                       THE BRAILLE MONITOR
Vol. 42, No. 7                             August/September, 1999

                     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
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              Web Page address: http://www.nfb.org



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                       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



Vol. 42, No. 7                             August/September, 1999
                            Contents

1999 Convention Roundup
by Barbara Pierce

Presidential Report
by Marc Maurer

Kenneth Jernigan: the Master, the Mission, the Movement

Details and Patterns:
A Beloved Teacher Remembered
     by Ramona Walhof

The Circumference of our Minds
     by Joanne Wilson

Lessons from a Master
     by Barbara Pierce

Of Gates and Good Intentions
     by Joyce Scanlan

Transformation
     by Allen Harris

He Loved Us All
     by Diane McGeorge

What Is Dr. Jernigan's Legacy to Us?
     by Peggy Elliott

He Was a Builder
     by John Cheadle

Kenneth Jernigan: A Personal Tribute
     by James Gashel

The Mental Discipline of the Movement
     by Marc Maurer

National Federation of the Blind Awards for 1999

The Scholarship Class of 1999

Politics and Rehabilitation: Serving the Customer,
Serving the Agency, Serving the Public
     by Fredric K. Schroeder, Ph.D.

Resolutions Adopted by the Annual Convention of the National
Federation of the Blind, July 6, 1999
     by Sharon Maneki

Convention Miniatures

NFB Constitution

       Copyright (C) 1999 National Federation of the Blind



[PHOTO/CAPTION:]
       THE MEMBERS OF THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND
                    DEDICATE THIS CONVENTION
                               TO
                      DR. KENNETH JERNIGAN

                The man who carried our burdens,
                     Cherished our spirits,
                      Challenged our minds,
                      Demanded excellence,
                      Taught us, loved us,
                        And set us free!

     These words appeared at the beginning of this year's
convention agenda. They captured the spirit of a convention
filled with love and respect for our deeply revered leader and 
sorrow in his passing, but also with joy in the promise for the
future that his life and work made possible.

     Pictured here is the bronze bust of Kenneth Jernigan
unveiled during the convention and now on display in the
reception area at the National Center for the Blind.



                   The 1999 Convention Roundup
                        by Barbara Pierce
                           **********
     How does an organization mark the change of an era? That was
the question the National Federation of the Blind resolved June
30 to July 6 in Atlanta. At the time of the 1998 convention in
Dallas, Dr. Kenneth Jernigan was still able to take an active
part in planning and conducting the convention, despite nearly a
year of serious illness, and to call forth from us the same
courage and hope for the future that he himself was
demonstrating. But since his death on October 12, 1998, we have
been mourning, working to incorporate his teachings into our
daily activities, consolidating our strength, and preparing to
move into the new millennium.

     More than three thousand Federationists gathered in Atlanta
from every state, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and sixteen
other countries from around the world. Almost inevitably it was a
convention of contrasts: celebration and solemnity, intense focus
and remarkable diversity. The Marriott Marquis's architecture
probably contributed to the feeling that convention delegates
were comfortably spread out to engage with those of like
interests in their own part of the facility. Yet we have never
had a convention in which more delegates gathered together to
take an active part in general convention sessions.

     With four floors of public meeting areas, the Marriott
Marquis provided magnificent space for a convention. Hotel staff
assured us that all their guests struggle to master the hotel
layout. Security personnel told Debbie Baker of Utah that they
were frankly astonished to note how well NFB convention traffic
moved and how quickly delegates learned how to get where they
were going. From front-desk and concierge staff to bellmen and
security personnel, hotel employees were courteous, helpful, and
efficient. The Hilton staff were equally impressive; and, though
many of us spent time hunting in vain for the right elevator
bank, the consensus was that we have never been in more beautiful
or pleasant hotels.

     A word should be said in passing about the corps of Atlanta
Ambassadors, who roamed the streets in the downtown area
providing advice, directions, and simple security. These folks
were helpful without being overbearing. They made it clear that
they knew we are coming back to Atlanta next year and they plan
to be ready to welcome us.

     About fifty volunteers from the United Parcel Service also
participated in the convention. UPS continues to be a wonderful
corporate sponsor of NFB programs. They contributed $5,000 to
support our 1999 scholarship program, and UPS volunteers were on
duty, particularly at the beginning of the week, to show
delegates where out-of-the-way rooms were located and, as one
frustrated Federationist put it, "Where they've put the elevators
this time."

[PHOTO/CAPTION: The architect's model of the new building, on
display in the Jernigan suite.]
[PHOTO/CAPTION: The bust of Dr. Jernigan and the picture boards
on display in the Jernigan suite.]

     Each year more people discover the advantages of arriving at
convention at least a day before convention activities begin in
earnest. Those who came in Tuesday, June 29, discovered hundreds
of Federationists already in residence. The Jernigan suite was
open, and the exhibit of picture boards, the model of the new
building, and the new bronze bust of Dr. Jernigan were available
for study and examination. The picture display was the one
prepared last fall and enjoyed by those who came to the funeral
and memorial service, but at the convention visitors could also
read the captions and descriptions of the pictures in Braille or
large print.

     The model was a sturdy floor-by-floor representation of the
proposed National Research and Training Institute for the Blind,
for which we are beginning a capital campaign to raise eighteen
million dollars. That campaign was kicked off during the
convention, so more will be said about it later.

     The bronze bust of Dr. Jernigan was commissioned before his
death, and in the late summer he actually sat for the sculptor,
Joseph Moss, who worked primarily from photographs and video. For
many of us, examining this bust was our first opportunity to
appreciate the strength and character of Dr. Jernigan's chiseled
features. We found a new kind of intimacy with a man whom we have
loved and respected for years.

     As soon as people arrived, they could study the pre-
convention agenda in print or Braille, but some of the really
interesting sites were not listed. Most people made a beeline for
the Peachtree Center Mall and the food court. Excellent bagels,
sandwiches, salads, and other quick fare were available at
reasonable prices. Shops of all kinds just waited to be explored.
Meantime in the hotel, Braille labels prepared by the Georgia
affiliate for ninety soda machines waited for volunteers to put
them where they belonged. Ramona Walhof recruited Barry Hond of
Maryland, who in turn snagged Warren Figueiredo of Louisiana, and
off they went. Hours passed, and still they did not return. It
takes a long time to label ninety soda machines completely, but
Barry and Warren stayed with the job till it was done; that's the
way Federationists approach an assignment.

[PHOTO/CAPTION: A group of Federationists at the Coca-Cola
display during the food fair.]

     By the time June 30 dawned, plenty of folks were acclimated,
oriented, and ready to roll. The National Buyers Group organized
an excellent food fair that attracted hundreds of people
interested in food and food service. Convention exhibitors were
scurrying to set up their displays in the huge exhibit hall.
Federationists were checking out NEWSLINE(R) and Jobline, Myna
products and Blazie notetakers, and Windows and Internet access.
Several divisions got an early start by conducting meetings and
seminars as well.

     The Job Opportunities for the Blind national seminar also
took place Wednesday afternoon. The JOB Program is markedly
different this year, but the goal of helping blind people prepare
for and get good jobs remains the same, and the seminar was again
filled with lively and information-filled presentations. Peggy
Chong, who emceed the seminar, saw to it that there was plenty of
time for questions and thoughtful answers as well.

[PHOTO/CAPTION: Big brother Mickey sits on the stairs with his
little sisters Melinda, Melissa, and Melody Salisbury, triplets
from Utah.]
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Lots of people had fun at the Braille Carnival.]

     As always, one of the highlights of the day was the array of
activities sponsored by the National Organization of Parents of
Blind Children (NOPBC). About a hundred families took part in
NOPBC activities, including three families with triplets. Dr.
Maurer keynoted the morning-long seminar for parents and teachers
while the kids from NFB Camp enjoyed the Kenneth Jernigan Braille
Carnival. Chaired by Melody Lindsey, now of Michigan, the
carnival was a group of Braille-centered activities for both
blind and sighted kids. Judging from the noise level, everyone
had a great time, and people are already making plans for how to
improve the games for next year.

     Meantime blind and sighted teens were exploring what they
have in common by putting parents on trial. This was not an
exercise in blaming parents for all adolescent problems but an
opportunity to discover that all kids share the struggle for
independence, understanding, and self-confidence. In the
afternoon male and female blind teens divided up for "Guy Stuff"
and "What Your Mother Couldn't Tell You." These were guided
discussion groups in which teens could explore gender-specific
issues associated with blindness and growing up.

     Parents spent the afternoon attending several workshops and
activities: "Resource Materials," "Computers for Tots,"
"Technology in the Classroom," "Writing IEP Goals and
Objectives," "Placement: How to Find the Right Program for Your
Child," and "Blind Mentors, Models, and Peers: Why and How."

[PHOTO/CAPTION: People dancing at family hospitality]

     That evening families could meet, get to know each other,
and play at family hospitality. Kids and teens each had a
scavenger hunt, and teens found the hang-out room, which was
supervised space intended for teens only.

     Convention hospitality that evening gave everybody a chance
to catch up with old friends and enjoy good music and dancing.
The Lew's Blues Review was the name of the band, and dynamite
describes their sound.

[PHOTO/CAPTION: A Sensory Safari guide shows a snake to Kirt
Manwaring of Utah.]
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Hannah Weatherd of Montana explores the neck of a
deer.]

     Thursday morning started with a bang as Convention
Registration kicked off at nine with the usual long line that
evaporated like magic once the doors opened. As always the
process was amazingly fast and efficient. For the first time
agendas were available on cassette and computer disk, suitable
for loading into portable Braille notetakers, as well as in the
usual print and Braille formats. By 9:30 both the Sensory Safari
and the exhibit hall were open for business. The Georgia chapter
of Safari Club International set up the displays and conducted
the individual safaris, which were a big hit with kids and adults
alike.

     The exhibit hall provided the usual panoply of technology
and products of all kinds for conventioneers to examine and try.
Fifty-two outside exhibitors and thirty-two Federation groups
took part in the extravaganza. Lists of exhibitors and their
table locations, as well as several tactile maps, were available
this year, which made it easier to find what one was looking for;
but a large part of the fun of prowling the hall is always
discovering things by accident. Of course the NFB Store did a
land office business all week in aids, appliances, and
literature.

[PHOTO/CAPTION: Diane Foster and her son Peter from Kentucky work
on escalators during the cane travel workshop.]

     Again this year children and youth who were just beginning
to use the white cane had an opportunity to work with orientation
and mobility professionals and experienced blind adults on their
skills. Parents, too, were welcome to try the cane and talk with
those who use and trust it every day. Two sessions of this
popular workshop took place Thursday morning. That afternoon Dr.
Lilli Neilsen met with parents of multiply disabled children and
others interested in her Little Room and philosophy of working
with these children.

     The Resolutions Committee met Thursday afternoon under the
leadership of Sharon Maneki, who chaired the committee this year.
Nineteen resolutions were presented and discussed; seventeen of
them were eventually passed by the Convention. A discussion of
all the resolutions and the texts of those adopted appears
elsewhere in this issue. A number of people have chaired the
Resolutions Committee over the years, but Sheryl Pickering has
now served faithfully as Resolutions Committee secretary for
twenty-one years.

     As soon as the Resolutions Committee adjourned, folks poured
into the ballroom next door to enjoy and learn from the second
annual mock trial, presented by the National Association of Blind
Lawyers. In the court room of Judge Charles Brown and with
Bailiff and Clerk of Court Peggy Elliott, NABL lawyers re-enacted
the 1986 Kevan Worley case, in which Mr. Worley was arrested and
manhandled by the police for the crime of trying to buy full-fare
bus tickets for himself and his blind wife. Scott LaBarre and
Anthony Thomas served as counsel for the defense, and Bennett
Prows and Ray Wayne prosecuted the case. Kevan Worley of course
played himself, and Kallie Smith, thirteen, of Iowa played
Kevan's daughter. Pam Dubel made an unforgettable little old
lady, and Ever Lee Hairston was a delightfully officious and
condescending expert witness. Doug Elliott played the kind of cop
that gives the police a bad name, and Jim Gashel was the ticket
agent who caused all the trouble to begin with. An audience of
almost 500 happily took its place as the admittedly biased jury,
cheering for the good guys and scoffing at the bad.

     Kevan Worley captured the feelings of everyone when at the
conclusion of the trial he described the conversation he had with
Dr. Jernigan after he was finally released from jail. He said
that he knew the NFB was pulling out all the stops to get him
released when an attorney turned up early on to assist and advise
him. But when he actually got home and called the National Center
and then heard Dr. Jernigan's calm and resonant voice inquiring
about how he and his family were doing, he realized just how much
he had been depending on the sustaining power of the Federation
to keep him afloat. Then Dr. Jernigan said, "Mr. Maurer is here
as well." In that moment Kevan said that he felt and understood
in a new way the continuity and strength of the NFB.

     Thursday evening and Friday afternoon and evening dozens of
committee and division activities took place. Here are some of
the highlights. On Friday afternoon Federationists interested in
exploring the possibility of forming a division for those in
medical professions gathered to make plans. Those in
rehabilitation also met with an eye to forming a division. The
managing editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution addressed the
Professional Blind Journalists group. This year's play, written
by Jerry Whittle and performed by the Louisiana Center Players on
Friday evening, was titled Long Ago When Freedom Rang. It's about
a Vietnam veteran who loses everything and finds himself. The
tenBroek Fund auction Friday evening offered a number of items of
value, including a wall hanging of the NFB logo that had
previously hung in the Jernigan home and the bow tie that Dr.
Maurer has worn at every convention banquet since he became
President of the NFB.

[Photo/caption: Kids wait to begin their tour of the Coca-Cola
Museum.]

     A number of kids from NFB Camp toured the Coca-Cola Museum
Friday afternoon, but that was only the beginning of kids' fun
for the week. NFB Camp is always filled with books, games, and
special activities, and this year was no exception. Carla
McQuillan and her staff saw to it that blind and sighted kids
alike had fun and learned about the abilities of blind people.

[PHOTO/CAPTION: Betty Niceley]

     Friday morning, July 2, at 9:00 a.m. the first official
session of the 1999 convention came to order when President
Maurer pounded the gavel to begin the annual Board of Directors
meeting. After a moment of silence to remember Federationists who
were no longer with us, the meeting opened with the pledge to the
American flag and recitation of the NFB pledge. President Maurer
then announced the Board positions that would be open for
election this year. Betty Niceley sought the floor to make the
following announcement:
                           **********

     Dr. Maurer, I would like to say that I am not seeking
reelection to the Board this time. I want to say first of all
that this decision in no way indicates a lessening of my
commitment to this organization. I have served on the Board for
fourteen years, and I have been deeply touched by the trust that
has been placed in me in electing me to this position. I feel the
need to spend a lot more time in affiliate building in my own
state and attending to the Braille concerns of the Federation. I
am grateful for the wisdom of our beloved Dr. Jernigan, who put
his confidence in you, Dr. Maurer, as our leader. I want to
pledge to you and to future leaders of this organization my
willingness to do whatever I can as you lead this organization to
greater heights of success, which I know you will do.
                           **********

     Dr. Maurer thanked Betty for her many years of loyal
service. 

[PHOTO/CAPTION: Toby Longface presents a sandstone desk set to
President Maurer.]

     He then called Bruce Gardner to the podium for a
presentation. It was an Arizona sandstone desk set made by artist
and NFB of Arizona leader Toby Longface for Dr. Maurer. The base
is eight inches across with an arch rising from it. Hanging from
the arch is a silver commemorative coin from the 1990 golden
anniversary celebration. The stand holds a slate and stylus and a
silver pen. President Maurer accepted the gift with gratitude and
has displayed it in his office.

      Mr. Prayat Punong-Ong, President of the Thailand
Association of the Blind, then came to the microphone to bring
greetings from his country and organization and to hope that the
NFB will continue to flourish and reach out to the rest of the
world.

     Sabriye Tenberten, a German woman working in Tibet,
described her project to the audience. Blind herself, she
invented a Braille system in order to conduct her personal
scholarship in the language of Tibet, for which there was no
Braille code. She was then invited to travel to Tibet to teach
her system to the people who need it and establish a school to
educate and train blind people there for the first time in
history. A German television crew was working on a story about
her and her work while she was attending the convention.

     President Maurer next introduced the newest of the Kernel
Books, Remember to Feed the Kittens. He read his introduction and
a bit of his story from the book. He also announced that the
seventeenth Kernel Book, Reflecting the Flame, will be released
later this year. We have a number of new products, including
light-weight monaural and stereo headphones and an indoor/outdoor
thermometer.

     Dr. Maurer announced that in the exhibit hall delegates
would be able to stop by a table and get help in writing to their
Senators and Members of Congress to encourage them to co-sponsor
the linkage bill or to thank them for doing so. By the close of
the convention almost 2,000 letters had been generated.

[PHOTO/CAPTION: Ellen Bomer]

     President Maurer then introduced a remarkable woman. Until
August 7, 1998, Ellen Bomer was the administrative director of
the U.S. Trade Office at the American Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya.
She was there on temporary assignment from the same position in
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. On that day life changed forever for Ellen.
Shortly after 10:00 A.M. a co-worker several feet away from Ellen
looked out the window after hearing a small explosion. At that
moment a massive truck bomb exploded, which killed her co-worker
instantly and severely injured Ellen. After four and a half hours
of searching, Ellen was found unconscious under a wall. She had
been critically injured, with thousands of pieces of glass and
shrapnel imbedded in her face and body. After emergency,
lifesaving surgery in Nairobi, she was airlifted by medivac to
Germany. There her husband Don, who had been flown in from Saudi
Arabia, joined her. From there she was flown on to Walter Reed
Army Hospital in Washington, D.C.

     By October Ellen was ready to start rehabilitation--she
wanted her life back. At this point Harold Snider, a long-time
leader in the Federation, and his wife Linda first began working
with Ellen. She is now a student at the Louisiana Center for the
Blind, and she and Don attended the entire convention. A film
crew working for the ABC News program "Nightline" followed Ellen
in Atlanta and recorded her experience during the week. The
result of this project was two full-length programs on Ted
Koppel's show. They were aired August 5 and 6 in commemoration of
the August 7, 1998, bombings.

     Ellen spoke movingly to the Board of her experience during
the past year. She said that she never doubted that she would
survive and that God still had work for her to do. But she had
had no previous experience of blindness, so she did not know how
to proceed until Harold Snider introduced her to the NFB and our
philosophy. In closing she said that she had been floundering in
an unknown ocean, when Harold Snider threw her the NFB lifeline.
She now wants and expects to find ways to pass along to others
what she has received.

     Peggy Elliott, Chairman of the Scholarship Committee, then
presented this year's scholarship class. A full report of the
students and the scholarships they won appears elsewhere in this
issue.

     Several state presidents came to the podium to make gifts to
President Maurer on behalf of the organization. Arthur Schreiber,
President of the NFB of New Mexico, presented $53,000 from a
recent bequest. Jim Willows, NFB of California President,
announced that in the past year his affiliate has given $233,000
to the national organization from bequests. Ron Gardner, the new
President of the NFB of Utah, then announced that from a very
generous bequest, the Utah affiliate had contributed to the NFB
$1,077,000 during the past year. He went on to say that the
affiliate has decided to make an additional gift of a half
million dollars to the capital campaign in the form of a matching
gift. As soon as the NFB has raised $1,500,000 from other
sources, the Utah gift will be presented to make a total package
of two million. He then removed his Stetson in memory and
gratitude to Helen Colby, the benefactor who made all this
possible.

     President Maurer next announced that Ted Henter, President
of Henter Joyce, Inc., had made a quiet gift to the NFB of
$15,000 because he believes in what we are doing and wanted to
help with more than words. Betsy Zaborowski, NFB Director of
Special Programs, then thanked the UPS volunteers for their help
during the convention. She announced that UPS and the Kaman
Corporation have both made significant gifts to our scholarship
program this year.

     Sharon Maneki, Chairwoman of the Distinguished Educator of
Blind Children Award Committee, came to the platform to present a
plaque and check to Deborah Baker of Springfield, Ohio, as the
1999 NFB Distinguished Educator. A full report of this
presentation appears elsewhere in this issue.

     Brief reports were made about the Shares Unlimited in NFB
(SUN) and Pre-Authorized Check Plan programs and the Jacobus
tenBroek Fund activities during the convention. President Maurer
then read the top ten in number and in contributions in the 1999
Associates contest. Those recruited to become Members-at-large
(Associates) not only make contributions to the NFB but also
become full-fledged members of the organization. The top ten
recruiters this year by number of Associates and by dollar amount
are as follows:
                           **********
                        Top Ten in Number
                     of Associates Recruited
                           **********
10. Jim Salas (New Mexico), 48
 9. Gary Thompson (Missouri), 50
 8. Bill Isaacs (Illinois), 55
 7. Karen Mayry (South Dakota), 58
 6. James Omvig (Arizona), 58
 5. Joe Ruffalo (New Jersey), 66
 4. Laura Biro (Michigan), 83
 3. Mary Ellen Jernigan (Maryland), 115
 2. Tom Stevens (Missouri), 162
 1. Arthur Schreiber (New Mexico), 168
                           **********
                 Top Ten in Dollar Amount Raised
                           **********
10. James Omvig (Arizona), $1,388
 9. Ed Vaughan (Missouri), $1,450
 8. Jim Salas (New Mexico), $1,570
 7. Marc Maurer (Maryland), $1,746
 6. Tom Stevens (Missouri), $1,774
 5. Joe Ruffalo (New Jersey), $1,904
 4. Arthur Schreiber (New Mexico), $2,280
 3. Unknown (Delaware), $2,510
 2. Kenneth Jernigan (Maryland), $5,150
 1. Mary Ellen Jernigan (Maryland), $6,095   
                           **********
     After several prize drawings the Board voted to conduct an
Associates contest during the coming year, and President Maurer
then adjourned the meeting.

[PHOTO/CAPTION: Members of the NFB of Georgia fold paper
airplanes in preparation for the opening general session.]
[PHOTO/CAPTION: The convention ballroom shortly before the
opening convention session.]
[PHOTO/CAPTION: President Maurer gavels the 1999 Convention to
order.]
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Wayne High, President of the NFB of Georgia,
greets convention delegates from the podium.]
[PHOTO/CAPTION: The Dixieland Band marched in playing "Georgia on
my Mind."]
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Al Falligan, NFB of Georgia Convention
Coordinator, prepares to introduce Representative Randy Sauder.
President Maurer looks on.]

     An hour before the opening of the first general session of
the 1999 Convention of the National Federation of the Blind, the
crowd was already beginning to gather, and by the time the gavel
fell, the press of delegates was remarkable, even for the first-
day festivities.

     Following the invocation and initial door prizes, Wayne
High, President of the NFB of Georgia, welcomed delegates and
thanked all those who had helped to make this convention
memorable. He reminded us that this year's gathering was
dedicated to the memory of Dr. Jernigan. With that a Dixieland
band playing an energetic version of "Georgia on my Mind" marched
into the ballroom followed by the Georgians throwing paper
airplanes into the audience.  Then Al Falligan, Georgia's
Convention Coordinator, introduced Representative Randy Sauder,
who has been a true friend to the blind of Georgia.
Representative Sauder welcomed the convention with true southern
hospitality.

     The remainder of the morning session was devoted to the roll
call of states. Several states announced that in the past year
they had fought the battle to preserve a separate agency to serve
blind consumers. Several states also announced that they had seen
the establishment of NEWSLINE(R) local service centers in cities
across their states. Arkansas and Virginia announced that the
model technology bill became law this year, and West Virginia
boasted that with affiliate help and encouragement the University
of West Virginia will begin a training program for teachers of
the visually impaired. Five states--California, Delaware,
Minnesota, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania--have new Jobline sites.
The roll call of states concluded with a mighty Federation cheer,
and the convention session recessed.

     The afternoon session came to order precisely at 2:00 p.m.
with Dr. Maurer's Presidential Report, which appears in full
elsewhere in this issue. As always it was thrilling to listen to
the review of what we have accomplished in the past year and Dr.
Maurer's assessment of where we are heading in the future.

     Following the report, President Maurer made the official
announcement for which we had all been waiting. In his report he
had talked about the need for the National Research and Training
Institute for the Blind to be built on the southwest quadrant of
our property in Baltimore. Dr. Maurer announced formal plans for
the opening of our Capital Campaign. He said that everyone will
be asked to participate but stressed that no one should decide
how large his or her personal gift should be on the spur of the
moment. Gifts that are thoughtfully considered in the light of
the need we face and the possibilities for future development
will be more generous. The Maurers, Mrs. Jernigan, and Don and
Betty Capps had all been considering their personal gifts for
several weeks. In turn each of them came to the podium to
announce gifts of $25,000 to be given over a five-year period.

[PHOTO/CAPTION: Congressman John Lewis]

     "Equal Rights and Equal Opportunity for Everybody: The View
from Congress" was the title of a soul-stirring address by
Congressman John Lewis, Fifth Congressional District of Georgia.
Mr. Lewis had expected to find an audience of a few hundred blind
people. When he walked onto the platform to greet the National
Federation of the Blind in its thousands, he pulled out all the
stops, and together we raised the roof. As Mr. Lewis was leaving
the platform, Dr. Maurer made two interesting comments: Mr.
Lewis's autobiography would be released on Talking Book in
November, and Congressman Lewis is a member of the Ways and Means
Committee and is one of the 243 co-sponsors of the linkage bill.

     The next agenda item was a panel presentation titled
"Separate Programs for the Blind: How Important Are They?" The
presenters were Suzanne Mitchell, President of the National
Council of State Agencies for the Blind and Executive Director of
Blind Services of Louisiana Rehabilitation Services; Jamie
Hilton, Director of the New Jersey Commission for the Blind; and
Tom Robertson, Associate Commissioner of the New York Commission
for the Blind and Visually Handicapped. Even though time was
growing short, all three advocated for close working
relationships with consumer groups and leadership from all
sources to create innovative programs for the new century. They
expressed their need for qualified blind professionals to staff
their programs and counselors who believe in the abilities of
blind people. In concluding this segment, Dr. Maurer urged the
speakers to spread the word among their colleagues that strong
and independent state agencies must have strong and independent
consumer organizations with whom to work in partnership. It is in
everyone's best interests to encourage the development of vibrant
consumer organizations.

     James Gibbons was the first blind graduate of the Harvard
Business School. Last November he became president of National
Industries for the Blind. He gave Convention delegates a brief
summary of his experience and urged closer ties between NIB and
the NFB in order to improve conditions for blind workers and the
range and quality of jobs they have access to. He announced that
NIB has set a goal of 600 new jobs for next year, and Mr. Gibbons
intends to keep that goal expanding by working faster and
smarter. When asked about joining the NFB in working for
legislation to prohibit less than the minimum wage for workers
whose only disability is blindness, he admitted that he did not
know the history but certainly would work toward that goal as
rapidly as he could. President Maurer thanked him for coming with
an open mind and a willingness to think and talk about difficult
issues. He ended by inviting Mr. Gibbons to return to the
Convention in future years.

     Dr. Maurer then recessed the session, and Federationists
raced off to meetings, workshops, seminars, the Showcase of
Talent, and Dancing--Swing, Soul, and Rock and Roll. This last
was the annual reception and dance, and dance we did.

PHOTO/CAPTION: Federationists crowded the dance floor at the
Saturday night party.
[Photo/Caption: Noel Nightingale]

     Following the opening exercises on Sunday morning, the first
order of business was the annual election. Six positions on the
Board of Directors were open for election. Ramona Walhof,
Chairwoman of the Nominating Committee, placed the following
names in nomination: Donald Capps, South Carolina; Wayne Davis,
Florida; Priscilla Ferris, Massachusetts; Bruce Gardner, Arizona;
Noel Nightingale, Washington; and Joanne Wilson, Louisiana. All
were elected by acclamation and responded with thanks and a
promise to continue to do their best to further the goals of the
Federation. This is what Noel Nightingale said as she was elected
for the first time to the Board:
                           **********
     When I was a student at the Louisiana Center for the Blind,
I met a woman who worked at a residential facility for people who
are mentally retarded. She told me about two brothers who are now
in their sixties and who had recently come to live at the
facility. She told me that, when they were born blind, their
parents didn't know the truth about blindness. Even worse than
that, they put the brothers into a room with a cement floor and
cinder block walls. They just left them there; they didn't teach
them to feed themselves properly--didn't even teach them to use
the bathroom properly. As a result of the lack of stimulation in
their lives, they became retarded. Eventually, after their
parents passed away, they ended up in this institution. This
woman told me that, shortly after they arrived, she gave them
each an orange. They had apparently never seen an orange in their
lives. They held it and smelled it and marveled at the texture
and roundness of it and they tasted it. They were overjoyed at
the beauty of this simple orange.

     The National Federation of the Blind was founded at about
the same time these brothers were born. And, like the orange to
those brothers, it brought to the lives of blind people the
fragrance of hope and the taste of freedom. While the founding of
the National Federation of the Blind came too late for those two
brothers, it didn't come too late for me. It saved me from a life
of low expectations and mediocrity. I cannot imagine a greater
honor than I am receiving right now--than receiving your trust
and love. I thank you very much.
                           **********
     The remainder of the morning session was devoted to the
memorial for Dr. Jernigan. The bronze bust was officially
unveiled, and ten Federation colleagues spoke of what their dear
friend and mentor had meant to them. The text of what was said
appears elsewhere in this issue.

PHOTO/CAPTION: Mary Ellen Jernigan and Dr. Jernigan's brother,
Lloyd
[Photo/Caption: Joy Harris demonstrates proper use of the slate
and stylus to Kirt Manwaring of Utah.]
[Working hand over hand, Joy teaches Kirt how to control the
stylus.]

     Independence Day happened to be our half day this year, so,
when the gavel fell at the close of the morning session,
Federationists scattered far and wide to work and play. Parents
had to decide between learning Braille from Claudell Stocker, a
teacher and certified transcriber, and Julie Hunter, a certified
transcriber, and a drop-in session to discuss kids and canes with
Joe Cutter, a Pediatric Orientation and Mobility Specialist.
Several other workshops and committee meetings also took place
that afternoon and evening.

     Of course tours had been scheduled that carried
Federationists all over greater Atlanta, and the fireworks
display was spectacular. In fact, it was a little hard to miss
the fireworks, whatever else one happened to be doing. The
student division wound up the evening with its Monte Carlo night
for anyone who was interested in playing games. For those who
wanted a taste of our adult rehabilitation training centers, the
Colorado Center for the Blind brought their program to Atlanta
for the evening.

PHOTO/CAPTION: The attendance banner moved from Texas to South
Carolina this year. Tommy Craig (left) of Texas and Dorothy
Barksdale (right) of South Carolina display the attendance banner
as Don Capps looks on.

     Despite the partying, the Monday morning session arrived at
the usual time, and Federationists were on hand for the opening
gavel at 9:00 a.m. Before beginning actual program items, Dr.
Maurer told the audience that he had spoken with Mrs. tenBroek
the afternoon before to tell her how much her presence was missed
at the convention. Peggy Elliott then suggested that we send her
the following letter:
                           **********
July 6, 1999

Dear Mrs. tenBroek,

     We, the members of the National Federation of the Blind,
assembled at the second largest convention in our history, send
to you our greetings on this, the anniversary of our founder Dr.
tenBroek's birth. You walked with us every step of the way,
through the long years of initial organization and the proud
years of growth and success. On Dr. tenBroek's birthday we pause
to say to you, you are the first of the first ladies. We salute
you and know that, though you are not in Atlanta in person, your
strength and your commitment are joined with ours today and into
the future of blind people.
                           **********
              The members of the National Federation of the Blind
                           **********
     Peggy invited those who wished to do so to add individual
notes of greeting to the packet going to Mrs. tenBroek, which
would include this letter and copies of the book and video
presented to attendees the day before. The intent was to have
this package arrive at Mrs. tenBroek's home the following day,
Dr. tenBroek's birthday, but the Independence Day holiday
prevented that from occurring. Mrs. tenBroek did, however,
receive the remembrance a few days later.

     Much of the morning's program was devoted to presentations
by representatives from around the world. The first was Dr.
Euclid Herie, President of the World Blind Union and President of
the Canadian National Institute for the Blind. He acknowledged
Dr. Jernigan's contribution to the World Blind Union and reported
on the work still to be done around the world. He talked about a
little girl he met in a small Chinese village, the first blind
child to be educated in her tiny, two-room village school. She is
one of one million Braille readers in China. Her school has now
received some Braille materials for her education. He reminded
his audience that we will change what it means to be blind one
person at a time, the way we have always done it.

     Kua Cheng Hock, President of the Asian Blind Union and
President of the Singapore Association for the Blind, spoke to
the convention about the situation in Asia and recalled his
friendship over the years with Dr. Jernigan. In the eighties,
when Mr. Kua was trying to achieve World Blind Union membership
for the consumer organization of blind people in Singapore, he
turned to Dr. Jernigan for advice. Twice he visited the National
Center for the Blind, and only two weeks before his death, Dr.
Jernigan spent time with Mr. Kua advising him in his work for
blind people in all of Asia. Mr. Kua urged the NFB to continue
its outreach to Asia as Dr. Jernigan did and promised that his
organization was ready to work with us to achieve freedom and
equality for the blind. Before leaving the platform, Mr. Kua
presented Dr. Maurer with a commemorative pewter plate from the
blind people of Singapore to the members of the National
Federation of the Blind.

     Next William Rowland, Second Vice President of the World
Blind Union and Executive Director of the South Africa National
Council for the Blind, addressed the Convention. In introducing
Mr. Rowland, President Maurer commented that, when he and Mrs.
Jernigan visited the South Africa National Council for the Blind
last winter, they recognized and rejoiced in the spirit and the
philosophy of the organization.

     Mr. Rowland began by comparing Dr. Jernigan to the great
South African statesman, Dr. Nelson Mandela. He went on to say
that the disability movement in South Africa joined with the ANC
two years before the change of power. In the new organization of
South African society and government, 2 percent of jobs in both
the public and private sectors are to be held by disabled people
by 2005. There are prospects for broad-based funding sources for
the blind similar to the Spanish organization ONCE's nationwide
lottery. He acknowledged that international programs must benefit
both developing and developed countries. He concluded by urging
the NFB to establish an Africa policy, saying that the South
Africa Council for the Blind would eagerly become our partner in
such an effort.

     President Maurer commented that we receive thousands of
letters every year saying, in effect, "We don't have enough
money, and we would like some of yours." Because we don't have
enough money to meet this great need, we grieve over the letters
and mostly just file them. But when we find individuals and
groups who show indication of wanting and working to increase the
ability of blind people to improve their own lot and increase
their voice in the programs that affect their lives, we are far
more enthusiastic about finding the resources to help.

     Chuji Sashida, Senior Researcher with the National Institute
for Vocational Rehabilitation in Japan, was the next speaker. He
reviewed employment opportunities and problems in Japan and what
his organization is doing to help.

     Bekele Haile-Selassie, Professor of Law at the Law School of
Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia, then spoke about the work of
the Ethiopian National Association of the Blind, which at one
time he served as Secretary General. The Association trains
people in the skills of blindness, conducts a recording studio,
and engages in production of merchandise for sale as a
demonstration of the capacity of blind workers.

     Frank Kurt Cylke, Director of the National Library Service
for the Blind and Physically Handicapped of the Library of
Congress, next addressed the Convention on "Recent Technological
Developments: Progress in Braille and Audio Delivery Systems." He
reviewed the five principles on which the NLS program is based
and explained that current plans are for a digital system for
Braille and audio production within the next ten years. Mr. Cylke
attended his twenty-sixth convention this year and, as usual,
brought four staffers with him.

