ICUB BULLETIN
SUMMER 2006
Published by
IOWA COUNCIL OF THE UNITED BLIND
Web Site: www.acb.org/iowa
Affiliate of the American Council of the Blind
MIKE HOENIG, PRESIDENT
3119 Spring Street
Davenport, IA 52807
PHONE: (563) 344-8787
1-888-401-5562 (Toll Free)
E-mail: mhoenig@earthlink.net
DONNA SELIGER, EDITOR
3912 Southeast Fifth Street
Des Moines, IA 50315
(515) 284-0505
Email: dseliger@att.net
DICK NATALE, TREASURER
817 – 6th Street
West Des Moines, IA 50265
(515) 277-1167
Email: rnatale@earthlink.net
JO ANN SLAYTON, SECRETARY
4013 - 30th Street
Des Moines, IA 50310
(515) 279-4284
Email: slayton4284@msn.com
ICUB OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS
Mike Hoenig, President, Davenport, (563) 344-8787
Donna Seliger, Immediate Past President, Des Moines, (515) 284-0505
Gary Patterson, First Vice President, Des Moines, (515) 278-2686
Elsie Monthei, Second Vice President, Des Moines, (515) 277-0442
Jo Ann Slayton, Secretary, Des Moines, (515) 279-4284
Dick Natale, Treasurer, West Des Moines, (515) 277-1167
Dee Clayton, Director, Des Moines, (515) 282-1275
Lucille Dunlavy, Director, Council Bluffs, (unlisted phone)
Cathy Kula, Cedar Rapids, (319) 378-8233
Mavis McVeety, Director, Des Moines, (unlisted phone)
Robert Nesler, Director, Dubuque, (563) 557-0987
Gloria O’Neal, Director, Waterloo, (319) 235-5687
Barb Richmond, Director, Newton, (641) 791-6574
Shirley Wiggins, Director, Cedar Rapids, (319) 362-7138
DEADLINE FOR SUBMITTING MATERIAL
FOR THE NEXT ISSUE - ****November 15, 2006 ****
CHANGE OF FORMAT OR RETURNING CASSETTES
Anyone who cannot read this print bulletin or finds it difficult to have it
read or wish an e-mail or cassette may receive a copy at no charge.
Please contact Jo Slayton at (515) 279-4284 to request an alternative
format. Cassette readers are always invited to keep their copy of the
Bulletin. However, if you would like to return cassettes when you are
finished with them, please place in a NEW standard mailing envelope,
write “Free Matter For the Blind” in the upper right hand corner, and
return to the editor using the address on the front of this bulletin. Also,
please remember to contact the editor if your address changes. The
Post Office rarely provides us with a new address when someone
moves. We want to make sure that anyone who wants to receive a
bulletin gets one!
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SELECTING ICUB AS A BENEFICIARY
If you or a friend would like to remember the Iowa Council of the United
Blind in your will, you may do so by using the following language: “I
grant, devise, or bequeath unto the Iowa Council of the United Blind, a
non-profit charitable organization, the sum of ______ dollars, ____
percent of my net estate, or the following stocks and bonds (please list
them) to be used for its worthy purposes on behalf of blind persons.” If
your wishes are more complex, you may have your attorney call (515)
279-4284, or write Iowa Council of the United Blind, 4013 30TH Street,
Des Moines, Iowa 50310.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Bulletin Team…………………………………………………………….4
President’s Notebook………………………………………………………..4
ICUB Treasurer’s Report………………………………………………….…6
Iowa School for the Blind Staying Open and In Vinton………………..6
A Home Away From Home.………………………………………………….8
Skiing Is Believing……………………………………..………….……..….10
Blind Bow Hunter Finds His Mark Again: Fort Madison Man Now
Helps Other Hunters With Disabilities……………..…………………..12
Iowa Girl In US Braille Contest: She Competed Against 60 Other
Students in Los Angeles…………………………………………………14
Bridges To Opportunity: The ACB 45th Annual Convention………...16
In Memoriam
Aldo Maddalozzo………………………………………………………20
Esther Milholin…………………………………………………………21
Lee Allen………………………………………………………………..22
Bethel Swartz…………………………………………………………..23
It Was Like I Voted For The First Time……………………………..,…...24
Chicago Requires Driver’s Ed For The Blind……………………….…..27
Cruising Industry Sees Potential In Catering To The Blind……….....28
Web Sites Improve Service For Blind People……………………….….32
Alabama ATF Agent Leads Hunt For Beeping Eggs……………….….35
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Oh Boy!...................................................................................................38
ICUB Chapter Reports
Dubuque Association of the blind Report……………………….40
Fort Dodge Chapter Report…………………………………………41
Cedar Rapids Chapter Report………………………………………41
Des Moines Chapter Report…………………………………………42
Something To Think About…………………………………………………43
THE BULLETIN TEAM
Getting the Bulletin into your hands has become a team effort.
Currently, all articles are being sent to Mike Hoenig who assembles
them in the order they should appear for your reading pleasure. He
sends via e-mail all material to Donna Seliger who edits, proofs and
finalizes the master for printing. When the print version is completed, it
goes to Jo and Creig Slayton who add mailing labels. Ed Sheppard has
been our volunteer reader for the cassette version, however, he winters
in Florida thus we will have a different voice on this cassette issue.
Dick Natale is in charge of printing and mailing. We hope this system
works for everyone concerned.
PRESIDEN’TS NOTEBOOK
By Mike Hoenig
I begin this column with a big THANK YOU to all of you for your
vote of confidence in my ability to serve as your president.
ICUB is at a crossroads and I look forward to working with all of
you to ensure that we have a bright future. To make that
happen, we have to figure out how to attract and then retain new
members. That task cannot be accomplished by any one
person. So put on those thinking caps and then call or write me
saying that you're ready to help with this important work.
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Convention was great! We compensated for our small numbers
with an enthusiasm I haven't seen at a convention for some time.
A youthful spirit was present throughout. Arlo and Elsie's 16year-old exchange student shared his impressions of life in Des
Moines and answered many questions about his native Siberia.
Members of the employment panel confidently shared there
workplace experiences with us. Pam Shaw, ACB rep and
banquet speaker extraordinaire, livened things up all weekend.
At the banquet, she assured us that commitment to the
organization was the most important ingredient in a successful
affiliate. She went on to say that ICUB's commitment and
enthusiasm were obvious. Pep talk over, she launched into
story after humorous story. We even learned that she's a crab
extermination expert!
Part of the fun associated with being ICUB president is the
chance to talk to groups about the fine work we do. I had such
an opportunity in May, addressing an orientation for new staff
members at the Iowa Department for the Blind. Though I'd
hoped to be asked more questions, I did receive a request for
brochures and information about ICUB’s website.
While on vacation in June, I had an enjoyable visit to the
Missouri School for the Blind. Though they face the declining
enrollment problem so common among residential schools
these days, they maintain strong academic and athletic
programs. My mind wandered back to the good old days as the
school’s Clinical Services Director told me about Miss B's, the
school's snack bar. MSB's version of the Independent Dorm
allows four students at a time the opportunity to prepare meals
and practice those important activities of daily living. My time of
reminiscing came to a screeching halt as I entered the computer
lab. As ninth graders used adaptive software to prepare a
PowerPoint presentation, their enthusiastic teacher walked (ran)
me through a thorough description of the curriculum. My thanks
to Superintendent Jim Sucharski and the MSB staff for their
gracious hospitality.
ACB Convention was great. Look for a full report elsewhere in
the Bulletin.
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Our fall board meeting will be held on September 9 at Low Vision
Enhancement, 800 1st Street NW, Cedar Rapids. Please call me
at 888-404-5562 if you have concerns to be brought before the
board or if you are interested in joining us for the meeting.
Enjoy the rest of the summer!
ICUB TREASURER’S REPORT
By Dick Natale
The Treasurer's Report as of June 30, 2006
ICUB ACCOUNT
Investments - Raymond James $23,895.18
Savings - Credit Union
7,891.40
Checking - U S Bank
16,285.83
CD - First National Bank
5,000.00
___________
ICUB Total
$54,800.88
Marie Hoenig Account (we are the custodian of these funds)
Checking - First National Bank
$ 3731.71
CD - First National Bank
20,000.00
___________
Total Marie Hoenig acct
$23,731.71
Total all funds
$78,532.59
IOWA SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND STAYING OPEN AND IN
VINTON
By Charlotte Eby
DES MOINES - The Iowa Board of Regents announced Thursday
that it will keep the Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School at its
current location in Vinton. In a letter addressed to state
lawmakers, the board said it is committed to keeping the school
open. The school was founded in 1852 and now enrolls 34
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students. The letter, written by Regents' President Michael
Gartner and member Mary Ellen Becker, said there have been
misrepresentations in recent months about the school's future.
