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Braille Monitor

Vol. 50, No. 2                                                                    February 2007

Barbara Pierce, editor

Published in inkprint, in Braille, and on cassette by

The National Federation of the Blind
Marc Maurer, president

 

National Office
1800 Johnson Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21230
telephone: (410) 659-9314
email address: nfb@nfb.org
Web site address: http://www.nfb.org
NFBnet.org: http://www.nfbnet.org
NFB-NEWSLINE® information: (866) 504-7300

 

Letters to the president, address changes,
subscription requests, and orders for NFB literature
should be sent to the National Office.
Articles for the Monitor and letters to the editor may also
be sent to the National Office or may be emailed to bpierce@nfb.org.

 

Monitor subscriptions cost the Federation about twenty-five dollars per year.
Members are invited, and nonmembers are requested, to cover
  the subscription cost. Donations should be made payable to
National Federation of the Blind and sent to:

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

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

        ISSN 0006-8829

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Atlanta Site of 2007 NFB Convention

The 2007 convention of the National Federation of the Blind will take place in Atlanta, Georgia, June 30 through July 6, at the Marriott Marquis Hotel at 265 Peachtree Center Avenue, Atlanta, Georgia 30303. For room reservations call (888) 218-5399.

The 2007 room rates are singles, doubles, and twins $61 and triples and quads $66 a night, plus a 15 percent sales tax. The hotel is accepting reservations now. A $60-per-room deposit is required to make a reservation. Fifty percent of the deposit will be refunded if notice is given to the hotel of a reservation cancellation before June 1, 2007. The other 50 percent is not refundable.

Rooms will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. Reservations may be made before June 1, 2007, assuming that rooms are still available. After that time the hotel will not hold our block of rooms for the convention. In other words you should get your reservation in as soon as possible.

Guestroom amenities include cable television, coffee pot, iron and ironing board, hair dryer, and high-speed Internet access. The Marriott has several excellent restaurants. The hotel is currently undergoing renovations that will result in some alteration in the configuration of these. We will report on the changes as the convention draws near. It still features indoor and outdoor pools, solarium, health club, whirlpool, and sauna.

We strongly recommend preregistering for the convention itself online or by mail any time starting March 1 and ending May 31. The 2007 convention will follow what many think of as our usual schedule:

Saturday, June 30 Seminar Day
Sunday, July 1 Registration Day
Monday, July 2 Board Meeting and Division Day
Tuesday, July 3 March for Independence and Opening Session
Wednesday, July 4 Tour Day
Thursday, July 5 Banquet Day
Friday, July 6 Business Session

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Contents

Vol. 50, No. 2                                                                       February 2007

 

Is the Failure to Produce Tactile Currency Really a Matter of Discrimination?
by Marc Maurer

Atlanta Welcomes the National Federation of the Blind for the First Time
by Anil Lewis

It's Not Your Grandfather’s NIB Anymore
by James H. Omvig

What It Means to Walk with a White Cane
by Chris Danielsen

Lord Low of Dalston’s Maiden Speech
by Lord Colin Low

Someone You Should Know: Patti S. Gregory-Chang
by Ronza M. Othman

In the Spotlight: Affiliate Action

Blind Hunter Enjoys Success in the Field
by Larry Porter

Breakthrough Technology Provides Television Listings on NFB-NEWSLINE®
by Eileen B. Hogan

The Precinct
The Riveting Story of a Blind Man, a Blonde, and a Ballot
by Jim Salas

The Troubled Fish
by Daniel B. Frye

Pushing the Envelope
by Jeff Altman

Why I Am a Federationist
by Joleen Kinzer

Convention Scholarships Available
by Allen Harris

Recipes

Monitor Miniatures

 

Copyright 2007 National Federation of the Blind

 

Is the Failure to Produce Tactile Currency
Really a Matter of Discrimination?

by Marc Maurer

Braille money has been a minor topic of discussion among blind people for as long as I can remember. The way blind people handle coinage and bills was the subject of a lesson (an informal one, as I remember it) that I received during my early grade school years. Coins are not difficult to distinguish from one another tactilely. The bills that form the majority of currency present a somewhat greater challenge, but it is largely a manageable one. Stories abound regarding blind people who insist that they be paid only in one-dollar bills, but the vast majority of blind people receive, manage, disburse, and use bills of higher denominations as a matter of routine.

Most blind people have devised a system for keeping track of paper currency--folding different denominations different ways, separating different denominations into different pockets or different parts of a wallet or purse, or (in rare instances) creating tactile identification marks on bills of different denominations. In a customary transaction involving paper currency, a blind person transferring a bill identifies the denomination before releasing it to the person receiving it. In accepting paper currency, a blind person ordinarily asks that the bills be identified as they are received. Blind merchants ask that the bills they receive be identified publicly. In some instances blind merchants employ a paper money identifier to verify the denomination of a bill. However, in most cases the verbal exchange with the sighted person transferring the bill is sufficient for identification.

From time to time somebody gets the bright idea to ask the Congress to create Braille money. The National Federation of the Blind has been asked for its opinion regarding the creation of Braille money on many occasions. The response to this request for information usually includes these elements:

1) Printing Braille on money has been tested. The Braille wears out with extreme rapidity. Money identified with Braille becomes unusable in its tactile form after only a very short time in circulation.

2) Paper currency of different sizes or shapes could be made that would be identifiable by touch. However, unless the person managing the currency has the different sized or shaped bills to compare, it is frequently difficult to tell what denominations are present. The cost of modifying the currency management technology to accept bills of different sizes or shapes is high for the minimal benefit that would result.

3) We believe that many legal changes are essential to ensure the right of the blind to full participation in society. Even if a change in the nature of the paper currency is desirable, it is not of sufficient importance to warrant our attention and the attention of Congress. Other things should be done first. Because the management of paper currency is well within the capacity of the blind, changing the currency to gain a minor convenience is not justified. For these reasons during the nearly forty years that I have participated in the National Federation of the Blind, we as an organization have consistently decided not to put substantial effort into changing the paper currency.
In 1994 at the convention of the National Federation of the Blind held in Detroit, Michigan, the members of the Federation discussed changes in the currency. Our general approach to the currency was set forth in Resolution 94-07. That resolution says:

WHEREAS, the United States Department of the Treasury is examining alternatives to the present currency for the purposes of making counterfeiting more difficult and for making currency more compatible with modern technology; and

WHEREAS, revisions to the present currency may include variations in color, raised markings, bar coding, or other electronically readable formats; and

WHEREAS, it is a widespread misconception that blind people cannot handle their own money because they cannot see it; and

WHEREAS, it is beyond dispute that blind people can, in fact, handle their own money; however, bills which can be identified by other than conventional print could be more convenient for everyone, may be a necessity to safeguard against counterfeiting, and may be desirable to take the best advantage of evolving technology: Now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this seventh day of July, 1994, in the City of Detroit, Michigan, that this organization express the interest of blind people in the discussion of a modernized form of currency so that any changes which may eventually be made will include methods of identifying money by other than strictly visual means; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this Federation, notwithstanding its expressed interest in the ultimate decisions on currency changes, do all in its power correctly to inform the public that blind people can and do successfully handle money in its present form.

In the spring of 2002 the American Council of the Blind and certain individuals sued the Treasury of the United States and others on the grounds that the paper currency of our country was not tactilely identifiable by blind individuals and that the failure of the Treasury to produce such currency constituted discrimination against the blind. Inasmuch as most of us who are blind have been using paper currency without major difficulty, the National Federation of the Blind thought the lawsuit was primarily an effort on the part of the American Council of the Blind (ACB) to gain publicity. Many thoughtful leaders of the blind felt that the ACB's publicity stunt was damaging to the blind not only because it focused attention on a putative problem that did not exist but also that it would present the capacity of the blind in a false and misleading manner. If blind people are incapable of managing paper currency, how devastating is the limitation of blindness? We felt that this kind of presentation would lead to the assertion that blind people were incapable of participation in commerce without substantial alteration of the documents or papers involved in financial transactions. To give only one example, if a check is not tactilely identifiable, is the signature of a blind person upon it valid? The answer to the question might be that the signature is not. If this were to become the result of the argument that the paper currency discriminates against the blind, the effect upon blind people would be devastating indeed. We in the National Federation of the Blind have fought for the proposition that the signature of a blind person is valid upon such documents, whether they are tactilely identifiable or not. To assert anything else would be to challenge the right of blind people to engage in the commerce of the world.