     The next speaker was Adam Linn, a securities trader for
Charles Schwab. In recent months Adam has been featured in
television advertisements for Charles Schwab, in which he talks
about his dedication to giving his clients good service. Never is
the fact of his blindness mentioned. It merely becomes clear that
he is using Braille. Adam described how he got to Harvard and
then to the Louisiana Center for the Blind to enhance his
blindness skills. Everyone enjoyed his stories and his
enthusiastic attitude.

     Cheryl Fischer, President of the NFB of Cuyahoga County,
then discussed her work as NEWSLINE (R) Cleveland Coordinator for
the NFB of Ohio. She described her search for people to sign up
for NEWSLINE (R) even before the service center opened on
November 1, 1998. On that date she had 200 Clevelanders ready to
begin using the service. Now that number has risen to 600. Census
figures suggest that 9,000 people in the area qualify to use
NEWSLINE(R), so Cheryl is still hard at work. But she does more
than help them fill out their enrollment forms; Cheryl checks to
make sure that seniors know how to use the service and works with
them on the phone to press the correct buttons for what they want
to read. Cheryl and her chapter work hard to find and serve
NEWSLINE(R) readers, and they are continuing to do so.

     The final speaker of the morning was Dr. Leonard Hjelmeland,
Professor of Ophthalmology and Molecular and Cellular Biology at
the University of California at Davis. Professor Hjelmeland began
by introducing himself as the other blind scientist at UC Davis,
referring to Dr. Geerat Vermeij, the noted marine biologist who
addressed the NFB Convention some years ago. He admitted that
others have done a better job of breaking new ground for blind
people, but he does face ophthalmologists and confronts their
prejudices as a blind colleague working alongside them to do
necessary research, and that effort has real value. Dr.
Hjelmeland explained that, when he first lost his sight, he got
to know several Federationists, Lloyd and Judy Rasmussen and
Harold and Gail Snider. But he had no interest in being other
than a loner. He has now come to recognize his mistake. He ended
his remarks by saying that he wanted to join with us.

     The afternoon's agenda was so crowded that we frankly
couldn't fit everything in, considering that we absolutely had to
clear the room at five. The first agenda item was an address by
Dr. Fred Schroeder, Commissioner of the U.S. Rehabilitation
Services Administration, titled, "Politics and Rehabilitation:
Serving the Customer, Serving the Agency, Serving the Public."
Dr. Schroeder is a long-time advocate of effective rehabilitation
and a man who knows how to deliver it. The entire text of his
address appears elsewhere in this issue.

     Lawrence W. Roffee, Executive Director of the U.S.
Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board, then
spoke on "Equal Access for the Blind to Electronic Media." His
report focused on the standards now being promulgated to give
more force to Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act as amended in
1998. He reviewed the history of this legislation to insure that
technology used by federal agencies is accessible to all those
whose jobs or inquiries require them to use it. The provisions of
Section 508 have been strengthened, and in the future
enforcement, he assured the audience, would be far more
effective. In answer to questions from the audience, he said that
government Web sites will be included under 508, as will
equipment other than computers such as copy machines that no
longer have discernible buttons to push. Public comment on these
new standards will soon be in order.

[PHOTO/CAPTION: Ron Gardner]

     "The Blind at Work" was the title of a panel presentation
which was interrupted and rearranged because of time pressure.
The first speaker was Ron Gardner, President of the NFB of Utah
and the attorney who serves as Director of the Disability Law
Center in Salt Lake City. It was a delightful and inspiring tale
of his work and the difference the National Federation of the
Blind has made in his life and his contribution to his community.

[PHOTO/CAPTION: Tom Johnson addresses the Convention while Dr.
Maurer sits listening.]

     The next speaker was Tom Johnson, President and CEO of CNN
News Group. His title was "Telling It like It Is." He described
the depth and scope of CNN's activities and programming. He then
volunteered that CNN did not employ enough blind people, and he
said he planned to change that in the years to come. He then
asked CNN's chief medical correspondent, Rhonda Rolland, to
address the matter of CNN's coverage of blindness-connected
issues. Following Ms. Rolland's brief remarks, which chiefly
listed stories about medical issues and breakthroughs in fighting
blindness caused by various disorders, President Maurer made the
following remarks:
                           **********
     I want to thank you, Ms. Rolland and Mr. Johnson, and I am
pleased that you brought the matter up because we believe certain
things about what we are doing. And we think it is worth while to
tell you what we believe. We like you, so don't take this
personally or anything. However, blindness is not a health issue.
[prolonged applause] If you are becoming blind, of course it is a
health issue. If you are dealing with a doctor and trying to
avoid becoming blind, it's a health issue. I am blind; I have
been blind for thirty years, [jeers and laughter] forty years--
fifty years--something.... I am going to be blind; I never visit
the doctor; I don't care what the doctor says because I know what
the doctor believes about my blindness, which is there is nothing
whatever he's going to do about it. From my point of view I may
have other health issues, but blindness is not one of them;
that's stable.

     The National Federation of the Blind as an organization--I
would like to characterize us for you. (It's dangerous to do
that, I know, because if you characterize us, maybe we'll never
be looked at except from that characterization, and we would hope
not to be stuck into a box in the same way that we hope you don't
get stuck into a box. We don't think you will be, by the way, and
we don't think we will be.) If you had to pick one phrase to
describe us, it would have more to do with being a civil rights
organization than anything to do with health [cheers and
applause] because the problems we face are the ones of getting in
and getting opportunity, of winning the right to work and having
the right to participate in society, of having the right to get
an education, of finding a way to get the books, of finding a way
to learn something, and not being told that, because we are
blind, we can't. [applause]

     I very much appreciate your coming. I very much appreciate
your bringing top people, and I hope that the next time you send
a reporter it isn't a health reporter. [cheers]

     Mr. Johnson: I think that one of the great benefits of an
afternoon like this is that we too have much to learn, [laughter
and applause] and I cannot think of a more wonderful place for a
civil rights organization to meet than the home of Dr. Martin
Luther King. [prolonged cheering and applause]

     President Maurer: Now that, Mr. Johnson, is why CNN is on
top.
                           **********
     When things calmed down after that lively interchange, Dr.
Raymond Kurzweil, "The Inventor Who Broadened the Landscape for
the Blind," addressed the Convention for a few minutes. He
recollected his years of friendship with Dr. Jernigan and
reviewed recent progress and provided a glimpse into the future
of technology for the blind.

     Sharon Gold, President of Sharon Gold Enterprises and a
long-time leader of the National Federation of the Blind,
outlined some of the principles that have guided her in her
business success, and she tied them to the success of the
National Federation of the Blind and the lessons it teaches us.

     The final speaker of the afternoon was Erik Weihenmayer, an
experienced blind mountain climber. His title was "`To Climb
Every Mountain': The Blind Climber Planning to Stand on Top of
the World." This was a delightful and energetic presentation from
a young man who climbs serious peaks and insists on carrying his
share of the responsibility. His attitude is grounded in pure
Federation philosophy, and the NFB is supporting his effort to
scale Mount Everest in 2002.

     That evening's banquet was the largest in Federation
history. An overflow crowd of 500 gathered across the Convention
Level from the main ballroom. This second banquet room was
equipped with a large-screen video system and spotters with two-
way radios to identify door prize winners.

     Diners discovered that this year's souvenir mug contained a
small replica of the bust of Dr. Jernigan, a votive candle, and a
small book of matches. As soon as we were all seated, Master of
ceremonies Allen Harris instructed everyone to light our candles
and hold them aloft in the darkened room. He reminded us that Dr.
Jernigan had always exhorted blind people not to hide our lights
under bushels but to show the world what we could do. During this
moment of illumination from the thousands of candles held by all
of us, we remembered our beloved leader and vowed to insure that
his dreams and our own will never flicker out and that the
darkness of ignorance will never snuff out the light that the
National Federation of the Blind has set burning in the hearts
and souls of blind people everywhere.

     Two awards were presented during the banquet. The first was
the Golden Keys Award given to Michael Romeo, and the other was
the Jacobus tenBroek Award presented to Allen Harris. The full
report of these presentations appears elsewhere in this issue.

     The 1999 scholarship awards were also made at the banquet.
That report also appears elsewhere in this issue. The American
Action Fund scholarship, worth $11,000 this year, went to
tenBroek Fellow Marie Kouthoofd, First Vice President of the NFB
of New York.

     As always, the highlight of the evening was President
Maurer's banquet address. His title was "The Mental Discipline of
the Movement," and it was a thoughtful call to redouble our
efforts to reject misconception and teach the world what is
possible. Here is the way it began:
                           **********
     William Shakespeare thought that knowing what to do was
easy. It was the doing of it that was so hard. As he said, "If to
do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been
churches, and poor men's cottages princes' palaces."

     However, there are others who have a totally different point
of view. They believe that knowing what to do is the hard part.
Remarkable achievement is attained (according to these scholars)
by thought--by exercising the ability to distinguish between the
significant and the mundane. As the American bacteriologist Hans
Zinsser said, "The scientist takes off from the manifold
observations of predecessors and shows his intelligence, if any,
by his ability to discriminate between the important and the
negligible, by selecting here and there the significant
steppingstones that will lead across the difficulties to new
understanding."

     Just as it is for an individual, so it is for a culture, a
nation, or an organization. Each of these must attempt to
identify the steppingstones of progress. To the extent that they
achieve this difficult task and are committed to implementing
what they learn, growth and advancement occur. To the extent that
they fail, there are stagnation, deterioration, and aimlessness.
                           **********
     The banquet was unforgettable, and the parties afterward
went on for hours, but the next morning Federationists were in
their seats when the gavel fell at 9:00 a.m. The morning session
was filled with reports and the Honor Roll Call of States making
contributions to the tenBroek Fund and the White Cane Fund. The
afternoon session was devoted almost entirely to the debate and
passage of the 1999 resolutions. See the full report of these
actions later in this issue.

PHOTO/CAPTION: President Maurer flies a paper airplane into the
convention hall.
PHOTO/CAPTION: NFB staff members take down the platform curtains
at the close of the convention.

     When Dr. Maurer brought his gavel down signaling the close
of the 1999 convention, it seemed a bit hard to believe that our
first NFB convention in forty-nine years without Dr. Jernigan was
now history. With every ovation for Mrs. Jernigan during the
convention, delegates demonstrated that our love for her husband
and our respect for her and the way she has conducted herself and
continued to work for our cause during this difficult and lonely
year knew no bounds. But the spirit of rededication and
determination with which we all left Atlanta also illustrated our
unwavering conviction that the best is still ahead. Newly blind
people must learn what we have to teach. Blind children must be
given hope and tools for tomorrow. The public must still be freed
from the chains of ignorance about blindness. All these jobs and
more lie before us. We have a capital campaign to conduct and
dreams to bring to fruition. In less than a year now we will
return to Atlanta to take the measure of our progress and inspire
ourselves and one another once again with the promise of
tomorrow. In the meantime we will keep faith with the man who
taught us to dream and to make those dreams come true.
                           **********
                           **********
                           **********
*****************************************************************
                         Life Insurance
                           **********
     Life insurance constitutes a very special gift to the
National Federation of the Blind. A relatively easy and direct
form of planned giving is a new life insurance policy. You can
make the NFB the beneficiary and owner of a life insurance policy
and receive a tax deduction on the premium you pay.

     For example, at age fifty you purchase a $10,000 whole life
insurance policy on yourself and designate the NFB as beneficiary
and owner of the policy. The premium cost to you is fully tax-
deductible each year. You may even decide to pay for the entire
policy over a specific period of time, perhaps ten years. This
increases your tax deduction each year over the ten-year period
and fully pays up your policy.

     You may, however, already have a life insurance policy in
existence and wish to contribute it to the NFB. By changing the
beneficiary and owner to the National Federation of the Blind,
you can receive tax savings, depending on the cash value of the
policy. Your attorney, insurance agent, or the National
Federation of the Blind will be able to assist you if you decide
to include the NFB in your planned-giving program through life
insurance. For more information 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: Dr. Maurer delivers the 1999 Presidential Report]
                       Presidential Report
                National Federation of the Blind
                          July 3, 1999
                         by Marc Maurer
                           **********
     The National Federation of the Blind is today what the
founders of our movement hoped and dreamed it could become at the
time of our beginning in 1940--the most vital force in promoting
opportunity for the blind that has ever existed. As we come to
this convention, our brilliant long-time leader, Dr. Kenneth
Jernigan, is no longer with us. He and I talked about the health
of the Federation before he died, and we recognized that the
organized blind movement has never been stronger or more active
or more unified.

     Dr. Jernigan's life has come to a close, but his spirit
lives, and we dedicate this convention to him. The past and the
future converge in this present moment. At this convention we
will record the things we have done, and we will dream of the
things we plan to accomplish. Our longtime leader is gone, but
our direction and purpose are as firm as they have ever been. We
promised him that we would carry on, and we have kept that
promise. The heart of the Federation is determined, and our
strength lies in the people of the movement--in our hopes and
dreams, in our courage and determination, in our innate capacity
and willingness to work, in the bond and commitment we share with
each other.

     One of the most successful initiatives we have ever
undertaken is the creation of the Kernel Books--a body of
literature that explains blindness in simple, straightforward
terms. To those without experience and understanding, blindness
can be mysterious and fearful. However, our books are eliminating
the mystery and dread. The first of these books, What Color Is
the Sun?, was published in 1991. Two volumes have appeared each
year thereafter, and 1999 will be no exception. The sixteenth
book, Remember to Feed the Kittens, is available at this
convention; and the seventeenth, Reflecting the Flame, will be
released later this year. As in the past these books contain an
editor's introduction and a number of first-person accounts of
the experiences of blind people.

     Dr. Jernigan edited the first fifteen, and I have tried my
hand at volumes sixteen and seventeen. The title of number
sixteen, Remember to Feed the Kittens, comes from reflections of
my own about the life and spirit of Dr. Jernigan. Readers of the
Kernel Books have come to know Dr. Jernigan through his writings,
and I thought they might like to learn about the relationship
that I, as an individual, and that we, as an organization, have
had with him.

     The seventeenth Kernel Book, Reflecting the Flame, takes its
title from experiences that span the decades. Dr. Jernigan taught
me to barbecue over an open fire in 1969, and I shared the same
experience with a number of Federation leaders in 1999, using,
incidentally, a barbecue grill Dr. Jernigan had designed himself.
Kindling and maintaining a flame--whether it is in a barbecue pit
or the mind of a student--demands certain elements. We in the
Federation possess them all, and this Kernel Book describes the
method for getting results from the hottest fire or the brightest
idea. The responses we continue to receive from the Kernel Books
indicate a growing recognition of our work in the Federation and
an increased acceptance of blind people as normal, contributing
members of society. Although Dr. Jernigan will no longer be
editing the Kernel Books, they will continue to be published, and
they will continue to contain the spirit which caused them to be
written in the first place.

     Dr. Jernigan wrote thoughtful and inspiring prose throughout
all of his long career. Many of his earlier writings are
contained in a volume by Dr. Floyd Matson entitled Walking Alone
and Marching Together: A History of the Organized Blind Movement
in the United States 1940-1990. However, the body of Dr.
Jernigan's thought which was committed to paper after the
publication of Dr. Matson's book is now being presented. Much of
this body of material has been incorporated in a volume entitled
Kenneth Jernigan: the Master, the Mission, the Movement, which
will be released later during this convention. Dr. Jernigan is
the most profound scholar and the most stimulating author in the
field of work with the blind of the latter part of the twentieth
century. His beliefs and patterns of thought changed forever the
perspectives of administrators of programs for the blind and the
expectations and activities of blind people themselves. The
teachings in this book deal largely with blindness, but the
lessons are equally applicable to the sighted.

     The spirit of the man is reflected in his writing, but it is
also recorded in the public presentations he made--so very many
of which occurred at conventions of the National Federation of
the Blind. We have created a videotape of segments of those
presentations entitled The Future Is Ours/ Kenneth Jernigan:
Builder of the Organized Blind Movement. This video shows him in
action, and it portrays one aspect in the life of the Federation
which is difficult to comprehend in any other way. The video will
also be released later during this convention.

     Last summer Dr. Jernigan planned for the construction of the
National Research and Training Institute for the Blind, which
will stand on the southwest corner of the city block that
presently holds the National Center for the Blind. The new
building will be connected with, and will become a part of, the
National Center. There is currently a comparatively small one-
story building on that corner, which has never been remodeled and
which must be removed to make way for the facilities that are
needed in the years to come. We will erect a five-story building.
The first and second floors will comprise a parking garage. The
third floor will be devoted to offices and classroom space. The
fourth floor will contain the Jacobus tenBroek Library, which
will collect all material on blindness from anywhere in the world
and make it available to scholars for research, teaching, and
experimentation. The fifth floor of the building will be meeting
space, substantial enough to accommodate classes, symposia,
technical gatherings, and other meetings--perhaps as large as the
convention of the National Federation of the Blind.

     During the past decade we in the Federation have talked
about the need for additional research and training facilities
for teachers, researchers, and others in the field of work with
the blind. We have felt that such a new facility would be
essential in the development and expansion of our movement--that
we would gain the capacity to conduct research from the point of
view of the blind consumer, and that this would give altered
perspective to the study of blindness. The question has been not
whether we should build the facility but when the time would be
right and the urgency sufficient to make it necessary. Dr.
Jernigan felt late last summer that the time had come, and I
concurred with his assessment.

     We have established the National Center for the Blind to
serve as a focal point in matters dealing with blindness.
Programs we operate there belong to us and are conducted from the
point of view of the blind consumer. What makes these programs
different from others is that we control them and that they
contain the spirit of the blind--our spirit. We are the people
who dream of a day which has never before been imagined--the
people who take the risks to give that day form and shape. We are
the people who believe that whatever we imagine we can build--
that whatever we want which is right and fair can become our own.
We are the people who will never quit until we have found a way
to give every blind person a chance for freedom with the power to
make it stick.

     The techniques and systems used to train the blind in the
United States need massive overhaul, and we must find a way to
establish training programs that will teach the professors who
will teach the teachers who will teach the blind, and we must do
it so that the blind themselves are a vital part of the teaching
process. We must find a way to address the needs of older blind
Americans. We must also insist that innovative solutions to the
unsolved problems be sought. Much research has been done about
the blind, but rarely have the blind themselves formulated the
programs, established the research parameters, and directed the
study. Who is better positioned to examine the realities of
blindness than the organized blind movement? Who is better
positioned to take the risks? Who has more to gain (and, for that
matter, more to lose) than we? There are those who would tell us
that the problems are solved and that we enjoy today all that the
blind can ever hope to expect. But we know better, and we are not
prepared to accept the status quo. We will conduct our own
research, and we will set the standard of excellence. We will do
it in the best research and training center ever created to serve
the blind.

     We have continued to exercise leadership in programs for the
blind. Late last summer Dr. Jernigan conducted a seminar for
officers of the National Council of State Agencies for the Blind,
the organization consisting of administrators of state agencies
for the blind. In December I addressed the executive committee of
this organization on the topic of leadership at its meeting in
New Orleans, Louisiana. This spring I spoke to the entire
organization on the subject of the relationship which should
exist between the organized blind movement and state agencies
established to serve the blind.

     There have been attacks on agencies for the blind in a
number of states. Last summer, after the convention of the
National Federation of the Blind, a bill was introduced in the
North Carolina legislature to abolish separate programs for the
blind. The legislator who introduced the bill said she was not
interested in hearing from a few obnoxious blind people, and she
shut off her telephone answering machine. We wrote press
releases, organized a march on the Capitol, and invited members
of the press to a rally. When the votes were counted, the
proposal to abolish separate programs for the blind lost by two
votes. But there is talk about raising the question again in the
North Carolina legislature.

     In Texas the results are not as satisfactory. The
legislature decided to eliminate the Texas Commission for the
Blind and to amalgamate services for the blind within a super-
department. Services for the blind will inevitably suffer because
of this change. However, we are not prepared for blindness
programs in Texas to be buried so deeply in the bureaucracy that
they lose all effectiveness, and we will be back to insist that
they be re-established. As we have so often said, we sometimes
lose skirmishes, and we occasionally lose battles. But we never
lose wars because the war is never over until we win.

     The innovative programs of the National Federation of the
Blind continue to receive recognition. On September 14, 1998, Dr.
Kenneth Jernigan, our long-time leader and President Emeritus,
received the Winston Gordon Award from the Canadian National
Institute for the Blind for his pioneering work developing the
Newsline(R) for the Blind Network and for related technological
innovations. Dr. Jernigan traveled to the Canadian Embassy in
Washington D.C. to accept the award, a solid gold medal and a
check for fifteen thousand Canadian dollars.

     Last December the governor of Maryland convened a technology
showcase to bring together manufacturers of high-tech products in
the state. Over six hundred delegates attended the opening
breakfast, and I was asked to make a presentation regarding the
work of the National Federation of the Blind. Following my
remarks, the National Federation of the Blind was named the non-
profit organization of the year for innovative development of
technology.

     Challenges to the priority for the blind granted under the
Randolph-Sheppard Act have been coming from the Department of
Defense. The United States Army, which operates the Redstone
Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, terminated the contract of a
blind vendor named Robert Kelly for food service in the Redstone
mess hall. Negotiations had no impact on the Army, so the
National Federation of the Blind and the Alabama state licensing
agency took the matter to federal court. The Redstone case is one
of the shortest in our history. The judge said that the
termination of the contract was a violation of the law, and
Robert Kelly is still serving food to the troops.

     Charles Allen, a blind vendor living in Kentucky, is one of
our long-time leaders. The Army notified the state licensing
agency in Kentucky that food service provided in the mess hall at
Fort Knox would not be a part of the program. We filed a protest,
and the decision has been changed. Charles Allen knows the power
of the organized blind; he is the manager of food service in the
mess hall at Fort Knox.

     Our work with the Postal Service is one of the promising
developments in the Randolph-Sheppard Program. On a periodic
basis we meet with officials of the property-managing arm of the
Postal Service to promote understanding and increase
opportunities for blind vendors. A number of new vending
locations have become a part of the program as a result, and
procedures have been established to ensure that every state
licensing agency receives early notification of plans to create
new postal facilities, with the opportunity to discuss the
details for including Randolph-Sheppard vending locations at the
planning stage.

     While I am discussing relations with the Postal Service, I
should mention that our work with the Director of Corporate
Personnel, Stephen Leavey, has been cordial and productive. A
postal worker, Waverly Evans, who lives in the Washington, D.C.,
area, became blind. Because of his blindness Mr. Evans was forced
to quit his job at the Southern Maryland Processing and
Distribution Center. He had been working there for nineteen
years. At our urging the director of corporate personnel for the
Postal Service reconsidered the matter, and Waverly Evans is back
at work. It would not have happened without the efforts of the
National Federation of the Blind.

     On July 1, 1998, one of our members living in the
Washington, D.C., area started looking for work in the clerical
field. She applied for a job at a temporary agency and asked for
the opportunity to take the necessary examinations. To assist
with these, she brought a screen-enlarging device for the typing
test, but she was told that she would not be permitted to use it.
Instead, she was sent away and told to come back another day. The
weeks became months. She called the agency repeatedly to ask for
an appointment, but there was never time for her. Then she
learned of the existence of the National Federation of the Blind
and asked for our help. The settlement says we may not disclose
the details, so the applicant's name and the name of the company
are being withheld. However, you will want to know that the lady
in question has received a check from the employer who refused to
take her application. Furthermore, she has been interviewed for
other employment and is expected to begin work within the next
few weeks.

     Monica Stugelmeyer lives in Spokane, Washington, and works
for the Spokesman/Review newspaper. Her job assignment is to
stack sections of the newspaper where they can be assembled and
packaged for distribution. In the same area where she works,
there is a higher paying job, which requires the employee to put
sections of the newspaper into inserting machines so that each
paper will have all of its component parts. Monica Stugelmeyer
applied for the higher paying job. However, the newspaper refused
the request for promotion, saying that operating the inserting
equipment is too dangerous for a blind person. With our help
Monica Stugelmeyer filed a complaint with the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission. Lawyers for the newspaper tried to
convince the EEOC that no discrimination had occurred, saying
they were keeping Monica Stugelmeyer from operating the equipment
for her own safety. However, Monica Stugelmeyer had already
operated the equipment without injury to herself, without damage
to property, without endangering anybody else, and without
slowing the production process. Consequently, the EEOC was
unimpressed by the argument.

     Then the lawyers tried to backdoor the process by bringing
political pressure on the EEOC. They wrote to United States
Senator Slade Gorton to ask that he intervene and give them what
they wanted. But this transparent effort also failed. However,
the lawyers for the newspaper have not been able to recognize the
facts and treat Monica Stugelmeyer with decency. The president of
the National Association of Blind Lawyers, Scott LaBarre, is
representing her, and the matter is headed for the federal court.
The evidence of discrimination is clear, and we intend to win.

     Priscilla Jones is a blind woman who lives in Aurora,
Colorado. For the last fifteen years she has been involved in the
childcare business. In 1997 the Aurora Public Schools hired her
to be a paraprofessional four in charge of a room of toddlers. At
the end of the 1997-98 school year she received a very good
performance review. In particular the review noted that Priscilla
Jones was very conscientious about safety.

     For the 1998-99 school year Priscilla Jones had a new
supervisor, and the school district's attitude about her work
changed. In October of 1998 the Aurora Public Schools forced
Priscilla Jones to take involuntary administrative leave. The
school district said that Priscilla Jones could not safely
observe and monitor the children in her care because of her
blindness. When she pressed them for any specific incidents in
which she had fallen short of her responsibilities, district
officials were unable to identify any.

     Priscilla Jones got in touch with the National Federation of
the Blind. We introduced the district to vocational experts from
the Colorado Center for the Blind who visited the job site and
reviewed the responsibilities of a paraprofessional four. The
experts found that blindness does not prevent a person from
competently performing the job. However, officials of the school
district wouldn't believe it. They said they would be happy to
find another job in the district for Priscilla Jones, such as
baking assistant. We are helping her fight the discrimination. A
lawsuit has been filed in federal court in Denver, and we will
ensure that Priscilla Jones gets a chance to use the training and
talent she has.

     Several years ago the administrators of the Rehabilitation
Services for the Blind in Missouri decided to take punitive
action against the National Federation of the Blind. They said
that (with rare exceptions) literature about the Federation could
not be distributed to clients of the rehabilitation system, that
any discussion about membership or the value of reading
Federation literature was prohibited, and that no blind client
could be referred to programs in the Federation (no matter what
their content or usefulness) without first receiving permission
in writing from the client. Joint programs with other
organizations were permitted, but not with the Federation. They
went so far (if you can believe it) as to ask us if we would
rewrite our literature to remove all references to the National
Federation of the Blind. If we took our name out of our
literature, they said they would be pleased to distribute it to
the clients.

     Of course, such actions challenge the right of blind people
(both clients and employees of the agency) to participate in
organizations of their own choosing, inhibiting freedom of
association and violating the Constitution of the United States.
So we brought suit in the United States Federal Court, but the
decision of the trial judge found in favor of the agency.
Prejudice against the blind is no less a part of the mindset of
the federal judiciary than it is of the public at large. One of
the prejudices that we often face is the one which declares that
the agency administrators appointed to take charge of programs
for the blind are also appointed to take charge of us--to speak
for us and interpret our needs. If (according to this thinking)
the agency has decided a matter, it is settled. The blind should
be content.

     But we decided long ago that we would speak for ourselves in
our own voice and in our own way, and we are not prepared to
accept the opinion of a federal judge who decides that we do not
have the power, the right, or the need to represent the blind. We
have filed an appeal with the Federal Court in the Eighth
Circuit, and hearings have taken place earlier this spring. The
blind have a right, indeed a responsibility, to observe and
comment on the actions of programs for the blind, and we will not
let officials of those programs intimidate us or seek to diminish
voluntary membership in the Federation because of the power they
wield. We expect to win this case, but if we don't, we will carry
it to the Supreme Court. And make no mistake, if the judiciary of
the United States tells us that the blind have no protection
against the power of the agencies--if they say the laws permit
intimidation of the blind by state government officials--we will
change the laws. We will call upon elected officials to ensure
that the blind have the same freedoms in this nation possessed by
everybody else, and we will not rest until we get it done.

     Beulah and Joe Hulsey, two blind people who live in Klamath
Falls, Oregon, were married a year ago. Joe had been a
construction worker and manager of construction projects until he
contracted meningitis and became totally blind. When he became
blind, his previous wife departed without ceremony, leaving him
with three small children. Being newly blinded, without a job and
without a spouse, Joe Hulsey began trying to build a new life.
Within a few months he met Beulah. They were married just two
years after Joe had become blind.

     Because Beulah had never raised children, she thought it
would be useful to ask if the Oregon Department of Services to
Children and Families had any suggestions, and she requested
help. The result of this request was devastating. The Oregon
Department of Services to Children and Families came to the house
and took the children. Why was this drastic action taken? Because
the Hulseys are blind. What was the evidence that the home was
unsafe? Department officials were unable to produce any. When
pressed for an explanation, they said that the Hulseys had
knickknacks on the table within the reach of the children, that
there was a pen and pencil set that the toddlers could get, that
one of the children had used a stool instead of the steps to
climb onto a kiddy slide, and that Joe played with his two-and a-
half-year-old daughter by having her slide down his back while he
held her hands. That is all; there is nothing else. The judgment
of the Department of Services for Children and Families is that
blind parents cannot manage their own children. On such flimsy
so-called evidence they broke up the family.

     However, we of the National Federation of the Blind learned
of the tragedy, and we combined our forces to take action. Carla
McQuillan, the President of the National Federation of the Blind
of Oregon, herself a blind mother and the owner and administrator
of a school to instruct small children, working with me in the
National Office, demanded a hearing to determine whether the
Department of Services to Children and Families should be held to
account for violating the most sacred of human relationships.

     The department began to dodge and weave. As a justification
for its actions department officials argued that the children had
experienced problems while they were in the home of a foster
family. This (according to them) demonstrated that the Hulseys
(who are blind after all and obviously less capable than the
foster parents) could not manage the children. When the fallacy
of this argument was made clear, department officials changed
their story. They said that Mr. and Mrs. Hulsey had not received
training in the alternative techniques used by the blind and that
seizing their children had occurred only for their safety. But we
know better. Blind parents are as capable, as caring, and as safe
as anybody else, and we presented our evidence in the court.

     Today the custody battle is at an end. Joe and Beulah Hulsey
have been reunited with their children, and they will soon be
receiving orientation training from the Colorado Center for the
Blind. The behavior of the Oregon Department of Services to
Children and Families is intolerable. However, we the great
family of the Federation have taken action. The Hulseys did not
know where to turn, but they have met the Federation, and they
are with us at this convention today, and so are their children.
This too is the power of the National Federation of the Blind.

     We also continue to assist people with Social Security
cases. In 1995 Marion Feustel, a person who lives in Florida,
experienced a sudden and significant loss of vision, but nobody
could tell her why. She applied for Social Security disability
benefits, but her application was denied. Marion Feustel knew
little about her rights, but she had heard of the National
Federation of the Blind, and we helped her with an appeal. In
February, 1999, an administrative law judge ordered Social
Security to pay disability benefits retroactive to November,
1995.

     Verna Kerley, a blind vendor living in Tennessee, was
notified in 1996 by the Social Security Administration that she
would be required to repay $35,923 because she had been working
in her vending facility. However, our analysis indicated that no
overpayment had occurred. When the appeal was concluded, the
facts disclosed that Verna Kerley does not owe Social Security
$35,923. Instead, she will be receiving back benefits wrongfully
withheld from her in the amount of $21,548.30.

     The America's Jobline service, which we have developed
through our work in technology, is currently operating in five
states: Maryland, Minnesota, California, Pennsylvania, and New
Jersey. This system provides convenient touch-tone telephone
access to the largest, most comprehensive compilation of job
announcements anywhere in the world. Each Jobline site can handle
up to 70,000 calls per month or 840,000 calls per year. The
number of job listings available exceeds 400,000. Each day we
transmit more than 30,000 new job announcements to each Jobline
site. Last year at our convention the United States Secretary of
Labor announced a partnership with us to assure that America's
Jobline is established in at least forty locations. This system
provides access to employment listings not only to blind
individuals but to the sighted as well. No computer is needed to
retrieve this information. All that is required is a touch-tone
telephone and the desire to look for work. This technological
advancement has occurred because of the efforts of the National
Federation of the Blind.

     During the past year we have expanded our NEWSLINE(R) for
the Blind Network from forty-three to fifty-nine sites. Five new
local service centers have been established in Michigan, five
have been installed in Tennessee, and additional sites have been
put into operation in Ohio, Delaware, Massachusetts, North
Carolina, Kentucky, and Nebraska. NEWSLINE(R) currently exists in
twenty-six of the fifty states. In addition to the seven national
newspapers on NEWSLINE(R), there are more than twenty local
papers. Some of those added this year are the Boston Globe, the
Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Detroit Free Press, the Huntington
Herald Dispatch, the Idaho Statesman, and the Naperville Daily
Herald. NEWSLINE(R) provides a greater volume of information to
the blind than has ever before been available. We who are blind
have been information-deprived, but with NEWSLINE(R) we are
closing the gap. Indeed, in a very real sense those of us who
have NEWSLINE(R) in our hometowns have an advantage over the
sighted--we have several newspapers--sighted people usually have
only one.

     We have been represented this year on the Microsoft
Accessibility Advisory Council, which encourages the improvement
of accessibility to Microsoft products. And we have participated
in the Electronic and Information Technology Access Advisory
Committee of the Architectural and Transportation Barriers
Compliance Board. Amendments to the Rehabilitation Act, which we
helped to draft and which are modeled after the state technology
bills we have written, require the board to issue guidelines to
ensure that electronic products purchased by the federal
government are accessible to disabled people. This committee
submitted a report setting forth the standards we recommend to
assure nonvisual access to technology. There will be public
hearings before these standards are adopted as part of the
federal procurement procedures, and there may be arguments
against accepting these recommendations. However, we will insist
that the policy be implemented to give full scope to the equal-
access provisions of the law.

     We have continued to maintain the International Braille and
Technology Center for the Blind as the only comprehensive center
which contains at least one of every access device manufactured
anywhere in the world to provide information to the blind. During
the past twelve months we have acquired two new Pentium II 450
megahertz computers with scanners, two CD-ROM tutorials for the
Windows operating system, one single-sided Braille embosser, four
refreshable Braille displays, one screen reader for Windows NT,
one Roadrunner hand-held electronic text reading device, one
stand-alone reading machine, one software speech synthesizer,
twenty computer games for the blind, one optical Braille
recognition software program which converts Braille into
electronic text, one IBM homepage reader for use with the World
Wide Web, two different barcode reading and identification
systems, and numerous software upgrades for the latest
technology-access systems.

     The number of training programs conducted in conjunction
with the International Braille and Technology Center has
increased. We have taught eight information access technology
training classes for the Job Opportunities for the Blind program,
two comprehensive technology training classes, one Johns Hopkins
University course for teachers of the blind, and two In-Touch
workshops on technology for parents and teachers of blind
children. In addition to these, hundreds of other blind people
have visited the National Center for the Blind to learn about
technology, and we have accepted questions by telephone from
thousands of others.

