THE BRAILLE MONITOR
PRIVATE
Vol. 47, No. 4 April, 2004
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 21230-4998
Web site address: http://www.nfb.org
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Letters to the president, address changes,
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should be sent to the National Office.
Articles for the Monitor and letters to the editor may also
be sent to the National Office or may be emailed to bpierce@nfb.org.
Monitor subscriptions cost the Federation about twenty-five dollars per year. Members are invited, and nonmembers are requested, to cover the subscription cost. Donations should be made payable to National Federation of the Blind and sent to:
National Federation of the Blind
1800 Johnson Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21230-4998
THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND IS NOT AN ORGANIZATION
SPEAKING FOR THE BLIND--IT IS THE BLIND SPEAKING FOR THEMSELVES
ISSN 0006-8829
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Atlanta Marriott Marquis Ambassador Albert (Smitty) Smith]
Atlanta 2004 NFB Convention Site
The 2004 NFB convention will take place in Atlanta, Georgia, June 29 through July 5 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel, 265 Peachtree Center Avenue, Atlanta, Georgia 30303. The overflow hotel is the Hilton Atlanta and Towers, just across Courtland from the Marriott Marquis. Room rates are singles, doubles, and twins $59 and triples and quads $65 a night, plus tax of 14 percent at present. The hotels are accepting reservations now. A $60-per-room deposit is required to make a reservation. Fifty percent will be refunded if notice of cancellation is given before June 1, 2004. The other 50 percent is not refundable. For reservations call the Marriott Marquis at (404) 521-0000 and the Hilton Atlanta and Towers at (404) 659-2000.
Rooms will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. Reservations may be made before June 1, assuming that rooms are still available. After that the hotels will not hold their room blocks. So make your reservation now.
Both hotels are twelve miles north of the Atlanta-Hartsfield International Airport and are conveniently located off Interstate 85. Take Exit 96, International Boulevard, turn left onto International Boulevard, go to Peachtree Center Avenue, and turn right. The Marriott Marquis is on the right in the second block. To get to the Hilton, turn left onto International Boulevard, go to Piedmont Avenue, and turn right. The Hilton is on the left. Guest-room amenities in both hotels include cable television, coffee pot, iron and ironing board, hair dryer, and dataport.
The schedule for the 2004 convention is as follows:
Tuesday, June 29 Seminar Day
Wednesday, June 30 Registration Day
Thursday, July 1 Board Meeting and Division Day
Friday, July 2 Opening Session
Saturday, July 3 Tour Day
Sunday, July 4 Banquet Day
Monday, July 5 Business Session
Vol. 47, No. 4 April, 2004
Contents
Imagine Tomorrow: Grand Opening,
NFB Jernigan Institute
by Barbara Pierce
Speaking of Gratitude:
Givers of Freedom and Creators of Opportunity
by Tonia Valletta Trapp
Structured Discovery of Atlanta
by Anil Lewis
Diving
by Terri Uttermohlen
Clarification of Tiger Braille Embosser Review
Profile of the Newest National Board Member
Hearing Enhancement and Spanish Translation
Available at National Convention:
Spanish Translators Needed
by D. Curtis Willoughby
2004 Convention Attractions
As the Twig Is Bent
by Barbara Cheadle
Dialysis at National Convention
by Ed Bryant
Announcement for National Convention Exhibitors
by Jerry Lazarus
Recipes
Monitor Miniatures
Copyright© 2004 National Federation of the Blind
[LEAD PHOTO/CAPTION: Near the close of the grand opening program, representatives of the organizations making million-dollar gifts to the capital campaign joined dignitaries and Federation representatives on stage for the ribbon-cutting ceremony. Here President Maurer uses oversized scissors to cut the broad, textured red ribbon. Pictured left to right are Jason Polanski, a seven-year-old from Maryland representing the next generation of blind people; Barbara Walker Loos, president of the American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults; Wally O’Dell, chairman and CEO of Diebold, Inc.; Mary Ellen Jernigan, NFB executive director of operations; (almost entirely hidden) Steve Marriott, senior vice president of culture and special events for Marriott International, Inc.; Marc Maurer, president of the National Federation of the Blind; and Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr., governor of the state of Maryland.]
Imagine Tomorrow:
Grand Opening, NFB Jernigan Institute
by Barbara Pierce
Dear Friends,
Today we open the National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute, the tangible representation of the faith that we have in the future for the blind. In this Institute we are absolutely certain that the dreams we have for a bright tomorrow will be fulfilled. We who are blind, along with our friends and colleagues, will explore unknown territory and develop new forms of communication. We will create opportunity for the blind of this generation and for the children that come after us. We have built on the dreams of our predecessors, and we know that they are proud of what we accomplish this day. We thank all who have participated in this tremendous effort, and we promise that what we begin today with such anticipation is but the first step in bringing true independence to the blind of the nation and the world. With unfaltering faith, with unquenchable determination, we look to tomorrow with joy!
These are the words that appear at the beginning of the program for the grand opening of the Institute we have been striving to build for more than four years. Its working title at the start was the National Research and Training Institute for the Blind. Gradually it became clear that, because the organized blind were responsible for bringing it into existence and imagining what it could become, the words "National Federation of the Blind" should appear in the title of the Institute, so we began calling it the National Federation of the Blind Research and Training Institute. Recently, however, we began to recognize that Dr. Jernigan's seminal role in conceiving this dream and challenging us to fulfill it should be reflected in the Institute's title. Therefore on the afternoon of January 30 the NFB board of directors met to establish the official names of the Institute and two of its most important components. The National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute (Jernigan Institute for short) became the third and permanent title of the Institute. The third floor facility will be known officially as the Jacobus tenBroek Memorial Library and Resource Center (tenBroek Library for short). And the large, flexible space on the fourth floor that can be divided into smaller rooms for meetings has been officially named NFB Members Hall, or Members Hall for short.
The grand opening celebration took place then in the tenBroek Library and Members Hall. Some construction was still going on in the building, but guests from Greater Baltimore arrived on the evening of January 30 at the Wells Street entrance, where they could check their coats and use the three glass elevators to reach the third floor for the first part of the gala event.
Federationists had been arriving all day from across the country. They entered our complex using the Johnson Street entrance and spent their free time in the fourth-floor dining room, where food and friends were waiting.
[PHOTO/DESCRIPTION: This picture shows the six doors that open from the third-floor atrium into the tenBroek Library. The word "IMAGINE" is spelled out in three-dimensional gold letters above the doors. Whozit can just be seen standing under the G. On either side of the atrium are tall towers that look as if small balloons in all the Whozit colors cover an inflated tower. In fact the balloon-like protrusions are all just part of the tower. Through the doors the viewer can see the library waiting for the celebration to begin.]
[PHOTO/CAPTION: The tenBroek Library as seen from the third-floor atrium just before the celebration began.]
As 5:30 approached, marshals took their places to direct Federation guests from the National Center into the Institute and down the stairs to the third floor, where they could enter the library from the atrium. As each guest entered, he or she received a souvenir program and a wine glass. At least, the first 1,300 guests received wine glasses; well over a hundred guests found that the glasses were gone by the time we reached the table.
Throughout this first part of the celebration and upstairs before the program began, guests were entertained by a number of diverse and extremely talented musicians, including bagpiper and NFB member Craig Hedgecock, the Baltimore School for the Arts flute ensemble, Peabody Institute artists, choirs from the Gilman and Bryn Mawr Schools, pianist and NFB student division member Jermaine Gardner, and the Gangplank Ragtime Band.
A number of people took pictures during this memorable evening, but most of the ones chosen for this report were provided by professional photographer Marc Summerfield of Guill Photo on Reisterstown Road in Baltimore, who volunteered his services. To enjoy them in color, read the April issue online. Go to <www.nfb.org/bralmons.htm> and click on the April issue.
[PHOTO/CAPTION: One of the stations where guests could sample Baltimore's most memorable dishes]
Inside the library, twenty-eight restaurants and other food emporia of various sorts had set up beautifully and imaginatively decorated stations, where guests could sample everything from sushi and tiny quiches to beef tenderloin and ice cream.
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Left to right, Steve Marriott, Allen Harris, and Fred Schroeder chat at one of the many tables in the tenBroek Library]
Scores of tables (covered with cloths in the Whozit colors of red, purple, blue, gold, and white) provided places for the lucky to sit down while they enjoyed food, drink, and conversation. Others stood, juggling their plates and cups as they talked.
[PHOTO/CAPTION:Getting anywhere was a challenge, and finding a particular person was nearly impossible. Luckily people seemed to enjoy chatting with those they found themselves standing near.]
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Jim Fruchterman, Deane Blazie, and Jim Halliday chat together in the tenBroek Library.]
