October 7-9, 2005

By Judy Sanders, Secretary

National Federation of the Blind (NFB) of Minnesota conventions offer something for everyone having to do with blindness. Friday's agenda is an example.

The day began with a seminar conducted by Jennifer Dunnam and Al Spooner. Jennifer and Al are recent graduates of "Training to Organize People for Service (TOPS)." This was a new seminar sponsored by the NFB, and Jennifer and Al brought a mini version to us in Minnesota. It involved a spirited discussion and role playing to make us all aware of how we can more actively recruit members into the NFB. This seminar served as a reminder that we all have a responsibility to share the Federation with other blind friends and interested parties.

Friday evening brought a choice of three meetings and hospitality.

The Minnesota Organization of Parents of Blind Children, under the leadership of Carrie Gilmer, met to share thoughts and ideas to benefit their blind children. Blind adults were there to add the benefit of their experiences. The extensive literature from the NFB was available and parents took full advantage of it.

Next door to the parents meeting, those interested in Braille met for the annual meeting of the National Association to Promote the Use of Braille (NAPUB), Kathy McGillivray president. Elections yielded the following results: president, Kathy McGillivray; vice president, Melody Wartenbee; secretary, Trudy Barrett; and treasurer, RoseAnn Faber. NAPUB members look forward to promoting the "Braille Readers are Leaders" contest and urging all of Minnesota's blind children to be a part of it.

These meetings were followed by the Resolutions Committee meeting chaired by Jennifer Dunnam. Two resolutions were referred for passage to the convention, one requesting the Department of Education to modernize its rule regarding eligibility for special-education services to include the word "blind" and another resolution thanking Senator James Metzen and Representative Jim Knoblach for their efforts in leading the way for passage of funding for NFB NEWSLINE®.

Our Saturday morning general session was called to order promptly at 9 a.m. by President Joyce Scanlan. Throughout the convention, the possibility of winning door prizes added to the excitement. Trudy Barrett and her team of crack door prize experts kept us hoping that our names would be drawn.

Another longtime tradition at NFB of Minnesota conventions is our bake auction. Al Spooner ably coordinated this auction; we had numerous baked goods and offers of scrumptious dinners to auction off and Al's crew did a heroic job in getting the maximum amount of money possible out of all of us. The NFB of Minnesota treasury was the beneficiary.

Tom Scanlan read a proclamation from Governor Tim Pawlenty designating October as "Meet the Blind Month" in Minnesota.  See the Governor’s proclamation in the Winter 2006 issue.

We were pleased to welcome Carlos Servan, assistant director of the Nebraska Commission for the Blind and former member of the NFB board of directors, as our national representative.

Words of welcome were offered by Jennifer Dunnam, president of the Metro chapter, followed by some spirited singing of NFB songs.

Our first speaker of the morning was Mr. Olda Boubin, the new director of the Minnesota State Academy for the Blind in Faribault. Mr. Boubin introduced himself to us by telling of his harrowing childhood in Hungary and his good fortune in becoming a refugee to this country. He became an educator of blind children because his mother was legally blind. He believes that legislation should be passed requiring every school district to identify every visually-impaired child; determine if the child needs a teacher of the visually impaired; determine if Braille should be taught; and assure that Braille material is provided at the same time as the material for sighted students. If this is not possible, is the technology available to make the material available in another format? There should also be a determination of whether the child should attend the school for the blind. Can the child read at grade level by third grade? He believes the Academy for the Blind should unify all vision teachers and that expectations for blind children should be higher.

We next heard from Chuk Hamilton, the director of Minnesota State Services for the Blind (SSB).

The report was a celebration of SSB's partnership with consumers like us. 133 customers were successful in finding or keeping employment last fiscal year. SSB is increasing its marketing and outreach to seniors and children. The Communication Center works cooperatively with the Minnesota Resource Center for the Blind and Visually Handicapped to provide technology for testing blind children so that their teachers and families can determine what might be helpful in their education. Chuk commended the NFB for its political savvy as shown by our leadership in getting funding for NFB-NEWSLINE® and Dial-in-News. See Chuk’s complete report in the Winter 2006 issue.

Our next speaker, Jean Martin, Director of the Minnesota Resource Center for the Blind and Visually Handicapped, is supporting our request that the rule governing eligibility for special-education services for blind children be amended to use the word blind in addition to visually impaired. This change should not be controversial and will not require a hearing. Jean continues to work with Mary Archer, supervisor of the Braille unit in the Communication Center to evaluate each question that is to appear on standardized tests for Minnesota students. They are determining if there is any bias in the questions that would be difficult for a blind student. If they find that a question could not be transcribed into Braille, it is eliminated from the test. The Resource Center has established a partnership with the Pennsylvania School of Optometry to teach a distance learning course that trains potential orientation and mobility instructors. This helps alleviate a shortage of instructors in the public school system. Braille textbooks are transcribed by the Communication Center. This service is paid for by local school districts on a per child basis. They pay the Department of Education who then pays SSB. If a school district opts out of this program, they must pay full price for each book they need. The Resource Center is also partnering with SSB to loan assistive technology to blind children so they can determine its usefulness to them. See Jean’s complete report in the Winter 2006 issue.