     At our convention last year in Dallas the United States
Secretary of Labor announced a grant for an experimental training
and placement initiative which extended and expanded the Job
Opportunities for the Blind program. This experimental effort
began immediately with plans for training classes. Fifty-three
blind people have received this training, and twenty-five percent
of these have entered the workforce. A number of others are
proceeding through the interview process. From our interaction
with applicants in the Job Opportunities for the Blind program
this year, it is evident that many blind people seeking
employment need additional training. Consequently the Job
Opportunities for the Blind program is being modified to combine
the best training features of rehabilitation programs operated
within the Federation with training efforts conducted at the
National Center for the Blind. Not only will we be training
individual blind people in the Job Opportunities for the Blind
program, but we will also be offering consultation to employers
in the proper technology to give equal access to blind employees.

     One component of our effort to improve Braille literacy
instruction is the publication of our new book, Braille: A Code
for Success. This is a self-study tutorial to prepare teachers
and others to take the National Literary Braille Competency Test.
This book is available at this convention.

     To continue the vital work of the Federation in promoting
Braille literacy, we have, shortly before this convention, been
awarded a new five-year grant by the Rehabilitation Services
Administration to offer assistance to counselors and teachers of
the blind in matters dealing with Braille and classes in the
technology to produce Braille.

     We have continued to maintain the National Center for the
Blind, replacing an air conditioning system that had been in
operation for twenty years and taking other steps to ensure that
the center is in tiptop shape. In preparation for constructing
the National Research and Training Institute for the Blind, plans
have been made to move the maintenance shop from the central
courtyard building to the Barney Street wing of the main
building. In the process electrical service must be shifted and
an upgraded ventilation system installed. A very large overhead
door will be needed to permit access to the shop. In addition we
will add a paint room, a tool room, and office space.

     The ongoing activities of the Federation continue to expand.
Our Aids, Appliances, and Materials Center has filled almost six
thousand orders this year, and we have distributed almost 30,000
copies of our small reference book, If Blindness Comes. The first
fifteen of our Kernel Books are available in print, in Braille,
and on cassette. The most recent of these to be released is To
Touch the Untouchable Dream, which became available last fall. We
have published and we are distributing a book by Doris Willoughby
and Sharon Monthei entitled Modular Instruction for Independent
Travel for Students Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired: From
Preschool through High School. Learning to travel with a cane is
of vital importance to the independence of the blind, and this
book is a guide that will answer questions about this skill.
Working along with our division for the senior blind, we have
produced a new general information brochure for older blind
people called "Aging and Vision Loss." We have increased the
amount of literature in Spanish available on cassette to eleven
titles. And we continue to distribute approximately two million
aids, appliances, and pieces of literature each year from the
Materials Center.

     More people have visited the National Center for the Blind
in the past twelve months than ever before in history. Among them
were a number of business leaders, many public officials, and
several members of Congress. The number of visitors this year is
one thousand eight hundred and one.

     We are continuing to develop the library of Federation
material available on the Internet. More than twenty-five hundred
files are now on our Web site, and we have provided information
to individuals in seventy-three countries this year. The magazine
produced by the Diabetes Action Network, our diabetics division,
continues to grow. This publication is now being circulated to
just over a quarter of a million people each quarter. We continue
to publish the Braille Monitor with a circulation of 35,000
copies per month; the presidential releases; the recorded edition
of the American Bar Association Journal; Future Reflections, the
magazine for parents and educators of blind children; and a
number of other national, state, and local magazines.

     The influence of the Federation may be measured in part by
the sheer volume of our activity, but this is not the only way to
comprehend it. A letter from the President of the Federation of
the Blind of Turkey dated February 21, 1999, says in part:
                           **********
     We have found out the death of Dr. Jernigan with deep
sorrow. He died in October, but it took more than three months to
reach us because we receive the Braille Monitor by surface mail.

     Dr. Jernigan was a fighter--a fighter for the rights of the
blind on one side--and a fighter for making the blind come to
themselves for first-class citizenship in society on the other
side. His teachings reached even the blind living in the
countries like Turkey, thousands of miles away from his own
country. The blind here were very influenced by his teachings and
his moral support.

     His philosophy and struggle guided us to get out of
difficulties we experienced on our way to building a strong
organization.

     With these feelings and thoughts, we extend warm greetings
of the Turkish blind to the brothers and sisters at the National
Federation of the Blind of the United States. In your name we
wish all our brothers and sisters happiness and success! Yours
sincerely,

Turhan Icli,
President, National Federation of the Blind of Turkey.
                           **********
     The programs we conduct and the materials we publish offer
hope to the blind both in our country and in other lands as well.
Sometimes we touch the heart of a blind child, and sometimes we
speak to the listening spirit of an adult or a teacher or a
parent. The Federation engages in many activities, but the thing
we do best is to offer a new way of life.

     We in the National Federation of the Blind hold a sacred
trust that demands from us faith in ourselves and the willingness
to believe in each other. Those who have preceded us in the
Federation understood the demands of this trust; they sacrificed
to give us opportunity that they never knew. We, in our turn,
must build for tomorrow and make the sacrifices for ourselves and
those who come after us. Our history as a movement contains many
triumphs, and if we keep faith with our heritage, there will be
many more. However, there have also been sorrows. We must learn
from these and gain from them strength and determination.

     If we are satisfied with conditions as they are, if we
become complacent, if we are not prepared to put our energy and
our resources and our imaginative effort on the line, the
vitality of our movement will sink into obscurity and cease to
be. But it will never happen because we will not permit it.
Whatever the risks, we will take them. Whatever the challenges,
we will meet them. Whatever the obstacles, we will surmount them.
For our movement there are only two alternatives: build for the
future or falter in our progress. But we will not falter; we will
find the courage; we will give all that is good within us; and we
will prevail! I know this with absolute certainty, for I have met
the mind and spirit of the members of the Federation, and there
can be no other response. The future belongs to us, and we go to
meet it with joy! This is the National Federation of the Blind,
and this is my report for 1999.
                           **********
                           **********
[PHOTO DESCRIPTION: Six people are grouped around a veiled object
on a podium. CAPTION: Left to right Tony Cobb, Marie Cobb, Joyce
Scanlan, Marc Maurer, Mary Ellen Jernigan, and Lloyd Jernigan
prepare to unveil the bronze bust of Dr. Jernigan.]
[PHOTO DESCRIPTION: Six people are grouped around the unveiled
bust. Mrs. Jernigan's hand rests on the shoulder of the bust.
CAPTION: Left to right Tony Cobb, Marie Cobb, Joanne Wilson, Mary
Ellen Jernigan, Mary Jernigan, and Lloyd Jernigan stand beside
the bust of Dr. Jernigan.]
                           **********
                        Kenneth Jernigan:
                    The Master, the Mission,
                          The Movement
                           **********
     Independence day was a fitting time for the Convention of
the National Federation of the Blind to remember and pay tribute
to our long-time leader and beloved friend, Dr. Kenneth Jernigan.
President Maurer began the memorial portion of the Sunday morning
session agenda by pointing out that the three flags present on
the platform (United States, Canada, and NFB) as well as the
large flag that flies atop the National Center for the Blind in
Baltimore were flying at half mast for the day in recognition of
and respect for the life and death of Dr. Jernigan. He then
described a forty-two-inch-high walnut podium present that
morning at the right side of the stage, the side where Dr.
Jernigan always sat. The podium had been lovingly made by staff
members at the National Center for the Blind from wood found and
preserved by Dr. Jernigan himself--wood that he always intended
to use for some special purpose. At the four corners of the
rising column of the podium, and supporting the actual flat
podium surface were four large wooden spools of the kind on which
thread used to be wound. Dr. Jernigan, in the days when he
crafted furniture, found ways of using such spools in the
construction of his pieces. Finding a function for those rejected
spools was perhaps his first successful effort to take something
that no one else wanted and make of it a useful and beautiful
creation.

     A drape covered a large object placed on the podium, and
spotlights were trained on that area of the platform. Dr. Maurer;
the NFB officers; Don Capps, the senior member of the Board; Mrs.
Jernigan; Marie Cobb, Doctor Jernigan's daughter, and her husband
Tony; and Lloyd Jernigan, Dr. Jernigan's brother, and his wife
Mary all gathered around the podium and together withdrew the
drape to reveal a bronze bust of Dr. Jernigan, created by the
sculptor Joseph Moss. A white cane rendered in walnut is
incorporated into the podium at Dr. Jernigan's right shoulder.
The bust is roughly life-size and, displayed on the podium, is
almost exactly Dr. Jernigan's height. Though many delegates had
already examined the bust in the Jernigan suite, it seemed
fitting for it to be officially unveiled at the beginning of the
convention memorial service.

PHOTO/CAPTION: Debbie Brown (left) and Lloyd Rasmussen (right)
sing Debbie's newest song in celebration of the life of Kenneth
Jernigan. Tom Bickford (center) accompanies them on the guitar.

     Debbie Brown, one of the leaders of the Maryland affiliate,
wrote a song in celebration of Dr. Jernigan's life and work. She
and Lloyd Rasmussen sang it to Tom Bickford's guitar
accompaniment. [sound bite 8] Here is the text:
                           **********
                   A Song for Kenneth Jernigan
                         Words and music
                        by Deborah Brown
                    (C)1998 by Deborah Brown
                           **********
You were born a poor boy
In the hills of Tennessee.
The people there had never met
Someone who couldn't see.
Though your family loved you,
They sometimes got in your way,
But you made some money
While the others just made hay.
You tried to be a lawyer,
But your counselor told you, "no,"
If you want our money,
Find another way to go."
So you became a teacher,
And today you're teaching still.
The counselor didn't know
You had a dream he couldn't kill.
refrain:
Because your dreams were bigger
Than your rehab counselor's mind,
Someday they'd reach beyond you
To enfold all of the blind.
                           **********
But the world was changing
As you taught in Tennessee
Because Jacobus tenBroek
Led the fledgling NFB;
While at your first convention
In 1952,
Did you know his leadership
Would be passed on to you?
You went to California,
Then in Iowa you taught.
You knew we couldn't learn
Unless we changed the way we thought;
You reached a generation
With the stirring words you said,
But they were more than words,
For your philosophy baked bread.
refrain:
Because your dreams were bigger
Than one generation's mind,
Today they reach beyond you
To enfold all of the blind.
                           **********
You followed Dr. tenBroek
At the head of NFB;
You led us in the war
Against repressive agencies;
The blind across the nation
Helped you storm the gates of NAC;
You told them, "We know who we are,
And we're not going back!"
Because of you we witnessed
NAC's dying agonies,
But now the blind are facing
A new set of enemies;
The agencies were flound'ring,
Their exalted place denied;
You made them see the wisdom
Of enlisting on our side.
refrain:
Because your dreams were bigger
Than the blindness experts' minds,
Today they reach beyond you
To enfold all of the blind.
                           **********
You stood behind the effort
To improve technology,
But you believed solutions
Should transcend mere gadgetry.
Because you knew the problems
That now face the nation's blind
Are not the fault of hardware
But the software in the mind.
The Kernel Books have helped us
With the stories that they tell:
As children, parents, workers too,
We can get along quite well;
The Federation's teachings
Have spread over all the Earth;
Because of you the blind
Of every land now know their worth.
refrain:
Because your dreams were bigger
Than a single country's mind,
Today they reach beyond you
To enfold the whole world's blind.
                           **********
Though we truly love you,
And we're sorry that you're gone,
We know your greatest wish
Is for the movement to go on;
Though future generations
Will extol your memory,
We know our altered lives
Will be your greatest legacy.
refrain:
Because your dreams were bigger
Than your generation's mind,
Today they reach beyond you
To enfold the future blind.
                           **********
     The first actual speaker in the memorial program was Don
Capps, President of the NFB of South Carolina, the senior member
of the NFB Board of Directors, and a close friend and colleague
of Dr. Jernigan for over forty years. His remarks at the December
memorial service and printed in the January/February memorial
issue of the Braille Monitor were similar to his recollections at
the convention and are therefore not reprinted here. The
remaining speakers did not address the memorial service in
December, and their remarks are reprinted on the following pages.
                           **********
                           **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Ramona Walhof]
                      Details and Patterns:
                  A Beloved Teacher Remembered
                        by Ramona Walhof
                           **********
Always keep this fact in mind:
The old cow's tail hangs down behind.
Although it's muddy and full of burrs,
The old cow loves it because it's hers.
                           **********
     What a vivid picture! What a useful lesson! And how very
typical of Dr. Jernigan to use such a little poem as a teaching
tool.

     I was most fortunate to meet Dr. Jernigan at a young age,
about the time I graduated from high school. Through the years he
has been mentor, a second father, a colleague, an employer, and a
dear friend. His loss to me personally is immense. I know that I
share this feeling with thousands of others. So we meet here to
honor and remember this amazing man.

     Dr. Jernigan was one of the most colorful personalities of
the twentieth century, one of the best thinkers in the land, and
one of the most compassionate people of our time. More than that,
he practiced and taught a kind of self-discipline that is rare. I
thank God for sending him to us. And I thank God for the
privilege to have known and learned from him.

     Dr. Jernigan caused us to try to do the things we really
believed would be impossible individually and collectively. He
helped us dream of things that were brand new. He led us to
understand how to make the changes we desperately wanted and
those we had not dared to hope for. He truly cared about
thousands of individuals around the world and reached out in
different ways to more people than most of us can comprehend. In
return we loved him. It seems a little thing, but Dr. Jernigan
took strength and determination from the support and loyalty we
offered.

     There are so many special times to remember. I think of
being invited to his apartment for breakfast on Sunday mornings
when I was a student at the Iowa Orientation Center and the
discussions at the breakfast table about things like brains in
their eggs or tongue in their sandwiches. I remember being sent
back to make bigger hamburgers to be grilled on the roof.

     I recall a discussion about whether girls should wear pants
to the local amusement park. Then there was the time that I was
invited to dinner at the Mayflower Hotel in early 1965 before the
National Convention in Washington, D.C. That was the night I was
introduced to a yard of beer and to the D.C. Chapter of the NFB.

     In 1967 in Los Angeles I went to see Dr. Jernigan. We were
forming the Student Division, and there were three college
students from other states at that convention, but there were a
whole bunch of Iowans. I said to Dr. Jernigan, "How many people
from Iowa would it be reasonable to put on the Board of the
Student Division?" thinking he would say two. But he didn't. He
said, "Three." It was the beginning of a lot of learning for all
of us, and we grew in the Student Division.

     I remember his pride when the Library of Congress ordered
all the copies we had printed of our brand new, very first
edition of the Handbook for Blind College Students.

     Dr. Jernigan's teaching methods were as varied as everything
else. One day I was told that I needed to learn to play better.
He told me that my sister knew how to play better than I did. He
said that, when she had taught him to rat his hair, she had been
playing and did it well. I thought back to the day when my
sister, Susan Ford, and I were both in college and had been
riding in the back seat of Dr. Jernigan's car. He asked Susan if
(I'm sure this wasn't the first time) she wanted to teach him to
rat his hair. Sitting behind him, she took a comb out of her
purse and reached forward and began to work on Dr. Jernigan's
hair. She told him she could do a better job if he didn't wear so
much hair oil. Of course we were all doubled over with laughter.
Then she had to comb out all the rats so he would be presentable
for whatever we were going to do. I accused him of flirting with
Susan to encourage what she was doing. He didn't deny it. He
responded as you might expect. "Define flirting."

     Dr. Jernigan taught us to "lick our calves over" when we
were not thorough. He taught us to use the carrot and the stick.
He taught us to consider both the spirit and the letter of the
law. He taught us new words such as omphaloskepsis. He taught us
how to eat an elephant one bite at a time. He taught us grammar
to discipline our minds. He taught us generosity, boldness, and
gentleness and tried to show us when to use which. Dr. Jernigan
left us a trust to carry on the work of building the Federation
and advancing opportunities for the blind. During many
conversations recently and long ago, he said that the best way to
love him is to carry on the work of the National Federation of
the Blind and to reach out to other blind people. And he meant
it.

     Every moment with Dr. Jernigan was fascinating. His
curiosity was compelling. Discovery for him was a delight;
whether he found a talking toy or a new story or poem or (best of
all) the discovery of a keen young mind, he enjoyed the find.

     If Dr. Jernigan could find a way to help, he did. In 1972 my
husband was suffering from diabetic kidney disease. Kidney
transplants were only experimental at that time. We had two
babies under the age of two and no money. It was a hard time, and
Dr. Jernigan understood. He told us he needed us at the
convention that year and that he would find the funds for us to
attend. He said that it would not be a loan but that we should
pay the money to someone else at some future time when we could
and found someone who needed the help. He wanted us to go to the
convention, and we wanted to go. As it happened, my husband died
before that convention. I needed a job, and Dr. Jernigan offered
me the work I needed. I know that similar offers for financial
help have been made to others, and I know that the response has
often been exactly as Dr. Jernigan wished. We have passed on the
assistance to others when we could and when the need was there.

     Dr. Jernigan insisted that every detail was important. But
he never lost sight of patterns and trends. This is the
combination that made him so effective as a friend and teacher
but also made him the world's greatest leader in the organization
that is the strongest force in progress for the blind.

     We have known and appreciated the generosity and love he
offered. We must keep it uppermost in our hearts and minds as we
continue to do as he asked: build the movement for the blind of
this and coming generations.

     The heritage Dr. Jernigan left us has already affected
millions of people, both blind and sighted. It is as wonderful as
the man himself. We shall cherish him in this work, in the
literature he left us, and in our hearts. His spirit will always
be with us. We shall follow his guidance with force when we must,
with creativity and energy, but most of all with love for each
other and joy in our work. As long as we continue to follow his
example and these directives, we honor Dr. Jernigan. We want to
do it. We must. And we will. In a very real sense we, the members
of the National Federation of the Blind, working together
building a better world for the blind today and in the future as
we go ahead with our leader Dr. Maurer, are a large part of his
legacy. I have a feeling he knows we are carrying out the lessons
he taught us. Let us make him proud.
                           **********
                           **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Joanne Wilson]
                 The Circumference of our Minds
                        by Joanne Wilson
                           **********
     It was once said that whoever controls the circumference of
our minds controls the circumference of our beings. The year was
1966; I was a young college student struggling with the problems
of how to function as a blind person. I was dragged to my first
encounter with blind people, which was a student seminar held at
the Iowa Commission for the Blind.

     After the day's events the students were invited to a fancy
restaurant to relax and enjoy each other. I was seated next to
Dr. Jernigan. I sat in awe and listened and knew that something
important was about to happen. As I was leaning over the candle
in the middle of the table trying to read my bill so I could pay
for my meal, Dr. Jernigan suddenly asked me, "Joanne, are you
blind?"

     I said, "No, no, I'm not blind--I just can't see very well."

     He held up his hand and said, "How many fingers do I have
up?"

     I said, "Well, I can sort of see your hand there, but I
can't exactly tell how many fingers you have up."

     He said, "Joanne, you're blind." The talk that followed was
like nothing I had ever heard. That night and in the months and
years to follow, a voice was put to all the confusion and funny
notions about blindness that I had in my mind. I was taught to
define philosophy. I was given knowledge, belief, and most of all
hope.

     I went to the Iowa Commission for the Blind, and I learned
many things. I learned skills. I learned a philosophy about
blindness, but I also learned how to get political influence and
how to build an organization, how to be a leader, how to get
elected and stay elected, how to give a speech, how to be an
advocate, how to have discipline and work real hard. I learned
how to play; I learned how to love; and I learned how to give.

     Dr. Jernigan was always teaching and sometimes even used
words. Everything that Dr. Jernigan did from the ordinary to the
spectacular, from ordering a meal to giving a banquet speech,
always seemed to have a purpose and to be a part of something
bigger, to be a part of building a great movement. All his
actions and all his works were part of something bigger.

     He taught me how to make my day-to-day activities count and
to be a part of a bigger cause. I remember one day, when we
students were sitting in our discussion groups, Dr. Jernigan came
into the room and started telling us about a legislative banquet
that we were going to have in a couple of weeks. He started
assigning jobs to us--explaining how we were going to help set up
the tables and get things organized and mix and mingle with the
legislators. Then he told us we needed to buy our tickets and pay
for another person's ticket. We said, "What? we don't have any
money--why, we ought to get our meal for free. We're going to do
all this other work." Well, a discussion ensued. It was the first
time I heard the words, "There ain't no such thing as a free
lunch." At that legislative banquet we all stood with pride and
dignity when Dr. Jernigan got up and said to the legislators,
"Your meal has been bought by a blind person."

     I remember another time. It was about 5:30 in the morning. I
was sound asleep in my dorm room at the Iowa Commission for the
Blind, and suddenly there was a rap at the door. My heart
pounded, and I heard Dr. Jernigan out there saying, "Hurry, hurry
Joanne come to my apartment immediately. It's urgent." I heard
him go up and down the hall, knocking on other students' doors
saying, "Hurry, hurry, come immediately to my apartment." We all
rushed down there. We had our robes on, and I had big rollers in
my hair and my flip flops on, and my night cream was dripping
from my face. We ran in there with our hearts pounding. We
gathered in his living room, and he said, "Surprise, come as you
are party."

     We learned, and we began to live what we learned. Where were
you when you heard of the death of Dr. Jernigan? On that October
12, I was in a fancy restaurant in Little Rock, Arkansas,
relaxing after a hard day of rock climbing with the students at
the Louisiana Center for the Blind. My cell phone rang; I took
the phone and went to a quiet part of the restaurant and heard
the news. On my way back to my table in the restaurant, I felt
confused and sad. I felt empty and uncomfortable. What should I
do next?

     I sat down at my table and looked around. There at my table
were young college students struggling with the problems of how
to function as blind people. I thought, "Dr. Jernigan, even at
this moment you are teaching me a lesson." I had a flashback to
my first dinner with Dr. Jernigan, and I knew he was telling me
to pass it on. We had made the full circle. I was there to give
the knowledge, the belief, and the dreams to these blind
students. I was there to be their voice and to give them a
defined philosophy about blindness. Whoever controls the
circumference of our minds controls the circumference of our
beings. Thank you, Dr. Jernigan, for helping us be.
                           **********
                           **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Barbara Pierce speaks during the memorial
service. To her right can be seen Dr. Jernigan's empty chair.]
                      Lessons from a Master
                        by Barbara Pierce
                           **********
     I consider that I knew Dr. Jernigan from January of 1974
until his death. That January was the first time I listened to
recordings of his speeches, and doing so gave me the feeling that
I had met the mind and spirit of this remarkable man. It was not
until that June that I actually had direct contact with him. I
had written him a letter. I am not sure how I expected him to
respond, but it was certainly not the long, thoughtful, prompt
letter I received. I could not have been more surprised or
delighted if the letter had come from the President of the United
States or the Queen of England. That was always my experience of
Dr. Jernigan--a man who gave and expected more of himself and me
than I did.

     Part of his genius was challenging the people around him to
do more than they thought themselves capable of. For example, he
told me fairly early in my life as a Federationist that he wanted
me to begin representing the NFB in media interviews. This was
unsettling news, but, since he had assigned me the job, I began
reading the Braille Monitor even more carefully and listening to
Presidential releases with great attention. Then I went out and
did my best. You always wanted to do your best for him because he
always gave his best to all of us, and that best was very good
indeed.

     I was sitting in a 1987 convention session when Dr. Jernigan
called me to the platform to speak to him. To my astonishment and
dismay he asked me to try my hand at writing that year's
convention round-up. He told me to study what he had written the
year before and then give it a try. I was dubious about my
ability to produce anything that would save him time, but again I
did my best, and with a bit of first-aid he was able to use it.

     At the 1988 convention he asked me to come to work for the
Federation to see if I could learn to edit the Monitor. Agreeing
to do so was one of the most courageous things I have ever done.
But it was just one more example of Dr. Jernigan's challenge to
reach further and do more than one thought possible.

     For almost ten years I had the privilege of working closely
with Dr. Jernigan. Watching him write was fascinating. He usually
began an article seated at his desk, his secretary in the chair
across from him with a steno pad on her knee. After thinking a
moment, he would dictate a title. He might throw out two or three
suggestions before he got it right, but he never began writing
without at least a working title. Then the sentences began
coming, word by word, complete with correct punctuation. Soon the
phone would ring. He would stop and deal with whatever the call
brought; then he would ask to hear the last paragraph or, more
often, everything he had written so far. He might well make
changes or even rewrite or insert an entire sentence or
paragraph. Eventually he might get up to pace around his office
as he dictated or corrected text. I often marveled that his
secretaries could decipher the layers of correction. So it went,
interruption after interruption, hour after hour. Sometime late
in that first day of observation he turned to me and said:
"People think that those who write well throw long touchdown
passes; they don't realize that we have to grind out our progress
yard by yard on the ground, just like everybody else."

     When he completed a draft or a day's work on a draft, he
would ask for the text in Braille. That's what he took home to
read over. The next day he was back, draft in hand, to read the
text aloud and make the changes he had decided upon so his
secretary could pencil them in on a print copy. He would listen
carefully to his own voice as he read. His ear told him when a
subtle alteration in the text would improve the work. "That will
have a better ring," he would comment as he substituted a word,
and when you thought about it, he was right.

     That was how he began teaching me to shape my own writing.
Gradually I learned to avoid word repetition, the passive voice,
and jargon words like "utilize" or "usage" instead of short,
vigorous words like "use." Having seen the merciless rigor with
which he edited his own writing, I found it exciting rather than
depressing to watch him tinker with and rework my text. The
process was always instructive.

     Then there were the Braille lessons. As many of you know, I
mastered the Braille code as a teenager, but I never bothered to
work on reading speed. Decoding those little dots was slow and
hard, and I never saw anyone read quickly. Not until I listened
to those speeches in 1974 did I realize that it was possible to
read Braille at speaking speed. And not until I began working
closely with Dr. Jernigan did anyone suggest that there was any
point in my trying to make up the deficit in my education rather
than complaining about it.

     As usual, Dr. Jernigan didn't just suggest that I do
something about it. When I hesitantly asked whether he thought I
could increase my speed, he offered to help. That was the
beginning of a remarkable period of investigation and discovery.
Dr. Jernigan undertook to analyze how he used his hands when he
read. He taught me to anchor my left hand and read the first few
words of each line with that index finger while the rest of the
hand marked the place and held on to the page--a handy skill when
reading standing up. Meanwhile he explained that the right index
finger reads the right two thirds of the line, and the middle and
ring fingers travel lightly across the space at the top of the
line, keeping place and gathering information about the tops of
the letters. He would often interrupt his own proofreading to
point out some detail his ring finger had discovered.

     Unfortunately I don't think I increased speed as rapidly as
Dr. Jernigan expected, but he was always optimistic and
encouraging. Despite the important matters constantly demanding
his attention, he regularly inquired whether I was continuing to
read every day and how my speed was coming.

     History will remember that Kenneth Jernigan harnessed his
tremendous intelligence and compassion to tackle the job of
setting all blind people free. But we who knew him will remember
his ability and willingness to use his talents to help his
friends, and all of us were his friends. It is easier for most of
us to grasp his individual acts of humanity, for they defined the
man in ways we could understand. In the larger world Dr. Jernigan
made significant strides in redefining the way society sees blind
people. I am deeply grateful for his contribution to improving
the quality of my life and the lives of my blind brothers and
sisters. But he was also my friend and mentor. He taught me to
read and to write. He also taught me to stand on my head, but
that's another story.
                           **********
                           **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Joyce Scanlan]
                  Of Gates and Good Intentions
                        by Joyce Scanlan
                           **********
     "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be lifted up, ye
everlasting doors." These are lines from the Twenty-fourth Psalm,
which for many years were code words between Dr. Jernigan and me
to signal our memories of an incident in which he, the consummate
teacher, helped me to understand more fully how to be a leader in
the organized blind movement.

     In 1973, when I was a fairly new member of the National
Federation of the Blind, by some fluke of fate I was elected
president of our Minnesota affiliate. Now, if we all remember our
history--and there are many who will never let me forget that
history--Minnesota had the dubious distinction of having two
Federation affiliates, the only state with such a distinction,
and the group of which I was elected president had the additional
notable feature of owning and operating a residential home for
the blind.

     This home had gates at the tops of the stairways--you know,
to protect the blind people from falling down the stairs and
being hurt. Well, this was a situation in which Dr. Jernigan
helped me to get out of a potential mess. Shortly after I became
president, some of our new Federationists in the student division
prevailed upon me to take the gates off the stairs because, they
argued, having the gates wasn't consistent with Federation
philosophy. The gates should be removed so the residents could
learn to be independent. Most of the residents were elderly, and
they were used to having the gates. Of course they were most
unhappy when the gates were taken away. Someone called Dr.
Jernigan to complain about what had been done, and he called me
to discuss the matter.

     He began the telephone conversation by telling me about
Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson and how one had a
philosophy but no army, while the other had a large army and
didn't worry much about philosophy. Dr. Jernigan then said that
if I was to accomplish all that we hoped for in the Federation, I
would need an army of people to do it, and the philosophy would
come second. He said the gates weren't that important and should
be put back on. He also cautioned me that it should be done with
good grace, not grudgingly. I conceded that he was right and
returned the gates to their proper spot at the top of the stairs.
The residents of the home were again happy, and I was prevented
from being a very short-term state president.

     Dr. Jernigan hadn't been at all harsh with me. He was very
gentle in explaining why it had been a mistake to tamper with
something the older people had come to depend upon. He said I
needed those people as part of an army as much as they needed the
gates. Any philosophical conflict between the gates and
Federation thinking could be worked out. Having the gates for a
little longer wouldn't hurt, and eventually, he said, the people
at the home would ask for the gates to be removed. The home was
sold in 1980, and I have always regretted that I didn't keep one
of those gates as a memento of the experience.

     Over the years Dr. Jernigan and I often spoke of that
incident. It was a wonderful lesson for me. In fact, this single
incident made up an entire textbook of Federation instruction,
which has often served as a guide along the way as I have
wrestled with our philosophy and how it can be applied to real
life and how the National Federation of the Blind functions.
"Remember the gates," Dr. Jernigan would often say. The incident
of the gates set down a firm foundation for me in how the
Federation values people. We love one another, and we treat each
other with fairness and respect.

     And Dr. Jernigan taught me many more lessons. I had always
envied those who had learned from him as students at the Iowa
Commission for the Blind. They benefited from ongoing contact
with him over a period of many months. However, my contacts with
him at National and some State Conventions, Thanksgiving Board
meetings, leadership seminars, and a few other meetings here and
there made each and every encounter so special and so memorable
that I can appreciate my good fortune for having had the benefit
of knowing him and working with him for many years.

     I'll never forget having dinner with him at the Waikiki Room
restaurant at the Leamington Hotel in Minneapolis where we both
enjoyed sampling every hors d'oeuvre on the menu while sharing a
Sidewinder's Fang. Then there was the time he sat down for
breakfast at a restaurant in Madison, Wisconsin, early in April
and asked the waitress, "Do you have any fresh figs?" The answer
was a definite "No." He gave me guidance, support, and counsel
throughout all these years, through good times and difficult
times. As a new state president I had much to learn about
political strategizing. There were times when I might be
discouraged by the burdens of a state presidential election when
the older members of the Minnesota affiliate would campaign hard
and seem to gain strength. I would call Dr. Jernigan and whine
about the tactics being used by the opposition. Political
organizing was all new to me. The old folks had long experience
fighting everything and everybody, including each other. My
supporters were mainly college students, who had neither skills
nor experience in political scrapping.

     I made so many stupid errors in chairing state conventions
that I marvel at how Dr. Jernigan could sit there patiently and
watch me struggle with the tough old guys winning on most points.
Then Dr. Jernigan would call me the following week to review my
performance. Although it seemed to me that I had done just about
everything wrong and he told me what errors I had made, he
somehow always found some good in what I had done. He talked to
me about doing my homework. The old folks had done theirs, and
they had won. Dr. Jernigan guided me through these difficulties
and showed me how to take chairing conventions and weathering
elections in stride. He would say, when I complained, "Now,
Joyce, you don't expect your opponent to stand up before you and
salute you and say, `Shoot me first,' do you?" He taught me to
pay heed to the votes. He would also say, "When you have the
votes, you can afford to be nice to your opponent; when you don't
have the votes, you must be nice." His deep personal integrity
set a high example for all of us to follow. I have always tried
very hard.

     There were fun times too. My one and only positive rehab
lesson was taught me by Dr. Jernigan. At the very first
leadership seminar in 1973, when we all went to dinner at the
Charcoal Pit in Des Moines, he showed me how to grill a steak,
and both of us enjoyed the steaks and the experience. He also
gave Tom and me a lesson in making NFB tea one Sunday afternoon
after a Board meeting. At that time, and probably still today,
there was no recipe for NFB tea. He had a whole shelf full of
liquid spices, and he would take each one in turn, uncap it, tip
it over the mixing bowl of tea, and say, "Now listen, this is how
much you put in," as the spice trickled into the mixture. There
was no formal measurement, only the auditory method, listening to
the trickle. It was great fun, but how could anyone repeat such a
performance and come out with fine NFB tea? No one really
understands that.

     I thank Dr. Jernigan for giving me a meaningful life. When I
came into the National Federation of the Blind in 1970, I had
lost everything: my eyesight certainly, but my livelihood, my
confidence and self-esteem, any hope for a successful career.
Life for a blind person in North Dakota was very bleak--no
opportunity, no hope for change. Then Dr. Jernigan and the
Federation came along, and everything began to change. Blindness
might bring problems, but there are definite solutions to those
problems. Blind people have the right to equal treatment and
opportunity, and blind people can dream of how life can be made
better. Blind people can turn dreams into reality. Working
together, blind people have the power to change what it means to
be blind. We have a united voice; we have a firm philosophy; we
have a common purpose. All of this meant a great deal to me. But
it was all very different from everything I had known during the
early years of my life. It also meant that I had to change my
whole approach to life--no more hiding out, no more excuses, no
more shirking responsibility.

     The model set for us by Dr. Jernigan challenges all of us to
a high standard of conduct. I remember well his guidance and
teaching during the Minneapolis Society for the Blind lawsuit and
proxy fight. This type of litigation and corporate warfare was
totally new to all of us. During the trial, when Dr. Jernigan
came to testify, the Society lawyer asked him if the Federation
was funding the lawsuit. Dr. Jernigan's response was, "Well I
don't know if we have put any money into it or not, but let me
say that, if we didn't, we should have." That floored the
attorney, who had expected an outright denial. How strong and
decisive Dr. Jernigan was in answering unfriendly questions. He
took the Society attorneys completely off guard by being so
definite and giving specific reasons to support what he said. Dr.
Jernigan always knew what to do. He was always ready with ideas
for what should be done. Of course we won the lawsuit against the
Society.

     None of us had ever before been involved in a proxy battle
either. It was a time of vicious attacks, threatening phone
calls, character assassinations where our people were employed,
high-priced, hostile ads attacking the Federation and its leaders
circulated far and wide. When the troops would seem to waver and
begin to wonder whether the whole battle was worth all the
trouble, Dr. Jernigan would say, "We are in this battle now, and
even if we fight and lose, we will be better off for having
fought than if we had never tried at all." He told us that we
were fighting for a worthy cause, and at the best we would all
know the triumph of high achievement; and at the worst, if we
failed, we would at least fail while daring bravely. Once again
he was there; he listened to our mournful complaints and lent his
words of wisdom and support.

     All this time Dr. Jernigan was being attacked from every
direction. Our NAC opponents were very busy attempting to destroy
Dr. Jernigan and the Federation. I tried to give to him the same
support he had given me, but I know I received far more than I
gave.

     Hopefully we will never again be called upon to engage in
such battles, for today, again thanks to Dr. Jernigan's powers of
persuasion and charisma, the field of blindness is experiencing
unprecedented harmony. NAC and other agencies which once opposed
us are no longer viable. But the National Federation of the Blind
is stronger today than ever before.