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Nijat Ashrafzada, son of NFB merchants division president Kevan Worley and his wife Bridgit, enjoys meeting Edgar, one of the Ravens football team's three mascots. Allen and Poe were not able to join us.]
[PHOTO/CAPTION: The Orioles mascot, the Bird, leans down to talk to Katrina Beasley of Colorado, who is not quite sure what to think of the attention.]
Among the stations people could visit were a number where they could read about thirty silent auction packages and bid on them. These packages fulfilled all sorts of recreational and shopping fantasies and together raised about $14,000 for the Jernigan Institute. In addition several exciting displays illustrated important Federation programs and projects being rolled out by our new Institute.
[PHOTO/DESCRIPTION: The left front quadrant of a futuristic-looking car is visible from the open side. Visitors could sit in the driver's seat and examine the control panel. Three podia holding explanatory information in both print and Braille are visible in the display.]
[PHOTO/CAPTION: To highlight the Celebration theme, Imagine a Future Full of Opportunity, guests were encouraged to try out a concept car for the future. The car envisioned would provide access to navigation information nonvisually, allowing a blind driver to pilot the vehicle.]
One of the most popular project displays was the car for the blind. Many blind people would enjoy driving again or for the first time. The NFB Jernigan Institute will explore the possibility of creating a car that does not require a sighted driver.
Guests enjoyed examining the display of Kurzweil reading machines through the years. A video of television interviews and demonstrations of the huge original machine played at this display. The prototype of the pocket-sized reading machine that Ray Kurzweil's organization and the NFB will release in the relatively near future was not actually on view, but it will be about the size of a digital camera and will work almost anywhere. We have certainly come a long way in thirty years.
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Brian Buhrow examines a three-dimensional model of the crater where the Spirit Rover has landed on Mars.]
One of the most popular displays was the one created and staffed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). A twelve-foot rocket, like the one blind students will launch this summer in Virginia, was on display. Replicas of some of the parts of the Mars rovers were available for exploration as were other rocket replicas.
Two other displays represented additional Institute programs. One illustrated the various interest centers available to seniors attending the senior fair in May. Developing new ways to assist seniors who are losing vision is one of the program goals of the Jernigan Institute.
The grand opening provided the launch date for our series of distance learning courses on the Web. Learning House, Inc., was present with a CD describing and demonstrating the technology that will make these courses possible. The first course, aimed at classroom teachers and neighborhood school staff members, was actually launched that evening. It provides information and techniques for including a blind student in a regular classroom. Interested professionals can learn more about the course on the NFB Web site.
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Macy McClain of Ohio explores the Everest Expedition display with the help of artist Ann Cunningham while Crystal McClain, Macy's mother, looks on.]
One of the NFB's most successful efforts to change public attitudes about blindness and the abilities of blind people in recent years was the NFB 2001 Everest Expedition, in which Erik Weihenmayer and his team successfully climbed Mt. Everest using the South Col route. We recently commissioned a renowned tactile artist, Ann Cunningham, to commemorate that event with a work to be placed on permanent display in the tenBroek Library. The exhibit was unveiled for the first time publicly at the grand opening. The flag flown at the top of the world and brought back to us by our team and the permit from the Nepal government that was signed by the entire team were framed and incorporated as part of the display. The rest are five panels, each three feet wide and ranging in height from two to three feet. The subjects of the five studies are the main basecamp, the NFB basecamp, a man crossing an ice crevasse on a horizonal ladder, Mt. Everest itself with the NFB expedition route to the summit marked, and Erik Weihenmayer's profile facing the mountain. The sky, clouds, and sun are made of black slate. The sometimes smooth- and sometimes grainy-textured mountains and ground are fashioned from white marble. The people, animals, structures, and small objects are made of cast bronze. The route up Everest, ropes, and camp and summit markers are made of gold, brass, silver, and steel. Viewers are encouraged to touch the art works, albeit gently.
[PHOTO/DESCRIPTION: Flanking the doors into the hall are two huge gold swans. The silky folds of Whozit-colored material and bouquets of flowers on their backs are hardly visible, but columns of balloons in Whozit colors reaching to the ceiling can be seen on the two sides of the picture. Large blue balloons are suspended from the ceiling with blue streamers attaching them to the walls.]
[PHOTO/CAPTION: The entrance to NFB Members Hall before the grand opening, as seen from the fourth-floor atrium. Jerry Lazarus of the national staff is coming out of the hall.]
[PHOTO/DESCRIPTION: This picture shows the length of Members Hall with the stage at the far end flanked by very large video screens. Long parallel rows of tables covered with red cloths and surrounded by white chairs stretch the length of the picture.]
[PHOTO/CAPTION: NFB Members Hall before the program began]
[PHOTO/CAPTION: A smiling Donna Hamilton at the podium]
Shortly after seven, guests began moving to the fourth floor in preparation for the evening's program and entertainment. As they found seats or places to lean, the Bryn Mawr School: Dayseye sang. Then Donna Hamilton, a newswoman with WBAL-TV, Channel 11, in Baltimore, stepped to the microphone and took charge as master of ceremonies. She did a wonderful job of keeping things moving while at the same time introducing those deserving recognition and welcoming each speaker with warmth, grace, and brevity.
[PHOTO/CAPTION: United States Senator Paul Sarbanes]
The first speaker introduced by Donna Hamilton was Senator Paul Sarbanes of Maryland. Senator Sarbanes called attention to the way the NFB had mobilized city, state, and federal resources to augment the more than 18,000 individual, corporate, and foundation contributors to bring the Jernigan Institute into being. In closing he said:
I had the distinct privilege and pleasure of knowing one of the National Federation of the Blind's great leaders, a forceful advocate for causes benefitting the blind: Dr. Kenneth Jernigan. Dr. Jernigan and his wife Mary Ellen, who is of course with us here tonight, worked tirelessly to empower blind people in a world that was focused almost entirely on the needs of the sighted. Dr. Jernigan had a vision. He encouraged and enabled the blind to be active members of society by improving their access to information, to education, to jobs, and to public facilities.
Since 1978, when Dr. Jernigan brought the national headquarters of the NFB here to Baltimore, our state has been a world focus for efforts to improve the status of the blind. Dr. Jernigan and his enormously able successor, Dr. Marc Maurer, have brought this vision to fruition here tonight. I am delighted to come tonight to thank all of those who made this possible, to wish the Institute the very best as it moves forward, and to say how proud we are in Baltimore and the state of Maryland to be the headquarters of the National Federation of the Blind. God bless you and your endeavor.
Senator Barbara Mikulski was unable to attend the grand opening, but she sent an aide to read her letter of greeting and congratulations. Here are its concluding sentences:
I am so proud of you and your commitment to self-help, self-respect, productive employment, and an independent spirit. I applaud your work to provide improved tools for literacy instruction and the development of modern technology for people who cannot see. I commend your continuing and tireless efforts to make your dreams an outstanding reality. Enjoy the fruits of your labors, and use this success to continue to push the envelope of what is possible. I envy you the pleasure of this evening.
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Congressman Benjamin Cardin]
The next speaker was Congressman Ben Cardin, who represents the district which includes the south Federal Hill area, where the National Center is located. He pointed with pride to the governmental/private partnership that brought the Institute into being. He also pledged the continued support of the entire Maryland congressional delegation, particularly the two senators and the three members of the house of representatives who represent Baltimore, to support our efforts on behalf of blind Americans.
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Sean O'Keefe]
Speaking immediately after Congressman Cardin was Sean O'Keefe, administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Here are his remarks:
Good evening to all of you, ladies and gentlemen. I'm delighted to be here tonight to help celebrate the National Federation of the Blind's new Research and Training Institute. On behalf of the men and women of NASA, I salute NFB's president, Dr. Marc Maurer, and the Institute's executive director, Dr. Betsy Zaborowski, for this truly remarkable accomplishment.
I join them in thanking Governor Ehrlich, Senators Sarbanes and Mikulski, Congressman Cardin, and Mayor O'Malley (O'Malley--yes, that's a good name. I like that Irish tone [laughter])--for their strong support for the organization which is truly, truly a national treasure.
Joining me tonight is a public servant who is helping energize our partnership with the Federation and expand our opportunities at NASA for people of all abilities, our assistant administrator for equal opportunity programs, Dr. Dorothy Hayden Watkins.[applause] Through the NASA Defense Department Computer Electronic Accommodations program, Dorothy is helping to promote NASA in a lot of ways in making a full range of electronic information technology available to NASA employees with visual, hearing, dexterity, and cognitive disabilities. We are quite proud of this program, which we instituted about a year ago throughout the agency. Now this past month I've been involved in some terrific events, including the landing of our twin exploration rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. [applause]
Tonight this is truly a special, icing-on-the-cake event. The evening is, I think, filled with special pride because NASA and the National Federation of the Blind are partners in an unprecedented exploration mission. Through our partnership we are attempting to do nothing less than change forever how this community has access to science so that young blind boys and girls will be at the head of the pack for the next generation of explorers. This is truly an uplifting goal for our storied agency, to achieve that mark.
