THE BRAILLE FORUM Volume XLIX August 2010 No. 2 Published by the American Council of the Blind THE AMERICAN COUNCIL OF THE BLIND STRIVES TO INCREASE THE INDEPENDENCE, SECURITY, EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY, AND TO IMPROVE QUALITY OF LIFE FOR ALL BLIND AND VISUALLY IMPAIRED PEOPLE. Mitch Pomerantz, President Melanie Brunson, Executive Director Sharon Lovering, Editor National Office: 2200 Wilson Blvd. Suite 650 Arlington, VA 22201 (202) 467-5081 fax: (703) 465-5085 Web site: http://www.acb.org THE BRAILLE FORUM (TM) is available in braille, large print, half-speed four-track cassette tape, and via e-mail. Subscription requests, address changes, and items intended for publication should be sent to Sharon Lovering at the address above, or via e-mail to slovering@acb.org. The American Council of the Blind (TM) is a membership organization made up of more than 70 state and special-interest affiliates. To join, visit the ACB web site and complete an application form, or contact the national office at the number listed above. Those much-needed contributions, which are tax-deductible, can be sent to Mike Godino at the above mailing address. If you wish to remember a relative or friend, the national office can make printed cards available for this purpose. To remember the American Council of the Blind in your Last Will and Testament, you may include a special paragraph for that purpose. If your wishes are complex, contact the ACB national office. Join the Monthly Monetary Support (MMS) Program and help improve tomorrow today in ACB. Contact Ron Milliman by e-mail, rmilliman@insightbb.com, or by phone at (270) 782-9325 and get started making tomorrow look brighter today! To make a contribution to ACB via the Combined Federal Campaign, use this number: 11155. For the latest in legislative and governmental news, call the "Washington Connection" toll-free at (800) 424-8666, 5 p.m. to midnight Eastern time, or visit the Washington Connection online at http://www.acb.org. Copyright 2010 American Council of the Blind ***** TABLE OF CONTENTS President's Message: School Days: Dark Days for Blind Children?, by Mitch Pomerantz National Office News Flash!: ACB's Legislative Agenda Makes Significant Advances, by Melanie Brunson When the Bank Moves Across the Street, Pedestrian Issues Follow, by Kathy Lyons Crosswalk Cross Talk, by Ken Stewart Angels Abide, by Vic Leanza The Dog Ate My Ears, by Rebecca L. Hein A Place in the Stars, by Ken O'Sullivan A DVD Player for the Blind?!, by Michael Bayus Affiliate News Here and There, edited by Sue Lichtenfels High Tech Swap Shop After the Tears, by Teddie-Joy Remhild FORUM SUBSCRIPTION NOTES You can now get "The Braille Forum" by podcast! To subscribe, go to "The Braille Forum" page on www.acb.org. If you do not yet have a podcast client, you can download one from the Forum page. To subscribe to "The Braille Forum" via e-mail, go to www.acb.org/mailman/listinfo/brailleforum-L. ARE YOU MOVING? DO YOU WANT TO CHANGE YOUR SUBSCRIPTION? Contact Sharon Lovering in the ACB national office, 1-800-424-8666, or via e-mail, slovering@acb.org. Give her the information, and she'll take care of the changes for you. ***** PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE School Days: Dark Days for Blind Children? by Mitch Pomerantz It's August as you read this. School administrators and teachers throughout the nation are in final preparation for the beginning of the fall term. Perhaps some schools have already opened their doors, but most will not do so until after Labor Day. At this time of year, children are filled with a mixture of sadness and anticipation: sadness over their pending loss of relative freedom and adventure, anticipation over the making of friends and learning new things. That was certainly how I felt around this time of year; I enjoyed sleeping in, reading, the occasional day trip to some fun destination, but mostly, the knowledge that I had far fewer responsibilities than I would once school was back in session. Nonetheless, I also looked forward to getting together with friends, particularly in elementary school where we were bussed in from all over Los Angeles County and didn't get to see school chums during the summer who lived some distance away. Parents, too, face the upcoming school year with mixed emotions about what may lie ahead relative to the education of their children. Even prior to the recession which began during the summer of 2008, school districts around the country were feeling the economic pinch from increasingly cash-strapped state governments. Here in California, to use a well-documented example, education commands the largest share of the budgetary pie, and is thus ripe for trimming by budget-cutting politicians. While the experts tell us that we are stumbling our way out of the morasse, most states are still dealing with deficits which make it all but certain that local school districts will be receiving less in the way of revenues in the years to come. Class size in almost every district in the formerly Golden State is increasing as more (nearly always younger and more committed) teachers receive lay-off notices. For parents of blind and visually impaired children, the outlook is perhaps more serious still. If they want their children to learn braille and the other blindness-related skills necessary for them to be truly competitive in today's society, parents often have to engage in long, exhausting battles with local district officials who would prefer to avoid the expense involved in hiring, even on a part-time basis, a certified braille instructor. This little war is currently being fought just south of me in a district in Orange County with assistance and support from a member of the California Council of the Blind. In an increasing number of instances, particularly in southern California, parents of blind children are unable or unwilling to fight the necessary battle. A growing number of these parents are monolingual Spanish speakers. They come from countries where parents have few if any rights to challenge education authorities, so when a school official here informs them at an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) meeting that their child doesn't need to learn braille, the parent simply accepts the fact and goes away. The issue of how and where to educate blind and visually impaired children is particularly relevant to the members of the American Council of the Blind who worry about the future education of such children, meaning most of us. In May, this was a hot topic on ACB's general e-mail list and the bulk of my remaining comments will expand upon my initial post to the list on this topic. First, I absolutely believe there is a connection between the growing braille illiteracy rate and mainstreaming. In our remaining residential schools braille was, and still is, mandatory, assuming the child is capable of learning it. That's hardly the case in the vast majority of the nation's school districts today. Other than in the more affluent or larger urban districts, you are unlikely to find adequate numbers of certified braille instructors (more on that shortly). In the poorer or more rural districts, you are far more likely to see itinerant teachers with a workload that only permits them to see a child for an hour a week. That is wholly inadequate to teach braille reading and writing. As I've mentioned previously, I attended a kindergarten through sixth grade elementary day school for blind and visually impaired children (I believe the last remaining program of its kind in the country) which was connected to a