     The best of all I know and believe about blindness and about
life I learned from Dr. Jernigan. He taught me to dream of a
better world for blind people and how to work hard or fight--if
that was necessary--to make that dream come true. All of us today
are considering what his loss will mean to the National
Federation of the Blind and to blind people everywhere. Yet
within each of us lies the very best that we have been given by a
most generous and loving person.

     Although he has passed from our midst in one sense, he will
always be with us in spirit to guide, to persuade, to mentor, to
support, to teach. All of us have better lives because of the
organization he built. If we all live our lives as Dr. Jernigan
lived his, we know the organized blind movement will thrive in
years to come. We can make it happen, and, Dr. Jernigan, we will
make it happen. We will all follow the legacy you have set and
support and march with President Maurer to continue the work of
the National Federation of the Blind. And whatever my personal
role in the Federation may be in the future, I promise, Dr.
Jernigan, I will always remember the gates.
                           **********
                           **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Allen Harris]
                         Transformation
                         by Allen Harris
                           **********
     In 1967, having been graduated from college and preparing to
look for a job as a teacher, for the longest time I had wanted to
coach wrestling and teach. Actually I wanted to coach wrestling,
and someone said you'd have to teach also. I said that I'd be
willing to do that. I just wanted to coach wrestling. So after an
intensive and prolonged struggle to find work, in the fall of
1967 I was employed by the Dearborn Board of Education to teach
social studies and to coach wrestling, the only things I ever
wanted to do.

     At that time another thing happened in my life. I said to
myself--no one else, for I was the one who felt it, knew it, and
had lived it--that I didn't want to hear, think, meet, or have
anything whatsoever to do with blindness anymore. I had learned
every lesson I cared to learn. I had met every kind of barrier I
could possibly face. I had struggled. I had been diminished,
demeaned, and generally abused by people over blindness, and I
was tired of it. I did not want anything to do with blindness
whatsoever. I set off to become a coach and a teacher and to do
so without any hint of blindness. After all, the people I worked
with were all sighted, and they loved me. They thought I was
terrific--I knew better--but they thought I was terrific, and
that was fine with me.

     I went along like that, because deep down in your soul, if
you are blind, you know you're blind even if you cannot deal with
it; even if you do not know what to do or think about it, you
know it's so. So for the next couple of years I went on like
that. I kept it buried as much as I could although it surfaced
from time to time. In 1969 in the summer I had completed my
master's degree (feeling very proud of myself), had written
something that was accepted--not terribly profound, as I look
back on it, but it fulfilled a requirement. It was perfectly
okay. I was prepared to hunker down and teach for the next
twenty-eight years, and that would be that.

     I was still not the least bit interested in hearing anything
about blindness, meeting anyone who was blind, or otherwise being
engaged in any blindness-related activities. That summer Evelyn
Weckerly, Ramona Walhof, Jim Omvig, and President Maurer came
into my life. Mrs. Walhof and Evelyn Weckerly came to visit me.
They wanted to talk to me about blindness. I was not the least
bit interested. More specifically, they wanted me to come to a
meeting. I was even less interested. What was worse, they wanted
to come to my house and talk to me about it.

     I thought that was a part of my life that was pretty much
gone. They were persuasive, and they came and talked to me about
a meeting that they were going to be having and that Dr. Jernigan
would be there. I didn't know who Dr. Jernigan was. I thought, "I
hope you have a good time. I hope it works out well, but I will
not be there." I finally got them to leave. Mrs. Walhof can
engage you for a while if she chooses to. So, finally having
gotten her on to her next appointment or wherever she was going,
I put that aside. That was the end of it.

     On a Friday night came a call from Mr. Omvig. He said how
much I was needed the next day, how much people were looking
forward to my being there, what a critical part I would play in
forming the affiliate, and all that he was very impressive; those
of you who know him know that. So I thought, well perhaps I
should go just because he's such a decent human being. A half a
day--I would just go for half a day. In any case, I went still
determining not to have anything to do with blindness, no
interest, nothing.

     I got there and I met some other people, including President
Maurer. We began to write a constitution for the newly formed NFB
of Michigan. Dr. Jernigan was chairing the meeting, and I
listened, and it wasn't very long before I thought, "There is
something very special about this person. There is something very
different about this person. When he talks about blindness, it is
not the way I feel about it. When he talks about blindness, he
talks about it in a way which allows me to think, `Maybe it's
okay.'" When he talked about it, he talked with such confidence
and such understanding; he knew exactly how I felt, where I had
been, and how troublesome it had been to me. But he also said,
"It is important for us to work together, to learn the truth
about blindness, to change what it means to be blind," all of
that stuff.

     By the end of that day (I didn't leave at noon as I had
planned) I was at a banquet, where I also had the pleasure of
meeting Lloyd and Mary Jernigan and sitting next to Dr. Jernigan.
I was forever transformed. I will save you some of the details,
but I was forever transformed that very day. For Dr. Jernigan
caught me in a way that nothing else in my life had or will
again. He touched me in ways that no one else ever could. He made
me feel that I was a perfectly capable person; although I had not
come to understand that, he had.

     For the next couple of years--while I was very much
interested in the Federation and while I read the Monitor with
particular interest and especially enjoyed sessions when Dr.
Jernigan would chair, and he would get some big old you-know-what
agency person up here and just work him over, I would sit back
and say, "Oh, right on, right on. Give it to him!" I found
strength in it although not the courage to be there. I found
faith in what he did and in what the NFB did, and oh, I loved him
so much when I would hear that. I would think, "Exactly, exactly!
Tell 'em, tell 'em exactly how it is!" You've all experienced it,
haven't you? You know when Dr. Maurer or Dr. Jernigan or one of
our leaders tells it like it is: it's such a good feeling!

     So, while I had not been active--totally inactive would be
more accurate--I began to think by the summer of 1971 that I
ought to do something, so I went off to my first convention. I
don't remember a whole lot about the details, but I remember
being exhilarated. I went again in '72, '73, '74, '75, and every
year since.

     I want to tell you a couple of personal things that Dr.
Jernigan did for me; there are so many, I can't even begin to
recount them. Could you? It would be very difficult. Yet I know
what they've done for my life and for yours and for the lives of
blind people whether they've ever met him or known him or not,
whether they've ever heard of the Federation or not. He changed
our lives as blind people forever.

     He called me in December of 1973 and invited me to a
seminar, a leadership seminar at that. I wondered why he picked
me. I couldn't figure it out, but he had picked me, and he sent
me a bunch of stuff, and he said, "When you get it, read it,
every bit of it." By gosh it came and I read it--every bit of it.
It came time to go off to the seminar, and I went with great
anticipation and with an absolute feeling of enthusiasm like I
had never known in my life. I got to Iowa, where I had heard
about the Iowa Commission for the Blind and where I had seen
Iowans who distinguished themselves in crowds of people, not just
blind people, anywhere you saw them. I thought, what a terrific
thing! I got to the Iowa Commission for the Blind and I walked in
the door and I felt so different. I felt this is what it should
feel like.

     I had gotten there, but I had gone with a cane that was--it
was a Lion's Club cane. Many of you have seen them, kind of a
hickory stick with a curve, more orthopedic than travel. In any
case, I hadn't been there very long before Dr. Jernigan called me
into his office. He said that he needed to talk to me. He sat me
down and showed me this fiberglass cane. He said, "I'm not sure
that I like these; I'm sure you won't. I'm sure this is not
something you'd be interested in, but I'll just show it to you
for your information." He said "In fact, if you want, you can
take it; leave it out there if you like; or you could use it or
whatever. In fact, if you find (you probably won't) you like it,
you can go back to the hotel by yourself tonight. Just go back,
and see how that works. Now maybe none of that is what you want
to do, but if...." Of course, it was all stuff I was going to do.
I was busy taking notes of exactly the things that he said I
might not want to do. Then I was determined to do them.

     That night I took that cane, which was twice the length of
the one I had, and I walked down the street, and I went back to
the hotel. I remember finding the hotel--'cause I sure was not
certain that I would when I left. It was cold in Iowa, and the
wind blew a lot. I thought, if I get lost, I didn't know.... But
in any case, I didn't think about it. I had been changed again by
Dr. Jernigan and didn't even know it.

     That same weekend I was taking copious notes, writing down
everything, not answering questions very well. President Maurer
and Mrs. Maurer were there also. I don't remember how well they
did. I don't think any of us felt that we did particularly well.
I liked them a lot, and other people were there. Hazel Staley was
there; she is in this convention hall, and she had never lit a
match. I remember this vividly. She didn't want to start then;
she had no interest in starting then. She lit a match. She was so
excited; we were all excited, and it just went on like that. That
was the way the weekend went. Anyway, Dr. John Halverson was
there also (Ph.D. from the University of Michigan).

     In any case, I put my plane ticket away. I wanted everything
to go perfectly. I wanted to make a good impression. I wanted to
learn and get optimum opportunity, so I put my plane ticket away.
Guess where I put it? I put it in the phone book, where it would
be safe in the drawer. Guess what, while I was out, the hotel
which apparently changes its phone books once a year, did it that
weekend and threw the old ones out. My ticket was gone. So I
thought what is it I can do. Well I could start walking home, or
I could just face the music. I don't know what the music will be,
but I'll face it. I went down, and I got there early as a matter
of fact. Dr. Jernigan was there; he was always there early and
late and in between. I had a chance to speak with him, and he was
kind and gentle and thoughtful as he always was. I thought, "How
am I going to break it to him?" Finally I managed to say, "Dr.
Jernigan, I have misplaced my ticket."

     He said, "Any idea where you may have misplaced it?" I told
him the story, and he said, "So it's gone, and you don't have
it."

     I said, "It's gone."

     He said, "That's a little bit of a problem. You will need a
ticket to get home." But he said this--and tell me if you don't
recognize all that he stood for in all of us as individuals, as
blind people. He said, "Step around here to the phone and order
another one."

     I thought, "Yeah, that's what I'll do. I'll just get another
one." Because of his faith in me, because of his commitment to
us, because of his unwavering belief that I was somebody and
worth something, and what we were doing as blind people was so
important, he said, "Stick around and get another one. Don't be
bothered by it." I'll spare you the details. We found the first
one. But that illustrates in one way many of the lessons he
taught us.

     Over the years I had the good fortune to speak to him, work
with him, be around him many times. Everything he taught me to do
came to me as very important. I wanted to be helpful at
conventions starting in about 1973, so I asked about things I
could do. He always had something for me to do. In the early
years, for instance, I think he gave me a spot to stand by the
elevators and said stay there and watch for anything you can be
helpful with, and if nothing comes along that you can be helpful
with, then simply stay there and finish up.

     I thank Dr. Jernigan for what he gave me personally and what
he gave every blind person who has ever lived or will live and
what he has done to make a difference for all of us. While we all
miss him very much, we must carry on and do the only thing he
asked of us: keep our Federation strong, support President
Maurer, and do everything we can.
                           **********
                           **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Diane McGeorge]
                         He Loved Us All
                        by Diane McGeorge
                           **********
     This is the time when we come together to celebrate Dr.
Jernigan's life and to remember the good times--to share the joy
and happiness he brought to many of our lives. So we could call
this our opportunity to reminisce, to laugh, and possibly to cry
just a little.

     I have so many reminiscences of good times shared with him
and with Mrs. Jernigan. When I sat down to try to capture just a
few of those wonderful moments, it was hard to choose. But I have
decided to tell all of you about Dr. Jernigan and Pony. Many of
you in this room today remember Pony. He was the dog guide I was
using at the time I attended my first leadership training seminar
held by Dr. Jernigan in September of 1975. I had no idea what to
expect from that seminar. I went there feeling very much out of
my element and wondering what the following four days would
bring. We were given a wealth of information, which I was sure I
was supposed to remember and might even be tested on. The
information was valuable, and no, we were not tested.

     The principal effects on me during that seminar were the
demonstrations of sincere love and caring that Dr. Jernigan had
for all of us. And that "us" included my little golden retriever,
Pony. Dr. Jernigan made it clear that, if Pony wanted to take a
break or have a snack, everyone would take a break and have a
snack. When I visited the Jernigans a couple of years ago, Mrs.
Jernigan had a picture she had taken of Dr. Jernigan hugging Pony
and Pony returning the affection. I don't know where that picture
is today, but it really doesn't matter. I know how much he
respected each person's choice, and in case you have forgotten
that point, read once again "The Nature of Independence."

     He taught me so much about compassion for others, about the
work that had been done by the Federation, and about the work
there will always be to do. During that first seminar he talked
about the orientation center he had built in Iowa. I was totally
captured by the idea that blind people really could compete
equally, that the time spent in a good orientation center steeped
in Federation philosophy could truly produce an entirely new way
of thinking about one's self and one's blindness. I had never had
the chance to attend the Iowa Commission orientation center, but
watching Dr. Jernigan and other Federation leaders who had had
the chance I had missed showed me that all he had said could be
actualized in other centers. I think that was when the germ of an
idea was born in me that I might some day start such a center.

     Now we have the Colorado Center for the Blind, which has
completed eleven successful years of operation. That could never
have been done, nor even dreamed of, without Dr. Jernigan and the
inspiration he gave me over twenty years ago. I see our students
come into the center afraid of trying new experiences, not
believing they count for very much because they are blind. In
many small ways they have been programmed to believe that they
don't count for much. Then they catch hold of the beliefs we all
share about ourselves and blindness which Dr. Jernigan taught us
and which he lived every day, and I know that, though he is no
longer physically present with us, he will never leave us
spiritually.

     I have shared with you just two examples of the way he
touched and changed my life. If I could talk to him just one more
time, I would say: "Dr. Jernigan, you changed my thinking and by
doing that, you changed my world. I made a commitment years ago
to do my best to help make the lives of other blind people better
by carrying on the work you did so well. I made that commitment
in 1975, and it is as strong today as it was then. You taught us
how to live, and you also taught us how to die. Your strength
during the time of your severe illness gave us all strength--more
strength than I ever thought I possessed. You didn't want us to
cry; you told us all you were at peace with your death. Today we
honor and remember you, but we do that every day. The best way
for all of us to honor and remember you is to build and
strengthen the National Federation of the Blind, to support Dr.
Maurer's plans for the future--not with great speeches and
flowery writings, but with good old-fashioned hard work. One of
the very last things you ever said to me was, `Diane, hang
tough.' Dr. Jernigan, I will.

                           **********
                           **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Peggy Elliott]
              What Is Dr. Jernigan's Legacy to Us?
                        by Peggy Elliott
                           **********
     I've attended twenty-nine conventions of the National
Federation of the Blind. This is my twenty-ninth. Long habits are
hard to break. I have found myself, when I have finished riding
an escalator, listening to see if Dr. Jernigan is here; when an
elevator door opens, hoping that he's on the other side; when I
enter a room or leave one, hoping that he is where I'm about to
be--what a wonderful life, to be the person that everyone wants
to be next to.

     What is Dr. Jernigan's legacy to us? Answers come tumbling
into the mind: stimulating conversation about blindness and
everything else; good times with food, wine, treats (he always
had just what you wanted); the National Center for the Blind; a
set of towering speeches in that unique voice that could stir or
soothe, motivate and unify. No single phrase can capture Dr.
Jernigan's legacy to us, except for one: he left us the National
Federation of the Blind.

     I suppose in a sense that is obvious. But what is this
Federation that he left us? It is not a building or words or
memories. Rather Dr. Jernigan left us a fully developed
community. To appreciate the legacy we hold and to use it as he
intended, we must first understand the gift.

     Dr. Jernigan gave to us the Federation core principles about
the truth involving blindness, explained and applied in hundreds
of specific situations in his speeches. These core principles
about blindness are ability, equality, and the need for us
individually and collectively to assert ourselves; and those
principles can be heard in his speeches in all the different
situations about which he knew. He also knew that unforeseen
situations would arise and that the Federation would be
challenged to apply the core principles to those new situations.
He left us, then, the core principles and the tools to use them.

     But he knew that was not enough. He had heard people say as
we all have: Well, I agree with what you Federation people say. I
just don't agree with how you do it. Besides, I just don't have
anything in common with older blind people or with unemployed
blind people since I have a job. I have a family, too, and
responsibilities among the sighted. The Federation is just not my
thing.

     Dr. Jernigan gave to us the core principle that the
Federation is not just principles. The Federation is also and
equally people--good people. People who have spent their money,
and often their SSI money, to make life better for all blind
people. The Federation is people, people who give of their time
even more than of their resources to learn the other principles,
to live the principles, and to teach them to others. The
Federation is people who have taken the time to grow and who have
taken the time to help others grow. The Federation is people who
have taken the time to learn that people unlike themselves in
every way but blindness are their brothers and their sisters,
that the common bond of blindness can be used to build bonds, to
build community, and to build success for all blind people, even
for those blind people who refuse to give of themselves for the
greater good. The Federation is principles and people
interacting, learning, teaching, growing, taking and giving
strength, affirming the good in one another, ignoring or
overlooking that which does not appeal, offering a hand to change
for the better to someone who may not realize or even believe
change is possible.

     The Federation Dr. Jernigan gave us is a community, a place
where principles live through people. You can not have the
principles in some sort of hazy, beautiful space up above us.
Neither can you just have the people who say they care about one
another. You have to have both interacting on each other, day by
day, month by month, year by year, to have the Federation that
Dr. Jernigan built and loved and gave to us. That is how and why
the Federation, with its truths about blindness first articulated
in 1940, will remain vibrant and valuable into the twenty-first
century and beyond. The Federation will do that by blind people
learning the principles from each other, refining and improving
their understanding through collective action, and applying the
basic truths to new situations and new challenges.

     Maybe there is another way to say the same thing even more
simply. Dr. Jernigan understood that nobody is interested in
blind people. The people most uninterested in blind people are we
blind people ourselves. He resisted. He said that we are, each of
us, worthy people. He said it to us, to me when I felt that my
life was ended due to blindness. He said it personally to many of
you and in his speeches and writings to people he had never met.
He guaranteed, not success for each of us, but he guaranteed and
convinced us and made us believe that we had the capacity for
success. He then convinced us that we had worth and that we had
something to give. Then he taught us to master the principles and
to join the other people in the National Federation of the Blind.

     That progression in Dr. Jernigan's mind guaranteed a better
future for blind people. What he gave to me, I challenge myself
to give to others. And I challenge each of you to do the same.
Dr. Jernigan's legacy to us is the most marvelous legacy any of
us will ever receive. It is the legacy that we can and must give
away for it to be effective. What a wonderful way to end a
wonderful life: Dr. Jernigan, with President Maurer's help, we
promise that the legacy you gave to us we will give away as fast
as we can.
                           **********
                           **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: John Cheadle]
                        He Was a Builder
                         by John Cheadle
                           **********
     The first time I encountered the name Kenneth Jernigan was
Thanksgiving time, 1973, at a family gathering. I was just
beginning my career in work with the blind. My dad's second
cousin--I guess she'd be my third cousin--listened attentively
for a few minutes to my news, then said: "If you want to work for
the best program for the blind in the world, you'll have to come
to Iowa and work for Kenneth Jernigan." She went on to tell me
how he had come to Iowa in 1958 and taken the helm of what was
regarded unequivocally as the least effective agency for the
blind in the country. She said that, not only had he built the
best training program for the blind, but he had also built the
largest library for the blind in the country. She went on and on.

     I was nearly nonplussed. I was the one with great news about
work with the blind, but her revelations eclipsed my meager
knowledge. How, I wondered, would she know these things? Was this
Iowa program really as great as she said it was? How credible
were her comments? After all, she was a housewife of modest means
who lived in a very small town, Ryan, Iowa, about halfway between
Manchester and Coggon. Yet her comments seemed uniquely well
informed and profoundly confident, and they kept a haunting
presence in my memory as I began my new career.

     Over the years, as I came to know the work of Dr. Jernigan
and the National Federation of the Blind better, I came to
understand how profoundly our work affects the lives not just of
blind people but of all people. Dr. Jernigan built programs in
Iowa and in the nation. He was called our teacher, leader,
colleague, and friend; and he was. And largely he was because he
was also a builder, a builder of buildings, of programs for the
blind, and ultimately a builder of lives.

     There in rural Iowa, distanced from the sophistication of
federal and state programs for the blind, rural Iowa where
farmers tended the land and city folk worked mostly in industries
which supported agriculture, rural Iowa, where life is close to
the heart, there was a blind man who had been taught that he
could neither tend the soil nor operate the machines of industry
and that he was a burden to himself and to those around him. But
Kenneth Jernigan came and got hold of a building and built a
program, and it touched the lives of this blind man and those
around him. He got training and he got work. I learned years
later that his sister-in-law, my dad's cousin, was ever grateful
that Kenneth Jernigan had come to Iowa.

     Shortly after I began my career, I had the opportunity to
visit the programs that Dr. Jernigan had built in Iowa. Although
I was mightily impressed with the programs, I believe I was
equally impressed with the building. It was unlike any state-
operated facility I had ever seen. Instead of the sterile
coldness of bare floors and tiled walls, there was the comforting
presence of wood, stone, carpeting, upholstered furniture, and
even a fireplace. The warmth that pervaded the programs that he
built was evident not only in the architecture and furnishings of
the place but also in the staff and students. His building and
his program had profound character. He had built it well.

     We bought the building we all now know as the National
Center for the Blind in the spring of 1978. That summer our
National Convention was held in Baltimore. Here is what Dr.
Jernigan had to say: "The building, I think, offers us the
possibility of doing many things. We will move from Des
Moines...[and]...we will establish offices here. Seminars--it is
planned--will be conducted from this office. We are trying to see
whether we can arrange to set up recording studios in this
building and to begin to do our own recording. We will see how
much training we can do of people there...the point is that we
will now have a building of our own--as a matter of fact, a whole
city block." He began building on that city block in 1978, and,
as you have heard, he hasn't stopped. Such is the character of
Dr. Kenneth Jernigan.

     In 1980, barely two years after we bought the building, I
worked for a short period of time in the Job Opportunities for
the Blind Program at our National Center in Baltimore. Dr.
Jernigan had already made significant changes in the building.
Under his leadership the building was purchased in 1978. Mostly
tenants occupied it, except that the fourth floor was vacant. It
was also, according to knowledgeable sources and neighborhood
gossip, less than desirable. But we moved in anyway. There were
about 165,000 square feet in this building, and the National
Center for the Blind occupied less than a fourth of it. But that
was more than we had had in Des Moines. Our operations in those
days were wholly contained on the fourth floor, and we didn't
even use all of that.

     In 1985 Dr. Jernigan offered me a full-time position in
Baltimore, and I accepted. In just four years Dr. Jernigan had
expanded our operations to fill all of the fourth floor and was
in the process of squeezing in an additional 5,000 square feet by
sandwiching a mezzanine level between a portion of the fourth
floor and the roof. He had also had the exterior masonry cleaned
and had installed new roofs on all of the buildings in the
complex. That was 1985. He kept right on building. Today, through
the efforts of Dr. Jernigan, the National Center for the Blind
occupies more than three fourths of the building's total square
footage (plus the 5,000 square feet of new space inside the
building), and it has also expanded to occupy at least 12,000
square feet in other buildings in the complex.

     In 1986 we began seriously to expand our operations in the
building. Half of the first floor of the building had become
vacant. So we remodeled it and moved all of our aids and
appliances, shipping, receiving, and storage operations from the
fourth floor down to the first floor. We temporarily moved people
from their fourth-floor offices in the Barney Street wing around
to the Johnson Street wing and then further crowded the situation
by eliminating the dining room in order to build a sound studio
and by eliminating the file room to build the accounting
department.

     It wasn't quite chaos, but it was very close. Yet Dr.
Jernigan kept the pulse of all that was going on. The Barney wing
of the fourth floor was now vacant and ready to be remodeled to
include a kitchen, a dining room, related storage space, a
records management center to store the documentation and written
history of the organization, two large work areas we call malls,
and more than twice as many offices as we had had. What a
marvelous project this was--twenty-two thousand square feet of
space to do with as we pleased.

     Dr. Jernigan took great delight and pride in planning the
use of this space. One day, after the contractor had laid out the
floor plates for all the walls that were going up, Dr. Jernigan,
the construction supervisor, and I took a tour to examine the
work. It was like walking around on a blueprint that was two
hundred seventy feet wide and eighty feet deep. Everywhere there
was a line on the blueprint there was a corresponding floor plate
in the construction area. Shortly after we started our tour, we
came to the north edge of the Records Management Center, where
there were two adjacent offices. Dr. Jernigan, using his cane to
follow along the floor plates, paused after we had gone nearly
all the way around one of the rooms. "There is supposed to be a
door here, joining the two offices," He said, tapping along the
edge of the floor plate.

     "No," replied the construction supervisor, "It isn't on the
prints."

     Dr. Jernigan turned to me and asked: "Well, Mr. Cheadle,
what do you think? Is it on the prints?"

     "No, Sir," I guessed; "I don't believe it is."

     He then offered us the opportunity, as he put it "to
increase our holdings." He put up a dollar to each of us, and we
went and looked at the prints. He was right and richer. I've long
lost count of the number of such opportunities, but I certainly
have learned a great deal at very minimal tuition.

     Somewhere along the line during this phase of construction,
Dr. Jernigan began asking me consistently when he greeted me:
"Mr. Cheadle, How are the contractors?" I learned quickly to
anticipate the salutation and tried to be prepared at all times
to answer thoroughly and with precision. If I did not know, I
told him I did not know; it was less expensive for all of us.

     In the years since the major remodeling of the fourth floor
Dr. Jernigan directed the replacement of all three elevators with
modern hydraulic units which go to the roof; the addition of a
new power transformer, and updating of the electrical
distribution systems throughout the building, as well as changing
overall plumbing to new copper pipes. He oversaw the renovation
of space in the central courtyard area to house our maintenance
facility. Another building in the courtyard area was remodeled to
house the first location of the International Braille and
Technology Center and offices. He planned and executed the
complete remodeling of the entire second floor of the main
building to include more new offices with a conference center,
nearly eighteen thousand square feet of space containing three
miles of shelving, and two thousand square feet of conditioned
archival storage space.

     Additionally, he directed the moving of the International
Braille and Technology Center to the second floor and added
offices and a conference facility. Dr. Jernigan redesigned the
front entrance to our building to improve the aesthetics and to
make it accessible to wheelchairs. He added a sign atop our
building twelve feet high and forty feet wide, topped off with a
forty-foot flagpole--both are visible from the nearby, heavily
trafficked Interstate 95.

     Last, but not finally, he oversaw the construction of a
masonry storeroom on the ground level whose roof is an eight-
hundred-fifty-square-foot deck. Above it is another deck of equal
size, and above it is the SkyDeck--over five thousand square
feet, partially covered, of outdoor meeting space. Everyone who
has had the pleasure of seeing the SkyDeck agrees that it is
definitely a crowning touch. All of these projects and many more
were conceived, planned, and built by Dr. Jernigan. And, yes, the
building is full of wood, stone, carpeting, upholstered
furniture, and a fireplace. It is admired by all who visit, as
are our programs, which were also built so well.

     The SkyDeck was not the last major building project at the
National Center for the Blind in which Dr. Jernigan participated.
During the last year of his life he worked continually on our new
building--the National Research and Training Institute for the
Blind--the model and blueprints of which are on display in Mrs.
Jernigan's suite in this hotel. Dr. Jernigan saw the SkyDeck
project through to completion and continued to direct the
activities at the Center until just days before his death. It is
fitting that we continue this legacy by completing the new
building and the programs that will touch the lives of all blind
people and those around them between here and anywhere.

     Dr. Jernigan was a builder. I will remember him for that. I
will also remember him as a teacher, as a leader, and as a
colleague; but mostly, I will remember and honor him as my
friend.

     Oh, and Sir, the contractors await our bidding.
                           **********
                           **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: James Gashel]
              Kenneth Jernigan: A Personal Tribute
                         by James Gashel
                           **********
     I first met Dr. Jernigan on June 11, 1964, at approximately
3:30 p.m. It was a Friday afternoon, just two weeks to the day
after I had graduated from high school. I was applying for
services at the Iowa Commission for the Blind, and Dr. Jernigan
was the director of that agency. In those days there was a great
deal of tension between the agency he directed and the school for
the blind which I had attended. So, you might say that Dr.
Jernigan's reputation had preceded him, as far as I was
concerned.

     The people at the school for the blind had told me that Dr.
Jernigan had a very domineering (they might have said
"controlling") personality. At the time of our first meeting at
his office in Des Moines, I was absolutely convinced that this
description of him was not an exaggeration. Now, however, as I
look back on those events in 1964, I would say that Dr. Jernigan
displayed an air of confidence that I had never observed in the
blind adults I had met until that time. It was also clear to me
that he was full of insight. In fact, in all of the years since I
first sat down for a talk with Dr. Jernigan, I have never met
anyone who could evaluate a situation or size up a person as
accurately as he could.

     Although I definitely didn't think so in the beginning, I
was truly blessed to become one of Dr. Jernigan's students. All
of you know that he loved to lead our movement, but he also loved
to teach. And when he taught us, he also had a great deal of fun
with us too. For Dr. Jernigan and his students, learning about
blindness and our potential was a full-time commitment. He kept
us focused on that commitment, day in and day out.

     When I say day in and day out, I mean from early morning
until late at night. For Dr. Jernigan there was very little time
to waste. So his day (and consequently our day) started about
5:00 a.m. when he knocked on the door to wake us up for morning
gym class.

     His greeting, which he delivered with unfailing gusto, was
just about what you would expect: "Are you alive?" This was not a
question. It was Dr. Jernigan's way of saying, "The world's
passing you by--get with it." He may have thought the question
was rhetorical, but there were definitely times when I considered
responding in the negative. However, I never did.

     So, as one of his students, I got with it. Now when you went
to the gym, you had to try to do more than the teacher. Dr.
Jernigan was the teacher. He had a way of letting you know that
the expected standard of performance for the students was to
exceed the performance of the teacher. He loved to show off for
us too. He did this by punching the punching bag faster than the
rest of us, walking on his hands clear across the room without
falling or stopping, and jumping rope faster and longer than you
can imagine. I actually think that jumping rope was his favorite
way to put us to the test. He would have us jump in groups,
because Dr. Jernigan always liked to do things in groups--you may
have noticed this about him.

     Now in jumping rope, Dr. Jernigan would have us form a line
consisting of two, three, or even as many as four students; then
he would head up the line. The idea was for all of us to jump a
single rope together. Believe it or not, we could do it too. And
during all of this activity there was Dr. Jernigan out in front
pushing us to do more and doing more himself just to show us that
we could do more.

     Speaking of doing more, Dr. Jernigan had a wonderfully
explicit way of teaching us that talking about what needed to be
done, rather than doing it for ourselves, was not enough. For
instance, when some of us were talking about how it was that the
kitchens at the center were inadequate, he said, "Fine, build a
new one." When we protested, saying that we had classes to go to
every day, he said, "This is your class. You have nothing more
important to do than to build the kitchen." So build the kitchen
we did.

     Now in those days at the center in Iowa, we were between
teachers in the wood shop. So the crew that was building the
kitchen had all of the equipment and all of the materials all to
ourselves and no instructor. This was of no consequence to Dr.
Jernigan. Our assignment was to build the kitchen. His assignment
was to make sure that we did it.

     So build the kitchen we did. And, although that particular
assignment was completed many years ago, in a very real sense I
have been building that kitchen, with Dr. Jernigan looking on,
ever since. He is not here now, but the building is still going
on. And the building will always go on. This will happen because
Dr. Jernigan taught us the skills to be the architects and
builders of the future for all blind people.

     As I look out over this great convention hall today, I am
absolutely convinced that we have the skills and the commitment
to build for the future. And we also have the responsibility to
do so. That too is what Dr. Jernigan taught us. When it comes to
meeting responsibilities, Dr. Jernigan never failed us. Now that
he is gone, we have the responsibility to be the leaders and
builders of the future.

     Dr. Jernigan has passed the baton to us. With the leadership
of Dr. Maurer as our guide, we in our turn will not fail to meet
our responsibilities. As the leaders of the present generation
and the next, we must claim the future and finish the journey so
all blind people can enjoy the freedom to which Dr. Jernigan
devoted his life. His cause is our cause, and the mission will be
fulfilled.
                           **********
PHOTO/CAPTION: Michael Gosse and Patricia Miller hold stacks of
the new book and video about Dr. Jernigan.

     Following the tributes, President Maurer announced that both
a video and a book had been compiled as memorials to Dr.
Jernigan's life. The video is a compilation of short clips and
unforgettable moments in Dr. Jernigan's public life. The cassette
edition of the book, titled Kenneth Jernigan: The Master, the
Mission, the Movement, is narrated by Dr. Maurer, and, where
possible, recordings of Dr. Jernigan's actual delivery of
speeches have been included. Those present for the memorial
service received both the video and print and cassette editions
of the book as they left the convention hall. They may now be
purchased from the Materials Center at the National Center for
the Blind for video, $10; print book, $5; and cassette book, $7.

     In closing, Dr. Maurer referred again to Dr. Jernigan's
delight in making and flying paper airplanes. Someone had given
him a plane that Dr. Jernigan flew into the hall at last year's
convention. In turn he then presented the memento to Mrs.
Jernigan. Following a prolonged standing ovation, Mrs. Jernigan
concluded the morning's activities with these words:
                           **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Mary Ellen Jernigan holds aloft Dr. Jernigan's
paper airplane, which President Maurer presented to her.]

     These paper airplanes, Dr. Maurer, have come to symbolize
many things for us--things Dr. Jernigan taught us. We take
ourselves seriously for our work is serious. But we also know how
to live with sparkle; he taught us that too. Somebody gave you
this airplane, and it had to be someone's cherished personal
treasure. Somebody gave it to you so that I could have it; he
taught us things like that too. I will keep this airplane for all
of us, to symbolize all that we are, all that we always will be.

     This morning we have looked back, and we have remembered.
Dr. Jernigan would have wanted us to do this; indeed, he would
have expected us to do this. But now he would expect us to do
something else; he would expect us to get on with it. [laughter
and applause] So let us go this afternoon to the Coca-Cola
Museum, to the CNN Center, and to Olympic Park. Let us conduct
the Braille workshop for parents. Let us roam the exhibit hall.
Let us gather around the swimming pool. Let us have a good dinner
tonight. Let us plan how to raise eighteen million dollars.
[applause] Let us build our new building. And let us do these
things as he would have us do them, together, with joy in our
hearts and a song on our lips.
                           **********
     As Federationists filed from the ballroom, volunteers handed
out the books and video. Carrying away these tangible
recollections of this dearly beloved man who set us free was both
a comfort and an encouragement to follow his example. The gift
was a memorable close to an unforgettable morning.
                           **********
                           **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Marc Maurer delivers the 1999 banquet address]
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Mementos of the 1999 NFB Banquet:
left to right a replica of the bust of Dr. Jernigan, the picture
on the front of the souvenir mug, the picture on its back, the
votive candle, and the banquet ticket.]
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Diners in the Marquis Ballroom listen to the
Banquet Address.]
[PHOTO/CAPTION: The five-hundred or so Federationists who enjoyed
the banquet in the Imperial Ballroom had large-screen video on
which to watch the proceedings. Spotters equipped with two-way
radios made certain that nobody missed a door prize.]

              The Mental Discipline of the Movement
               An Address Delivered by Marc Maurer
        President of the National Federation of the Blind
                          July 5, 1999
                           **********
     William Shakespeare thought that knowing what to do was
easy. It was the doing of it that was so hard. As he said, "If to
do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been
churches, and poor men's cottages princes' palaces."