Jennifer Dunnam, chair of our resolutions committee, read a resolution supporting amending the special-education rule to include the word blind. The resolution passed unanimously.

Our morning session closed with a demonstration of the new handheld reading machine that is being developed through the NFB Jernigan Institute in cooperation with Ray Kurzweil. Carlos Servan explained how this machine will work and Jennifer Dunnam demonstrated it. It was available for examination throughout the convention.

During the latter part of the morning our speakers had to contend with noise coming from a room next door to our meeting room. The raucous laughter of children could be heard emanating from the activities of the "Saturday School" sponsored by the Minnesota Organization of Parents of Blind Children. This is an activity that is open to all blind children and usually takes place at our headquarters in Minneapolis on the second Saturday of each month.

The Minnesota Association of Blind Students met over lunch and elected the following officers: president, Jeff Thompson of Fridley; vice president, Kotuma Kamara of Minneapolis; secretary, Jordan Richardson of Blaine; and treasurer, Bryce Samuelson of Hayfield.

Our first afternoon speaker was Catherine Durivage, director of the Minnesota Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped in Faribault. Many of Catherine's remarks focused on improvements on technology allowing us to receive better service. For instance, we can e-mail questions to librarians and receive a rapid response. We can use our computers to research what books we may want to order and can place the order with the library. NFB-NEWSLINE® is another example of how technology gives us greater access. The library is adding to its descriptive video collection which is available for loan to patrons. On a less technological front the library is adding to its collection of audio books about and by Minnesota authors. It is hoped that the transition to digital recorded books will be completed by 2008.  See Catherine’s complete report later in this issue.

Carlos Servan, our national representative, began his report with an explanation of the problems we are having in the rulemaking process for IDEA (The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act). The specific provision that concerns us has to do with the definition of getting books on time for blind students. States can opt out of this rule without a real explanation as to how they will comply.

We continue to have disagreements with the WIA (Workforce Investment Act) legislation. H.R. 27 downgrades the position of the Commissioner for the Rehabilitation Services Administration; we want it to remain a presidential appointment. The Senate version, S.1021 takes our position. We also hope to strengthen the choice provisions in WIA. We are supporting an increase for funding for older Americans in the rehabilitation funding. Seniors constitute over half of the blind population.

We are still hopeful that we can find a way to reopen the Office for the Blind and the regional offices in RSA.

We are celebrating the two-hundredth birthday of Louis Braille. In his honor, we are asking Congress to authorize a commemorative coin. We need 290 cosponsors in the House of Representatives. We were proud to inform Mr. Servan that all eight of Minnesota’s Congressmen have signed on to the bill.

We are still hopeful of raising the SGA (Substantial Gainful Activity) amount for blind Social Security recipients to $31,000 per year. This seems a reasonable goal since older Americans have no earnings limit.

NISH (formerly the National Industries for the Severely Handicapped) is ever active in trying to push out blind vendors from the Randolph-Sheppard program. So far, the NFB has taken the lead in preventing this but we must be ever vigilant.

In the area of Medicare legislation, we want Medicare to pay for prescription information that would be accessible to blind customers. It is technically possible for information to come in an audio format. We are opposed to using Medicare funds for rehabilitation services if the doctors must prescribe for them.

We are involved in a lawsuit on behalf of Lynn Heitz and other college students because she is being forced to count her NFB scholarship as a similar benefit. This cuts down on her assistance from the Rehabilitation Department.

Our Washington seminar will take place from January 30th through February 2nd, 2006. We are urged to have our usual big delegation.

“A Call to the Cause” was an inspiring presentation made by Carrie Gilmer. She called upon us to join her and other parents on a journey to guarantee freedom for all blind people. Her speech could have been called “Are we there yet?” Of course, while we have made great strides, we are not there and that is why we need the National Federation of the Blind. See Carrie’s complete presentation later in this issue.

“Grab the World and Run with It” was the topic for this year’s panel of Blindness: Learning in New Dimensions (BLIND) students. Jana Duncan, of Maple Grove, told us about selling herself short all her life until she finally decided to take control of her own situation and became a student at BLIND. She is now learning the skills and gaining the confidence she needs to make her own decision.

