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Braille Monitor

Vol. 49, No. 6                                                                   June 2006

Barbara Pierce, editor

Published in inkprint, in Braille, and on cassette by

THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND
MARC MAURER, PRESIDENT

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        ISSN 0006-8829

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Dallas Site of 2006 NFB Convention

Vol. 49, No. 6                                                                                     June 2006

Frontispiece

JWOD Exposé Reveals Shocking Improprieties

Soaring Through Fear
by Merry-Noel Chamberlain

The Milestone 311: The Epitome of Accessibility
by Michael D. Barber

Building an Education Program at the Jernigan Institute:
Reviewing Progress and Imagining the Future
by Mark A. Riccobono

The Rest of the Story
by Betsy Zaborowski

Upside Down and Backwards
by James Christopher Wycoff

Accessible Cell Phone Technology
by the International Braille and Technology Center Staff

A Review of Education and Rehabilitation for Empowerment
by Kathleen M. Huebner

NLS Celebrates Diamond Jubilee
by Stephen O. Benson

Recipes

Monitor Miniatures

Copyright 2006 National Federation of the Blind

Friday evening, April 7, 2006, was another example of excellent teamwork, outstanding community support, and joyful participation. This year's Jernigan Institute celebration event featured Ray Kurzweil and our new Kurzweil-National Federation of the Blind Reader. Before the evening’s program more than six hundred guests and volunteers enjoyed delicious food and beverages from eighteen of Baltimore's best restaurants while they browsed the silent auction tables. Auction packages included overnight get-aways, boat excursions, sports memorabilia, and gift certificates for everything from romantic dinners to a backyard barbeque for fifty friends.

The evening’s program began with a live auction of signed Ravens memorabilia, a travel package, and a beautiful diamond necklace, which was graciously purchased by this year's Honorary Chair, Jed Woelfle, senior vice president of Smith Barney. Master of Ceremonies Gerry Sandusky of WBAL-TV 11 Sports thanked our thirty-eight sponsors for their support with special recognition to this year's title sponsor, Citigroup Smith Barney. Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. was then introduced and welcomed our guests. Governor Ehrlich has been a warm friend of the NFB for many years, and we always appreciate his taking time from his busy schedule to join us.

Betsy Zaborowski gave a brief overview of the Institute’s progress and introduced our Imagination Fund chair, Kevan Worley, for a few words. The crowd was truly inspired as Kevan told the story of their adopted blind son Nijat, a sixteen-year-old young man from Azerbaijan. All were especially thrilled when Kevan concluded his remarks by presenting a check in the amount of $10,000 to the Imagination Fund.

The crowd then welcomed Jim Gashel, executive director of strategic initiatives for the NFB, who with the click of a few buttons brought the Kurzweil-National Federation of the Blind Reader to life. The crowd was visibly moved by this historic technology advancement for the blind. Ray Kurzweil then told the audience that this is just the beginning of significant improvements in access to information by the blind.

JWOD Exposé Reveals Shocking Improprieties

From the Editor: For the better part of a year now members of the Senate have been threatening draconian overhaul of the Randolph-Sheppard (RS) and Javits-Wagner-O’Day (JWOD) programs, both of which were established to provide employment for disabled workers, albeit in very different ways. As we know, the Randolph-Sheppard Program is entrepreneurial in spirit and structure, enabling blind business people to operate food-service businesses of various kinds with some support services from the state licensing agency. The Javits-Wagner-O’Day program provides manufacturing and some service-delivery operations to hire disabled workers as hourly employees (typically not managerial). As long as at least 75 percent of the hourly workers are disabled, these businesses (almost always charities) qualify to receive contracts with the federal government to produce things or services that it needs.

Members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee have been urging reform of both programs. They think the blind Randolph-Sheppard vendors should hire more disabled employees, and they are disturbed at the high salaries the able-bodied JWOD managers are getting. At the moment it is not clear what is going to happen. Randolph-Sheppard vendors can currently boast that about 32 percent of their workforce are disabled people—a far more respectable percentage than any other group of employers except the JWOD charities, whose disabled employees are almost entirely line workers at the bottom end of the pay scale.

In early March the Oregonian newspaper ran a series of detailed articles that blew wide open the growing scandal of high managerial salaries and the successful efforts of a number of JWOD agencies to avoid hiring the severely disabled workers the act originally intended to provide for. It is important for Monitor readers to understand what is going on. We are pleased to report that the JWOD agencies that are members of National Industries for the Blind (NIB) have not been implicated in this scandal. When the Senate begins proposing changes to the RS and JWOD programs, it will be important for us to recognize where the problems are and what should be preserved. Here, reprinted with permission, are two of the articles that appeared on March 5 and 6, 2006, in the Oregonian. All rights reserved:

Charity Leaders Prosper as "Disabled" Is Redefined

Federal program to help the severely disabled draws scrutiny over executive pay as hiring shifts to a new class of subsidized workers

by Jeff Kosseff, Bryan Denson, and Les Zaitz
March 5, 2006

When Congress created the nation's most ambitious jobs program for Americans with severe disabilities, the idea was straightforward and rich with compassion. Federal agencies would reserve contracts for small nonprofit workshops that hired epileptics, paraplegics, and the mentally retarded to make simple products such as mousetraps, blackboards, and first-aid kits. The disabled would gain a decent paycheck, some self-esteem, and a chance to learn skills that someday might land them a better job.

More than three decades later, the nonprofits increasingly are hiring workers who are mildly disabled, if at all, with aching backs, substance-abuse problems, and other maladies common in the American workplace. This new class of federally subsidized worker is getting the highest-paid jobs, while many of the most severely disabled toil for pennies an hour.

Their bosses are benefiting handsomely, with leaders at many of the program's biggest charities pulling in private-sector-style compensation as the new money rolls in. At least a dozen earn $350,000 or more a year, and average pay and benefits for top executives at the program's largest nonprofits have grown more than three times faster than their workers' pay.

The program's key requirement--that three of every four hours of work is performed by people with severe disabilities--is policed under what's essentially an honor system. Oversight is so weak that the biggest contractor, a Texas nonprofit, amassed $834 million in government sales despite repeated findings that it couldn't document many of its workers' disabilities.

This radical reordering of the government's priorities comes at a cost. Many of the most severely disabled workers, who labor at charities with shoestring budgets, have been left behind. "Like a lot of federal contracting, the big money drives it," said David Wiegan, who believes workers at his small McMinnville nonprofit are simply too disabled to win many of the contracts now offered by the program. He said some bigger charities are drifting away from their social welfare missions: "I think they get sucked in, and I think they lose their sense of what's right and wrong when they're tempted by a lot of big dollars." Called Javits-Wagner-O'Day after its founders in Congress, the program requires federal agencies to buy certain goods or services from nonprofits that employ blind or severely disabled workers. Prices are set by regulators and the nonprofits, which collaborate with federal agencies that set aside contracts for the nonprofits.

The program is administered like no other in the government. A presidentially appointed committee delegates much day-to-day oversight to two trade associations representing nonprofits. These groups collect up to a 4 percent commission on every contract they monitor, creating a basic conflict of interest: Booting a charity from the program cuts their own revenue stream.

Sales in the $2.25 billion program have doubled during the Bush administration, driven largely by the post-9/11 boom in Pentagon contracts for complex tasks such as sewing chemical-warfare suits or fixing battle-scarred Humvees. Delivering on those contracts requires a more skilled--and less disabled--workforce with salaries that are often comparable to the private sector.

Across the country about 300,000 blind or disabled workers hold jobs at small charities similar to Wiegan's, with most earning less than minimum wage under a federal law that allows them to be compensated based on their limited productivity. While many federal programs for the disabled have faced steep budget cuts, Javits-Wagner-O'Day continues to grow year to year and now employs more than 48,000 workers.

The Oregonian began investigating the program as part of a continuing series of reports examining the evolution of nonprofits that employ America's disabled workers. The findings, drawn from hundreds of interviews, thousands of pages of documents, and visits to more than a dozen charities in seven states, reveal a program that drifted far from its founding principles with little outside scrutiny or public debate about who is benefiting.

Periodic attempts to change Javits-Wagner-O'Day have floundered on opposition from nonprofits and their advocacy groups, which are skilled at lobbying against reforms. But pressure for change is mounting as some in Congress question whether nonprofit executives are cashing in at the expense of the disabled.

The program "is intended to benefit many persons with disabilities, not a handful of nonprofit executives," said Senator Mike Enzi, a Wyoming Republican who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Enzi held a hearing on the program last fall and will be an influential player this year as Congress considers updating Javits-Wagner-O'Day. He said he's concerned that small charities can't get contracts while "much larger nonprofits grow rich." More should be done to get disabled workers into mainstream jobs, he said.

That long-term goal--to train disabled workers so they can compete for jobs on the open market--has taken a back seat. Figures reviewed by the Oregonian show only 2,450 workers moved from Javits-Wagner-O'Day jobs into the regular workplace last year, a figure that has fallen despite the program's surge in growth. The new disabled Mike Davis is not the kind of worker lawmakers said they had in mind when they drafted Javits-Wagner-O'Day, but he owes his job to the program.

The twenty-nine-year-old mechanic, out of the Army on a medical discharge, found work at Skookum Educational Programs, one of the biggest charities in Javits-Wagner-O'Day. Weekdays he fixes Humvees and nineteen-ton military cargo trucks at Fort Lewis, Washington, tearing into engines battered by duty in Baghdad and elsewhere. Davis earns $24.56 an hour, including about $3 for medical benefits and retirement. He has a hearing problem—corrected by hearing aids—and backaches that he says made him unemployable elsewhere.