     However, there are others who have a totally different point
of view. They believe that knowing what to do is the hard part.
Remarkable achievement is attained (according to these scholars)
by thought--by exercising the ability to distinguish between the
significant and the mundane. As the American bacteriologist Hans
Zinsser said, "The scientist takes off from the manifold
observations of predecessors and shows his intelligence, if any,
by his ability to discriminate between the important and the
negligible, by selecting here and there the significant
steppingstones that will lead across the difficulties to new
understanding."

     Just as it is for an individual, so it is for a culture, a
nation, or an organization. Each of these must attempt to
identify the steppingstones of progress. To the extent that they
achieve this difficult task and are committed to implementing
what they learn, growth and advancement occur. To the extent that
they fail, there are stagnation, deterioration, and aimlessness.

     In the late summer of 1998 Dr. Kenneth Jernigan, the most
forceful leader of the blind of our generation, taught a seminar
on leadership. Although this seminar was conducted less than two
months before Dr. Jernigan's death from cancer, which he knew
would soon overtake him, the seminar was upbeat and enthusiastic;
it took its tone from the teacher. He said during the class that
principles of behavior are important--indeed they may be the only
things that matter. If we have the proper principles, all else
will follow. If we do not possess these vital characteristics for
action and thought, the progress we gain is accidental and cannot
endure.

     So what are the principles for us--for the National
Federation of the Blind? What do we believe, and how do we
conduct our business?

     I met Dr. Jernigan in 1969. I was a student, and he was the
President of the National Federation of the Blind and the
director of the training program in which I had enrolled. He was
unusual, brilliant, fascinating, and challenging. One of his
unusual characteristics was that he always had an answer for
everything. How could anybody know so much, I wondered. I wanted
to find out if he really had all that knowledge or if he was just
good at faking it. I had never before met anybody who could
outthink me at everything, but he seemed to be able to do it. I
began to make bets with him. I thought there must be something I
know that he doesn't, and I wanted to find out what it was.

     It will come as no surprise to those who are familiar with
Dr. Jernigan that I lost the wagers. However, I learned an
important lesson. Dr. Jernigan used his mind--always and
rigorously. When two facts did not match, he noticed this
phenomenon and wanted to know why. He worked until he discovered
the reason. Not only did he use his mind, but he demanded that we
do the same.

     "Whether you like a conclusion or not," he told us, "observe
the evidence, and go where your mind leads you. If your reaction
to a conclusion makes you uneasy, hunt for facts you have
overlooked. If you cannot identify any, accept the conclusion. If
you cannot stand what you learn, do your best to change it, but
don't reject it from emotionalism or a chuckle-headed imprecision
of thought." Consequently, one of the fundamental principles of
the Federation is to trust your own mind--have confidence in your
capacity to think. Believe in what you know, and don't let others
talk you out of it unless they can demonstrate that they know
more about the subject than you do. Use your head; work hard; and
go where your mind leads you.

     Dr. Jernigan joined the Federation in 1949, and he became
active at the national level in 1952. For almost half a century
he gave to us freely of his intellect, his energy, and his
spirit. His mind was a formidable weapon in the arsenal of the
Federation. One of the factors that made this mind so
extraordinary was that Dr. Jernigan used it to insist that we
employ the same rigor in thinking that he demanded of himself. He
showed us that we cannot rely on somebody else's thought. Not
only is this undesirable, but it is completely unworkable.

     Any group that wishes to achieve freedom--that intends to
speak and act on its own behalf--must be prepared to imagine and
articulate its own philosophy. If that group intends (as we most
certainly do) to have a long-term impact on the broader society,
it must write that philosophy into an understandable literature,
which can be read and comprehended. The mental effort involved in
imagining what might be written and committing the ideas to paper
changes the people who do it. The process of thought and creation
and the act of internalizing the ideas that result from this
process force us to know what we think and to plan for the
implementation of that thought. This kind of planning is not only
helpful, it is a fundamental part of building civilization. The
philosophy and literature tell others what they may expect from
us, but they also tell us--the people who think and write them.
This is an essential part of relying on our own intelligence.

     Where has our intelligence led us? You know as well as I.
There are those who believe that the blind have little competence
and less sense, that our lives are necessarily filled with
bitterness and despair, that we are immobile and sedentary, that
we cannot aspire to the business world or the professions, that
our educational opportunities are limited, that we cannot become
leaders of government or society, that we will never be able to
compose and present to the public a literary description of our
talents and abilities which will be sufficiently lucid to capture
the imagination (and that somebody else will have to interpret
our lives for us), that any suggestion of having blind people
teach other blind people how to travel with a cane is
irresponsibly dangerous or positively immoral, and that the
assertion of the right of the blind to equal status within
society is not only a ridiculous dream but also a prescription
for failure--failure calculated to cause immeasurable harm and
psychological trauma. Do we in the National Federation of the
Blind believe that this summation represents the truth? Are the
blind immobile, incapable, and inarticulate? Will we let somebody
else determine our own destiny, specify our future, or speak on
our behalf?

     The answer is obvious. We the blind of the nation from all
walks of life, from every state, and from every sector of the
society have gathered here tonight in our thousands. We would not
be here if we did not intend to determine what our lives will be.
We have the capacity to observe; we have the mental discipline to
understand; and we will respond. We are the blind; we will speak
and act for ourselves; and there is no force on earth that can
prevent it!

     Throughout almost all of recorded history the blind have
been written off, and the literature about blindness has
reflected this opinion. Even though there have been many
dramatically successful blind people, the common culture has
dismissed the successes as exceptions. All too many of the
successful blind people (because it boosted their sense of self-
importance) agreed with the popular mythology. They accepted the
view that blind people are unproductive invalids, but that they
(the successful ones) are different and special.

     With the coming of the National Federation of the Blind, an
altered and much more realistic perception of blindness has been
developed. This perception is that blindness need not be a
tragedy--though, if it is not properly understood, it can be.
With training and opportunity blindness can be reduced to the
level of a physical nuisance, and the blind can compete on terms
of equality with the sighted. We the blind are people of
capacity, who want to make contributions to our society. We are
people that the members of the public will want to know. An
increasing number of us are leaders in our own communities and a
part of the social set. Nevertheless, the misunderstanding of
blindness persists, and it is reprinted and reinforced both by
the popular press and sometimes by uninformed blind people
themselves.

     In 1997 Stephen Kuusisto published his memoir, entitled
Planet of the Blind. In his book he discloses that his vision
(until he reached the age of thirty-nine) measured 10 percent of
what is regarded as normal. Kuusisto could not see, but his
parents urgently insisted that he try, and he accepted their
attitude about his blindness.

     On December 23, 1997, the New York Times published a review
of the Planet of the Blind. The review reflects the tone of the
book. It incorporates quotes and describes incidents contained in
the text, but it also adds reflections of its own--reflections in
keeping with the spirit of Planet of the Blind. This, in part, is
what it said:
                           **********
     For almost four decades, the writer Stephen Kuusisto tried
to hide the fact that he was legally blind.

     Though he could read only by holding a book an inch from his
face, though he could see little more on the street than blurry
colors and shapes, he tried for years to pass as a member of the
sighted world. He careened around his neighborhood on a bike,
insisted on piloting his family's powerboat, traveled alone to
Europe, and learned to ski.
                           **********
     [I interrupt the Times review to point out that the reviewer
and the author of the book apparently agree that such activities
are reckless and irresponsible for a blind person. However,
properly managed, there is absolutely nothing wrong with a blind
person's learning to ski, traveling alone, or riding a bicycle.
And a number of us have had our hands on the steering mechanisms
of powerboats. But back to the review.]
                           **********
     In his luminous new memoir Planet of the Blind, Kuusisto--
who lost his sight as an infant, when he was placed in an overly
oxygenated incubator that permanently damaged his retinas--tells
the remarkable tale of how he feigned sight for so many years. He
also tells us the affecting story of how he eventually came to
terms with his condition and began a new life, at the age of
thirty-nine, with a seeing-eye dog named Corky.

     So [continues the New York Times] how did Kuusisto manage to
negotiate the world for so many years without help, without even
a white cane to help reconnoiter its terrain? Part of it was
sheer recklessness, a determination to plunge ahead, regardless
of cars and walls and stairs. And part of it was reliance on wit
and acting skills.
                           **********
     [I interrupt again to ask, what is there about dealing with
cars and walls and stairs that is so reckless for a blind person?
Of course, it is much easier to manage these things using a cane;
but all of us have ridden in cars, walked on stairs, and traveled
around walls without using one; and the language of the reviewer
is a bit much. Let us suppose for a moment that Kuusisto wanted
to avoid these objects--how could he do it? Should he live under
the stars on a flat patch of prairie and never stray from the
reservation? Is this what the New York Times recommends for the
blind? But back to the review.]
                           **********
     He pressed his nose to the television set and used
magnifying glasses and huge, thick, telescopic spectacles to
examine books, slowly deciphering their elusive words one by one
by one.

     "The ordinary effort of reading is for me a whole-body
experience," he [Kuusisto] writes. "My neck, shoulders, and
finally, my lower back contract with pain. The legally blind know
what it is to be old: even before the third grade I am hunched
and shaking with effort, always on the verge of tears, seeing by
approximation, craving a solid sentence. Then the words dissolve
or run like ants. Nevertheless, I find a lighted room inside my
head, a place for self-affiliation. I am not blind, and not the
target of pranks."
                           **********
     [I interrupt to ask, who does he think he's kidding? Not the
target of pranks? Not blind? Able to find a lighted room inside
his head? We know better, and if he is honest about it, so does
he. But there is a ring of truth about part of this description.
How many of us have been forced to try to read what we could not
see. How many of our teachers have told us that, if we were not
lazy, we would be able to observe visually what they have
displayed? How many of us have felt the pain of trying to be
sighted when we were not? How many of us have been sold a bill of
goods--have been told that Braille is slow and inefficient when
it would have been much easier and faster than the print they
were trying to force us to use? But back to the New York Times.]
                           **********
     Having been brought up by parents who were reluctant to
acknowledge his disability, Kuusisto internalized their denial.
He did not want to get a white cane. He did not want to ask for
help. He did not want to be regarded as someone who was blind.
And yet for all his efforts to appear independent, he says he was
continually mocked as odd and clumsy and slow. Schoolmates called
him "Mr. Magoo," and one professor cruelly told him he did not
belong in graduate school.
                           **********
     [The Times review concludes with this paragraph] Although
Kuusisto's love of poetry can result in patches of overly self-
conscious prose--[such as] "my ego crawls around blindness like a
snail exploring a piece of broken glass"--he is a powerful writer
with a musical ear for language and a gift for emotional candor.
He has written a book that makes the reader understand the
terrifying experience of blindness and that stands on its own as
the lyrical memoir of a poet.
                           **********
     This is what the New York Times printed two days before
Christmas just a year and a half ago, and it makes one wonder
whether the author of the review and the author of the book ever
use their heads. Kuusisto is, by his own estimation and by the
opinion of the New York Times, a lyrical poet and a powerful
writer. Nevertheless, he looks down on his own life and belittles
himself because he is blind. Kuusisto tells us that he has been
misunderstood and that this has caused hardship. If these are the
measures of a lyrical memoir, each one of us in this room should
have one. Kuusisto admits that his own misperception added to the
misunderstanding, and we can certainly agree with his assessment.
The question we ask is whether Kuusisto's present writing will
help to solve the problems he has identified or cause more
damage. If the review of the New York Times is any indicator, it
would be better if he had not written. The impression left by the
Times is that living as a blind person requires extraordinary
courage and that blindness itself is a terrifying experience.

     We need a literature which tells of our hopes and dreams--
our abilities and contributions--and we would like Kuusisto to
use his lyrical pen to help in its creation. But he must tell it
like it is--not perpetuate ancient fears and add to
misinformation. Whether he writes it or not, it will be written
because we will insist that it be written. Indeed much of it we
have already written. We have the capacity to observe; we have
the mental discipline to understand; and we have the ability to
write. Our literature speaks of freedom, and we will settle for
nothing less. We are the blind; we will speak and act for
ourselves; the literature will tell our story; and we will be
heard. There is no force on earth that can prevent it!

     A notion abroad in the land, which has been repeated in many
different forms during the past few years, is that blind people
differ from the sighted not only because we lack the capacity to
see, but also because our brains function in a different way from
the sighted. The argument goes like this: Seeing is an important
function that demands a lot of effort from the brain. A portion
of the cortex is devoted to managing visual images; blind people
do not use this cortex for seeing. The visual cortex of the blind
is reassigned to assist the brain with the functions of smelling,
tasting, touching, and hearing. Thus (according to this
argument), the blind have a sharper sense of hearing, a keener
sense of taste, a more acute sense of smell, and a clearer sense
of touch than the sighted.

     An article entitled, "Blind People Compensate with Hearing,"
which appeared on October 5, 1998, in the Register Citizen, a
newspaper of Connecticut, says in part:

     It might be true what they say about the blind having better
hearing than people who can see. Blind people apparently
compensate for their lost vision with greater ability to locate
sounds than people with normal or partial vision, a Canadian
study suggests. Neuropsychology researchers at the University of
Montreal found that, unlike people with normal vision, blind
people could correctly pinpoint the source of sounds even with
one ear deliberately blocked by the testers. "One important
question left unanswered is whether blind people learn to use
their hearing more efficiently or undergo some kind of
physiological change," said William R. Wiener, chairman of blind
rehabilitation at Western Michigan University. Wiener said other
recent research suggests, "There may be some physiological
changes that occur in the brain in the processing that make a
blind person more efficient." Dr. Steven Parker, director of
developmental and behavioral pediatrics at Boston Medical Center,
said, "It is possible that part of the brain commonly used to
process images gets recruited to process sound. But in the
partially blind, those brain cells already are being used for
sight, and they can't switch over."

     That's what the article says, and I wonder if the
researchers are willing to take the argument the whole way. Blind
people are able to hear better, they say, because we have lost
our sense of sight. What would happen to us if we had also lost
our senses of taste, touch, and smell? Our hearing would be so
acute that we would be able to hear the ordinary sound a mile
away, and the whisper in the next room would be plainly audible.
Imagine the advantages. The CIA would no longer need all of those
listening devices; it could use us.

     Or imagine the sense of touch. Some years ago the argument
was made that blind people are better at kissing than the sighted
because we are not distracted by extraneous visual images.
However, William Wiener puts the matter on a different footing.
We kiss better (it could be argued) because we have an enhanced
sense of touch. Is the improvement noticeable only by the blind,
or can the sighted enjoy it too? What about the deaf-blind? Is
their sense of touch superior to that of those who are only
blind? If they had lost the senses of smell and taste, the
experience of kissing might be so keen as to put them into orbit.

     Or consider another line of thought. Why is it that the
researchers believe the reassignment of the cortex affects only
the senses? Maybe the blind, who do not use their brains for
seeing, employ this unused mental capacity for more intellectual
pursuits. Maybe we use the brainpower to think; maybe we are
smarter than the sighted.

     Our experience shows us that such speculation is just that--
speculation. We don't believe our loss of sight has altered our
mental processes. I will admit that some of the blind people I
have met possessed most unusual ideas, but their thinking was no
more bizarre (and no less bizarre) than the mental gymnastics I
have sometimes observed from the sighted--especially those with
experiments to perform on the blind.

     We say this to the experimenters. If you want to know what
blind people are like, come to us--come to the convention of the
National Federation of the Blind--come to us in our thousands. We
will help you learn what blindness is--and of equal importance--
what it is not. But keep in mind that we insist on equality in
the Federation. If you insist on conducting experiments on us, we
think it is only fair that we be able to conduct a few on you.

     You may have thought that the negative stereotypes that were
once so often associated with blindness are a thing of the past--
that they existed at one time, but that nobody could possibly
believe them today. Even if there remain a few unenlightened
souls who think the blind are inferior and the techniques
employed by the blind are second-rate, surely this attitude could
not prevail in the highly-educated and well-informed circles of
programs established to serve the blind.

     On August 12, 1998, leaders of the Puerto Rico affiliate of
the National Federation of the Blind appeared before a committee
of the legislature to urge that a bill be adopted to secure the
right of the blind to learn Braille. The head of the Puerto Rico
Rehabilitation Administration, Dr. Jose Santana, the man
responsible for directing programs in Puerto Rico established to
ensure that the blind learn what they need to know, gave
testimony against the bill. He said that teaching Braille to a
blind person with any residual vision whatsoever, no matter what
skills or talents that person may possess, is anti-pedagogical,
anti-democratic, and cruel. He said that becoming blind is a form
of dying. He compared the teaching of Braille (if you can believe
it) to having a healthy person, on the theory that the person
will one day die, climb into a coffin. Such testimony boggles the
mind.

     Our experience is that Braille is a liberating skill, one
that encourages independence and expands opportunity. Dr. Santana
argues that achieving literacy for the blind is similar to
seeking death. And they tell us that we have psychological
problems. What are the psychological implications of Dr.
Santana's argument? Does he believe that he is a whole person but
that we who are blind are not? Does he believe that we are
inferior and that he is superior? Does he believe that
administrators of programs for the blind are put in place to look
down upon the clients they are supposedly working to serve?

     Dr. Santana would deprive us of our method of reading; he
would insist that the blind be illiterate. He thinks we are
already partly dead, but we will not let his lack of
understanding help us into the grave. We will not let his
psychological need for superiority govern our future.

     We reject Dr. Santana's formulation and all of the
psychological myths--the hidden insecurity and the unspoken fear-
-that are part of this ignorant misperception. We want freedom,
and Braille is one of the elements that will help us get it. We
will not let narrow-mindedness or bigotry on the part of
administrators of programs for the blind keep us from it. Dr.
Santana believes he speaks for the blind, but he cannot--and he
never will speak for us. We will express our own views, and we
will be heard. There is no force on earth that can stop us!

     Although an increasing number of the members of the public
have come to recognize the struggle of the blind to achieve
first-class status in society and have joined with us in this
effort, there are a few who still believe blindness signifies a
complete lack of the ability to contribute. These unenlightened
people think that we the blind are unable to earn anything and
that whatever we have must have been given to us. They hold the
view that the only contribution possible for the blind is to
serve as the objects of somebody else's pity, and they want to
feel pity for others because they gain a sense of superiority
from doing so. They think that we who are blind want something
for nothing. Unfortunately, some blind people help to support
this negative and uninformed understanding.

     On March 8, 1999, an article appeared in Newsweek Magazine,
entitled "Navigating My Eerie Landscape" by Jim Bobryk, a blind
person living in California. Bobryk's description of his own
experience is a strange mixture. It demonstrates that his
training in the skills of blindness has been minimal, that he has
not come fully to accept or understand blindness, that his
determination to carry on the activities of living is reasonably
firm, and that he is looking for ways to exploit his blindness.
Here in part is what Bobryk says:
                           **********
     Now, as I stroll down the street, my right forefinger
extends five feet in front of me, feeling the ground where my
feet will walk.
                           **********
     [I interrupt to point out that this is a catchy way of
saying that Bobryk uses a cane. He is not a freak with a
five-foot-long finger; he is blind with a cane in his hand. But
back to the article.]
                           **********
     Before, my right hand would have been on a steering wheel. I
drove to work, found shortcuts in strange cities, picked up my
two daughters after school. Those were the days when I ran my
finger down a phone-book page and never dialed information. When
I read novels and couldn't sleep until I had finished the last
page. Those were the nights when I could point out a shooting
star before it finished scraping across the dark sky. And when I
could go to the movies, and it didn't matter if it was a foreign
film or not.

     But [Bobryk continues] all this changed about seven years
ago. I had battled glaucoma for twenty years. Suddenly, without
warning, my eyes had hemorrhaged. I now have no vision in my left
eye and only slight vision in my right. A minefield of blind
spots makes people and cars suddenly appear and vanish. My world
has shapes but no features. Friends are mannequins in the fog
until I recognize their voices. Printed words look like ants
writhing on the page. Doorways are unlit mine shafts. This is not
a place for the fainthearted.
                           **********
     [I interrupt again to point out that Bobryk uses the
language to ask for sympathy. Life was good before blindness, but
now it is filled with minefields and unlit mineshafts, with no
foreign films and no driving, with no books at night before bed
and no stars. Of course a doorway is not an unlit mineshaft, but
the image of falling and danger is enhanced by such hyperbole.
The message here is not complex. Bobryk says: give me pity; I am
blind. But back to the article.]
                           **********
     My cane is my navigator in this eerie landscape. Adults will
step aside without comment when they see me coming. While I'm
wielding my stick, strangers are often afraid to communicate with
me. I don't take this personally--anymore. Certainly they can't
be afraid that I'll lash out at them with my rod. (Take THAT, you
hapless sighted person! Whack!) Still, [Bobryk says] I refuse to
take a dim view of this.
                           **********
     [Once again I interrupt to say that this part of the
narrative is slightly more complicated. It indicates isolation,
frustration, and anger. The white cane is a symbol of
independence and a means of travel, but in Bobryk's hand it is
(at least in his own mind) an instrument for separation from the
public--not a means for participation in society. And it is also
a potential weapon to be used against the undeserving.
Nevertheless, he continues to use the cane because it gets him
where he wants to go. However, he thinks of it as an element of
an eerie world--one filled with loss, regret, and bitterness. The
cane is not a valued part of an independent life; it is a
necessary evil. But there is more in the article. Bobryk
continues.]
                           **********
     It's not like it's inconvenient for friends to help me get
around. Hey, have disabled parking--will travel. Christmas
shopping? Take me to the mall and I'll get us front-row parking.
Late for the game? No problema. We'll be parking by the stadium
entrance. And if some inconsiderate interloper tries to park in
the blue zone without a permit, he'll either be running after a
fleeing tow truck or paying a big fine.

     So you see [Bobryk continues] I'm a good buddy to know. I
just carry a cane, that's all. None of this is to make light of
going blind. Being blind is dark and depressing. When you see me
walking with my cane, you may think I'm lost as I ricochet down
the street. But you'll find more things in life if you don't
travel in a straight line.
                           **********
     This is the description of blindness that appeared less than
four months ago in Newsweek Magazine. Blind people can't walk in
a straight line; we ricochet through the world. Ours is a dark
and depressing existence. We take what we can get and have little
or nothing to give in return, except a handicapped parking space
close to the stadium entrance. Bobryk exploits his blindness, and
he does it deliberately--extracting privileges from the public
that are not necessary, on the false and destructive premise of
pity. Then he complains about isolation and backlash.

     Newsweek printed this story as one acceptable way of
understanding blindness, but it is not acceptable to us. Blind
people are not all angry, frustrated chiselers. We are not
victims, and we refuse to act the part of beaten-down, sniveling
whiners. A new literature about blindness is needed, and we the
organized blind are setting the pattern of its formation. The
Newsweek article represents the comprehension of a former day and
is an illustration of the literature of a bygone era. Its appeal
to emotionalism is thin and superficial. Unlike our literature
its pattern is so thoroughly recognizable that the text demands
almost no thought at all.

     In our literature we speak not of anger, but of a
willingness to work; not of pity, but of self-reliance; not of
exploitation, but of a shared commitment to join with others to
build a better future. We have the capacity to think and the
mental discipline to tell our own story. Our struggle for
independence is real, and increasingly the insight of reporters
is recognizing the drama. The previous image was wrong, and we
are helping them replace it. We are the blind, and we will speak
and act on our own behalf. There is no force on earth that can
prevent it.

     Much of the work of the National Federation of the Blind is
done through correspondence. We write thousands of letters each
year and distribute them to millions of people. We include with
our letters literature about blindness, especially Kernel Books.
Part of our mailing program is intended to educate the public,
and part of it is designed to locate individuals who need our
help. Of course we receive thousands of responses. Some of them
are articulate and literary, but others are written in the
simplicity and eloquence of need. Here are excerpts from one of
these:
                           **********
     I'm very much in need of assistance for my nine-year-old
daughter Satoria; she was born blind. She had surgery on her eyes
when she was one week old. And by the grace of God she can do a
lot of things. When she were two years old, she would take books
from the shelves and sit on the floor and try to read them. And I
ran out of the room where she were, and I started crying my poor
little heart out until I couldn't cry no more. And when she got
ready for Head Start, she was going ahead of everybody in class.
She has a visually impaired teacher comes in and out of her
class, checking on her. But it is very hard for me. These people
wants me to work while I have a child that can not see almost to
cross the street. I be frightened that some one will call me and
say, "Your daughter has got hit by a car," or anything. I'll tell
you, this have me worrying, depressed, and nervous. They really
don't understand. I am a single parent with no transportation in
the city of New Orleans. But I'm glad this [letter] were sent
through the mail--the first thing I've got. You know we gets a
lot of junk mail. I want my kids to grow up right--feeling
comfortable. Sometimes I really have it hard, and Satoria don't
have a van to pick her up to go to the clinic or no trainers to
help her just in case her sight leaves completely. I don't have
enough of money to get her the help she needs. But I'm going to
send what I can afford. But thanks to that man upstairs; He's
still blessing me and my kids. I'm pleased to meet you and hope I
hear from you in the future.
                           **********
     Such is the letter from the mother of a blind nine-year-old
child--a mother who has almost no resources, few contacts, little
knowledge of the system, and no realistic appraisal of what to
expect of her child. She cares deeply, and she is willing to give
of the little that she has. However, she is worried about the
future for her child, and she does not know what to do. She has
received our message of hope and belief, and she has begun to
wonder if the opportunities we describe can become a part of life
for her daughter. Although she is not accustomed to writing, she
has put words on paper and spoken from the heart. She needs
money, but this mother is afraid to work because she believes she
is needed constantly to watch over her child. This adds to the
economic hardship of the family. Despite this hardship she is
prepared to give to us from what she has because we offer an
opportunity which exists nowhere else. I understand this feeling
(as we in the Federation do), for I have children of my own, and
a sacrifice to assist them is one way of believing in the
goodness of tomorrow. We in the Federation must create
opportunities for the children of today that never existed for
us, and of course we will. Because Satoria's mother has written,
her daughter will have an expanded future, for we will do what we
can to help with that future.

     In 1940 (almost six decades ago), the National Federation of
the Blind was founded by Dr. Jacobus tenBroek and a handful of
other stalwart people at Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
Circumstances faced by the blind in those days were extremely
poor, and prospects for the future were almost equally dismal.
But Dr. tenBroek and those others knew that the only method for
improving the future for the blind was to form a mechanism
through which the blind themselves could take action to bring
pressure on private and public programs for the blind, to
challenge commonly held beliefs about blindness, to institute
policy reforms respecting blind people, and to take other action
to stimulate enhanced opportunity for the blind. That mechanism
is our organization--the National Federation of the Blind.

     Twelve years later the founder of the Federation, Dr.
Jacobus tenBroek, and the builder of the Federation, Dr. Kenneth
Jernigan, met at a National Convention of the organization in
Nashville, Tennessee, and formed a lifelong friendship. Dr.
tenBroek continued to lead the movement until his death in 1968.
He was more than a President; he was the charismatic leader and
the magnetic orator. Dr. tenBroek loved the Federation, and his
love was evident in his leadership. He also loved Dr. Jernigan,
who became President of the organization at the time of Dr.
tenBroek's death in 1968 and who served as the leader of the
movement for the next thirty years.

     Under Dr. Jernigan's leadership the Federation expanded to
every corner of the nation, and the number of its activities
increased exponentially. The aids and appliances program of the
Federation was established; leadership training seminars were
commenced; presidential releases on cassette were distributed;
Christmas programs were recorded; public service announcements
for television and radio were prepared; the National Center for
the Blind was discovered, remodeled, and furnished; a number of
magazines were founded including the Voice of the Diabetic and
Future Reflections, the magazine for parents and educators of
blind children; training centers for the blind came into being in
Louisiana, Colorado, and Minnesota; greater harmony than had ever
existed in the past was fostered among agencies for the blind and
organizations of the blind within the United States and beyond
our borders; the staff of the Federation was hired, trained, and
integrated into the fabric of the organization; the International
Braille and Technology Center for the Blind was established; the
Kernel Book series was initiated and the books themselves
distributed to millions; the NEWSLINE(R) for the Blind network
was invented and put into operation; the America's Jobline system
was developed; and funding to support all of these programs and
dozens of others was secured.

     In his hands the Federation became a solidly harmonious and
unified organization with purpose, drive, and force. A corps of
leaders throughout the movement was trained at the local, the
state, and the national levels in the mechanisms of the
Federation and the techniques of its governance. Dr. Jernigan
also loved the Federation, and his love was equally evident in
his leadership.

     Dr. tenBroek died more than thirty years ago, and Dr.
Jernigan drew his last breath in the fall. But the spirit of
these two magnificent leaders is with us still. It is present in
the scholarships we grant, in the programs we pursue, and in the
literature we publish. They have given us a method of thought and
a habit of living; they have given us the inspiration to move
forward with confidence in ourselves and in each other. They
never failed to plan ahead, and we have learned from their
example to do the same.

     So what of tomorrow--what does the future portend for us?
Will we be misunderstood and belittled by the press? Will the so-
called scientific researchers (aided and abetted by some of the
less well-informed agency officials) tell us that our minds
operate differently from those of the sighted? Will certain
administrators of programs for the blind declare that being blind
is a form of dying and challenge our right to learn Braille? Will
weak-spirited blind individuals seek something for nothing on the
basis of pity and encourage the press to print, for public
display, their lack of confidence as if it were news? Yes, all of
this will occur and more. We will face misunderstanding of our
talents and capacities, mischaracterization of our actions and
beliefs, and misrepresentation of our purposes and objectives.
Furthermore, we will not always have the resources to meet the
immediate needs that will come our way. But will this cause
within us, or within our movement, a crisis of confidence? Not a
bit of it! We have set our objectives, and we will not waver
until we have reached our goal.

     Yes there will be problems aplenty. But we have the means
for solving them. We have our own resources, and increasingly we
have the goodwill and the understanding of others. Some members
of the press misunderstand us, but many others don't. Some agency
officials think us inferior, but many others have joined with us
in the effort to bring acceptance for the blind into the public
mind. Some researchers regard us as abnormal, but many others
recognize us for what we are. Furthermore, we ourselves are, in
ever greater numbers, being welcomed as members of the press,
administrators of programs for the blind, and researchers within
the scientific community. At one time we were alone, but today we
have more colleagues and more friends than ever before in
history. And, of the greatest importance, we have each other. We
have the Federation in all its depth and strength--and who could
ask for more?

     In 1986 you elected me President of the Federation, giving
to me the highest honor that anybody can bestow. I have done my
best to take my standard as President from Dr. Jernigan, who (in
his turn) took his standard from Dr. tenBroek. I have tried to
lead our movement with understanding, good judgment, and
firmness.

     We in the Federation have a shared bond of love and trust
from me as President to you the members, and from you to me. As
long as you want me to do so, I will do my best to continue to
lead our movement. I will be willing to stand in the front lines
and to take whatever comes without flinching or equivocating. I
will give freely of my time, my energy, my imagination, my
resources, and my commitment; and I will meet the problems we
face head-on. I will not ask of you what I am not prepared to do
myself. This is my obligation and my pledge.

     You the members of the Federation also have an obligation to
the movement and to me as President. I will expect you to give of
your time, your energy, your imagination, and your resources.
When the challenges come to us and the difficult times arise, I
will ask you to support the movement and me--to give me your
dedication and your commitment.

     If we as a movement--if we, the great body of the
Federation--are not prepared to give all that is good within us,
our growth and progress will diminish or cease to be. But we will
not hesitate or turn back. The stakes are too high and the cost
too great to permit it. We have tasted freedom, and we can never
again be satisfied with anything less than full independence for
ourselves and those who come after us. Those who preceded us--Dr.
Jacobus tenBroek, Dr. Kenneth Jernigan, and those thousands of
others in the movement--have carried the banner, have sacrificed
to gain opportunity for us, and have fought the battles so that
we might comprehend what can and will be ours. They led and we
followed; now it is our turn to lead. The spirit they kindled can
never be extinguished because we will fan the flame--we will add
fuel to the fire--and we, the members of the movement, will cause
a great conflagration.

     We are the blind of more than a single generation, of every
segment of society, and of every part of the nation. We have the
capacity to think and the mental discipline to reach conclusions
that will alter the future for us all. We possess the confidence
to bring those conclusions to reality. Nobody else can do it for
us; we must do this for ourselves; and we will! Our future is
bright with promise because it belongs to us, and there is no
force on earth that can stop us. Come, and we will make it come
true!
                           **********
                           **********
        National Federation of the Blind Awards for 1999
                           **********
     From the Editor: National Federation of the Blind awards are
not bestowed lightly. If an appropriate recipient does not emerge
from the pool of candidates for a particular award, it is simply
not presented. At this year's convention three presentations were
made. The first took place during the Board of Directors' meeting
Friday morning. Sharon Maneki, who chairs the Distinguished
Educator of Blind Children Award Committee, made the
presentation. Here is the way it happened:
                           **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Debbie Baker displays her plaque while Sharon
Maneki addresses the audience and Diane McGeorge looks on.]
         Distinguished Educator of Blind Children Award
                           **********
     Good morning, Mr. President, fellow Federationists. As we
advance in our march toward equality and opportunity, sometimes
our methods in the National Federation of the Blind may be
categorized as using the stick. Sometimes our methods are
categorized as using the carrot. This morning it's a great
pleasure to be in the carrot category.

     About eleven years ago we started the Distinguished Educator
of Blind Children Award to recognize outstanding teachers who
worked with the students in the vision programs throughout the
country. This morning the committee of Allen Harris, Joyce
Scanlan, Jackie Billey, and me are bringing to you a truly
outstanding and distinguished educator of blind children.

     She has been teaching for twenty-two years. She teaches
students from kindergarten right through high school. Of course,
she teaches academics, as a teacher would. She teaches the skills
of blindness--Braille and so forth. Isn't this an interesting
thing: I didn't know this but it really turned out that we picked
out a very fine person. The other day, when I was perusing the
newsletter of the National Association to Promote the Use of
Braille, there was her name on the back as a lifetime member of
NAPUB.

     This individual happens to be from Springfield, Ohio. She
teaches her students how to stand up for themselves, how to
advocate for themselves, and while it can be lonely for a blind
person to be a teacher in the vision field because her attitudes
may be somewhat different from those of her colleagues, she is
true to our philosophy and true to independence. Join me in
congratulating Deborah Baker from Springfield, Ohio.

     I have just handed Deborah Baker the check for $500, and I'm
going to read her plaque:
                           **********
              The National Federation of the Blind
                             honors
                        Deborah E. Baker
            Distinguished Educator of Blind Children
               for your skills in teaching Braille
                  and the use of the white cane
                     for generously devoting
                  extra time to meet the needs
               of your students, and for inspiring
                 your students to perform beyond
                       their expectations.
                   You champion our movement,
                    you strengthen our hopes,
                      you share our dreams.
                        Congratulations.
                           **********
     After receiving her plaque, Debbie Baker said:
                           **********
     Hello, fellow Federationists. I am deeply honored to be
here. I thank you all and give special thanks to my supporters
from Ohio, particularly our President, Mrs. Pierce, and Eric
Duffy. I do teach my children about sight--the same sight that
you and I have. I teach the youngest members of the NFB, and I
teach them that foresight (a good name is luck) and insight are
always necessary, but hindsight is the best because we all have
twenty/twenty, and it enables us all to learn. Thank you.
                           **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Mike Romeo and Betty Niceley display his Golden
Keys Award.]
                      The Golden Keys Award
                           **********
     At the banquet Betty Niceley, President of the National
Association to Promote the Use of Braille, came to the platform
to make a presentation. This is what she said:
                           **********
     The National Association to Promote the Use of Braille takes
great pleasure in recognizing excellence. It is a special
pleasure to find excellence among those quiet people who work in
the background to make things happen. While trying to keep
abreast of the continuously growing field of technology, we are
extremely delighted to see that Braille has benefitted from all
of this. There is one who has played a vital role in the
development and evolution of personal and mass-production Braille
embossers. In the late 1970's the Kentucky Modified Braille
Embosser was developed. But this prototype machine had little
potential for ever becoming available to many blind consumers.