I want to illustrate what we're doing in this regard. I'd like to mention that with us in the audience is Dr. Robert Shelton from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. [applause] Dr. Shelton is using his math and computer expertise to help develop easy-to-use, cutting-edge technology tools that make math and science accessible to all students, including students with disabilities. Dr. Shelton is conducting this work through NASA's Space Enterprise, which is led by Dr. Adena Loston from Houston. Both of you, please stand up and be recognized. You've done some great, great work.[applause]
This summer NASA will support the Research and Training Institute's summer science camp for blind students. We're excited that students in grades seven through nine will have hands-on experience at our Goddard Space Flight Center in a number of earth science experiments that range from an exploration of soil moisture content to bird migration patterns and temperature variations. Our Goddard director, Dr. Al Diaz, is here with us tonight, and he deserves a great deal of credit, singularly, I think, among all in the agency.[applause] Al, you have really championed all of our efforts and activities to help in so many ways that are important to all of us throughout the NASA community and certainly within the broader community at large. We are all grateful to you for that tremendous expertise.
If you think summer camp sounds like a lot of fun, you might be among the high-school-level students who will learn and help develop rocket payloads at the Institute and then launch them at our Wallops flight facility on Virginia's Eastern Shore. That's a class that I'm not sure many of them will mind being scheduled for. Of course, through the Research and Training Institute we will work with the Federation to adapt NASA's educational materials for blind students in classrooms throughout the country. One of our great projects in this regard, one that many of you are familiar with, is the beautiful book entitled Touch the Universe: A NASA Braille Book of Astronomy.
For the first time, thanks to the wonderful work of Noreen Grice and Dr. Bernhard Beck-Winchatz, this book uses stunning images obtained from the Hubble to open up the far reaches of the universe to blind students through its imaginative use of illustrations of stars, planets, and other heavenly bodies. For those of you who don't know her, Noreen helps present planetarium programs at the Boston Museum of Science. Several years ago she noticed a number of blind students at the planetarium and asked them afterwards what they thought of the experience. She was told in no uncertain terms that the show wasn't very fun or meaningful to sit through. (I can't imagine that.) But like a good scientist Noreen decided to do some further investigation into the matter.
At the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Massachusetts, she discovered that, while there were Braille books on astronomy, none had pictures to help the reader make sense of what was being described. She realized the planetarium goers had no context in which to fully appreciate the astronomy program. The librarian told her that making the Braille books with pictures was a very expensive proposition. Recognizing that she had a tremendous opportunity to do some extraordinary work, Noreen created a forty-four-page illustrated astronomy book called Touch the Stars. And NASA's Bernhard Beck-Winchatz saw the book at the Alder Planetarium in Chicago and suggested that Noreen do a Braille book on the incredible results of the Hubble space telescope. "And the rest," as they say, "is history."
A most telling endorsement of that is on the back cover of Touch the Universe, one of the best book endorsements I've ever read. It's from Dr. Kent Cullers, the director of research and development at the SETI Institute. This is the private group that is conducting the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Dr. Cullers writes, "As a radio astronomer and the world's only blind one at that, I feel a powerful intuitive connection with the astonishing exotic objects in the distant universe. When I touch the tactile images of the Hubble northern deep field of galaxies in Touch the Universe, I'm overwhelmed by the same astonishment, a sense of connection with a distant cosmos. It has often been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, for the first time in my career, I get the picture."
At NASA we also get the picture, and I can assure each and every one in this audience, working with the National Federation of the Blind, we will do our utmost to make certain the next generation of explorers will have hundreds and thousands of blind astronomers and engineers and scientists helping to advance our exploration horizons to heights unimagined and frontiers unknown.
We have great work ahead, and we're determined that this community will be a vital contributor in this work. I thank you so much for the opportunity to be with you again, and my hearty congratulations on this extraordinary kick-off of the NFB's Research and Training Institute.
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Melanie Sabelhaus]
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Bill Struever]
Melanie Sabelhaus, community leader and philanthropist, and Bill Struever, CEO of Struever Brothers Eccles and Rouse, Inc., cochaired this remarkable celebration, and each spoke briefly. Melanie Sabelhaus recognized a number of those who partnered with the NFB to make the celebration possible. Bill Struever paid tribute to those in his construction company who have worked to build this very special structure where people will gather to dream new dreams and bring them to fruition for the benefit of blind people everywhere.
[PHOTO/DESCRIPTION: Two people are seated in the audience. The young girl listens smiling to what a very relaxed and engaged man is saying to her.
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Seated together in the audience, Courtney Despeaux listens to Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley.]
Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley recognized the members of the Maryland legislature in the audience and then reminisced about touring the Institute site before ground was broken. He assured the crowd that all of Baltimore is proud of the Jernigan Institute and what is being planned.
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Courtney Despeaux]
Representing the future generation of blind adults was twelve-year-old Courtney Despeaux. She articulated what this Institute means for today's blind youth and brought the crowd to its feet. This is what she said:
Governor Ehrlich, Dr. Maurer, other guests and friends, I am proud to have the opportunity tonight to speak for today's generation of blind youth. Dumbledore, the wise schoolmaster from the Harry Potter books, said, "It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live." I am happy that the National Federation of the Blind not only dreams, but turns those dreams into action. This Research and Training Institute, a dream turned into reality, now allows blind youth like me to have even bigger dreams.
As a girl who happens to be blind, I look forward to doing many things in my life. I'd like to help the poor and the elderly and travel to other countries. I would especially love to see Rome one day, and I am determined to meet the Pope. The important thing is that I know that I can do anything. Now my future is that much brighter because blind people who have come before me dared to dream and worked to live out their dreams.
Speaking for all blind youth across the country, thank you.Thanks to our blind leaders, and thanks to all of you who have supported our dreams and helped build them. Thanks to all of you who have come to understand that blind youth are really just kids like anyone else. We like to run, dance, play, learn, grow, and pull a good practical joke now and then.
Many people ask me what I want to do when I grow up. When I think about all the blind people just in this room here today and the possibilities that they represent, I just can't decide. Maybe I'll join the folks at NASA in exploring new horizons; maybe I'll be the first blind TV meteorologist; maybe I'll write the next great series of books; or maybe I'll take Dr. Zaborowski's job when she's old. [applause]
In the words of the Beatles' John Lennon, "You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one." For blind youth across America, thank you for giving us greater opportunities and making our horizons bigger and brighter. Imagine the opportunities. If you'll excuse me now, we need to be getting on with celebrating the dreams of blind youth everywhere.
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Euclid Herie]
Dr. Euclid Herie, immediate past president of the World Blind Union, spoke briefly, bringing greetings and congratulations from Canada. He pointed out that three of the six WBU regional presidents (Colin Low from Europe, Kua Cheng Hok from Asia, and himself representing Jim Sanders of this region) were present, marking the importance of this new facility to blind people around the world. He closed his remarks with the hope that the final legacy of the NFB's effort to create this institute would be the pronouncement from those in generations to come that "They built better than they knew."
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Dr. Raymond Kurzweil]
The next speaker was our friend and colleague Ray Kurzweil, inventor of the world's first reading machine. This is what he said:
In 1974 I approached the National Federation of the Blind to be a partner in creating the first reading machine. This was the start of a thirty-year relationship.
You know, I don't have very many thirty-year relationships. I've been married only twenty-nine years, and I don't have any relationships more successful and more gratifying than my relationship with the National Federation of the Blind, except for my marriage of course.
It was a deeply meaningful experience to work with Dr. Jernigan, Jim Gashel, and a team of blind scientists and engineers from the National Federation of the Blind. It was only because of this unique partnership that the project achieved the progress that it did.
The public's understanding that blind people can do any job and contribute on terms of equality has come a very long way in the past thirty years. And that's thanks to the courageous and tireless efforts of Dr. Jernigan, Dr. Maurer, and all of the devoted people of the National Federation of the Blind, many of whom are here tonight at this wonderful celebration. So I'm working with all of you once again to create the next generation-–a pocket-sized reading machine. And we'll be working very closely to accomplish this.
I'm grateful to have worked with this great organization from the early days. All I can say is that I'm with you all the way. And thanks to the National Federation of the Blind Research and Training Institute, the next thirty years will be even more liberating, illuminating, and profound.