Fundamental to the philosophy of the National Federation of the Blind is the belief that blind people can operate effectively within our society as it currently exists with only minor modifications of the tools used for participation in that society. How much alteration in the tools of participation is needed for our effective participation? This question is at the heart of the argument about creating a tactile currency. Tactile currency would be convenient and beneficial to the blind. However, it would cost a great deal to create it and even more to implement its use. The most frequently suggested method for creating a tactilely identifiable currency is to print bills of different sizes for different denominations. If this method of producing currency were to be adopted, the machines used to manage currency would require alteration. The cash registers employed throughout the country would need modified drawers. This is only the beginning of the cost. The bank machines, the vending machines, the currency-counting machines, and other paper-currency-managing tools would require alteration. If we who are blind expect our government, our businesses, and our citizenry to meet these costs, the benefit must be sufficiently large to justify the demand. What we said about the lawsuit brought against the Treasury was, "Show us a problem that exists. Then we'll join in urging that it be solved."

Of course the currency contains identifiable visual markings for the sighted. Why could it not also contain tactilely identifiable markings for the blind? Undoubtedly such currency could be manufactured. However, if no need for it has been demonstrated, the decision to produce such currency is a matter for policy determination by the government rather than a requirement imposed by law.

On November 28, 2006, the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia issued a Memorandum Order declaring that the Treasury of the United States discriminates against the blind when it fails to issue tactilely identifiable currency. In this decision, the court said, "Most people with low vision, and all blind people, are incapable of looking at American currency and distinguishing one denomination from another. In order to know whether the bill in her hand is worth $5 or $50, a blind person must ask someone else for help or use a machine that can identify the denomination and speak it out loud." Although the court decision is many pages in length, this passage is at the heart of the ruling. The paper money of the United States is not tactilely identifiable. Blind people cannot identify the paper money without the help of a sighted person or of a machine. The government could have produced tactilely identifiable money. The cost to do so is small when compared to expenditures for creating a national currency system. Consequently the court ruled that discrimination has occurred and that the government is required to adopt a plan to issue currency that the blind can identify without help.

In 2002, shortly after the lawsuit had been initiated, the National Federation of the Blind considered the assertion of discrimination. As a result of the discussion, the Federation adopted Resolution 2002-25. This resolution states:

WHEREAS, on May 2, 2002, the American Council of the Blind (ACB) and two individual plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against the secretary of the Treasury of the United States and the treasurer of the United States alleging that the federal government is in violation of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended, 29 U.S.C. Section 794, by issuing all U.S. currency in an identical size, color, and texture, which renders various denominations indistinguishable by touch, alleging that the blind are thus largely excluded from enjoying the benefits of monetary transactions and seeking declaratory and injunctive relief by requiring the Department of the Treasury to implement design changes in the currency to make the various denominations distinguishable by touch and color; and

WHEREAS, this lawsuit is based on a false and misleading assumption that the inability to distinguish banknote denominations by touch largely excludes the blind from participating in commerce and other ordinary activities of life; and

WHEREAS, the theory of this suit is disproved by the lives of tens of thousands of blind persons who live normal lives and participate in commerce every day without difficulty; and

WHEREAS, more than having difficulty with money, blind people are apt to suffer great harm from the attendant publicity surrounding this suit, fostering and reinforcing the notion that the blind cannot easily handle currency as it now exists and, for example, needlessly creating an albatross around the neck of any blind person seeking employment in any position involving handling money; and

WHEREAS, to the extent that currency identification is truly a problem for individual blind people, various technological devices capable of identifying banknotes and audibly announcing their denomination are available for sale, and in fact giving every blind person in the country such a device would be simpler and cheaper than re-engineering the nation's cash-handling capacity; and

WHEREAS, in view of its false premise and lack of merit, there is little likelihood that the relief sought by this lawsuit will ever be granted, thus using the blind in a publicity stunt and showing little regard for the genuine needs and concerns of blind people; and

WHEREAS, more than the adverse publicity resulting from the filing of this suit itself, there is a substantial risk of a ruling that could nullify the potential benefits of Section 504 by narrowing its scope and coverage or the law altogether, as has happened with other recent court decisions in the area of disability: Now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this ninth day of July, 2002, in the City of Louisville, Kentucky, that this organization take all appropriate and legally available steps to advise the court that the failure to have U.S. currency issued as sought by the plaintiffs in this suit is not an act of discrimination against the blind and in such a fashion that the accompanying ruling does not harm current and future efforts to achieve genuinely needed and desirable accommodations for the blind; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization take steps to counter the adverse effects of the harmful publicity arising from this particular lawsuit and renew efforts to educate the public that the blind can participate in commerce on equal terms and fully enjoy the benefits of U.S. currency as it now exists.

What is the harm that this ruling of the federal court is intended to stop? Blind people use currency—most of the time without problem and even without much conscious worry. Can blind people be defrauded? Of course we can. The opinion of the court says, "Unable to identify the value of paper money without help from others, blind and low-vision individuals are always at risk of being cheated." What the opinion of the court does not say is that sighted people who can identify currency are themselves always at risk of being cheated. The assumption of the judge who wrote the opinion is that the inability to see increases the risk. Is this true, or is it simply an assumption? How often does cheating of the blind occur? Has anyone demonstrated that the blind are cheated more often than the sighted? If this demonstration has not been made, what is the basis for declaring that discrimination exists?

The blind people with whom I have discussed the matter believe that cheating is rare. Comments to me indicate that blind people are cheated no more often than sighted people are. However, although the judge did not have evidence of a pattern of cheating, he did express an opinion. He said, "The frequency of such acts against blind and low-vision individuals [acts of cheating] is impossible to measure because victims may not know that they have been deceived unless someone tells them." This statement indicates the judge’s fundamental misunderstanding of blind people.

Blind people are not so lacking in discernment that we don't eventually discover when we have been defrauded. If somebody were to defraud me of my money, sooner or later I would notice. Part of the process of managing money is having a sense of how much there is. When the money is suddenly gone, it is not hard for me to know that it has disappeared. For the judge to assert that I wouldn't notice when my money is gone is an indication of the capacity he attributes to me as a blind person. Inasmuch as the judge has admitted that the record in the case does not contain evidence of a pattern of cheating, the decision he makes is based upon fear--his fear of the potential for fraud even though no evidence of it exists. Because blind people might be defrauded, the judge asserts that we face the inability to participate in the program of the United States which prints and distributes currency, and he determines that our inability to participate results from the failure of the Treasury to produce tactilely identifiable money. This failure, he says, is discrimination. The decision is based on speculation and emotionalism--not fact.

Shortly after the issuance of the decision by the federal judge, I submitted a guest editorial to the New York Times for consideration, which was printed on December 18, 2006. It says:

In a ruling in a lawsuit last month, Judge James Robertson of Federal District Court said that United States currency discriminates against blind people because bills are all the same size and cannot be distinguished by touch. His decision was applauded by some advocates for the blind, including the American Council of the Blind, which brought the lawsuit. But as president of the National Federation of the Blind, the nation’s oldest and largest organization of the blind, I believe that Judge Robertson’s ruling is wrong.

Discrimination occurs when the blind are barred from enjoying benefits, goods, or services. This definition of discrimination is what most people understand the word to mean. If a landlord refuses to rent an apartment to someone because of race, color, creed, or disability, then discrimination occurs. Sometimes people with disabilities are barred from certain facilities or services because of the way they are designed. A person in a wheelchair cannot climb the steps of a public building; if the building does not have a wheelchair ramp, that person is prevented from entering it. In another example, my group is suing the Target Corporation because the company’s Web site doesn’t accommodate the special text-reading software that the blind use to surf the Internet. In both cases a person with a disability is kept out of a public place or denied use of a service, just as African Americans were not welcome at whites-only lunch counters.

But while blind people cannot identify paper currency by touch, that does not prevent us from spending money. When we hand merchants our money, they take it and provide us with the goods or services we have paid for, no questions asked. People with whom we transact business provide us with correct change if needed, and we then organize the money in a manner that allows us to identify it in the future. We transact business in this way every day.

There is no evidence that the blind are shortchanged more often than the sighted; if a question does arise about a particular transaction, it is the responsibility of the blind person to sort out the matter. Identifying money by feel, as the blind are often able to do in many other countries, may be more convenient, but inconvenience is not the same thing as discrimination.

While it is crucial that minorities have a voice in society, it is also the responsibility of every minority group to use that voice wisely and not to cry “discrimination” when no discrimination has occurred. The blind of America will fight discrimination wherever we find it, but we achieve nothing by falsely portraying ourselves as victims and engaging in frivolous litigation.

Part of the nuisance of blindness is managing printed documents. Until print disappears (which I suspect will not be soon), blind people will have to find a way to read it. Print is everywhere, and getting at the information it represents is one of the elements of the problem that blind people have. When methods for managing the information that is presented visually have been devised, claiming discrimination to alter the printed matter is unreasonable. This is true even if it would be desirable to create tactile representations of the print.