Congress envisioned helping a different class of veterans thirty-five years ago. With troops streaming home from the Vietnam War, lawmakers pondered expanding a small program that since the 1930’s had set aside contracts for the blind. Their plan was to open the program to veterans with missing limbs, paralysis, or brain damage, plus twelve million working-age adults left unemployed by major disabilities.

President Nixon's chief disability-employment training official told lawmakers who would get the jobs. "We are talking about mentally retarded and the paraplegic . . . and quadriplegic," Edward Newman told Congress. He included "deaf people with severe psychomotor problems . . . and people with other kinds of neurological involvement such as people with severe cerebral palsy or epilepsy."

That definition is now archaic. With the acquiescence of regulators, nonprofits gradually have expanded the notion of severely disabled to include ailments never discussed when the law was amended in 1971. The additions include conditions such as alcoholism or chemical dependency, minor learning disabilities, limited English, nasal polyps, carpal tunnel syndrome, allergies, arthritis, and speech impairments.

The broadened notion of who is disabled, in combination with the surge in military spending since 9/11, has revolutionized many of the biggest nonprofits in Javits-Wagner-O'Day. It also has stretched the boundaries of the program's most fundamental rule: 75 percent of the work hours logged by contractors must be supplied by blind or severely disabled workers.

Skookum is a case study in the transformation. For years the bulk of Skookum's developmentally disabled workers made jump-ropes or sorted recyclables in businesses cultivated by founder Jim Westall. The jump rope business still occupies a room at the company's airy headquarters in Port Townsend, Washington, but the fact that it no longer turns a profit is of little concern.

In 2001 Skookum landed a five-year, $64 million Javits-Wagner-O'Day contract to diagnose and repair Army vehicles that overnight promised to double the nonprofit's annual revenues. When the Army later told Skookum that thousands of damaged vehicles were heading back from Iraq, Westall couldn't find enough disabled employees in a hurry to handle the load. So the government granted Skookum a three-month waiver of its disability requirement, Westall said. The waiver has expired, and the work goes on.

The contract now has 120 workers with pay averaging $20 an hour. At least one has a missing leg, though most others suffer learning, hearing, and physical afflictions, such as back and joint pain. Westall, a former special education teacher and Skookum's chief executive, acknowledges that workers at the Fort Lewis garage are higher functioning than many others in Javits-Wagner-O'Day. The nature of the work demands it, he said: "They have to be able to do the work, or the Army has no use for them. You have to know an axle from a gas cap."

Westall thinks the program should be expanded to cover a wider range of workers, including perhaps battered women. Until then, he said, meeting the program's standard of 75 percent disabled labor boils down to a balancing act. "Move too far one way--and hire too many people with too severe disabilities who can't do the work--and we lose our contract," he said. "Move too far the other way--to this place where we have all of these high-functioning people that can do the work but (have) questionable disabilities--we lose our soul."

Pay Scales

Skookum is hardly alone. Many of the biggest charities in Javits-Wagner-O'Day routinely use workers with modest disabilities. What matters, they say, is not the type of disability but whether it prevents them from holding a job outside the program.

One of the most successful is Fedcap Rehabilitation Services, a New York City charity that pays an average of $17.87 an hour to Javits-Wagner-O'Day workers. Fedcap, which supplies custodial crews for federal buildings, reports the program's third-highest average wage, mostly because the nonprofit pays union scale.

Like Skookum, the charity specialized in hiring workers with profound physical disabilities when it was founded seventy years ago. Now Fedcap workers include many with learning disabilities, mental illness, alcoholism, and substance abuse who are judged unemployable elsewhere, said Susan Fonfa, the charity's executive director.

"Just because you can't see it doesn't mean it's not real," Fonfa said. "We will get people with every disability possible, just about." Critics of this hiring trend say it's less a balancing act than a cop-out. Some charities are cashing in on the government's largess, they say, while smaller nonprofits with workers who are far needier can't get in.

At Wiegan's nonprofit in McMinnville, for instance, the majority of the 150 workers are mentally retarded, autistic, blind, or beset with other physical or developmental disabilities. Their problems are too severe to perform much of the work now being offered under Javits-Wagner-O'Day, Wiegan said. For years Mid-Valley Rehabilitation has tried to land a contract under the program, Wiegan said. The nonprofit turned down one offer to make military footlockers, he said, because the costs were too high. Any worker who can repair a Humvee has no business taking money under Javits-Wagner-O'Day, he said.

"It's beyond absurd," Wiegan said. "If they can do that work, they're competitively employable. It's crystal clear." Wiegan's nonprofit is more typical of those that employ the severely disabled. Because such workers are normally less productive, the law allows charities like Mid-Valley to pay less than the federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour. About 300,000 workers fall into this category, according to U.S. Labor Department estimates. Even so about 70 percent of the nation's disabled adults remain unemployed.

When people with truly severe disabilities are lucky enough to land work under Javits-Wagner-O'Day, they're often paid a subminimum wage. To get a picture of how little these employees earn, The Oregonian analyzed earnings records for eight large contractors. They show that 1,644 employees with severe disabilities received a median wage of $1.93 an hour.

Megan Brixey is the type of worker lawmakers envisioned helping when Congress expanded Javits-Wagner-O'Day. The twenty-seven-year-old McMinnville resident has Down syndrome and a job shagging lumber for $3.91 an hour at a wood-products company run by Wiegan's nonprofit. Brixey said she dreams of magic--"Like Harry Potter," she says--wishing that it flowed into her hands to make her a faster worker. Wiegan said the big contracts and high pay for workers with mild disabilities send a blunt message to his severely disabled employees: "They're not as important as the money."

Private Sector-Type Benefits

The money has been a boon to top executives at the biggest nonprofits. As sales ballooned under Javits-Wagner-O'Day, charity boards have adopted compensation packages and marketing budgets that resemble those of the private sector.

Nineteen years ago, a disability counselor started a tiny nonprofit jobs program deep in the heart of Appalachia with a small grant. Since then Terri McRae has built Advocacy and Resources Corp. of Cookeville, Tennessee, into a multimillion-dollar producer of baking mix, fortified vegetable oil, and other food for the government. The charity drew $50 million in federal contracts last year, making it one of the largest in Javits-Wagner-O'Day.

McRae's paychecks mirrored the charity's success. In 2004, as her nonprofit landed large contracts with the military and U.S. Department of Agriculture, her wages, deferred compensation, and benefits had grown to $518,835, up from $66,500 a few years earlier.

McRae readily defends her compensation. Her nonprofit pays market wages to all employees, including the executives, she said. Running a multimillion-dollar government contractor requires deep knowledge of many regulatory requirements, something that has taken years to develop, McRae said. "I'm telling you what--my job's a hard damn job," McRae said in an interview last summer. "And when I'm gone, I'm going to be really hard to replace."

The Oregonian analyzed tax forms for Javits-Wagner-O'Day's fifty largest contractors, which together account for about two-thirds of the program's sales. More than a dozen reported executives with pay and benefits exceeding $350,000 in 2004, the most recent year for which complete tax records are available. The list includes Bill Hudson, president of LC Industries Inc. in Durham, North Carolina, who made $537,787; John Miller, chief executive of Goodwill Industries of Southeastern Wisconsin, who made $444,405; and Terry Allen Perl, chief executive of The Chimes Inc. in Baltimore, who drew $704,175. The charities said salaries for all three were set by their board members based on pay at similar-sized operations.

The largest Javits-Wagner-O'Day contractor, an El Paso, Texas, company with $276 million in sales to the military and other agencies last year, reports no salary for its president, Robert E. Jones. Instead, the National Center for the Employment of the Disabled said it paid $4 million in 2004 to a management firm controlled by Jones's family trust.

Average pay and benefits for the top contractors' CEOs climbed 57 percent between 2000 and 2004, a period in which average hourly pay for their severely disabled workers increased 16 percent. The CEOs averaged $248,287 in pay and benefits in 2004, up from $241,164 a year earlier and $158,400 in 2000. By comparison, only a quarter of human-services nonprofits with budgets greater than $5 million gave their CEOs pay and benefits exceeding $155,520 in 2003, according to Guidestar, a national clearinghouse for charity data. The Oregonian's averages exclude two nonprofits: Mississippi Industries for the Blind, because it is run by the state, and the El Paso charity, because it reports only a management fee and not Jones's salary.

Few observers expect charity officials to take vows of poverty. But in recent years, controversy about perks, insider deals, and big executive salaries has prompted Congress to threaten a crackdown.

IRS rules require nonprofit boards to base executive salaries on a review of what's paid to comparable business leaders. Some of those familiar with Javits-Wagner-O'Day, including Fredric Schroeder, a former member of the committee that oversees the program, find the rising paychecks unseemly. "There is the clear appearance that people with severe disabilities are being paid low wages with no oversight of those wages and that executives are being paid astronomical wages," said Schroeder, who sat on the program's oversight committee during the Clinton administration.

The boom in contracts has fattened both salaries and the balance sheet at many Javits-Wagner-O'Day nonprofits. Net assets of the top fifty charities grew 60 percent between 2000 and 2004, with the biggest exploding by five times or more. Charities now fret over things like "brand identity." The trade association representing most of the program's nonprofits spent $500,000 on lobbying and $3 million on marketing and communications in 2004, according to tax forms and congressional records. Charity officials say the spending aims to boost awareness about the program's goals and to attract more federal business. But it also adds overhead. Supplies, marketing, management salaries, and other costs take up the bulk of the program's money. Only about 18 percent of the $2.25 billion spent in 2005 went to wages for the disabled.

The fifteen-member committee that oversees Javits-Wagner-O'Day does not police salaries, deferring instead to the IRS. Recently the program's growth prompted the committee to consider setting new governance and conflict-of-interest standards for nonprofits, which overwhelmingly have criticized the move as an intrusion.

