Hawaii Association of the Blind
	"advocating independence, equality and opportunity for the blind"

White Paper Seminar - Huge Success

The recent ACB White Paper Seminar held on January 19 & 20, 2008 was a huge success! Not only was membership
attendance surprsingly high considering that it was a two-day, 8-hour each day seminar, discussion was likewise dynamic, lively, open and frankly, very interesting. The speaker, Paul Edwards, three-term president of ACB from 1995 to
2001, proved himself to be a top-notch resource person knowledgable in the various aspects of blindness in the US. He covered the history of the blindness movement in the country, the differing philosophies between ACB and NFB, and
the three providers of rehabilitation services for the blind.
Members came to realize the real present status of the rehabilitation program provided by private, state and federal agencies. Paul reiterated the need for blind individuals to accept their disability with humility and courage walking through life's
journeys with head high, pride and confidence.

In obtaining rehabilitation services, Paul pointed out the need to have freedom of choice as opposed to what is currenlty practiced in most, if not all, rehabilitation centers in the US. As we all know, there are varying degrees of blindness - from
the minimum definition of legally blind to being totally blind. In between, you'll find the partially sighted. Society does not fully understand this phenomenon and categorizes a person only as either blind or sighted, either you can see or you cannot see. "You don't look blind!" people would tell you. And what should a blind person look like? Society has stereotyped the blind as somebody with old-fashioned dark glasses (or shades), face down, economically poor, pitiful, dependent to name a few descriptives.

The seminar, and the ACB White Paper, for that matter, tackles all the issues relating to blindness, its history, rehabilitation and what we as blind individuals can do. The objectives set forth in conducting the seminar were successfully attained.
Members left the seminar with a good sense of conviction to carry on the principles stated in the White Paper and fight for freedom of choice.

It is important to note that this was the first forum where the ACB White Paper was presented and discussed quite thoroughly since it's official release a year ago (January 2007.)

Now, we're all fired up! Let's get the show on the road.

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Special mahalo to:

1.  Ivy and Doug for running the cafeteria during the 2-day seminar. They made sure the participants were fed with only ono-licious pastries and lunch and then some.
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2. Fusako Miyashiro and the Hawaii Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped for providing Braille copies of the White Paper.

3. Dave Eveland and Ho'Opono for the seminar venue.

Read the ACB White Paper by visiting http://www.acb.org/resources/whitepaper-rehabtraining.html

White Paper Serminar Recordings

We have recorded the entire proceedings of the 2-day seminar so anybody, even those who have attended may listen and review the discussion.

You may also request a copy of the recordings in CD-ROM. Please note that the audio files are in MP3 format and playback may only be done on a computer or any MP3 player that accommodates CD-ROM.