Iowa State Convention at the Fort Des Moines
The 15th annual Iowa Council of the United Blind state convention will be held May 3, 4 and 5, 2002, at Hotel Fort Des Moines. Room rates are $59 per night plus applicable taxes. Call 1-800-532-1466 for room reservations.
We will hold our opening session on Friday evening followed by hospitality (snacks, beverages and a great time). Saturday will be full of programming with a luncheon and a banquet in the evening. Again, the hospitality suite will be open for your enjoyment. On Sunday we will hold our business meeting and conclude the convention around 1 p.m.
If you have any questions about the convention or hotel, please e-mail Donna Seliger at [email protected].
Badger Association to hold 'ACB Day' in April
The Badger Association of the Blind will hold its annual convention on Saturday, April 6th. We will present several panels. One will include representatives from nearby states, and another will include staff members who will cover some of the developments and program changes within our organization.
Expect to be kept busy and interested for the whole day, from our continental breakfast at 8:30 a.m., through the call to order at 9:30 and the concluding social around 4 p.m. We have monthly membership meetings but this April meeting focuses on our affiliation with ACB. Our association business will be incorporated into the ACB Day program along with a number of speakers, legislators and several panels.
If you have questions, please contact Kathy Brockman at Badger Association of the Blind, 912 N. Hawley Rd., Milwaukee, WI 53213; phone (414) 615-0107, fax (414) 615-0168 or toll-free (877) 258-9200.
Calling All Readers
by Pat Shreck, President, Library Users of America
Are you interested in the details of the digital playback machines that the National Library Service will be developing over the next several years and how those machines will relate to players being developed by other recording entities? Do you want to know why the books available on Web-Braille cannot be downloaded for speech programs? Are you one of the AAVL members who want to see "Modern Maturity" offered as one of the magazines provided nationally? Do you want the names of authors spelled at the beginning of cassette books? Would you like to see book annotations in "Talking Book Topics" and "The Braille Book Review" listed in alphabetical order by title or author rather than by the catalog number? If your answer to any of these questions is yes, or if you have other concerns about books and equipment available through the National Library Service (NLS), then you will want to be in touch with Sharon Strzalkowski and Jill O'Connell, who will be representing the ACB at upcoming meetings of the NLS committees that deal with these subjects.
Each year, representatives from the ACB are invited to sit on two NLS committees to discuss equipment, collection development, and other aspects of the service that the library extends throughout the country through its regional and subregional libraries. Each committee is composed of reader representatives from the main geographical regions, members of the consumer groups of blind people, and librarians, each of whom is permitted to serve just two years in order to ensure participation by as many different individuals as possible.
The Library Users of America (LUA), ACB's affiliate concerned with libraries and the reading interests of its members, chooses and suggests to Charlie Crawford, ACB's Executive Director, individuals to fill the committee positions. Sharon Strzalkowski is this year's ACB representative to the National Audio Equipment Advisory Committee, which meets April 3-5. If you have suggestions for issues you want discussed at this meeting, please direct your comments to Sharon as follows: 127 June Street #3, Worcester, MA 01602; phone (508) 363-3866; [email protected].
Messages concerning books and magazines you would like to see produced by NLS should be sent to Jill O'Connell, ACB's representative on the Collection Building Committee, by May 15, for the committee meeting May 22 through 24. Contact Jill at 279 Church Lane, Carlotta, CA 95528-9715; phone (707) 768-3254; or e- mail [email protected].
Reports on past meetings of these committees as well as articles on many aspects of libraries both public and private, can be found on the LUA Web site, http://libraryusers.tripod.com.
We invite you to join the Library Users of America by sending $9 dues to Patricia Price, Treasurer, 5707 Brockton Drive #302, Indianapolis, IN 46220-5481. We also invite you to attend our annual LUA meetings to be held Monday and Wednesday afternoons as part of the American Council of the Blind 2002 national convention in Houston, Texas.
A Cause For Celebration
by Catherine Skivers
About two years ago, organizations of and for the blind in California formed the Blind Alliance for Rehabilitation Change (BARC). Both the consumer organizations the California Council of the Blind (CCB) and National Federation of the Blind (NFB) were joined by many of the major organizations of and for the blind in an attempt to improve services for blind and visually impaired people in our state.
We conducted a lot of research and discovered that states where there were specialized services through departments or commissions for the blind and visually impaired seemed to have better employment opportunities. We learned that California ranked 48th in terms of positive outcomes for blind people in the United States. This was shocking news to those of us who had been around in the days when, if anybody wanted to know about great programs for the blind whether they were in rehabilitation, education or social services, California was the place to go. Finding that we had slid so far down the ladder caused our determination to grow, and we vowed to change things.
We wanted to establish a commission for the blind. State sen. John Burton (D-San Francisco) introduced SB105 for us. Suddenly, however, California's great economy plummeted and we learned that no bill which contained an accompanying appropriation would have a chance of even making it out of the legislature. Further, we learned that our governor, Gray Davis, does not look favorably on boards or commissions of any kind.
So we held numerous meetings where representatives from the Department of Rehabilitation (DOR), the bill's authors, staff, and BARC got together; we amended our commission bill into one that called for the creation of a division for the blind with line authority. Our bill has had some opposition, regrettably from some disabled groups. They feel that somehow our bill jeopardizes some of their programs. This is not true. All we ask is that the money which is supposed to be used for services to blind and visually impaired people be spent to hire trained counselors and that these counselors be supervised by people who believe in blind people and know how to assist them. We believe this must be done with line authority and that the provider of our services must have direct access to the director of the DOR.
Dr. Catherine Campisi is currently director of the DOR. Catherine is herself a person with a disability who uses a wheelchair. She happens to be married to a very prominent attorney in Sacramento who is blind. She has made many positive changes in the department and is working toward making improvements. However, one of the weaknesses in our department is that every time we have a new governor we get a new director of rehabilitation. Therefore, no matter how many accomplishments she makes in the direction of improving services, we know that when she leaves the department, we will be back to square one.
SB105 was heard before the Governmental Organization Committee and passed by a vote of 8-0. Then we went to the Appropriations Committee and it passed there by a vote of 12-0. On January 30th the bill came to the Senate floor and passed 36- 0. It was hallelujah time in California.
In our various meetings with DOR they keep interjecting their estimates of the supposed cost of our bill. We disagree with their numbers and believe we can prove that our estimates are correct. As we now begin making our way through the state assembly this is what we will have to do. While we are ecstatic over our success in the Senate, we are mindful that there is a road ahead that we hope will lead to a successful conclusion. In any case, the organizations of and for the blind in this state know that we must have specialized services and that they must be provided by qualified professionals who are appropriately trained and supervised. The fact that our bill also requires reports to the legislature is most important and necessary. I am writing this to encourage those of you in other states who are attempting to get your specialized services in your state to keep fighting the good fight. There are a few states where specialized services are in jeopardy. The American Council is a strong organization with many, many knowledgeable people. The most important thing of all is that we have learned to fight through the years and when we know what is right, nobody is going to beat us. I hope the next time we talk about SB105 we will be able to tell you that we have done it and that California is once again on its way toward the top. That is where we are accustomed to being and we are going to keep going until we get there.