Charging the government, business owners, or individuals with violation of the law is a serious matter. It should not be done unless there is serious harm to redress. Built into consideration of discrimination based on disability is the notion of reasonable accommodation. Sometimes it is essential that print be modified for blind people to participate in a program. Unless the modification alters the nature of the program, the change is required. Reasonable accommodations are demanded by law unless they would cause an undue burden to the entity making them. Consideration of discrimination, therefore, incorporates the notion that an alteration in a program or activity must provide sufficient benefit to be worth the cost. If the cost is great and the benefit is small, no discrimination exists. In this case no demonstration of urgent need has been made. Consequently, the decision of the court is unsupported.

 

Atlanta Welcomes the National Federation
of the Blind for the First Time

by Anil Lewis

From the Editor: Anil Lewis is president of the National Federation of the Blind of Georgia, the host of our next NFB convention June 30 through July 6. He is also an Atlanta resident. Here is his first article about our 2007 convention city:

Sure, this will be the fourth annual convention of the National Federation of the Blind to be held in Atlanta, Georgia, and those who think they have “been there and done that” should think again! We have added, upgraded, and improved the city and our convention hotel. With the addition of the world’s largest aquarium, upgrades to our world-class arts and cultural center, and improvements to the Atlanta Marriott Marquis, the 2007 convention of the National Federation of the Blind will be a new experience for all who attend. So many things have changed since the members of our Federation family were here in 2004 that I would be hard pressed to describe them in one article. The following are just a few additions and improvements to whet your appetite while we work to ensure that everyone enjoys our 2007 convention.

The Georgia Aquarium opened on November 23, 2005, as the world’s largest aquarium. With over eight million gallons of fresh and marine water, 100,000 animals representing 500 species from around the globe, and over 505,000 total square feet of space, the Georgia Aquarium is sure to have things you’ve never seen before. Come meet Ralph and Norton, our two resident whale sharks, the largest fish on the planet. These majestic giants can grow to over forty feet long. You will also encounter beluga whales, whose charismatic personalities will touch the hearts of the entire family. The Georgia Aquarium delivers wonder and excitement around every corner. You’ll want to come back again and again.

The High Museum of Art and the Atlanta Symphony Hall have been expanded and improved. This has made the Woodruff Arts Center a world-class destination for fine arts. The High Museum has entered into a distinctive partnership with the Louvre in Paris, one of the greatest museums in the world. The High has classic works of art from the Louvre's permanent collection on display. The exhibit is the largest of its kind in the United States and will last for the next three years.

Near the High Museum of Art is Atlanta’s newest place to live, work, and play. Atlantic Station is metro Atlanta's leading mixed-use development. Just over the big yellow Seventeenth Street Bridge you will find a vibrant pedestrian-friendly mixed-use center that’s a delightful place to walk, shop, and hang out. The Atlantic Station Market, which is like the open-air markets found in Europe and the northeastern United States, opened last November and is the first of many being introduced to the Atlanta metro area to showcase our local artists and unique vendors.

Even the Atlanta Marriott Marquis has recently been renovated. Although most of you have mastered moving around our traditional Atlanta convention hotel, you will find some additions and improvements that will make your visit special. Even though the hotel is new and improved, we have managed to maintain convention room rates that remain the envy of all. We will be sure to revise and reprint the changes made to the Atlanta Marriott in a subsequent Braille Monitor article.

Of course the landmark event that will make this convention like no other will be the NFB March for Independence. Hundreds of the nation’s blind, our family members, and friends will join together to march in a unified effort to reach out, educate, and fundraise. We could choose no better location than Atlanta, a city rich in civil rights history, to host this symbolic march for the civil rights of blind people. We, the Georgia affiliate of the NFB, are honored to have the privilege of being the host of the NFB convention that launches this historic event. No true Federationist can afford to miss the solidarity of this monumental moment.

By now you should have registered as a participant in the March for Independence and made your hotel reservations at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis. In less than a month you can preregister for the 2007 convention of the National Federation of the Blind. All that will be left for you to do is make your travel plans. See you in Atlanta.

 

It's Not Your Grandfather's NIB Anymore

by James H. Omvig

From the Editor: Jim Omvig is a longtime leader of the National Federation of the Blind. He was one of Kenneth Jernigan’s students at the Iowa Commission for the Blind in 1961. He went on to become the first blind student ever accepted into the Loyola University of Chicago School of Law and then the first blind attorney ever hired by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). He worked for the NLRB in both Washington, D.C., and New York City, where he learned about and became expert in the federal processes of employee unionization, before changing his career path and becoming deeply committed to vocational rehabilitation and residential orientation-and-adjustment centers for the blind.

In 1976, through his work as an NFB volunteer, Jim was able to bring about a change in federal labor relations law which meant that, for the first time in American history, blind sheltered shop workers had the right to unionize in order to improve their wages and working conditions through collective bargaining.

In February of 2003 he was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve as one of the fifteen members of the President's Committee for Purchase from People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled. This group of presidential appointees administers what is known as the Javits-Wagner-O'Day (JWOD) program, under which the federal government purchases commodities and services from nonprofit agencies in order to provide jobs for the blind or severely disabled. Last July he was elected to serve a two-year term as vice chairman of the Committee for Purchase. Jim is also the author of the books, Freedom for the Blind and The Blindness Revolution.

He believes strongly that certain facts about the changing status of National Industries for the Blind and the JWOD program should be more generally known. Here is what he has to say:

Those who attended last year's national convention in Dallas will recall that we had quite a discussion on Friday afternoon about the current status of what were formerly known as sheltered workshops for the blind. The debate had nothing to do with whether the shops are good or bad, improved or not, or whether National Industries for the Blind (NIB), which manages the blind side of the Javits-Wagner-O'Day (JWOD) program, is doing a good job or a poor one. The sole question being debated was what political strategy the National Federation of the Blind should use in the twenty-first century to advocate most effectively for blind JWOD program workers.
It is well known that the Federation can and does sometimes use the in-your-face approach as a political tactic when this seems most appropriate, and I applaud it. However, sometimes another kind of diplomacy may be equally or even more appropriate. I believe that this is particularly true today, at a time when the National Federation of the Blind is the focal point of everything constructive taking place in the field of work with the blind in America.

Be all of this as it may, now that the dust has settled, it seems to me that it would be appropriate to provide Monitor readers with certain relevant facts about the JWOD program as it exists today. In my role as a member of what is commonly referred to as the “President's Committee,” I have had the opportunity to glean certain factual information that was not apparent to me as a civilian and that might not be apparent to you. Because I am integrally involved in the process of change, I feel some obligation to communicate the current facts accurately.

I begin by offering a few simple truths:

It seems to me that we who are blind (or at least most of us) are willing without a great deal of fanfare to acknowledge that improvements have actually taken place concerning library services, federal public assistance programs, vending stand opportunities, vocational rehabilitation programs, and the education of blind children. I believe that, as certain facts are made known, most of us will also agree that real and significant progress has been made concerning the employment and advancement of blind workers in the JWOD program.

Since some younger readers may be unaware of past issues that often brought about conflict in the blindness community, I offer the following brief history to bring you up to speed:

The first school for the blind in America, the New England Asylum for the Blind (now the Perkins School for the Blind), was established in 1829, and many others were established over the next twenty or thirty years. The stated purpose of these early schools was to prepare blind adults for jobs in the "blind trades," jobs such as rug or basket weaving, chair caning, and the like.

These lofty intentions failed, and officials concluded that a new employment program was necessary. Therefore, what was called a "sheltered workshop" program was established, and the first shop for the blind to provide employment for blind adults was established in 1850 in New York. Soon many other shops were established, and adult blind workers began making brooms, mops, brushes, etc.

By 1938, as America was coming out of the Great Depression, it occurred to a couple of members of the United States Congress named Wagner and O'Day that more employment for blind workers could be created if the federal government itself were to purchase the brooms, mops, and brushes it needed for cleaning federal buildings from sheltered shops for the blind, and a new federal program was created.

That year, 1938, Congress also decided to establish minimum wage protections for American workers. This was a lofty goal too, but in the view of some in the Congress, since “Blind workers couldn't possibly be as productive as sighted workers," they were excluded from the coverage of the new federal minimum wage laws.

