.

     Her excellent telephone manners, promptness, and efficiency
in getting messages to staff and residents (through paging, voice
mail, or paper messages) were joined to her blind techniques, her
common sense, and her positive, pleasant personality. She did so
well that when one of the home's sighted receptionists quit, the
home hired her at the standard salary through the rest of the
summer.
                           **********
             What Else Can Your Blind Secretary Do?

Create flowcharts
Greet important visitors
Straighten and clean reception areas
Maintain the office calendar
Set appointments
Make coffee and serve refreshments to guests
Set up a booth at a trade fair and hawk the products
Write copy for a newsletter, and include pictures or
     illustrations
Teach office routines to new staff
Give directions to meeting rooms and offices
Use a computer to create good layout for a newsletter
Follow-up on supply orders with sellers
Set up conference rooms for meetings
Handle petty cash
Supervise volunteers
Use high-speed copiers
Use the fax machine
Be enthusiastic about working
Be reliable, dependable, and prompt
Much, much more
                           **********
              What Can Your Blind Secretary Not Do?

     Drive, but non-drivers can hire drivers or use public
transportation.

     Transcribe handwritten material, but typed or printed
material can be scanned into a computer which is accessible to
your secretary.

     All of us have areas of greater strength and of weakness. In
addition to this variation, some blind persons have no sight,
while others have enough sight that they will use it for some
office tasks. Do all of your sighted secretaries do all of your
tasks equally well?
                           **********
                         The Bottom Line

     Why is hiring a competent blind secretary a logical way to
do business? The best secretaries are able to think. Office
skills are only part of what's needed. Beyond that, you surely
hope to find common sense, a talent for efficiency, some physical
endurance, a pleasant personality, a sense of humor, flexibility,
and ingenuity. These abilities are independent of sight or lack
of sight. If the best candidate to apply for your position is
blind while the other less-well-trained candidates are sighted,
you will still have the best deal for your money, even after you
include the cost of a reader and any other adaptations. (Other
adaptations may include a voice-output device to make the office
computer system accessible.) Any boss who has hired secretaries
knows a good one is worth a degree of flexibility on the part of
the business. We encourage you to apply that flexibility to the
consideration of blind candidates.

     For specific questions related to work and blindness, call
JOB at 800-638-7518 (12:30 to 5:00 p.m., ET). Job Opportunities
for the Blind (JOB) is a joint project of the National Federation
of the Blind and the U.S. Department of Labor.
                           **********
                           **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Dwight Baum]
                        Meet Dwight Baum:
         NEWSLINE(R) Fan and Loyal Supporter of the NFB
                   by Betsy Zaborowski, Psy.D.
                           **********
     From the Editor: Dr. Betsy Zaborowski, Director of Special
Programs for the National Federation of the Blind, first met
Dwight Baum when she was working to bring NEWSLINE(R) to the
greater Los Angeles area. She thought other Federationists would
enjoy getting to know this energetic, talented member of the
Federation family. The following is what she says:
                           **********
     Who would have thought that a young man from the Bronx, a
recent graduate of Cornell University, would serve his country
during World War II as the chief armament officer for the British
Royal Air Force, in charge of much of the armament supplied to
Britain during the Lend Lease program of the Roosevelt era. This
contribution to the war effort later earned Dwight Baum the honor
of being named a member of the Order of the British Empire, a
rare honor for someone not a British citizen. This was only the
first of many opportunities he has seized through the years with
an irrepressible spirit still active today, nearly sixty years
later.

     I met Mr. Baum last May during a visit to the Los Angeles
area. His straightforward enthusiasm for the National Federation
of the Blind and charming manner were impressive, but his stories
about his life and interests were even more captivating. He
described looking up at the mountains four years ago. He closed
his left eye and noticed clouding in his right eye. Concerned, he
consulted his doctor and was told he had macular degeneration and
would soon experience even more vision loss. Sure enough, about
eighteen months later he lost the central vision in his left eye
as well.

     Yet at eighty-five he has not let vision loss undermine his
many interests. This past April, when I was in L.A. for the
NEWSLINE(R) opening, I missed seeing him because he was off to
Israel on one of his trips with the People to People Program.
When I asked what keeps him going, he responded, "I love life,
and I am still on my learning curve."

     Mr. Baum is an avid user of recorded books, readers,
scanning technology, and yes, he is now even trying speech access
on his computer. During our visit last year I showed him
NEWSLINE(R). He thought it was marvelous and soon thereafter gave
a grant to the National Federation of the Blind to set up
NEWSLINE(R) in the Los Angeles area. His generosity gives
thousands of blind people telephone access to the Los Angeles
Times as well as several other newspapers.

     Mr. Baum has been a supporter of the National Federation of
the Blind for many years, even before he lost his vision. He
recalled the inspiration and pride he has felt from reading the
Braille Monitor through the years. When asked what it is about
the Federation that attracts his interest, he says,"It's the
efforts to remove barriers for the blind." He goes on to explain
further how impressed he has been with our efforts to challenge
rehabilitation agencies and educational institutions to improve
services by eliminating waste and impediments to the blind. Most
inspirational to him were the profiles of our Board of Directors
in past Monitors. He was genuinely impressed by the variety of
life activities and the scope of talents represented on the
Board.

     Mr. Baum grew up in the Bronx section of New York. His
father was an architect working with the Rockefellers as they
restored Williamsburg and other historic sites. Mr. Baum attended
Cornell University during the later years of the Depression. Like
many of that era, in recalling the suffering of the Depression he
reflects, "Although times were hard, we helped each other a lot
more than people seem to today."

     After graduating from Cornell in electrical engineering, he
went on to earn an M.B.A. from Harvard. This summer he will
celebrate his sixtieth class reunion at Harvard. Like many others
in 1940, he was interested in serving his country. Because of his
background in engineering, he was offered a position in the Royal
Air Force as an Armament Officer in charge of all the aircraft
ammunition and bombs shipped to the RAF from the U.S. during the
Lend Lease era and throughout the war.

     He recalls this time in our history as exciting. He
remembers walking with his fiance, his childhood sweetheart, past
the Japanese embassy in Washington, D.C., on December 7, 1941,
where the staff was burning documents in front of the embassy.
For those too young to remember, the date was Pearl Harbor Day.

     After the war his long-time interest in finance resulted in
a job offer with an old line investment firm in New York, Eastman
and Dillon. He began in the buying department but was soon
transferred to Los Angeles and later managed the company's entire
western regional operation. Years later this company was merged
into Paine Webber, and to this day Mr. Baum holds the title of
Senior Vice President of Paine Webber, continuing to work
part-time for the firm and spending the rest of his time managing
his own investments.

     Both the Baums' sons are pilots. Jim, the younger, now works
with Mr. Baum as his business manager, and his other son John is
a pilot with United Airlines. The Baums have two grandchildren.
I asked Mr. Baum why he continues to work so many hours. He said,
"It's simple; I am one of the fortunate ones. I love my hobby,
which happens to be my work."

     Besides his interest in finance, Mr. Baum finds time to
travel extensively, converse with people all over the world on
his ham radios, and often counsel people who are losing their
vision to become involved with the National Federation of the
Blind.

     He hopes to encourage others to support the Federation's
efforts to expand NEWSLINE(R) throughout the country. For Mr.
Baum NEWSLINE(R) is access. He always turns first to the
financial section of the Los Angeles Times and the New York
Times. Then he goes on to the Metropolitan section to learn what
is happening in his native New York or enjoys general interest
articles on topics he would not ordinarily read. Mr. Baum has
always been an avid reader. Now, when his wife of over fifty
years Hildegarde is watching television, he listens to
NEWSLINE(R) or recorded books.

     Mr. Baum is truly a good friend of the blind, a man too busy
living and helping others to worry about himself. We salute
Dwight Baum and thank him sincerely for his many generous gifts
over the years and particularly for the contribution which made
NEWSLINE(R) a reality in the Los Angeles area. We commend him for
his willingness to support the blind both financially and
personally by encouraging newly blind people to join our
organization. He is truly an example to all, a gentleman who
values the spirit and mission of the National Federation of the
Blind.
                           **********
                           **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Doug Elliott]
                   Big Enough to Ride the Bike
                         by Doug Elliott
                           **********
     From the Editor: The thirteenth book in the NFB's Kernel
Book series of paperbacks designed to educate the public about
blindness is titled Wall-to-Wall Thanksgiving. The following
piece is the final story in the book. Here it is, beginning with
Dr. Jernigan's headnote:
                           **********
     Doug Elliott lives in Iowa--having moved there from Nevada,
where he was President of the National Federation of the Blind of
Nevada. In the following story he revisits a familiar Kernel Book
theme: What, beyond the traditional blindness skills, is required
truly to overcome the limitations imposed by blindness? Here is
how Doug answers that question:
                           **********
     One of my earliest memories is of my fourth birthday, when
my parents gave me a new, shiny red bicycle. The bike was
medium-sized, but it was still too big for a four-year-old. My
father tried to adapt it by making training wheels for the back
wheel and blocks for the pedals so that I could reach them. The
training wheels caused me to lean either to the right or left of
center, and the pedal blocks would spin instead of remaining
steady when I pushed them.

     I soon lost interest in trying to learn how to ride my new
bike. My father removed all the adaptive equipment and told me I
could learn how to ride when I was big enough. When I would see
other kids riding their bikes, the image of the shiny red bike
would haunt me, and soon I was pushing it alongside a rock wall
by our house so that I could get on the wall and mount the bike,
then push off from the wall. I was determined to be big enough to
ride the bike.

     At first I would coast just a little and then fall off in
the grass. I continued this process, and each time I was going
further and further before a crash would occur. Nobody in the
neighborhood--parents or other kids--thought this trial-and-error
way of learning was unusual or bad or stupid. Bike riding is a
skill that everyone has to learn by making mistakes and falling
off. And sometimes you have to grow into it. You have to be big
enough to ride the bike. It was frightening to me at first, but I
didn't get hurt, and I did learn to ride before I was five.

     When I was twenty-one I went to Vietnam, where I lost my
sight due to a mine explosion. I thought I would never walk
downtown by myself again, be able to get a well-paying job, or be
able to go out and have fun as I used to do--in short, that I
would never be big enough to ride the bike.

     I received what is called rehabilitation--training courses
in using a white cane and reading Braille and instruction in
typing, cooking, and the use of power tools--skills we need as
blind people to live independently. I technically learned these
skills in the same way I was technically riding my bike when I
coasted a few feet on the grass. But, when I completed my
training, I knew that something was missing. I was still just
coasting, not really using the skills.

     I now know that I was not limited by the fact that I could
not see; I was limited by my lack of belief in my own
capabilities, my belief that I wasn't big enough to ride the
bike. And, of course, I thought other blind people were just as
limited as I was. I wouldn't have admitted this; I just knew it
inside myself.

     When I returned home with my new skills, I found that,
unlike the experience of learning to ride a bike, the people
around me did not believe that the skill of using a white cane
should be practiced and perfected. They did not think it would
ever be safe for me to walk around freely with a white cane.
Neither did I. I was just coasting, not big enough to ride the
bike.

     My old boss at Sears would not hire me to do the same
appliance-repair job I had held before going to Vietnam. He said
I couldn't do the job because I couldn't drive to homes where
repairs were needed. But he wouldn't hire me to repair appliances
in the shop either.