Amanda Swanson, from Detroit Lakes, has Usher’s Syndrome. This means she is slowly losing both vision and hearing. She was a student at Moorhead State when she realized she was having a problem getting around. She came to BLIND and is learning far more than she bargained for.

Jeff Thompson, from Fridley, is the new president of the Minnesota Association of Blind Students, the NFB of Minnesota’s student chapter. He had attended a rehabilitation training center but was not properly motivated to use the skills that they taught him. He became a student at MCTC but eventually realized he needed a refresher course in many of his techniques. He also needed a different perspective. A friend from another state invited him to an NFB national convention; he went with low expectations but came back with the determination to become a student at BLIND. He is now getting his life back on track and expects to live up to the higher expectations everyone has for him.

Shawn Mayo, the executive director of BLIND, pointed out the important role that Federationists play in making this program a success. She introduced Zach Ellingson, the travel instructor, who told us how he came by his job. He is a former student and this was his favorite class. It took him many years to agree to be a student, so he is in a perfect position to relate to other students who are uncertain whether this is the right decision for them. He is having so much fun doing his job that he considers it a bonus to get paid. He does not feel like he is working.

Kathy and Larry Sebranek, from La Crosse, Wisconsin, told us of their travel adventures and let us know how easy it is to go anywhere we want. Kathy began her travels on city buses in St. Paul where she grew up.  It was her mode of transportation to school. She graduated to Jefferson Lines when she moved to La Crosse. Her first airline trip was to an NFB convention. As a vendor in the Business Enterprise Program, Larry heard about a cruise that was being sponsored by the NFB merchants division. Larry and Kathy took that cruise and now it is difficult to find them at home. They just returned from a Mediterranean cruise. Larry joked that he especially likes cruises because they are equipped to handle Kathy’s voluminous amounts of luggage.

The highlight of any NFB convention is the Saturday evening banquet. Jennifer Dunnam acted as mistress of ceremonies and kept things going at a lively pace. Door prizes were handed out and bake items were auctioned off at astronomical amounts.

Two life membership awards were given by President Joyce Scanlan. The first was to Jan Bailey for her outstanding career as a rehabilitation counselor where she teaches her customers to have high expectations for themselves and she puts into practice the philosophy of the National Federation of the Blind. The second award was presented to Marie Whitteker. At age 92 Marie is as active as she ever was. She has been a Federationist since the 1940’s and has participated in every facet of the Federation’s activities. See Joyce’s complete presentation in the Winter 2006 issue.

The highlight of the banquet was the speech presented by Carlos Servan. Mr. Servan told us of how he was blinded in an explosion in Peru that also took one of his hands. He came to this country knowing little English and knowing even less about how he would live his life as a blind person. He is now an attorney and deputy director of the Nebraska Commission for the Blind. His inspirational story, including the part that the National Federation of the Blind played in it, helped us all realize two things: the Federation is important in all our lives and we can surmount anything we put our minds to.

Joyce and Carlos urged us to contribute to a new PAC (Preauthorized Check Plan) or to make an increase to an already existing contribution. Minnesota is currently fourth in the nation in the amount we give.

Tim Lindbo was announced as the winner of this year’s Metro Chapter essay contest.

Sunday morning began with members of the Federation who serve throughout the blindness community on a variety of committees or councils making reports.

Steve Jacobson reported on the status of HAVA (Help America Vote Act) enforcement. Steve is helping to make the final decision as to which voting machines the state will recommend to the counties and help purchase.

Joyce Scanlan represents us on the advisory committee to the Minnesota Resource Center. This committee is supporting the rule amendment to add the word “blind” to the special-education rule.

Jennifer Dunnam serves as chair of the Rehabilitation Advisory Council for the Blind. She was involved in selecting the new director of the Communication Center, Richard Strong. This is a tough time in rehabilitation services because of the federal government’s lack of support. It is too early to determine how the many changes the Rehabilitation Services Administration is making will affect SSB. The regional office in Chicago has already closed and we do not yet know who the new Washington contact will be. Steve Jacobson and Judy Sanders are newly appointed members of the Council. Jennifer thanked RoseAnn Faber for her six years of service on the Council.

Jan Bailey and Janiece Duffy serve on the Site Council for the Academy for the Blind in Faribault. Jan represents the Alumni Association and Janiece represents the NFB. Jan was a member of the interview committee that chose Olda Boubin as the new director of the Academy. Jan needs to resign her position and is looking for a replacement for the Alumni Association.

The minutes of the 2005 semiannual convention were approved as printed in the Minnesota Bulletin.

The treasurer’s report was accepted as read by Tom Scanlan.

Jana Duncan invited everyone to a Halloween bash sponsored by the students at BLIND. Everyone was urged to come in costume on October 28th.