Stronger oversight would be a departure. When it comes to policing its key mandate--that contractors use severely disabled workers for three-fourths of their labor--even top officials concede they haven't aggressively monitored the nonprofits. Who's keeping watch?
Headquartered on the tenth floor of a bland high-rise near the Pentagon, the Committee for Purchase from People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled is one of the smallest and most unusual agencies in the government. By law the panel of fifteen presidential appointees—four representatives of blind and disabled workers, and eleven federal government managers—decides which federal contracts are set aside under Javits-Wagner-O'Day. Their choices, which are seldom reviewed by Congress, can steer hundreds of millions of dollars to obscure nonprofits.

In an arrangement with few parallels in government, the law allows the presidential committee to assign most contract management duties to two trade associations, the National Industries for the Blind, or NIB, and NISH, formerly known as the National Industries for the Severely Handicapped. For years government regulators visited charities to determine whether they employed enough severely disabled workers. Employees of the trade groups also visited the charities to help them comply with the labor rules. But in 2001, with fewer than thirty staffers tracking more than $1 billion in contracts, the agency delegated regular site inspections to the trade associations.

The decision was made without significant public debate or even a committee vote. "With my staff of twenty-nine people, NIB and NISH can put more resources against that," said Leon Wilson, executive director of the presidential panel. "I still believe that was a better path for us to take." On paper the panel still has broad authority to cut off contracts from nonprofits that fail to meet the program's requirement that 75 percent of all labor be performed by workers with severe disabilities.

In reality it's an honor system with little enforcement. Nonprofits file annual reports, but NISH officials visit only once every three years. They randomly sample employee files to check the ratio of severely disabled labor hours. If paperwork is complete, the nonprofit passes.

Robert Chamberlin, NISH's chief executive, said his staffers do not interview workers to verify their disabilities because of restrictions set by federal health privacy laws. More important, Chamberlin said, NISH does not have the legal authority to conduct audits or investigations of the program's contractors.

"They have specifically told us, ‘You're not auditors,'" he said. "‘You're not investigators. Your mission is to go in an assist mode.'" The tiny federal committee does visit new nonprofits or those known to have problems. But officials acknowledge that no one regularly audits longtime participants in the program.

The trade groups have an incentive to resolve issues amicably. The charities pay them up to 4 percent on each contract. The commissions helped boost NISH's revenue 86 percent over four years, to $58 million in 2004. The trade associations "live on the commissions that come from the contracts that go to these nonprofits," said Schroeder, the former committee member. "So are they genuinely interested in pulling the plug on a contract that appears to be unreasonably operated? . . . I'm not suggesting evil, but there's no truly independent oversight."

Rules of the Javits-Wagner-O'Day program leave room for some interpretation of who qualifies as "severely disabled." They say a worker must suffer from a "severe physical or mental impairment" that so limits their ability to walk, talk, or work that the person is unable to "engage in normal competitive employment."

The law specifies a measurable standard for blindness--20/200 vision in the best corrected eye. As such, there are few questions about workers at the seventy-four nonprofits represented by NIB, the trade group for the blind. But the range of other disabilities is much less clearly defined. NISH, which represents 553 contractors, only demands its charities document that workers have disabilities preventing them from finding other jobs.

The program's lax oversight can be seen in the committee's dealings with El Paso's National Center for the Employment of the Disabled, the program's biggest contractor.

Officials with the committee and NISH began examining in 1999 whether the nonprofit used enough labor from severely disabled workers. By May 2000 officials on three separate occasions had found inadequate documentation to back up disability claims. The problems did not stop the nonprofit from building its business year after year. Last spring an anonymous complaint triggered a visit from committee investigators, who found payroll reports indicating only 39 percent of the nonprofit's labor was from severely disabled workers. Still it wasn't until January that the committee ordered NISH to send a compliance team to El Paso to review all the nonprofit's records.

Since then the charity's largest customer--the Defense Supply Center in Philadelphia--said NISH alerted commanders of "some concerns" about whether the nonprofit was using enough severely disabled labor. A spokeswoman said Friday that the center last week "ceased placing orders with NCED" until the concerns are resolved. Separately charity officials are scheduled to appear before the committee Thursday to address the workforce issue.

Not since the early 1990’s has the committee or NISH released an accounting of the types of disabilities in the Javits-Wagner-O'Day workforce. The Oregonian sent surveys to the fifty largest contractors in an attempt to categorize disabilities, but only six responded, too few for a reliable sample. NISH has worked for months to compile such a report, but results were not ready as of last week.
Linda Merrill, chief executive at Envision, a Kansas nonprofit that primarily employs blind workers, said it's time for "severely disabled" to be defined more strictly. "We're kind of joking among ourselves," said Merrill, "that instead of National Industries for the Severely Handicapped, it's National Industries for the Severe Hangnail and Hemorrhoids." NISH's Chamberlin acknowledged that nonprofits have an incentive to employ people who have higher productivity, but he does not blame that on the federal program. Customers increasingly are demanding high quality at low prices, he said.

"The government is tough," Chamberlin said. To address the problem, he said, NISH is attempting to find more business in areas such as document destruction and laundry, which are better suited to people with more severe disabilities.

Momentum for Change

Powerful forces on Capitol Hill are beginning to recognize problems with Javits-Wagner-O'Day, foreshadowing a showdown between lawmakers and charities in the program. Two U.S. senators have introduced a bill that would reserve some federal contracts for private businesses employing disabled workers. And a Senate committee held a hearing in October, taking testimony about soaring executive salaries and misdirected resources.

Enzi, the Wyoming senator, said the program should do more to move workers into mainstream jobs. As it stands, only 5 percent of the severely disabled workers in the program move to private-sector jobs, down from 7 percent in 2000. Wilson said workers are reluctant to leave nonprofits because they are friendly places with wages and benefits that are often superior to comparable private companies.

Newman, the former Nixon administration official, said policymakers expanded the program in 1971 hoping to train workers and move them out of low-paying "sheltered workshop" nonprofits and into the regular workforce. Now he sees a reversal. "They are rebuilding a sheltered workshop mentality, when the efforts of the '60’s and '70’s was to help people with disabilities be able to join the mainstream of the work world," said Newman, now a professor at Temple University.

If history is any guide, changes to the Javits-Wagner-O'Day program are likely to be met with great resistance by many of the biggest charities. The chairman of the presidential oversight committee, Steve Schwalb, said alarm about rising executive pay led members to propose a $207,000 compensation cap in late 2004. The figure seemed reasonable because $207,000 was the top compensation for federal managers, most of whom run agencies larger than the program's nonprofits.

What followed was a roar of protest from nonprofit executives, board members who set their salaries, and some of their lawyers. Schwalb's committee withdrew the proposal. But after the Oregonian last fall reported on rising executive salaries and Enzi's committee held hearings, the presidential panel proposed more stringent governance standards for nonprofits along with a possible compensation limit, though it has not specified a number.

Chamberlin, who as head of NISH earned salary and benefits totaling $299,565 in 2004, has been among the opponents of a salary cap. The trade group had argued against the $207,000 pay limit, calling it discriminatory and unnecessary.

One supporter of a compensation limit is John Murphy, who earned $130,310 in pay and benefits as the head of Portland Habilitation Center in 2004. The nonprofit provides janitorial services for federal buildings and is Oregon's biggest Javits-Wagner-O'Day contractor. Murphy, who sits on the NISH board of directors, said it will be difficult for the program to determine a maximum salary. But it's needed, he said. "The committee should make some judgments and come down on organizations where it just stinks," Murphy said. "The reputation of the program is at stake."

Texas Charity a Launchpad for Entrepreneur's Empire

Robert E. Jones takes a faltering nonprofit under his wing and reaps rewards under a federal program aimed at benefiting those who are severely disabled

by Les Zaitz, Jeff Kosseff, and Bryan Denson
Monday, March 6, 2006

EL PASO, Texas--Robert E. Jones arrived in this hard-luck border city two decades ago, trailed by a bankrupt business, angry creditors, and millions of dollars in court judgments against him. Today he oversees a business empire that includes garment factories, downtown office towers, and a hospital. The family trust he controls recently claimed a net worth of more than $40 million.
How did he do it? Charity. In just nine years the nonprofit Jones directs--the National Center for the Employment of the Disabled--has landed $834 million in exclusive federal contracts, emerging as the Pentagon's primary manufacturer of chemical-warfare suits.

Today $1 in every $10 spent through the federal government's most ambitious program to employ severely disabled workers flows through the charity. Yet the government repeatedly has found that NCED couldn't document that it met the program's primary mandate--that severely disabled workers provide three of every four hours of labor at participating nonprofits. Last week the U.S. military took the rare step of suspending all orders with the charity until "concerns" about the makeup of its workforce are resolved.
Over the past decade Jones has amassed a fortune in a rags-to-riches journey that took him from a messy business failure in Houston to last year's El Paso "Entrepreneur of the Year" honor. The charity paid his management firm $14 million from 1999 to 2004, according to its tax returns. And it has invested or lent $5 million to for-profit businesses in which Jones held a significant interest.

The story of NCED illustrates many of the shortcomings in the federal Javits-Wagner-O'Day program, which last year set aside $2.25 billion in government contracts for nonprofits that employ the severely disabled. An investigation by the Oregonian found skyrocketing executive pay in the program at the same time nonprofits increasingly hire workers with lesser disabilities. Oversight of the program is essentially an honor system that allows charities to go for years without being inspected to see whether they're using the required amount of severely disabled labor.