     He knew I could do the work, but he didn't think I could get
around the shop safely. He hired me back, but the only job he
offered was sitting in a chair all day selling soap and
maintenance agreements over the phone. I did this for a little
while, but I felt my skills and talents were not being
challenged, that I was not really riding the bike.

     So I quit.

     I knew I was missing something--skills, training,
challenges, something. I applied for admission to college and was
accepted under probation because they didn't think I could ride
the bike. I did the work successfully, earning my bachelor's
degree and then master's degree in social work and have worked
for the past two decades as a licensed clinical social worker.
But, for about half that time, I knew something was missing.

     Twenty years after I lost my sight, a member of the National
Federation of the Blind invited me to a Federation meeting. I
agreed to go but said I was probably not interested because,
after all, what could a bunch of blind people offer me? But I
went. Afterward, I said to myself, "This is what I have been
missing." These people believe in themselves. They are big enough
to ride the bike. The Federation message to blind people is that,
yes, you will make mistakes and need to practice when learning
blindness skills just like everyone practices riding a bike, but
that is no reason to stop trying to learn.

     When I finally got the Federation message, I started using
my cane on a regular basis, started to practice my Braille
skills, and started to see myself as a capable human being again.

     I now know that, before I met the Federation, I was really
going through life thinking that sight was the only way to do
things. The Federation provided the missing piece--the strong
belief that there are other ways than with sight to do things
safely and efficiently. If you have sight, that's the easiest
way. If you don't, there are other ways.

     This simple but vital perspective straightened out lots of
puzzles for me and gave me the confidence that merely learning a
skill could not. After joining the Federation, I started
practicing cane use and Braille reading with a new view--these
work for other people, and I can make them work for me.

     I recently got married and moved to a small town in Iowa
where my wife has lived for some time. My wife has been in the
NFB for a long time and has set the norm in this town that the
blind aren't helpless and can learn with some assistance.

     One cold and snowy winter night shortly after I arrived
here, I got lost--completely turned around. Cars passed back and
forth, but no one stopped to ask if I was okay or to offer
assistance as they would have done where I lived before. And I
had no idea how to get home. So I walked out into the street and
waved down a car to ask where Broad Street was.

     The driver turned out to be the owner of the jewelry store
in town where my wife had purchased my wedding ring. He didn't
get out of his car or offer a ride home as I expected. Instead he
told me to go one block behind me and turn left--that was Broad
Street. I thanked him and left.

     The next day my wife stopped at the jewelry store. The owner
told her that I had waved him down the night before when I was
lost. He said to her that I would have to work on finding my way
around here and that he knew he shouldn't give me a ride but
rather should give me information, because I would learn faster
that way.

     With support for each other and the understanding of our
sighted friends like the jewelry store owner, we can go beyond
coasting, beyond mere skills--to walking outside and going where
we want. It's really as easy as that.

     I learned it when I was four pushing off of the wall to get
my bicycle started. I learned it again on the battlefields of
Vietnam. And I learned it once more when I got home and began
dealing with blindness. Maybe all of us have to learn it over and
over throughout our lives. The problems may seem to be too hard
to solve, but if we work at it with determination and if we
believe in ourselves and in the innate goodness of the people
around us, we will be big enough to ride the bike.
                           **********
                           **********
     A deferred charitable gift annuity is a way for donors to
save taxes and make significant donations to the National
Federation of the Blind. (The amounts here are illustrative, not
precise.) It works like this:

     James Johnson, age fifty, has decided to set up a deferred
charitable gift annuity. He transfers $10,000 to the NFB. In
return, when he reaches sixty-five, the NFB will pay James a
lifetime annuity of $1,710 per year, of which $179 is tax free.
In addition, James can claim a charitable tax deduction of $6,387
of the $10,000 gift in the year the donation is made.

     For more information about deferred gift annuities, contact
the National Federation of the Blind, Special Gifts, 1800 Johnson
Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21230-4998, phone (410) 659-9314, fax
(410) 685-5653.
                           **********
                           **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Peggy Chong]
         Audio Description: Accessory or Accessibility?
                         by Peggy Chong
                           **********
     From the Editor: Anyone who watches much television or goes
to many movies knows that the old technique of starting the plot
at the beginning and telling the story straight through to the
end is currently out of favor. Today the plot advances by jumping
from scene to scene and story line to story line; so, unless one
is already familiar with the actors' voices, the program format,
or the plot, the narrative is difficult to follow by sound alone.
It is certainly helpful to watch such programs or films with
someone who can identify the characters and fill in with
explanations of inaudible actions. For those who enjoy such
leisure-time activities and who don't usually have someone to
provide occasional explanations, audio description is certainly a
convenience.

     In case you have never run into this invention of
contemporary entertainment, audio description can be broadcast or
recorded as part of a program or movie's audio, or it can be
supplied live by a person at an actual performance. The live
description service is usually available using special earphones
in a theater, and only certain performances are described. Those
who supply such services are eager to find new opportunities for
providing them in their communities. And, not surprisingly, those
who provide descriptive video for television and films are also
eager to find the funding to expand the number of movies and
programs for which audio description is available.

     We might do well to consider what the effect on the lives of
blind people the increased availability of audio description is
likely to have. This is, in fact, what the Metro Chapter of the
NFB of Minnesota did, and the answer was disquieting. Peggy
Chong, who was President of the chapter at the time, wrote an
article that reported on the experience. It appeared in the Fall,
1997, issue of the Minnesota Bulletin, the publication of the NFB
of Minnesota. This is what she said:
                           **********
     One of the people who describes plays at many theaters in
the Twin Cities came to the June meeting of the Metro Chapter of
the National Federation of the Blind of Minnesota to tell us what
she does and outline her hopes for the future of her business.
She began her presentation with the statement that she had heard
that the NFB was opposed to audio description. We told her this
was not true but that it was not a high priority for us. We
pointed out that the Federation had made it possible financially
for the most recent inaugural ceremonies of President Clinton to
have audio description. We certainly do believe there is some
value in audio description of events, plays, and movies, or we
would not have put money into this project.

     A number of members pointed out that they enjoyed
descriptive video, and several of us said we had a DVS movie or
two in our collections. However, the lack of audio description
does not prevent us from enjoying other videos or stop us from
going to the theater with friends.

     Our guest tried to get us to understand what we were missing
when we did not have an audio describer and how much enhanced our
lives would be if audio description were a regular part of them.

     At one point she asked if everyone knew what our meeting
room looked like. She went on to describe the room, the ceiling,
and the seats. She paused to ask if there were other things that
were important to know about the room. Someone sang out, "The
room was free." I don't think she wanted to hear that. I think
she only wanted us to be grateful for her description of the
room.

     She went on to tell us of the many other activities that
blind people would benefit from if a person were present to
describe what was going on. One of her jobs was to describe a
sixtieth birthday party for a blind person and two blind guests.

     Someone asked how she decided what should be described,
especially when she is describing parties, where there is no
dress rehearsal for her to observe. She replied that she talks
first to the people for whom she is doing the description: what
are their interests, who is important to them? Then, at the
event, she makes a point to get to know the names of as many
people as possible at the event so that she can give accurate
descriptions of who is leaving early, for example. In other
words, she goes around to folks and makes it known that she is
there to interpret for the blind guests, who do not know what is
going on.

     One chapter member told the group about a graduation
ceremony he had attended. At one point a dog walked across the
stage with the picture of the president of the college on his
back. Everyone began to chuckle. A stranger sitting beside our
member leaned over to describe the scene quietly, and they
laughed together. In addition to informing him about the
incident, this impromptu action provided an opportunity for him
to get to know the stranger better.

     Unfortunately our guest speaker misunderstood the point of
the anecdote. She said that it was one more example of a
situation in which the college should have provided an audio
describer. Otherwise our blind member might have missed this
important moment.

     The point was that, despite the lack of any professional
audio description service, he had not missed the moment. Because
he did not have an audio describer talking to him through
earphones, he had an opportunity to interact with others at the
event. This NFB member has had some adjustment-to-blindness
training and knew there were ways to find out why the audience
was laughing. He was not embarrassed or ashamed of his blindness.
I am sure there were a few sighted people that day who, for a
variety of reasons, missed this moment and also had to ask their
neighbors what had happened.

     At one point our speaker actually equated her job to that of
an interpreter for the deaf. We strongly said that we did not
view her job as particularly specialized or essential. Family and
friends have often described scenery, events, activities, and
much more to us without any training and have provided more than
adequate information. Moreover, some people just love to talk and
describe things in detail without being prompted. She was not
happy to be reminded of this truth either.

     As Steve Jacobson was trying to explain a point to her and
ask a question, she began angrily packing her bag instead of
listening to him. She did not describe her activity. But we could
tell from the sound what she was doing. Our speaker left in a
huff. As she was going out the door, she shouted back over her
shoulder that we would never understand and that all the bad
things that people said about the NFB were true.

     That was an unfortunate way to have the discussion end, but
since the meeting I have given a good deal more thought to audio
description than I ever expected to. Our speaker had backhandedly
raised issues that disturb me. I fear she was arguing that audio
description is an accessibility issue.

     Today we certainly hear comments to the effect that theaters
should offer audio description as a means of providing access to
the blind. Increasingly we see audio description being used to
promote particular plays and theaters. Some theaters have even
designated special days for blind people to attend a play because
that is when the interpreter will be on hand.

     Movie theaters and playhouses across America and throughout
the world have always been accessible to blind patrons. Of course
we have sometimes asked a companion or others attending the
performance to describe what has just happened, but this has not
stopped us from enjoying the play. Countless times sighted
playgoers have also asked their companions to explain what just
happened. No one has thrown them out of the theater for asking.
Could it be that the reason blind people are not at many
performances is that we do not yet have the jobs to pay for the
tickets? Adding in the cost of audio description to the tickets
will not help to bring in blind patrons.

     No, audio description is an accessory issue. It is not
unlike a CD player in your car stereo. The absence of a CD player
in the car does not impede the operation of the car. Nor does it
stop you from enjoying the stereo system. It just means that, on
any given trip, you may not hear your favorite recording.

     It is not a big step from the idea that audio interpreters
are a necessary accommodation, important to one's understanding
and appreciation of a play, to the conviction that audio
interpreters are equally necessary for a blind person to
supervise employees. Actually, if a blind person believes that he
or she needs an interpreter, then the person's real need is
adjustment-to-blindness training. Moreover, anyone with so little
self-confidence won't have that or any job very long. Such
thinking places a far greater value on vision as a technique for
learning about the world than any other technique. Those who are
successful in life, both blind and sighted, know that there are
many ways, other than seeing, to learn and enjoy what life has to
offer.

     Several years ago a TV show titled "Mr. Sunshine" had as its
main character a blind professor. In one episode Mr. Sunshine
went dancing and fell off the dance floor. Not long after the
episode aired, a couple in California were denied entrance to a
dance club because the manager felt that they might fall off the
dance floor. Real life can, and very frequently does, imitate
art.

     Blind people who have successfully completed
adjustment-to-blindness training do not fret about what they
cannot see. Our attention is focused on getting the most out of
life by using the many skills and problem-solving techniques we
learned during training and continue to build upon. Once we have
confidence and self-respect, we realize that sighted people get
lost; request help in the grocery store; ask directions to the
bathroom in a concert hall; and seek explanations when they miss
action, plot, or dialog at a play.