The National Federation of the Blind was organized just two years later, in 1940, and from the very beginning the Federation was vitally concerned about the treatment and well-being of blind workers in the new federal sheltered workshop system. The Federation argued that blind workers were as valuable as sighted workers and should receive the same wages. As employee benefits became the norm in America, the Federation argued that blind workers deserved to receive these same benefits. Many of the shops were substandard in their working conditions and often tried to operate using antiquated or broken equipment, and the Federation argued that the shops should undergo modernization in the same way commercial businesses did. We maintained that shop workers should be able to try to improve their wages and working conditions through unions and the collective bargaining process just as sighted workers did, but the sheltered shops and their parent organization, National Industries for the Blind, vigorously opposed this effort. The Federation argued that blind production workers should be able to move into management or supervisory positions, but this rarely happened. And the Federation argued that at least some blind workers should be moved through the sheltered shop system and into ordinary, competitive employment, but this was also resisted by most of the managers--they had no incentive if they lost those whom they considered to be their best and most productive workers.

The original Wagner-O'Day Act was amended by the Congress in 1971 at the urging of Senator Javits of New York, and the program became the Javits-Wagner-O'Day (JWOD) program. The new law included shops that employed severely disabled workers as well as the blind within the program, and it also authorized the federal government to purchase services as well as commodities in order to put more money in the pockets of blind or severely disabled workers. Even after the new amendments, however, conditions remained about the same for blind workers despite the fact that much more modern and sophisticated work has become available for blind workers through the years.

Few Monitor readers know, but I myself did a short stint in one of the shops--the Chicago Lighthouse for the Blind. I was attending law school in Chicago, and I needed money in the summer of either 1964 or 1965, so I worked at the Lighthouse putting little things together with my hands for $.75 per hour.

These, then, and similar issues are what has kept the sheltered shop system and the Federation at odds through the years, and it is fair to say that there has not been much cooperation or collaboration on anything. But that was then, and this is now.

A brief review reveals that the Federation's dogged persistence has paid off and that major changes and improvements have taken place over the past twenty or thirty years. Although employment opportunities and conditions for the approximately fifty-eight hundred blind workers in the NIB system are not utopian, they are far better today than they were in the past, and relations between the Federation and the NIB and its associated agencies are also much better today than they have ever been.

Before turning to a discussion of some of these significant changes, one final piece of historical information is relevant: in 1998 the NIB board took what some would probably perceive to be drastic action. It hired a blind person as its president and CEO. This was a first. He is Jim Gibbons, a blind man who had made his mark in the rough-and-tumble of corporate America. Difficult as it is to imagine, never in its sixty-plus years had NIB appointed a blind CEO.

In the overall scheme it really doesn't matter who claims credit for what has happened. What does matter to blind people is that change, real change, has occurred.

For example, rather than making mops and brooms, most production workers now operate high-tech equipment producing office products; other, more sophisticated items for the government; or uniforms, helmets, and the like for the military. Blind workers also perform certain kinds of services for the government.
A few of the more notable policy changes or other events are:

A) A nationwide recruitment program was launched in 2003 to identify blind people who might possess leadership potential, and a two-year Fellowship for Business Leadership program was established. Three blind students graduated from the first two-year class in the fall of 2005--they are now working in key management positions in NIB-associated agencies, and six more blind trainees were enrolled in 2006.

B) Twenty-eight blind students graduated in 2005 from an eighteen-month management training program developed and delivered for NIB by the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia. It is called the Business Management Training program, and another twenty-eight trainees were enrolled in 2006.

C) An estimated one-thousand blind workers will have been served in 2006 through NIB's Leadership at All Levels program.

D) A new distance-learning program was inaugurated by NIB in 2006 to offer additional learning and self-improvement opportunities for blind production employees.

I believe all this adds up to a kind of progress that should be acknowledged, but there is more. Modernization is also taking place both in programs and facilities, and the management recruiting and training programs are already working and beginning to pay huge dividends.

At a recent meeting of the NIB board of directors, I commended the associated agencies for the outstanding progress they are making by moving blind people into key leadership positions, but I also offered a caution. I reminded them that, occasionally in the history of the blindness system, blind people have been moved into key positions simply because they were blind, not because they were qualified, and failure was the inevitable outcome. I reminded the agencies that their process must be to hire qualified leaders who happened to be blind.
Finally, concerning modernization, a year or two ago my wife Sharon and I sat at the NIB annual awards banquet with a blind telephone operator who was being named NIB employee of the year. He answered phones at the Dover (Delaware) Air Force Base, and he earned $22 per hour with full benefits. And I have toured many modern industrial plants, including Baltimore's Blind Industries and Services of Maryland and Lancaster's Susquehanna Association for the Blind, which are quite different from the facilities I knew in the old days.

Perhaps the most intriguing of these is a military warehousing facility that members of the Committee visited in Phoenix in the fall of 2006. It is operated by Arizona Industries for the Blind. Members of the President's Committee (including admirals and generals) were unanimous in their opinion that this was the most impressive warehousing operation they had ever seen anywhere. It was huge, spotless, complicated, orderly, and armed with high-tech equipment which made it possible for totally blind employees to go independently throughout the warehouse picking out items of inventory for packaging and shipping by other blind employees. I spoke with a nineteen-year-old blind man (an inventory picker) who was earning $11 an hour, and he enjoyed the same fringe benefits as Arizona state employees. He had been earning $6 an hour (with no benefits) in a commercial business before coming to work in the warehouse.
As we of the President's Committee were leaving the warehouse, the current sighted CEO told us that it is his plan that the next Arizona Industries CEO will be a blind person. Attitudes about the management abilities of the blind are shifting.

Who knows what the future may hold? Certainly not all NIB-associated agency programs mirror what I have just described, but the good news is that many do. I have always assumed that, as the Federation positively affects educational or vocational rehabilitation programs everywhere so that blind people routinely receive the training they need to become empowered, blind people would move more and more steadily into competitive jobs, and the need, at least for the blind portion of the JWOD program, would quietly fade away in the relentless, grinding crush of evolution. And perhaps it will, but a tiny part of me wonders if the day might conceivably come when employment opportunities in the JWOD program will equal or exceed those in the competitive world and be at least as attractive. The nineteen-year-old Phoenix warehouse inventory picker probably thinks so, and the newly appointed blind CEOs probably think so too.
In any case, one thing is certain: It really is not your grandfather’s National Industries for the Blind anymore.

 

What It Means to Walk with a White Cane

by Chris Danielsen

From the Editor: Chris Danielsen is the editor of Voice of the Nation’s Blind, the blog of the National Federation of the Blind. He also does other writing for the organization, particularly in the field of public education. Recently he has been thinking about a young man who has become the darling of the media because he refuses to use the long white cane for mobility, preferring instead to pop and click his way through the world. This is what he says:

The public holds two beliefs about blindness that seem to be mutually exclusive. One is the idea that blind people are generally helpless and incompetent. This belief is prevalent, as evidenced by an unemployment rate among blind people that stubbornly remains at around 70 percent. But coexisting with this view is the seemingly incongruous conviction that the blind are endowed with almost superhuman abilities. This belief arises from the myth that, when a person has lost one sense, the remaining ones become sharper to compensate for the lost sense--in this case eyesight. Thus the blind are believed to hear better than the sighted, which accounts for the musical talents of famous blind musicians like Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, and Ronnie Milsap. It is also often assumed that the blind must naturally have extra-sensitive touch in order to read Braille.

Of course neither of these beliefs is accurate. The blind are not helpless and incompetent, at least not when we have acquired effective training in the alternative techniques of blindness. Nor are we superhuman; we have simply trained ourselves to use our remaining senses in ways and with an attention that the sighted do not usually employ. Our hearing is not sharper, but we are likely to notice sounds that the sighted tune out because they deem them unimportant, like traffic noise or the sound of an air conditioning unit at a building we pass on our way to the store that serves as a clue to where we are on the route. The fact that we are able to read Braille proficiently comes from practice and training, not from magically altered nerve cells in our fingers.

But though the public’s belief in the uncanny perceptual abilities of the blind provides little in the way of practical improvement to our lives--more job opportunities, greater social acceptance, and the like--it persists, and when the notion seems to be validated by a blind person, the media pounce on the story.

The latest blind media phenomenon of this sort is fourteen-year-old Ben Underwood of Sacramento, California. In the past several weeks Mr. Underwood has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show, on the CBS Evening News, and in a number of print newspaper and magazine articles. Mr. Underwood navigates his neighborhood and high school by rapidly clicking his tongue and using the echoes from the sound to determine what is around him. Using this technique, he even zips around his neighborhood on roller blades.