regular elementary school. As such we received our braille instruction all day, every day. In both junior (now middle) and senior high school I attended a resource program where most of our textbooks were in braille and our tests were either converted to that medium or we were provided with a reader. In short, I and my fellow blind students were immersed in braille throughout our primary and secondary school years. That is highly unlikely in today's mainstream school environment unless the district has access to, and can hire, a full-time braille teacher. Second, the number of certified braille teachers is going down significantly. Scores, perhaps hundreds, are nearing retirement age and there appears to be little or no effort to recruit anyone, particularly blind and visually impaired young people, to take their place. Regardless of whether you believe that our unemployment rate is 70 percent or not, no one reading these words would argue that it's acceptable or that teaching isn't a profession which will be in great demand for many years to come. This impending shortage is compounded by a decreasing number of teacher preparation programs around the country. A major exception is Portland State's program which closed for a year; but thankfully, the powers that be did a 180 and decided that it would reopen later this year. The only way new teacher preparation programs will be launched is if education faculties around the country start seeing a need for such programs. So, we have a conundrum: with more children attending mainstream schools rather than centralized in residential facilities, from where are more braille teachers going to come? Third, I have been a disability-awareness trainer for over 30 years, so I think I understand a little something about societal attitudes toward blindness and disability. There is probably a great deal of truth in the idea -- put forward by the advocates for mainstreaming -- that exposing sighted/non-disabled children to blind/disabled children at an early age is a good thing overall. There are studies to validate this notion and it does make basic sense. If a child is exposed to disability at an early age and that experience is basically a positive one, then that child will be more accepting of disability later in life. This, the proponents argue, means that the employer who had a childhood buddy with a disability will be less likely to bypass a job applicant with a disability when confronted with that situation. However, and perhaps this makes me old-fashioned, that's not why blind children go to school. I believe that they go to school in order to get a good, solid education in the things they need to be successful when they grow up. They are not in school to teach other kids that they're just like everyone else. By the way, I don't believe that sighted/non-disabled children go to school to learn that blind/disabled kids are just like everyone else either. Has anyone noticed that over the past two decades, the highest achieving science and math students in college weren't born here; or if they were, they are second-generation emigres from abroad? In my opinion, that's because our schools have focused on teaching self-esteem and tolerance and gotten away from teaching reading, writing and arithmetic. I believe those people who stress mainstreaming as a way to change attitudes have lost sight (pun unintended) of the real point here. The only reason for blind and sighted children to be in school is to obtain a good, well-rounded education. Fourth, and finally, while the federal government pays lip service to spending more dollars for education (special and otherwise), it isn't happening. Weren't we assured on more than one occasion that IDEA (the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) would receive full funding from Washington? Currently, each state picks up the lion's share of the bill for educating students with disabilities and that's another financial burden weighing down the budgets of most states. Once again using Los Angeles as an example, the elementary school I mentioned previously will not have an assistant principal next year. The principal position was restored after a very strong letter was sent to the board and school superintendent outlining the difficulties which would occur if that position were not retained. The high school in the San Fernando Valley which has housed the resource room for blind and visually impaired children for nearly 50 years became a charter school and the governing board has just decreed the closure of that resource program after the last blind child graduates next year. While there is another resource program in the area, it is absolutely no exaggeration to say that the L.A. Unified School District is an unmitigated disaster, and I would not place a sighted or a blind child in a district school for a quality education. I suspect the same can be said about the districts in many, perhaps most, of our major cities. It should be abundantly clear that I am extremely concerned for the future of our children and especially for our blind and visually impaired children, given the general direction our public education system is heading. Sadly, in this climate, those children are no more than an afterthought in the minds of educators and politicians. We in the American Council of the Blind must take the initiative in this regard. It isn't enough to have a task force focusing on the plight of our residential schools. Each of us must begin taking an active role in seeing that our school districts provide a quality education -- including the teaching of braille -- to all blind students attending schools in those local districts. Doing less would be to fail the current and subsequent generations of blind children. We cannot afford that failure. ***** NATIONAL OFFICE NEWS FLASH! ACB's Legislative Agenda Makes Significant Advances by Melanie Brunson The months of May and June have been among the busiest ever in ACB's Washington office. We are very excited to report to you that all of this activity has netted some very significant results, as both houses of Congress have begun to take action on ACB's top legislative priorities. Here's the latest information about this legislative activity. Quiet Cars We were very gratified when both the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, and the House Committee on Energy and Commerce incorporated provisions of the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 into The Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 2010, and then proceeded to approve that bill for consideration by the full House and Senate. This package includes a number of measures aimed at improving the safety of motor vehicles sold in the U.S. It was a very good fit for the provisions of our quiet car bill. We believe that this legislation will pass both houses of Congress later this year, so stay tuned for additional information on its progress. Telecommunications S. 3304, the Equal Access to 21st Century Communications Act, was introduced by Sen. Mark Pryor. A hearing on the bill was held by the Senate Subcommittee on Communications and Technology of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Approval by the full committee is expected shortly. In the House, the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet of the Committee on Energy and Commerce held a hearing on a bill that many of you have been following for some time, H.R. 3101, the Twenty-first Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2009, introduced by Rep. Edward J. Markey. The next step in the process would be approval by the