     Does audio description result in inclusion, or will it
gradually separate blind people from the rest of the world? If we
have to take a special interpreter to a family celebration,
aren't we telling others that our needs are too complex for
family members to converse with us or fill us in on the activity
without the intervention of a specially trained interpreter?

     Should tax dollars be used for audio description? In these
days of shrinking public dollars, surely we have many more
important issues to work on. Many of our problems are the same as
those of other sectors of the public--transportation,
unemployment, information access, literacy, and vanishing state
and federal programs designed to meet specific needs.

     We have never said that audio description is a bad thing as
it currently stands. Our concern is that it be kept in
perspective. There are many negative repercussions of considering
audio description an accessibility issue. It is our
responsibility to do as much as we can for ourselves and not to
grab everything we can for free. We are far better off when we
ask for assistance only when we need it.
                           **********
                           **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Valerie Negri]
                   Teacher Overcomes Obstacles
                        by Lisa Beilfuss
                           **********
     From the Editor: The kindest word I could apply to my high
school biology course would be "undistinguished." The book was
large and uninteresting, and the experiments were boring and
smelly. Despite these disadvantages, biology seemed the least
demanding alternative when I had to choose a course to fulfill my
college science requirement. Imagine my astonishment, then, when
I discovered that biology was rivetingly interesting. Swept away
in the enthusiasm of this discovery, I actually declared a
biology major. Eventually I began to consider what I might do
with the major. I recognized that I did not possess the burning
passion that would carry me through graduate school, research,
and the endless battles for the right to compete in the field.
That seemed to leave high school teaching. With dismay I
recollected Mosshead Manson, who had put us all to sleep my
sophomore year of high school and changed my major to English.
But the entire experience left me with a deep respect for anyone
willing and able to make a success of teaching high school
biology.

     Valerie Negri is a member of the Kankakee Heartland Chapter
of the NFB of Illinois and was a 1989 NFB Scholarship Winner. She
is also a high school biology teacher who obviously loves her
work. The following article appeared in the March, 1998, issue of
Inscape, the newsletter of Mother McAuley High School. Here it
is:
                           **********
     Biology may seem impossible under any circumstances, but try
studying organisms and plant cells under a microscope without the
help of your eyes. Sight may be something people take for
granted, but it is one sense that Ms. Val Negri, Mrs. Mary Ellen
Clifford's temporary replacement, has learned to succeed without.

     The newest addition to the science faculty is an alum of
Marian Catholic High School and a biology major/chemistry minor
grad of Xavier University. Although she received avid criticism
from teachers and peers who called her unrealistic, her dream of
becoming a teacher proved unwavering: "I always liked young
people. I always wanted to work with them and influence their
lives," said Ms. Negri. While studying anatomy in college, she
used cadavers and models to substitute for the pictures and
diagrams her classmates used. All material was left to
memorization; she was even responsible for the unseen physical
descriptions of what was placed under the microscope.

     The three biology classes she presently teaches are Ms.
Negri's first experience operating her own classroom. However,
she previously served as a teaching assistant for students with
learning disabilities and for abused children and babies born
with crack addictions. Working at the Cultural Arts Center at
Xavier also provided her with valuable teaching experience.

     Teaching biology, Ms. Negri feels, is her greatest
accomplishment. Although she finds many parallels between her own
teaching style and that of other teachers, Ms. Negri feels the
main difference in her classroom has to do with the girls she
teaches. She believes they learn to become more responsible,
self-sufficient, and independent. Ms. Negri knows that, besides
absorbing her extensive knowledge of science, her students are
learning a valuable lesson in life: "My students learn about
cooperation and teamwork and have experience with someone who is
different." McAuley has made some accommodations in order for Ms.
Negri to teach. For instance, senior students help proctor tests
and assist with other activities. When asked what she likes best
about McAuley, Ms. Negri replied without hesitation, "the kids!"
                           **********
                           **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Mary Willows]
                      Meeting the Challenge
                         by Mary Willows
                           **********
     From the Editor: This story first appeared in the thirteenth
Kernel Book, Wall-to-Wall Thanksgiving. It begins with Dr.
Jernigan's introduction:
                           **********
     I sometimes ask people (both blind and sighted) to list the
problems they think blind people face. One that I think is most
critical rarely shows up near the top of the list, but Mary
Willows, a leader in the National Federation of the Blind of
California, zeroes in on it as she talks about meeting the
challenge. Here is what she has to say about how she came to
believe in herself:
                           **********
     As a child growing up in Chicago, I suppose I did all the
things city kids do: Girl Scouts, baton majorette, cheerleader,
something of a cellist, violinist, and otherwise an average
student academically. I am the second oldest of six and the
oldest of the girls. Fortunately for me, my mother always needed
help with housework. So I learned early to be pretty independent.
This really paid off for me in high school.

     It was during my freshman year that I unexpectedly and
suddenly became blind in a car accident. I had thought of one day
becoming a teacher, but after the accident that just didn't seem
possible. I wasn't sure what the future held in store for me. I
knew that I had to find something to do with the rest of my life.
But what?

     As time went on, I decided that being a psychologist seemed
reasonable and appropriate for me. I liked working with people
and usually developed a good rapport with those I met. Besides,
that way I could open my own business and not have to face the
rejection of trying to convince an employer to hire me. I just
did not believe anyone would want to hire a blind person.

     I managed to get a couple of little jobs while I was in
college. I stuffed Christmas stockings one year in what I now
know was actually a sheltered workshop. I also got a job as a
clerk/typist in a company that went bankrupt. So much for that
idea. However, I had heard about that job from a blind girl who
told me that she knew blind people who were doing all kinds of
jobs. "Anything you can think of, there's probably a blind person
already doing it," she told me.

     She asked me what I wanted to be--never mind the blindness.
I said that I had thought about teaching. She said she knew
several blind teachers, and she would introduce them to me. She
offered to let me share a room with her at the convention of the
National Federation of the Blind in downtown Chicago during July
of 1972.

     So I went to see for myself. I met teachers, all right--and
lawyers, and secretaries and students. Yes, blind students who
were pulling straight A's. I met someone who showed me how to use
a slate and stylus. He said it was like a pen and paper. It
looked like a little metal piece of framework with a hinge on the
left. He showed me how to slip a piece of paper inside, close it,
and write anything I wanted to in Braille using the notches that
were already cut for me in the framework. He used it in all of
his classes to take notes.

     They used long white canes. They talked about their jobs and
their families and their goals for themselves. I was beginning to
recognize the challenge, and I started to believe that maybe
these things were possible for me too.

     I did get my bachelor's degree in psychology, but by that
time I was ready for yet another challenge--my master's degree. I
still never told anyone that what I really wanted to do was to
teach children in a regular classroom, because I didn't believe I
could do it. About that time I met Jim Willows, a leader in the
National Federation of the Blind of California. We were married
and now have two boys.

     Children ceased being little creatures from outer space to
me. Far from it: I have cared for as many as seven at a time in
my home. I learned to believe in myself by putting one foot in
front of the other. That little flicker had become a burning
flame. I was ready to accept the challenge of returning to school
for my elementary teaching credential.

     I identified three areas of concern for myself: how to get
around independently in an unfamiliar environment; how to write
things down quickly for later use; and how on earth to control
thirty-three youngsters. I believe in taking one step at a time
and solving problems as they occur.

     My first action as soon as I knew the name of the school
where I would be doing student teaching was to investigate the
grounds. I recalled that I knew a blind child who attended that
school, so I asked her to be my mobility instructor for the day.
She was pleased and proud to give me the grand tour.

     Many schools in California are made up of small buildings
called pods. Since I did not know the classroom I would be in, we
located all the rooms. We even found the janitor's office. She
showed me where assemblies were held, where the library was
located, and how to find the swings on the playground. Since I
did not know which grade level I would be working with, it was
impossible to obtain any of the texts in advance.

     When the time came for me to begin teaching lessons, I
prepared myself with Braille notes. I used a slate and stylus for
any last-minute instructions from the teacher who was supervising
my work. I scheduled ample readers in the evenings so I could
preview material for the next day. If there were papers to
collect after a lesson, I put them into a file folder with my
Braille notes so that I knew what those papers were. That evening
I directed a reader in correcting the papers.

     Long white cane in hand, slate and stylus in my backpack, I
set out finally to become an elementary school teacher. On my
first day of student teaching, my heart was pounding. There I was
standing in front of a class of thirty-three very intimidating
fourth graders.

     My master teacher suggested that I take the children one at
a time to the back of the room and let them interview me. They
could ask me anything they wanted to know. So I did, and they
did. They wanted to know about my slate and stylus. So I decided
to seize the opportunity and slipped two 3-by-5 cards into my
slate and wrote each child's name while we were talking. By the
end of forty minutes I not only had all their names written in
Braille, but I also had time to connect names with voices. Within
my first week I became responsible for the weekly spelling tests.

     I also supervised reading and math groups. Each week the
teacher read the spelling words to me so I could put them into
Braille. This was another time that I was glad I knew how to use
a slate and stylus. This is a skill every blind teacher should
have.

     My third area of concern was discipline. The first time I
was left in charge of the students, they were all over the place.
I could have died because my supervisor was sitting right there.
Of course the other student teachers at the university were
having the same problems. The students were having a field day
with their new teacher.

     Once I demonstrated to them that I could write the names of
the guilty on the board, they decided that I was the boss; and
they settled down. I do not let my own children get away with
anything, so why should these?

     The very next day I was put to the test. I had to take many
different reading groups over to the cafeteria to practice the
plays they had been learning. I had never been in a play, so this
was going to be interesting. I knew I could direct these plays,
and I did. I sat each group down at the end of the stage and
showed them my slate with paper in it. I said I wanted to hear
only the actors. If I heard anything else, the guilty person's
name would be written down and later copied on the blackboard.
There were only two who tested me.

     Student teachers typically start off with the responsibility
of escorting the class from the playground into the classroom
after the morning bell and after recess. This meant locating my
students among the nine hundred others. This was no problem, for
when they saw me, they all called my name, which made it easy to
locate the line. The line of students did not move until I gave
the word. I did not give the word until there was silence. Their
own teacher was impressed.

     Each morning I chose a monitor to assist with the absentee
list and the lunch count. I told the monitor what to write on the
absentee slip. I had the students look left and then right and
tell me who was missing. For the lunch count I had them raise
hands; the monitor wrote that count.

     I hope that sharing some of my techniques might encourage
others who think teaching is impossible because of blindness. In
the National Federation of the Blind we say that, given proper
training and reasonable opportunity, a blind person can compete
with sighted peers and do just as well or just as poorly. The
real difference is in whether or not we believe in ourselves.
Belief in ourselves is the true key to success, no matter what
the challenge, no matter what the task.
                           **********
                           **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Barbara Pierce]
                       The Runaway Author
                        by Barbara Pierce
                           **********
     Some people harbor a secret passion for the books of
Danielle Steele and others for the works of Stephen King. For me
it's fast-paced, good-guy-lawyer adventures. Not surprisingly,
then, John Grisham is a favorite. So, when The Runaway Jury (RC
42334) by John Grisham spilled out of my mailbox the other day, I
was delighted. I have just finished reading it--all 401 pages
(ten sides) of it--and I was both disappointed and annoyed.

