THE Braille Forum Vol. XXXII November 1993 No. 5 Published By The American Council of the Blind PROMOTING INDEPENDENCE AND EFFECTIVE PARTICIPATION IN SOCIETY LeRoy F. Saunders, President Oral O. Miller, J.D., National Representative Nolan Crabb, Editor Sharon Lovering, Editorial Assistant National Office: 1155 15th St., N.W. Suite 720 Washington, DC 20005 (202) 467-5081 Fax: (202) 467-5085 THE BRAILLE FORUM is available in braille, large type, half-speed four-track cassette tape and MS-DOS computer disk. Subscription requests, address changes, and items intended for publication should be sent to: Nolan Crabb, THE BRAILLE FORUM, 1155 15th St., N.W., Suite 720, Washington, DC 20005. Those much-needed and appreciated cash contributions, which are tax deductible, may be sent to Brian Charlson, Treasurer, 1155 15th St., N.W., Suite 720, Washington, DC 20005. You may wish to remember a relative or friend by sharing in the continuing work of the American Council of the Blind. The ACB National Office has available printed cards to acknowledge to loved ones contributions made in memory of deceased persons. Anyone wishing to remember the American Council of the Blind in his/her Last Will and Testament may do so by including a special paragraph for that purpose. If your wishes are complex, you may contact the ACB National Office. For the latest in legislative and governmental news, call the "Washington Connection" toll-free at (800) 424-8666, 6 p.m. to midnight eastern time Monday through Friday. Washington, D.C., residents only call 331-2876. Copyright 1993 American Council of the Blind TABLE OF CONTENTS President's Message, by LeRoy F. Saunders News Briefs From The ACB National Office, by Oral O. Miller Board Votes To Sue Department Of Transportation ACB Members Rally For Safer Subways In Washington It's Chicago In 1994, by John A. Horst Touching Words Brings Christmas Cards To Blind And Sighted, by Sharon Lovering Legal Access: Government By Cop-out, by Charles D. Goldman In Memoriam: Chester Holden and Billie Elder Fifth Japan/USA Conference Of Persons With Disabilities, by Michael Byington Theater By The Blind Makes The Play The Thing, by Sharon Lovering Here And There, by Elizabeth M. Lennon Your Input Is Needed In The Development Of Accessible Transit Route Identification Signs, by Eugene Lozano The ACB Constitution And Bylaws: Foundation For The Past -- Challenge For The Future, Part II, by Charles S.P. Hodge PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE by LeRoy F. Saunders October 6, 1993, may be one of the most important days in the history of services for the blind in this country. It was the day that four national organizations of and for the blind actually came together as a group to discuss issues within the blindness system with Judy Heumann, undersecretary of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services. Those in attendance included Barbara McCarthy, president-elect of the Association for the Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired, Carl Augusto, president and CEO of the American Foundation for the Blind, LeRoy F. Saunders, president of the American Council of the Blind and Dr. Kenneth Jernigan, president emeritus of the National Federation of the Blind. We came to the meeting prepared to discuss some of the major concerns that the four organizations have with services to blind people in this country. One issues we brought to Heumann's attention was inclusion -- the concept that all disabled children should be integrated into classes and that special programs and services for such children should be eliminated. This is an idea which ACB and the other organizations have opposed for some time. Other concerns included special services for the blind and visually impaired (separate state agencies), the downgrading of policy boards overseeing separate state agencies serving the blind within some states to advisory boards, and our concern that some grants designed to serve only blind people would be denied because they would not meet some cross-disability service qualifications. It would not be fair to Heumann or the other participants of this meeting to go into great detail about our discussions. However, I will say that she was very cordial and was interested in the subjects we presented and in our point of view. I hope this kind of cooperation will continue among these organizations and that we can speak as one, instead of four separate organizations speaking for visually impaired people throughout this country. As we move toward the year 2000, it will take the cooperation and commitment of all organizations of and for the blind in this nation to sustain and provide services to blind people. As budgets grow ever smaller, as they certainly will, we will be under greater pressure than ever before to accept less service and inadequate programs. This may mean rearranging some organizational structures as a cost-saving factor. Over the years these organizations have all wanted basically the same objectives, that is, to provide a better life for all individuals who are blind or visually impaired. At times there has been a difference in opinion on how this should be accomplished, and many voices were heard instead of one united voice. I hope we are reaching a turning point where consensus on major issues will be present within these organizations. It certainly doesn't mean that we will always agree on every issue; however, in order for us to obtain our common objectives in the future, it will become increasingly important to have consensus on as many items as possible. I would encourage all of our state affiliates, whenever possible, to work compatibly with other organizations of and for the blind within their state. I can assure you that if you can go to your legislators with agreement regarding your goals, you will have a great deal more success. I would certainly encourage all of us to work together for a common cause to the degree that we can. There is plenty of work for all of us in order to ensure a good future for all visually impaired individuals nationwide. I would like to commend AFB's Carl Augusto for his efforts in coordinating this meeting with Judy Heumann. UPCOMING EVENTS It is time to remind all state and special interest affiliate presidents of the presidents' meeting following the ACB board meeting in Chicago. The presidents' meeting begins on Sunday, Feb. 6, at 1 p.m., and