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Betsy Zaborowski]
When Dr. Zaborowski, the newly appointed executive director of the NFB Jernigan Institute, came to the microphone, she had people to thank and an exciting announcement to make. This is what she said:
Good evening, fellow Federationists; good evening, guests and partners; thank you all. This is a wonderful night. We the blind of America, together with our partners and friends, launch this new Research and Training Institute built on the hopes and dreams of all of the blind. This is a momentous occasion for all of us, and we have lots of people to thank. We want to thank all of our members and all of our tireless staff, who have worked so long on this project.
A very special thanks to Senator Barbara Mikulski, Senator Paul Sarbanes, Congressman Ben Cardin, and all of our friends in the United States Congress who led the way towards federal funds of one million dollars for this research institute. And a very special thanks goes to the citizens of Maryland for its 4.5 million grant to this institute, which we believe, because of the support of our wonderful Governor Ehrlich, will be 6 million dollars at the end of this legislative session.
There are many, many other people to thank: Jack Busher and the Institute's policy advisory board, for their long hours of advice and skills in helping us get this institute off the ground. I also want to thank some very important million-dollar campaign donors: of course the American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults, thank you very much for that support. Thank you to our wonderful friend, Mr. Wally O'Dell, the chairman and CEO of Diebold, Incorporated, for that wonderful gift. And of course our friend Stephen Marriott and the Marriott family for being one of our one-million-dollar contributors to this campaign.
Tonight we launch three inaugural projects of the National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute. We are very proud to announce the first National Federation of the Blind science camp in collaboration with NASA this summer. Imagine a group of talented young blind people working with rocket scientists and blind engineers and teachers and launching a rocket and then studying the data with nonvisual technology.
We are also pleased to announce that we are launching the first in a series of online courses for teachers of the blind and parents of blind children. Imagine online courses that improve the lives of blind people, that use our empowering philosophy of blindness.
And of course tonight we are very proud to say that we are working on the development and commercialization of the first handheld reading machine. Imagine! Imagine accessing print with a small device the size of a digital camera in a matter of seconds. Soon we will have the Kurzweil National Federation of the Blind Reader.
We have worked hard. We have planned our destiny. We have dreamed big dreams, and we are doing big things. Now, let's hear what the blind of America and our friends say about where we go from here.
What followed was a video specially created for this evening. It alternated discussion by groups of blind people about their hopes and dreams for what the new Jernigan Institute will accomplish with statements by inventor Ray Kurzweil, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Director Al Diaz, Rehabilitation Services Administration Commissioner Joanne Wilson, and retired radio executive and NFB of New Mexico President Art Schreiber. The segments were divided by Whozit tapping his cane. The animated NFB logo provided stunningly effective transitions and continuity. [Cassette only, Here is the sound track of the video.]
Betsy Zaborowski: Ladies and gentlemen, we hope that you are inspired tonight and excited about the future that we are going to build in this new institute. We also want to talk to you about an opportunity to help us with that goal. In your program you will find a card and envelope. We are launching the inaugural fund for this new institute. In the next few months our goal is to raise one million dollars toward the launching and operation of Institute programs. Over 1,300 guests are here this evening. If a thousand of you would pledge $1,000 in 2004, we will have $1,000,000. Please think about it. After this program some of our staff and greeters will be pleased to collect your envelopes, or you can sent them to us. This would be a wonderful way to launch this new Jernigan Institute inaugural Imagination Fund.
Dr. Zaborowski then introduced President Maurer who said the following words:
[PHOTO/CAPTION: NFB President Marc Maurer]
The number of people who have sacrificed to build the National Federation of the Blind Research and Training Institute is outstanding, and I appreciate all of the sacrifices. Why have we asked all of us to give so much? It is because we believe that there are things worth knowing that we have not yet learned and plans worth making we have not yet found the resources to create. What does the future hold for us, and how do we believe it will be put into concrete form? In specific details we are still exploring what it will be, but in the overall approach this question is easy to answer.
Consider for example the history of technology and specifically the history of the recording of sound. Today we are in the digital age, and unless we think of something better, it is here to stay. Can we think of something better? Perhaps we can; only time will tell. What is the essence of digital technology? With respect to sound, before digital recording we took a wave that represented sound and preserved it. We pressed it into wax, rubber, or vinyl for reproduction. For the best sound we needed to reproduce the best waveform.
Incidentally, in the 1930's the blind encouraged the fledgling recording industry to create recordings with more time in them than recording artists had previously known. Extra-long recordings were needed for the reproduction of talking books. The result was the long-play record, which the blind used for the study of literature and the sighted used for recording concerts. Both the blind and the sighted were happy with the outcome, and Thomas Edison's hope that his recording device might be used to produce books for the blind came true. His application for a patent had included as one of its uses recording literature for the blind.
Digital recordings do not capture the entire range of the wave created by sound. They take bits and pieces of the original and reproduce sound based on an estimate of what it originally was. Only part of the whole is used, yet with digital recording space is saved, transmission of files is enhanced, and manipulation of material is faster and easier than had been true with high-fidelity recording. Hence we are left with the paradoxical digital reality that less is more.
Blind people have been using digital methods of comprehension by necessity from the beginning of time, although we would not have called it by that name. For example, when I travel with a cane, I do not have the same range of information available that my sighted companions have. I use my cane to explore the world in a digital fashion, taking a small bit of information here and another one there. Nevertheless, I string these bits of information together, interpolating an image sufficient for me to find my way from place to place. I do not get all of the information available, but I get enough of it to do what needs to be done.
Already we have begun the process of exploring what does not exist--one prototype of the handheld reading machine, the Kurzweil National Federation of the Blind Reader, is here tonight; the first in a series of courses on blindness offered over the Internet has been created and is ready for use; the initial planning with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and others for the science camp for blind students is underway; and partnerships for the creation of access technology in thousands of other devices are being formed.
It is fair to predict that some of the dreams we have for independence for blind people will be achieved within a reasonably short time. The overall objective of full integration for the blind within society on the basis of equality with all of the training, all of the public understanding, and all of the resources needed to accomplish this goal will demand much more effort and much more time.
As we explore new methods of understanding, the individual experiences of blind people must be a part of the pattern. We as a society must use the talents each of us possesses. If we do, it will be good for the individuals involved, but it will also serve society as a whole. Our effort today is to expand knowledge into realms that have been previously unexplored. We will use the tools that are available--those that we have built and those that we can gather from the efforts of others. But of most importance in our quest for knowledge is the spirit that we bring to the task--a spirit that longs for independence, that seeks to be a part of the community in which we live, that yearns for our talents to be employed in building that community.
We know that none of us can be completely free until all of us have achieved liberty, and we will not rest until we have found a way to give independence to us all. Training, research, and faith: these are the elements of the National Federation of the Blind Research and Training Institute dedicated to the blind men and women who have helped us to know that the people who are here can create an edifice of thought and understanding that could not exist without us.
Our Institute is dedicated to Dr. Jacobus tenBroek, who, along with others, founded the National Federation of the Blind in 1940 and believed in it until the day he died in 1968. It is dedicated to Dr. Kenneth Jernigan, who worked to expand the programs of the Federation for almost half a century and who formed the plans for the building in which we are assembled. It is also dedicated to the next generation, who will carry the work into the future. On this day and in this place come together the elements that make us what we are. We remember the people of yesterday, and we are grateful for their faith in themselves and their belief in us; but we think of the people of tomorrow, and we pledge our lives, our efforts, and our imagination to build for ourselves and those who come after us a method of understanding and an approach to achievement that will alter forever the shape of possibility for us all. With this commitment the blind will be free, and nothing on earth can keep us from it.
[PHOTO/CAPTION: President Maurer and Betty Woodward, president of the NFB of Connecticut, hold up the giant check from the Connecticut affiliate that completed the NFB's five-year capital campaign.]
Betty Woodward, president of the NFB of Connecticut, then presented what her husband Bruce characterized as "a check from us to us" in the amount of $107,960.72, and she assured Dr. Maurer that he could "take it to the bank." President Maurer accepted the check with gratitude, including the seventy-two cents, and announced the completion of the capital campaign. He agreed with Dr. Zaborowski on the importance of setting about to raise the funds necessary to operate the Institute, but assured the crowd with joy filling his voice that it was "great to finish the capital campaign tonight!"
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr., grand opening honorary chairman]
President Maurer then introduced the honorary chairman of the grand opening, Maryland Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr., by saying that sometimes, when politicians move from one elective office to another, their support for particular causes evaporates. That has not been the case with Governor Ehrlich. This is what the governor said when the applause finally ceased.
Thank you very much. I'm the last thing between you and the ribbon-cutting. By the way, when one capital campaign ends, another one begins. We all know that. Trust me, I'm in politics; I do know that. We do have a long history; you're right, Marc. I have no idea when this relationship began--well, I have a fairly good idea, I guess. It was when I was in the Maryland general assembly. I got to know these folks, and I got to know their issues. We worked on issues together.