     There was nothing particularly wrong with the story line
though I prefer books in which I can respect someone among the
major characters. Without giving away the plot, I can say that
the action centers on a tobacco liability trial. The plaintiff is
the widow of a man who died of lung disease after thirty-five
years of smoking. The lawyers on both sides are pretty unsavory,
and the witnesses are all just walk-ons with no personality. In
the opening pages, however, a young man gets himself named to the
jury and begins manipulating the jurors, the judge, and the trial
strategy. All of this, as I say, is clever and fairly well done.

     In order to get the plot off to a fast start, the
protagonist, Nicholas Easter, has to take control of the jury
without calling any attention to himself. Understandably, Grisham
wants to keep the reader in doubt about which side Easter is
working for, so he avoids telling the story from Easter's point
of view. All the lawyers and jury experts are worried because
they can't learn much about Easter's past or his prejudices.

     So Grisham's literary problem is how to focus attention away
from Easter, the true leader of the jury, enough to divert the
attention of the lawyers on both sides while maintaining reader
interest. Grisham's answer is to introduce a blind man, Herman
Grimes, into the jury pool and begin with his threats to sue if
he is not allowed to remain in the pool. Then, when he makes it
onto the jury, Grisham has the group elect him foreman. It's an
interesting solution to the problem, but I'm pretty sure Grisham
never bothered to learn anything about blindness or blind people
competent enough to be elected foreman of a jury.

     Some things about Grimes are plausible and appropriate. He
is a computer programmer and a conscientious note-taker during
the trial. He adheres exactly to the judge's instructions about
jury behavior. He is clearly bright and wants others to treat him
with dignity.

     But the poor guy never has a chance. Grisham saddles him
with a wife from Hell. Part way through the trial the judge has
to sequester the jury in a local motel. The sighted wife, who has
been delivering him in the morning and retrieving him at the end
of each day, insists that she be included in the sequestration
order so that she can take care of her husband. During the
discussion in which she convinces the judge to include her, the
blind man is present, clearly does not wish to have his wife
included, and is incapable of arguing his case.

     From first to last Grimes is a social misfit. Even when his
wife is not preventing him from talking with the other jurors, he
shows little capacity for making friends or engaging in
small-talk.

     The blindness stereotypes are all present. His entrance the
first morning is heralded by a thump at the door. When it swings
open, he comes in waving his "walking stick." His wife follows
him in, providing a description of the size and layout of the
room in a rapid undertone. Easter rushes up, despite the wife,
and guides him to the table, where he immediately "gropes" for a
chair, orients himself to it carefully, and sits down while his
coffee is brought to him. Despite the fact that the trial takes
weeks, he never does learn, or even try, to get his own coffee in
the jury room or do anything for himself at the motel. His only
significant interaction seems to be with his "Braille
computer"--whatever that is supposed to be. A specially assigned
court reporter prepares detailed descriptions of the exhibits,
which are given to him on disk. But all this detail is
inconsistent, as far as I can tell, with actual access equipment.
The real purpose of the detail seems to be to construct
additional barriers between the blind juror and the other eleven.

     I have asked myself how I would have preferred Grisham to
resolve his structural problem. The honest answer is that I
wouldn't much care as long as he didn't make things more
difficult for blind people or members of any other minority. He
could have made the foreman a sighted geek, or a fussy university
professor, or how about a self-absorbed country singer
preoccupied with fan mail and show bookings. I find it
significant that Grisham did not make the foreman a woman or a
member of a racial minority. The character's narrowness of
outlook, inability to deal with relationships, and fundamental
helplessness necessary for the plot's development would have been
perceived by virtually everyone as an insult leveled at every
woman or member of the ethnic group. Only a character from a
group generally recognized by the rest of us to be superior in
some way could have failed to be an insult to every reader
similarly situated.

     I feel pretty confident that Grisham never considered these
issues before deciding to make his foreman a blind man. After
all, poor old Grimes simply embodies a lot of the stereotypes of
blindness today. But we know how insidious and damaging those
stereotypes can be, and we know just how untrue they are. It's
the millions of readers who already share Grisham's prejudices
about blindness and blind people who will be all the more
grounded in their ignorance for having read The Runaway Jury. And
there doesn't seem to be a lot we can do to counteract the damage
Grisham has done, except to speak out against the injustice and
live, as clearly as we can, lives that refute his foolish
notions.

     The one mildly amusing piece of poetic justice near the end
of the book occurs when the author is forced to remove the
foreman from the trial. He has anchored the foreman in such
isolated moral rectitude that he has no choice but to get rid of
him before he can bring the verdict in. Grisham can think of no
better way of removing Grimes, the conscience of the jury, but to
drug him--he thought his coffee tasted peculiar but drank it
anyway. Grisham couldn't be bothered to create a blind character
who could serve as a role model showing what blind people can do,
but at least the poor man refused to lie down and be disposed of
quietly. In this way, at least, Grimes can serve as an
inspiration to all blind people. None of us can be suave,
commanding, and independent all the time, but we can and must
refuse to lie down and be written off.

     Occasionally one comes across a blind character in a book
who does not embarrass the rest of us in some way. With The
Runaway Jury, John Grisham has not contributed to this small
collection of normal blind characters.
                           **********
                           **********
[PHOTO DESCRIPTION: The Yeager family stands beside a huge tree.
Tracy is between her parents.]
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Jerry and Nancy Yeager with daughter Tracy in the
rain forest near Cairns, Australia.]
                          Love Is Blind
                         by Liz Corcoran
                           **********
     From the Editor: Lots of sighted people, and a number of
blind ones as well, presume that no blind person could be a good
parent. Thousands of successful blind parents make a mockery of
this prejudice every day, but it is important to keep reminding
the families of blind children and those who are just beginning
to deal with their own blindness of the truth that blindness need
have little to do with a parent's ability to rear well-adjusted,
capable children.

     The following article first appeared in the October 17,
1997, issue of Who magazine. Nancy and Jerry Yeager are raising
their daughter Tracy with love and conscientious attention to her
needs. They are active members of the National Federation of the
Blind of Virginia, and their Federation philosophy shines forth
in everything they say about the challenges and pleasures of
parenthood. Here is the article:
                           **********
     For Nancy and Jerry Yeager blindness is no obstacle to
having a happy family life. Tracy Yeager's parents are stricter
than most. When they call their bubbly blonde daughter, she must
answer--no argument.

     A simple move from the swings to the slide requires prior
warning. Now she's six, she doesn't always have to hold their
hands, though she often does anyway.

     The rules have been imposed for good reason. Tracy's
parents--Jerry, forty-two, and Nancy, forty-five, are blind. "We
expect kids to do things that are naughty sometimes," says Jerry,
sitting at the dining table in the family's modern apartment in
Alexandria, Virginia, "but if she does something because we can't
see it, something she wouldn't try around another adult, I think
we have to come down on her doubly hard."

     Not that much escapes them. A barely audible sniffle from
Tracy in another room sends Jerry grabbing for a tissue. When she
bounds noisily through the apartment, Jerry laughs and exclaims,
"Uh oh! Here's a girl with tap shoes!" before picking her up and
flipping her through his arms.

     In the kitchen Nancy is making breakfast. With half a finger
in each cup she pours hot coffee until it hits the tip. Jerry
puts Tracy down and reaches into the fridge. He picks up a packet
and smells to check that it's bacon and fresh, while Tracy,
anxious to get in on the action, lines a baking tray with foil.
"She loves to help," smiles Nancy, feeling that the foil has made
it to the edge of the tray, but, she adds, "only under
supervision."

     The Yeagers, who married in 1988, have worked hard to make
life normal for their daughter. They are both congenitally blind,
so there was a slight chance that Tracy would be born blind, but
that wasn't their main concern. "We knew we could deal with
that," says Jerry. Rather, they considered the difficulties they
would face bringing up a child in a sighted world and how they'd
juggle their full-time careers: Jerry as a contract specialist in
the Department of the Navy in Washington, D.C., and Nancy as a
payroll manager for the Farm Credit Administration.

     They consulted other blind couples and decided they could
pull it off.

     "It's a learning project," says Nancy matter-of-factly, "an
extension of the philosophy we had that most things you can do
without sight. As I go along, there will be things I'm going to
have to figure out. But I've been figuring out how to do things
all my life, so it's not really different."

     As a baby Tracy seemed to know that her parents couldn't see
her. Nancy recalls that when her daughter was about two months
old, she'd let them know she was hungry by putting her finger to
their mouths. Unfamiliar objects--including a sticky caterpillar
on one occasion--were dumped unceremoniously into her parents'
palms for identification. "Nancy noticed it was wet," says Jerry,
"so it had probably been in her mouth. That sort of grossed her
out!"

     The critter was mercifully intact--but what has proved
"irksome," according to Jerry, is other people's doubt about
their ability to cope. There were those who wondered at the
beginning how, being blind, they could possibly care for a child;
others who said to Nancy as Tracy grew that the couple were
"lucky. I'm sure she's a big help to you."

     Jerry laughs wryly at those "who give a five-year-old credit
for much more adult-like knowledge and instinct than they would
ever possibly have" and cites shopkeepers who give Tracy the
change at the till, or passers-by who point to a destination and
tell Tracy, not her parents, how to get there. Says Nancy: "I
don't want her to have that kind of responsibility. We didn't
have her to be a little guide. We had her because we wanted to
nurture a child."

     And nurture they do, making up for their lack of eyesight in
other ways. Jerry concedes that "there are probably cute scenes
that we don't see that other parents would think we're missing,"
but says he loves holding Tracy in his arms and reading to her
from one of her Braille books. Nancy supplements Tracy's school
lessons at home by helping her cut out shapes and sometimes
visits the school to read to her class from Braille books. "All
the kids want to feel my book," she says. "It's good for her and
good for her classmates to see that her parents do the same kind
of stuff that their parents do."

     The Yeagers spend as much time educating others as they do
Tracy on what it's like to be blind. "I don't want her to grow up
thinking that she's amazing because she takes care of her poor,
unfortunate parents," says Nancy. "Or that she's deprived and
doesn't get things that other kids get."

     There's little chance of that. Later that day the Yeagers
take Tracy to a birthday party at the local Chuck-E-Cheese's--a
kids' mini theme park. It is an aural and physical obstacle
course for the Yeagers, who just manage to keep smiling while
kids rush pass them and they try to negotiate the scattered
tables and chairs. Tracy, on the other hand, is in her element,
dragging Jerry around and shouting to him to let her go on more
rides. Jerry obliges and slips her a token, but Nancy finds it
all a little overwhelming and eventually steps in with an offer
of dinner at McDonald's. "A little bribery never hurts," she
laughs.