"These misunderstandings and misrepresentations have fueled
fears and intense emotions about the imminent closure of the
school and the dislocation of its current resident students," the
letter states. "Nothing could be further from the truth!"
One idea that had been discussed by the committee included
moving the school to the campus of the Iowa School for the Deaf
in Council Bluffs. Rep. Dawn Pettengill, D-Mount Auburn, who
has pushed to keep the school in her district, said she was
pleased it will stay at its current location, but added that she is
concerned about the potential for staff cuts. Pettengill said she
still is waiting for more details about the board's decision and
wants to see it in writing. She has worked in the Legislature to
wrest oversight of the school from the Board of Regents and
give it to the Iowa Department of Education. She said the
residential school could serve other students with disabilities
who are having trouble finding the appropriate services in Iowa
and believes the state education department would be better
equipped to do that.
Pettengill also said parents of visually impaired children should
be able to choose whether to send their children to a residential
school, and, if not, more instructors should be available around
the state to serve them.
"The kids at the school are getting Cadillac service and the kids
outside of that area are getting Pinto service," she added.
Another strategy might include redistributing staff and
resources to help improve off-campus services, the letter stated.
That move could lead to the elimination of some positions on
the Vinton campus, the board warned in the letter. But it called
the idea of 40 to 50 staff members losing their jobs a
misrepresentation that is "highly unlikely."
"If we have two or three empty buildings and qualified teachers,
I'm hoping that we won't have the job loss that they are talking
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about if we can move other populations of kids in there,"
Pettengill said.
(Editor’s Note: This article was published shortly after the
Spring Bulletin went to print. Though somewhat outdated, we
felt that this information would be of great interest to many of
you. Though IBSSS will remain open for the upcoming school
year, many are concerned about proposals to make significant
cuts to existing services. One such proposal would consolidate
all IBSSS programming (including housing) into two buildings.
Visit http://www.friendsofibsss.org for updates.)
A HOME AWAY FROM HOME
By Howard Buck Columbian staff writer
CAPTION: Kaylee Riley, a second-year student at the
Washington State School for the Blind, uses an electronic Braille
computer to type a history class essay. She can move the file
to a regular printer via a wireless infrared port, where it will print
in English. ( Jeremiah Coughlan/The Columbian)
After two years of navigating the Washington State School for
the Blind, Kaylee Riley nearly always makes the right turn.
But not every time: Probing her way down the wide hallway with
her telescoping cane and tugging her rolling book bag, she
overshoots her speech therapist's office door by several feet.
Realizing her goof, she reverses course with a good-natured
chuckle. It's much the same the time she slips off a classroom
chair, stretching to reach for her bag and instead tumbling softly
onto the carpet.
"Sweet move!" she says with a laugh. It's the 11-year-old's tag
line, repeated often during the day. Fellow students hear the
commotion, calmly ask if she's OK, then return to their work. It's
no big deal they've all been there, too.
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There are few special concessions for the blind students
roaming the campus, no extra handrails in hallways or on its
outdoor walks. It's preparation for the real world. At lunchtime,
dozens of students converge in a buffet line and carry loaded
food trays to tables without incident. Some of that owes to the
many students here who do have limited vision, several enough
to read textbooks or computer screens at close range.
Kaylee is virtually blind, however. She's able only to discern
bright light or darkness, after corneal transplants gave her
greater vision for a few brief years as a young girl.
Those distant memories of everyday items, dishes, shoes, a cat
or dog help keep her grounded in the larger world. So does the
collection of CDs that she enjoys in her small bedroom in the
Watson Cottage she shares with 11 other girls during the school
week.
Kaylee is thrilled to be at the state school. Back in her small
hometown near Yakima, her first few years at Moxee Elementary
School went well. Classmates easily accepted her and a statesupplied assistant helped teach her Braille as it became clear
her vision was slipping away for good. But that aide was
replaced by another with little experience.
"This lady didn't have the patience," says Grover Riley, Kaylee's
father. "As she got older, the public school just wasn't doing it
for her. They do not provide what a blind child needs."
Complicating matters was Kaylee's poor hearing, for which she
wears hearing aids a second disability common for many school
for the blind residents. It wasn't hard to decide to send her to
Vancouver, beginning with the fifth grade in autumn 2004.
Here, she gets extensive life-skills training. She's learned to do
laundry, vacuum, and cook for herself and others. Outings
familiarize students with public settings and mass transit, and
let them try sports and recreation activities.
Of course, the orange Alaska Airlines/Horizon Air tag on
Kaylee's bag is telling: Like nearly all resident students, she
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commutes home every weekend at state expense. Dozens of
students are shuttled up and down Interstate 5 on a school bus
each Friday and Sunday, but she's among the few eastern
Washington pupils who fly home. She no longer dreads airport
escalators, and airline personnel provide friendly company
during her layover at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
In the classroom, Kaylee tackles a busy middle-school
curriculum. In a life sciences class, she and a partner role-play
aggressive environmentalists. In history class, she writes a
short essay to persuade the U.S. Congress to engage in the War
of 1812. Later, she works on multiplying fractions and some
long division. To help with math, normally a highly visual skill,
Kaylee sometimes uses an abacus.
Often, Kaylee bends over in concentration, long brown hair
shrouding her blue eyes. She's earning passing grades, and
she and Grover are content with her Vancouver progress.
"She's really happy down there. She interacts with the other
students really well, calls friends on weekends," he says. "I
want her to stay until she graduates."
SKIING IS BELIEVING
By Barb Ickes
(Reprinted from the Quad City Times, July 16, 2006)
It didn’t matter that the skis fell off the 6-year-old’s feet just as
the boat took off.
“I did good!” Kaitlyn Ryan yelled from the water.
And she was right.
Kaitlyn, blind since birth, wanted to at least try getting up on the
water-skis members of the Backwater Gamblers had attached to
her small feet. When it didn’t work out quite as planned, one of
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the skiers scooped the little girl into his arms and took off atop
the water of the Rock River in Rock Island.
Meanwhile, Kaitlyn’s grandmothers cheered from the dock.
“She’s just a daredevil,” said Mary Adams. “My granddaughter
will be talking about this forever.”
After a ride around the river, the two skiers glided back to shore
amid wild applause. Ryan was led to her two grandmothers, still
on the carpet-covered dock. “Mom?” the little girl shouted.
“Mom, where are you?” “She’s still on the boat where she was
watching you,” Adams explained. “You were fantastic!”
As Kaitlyn wallowed in her victory, a wheelchair was backed
down a wooden ramp to the edge of the water. Volunteers from
the Backwater Gamblers worked with a group from the Genesis
Therapeutic Recreation Department to give about 20 people with
disabilities a chance to feel wind and water spray their faces as
they soared across the river.
As a woman was lowered onto a single, extra-wide ski, equipped
with a cage-like seat, Kaitlyn listened for her mother’s boat.
“Mom?” she yelled. “I have sand in my pants.”
Laughter seemed to fill the air Saturday at the Backwater
Gamblers’ water-ski show site.
“I’ve been with the Gamblers’ group for 27 years and this is one
of the best things we’ve ever done,” said Dennis Heggen, a
member of the group’s board. “These people have huge hearts
and they’re not afraid of anything.
“They’re ready for the experience,” he said. “What’s neat, too, is
that all these other folks come down to see if there’s anything
they can do to help.”
For the third year, the adaptive water-skiing clinic has given a
unique opportunity to people with disabilities. People who are
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blind, single and double amputees, those with cerebral palsy
and some who have sustained spinal-cord injuries are given the
chance to do something often regarded as a sport for the
“abled.” The wheelchairs are left in the sand and replaced by
customized water-ski equipment, which was acquired by
Genesis Medical Center, largely through grants, Heggen said.
“They’ll never let you know they’ve got a problem,” he said of
the skiers. “I wish I could have their state of mind, their
attitude.” Even Saturday’s heat seemed to be working on their
side, given that poor circulation often can make the water and
the air seem colder than it is.
“After the first year we did this, everyone said, ‘Man, I’m glad I
did that,’” Heggen said. “Somebody put together a video that
was set to music from one of the clinics and everyone was in
tears.
“It was beautiful.”