Then it was in the Congress, where my activism grew, and our relationship grew even stronger. Issues from Braille, to NEWSLINE, to tax issues, to capital construction, to the workplace, to technology: our relationship grew over the years. I have benefitted in many ways, including Kris Cox, our new secretary, who I believe was here earlier. Kris is terrific. I got to know Kris in Congress, working on blindness-related issues, and now Kris is a member of my cabinet. That is neat. [applause]
I just mentioned the word "opportunity." That's what this building and this organization are all about--the intersection of opportunity and technology. They are interchangeable today, which is why I am so excited about the mission of this historic organization and this wonderful new place. I am also proud of the state's investment of six million dollars. I'll take complete credit for all those dollars. I'll share it with Governor Glendening, actually.
I will close with this. I want to thank you all for being here tonight. This is an incredibly impressive night, and I wanted to be here. But I wanted to thank the business community. As we know, it is somewhat popular in our culture today to beat up on business. We have lived through some of the issues on Wall Street and some greed-related issues, and it becomes rather easy to beat up on corporate America. Yet I attended a lunch not too long ago where corporate leaders around Baltimore and the state of Maryland were asked to help this organization. As is the case in this area, the corporate community always comes through. The corporate community is always there because we have a very strong community and a very strong history of giving from that community. So I want to thank everybody who came through when we asked for help in our not so subtle way.
Thank you all for being here tonight; this is a wonderful night, and Godspeed.
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Just before the ribbon-cutting ceremony here are (left to right) Wally O’Dell, chairman and CEO of Diebold, Inc.; Jason Polanski, a seven-year-old from Maryland; Barbara Walker Loos, president of the American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults; Mary Ellen Jernigan, NFB executive director of operations; Steve Marriott, senior vice president for culture and special events, Marriott International, Inc.; Marc Maurer, president of the National Federation of the Blind; and Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr., governor of the state of Maryland.]
Just before cutting the ribbon, surrounded by representatives of the million-dollar contributors; honorary grand opening chairman, Governor Ehrlich; Mrs. Jernigan; and an energetic and curious blind child representing the blind of tomorrow, President Maurer announced the board of directors' decision to name the institute the National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute. He then cut the ribbon, and with that momentous act the program ended, and the entertainment began.
The evening concluded with an unforgettable rhythm and blues review featuring Ali Ollie Woodson of the Temptations, the Winstons Orchestra, the Drifters, the Platters, and Major Harris, formerly of the Delfonics, with Pat Palmer and Johnney Smalls. These performers were not only talented musicians but truly remarkable entertainers. They invited the audience to sing along with favorites like "Under the Boardwalk" and "My Girl." They even got volunteers up onto the stage to sing with them. The room was too full of chairs and tables for anyone to have room to dance, but that was all that was missing from the show.
It was a memorable close to a wonderful evening and a stirring beginning to the work of the NFB Jernigan Institute. As the evening ended, we recognized that the real challenge was just beginning. As Dr. Zaborowski wrote in the program: "We have dreamed. We have planned. We have built. Now we devote ourselves to a future full of Imagination."
[PHOTO/CAPTION: The Drifters performing in Members Hall]
[PHOTO/CAPTION: A view of the Jernigan Institute from the Byrd Street side. The fourth-floor balcony outside Members Hall can be seen.]
[PHOTO/CAPTION: The glass elevator shafts, the railings of each floor, the metallic ceiling, and the glass front of the Institute can all be seen in this view taken from the first floor, looking up.]
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Tonia Trapp]
Speaking of Gratitude:
Givers of Freedom and Creators of Opportunity
by Tonia Valletta Trapp
From the Editor: The following speech was delivered at the New Mexico state conference of the Association for the Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AERBVI) on February 26, 2004. Tonia Trapp is president of the Albuquerque chapter of the NFB of New Mexico. Her husband is Greg Trapp, the director of the adult rehabilitation training center of the New Mexico Commission for the Blind. Here is Tonia's story:
One of the most difficult tasks we face as human beings is the challenge of developing an honest and realistic view of who we are: our strengths, our weaknesses, our talents, our shortfalls, our achievements. Growing up as a totally blind person has made that challenge a little more difficult for me than it would have been otherwise. Back in Virginia my mother has a drawer full of newspaper clippings in which various journalists wrote that I was amazing or outstanding because of my achievements as a blind person. Of course such notions are ridiculous, but they do offer a useful way to introduce the question I hope to answer for you tonight: How did I get to be who I am today?
As I've gotten older and hopefully wiser, I have come to the realization that who I have become has a little to do with me but has much more to do with the influences that other people have had in my life and the many opportunities that others have helped me to reach for. I feel an increasing wish to tell those people how much I appreciate all that they did for me. So tonight I will indulge in telling you about some of those people in my life. I know that each of you is influential in the lives of blind people, so I want you to know how essential you are and how much your influence matters.
I will start by telling you about the people who have naturally had the most influence on me, my parents. I became totally blind by the age of two because of bilateral retinoblastoma. So all of a sudden my parents were plunged into a new and frightening situation. They had to decide what to do with their blind child. At that point my parents made the decision that has had the greatest impact on my future, the most important decision they ever made for me. They decided that they wanted me to live a normal life, to do and experience all the things that children without disabilities experience. They let me explore my surroundings. They taught me how to swim, how to run, how to ride a bicycle, and how to dance. They let me play with neighborhood children at their houses, in the woods, and in our swimming pool. They let me go sledding and ice skating and roller skating and canoeing and horseback riding. They signed me up for Girl Scouts, choral society, and summer camp.
Were my parents taking a risk by giving me such freedom? Of course. And I did have my share of mishaps. I remember when my parents were teaching me how to ride a bicycle, and they took my brother and me to the empty parking lot at my elementary school to practice. My bike did not have handbrakes; to use the brakes, you had to pedal backwards. I remember one time I was riding my bike straight ahead, and my dad yelled, "Brake! Brake!" but I did not respond fast enough, so I rode straight into a chainlink fence and cut the bridge of my nose. No big deal. Then there was the time I went to a friend's party at a roller-skating rink. I was skating along when I lost my balance and fell. I put my right hand down to catch myself, and I fractured my wrist.
The most serious injury I sustained happened on the first day of practice after I joined my school gymnastics team in the sixth grade. I was doing a move on the uneven bars, and we had a miscommunication about the location of the crashpad, a soft, squishy mat about eight inches thick, used to cushion landings. When I came flying off the low-bar and landed on a much thinner mat, I had too much momentum going, so I fell forward and put down my left hand to catch myself, breaking my arm.
You're probably thinking, weren't my parents afraid to let me do all those things? Of course they were. But did they allow their fears to hold me back? Not at all. My parents had the courage to let me live. I can never thank them enough for that. I have many memories of happiness and fun from my childhood because of them.
One of the things that my mother has always done extremely well is to inspire my curiosity about the world by encouraging me to examine things tactilely. She would show me sculptures that were reachable in museums and as decorations outdoors. Even today, when we go shopping, she picks up objects she thinks I would find interesting and hands them to me. When the architecture of a building is tactile, she points that out to me so I can enjoy it. When she came to visit me here a few years ago, she showed me the nifty carved wood on the front door of the Gardunos restaurant we took my family to.
In college I had a friend who worked at a science museum, and he took me there once for an insider's view. I particularly remember two things he showed me. When we got to the museum, he told me to hold out my hands like a cup because he was going to put something into them. So I did what he asked, and he poured a bunch of fleshy things into my hands. I had no idea what they were. Then the objects in my hands all began to wriggle and squirm like mad, and I exclaimed to my friend, "What in the world is this?" He laughed and said that he had just given me a handful of worms.
The other thing I remember him showing me was a baby alligator. For some reason I especially like alligators. My friend had to remove the baby alligator very carefully from his domicile, using one hand to clamp the animal's mouth shut so it could not bite. I had a fast feel over the alligator's body because my friend had to put him back quickly. How nifty that was! I was excited to be able to touch that alligator, even briefly.
One of the most fabulous adventures I had in curiosity came about because of an administrator at one of the museums in Washington, D.C., who invited me on a personal, hands-on tour of a part of the museum not open to the public, but reserved for older students doing scientific research. In this area nothing was behind glass. Everything could be touched and carefully handled. I got to see all kinds of biological things like bones, preserved animals, fossils, insects, and lots of other cool stuff. I am sure that having my curiosity piqued in this way had something to do with my desire to learn and to know more about the world.
Several teachers played key roles in my development as well. One of these was my teacher Ms. Schlosberg at Camp Adventure, the private preschool I attended in Tucson, Arizona. Ms. Schlosberg took a special interest in me. Shortly before my family left Arizona to move to Virginia, she gave me a doll that she had sewn together herself. Other staff at my preschool took interest in me too. I remember them introducing me to the trapeze and showing me how to sit and swing on one.