In NCED's case the charity repeatedly assured regulators it was in compliance. But one internal record obtained by the Oregonian represents that from 2002 to 2004, fewer than half the workers were disabled. Another document, a quarterly report summarizing hours worked by each employee, shows hundreds of workers with only "English" listed as a "disadvantage."

Regulators independently established last year that the charity was combining "disabled" employees and "disadvantaged" workers, a classification that doesn't meet the federal labor standard. But that finding came years after questions first arose about its labor documentation. By that time NCED had built its annual government business to $276 million. The figure is more than thirty times the sales logged by the thirteen Oregon charities in the program.

Responding to detailed queries from the Oregonian, the charity issued a two-paragraph statement saying it complied with all relevant government rules. Jones did not respond to written questions about the nonprofit's labor ratios, charity operations, and extensive dealings with his private business interests.

In an initial interview last year, the sixty-year-old Jones said he's been successful because he's taken a different path than most charity executives. "I'm a hard-core businessperson, not a born-again do-gooder," Jones said. Federal tax law allows the nation's 820,000 public charities to strike deals with their executives and directors and their for-profit businesses, but only if fair value is paid for the goods or services.

Late last year the Internal Revenue Service visited the offices of a trade group representing most of the Javits-Wagner-O'Day charities to discuss NCED, a federal official familiar with the visit said. Jones also has drawn previous IRS scrutiny for dealings with the charity, according to two of the nonprofit's board members and an email the Oregonian obtained.

In 2004 a charity accountant said in the email that two IRS officials told him they were concerned about the "egregiousness" of "acts of self-dealing" at the charity in 1999 and 2000. The accountant, Richard Speizman of KPMG, wrote that the IRS also questioned a "lack of independent oversight" by the charity's board.

Jones recently paid "a substantial sum" to settle a long-running IRS audit of the charity for those years, according to John Oblinger and Stephen Benson, members of the charity's board of directors. Neither Jones nor the IRS would disclose the amount. Speizman indicated in the email that the IRS was discussing the charity's tax-exempt status. Losing it would disqualify the charity from its federal contracts. KPMG officials declined to comment on behalf of the firm and Speizman.

Last spring an anonymous complaint prompted the committee of presidential appointees that oversees the Javits-Wagner-O'Day program to re-examine whether the charity was using enough severely disabled workers. In an email obtained by the Oregonian, the program's executive director fretted that he didn't need a "scandal" involving the program's largest contractor. Nonetheless, the committee ordered a comprehensive investigation of the nonprofit's workforce and has summoned charity officials to a hearing Thursday to answer questions.

Back in El Paso, Jones remains a commanding figure, lauded for his work with the disabled. He has cemented that stature with a wide array of charitable donations, giving to the YMCA, public schools, and other causes. The nonprofit is one of the city's largest employers, listing 4,000 employees. Jones speaks frequently of his passion for charity. "Doing the right thing has been a wonderful godsend for the community," he told the Oregonian. "But it's mirrored back to us and magnetized back to us as being a white knight as a corporate citizen."

Starting Over in El Paso

Little in Jones's past predicts this emergence as a charity operator and big federal contractor. The burly six-foot-four Texan got a start in business as an electrical contractor in Houston. Stacey Inc., a company he founded, grew rapidly, then went bankrupt in 1980, eventually saddling Jones with $3.9 million in court judgments from creditors. Court records show only one judgment, for $35,375, was ever paid.

The U.S. Labor Department in 1983 sued Jones, accusing him of "repeatedly" using the Stacey employees' profit-sharing plan as his "personal banking account." He agreed two years later to pay the federal government $506,680 to settle the case; court records do not show the sum was paid, and the Labor Department says it no longer has records relating to the judgment.

Jones made a fresh start in El Paso, where he managed a business park and involved himself in downtown development. In 1995 the owner of the business park, Evern Wall, asked him to look over operations at a struggling charity. The National Center for the Employment of the Disabled was in bankruptcy. Its major contract, making cardboard boxes for the General Services Administration, could not support its workforce of fifty people.

Jones saw promise in the nonprofit and said he would try to save it--but not on a salary. Instead, he struck a deal that gave him a personal stake in its success, with the nonprofit paying an annual management fee to a firm owned by the Jones Family Trust. The beneficiaries of that trust are his children, Jones testified in a civil suit. He said he administers the trust with his sister and brother-in-law.

The management fee initially was set at 1 percent of the charity's revenue, plus $5,000 a month. The deal later was doubled to 2 percent of revenues plus 5 percent of each year's increase in net assets, an arrangement that proved lucrative as the charity began buying factories and for-profit businesses. The formula has worked well for Jones. JFT Management was paid $294,300 in 1997. By 2003 and 2004, it was earning more than $4 million annually, or about $75,000 a week.

Jones told the Oregonian his personal tax return shows he takes home about $500,000 a year for all his business ventures. The majority of the management fees, he said, are invested in "socially correct" enterprises in health care and education. Jones said he approached the work with trepidation when he took over the nonprofit in 1995. "My great dread was, God, working with disabled people, what's this going to be like?" he said. "I wasn't a very good or caring person in those areas."

The factory was dismal, he recalled. "My first mission was just cleaning the place up," Jones said. "It was filthy. . . . The idea of the company surviving was one in one thousand." Jones brought in new directors for NCED's board, including his brother-in-law, and pulled the nonprofit out of debt by pressing suppliers to discount outstanding bills and winning new contracts to make boxes.

A break came in 1997, when the biggest trade group that helps run the Javits-Wagner-O'Day program offered the El Paso charity the chance to sew chemical-warfare suits. The operation owned only a few ancient sewing machines, but after Jones won a $9 million contract to make suits for the Marine Corps, he cobbled together the needed equipment and factory space, according to Jones and the nonprofit's board minutes.

By 2000 the charity held $37 million in government contracts--a dramatic turnaround for a nonprofit that just five years earlier had earned less than $3 million in revenue. But that was just the start.

An Opportune Juncture

Jones had stepped into exactly the right business at exactly the right moment. The 1995 nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subways put the issue of preparedness on the front burner at the Clinton White House. Inside the Pentagon worries grew about the military's ability to cope with chemical, biological, and nuclear attacks.

Chemical-protective suits are sewn from a permeable fabric lined with carbon beads. Making them is exacting work. Because exposure to even minute amounts of nerve agent can be fatal, military contracting officers keep a close eye on the quality. Jones said the quality demanded is "twice that required by commercial products." The suits, which cost an average $241, also offer an attractive business opportunity. Because the protective fabric degrades quickly, they must be replaced within six weeks once used.

Jones's foray into chemical-suit manufacturing made economic sense. El Paso's unemployment rate had topped 11 percent, double the national rate. The city, once a mainstay in U.S. textile manufacturing, was awash in skilled workers who lost jobs as the garment industry moved overseas. Hiring those workers could make the nonprofit immediately competitive. But rules of the Javits-Wagner-O'Day program required that three-quarters of the work be performed by blind or severely disabled people. Jones told the Oregonian that up to 20 percent of El Paso's laid-off workers had severe disabilities.

A local official whose agency helped him with recruiting said the call went out for sewing machine operators who faced "barriers." Martin Aguirre, the former chief executive of the Upper Rio Grande Workforce Development Board, said the "barriers" did not have to be physical disabilities. Charity officials told Aguirre's agency it was sufficient to be "economically disadvantaged" and struggling with language or literacy, he said. Jones said the jobs paid an average of about $9 an hour, including benefits.

From 1997 to 2005, a period in which the nonprofit's sales under the program totaled $834 million, Jones signed annual reports required by the government declaring that severely disabled workers were providing at least 75 percent and as much as 97 percent of the labor. But an internal document obtained by the Oregonian states that a top charity executive informed Jones that less than half the workforce was disabled during three of the years.

The document, a 2004 handwritten note to Jones from Ernie Lopez, the nonprofit's chief operating officer, summarized NCED's labor history in the years 2002, 2003, and 2004. "Bob, these are the ratio numbers that I was telling you about on the phone," the note says. According to the note, the nonprofit's percentage of disabled workers was falling, from 44 percent in 2002 to only 38 percent in the spring of 2004. The note counted "disadvantaged" workers--33 percent in 2002 rising to 38 percent by April 2004--to reach totals slightly above 75 percent each year.

A quarterly employment report from 2002, also obtained by the Oregonian, included 345 workers whose only disadvantage was designated as "English." Nearly 80 percent of the hours listed in the report are logged as "disabled/disadvantaged." Excluding those with only an "English" disadvantage, however, drops the figure to 43 percent.

Jones, Lopez, and the charity's board declined to answer questions about the report or other internal documents.

Oversight and Assistance

The chemical-warfare suits have provided a steady revenue stream for the charity. Before orders were suspended last week, the nonprofit was making 70 percent of the military's suits, according to the Defense Supply Center in Philadelphia. It took years for questions about the makeup of NCED's workforce to slow that buildup of business.

In an unusual arrangement for the federal government, the Javits-Wagner-O'Day program is overseen by a small federal agency that disburses contracts and enforces rules. The committee, in turn, delegates some duties to two nonprofit trade groups representing charities. The biggest, known as NISH, represents the bulk of the 627 charities in the program.

Both the oversight committee, with twenty-nine employees, and NISH have said their primary focus is on helping charities stay in the program rather than sanctioning them. Robert Chamberlin, the chief executive officer of NISH, said the trade group's staffers work to "assist" contractors in following the law.

Even so, a charity can lose its federal contracts unless three-quarters of its labor is performed by people with severe disabilities such as mental retardation or partial paralysis. Regulators say lack of English fluency isn't a severe disability. Nor can charities count "disadvantaged" workers to reach the 75 percent ratio, regulators say. "If they don't qualify as severely disabled, they shouldn't be counted," said Steve Schwalb, chairman of the federal oversight panel, which carries the unwieldy name of Committee for Purchase from People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled.