BLIND BOW HUNTER FINDS HIS MARK AGAIN
FORT MADISON MAN NOW HELPS OTHERS WITH
DISABILITIES
Juliprobasco-Sowers
Register Staff Writer (April 1, 2006)
Gary Scholl lost his eyesight to diabetes between 1977 and 1983
and resigned himself to the idea that he would never hunt or fish
again.
Scholl, 61, of Fort Madison, sold all his sporting goods for
hunting and fishing believing those favorite pastimes were over
for him.
But in 1990, after a friend sent him an article in a bow hunting
magazine about a blind hunter, Scholl decided to give it a try.
"I bought a bow for 50 bucks, and Jim (a friend) helped me build
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sights. I shot my first arrow as a blind person on Memorial Day
of 1990." said Scholl. "I tell you what, it felt like being reborn. It
felt so good."
He and his friend practiced and scouted. On Nov. 10 of that year
Scholl killed a six-point whitetail buck.
"It has been one after another since then," said Scholl, who has
13 deer mounts hanging on the walls of his home.
Because Scholl is completely blind, he requires a special sight
that is used by a hunting partner who aims for him.
He has fashioned sights not only for himself, but also for other
blind hunters, such as Donley Weaver, 36, of Wind Ridge, Pa.
Scholl sent Weaver a bow sight five days after Weaver called
him. Weaver had obtained Scholl's name from the Physically
Challenged Bow Hunters of America.
"He really helped open bow season back up for me," said
Weaver. "I've never had good sight, but a few years ago I lost my
sight completely."
Weaver used to go out in the woods and just sit. "Gary gave me
back a purpose to be out there," he said. "I'm getting all choked
up just talking about it."
Scholl now serves as a board member for the Physically
Challenged Bow Hunters.
"People who lose their eyesight think they are not able to do
anything anymore," Scholl said. "They have to have the will to
go do it. If a person wants to join with the Physically Challenged
Bow Hunters, we have a whole trailer full of adaptive equipment
for different types of bow hunting."
Scholl is still hunting deer has been bear hunting and has
worked at hunting turkeys.
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"I've shot one in Missouri and one in Iowa with a shotgun, that
was actually easy," Scholl said of his turkey hunts. "But since I
started hunting with a bow, I haven't killed one yet."
One of the tough aspects is getting people to accompany him on
the hunt, since he needs a partner to aim for him.
"You can't just teach someone to sight for you in a few minutes,
it takes me a couple days, and it's best if they know how to bow
hunt," he said.
Scholl particularly enjoys antelope hunting. A group of
handicapped hunters got together in Wyoming in 2002 with the
help of volunteers and several organizations.
"It was just a matter of those guys knowing we were coming,
when we would be there, setting up ground blinds,” Scholl said.
Volunteers drove the hunters to the blinds, and left them with
their guides and radios to wait for the antelope. That day, 19 out
of 20 hunters were able to shoot an antelope.
"I got a nice 12-inch buck that first year and a small buck and a
doe the second year," Scholl said. "This September will be the
fourth year.
IOWA GIRL IN U.S. BRAILLE CONTEST
(She competed against 60 other students in Los Angeles)
By Nigel Duara
Register Staff Writer (June 26, 2006)
Earlham Community Elementary School was short of substitute
teachers one day this spring, so Principal Mark Timmerman
filled in.
Timmerman notice nothing unusual about Brenda Mason's firstgraders. They picked the right books from their bags, turned to
the correct page and followed along with the lesson plan.
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Seven-year-old Lauren Thomson didn't stand out in class, even
though she was following along in Braille. Lauren was born
blind. Doctors called it Leber's congenital amaurosis. But it
hasn't stopped her from success. She was among 61
competitors in Sunday's National Braille Challenge in Los
Angeles, which tested spelling, proofreading and reading
comprehension skills. "I'm excited," Lauren said before the
event, the results of which were not available Sunday night.
Lauren's textbooks are translated into Braille, which she began
to read when she was 3. On Saturdays, she, her mother, father
and little sister, Emma, make their way from their home in Adel
to the Des Moines chapter of the National Federation of the
Blind, where they work together on measures large and small
that help make life for Lauren a little simpler.
"They've done a great job as a family," said Allen Harris, director
of the Iowa Department for the Blind. "If we can get the parents
to believe that blindness is not a problem, children have no real
limits on what their opportunities are."
Carrie Thomson, Lauren's mother, said the initial diagnosis
wasn't easy to hear.
"Shock - that was our reaction," Thomson said. "It was our first
child, you know? We were scared and sad and angry, every
range of emotion you can think of."
Lauren's mother said that if she had known then what she
knows now about blindness, she would have felt differently.
"It was fear of the unknown," she said. "We didn't know anyone
blind. Now, we know she can do anything."
Lauren's resume is impressive. Aside from excelling in school,
she's a ballerina and tap dancer, a Brownie with a merit badge in
ice skating, and - perhaps most impressive - she recently rode
her bicycle without training wheels for the first time. Her family
is very adamant that she not be treated differently,” Timmerman
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said. "They want her to be treated like everyone else, and that's
what we do." Lauren felt most prepared for the spelling section
of the Braille competition, but said she was confident in her
spell-checking and editing skills, too. "She's inquisitive, willing
to try new things," said Harris, who has known the Thomsons
for three years. "She's not afraid of anything."
Harris, who is blind, said he and Lauren recently spoke about
the difficulties of blindness. She told him she was concerned
that she would never drive. Harris told her that services for the
blind in Iowa provided him with access to a car and driver, and
that he could get around without a problem.
"It isn't the lack of vision that's the problem with blindness, it's
how you think about it," Harris said. "Vision doesn't define who
you are.”
BRIDGES TO OPPORTUNITY:
THE ACB 45TH ANNUAL CONVENTION
By Mike Hoenig
Convention is over for another year. As I wing my way back to
the great state of Iowa, I am filled with many great memories and
a renewed commitment to the American Council of the Blind.
I began this year's convention experience with a trip to St.
Augustine, our nation's oldest city. What makes ACB tours
unique is the advance planning to ensure access for those of us
who are blind and visually impaired. At the old Spanish fort, we
were allowed to touch several cannons. While seated in an
Indian grass dwelling, we touched a hand-made basket, bow,
and other items of interest while learning about the everyday life
of these ingenious people who worked the land for thousands of
years before our arrival. A special moment occurred for me
when I walked on the sacred ground where the first Catholic
Mass was said in the New World.
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The fun had only just begun. Before formal convention
proceedings commenced on Sunday evening, I went to a
baseball game, relieved a Florida floating casino of a few dollars,
and lost a hat (and let a big one get away) on a salt water fishing
adventure. If you think conventions are boring, think again--and
then start making those plans for Minneapolis in 2007!
Sunday evening's opening session was a rousing start to an
interesting, information-packed week. President Chris Gray
began with a summary of ACB's accomplishments during the
past year. Thanks to ACB's advocacy, a West Virginia family
was allowed to stay at the Ronald McDonald house with their
guide dog. Staff is working with a young blind man in Texas as
he attempts to join the National Guard. ACB continues to make
progress on initiatives to increase our right to privacy, including
access to Point of Sale machines, ATM's, and communication
from the Social Security Administration. International initiatives
include ACB Radio's launch of ACB World and a partnership
with AFB to donate 200 slates and styluses to a remote school in
Ethiopia. The highlight of Sunday evening, and in many
respects the entire convention, was a presentation by Mike
Hingson, a World Trade Center survivor who, with his guide dog,
escaped from the 78th floor of World Trade Center Tower 1. In
vivid detail, Mr. Hingson described his descent to floor 1, his
walk through a quiet World Trade Center, the dust cloud created
from the collapse of Tower 2, and the profound realization that
the World Trade Center was gone. When Mr. Hingson and his
guide dog reached Floor 30, they encountered firemen going up
the steps to fight the blazes which lay ahead. He pointed out
that his guide dog gave them the last bit of unconditional love
which they would ever receive. After relating the story of the
reunion with his wife and a long-time friend, he concluded by
encouraging us to "go out and do it."
This year's crop of award recipients was truly outstanding.
Friends of the Hadley School for the Blind received recognition
for their humanitarian efforts, including the purchase of a
computer which allowed a woman who had to relocate following
Hurricane Katrina to continue her employment. Long-time ACB
leader Charlie Hodge received the George Card Award in
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recognition of his many years of distinguished service. Katie
Sacca received the Ned E. Freeman Award for her excellent
Forum article in which she described accompanying a young
blind student on a trip to Australia. Scholarship winners
inspired us all with their intelligence and lofty goals. The young
man who told us that he hopes to become the first blind
astronaut seems well on his way.