Mr. Underwood’s seemingly uncanny ability to navigate exclusively by sound has been dubbed by the media “echolocation,” which is the name given by scientists to the ability of nocturnal creatures like bats to navigate by emitting sonar signals at frequencies that are too high for humans to hear and that allow them to locate and feed on flying insects. Some dolphins also use echolocation to navigate through the water by making clicking sounds. With television cameras recording the spectacle, Mr. Underwood went swimming with dolphins at Sea World to compare their methods to his own. Young Mr. Underwood did not seem to have any qualms about making a show of himself or about being compared to bats or aquatic mammals.

The concept of using tongue clicks to navigate isn’t new; another Californian, Daniel Kish, has been doing it for years and even teaches the technique to other blind people to supplement their use of a white cane or dog guide. Mr. Underwood has been using the technique since he was three, and, either through extensive practice or uncanny aptitude, he does appear to navigate quite well, at least within familiar environments. But unlike Mr. Kish, Underwood has publicly disparaged the tool with which most blind people navigate: the long white cane. With all the unrestrained hubris that only teenagers can regularly muster, Underwood declared on the Oprah Winfrey program: "I will never use a cane. A cane is for other people who cannot walk. I'm not falling over."

This brash statement betrays both contempt for the long white cane and ignorance about how it is actually used by blind people. Mr. Underwood seems to confuse the long white cane used by the blind with support canes used by those who have difficulty walking. He has apparently never considered the idea that a white cane might provide even more information about his environment, since he would be adding the sense of touch to the sense of hearing for a fuller picture of what is around him. Nor does he seem to understand that the tapping of a white cane serves the same purpose for a blind traveler as his tongue clicks; the sound provides information about whether one is walking along a row of buildings or in an open space and what kind of material one is contacting. A glass window sounds different from a metal drainpipe.

Members of the National Federation of the Blind have often observed that the wisdom of learning and using alternative techniques is not always immediately apparent. I use a white cane every day, but I did not always do so. When I was a child, I roamed my subdivision freely on foot, on my bike, and on roller skates, using my hearing and limited light perception to navigate. Obviously I survived, suffering only the customary scrapes and bruises of childhood. But when I began to explore the wider world around me, with its busy intersections and large buildings, I gradually realized that I could travel more effectively in unfamiliar areas by using a long white cane.

My high school orientation and mobility instructor used to refer to the cane as “your tactual digital extensor.” In using the word “digital,” he was referring to the digits of the hand (fingers), not to modern technology. And the phrase, though partly a joke, was intended to remind me that I needed to think of the cane as a part of me, an extension of my hand that allowed me to touch a larger piece of the world than I could without it. That same instructor also taught me to listen to the way my cane taps bounced off objects, but he never encouraged me to rely on my sense of hearing alone. He always reminded me to pay attention to everything that my cane, in conjunction with my other senses, was telling me.

Even then I didn’t fully realize the importance of what I was learning or develop full confidence in the power of the white cane. It took six months of training at the Louisiana Center for the Blind for me to integrate the white cane fully into my everyday life. Since my time in Louisiana, however, I have never ceased to carry my cane, and I have never regretted that decision. The importance of the white cane is a realization for which I am profoundly grateful to my blind brothers and sisters. My white cane gives me more freedom than I ever had as a child when I did not carry it. Then I was limited to the confines of my neighborhood, a familiar environment and one in which, I suspect, watchful neighbors monitored my every move and would spring into action if I appeared to be getting into danger. Now I can travel anywhere I please, whether I have previously visited the place or not, with full confidence in my ability to navigate efficiently and safely.

Mr. Underwood is fourteen years old, and like most people that age he believes that he knows a great deal more than he actually does. As a teenager it is also likely that he passionately wants to appear as much like his peers as possible, and they do not carry canes (though it’s worth pointing out that neither do they click their tongues as they walk). He will have to discover for himself the limits of his own capabilities and how alternative techniques can assist him best, just as all blind people must. (Despite his disparagement of the white cane, he does use Braille and adaptive technology.) Daniel Kish, the teacher of echolocation by tongue clicks, has met Underwood and seen his echolocation abilities, and he suspects that Underwood will ultimately find a white cane more useful when he visits unfamiliar places. Were it not for the recent national acclaim he has received, Underwood might be just another young blind person who needs to be urged, gently but firmly, to explore other alternative techniques and to develop a positive philosophy about blindness--a philosophy that brings him to the understanding that blindness is nothing to be ashamed of and therefore there is no reason to avoid carrying a white cane in order to appear not to be blind.

But Mr. Underwood’s national media appearances have fueled the belief in the public mind that the white cane is a mark of inferiority. He has inadvertently reinforced the distinction the public makes between extraordinarily gifted blind people and so-called ordinary blind people. His statements imply that the white cane is an inferior travel technique, a scarlet letter signifying incompetence and dependence. This assertion cannot go unanswered.

It is self-evident that the white cane has proved a useful tool to millions of blind people the world over. If it were not a useful tool, then the cane could never have achieved broad acceptance among the blind. Blind people who travel with a white cane navigate their environment with speed, confidence, and safety. The white cane is a tool that provides mobility and independence to blind people every day, and has done so at least since blinded veterans began returning from the battlefields of World War II. Other alternative techniques can supplement the white cane, but they will never replace it.

Precisely because it is such a useful tool, the white cane is a symbol of competence and independence, not a badge of inferiority and incompetence. The fact that the white cane signifies independent travel and civil rights for the blind is enshrined in the laws of the United States. Generations of people, blind and sighted alike, know what the white cane does and what it signifies. Our testimony as blind people, whether in speeches and articles like this one or in the simple act of walking quickly and confidently about our cities and communities as we work, play, and worship, proclaims the truth about the white cane to the nation and to the world.

 

Lord Low of Dalston's Maiden Speech

by Lord Colin Low

From the Editor: During the 1977-78 academic year the Pierce family lived in London, England. I joined the London Branch of the National Federation of the Blind of the United Kingdom and faithfully attended its meetings, even venturing off to Eastborn for the NFB’s annual conference. I met a number of impressive people during that year, but one of the most formidable was a young professor at Leeds University, whose career I have watched with interest through the years since. His name was Colin Low, and in 2000 he was elected to chair the Royal National Institute of the Blind. Last July he was made a Life Peer, which was a signal honor for Lord Low personally and for the RNIB as a whole. On November 21, 2006, Lord Low rose in the House of Lords to make his maiden speech. At President Maurer’s request, Lord Low’s staff sent us a copy of that speech, which we are pleased to publish. Here it is:

My Lords, when the other day I climbed up to the back of the Chamber, the Noble Baroness Lady Howe commented that I was very brave to climb up all those steps. "Not half as brave as I'll need to be to open my mouth," I replied. But my apprehension is tempered by my recollection of the warm and friendly welcome I have received from all your Lordships from the moment I entered the House--indeed from before I entered the House--and I hope I may be able to count on your continued understanding for at least a few minutes longer. And before I go any further, I should like to place on record my appreciation for all the help and support I have received, both from your Lordships and from the staff of the House, which persuades me that there are few problems of access which will not be overcome. In particular, I thank the Noble Lord, Lord Morris of Manchester, and the Noble Baroness, Lady Warnock, who supported me at my introduction into the House on 11 July and are both here today; the Noble Lord, Lord Williamson of Horton, convenor of the cross-bench peers; and all those Noble Lords who have been kind enough to take the time and trouble to guide me through your Lordships' proceedings. In parentheses I might say that, if I had just one message I could give sighted people about the blind, it would be that blind people can manage stairs.

My Lords, though hailing originally from Scotland, where I spent the early part of my life, I have been exiled in England for the last forty years, the last sixteen of them in Dalston, whence I have taken my title. Dalston is in Hackney, which was recently voted the worst place to live in England, but never so bad that the London Borough of Hackney is incapable of making it worse, with the enthusiastic encouragement of the Mayor of London, the Greater London Authority, the London Development Agency, and the Department for Communities and Local Government. I think I might be thought to be verging on the controversial were I to proceed much further down this track, but I have detected some interest amongst your Lordships in issues of planning and housing in London, and so I hope we may have an opportunity of discussing them further before too long.

My appointment has rightly been described as a "singular honor," and of this I am deeply conscious. But what has given me greatest pleasure is the way so many people have seen it as recognition not just for me, but of blind and disabled people generally. One person went so far as to say that it was "a great honor for every blind person in the world." However that may be, I hope I may add a little to the diversity of your Lordships' House.

In actual fact, so far as concerns me, the honor is not quite singular. There has been some speculation to the effect that I am the first blind person to sit in your Lordships' House, but this is not the case. The late Lord Kenswood, an early president of the National Federation of the Blind, and the late Lord Fraser of Lonsdale, the distinguished chairman of St. Dunstan's for many years and founder of Talking Books, who both had wide-ranging public careers, both sat in this place within living memory--and with the aid of the History of Parliament Trust I have been able to trace four more blind peers going back to medieval times, and no one is able to say whether there might not be more. There have of course been other notable blind people who have occupied prominent positions in public life. We know this in our own day from the remarkable example of David Blunkett, whom I salute, but I like also to think of Henry Fawcett, perhaps because he was MP for Hackney for the last ten years of his life, who, as postmaster-general, introduced the parcel post in the 1880s.