When we moved to Virginia, my parents had to convince our local public school to admit me as a kindergarten student. They did not know a lot about the Education of All Handicapped Children Act that had been passed a few years before, so they decided to approach the problem practically. They suggested to the principal of my neighborhood school that I spend a day in one of their kindergarten classes so that the teacher could observe me. That was done. My parents had taught me my ABCs and numbers and so on, so I was able to convince the school that I was a child with some intelligence. I was admitted as a kindergarten student, and I attended public school from that point forward. I still remember my very first VI teacher, Ms. Wildberger, who taught me Braille. Of all my VI teachers, I remember her most fondly.
I have always been a rather ambitious person. My mother remembers that, when I was in kindergarten, I was walking along with some friends, and I turned to them and said, "So where do you want to go to college?" Then I told them that I was planning to go to Harvard. For a long time I thought I wanted to be a lawyer. My VI teachers spurred me on by introducing me to blind adults who had jobs and were supporting themselves as lawyers, radio announcers, engineers, and so on. I was also given chances to meet with adult blind women and ask them questions about how they did things like cooking, matching their clothes, and shopping. Actually I seem to recall that my mother asked most of the questions because I got bored quickly and wanted to do something else. But one way or another, the invaluable wisdom of those blind women was passed on to me.
When I was about ten, my VI teacher taught me how to type. I despised having to practice typing; it was awful! But it sure came in handy later. This same teacher introduced me to my first computer, the Apple 2-E, with a speech synthesizer called the Echo. I even got to take a computer home one summer and play games on it. Computers were just beginning to be popular back then, so I am very glad that my VI teachers had the wisdom to teach me how to use them.
Some of my classroom teachers went out of their way to nurture and encourage me too, like my third-grade teacher Mrs. Burgess, who encouraged me to write. She also took me to the circus for the first time. I remember my eighth-grade teacher, Mrs. Swaim, who made sure I knew that I had great value in her eyes, and my high school AP biology teacher Mr. Sane, who gave me individual attention to ensure that I could participate in labs and learn as much as possible. Then there was Dr. Aday, who taught me criminology when I took two summer classes at my college before starting my freshman year. Dr. Aday called me a few years later to suggest that I apply for a Truman Scholarship, which I had never heard of before.
Because of the support I received from all of my teachers and because of the strong work ethic I inherited from my parents, I earned mostly A's in school, had the privilege of attending a high school for gifted students, and eventually won scholarships from the College of William and Mary, the Truman Foundation, the NFB, and several other groups. Together with support from the Virginia rehabilitation agency for the blind, those scholarships paid my way through my three-and-a-half years of college and two years of graduate school so that, when I completed my master's degree in social work in 1998, I had no debts to pay back. I know that I was very blessed to be supported so generously.
I would not want you to think that I have forgotten about my mobility teachers. I remember my first O and M teacher, Mrs. Woolsten. She taught me how to use my cane to travel around my elementary school and other places. Other instructors like her taught me how to navigate busy streets, stores, and college campuses. They taught me how to use taxis, buses, and the subway system. Thanks to them I was never afraid to go where I wanted to by myself, whether that was Washington, D.C., for summer internships and volunteering or Williamsburg for college or Chapel Hill for graduate school or Europe for swimming competitions.
Speaking of swimming, let me tell you about the people who helped me become an athlete. My first and most favorite sport is gymnastics. My mom likes to tell how she knew early on that I would be athletic. When she was pregnant with me, she sometimes felt my little fingers grasping her ribs as though I were trying to climb them like a ladder. She tells this other story about how, when I was about three, I was standing on a stool in the kitchen. Mom looked away for a second, and when she looked back, she was just in time to see me leap from the stool and do a flip, landing upright on the floor. So my parents put me into gymnastics lessons in my preschool years in Arizona.
Then we moved to Virginia, and I began elementary school. Sometime during my first two or three years there, my PE teacher Mrs. Hurst, noticed that I greatly enjoyed swinging around on the playground equipment. She wanted to encourage my athletic ability, and she wanted me to be safe, so she suggested to my parents that I stay after school sometimes so that she could teach me more gymnastics. When she had taught me all she could, my parents took me to a private gymnastics club run by Mr. and Mrs. Roltsch, who had never worked with a blind child before. They decided to give me a test run to see what I could do and to see if I would be fearful or timid as an athlete. They soon learned that the answer was "no," so they took me on as a pupil.
My gymnastics teachers came up with some creative and useful ways of teaching me. To show me how to do a cartwheel, they used a doll to demonstrate what the movement should look like, which worked very well. It would have been difficult to grasp the concept without such a tactile model. Then when I needed to learn how to do cartwheels in a straight line, my coaches showed me a crack where two mats joined, and they told me to practice doing the cartwheels along that crack in the mats.
My favorite gymnastics event was the uneven bars. To show me how to do certain moves on the bars, my coach would call over one of the more experienced gymnasts and ask her to do that move. He would stop her at strategic points during the move and ask me to feel the position of her body so I could see what I needed to be doing.
The last creative teaching method I will tell you about had to do with my floor-exercise routine. I needed to follow a particular geometric pattern as I did the routine. In one of my routines part of the pattern involved making ninety-degree turns and moving along the square area of the spring-floor, which was no problem. But at one point I needed to move on the diagonal. To facilitate that, my coaches put the tape recorder that played the music for my routine at a particular corner of the spring floor so that I could move toward the music and thereby cross the floor diagonally. This method, like all the others, worked quite well.
I competed in gymnastics with my sighted peers, where I did especially well on the uneven bars. In the spring of 1985 I went to my first United States Association for Blind Athletes (USABA) national competition for blind gymnasts in Trenton, New Jersey, where I won four gold medals and one silver.
But when I broke my arm in the sixth grade just after joining the school gymnastics team, I faced a new challenge. Of course I had to give up gymnastics long enough for my arm to heal. Then I resumed my private gymnastics lessons. My coach took me to the uneven bars and asked me to do a move very similar to the one I had been doing at school when I broke my arm. The move was called a soul circle. It involved swinging around the low bar and letting go of the bar to land on the mat. I was afraid to do what my coach asked. I would perch on the low bar, do a preparatory movement that would set me up for the soul circle, then stop. I repeated that sequence over and over, too afraid to follow through. My coach waited patiently, lesson after lesson. He knew I was afraid, but he kept asking me to do the soul circle. He understood that it was crucial that I conquer my fear. And eventually I did. And I continued to compete as a gymnast.
In the spring of 1987, when I came here to Albuquerque to compete again as a blind gymnast in the USABA games, the coach of the national blind swim team happened to see me perform. He approached my parents and explained that, if I were interested in becoming a competitive swimmer, I could compete, not just nationally, but internationally as a blind athlete. So I decided in the seventh grade to take swimming lessons. Then, when I was in the eighth grade, my swim coach decided it was time for more serious training to bring me up to the level where I could join a sighted swim team and compete at that level. During that year I had three swim coaches, who worked with me to get me into shape.
I joined a sighted swim team, and in the spring of 1988 I swam in the USABA games in Indianapolis, where I set six national swimming records and was picked to be on the national blind swimming team going to Seoul, Korea, that fall for the Paralympic Games. For those of you who may not know, the Paralympics is the Olympics for the physically disabled, including people with vision impairments and various kinds of paralysis. At age fourteen I was the youngest American athlete to go to Seoul that year, which was a bit daunting. I was fortunate to be a member of two relay teams that set world records and won gold medals for two swimming events in Korea. Over the next two years I got to go to Holland, England, and France to compete in other competitions for blind swimmers. I also competed as a part of several sighted swim teams, including my high school team.
Now I have told you about some of the people who have been critical to my accomplishments. But I would be remiss if I did not tell you that I could not have come this far without God in my life. God has always sent me encouragers when I needed them most, people who poured their kindness and strength into me so that I could keep up a good fight and keep pressing forward. It would take me a long time to list all of the encouragers who have helped me along the way.
I have much to be grateful for: a wonderful husband and a very happy marriage, good friends; a job I enjoy; a comfortable, cozy house that I like to come home to; and groups and activities that I enjoy participating in. In a nutshell, I am living the kind of life that my parents envisioned for me long ago. But that does not make me amazing. All my accomplishments do not make me amazing. I am a person with some intelligence, some athletic ability, some tenacity, and some courage. But my abilities would have lain dormant and untapped if my parents, teachers, friends, and other people had not actively created opportunities for me to excel.
You too can be a creator of opportunity for a blind child or a blind adult. You can see the boundless potential that blind people have, and you have the power to harness that potential and channel it into great and small accomplishments. I could not have achieved all that I have without the help of many people just like you. You can help shape the lives of blind people into the exquisite works of art they were meant to become. I challenge you to use every such opportunity that you can find.