Both the committee and NISH have examined the El Paso charity's disability ratios. In February 1999 a NISH inspector visited NCED and found inadequate paperwork to prove workers' disabilities. "Individuals without the required medical documentation must be considered nondisabled," Victor J. Dennis, a NISH official, warned Jones in a follow-up letter that summer.

Later that year someone purporting to be an employee sent an anonymous letter to regulators alleging misconduct at the nonprofit. Among other things the letter asserted that workers were being sent to company-approved doctors "so we can keep our percentage of disabled workers high."

Following up that July, a committee compliance officer, Lou Bartalot, wrote in a memo that allegations in the anonymous letter ought to be taken seriously, partly because Jones is a "fast-talking, wheeler-dealer type of businessman." But Bartalot said the mix of allegations in the letter made the case daunting. "Neither NISH or the committee staff has the expertise necessary to really investigate this type of claim," he wrote.

Nonetheless, Bartalot and another committee official went to El Paso and also found documentation problems. Jones responded that his charity was shoring up its files and putting workers through a new round of physicals. "We have gone to great lengths and spared no expense in complying," Jones wrote in one letter to the committee. "There is no doubt that the reported percentage of disabled in our direct labor force is accurate."

Less than a year passed before another review turned up "serious deficiencies in the medical documentation," according to a report by Peter Brandom, a program analyst with the federal committee. Some workers recorded as having severe visual impairment wore glasses or contacts that gave them 20/15 vision--better than normal. Workers aren't severely disabled, Brandom wrote, unless vision in the best-corrected eye is 20/200 or worse. Some documentation indicated "the individual has no disability," Brandom added. Still other medical records provided no proof that the condition, such as high blood pressure, was severe enough to qualify under the program.
Once again, the charity promised to make changes. It appointed an El Paso doctor to make sure medical documentation was adequate, and it hired a local health care company to maintain files and make sure they reflect "full compliance."

Regulators next returned to El Paso in 2002, when a NISH inspector reviewed 20 of 959 worker files and concluded the charity was complying with the rules. It wasn't until three years later--a period in which the nonprofit's government contracts doubled--that a second anonymous letter triggered more rigorous attention. The complaint last spring alleged that only a fraction of the nonprofit's workforce was disabled and asserted that doctors working at two clinics linked to the charity were providing documentation for their disabilities. The new letter prompted the committee's executive director, Leon Wilson Jr., to order a review. Though skeptical of the allegations, Wilson sent a June 13, 2005, email to Schwalb saying, "We don't need a scandal" with the program's largest contractor.
Committee officials visited El Paso and found an internal document indicating that only 39 percent of the nonprofit's labor came from severely disabled workers. Regulators said they didn't think the nonprofit was "trying to hide anything" but noted "problems" with counting "disadvantaged" workers as severely disabled.

More recently a committee spokeswoman said NCED in fact had lumped the two categories together. After another visit in December, the committee confirmed that the charity's ratio of disabled labor could not be higher than 60 percent and that its 2005 filings with NISH "might not be accurate." "This question of accuracy is no minor problem," Wilson wrote in a January letter to NISH ordering a complete review of the charity's files.

Officials conducted the review and in mid-February notified the Defense Supply Center in Philadelphia, which manages military contracts with NCED, that the El Paso charity "may be non-compliant" with federal labor requirements. Last week the center suspended further orders to the charity until the committee settles the issue.

Diana Stewart, a Defense Supply Center spokeswoman, said Friday that officials at the supply center couldn't recall another instance when orders to a nonprofit were suspended. The decision immediately affected a new order for chemical-warfare suits, she said. Details of that contract were not available. Marc Schwartz, an NCED spokesman, said late Friday that the charity had not been informed of the military's action.

Other Business Ventures

In 2003 a gleaming boutique hospital opened its doors on El Paso's East Side. With its state-of-the-art equipment, Physicians Hospital was poised to claim its share of the local health care business.

Among its major financial backers was the National Center for the Employment of the Disabled, which lent the venture more than $2 million and bought $3 million in stock, records show. The hospital lost money in 2004, its first full year. But if it eventually prospers, the El Paso charity would reap the benefits. So would Jones.

The deal is one of several in which Jones the charity leader helped Jones the businessman. Records show that Jones Family Trust is a shareholder in the for-profit hospital, and that Jones serves as chairman of the hospital's board. Tax returns for the charity say Jones and two other directors have "control" of Physicians Hospital.

Federal tax law allows charities to do business with directors, officers, and other insiders so long as they don't unfairly benefit. The IRS advises charities to negotiate such deals openly and at a fair value. Some states have tougher laws. In Texas charities also are prohibited from making loans to directors, and loans to businesses controlled by a director are restricted, the state attorney general's office says.
Internal records and tax returns show that NCED repeatedly has lent money to the Jones Family Trust or its related management company since 1997. On October 9, 2003, Jones signed a $1.5 million check from the nonprofit to his management company dated with the handwritten notation that the money was a loan against future management fees. Jones is a director as well as president of the charity.

The nonprofit's 2004 tax return, the most recent available, reported that the Jones Family Trust owed the charity $2.5 million. Other records show the nonprofit has financially supported an El Paso air-charter business in which Jones holds an interest.

Federal records show that the nonprofit helped ATI Jet Sales LLC buy two new Lear jets. Lyle Byrum, ATI's manager, said the company used a $1 million certificate of deposit owned by the charity as collateral for the loan that financed the purchase of the two jets. Records show the Jones Family Trust lent the company an additional $591,000 to help buy the jets, and Byrum said the trust was a "business partner" in the venture.

The charity also bought seats from the charter company. In 2004 it advanced ATI $200,000 for "prepaid airfare" and a "retainer for flight services." Byrum said the charity's executives have used the jets to travel around the United States. "NCED got a good deal," Byrum said. The charity got a top-notch charter company, one of the safest in the business, at a good rate, he said.

Under Jones's leadership the charity also struck several land deals with Jones or his family trust. Unlike many states, Texas does not require reporting of purchase prices in public records, so it is difficult to trace the value of specific transactions. In 1998 the nonprofit bought a condominium next to a horse track in the mountain resort town of Ruidoso, New Mexico. The same day Jones signed the deed transferring the property to the Jones Family Trust. Records do not show what the trust paid for the condo.

That same year Jones negotiated to buy a sportswear company and building in El Paso for his charity. Under the deal the two men selling the building passed $266,666 of the $1 million they received from the nonprofit to two Jones-related entities, New Sahara Inc. and the Jones Family Trust. The arrangement was described in escrow documents provided by one of the sellers.

Board records show that NCED's directors approved the acquisition. It is not clear whether the board was aware of the payments to New Sahara and the trust; board members declined to answer questions about the transaction. Two of the nonprofit's board members told the Oregonian that they were unaware that Jones's businesses had borrowed money from the charity. Despite the fact that tax returns are publicly available, the two said the board never had been shown the returns.

"NCED has never made any loans to Bob Jones," said Benson, a New Mexico business consultant who has been on the board since 1997. Oblinger, a retired Army general named to the board four years ago, said he believed the arrangements were the other way around--that Jones was lending money to the nonprofit. The charity's financial records show that Oblinger has a point. In several years tax returns list unpaid fees to Jones's management company as loans to the nonprofit.

How much Jones has earned from his various charity-supported business deals is hard to determine. But in 2004, as part of a land deal with the El Paso schools, he allowed local officials to examine a financial statement, which they said showed a net worth of $40 million for the Jones Family Trust, then twelve years old. Margaret Gallardo, a school district spokeswoman, said Jones reclaimed all copies.
Nominating itself for a national award several years ago, the charity offered its own appraisal of Jones's success. "A bear of a man," the charity called him, "steeped in tough management practices."

Soaring Through Fear

by Merry-Noel Chamberlain

From the Editor: Merry-Noel Chamberlain is a teacher of visually impaired students in Iowa and holds national orientation and mobility certification from the National Blindness Professional Certification Board. The following story demonstrates that even folks with a lot of letters after their names can find themselves challenged by new situations. Her honesty and determination to overcome her personal fear provide an excellent example of how to deal with new situations. This is what she says:

I stood in line next to my husband Marty at airport security check-in, and my stomach felt as if the last hurricane that pounded Florida were roiling inside me. It was the first time I was going to travel independently by plane since I had become blind. This day I was on my way to Kalamazoo, Michigan, for weekend classes at Western Michigan University. Having a father in the military allowed me to travel extensively between Europe and the United States when I was growing up. But this was different. I thought how lucky I was that Marty had been given a special pass to escort me to my departure gate. Marty was very supportive, and I tried to appear confident as I clung to his sleeve. My heart was pounding, and my head was full of questions such as how was I going to be able to find my connecting flight? Where exactly should I stow my long white cane on the plane? What did the Braille Monitor suggest? What should I do if the airline wanted to take my cane away from me? Hadn’t I read stories in the Monitor about such situations? I was terrified at the possibility of having some sort of confrontation with the airline. I concluded that perhaps I should have brushed up on plane orientation and mobility.

What had I just overheard? Was the flight cancelled? Would luck be with me and Marty have to cancel his weekend plans in order to drive me to Michigan, which was what I secretly hoped for? That would be fine with me, I told myself. I really didn’t need to sit in on that elective seminar, did I? If we left within the hour, I would be in Kalamazoo tonight, just in time for class.

As we inched our way forward, the voices became louder and clearer. The hurricane in Florida had grounded planes in Tennessee. Too bad, I happily smiled to myself. I didn’t have to face my fear today, and Marty was going to have to drive me after all. We quickly exchanged my ticket, zoomed over to our house two miles away, packed an overnight bag for Marty, and headed towards the sunrise, leaving Des Moines behind us.

