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Hawaii Association of the Blind |
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"advocating independence, equality and opportunity for the blind" |
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HAB Home || HAB History || Events || HAB Forum || Scholarships || Join HAB || Resources || Affiliates || Contact Us |
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| Aloha! And Welcome to the home page of the Hawaii Association of the Blind. |
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| We are the State affiliate of the American Council of the Blind. | ||
| HAB welcomes DONATIONS to support its projects like scholarships, grants and training. Contact Ameila Cetrone for particulars. All donations are tax-deductible. | ||
(This site is BrailleNote-friendly. To view this site with the usual music background, please click here.)
Technology Photos-Audio-Video Archives
News & Announcements
On this page:
► 47th ACB National Convention - Louisville, Kentucky
► Video Description Supported in 2 tested DTV Converter Boxes
► Do Not Call My Phone
► American Printing House - 150 Years
► Diamond Head Theater
► BlindDollar
► Blind Seeks Your Support
► Letters to HAB - Updated May 2008
► Jobs
The American Council of the Blind is holding its 47th National Convention on
July 5-12, 2008 at the Galt House in Louisville, Kentucky. It's the third time
ACB is holding the event at this site, previous being 1980 and 2000. Make your
reservations now to beat the rush. Convention programme will be available at the
ACB website
http://www.acb.org/convention/
IN THE FAR TURN: ACB CONVENTION 2008
by Carla Ruschival
( source: http://www.acb.org/convention/info2008-8.html )
The 47th annual convention of the American Council of the Blind will be one of
the biggest and best ever. Make plans now to be in Louisville July 4-12 for
all the information, exhibits, fun and friends.
The Galt House Hotel is home to ACB for convention week. This beautiful hotel,
overlooking the mighty Ohio River, has undergone a multi-million-dollar
renovation.
Its standard rooms in the Rivue (west) Tower are spacious; its executive
one-bedroom suites on the east side let you "live it up" with a separate parlor
for entertaining friends. Every suite comes equipped with a fridge. Enjoy
scrumptious delicious entrees and to-die-for Kentucky Derby pie at the hotel's
four restaurants. Relax with friends at the outdoor pool, or bring your guitars
and gather 'round the piano in the new 24-hour third-floor lounge area
for an old-fashioned sing-along.
General sessions and exhibits will be just steps away from registration, the
Information Desk, and the ACB Cafe on the east side. Afternoon programs and
evening functions will be found in both towers.
But wait! There's more! The Galt House is within a few blocks of 4th Street
Live, Louisville's fun-filled entertainment district with lots of restaurants.
Grocery stores, drugstores, and other businesses are nearby (a long walk or
short taxi or trolley ride away).
Explore Kentucky with ACB Tours
Visit historic Bardstown (an hour from Louisville) for a tour of Maker's Mark
Distillery; or enjoy a delicious dinner and the "Stephen Foster Story," a
live outdoor musical featuring songs such as "I Dream of Jeannie with the Light
Brown Hair," "Annie Laurie," "Oh Suzanna" and "My Old Kentucky Home." Try
your luck with the horses and eat lunch on Millionaire's Row at Churchill Downs.
Visit the Louisville Slugger, Muhammad Ali, and Frazier Arms museums,
all within easy blocks of the hotel. Discover how glass is blown, pizza dough
and candy are made, and braille, large print and recorded books are produced.
The serious side of the 2008 ACB convention is packed with outstanding
workshops, seminars, exhibits, and programs. Here are just a few highlights
already
on the schedule:
* Special workshops on rehabilitation (Monday), transportation (Tuesday), and
employment and careers (Wednesday);
* Seminars, training and users' groups on a variety of adaptive technology;
* Special informational sessions for human service professionals, blind vendors
and small business owners, teachers, attorneys, and artists and musicians;
* Discussions and programs for parents, students, guide dog users, braille
readers, people with low vision or who have both a hearing and visual
impairment;
and
* Programs, workshops and events for diabetics, Lions, women, international and
multicultural attendees, sports fanatics, and lesbians and gays.
Getting to Convention
Join the race to the 2008 ACB convention by making your hotel reservations now.
Choose a standard room in the Rivue (west) tower for $85/night, or spend
convention week in style in an executive suite (fridge included) for $105/night.
Rates are single/double, and do not include tax; add $10 per night for
each additional person in the room. Call the Galt House directly at (502)
589-5200 for reservations.
Keep up with all the latest convention announcements. Join the acbconvention
e-mail list by sending a blank message to
acbconvention-subscribe@acb.org
For convention questions or special concerns, contact Carla Ruschival,
convention committee chair, at (502) 897-1472 or by e-mail at adamcarla@bellsouth.net,
or call the ACB national office at 1-800- 424-8666.
