Year in Review Looks Good for SCLC-VIVA
by Don Kopp
The South Carolina-Low Country Chapter of VIVA began 2002 with 18 members and a variety of activities.
In January, we took a tour of the Confederate submarine CSS Hunley. The folks who gave the tour did a great job of explaining how they saved the Hunley. There were some neat mockups of parts of the submarine that we could touch.
In February we visited the USS Lexington at Patriots Point. Our guides there were some of the pilots who flew from the deck of the Lexington during World War II; they told some hair-raising stories.
In March, we combined with ACB to host a low vision fair at the North Charleston Recreation Center. There were numerous vendors there with their wares. The event lasted all day and provided lots of information for all who attended.
June found us enjoying our annual picnic at the Charleston Air Force Base, with lots of food, music by Eddie Wyndham, and fellowship. We all had a good time.
On October 7, we held our No See’um Drive Golf Outing at the Shadowmoss Plantation Golf Club. This event is for blind and visually impaired golfers and their partners; we had coffee and donuts, golf, a grilled lunch, trophies and prizes for all. This was our first fundraiser, and we did pretty well.
In November we assembled 36 toiletry kits for homeless veterans, thanks to contributions from CVS drugstores and Publix supermarkets, along with our own donations. The event was a success.
December brought the ACB/VIVA Christmas party, Toys for Tots, and found us sponsoring three students from North Charleston High School. Everyone had a good time listening to the storyteller, and especially enjoyed his renditions of Christmas stories. And, by December, we had 23 members!
Accessible pedestrian signals in South Carolina
by Max Hearn
History was made on October 28, 2002, in Charleston, S.C.! No, it wasn’t a terrorist attack or fire, earthquake or other natural disaster. Instead, it was the slow deliberate actions of a few blinded vets and a VIST coordinator from the Charleston area who made the difference.
On October 28, 2002, we passed our last hurdle in dealing with the city to install an audible pedestrian signal. The signal allows people with blindness and other disabilities to cross a busy street safely to get to public transportation. There are also other medical complexes across that street, and these are often destinations for medical consultations by blinded vets.
The campaign to get the accessible pedestrian signal installed began two years ago! Only one person opposed it. But it took the efforts of many to ensure that all legal, moral and safety points were brought out for consideration. A very large thank you goes to the Blinded Veterans Association and the American Council of the Blind, especially to Charles Crawford, Brian Higgins and Tom Miller. Especially thank you to our VIST coordinator, Karen Bays, who initiated this effort to ensure the safety of blinded vets at the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center in Charleston, S.C. The materials and information which the ACB national office sent were helpful for educating officials and traffic engineers who had little prior knowledge about people with visual impairments. Last, but not least, a special thank you to the group of blind and visually impaired vets who worked together and would not let the issue die.
Computer Literacy in Alachua County
In late 1999 Jack Varnon, then president of Alachua County Council of the Blind (ACCB), set a goal to bring computer literacy to the blind community in north central Florida. The project sought to address three fundamental problem areas: finding funding for hardware and expensive software, identifying training instructors and creating a training site.
For nearly three frustrating years, the ACCB Computer Literacy Committee searched for funding resources to purchase an adequate system for any visually impaired person who was willing to learn how to use it and make it a part of his/her daily living. The committee found virtually all funding resources of the various rehabilitation agencies and private sector support groups were constrained by the requirement that a prospective consumer must have a job waiting, or a requirement for matching funds.
In early 2002, things began to move forward. Maxine Stallings, current president of ACCB and a board member of the Center for Independent Living of North Central Florida (CILNCF) in Gainesville requested support from CILNCF for this project. The CILNCF board of directors and executive director William Kennedy agreed that the computer literacy project deserved support. A commitment was made to purchase the expensive software: JAWS for Windows (JFW), a screen reader, and ZoomText, a screen magnifier. After the software was installed on CILNCF’s teaching lab PCs, CILNCF allocated time to accommodate the unique training needs of blind individuals.
Meanwhile, a new ACCB member, Todd Bowen, volunteered to teach blind students how to use computers with the JFW program. Todd was so dedicated, he even took two weeks off from his vending business to attend a training session in Daytona Beach to expand his own knowledge of the software and online technique. Then, Todd helped the computer literacy committee design a teaching syllabus which became the standard to determine if a blind person had achieved a basic level of computer literacy. Then it was determined that, upon successful completion of this preliminary training module, an individual would be eligible for a free computer system when one became available.
In April, a private individual generously donated 12 used PCs with monitors and keyboards. We were able to salvage six of them, and to make them compatible with the screen-reading software. Later in June, we received two refurbished PCs from FAAST out of Tallahassee. At this time, we learned that Windows 95 was no longer being supported by Microsoft. This meant we could install Windows 95 as a free operating system for the eight available computer systems to be given to those who met the standard.
Even though the Council has not yet resolved the problem of providing the potential computer literacy graduates with the expensive software (JFW or ZoomText), a decision to initiate the program was made. On November 4, 2002, volunteer Todd Bowen began teaching his first two eager students, Carol Massey and Reggie Howard.
ACCB still has two challenges to resolve. One is how to fund JFW or ZoomText software for the graduates. We are continuing to seek out PC donations to be refurbished and made available to the graduates of the computer literacy skills training class. The second challenge is to reach out and connect with the entire blind and visually impaired community. According to the Florida Statistical Abstract of the 1999 Census, there are 4,241 blind or visually impaired adults in Alachua County. It is our understanding that only about 400 to 500 appear on the data rolls of the typical agencies providing services to this population.
The Alachua County Council has as its goal to eventually make available to the entire blind community the resources of computer literacy skills training and raise awareness that blind and visually impaired individuals have the capability to handle directly and personally their finances online, read mail postmarked and write postmarked letters to loved ones and business replies with independence and dignity.