What a loss, the great opportunity to learn; to explore new terrain; to discover--using the discovery method--how to travel by plane. For several weeks afterwards, I regretted having my secret wish come true. Also I felt guilty for monopolizing Marty’s time by taking away his weekend and for being so selfish. If I could have done it over again, I would have embraced the learning experience of making that flight independently.

The opportunity to fly again came sooner than I anticipated, and this time I was eager to take the challenge. Western Michigan invited me to attend the 2005 Josephine L. Taylor Leadership Institute in Boston, which meant I was going to fly even farther than I would have the first time. Although I was nervous, I reminded myself how much I had regretted missing that learning opportunity. I also told myself that, if I was going to expect my students to face their fears, I needed to do the same thing. Besides, how could I face my own fears if I couldn’t even set foot on a plane? How could I show my face at a leadership conference (of all places) if I couldn’t be a leader?

The day soon arrived for me to jump and hold on tight to the bungee cord. I decided that I would take this opportunity to immerse myself totally in the flying experience. Well--except for the beginning when Marty would walk me to the gate to send me off. Perhaps that was the romantic side of me or a tiny bit of residual fear. I’ll never tell.

I won’t detail each flight, just report the highlights. Each plane, I discovered, had its own personality deriving from the cabin crew on duty. When I chose to enter the plane before the other passengers, the crew made a point of describing the overhead air and light functions to me. Later, when a passenger was seated beside me, one crew member introduced me to her, informed her that I was blind, and asked if, in case of an emergency, she would escort me to the nearest exit. Of course she said that she would, but I doubted it. That would have been the last thing on her mind if the plane made an emergency landing.

Generally everyone was helpful. One time a passenger retrieved my cane from the overhead compartment when I was experimenting with storage options. I tried putting it there a couple of times but ended up feeling more comfortable with it stored between the seat and the window. Not once did anyone try to take the cane away from me, which pleased me.

As I say, I wanted the total experience and decided to pick my battles later when it came to changing planes in Minneapolis, St. Paul. There I was stopped by a gate agent as soon as I exited the plane and was escorted to a row of blue chairs that displayed the handicapped icon on the back. I was instructed to wait there for the shuttle that was on its way to transport me to the next gate. I said that I could walk, but he insisted that it was quite a long way to my gate. So I sat and waited. Finally the electric cart arrived, and we went for a long, long ride. I was happy for the ride but felt that the cart was totally unnecessary. My layover was long enough for me to have walked, and I would have loved the opportunity to explore some of the shops along the way.

As I was nearing Boston, I suddenly wondered how I was going to find the luggage carousel once I had left the plane. I thought to myself, there are a lot of people on this plane. I’ll just ask someone with a sweet-sounding voice if he or she was going to baggage claim. That’s what I did. Together we walked to baggage claim, where I ran into John McMahan, a college classmate whose plane had arrived just ahead of mine. Radiating quiet confidence, I didn’t want him to guess how much I was exploding with triumph inside. I wanted to jump up and down for joy and give him a huge bear hug and a high-five. I was ever so proud of myself! I had done it. But I wasn’t brave enough to share my accomplishment with John, who is also blind.

In orientation and mobility we often talk about traveling with confidence. This trip taught me that traveling from home to the store really is no different from traveling by plane, providing that you have confidence in your independent travel skills. The structured discovery method of orientation and mobility allows individuals to develop such confidence. What one learns in the mall when using the discovery method can be transplanted to the airport terminal. For example, when you hear the footsteps of several people walking in the same direction at the mall, you can conclude that the exit is in that direction. Following the sound of footsteps in the airport concourse can often lead to baggage claim or get you near enough to hear it. When you have confidence in your mobility skills, orientation information will flow in when you are traveling over new terrain.

I am writing this on yet another plane as I head home from the Washington Seminar. This is now the eleventh plane I’ve been on since that first ride to Boston, and I have discovered that, if you appear to be a confident traveler, people will treat you like one. If you appear to be an inexperienced traveler, more assistance will be offered. Today I found my gate and entered the plane when my row was called. I counted the rows to number eight and sat down in seat B. The crew member didn’t make a point of introducing me to the overhead buttons. In fact, I wasn’t visited until drinks were served. That was when she saw my BrailleNote and must have concluded that I was blind because she carefully described where she had placed my soda on the tray and then gently patted my hand.

We all face fears from time to time, and even those who have received training in orientation and mobility or have years of experience traveling may encounter new opportunities to learn. Just today, as I left the Holiday Inn Capitol, I embraced the challenge of taking the Metro so I could experience and discover a new mode of transportation. But I’ll leave the description of that experience for another article because I feel the plane starting to descend. The cabin crew member just stopped by to see if I needed any assistance in Des Moines. “No,” I proudly told her, “I’m home.”

We are all fortunate to have the National Federation of the Blind to pave the way and allow us to learn from one another so that we can fly both literally and figuratively. I can hardly wait to soar through the sunny blue sky to the national convention in Dallas. Can you?

The Milestone 311: The Epitome of Accessibility

by Michael D. Barber

From the Editor: Michael Barber is president of the Des Moines Chapter of the NFB of Iowa. He is an assistive technology analyst at the Iowa Department for the Blind, so he is used to dealing with gadgets of all kinds. Here is his evaluation of a new piece of equipment that may be of interest to lots of blind people, particularly those who do not think of themselves as technically savvy. This is what he says:

I was intrigued when I read the blurb from Independent Living Aids about the Milestone 311 digital voice recorder/MP3 player. And after I heard the audio presentation by Stephen Guerra of Independent Living Aids, I was sold. So intrigued was I that, being a gadget kind of guy, I put down the $369 to buy this little device.

Overview

The first thing I noticed was how very small it was. It's about the size of a credit card and fits nicely in the palm of your hand. It's a little narrower at the bottom and gets broader as you move toward the top of the device. Moving from the bottom to the top, you find the speaker and onboard microphone, a mode button with an X on it, a round circle that is the play button, and a left and right arrow on each side for rewind and fast forward. Just above the play button is a small button with a depression in the center. This is the record button. On the very top of the unit, moving from left to right, are the select button, which allows you to switch from internal memory to memory card to MP3 player; the USB port; and a place to connect the AC adapter for charging the unit.

On the right side of the unit as you face it is a slot for an SD card of up to two gigabytes. On the very bottom of the unit is a combination line in/earphone/external microphone jack.

Features

Here are some features that make this an outstanding device:

• You can record notes quickly.
• You can easily transfer files back and forth from your computer with the convenient USB cable that is provided.
• You can label any folder with a voice recording.
• You can play your favorite MP3 music files as well as podcasts.
• MP3 files have superb sound quality.
• Updating firmware is easy.
• Folder and file management is simple.
• You can recharge the battery either with AC current or through the USB connection to your computer.

Operating the Unit

Recording Made Easy: You can make recordings in one of three ways. (1) You can hold down the record button and make a simple recorded message, such as a phone number, someone's address, or other contact information. However, you cannot do two things: pause the recording or insert/append to the recording. (2) You can make a continuous recording by first depressing the record button and then pressing the play button. This is very handy when recording a lecture or some other presentation. I used this feature at the recent CSUN conference in Los Angeles to record a presentation. The sound quality was absolutely superb. You can either record using the internal microphone or use an external mike plugged into the earphone/line in/microphone jack at the bottom of the unit. (3) You can connect to your computer's sound card or another external device and record that way.

Transferring Files

Using the USB cable that is provided, you can connect the unit to your computer and easily transfer files to and from the device. This is handy for copying the onboard manual to your computer for later reading. Also you can create more folders if you need them. Not only can you transfer files, you can also charge the rechargeable battery using the USB connection.

MP3 Player

If you like to listen to music or podcasts, this device will allow you to do so. Transfer your favorite music files to the Milestone 311, or download podcasts and listen to your heart's content. You'll be delighted with the sound quality. The files in a folder will be played one after the other. You can also cause the files to be played folder after folder by adding an “autonext.yes” file to each folder.

Other Features

Switching from mode to mode is very easy. You simply press the selection key at the top left of the unit to move from internal to memory card to MP3 player. Using various combinations of the six keys moves you between folders. When you switch to a new folder, the Milestone 311 says "folder one” or “folder two," but you can add a voice label to each folder. As you press the key combination to move to a particular folder, just keep holding it down for a few seconds and then say the label you want on that folder. I used this feature to label a folder "CSUN" while at the conference.

Other Observations

The first thing I noticed when I opened the package containing the unit was the printed manual, but no Braille instructions or CD with the manual on it was present. I had to call to find out that the electronic version of the manual is in the unit itself. I have recommended to Independent Living Aids that it should provide some accessible instruction indicating that one must connect the unit to the computer in order to find the electronic version of the manual.

After I found the manual, I noted that it was written clearly enough to be quite useful. Everything seemed to be well organized and logical. The clipped and decidedly British female voice is easy to understand. Updating firmware is a snap. All you need to do is unzip the file you have been sent, switch the Milestone 311 to internal mode, connect the unit to your PC, and transfer the BIN file. Disconnect the unit and remove the USB plug from the device and wait thirty seconds, and you will be told that the update is complete.

Holding down the mode key for two-to-three seconds will give you information on how much room you have left either on your memory card or in the internal unit and whether your battery is fully charged, charged, or low and needing to be charged.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Because of its simplicity and extreme accessibility, I highly recommend this unit to anyone. When I compare it with other digital voice recorders I've tried, this one ranks way above them in accessibility and recording quality. You don't have to count your way through menus and hope you've hit the right button to delete a file because everything speaks. It's a little pricy, but it's definitely worth the money. I would recommend the following enhancements:

1. The manual should be included on a CD as well as being in the unit.
2. Add a pause recording feature.
3. Add an insert/append feature when recording.