[PHOTO/CAPTION: World of Coca-Cola]
Structured Discovery of Atlanta
by Anil Lewis
From the Editor: This issue has lots of information about the upcoming convention. If you have any time left over while you are in Atlanta, you will want to keep the information in the following article in mind:
In last month's Braille Monitor we listed the tours that will be coordinated by the Georgia affiliate to allow conventioneers to take proper advantage of their limited free time while here in Atlanta. We will provide point-to-point assistance and make every effort to ensure that you enjoy yourself. The tours have been designed to allow for the comfort of those wishing to be exposed to key sites of the city. However, I realize some people will want to capitalize on their travel skills and self-confidence to explore our city on their own terms. The rest of this article gives some suggestions to conventioneers who wish to explore our wonderful city using the structured-discovery method. I will provide the name, a brief description, and a contact number for you to get information to plan your trip. Here are a few of the must-see places:
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chastain Park Amphitheatre
The Classic Chastain series features musicians and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra performing at Chastain Park Amphitheatre while guests dine by moonlight. The Symphony, led by music director Robert Spano and principal guest conductor Donald Runnicles, also presents a series of concerts at parks and churches, in addition to the regular season at Symphony Hall in the Woodruff Arts Center (404) 733-5000.
Atlanta University Center and the Herndon Home
The Vine City area of Atlanta holds the country's largest concentration of African-American colleges, dating back to the post-Civil War era: Clark Atlanta University, Interdenominational Theological Center, Morehouse, Morehouse School of Medicine, and Morris Brown and Spelman Colleges. The 1910 Herndon Home, built by Atlanta Life Insurance founder Alonzo Herndon, is nearby and is a National Historic Landmark (404) 581-9813.
Atlanta Walking Tours
A multitude of tours is available for visitors, from historic neighborhoods to prominent buildings. The Atlanta Preservation Center offers guided walking tours of neighborhoods such as Ansley Park, a 230-acre residential district developed in 1904; Druid Hills, where you will find the home used in Driving Miss Daisy; Grant Park, with the antebellum Grant Mansion and beautiful park; Inman Park, one of Atlanta's first garden suburbs; and historic downtown (404) 688-3350.
Centennial Olympic Park
This twenty-one-acre site was one of the most popular spots in the city during the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games. Today year-round programming featuring concerts, family activities, and artists' markets make the park a gathering place for Atlantans and visitors alike. The park features the world's largest Olympic Ring fountain (404) 222-PARK.
Center for Puppetry Arts
This is the largest organization in North America dedicated to the art of puppetry. The center offers performances from the Family Series for everyone and New Directions for adults. An interactive museum, Puppets: The Power of Wonder, is the largest puppetry museum in the United States (404) 873-3391.
Chateau Elan Winery and Resort
This sixteenth-century-styled French retreat about thirty minutes north of Atlanta has a festive atmosphere that encourages guests to tour the vineyards, visit the winery, lunch at a sidewalk café, and play a round of golf. Visitors to this 3,100-acre facility can also enjoy treatments at the spa. Resort (770) 932-0900, spa (770) 271-6064.
CNN Studio Tours
Even if you're not a top news anchor, you can still get in on all of the action of TV newsmaking at the headquarters of CNN and Headline News. The tour includes the Control Room Theater, a look at CNN Espańol, the workings of the special effects studio, and the main newsroom (404) 827-2300, (877) CNN-TOUR.
Find Theater at Its Best
Atlanta has one of the most active theater communities in the United States, with more than sixty-five active performing groups. The Alliance Theatre Company, (404) 733-5000, and the Horizon Theatre Company, (404) 523-1477, are known for presenting contemporary plays. Other local theaters present a variety of new and old works, musicals, and other favorites like Theater Emory, (404) 727-0524; Theatrical Outfit at the Rialto Center for the Performing Arts, (404) 651-4727; 7 Stages, (404) 523-7647; Neighborhood Playhouse, (404) 523-3141; and Theater Gael, dedicated to the Celtic cultural traditions of Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, (404) 876-1138.
Jimmy Carter Library and Museum
Visitors to the facility dedicated to the work of former U.S. President and Georgia native Jimmy Carter can enjoy a walk through the natural surroundings in the Japanese garden or learn from the memorabilia in the library and a variety of traveling exhibitions (404) 331-3942.
SciTrek: Georgia's Technology Adventure
Since 1988 this museum has helped people of all ages explore, understand, and appreciate the wonders of science, mathematics, and technology. SciTrek allows visitors to explore the principles of science and math through traveling exhibits like "BRAIN, The World Inside Your Head," and interactive displays that allow guests to lift a car engine with one hand or hear someone whisper from eighty feet away (404) 522-5500.
Shop till You Drop
A visit to Atlanta is not complete without at least one day of shopping. Products from around the world can be found at Atlanta's many shopping venues, including the elegant Phipps Plaza or lavish Lenox Square. Travel a short distance out of the city to find gigantic malls such as the Mall of Georgia and Discover Mills (404) 222-6688.
Underground Atlanta
Six city blocks in the heart of downtown Atlanta have been transformed into a spirited urban marketplace featuring twelve spectacular restaurants, over a hundred specialty stores, and entertainment emporiums, as well as street-cart merchants (404) 523-2311.
The Varsity
As the world's largest drive-in, this fast-food eatery near Georgia Tech has been a longtime hangout for college students and Atlantans from all sectors of society. Founded in 1928, it has become famous over the years for its red-shirted servers who use their own special language to belt out orders (404) 881-1706.
William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum
Through its exhibitions, publications, and resources, this museum of the Atlanta Jewish Federation explores Jewish heritage in general and relates to other cultures and religions. It contains two permanent galleries and hosts special rotating exhibits year-round (404) 873-1661.
The Woodruff Arts Center
This midtown showpiece is the heartbeat of Atlanta's thriving arts community, housing the Alliance Theater Company, Atlanta College of Art, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and the High Museum of Art (404) 221-1270.
World of Coca-Cola
More than one million people visit this attraction annually to learn about the world's most popular soft drink through memorabilia, video presentations, and displays. Included is a recreation of a 1930's soda fountain and the "Everything Coca-Cola" retail store (404) 676-5151.
Zoo Atlanta
Located just minutes from downtown Atlanta in historic Grant Park, the zoo features 250 species of animals from all over the world living in naturalistic habitats. Some unusual creatures to seek include a pair of giant pandas from China, the Sumatran orangutans, western lowland gorillas, and black rhinos (404) 624-5600.
The information provided here was taken from the Web site of the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau, listing fifty fun things to do in Atlanta. For the complete list and descriptions visit <http://www.atlanta.net/50funthings/>. We will have copies of the entire brochure at the Georgia information table during convention. I must admit, in putting this article together, I found some sites I have yet to visit. I can hardly wait until you all arrive. Maybe we can enjoy a few of them together.
Remember, you can still take advantage of one of our planned tours. The tours are $25 for adults and $15 for children under thirteen (except for Agatha's Dinner Theater, which is $45 for adults only). Remember checks or money orders for the tours should be made payable to the NFB of Georgia and mailed to the Georgia Affiliate at NFB of Georgia, P.O. Box 56859, Atlanta, Georgia 30343. Payment should include a note explaining which tours are being ordered and the number of adult and children's tickets requested.
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Terri Uttermohlen]
Diving
by Terri Uttermohlen
From the Editor: This charming story will make you yearn for Caribbean islands and tropical breezes. It appeared in To Reach for the Stars, the twenty-fifth in the Kernel Book series of paperbacks we publish to educate the public about blindness. It begins with President Maurer's introduction:
When Terri Uttermohlen considered the possibility of fulfilling her long-held dream of diving in the sea, her blindness was not what she feared. What she worried about was whether she would find an instructor willing to work with her. Here is the delightful story of her adventure:
Jacques Cousteau, the French oceanographer and inventor of the Aqua-Lung, has always been a hero of mine. When I was a kid, I used to dive vicariously by watching him on television. The fish and other sea life brought to me by his camera fascinated me.
I also admired the younger French divers as they fell backwards into the sea--clad in wetsuits, masks, fins, and tanks. It seemed like magic to me to be able to enter another world so close, and yet so different, from the one inhabited by those of us dependent on air for our survival.
It may not surprise you then to find that I wanted to try diving on a recent trip to a small island in the Caribbean on my belated honeymoon. My husband Jim and I planned the trip for months. Though we had both traveled out of the country several times before, it would be our first trip alone together. Jim and I are blind, a circumstance that led us to some unusual speculation about how we would be received and what techniques we would use to maximize the freedom and pleasure we would have on our trip.