     Later Jerry recalls something Tracy once said. "Out of the
blue she said, `Daddy, I wish I was blind like the rest of my
family.'" Blindness, he says, is something people fear most,
second to cancer, "but it's clear from what she said that it's
not negative for her." Nor for her parents. "I'm not going to
tell you that I wouldn't like it if I could see," says Nancy, but
"I was brought up with the idea that you got whatever you got, so
make the most of it."
                           **********
                           **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Marc Maurer]
          Concerning Books, Lawn Mowers, and Bus Rides
                         by Marc Maurer
                           **********
     From the Editor: The following story appeared in
Wall-to-Wall Thanksgiving, the latest in the NFB's Kernel Book
series. It begins with Dr. Jernigan's introductory note:
                           **********
     Marc Maurer is President of the National Federation of the
Blind. As regular Kernel Book readers know, he has been blind
since birth. In this story he reflects upon his own experience
growing up as a blind child--from how he felt at age six when he
came home from the hospital totally blind after surgery intended
to restore his eyesight not only failed but also caused him to
lose the tiny amount of vision he had--to his determined effort
to be a fully contributing member of the family. Here is what he
has to say:
                           **********
     When I was growing up, it seemed to me that my parents were
always telling me what to do. Now that I am an adult with
children of my own, I am very frequently required to remind my
children to do the things they know they must. Sometimes they pay
attention, but sometimes they don't.

     The growing-up years are the time for learning how to
behave, for experimentation, and for seeking maturity. During
this period parents are faced with many decisions--decisions that
won't wait: What discipline should be imposed? How much freedom
can the children manage? What experiences should they have? How
much direction can effectively be given? And what is the proper
balance between encouraging independence and maintaining
sufficient control to guard against disaster? Too much protection
can stifle initiative, and too little can lead to ruin. This
basic set of considerations is as important for sighted parents
raising blind children as it is for those raising sighted
children.

      I was born blind. However, I had a tiny amount of residual
vision. Nobody ever told me that I was blind, so I didn't realize
it until I was five.

     My parents loved me, and they wanted very much for me to be
a normal, healthy child. When I was six, they took me to an eye
doctor for a new kind of operation, but it didn't work. Worse
than that, as a result of it, I became totally blind.

     For several weeks I was moody and despondent. Late one hot
summer night I was sitting on my father's lap on the front porch
swing. He struck a match. The sudden flare startled me, and I
jumped. I had been able to see the light of the flame. All of us
wondered what it meant, and my father hoped fervently that I
would be able to regain the use of my eyes. But this was not to
be. I would remain blind, and we must decide how to manage. None
of us knew what to do, but my parents were determined that my
blindness should limit me as little as possible.

     During the next summer (between my first and second grade
school years), my mother taught me to read Braille. Reading was
part of the accepted pattern in our family, and my mother
expected me to read as much as she expected every other child in
our family to read. But there wasn't much Braille material
available. During the winter, while I was attending the school
for the blind, Braille books were fairly easy to come by. But
during the summer, the three months that I spent at home with my
family, Braille was scarce.

     One year somebody put my name on a list to receive the
Braille edition of My Weekly Reader. It came in a big brown
envelope about a foot across and fifteen inches high. The
magazine was about twenty-five pages long, and I looked forward
to getting it.

     In 1960 Dr. Kenneth Jernigan established a library for the
blind in Iowa, my home state. My father read about the library in
the paper, and he asked me if I would like to sign up to borrow
Braille books. I told him that I most certainly would. The next
time my father drove through Des Moines, he stopped at the
library to enroll me as a borrower. Soon afterward the first of
the books arrived in the mail.

     The packages I received contained three or four volumes.
Braille books can be long. Gone With the Wind is ten volumes, but
Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol is only one. Each volume I
got from the library was about twelve inches square and about
three inches thick. They came to me wrapped in heavy brown paper
tied with string.

     I very carefully untied the string and folded the
paper--both must be saved for reuse in shipping the books back to
the library. Books for the blind travel through the mail
postage-free. Inside the front cover of each volume was a mailing
label containing the address of the library. The label was to be
pasted on the package to return it to the library. Storing the
books, caring for them, and seeing that they were packaged to be
mailed back were my responsibility.

     When the books were ready for shipment, sometimes my mother
would take them to the post office for me in the car. However,
this was not always convenient. Sometimes I would load the
bundles onto my red wagon and haul them to the post office. The
people in the post office never seemed very glad to see me. They
appeared to me to be stern and official. I was glad to get out of
there, but I wanted more books, so I was willing to face the
officialdom of the postal service.

     Because the books arrived by mail, planning was required to
insure that there was always a supply on hand. I could get two
(or sometimes three) books at a time. If I read them all and sent
them back, I would have no books until the new shipment arrived.
Consequently, I worked out a revolving book loan system with the
library.

     In the summers in the middle of Iowa, there were certain
activities for entertainment. I could sometimes go swimming, but
the pool was more than a mile and a half walk from my house.
Occasionally there were picnics, but not often. There were
television and radio, and sometimes there were rambles in the
park or the woods.

     However, in those days I did not believe a blind person
could travel through the park or the woods alone. My excursions
on the nature trails were restricted to times when a friend or a
brother could go with me. My parents bought me a bicycle built
for two, which I could ride if I found somebody to take the front
seat.

     Then there were the projects to make a little money. We
collected empty soda bottles because you could get two cents
apiece for them if they weren't chipped. One summer my brothers
and I started a lawn-mowing business. The local newspaper agreed
to help kids try to find summer employment by publishing ads for
them at no charge. We accepted.

     My father told me that I could use the lawn mower as long as
I maintained it in good repair, bought the gas and oil for it,
and kept our own yard mowed. We got about half a dozen regular
customers, who wanted their lawns mowed every two weeks.

     When they called, we would gas up the lawn mower and take it
to cut the grass. We liked to do it in the mornings--because it
was cooler. But we would work any time. We wanted the cash that
the mowing produced.

     My brother was small enough that he couldn't push the mower
very well, but he could guide it. I pushed, and he steered. When
the mowing had been completed, we both raked the grass clippings
and bagged them for the trash collector. We charged four dollars
for small lawns and five for large ones.

     It may not sound like much to those who have become
accustomed to today's inflated allowances and pay for teen-agers,
but we could earn twenty dollars in a day if we were lucky. And
that seemed like a lot. To me it still does.

     All of us in the Maurer family did housework. After the
inside chores each of us was assigned yard work for an hour. Once
we were directed to tuck-point the foundation of our home. When
the mortar between the bricks gets old and loose, it must be
scraped out and replaced with new concrete. Of course, not all of
the mortar deteriorates. If it did, the foundation would
collapse.

     The tuck-pointing process repairs surface damage. It is a
tedious and messy job. Each morning for several weeks we mixed a
batch of mortar and applied it to the foundation, replacing
damaged concrete in the joints between all of the exposed bricks.

     Even with all of the activities I have described, I had a
lot of free time in the summers. I filled it reading. The library
was my friend, but it was a mysterious friend--one that I had
never met. I wanted to know more about it.

     I asked my mother if I could visit the library in Des
Moines, forty miles from our home in Boone; and she agreed. Two
of my brothers and I decided that we would take the Greyhound Bus
to get there, and I began saving pennies for the trip. The bus
ticket cost $3.30 for adults and $1.65 for children. I qualified
for the adult fare, but my younger brothers could get the cheaper
rate.

     It took me quite a while to get the money together. This
particular trip was planned before I had come upon the
lawn-mowing business. My father might give me fifty cents a week
for my allowance, and there might be some other money from the
collection of the soda bottles, but that was about it.

     After saving for weeks, we had the money; and we headed for
the local bus station--a counter at Eddie's newspaper shop. But
when we got there, Eddie told us there had been a fare increase.
The spare change we had saved for emergencies had to go. We spent
all our money on bus tickets.

     The bus ride from Boone to Des Moines took about an hour.
When we arrived at the Des Moines bus station, we discovered that
it was only a short walk to the library for the blind. I was
delighted with all of the books and with the friendliness of the
staff members there. They said I could browse to my heart's
content and pick out anything I wanted. After a while I found a
good book, and I started to read. One of the staff members
brought me a chair and asked if I needed anything else. I said
that I did not, and I just kept reading.

     After a time my brothers got bored with the library. They
are sighted, and they cannot read Braille. I was the oldest
(thirteen or fourteen at the time), so I was in charge. My
brothers asked me if they could visit the state capitol building,
and I told them they could. They disappeared and were gone for
hours. I didn't care at all; I had the books. Perhaps it is just
as well that my mother didn't know about the nature of my
supervision that day.

     Late in the afternoon my brothers returned; and we headed
back to the bus station. All of us were quite hungry. We had
neglected to bring lunch, and we didn't have any money to buy
any. We had spent all we had on the bus tickets. But the ride
home was cheerful, and I carried a book with me to read on the
bus.

     It was the first trip away from home that I ever planned. I
wished that I had thought about the lunch. But despite this
mistake, I was satisfied. I had seen the library, and I had a
book. Not only that: I had the prospect of hundreds and thousands
more.

     My parents required me to work, gave me independence, and
taught me to read. They let me know in a thousand ways that I was
a cherished member of the family. They insisted that I make
contributions, and they made it perfectly clear that the standard
of behavior and the quality of work required would be no less for
me than for the other children in the family. As I look back from
the perspective of manhood and with children of my own, this is
the way it should have been.

     In the National Federation of the Blind we are committed to
help blind children get the best education their minds can take.
Building the right future demands education, a spirit of
self-reliance, and the balance to know when to guide and when to
keep hands off.

     For those of us who have reached adulthood, the pattern of
life is established. However, for the children the dreams for the
future can be as broad as our imagination and our commitment
permit. We believe in our children, and whenever we can find a
way to do it, we will put a book into their hands.
                           **********
                           **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Greg Trapp]
                         A Time to Heal
                        by Greg D. Trapp
                           **********
     From the Editor: Greg Trapp has been a staff attorney with
the Protection and Advocacy System of New Mexico since 1992.
Prior to that he was an Equal Opportunity Specialist at the
University of New Mexico. In 1993 he taught Disability Law as an
adjunct professor at the University of New Mexico School of Law.
He presently serves on the Board of Directors of the Albuquerque
Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of New Mexico,
serves on the Board of Directors of the National Association of
Blind Lawyers, is Chair of the New Mexico Commission for the
Blind's Statewide Rehabilitation Advisory Council, and serves on
the IDEA State Advisory Panel. He is a frequent contributor to
these pages. This is what he says about suing for relief in
employment discrimination cases:
                           **********
     My client--I'll call her Susan--sat across the desk from me.
Her case had just settled after three years of bitter legal
battles. Susan had been genuinely wronged, and she had won a
settlement which reflected that fact. Yet as she talked to me,
she hardly seemed like a winner. Susan had been forced to sell
her home, forgo needed medical treatment for lack of employer
health insurance, and ultimately go on disability benefits due to
depression and posttraumatic stress disorder. As we talked, I
thought about the last three years and considered what lessons
might be learned. I recalled the time early in the battle when
this client rejected a generous settlement offer, which I had
encouraged her to accept. As Susan left my office, she mentioned
that settlement offer and said she wished she had taken it. Her
lesson is one from which we can all learn: sometimes it is
appropriate to avoid or discontinue the fight and move on to a
new challenge or opportunity.

     Susan's struggles are far from unusual. I have observed many
clients go through tremendous emotional upheaval at the loss or
potential loss of a job. This is understandable, since a
termination is usually viewed as an attack on an individual's
character and self-worth. Given the strong emotions that surround
employment, it is easy to understand why some people choose to
take a highly adversarial path in attempting to resolve
employment problems. However, sometimes there are problems for
which there are no legal solutions or for which the legal
solution might mean winning the battle but losing the war. At the
outset of a case I advise my clients to consider the costs of
waging such a legal battle. I advise them to weigh all of the
costs, professional, financial, physical, and emotional.