The convention program was filled with interesting and
informative presentations. Alice Baker with NLS explained the
new digital players which are targeted for distribution in 2008.
You'll be happy to know that two versions will be available, one
for “techies” and one for those of us who are technology
challenged. NLS will be testing the new machines with library
users and I am working to encourage her to include Iowa users
in this testing. Michael Mellor, former editor of the Matilda
Ziegler Magazine for the Blind, read excerpts from his book:
Louis Braille: A Man of Genius. The book contains letters
written by Louis Braille along with correspondence from
teachers and other important figures in Braille's life. It is
available from National Braille Press, http://www.braille.com. In
her ACB Executive Director's Report, Melanie Brunson told us
about the wide variety of tasks which staff performs. Staff
recently responded to a call from a father whose 14-year-old son
became blind after swallowing poison. Brunson introduced
Dave Morgan, a representative of the Perkins School for the
Blind. Morgan described some new products available from
Perkins, including electric and light-touch Braillers. He also
announced a 10 percent discount on all Perkins items available
to ACB members. I had the pleasure of publicly thanking
Perkins for their quality work and prompt service which allow us
to administer the Marie Hoenig Memorial Perkins Brailler Award.
A sample of resolutions passed at this year's convention
includes investigation of ways to make the new quiet hybrid cars
audible, access to diabetic supplies and information, opposition
of Congressional attempts to combine the Randolph-Sheppard
and JWOD programs and to include all disability groups in these
programs, advocating for web-based businesses to be covered
under Title III of the ADA, improving customer service provided
by assistive technology vendors, and restoring the cassette
18
version of the JAWS tutorial until the NLS conversion to digital
format is complete. The convention also passed a motion to
proceed with the American Center on Blindness and Visual
Impairment (ACBVI). ACBVI is to be an interactive learning and
communications center in an accessible location which
celebrates the accomplishments of those who have worked to
empower blind and visually impaired people. ACBVI may
purchase a building to house the Center along with the National
Office.
Once again this year, ACB's elections were lively. Jeff Thom
from California, Ray Campbell from Illinois, Brenda Dillon from
Tennessee, Carla Ruschival from Kentucky, and Pat Sheehan
from Maryland were elected to four-year board terms; Billie Jean
Keith from Virginia was elected to a two-year term. Deanna
Quietwater Noriega from Colorado, Cindy Van Winkle from
Washington, and Ken Stewart from New York were elected to
two-year terms on the Board of Publications. All officer
positions will be up for election next year--another reason for
you to go to Minneapolis.
Treasurer Mike Godino informed the membership that ACB had
to allocate $44,000 from its reserves to make up for a year-end
budget shortfall in 2005. The organization is stepping up its
fund-raising efforts in several ways, including active promotion
of the Monthly Monetary Support (MMS) program. Participants
in the MMS program designate a dollar amount to be transferred
electronically to ACB each month. In addition, you may
designate an affiliate to receive no more than 50 percent of your
donation. If you are interested in joining the MMS program, call
ACB at 1-800-424-8666.
I had the opportunity to participate in a variety of activities of
potential interest to ICUB. At the Association on Aging and
Vision Loss mixer, I learned about the activities of this dynamic
affiliate. In a meeting with Michael Irwin, General Manager of the
Vehicle Donation Processing Center, I learned of several
creative advertising strategies to combat the decrease in car
donations caused by legislation enacted in 2005. Mr. Irwin will
send us as many signs as we need to advertise this program in
19
car dealerships and other businesses. Let me know if you'd like
some. At the membership seminar, I gathered some ideas which
may help us to attract members to ICUB. I'll discuss them
further at the September board meeting, and also welcome your
questions on this important issue. At the affiliate presidents'
meeting, ACB President Chris Gray informed us that ACB will be
updating its membership database. This should make recordkeeping and communication with the national office on
membership issues much easier.
The convention offered me several opportunities to strengthen
my leadership skills. Serving as the ACB representative on
tours to a swamp and coffee company, selling raffle tickets and
networking at the Durward K. McDaniel First Timers Reception,
and making a nomination speech on behalf of a board candidate
are but a few examples. I thank all of you for sending me to
Jacksonville as your alternate delegate. My nine days there
created enough memories to last a lifetime!
IN MEMORIAM
ALDO MADDALOZZO
Aldo Maddalozzo, 91, of 2960 White Street, died Monday, April 3,
2006, at Ennoble Manor Care Center.
Services will be 1 PM Wednesday at Randolph Funeral Home,
Seymour, Iowa. Burial will be in South Lawn Cemetery in
Seymour. Friends may call from 2 to 8 PM today at HoffinanSchneider Funeral Home, 1640 Main Street.
Mr. Maddalozzo worked at John Deere Dubuque Tractor Works
for 29 years, retiring in 1976. He was born on October 12, 1914,
in Seymour, son of Joseph and Maria (Bettin) Maddalozzo. He
married Beulah Morck on May 11, 1974, in Waterloo, Iowa. He
was a member of the United Automobile Workers Local 94,
American Council of the Blind, Iowa Council of the United Blind,
and the Dubuque Association of the Blind.
20
He loved gardening and fishing, and enjoyed helping anyone
who needed him. Surviving are his wife, Beulah Maddalozzo, a
brother, Leno (Viola) Maddalozzo of Seymour; and many nieces
and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents; his
brothers, Bruno, Americo, Leo and John; and his sisters, Lina
Smaniotto, Mary Cimballo, and Rena Busetto.
Memorials may be given to Hospice of Dubuque and the
American Legion Post 168 of Seymour.
The family wishes to thank Mercy Hospital and their doctors, the
Ennoble Manor staff, and the caregivers of Hospice of Dubuque
for the loving care extended to Aldo.
ESTHER MILHOLIN
Esther Leone Milholin, 94, dies Tuesday, May 9, 2006, in the
Vinton Lutheran Home following an extended illness. Esther
was born January 13, 1912, in Spirit Lake, to Harry J. and Mabel
(Deel) Arthur. Following graduation from High School, she
attended Cornell College for three years. On February 4, 1933,
she married James William Milholin in Cedar Rapids. He
preceded her in death on June 2, 1993. While living in Spirit
Lake, Esther was employed at Berkley’s Fishing, Inc. For many
years, Esther served as a house parent caring for children at the
Council Bluffs Orphanage and then at the St. Louis Sight Saving
School and Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School in Vinton.
Devoting her life to the care of children, Esther was also a foster
parent to 11 children over a 25-year period. In her leisure, she
enjoyed sewing and quilting. She often said the smell of the
earth rejuvenated her so her true passion was gardening, and
flowers were her joy. She is survived by her daughter, Barbara
Wise of Vinton, her sons Tom Milholin and wife Sharon of
Rogers, Arkansas, and Jerry Milholin of Des Moines; six
grandchildren: Bradley Wise of Vinton, Julie and husband, Don
Wilson, of Cartersville, Georgia, Becky and husband, Warren
Richard of Urbana, Sheryl and husband, Bob Baumann of
Marion, Bill and wife, Chong Milholin of Des Moines and Bob and
wife, Audrey Milholin of Pacific, Calif.; nine great-grandchildren,
two great-great-grandchildren, her sister, Helen Sandmeyer, of
21
Washington, Illinois; her brother, Harry “Cork” Arthur of Winter
Springs, Fla. And several nieces and nephews. Funeral services
were held on Friday, May 12, at the Phillips Funeral Home in
Vinton. Burial was in Mt. Vernon. A memorial fund will be
established.
RENOWNED ARTIST LEE ALLEN DIES AT 95
Reprinted from The Gazette, May 6, 2006
IOWA CITY, IA - Artist Lee Allen, who once painted with Grant
Wood but devoted his primary career to ophthalmic
photography and illustration at University Hospitals, has died,
according to his daughter, Betsy Williams. He was 95.
Allen died Friday afternoon at University Hospitals. The cause of
death is not yet certain.
Allen, who retired from the University of Iowa's Department of
Ophthalmology in 1976, made his primary career in ophthalmic
photography, ophthalmic medical illustration and ocular
prosthetics.
He began his career in the 1930s working with Grant Wood on
Works Progress Administration (WPA) art projects, and his art
retained a Regionalist style. His own work at the time is striking,
from crisp "Paul Bunyan and the Blue Ox" to the majestic "Corn
Country."