After much Internet research, planning, shopping, and contemplation, we still had many questions as we took off from the Madison, Wisconsin, airport. Would our inadequate French be enough to help us get around? Should we carry our canes in the water the first time we went in? Did we have enough money for all of the shopping and fine dining we were hoping to do? Would dive shops freak out at the idea of a blind person wanting to dive in the sea?
We had been on the island for two days when I ran into Sebastian, a small man from Paris who ran the activities desk at our hotel. "Is there any way I can help you with water sports?" he asked us after pointing out a bench for us to rest on while waiting for our tour guide.
"I would like to scuba dive," I said boldly, anticipating an argument.
Instead he responded, surprised but willing, "I can help you arrange that."
Reassured that this dream might be realized, I told him that I would call the dive shop later to set something up.
On Tuesday I stood nervously in front of the activities desk wearing a sarong, my swimsuit, a hat, and enough sunscreen to grease a car. My transportation to the dive shop arrived, and we were introduced. Mark, my instructor, drove us across the island, over a steep, poorly graded road to the hotel that housed the dive shop. We conversed a little on the way. His English was fairly good, and he seemed only a little nervous about my blindness.
When we arrived at the pool, Mark showed me the fins, mask, regulator, and tank. He was a good instructor and explained step by step what he wanted me to do. He held my hand and said I should squeeze his hand twice if I was having a problem and once if I was okay. He taught me how to inflate my tank vest using a valve to control buoyancy.
The first time into the pool he had me simply place my face in the water and breathe through the regulator. Since I made it around the pool a couple of times successfully doing that, he guided me deeper and deeper until we touched the bottom of the pool.
Finally he asked me to sit on the bottom. My only challenge was, being well blessed by Mother Nature and an abundance of fine Wisconsin cheese in my diet, I had trouble swimming below the surface. Some weights solved that problem, and I soon sat cross-legged on the bottom until Mark signaled me to rise. Lesson over, Mark said that we could dive the next afternoon in the sea. I was pleased to have passed the test and even more pleased that he had relaxed considerably with me.
The next afternoon I stood on the warm boards of the marina, trying to squeeze my ample Midwestern flesh into a wetsuit. I succeeded in stuffing myself into my new skin and handed Mark all of my land clothes for safekeeping. I reached for my cane and discovered it had taken a walk with the curious eight-year-old son of the dive shop owner while I was occupied with the wetsuit. It was quickly retrieved. Finally equipped for my adventure, I clambered into the boat.
The tropical sun beat upon me as I rested on the bench at the back of the boat. I was the only American on board. As the dive boat moved into the harbor, its roundly inflated sides pulsing with the impact of the waves, I sat and listened to the French-speaking voices around me. Was I really there? I felt as if I had been transported into the Jacques Cousteau films I used to watch on TV. I sat hoping that I would enter the water before the commercial break.
The ride to the dive spot was brief. Mark and I waited on the boat while the other divers and their instructor made their splashes into and under the waves. While I waited my turn, I let the French conversation between Mark and the mother of a particularly young diver pour over me like sun-warmed wine. I could understand only a bit and instead focused my drowsy mind on imagining the scene around me.
Eventually the others returned, and I donned the fins, re-zipped the sausage wrapping, put the mask on, and jumped off the side of the boat into the warm Caribbean. Mark swam to me and helped me put on the tank and the weights.
Because of the wetsuit, the weights had to be very tight on me before they would stay where they were intended. The first attempt had them sliding almost immediately to encircle my thighs. Since I had no aspiration to emulate the swimming style of a mermaid, I suggested that we try again. After much giggling on my part, we finally successfully put them around my waist.
Being cautious, Mark repeated the exercise of the pool. First we swam around the boat with my face in the water, making sure I was comfortable breathing through the regulator. I reassured Mark several times by squeezing his hand once in response to his questioning squeeze that I was okay. I was far better than okay, but we hadn't worked out a signal for "wow!" Eventually we began to descend in the water.
My first impression of the dive was Mark's reassuring hand in mine, the bubble of my breath rising from around my face, and the sun-warmed water surrounding me. We slowly descended to the bottom. As we swam, I ran my hands along the surface of the coarse sand of shell fragments. I hoped that Mark would warn me if I were about to grab one of the Caribbean's less friendly residents.
As we swam, Mark would tap my right arm when he wanted to guide my hand to show me things. I touched rocks bearded with algae, a tiny closed clam, and a conch shell that I believe still encased the conch. I saw sea plants that looked like firmly planted garden weeds and beautiful slime-oozing strands of tall sponges shaped like kielbasa. Mark placed my hands on coral, stubby sponges, and sea fans. One type of sea fan made of fuzzy finger-wide tendrils seemed to pull itself away from my touch. Another type had wide, rigid leaves that didn't move at all.
I was amazed when I touched coral. This variety was a hard globe with a pattern of lines and swirls incised into the surface. After touching the coral, my arm began to burn. I pointed to it, but of course Mark was unable to explain at the time that it was fire coral. Instead, he squeezed my hand to ask, "Are you all right?" Since the burning was minor, I squeezed back reassurance, and we swam on.
Finally I noticed that my tank was emptying of air. My throat was dry from the regulator, and I knew my time under the sea was almost over. Mark gave the signal, and we arose. On the surface of the water Mark told me that he had been surprised a moment before by a three-foot-long Great Barracuda. The fish barely noticed us and swam peaceably around ten meters from us. Mark had forgotten that I wouldn't see it and was momentarily afraid that I would panic. Had I sensed fear from him, I might have been afraid, but my trust by then was absolute.
We swam back the short distance to the boat. Mark removed my tank and handed it and my weights to the other instructor. I handed up my goggles and asked if I should remove the fins. Mark responded, "As you like."
Next came the least graceful moment of the excursion. As I said earlier, I was stuffed into the wetsuit. The boat was round, rubber, wet, and about four feet above the water. There was no ladder or rope to hold onto. In my younger days it would have been relatively easy to pull myself up onto the boat. These are not my younger days, however, and years of heavy computer use have left my hands and arms weak.
I stretched my arms up to grasp the upper side of the boat. Helpful hands pulled on me like a Thanksgiving wishbone. Mark pushed from below. I was laughing and out of breath, so I could not explain that the men pulling on my arms were making it impossible for me to help myself get into the boat. After much pulling, pushing, squealing, and laughter on the part of the slim Europeans who surrounded me, I was finally able to say, "Let me try." Thus I finally flopped aboard, relieved and a little embarrassed.
As we made the short bouncy trip back to the marina, Mark handed me a small, beautiful snail shell. Of all of the shells I had examined when diving, this was the most perfectly formed. He presented it to me as a keepsake. I inquired to make sure that no one was occupying the shell. I didn't like the idea of evicting a small creature from the water. Nor did I relish the possibility of that same creature emerging into my hand to register its complaint at the rude treatment.
I could not express my thanks to Mark for understanding and respecting my desire to experience the sea. He said that he had really enjoyed the experience. After we arrived at the dock, Mark helped me peel off the wetsuit. (Without his aid I would have needed a shoehorn and about a quart of WD-40.) I threw my clothes on over my swim gear, and we drove back to my hotel. When I returned, I found Jim contentedly sunning himself on the beach.
The rest of our honeymoon trip was wonderful--romantic and sun-filled. We arrived home after an endless day of cancelled flights and plane malfunctions. As soon as we arrived, we unpacked to ensure that everything had traveled safely. In the bottom of one of the suitcases I found the perfectly formed, delicate, gray-and-white shell. I marveled at the beauty of the shell and the fact that I had finally lived that long-held dream of being under the sea.
Thank you, Jacques. Now you are even more my hero.
Clarification of Tiger Braille Embosser Review
In the February 2004 issue of the Braille Monitor, we published an article about Tiger Braille embossers manufactured by Viewplus Technology. The review included extended verbatim excerpts from the manufacturer's advertising material. Because of this, a casual reading of the article could have led to the impression that we endorse categorically the statements contained in the advertising material.
Technology reviews performed at the International Braille and Technology Center of the National Federation of the Blind will contain our findings of the performance of products under review. In most circumstances we will not incorporate into our reviews extended quotations of advertising materials.
The National Federation of the Blind International Braille and Technology Center exists to help consumers learn about equipment available to provide access to information. It is also used to provide training in the operation of access technology and to stimulate the development of additional equipment that is needed. In performing technology reviews, we seek the objective of an unbiased evaluation of hardware and software based upon the performance of these products.
[PHOTO/CAPTION: Anil Lewis]
Profile of the Newest National Board Member
From the Editor: In April of 2003 we published the then current version of "Who Are the Blind Who Lead the Blind." Two months later, at the national convention Anil Lewis was elected to the board of directors. The following is a profile of this newest member of the national board. It also appears on our Web site as part of "Who Are the Blind," which you can consult or download at any time.
Anil Lewis