full committees in both chambers. As of this writing, we do not know when the committees will take up these bills, but there is a good chance they will do so before their August recess. We will let you know as soon as we learn more details. Exciting victories may be just around the corner, so look for more information here in the near future. ***** WHEN THE BANK MOVES ACROSS THE STREET, PEDESTRIAN ISSUES FOLLOW by Kathy Lyons (Editor's Note: Kathy Lyons is a member of the Environmental Access Committee.) A couple of years ago I wrote a letter to my branch bank concerning unsafe access to the new location. The bank responded affirmatively, and rectified the dangerous situation. April 8, 2008 Attn: Manager Some Bank 9999 Other Avenue Buffalo, NY 142__ Dear Ms. Manager: I opened my first account with your bank at the downtown branch while working at the nearby federal building on Huron Street. After retiring I carried out most transactions at the branch near my home. I could walk there from home with no difficulty. On October 12, 2007 the branch closed, and reopened across the street. That branch is located on an island in the middle of a parking lot. There is no direct access to the bank from the main sidewalk. One must walk in the parking lot in order to get to the bank. I am visually impaired, and use a guide dog to travel. I give the dog commands, and he carries them out to get to the desired destination. When the branch was on the east side of the street I walked north to the side street. I crossed that street, turned right, walked past the driveway leading to the parking lot, then turned left and walked to the door of the bank. Now I have to cross the driveway for the drive-through teller as well as the parking lot to get to the bank. I do not feel safe when I am walking in places meant for vehicular traffic. In an effort to mitigate this dangerous situation I would like to request that there be a sidewalk from the main sidewalk to the driveway for the drive-through teller. I would also request that a crosswalk be placed on the driveway and on the parking lot indicating the path which leads directly to the bank. These additions would greatly increase the safety factor when walking to the bank. They would in no way impede drivers. I would gladly meet with you to discuss my request. I thank you in advance for considering my request, and I look forward to hearing from you regarding this crucial issue. Sincerely, Kathleen M. Lyons I wanted readers to know about this letter in the event anyone else was faced with a similar circumstance. Another phenomenon I've discovered is stores and/or restaurants with a parking lot in front, and no dedicated pedestrian sidewalk. I recently asked a manager to forward to the corporate division my request for such a sidewalk. I will report on the progress of this request in a future issue of the Forum. We do not need to accept dangerous situations. We can make requests for improvements. It helps us all. ***** CROSSWALK CROSS TALK by Ken Stewart In the February issue, Mitch Pomerantz persuasively identified the importance of the content of one-on-one contacts between a member of the blind community and a member of the general public. After listening to that President's Message a second time and repeatedly nodding my head in agreement, my thoughts focused on my experiences walking around midtown Manhattan. Seldom do I pass through a single intersection without at least one stranger offering assistance crossing. One guide-dog using colleague teases me about these experiences. He claims I get so many offers of help because I look so incompetent waving my long white cane in front of me as I proceed ever so cautiously along each block. I prefer to think it is a combination of my smiling and approachable countenance, and the wonderful civility of New Yorkers and our worldly and sophisticated tourists. In fact, the offers of help rarely come at mid-block. Usually they come when I pause at a corner curb collecting audible traffic movement information or hesitate inside a large and complex transit hub. Be that as it may, my interactions with strangers are abundant. I have long been aware of the potential impact of these interactions on the other party's general notions about all of us visually impaired people. I hope that each of my interactions represents a positive experience, and will educate and thus influence that person's future behavior. As Mitch indicated, those interactions can represent very effective PR. I also confess that these encounters present me with opportunities for rich social interludes. Most offers of help are declined, but with an enthusiastic acknowledgement of the thoughtfulness of the offerer. When I accept an offer, however little I need assistance, it is not uncommon for me to continue walking with the helper long after we have completed a street crossing. I have learned much about a stranger's career, their grandmother's difficulty reading the newspaper lately, or their imminent personal destination. More than once there has been a role reversal when I have shared my extensive knowledge of locations of tourist attractions or the public transit system. On the lighter side, these sidewalk encounters are sometimes a stage for me to throw out a one-liner for my own amusement, and hopefully for the audience's amusement also. Recounted below are a few of my favorite performances, two of which I have previously shared in the newsletter of an ACB affiliate. The most commonly heard parting advice from someone who just aided me navigating around a sidewalk obstacle is, "Now go straight." "That's what my parole officer keeps telling me," I retort. If a stranger approaches me while I pause to get my bearings inside a transit complex, and inquires where I want to go, I might reply with a broad grin, "Well, my first choice would be the Bahamas, but I'll settle for Bermuda." Occasionally someone calls out stern but uninformative advice from near a sidewalk obstacle about to challenge me. If he shouts, "Be careful! Be careful!" I may shout back, "Great idea. Why didn't I think of that?" If a stranger who happens to be walking alongside me tentatively inquires if I need any help, I may respond, "Sure. How about some advice? Is it still a good time to sell off my Toyota stock?" Very early one weekend morning I was negotiating my way down Eighth Avenue in the dark to catch a bus out of town at the Port Authority Bus Terminal. My cane was suddenly entangled in a temporary construction barrier in my way. A male voice apparently from a street person close by said, "I'll help you." He physically nudged me around the obstacle, and then said, "That will be fifty cents, please." My response was, "Fifty cents?! It's Saturday. Isn't there a weekend discount?" Both of us chuckled as we parted. And, oh yes, I do occasionally have negative experiences too. The category I call The Grab-and-Drag Guys get one of three responses from me. Either I extract myself from his grasp and demonstrate how to present his arm for me to hold, or, I'll shake him off entirely but thank him vigorously. And, yes, sometimes I simply go along for the ride, keeping hold of my cane as he seizes the tip and begins towing me. When I arrived at an almost deserted subway platform one day, I was approached by a street person just hanging out there. He passionately but crudely expressed his sympathy for how hugely difficult it must be to get around without being able to see. I reassured him about the manageability of my limitation, and added cheerfully that it was particularly manageable in a place like New York because of the