     The professional costs will largely depend on the nature of 
the profession, the size of the community, and the career stage
of the employee or job seeker. Although illegal under the
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), retaliation does happen.
Knowing this, I sometimes advise employees facing imminent
discharge to file an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
(EEOC) complaint. In cases of imminent discharge the employer may
retaliate and terminate the employee immediately, which could
give my client a stronger case. On the other hand, the employer
might be extra careful not to appear to retaliate, which might
give my client an opportunity to maintain employment.

     Retaliation comes in many forms, subtle and blatant. It can
mean employment's being terminated or an employee's being skipped
over for promotions, being assigned duties which do not lend
themselves to career advancement, or being blackballed and
labeled a troublemaker. The possibility of retaliation may not be
a serious concern for an older person who is fired near the end
of a high-paying career. By contrast, retaliation may be a very
real concern for a young person seeking an entry-level position
in a close-knit profession such as teaching or counseling, and
who was discriminated against during an employment interview.

     For the older person in this example, the cost of
retaliation is relatively small, and there is a potentially large
benefit if the legal battle is successful. However, for the young
person in this example there is a real risk of retaliation since
the person may acquire a reputation as a troublemaker and since
there is probably only a small potential benefit. I have seen
people who file successful grievances over relatively small
employment issues later turned down for promotion and given less
desirable job duties. I am persuaded that at least some of these
people would have fared better had they worked within the system
and applied the energy they used to fight the system to enhance
their employment skills.

     The financial costs of initiating an
employment-discrimination battle will vary depending on the stage
of the fight. For instance, no cost is associated with filing an
employment-discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission (EEOC), though there is still the
possibility of retaliation and the corresponding financial harm
which may result. To bring a lawsuit under the ADA, you must
first file a complaint with the EEOC. You can allow the EEOC to
investigate the complaint, or you may request a right-to-sue
letter and file a private lawsuit. The EEOC investigation can
easily take a couple of years, and they only find in favor of the
employee about three percent of the time.

     While there is no cost to file a complaint with the EEOC,
filing a private lawsuit can be very expensive. Even if you find
an attorney to take a case on a contingent fee, you will still be
responsible for paying the costs of the litigation, such as
copying, depositions, and expert witnesses. These costs can
quickly add up to thousands of dollars. I usually tell my clients
that they can expect to incur $5,000 to $10,000 in costs,
assuming that the case settles before trial. If the case goes to
trial, costs can be much higher, and legal maneuvering can even
cause a plaintiff to be responsible for some of the costs of the
defendant.

     Nevertheless, sometimes the decision to litigate is easy, as
in the case of a long-term employee who is fired from a unionized
job paying $70,000, but who would have difficulty finding a
replacement job which would pay more than $25,000. In assessing
the costs, consideration must also be given to the potential
financial benefit of a lawsuit. However, news reports of
multimillion dollar legal awards can lead to an unrealistic
expectation of the financial rewards that might be gained by a
lawsuit. I usually tell my clients that litigation is a little
like buying a lottery ticket, and that a large award may be
possible, though such awards are the exception.

     Physical and emotional costs also accompany a legal battle.
I have seen litigation turn people who were happy and vivacious
into lethargic shells of their former selves, dependent on
tranquilizers and anti-depressants. Therefore, I always tell my
clients that litigation can be very unhealthy. Even in the best
of circumstances, litigation can be extremely stressful. The
lawyers for your employer will scrutinize your actions and
conduct and will dig for anything which could be used against
you. For example, an attorney in a deposition can pry into your
past and ask questions which would never be allowed in evidence
at trial. If you are seeking compensation for mental pain and
suffering, the lawyers will be allowed to ask about your mental
health history. If your case includes a claim of sexual
harassment, your sexual history can be explored.

     In addition, lawsuits are normally open to the public, so in
a worst-case scenario, private elements from your personal life
could be reported in the papers or on the 6:00 news. If you are
suing an employer for whom you are still working, then you must
face the added difficulty of working in what will likely be a
tense and stressful work environment. Litigation can also have a
negative impact on home life and can place a serious strain on a
marriage.

     Unfortunately, some people who take legal action against
their employers are motivated primarily by anger and a desire for
revenge. These people usually fail to consider carefully the
costs and consequences of their actions. As a result, they may
incur an additional, often devastating cost: the cost of thinking
and acting in ways that can ultimately destroy the self. The Rev.
Martin Luther King, Jr., eloquently describes this cost:

     Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and
     eats away at its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of
     values and his objectivity, causes him to describe the
     beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse
     the true with the false and the false with the true.
     Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.
     Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate
     multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness
     multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction.

     Despite the difficulties of waging a legal battle over
employment discrimination, taking a legal stand can certainly be
an appropriate choice in many situations. Nevertheless, one of
the options I present to my clients is the option to do nothing.
I explain to them that they have been victimized and that waging
a legal battle might cause them to be revictimized. Sometimes
people need a time to heal.

     As a blind person, someday you will very likely encounter
employment discrimination. How you respond may have lasting
effects on your employment career and on many areas of your life.
                           **********
                           **********
                Blind Woman Wins, But Wins What?
                      by Linda L. Rhinehart
                           **********
     From the editor: I received the preceding article several
months ago and decided to include it in this month's issue. Then,
a few days ago, I received the following piece from Linda
Rhinehart. Although the case she describes was against an
educational institution rather than an employer, it provided a
heartbreaking illustration of Greg Trapp's point. Linda is a
fairly new Federationist. She is a member of the Capital Chapter
of the NFB of Pennsylvania, itself a new part of the Federation
family. It is good to know that at least now Linda is receiving
support and advice from Federationists. Here is her story:
                           **********
     I wrote this article about an event that has consumed my
life for almost five years. I wanted to share it with my fellow
Federationists in order to get a horrible event off my chest,
perhaps to find others who have been through a similar
experience, and to warn those who may face a similar problem in
the future.

     I have been blind for thirteen years as a result of a drunk
driver's getting behind the wheel. I have learned to deal with
bad treatment from some folks in society. In January, 1993, I
entered York Technical Institute to receive an education and to
earn a degree in specialized business/computerized accounting.
Nothing prepared me for the events that were to follow. The very
first day my instructors began making annoyed remarks about my
talking equipment. They did not approve of my readers, and from
that day until I graduated they made faces, called me names, and
made my experience as difficult as possible. I worked my way
through the entire chain of command and never once received
resolution of my ongoing problems with the instructors. I was
forced to sign a waiver stating that the school was not
responsible for job placement assistance because of my physical
disability. I finally concluded that my only recourse in the face
of the bizarre treatment I received because of my blindness was
to file a lawsuit. From start to finish this lawsuit took
four-and-a-half years, a lot of paperwork, and a lot of visits to
professionals to prove that I was blind. We also had to compute
lost wages and the many other damages we were claiming in the
suit. My attorney requested all this, and at great cost I
supplied it. I grew increasingly aggravated because I continued
to hear negative and derogatory remarks about blind people. The
defense attorneys kept asking for continuances, and once a judge
even lost my case file on his desk. In the end we were ordered to
arbitration with a professional mediator from Philadelphia. As
far as I could tell, she ran her courtroom fairly. She even
requested my attorney to pay close attention to the closing
portion of her briefing. This led me to believe we had presented
our case well. By the way, I can assure everyone that legal
deadlines mean nothing when you are the plaintiff. When I
complained to my attorney that several steps in this case had
gone past their deadlines, I was told there was nothing we could
do.

     So what was the final result--the result we had to demand
after the mediator asked for an extension and exceeded the
extension by two more days? Her final report was only one page
long. It found on behalf of the plaintiff under the Pennsylvania
Human Relations Board and under the fraud, discrimination, and
breach of contract clauses. The damages awarded to me as the
plaintiff were, and I quote, "No monetary damages awarded;
defendant will offer plaintiff job placement assistance and
re-education at any time in the future."

     I cannot express my anger and pain at this decision except
to say that I instantly went numb. I had prepared an ironclad
case against the school at the cost of tens of thousands of
dollars that I still owe and may never be able to completely
repay because the only work I have been able to secure is in a
sheltered workshop. I graduated from York Technical Institute
with honors, and still they would not provide me the services
offered as a matter of course to my non-disabled peers. The
original contract stipulated that as an alumna I was to receive
the services the arbitrator awarded me in the settlement. I find
it appalling for an arbitrator to say that the defendant is
guilty of all the charges, especially discrimination and
belittlement, yet refuse to penalize the institution for such
behavior. In other words, enforcing the original contract
agreement is sufficient.

     The message delivered by this case and this arbitrator is
clear: institutions of higher education can belittle and
discriminate against blind people and get away with it. I ask
myself today whether or not this lawsuit was worth the time and
money I have spent and will continue to spend on it. The answer
is: not unless my story is told to warn others about our legal
system and how it can sometimes fail us.

     Because my case went to arbitration, I can never appeal it.
I ask my fellow Federationists to write to me with similar
situations, job leads, or suggestions about financial assistance.
Write to Linda Rhinehart, 50 Saginaw Road, Mt. Wolf, Pennsylvania
17347. You may also call me at (717) 266-5877. We the members of
the National Federation of the Blind must stop discrimination
like this from taking place. We can only do it by working
together.
                           **********
                           **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Senator Jennings Randolph]
                  Jennings Randolph Dies at 96
                         by James Gashel
                           **********
     On Friday, May 8, Jennings Randolph died in a nursing home
in St. Louis, Missouri, where he had lived for approximately ten
years. In the history of American politics, Senator Randolph may
be remembered best for serving the people of West Virginia as a
member of the House of Representatives from 1933 to 1947 and
later as a Senator from 1958 until his retirement at the end of
1984. When he did retire, Senator Randolph was the only member of
Congress still in office after serving during President
Roosevelt's first 100 days.

     His legislative legacy includes leadership on behalf of the
New Deal programs of the 1930's and support for building the
interstate highway system from the earliest days of its
conception in the 1940's. But with all of this, Senator Randolph
expressed the greatest pride in his work to provide opportunities
for blind people to become productive and self-supporting through
the operation of small businesses.

     Who but Jennings Randolph could have known in 1936 that the
operation of "vending stands" by blind people in public buildings
would lead to rewarding, lucrative employment for thousands in
the decades since? A measure of our respect for him is shown in
the fact that Jennings Randolph as a private citizen was named as
the second recipient of the Federation's Newel Perry award, which
was established in the 1950's. We presented him with this special
recognition in 1956, although at the time he had not served in
Congress for many years.

     From the day he began serving in the Senate in 1958, he
displayed the Newel Perry award in his Washington office with
special pride and continued to champion our cause throughout the
remainder of his public life. He demonstrated that fact in a
tangible way by continuing to work on bills to expand the rights
and opportunities for blind vendors, culminating in the
Randolph-Sheppard Act amendments of 1974.

     This legislation, which is still in effect today, provides a
legal priority for blind people over all others in the operation
of businesses on federal property. Proving that he could change
with the times, Senator Randolph fought successfully to scrap the
concept of blind persons' receiving vending stands in favor of
far more lucrative opportunities available in vending facilities,
including vending machines, cafeterias, and other large-scale
businesses.