Born in 1910 in Muscatine, Allen had an early interest in art. He
received his first set of oil paints at the age of 11, and after
graduation from high school in Des Moines, Allen attended
summer school and one full year at the Cumming School of Art
in Des Moines. He also competed in art competitions at the Iowa
State Fair. In the fall of 1929 he enrolled at the UI and began
attending Wood's evening sketching classes in Cedar Rapids.
He vowed to live here the rest of his life after seeing the Iowa
River winding through the area.
22
"I came to study fine arts," Lee said in a June 2001 Gazette
interview of his time at the UI. "I didn't give a hang for the rest of
it, and it showed. I didn't get a degree. I had to support myself."
During Allen's years of study at the UI, he traveled to Stone City
during summer weekends, continuing to study with Wood. In
1933, Wood was appointed director of the Midwest District WPA
Art Project and invited Allen to work with him. Later, Allen briefly
studied with Diego Rivera in Mexico, and he received several
commissions for murals in the late 1930s.
In 1937, however, Allen decided that his family responsibilities
required a steady job. He accepted a position as illustrator in the
UI Department of Ophthalmology. Fearing he would not be
successful in two careers, he decided not to exhibit or sell
another painting as long as he was in the department.
Allen's last work was collected in the book "The Hole in My
Vision: An Artist's View of His Own Macular Degeneration," in
which he documented his own deteriorating vision.
Macular degeneration, he said, was taking the central part of his
vision. The illustrations in the book show landscape scenes with
oddly shaped black patches in the middle, to represent his
deteriorating vision.
"I was happy I had a project to keep me going," he said of the
work.
BETHEL SWARTZ
Bethel Daisie Swartz, 84, of Waterloo died at home Thursday,
May 4 from renal failure. She was born January 21, 1922,
northeast of Monona, the daughter of Walter G and Daisie
(Surring) Jenkins. She married Leonard A. “Sam” Swartz on
July 5, 1943, at Grace Methodist Church April 3, 1943. She
graduated from the Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School in
Vinton in 1940. She moved to Waterloo where she worked at
Winter Dairy while attending Gates Business College, graduating
in 1942. In 1956, Bethel became Davidson’s Department Store
switchboard operator. From 1967 until retirement, she was a
23
Dictaphone transcriber with the Iowa Department of Human
Services. She was also a past member of the Cedar Valley
Council of the Blind. Survived by two sons, Dennis J. Swartz of
Clearwater Beach, Florida and Ron D. Swartz of Waterloo, five
daughters, Marsha Sewick, Marilyn Halley-Tarr, Janet Jones,
Janice (Mike) Hartz and Crystal Hartman all of Waterloo, twelve
grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
Proceeded in death by her husband, three sons-in-law, Wayne V.
Sewick, PFC Russell L. Halley and Mike D. Jones, a grandson
and three brothers, Lyle Delbert and Dayton Jenkins.
Private graveside services will take place at a later date in the
Garden of Memories Cemetery. The family will greet friends
today from 2:00pm to 4:00pm at 1205 Wren Road, Waterloo –
Kaiser-Corson Funeral Home, Waverly is assisting with
arrangements. Memorials may be directed to the family or the
Cedar Valley Hospice. Condolences may be left at the funeral
home.
IT WAS LIKE I VOTED FOR THE FIRST TIME
By Ray Campbell
(Editor’s Note: Ray is a former president of the Illinois Council
of the Blind and has served as ACB Resolutions Chair for the
past several years. He was elected to the ACB Board of
Directors at the 2006 annual convention.)
Tuesday, March 21, 2006 was Primary Election day in Illinois.
This was to be a very important primary as we are electing a
Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of
State, Comptroller, and Treasurer. In my congressional district,
the incumbent who has serve for 30 years is retiring, so we are
electing someone to replace him. There were also several local
races on the ballot along with two referendum questions.
On election day, after having listened to the debates, interviews
with the candidates and learned all I could about them, I
24
prepared to go to vote as I have before. I chose to vote after
work on my way home. The bus let me off across from the
middle school where I would be voting. I entered the school and
requested and received assistance to get to the area where
voting was taking place. An election judge met me and I
proceeded to sign in and declare for which party I wanted to take
a ballot. In the Primary, you have to declare which party ballot
you want to vote in Illinois. The first judge had another judge, a
nice lady by the name of Mary, assist me to the voting machine.
At that moment, something which had never happened before at
the polls happened. Mary handed me a pair of headphones and
asked if I wanted an audio only ballot. It was at that moment, I
realized the way I would vote was to be changed forever. Mary
handed me a card which looked like a credit card and assisted
me in finding a slot on the machine into which I was to insert the
card. I held the card and pushed it from right to left into the slot
until it clicked per Mary's directions.
I put on the headphones Mary had handed to me. The screen on
the machine went blank except for a message that read
"canceled Ballot." Mary was concerned about this message, but
I told her I was receiving audio instructions on how to use the
voting machine. Mary left me to vote.
After hearing all of the instructions on the use of the machine, I
pressed "9" as directed. My left hand was on a keypad that
looked exactly like the pad on a touch tone telephone. When I
pressed "9," I heard a voice say something about official primary
ballot for DuPage County, Illinois.
It was here; I was really going to vote independently using an
audio ballot.
The first race presented to me was for Governor. A clear, easy
to understand voice read me the names of the candidates as I
pressed the "6" key to move forward from one to another. When
I got to the candidate I wanted, I pressed the "5" key. When I
had finished with the Governor's race, I moved on to Lieutenant
Governor. Again, a clear, easy to understand human voice read
25
each of the four candidates' names as I used the "6" key to
move through the list. And again, when I found the one I wanted
to vote for, I pressed "5."
This same sequence of events was repeated all the way down
the ballot. For the first time, when I reached the two referenda, I
heard every word of the language for each one. Wow, do they
write a lot in for those questions.
After making my choice on the second of the referenda, I heard
the machine say I had reached the end of the ballot and that I
could print my ballot and hear an audio summary of it. I pressed
"1" to do this as directed.
At this point, a printer started making noise on the machine and,
through my headphones, I heard the audio summary of the
ballot. After listening all the way through the ballot, I was told
that I could press "9" to cast my ballot. I pressed "9" and was
told my ballot had been cast and asked to remove the card I had
inserted earlier.
I had actually cast my vote independently for the first time in my
life. I think the whole polling place could see the mile wide smile
across my face as I did it. For the first time in the 22 years I've
been voting, only I knew who I had voted for and I could choose
to tell or not tell anyone else. For the first time, I actually knew
my ballot was marked with the choices I had made. Wow, what a
liberating feeling. Mary came back to the machine to help me
out of the polling place when I finished voting and asked me
how I liked it. Fighting back tears, I said, “I've been voting for 22
years and this is the first time I have ever voted a secret ballot.”
Two of my neighbors were finishing up voting as I did, and they
offered me a ride home. They had been watching me, fascinated
by the machine I had been using. They asked me about it and I
told them how I had heard all the candidates and made my
choices independently.
One of my favorite things to do on the night of any election is to
listen to the radio and track on-line as the results come in. On
26
the night of March 21, doing this was extra special because I
knew which candidates had won and lost and knew how my vote
had affected this. As I checked on-line through our county
election commission for the local results, I could see how many
votes the candidates I had chosen got and know that my vote
really was one of them. My thanks and compliments to DuPage
County's election commission for doing such a good job both of
getting the machines set up and, more importantly, of training
the judges on how to properly assist me in using them. I have
always looked forward to voting on Election Day, but I will do so
now with even greater anticipation. I can't wait until November 7
to do it again. In the past, I was skeptical of accessible voting,
wondering if it would really ever happen in DuPage County.
Now that it's here, there's no turning back!
CHICAGO REQUIRES DRIVER’S ED FOR THE BLIND
Mar 10, 11:09 AM EST
CHICAGO (AP) -- Most high school students eagerly await the
day they pass driver's education class. But 16-year-old Mayra
Ramirez is indifferent about it.
Ramirez is blind, yet she and dozens of other visually impaired
sophomores in Chicago schools are required to pass a written
rules-of-the-road exam in order to graduate - a rule they say
takes time away from subjects they might actually use.
"In other classes, you don't really feel different because you can
do the work other people do," Ramirez said. "But in driver's ed,
it does give us the feeling we're different. In a way, it brought
me down, because it reminds me of something I can't do."
Hundreds of school districts in Illinois require students to pass
driver's ed, although the state only requires that districts offer
the courses. A state education official says districts that require
it should exempt disabled students. "It defies logic to require
blind students to take this course," Meta Minton, spokeswoman
27
for the state Board of Education, told the Chicago Tribune in a
Friday story.