     Then along came someone who performed a remarkable re-
engineering job on this prototype, changing it into the world's
first useable embosser in the low-price range. Many hundreds of
blind consumers were then able to own a portable Braille embosser
because this prototype was transformed into a viable commercial
product. Because of this experience a young man was led to great
creativity, which resulted in such things as the Braille Blazer
embosser, the undisputed leader in the personal Braille embossers
in the United States and in some foreign countries.

     He also designed technology that led to a number of other
things such as the Romeo Brailler, which quickly led to the
Juliet Brailler and certainly influenced other Braille embossers.

     Then this young man turned his attention to refreshable
Braille displays and the machines that use them: the Braille 18,
the Braille Lite 2000, and the Braille Lite 40. Each in turn has
contributed significantly to the production of Braille and its
use. There is no doubt that this individual is an engineer with
rare talent for developing and improving Braille products for the
blind.

     Tonight the National Association to Promote the Use of
Braille wishes to honor him for the years of his continued
dedication and for his contribution to Braille. Tonight we are
pleased to add to the very short list of distinguished
individuals who have received the Golden Keys Award the name of
Mike Romeo. Mike, this is only the fourth Golden Keys Award that
NAPUB has given in its fifteen years of existence. Please
understand this award is not given lightly. This plaque says:
                           **********
     The National Association to Promote the Use of Braille
To you, Mike Romeo, we award these golden keys in recognition of
your commitment to Braille and to the Braille readers who depend
on it. To these readers you have given keys that unlock doors to
the temple of knowledge.
                          July 5, 1999
                           **********
     Mike, we are pleased to present this award to you, and we
trust that you will keep up the years of dedication that have
gone before and that many more will come. Congratulations.
                           **********
     While Mr. Romeo was coming to the platform, Betty explained
that in addition to the text the face of the plaque includes
seven keys in the configuration of those on a Braille writer.
Mike Romeo accepted the award but preferred not to speak.
                           **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Ramona Walhof addresses the audience. Beside her
Allen Harris holds his Jacobus tenBroek Award plaque while his
wife Joy looks on applauding.]
                   The Jacobus tenBroek Award
                           **********
     Near the close of the banquet, Master of Ceremonies Allen
Harris called Ramona Walhof, who chairs the Jacobus tenBroek
Award Committee, to the microphone for a presentation. This is
what she said:
                           **********
     Dr. tenBroek was the founder of the National Federation of
the Blind and served as our leader from 1940 until 1968. In his
memory we have established the Jacobus tenBroek Award to honor
one of our leaders who has made contributions beyond the call of
duty to assist other blind people and the organization. This
award is given only as often as there is someone who especially
deserves it. This year the Committee to select a person for this
prestigious recognition consisted of Joyce Scanlan, Jim Omvig,
and me.

     This year's tenBroek Award recipient has been a member of
the NFB for thirty years and a state officer from the beginning.
At his first Federation meeting in 1969 he was elected Secretary
of his state affiliate and the next year President of his local
chapter, a position he held for five years. Some of you have
guessed that I am talking about Allen Harris. Allen was elected
President of the NFB of Michigan in 1976 and re-elected every two
years, eleven times. From 1983 to 1991 he served on the Board of
the Michigan Commission for the Blind. In 1992 he was selected
National Blind Educator of the Year by the NFB.

     He was first elected to the Board of Directors of the NFB in
1981. In 1985 he became Secretary, and in 1988 he was elected
Treasurer, and he has been re-elected to this position every two
years ever since.

     In 1985 he was selected as one of two outstanding teachers
of social studies in Michigan by the National Council of Social
Studies. During a full career of teaching Allen Harris was chosen
year after year by his colleagues as Chairman of the Social
Studies Department at Dearborn High School. He was held in high
respect by both students and teachers.

     When he coached swimming and wrestling teams, they won.
Seldom has any coach taken as many champion teams to district and
state competitions as Coach Harris did.

     I well remember the day in 1969 when I knocked on the door
of Allen Harris's house. We were organizing in Michigan, and he
had been recommended as a prospect. He was cordial and pleasant,
but he was not sure what commitments he was ready to make.
Yesterday he told us more about his perspective at that time.
Many of us understand that feeling in the beginning. He promised
to come to the organizational meeting we were planning for the
following weekend, but I did not expect to see him there. Only a
few months ago I asked Allen why he had actually made the trip
from Detroit to Lansing for that meeting, and his answer helps to
show why he is a leader. He said simply: "I gave you my word."
Allen Harris has always kept his word. He does not let people
down within the Federation or elsewhere.

     After twenty-three years as President of the NFB of
Michigan, this year he resigned that position. He built the
Michigan affiliate into a strong and enthusiastic one. Now he has
moved to a new post for serving the blind. He is Assistant
Director of Rehabilitation for the New York State Commission for
the Blind. It is an exciting opportunity for him and for the
blind of the nation. If this state agency is run in the way that
Allen Harris knows how, not only will it bring tremendous
advantages to the blind in New York, but it will also help set
the tone for rehab throughout the country.

     So tonight we have chosen to honor our Master of Ceremonies
and our Treasurer for all the ways he has served the blind and
for what he is. Allen, we honor you, and we love you.
                           **********
     Ramona then read the text of the plaque:
                           **********
                     Jacobus tenBroek Award
                National Federation of the Blind
                          presented to
                          Allen Harris
         for your dedication, sacrifice, and commitment
              on behalf of the blind of the nation.
           Your contribution is not measured in steps,
          but in miles, not by individual experiences,
   but by your impact on the lives of the blind of the nation.
           Whenever we have asked, you have answered.
             We call you our colleague with respect;
                we call you our friend with love.
                          July 5, 1999
                           **********
     Allen then said:
                           **********
     Thank you very much. I am going to ask Joy--you want to step
up here with me? When you marry someone active in the Federation,
you marry the Federation. However it goes, and in our case it
goes each way. So I would like Joy to be here to share this
moment with me. I could not have been more surprised. I love
secrets, but mostly when they involve other people. I could not
be more surprised. I thank you very much Dr. and Mrs. Maurer,
Mrs. Jernigan, and all my friends and colleagues in the
Federation.

     I have always considered myself just an ordinary member of
the Federation who had whatever responsibilities I had. One of
the things I was talking to someone about today was when Dr.
Jernigan called me, I never said no. I used to plan how I might
say no if he asked me to do something when I was busy or
whatever, but I could never say no to him. And you know what? He
never said no to me unless I suggested something that was off the
wall.

     Like each of you I have tried to contribute in what ways I
can. I have explained on many occasions just what the Federation
has meant to me, how it has changed my life, how it has defined
who I am. And to the extent that I possess energy and some
intellect and capacity to do things, I have learned them within
the Federation. And to the extent I am committed to anything in
my life, continuing what has begun, giving to others what has
been given to us by the blind people who came before us, I want
to continue doing that. I am humble in my gratitude for the
thanks and support, the tremendous honor that this award
represents. I thank you very much and look forward to many more
years of working together.
                           **********
                           **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: The scholarship class of 1999: (left to right)
back row: Nick DeLong, Brian Quintana, Michael Brands, Brian
Miller, Jake Oberman, Peter Ince, Dennis Hodos, and Billie
Petrino; middle row: Laurel Henry, Charles Arballo, Andre Watson,
Michelle Wright, Sarah Swords, Alicia Richards, Tamera Snelling,
Marie Kouthoofd, Nicole Gleason, and Alison Dolan; front row:
Becky Wood, Barbara Riverdahl, Robert Hunt, Jessica Jenkins, Ivan
Lopez, Alan Tu, Carlos Taylor, and Tyrone Coleman.]
                  The Scholarship Class of 1999
                           **********
     One of the most exciting elements in each year's convention
is meeting and getting to know the twenty-six scholarship
winners. This year was no exception. The students were lively,
inspired, and inspiring. One thing was different, however. In
tribute to the life and work of Dr. Jernigan, Dr. Ray Kurzweil
presented additional scholarships of $1,000 to each student and
gave each a scanner and the newest version of the Kurzweil 1000,
a software package enabling print-handicapped people to read
scanned print. The value of this software and hardware was
$1,500. According to Dr. Kurzweil, the cash portion of this
generous gift came from the Kurzweil Educational Group's having
won the Product of the Year Award from the Stevie Wonder SAP
Vision awards.

     The students each came to the podium during the Friday
morning Board of Directors' meeting and introduced themselves to
the Convention. Then, at the banquet Monday evening, they each
crossed the platform to receive a scholarship certificate from
the NFB and a plaque and check from Dr. Kurzweil. The NFB
scholarship checks and the Kurzweil 1000 software and hardware
were sent later. Here is Scholarship Chairman Peggy Elliott
introducing each winner to the Board, followed by the student's
remarks. Peggy's words include the student's name, his or her
home state, and the school state. This is the way the
presentation Friday morning went:
                           **********
     Charles Arballo, California, California: Hi, I think that
blindness does nothing that stops anybody from doing what they
want to do. I believe that people can do whatever they want to
do, and that's why I want to be a teacher. I want to teach the
blind to become productive citizens of America and to earn their
way as normal American citizens should.
                           **********
     Michael Brands, Minnesota, Minnesota: Good morning. I'm
working on Ph.D. studies in Biblical theology in St. Paul. I hope
to become a college- or graduate-level teacher with a passion to
help people discover the simple and the deep wonder of living. I
hope to write some books to make strategic contributions to my
field but also to help people to learn to live well in the world.
Thank you.
                           **********
     Tyrone Coleman, New Jersey, New Jersey: Hi, everybody. I
would just like to say that sometimes in this world it's tough to
find equality if you have sight or not. I'd like to tell you that
you as blind students, blind individuals, can find equality here
at the National Federation of the Blind. Thank you.
                           **********
     Nick DeLong, Ohio, Ohio: Hi. This fall I will be attending
the Ohio State University. I am eighteen years old, so I'm one of
the youngest here. I'm going to do some type of engineering,
either computer science, electrical, or sound. I'm not quite
sure. I'll just keep my eyes open so to speak and see what
happens.
                           **********
     Alison Dolan, New York, New York: Hi. I'm so proud and
honored to be here today. It's really a wonderful opportunity,
and I must thank you so much. I'm working on my master's degree
in communications, specializing in public relations because I
believe that the public really needs to be aware of issues such
as blindness. So I'm hoping to be a public relations practitioner
getting the word out there. Thank you very much.
                           **********
     Nicole Gleason, Illinois, Illinois: Hi. I am currently a
sophomore at Loyola University, Chicago. I am majoring in
theology and minoring in music. After college I plan to attend
law school and then go into criminal defense and civil rights
litigation. The reason that I want to do civil rights work is
because I believe that blindness is respectable and that, with
the proper training and opportunity, we blind people can do
whatever we put our minds to, and I want others like myself to
have these opportunities and the equality and security that the
Federation promotes. That is why I want to go into civil rights
work. Thank you.
                           **********
     Laurel Henry, Wyoming, Wyoming: Hello. I'm planning to
attend Casper College, majoring in occupational therapy or
psychology. I would like to learn both these skills because I
like to help people and I feel it's very important. Even though
occupational therapy is sometimes not thought of as a field for
visually impaired people, I think that, if we have a dream to go
after, whatever career we do, we need to go after our dreams and
aspirations and do whatever it takes. The blind are sometimes
challenged to do different things to prove themselves, but we can
do whatever we want, and good luck to everyone.
                           **********
     Dennis Hodos, Florida, Florida: Good morning, everybody. I
am the president for the student division of the National
Federation of the Blind of Florida. Currently I am going for my
master's degree in social work, and I would like to get into
working with children because I feel that children are our future
and they will be the future of the National Federation of the
Blind. Thank you very much.
                           **********
     Robert Hunt, Utah, Utah: Five years ago, when I was fifteen,
I became totally blind as a result of an accident. I remember for
several months after my accident I just sat home and was dwelling
on the fact that I was blind. I didn't believe that I could do
any of the things that I used to. I finally realized over time
that I could either sit home and not go anywhere and just be a
failure, or I could go out and try to do everything I could do
and try to be a success. I know that realization and change in
attitude that marked this transition was largely facilitated by
the National Federation of the Blind's efforts to change what it
means to be blind. I'd like to express my gratitude to all of you
who have gone before me and made it possible for me to reach my
goals. Thank you.
                           **********
     Peter Ince, California, California: Good morning everybody.
I am currently attending the great school of the University of
California at Berkeley, and I am doing a double major of Japanese
language and film studies. Because of the fact that I know in
this world of equality we have to achieve great things to be able
to hold great jobs, I am doing the double major because I intend
to work in the Japanese market in the entertainment business. I'm
going on to law school, where I will do entertainment law. I just
want to say thank you to the Federation for accepting me into
this great family of achievers and doers of equality instead of
the world of wishers and just dreamers of equality.
                           **********
     Jessica Jenkins, California, California: Good morning. I'd
like to thank the Federation for the opportunity to be here. This
has been a very wonderful experience so far. I plan to study at
Stanford University as a freshman in the fall, and I'm hoping to
major in international relations and then pursue law or public
policy. I would like to advocate for the rights of the disabled
on a worldwide level. Thank you.
                           **********
     The next person is the first of our three tenBroek Fellows
this year. As the Federation knows, we do accept reapplications
from people who have won a scholarship at one time, and this year
our first tenBroek Fellow is Marie Kouthoofd, New York, New York:
I could roll off an extensive list of what I do, but I think it
would be best to explain who I am. The way I can do that is by
the things that I've internalized and read. In the Bible there
was a man who came after Jesus. His name was Bartimaeus (the son
of Timaeus). He reached up to Jesus, and he said, "Son of David,
have mercy on me." Jesus turned around (now Bartimaeus was blind,
and back in that time blind people didn't have a very good
place); he said, "What do you want?" I'm going to stop right
there, because whether Bartimaeus got his sight back is really
irrelevant. What that means to me is that Jesus turned around,
and He realized--He knew the guy was blind, but that is not what
he really needed. You see I was Bartimaeus before I came to know
the National Federation of the Blind. When I became blind, I
thought, "If my blindness would go away, I would be okay." That's
just not the case. The Lord sent me the National Federation of
the Blind so you guys could teach me that I needed a healing
within me. I needed to know that I could be successful and
confident and be blind. That's what you've done for me, and I
want to thank you. I want to thank you for the opportunity for a
second scholarship. I love the Federation; I love all you guys.
                           **********
     Ivan Lopez, Arizona, Arizona: Good morning. I would like to
say how grateful and how privileged I feel to be here with you
today, that being around people who take part in this Federation
makes me realize the importance of the NFB. Previously I was a
student attending Pima Community College in Tucson, Arizona.
Currently I'm attending the NFB training center in Ruston,
Louisiana. I would like to say we all share stories here as blind
individuals, and I'll skip any details of mine. But I would like
to address the importance of a person that has been a lifelong
mentor for me. He's a wonderful man, and he has been encouraging
me throughout my struggles as a blind person. This person has
opened up a lot of ways for me to be here today. I will be
forever grateful. I'm speaking of Mr. James H. Omvig, a person
who has talked about power or empowerment, who are the experts,
and he has encouraged me to pursue becoming a future
representative of this Federation. He wants me to become a future
leader, and I want him to help me become one. Thank you.
                           **********
     Brian Miller, Iowa, Iowa, and Brian is the second of our
tenBroek Fellows. Here's Brian: Thank you. This doesn't get
easier the second time around, I promise you. You never know
where the NFB is going to take you in your life. The NFB took me
from San Diego to Iowa City, Iowa, where I learned that the blind
can and do shovel snow a lot. I have a bachelor's and a master's
[degree] in political science, and I currently teach Spanish at
the University of Iowa as well as pursuing a master's degree in
history education. It would be impossible to enumerate all the
things the National Federation of the Blind has given me in the
intervening three years since I earned my first scholarship. It
has given me confidence. It has honed my political skills. It has
sharpened my intelligence. It has exhorted me to excellence. It
has also introduced me to my wife--no small thing. I discovered
that here in the National Federation of the Blind no dreams are
ever deferred; they are only sought; it's always a matter of
time. I want to thank the Scholarship Committee for this second
opportunity to wear a scholarship ribbon. It means so much to me.
I don't know whether it was my grades or the iron filings in my
shoes, but lightning struck twice. Thank you very much for this.
                           **********
     Jake Oberman, California, New York: Hi. I will be attending
the Cornell School of Hotel Administration, and one day my goal
is to manage a hotel or resort. During high school I earned five
varsity letters running cross country and track. Many times
during practice or races I have fallen, but I have always gotten
up and pushed harder and become a leader of my team, and I'm
respected by many others. Many people come up to me at races and
say, "Are you blind?" and I say, "Yeah." I can compete with them.
Running with them has given me the confidence to know that I can
compete and be on an equal level with anybody else. Thank you to
the Scholarship Committee, and thank you to all of you.
                           **********
     Billie Petrino: this is the third of the tenBroek Fellows.
Billie Petrino, Louisiana, Louisiana: Good morning. I'm currently
a senior at Louisiana Tech, majoring in math education. In June I
enter a master's O & M program run by Dr. Ryles there in
Louisiana. I was speaking about this the other day. I remember as
a child my grandfather used to have this doorway where he
measured how tall I got every time I used to visit his house, and
I was thinking how much the NFB was a doorway like that, only
difference is that this doorway is thousands of feet high. When I
came to my first convention in 1997, I put my first mark on that
doorway. Now two and a half years later I look back at that, and
I look now, and I see how much further I have to go, but I've
already seen how far I've been. I thank the NFB for giving me the
room to grow, to be free, and to thrive.
                           **********
     Brian Quintana, New Mexico, New Mexico: Good morning and
hello to everyone. I am happy and delighted to be here at this my
third convention, and I'm elated to be receiving a scholarship
this year. I will be attending the University of New Mexico in
the fall, where I plan to study film with an emphasis in screen
writing. I believe that writing is a very important and effective
means of communication, so one day I hope to become a screen
writer. By the way, have you guys heard the one about the skunk?
Well, never mind, it stunk anyway.
                           **********
     Alicia Richards, Iowa, Illinois: Good morning. I am
currently going to Lincoln Christian College in Lincoln,
Illinois. I'm getting ready to start my sophomore year there. My
major is Christian counseling. I plan to get a master's in that.
I want to help people with God's help. These are two people I
need to be thanking this morning: God and the Federation. Both
have provided generously for me. Thank you.
                           **********
     Barb Riverdahl, North Carolina, North Carolina: Good
morning, formerly of Illinois. I am going to attend the
University of North Carolina in the fall, where I'll be double
majoring in psychology and education, going after a master's in
educational psychology and rehabilitation and a specialty in
adaptive computer technology. I received the Illinois scholarship
last year. I attended my first NFB convention in Dallas last
summer. When I came home, I hit my community and college with
full force and instigated many activities through leadership and
fund raising--all of this brought on special recognitions, both
state and international, but my highest highlight is just
attending the NFB conventions. Before I came here, I received a
phone call from the Department of Special Education and
Rehabilitation for the Department of Education in Washington,
D.C., and I have been accepted as an intern for the summer of
2000. If it wasn't for the inspiration and the knowledge I gained
through the NFB, none of this would have happened. So I want to
thank you all.
                           **********
     Tamera Snelling, Oregon, Oregon: Hi. My first experience
with the NFB came at the Oregon convention last year, and Allen
Harris was a big part of that. I think that the NFB philosophy
was something that was in my head before even knowing the NFB,
but at that convention it became a part of my heart. At this
convention I truly can see now inside myself that I want to
advocate for all of you to know Braille and independent travel. I
feel that's a vital thing in our life as blind people to be
first-class citizens. As an Oregonian I want to borrow from Nike
and say, "Just do it."
                           **********
     Sarah Swords, Florida, New Jersey: Good morning. Next year I
plan to attend Princeton University, where I hope to get a degree
in political science and history. I hope one day to be a
professor at a college. I also hope to teach not only history and
academics but also life skills through examples. I believe that
everyone including people who are blind can achieve any goal they
want to. Many people have told me that I'm inspirational, but I
just want to tell you that you are a great inspiration to me.
From coming here, I've learned that I really can do anything I
want to. So I want to thank you for this opportunity.
                           **********
     Carlos Taylor, Indiana, Indiana: Hi. I'm Carlos. I attend
Ball State University, where I am majoring in business and
minoring in computer science. I hope to some day have a hand in
all this wonderful adaptive technology that's available to us in
opening many doors for a lot of blind people. The NFB is such an
inspiration to me. Last year was my first National Convention in
Dallas, Texas, and I learned so much and met so many wonderful
people in many wonderful professions. It's been such an
inspiration to me and reinforced my ideas even more that blind
people can do anything and become anything they want to become.
It's also an organization that lets people who have many
misconceptions about blind people know that the blind can do
whatever they can do and compete with them too. Thank you.
                           **********
     Alan Tu, Illinois, Illinois: Good morning. First, I'd like
to thank the Scholarship Committee for giving me the opportunity
to be here. I'd like to thank the members of the National
Federation of the Blind for their very warm welcome. Thank you.
Even though it's my first time for being at a convention, I know
that the scholarship class is very significant. This is because I
believe that the scholarship class will be future leaders of the
society and of the blind. As we move forward into the twenty-
first century, we must not fail to look back, but we must also
think and move forward. We must look at the barriers we have
overcome, but we must also look at the barriers that have arisen.
These barriers include rehabilitation, fighting for funds, and
fighting for the right training, travel skills, et cetera.
Finally there is an old adage that knowledge is power. The ever-
increasing volume of electronic information is getting difficult
for blind people to access, and that's why I hope to major in
computer science at the University of Illinois at Urbana and help
increase the access of blind people to information technology.
Thank you.
                           **********
     Andre Watson, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania: Before I came here
and when I was younger, I was told that blind people couldn't be
mathematicians, couldn't be lawyers, doctors, professionals; but
today I'm proud to say that those people were liars. I'm proud to
say that there are other people here just like myself, and I'm
not alone. As a graduate student at Widener University I'm
pursuing my doctorate degree in psychology. There I plan to help
people renew their minds to realize that their attitude does
determine their altitude, and that what they can accomplish they
have to believe first in their minds. So I thank you for this
opportunity and honor to meet all these students and
professionals, and I wish everyone to run the race, fight the
good fight, and finish your course.
                           **********
     Becky Wood, Utah, Utah: Hi. I'm thankful and honored to be
here. I am currently attending the University of Utah. This is my
junior year, and I'm studying early childhood education. I'd just
like to say that I'm thankful for the National Federation of the
Blind, the student division, the wonderful people, and for the
belief and attitude which has been given me. Thank you.
                           **********
     Michelle Wright, Nevada, Nevada: My name is Michelle. I have
one more year to go for my master's degree in social work at the
University of Nevada, Las Vegas, no sports jokes please. I lost
my vision five years ago, and I can honestly say right now, at
this point in my life, I'm more satisfied than I ever was before,
and I'd like to thank the Federation for all the experiences they
have given me. I know it can only get bigger and better from
here. Thanks.
                           **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Marie Kouthoofd hugs Peggy Elliott on the dais.
Joy and Allen Harris can be seen to the right.]

     That is what the students in the scholarship class of 1999
said about themselves. On Monday evening, July 5, the winner of
the American Action Fund Scholarship addressed the audience as
the climax of the scholarship-presentation ceremony. The winner
was Marie Kouthoofd. This is what she had to say:

     Dr. Maurer, Mrs. Jernigan, Board of Directors and
Scholarship Committee, and my family--the Federation--this is an
honor indeed, an honor that is very difficult to express in
words. I know that this Federation, my Federation, was given to
me by the grace of God. I know this because in 1996 I stood here
before you as a woman who was afraid to become blind. I stand
here tonight as a woman who is proud to be blind.

     In 1994 Dr. Jernigan delivered a speech in Washington, D.C.,
and he said something like this: Freedom is not something that
can be given from one to another. Rather, freedom must be
affirmatively achieved or taken by the individual or group that
alleges to want it, or it simply cannot be had. He went on to say
that freedom is self-achieved and is a process that is constant
and ongoing. Tonight, Dr. Maurer and my Federation family, I plan
to stand with you and achieve that freedom as we face the new
millennium and change what it means to be blind.
                           **********
     That is what Marie said. Now here is the complete list of
winners and the awards they received:
                           **********
     $4,000 NFB Scholarships: Charles Arballo, Tyrone Coleman,
Alison Dolan, Laurel Henry, Dennis Hodos, Robert Hunt, Ivan
Lopez, Alicia Richards, Barbara Riverdahl, Tamera Snelling, Sarah
Swords, Carlos Taylor, and Andre Watson
                           **********
     $4,000 Frank Walton Horn Memorial Scholarship: Nicole
Gleason
                           **********
     $4,000 Hermione Grant Calhoun Scholarship: Jessica Jenkins
                           **********
     $4,000 Kuchler-Killian Memorial Scholarship: Jacob Oberman
                           **********
     $4,000 Humanities Scholarship: Brian Quintana
                           **********
     $4,000 Mozelle and Willard Gold Memorial Scholarship:
Michelle Wright
                           **********
     $4,000 Educator of Tomorrow Scholarship: Rebecca Wood
                           **********
     $4,000 Howard Brown Rickard Scholarship: Nicholas DeLong
                           **********
     $4,000 E. U. Parker Memorial Scholarship: Billy Petrino
                           **********
     $4,000 Computer Science Scholarship: Alan Tu
                           **********
     $5,000 NFB Scholarships: Michael Brands and Peter Ince
                           **********
     $5,000 Melva T. Owen Memorial Scholarship: Brian Miller
                           **********
     $11,000 American Action Fund Scholarship: Marie Kouthoofd
                           **********
                           **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Dr. Fredric K. Schroeder]
       Politics and Rehabilitation: Serving the Customer,
             Serving the Agency, Serving the Public
                 by Fredric K. Schroeder, Ph.D.
                          Commissioner
             Rehabilitation Services Administration
                  U. S. Department of Education
                           **********
     From the Editor: On Monday afternoon, July 5, Dr. Fred
Schroeder addressed the convention. As Commissioner of the
Rehabilitation Services Administration he is in many ways the
single most influential professional in the blindness field
today. In a year in which we have sustained perhaps more attacks
on separate agencies serving blind consumers than ever before,
his unequivocal endorsement of separate agencies and specialized
services was much needed encouragement and reassurance of RSA's
recognition that the separate agency is the service-delivery-
system model most likely to provide effective rehabilitation to
blind Americans.

     Contrast Dr. Schroeder's outspoken support for separate
service-delivery agencies with the position held by the National
Council on Disability (NCD), an independent federal agency which
provides policy guidance to the Executive and Legislative
branches of the federal government. A couple of years ago, when
the entire blindness field was fighting to insure that the
Rehabilitation Act reauthorization process did not result in
language supporting generic agencies slipping into the
amendments, the NCD published a position paper against separate
agencies for the blind, and every organization in the blindness
field immediately criticized the Council, forcing it to back
down. As a result it has never taken an official stand on the
matter. It continued to remain silent on the question of separate
agencies throughout the entire reauthorization process. Then,
after the dust had settled and the amendments were in place, NCD
staff members published "National Disability Policy: A Progress
Report, November 1, 1997, to October 31, 1998." The following
passage appears in this document: "The Rehabilitation Act
Amendments of 1998 were nonetheless disappointing in not going
further in some areas. The illogical division between the
administration of VR services to people with visual disabilities
and all other disabilities was not addressed." That's what NCD
staff said about separate agencies once the coast was clear. In
other words, the National Council on Disability is perfectly
prepared to speak out of both sides of its mouth. When the heat
is on and an entire field rises up in protest at its biased and
short-sighted views, it is happy to stay out of the separate-
agency discussion, but having yielded to political pressure from
one segment of the disability field, its staff was eager to pop
up with criticism once the heat was off.

     No one will ever criticize Dr. Schroeder for being equivocal
on important matters like separate agencies. This is what he said
to the delegates at the 1999 Convention of the National
Federation of the Blind:
                           **********
     Let me begin by updating you on important changes to the
Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended (hereafter the Act) as a
result of last year's reauthorization. One change, about which we
felt most strongly, was the need for presumptive eligibility for
recipients of Social Security Supplemental Income (SSI) and for
beneficiaries of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). The
Act now recognizes that individuals who have been determined
eligible for either SSI or SSDI should not have to demonstrate
any additional evidence of need for rehabilitation services to go
to work.

     Another important change is the recognition that not all
people need the same level of assistance in selecting an
employment goal or in identifying needed services. The 1998
Amendments to the Act include a new provision allowing people to
develop their own rehabilitation plans or to seek assistance from
a rehabilitation counselor or, for that matter, to seek
assistance from anyone else they may choose.

     In the prior reauthorization of the Act the National
Federation of the Blind sought an amendment explicitly providing
for individual choice in the rehabilitation process. The 1998
Amendments build on the earlier Amendments by consolidating and
strengthening the choice provisions. All in all, we believe that
the 1998 Amendments continue to support critical provisions in
the Act, provisions recognizing the importance of informed
choice, the importance of ready access to services, and the
importance of quality employment tailored to the unique interests
and abilities of each individual.

     The Rehabilitation Act Amendments are included in a larger
piece of legislation known as the Workforce Investment Act (WIA)
of 1998. The WIA seeks to improve employment opportunities by
consolidating dozens of employment programs and creating a
seamless system of job-related services that are delivered
through local and regional one-stop service centers. The unique
aspects of the rehabilitation program are well defined in the
Act, and adequate protections exist to insure the organizational
integrity of the rehabilitation program and to insure that
rehabilitation funds continue to be used only for rehabilitation
purposes. Nevertheless, as the vocational rehabilitation program
becomes an integral part of state workforce investment systems--
systems that stress short-term interventions to assist people in
obtaining demand-side occupations, the rehabilitation system will
be increasingly pressed to function more and more like the
generic system.

     I am concerned that consolidation of employment programs,
with its corresponding de-emphasis of specialization, is
responsible for an increase in the number of proposals in various
states to eliminate separate agencies for the blind. These
proposals are not based on data, not based on experience, but
rather they are based on the assumption that consolidation
automatically breeds efficiency.

     Yet national data support what we have known intuitively--
blind people have unique needs that are best addressed by
specialized services provided through separate agencies for the
blind. A study concerning the efficacy of separate programs for
the blind is about to be published by Cavenaugh, Giesen, and
Pierce at Mississippi State University. Based on an analysis of
Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) national data for
fiscal year 1989, they found that, when compared to the more
generic combined state rehabilitation agencies, separate agencies
for the blind served people who are more socially and
economically disadvantaged, have more severe visual impairments,
and have more secondary disabilities.

     Of all visually impaired individuals, separate agencies for
the blind accept a larger percentage of legally blind people, 52
percent versus 42 percent in combined agencies. Separate agencies
for the blind provide more comprehensive services, that is, more
services to people with the most severe visual impairments, and
separate agencies for the blind invest on average 61 percent more
money in training and other services, $3,597 versus $2,241 in
combined agencies. With such a strikingly greater investment, it
is not surprising that separate agencies for the blind have a
higher rehabilitation rate; that is, they are successful with a
higher percentage of people who are accepted for and receive
rehabilitation services. And, contrary to the commonly held
belief, separate agencies close a lower percentage of legally
blind people as homemakers; and perhaps most significant, people
served by separate agencies for the blind are nearly twice as
likely to be self-supporting at closure.

     The finding of better wages is supported by a more recent
analysis by Cavenaugh on FY 1996 data which concluded that the
competitive employment rate of legally blind clients was
significantly higher in separate agencies for the blind. These
findings and other studies argue for a policy of continued
support, in fact, a policy of increased support for separate
agencies for the blind. Yet proposals to consolidate programs for
the blind with generic services continue.

     What then to do? In recent times the word "politics" has
become pejorative at best, virtually synonymous with partisan
bickering, posturing, and gridlock. Yet politics is nothing more
than the process by which people express their collective views
and seek to create change according to those views.

     Of course there has been a long history of blind people
supporting separate agencies for the blind, and, when I speak of
support, I am speaking of political support. Of course blind
people are no strangers to political action. Political support is
absolutely essential for agencies for the blind to withstand all
manner of challenges--threats to funding, threats to staffing
levels, and threats to the separate identity of the agency. But
how is political support gained and maintained? How do agencies
for the blind win the confidence and trust and, most important,
the loyalty of blind people in the state? In my view the answer
is quite straightforward; it is by believing in blind people and
by recognizing that the blind of the state must have a real voice
in shaping the programs and services of the agency--a partnership
resulting in good jobs with good wages and with good upward
mobility potential--good jobs, not simply the most readily
available jobs.

     But everyone believes in good jobs, so what are good jobs,
and how do blind people prepare for and obtain high quality
employment? Blind people must receive good orientation training.
Good orientation training is the foundation of effective
rehabilitation. It gives blind people the skills and the
confidence to pursue a particular occupation or field. Once a
blind person has good orientation training, he or she is ready to
plan for the future--a challenging job, an interesting job, a job
with upward mobility potential.

     As you know, I strongly believe in the power of education as
a way for blind people to lift themselves out of poverty. Of
course not all good jobs require a college education, and not all
blind people want or need college degrees, but for those who have
the interest and aptitude, a college education is a powerful way
of improving their economic status. Karier (1998) in a study
entitled "Welfare Graduates: College and Financial Independence"
compared what happens to people with four-year degrees, two-year
degrees, high-school degrees, and no degree. There are three
pieces of information for each of the four categories: 1) average
annual wages, 2) percent in poverty, and 3) unemployment rate.
Beginning with earnings, the data show that people with four-year
degrees have average annual wages of $37,224. People with two-
year degrees have average wages of $26,363. Those with high
school diplomas have average wages of $20,248. And finally people
who lack high school diplomas have average wages of $13,697. Look
at the range. Those with no degree earn $13,697, and those with
four-year degrees earn $37,224, nearly three times as much. Now
look at poverty. One and one half percent of people with four-
year degrees are in poverty. For people with two-year degrees,
3.3 percent are in poverty. For those with high school diplomas,
6.1 percent are in poverty. Finally, for people who lack high
school diplomas, 17.2 percent are in poverty. Again look at the
range. No high school diploma, 17.2 percent in poverty, compared
to 1.5 percent of people with four year degrees.

     Unemployment also tracks with education. The unemployment
rate is 2.8 percent for people with four-year degrees, 3.8
percent for people with two-year degrees, and 6.1 percent for
people with high school diplomas. And for people with no degree
the unemployment rate is 11.6 percent. What a striking
difference. Those with no degree have an 11.6 percent
unemployment rate while those with four-year degrees have an
unemployment rate of only 2.8 per cent.

     But these data are for the general population; what about
blind people? As is often the case, data do not exist specific to
blind people, but there are data for people with disabilities
which give at least some idea about the relationship between
education and employment for the blind. For people with
disabilities, labor force participation is nearly three times
greater for college graduates than for people without high school
diplomas. The 1997 Current Population Survey (CPS) published by
the U.S. Bureau of the Census indicates that 18 percent of people
with work disabilities with less than a high school education are
in the labor force compared with 53 percent of people with work
disabilities who are college graduates. Yet RSA data from FY 1997
indicate that for people who were successful in finding
employment, just 15 percent received college or university
training. With this meager investment in higher education, it is
not surprising that only 17 percent were employed in professional
occupations.