     Much of his philosophy of government in providing support
for small minorities has been enshrined in the opening words of
the Randolph-Sheppard Act, which have echoed down through the
more than six decades since its enactment. Although the language
may not be of the politically correct style often used and
over-used today, the philosophy of this law--"for the purpose of
providing blind persons with remunerative employment, enlarging
the economic opportunities of the blind, and stimulating the
blind to greater efforts in striving to make themselves
self-supporting"--is still sound and up-to-date. This, for blind
people, is the greatest legacy of Jennings Randolph and the
reason why he will always be remembered.
                           **********
                           **********
                             Recipes
                           **********
     This month's recipes have been provided by members of the
National Association of Blind Educators, the NFB's teachers
division.
[PHOTO/CAPTION: David Ticchi]
                           **********
                            Kale Soup
                         by David Ticchi
                           **********
     Dr. Ticchi is a member of the division's Board of Directors
and First Vice President of the NFB of Massachusetts. David asked
that we point out that both his recipes appear in a cookbook soon
to be available from the Massachusetts affiliate.
                           **********
Ingredients:
1 to 2 cups dried yellow or green peas
1 small cabbage, sliced
2 to 3 pounds beef shank
at least 2 quarts water
2 pounds kale (well washed)
1/2 pound chourico (Portuguese sausage, pronounced shereeso)
5 pounds or more potatoes, cut into small pieces
salt to taste
                           **********
     Method: Rinse peas and cook in two quarts water for thirty
minutes. Add chourico and meat, salt liquid to taste, and cook at
least forty-five minutes. Remove meat from pot and set aside. Add
kale, cabbage, and potatoes. Cook until vegetables are quite
tender, thirty minutes or longer. Add more water if needed.
(Instead of dried peas, you can use kidney beans soaked
overnight. If using beans, you can cook them with the meat and
chourico.) To serve, slice beef and chourico and return to soup,
or reheat them in the soup before removing them to a platter to
slice and pass as a side dish. Served with Portuguese or Italian
bread, this hearty soup is a supper in itself.
                           **********
                           **********
                       Chicken Cacciatore
                         by David Ticchi
                           **********
Ingredients:
2-1/2 to 3 pounds broiler-fryer chicken
1/4 cup hot salad oil
2 medium onions, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1-pound can tomatoes
1 8-ounce can tomato sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon oregano or basil
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
1 or 2 bay leaves
1/4 cup dry white wine
                           **********
     Method: Cut the chicken in pieces and brown in hot salad
oil. Remove chicken. In same skillet cook onions and garlic until
tender but not brown. Return chicken to skillet. Combine
tomatoes, sauce, salt, pepper, oregano or basil, celery seed, and
bay leaves. Pour mixture over chicken. Cover and simmer thirty
minutes. Stir in wine. Cook chicken uncovered fifteen minutes
longer, until tender, turning occasionally. Remove bay leaves,
skim off excess fat. Ladle sauce over chicken in dish. Makes four
servings. For extra sauce, use two cans of tomato sauce.
                           **********
                           **********
                         Chicken Fajitas
                         by Mary Willows
                           **********
     Mary Willows is the Vice President of the National
Association of Blind Educators. She currently teaches
elementary-aged children at the California School for the Blind.
Before becoming certified to teach blind students, Mary taught
second, third, fourth, and fifth grades in the regular classroom.
Mary has also served as coordinator of NFB Camp, Chairperson of
the Committee on Parental Concerns, and Secretary of the
Ala-Costa Chapter of the NFB of California. The following recipes
were voted by sons Jimmy, sixteen, and Donny, fourteen, to be
their favorites.
                           **********
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
4 to 6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips
1 large green bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 large red onion, thinly sliced
1 large tomato, cut in wedges
1 package Lawry's fajita spices and seasoning mix
1 package flour tortillas
1 avocado, thinly sliced, optional
1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
1 eight-ounce tub sour cream
                           **********
     Method: In a large skillet heat one tablespoon oil. Saute
the onion and green bell pepper, until tender. Remove from
skillet. In same skillet brown chicken. Add spices and seasonings
and 1/4 cup water; blend well. Bring to a boil; reduce heat.
Simmer, uncovered three to five minutes, stirring occasionally.
Return vegetables to skillet and heat through; add one tomato cut
into thin wedges (optional). Place 1/2 cup of this filling on
warm flour tortillas. Add avocado, cheese, and sour cream, if
desired; fold burrito-style. Makes eight fajitas.
                           **********
                           **********
                           Hye Rollers
                         by Mary Willows
                           **********
     Note: These are great for chapter potlucks. Make them the
night before, wrap in foil, and refrigerate overnight. Slice them
about two fingers' width, once you get to the party. Each hye
roller yields about twelve slices, so one package will make
thirty-five to forty sandwiches.
                           **********
Ingredients:
1 package soft cracker bread Hye Rollers
4 ounces herbed cream cheese
1 tablespoon ranch salad dressing or mustard
chopped fresh vegetables
sliced lunch meat
sliced cheese
                           **********
     Method: Soft Cracker Bread Hye Rollers are flat circles of
bread, packaged like tortillas, that can be spread with filling,
rolled, and sliced. For vegetarian Hye Rollers: whip together 4
ounces herbed cream cheese and 1 tablespoon ranch salad dressing
until smooth. Spread evenly across one hye roller. Then have fun
sprinkling your favorite vegetables, pizza-style, in a circle. I
use whatever is in the fridge. Here are some ideas: 1/2 carrot,
grated; four sliced mushrooms; a few fresh spinach leaves; a
sliced zucchini; a couple of sliced olives; a pinch of sliced
jalapenos; etc. So you can see, the list is endless. Any choice
of four or five will do. Leave about two inches of cream cheese
uncovered at one end. Begin to roll the Hye Roller at the
opposite end, stopping only to tuck in runaway veggies. The cream
cheese will seal the dough. Wrap in foil and refrigerate
overnight.

     Another variation is to cover the dough with your favorite
lunch meats and cheeses. Instead of beating in salad dressing,
whip a specialty mustard into the cream cheese to use as a
spread.
                           **********
                           **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Bonnie Peterson]
                  Barszcz (pronounced bahshch)
                        Polish Beet Soup)
                       by Bonnie Peterson
                           **********
     Bonnie Peterson is President of the National Association of
Blind Educators and President of the NFB of Wisconsin. She is an
instructor of communication and public speaking at the University
of Wisconsin-Parkside. This soup is a traditional part of Easter
dinner. Bonnie's husband Joel tasted it for the first time when
he came to dinner early in their courtship. According to Bonnie,
he whispered to her in horror that it was pink, and he didn't eat
pink soup. Years later Joel volunteers to make sure the
ingredients are on hand when the time comes to make the barszcz.
Experienced cooks don't bother to measure ingredients, but Bonnie
has tried to give us an idea of how it is done.
                           **********
Ingredients:
5 medium beets
9 cups water
2 links Polska Kielbasa (Polish sausage)
1/3 cup vinegar
1/3 cup horseradish
1/2 cup sour cream
2 cups cubed boiled potatoes
                           **********
     Method: Put nine cups of water and kielbasa into a soup
kettle. Cook meat for forty-five minutes. Remove meat from water
and thinly slice. Peel and thinly slice beets into the same water
used for meat. Cook beets for about twenty minutes or until
tender. Remove beets. Add vinegar and horseradish to water. Stir.
Add sour cream. Stir until blended. Add sliced kielbasa, cooked
beets, and boiled potatoes. Barszcz is traditional Polish beet
soup eaten all year round. This recipe has been in my family for
generations. Barszcz is served hot and has a sweet/sour taste.
During the Easter season hard-boiled eggs, peeled and sliced, are
substituted for potatoes.
                           **********
                           **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: John W. Smith]
                        Sweet Potato Pie
                        by John W. Smith
                           **********
     Dr. Smith is a professor of communications at Ohio
University, Secretary of the National Association of Blind
Educators, and First Vice President of the NFB of Ohio.
                           **********
Ingredients:
1 large can yams or 3 medium yams
1/2 cup margarine or butter
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
3 eggs
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice (concentrated or freshly squeezed)
1 9-inch deep-dish pie crust (unbaked)
                           **********
     Method: Drain away any liquid from yams and thoroughly warm
them. Then place yams in large mixing bowl. Beat yams with
electric mixer until smooth, then add margarine. Mix well. Add
cinnamon, nutmeg, and sugar. In separate bowl combine eggs,
evaporated milk, and lemon juice. Add to yam mixture and mix
well. Pour mixture into unbaked pie shell. Place a cookie sheet
in the center of a preheated 350-degree oven. Heat cookie sheet
for three to five minutes. Bake pie on cookie sheet for
forty-five minutes to one hour, until a knife inserted in center
comes out clean. Remove pie from oven and let cool. Serve at room
temperature or chilled. Can be served plain or with whipped cream
or ice cream. Refrigerate leftovers.
                           **********
                           **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Patti Harmon]
                      Tortilla Temptations
                         by Patti Harmon
                           **********

     Patti Harmon is Treasurer of the National Association of
Blind Educators, a teacher with twenty-six years of experience at
the New Mexico School for the Visually Handicapped and the 1991
NFB Blind Educator of the Year. She serves on the New Mexico
Board of Directors and is a past president of both the White
Sands and Alamogordo Chapters of the NFB of New Mexico.
                           **********
     Patti says: "New Mexicans add green chili to anything and
everything, creating unforgettable flavor! These appetizers are
ideal for any gathering, finger food for friends and family. Add
jalapenos for zest or red chili for color at Christmastime."
                           **********
Ingredients:
3 small cans of diced green chilis
3 containers of whipped cream cheese
1 12-pack of flour tortillas
                           **********
     Method: In a large bowl mix together diced chilis and cream
cheese. Blend well, making certain every mouthful of cream cheese
has great chili pieces in it. On each flat flour tortilla spread
a thin layer of the mixture. Roll each up relatively tightly.
Place each roll-up on a dinner plate, seam-side down, or in a
casserole dish. Cover the plate or dish securely with foil. Place
in refrigerator for several hours or overnight. Remove from
refrigerator. Slice each rolled-up tortilla into individual
pieces about one-half inch thick. Place rounds on a serving dish.
These are finger food for children of all ages.
                           **********
                           **********
                       Monitor Miniatures
                           **********
Information Needed:
     Ann Boyd, an active Federationist and 1996 Distinguished
Educator of Blind Children Award recipient, writes to inquire
whether anyone knows where she could purchase a gold-filled pin
or charm representing a Perkins Brailler. The National Braille
Association in Rochester, New York, used to carry these items,
but the organization seems to have moved or closed. If you can
give Ann information on this subject, contact her at 6602 State
Route 588, Gallipolis, Ohio 45631, e-mail: <aboyd@eurekanet.com>.
                           **********
New NFB Listserv:
     David Andrews, system operator for the NFB computer bulletin
board, NFB NET, recently made the following announcement:

     I am pleased to announce a new list called GUI-TALK, the
purpose of which is to discuss the use of the Graphical User
Interface (GUI) by blind and visually impaired persons. The GUI
includes, but is not limited to, Microsoft Windows 3.X, Windows
95, Windows 98, Windows NT, X-Windows, and the Macintosh OS. The
GUI can also include graphical interfaces used on consumer
electronics devices, office equipment, bank machines, etc.