About 30 students at two Chicago high schools with programs
for the visually impaired recently formed an advocacy group in
part to change the policy. A Chicago Public Schools official said
the district would be open to waiving the requirement. "I can't
explain why up to this point no one has raised the issue and
suggested a better way for visually impaired students to opt out
of driver's ed," said Chicago schools spokesman Michael
Vaughn.
Vaughn said parents of disabled students can, by law, request a
change in their child's individual education plan, which could
include a driver's ed exemption. But teachers and students said
that is a little-known option, and that they have been told driver's
ed is required to graduate.
CRUISING INDUSTRY SEES POTENTIAL IN CATERING
TO BLIND TRAVELERS
By Mike Stevens, Columbia News Service
Mar. 19, 2006 12:00 AM - Sue Slater could feel waves of cold
radiate from the glacier as her cruise ship slipped past the
towering wall of ice in Alaska's Disenchantment Bay. Suddenly,
she heard a car-size chunk of ice tear away from the 40-story
glacier before it crashed into the frigid waters.
Being totally blind, she saw none of this and relied on her
husband to describe the details of the scene while she soaked
up the rest with her remaining senses.
“Alaska was just breathtaking," Slater said. "I'd go back in a
minute." Advertisement for decades, the blind have headed to
ski slopes, national parks and beaches for holidays. Now, like
Slater, a chatty travel agent from St. Louis who lost her sight by
her mid-30s, a growing number are heading out on the high seas
28
come vacation time. If a cruise ship sails there, blind travelers
have likely followed, Slater said.
Familiar Caribbean spots in the Bahamas and the Virgin Islands
remain popular, but blind cruisers also have climbed Mayan
ruins in Belize, scampered up waterfalls in Jamaica, and
touched the totem polls of Alaskan Indian tribes. Although the
cruise industry doesn't keep statistics, many travel agents and
organizations, such as the Society for Accessible Travel &
Hospitality, agree that there has been a sharp increase in cruise
travel among the blind in the past five years.
"It's grown exponentially," said Jani Nayar, the society's
executive coordinator.
Cruises' popularity among the blind comes in part from
convenience, said Jackie Hull of Outta Sight Travel, a Port St.
Lucie, Fla., travel agency that puts together vacation packages
for blind travelers. Normally, Hull said, a blind person on
vacation would have to find his or her way to a hotel, then to a
restaurant and later to a nightclub or concert hall for
entertainment.
"Onboard, everything is there. It's so accessible, you get
acclimatized once," Hull said.
What they lack in sight, they make up for with their other senses,
whether it's sipping a piña colada, listening to steel drums play
on a Jamaican beach or hearing fish jumping during spawning
season in Ketchikan, Alaska.
"People would say, 'Why would you want to travel, you can't
see? You can't sightsee,' “Hull said.”We go beyond sightseeing;
there are other senses." Hull and her husband, Gary Metzler,
are such big believers that they spend most of their money
traveling around the country lecturing on travel opportunities for
the blind.
29
Ongoing improvements: Even before the passage of the
Americans with Disabilities Act 15 years ago, the cruise industry
began improving services for the blind.
If given notice, most cruise lines allow guide dogs, offer a
guided tour of the ship to help orient blind passengers, and
frequently offer sightless passengers menus, itineraries and
even bingo cards in Braille. Carnival Cruise Lines includes a
training course for staff members on how to interact with blind
passengers and their guide dogs.
And the ships themselves are laid out to avoid confusion. For
example, even though modern cruise ships usually have 10 to 14
decks, most activities, from dining and dancing to swimming
and playing slot machines, can be found on the same three
decks. Speaking elevators in most modern ships also help the
visually impaired navigate.
"You can't get lost on a ship," said Vickie Kennedy, a buoyant
59-year-old Californian from the Bay area, who lost her sight to a
degenerative eye disease.
In 2004, Kennedy helped organize one of the larger group
cruises for the blind and their guide dogs. It began while making
plans for an Alaskan cruise to celebrate her 20th wedding
anniversary with her husband, Jim, and guide dog Freida, a
yellow Labrador. After working with the cruise lines to ensure
Freida could come aboard, she was told the ship could take two
dozen more guide dogs.
Kennedy began making calls and by the time the ship left its
dock, aboard were 21 dogs, fitted with new heavy-duty canine
life vests and acclimatized to an ad-hoc doggy latrine on the tail
end of the eighth deck, or as Kennedy called it, "the poop deck."
The ship's crew took to the canine passengers as well. The dogs
would convene on the top deck every afternoon to frolic off
leash with crew members. The ship's captain, Fabio Amitrano,
was smitten with Kennedy's companion.
30
"My Freida had a love affair," Kennedy said. "The two of them
would take strolls on the upper deck together." At night, after
dinner, Kennedy remembered returning to her cabin to find a
chocolate on her pillow for herself and a doggy biscuit for
Freida.
Such outreach efforts are part of a larger trend in the cruise
industry to make travel easier for people with disabilities, said
Stephen Mydanick, an executive from the Society for Accessible
Travel & Hospitality.
Cruises lead the way: "Of all the industries, cruise ships have
done the most to make people with disabilities at ease,"
Mydanick said. And not only the blind, but also wheelchairbound passengers and people who need dialysis treatments are
finding warm welcomes as well as elaborate medical facilities.
"The whole thing has changed from 'No, we can't do that' to
'Please come cruise with us,' " Mydanick said. "It's paying off
for them, obviously."
A 2005 study on disabled travel by Open Doors Organization, a
Chicago-based nonprofit that advocates for the disabled, found
that 12 percent of disabled travelers had taken cruises in the
past five years, compared with 8 percent of the overall
population.
Cruising in general is big business. Last year, 11 million people
took a cruise, making it the fastest-growing segment of the
travel industry, according to Cruise Lines International
Association, an industry trade group. This strong growth has led
to exotic itineraries and new onboard luxuries, ranging from
Internet cafes to ice-skating rinks. Themed cruises also have
shown growth. Although today these specialized cruises cater
to gourmands with wine tastings and shaved truffles or to fans
of Broadway with onboard productions, it's possible an entire
cruise might be geared one day toward the blind, said Brian
Major, an industry spokesman.
31
WEB SITES IMPROVE SERVICE FOR BLIND PEOPLE
GOOGLE, AOL, YAHOO RETOOLPAGES, BOOSTING
COMPATIBILITY WITH SCREEN-READING AIDS
By Jessica E. Vascellero
Reprinted from the Wall Street Journal, July 20, 2006;
Major Internet companies are moving to better meet the needs of
the hundreds of thousands of blind people who regularly browse
the Web. Blind Internet users generally use software that reads
a description of a site's features aloud, sometimes in
conjunction with some hardware that displays portions of the
site in Braille. But navigating increasingly feature-heavy Web
sites, whose messy and complex programming can be difficult
for the software to translate, poses problems. Aiming to
increase use of their popular products even more widely,
Internet companies are now launching new -- and tidying up old
-- services for easier use by the blind.
Google Inc. will today launch Google Accessible Search, a
search tool that ranks results based on the simplicity of the
site's page layout. Pages with a large number of headings and
that lack extraneous images and text -- factors that make the
page easier to read with a screen reader -- will rank higher,
saving blind Internet users the time of navigating to results they
won't be able to comprehend. The search tool is at
labs.google.com/accessible1.
AOL, a unit of Time Warner Inc., will soon update AOL Web mail
to make it more screen-reader friendly. The revisions, which will
be under way by the end of the year, will eliminate the need for
users with screen readers to switch to a separate text-only page.
While designing its new homepage, Yahoo Inc. considered ways
to make it more accessible to blind users. For example, carving
the site into a greater number of headings like "Entertainment"
and "Sports" makes it easier for a visually impaired browser to
navigate the site because the headings serve as built-in hooks.
The new products and heightened awareness already appear to
be making a difference. Eric Brinkman, 19 years old, says he
32
used to have to reformat nearly every page he arrived at so that
it could work with his screen reader. Now, he finds that extra
step unnecessary, and has also uncovered new tricks and
shortcut keys for navigating around sites like Wikipedia.org,
Google.com and Amazon.com, where he likes to shop for CDs. "I
have become very dependent on computers," says Mr. Brinkman
of Niantic, Conn., who spends several hours a day online and
has been legally blind since birth.