abundance of helpful strangers. As my train pulled into the station, he showed amazement that could be so. When the car doors opened, a fellow customer instantly jumped up and offered me his seat. As the doors closed, I faced the disbeliever and mouthed, "See what I mean!" Another subway ride began with me squeezing into a very crowded car. As the train pulled out of the station, I realized that my cane handle strap had become entangled with the neck lanyard attached to my sunglasses. One of the several people crowded up against me noticed my predicament. He reached out to help. I surrendered the tangled mess to him. He separated the straps and handed the two items back. My thanks included and admiring, "Wow! Rocket scientist?" He brushed aside the brilliance of his work, but I followed up with one of my repertoire of corny jokes. "How many blind guys does it take to change a light bulb?" As the train pulled in to the next stop, my stop, I delivered the punch line. I sensed I had a larger audience of several more pairs of ears nearby. As I stepped off, my parting words were, "We'll let you know ... if we ever have to." ***** ANGELS ABIDE by Vic Leanza It was a Sunday morning. I awakened early and went through the usual routine: coffee, fruit, cereal, shower, shave, dress and head for downtown. I left the house at 7 a.m. and walked to the bus stop at the end of our street using my white cane as skillfully as I could since there are no sidewalks in our neighborhood. The bus came at 7:15 a.m. I greeted the driver as I stepped on and found my way to a seat with the help of a couple of passengers. When we reached downtown Cleveland after about 40 minutes, the driver told me that we would soon be reaching the stop that I wanted. I got off at St. Clair and East 9th Street. Even though I am somewhat familiar with most of the streets in downtown Cleveland, I had not been going downtown very often since retiring. I headed in the direction that I thought was west, intending to find the Crown Plaza Hotel, where the Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired was holding a three-day conference. After walking for several minutes and finding no familiar cues, I listened for the sound of footsteps. There was only the sound of a distant train and a few cars. I waited nervously for a while and suddenly heard someone cough. I hollered, "Excuse me. Is someone there?" A man hollered back, "Wait right there." When he reached me, I explained that I wanted to get to the Crown Plaza Hotel. He said that I was headed in the wrong direction and that he would guide me there. I took his arm and as we were walking along, he and I began talking. He told me that he was homeless and had slept under a bridge near the Cleveland Browns Stadium. I asked him how he was able to get food and he said that there were some "good people" out there who would give him money. When we reached the hotel and walked in, a security guard came up to us and asked me if there was something wrong. I said "no" but the guard stayed with us until we reached the front desk. I thanked the homeless man and gave him some money. He was very grateful and as he departed, I felt an emotion that I cannot describe. As the security guard led me to the elevator, he explained that he had become concerned about me because something did not look right. I was pretty sure that the contrast between the way I was dressed and the way the homeless man was dressed had triggered something in his mind. When I reached the conference registration area, some people whom I did not know helped me register. Afterward I walked into the room where breakfast was being served. I met some friends whom I had not seen in several years, and we caught up on some news. I attended workshops on adaptive computer technology for people who are visually impaired. Then I found another friend, and we had lunch together. After that, I left the hotel and headed toward the Cleveland Public Library. I'd been wandering around for a while when someone asked me if I needed help. I told her I was trying to find my way to the Cleveland Public Library, where there was to be a lecture by a famous author. She told me that she was going to the same lecture and I took her arm. After the lecture, I planned to ride the Shaker Rapid, which is an intra-urban electric train line. I walked the three blocks west to Public Square, but apparently I made a wrong turn in the middle of the square, because a lady asked where I was going. When I told her that I was trying to find the Shaker Rapid line, she said that she was going to ride it too. We walked together through the complicated area known as Tower City. When we reached the turnstiles, she needed to get change. She had trouble with the change machine, so I helped her with it. We rode the train together and discovered that we both had extensive experience with sailing. She said that before her husband died, she sailed with him on the Atlantic Ocean and they had owned a house along the coast of Maine. She had told me that she needed to get off at Shaker Square, so when we reached that stop, I reminded her. She was grateful; she touched my shoulder and said she hoped to see me again. The train rolled on. When the electronic announcement system called my stop, I got off the train. I planned to attend a dinner meeting and program at a nearby church. I knew I needed to walk several blocks uphill to reach the church. My confidence was beginning to founder, but I forged ahead. After several blocks, I realized that I was no longer walking uphill. I knew I was fairly close to the church, though. After several joggers passed me, a man who was talking on a cell phone approached me. I heard him tell his daughter that he would call her back. Then he turned his full attention to me. I asked him if this street was Eaton Road. He said no, and offered to walk with me to the church. As we headed along, he told me that he was going through some difficult times with his daughter and that he had an unemployed son who had moved back home with him and that his wife was in Boston trying to help another daughter who was severely depressed. When we reached the church, he guided me into the room where the meeting would take place. I was early, so we sat at one of the tables. He wanted to finish his story. Then he thanked me for listening. He thought talking to me had helped him calm down. As he left, I had a feeling which is difficult to describe. Some women from the church arrived and began setting tables. They greeted me, but mostly talked among themselves. I was glad about that because my mind was elsewhere. I was reflecting on the day and the several angels with whom I had made contact. I was glad that I would be getting a ride home with another angel, my wife. I guess there are angels everywhere. ***** THE DOG ATE MY EARS by Rebecca L. Hein (Editor's Note: Rebecca Hein is a writing coach, a teacher, and a correspondent for the American Reporter online. She specializes in helping blind and visually impaired writers find markets for their work. Contact her at rhein@vcn.com, or 1-888-921-9595.) Family jokes depend on shared experience and a private language, but sometimes anyone can enjoy them. This is especially true when the gag is aimed at us and our foibles. When my husband Ellis and his brother Mike were boys on the farm in Oklahoma, they noticed that some dogs barked louder and more often than others, and this trait was related to the shape of the muzzle, which they dubbed the "shep." A dog with a long shep barked more than one with a short shep. These mutts created so much noise that they drowned