     These findings are consistent with the findings of a
longitudinal study of the Vocational Rehabilitation Services
Program. As I discussed with you last year, the Third Interim
Report found that people with less than a high school diploma who
were successfully placed in employment earned $6.30 per hour,
compared with $9.07 for those with any degree beyond a high
school diploma.

     The Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) within the
U.S. Department of Education has also conducted a longitudinal
study (Wagoner, 1992). Findings indicate that a majority of youth
with disabilities do not enter the labor market, nor do they
enter four-year college programs. The OSEP study found that,
three to five years after high school, 57 percent of youth with
disabilities were employed, but only 43 percent full time, and
only 40 percent earned more than $6 per hour. Of those employed,
the largest single occupational group (26 percent) was employed
as laborers while the second smallest occupational group (7
percent) was employed in professional/managerial/sales
occupations. And for youth with disabilities, only 6 percent
attended four-year college programs.

     The June, 1999, Post-secondary Education Descriptive
Analysis Reports (PEDAR) indicate that students with
disabilities, despite being qualified, are less likely than
students without disabilities to enroll in four-year programs.
But here is the important finding, PEDAR data also show that
students with disabilities who finish a four-year program have
employment outcomes and graduate school enrollments similar to
students without disabilities.

     The importance of a college education is particularly
evident in light of trends in future employment opportunities.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects that through 2006
most of the occupations with the highest expected number of new
jobs will require higher education.

     We know that undergraduate and graduate degrees lead to
better jobs with better wages and the opportunity to become self-
supporting. We also know that good jobs lead to political support
by blind people in the state. The challenges facing separate
agencies for the blind are significant, but the support of a
dedicated and loyal constituency is also significant.
Unfortunately, some rehabilitation agencies view their
responsibility to be accountable solely in terms of dollars,
rather than in terms of high-quality employment. Rehabilitation
agencies need to economize, but they must not compromise quality
for the sake of saving money. It takes money, and a good bit of
it, to prepare blind people for good jobs, but good jobs have
always been and will always be the cornerstone of successful,
well run rehabilitation programs. Not all good jobs require a
college degree, but college training is a powerful example of the
cost-benefit relationship between training and high-quality
employment. Pursuing a four-year degree is expensive, but there
are few if any other types of training that can demonstrate such
a dramatic and consistent impact on earnings. We want people to
go to work, but we want people to have jobs that afford them
opportunities for a good standard of living, an opportunity to
pursue a career with the chance to advance.

     I am very concerned about the move toward generic services.
Loss of specialization inevitably leads to short-sighted policies
with short-sighted measures of success. The measure of success in
the rehabilitation program is not simply the number of people who
go to work, but rather it is the quality of that work and the
degree to which it affords the individual an opportunity to use
fully his or her own talents and abilities. The true measure of
success is the degree to which blind people and others are fully
integrated into the social and economic mainstream--the degree to
which blind people work in all types of jobs, from lawyers to
factory workers, from teachers to carpenters, from laborers to
stock brokers. Not all good jobs require a college education, and
not all blind people want or need college degrees, but all blind
people deserve the opportunity to live with dignity. All blind
people deserve the opportunity to receive good orientation center
training as the foundation to effective rehabilitation. All blind
people deserve the opportunity to seek services from an agency
that believes in the capacity of blind people and demonstrates
that belief through its willingness to invest in the training and
assistance blind people need to obtain good jobs. And all blind
people deserve the opportunity to have a good job and a good
standard of living, according to their own interests and
abilities.

     Dr. Maurer recently spoke before the annual meeting of the
National Council of State Agencies for the Blind. He told the
group that strong programs for the blind cannot exist without
strong organizations of the blind. There are both truth and
wisdom in Dr. Maurer's words. For agencies for the blind to
withstand threats to their funding, to withstand threats to their
staffing levels, and to withstand threats to their separate
status, they need the support--yes, the political support--of
well-organized, committed blind people in the state. Political
support is born of trust and mutual respect. This fact has always
been true, but its importance has never been greater or more
immediate.

     Dr. Jernigan demonstrated the power of political support,
the power of partnership, when he built the finest and most
successful program for the blind that has ever been. As Dr.
Maurer told us earlier this week, programs for the blind need
true partnership with blind people, and blind people need true
partnership with programs for the blind. The future for separate
agencies for the blind lies in a strong and well organized
constituency, and the opportunity for blind people to receive
good training and good jobs lies in strong programs for the
blind. Our futures are inseparably intertwined. The future for us
all, the future for blind people and the future for agencies for
the blind, lies in our ability to forge a real and true
partnership.
                           **********
                           **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Sheryl Pickering reads a resolution during the
Resolutions Committee meeting Thursday, July 1. Left to right at
the head table are Peggy Elliott, Dr. Maurer, Sharon Maneki,
Sheryl Pickering, and Jim Gashel.]
         Resolutions Adopted by the Annual Convention of
         National Federation of the Blind, July 6, 1999
                        by Sharon Maneki
                           **********
     By long-standing tradition the NFB Resolutions Committee
meets on the first day of convention registration. This year the
committee met on July 1. Since the committee is charged with the
responsibility of determining which resolutions will be brought
to the convention floor for consideration, the committee always
has a large membership, representing all segments of our diverse
Federation family. There were forty-two members of the committee
this year. When Mrs. Walhof took on duties involving our capital
campaign, President Maurer appointed me to chair this important
committee. The experience was both challenging and fun.

     This year we had tremendous participation in the resolutions
process. Resolutions were sponsored by students, division
presidents, and leaders in many state affiliates. During its
meeting the committee thoroughly discussed and debated the issues
raised in the resolutions. The final session of the convention is
traditionally reserved for discussion and voting on resolutions
because these documents will become the policies of our
organization. One resolution, 99-10 concerning non-valid
standardized test scores, was debated for an entire hour during
this convention session. Twenty-one people debated the pros and
cons of this resolution. Ultimately the Convention voted to
defeat 99-10. I feel confident that this subject will be back for
discussion in another resolution next year.

     The committee considered nineteen resolutions. While some of
the subjects were familiar: Social Security Disability,
rehabilitation, education, and access to technology--they
encouraged the organization to try new approaches to solve
longstanding problems.

     Resolution 99-03, sponsored by Priscilla McKinley, a
graduate student and leader in the NFB of Iowa, calls upon the
106th Congress to pass S 285 and HR 1601, which would allow blind
recipients of Social Security Disability Insurance to earn the
same amount of income as seniors receiving the Social Security
retirement benefit because this is the best way to promote work
opportunities for the blind.

     This year we passed six resolutions concerning
rehabilitation. Resolution 99-02, sponsored by Edward Bell, who
just graduated from college and is teaching at the Louisiana
Center for the Blind summer program, reaffirms our commitment to
maintain separate agencies for the blind by ensuring that all
states follow the regulations in the Workforce Investment Act to
maintain identifiable services for the blind.

     Two resolutions concerned the Randolph-Sheppard Act.
Resolution 99-05, sponsored by Kristen Cox, a recent addition to
the National Center Staff in the Governmental Affairs Department,
demands that the Committee for Purchase from People Who Are Blind
or Severely Disabled remove any services provided through vending
facilities under the Randolph-Sheppard Act from their procurement
list and end its current practice of trying to destroy the
Randolph-Sheppard program. Resolution 99-06, sponsored by James
Gashel, Director of Governmental Affairs, concerns vending
facilities.

     Resolution 99-07, sponsored by Noel Nightingale, a newly
elected member of the NFB Board of Directors and President of the
NFB of Washington, calls upon the Commissioner of the
Rehabilitation Services Administration to issue a policy
directive to states to include the clear messages that barriers
to informed choice such as erroneous calculations of costs are
unacceptable and that states are required to provide information
to consumers about alternative providers of rehabilitation
services.

     Resolution 99-08, sponsored by Lynn Mattioli, First Vice
President of the NFB of Maryland, urges state rehabilitation
agencies to provide competent computer training with provisions
to continue training to keep up with changing technology for
blind clients. The resolution also stresses the need to provide
appropriate hardware and software so that the client can maintain
skills between the time of training and the time of actual
employment.

     Resolution 99-09, sponsored by Christine Hall, President of
the National Organization of the Senior Blind, urges Congress and
the Administration to amend the Older Americans Act to include
enabling legislation for programming and funding in increased
amounts for rehabilitation services for older blind and visually
impaired individuals.

     Three resolutions concerned education issues. Resolution 99-
10, sponsored by Michael Bailiff, a tax attorney and frequent
contributor of articles to the Braille Monitor, calls upon
Congress to pass legislation requiring institutions who use
standardized tests as part of their admission procedures to
provide an alternative mechanism that does not rely on the use of
non-validated test scores. This resolution was defeated by the
convention. We have been wrestling for more than twenty years
with the problem of testing authorities' insisting that tests
taken by applicants who receive reasonable accommodations are not
valid. I am sure that we will see future resolutions on this
subject.

     Resolution 99-16, sponsored by Shawn Mayo, President of the
National Association of Blind Students, petitions the U. S.
Department of Justice to create a rule to change the definition
of a qualified reader to allow the blind the option to choose
their own readers and the right to decide whether they will bring
a personal reader to a test site.

     Resolution 99-12, sponsored by Pam Dubel, the Director of
Youth Services at the Louisiana Center for the Blind, calls upon
the U. S. Department of Education to reconsider and revise its
interpretation of the Braille services provision included in the
1997 amendments to IDEA. The proper interpretation of this law
should require the school to provide Braille instruction to a
student while waiting for a dispute among members of the IEP team
to be resolved.

     The convention passed three resolutions concerning access to
print information. Resolution 99-01, sponsored by Brian Miller, a
graduate student and leader in the NFB of Iowa, urges cooperation
between the publishing industry and the Library of Congress to
make digital editions of published texts widely available to the
blind. The resolution also declares our firm intent to promote
legislation that will bring about universal access to the printed
word for the blind of this nation.

     Resolution 99-14, sponsored by Connie Leblond, President of
the National Association of Blind Entrepreneurs, calls upon the
Small Business Administration, its state partners, the American
Banking Association, and other economic development centers to
adopt a proactive approach by planning ahead for the provision of
materials in Braille. The National Association of Blind
Entrepreneurs will supply the names and locations of Braille
transcription services to these entities.

     Resolution 99-15, sponsored by Alpidio Rolon, President of
the NFB of Puerto Rico, urges manufacturers of adaptive
technology to provide their manuals and instructional materials
in Spanish.

     The convention passed three resolutions concerning nonvisual
access to technology. Resolution 99-17, sponsored by Christopher
Danielsen, a leader in the NFB of South Carolina, who chairs its
resolutions committee, calls upon the Access Board to adopt a
proactive strategy promoting government-wide enforcement of
standards to insure ready, unimpeded access by blind citizens and
employees to information controlled and managed by the federal
government. The resolution also calls on all departments and
agencies in the federal government to adopt and implement
procurement procedures that comply with section 508 of the
Rehabilitation Act as amended in 1998.

     Resolution 99-18, sponsored by Gary Wunder, a member of the
national Board of Directors and President of the NFB of Missouri,
calls upon manufacturers of automated teller machines and the
banking industry to incorporate speech output and universal
discernible tactile keypads in their machines so that they are
useable by the blind without the need for sighted assistance.

     Resolution 99-19, sponsored by Nathanael Wales, an
engineering student and leader in the NFB of California, insists
that blind persons have access to all new electronic voting
machines and interfaces. The resolution also affirms the blind
person's right to use another individual to assist with voting if
he or she wishes to use that method of voting.

     Resolution 99-04, sponsored by Dr. Abraham Nemeth, a noted
blind mathematician and author of the Nemeth Braille code, calls
upon the Federation to reject the Unified Braille Code. The
committee rejected this resolution, so it did not reach the
convention floor.

     Resolution 99-11, sponsored by Scott LaBarre, President of
the National Association of Blind Lawyers, reaffirms this
organization's position that audible traffic signals should be
pedestrian-activated and should be considered on a case-by-case
basis with input from consumer organizations, particularly the
National Federation of the Blind. The resolution also states that
highway officials should not assume that the provision of federal
funds for audible traffic signals means that such signals are
automatically necessary.

     Resolution 99-13, sponsored by James Gashel, takes Western
Michigan University to task for creating a certification program
for mobility instructors without bothering to seek any input from
blind consumers.

     The texts of the resolutions passed at the 1999 convention
follow.
                           **********
                           **********
                        Resolution 99-01
                           **********
     WHEREAS, our American political, economic, educational, and
social systems are rooted in timely access to published
information, but timely access is exactly what the blind are
consistently denied by the fact of not being able to read printed
communications without assistance or technology to provide
access; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, timely access is crucial for the blind to be
competitive, well-informed, engaged citizens; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, the barriers to access resulting from exclusive use
of print media need not exist in the future as advances in
communications and publishing occur, particularly involving the
use of digital text; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, advancements in publishing technology are being
planned and carried out largely without regard to access by the
blind, resulting in the use of methods such as the "portable
document format" which, although relying upon electronic
communications technologies, is still not accessible to the
blind; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, The National Library Service for the Blind and
Physically Handicapped (NLS) was established as a part of the
Library of Congress in 1931 to provide blind persons with reading
matter in Braille and audio recordings and could now extend its
scope of service to include development and administration of
standards for the preparation of digital text in formats suited
to non-visual access; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, achieving universal access to the printed word by
the blind will require a Congressional enactment to compel
production and provision to a central authority such as NLS of
books in compliance with a universal standard along with
safeguards that the central authority will allow the newly-
available information to be used only by eligible blind persons
and agencies providing them material in specialized formats: Now,
therefore,
                           **********
     BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in
convention assembled this sixth day of July, 1999, in the City of
Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization insist upon the prompt
development and implementation of standards for non-visual access
with the goal of cooperation between the publishing industry and
the Library of Congress in order to make digital editions of
published text widely available to the blind; and
                           **********
     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization declare its
firm intent to seek appropriate legislation in the Congress to
implement standards and procedures that will bring about
universal access to the printed word for this country's blind
citizens.
                           **********
                           **********
                        Resolution 99-02
                           **********
     WHEREAS, the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), enacted August
7, 1998, directs all state vocational rehabilitation agencies to
make plans to coordinate their programs with generic job-training
and employment services programs while maintaining identifiable
services for the blind and disabled; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, maintaining a strong link between service delivery
agencies for the blind and general employment and training
agencies can promote integration of the blind into the workplace;
and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, long experience has shown that specialized training
in the skills and confidence needed by the blind is essential for
blind persons to succeed in competitive employment; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, long, sad experience has also shown that
specialized blindness training cannot and will not occur in
generic job training programs that try to be all things to all
people; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, after passage of WIA, several states (such as
Texas, North Carolina, Massachusetts, South Dakota, and
Minnesota) have misapplied its fundamental concepts by attempting
to consolidate rather than coordinate programs, proposing various
approaches to submerge services for the blind into larger
agencies such as general vocational rehabilitation or human
services agencies; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, history has amply demonstrated that absorption of
specialized blindness training into larger bureaucratic
structures will result in poor and inadequate training to prepare
blind people to enter the workforce; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, federal regulations set forth to implement WIA
specify that programs such as those which serve the blind are
authorized to continue their operations without threat of merger
with larger programs because of WIA; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, in order to address the 70 percent unemployment
rate among blind persons of working age and to avoid that
unemployment rate's rising even higher, the boundaries and lines
of authority between blindness rehabilitation services and one-
stop job training centers defined in WIA must be understood and
emphasized by maintaining an identifiable service-delivery system
designed to provide blind people with the specialized, blindness-
related services that generic job training agencies are not set
up to provide: Now, therefore,
                           **********
     BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in
convention assembled this sixth day of July, 1999, in the City of
Atlanta, Georgia, that we call upon all states to implement WIA
in a way that maintains separate identifiable services for the
blind; and
                           **********
     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization reaffirm its
determination to prevent adoption of legislation in the states
which would result in a one-size-fits-all, one-stop shopping
approach instead of providing essential, specialized services,
since the failure to do so will ultimately bring to a halt the
current progress toward full and equal integration of the blind
into the workforce.
                           **********
                           **********
                        Resolution 99-03
                           **********
     WHEREAS, the blind face an unemployment rate that is in
excess of 70 percent; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, the single factor that contributes more to this
unemployment rate than any other is the earnings limit in the
Social Security Disability program which terminates eligibility
for blind recipients who earn a gross wage of $1,110 per month,
often resulting in a substantial loss of real income for
beneficiaries who work and earn above the statutory limit; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, the loss of income caused by working may also be
coupled with substantially increased premiums just to maintain
health insurance coverage under Medicare or another health
insurance program; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, Congress in 1996 responded to the pleas of seniors
who faced a similarly low earnings limit by raising the limit
even though most seniors have worked for many years and lose only
one dollar for every three dollars earned, unlike blind people,
who face an abrupt loss of income due to work; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, Senator John McCain and Congressman Robert Ehrlich
have introduced legislation to restore the policy of an identical
earnings threshold for blind people and age-sixty-five retirees;
and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, this legislation would provide blind persons with
the same exemption of earnings now provided to age-sixty-five
retirees as a work incentive; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, a higher earnings exemption would bring forth a
positive response from blind people and bring additional revenues
to the Social Security Trust Funds and general revenues as the
blind move into the work force in greater numbers than ever
before: Now, therefore,
                           **********
     BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in
convention assembled this sixth day of July, 1999, in the City of
Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization call upon the 106th
Congress, particularly the members of the Senate Finance
Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee, to endorse this
legislation--S. 285 and HR 1601--and approve its passage, since,
as in the case of retirees, this is the best way to promote work
opportunities for the blind.
                           **********
                           **********
                        Resolution 99-05
                           **********
WHEREAS, the Randolph-Sheppard Act provides a legally enforceable
priority for blind persons to operate vending facilities on
federal property; and
                           **********
WHEREAS, the Javitts-Wagner-O'Day Act (JWOD) promotes employment
in direct-labor jobs for blind and disabled persons by awarding
government procurement contracts to qualified non-profit
agencies; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, federal administration of the JWOD Act is vested in
an agency known as the Committee for Purchase from People Who Are
Blind or Severely Disabled (the Committee), which publishes a
list (referred to as the procurement list) of products and
services that federal agencies must buy from eligible JWOD
agencies; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, in publishing the procurement list under the JWOD
Act, the Committee has complete discretion in deciding which
products and services to include or exclude, but by contrast
compliance with the Randolph-Sheppard priority for the blind is
not discretionary with any federal agency and is required
whenever vending facility services are provided on federal
property; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, despite the unequivocal Congressional priority for
the blind to provide vending facility services on federal
property, the Committee has placed federal food vending services
on the JWOD procurement list; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, the Committee has persisted in making aggressive
assaults upon the Randolph-Sheppard priority for the blind at the
behest of NISH (formally known as National Industries for the
Severely Handicapped) and its member agencies such as Easter
Seals, Goodwill Industries International, the ARC, Jewish
Vocational Services, United Cerebral Palsy Associations, and
WORKTECH; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, NISH and its member agencies can perform their
mission of creating job opportunities for severely disabled
persons by providing the federal government with all the many
other products and services on the JWOD procurement list and do
not need to add federal food services in contravention of the
Randolph-Sheppard Act to achieve their goals; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, even without competition from NISH and its large
member agencies, the Randolph-Sheppard Program already faces
stiff obstacles in establishing large-scale food-service
businesses on federal property which comes from wealthy and well-
financed commercial food service operators willing to spend
millions to acquire the locations accorded to blind vendors by
the Randolph-Sheppard priority; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, the Secretary of Education is charged in the
Randolph-Sheppard Act with the responsibility of government-wide
leadership to insure compliance with the act by all federal
property managers and, in implementation of this duty, has
adopted a policy which seeks to uphold the priority for blind
vendors, while recognizing that the JWOD priority applies to the
procurement of many other products and services that are
unrelated to items sold at vending facilities: Now, therefore,
                           **********
     BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in
Convention assembled this sixth day of July, 1999, in the City of
Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization commend the Secretary of
Education for standing tall in support of the independent
business opportunities provided to blind persons under and
pursuant to the Randolph-Sheppard Act; and
                           **********
     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization demand that
the JWOD Committee exercise its discretion and forbearance by
removing any services provided through vending facilities under
the Randolph-Sheppard Act from the procurement list; and
                           **********
     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization register its
fervent opposition to the efforts being made by NISH and its
member agencies to destroy the Randolph-Sheppard Program and call
upon these groups to use their creative energies to expand
employment opportunities on behalf of persons with disabilities
without resorting to a policy of jealous attacks upon
opportunities already provided to the blind by law.
                           **********
                           **********
                        Resolution 99-06
                           **********
     WHEREAS, the most fundamental and overarching requirement of
the Randolph-Sheppard Act is the priority granted to blind
persons to operate vending facilities on federal property; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, regulations prescribed to implement the Act define
the phrase "satisfactory site," for the purpose of reserving
space for vending facilities in the acquisition and alteration of
federal property; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, the regulations, but not the law, provide an
exemption from the satisfactory-site requirements when fewer than
one hundred federal employees are on duty during normal working
hours, or, in the case of buildings with less than fifteen
thousand square feet where services are provided to the public;
and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, this exemption from the satisfactory-site
requirements is being interpreted by some agencies (most notably
the United States Postal Service) as an exemption from the rest
of the Randolph-Sheppard Act, and especially from the priority-
for-the-blind provisions of the Act; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, these same agencies often provide for vending
facility services by contracting with commercial firms rather
than abiding by the blind vendor priority to meet the needs of
their employees and the public, a practice which flagrantly
violates the Randolph-Sheppard Act; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, the satisfactory-site exemption, which applies to
buildings of low population and small size, is not an exemption
from the Randolph-Sheppard Act altogether, and should not be
interpreted as such: Now, therefore,
                           **********
     BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in
convention assembled this sixth day of July, 1999, in the City of
Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization seek the cooperation of
all federal property managing agencies in applying the blind
priority provisions of the Randolph-Sheppard Act to all buildings
and facilities; and
                           **********
     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Commissioner of the
Rehabilitation Services Administration in the United States
Department of Education is hereby requested to issue an
interpretive-guidance memorandum to all federal agencies and
state licensing agencies to clarify the coverage of the Randolph-
Sheppard Act in regard to all federal property, regardless of
building population or size.
                           **********
                           **********
                        Resolution 99-07
                           **********
     WHEREAS, in the Rehabilitation Act, Congress explicitly
recognized that disability generally and blindness specifically
are natural parts of the human experience and in no way diminish
the right of individuals to live independently, enjoy self-
determination, make choices, contribute to society, pursue
meaningful careers, and enjoy full inclusion and integration in
the economic, political, social, cultural, and educational
mainstream of American society; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, in the light of years of experience in which
rehabilitation professionals pretended partnership but exercised
absolute control over all rehabilitation decisions by forcing
clients to accept whatever the professional decided, Congress
amended the Rehabilitation Act in 1992 to provide that consumers
of rehabilitation services have the right to informed choice
throughout the rehabilitation process, including the right to
make meaningful and informed choices about vocational goals, the
means of achieving those goals, and the service providers to be
used in reaching those goals; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, through the informed-choice provisions Congress
specifically intended to empower consumers in the rehabilitation
process, resulting in consumers' self-sufficiency instead of
dependency; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, in addition to the increase in successful
rehabilitations, a secondary benefit of the implementation of
informed choice is the creation of a powerful incentive for
service-providers to improve services by responding to consumers'
demands; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, historically, state-operated adjustment and
training programs for the blind have not emphasized positive
expectations for the capabilities of blind people and have
largely provided ineffective adjustment and training as a result;
and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, in response to blind consumers' demands for better
training, alternative private nonprofit adjustment and training
centers for the blind have been established which emphasize
positive attitudes and graduate hundreds of clients who go on to
complete their rehabilitation by finding competitive employment;
and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, many state rehabilitation agencies thwart the
informed choice of blind consumers by refusing to send them to
alternative adjustment and training programs which they wrongly
claim are more costly or by agreeing to pay per month only the
equivalent of the agency's artificially reduced cost; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, many state rehabilitation agencies significantly
understate the actual cost to them of their adjustment and
training programs by deliberately excluding the cost of
administration and other overhead from their calculations of
comparative costs and also by assuming that they will serve
inflated numbers of clients, thus spreading the cost per student
over a higher number and artificially reducing their per-student
cost; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, even where no financial barriers are erected to the
selection of alternative services, many state rehabilitation
agencies do not provide adequate information about the
availability of alternatives to state-operated adjustment and
training programs; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, these barriers erected by many state rehabilitation
agencies to the selection of alternative services deprive
consumers of the opportunity to make a truly informed choice:
Now, therefore,
                           **********
     BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in
convention assembled this sixth day of July, 1999, in the City of
Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization call upon the
Commissioner of the Rehabilitation Services Administration in the
United States Department of Education to issue a policy directive
providing appropriate guidelines to states for implementing the
informed-choice requirements of the Rehabilitation Act as they
relate to the provision of pre-vocational adjustment and training
programs, including adjustment and training programs for blind
persons, and to include in such guidelines the clear messages
that barriers to informed choice based on erroneous calculations
of costs are not acceptable and that failure to provide consumers
with accurate and complete information about alternative
providers of rehabilitation services is likewise not acceptable.
                           **********
                           **********
                        Resolution 99-08
                           **********
     WHEREAS, approximately 70 percent of blind people are
unemployed; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, today the majority of jobs require or assume some
degree of computer literacy or technology training; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, timely, effective, and meaningful computer and
adaptive-equipment training for blind persons is crucial for
securing and maintaining employment; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, too often blind people receive initial computer or
technology training but have no provision in their plan for
rehabilitation or means to keep their skills up to date once the
training is complete, thus perpetuating their state of computer
illiteracy in relation to the jobs for which they are competing;
and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, those providing computer and adaptive-technology
training are often not competent users of either the technology
or the blindness-specific adaptations themselves: Now, therefore,
                           **********
     BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in
convention assembled this sixth day of July, 1999, in the City of
Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization call upon state
rehabilitation agencies and other facilities with whom they
contract for training to make timely, effective, and meaningful
computer and technology training a priority when plans for
rehabilitation are written and implemented, including provisions
for subsequent client training as technology changes; and
                           **********
     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization call upon
agencies that provide funding and training to state
rehabilitation clients to provide access to both hardware and
software to trainees and those already trained, continuously from
the time the individual begins training until he or she is
successfully employed; and
                           **********
     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization demand that
training be provided by individuals who are competent in using
all the relevant technology themselves and that compensation for
persons hired to do the training be adequate to attract skilled
people.
                           **********
                           **********
                        Resolution 99-09
                           **********
     WHEREAS, the majority of blind and visually impaired
individuals first experience severe vision loss at age fifty-five
or older; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, the population of seniors who are also blind or
visually impaired is expected to double by the year 2020; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, Congress currently recognizes the need for
rehabilitation services for older blind Americans in Title VII,
Chapter 2 of the Rehabilitation Act although the current funding
level is only $11.2 million for services throughout the entire
country; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, No reliable statistics exist on the exact number of
seniors who are blind although the figure is generally agreed to
be in excess of one million and growing, making it clear that
$11.2 million is only a tiny drop in this huge bucket of need;
and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, more and more seniors every year become dependent
on expensive nursing home care due to sight loss, a situation
that could be remedied in most cases by simple rehabilitation
training as soon as the need arises in the effective skills of
daily living used routinely by hundreds of thousands of blind men
and women throughout our country but unknown to a person just
losing vision who believes that lack of sight means dependence
upon others; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, the Older Americans Act does not currently provide
for the rehabilitation services desperately needed by many
seniors experiencing sight loss, but rather provides services
such as congregate dining, Meals on Wheels, transportation, and
recreation to all seniors; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, rehabilitation training is essential to allow blind
and visually impaired seniors to continue living in their homes
and to remain independent and contributing members of their
communities; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, a substantial increase in funding for Title VII,
Chapter 2 services is desperately needed at this time in order to
assure that a service-delivery system for older blind individuals
will be maintained within each state; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, an amendment to the Older Americans Act to provide
rehabilitation services for older blind and visually impaired
individuals would provide an additional source of funding for
rehabilitation services; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, funding could and should be provided to train
personnel employed by rehabilitation agencies, senior programs,
and other social service providers in cost-effective ways to
assist blind seniors in making the adjustment to poor vision and
blindness; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, the need is so gigantic and will increase so
rapidly that only a series of planned, substantial increases in
funding to both these programs can even begin to address existing
and future problems: Now, therefore,
                           **********
     BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in
convention assembled this sixth day of July, 1999, in the City of
Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization urge Congress and the
Administration to adopt a series of planned increases in funding
levels for Title VII, Chapter 2, to begin bringing rehabilitation
services for older blind Americans closer to the point where the
need of this growing population is better addressed and met; and
                           **********
     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization urge Congress
and the Administration to amend the Older Americans Act to
include enabling legislation for programming and also funding in
increasing increments for rehabilitation services for older blind
and visually impaired individuals to add more ways of reaching
and teaching the members of this able and woefully under-served
population.
                           **********
                           **********
                        Resolution 99-11
                           **********
     WHEREAS, the Transportation Equity Act for the Twenty-First
Century (T 21) authorizes matching federal funds for the
installation of audible traffic signals throughout America; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, the National Federation of the Blind is on record
opposing the wholesale installation of these signals, as most
recently set forth in Resolution 92-06; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, good independent travel training enables the vast
majority of blind people to negotiate safely and competently
virtually all traffic intersections, a fact that would make
wholesale installation of audible traffic signals a wasteful,
unnecessary expenditure of scarce public funds; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, massive deployment of audible signals will only
create an unwise reliance on electronic devices by blind persons
who must rely upon their own senses and skills for their own
safety; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, audible traffic signals can in fact make
intersections more dangerous by masking the sound of traffic,
which blind people rely upon to determine traffic patterns; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, activation of the visual walk sign should not also
be the means of activating an audible traffic signal since the
interconnection of the two would make use of audible signals
mandatory for everyone whenever the walk sign button is pressed;
and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, audible traffic signals may in rare cases be
helpful to some blind people at complicated intersections with
confusing road patterns; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, the only practical and effective audible signals
are those which are pedestrian-activated and do not interfere
with the sound of traffic; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, pedestrian-activated audible traffic signals are
the only kind of signal that should ever be installed to assist
blind persons and should never be installed at the demand of one
or a small number of blind persons but rather only after giving
blind members of the community and organizations representing the
blind a full opportunity to participate in the decision-making
process; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, many members of the sighted public mistakenly
believe that all blind people must depend on other persons or
electronic devices to cross streets safely and therefore believe
they are helping the blind by putting audible traffic signals in
the community: Now, therefore,
                           **********
     BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in
Convention assembled this sixth day of July, 1999, in the City of
Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization reaffirm its opposition
to the wholesale installation of audible traffic signals by state
and local governments; and
                           **********
     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization call upon any
governmental or other entity considering the installation of
audible signals to consult extensively with elected
representatives of local organizations of the blind, and
particularly with the National Federation of the Blind, before
any decision regarding audible traffic signals is made.
                           **********
                           **********
                        Resolution 99-12
                           **********
     WHEREAS, literacy is now viewed as a fundamental right for
all Americans in addition to its crucial roles in independence,
employment, and citizenship, and literacy for blind and visually
impaired persons means the ability to read and to write Braille
efficiently; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, failure to provide Braille instruction on a
consistent basis is detrimental to the development of literacy,
future academic success, and employment prospects of blind and
visually impaired children; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, statistics from the American Printing House for the
Blind indicate that only 10 percent of children who are blind or
visually impaired use Braille while in contrast recent research
reveals that 80 percent of successful blind/visually impaired
adults who are employed use Braille every day; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, these statistics suggest that America's schools are
creating a generation of illiterate, unemployable future blind
adults; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, the 1997 amendments to the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) require that schools must
provide for instruction in Braille and the use of Braille in the
case of each blind and visually impaired child unless the team
responsible for choosing special services for the child
determines that such instruction or use of Braille is not
appropriate for the child; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, the 1997 amendments to IDEA recognize the critical
need for Braille services by placing an affirmative obligation on
the team responsible under the law for planning special services
to provide for Braille, absent a specific determination of the
team to the contrary; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, when disputes arise between the parents and school
personnel on the individualized education plan team about Braille
services, any of the parties involved may submit the dispute to
due process procedures (including a hearing) to achieve a
resolution; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, resolution of these disputes can consume several
years, the same critical learning years during which other
children are acquiring and perfecting literacy skills; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, until the dispute is settled, the Braille services
must be provided under the law as amended in 1997 since the IEP
team has not determined that such services would be inappropriate
for the child; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, the U. S. Department of Education has incorrectly
interpreted the 1997 law to permit exclusion of Braille services
from the IEP in the event of a dispute, an interpretation which
turns the law on its head and essentially nullifies the 1997
amendment: Now, therefore,
                           **********
      BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in
Convention assembled this sixth day of July, 1999, in the City of
Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization call upon the Department
of Education to reconsider and revise its interpretation of the
Braille services provision included in the 1997 amendments to
IDEA to the end that Braille services will be provided to blind
and visually impaired children to the fullest extent prescribed
by law.
                           **********
                           **********
                        Resolution 99-13
                           **********
     WHEREAS, efforts to develop certification criteria and
procedures in the field of services for the blind have largely
failed in the United States because those involved in designing
and implementing the programs have not involved elected
representatives of the blind in their efforts, the most notable
of these failures being NAC--the National Accreditation Council
for Agencies Serving the Blind and Visually Handicapped; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, the latest effort to create a standards and
certification program for professionals in the field of blindness
has been announced by Western Michigan University, proposing to
establish standards and a curriculum for instructors in
independent travel; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, the Western Michigan announcement also indicates
that the standards and curriculum will be developed in
conjunction with a number of disability service agencies, but
says nothing about the involvement of consumer organizations of
blind people and their elected representatives; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, the choice of an alliance with disability service
agencies rather than consumers is inexcusable and cannot be
attributed to an oversight, since the architects of this latest
certification scheme are well informed about the blind consumer
movement and have therefore chosen to ignore it; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, this latest attempt to promote standards and
certification in the name of quality service is essentially a
self-serving plan to promote the vision of travel instruction
according to Western Michigan University and to perpetuate that
vision without regard to benefits for blind people: Now,
therefore,
                           **********
     BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in
convention assembled this sixth day of July, 1999, in the City of
Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization condemn and deplore the
Western Michigan standards and certification initiative, while
recognizing that the plan itself is an acknowledgement of the
other failed efforts in this area; and
                           **********
     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we advise authorities of Western
Michigan University and any other potential sources of financial
support for this effort that a project such as independent travel
standards for the blind must first pass muster with the blind
themselves before funds are approved to underwrite the effort.
                           **********
                           **********
                        Resolution 99-14
                           **********
     WHEREAS, entities such as the Small Business Administration,
Economic Development Centers, and banking institutions provide
cascades of printed information for the aspiring small business
owner to use in preparing business plans, seeking financing, and
guiding early development of a budding small business; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, these same sources of information and financing for
small businesses are rarely prepared to furnish blind
entrepreneurs with Braille copies of their informational
brochures, applications, and other materials; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, aspiring blind entrepreneurs need the same
information and need it in Braille for the same reason sighted
persons need the information in print--for the opportunity to
study and compare and refer again to important sections; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, most small business development entities do not
provide their vital information in Braille and do not know how to
respond to requests for Braille when such requests are made; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, the National Federation of the Blind has
consistently supported and encouraged the production of Braille
and access to information; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, the National Association of Blind Entrepreneurs, a
division of the National Federation of the Blind, was established
to encourage and assist blind people in seeking self-employment
opportunities; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, in the past ten years numerous for-profit Braille
transcription services have been established, often owned and
operated by blind entrepreneurs with the skill and sound business
sense that could assist in the timely distribution of Braille
information; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, these Braille transcription services work by
receiving printed material and turning it into Braille upon order
of entities with the need to provide Braille to customers; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, the National Association of Blind Entrepreneurs is
compiling a list of Braille transcription services throughout the
country to be made available to the American Banking Association,
the Small Business Administration and its state partners, and any
other business development entity that needs to locate a Braille
transcription service: Now, therefore,
                           **********
     BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in
Convention assembled this sixth day of July, 1999, in the City of
Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization urge that the Small
Business Administration, the Administration's state partners, the
American Banking Association, and other economic development
centers work with the National Federation of the Blind and the
National Association of Blind Entrepreneurs to make available the
information about the existence of and the locations of Braille
transcription services in order to serve all their blind
customers better; and
                           **********
     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization urge these
entities to adopt a proactive approach by planning ahead for the
provision of materials in Braille, rather than having to scramble
to respond to requests made by blind persons who are seeking to
enter the world of competitive business.
                           **********
                           **********
                        Resolution 99-15
                           **********
     WHEREAS, more and more devices are being adapted to include
speech and Braille output for use by the blind, enabling blind
people to be more competitive in education, employment, and
recreation; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, a growing number of Hispanics with little or no
knowledge of English see assistive technology as a means to
further their integration into society; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, most manuals for adaptive devices for use by the
blind have not been made available in Spanish at all; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, a few companies have already made available Spanish
versions of their product manuals, but most of these are poorly
translated and badly written; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, this limits the possibilities for employment and
advancement for Hispanic people: Now, therefore,
                           **********
     BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in
convention assembled this sixth day of July, 1999, in the City of
Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization call upon manufacturers
of assistive technology equipment for the blind to make available
more and better Spanish versions of their product manuals.
                           **********
                           **********
                        Resolution 99-16
                           **********
     WHEREAS, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), passed
in 1990, provides that blind people are entitled to reasonable
accommodation in situations covered by the Act; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, Title II and Title III of the ADA and their
implementing regulations do not define "qualified reader"; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, one cause of trouble for blind persons prior to the
ADA has not been resolved by the Act, whose provisions have
actually made situations harder for blind persons: the area of
readers for standardized tests; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, prior to the ADA blind people could often negotiate
with testing authorities for permission to bring their own
personally trained readers to standardized tests, the taking of
which was then proctored by the testing authority to preserve
test security; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, since passage of the ADA, every large testing
authority in the United States has interpreted the term
"qualified reader," a reasonable accommodation for the blind
under the ADA, to mean that the testing authority both provides
and pays for the reader; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, there is no national standard for reading to the
blind similar to the national standards for interpreting for the
deaf and hearing-impaired; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, this lack of definition of "qualified reader" and
the myth that there is such a thing as a set of qualified readers
just as there are qualified interpreters for the deaf has led
testing authorities and other entities to appoint anyone they
choose, while pretending the reader meets some non-existent
standard, to serve as a reader for a blind person in the highly
charged testing context; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, each blind person trains his or her readers to suit
his or her own personal style since the method of using a human
reader is identical in concept to using one's own eyes and brain
with the addition of another person to do the seeing and
vocalizing; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, the vast differences among human beings result in
different styles by different blind people for this very personal
task such as the development of unverbalized instructions and
expectations as the team of blind person and human reader work
together; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, imposing an unknown or very new reader on a blind
person in the stressful context of standardized testing does not
permit the blind person's ability to succeed in the test to be
accurately assessed since the blind person is training a reader
while taking the test, resulting in a test score that measures
the blind person's ability to train a new reader under stress
rather than the blind person's ability to pass the test; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, the blind person is harmed and put at a
disadvantage through the failure to have necessary and relevant
information communicated when the person serving as a reader has
not been trained specifically by that blind individual; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, blind persons choosing to bring their own readers
must (or must be prepared to) pay for the reader's time since the
testing authority will (or may wish to) hire a person to proctor
the test for security reasons; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, the two key elements missing in the current
definition of "qualified reader" are (1) that the term "qualified
reader" means that a blind person must be able to bring his or
her own reader, and (2) that the blind person and no one else is
the person entitled to decide whether to bring a personal reader
or to use one appointed by the testing authority: Now, therefore,
                           **********
     BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in
convention assembled this sixth day of July, 1999, in the City of
Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization petition the United
States Department of Justice to initiate a rule-making procedure
to change the definition of "qualified reader" to allow the blind
the option to choose their own readers and the right to decide
for themselves whether they will bring a personal reader or will
accept one appointed by someone else.
                           **********
                           **********
                        Resolution 99-17
                           **********
     WHEREAS, electronic and information technology is
increasingly prevalent in the gathering, management, and
dissemination of information by departments and agencies of the
federal government, but much of this technology is visually
oriented and therefore difficult or impossible to access by
persons who are blind; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, as the result of forceful and persistent advocacy
by the blind, and particularly by the National Federation of the
Blind, the 1998 Amendments to Section 508 of the Rehabilitation
Act of 1973 were designed to strengthen the law to ensure that
the blind and other people with disabilities will have access to
electronic and information technology; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, Section 508 now requires that when federal
departments or agencies develop, procure, maintain, or use
electronic or information technology, they will insure that the
technology allows federal employees who are blind to have access
to and use of information and data comparable to that provided to
sighted federal employees; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, the statute further requires that blind members of
the public seeking information services from a federal department
or agency must have access to information or data comparable to
that provided to sighted members of the public; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, all federal departments and agencies are required
to be in compliance with the requirements of Section 508 on and
after August 7, 2000; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, in order to promulgate clear, strong, enforceable
regulations to be followed by federal agencies and departments in
complying with these requirements, the 1998 Amendments to Section
508 directed the Architectural and Transportation Barriers
Compliance Board (commonly known as the Access Board) to develop
and publish federal standards for accessible electronic and
information technology by February 7, 2000, including a
definition of "electronic and information technology" and setting
forth technical and functional standards to ensure that such
technology is accessible to the blind; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, the Access Board created the Electronic and
Information Technology Access Advisory Committee to develop the
required standards and submit its recommendations to the Access
Board; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, the Committee has completed its work and filed its
report, which is now pending before the Access Board and awaiting
final approval; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, the National Federation of the Blind believes that
the recommendations of the Electronic and Information Technology
Access Advisory Committee hold great promise for providing access
to electronic and information technology by nonvisual means,
comparable to access by visual means: Now, therefore,
                           **********
     BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in
convention assembled this sixth day of July, 1999, in the City of
Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization strongly urge the Access
Board to adopt the proposed standards set forth by the Electronic
and Information Technology Access Advisory Committee and not
diminish or weaken in any way these clear, strong, enforceable
provisions; and
                           **********
     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization urge the
Access Board to adopt a proactive strategy in promoting
government-wide enforcement of these standards to insure ready,
unimpeded access by citizens and employees to the wealth of
information controlled and managed by the federal government; and
                           **********
     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization call upon all
departments and agencies of the federal government promptly to
adopt and implement procurement policies and procedures which
assure their full compliance with the law.
                           **********
                           **********
                        Resolution 99-18
                           **********
     WHEREAS, the interaction between customer and bank is
increasingly conducted by means of electronic devices rather than
by a live bank teller; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) can handle
deposits, transfers, and cash withdrawals at lower cost to the
bank and can afford to the consumer a greater level of
convenience because of its twenty-four-hour availability; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, in an effort to encourage the increased use of
these devices, many banks are now charging customers when those
customers use the services of a live teller; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, Automated Teller Machines communicate with the
customer using a screen to display questions, prompts, and other
necessary information; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, these machines are generally not equipped with
alternative displays which can be used by people who are blind,
though speech technology has been available in many consumer
products for more than a decade; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, more and more ATM's are operated by touching the
screen as opposed to using tactilely discernible buttons although
a keypad usable by touch can be installed on every model; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, local banks have argued that no Automated Teller
Machines are marketed which are capable of generating speech
output, while ATM manufacturers claim that speaking ATM's do not
exist because the banking industry has demonstrated no demand for
them: Now, therefore,
                           **********
     BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in
convention assembled this sixth day of July, 1999, in the City of
Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization call upon the
manufacturers of Automated Teller Machines to incorporate speech
output and universal tactilely discernible keypads in their
machines so they are usable by the blind without the need for
sighted assistance; and
                           **********
     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization call upon the
banking industry to demand such change in order that it may
comply with the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities
Act and other statutes created to ensure full access to
technology by the blind; and
                           **********
     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization declare its
firm and unalterable intent to remedy this situation by
legislative or judicial means if cooperation by the manufacturers
and the banking industry is not forthcoming.
                           **********
                           **********
                        Resolution 99-19
                           **********
     WHEREAS, the right of all persons to participate fully in
society and their communities as equal, independent, first-class
citizens as guaranteed by the United States Constitution includes
the right to vote, and this right is guaranteed to blind persons
just as it is guaranteed to their sighted fellow citizens; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, the Voting Rights Act of 1982 provides that the use
by a blind voter of another individual of the voter's choice as a
personal assistant is a right guaranteed by federal law for all
federal elections; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, this method of voting by blind persons remains a
viable and fully independent method for voting by the blind which
should not be altered or limited by any subsequent enactments
intended to broaden voting opportunities for the blind; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, new electronic technology is transforming the
voting process for all voters; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, access to new electronic interfaces is desirable as
an additional option for independent voting by blind persons; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, truly independent use of electronic voting machines
by blind voters can never be achieved by retrofitting existing
machines as easily and completely as it can be achieved at the
design stage; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, implementation of any such design requirement by
the federal government could be fashioned to apply only to new
machines being ordered by a jurisdiction, avoiding the cost and
inefficiency of retrofitting and the burden on jurisdictions
still using paper or mechanical voting while insuring that, over
time and as a part of any jurisdictions' improvements to voting
methods, electronic access for the blind will be required; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, Senate Bill 511 provides for the right of disabled
voters to vote in a Federal election independently, where
independently is defined to be "without the assistance of another
individual"; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, for blind persons defining independence must
continue to include the personal assistant as defined in the
Voting Rights Act of 1982 and must also include a provision
requiring design of accessible electronic machines whenever
jurisdictions purchase new ones; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, S. 511 contains other positive proposals such as
election material in alternative media, although the current
wording may be so broad as to require production of materials
even though they are not wanted and will not be used; and
                           **********
     WHEREAS, the types of alternative media as well as the exact
method of implementing accessible design for new voting machines
are matters of such detail and potential costliness if done wrong
that they might more wisely be included in the topics to be
settled by regulation after broad statutory language sets the
framework: Now, therefore,
                           **********
     BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in
convention assembled this sixth day of July, 1999, in the City of
Atlanta, Georgia, that this organization strongly urge supporters
of S. 511 to assure that the protections for blind voters in the
Voting Rights Act of 1982 be re-affirmed and integrated into any
future enactment on the subject of voting accessibility for the
disabled; and
                           **********
     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization insist upon
full access to all new electronic voting machines and interfaces
used in the voting process, including media and interfaces
involving the Internet and electronic kiosks (and in particular,
flat-screen kiosks); and
                           **********
     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that, during the consideration of
changes in voting methods and the technology to be used in voting
by any political jurisdiction, this organization advocate for the
use of voting methods and materials which support full
participation by the blind in the voting process both with and
without assistance as determined by the individual voter.
                           **********
                           **********
                      Convention Miniatures
                           **********
NFB Cane Game:
     Merry-Noel Chamberlain and Michael Neese, coordinators of
the first ever Cane Game, held at the 1999 National Convention in
Atlanta, would like to congratulate the two grand prize winners,
Hannah Weatherd and Allison Hilliker. Sponsored by the students
of Louisiana Tech Orientation and Mobility Master's Program, the
Cane Game promoted, acknowledged, and encouraged proper cane use
during the convention by children up to the age of eighteen.
Participants were divided into two major groups. White ribbons
were attached to the canes of the younger children involved in
the Cane Game while older teens received a purple ribbon.
Students in the Orientation and Mobility Master's Program at
Louisiana Tech placed stars on the ribbons when they observed
participants using their canes properly. Congratulations to
Hannah and Allison for a job well done.
                           **********
National Association of Blind Entrepreneurs Means Business:
     On July 2, 1999, the National Association of Blind
Entrepreneurs held its third annual division meeting in Atlanta.
It plans to set up a Web site, and Robert Leblond, Web designer
for Perspectives Information Access Specialists, will be donating
his talent and time to the site. Among other postings the Web
site will include a directory of current members and what they
do. Those members who do not have e-mail addresses will be listed
with a phone number unless we are directed to do otherwise. Those
who have not paid their membership dues and who want to be listed
in the member database may send $5 dues to Paul McIntyre at 6050
South Land Park Drive, No. 18, Sacramento, California 95822.