Video
Description Supported in 2 tested DTV Converter Boxes
At midnight on February 17, 2009, all full-power television stations in the
United States will stop broadcasting in analog and switch to 100% digital
broadcasting. Digital broadcasting promises to provide a clearer picture and
more programming options and will free up airwaves for use by emergency
responders.
Congress created the TV Converter Box Coupon Program for households wishing
to keep using their analog TV sets after February 17, 2009. The Program allows
U.S. households to obtain up to two coupons, each worth $40, that can be applied
toward the cost of eligible converter boxes.
A TV connected to cable, satellite or other pay TV service does not require a TV
converter box from this program.
To learn how to get DTV converter boxes and coupons, necessary to continue
receiving over-the-air broadcasting after February of 2009, please visit
http://www.dtv2009.gov
or call 1-888-388-2009 (That's "DTV-2009") or 1-877-530-2634 (TTY).
Video Description and Converter Boxes
WGBH's Media Access Group has tested two of the National Telecommunications and
Information Administration/NTIA-certified coupon eligible converter boxes and
has determined that you can
indeed receive and hear video description from a broadcast digital TV signal
that properly includes it.
This morning we tested two boxes:
- Insignia from Best Buy
- Digital Stream from Radio Shack
We tuned in two different PBS kids programs broadcast on WGBH's
digital channel and heard the descriptions coming through.
Even better news is that both boxes have both CC and SAP (or audio)
buttons on the remote controls that allow you to access the various
caption signals and alternate audio channels without having to go
through the set-up menus.
You will find discrepancies in the on-screen menus when you use the
two different methods for controlling the alternate audio:
- both boxes display "English 1" and "English 2" in the on-screen
menu when you use the SAP or Audio button on the remote control. Use
English 2 for accessing the video description (or Spanish if you are
looking for that).
- in their set-up menus, both boxes display "English/Spanish/French"
as the options in the pick list in those menus.
And, of course, neither of the boxes have audible/talking menus for
control of the set up and control of the boxes.
The broadcaster must be properly tagging and sending the alternate
audio in order for the boxes to pick up those signals and present
them to the viewer.
But, all in all, good news!
Mary Watkins
Director of Communications and Outreach
Media Access Group at WGBH
mary_watkins@wgbh.org
http://access.wgbh.org
One Guest Street
Boston, MA 02135
617 300-3700 v/fax
617 300-2489 TTY
WGBH Boston informs, inspires, and entertains millions through
public broadcasting, the Web, educational multimedia, and access
services for people with disabilities.
Dr. Ronald E. Milliman, Professor of Marketing, Western Kentucky
University
Chair, ACB Public Relations Committee
Chair, ACB Monthly Monetary Support Program (MMS) Committee
DO NOT CALL MY PHONE
Ten days from today (15 Feb 2008), all cell phone numbers are being released to
telemarketing companies and you will start to receive sales calls.
YOU WILL BE CHARGED FOR THESE CALLS
To prevent this, call the following number from your cell phone:
1-888-382-1222.
It is the National DO NOT CALL list managed by the Federal Trade Commission. It
will only take a minute of your time..
It blocks your number for five (5) years.
You must call from the cell phone number you want to have block ed .
You cannot call from a different phone number.
Go to this website to register your telephones:
http://www.donotcall.gov
American Printing House - 150 Years
Its work guaranteed independence for generations
By Laura Ungar
Blind since age 20, Larry Skutchan likens the darkness he sees to
silvery-green, shimmering water. But Skutchan can nonetheless read the day's
newspaper, browse the Internet and generally live an independent life, thanks to
technology from the American Printing House for the Blind.
Skutchan, 50, is technology project leader at the printing house and one of
millions of visually impaired Americans helped by the Louisville institution,
which celebrates its 150th anniversary tomorrow.
The printing house began with one employee in the basement of the Kentucky
School for the Blind. In 1879, it was designated by the federal government as
the official source of educational texts and aids for blind students
across the nation -- a designation it still holds.
Today, it has its own building, more than 300 employees and a budget of $32.7
million, which comes from a federal appropriation, direct sales and donations.
Changes mirror progress for the estimated 10 million visually impaired
Americans, 1.3 million of whom are, like Skutchan, legally blind. Over the
years, the nonprofit organization has created a steady stream of technology,
from children's books to recorded magazines to personal digital assistants and
sonar devices specifically for the blind.
They are devices that people like Skutchan use everyday.