out their owners' commands to shut up, herd the cattle, and stop harassing the chickens. Ellis and Mike also observed that the longer the dog's shep, the shorter its ears. This led to a measurement yielding the shep-ear ratio. After that it was a short leap to the study of this characteristic in people: the larger someone's shep-ear ratio, the less chance you have of getting through to him. When Ellis told me this, I could instantly name a handful of people, mostly from my family of origin, who'd talked more than they'd listened -- indeed, who talked so much that they couldn't hear at all. This high ratio isn't limited to spoken language. When composers suffer from it, their music is so long-winded that it wears you out. Both muse and man have ears like the wing of a gnat, cocked at the hapless audience -- and a snout as long as an arrow, aimed at the music they want to write. Wagner comes to mind, with "The Ring of the Nibelung" taking its place with Hitler's notorious diatribes as a monument of shep-ear lopsidedness. At the opposite end, people like Ellis quietly enjoy their observations and the benefits of blending in with the woodwork. It's soothing to live with someone like this, but if you don't share my good fortune you can still reap the benefits of a reversed shep-ear ratio. Perhaps you'll find a good teacher, as I did when I went looking for someone to edit my first book, "A Case of Brilliance." Ron Kenner turned out to be so long-eared and short-shepped that with a few words he diagnosed the fundamental problem of my book. He said, "It feels thin." I understood. I needed to add substance to the sections that lacked it. After a few weeks of struggling with my revisions, I asked Ron, "How do I find those sections?" "Read the book," he replied, "and listen for the places that call out for more detail." A book can "feel thin?" My writing can speak to me? It can tell me what it needs? Sure enough, it could and did. Ron's expertise is good writing, and he's been listening to it for so many years that when he talks about it, every word he says is worth hearing. He has taught me to listen to my own work. That's what great artists have learned to do: they're so attuned to what's important that their books, plays, paintings, and music "listen" to us more than they "talk." They fill us to the brim. We overflow. We want more, and if one of these geniuses lived a thousand years, his output still wouldn't be enough to satisfy us. Although he's been dead for centuries, he's still listening to our need for depth and beauty -- and giving us what we crave. So the shep-ear ratio, which began life as a humorous exchange between two Okie farm boys, turns out to be a profound statement about the creative process: if we can stop talking long enough to listen, we could learn something so valuable that the whole world will want to hear about it. ***** A PLACE IN THE STARS by Ken O'Sullivan It's common to remember where we were when important events took place, the Kennedy assassination, the Challenger disaster, the attacks of 9/11. By the summer of 1969, my imagination had long been captivated by America's space program. But by the time mankind first set foot on the moon I had willingly exchanged a seat in front of television at home for a regular summer activity. I was going to camp; I had an appointment with the stars that I wouldn't miss for the world -- not even for the moon. Camp Bloomfield was established in 1958 and sits on 40 scenic acres in the coastal Santa Monica Mountains near Malibu, Calif. It was started by Norm Kaplan, the founder and mainstay behind the Junior Blind of America, then called the Foundation for the Junior Blind. The land use was made possible through the generosity of Henry Bloomfield, whose grandson still maintains the property and lives there year-round. In the early days of camp, our contact with Norm was at each evening's campfire, where he served as a congenial master of ceremonies. He didn't mix much with campers in their daily activities. But his aloofness, to say nothing of his deep, textured voice, only added to his paternal mystique. You didn't see him a lot but you liked knowing he was around. The campers revered Norm Kaplan. Since his retirement in the 1980s there have been other camp directors. In recent years the baton has passed to an experienced and capable hand. Frank Cardenas started volunteering at Junior Blind of America about 20 years ago. He was added to the payroll in 1998, and has been the director of recreation services for the last six years. For most of the year Cardenas is in charge of a program called Visions: Adventures in Learning. From October through May, he leads groups of teens on three- and four-day excursions as they hike, river raft, and snowboard their way through California and other western states. He's also responsible for orchestrating special events from the Halloween Carnival to the Junior Blind Olympics in spring. Cardenas took time from his lively schedule to talk with me about the focal point of his summers: the Camp Bloomfield of today. Long before Cardenas packs his bags and trades his Los Angeles office for three months of fresh air and sunshine, the hard work of preparation begins. Each year, Cardenas makes it a point to hire 12 to 14 staffers from outside the United States. "Then there's the staff that live in the States," he says. "They apply for activity positions like archery, arts and crafts, lifeguard positions, wrangler positions. I hire 11 male and 11 female counselors. I also hire a registered nurse. They go through an interview process. If they can come to the Los Angeles office, I meet with them. If not, I'll have a video interview on Skype. We check references and do background checks. They go through an intensive paperwork packet where they sign on to all the policies we have here at the Junior Blind. So it's pretty intense." Cardenas puts his new staff through a solid week of concentrated learning. "We train with them six to seven days. During that training they learn the basics, the characteristics of working with the sighted kids and the blind kids. They learn all the policies and procedures. They do group games to get to know each other. They learn emergency procedures, first aid and CPR. We also have the staff participate in blindfold exercises, whether that's having their meals blindfolded, or organizing their stuff in the cabin to change and dress so they can learn just a little bit about not having vision. They kind of go through a session as if they were campers so when the session starts there are really no surprises." To accommodate the different needs and interests of various groups, summer camping is divided into eight separate sessions. There are sessions for grade school kids, middle-schoolers, high-schoolers, adults, and families. Although the majority of campers are from California, all are welcome. Cardenas says, "We get kids, families too, from Nevada and as far away as New York and Chicago." Any given session may include swimming, tandem bicycling, judo, wrestling and goalball. "We offer horseback riding," says Cardenas. "We do the climbing wall. We have archery, with oversized targets and beepers. We have 10 or 12 targets out there so a whole cabin will go at the same time. We have arts and crafts with oversized beads. They tie-dye their shirts; they do paints; I mean, you name it." No two days are alike, and the summer is filled with special events, which take place in and outside of camp. Cardenas and his team make good use of California's incomparable coastline and abundant natural resources. Minutes from the Pacific