New tools for developers also are likely to drive further
improvements across a broad range of sites. Microsoft Corp.
has recently released UI Automation, new developer
technologies that will make it Create PDF with GO2PDF for free,
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Two Braille displays, made by Freedom Scientific, that help the
blind navigate the Internet. The smaller costs $3,495. The larger
costs $6,995. easier for screen readers to translate robust Web
applications. The technologies will be officially released with the
company's Vista operating system, and will allow screen readers
to convey information to users such as how many new
messages are in their in-boxes without reading off each
message individually and to find all the links on the page quickly
and alert the browser to which ones they have already visited.
There are roughly 10 million blind or visually impaired
Americans, according to the American Foundation for the Blind,
a New-York based advocacy group. The group estimates that
roughly 1.5 million people who have difficulty seeing print even
with glasses have access to the Internet but only about 200,000
who cannot see print at all have access. The numbers are
expected to grow as technology improves and Internet
companies offer new services. Those with mild vision
impairments can often be helped by simply magnifying their
screen display. Blind Web users have descriptions of what
appears on the screen read back to them aloud and move from
heading to heading with keyboard shortcut keys and arrows. A
blind person who visited Yahoo.com, for example, would hear
33
the different headings like "News" or "Movies" spoken and
could transition to the next heading by hitting the "H" key. Such
assistive technology can be pricey. A popular variety, Freedom
Scientific Inc.'s JAWS for Windows, costs around $1,000.
Another tool, a refreshable Braille display that translates a
description of what is on the screen into Braille on a device that
resembles a keyboard, can run from $1,400 to $7,000. "The
biggest frustrations are these sites with some 500 different links
and lots of graphics," says Dena Shumila, 32 years old, who is
blind and runs her own consulting firm in Minneapolis. She says
that when people don't properly label their links and buttons,
she is stuck listening to generic commands like "nav bar link
one" and "nav bar link two." "Then you don't have a clue what is
going on," she says.
Unless accompanied by alternative text, code embedded
beneath a graphic, photos and video are incomprehensible to a
screen reader and its user. Kathy Brack, a 55-year-old blind
Internet user, was recently shopping online at LLBean.com for a
bathrobe and slippers but got stuck when she couldn't get any
verbal information on the products. To ensure that she had
landed on the style and color she wanted, Ms. Brack, of Raleigh,
N.C., had to ask someone to describe them. "Online shopping
sites are terribly inaccessible," she says. "I often have no idea
what the product looks like."
The new Web services coincide with a push to revise federal
Web accessibility standards and renewed legal efforts to get
accessibility guidelines more widely adopted. Currently, no
federal law requires all Web sites to be accessible to the blind or
to those with other physical disabilities. The guidelines that
apply to technology procured by a federal agency including Web
sites under Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act are about to
undergo revision by a federal advisory committee. The
committee is likely to look into issues like establishing new
guidelines for Internet-based phone applications, multimedia
and Webcasts. Many states have also adopted these guidelines.
To date, advocacy groups have hit roadblocks in pressing
accessibility guidelines on the private sector. In 2002, Access
34
Now Inc., a Florida-based advocacy group for the disabled, sued
Southwest Airlines in U.S. District Court for the Southern District
of Florida on the grounds that a blind person could not purchase
a ticket on the site. The plaintiffs alleged that the airline
therefore violated Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act,
which states that disabled individuals must enjoy equal access
to goods and services in places of public accommodation. The
judge ruled that the case against Southwest be dismissed,
deciding Create PDF with GO2PDF for free, if you wish to
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http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB115335999151511973.html 3
of 3 7/21/2006 12:21 AM that Southwest.com was not a place of
public accommodation because Web sites aren't covered in the
statute's 12 public accommodations categories. Meanwhile,
Baltimore-based National Federation of the Blind is suing Target
Corp. over the inaccessibility of its Web site to blind Internet
users. The suit, originally filed in Northern California's Alameda
County Superior Court, argues that Target's Web site is a
service of Target's stores, which are public accommodations
and therefore that the Americans with Disabilities Act, as well as
two other California state laws, apply. The company says the
lawsuit is "without merit" and that the company's Web site
complies with all applicable laws. A hearing on two motions -the defendant is moving to dismiss the case and the plaintiffs
are moving for a preliminary injunction -- will take place in the
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
ALABAMA ATF AGENT LEADS HUNT FOR BEEPING
EGGS
By Grace Thornton
Associated Baptist Press, Florida (Wednesday, April 5, 2006)
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (ABP) -- David Hyche has spent the last two
months helping people hunt things.
Hyche, the agent in charge of supervising the church fire
investigations for the Birmingham Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms
35
and Explosives division, has led his team through a massive
search for answers since the blazes began in early February.
But as the fire case begins to wind down, he and his church,
with help from his crime-solving colleagues, are part of a
different sort of hunt -- an Easter egg hunt for visually impaired
children. "I've seen it done before in large cities like
Washington, D.C., where they have beeping eggs for visually
impaired kids to hunt," said Hyche, whose 19-month-old
daughter, Rachel, is blind. "It's expensive to do, so it's not done
very often. And to my knowledge, it's never been done in the
state."
But when the idea made its way to him, it found the right person.
Hyche, a member of North Shelby Baptist Church in
Birmingham, had good help at his fingertips.
"I asked the guys from the Hoover and Birmingham police bomb
squads to come help, and they agreed before I'd even gotten the
request fully out," he said.
Officers swarmed the fellowship hall at North Shelby Baptist
March 28, quickly falling into an assembly line of wiring
batteries, circuitry and pulsating beepers together and drilling
into 50 eggs holes large enough for intermittent beeps to
escape.
"We tried a few of the eggs out with Rachel before today, and
anything she didn't destroy she thoroughly enjoyed," Hyche
said with a laugh. He turned to the group assembled and
shouted, "My daughter is quality control and will be here in a
few minutes to see if yours pass the test." The men laughed. "I
can imagine that it's not really fun to be visually impaired and go
to an Easter egg hunt," Birmingham Sgt. Errol Culpepper said.
"These eggs hopefully will help them be able to enjoy it."
Hyche said when he thought of the project, he'd had his
daughter in mind as well as the other children in his church and
community who aren't able to enjoy normal egg hunts. And
getting the church on board with a separate hunt for visually
36
impaired children in conjunction with their usual Easter egg
hunt was a breeze. North Shelby Baptist already reaches out to
those with special needs, Hyche noted.
"God has given us three visually impaired children in our
church, and they are fully integrated and active in our church,"
said Pastor Allan Murphy, noting that since Rachel and another
family's twin 9-year-old girls came to North Shelby Baptist,
church members have been trying to give special attention to
their needs.
The church has also become more sensitive to opportunities to
minister to blind children and their families through the Alabama
Association for Parents of children with Visual Impairments, a
support network Hyche established.
"It has helped open our eyes to the needs," Murphy said. The
congregation has since been exploring ways to reach out.
Sunday School and Mother's Day Out teachers offer tactile
learning opportunities and lavish attention on the children,
Hyche said. The church even has a full multivolume Braille
Bible on hand.
And of course, there's the Easter egg hunt, which will be held
April 15 at a home near the church.
"It's pretty difficult for a visually impaired child to find Easter
eggs. Well-meaning children will put their hands on the egg for
them, and that doesn't allow for the free participation, creativity
and competition that kids love about Easter egg hunts," Hyche
said. "This will allow them to do it on their own. "The "sighted"
children will hunt first and then play on inflatables, while the
visually impaired children have the hunt all to themselves. A
helper will go with each child to disable the beepers made by the
bomb squads and replace them with candy.
"Families of visually impaired children have needs that are
unique, and we are trying to serve and understand those
specific needs in the best possible way to give them support,"
Hyche said.
37
OH, BOY!
By Kimberly Ross
(Reprinted from the Redding, CA, Record-Searchlight, copyright,
Feb. 18, 2006.)
A 62-year-old California great-grandmother gave birth recently
to her 12th child, a boy—making her perhaps the fourth-oldest
woman in the world to deliver a child.
Janise Wulf, who became pregnant through in vitro fertilization,
said she considers her late-life pregnancy a ground-breaking act
for older women. “Age is a number. You’re as old as you feel,”
she said as she waited for her baby to be delivered.
Wulf, blind since birth, is used to a little skepticism, she said.
The former piano and organ saleswoman loves to cook. She
was a synchronized swimmer in high school and did some
acting then, too. “Every time you revolutionize something or do
something different, there’s going to be naysayers,” she said
from her hospital bed at Mercy Medical Center in Redding.
Hours later, doctors delivered a healthy, 6-pound, 9-ounce baby
boy by Caesarean section. Guinness World Records lists two
63-year-old women who have given birth. They are Rosanna
Della Corte of Italy in 1994 and Acheli Keh of California in 1996.