He always carries his Braille Plus personal digital assistant, a small computer
with wireless Internet access that can perform a number of tasks such as reading
aloud from periodicals or the Internet. At his bedside he
keeps a Book Port, similar to an iPod or MP3 player, which can load and read
electronic versions of books. And he often uses his stylus, a pointed instrument
that makes dots in braille, and metal slate, a template to
correctly space the dots, to create strips of labels he can read.
"Technology has given blind people the ability to be on equal footing with
sighted people in many careers," said Skutchan, who lost his sight in 1978
because of detached retinas in both eyes.
Paula Weise, executive director of the Blue Grass Council of the Blind in
Lexington, said the printing house is a godsend to scores of visually impaired
Kentuckians.
"It's just opened up such a world of communication for them," said Weise, whose
husband lost his sight to diabetes. "It is just a lifesaver."
Computer revolution
The driving force behind the printing house was a blind man from
Mississippi named Dempsey Sherrod, who raised money and promoted the idea of
establishing a place to create educational materials for blind children.
He proposed placing the printing house in Louisville because of its central
location, and the Kentucky General Assembly passed an act establishing the
institution in 1858. Federal funding allowed it to prosper, eventually leading
to a new building on Frankfort Avenue.
The printing house's first book, a collection of children's fables embossed in
1866, used raised letters because braille hadn't yet become standard. The first
books in braille were printed in 1893, along with early braille
slates and styluses, tactile maps and writing guides.
The printing house expanded its offerings in the 20th century, publishing a
Reader's Digest in braille in 1928. It also published Helen Keller's bible; her
large, weathered copy of Psalms in braille is displayed in the
printing house museum.
Talking books, magazines and a recorded encyclopedia were eventually developed
in a recording studio at the printing house, first as records and later as
cassette tapes.
Fred Gissoni, a 78-year-old blind Louisvillian who works in technical service at
the printing house, recalled the large recorder he used in the 1950s to listen
to talking books. "I remember how marvelous I thought it
was to carry an 18-pound recorder around," Gissoni said.
Eventually, he and others said, computers revolutionized printing house
offerings.
IBM led the development of a computerized braille translation in 1964, and by
1987, most braille production was computerized. The printing house introduced a
database of accessible textbooks in the late 1980s, and in
1997 made it available on the Internet.
Through the years, the printing house has also sold learning aids unrelated
to reading, such as tactile games, globes and computer math programs. Recent
offerings include a sonar aid that the printing house began distributing in
2004, which detects objects or people and tells the user how far away they
are by emitting tones that sound like chirping birds.
'An essential place'
The printing house of today is a modern place buzzing with activity.
In one area is a factory manufacturing reading materials in braille, where an
old metal printer sits amid several new ones. On a recent day, two women
collaborated to create pages with both braille and large print.
In another part of the building, proofreader Laura Myers moved her fingers
gracefully across braille type and read aloud as copy holder Monica
Thurston followed along on regular written pages.
Myers is among the 10 percent of printing house workers who are visually
impaired, as is field service representative Maria Delgado. Delgado said she
began using a printing house writing slate when she lost her sight after
high school, while living in Mexico. Today, she uses much more advanced
technology, including software developed by Skutchan.
Printing house products "opened up a lot of doors for me," said Delgado,
37. "We have a lot more opportunities than we had before."
Paula Penrod, public relations liaison for the Kentucky School for the Blind,
said her school depends on the printing house to help serve its 70 students and
provide resources to visually impaired students mainstreamed in the state's
school districts. Frequently used items include light boxes, abacuses,
specialized paper and books in braille.
"There are just so many products that Kentucky students couldn't do without,"
Penrod said. "They're making a tremendous difference."
Marcellus Mayes of Louisville, who is blind and serves as president of the Metro
Disabilities Coalition, said he has for years used a printing house recorder to
take notes and remember things. Besides providing such tools,
he said the printing house has raised awareness of blind people and their
growing independence.
For instance, representatives from the printing house sometimes work with
organizations of blind people to advocate for their causes in Frankfort.
"They have a lot of respect all over the nation for what they do," Mayes
said. "It's an essential place."
Reporter Laura Ungar can be reached at (502) 582-7190.lungar@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal
Diamond Head Theatre for the Blind
Diamond Head Theatre is offering audio description for the blind on the 2nd Sunday
of each LIVE theatre performance.
The following list of dates pertain to their shows this season.
Movie Title Show Date
| Meet Me in St. Louis | December 9 2007 |
| Barefoot in the Park | February 10 2008 |
| Flower Drum Song | March 30 2008 |
| The Producers The Wizard of Oz | May 25 2008 |
| The Wizard of Oz | July 20, 2008 |
All shows are at 4:00 pm and they offer a $5 discount on the $22 & $32 seats
for blind patrons.