For further information about the Milestone 311, or to purchase this unit, either visit Independent Living Aids at <http://www.independentliving.com> or call them toll-free at (800) 537-2118. You can also hear an audio presentation about the Milestone 311 at <http://www.accessible-devices.com/milestonerecorder.html>.

Building an Education Program at the Jernigan Institute: Reviewing Progress and Imagining the Future

by Mark A. Riccobono

From the Editor: Mark Riccobono is director of education at the NFB Jernigan Institute. More than any other single individual, he has his finger on educational programs being planned and conducted in the Institute. Because it is difficult to keep all of them in mind, I asked Mark to report to our readers on the various programs now being conducted. Here is that report:

Recently we celebrated the second anniversary of the National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute. Two years is a relatively short time, and it seems even shorter when you consider the educational programs we have built in that time. It can be difficult to keep up with the pace of development at the Institute, even for those working here every day. While articles have previously appeared in the Braille Monitor about various educational programs of the Jernigan Institute, the purpose of this article is to provide a comprehensive look at the educational initiatives established by the blind through the Institute and to provide a brief overview of each program.

National Center for Blind Youth in Science (NCBYS)

This initiative is a cornerstone of the Jernigan Institute's education programs. During the grand opening for the Institute, we launched the initiative with the announcement of the first NFB Science Academy. The Science Academy consists of two one-week summer sessions that provide blind middle and high school students with a challenging opportunity to broaden their experience and expectations in science-related courses and careers. During the summer of 2006 we will hold the third annual Science Academy. Twelve blind middle school students will again come to Baltimore for the Circle of Life Academy, which focuses on earth science. In addition twelve high school students will attempt to be the third NFB team to launch a 10-1/2-foot sounding rocket during the Rocket On! Academy. Will this Rocket On! mission fly higher, farther, or faster than the previous two? All dreams are possible in the NFB Science Academy. To learn more about this program, read the article entitled “Two Small Camps, One Giant Leap into the Future for Blind Youth: The Next Generation of Rocket Scientists” from the November 2004 issue of the Braille Monitor.

Using the Science Academy as a starting point, we brought together an advisory work group to help us focus on the most pressing needs in the area of education and employment in science, technology, engineering, and math. The NCBYS advisory work group includes scientists, educators, parents, researchers, and other partners. As with all NFB programs the NCBYS advisory work group includes the perspectives of many blind individuals. The work group helped develop a strategic plan for the NCBYS, which highlighted a number of important priorities. One central theme was positioning the NCBYS as a central clearinghouse of information and resources for the rest of the country. In this way the Institute could help drive innovation in the field and focus resources in the most critical areas of need. As a result of the clearinghouse priority, the Jernigan Institute pursued and was awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation to establish the NCBYS Web portal, <www.blindscience.org>. As of May 1, 2006, the portal became available for public use and feedback. During the initial evaluation period of the portal, through August 31, 2006, visitors to the site can complete a brief survey and have a chance to win a gift certificate from the NFB Independence Market. Please visit the site and provide your feedback.

While the Science Academy focuses on modeling educational practices for engaging blind youth in science, we have also taken steps to encourage employment opportunities. In the summer of 2005 the Institute established the Excellence through Challenging Exploration and Leadership (EXCEL) internship program in collaboration with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). This program provides rising college freshman and sophomores who are blind with an opportunity to receive mentoring from blind professionals through the NFB while working in scientific jobs at NASA. This year EXCEL has been expanded from six weeks to eleven weeks, and it again includes an opportunity to attend the NFB national convention. To read about the 2005 EXCEL program, see the article entitled “Blind Students Excel at NASA” from the October 2005 issue of the Braille Monitor.

Other activities of the NCBYS include the Goals for Achieving Math Accessibility (GAMA) Summit, book launches, videos, and workshops. First, the GAMA meeting brought together those working on technologies to allow blind people greater access to powerful math tools. A number of projects have grown out of the partnerships established at the meeting. We have also helped launch the latest NASA Braille book, Touch the Sun, and have sparked a project to create a prototype Touch the Earth book using innovative technologies from Somatic Digital. In addition we have also created a new video providing science teachers with tips on working with blind students, and we will be disseminating it to schools across the country this spring. Last, this summer the Institute will be a partner in the Vertical Mentoring Workshop for the Blind at the University of Washington. This workshop will bring blind professionals together with blind students interested in careers in the sciences in order to help build a community of expertise about how blind people succeed in science and engineering. The NCBYS is fulfilling its mission of driving innovation and building partnerships to improve opportunities for the blind. In June of this year a summit meeting will be held at the Jernigan Institute to chart future innovations of the NCBYS initiative including big ideas expected to come out of the Institute in 2007 and beyond.

NFB Transition to Independence Club and Youth Excellence Seminars Program

The NFB Jernigan Institute has taken on previous work of the Federation in order to continue its development and help disseminate it across the country. The first initiative the Institute took on was to jump start the Transition to Independence Club, previously operated by the NFB of Maryland and the Maryland Parents of Blind Children, by connecting it to the NCBYS initiative through a grant from the High School High Tech Program (HS/HT) operated by the Maryland Department of Education, Division of Rehabilitation Services, through support from the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Disability Employment Policy. For a year now the Institute has been building the Transition Club by working with blind teenagers in Baltimore City and Baltimore County. These at-risk youth are receiving mentoring, training in blindness skills, and exposure to employment opportunities in high-tech fields. They would not otherwise have the tremendous opportunities they are receiving in the Transition Club. The Institute’s goal is to take what it is learning in the operation of the club and disseminate it to local NFB chapters to assist with the establishment of a network of Transition to Independence Clubs. This network will include the development of a database of resources housed at the Institute to assist chapters in building their outreach and empowerment of transition-age blind youth in their communities.

In order to support the Transition to Independence Club and the goals of the NCBYS, the Institute held its first Transition to Independence Career Fair on February 23, 2006. With support from a variety of community partners, including the Maryland Division of Rehabilitation Services, the Whiting School of Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, Blind Industries and Services of Maryland, NFB training centers, and local educators, the Institute hosted sixty-five students at the first fair. Students from Maryland, Virginia, New York, and even Washington State were on hand for a full day of workshops, mock interviews, and exhibits. Participants were surrounded by successful blind role models who are employed in everything from engineering to the Randolph-Sheppard Program to government and politics. Anil Lewis, member of the NFB board of directors and president of the NFB of Georgia, got everyone thinking positively with a rousing keynote address at lunch. Additional presentations by Betsy Zaborowski, executive director of the Jernigan Institute; Kristin Cox, secretary of the Maryland Department of Disabilities; and many other inspiring individuals kept the youth in attendance engaged and thinking about their futures. The Career Fair is also intended to be a model that NFB chapters can use to reach out and affect blind youth in their communities. Through the Transition Club and the Career Fair, we continue to build opportunities for blind youth to be better prepared for life after high school.

Also the Institute has taken on responsibility for coordinating youth visits to the National Center for the Blind. These Youth Excellence Seminars are a powerful way for young blind people to receive mentoring from blind adults and learn about opportunities for their future. Recently the Institute hosted a group from the New York Commission for the Blind. The New York visit has become an annual occurrence during the week of President’s Day in February. This year the New York teens were fortunate that their visit fell during the same time as the Career Fair. In addition to attending the Career Fair, the teens participated in activities to expand their experience in daily living skills, technology, travel, and examination of critical topics related to blindness. Many of the teens particularly enjoyed learning to cook on a barbecue grill under the direction of blind mentors and sitting through a lively session of the Dating Game that taught all sorts of lessons about what it means to be blind. Similarly, a group of New Jersey teens visited the National Center in April. During their weekend trip the New Jersey teens examined the life of a training center student by participating in a variety of activities under the direction of blind mentors.

The Institute hopes to expand these youth opportunities to other groups who wish to bring students to the National Center for intense training experiences. Eventually the Institute would like to take these seminars on the road to reach out to those who cannot travel to Baltimore. By providing training and leadership from blind mentors, we can help educators keep blind students on the road to success. Blind youth have few opportunities to work with positive blind mentors in challenging training situations in which they can understand their blindness better. These experiences help educators reinforce the importance of skills they are attempting to teach students at home. They also help to counteract the negative messages about blindness these students receive from teachers, peers, the general public, and sometimes their own families. By teaching these youth to expect excellence and empowering them to reach for it, we are positively affecting the next generation of blind leaders and mentors. Both the Transition Club and the Youth Excellence Seminars at the Institute demonstrate the power of blind mentors working closely with educators and rehabilitation professionals to help blind youth raise expectations for themselves and embrace the techniques that successful blind adults have mastered.

National Center for Mentoring Excellence (NCME)

Mentoring has been a cornerstone of the NFB since its beginning. It is part of everything we do in the Federation, something that we can do better than anyone else in the blindness field. It should be no surprise that mentoring is an important component of the Institute. A five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education Rehabilitation Services Administration has allowed the Institute to develop the National Center for Mentoring Excellence (NCME). The goal of the NCME is to design, develop, implement, and evaluate a comprehensive national mentoring program to connect young blind people with successful blind adults. The NCME project is equipping the Institute with greater expertise in mentoring and a model that demonstrates the important role blindness-specific mentoring plays in encouraging blind youth to break through barriers and reach greater heights.

A demonstration mentoring project is currently underway in two states, Louisiana and Nebraska. In the fall of 2007 the project will be expanded into four additional replication states. Through the NCME we the blind will continue to build our own futures by passing our knowledge, experience, and perspectives to the next generation of blind youth. Through mentoring, blind youth will most certainly experience a greater future full of opportunities. Read more in the article entitled “Introducing the National Center for Mentoring Excellence” from the October 2005 issue of the Braille Monitor.

