Announcing Notre Dame Blindness Symposium: Fri., 6 March, 2009
- From: Kane Brolin <kbrolin65@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: Kane.K.Brolin@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2009 19:04:09 -0500
Greetings, fellow listers.
This note is meant to announce that a high-profile blindness symposium
is to occur in McKenna Hall on the campus of The University of Notre
Dame on Fri., 6 March, 2009, from 9:00-5:45. Please forward to anyone
you believe might have an interest in this, perhaps posting an
advisory in any newsletter or podcast to which you contribute.
Because the greater South Bend, Indiana, area is reasonably close to
Chicagoland, southern Michigan, Indianapolis, and Ohio, a significant
number of persons will potentially find it feasible to attend. The
highest profile facets of this event are the keynote address by Dr.
Marc Maurer, president of the National Federation of the Blind; and
the presence of Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer and entrepreneur
Adolph Kiefer. Dr. Maurer will be on center stage roughly from 10:45
A.M. to 12:30 P.M and will speak directly to the enormous gap that
remains in respect to employment of the blind in 21st century America.
Another noteworthy fact is that this upcoming symposium has been
created at Notre Dame and is being administered by an ND special
professional named Dr. Essaka Joshua, who conducts and supervises
academic
research in the area of disability studies. So this will be first and
foremost an academic conference put on by one of North America's most
prestigious institutions of higher learning. To that end, papers
about the literary and
historical significance of blindness through the ages will be formally
presented by scholars from universities both in the USA and in Europe.
Athletically-minded attendees and parents of blind swimmers will be
able to see first-hand the brand-new, highly affordable navigational
aid called AdapTap that blind swimmers may use to keep their bearings
in the often confusing and fast-moving environment of a swimming pool.
Adolph Kiefer is helping to develop and market AdapTap, and will be
on hand for the presentation of the formal paper describing its
history and function at 3:30 PM.
Apart from the academic focus, there is a second aspect to the March 6
symposium, intended to line up with the practical needs of teachers or
members of the blind community: Following Dr. Maurer's time in the
spotlight and a brief lunch break, the afternoon will feature a
technology fair that runs concurrently with the last three paper
presentations. As a
part of that tech fair, we will present four focused seminars of
practical and educational significance to special education teachers,
vocational rehabilitation professionals, blind persons, and family
members or friends of blind persons. The lineup for these
presentations, as it stands now, is as follows:
2:00 PM: Select members from the leadership team of GW Micro,
developers of the Window-Eyes screen reading program and distributors
of the Braille Sense notetaker, the SenseNav GPS system, and the
SenseView closed circuit TV, show off the benefits and new features
related to their increasingly robust and popular products.
3:00 PM: The Sendero Group, featuring accessible GPS solutions and
other leading-edge portable technology for the blind. Enter a drawing
for a chance to win a signed copy of "Crashing Through," the
inspirational true story of Sendero's president and
adventurer-in-chief Michael May. This book, authored by Robert
Kurson, was published by Random House in 2007 and is available in
Braille, CD, cassette tape, and Internet download.
4:00 PM: Wade Wingler of the Easter Seals Crossroads Assistive
Technology Center in Indianapolis. Wade discusses the new INDATA
Project making technology affordable for members of the disabled
community who earn a low income and/or who do not qualify for direct
state funding assistance.
5:00 PM: Hadley School for the Blind, based in Winnetka, Illinois.
Hadley has provided distance learning opportunities in Braille, in
large print, and now online, for nearly 90 years to blind citizens of
more than 100 countries.
Aside from the long-form presentations listed above, we are expecting
demonstration/informational booths to be staffed all afternoon by
ADEC Inc., Bosma Enterprises, the Chicago Lighthouse, En-Vision
America, Easter Seals/Crossroads, Eye Can See, GH LLC, GW Micro, the
Hadley School for the Blind, the Indiana Talking Book and Braille
Library, the National Federation of the Blind of Indiana, Recording
for the Blind & Dyslexic, the Saint Joseph County [Indiana] Election
Board, the Sendero Group, the Social Security Administration, and the
United States Association of Blind Athletes.
Last but not least, we hope to get a sneak peek at some experimental
Orientation & Mobility technology not yet released to the general
public that is being developed and tested in the nations that make up
the European Union. At least one of these experimental devices never
has been seen before in North America, but we expect it to be
available for personalized demonstrations that may be conducted either
at our event or later in the Greater Chicago area.
I recognize that those who seriously consider attending may want to
know a lot more specific information about how to arrive at the
symposium's location, how to navigate across the Notre Dame campus and
throughout the community (as in availability of public
transportation), how to make lodging arrangements, where to eat, what
each part of the formal academic presentation consists of, and when
each part is to be held. Out of respect to the high server demands
that go with operating a listserv, I am not including specifics like
these in this message. But answers to these critical concerns do
exist in other documents that the project team has drawn up, with
still further practical/logistical information having been made
available on the University of Notre Dame's Web site. The official
electronic publicity about this event may be found at
http://newsinfo.nd.edu/content.cfm?topicid=31546&seltopicid=3427.
Both the academic conference and the technology fair will be open at
no charge to the general public. But because space in the auditorium
and demonstration rooms is limited, registration is strongly
encouraged.
If you wish to attend, or if you have a question relating to the
practical side of how to get to this symposium and how to meet your
basic life needs while you are there, you are cordially invited to
write personally to BlindnessSymposium@xxxxxxxxx, or to the principal
coordinator of this symposium: Dr. Essaka Joshua ejoshua@xxxxxxx
If you have questions related strictly to the technology fair
exhibitors and the products they are presenting, please write either
to Kane Brolin kbrolin65@xxxxxxxxx or to Lori Miller
Lori@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
I ask that you NOT reply directly to this message, as such replies
likely will interfere with this list's stated topical content.
For all those on this list who do not find this symposium feasible to
attend or relevant to your lives, I thank you in advance for your
forbearance and hope you take this announcement in the helpful spirit
for which it is intended.
Sincerely,
Kane Brolin
Office: (5..., Ext. 1
Mobile: (574)3...
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