     GUI-TALK provides a forum where we can ask questions and get
answers. We can share tips and tricks, discuss software and
hardware used to access the GUI, and more. This list is sponsored
by the National Federation of the Blind and will occasionally
carry announcements of interest to NFB members and our friends
and supporters. GUI-TALK also gives you access to the resources
and information provided by the International Braille and
Technology Center for the Blind, the world's largest
demonstration and evaluation center for computer technology used
by blind people. GUI-TALK will be moderated, and off-topic
messages will not be permitted. People violating this rule will
be warned privately by e-mail. If violation of this rule
continues, their names will be removed from the mailing list by
the moderator.

     To subscribe to GUI-TALK, send a message to
<listserv@nfbnet.org>. Leave the subject line of the message
blank, and in the body write the following: "subscribe gui-talk."
If you would rather receive the list in a digest format--one
message a day--then put the following line in the body of the
message: "subscribe gtalk-d."

     To post a message to GUI-TALK or gtalk-d, please send it to
<gui-talk@nfbnet.org>. Use of this address will automatically
post your message to all subscribers to the GUI-TALK mailing list
on the Internet. At the same time your message will be posted to
the GUI-TALK Forum carried on the NFB NET BBS, which is message
area 14.

     To unsubscribe from this list, please send your message to
the address: <listserv@nfbnet.org>. Leave the subject blank and
write "unsubscribe gui-talk" in the body of the message. To
unsubscribe from the digest, write "unsubscribe gtalk-d" instead.
For help with all Listserv commands, send a message with a blank
subject to <listserv@nfbnet.org> and write "help" in the body of
the message.

     If you have any questions, you can send mail to the GUI-TALK
moderator David Andrews at <david.andrews@nfbnet.org>. You can
also reach the NFB NET BBS using Telnet now by pointing your
Telnet client to <nfbnet.org> or <209.98.54.33>.
                           **********
For Sale:
     We have been asked to carry the following announcement:

     Braille 'n Speak 640 for sale, asking $700 or best offer.
Call (732) 222-3510 (evenings) or e-mail to
<awasserman@shell.monmouth.com>.
                           **********
For Sale:
     We have been asked to carry the following announcement:

     Navigator LX 40-8, Version 3.2, refurbished with all
accessories and latest software, $2,500 with shipping.

     Myna Palmtop with DECtalk speech, like new. Comes with 5MB
ROM card and floppy, asking $1,500 with shipping. Call Dan Kish
at (714) 573-8880, extension 116.
                           **********
For Sale:
     We have been asked to carry the following announcement:

     I have for sale a Perkins Brailler in excellent condition. I
am asking $300. Contact Tonya McCluskey at (406) 961-4333.
                           **********
New Employment Web Page:
     John Lucas, an IBM employee, recently wrote to Miss Rovig,
Director of Job Opportunities for the Blind, announcing a new IBM
Employment Site on the Internet. It is for those interested in
computer technology jobs and has a jungle theme. The address is
<www.empl.ibm.com>.
                           **********
Elected:
     Ed and Toni Eames report the results of the Fresno,
California, chapter elections held in March. They are Jan Kafton,
President; Toni Eames, Vice President; Mary Ann Haas, Secretary;
Ed Eames, Treasurer; and Deloris Snorek and Carma Gale, Board
Members.
                           **********
Fordham School of Law Scholarship Available:
     We have been asked to announce that Fordham University
School of Law offers a need-based three-year scholarship for a
totally blind student who will commence law studies in the fall
of 1999.

     The scholarship will cover two-thirds of the recipient's
tuition for the 1999-2000 academic year and will be renewed for
each succeeding year of attendance, provided that the student
maintains a grade point average of at least 2.3 for each academic
year.

     This scholarship is intended to facilitate needy blind
students' pursuit of careers in the legal profession and to
assist them in obtaining a juris doctor degree. This scholarship
was initiated through the efforts of Amy Reiss and has been
supported by the Law School and many, many friends who are
interested in advancing its goals.

     The Law School will work with scholarship winners to ensure
attention to their needs. Depending on individual circumstances,
these efforts include assisting them in acclimating to the
physical environment of the school, coordination of classroom
requirements, and assistance from the Office of Career Planning.
The Law School's library is equipped with an Arkenstone computer
and a Braille printer.

     Candidacy for this scholarship is, of course, conditional
upon the applicant's acceptance for admission to Fordham Law
School. Individuals interested in this scholarship should write
to the Law School's Financial Aid Office, Attention: Director
James A. McGough, 140 West 62nd Street, New York, New York 10023.

     Upon acceptance for admission to the Law School, interested
candidates should send an essay of approximately 1,000 words
addressing why the candidate believes that he or she should be
awarded this scholarship to Amy L. Reiss, 150 East 58th Street,
Twenty-first Floor, New York, New York 10155.
                           **********
Job Opportunity:
     We have been asked to carry the following announcement:

     Employment opportunities in cities of at least 200,000
population, must work full- or part-time during business hours
mainly on the phone, no financial investment, does not involve
selling products to individuals, good income potential, marketing
of new, exciting product to all kinds of organizations, big and
small, training available. Openings for adults of all ages. Apply
in Braille or print, on cassette, or by fax or phone, to Easier
Ways, Inc., 2954 Shady Lane, Highlands Ranch, Colorado 80126.
Call (303) 290-0987, fax (303) 290-6446, 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.,
Mountain Time.
                           **********
For Sale:
     JAWS for Windows 95. New, never installed, with all
documentation, including registration disk, asking $400 or best
offer. Contact Gary Davis, 177 Lake Eden Road, Black Mountain,
North Carolina 28711, (704) 686-9180.
                           **********
In Memoriam:
     Hazel Staley reports with great sadness that on Saturday
afternoon, May 9, 1998, Helen Collins died in a skilled nursing
facility. She had been battling a congestive heart condition and
colon cancer for several months. Helen's husband Clarence was the
first president of the NFB of North Carolina after the affiliate
was reorganized in 1969. During the 1960's Helen and Clarence
attended all of our National Conventions and sat alone in the
North Carolina delegation. Clarence preceded Helen in death
several years ago. With her passing we feel that an important era
in our affiliate's history has ended. Helen was a wonderful
person, a faithful friend, and a dedicated Federationist. North
Carolina is a far better affiliate for having had Clarence and
Helen with us. Now that they are gone, we can only strive to
emulate their example.
                           **********
Elected:
     Lois Montgomery reports that on May 2, 1998, the Bix
Beiderbecke Chapter of the NFB of Iowa elected new officers. They
are John TeBockhorst, President; Mary Hartle-Smith, Vice
President; Lois Montgomery, Secretary; Mike Smith, Treasurer; and
Tom TeBockhorst, Board Member.
                           **********
Literary Works On-line:
     We have been asked to carry the following announcement:

     Assistive Media is an Ann Arbor, Michigan, non-profit entity
producing free on-line audio recordings of literary works for
people with text-reading/access barriers. To access this service,
go to <http://www.assistivemedia.org>.
                           **********
Art Appreciation for the Blind:
     We have been asked to carry the following announcement:

     Art History Through Touch and Sound: a Multisensory Guide
for the Blind and Visually Impaired is an innovative audiobook
series spanning prehistory through contemporary times, including
some 600 tactile illustrations of major monuments in the history
of art. Direct your librarian to us if you would like your local
or school library to acquire copies for its collection. The
audiobook series is developed by Art Education for the Blind.
OpticalTouch Systems, in New York City, is the publisher.

     Baroque Art in the Seventeenth Century, available now, is
the first release in the twenty-two-volume series; subsequent
volumes are scheduled for publication through 1999. The
illustrations use a lexicon of seven standardized patterns,
giving readers familiarity with the tactile vocabulary. The
companion audio-narrative guides the reader through the
illustrations, providing art historical information as well as
detailed descriptions of the artworks. Highly regarded art
historians collaborated with Art Education for the Blind's
development team to create narratives that convey the historical
complexity and formal range of some 30,000 years of visual art.
Color and black-and-white photographs accompany the tactile
illustrations. Captions, including attribution, date, media,
dimensions, and the custodian or location of the work, are
provided in large type and Braille. Interpretive
sound-compositions allow the reader to use hearing in the pursuit
of visual understanding. Art-appreciation activities and
suggestions for further reading enable readers to build upon the
foundation offered by this basic survey of art history.

     Contact Art Education for the Blind if you would like to
order books in this series. And lobby your librarians to add this
audiobook series to their collection.

     Art Education for the Blind, Inc. 160 Mercer Street, New
York, New York 10012, phone (212) 334-3700, e-mail
<Toku@idt.net>.
                           **********
Correspondents Wanted:
     Ngolela wa Kabongo writes on behalf of a blind friend who is
a refugee in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. She likes to read; however,
she does not have access to many books in Braille. She would like
to have a friend to correspond with in Braille. Her address is
Mme Ekoko Kodiemoka, 14 Abidjan Bp 1626, Abidjan 14, Ivory Coast,
West Africa.
                           **********
Elected:
     The Napa Chapter of the NFB of California recently elected
the following new officers: Yarl Gerringer, President; Jane
Rhodes, Vice President; Irv Krenke, Treasurer; and Diane
Cassayre, Secretary. The Board Members are George Blackstock,
Addie Wehrman, Martha Kirk, Roby Hayworth, and Virginia Martin.
                           **********
White Cane Safety Day Fund-Raiser:
     Eric Duffy, President of the Capital Chapter of the NFB of
Ohio, writes the following brief report on a successful
fund-raising idea:

     At sometime or other most of us have been told to take a
hike. The Parents of Blind Children Division and the Capital
Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of Ohio have
taken that phrase literally. In recognition of National White
Cane Safety Day, we have organized a walk in the park for blind
children and their families.

     Each year a number of blind children and their families
gather at Schiller Park in Columbus to walk around the perimeter
of the Park with blind adults. Because the kids have gathered
sponsors for the walk, they are raising money while at the same
time getting invaluable cane travel tips and inspiration from
competent blind adults. Since White Cane Safety Day is in
October, it is a great time for doughnuts and cider after all the
exercise. 

     This has proven to be a successful fund-raiser for us. We
made over $1,000 in both '96 and '97. Last year we had T-shirts
available for any child who had $50 or more in pledges. The
shirts were also available in adult sizes for purchase. On the
front of the T-shirt are two stick-figures with canes. The text
is "Take a Hike Annual White Cane Walk Sponsored by Parents of
Blind Children and the Capital Chapter." On the back are a cane
and the words: "The long white cane, a necessary tool for a blind
kid to achieve independence, acceptance, safety, and a future." 

     This activity doesn't require a lot of work. We simply make
up fliers and pledge sheets and send them to members of the
Parents Division. It is then up to the kids to get sponsors and
collect the money. Blind adults must be on hand to walk with the
kids, but that's fun, not work. Someone has to make sure that all
of the money is collected, but mostly we have found that the kids
bring the money with them. 

     This is an excellent fund-raiser, so we suggest that you get
it together and take a hike.
                           **********
                           **********
                           NFB PLEDGE
                           **********
     I pledge to participate actively in the effort of the
National Federation of the Blind to achieve equality,
opportunity, and security for the blind; to support the policies
and programs of the Federation; and to abide by its Constitution.
                           **********
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