The blind have a long tradition of independence and activism in pursuit of better conditions. The National League of the Blind, a trade union representing blind people in sheltered employment, were ahead of their time in organizing a march from the north of England to London in 1920, which was instrumental in securing the Blind Persons Act of that year. Things have obviously improved for blind people since then in a number of ways, but the fact that some people are apparently undaunted by blindness should not be allowed to disguise the fact that many are severely set back by it and remain in a condition of considerable deprivation, isolation, and social exclusion. Indeed it sometimes seems as though the conspicuous success of some highly visible blind people in overcoming their disability can lead to the deleterious impact of blindness on a person's life being down-played in public consciousness and official thinking. But this takes no account of the costs entailed or the toll taken in overcoming the difficulties, or the insuperable obstacles they present for the much larger number of less visible people who are not so successful in overcoming them.

There is a paradox here: 86 percent of people questioned in a recent survey said that sight was the sense they most feared losing. Yet much research confirms that, in public consciousness, disability is largely conceived of in terms of physical disability, especially that which affects mobility. This probably has to do with the fact that, though feared in the abstract, sight loss is so grossly underestimated as a likely contingency as not properly to count as a disability at all. In the same survey more than half of those questioned estimated their chances of becoming blind as less than one in a thousand, whereas for the population as a whole they are more like one in sixty--one in twelve for those over sixty, and one in six for those over seventy-five. It would be surprising then if something of this did not translate into official policy and practice.

There are two general points to be made here. First, though I have been a campaigner for inclusion and the mainstream provision of services all my life, we have to recognize that one size does not necessarily fit all. The loudest advocates of mainstream provision are usually the vocal and articulate elite who can cope best with it. We need a continuum of provision, including some specialist provision, especially in education and employment opportunities, attuned to the diverse needs of those who find disability more debilitating.

Second, your Lordships may wonder why I have spoken so much about blindness and not about disability. The blind do have some important interests in common with other disabled people--to be included in society, not to be discriminated against, and to be involved in shaping their own destiny--but they also have important needs which are peculiar to the condition of blindness--notably the need for information in a nonvisual form and for an environment largely designed for those who can see to be mediated for those who cannot. This is no small requirement considering how critical the sense of sight is to man's interaction with the natural world and the world he has constructed. Couching everything in terms of disability has led to the central importance of sight being obscured in recent decades so that there is now a pressing need for blindness to be raised higher up the political and social agenda.

My Lords, blindness is one of the severest disabilities. Yet under the Fair Access to Care Services framework of eligibility for social services, the needs to which it gives rise are rated only moderate to low. This effectively means that you get no service. Though research has shown that visually impaired people have greater difficulty with independent mobility than disabled people generally, they still only qualify for the lower rate of the mobility component of Disability Living Allowance. Failure to bear the needs of the blind in mind reaches farcical proportions when we learn that they are now planning to lower the pavements and remove the barriers at traffic hot spots so that motorists and pedestrians will be more aware of one another and be able to demonstrate this awareness by means of eye contact.

Technology is a great force for inclusion, and we can now access much information which was formerly a closed book. But if the needs of the blind are not kept in mind when designing new devices, it can be just as great a force for exclusion. Try operating an iPod, a touchscreen, or a digital radio with your eyes closed. Most worrying of all, unless someone comes up with an electronic program guide which is accessible PDQ, digital switch-over is going to mean digital switch-off so far as visually impaired people are concerned.

My Lords, 90 percent of employers say that it would be difficult or impossible to employ someone with a visual impairment. As a result, scarcely more than a third of working age are in work. The proposals to move people off welfare and into work referred to in the Gracious Speech are thus very welcome. Blind people do not want to be written off on welfare if there is a realistic prospect of their being found work. But the Pathways to Work pilots have not delivered for the visually impaired. The fact, which emerged in committee in another place, that the £360 million allocated for roll-out represents a real-terms cut of 40 percent does not inspire confidence. But we want roll-out to work and will be looking to the Government to deliver on its promises.

When I began my law studies over forty years ago, someone said that, where judges had to find a solution for every difficulty, academics would find a difficulty for every solution. My Lords, it will be my aim in this House to attempt to find solutions rather than difficulties.

 

Someone You Should Know: Patti S. Gregory-Chang

by Ronza M. Othman

From the Editor: The following article was first published in the Illinois State Bar Association's Administrative Law Section newsletter in November 2006. It also appeared in the Government Section newsletter. It features newly elected National Federation of the Blind of Illinois President Patti Gregory-Chang. The article provides a three-dimensional look at one of our newest affiliate presidents and how she got where she is today. The author’s name, Ronza Othman, should also be familiar. Ronza was a 2006 NFB Scholarship winner. She is completing her final semester of law school at DePaul University College of Law. Here is her profile of NFB of Illinois President Patti Gregory-Chang:

Patti S. Gregory-Chang is undoubtedly someone you should know. Through dedication and drive she has become a prominent government attorney, advocate for the blind community, and exemplary wife and mother. Chang combines compassion, diligence, and commitment in every aspect of her life. She grew up in Harbor Springs, Michigan, where she lived with her younger brother Gerald and her parents, who divorced when she was fourteen. She later made her home with her father, step-mother, and older step-brother Tom, who died tragically in a fire at the age of thirty-four.

During high school she spent time living with each parent. She became an accomplished horsewoman and cattle driver while working on her grandfather’s ranch. Chang participated in her high school’s marching band and flag corps. At the age of twelve her life changed irrevocably when she was diagnosed with a genetic eye condition called microthalmia. This disorder causes a diminution in sight over time because the eyes are too small. In addition to the microthalmia, Chang was diagnosed with cataracts and glaucoma. She was told to expect to lose more and more sight as time progressed.

Chang realized that she could succeed as a blind woman. She worked hard in high school to earn scholarships and was accepted at Michigan State University. She majored in elementary education with plans to become a teacher for the visually impaired and blind community. She recognized an interest in learning about other cultures, so she student-taught history and social studies. After obtaining her teaching certification, she realized that she could have a greater impact as a lawyer than as a teacher. She attended the University of Chicago Law School and was admitted to the Illinois Bar in 1988. She was the first person in her family to earn a graduate degree.
During the summers as a law student Chang clerked for a private firm. After law school, however, she began to research government agencies that emphasized the welfare of the public. She wanted to work for the City of Chicago and was thrilled to receive an offer right out of law school. After a short stint in the Traffic Division, she transferred to Building and Land Use, where she has remained for eighteen years.

Chang has been very happy working in Building and Land Use. “What in people’s lives is more important than the space in which they live? Whether we’re talking about the quality of construction of their apartments or houses, or if there is crime in their neighborhood because of a vacant building, or if people are getting sick because there is no heat in their building, we’re talking about basic standard-of-living issues, and this is where I can make the most impact. What the City does is really about safety of the public.”

Chang litigated cases as an assistant corporation counsel for the City of Chicago for ten years. She received a promotion to senior assistant corporation counsel in 1998 when she began taking on administrative duties. Currently she supervises seven attorneys, approximately fifteen law clerks and externs, and four paralegals in the Administrative Law Unit. She interviews and hires about fifty attorneys and law clerks each year for the Building and Land Use Division. Her unit handles prosecutions at the City of Chicago Department of Administrative Hearings. These cases involve prosecuting violations of the city’s building code for the Department of Buildings, fire code for the Fire Department, and lead paint cases for the Health Department. This unit also handles cases for the Department of Construction and Permits concerning false statements made on permit applications as well as general contractors operating without licenses. Chang and her staff will handle four thousand cases this year.

Chang also serves on a number of task forces aimed at protecting the public’s welfare. Currently she litigates one to two days a week and spends the remainder of the week handling supervisory, training, and administrative duties. “I enjoy this position because I still get to litigate cases, but I also get the opportunity to teach and train new attorneys and clerks. I am able to combine my training as an attorney with my love for teaching.”

Chang is committed to her work with the Building and Land Use Division because of a personal tragedy. Her older brother died in a fire because his home lacked proper drywall and smoke detectors. “If we do our jobs well, we don’t have another Our Lady of the Angels fire. If we do our jobs well, people live.”

In addition to her professional accolades, Chang has a very active personal life. She is married to Francisco Chang, a nurse at Resurrection Hospital. They are busy raising two children. John is currently a sophomore in high school, and Julia is in the sixth grade. Both John and Julia enjoy extracurricular activities and excel academically.