     Our Web site is currently under construction and will be
limited only by our creativity: something this division is not
lacking.

     Next year in Atlanta the division plans to hold a murder
mystery dinner theater. All NFB members are welcome to purchase
tickets to this exciting evening. We will keep you posted and
provide more details later. You won't want to miss it!

     The following were elected to National Association of Blind
Entrepreneur Board positions: Connie Leblond, President; Ted
Young, First Vice President; Sharon Gold, Second Vice President;
Jeremiah Beasley, Secretary; Paul McIntyre, Treasurer; and Board
Members Jim Skelton, Joe Urbanek, and Marie Cobb.
                           **********
Merchants' Report:
     Don Morris, President of the Blind Merchants Association,
reports that the National Buyers Group conducted an
extraordinarily successful food show on Wednesday, June 30. Over
800 people toured about thirty booths and talked with some eighty
suppliers and manufacturers about new products and opportunities.
Snackpack sales were excellent this year, enabling the division
to contribute $1,000 to each of the four major NFB funds. Sorry
that corsages and boutonnieres were not available for the banquet
this year, but we promise that they will be next year.

     The division elected four people to two-year terms on its
Board of directors: Nick Gacos, New Jersey; Billie Ruth Schlank,
Virginia; Fred Wurtzel, Michigan; and Kim Williams, Tennessee.
                           **********
You Just Never Know:
     Scott LaBarre, President of the National Association of
Blind Lawyers, writes as follows:

     National Federation of the Blind conventions are interesting
and fun to attend for a plethora of reasons. Part of the fun is
discovering the unexpected.

     This year at the Annual Meeting of the National Association
of Blind Lawyers we had a rare, perhaps a unique, occurrence.
Adam Milani, a law professor from the Mercer University School of
Law, was speaking about a recent article he had written about the
disabled and the law of torts. In particular he referred to a
Washington, D.C., Court of Appeals case called Poyner v. Loftas.
In that case a blind man fell off an unprotected ledge and sought
relief against the landlord. Professor Milani had begun
criticizing the D.C. Court of Appeals for applying the law
incorrectly when someone asked for the floor. I recognized the
person, and he announced that he was William Poyner, the actual
plaintiff in the case. None of us knew Mr. Poyner would be
attending our meeting.

     We lawyers discuss cases in the abstract all the time. In
fact, cases are discussed so impersonally that it is often easy
to forget that at one time or another such cases actually
involved real people and very real issues. It was both surprising
and refreshing for us to have Mr. Poyner with us in the meeting.
It reminded us that the legal matters we handle every day have
significant and profound effects on somebody's life.

     Professor Milani's speech about his article was also
remarkable in another way. Milani based it on a Law Review
article called "The Right to Live in the World: The Disabled and
the Law of Torts," written in 1966 by our very own founder, Dr.
Jacobus tenBroek. In a real sense Professor Milani's work
represents an update of Dr. tenBroek's.

     As both law student and lawyer I have run across many
references to Dr. tenBroek's work, not only with respect to the
blind and disabled, but also in doctrines of Constitutional law.
Dr. tenBroek died the year I was born, making it impossible of
course for me ever to have met him, but through his writings and
his scholarship Dr. tenBroek truly lives on. Part of what makes
the National Federation of the Blind so strong is the unrivaled
leadership we have had. Professor Milani's speech reminds me and
the members of the Lawyers' Division how blessed we were and are
to have had a founder like Dr. tenBroek. Without his towering
intellect and leadership the organization would undoubtedly never
have attracted Dr. Jernigan and then Dr. Maurer. In other words,
we would never have had the Federation as we have come to know
it.

     When I arranged for Professor Milani to speak on our agenda,
I never realized doing so would have such ramifications. If you
have never been to a Convention of the National Federation of the
Blind, don't you think it's about time?
                           **********
Healthcare Professionals Meet:
     On Friday, July 2, 1999, a group of about thirty healthcare
professionals with a wide range of careers met at the NFB
convention to discuss their interest in networking and forming a
division. The group decided to meet again next year actually to
form the division. They agreed on the need to learn more about
the problems blind healthcare professionals face, to educate
sighted professionals about the abilities of blind colleagues, to
establish a mentoring program for people entering these
professions, and to find ways to encourage blind students
considering health careers. If you are interested in changing
what it means to be a blind healthcare professional, contact Dr.
Donna Balaski, 66 Devon-Wood Drive; Waterbury, Connecticut 06708-
2302, e-mail <dlb13@snet.net>. We look forward to meeting you at
next year's Convention--Atlanta 2000.
                           **********
NFB Banners Available:
     The Greater Summit County Chapter and the NFB of Ohio were
selling 2-foot by 8-foot indoor/outdoor poly-vinyl banners during
the Atlanta convention. These professionally-made banners have
the NFB name in white and the logo in gold on a Federation blue
background. The cost for one banner is $35, including postage and
handling. These banners are grommeted and have heavy-duty
stitching. If you order in quantities of ten or more, we can ship
them in a box rather than mailing tubes, and your cost drops to
$30 per banner.

     Purchase your banner by sending a check or money order made
payable to NFB of Ohio and send it to Bruce Peters, 1670 Liberty
Drive, Akron, OH  44313. Phone and fax: (330) 865-8471. More
information is available online at
<http://www.angelfire.com/oh2/nfbofakron/banners.html>.
                           **********
Blind Professional Journalists Meet in Atlanta:
     Deborah Kendrick recently wrote with the following report:

     "Just like any other press club," was the comment John
Walter, managing editor of the Atlanta Journal Constitution, made
to me, just before attending the third annual gathering of the
NFB Blind Journalists Group, held July 2, 1999, as part of the
National Federation of the Blind convention. The comment
indicated that this speaker would bring the tone and information
needed to make our meeting a success. While it was clear in our
conversations in weeks prior to the meeting that he had no
particular experience with blindness, this thirty-year veteran
journalist had instinct enough to gauge what this serious, albeit
eclectic group would feel like.

     About thirty-five NFB members attended the session--an equal
mix of working journalists, students, and journalism job seekers.
The session was moderated by Bryan Bashin, a former TV journalist
and freelance science writer cum agency director and me, Deborah
Kendrick, a Cincinnati-based newspaper columnist and freelance
writer/editor. We opened the session with tales of our own
experiences as journalists who happen to be blind, sharing
techniques for getting stories and meeting deadlines. After
introduction of all participants and some follow-up discussion to
our presentations, I introduced Mr. Walter.

     "Could I come early and listen in to get a feel for the
group," Mr. Walter had asked the day before, a question
characteristic of the unassuming thoroughness and depth of our
speaker. Of course he could and of course he did. He came, in
fact, before our meeting convened and was among the last of us to
leave the room!

     In a warm, engaging delivery, John Walter recounted his own
history as seasoned newspaper editor, replete with hard fact and
amusing anecdote. He spoke candidly about the nature of
newspapers today, the hiring of reporters, and the use of
freelancers. Rather than talking at us, Mr. Walter engaged in a
two-hour forum with us that was lively, informative,
entertaining, and at times even a bit controversial.

     So what did we talk about? Well, what all journalists talk
about, of course: how to get a good story, snag the interview,
take complete notes, and write crisp copy. We talked about
selling an editor on you and your talent, the pragmatic steps to
submitting your work, and solving the issues unique to blindness,
such as transportation and photographs.

     There's something delicious in discovering that you are not
the only one, not the only journalist who is blind. That was the
joy for many of us as we gathered for the first time in 1997 at
the NFB convention in New Orleans. In our brief history we have
found among us journalists from throughout the United States as
well as Australia, Hong Kong, and Finland. Our Atlanta gathering
was one more milestone in our growth and had the satisfying
conclusion that each member present brought something of value
into the room and took something else of value away.

     Would you like to join us? Check out our listserv, moderated
by Bryan Bashin and Elizabeth Campbell, by sending a message to
<listserv@lothlorien.nfbcal.org> leaving the subject line blank,
and in the message body use the words "subscribe nfb-bpj first
name last name," Or join us next year when we will again meet in
Atlanta with possible speakers from CNN and the Atlanta Journal
Constitution and with the unpredictable but certain energy that
comes from so much talent gathered in one room.
                           **********
Convention Lessons:
     More than 175 people attended the National JOB Seminar this
year. One of the graduates from the Targeted Jobs Initiative
Program, Kevin Winslow, attended his first National Convention.
He is from a small town, about 300 people, in Kansas. Kevin
currently travels with a guide dog, Brandon.

     During the first day of convention Kevin's dog became a bit
upset with all the people and the layout of the hotel. Brandon is
used to the wide open spaces of a farm and very few people. Kevin
was not able to find the relief area for the dogs right away, and
Brandon got sick. The dog was very upset, so Kevin went back to
his hotel room. He sat there alone for the rest of the night. By
morning the dog was still upset. Kevin decided that he had come
all that way to learn more about the NFB and was not going to
stay in his room for the rest of the week. He got out his cane
and left Brandon to relax. Two days later he took Brandon to a
convention session. Now Kevin knew where he was going and could
tell the dog where to go, keeping his dog relaxed.

     Kevin discovered that his cane skills were better than he
thought. He also learned that a guide dog needs instructions to
find his way around a big hotel. He says that next time he won't
get upset with the dog if they cannot find something. Instead he
will ask others for information so that he can direct his dog.
These are the real-world lessons to be learned at an NFB
convention.
                           **********
JOB Seminar Tapes Now Available:
     The 1999 Job Opportunities for the Blind seminar, held at
our National Convention in Atlanta, Georgia, is now available on
cassette. This back-to-basics seminar focuses on the how-to's of
looking for a job in today's job market. Hear presentations from
employers about what they are looking for when they interview a
prospective employee. Presenters list important tips for blind
job seekers when putting together a resume that will be
compatible with electronic formats.

     To order your cassette copy, write to the Materials Center
at the National Center for the Blind, or call (410) 659-9314
between 12:30 and 5:00 p.m., EDT.
                           **********
Elected:
     The following divisions notified us of elections that took
place during their annual meetings at the Atlanta convention:

     Diabetes Action Network: Ed Bryant, President; Eric Woods,
First Vice President; Sandie Addy, Second Vice President; Bruce
Peters, Treasurer; Sally York, Secretary; and Gisela Distel and
Paul Price, Board Members.

     Human Services Division: Doug Elliott, President; David
Stayer, First Vice President; Bob Barbera, Second Vice President;
Shawn Mayo, Secretary; Julie Deden, Treasurer; and Debi Delorey
and Marie Kouthoofd, Board Members.

     Music Division: Linda Mentink, President; Mary Brunoli,
First Vice President; Karen McDonald, Second Vice President; Mary
Donohue, Secretary; and Ben Snow, Treasurer.

     NFB in Communities of Faith: the Rev. Robert Parrish,
President; Linda Mentink, Vice President; Lauren Merryfield,
Secretary; and Maureen Pranghofer, Treasurer.
                           **********
The Cane Raisers' Greatest Hits:
     Several new Federationists who attended the NFB Convention
for the first time in Atlanta were much taken with the songs sung
at the banquet. We who have been around for a while sometimes
forget that not everyone who appreciates the sentiments expressed
in these old favorites can join in our singing. Luckily the Cane
Raisers, Federationists from the Sligo Creek Chapter of the NFB
of Maryland, have prepared a cassette tape recording that
includes many of the best NFB songs. The cost is $5 per tape, and
checks should be made payable to the NFB of Maryland. Send orders
to Lloyd Rasmussen, 11909 Coronado Place, Kensington, Maryland
20895.
                           **********
1999 Convention Tapes Available:
     We are pleased to announce that the convention tapes for the
1999 convention are now available in either two- or four-track
format for $25. To order, contact National Federation of the
Blind, Materials Center, 1800 Johnson Street, Baltimore, Maryland
21230.
                           **********
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Newlyweds Ellie and Raymond Bullard]
Wedding Bells:
     On Sunday afternoon, July 4, NFB of Mississippi Board Member
Elsa Barrantes and Mississippi affiliate member Raymond A.
Bullard were married in the ballroom of the Marriott Marquis
Hotel. The Reverend Sam Gleese, President of the NFB of
Mississippi, officiated at the ceremony, and a number of
Federationists were members of the bridal party. Congratulations
and much joy to Ellie and Raymond.
                           **********
                           **********
                          Constitution
                             of the
                National Federation of the Blind
                         as Amended 1986
                           **********
ARTICLE I. NAME

     The name of this organization is the National Federation of
the Blind.
                           **********
ARTICLE II. PURPOSE

     The purpose of the National Federation of the Blind is to
serve as a vehicle for collective action by the blind of the
nation; to function as a mechanism through which the blind and
interested sighted persons can come together in local, state, and
national meetings to plan and carry out programs to improve the
quality of life for the blind; to provide a means of collective
action for parents of blind children; to promote the vocational,
cultural, and social advancement of the blind; to achieve the
integration of the blind into society on a basis of equality with
the sighted; and to take any other action which will improve the
overall condition and standard of living of the blind.
                           **********
ARTICLE III. MEMBERSHIP

     Section A. The membership of the National Federation of the
Blind shall consist of the members of the state affiliates, the
members of divisions, and members at large. Members of divisions
and members at large shall have the same rights, privileges, and
responsibilities in the National Federation of the Blind as
members of state affiliates.

     The Board of Directors shall establish procedures for
admission of divisions and shall determine the structure of
divisions. The divisions shall, with the approval of the Board,
adopt constitutions and determine their membership policies.
Membership in divisions shall not be conditioned upon membership
in state affiliates.

     The Board of Directors shall establish procedures for
admission of members at large, determine how many classes of such
members shall be established, and determine the annual dues to be
paid by members of each class.

     Section B. Each state or territorial possession of the
United States, including the District of Columbia, having an
affiliate shall have one vote at the National Convention. These
organizations shall be referred to as state affiliates.

     Section C. State affiliates shall be organizations of the
blind controlled by the blind. No organization shall be
recognized as an "organization of the blind controlled by the
blind" unless at least a majority of its voting members and a
majority of the voting members of each of its local chapters are
blind.

     Section D. The Board of Directors shall establish procedures
for the admission of state affiliates. There shall be only one
state affiliate in each state.

     Section E. Any member, local chapter, state affiliate, or
division of this organization may be suspended, expelled, or
otherwise disciplined for misconduct or for activity unbecoming
to a member or affiliate of this organization by a two-thirds
vote of the Board of Directors or by a simple majority of the
states present and voting at a National Convention. If the action
is to be taken by the Board, there must be good cause, and a good
faith effort must have been made to try to resolve the problem by
discussion and negotiation. If the action is to be taken by the
Convention, notice must be given on the preceding day at an open
Board meeting or a session of the Convention. If a dispute arises
as to whether there was "good cause," or whether the Board made a
"good faith effort," the National Convention (acting in its
capacity as the supreme authority of the Federation) shall have
the power to make final disposition of the matter; but until or
unless the Board's action is reversed by the National Convention,
the ruling of the Board shall continue in effect.
                           **********
ARTICLE IV. OFFICERS, BOARD OF DIRECTORS, AND NATIONAL ADVISORY
BOARD

     Section A. The officers of The National Federation of the
Blind shall be: (1) President, (2) First Vice President, (3)
Second Vice President, (4) Secretary, and (5) Treasurer. They
shall be elected biennially.

     Section B. The officers shall be elected by majority vote of
the state affiliates present and voting at a National Convention.

     Section C. The National Federation of the Blind shall have a
Board of Directors, which shall be composed of the five officers
and twelve additional members, six of whom shall be elected at
the Annual Convention during even numbered years and six of whom
shall be elected at the Annual Convention during odd numbered
years. The members of the Board of Directors shall serve for two-
year terms.

     Section D. The Board of Directors may, in its discretion,
create a National Advisory Board and determine the duties and
qualifications of the members of the National Advisory Board.
                           **********
ARTICLE V. POWERS AND DUTIES OF THE CONVENTION, THE BOARD OF
DIRECTORS, AND THE PRESIDENT

     Section A. Powers and Duties of the Convention. The
Convention is the supreme authority of the Federation. It is the
legislature of the Federation. As such, it has final authority
with respect to all issues of policy. Its decisions shall be made
after opportunity has been afforded for full and fair discussion.
Delegates and members in attendance may participate in all
Convention discussions as a matter of right. Any member of the
Federation may make or second motions, propose nominations, and
serve on committees; and is eligible for election to office,
except that only blind members may be elected to the National
Board. Voting and making motions by proxy are prohibited.
Consistent with the democratic character of the Federation,
Convention meetings shall be so conducted as to prevent
parliamentary maneuvers which would have the effect of
interfering with the expression of the will of the majority on
any question, or with the rights of the minority to full and fair
presentation of their views. The Convention is not merely a
gathering of representatives of separate state organizations. It
is a meeting of the Federation at the national level in its
character as a national organization. Committees of the
Federation are committees of the national organization. The
nominating committee shall consist of one member from each state
affiliate represented at the Convention, and each state affiliate
shall appoint its member to the committee. From among the members
of the committee, the President shall appoint a chairperson.
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     Section B. Powers and Duties of the Board of Directors. The
function of the Board of Directors as the governing body of the
Federation between Conventions is to make policies when necessary
and not in conflict with the policies adopted by the Convention.
Policy decisions which can reasonably be postponed until the next
meeting of the National Convention shall not be made by the Board
of Directors. The Board of Directors shall serve as a credentials
committee. It shall have the power to deal with organizational
problems presented to it by any member, local chapter, state
affiliate, or division; shall decide appeals regarding the
validity of elections in local chapters, state affiliates, or
divisions; and shall certify the credentials of delegates when
questions regarding the validity of such credentials arise. By a
two-thirds vote the Board may suspend one of its members for
violation of a policy of the organization or for other action
unbecoming to a member of the Federation. By a two-thirds vote
the Board may reorganize any local chapter, state affiliate, or
division. The Board may not suspend one of its own members or
reorganize a local chapter, state affiliate, or division except
for good cause and after a good faith effort has been made to try
to resolve the problem by discussion and negotiation. If a
dispute arises as to whether there was "good cause" or whether
the Board made a "good faith effort," the National Convention
(acting in its capacity as the supreme authority of the
Federation) shall have the power to make final disposition of the
matter; but until or unless the Board's action is reversed by the
National Convention, the ruling of the Board shall continue in
effect. There shall be a standing subcommittee of the Board of
Directors which shall consist of three members. The committee
shall be known as the Subcommittee on Budget and Finance. It
shall, whenever it deems necessary, recommend to the Board of
Directors principles of budgeting, accounting procedures, and
methods of financing the Federation program; and shall consult
with the President on major expenditures.

     The Board of Directors shall meet at the time of each
National Convention. It shall hold other meetings on the call of
the President or on the written request of any five members.

     Section C. Powers and Duties of the President. The President
is the principal administrative officer of the Federation. In
this capacity his or her duties consist of: carrying out the
policies adopted by the Convention; conducting the day-to-day
management of the affairs of the Federation; authorizing
expenditures from the Federation treasury in accordance with and
in implementation of the policies established by the Convention;
appointing all committees of the Federation except the Nominating
Committee; coordinating all activities of the Federation,
including the work of other officers and of committees; hiring,
supervising, and dismissing staff members and other employees of
the Federation, and determining their numbers and compensation;
taking all administrative actions necessary and proper to put
into effect the programs and accomplish the purposes of the
Federation. The implementation and administration of the interim
policies adopted by the Board of Directors are the responsibility
of the President as principal administrative officer of the
Federation.
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ARTICLE VI. STATE AFFILIATES

     Any organized group desiring to become a state affiliate of
the National Federation of the Blind shall apply for affiliation
by submitting to the President of the National Federation of the
Blind a copy of its constitution and a list of the names and
addresses of its elected officers. Under procedures to be
established by the Board of Directors, action shall be taken on
the application. If the action is affirmative, the National
Federation of the Blind shall issue to the organization a charter
of affiliation. Upon request of the National President the state
affiliate shall provide to the National President the names and
addresses of its members. Copies of all amendments to the
constitution and/or bylaws of an affiliate shall be sent without
delay to the National President. No organization shall be
accepted as an affiliate and no organization shall remain an
affiliate unless at least a majority of its voting members are
blind. The president, vice president (or vice presidents), and at
least a majority of the executive committee or board of directors
of the state affiliate and of all of its local chapters must be
blind. Affiliates must not merely be social organizations but
must formulate programs and actively work to promote the economic
and social betterment of the blind. Affiliates and their local
chapters must comply with the provisions of the Constitution of
the Federation.

     Policy decisions of the Federation are binding upon all
affiliates and local chapters, and the affiliate and its local
chapters must participate affirmatively in carrying out such
policy decisions. The name National Federation of the Blind,
Federation of the Blind, or any variant thereof is the property
of the National Federation of the Blind; and any affiliate, or
local chapter of an affiliate, which ceases to be part of the
National Federation of the Blind (for whatever reason) shall
forthwith forfeit the right to use the name National Federation
of the Blind, Federation of the Blind, or any variant thereof.

     A general convention of the membership of an affiliate or of
the elected delegates of the membership must be held and its
principal executive officers must be elected at least once every
two years. There can be no closed membership. Proxy voting is
prohibited in state affiliates and local chapters. Each affiliate
must have a written constitution or bylaws setting forth its
structure, the authority of its officers, and the basic
procedures which it will follow. No publicly contributed funds
may be divided among the membership of an affiliate or local
chapter on the basis of membership, and (upon request from the
National Office) an affiliate or local chapter must present an
accounting of all of its receipts and expenditures. An affiliate
or local chapter must not indulge in attacks upon the officers,
Board members, leaders, or members of the Federation or upon the
organization itself outside of the organization, and must not
allow its officers or members to indulge in such attacks. This
requirement shall not be interpreted to interfere with the right
of an affiliate or local chapter, or its officers or members, to
carry on a political campaign inside the Federation for election
to office or to achieve policy changes. However, the organization
will not sanction or permit deliberate, sustained campaigns of
internal organizational destruction by state affiliates, local
chapters, or members. No affiliate or local chapter may join or
support, or allow its officers or members to join or support, any
temporary or permanent organization inside the Federation which
has not received the sanction and approval of the Federation.
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ARTICLE VII. DISSOLUTION

     In the event of dissolution, all assets of the organization
shall be given to an organization with similar purposes which has
received a 501(c)(3) certification by the Internal Revenue
Service.
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ARTICLE VIII. AMENDMENTS

     This Constitution may be amended at any regular Annual
Convention of the Federation by an affirmative vote of two-thirds
of the state affiliates registered, present, and voting; provided
that the proposed amendment shall have been signed by five state
affiliates in good standing and that it shall have been presented
to the President the day before final action by the Convention.
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                           NFB PLEDGE
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     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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