will conclude by noon on Feb. 7. The hotel will be the Palmer House, which is also where the national convention will be in July. I am very pleased that the presidents are still interested in having this type of meeting so we have an opportunity to communicate with each of them. In order for me to provide an adequate agenda and include items of most interest to our presidents, I need your input. I would be extremely grateful if you would notify me of the item or items that you would like for us to discuss. Over the past few years I have been very impressed with the turnout for this meeting. It has increased considerably since our first meeting, which was held in Oklahoma City. It gives me an opportunity to visit with each state and interest group president. As all of you know, the convention becomes so time-consuming I never get the opportunity to visit with many of the people I would like to. I look forward to seeing you in Chicago. NEWS BRIEFS FROM THE ACB NATIONAL OFFICE by Oral O. Miller, National Representative The ending of summer means many different things to many people -- the end of summer vacation, the return to school, and the beginning of football season. However, in the ACB national office, it means the return of Congress to Washington and the beginning of the always-busy ACB state affiliate convention schedule. During September alone, ACB national office staff members took part in the outstanding conventions conducted in the Florida, Indiana, West Virginia, and Alaska affiliates; and, as will be seen in a future article, the October schedule was just as exciting. In addition, during that month, Paul Schroeder, ACB's director of governmental affairs, took an active part in the 1993 Access to the Skies conference, which focused mainly on airport accessibility. One issue which has already received enormous media attention and which will undoubtedly receive far more attention throughout the balance of this term of Congress is the proposal of the Clinton administration concerning a national health insurance program. In view of the importance of health insurance to everyone, and to disabled people in particular, ACB is following this issue very closely and providing knowledgeable input wherever possible. For example, before the Clinton administration's proposal was formally released, it was my pleasure, along with ACB President LeRoy Saunders, to attend a White House briefing directed mainly toward representatives of disability organizations. During that briefing, which was conducted under very difficult acoustic conditions in the Indian Treaty Room, (one of the largest meeting rooms in the old executive office building), we urged the administration to treat optical aids and low vision devices as essential for countering the disabling effects of blindness and low vision just as much as prosthetic devices and mobility aids are useful in minimizing the disabling effects of orthopedic impairments. Prosthetic devices are much more frequently paid for by medical insurance plans. Following the briefing, we also pointed out that, although there are legitimate differences between many medical services and rehabilitation services, the administration's proposal did not include many rehabilitation services, which are as essential for blind people as are certain rehabilitation services that are frequently covered by many insurance plans. A few days later, Paul Schroeder attended an even larger briefing conducted on the south lawn of the White House and directed to a broader range of organizational representatives. In fairness to the administration, it should be pointed out that, as repeated by administration spokespersons on many occasions, the proposal should be viewed as merely a beginning position which will undoubtedly be changed substantially before anything is adopted in the future. Recently it was our pleasure to play a major role in assisting the Duskin Company of Japan in the conduct of its 1993 overseas study program. Each year the Duskin Company, a diversified and very successful Japanese corporation which also has business interests in the United States, sponsors by means of the Circle of Love Foundation a program which sends a sizable group of disabled Japanese workers to the United States to learn about the services, facilities, and programs which perhaps could be replicated, in part at least, in Japan. The focus of this year's program was employment, and the delegation was made up of young blind people who had to compete for selection to the delegation. It was, in turn, divided into smaller groups based on disability -- blindness and low vision, deafness and impaired hearing, mobility impairments, etc. Each group, after taking part in a few common activities in California, then focused on facilities and programs throughout the United States that were of importance to its members. It was my pleasure to make many of the arrangements for the blind and visually impaired members and to escort them as they visited agencies in the East such as the American Foundation for the Blind, the Helen Keller Services for the Blind, and the New York Lighthouse. The American Council of the Blind hosted the delegation at a fun-filled dinner at Mickey Mantle's famous restaurant in New York. Some members of the ACB of New York as well as staff members of the some of the agencies referred to above were able to attend the dinner, thereby giving our Japanese visitors more opportunities to talk to employed blind people in this country. The members of the blind delegation had previously visited agencies and facilities on the West Coast; and, while there, had also met other ACB members. It was my pleasure to present to the sponsoring corporation a script of a lecture summarizing the educational, vocational training, and employment placement services in the United States. The script also included a few comments on the early impact of the Americans with Disabilities Act in this country. The members of the delegation had an opportunity to ask questions at each facility they visited. The ACB president was able to join the group for part of its stay and to escort it during a brief tour of the United Nations, which, due to a fear of terrorism, had terminated its long-standing practice of conducting lengthy tours of the U.N. The U.N.'s timing was unfortunate. The practice was terminated just days before the delegation's visit. We look forward to