Chang and her family value multiculturalism. Francisco is of Chinese dissent and was raised in Belize. The Chang family integrates the Asian, Hispanic, and American cultures in their home and activities.

Chang spends her free time working with the communities that influence her life most. She holds the position of first vice president for both the National Federation of the Blind of Illinois and the Chicago Chapter of the organization, and she was recently elected as president of the Illinois affiliate. She serves as the special events coordinator for both. Additionally, she mentors new members to the organization. She also volunteers with the PuiTak Center in Chinatown. There she assists permanent residents in becoming U.S. citizens by administering naturalization practice exams and review sessions. Chang is also active in the Chinatown Christian Union Church as well as in Bible study and fellowship groups. She sits on the Section Council for the Illinois State Bar Association Administrative Law Section, where she is a frequent contributor to the newsletter.

Chang’s blindness permeates all aspects of her life. She travels with a cane and reads using Braille and adaptive technology. Her computer is equipped with software called JAWS, which converts printed text to audio formatting. She carries a BrailleLite, which allows her to create documents, enter appointments, and take notes with Braille output. In court she uses a live reader. “This is usually someone I’m training. It’s a good system because it teaches the person to find information independently and not to rely on a supervisor to point it out.”

Chang believes that her blindness has given her a great deal more than it has taken away. She never would have sought higher education had she been sighted. The Department of Rehabilitation Services helped finance her education because of her disability. She met her husband when she hired him as her reader. “I think my blindness has given me the drive to really succeed. I’m just stubborn enough that, when people tell me I can’t do something, I try to figure out a way to do it. Society tells you a lot about what you can’t do. I think that my blindness actually makes me want to be more productive because on some level I can prove what I can do to myself and to society.”

Chang demonstrates commitment to the betterment of society in all aspects of her life. She works diligently to safeguard the well-being of the public through her work with the City of Chicago Law Department. She promotes the rights of the blind community through her work with the National Federation of the Blind and assists immigrants to become Americans by volunteering at PuiTak. She does this while raising a family. It is through diligence, commitment, and compassion that Chang influences so many lives.

 

In the Spotlight: Affiliate Action

From the Editor: This month’s Spotlight focuses on strengthening local chapters. Following John Bailey’s article is an excerpt from the TOPS Handbook.


How to Build and Strengthen Chapters
by John Bailey

John BaileyFrom the Editor: John Bailey is president of the Fairfax County Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of Virginia, a responsibility that has allowed him to develop and practice the strategies and programs he describes in the following article. This is what he says:

Introduction

The old saying that “If you are not moving forward, you are moving backward” is as true in local chapters as it is in industry. A never-ending effort for chapter officers and members alike is seeking out new members to replace those who move or just stop coming. We spend many hours at quarterly chapter board meetings discussing how to juggle the ongoing need to build membership and the chapter’s limited resources.

Lots of information about building chapters is around. Below are some of those ideas applied in ways that fit the circumstances of my chapter in Northern Virginia. The effectiveness of these ideas for your chapter is limited only by your imagination and the constraints of your chapter’s situation.

People are busy. They have more than enough responsibilities and activities to fill their schedules. So why do people decide to take time out of their already overbooked schedules to attend meetings of the National Federation of the Blind? The answer is simple: the NFB satisfies a need that cannot be filled by any other organization. These needs are as varied as the people who attend our meetings. Parents of blind children attend because they want to know more about the options available in assessing their child’s educational options. Newly blind members need to meet others like themselves to exchange information, receive inspiration, and enjoy fellowship. Even though members’ needs are diverse, meetings of the NFB can go a long way towards assisting your entire membership to find the answers to their questions.

Look at a strong chapter, and you will discover that the membership believes that the monthly meetings are valuable to them. When this happens, members are more likely to participate in chapter activities, take on leadership roles, and (best of all) bring in new members, which helps the chapter grow.

Making a chapter pertinent to its membership takes effort. You must make it attractive to others while ensuring that current members stay involved. This article covers a few well-known methods that have helped many chapters meet their goals for membership growth.

Suppose you threw a party and nobody came. This can easily happen with chapter meetings if the word about your activities does not get out. No matter how good the program, refreshments, or door prizes are, if people don’t know about the meeting, the evening will be long and lonely for those who planned it.

The goal of any advertising effort is to deliver your message to the people you want to attract. One great resource for finding blind people in the area is your local access service or Talking Book library. The library has a database full of names of people in your area who are perfect for joining your chapter. Because such organizations must protect their patrons’ contact information, they will not just hand over a set of labels or an address list. But there are ways of getting access without violating patron privacy.

Several times we have used the following process to mail notices for NFB-sponsored projects to the library’s list of blind patrons. First we got the count of blind people in our zip codes on the library’s list. Then we printed that number of announcements and delivered them to the library. Finally the library staff labeled our flyers and mailed it for us using the Free-Matter privilege. If the library is short-handed, you may be able to provide volunteers to slap on the labels at the library.

We have used this technique for establishing new chapters, increasing NFB-NEWSLINE® subscribers, and announcing parents of blind children seminars, adaptive technology fairs, etc. If the event you want to advertise is important to the blind community, there is a good chance that your local Talking Book library can help you get the message out to the right people.

Many chapters have a group that goes by several names. They may be called the membership committee or the hospitality committee. Their job is to help introduce the chapter to potential new members. They do a very necessary job. However, the responsibility for bringing in new members does not fall on their shoulders alone. It is everyone’s job.

I heard about a church in which each member of the congregation is expected to talk about the church to others and to bring in new members. The program was called “Each One Reach One.” It is understood that no one is just a member of the church; everyone is an ambassador. There are many benefits to having members bring in new blood. One of the most important is the bond between the old member and the new. Each existing member takes special responsibility for everyone he or she brings in. This one-on-one attention makes it more likely that someone who attends a first meeting will return.

Each chapter program is an important part of developing a vital organization. As president of my local chapter, I plan most meeting programs. Making each meeting interesting and educational is a challenge. One aspect of the chapter program that we try never to forget is the inclusion of some aspect of Federation philosophy.

If you ask most members of our organization to name the most valuable thing they have learned by attending chapter meetings, they would say it is the notion that we are normal people who happen to be blind. Learning adaptive blindness techniques enables us to be participants in the community, not just recipients of social services.
Introducing philosophical discussions into chapter meetings is easy. It can be done by simply setting aside a few minutes each meeting for a discussion of some Kernel Book story or a recent newspaper article about a blind person. We have had many lively discussions describing personal experiences.

Two types of programs (adaptive technology fairs and transportation seminars) have been very successful in attracting new members to our meetings. Few topics have greater appeal to blind people. Adaptive technology fairs are easy to organize. We have had one or two vendors come to a meeting to tell us about their products and let us have hands-on experience with it. We have also filled a high school cafeteria with a dozen or so vendors. Dozens of members and new people went from table to table asking questions and getting literature. We made sure to get everyone’s contact information by having them register for door prizes donated by the vendors.

Transportation seminars are more complex to arrange. However, they have many PR benefits that are not available in other events. For example, my chapter hosted a transportation seminar to which we invited several public transportation providers to meet with their blind customers, to tell us what their goals are, and to let us give them feedback about what was working and what was not. This event was very well attended. In fact, we got a story about it in the local paper.

We did not attract as many new members as we had hoped--we never do. However, we established ourselves as an organization of action and advocacy. We have had several requests in recent months from the transportation agencies and their clients to host similar programs in the future. This is a win/win event for both groups, and it is a great way to raise chapter visibility in the community.

Just having fun at chapter programs is also a good idea. Here are some examples of things we have done and ideas we are currently working on. We invited an image consultant to come to our meeting and answer our questions about how best to present ourselves in social and professional situations. We covered giving a firm handshake, employing business card etiquette, introducing yourself, and (my favorite) dressing for success. We are hooking up with members of a local Harley-Davidson motorcycle club for a joint tandem ride around the city in the spring. We want to make this an event that will attract younger people to our meetings. It will also be a good media event because it lends itself to photos and television coverage.

One day a chapter member mentioned that she wanted to drive a car so that she would know how it feels to drive. We have made arrangements with a local driving school instructor to use his two-steering-wheeled cars for a program in which we can all have the experience of driving.

Summary

Chapters exist because members attend. If members don’t believe that they are getting something out of meetings and events, they will stop coming. Conversely, the more relevant chapter activities are, the more members will become active and the more new members will be attracted.