Coast Highway, it's sand, surf, and sunscreen when camp heads out for beach day. "We take one group of kids to Marina Del Rey to do deep sea fishing with the California Yacht Club," Cardenas explains. "We also take them for a golf clinic at the naval golf course. We take them out to Lake Arrowhead and do waterskiing." Another long standing camp tradition is Christmas in July. "We have a bunch of volunteers that help set up. We bring the snow in and we make the campfire into a little scene with a bunch of ice and Santa. When the kids go back to their cabin there'll be gifts on their beds." The gifts come courtesy of Jakks Pacific, a toy company with an international reach and a robust philanthropic outreach. Campers are organized into groups, each with its own counselor. Typically several groups are assigned to a cabin. Generally, every day begins and ends in the same way: inspection in the morning and campfire at night. Immediately after breakfast the cabin, bathroom included, as well as each camper's personal belongings must be made shipshape and ready for inspection. At the end of each session the winning cabin earns the Golden Plunger Award. Evening campfire is a time for singing, for skits and storytelling. Each group, each camper is encouraged to participate, no matter how passively. It's a time to pull together, to enjoy some creativity and have a lot of fun. What does the future hold for Camp Bloomfield? Cardenas wants a serious music program and more. "We would definitely like to see a nature center of some kind, and maybe a goalball facility." Cardenas points to several success stories of alumni who are making the most of life. They've let him know that they credit both Camp Bloomfield, and Junior Blind's Visions program, for building their confidence and self esteem. I am profoundly grateful for the many summers I spent at camp. I have my own set of cherished memories of good people and good times. As a boy I lived in urban Southern California, and without using my telescope I could only ever see two or three of the brightest stars. But it was an altogether different story at camp. Far from big-city lights and haze, the night sky was wide open to me. Because I was completely caught up with astronomy and all things "space," seeing the stars was one of the things about camp that I most looked forward to, and one of the things I best remember. A supernal wonder set in blue-black velvet, the scattered stars and Milky Way formed a twinkling panorama of majestic beauty. In conversation with Frank Cardenas I marveled at the way faded, 40-year-old memories come back: reveille, the wobbly bridge, Boy's Town Hill. Ask any of the countless Camp Bloomfield alumni and you will, no doubt, hear of favorite activities and favorite counselors. You'll hear of new friends made and new challenges met. You'll also discern a common theme, the single, bottom-line concept that unites it all. Camp Bloomfield is a thoroughly charming experience; and at the end of the day, it's all about fun. ***** A DVD PLAYER FOR THE BLIND?! by Michael Bayus You might ask, "Why the heck would a blind person be interested in DVDs anyway?" I was a TV baby. In fact, when I was born in 1952, my dad was learning to be a TV repairman. We had 2 TVs in our house, both of them in the living room, and even though I was totally blind from birth, I enjoyed "watching" and one of the TVs was always on. One of my hobbies now is collecting DVDs of old vintage TV shows and creating old TV schedules (playing the shows on the day and at the time they were first aired), so I am interested in any DVD player (PC-based or otherwise) that would be blind-friendly, and there aren't very many. The Basics Before I talk about this new DVD player I found, which is PC-based, let's talk about some basic concepts. What's a DVD? A DVD is movies on a shiny disc, and much more. It's an optical disc storage technology for video, audio, and computer data. A DVD is essentially a bigger, faster CD that can hold high-quality digital video, better-than-CD audio, pictures, and any other sort of digital information. DVD encompasses home entertainment, computers, and business information with a single digital format. It replaced laser disc, videotape, many video game cartridge formats, and many CD-ROM applications. DVD has widespread support from all major electronics companies, all major computer hardware companies, and all major movie and music studios. With this unprecedented support, DVD became the most successful consumer electronics product of all time in less than three years of its introduction. In 2007, 10 years after launch, there were over one billion DVD playback devices worldwide, including DVD players, DVD PCs, and DVD game consoles. For a blind person, a DVD presents something of an anomaly. Unlike a VHS video tape that starts just as soon as you put it in the player, a DVD presents you with a main menu, and, more likely than not, a series of submenus before you get to the movie. Let's create a DVD with a series of titles. There is no such DVD as this, but I'll make one up for purposes of discussion in this article. There are two options for blind people when using an average DVD player, either stand-alone or PC-based. 1) A blind person could require the assistance of a sighted spouse, family member or friend since the menus don't normally talk, or 2) one could make sure that there is at least one DVD player in the household that supports the direct access feature. This feature is on some, but not all players. Direct access allows you to play each item by pressing its number on the remote. We have three DVD players at home; two of them have direct access. Since I am totally blind, and I don't want to bother my wife every time one of the shows ends, I'll use one of the players with direct access. When I put the DVD in, it begins to spin, and a series of logos and warnings come up that do not have sound that tell me that the material is copyrighted, and that copying it is illegal. Then some music plays and the titles come up. Title 1: Dragnet Title 2: Federal Men Title 3: Follow That Man Title 4: Front Page Detective Title 5: Gangbusters Title 6: I'm The Law and Title 7: The Lawless Years Let's say I want to watch them in the order that they are on the disk. I would have to keep the remote nearby, and press the appropriate number, 001, 002, 003, etc., every time the last show ended and I wanted to start the next title. Enter the VLC Media Player My wife and I both have laptop computers that play DVDs. The software that allows the PC to play DVDs is not blind-friendly in any way, and is very frustrating for me to use. As some if not most of you know, Windows Media Player is pretty easy for a blind person to use, and it can play DVDs if the right plug-in is installed. I was searching for a free one when I stumbled upon the VLC Media Player. I downloaded and installed it, and wow, did I get an amazing surprise! I put in a DVD, and much to my delight, all of the menus talked with my screen reader. While the names of the titles on the disk are not spoken, the screen reader does say "title one, title two," etc., as I arrow around. What Is It? The VLC Media Player is a highly portable multimedia player supporting most audio and video formats (H.264, Ogg, DivX, MKV, TS, MPEG-2, MP3, MPEG-4, AAC, etc.) from files, physical media (DVDs, VCD, audio CD), TV capture cards and many network streaming protocols. It can also convert media files, transcode and act as a streaming server over unicast or multicast and IPv4 or IPv6. It doesn't need any external codec, program or codec pack to work