News reports listed Della Corte’s age at 62 when she gave birth,
however. The Associated Press reported that a 66-year-old
Romanian woman who had a Caesarean section Jan. 15, 2005,
was the oldest woman to give birth. She was aided by artificial
insemination. In Redding, baby Adam Charles Wulf came with a
crown of reddish hair, like his 3-1/2-year-old brother, Ian, who
also was born with the help of Daly City fertilization doctor
Christo Zouves. “I hate to raise one alone, without a sibling,”
Wulf said. The two boys are the first children of Wulf’s husband
of seven years, Scott Wulf, 48, who is retired from a career in the
U.S. Air Force. He had always dreamed of being a father, but his
previous wife was infertile, he said. “I never even dared to hope
that it was possible,” he said of his two sons. Possible, but not
38
without risks, said the delivering doctor, Jorge Pena. “There are
multiple risk factors. Most of them we actually don’t know,”
Pena said. “When we’re talking about someone this far out (in
age), we’re really in uncharted territory, because there’s no
documentation.” Until then, the oldest woman Pena had
delivered for was 45, he said. Any expectant mother older than
35 is considered an older maternity patient.
Wulf is diabetic and began to experience signs of swelling and
higher blood pressure late in her pregnancy, leading her doctor
to suggest performing the Caesarean three weeks before her
due date, Scott Wulf said. The family said Wulf lost a lot of
blood during Ian’s birth and could have died. Adam arrival
much more smoothly. Pena, who was assisted in the delivery by
Dr. Sam Van Kirk, has been in touch with a specialist in
maternal-fetal medicine for Wulf’s care. Although he had
concerns throughout her pregnancy, the delivery was
“excellent,” he said.
The two boys are the youngest of Janise Wulf’s children. She
has given birth to 12 children, 10 of whom are living. Wulf has
20 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, she said. The
eight grown children from Wulf’s two previous marriages range
in age from 24 to 40. One son died when he was in his 30’s. The
other died at birth. To avoid confusion about infants being
young uncles, the family just refers to all the children as
“cousins,” Scott Wulf said. “It’s just easier.”
Wulf’s daughter, Desiree Myers, 28, came to the hospital to
congratulate her mother. “I think she’s amazing. She’s got
more than enough love to give,” said Myers, who had a baby of
her own four months earlier. Still, family members had
reservations when they learned Wulf was pregnant, Myers said.
Wulf turned 62 in December. The Record-Searchlight
independently verified her age. “I believe our only hesitation
collectively was her health and her coming through this. Giving
birth is hard at any age, in anybody, let alone with her being 62.
But obviously we love her and we support her, and now Ian has
a little brother,” Myers said. Wulf said she understood her
family’s concern. “They weren’t thrilled when they found out.
39
But it’s because they love me and they were concerned,” she
said. I told them, ‘Look how many grandparents are raising their
(children’s) children.”’ She and Scott have talked about the
possibility of one of them not seeing their children grow up, or
suffering from dementia or other age-related troubles. “That’s
my biggest concern,” she said. But she looks at her age as a
benefit, too. “I think I’m a much better parent now than when I
was younger. I’m not working, I’m not under stress, I’m just
ready to enjoy them,” she said of her youngest two, but added,
“This is the last one.”
Wulf herself was born a premature, 3-pound twin. But when she
and her infant sibling were put in an incubator, the oxygen level
was too high. The mistake blinded Wulf and killed her smaller
twin, she said. She hopes her story as an older mother inspires
other people who are having fertility problems, as well as those
with disabilities. “They can be mothers, and they can love, and
they can do everything I’m doing,” she said. Wulf knows she’s
not a typical mother, though, and she’s proud to be different.
She laughed as she remembered seeing a mother featured on
the TV show “Good Morning America” who had given birth at
age 58. “I said, ’58? She’s just a kid.”’
DUBUQUE ASSOCIATION OF THE BLIND NEWS
By Bob Nesler
There is not much to report. We had seven members attending
the Convention in Des Moines. Also, we were happy to provide a
ride for Mike Hoenig and Barb Richmond. This summer we have
not planned for some of the outside activities as in the past
since people have been busy with trips and other activities. Inez
Schultz had hip replacement surgery in May and is now back
driving and attending our meetings. You can't keep her down,
and we are certainly happy to have her back as we depend on
her great help for so many things. Rose and Bob Stratton invited
our chapter to their summer place at Leisure Lake and this will
be the last time they will have it. Well, enjoy the rest of the
summer and see you on the next report. Bob Nesler
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FORT DODGE CHAPTER NEWS
By Linda Sorenson
As I write this it is one of the hottest days of summer. Remember
winter when we couldn't wait for summer. In March we had our
meeting at Friendship Haven instead of our regular place,
hoping to create interest in ICUB and get new members. We had
Carol Kirkbride from Ankeny as our speaker. She is a member of
the Lions and does volunteer work, along with her husband, for
the Leader Dog Program. She also brought along her puppy she
working with now. He was a hit with the people. In April we had
a Pizza Party and everyone enjoyed that. Of course we ate too
much. In May we told stories and memories about our mothers.
Because of circumstances, we ended up canceling our June and
July meetings. Our president, Donna McBurney, fell and broke
her pelvic and breast bones. That was one of our
circumstances. She is now recovering at the Stratford Care
Center in Stratford. She will be convalescing for some time.
Hopefully in August we will get back on track. Stay cool!
CEDAR RAPIDS CHAPTER REPORT
By Shirley Wiggins
We have had one meeting since convention. We discussed the
convention at great length wondering what we can do to bring in
the younger members. I sincerely hope the four members on the
committee committed to trying to get young members are able
to attend the board meeting here in Cedar Rapids September 9th,
10:30A.M. At the Low Vision Enhancement Center, 800 1st St.
N.W. The committee will have a good chance to talk with our
president at that time. We started a little planning on our annual
picnic. As always, it will be at Shawnee Park, the 19th of August
from 11:00 A.M. until 4:00 P.M. for those of us who enjoy staying
around just laughing and talking. Bring your favorite dish, your
silverware and paper plate and enjoy. Coffee, lemonade and
cups will be furnished. We'll be looking for you the 19th of
August, and I hope to see all of the board members and
committee members the 9th of September at the board meeting.
41
Hey, glad you are back and well again Ed. I didn't see you at
convention so this is a belated welcome back.
The support group has had a couple of very interesting
discussions, which started in June and carried over to July. In
May we celebrated 10 years. I invited Richine Sartane who was
the home teacher when we got started. I thought it appropriate
and she was so glad to be asked. Shirley, who never cries in
public, received a beautiful necklace for serving as leader of the
support group for these 10 years; guess what, she cried. I'm
proud of our support group; they are warm wonderful people
and knowing them and their problems has filled me with so
much compassion and warmth. Anything I can do for any of my
members I get back double from their willingness to try and
determination to keep us together.
Our Cindy Nutt, who drives some of us to support group and is
always ready to help in any way, was awarded the Governor's
Award June 18th. We are proud of her. I all ready have someone
in mind to put up for the award next year.
That's it for now. I didn't intend this to be long. Oh well, look
what thoughts will do!
DES MOINES CHAPTER REPORT
By Dee Clayton
Hi All,
This is Dee Clayton, president of the Des Moines Chapter of
ICUB. We have been fairly busy since the last Bulletin.
The state convention was held and our chapter had a table in the
lobby and sold Prettygoodpopcorn, talking clocks, talking
thermometers and candy bars. We did well at this project.
We had about 14 people attend the ACB Convention in
42
Jacksonville Florida.
This convention was very interesting and informative.
Hopefully, more people will be able to attend next year in
Minneapolis.
We are planning our summer picnic on August 26th here at the
Department for the Blind. Each person is asked to bring a dish
to share and the chapter will furnish the meat and buns. We
know that this is a hard time but hope that some of you will be
able to make it.
We are planning on a van to go to the Cedar Rapids picnic on
August 19th. That is always a fun time for everyone.
I hope that everyone is staying comfortable through this hot
weather and hopefully by the next Bulletin it will be better
weather. See you all the next time.
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
The 2007 American Council of the Blind national convention will
be held in Minneapolis, Minnesota the week of June 30 through
July 7. The Des Moines Chapter is considering renting a bus to
take as many as forty people to the convention. The bus will
start in Des Moines and proceed North on I-35. The driver is
willing to stop along that route to pick up passengers. So, start
saving your pennies…ah, better make it dimes or quarters and
join the gang going to the ACB convention in 2007!
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