Contact:
Melanie Garcia
Box Office Manager/Volunteer Coordinator
Diamond Head Theatre
520 Makapuu Ave.
Honolulu, HI 96816
(808) 733-0277, x.310
mgarcia@diamondheadtheatre.com
BlindDollars
My friend, Art, recently sent me an email with an audio attachment from
blindDollars.org. The name alone tells it all. Of course, I had to check it out
and I did. Cute jingle. It's about our demand as Americans with vision
loss/impairment to accessible currency. We, in the Hawaii Association of the
Blind, in total support of the national American Council of the Blind, have
always clamored for an accessible US currency. I use a Note Teller in my work as
a cashier and I have to say, the device is not 100% accurate. There are times
when it read a $5 bill as $50! Whoah! And that's not to mention the so many
"cannot read" responses.
Mary McVicker Scroggs of blindDollars.org is urging us to take immediate action
to contact government officials - the policy makers of the country by sending a
message to your Representative, Senators, or favorite Presidential candidate.
Visit her website at
http://www.blinddollars.org
where you can click on a link that brings you to a web page containing a draft
message to be sent to your favorite Presidential candidate. The message
enumerates the various reasons for accessible currency and its benefits.
Also, there is a video interview of Mary at youtube,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLn0pjrVNHk
to learn more.
And now, listen to the jingle.
An initiative has been started to collect signatures online from blind and visually-impaired individuals, including their sighted friends and families who share our cause. The petition reads as follows:
To: U.S. CongressWe, the undersigned blind and visually impaired individuals, or supporters thereof, are dismayed and frustrated by the decision of the U.S. Department of the Treasury to appeal the decision to create accessible paper currency. We support the decision of Judge James Robertson in the federal district court in the District of Columbia for the following reasons:
Because accessible currency would allow blind or visually impaired people to independently identify the bills in their hand without depending on the good will of others.
Because accessible currency would increase employment opportunities for blind and visually impaired people, as jobs regarding the quick handling of cash, such as those behind a cash register, could be done easily.
Because the government’s blithe assertion that blind and visually impaired people could simply use credit cards does not take into account the fact that credit cards are not accepted by all businesses the way cash is accepted.
Because although it is true, as the government asserts, there are machines that can identify paper money as it is currently designed, such machines are unaffordable to many, and are neither as fast or as portable as a person’s own hands.
Because 180 other countries have already proven that it is possible to create currency that allows blind and visually impaired individuals to participate fully in the commerce of their countries.
And because, it is our hope that a government which is progressive enough to insist on the right of blind and visually impaired people to vote independently, the right of visually impaired and blind people to access information produced by the government in alternative formats such as Braille, and the right of blind and visually impaired people to equal education and employment opportunities will also recognize that blind and visually impaired people should be able to access the information provided in one of this nation’s oldest printed materials: our own government’s currency.
A special website was created and written by Michael Malver
( mmalver@visi.com ). specifically
for this purpose. If you believe that blind and visuall-impaired persons should
have access to the US currency, then visit
http://www.money4all.info to sign up in showing your support.
Much mahalo!
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Home Delivery For HAB members who have no time or unable to do their grocery shopping, you may dial (808) 590-2048 and look for George or Jackye Peacock - owners of AKAMAI grocery shopping & delivery service, who would be more than glad to be your personal shopper. Just give them a list of the items you need, the store where you want them bought and they will shop for you and deliver them right on your doorstep for a minimal delivery fee! Happy shopping! |
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Letters to HAB |
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It gives us great joy and a real sense of accomplishment reading letters
from those whose lives were touched by HAB. ************************* Dear Warren and Members of the Hawaii Association of the Blind:
************************************ Dear Warren and all Members of HAB, ************************* October 15,2007 ************** A couple of months back, HAB donated some funds to teachers of visually impaired students to augment their resources in holding a Tech Camp. This amount has created a huge impact on the success of the event and the kids brought home pleasant unforgettable memories. Here are some of the letters.
Dear Waren and HAB: You can still read the messages read & resolutions passed during HAB's 40th annual convention held last March 17, 2007. Click here. |
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JOBS The Blind Vendors Ohana, Inc. urgently needs On-Call Sales Associates for immediate hiring. For more information , please click here. |
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| Copyright © 2004-2008 Hawaii Association of the Blind |
| 1255 Nuuanu Ave. #1102 |
| Honolulu, HI 96817, USA |
| Phone: (808) 521-6213 |
| Email: toyamaj005@hawaii.rr.com |