and, because it is open source and published under the GNU General Public License, it's completely free. It is extremely blind-friendly and easy to use, and it has a "disable menus" check box that will force the player to play all of the files that are on the disk one after the other. You can still pick a specific file on the disk, however. The local help interface is not very good; when you click on it, you get a message telling you to go to various support pages on the VLC web site. The documentation, while not presented in a straightforward way, is very comprehensive and well-written, but you have to do a lot of hunting and fishing to find an answer to a question. For example: I discovered that some of my DVDs would play, and others would not. I didn't know that I would have to choose a region for my drive. (More about that at the end of this article.) I set my drive to the right region, and now all of my DVDs play perfectly. About VideoLAN VideoLAN is a project, run by volunteers, backed up by a non-profit organization, which produces free and open source software for multimedia, released under the GNU General Public License. VLC Media Player is an open-source, free software media player written by the VideoLAN project. (You can find more information at www.videolan.org.) VLC is a portable multimedia player, encoder, and streamer supporting many audio and video codecs and file formats as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It is able to stream over networks and to transcode multimedia files and save them into various formats. VLC stands for VideoLAN Client. A Word About Regions Motion picture studios want to control the home release of movies in different countries because theater releases aren't simultaneous (a movie may come out on video in the U.S. when it's just hitting screens in Europe). Also, studios sell distribution rights to different foreign distributors and would like to guarantee an exclusive market. Therefore they require that the DVD standard include codes to prevent playback of certain discs in certain geographical regions. Each player is given a code for the region in which it's sold. The player will refuse to play discs that are not coded for its region. This means that a disc bought in one country may not play on a player bought in another country. Some people believe that region codes are an illegal restraint of trade, but no legal cases have established this. Regional codes are entirely optional for the maker of a disc. Discs without region locks will play on any player in any country. It's not an encryption system, it's just one byte of information on the disc that the player checks. Some studios originally announced that only their new releases would have regional codes, but so far almost all Hollywood releases play in only one region. Region codes are a permanent part of the disc; they won't "unlock" after a period of time. Region codes don't apply to DVD-Audio, DVD-ROM, or recordable DVD. Seven regions (also called locales or zones) have been defined, and each one is assigned a number. Players and discs are often identified by their region number superimposed on a world globe. If a disc plays in more than one region it will have more than one number on the globe. The regions are: 1: U.S., Canada, U.S. territories 2: Japan, Europe, South Africa, and Middle East (including Egypt) 3: Southeast Asia and East Asia (including Hong Kong) 4: Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands, Central America, Mexico, South America, and the Caribbean 5: Eastern Europe (Former Soviet Union), Indian subcontinent, Africa, North Korea, and Mongolia 6: China 7: Reserved 8: Special international venues (airplanes, cruise ships, etc.) Conclusion At last, a DVD player that can easily be used by the blind! While its developers did not specifically intend it to be used by blind people, it interfaces easily with Microsoft's accessibility hooks, making it a dream to use. Though it is software to be used on your computer, perhaps someday, stand-alone players will incorporate it with some text-to-speech software and it will be easier for us when we buy a DVD player off the shelf. ***** AFFILIATE NEWS ** Come to West Virginia! The Mountain State Council of the Blind will hold its convention Sept. 17-18, at the Wingate Inn in Charleston. This year's theme is "The Future Is Now." Some highlights for the upcoming convention include a student seminar on Friday afternoon. There will also be an exhibit area with lots of products to check out. On Friday evening we will dine at Mama Mia's Italian Buffet. Live entertainment and social will follow. On Saturday we will hear from Chuck Huss on low-vision driving, Darren Burton from AFB Tech, Marcia Springston on "Pottery as a Blind Individual," and finally our annual business meeting and banquet. And don't forget to check out the auction! It will be held after ACB president Mitch Pomerantz's keynote speech. To make your room reservation, call the Wingate Inn at (304) 744-4444. Rates are $89 plus tax for two people per room. MSCB has reserved a block of rooms; to get the convention rate, call before Sept. 3. For more information, call Glen Pinkard, convention committee chair, at (304) 822-7175. ** Arkansas Awards Scholarships to Nine Blind Students The Arkansas Council of the Blind makes scholarships available to blind students in Arkansas in the amount of $1,000 each. The Northwest Chapter awarded six scholarships from the Roger Eagle Scholarship Fund, and the state organization awarded three, for the 2010-2011 school year. This will be the last year for the Roger Eagle Scholarship Fund. The Arkansas Council of the Blind will continue annual scholarship awards as long as the finances are in place. ** Mid-Tennessee Revs Things Up with a Poker Run On May 22, the Mid-Tennessee Council of the Blind (MTCB) tried a new way to rev its fundraising efforts: they held the first Braille Poker Run. The chapter publicized the 112-mile poker run to motorcycle clubs and at motorcycle shops. People registered and paid their entry fees at the starting line, then made three stops along the route before making their way to the finish line. At all stops the riders drew a card from a print/braille deck and had their tally sheet marked in print and braille. There were also opportunities to purchase additional hands as well as 50/50 tickets along the way. MTCB members were stationed at each stop to do the brailling and to cheer the riders on. Some were even brave enough to hop on the back of a motorcycle! At the end of the run, there were cash prizes, one for the best hand and one for the worst. The first 50/50 ticket won half the amount collected. More than a dozen prizes were drawn for items generously donated by the motorcycle shops throughout middle Tennessee. It was a lot of fun and we are already making plans to expand our efforts for next year. So if your group is tired of doing the same old fundraisers, consider revving up your efforts with a braille poker run! For more information, contact Dan Dillon at (615) 874-1223 or via e-mail, brenda.dan@comcast.net. ***** HERE AND THERE edited by Sue Lichtenfels The announcement of products and services in this column does not represent an endorsement by the American Council of the Blind, its officers, or staff. Listings are free of charge for the benefit of our readers. "The Braille Forum" cannot be held responsible for the reliability of the products and services mentioned. To submit items for this column, send a message to info@acb.org, or phone the national office at 1-800-424-8666, and leave a message in Sharon Lovering's