National Literary Braille Competency Test (NLBCT)

On the horizon in 2006 is the conclusion of a long awaited product to help ensure higher levels of competency in the Braille code among those charged with teaching Braille. For a more extensive history refer to the January 2006 issue of the Braille Monitor and the article entitled “National Literary Braille Competency Test: New Partnerships, New Possibilities.” The NFB has supported the initiative to create a national examination of competency in the Braille code since it was first discussed in the late 1980’s. Furthermore, the NFB has led a significant revolution in Braille literacy over the past twenty years. It seems natural then that the NLBCT will have a place in the Jernigan Institute. Over the past year the Jernigan Institute has been working closely with a steering committee of experts to pilot and launch the test that has been in development of one kind or another for better than a decade.

We anticipate that by the time of the 2006 NFB national convention a final version of the National Literary Braille Competency Test will be ready for use by universities, states, and agencies wishing to ensure that their staff or students are competent in the Literary Braille Code. Soon individuals who took the pilot test and passed will be displaying with pride their certificate of competency from the Jernigan Institute. In the future this test will become a national measure for how well we are preparing teachers to teach Braille and will help training programs improve and understand what strategies work best in preparing educators to teach Braille. The NLBCT is one more step on the long road to increasing Braille literacy in the United States. The establishment of the final test and its ongoing administration will undoubtedly be only the beginning of a series of Braille-literacy-related projects at the Jernigan Institute in the future.

Lions Blindness and Low Vision Education Project

In a number of projects the Jernigan Institute is a partner rather than the leader in the effort. One significant example is the Institute’s partnership in the Lions Blindness and Low Vision Education Project. The International Association of Lions Clubs is well known in the field of work with the blind, and many blind people have benefited in some way from the work of a Lions Club or an individual member. The Jernigan Institute, the Lions Vision Research and Rehabilitation Center at the Wilmer Eye Institute, and the Department of Health Policy and Management in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health are collaborating, under the direction of the Lions Multiple District 22, to develop an educational project to change and clarify knowledge, perceptions, and attitudes about blindness. In this project the Jernigan Institute is helping develop an educational video and training materials based on focus groups that were held with leaders of clubs in Maryland, Delaware, and the District of Columbia.

During late April and the first week of May, training was held at the Jernigan Institute to prepare Lions to use the educational materials in presentations to their local clubs and other community organizations. The Jernigan Institute staff hopes that the success of this collaboration will lead to future opportunities to work closely with local Lions Clubs around the country. Since many Federation members are also contributing members of local Lions Clubs, this partnership is a natural extension of work being done all over the country by Federationists and Lions with a passion for changing what it means to be blind. Those attending the NFB national convention in Dallas can look forward to learning more about this emerging project.

Early Childhood

Giving blind children the best resources at the earliest possible age has been a priority of the Jernigan Institute from day one. The Institute is building resources to help focus attention on the needs of our youngest blind children and to help their parents map a future full of opportunity. In the July 2005 issue of the Braille Monitor, I highlighted the success of our first conference on early childhood in the article entitled “Beginnings and Blueprints: Early Education, Empowerment, and the Jernigan Institute.” In the fall of 2005 the Institute sponsored “Have Cane Will Travel” seminars at NFB state affiliate conventions through support of the NFB Imagination Fund. These seminars featured Joe Cutter and emphasized his promotion model of independent travel for blind children. They continued to promote best practices in early education for the blind child by focusing on the significant impact parents can have as the child’s first teachers.

Distribution of Future Reflections: The Early Years continues to spread the word about the opportunities parents have to ensure that their blind children get a good early start on the development of blindness skills. Last, the Institute recently presented at the Council for Exceptional Children’s (CEC) national conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. This presentation again featured Joe Cutter with support by Ron Gardner, president of the NFB of Utah and past director of the Professional Development and Research Institute on Blindness at Louisiana Tech University. These efforts and more on the horizon will continue to promote greater learning opportunities for blind children, beginning as early as possible. The sooner we can reach out to blind children and their families, the more they will be able to benefit from the rich resources available through the National Federation of the Blind and its affiliated divisions such as the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children.

Online Education Program

The Institute launched the Online Education Program as one of its inaugural projects at the grand opening in 2004. This program currently consists of four online courses that can be taken for a small fee and completed at the individual’s own pace. These courses are targeted at educators unfamiliar with teaching blind students, paraeducators, parents, those interested in blindness topics, and technology specialists and Web site designers seeking greater information about nonvisual Web accessibility and technology used by the blind. Courses currently available include:

• Introduction to the Education of Blind Children in the Regular Classroom
• Introduction to Braille
• Introduction to Access Technology for the Blind
• Introduction to Nonvisual Web Accessibility

The Institute is currently reviewing the infrastructure of these courses and making improvements to the system. The Institute’s goal is to expand this program with an emphasis on content to support parents of blind children. There are a number of other opportunities for expanding this program in the future as needs and resources become available. For more information about the online education program, visit <http://nfb.org/nfbji/onlineeducation.htm>. Remember that we are always interested in getting feedback about critical online education courses for professionals, parents, and others needing information about blindness.

Research

The Jernigan Institute is committed to both performing and partnering in research efforts that will improve practice and opportunities in education. Currently the Institute is engaged in a number of research efforts related to educational products. Additionally it is working on an Excellence in Teaching Blind Students project with Dr. Matt Maurer of Butler University in Indiana. Through Professor Maurer’s work the Institute is examining instances of outstanding teaching in the education of blind children in order to publish best practices and common characteristics of outstanding educators. This research effort has also allowed the Institute to reach out to educators and administrators across the country, including those at a number of residential schools for the blind. The goal of this research is to focus on those elements of the education of blind children that are most outstanding and to build partnerships to enhance future projects. The Jernigan Institute is committed to building a research agenda that moves the field of blindness forward and addresses the most pressing issues related to education and employment of the blind.

Outreach and Partnerships

Finally, the education staff at the Jernigan Institute spends considerable time doing outreach; providing technical assistance to parents, educators, and blind students; and building partnerships with other organizations. This also includes presentations by Jernigan Institute staff at a number of conferences and meetings across the country. These presentations help others to learn more about the NFB, spread the work of the Institute, and increase dialogue around important topics related to blindness education. Recently presentations have been given at the Getting in Touch with Literacy conference, the Space Science the Special Way conference, and the spring training conference of the National Council of State Agencies for the Blind. This is central to the mission of the NFB, and it assists Institute staff to stay grounded in the work that needs to happen at the grassroots level. If you have opportunities to involve the Institute in your local work or you know of individuals or organizations that you believe could be synergistic to the Institute’s mission, please refer them to us. Often those seeds turn out to produce fruit over time. The Jernigan Institute is intended to be a centralized resource and knowledge base for blind people across the country to build upon. Please take advantage of your Institute and contribute to its work.

There you have it, an exhaustive list of the activities of the Jernigan Institute Education Team. These activities have grown out of the expressed needs and priorities of the blind. It may be hard to believe that all of this has been built in just two years. Imagine what it will be like in 2009 on the Institute’s fifth anniversary or in 2019 during the fifteenth anniversary. If we continue to dream and build together, as we will, we can feel confident that many more opportunities will exist for the blind, the Jernigan Institute will be further regarded as the central influence in the field of blindness, and the emerging generation of blind youth will be more confident and skilled than any previous generation. We will also be able to look back with pride to these pioneering efforts.

We can say with confidence, however, that much work will still be left to do. In reflecting upon the work of the Jernigan Institute in building an education program, I am reminded of Dr. Maurer’s 2005 banquet speech. In concluding his remarks, he said in part, “Our perspective is not just for one day. It stretches back over the decades to the time of our beginning, and it reaches forward to the moment of the fulfillment of our dreams.” In the perspective of two years, we have achieved quite a bit. From the perspective of our dreams, we have a long way to go. Our commitment to education is strong, and our collective will is deep. Let’s continue building our education programs and spreading them across the country. Before we know it, the next two years will have passed, and we will have collectively achieved another milestone on the road to our dreams. Imagine.

The Rest of the Story

by Betsy Zaborowski

From the Editor: The preceding article discussed in depth the educational programs conducted or currently in development by the NFB Jernigan Institute. Following is a description of the other activities of the Institute prepared by Dr. Betsy Zaborowski, the executive director of the NFB Jernigan Institute:

It is quite amazing to consider that we are in the third year of the development of the Jernigan Institute. Last year at our national convention I used three words to describe the primary purpose of the Institute—innovation, inspiration, and influence. We can now say progress has been made in all three of these areas. In a separate article Mark Riccobono has outlined the programs of the Education Initiative, so let me share with you the rest of the story.

Technology

The International Braille and Technology Center for the Blind (IBTC)—A comprehensive evaluation, demonstration, and training center, complete with over $2.5 million worth of the tactile and speech-output technology now available to the blind, has served since its inception in 1990 and continues to serve as a rich resource for vendor-free advice on all aspects of access technology. Staff members of the IBTC consult with individuals, employers, rehabilitation and education professionals, and technology developers, thus helping to ensure that the consumer perspective is represented and technology choices are the best for each blind person.

Along with providing useful information to the thousands of visitors who tour the IBTC each year, the access technology staff led by Anne Taylor answer thousands of calls on the technology help line and frequently meet with specialized access technology vendors and mainstream technology developers. This past year we added to the list of those who have benefited from the IBTC engineering students from Johns Hopkins University, who have received orientation on access technology issues and have participated in technology demonstrations.

The Kurzweil-National Federation of the Blind Reader—T