[acbny-l] Fw: News notes from the national office
- From: "Frank Casey" <frcasey@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <newyork-l@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 16:58:07 -0400
Greetings,
Below, please find the most recent edition of News Notes from the ACB
National Office in Washington, DC.
Enjoy,
Frank Casey
frcasey@xxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> NEWS NOTES FROM THE NATIONAL OFFICE
>
> For the week ending May 9, 2003.
>
> * ACB mourns loss of member and friend.
>
> It is with great sorrow that we share the passing of Betty
> Gayzagian of Watertown Massachusetts. Betty was held in high
> esteem by all who knew her. She literally defined poise and
> grace and our hearts go out to Al and all the family who had the
> blessing of her being with them for so many years. May Betty
> rest in peace and may we all never forget who she was and in what
> she believed for all humankind.
>
> * Institute for Rehabilitation Issues hears from ACB.
>
> This year is the twenty-ninth year of what has become known
> as the Institute for Rehabilitation Issues (IRI.) It is a
> research forum in which topics are explored with resulting papers
> developed to provide guidance and best thinking to workers in the
> field of rehabilitation.
>
> This year, the topics were, 1) empowerment of people with
> disabilities in the rehab process and 2) the shortage of
> qualified orientation and mobility instructors with a view
> towards utilization of non-traditionally trained people.
>
> ACB was very pleased with the overall thrust of the
> empowerment discussion which pointed towards consumers and
> counselors becoming real partners in the process with consumers
> having real choices. We did however, make the point that
> empowerment simply does not exist when it is indexed to some
> external variable such as an organization which would leave the
> consumer at risk whenever that external variable changed. Our
> example was a reliance upon a psychiatrist instead of a person
> being empowered irrespective of external variables. in short,
> full reliance upon oneself is true empowerment, versus needing a
> constant relationship with a person or organization to maintain
> one's empowerment.
>
> The second area of study being orientation and mobility was
> not so esoteric. ACB representatives Penny Reeder and Kim Avilla
> joined with many others in expressing real concerns about the
> quality and content of the orientation and mobility draft paper
> with respect to credibility and efficacy. While it is clearly
> true that there is a real shortage of university trained
> instructors who are certified in the traditional knowledge and
> skill sets necessary for competent instruction, to simply declare
> another model as a real alternative and to attempt to legitimize
> it through the paper under discussion is hardly evidence of
> sufficient merit to warrant endorsement. We will be watching
> closely what evolves from those two days.
> * Could ACB's national office become Amazon north?
>
> No, there are not strange plants growing on our walls, but a
> morning reading of an indoor thermometer purchased by Charlie
> Crawford read 90 degrees in sharon's work area. In fact there
> have been two occasions where we have had to close the national
> office due to either extreme heat or black smoke as the landlord
> is moving forward with renovations. We suspect that two
> computers have died and a third is at risk given the conditions
> under which folks have had to work.
>
> Even with humorous relief of the speculation about making
> the national office the site of our swim suit edition of the
> Braille Forum, we have had to notify the landlord in no uncertain
> terms as to what we expect of him. It is our understanding that
> they will have installed and made operational the air
> conditioning for this coming Monday and so lets keep our fingers
> crossed that it all will work out.
>
> * And in this corner...
>
> this week brought an attack on the Randolph Sheppard vending
> priority on military bases where blind vendors have had the
> priority opportunity to run food services. Given the fact that
> the organized blind combined to defeat a legal challenge to the
> ability of vendors to have this priority a couple of years ago,
> we find now what we suspect to be a National Industries for the
> Severely Handicapped prompted move in Congress to weaken the law.
> It is gratifying to see our community uniting behind blind
> vendors and ACB is particularly proud of the Randolph Sheppard
> Vendors of America and it's commitment to fight this to the end.
>
> there is proposed legislation called Senate 747 and as yet,
> another to be numbered bill in the House that would open the
> doors to other interests in gaining access to military base
> cafeteria and food service. ACB will supply more information as
> this story develops but it is sufficient to say that advancing
> the interest of other disabilities by attacking the programs of
> another is simply unacceptable and will be remembered and
> defeated.
>
> * Preregistration packets for ACB convention up for launch.
>
> Congratulations to Terry, Patricia, Cynthia and Carla for
> all the work they have done on this year's convention. Terry
> advises she has finished the preregistration packets and they
> have been sent out for a quick review before a final mailing this
> week. We had hoped to get them out last week, but that is the
> bad news; the good news is that they were delayed due to some
> event price lowering! Now, how often have you heard that prices
> were lowered? Smile.
>
> * ACB to help in planning and participating in the America
> Walks national convention!
> It's true! America Walks will be holding next year's
> convention in silver Spring Maryland. This national group and
> associated coalitions of pedestrian and bike groups has been most
> friendly to our objectives of increasing pedestrian access and
> safety to our communities throughout the nation. ACB Exec
> Director Charlie Crawford and Ped Coordinator Phil Strong
> attended the first organizing meeting of the local group to work
> on the convention and you'll be hearing much more about it!
>
> * The things we do for ACB? Touching mice?
>
> No, not making friends with Mickey, but hey how about a
> braille mouse for a computer that not only provides braille, but
> raise images of graphics and is designed especially for blind
> kids and learning? It's called the Virtouch by Aaron Roth and
> ACB staff had an opportunity to see a demo of it this week. In
> fact, we are not going to hog all the fun to ourselves, but
> you'll get a chance to see it at the convention as well!
>
>
> ***
>
> News notes is a compilation of the highlights of the events
> of the preceding week and is not intended to provide a
> comprehensive listing of all activities, or treatment of the
> topics mentioned. For information and more detailed treatment of
> especially legislative concerns, call the Washington Connection
> at 800-424-8666 nights and weekends eastern time. Be sure to
> read the Braille Forum each month and check in with the ACB web
> site and radio at WWW.ACB.ORG and WWW.ACBRADIO.ORG respectively.
>
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