mailbox. Information must be received at least two months ahead of publication date. ** PITTSBURGH AUDIO DART TOURNAMENT SportsVision's Audio Darts Group will host its 8th biennial tournament, The Harold Schlegel Dart Tournament, the weekend of Oct. 8-10, 2010. It will be held at the Greentree Radisson, 101 Radisson Dr., Pittsburgh, PA 15205. The room rate for reservations made by Sept. 26 is $89 per night plus tax for up to four in a room. Call (412) 922-8400 for reservations. Registration for the five events is $90; $25 for individual events. Total prize money will be at least $3,600. Specific events are to be determined. All participants will be required to use occluders. No dart can exceed 8 inches in length or weigh more than 18 grams. Mail your registration money and choice of team members to: Louis Wassermann, 2503 Silver Oak Dr., Pittsburgh, PA 15220 no later than Sept. 25. There will be no refunds unless substantiated emergency occurs. For additional details, contact Joe Wassermann at (412) 687-5166 or Sue Lichtenfels at (412) 429-1727. ** 2010 HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES This fall the American Printing House for the Blind will induct two new blindness pioneers into The Hall of Fame for Leaders and Legends of the Blindness Field. M.C. Migel founded the American Foundation for the Blind in 1920 after his work with blind veterans during World War I. Morris Frank co-founded The Seeing Eye and laid the groundwork for dog guide access in North America. The ceremony will be held Oct. 15 in conjunction with APH's annual trustees meeting at the Galt House Hotel in Louisville, Ky. Learn more about these or the 44 previous inductees by visiting http://www.aph.org/hall_fame/index.html. ** ATTENTION SOUTH CAROLINA ALUMNI The Cedar Spring Association of the South Carolina School for the Blind will hold a special weekend to celebrate its 155th anniversary. Events for the weekend of Oct. 29-31, 2010 include a business meeting, homecoming football game, recreation opportunities, and a dinner celebration. For more information about the weekend, e-mail barbieann519@charter.net or call (864) 825-0006. ** NEW TALKING BOOK PLAYERS AVAILABLE After much anticipation, the new Digital Talking Book Player from the National Library Service is now available through cooperating libraries around the country. The new players include built-in assistance at the touch of any button. As soon as you insert the digitally recorded book cartridge, the book begins. The NLS loans both the player and book cartridges for free to patrons who register as blind or visually impaired. To receive your digital books and player, contact your local library for the blind and physically handicapped. You can locate your closest library by either calling 1-888-NLS-READ or visiting www.loc.gov/nls/find.html. ** SEEKING BLINDNESS ITEMS Stephanie Pieck is seeking donations of cassette, large print or braille books and magazines as well as children's books in braille or print. She’ll take various gently used blindness accessories including games, braille writers, slates, and folding canes. She sends these items to Malawi to be distributed to blind adults and children. Mail items to: Stephanie Pieck, 1371 Kings Rd., Schenectady, NY 12303. Stephanie also teaches braille music correspondence courses and sells CDs of her musical compositions through her web site, www.themusicsuite.net. ** HALL OF FAME HONORS Congratulations to Kathy Martinez for her induction into the San Francisco State University Alumni Hall of Fame. Kathy received her bachelor of arts in speech communication from the university in 1992. Today she is the Assistant Secretary for Disability Employment Policy at the U.S. Department of Labor. ** LOW VISION WEB RESOURCE The Low Vision Centers of Indiana have launched a new web site to assist in the rehabilitation of people experiencing vision loss due to an acquired brain injury. The site, www.hemianopsia.net, is a resource for individuals and their family members who have visual complications resulting from trauma, stroke, or brain tumor. The Low Vision Centers welcome the opportunity to reciprocate links with other organizations. Contact richw@eyeassociates.com for information about exchanging links. For additional information about the Low Vision Centers of Indiana, call (317) 844-0919. ***** HIGH TECH SWAP SHOP ** FOR SALE: Braille Lite 40-cell notetaker and Trekker. Asking $1,500 for the Braille Lite, $1,100 for the Trekker. Two Apple iPhone 3Gs, one 16-gig and one 32-gig. Asking $300 for the 16-gig phone, $450 for the 32-gig. Call Angel at (407) 574-6961. ** FOR SALE: BookSense XT in excellent physical and working order. The unit does not come with any external storage. At the time of this writing, it is running the latest firmware, and should an upgrade be released between the time of this writing and sale of the unit, it will be installed. Asking $400 or best offer. If the buyer mentions this ad, 5 percent of the purchase price will be donated to ACB's general operating fund. Contact Jeremiah Rogers at (704) 996-5334 or via e-mail at onthenet@jzrogers.com for further information. ** FOR SALE: Brand-new Toshiba laptop, 14-inch screen, with 320-gig hard drive, 4 gigs RAM, Windows XP Professional, Office 2007 Enterprise edition, Nero 10, JAWS and ZoomText. Asking $1,000 including shipping. USB Internet radio, $40. Spanish Bible, New Testament, $30. Desktop computer with 2 gigs RAM, 1 TB hard drive, Windows XP Home Edition, JAWS and ZoomText. Asking $600, including shipping. Call Jose at (818) 220-6256. ** FOR SALE: Unlocked Nokia E66 slider phone. Works worldwide; in excellent condition! Features include: one-touch keys, 3.2-MP camera, up to 8GB storage (with micro-SD memory card) as well as a host of useful business and personal applications. Comes with: case that has a magnetic cover and belt clip, 2-gig SD card, USB cable and version 5 of the Talks screen reader (already installed). Asking $270. Please contact nafi18@gmail.com if interested. ** WANTED: Franklin Speller. Willing to negotiate price. Contact James Kral at (708) 422-1218 or (708) 705-8721. ***** AFTER THE TEARS After the tears, there is time, Time to reflect, time to review. After the tears, there is time, Time to renew. The losses of life bring tears and pain. Yet, after the tears, The gift of time still does remain. Precious are the tears shed for loss of life and love, The gift of time offers the strength of life And the potential to rise above. -- Teddie-Joy Remhild ACB OFFICERS PRESIDENT MITCH POMERANTZ 1115 CORDOVA ST. #402 PASADENA, CA 91106 FIRST VICE PRESIDENT KIM CHARLSON 57 GRANDVIEW AVE. WATERTOWN, MA 02472 SECOND VICE PRESIDENT BRENDA DILLON 313 OVERRIDGE COVE HERMITAGE, TN 37076 SECRETARY MARLAINA LIEBERG 632 S. 189TH ST. BURIEN, WA 98148 TREASURER MIKE GODINO 104 TILROSE AVE. MALVERNE, NY 11565-2024 IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT CHRISTOPHER GRAY 94 RAMONA AVE. SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103 ACB BOARD OF DIRECTORS Ray Campbell, Glen Ellyn, IL Berl Colley, Lacey, WA Marsha Farrow, Summerville, GA Michael Garrett, Missouri City, TX Billie Jean Keith, Arlington, VA Carla Ruschival, Louisville, KY Patrick Sheehan, Silver Spring, MD Jeff Thom, Sacramento, CA David Trott, Talladega, AL Cammie Vloedman, Oklahoma City, OK Ex Officio: Marcia Dresser, Reading, MA BOARD OF PUBLICATIONS Paul Edwards, Chairman, Miami, FL Marcia Dresser, Reading, MA Judy Jackson, San Antonio, TX Jenine Stanley, Columbus, OH Ken Stewart, Warwick, NY Ex Officios: Michael Malver, Minneapolis, MN Ron Milliman, Bowling Green, KY