Two ways of finding potential members are sending notices of chapter events through your Talking Book library and persuading current chapter members to recruit the blind people they encounter every day. Chapter programs that entertain while they educate attendees about NFB philosophy are always popular and are an excellent way to introduce others to your chapter.

A strong, vibrant chapter does not happen by accident. The members must believe that their chapter plays an important part in their lives and that it is their responsibility to reach out to the community to bring in new members. In this way the chapter will grow and become more important to its members and to its community.

Strengthening Local Chapters

We hope that the following suggestions will help you to make the work you do on the local level as meaningful and productive as possible.

Strengthening Philosophy:

Building Community:

Educating the Public:

 

Blind Hunter Enjoys Success in the Field

by Larry Porter

From the Editor: The following story first appeared in the November 19, 2006, edition of the Omaha, Nebraska, World-Herald. Richard Crawford is a longtime Federationist and second vice president of the National Federation of the Blind of Iowa. The article below is a hunting story, but it is also a fine example of how to demonstrate our philosophy about blindness in all that we do. Richard did his part in this interview, but the reporter also did a fine job of writing our positive message into his story. Here it is:

Among Richard Crawford's prized possessions is a .45-caliber pistol that his father-in-law carried during World War II. Crawford, fifty-six, a financial planner in Sioux City, Iowa, has completely refurbished that beloved pistol. The handle has even been fitted with ivory grips. The pistol is not for show. It isn't on display in some fancy wall mount or glass-enclosed cabinet. No, even though he is blind, Crawford uses the pistol for target practice.

For years Crawford has taken his pistol to the farm of a friend who is a doctor. The target this day was a battery-operated Christmas bell, which Crawford declared expendable because of its annoying tone. "It drove my ears nuts because it was a little flat," Crawford recalled. "I put six shots pretty darn close to that bell. My doctor friend had a brand-new .357 magnum. He handed it to me and told me to try it. I pulled the trigger and hit that bell. A dead shot."

The amazed friend asked Crawford how he had done it. "This doctor had a blind son, who was young at the time," Crawford said. "I said, `Doc, it doesn't happen if you stay in the house.' I was trying to teach him a lesson. It wouldn't happen for his kid if he stayed in the house."

A retina disease claimed Crawford's sight when he was ten. "As a child," he said, "my folks were too dumb to know that their blind kid wasn't supposed to run chain saws, change oil in trucks, change spark plugs, rotate tires, and work around the house. My dad taught me to do things like electrical wiring and plumbing. He didn't know he wasn't supposed to teach a blind kid those things. He didn't let these so-called sighted professionals put me in a box.

"I tell the joke that my brother always wanted to use me for second base, but at least I was in the game. It drives home the point."

It was the opening morning of Nebraska's rifle deer season, and the three men tried to be quiet as they climbed the ladder to the tree house that serves as a deer stand. It was well before dawn, and at that point two of the men were disabled because of the darkness. But not Crawford. Being blind, he was in his environment. "Listen to the turkeys," Crawford whispered to Ernie Glup of Tekamah, Nebraska, a semi-retired dirt contractor on whose farm Crawford was hunting, and Dr. Everett "Buzz" Madsen, an Omaha eye specialist.

Crawford's companions strained to hear the turkeys. Not until five minutes had passed--after the turkey chatter had grown increasingly louder--could they hear the birds. By then Crawford knew how many birds were in the trees and their locations.

Madsen is president of the Nebraska chapter of the Safari Club. He and Glup have hunted together for more than twenty-five years. They were here this morning because Madsen had asked Glup to donate a deer hunt for a disabled person to be auctioned during the Safari Club's annual banquet. Madsen bought the hunt himself with the intention of finding a handicapped person to take to Glup's farm. He told Dr. Howard McCutchan, a Harlan, Iowa, optometrist, about the hunt.

"If you're going to take a handicapped guy," McCutchan said, "why not take a blind guy. I've got a friend who is just crazy enough to try it."

Crawford grew up in Grinnell, Iowa, where his father owned a tree service business. At age ten he went to the Iowa School for the Blind in Vinton, but he was booted out after his ninth-grade year. "I was just so darn ornery," Crawford said, laughing. "The superintendent had a policy that he didn't punish a kid the first time he'd do something wrong. But he used to say, `Crawford, would you quit figuring out new things to do?' I was finally asked not to return."

Crawford implored the Grinnell public school officials that he be allowed to attend high school there. "I begged them to let me try public school," he said. "That was back before handicapped kids were being integrated into schools. The superintendent looked at my grades. Since I had mostly Ds and Fs, he wasn't very impressed. He looked at my brother's grades. That didn't impress him either. But he finally agreed to let me try it."

Crawford made the honor roll that first nine weeks. He then settled into becoming a strong C student, heavily involved in school politics, drama, sports, and other activities. He found that wrestling was the sport for him. He averaged about nineteen wins--a dozen by pins--each of his three seasons. He qualified for the state tournament as a senior. "Do you know when I won most of my matches?" Crawford asked. "In the final thirty seconds. I couldn't see the clock, and I didn't quit early. I'd pin 'em when they flat ran out of gas or when they looked up at the clock and said, `Whew! I've about got it.' Then I'd flip 'em and stick 'em. To make up for not being able to see, I spent time getting in better physical condition. You could be bigger and tougher, but if you ran out of gas and I still had some energy left, I could beat you."

After McCutchan called with the news that a deer hunt might be in the offing, Crawford began to figure out how to make it happen. Answers to questions finally led him to Ted Hart of Mount Pleasant, Iowa, whose brother built an offset scope for a 30.06 rifle. That rifle, along with a companion who could see through the scope and tell Hart when to shoot, allowed him to realize a dream.

After getting the approval of Madsen to be the recipient of the hunt, Crawford borrowed the rifle and went to Glup's farm to practice. Glup stood to the right of Crawford, almost head-to-head, as they prepared to fire. Glup peered through the scope and placed the crosshairs on a forty-five-degree angle exactly 3/4 inches up and to the right of where he wanted the bullet to hit. Although Crawford held the rifle against his shoulder, Glup placed his right hand beneath the forearm to guide and steady the aim.

"We got to where we could hit a target at one hundred yards and group the shots pretty close together," Glup said. The second time Richard came, we actually got up in the tree house and practiced from there. That's when I really became very comfortable about it. I knew he could kill a buck."

Crawford's family was poor, and supper often was rabbits, squirrels, and pheasants provided by his hunter father. But those days in the field with his father also filled Crawford in other ways. He fell in love with the outdoors. This blind youngster would never stay in the house. Crawford even hunted pheasants after blindness blackened his world. "They make a ton of noise when they take off," he said. "It scares the pewaddle out of you if you're not ready. But by sound--and if you get lucky--you can shoot a bird."

Crawford hunted with his brother and with friends. One day a friend took him out and he shot a bird. Unfortunately it was a hen. "The guy said, `What are you going to do if the game warden stops us?' I told him it wasn't my problem. `What do you mean, it's not your problem?' I said, `Do you really think a game warden is going to believe a blind guy shot that hen? It's your problem.'"

Crawford specializes in solving real problems. For instance, he loves to roar down snow-covered Colorado mountain slopes on skis. "I hire a guide to ski behind me," Crawford said. "We wear headsets-- surveyor walkie-talkies that are voice-activated. He talks me down the mountain. He tells me the slope is cutting off to my right, that trees are on the right so stay to the left, that people are coming from the left. I can see the mountain in my mind's eye.

"It's much better now. Before, he could just holler three commands--left, right, and stop. Back then I just hoped he never said, 'Whoops!’”

The early-morning light began to nibble at the darkness, and dark blobs slowly became trees and bushes. Glup and Madsen watched for deer to appear at the edge of the woods that bordered the meadow. Suddenly Crawford pointed toward a patch of timber about fifty yards from the tree house. "I couldn't tell what Richard was pointing at," Glup said. "I got to thinking--can this guy see a little bit? Finally, four does stepped out of the timber right where he had pointed. I asked him why he had pointed. He said, `I heard them coming through the trees.'"

The three saw dozens of deer that day, but all the bucks were small. At 4:45 p.m. a bigger buck stepped into the meadow. Madsen's range finder indicated the deer was 180 yards away. Glup bent into the scope. Crawford nestled the butt of the rifle into his shoulder and reached for the trigger. The shot rang out, and the two who could see began to verbally paint the scene for Crawford. He had to sift through the shouts and babble, but he understood that the buck jumped when the bullet hit, took a few steps, then fell to the ground.
"When I heard, `It's down,'" Crawford said, "it was such a rush. Money can't buy that feeling. It was a natural, God-given feeling that was just wonderful."

Sara Crawford, who can see, was asked how she met her husband. “On a blind date," she said, laughing. "I know that sounds terrible, but