A resolution was passed thanking Representative James Knoblach and Senator James Metzen for their authorship of our NFB-NEWSLINE® funding bill and thanking the legislature for its unanimous support.

The NFB of Minnesota elected the following officers: president, Joyce Sanlan; secretary, Judy Sanders; board members, Charlene Childrey; Jan Bailey and Beth Moline. Those who were not up for election this year are vice president, Jennifer Dunnam; treasurer, Tom Scanlan; and board members Pat Barrett and Steve Jacobson.

Chapter reports indicate that we are growing by leaps and bounds throughout Minnesota. Our newest chapter is the Runestone Chapter. At the banquet Dick Sammons was presented with their new charter but he was unable to be present for his chapter report. All chapters are actively participating in “Meet the Blind Month” activities. They range from handing out literature in public areas, to tables and displays of NFB-NEWSLINE®, to demonstrations of assistive technology, to a scavenger hunt at the Mall of America.

The Rochester chapter will be selling calendars and food and the members will wear name tags that say “I am blind. Ask me a question.”

The metro chapter is hosting new-members dinners in chapter members’ homes. At chapter meetings they often read Kernel Book stories and follow with a discussion.

The St. Cloud chapter held a garage sale that netted $200. This is in addition to their spaghetti dinner in January.

The Riverbend Chapter credits the move-a-thon with giving them more visibility in the community of New Ulm. They receive more calls from people wanting information about blindness. They were proud of the senior event that they hosted in the spring.

Tim Aune announced that people can hear excerpts from this convention on “Speaking for Ourselves” which airs on the Radio Talking Book the last Sunday evening of the month.

This was our most successful bake sale. We netted more than $3,100.

The convention adjourned shortly before noon.

Resolution A05-01

Regarding the Inclusion of the Word "Blind" In Special Education Definition

WHEREAS, all children who receive special education services in Minnesota because of legal blindness or other irregularities in their vision must be qualified for such services under Minnesota Rule 3525.1345; and

WHEREAS, such services may include anything from Braille and cane travel instruction to modification of seating arrangements in the classroom; and

WHEREAS, while "visually impaired" as defined in the rule includes some who are not legally blind, the rule is also clearly intended to apply to students who are blind; and

WHEREAS, the rule contains several references to "visually impaired" but never uses the word "blind" in the title or the text; and

WHEREAS, the equivalent rule covering hearing-impaired persons is titled "Deaf and Hard of Hearing" making the absence of the word "blind" a conspicuous omission; and

WHEREAS, the title of this rule, "visually impaired", which is used to categorize students receiving special education services, is a prominent part of the student’s Individualized Education Plan (IEP) and influences the options considered therein; and

WHEREAS, an instance recently occurred in which education officials cited the absence of the word "blind" in the Minnesota Rule to support their refusal to refer to a student as blind in his IEP; and

WHEREAS, understanding and accepting blindness is an important part of developing positive attitudes about blindness, both for the student who is blind and for the professionals who work with the students; now therefore

BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind of Minnesota on this eighth day of October, 2005, in the city of Bloomington, Minnesota, that this organization seek (and support efforts to seek) legislative authorization to make a non-controversial modification to Minnesota Rule 3525.1345 for the purpose of adding the word "blind" to its title so that it reads "Blind/Visually Impaired"; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that after approval to modify the rule has been received, this organization work with the appropriate entities to ensure inclusion of the word "blind" in the rule title.

RESOLUTION A05-02

Regarding Commendation for Legislation to Fund NFB-NEWSLINE®

WHEREAS, NFB-NEWSLINE® is a telephone newspaper reading service offering access to over two hundred newspapers and magazines for blind and other eligible individuals unable to read conventional print; and

WHEREAS, NFB-NEWSLINE® was previously funded in Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota Department of Education under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, but this grant expired on April 15th, 2005; and

WHEREAS, The National Federation of the Blind of Minnesota requested that the Minnesota Legislature approve funding for NFB-NEWSLINE® through the Telephone Access Minnesota (TAM) fund; and

WHEREAS, Senator James Metzen and Representative Jim Knoblach served as chief authors of this legislation and shepherded it through many committee hearings until, in the end, it passed unanimously in both Houses – a most unusual occurrence at the Legislature; now, therefore

BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind of Minnesota in convention assembled this ninth day of October, in the city of Bloomington, that this organization express its gratitude to Senator James Metzen and Representative Jim Knoblach for their unwavering support and leadership in seeing to the passage of funding for NFB-NEWSLINE®; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization thank the Minnesota Legislature for their unanimous vote to fund this service, which provides unprecedented access to daily newspapers and magazines for blind Minnesotans.