future dealings with Duskin Company, and we commend its management for sponsoring such an enlightened and beneficial program. During recent weeks, ACB national office staff members have continued to devote substantial time and attention to the deplorable failure of many transit system operators to comply with federal regulations by installing detectable warnings along subway platforms and other dangerous areas. Other matters which have received considerable attention include the upcoming National Summit on Accreditation and the extremely important issue of telecommunications. Stay tuned for further developments on these and other issues. BOARD VOTES TO SUE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION CHICAGO -- The board of directors of the American Council of the Blind voted to take legal action against the United States Department of Transportation if it continues to delay implementation of regulations under the Americans with Disabilities Act which calls for installation of detectable warnings along transit platform edges in subway and other rail systems. ACB's Environmental Access Committee urged the board to adopt a motion which would allocate a substantial amount of money to sue the Department of Transportation. Paul Schroeder, ACB's director of governmental affairs, said suing the department would provide "the highest likelihood of success at the lowest probability of expense." Board members Stephen Speicher and Christopher Gray questioned whether ACB would be better served by suing individual transit authorities. After some discussion, board members agreed that while such an approach might be effective, it could result in legal expenses mounting into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. "I'm not usually a big fan of long litigation," said ACB President LeRoy Saunders, "but I believe very strongly in this issue. We can't look the other way any more while blind people die needlessly while traveling on subways in this country." The board's decision to allocate the money was unanimous. NEW STAFF POSITION APPROVED The board allocated funding for an additional staff member to assist Jennifer Sutton in her membership development efforts. Additional funding was also approved for the purchase of a new computer and new furnishings for the ACB National Office in Washington. REPORTS ACCEPTED Board members heard a variety of reports during the two-day meeting. In his report, President LeRoy Saunders discussed his upcoming schedule, reviewed events relating to ACB which had occurred since the national convention, and urged that the third weekend in September be set aside as a permanent date for ACB's fall board meeting. The official vote to do so was unanimous. Saunders also announced that Billie Jean Hill and Ed Potter had been appointed to a second term on the Board of Publications. Hill will continue to chair the BOP. John Horst will continue in his position as convention coordinator, and the program committee will consist of LeRoy Saunders, M. J. Schmitt representing the Illinois Council of the Blind, First Vice President Charles Hodge, Second Vice President Robert Acosta, and National Representative Oral O. Miller. The board also established a long-range planning committee which includes board members Stephen Speicher, Pamela Shaw, and Sue Ammeter. Other committee members include immediate past president Otis Stephens, ACB member Durward McDaniel, ACB member Bernice Kandarian, and Second Vice President Robert Acosta. Saunders said two additional committees will be established in the near future -- a committee on women's concerns and one on minority concerns. During his report, National Representative Oral Miller said ACB has been contacted by the Department of Education and asked to take part in a series of meetings designed to develop guidelines to be used in connection with the National Service Initiative program, which provides educational financial credit for volunteer community service, including work in non-profit agencies. Additionally, the board re-elected board member Patricia Beattie, Second Vice President Robert Acosta and Treasurer Brian Charlson, to another one-year term on the budget committee. Members also accepted reports regarding the mid-November summit on accreditation, a review of scholarship committee activities, and a review of the activities of the American Council of the Blind Enterprises and Services, the company which operates the thrift stores which provide significant funding to ACB. The board will hold its mid-year meeting February 5, 1994. ACB MEMBERS RALLY FOR SAFER SUBWAYS IN WASHINGTON WASHINGTON -- In observance of White Cane Safety Day, nearly 30 members of the Washington, D.C., area chapters of American Council of the Blind gathered in front of the headquarters building of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority to send an important message to Metro officials. Carrying signs and chanting slogans such as "Safety Now" and "No More Transit Deaths," ACB members made it clear to Metro officials that blind travelers deserve a safe environment while traveling independently through the subway system. Demonstrators pointed out that Metro officials continue to drag their feet and do nothing to comply with the requirement in the Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines that calls for detectable warnings on transit platform edges in key stations, despite the fact that this requirement became fully effective on July 26, 1993. Paul Schroeder, ACB's director of governmental affairs, Scott Marshall, associate executive director of the American Foundation for the Blind, ACB board member Pamela Shaw and First Vice President Charles Hodge urged demonstrators to continue the momentum of the rally by contacting Metro general manager David Gunn and board chairman Joe Alexander to urge them to bring the system into compliance with the ADAAG requirements. Demonstrators were members of the Northern Virginia Chapter of the Old Dominion Council of the Blind, the D.C. Association of Workers for the Blind, and the National Capitol Area Chapter of the American Council of the Blind of Maryland. IT'S CHICAGO IN 1994 by John A. Horst, Convention Coordinator If you ever wanted to visit the famous metropolis in the heart of the Midwest, July 1994 is your opportunity. You will never be able to tour Chicago more economically than while attending ACB's 33rd convention in 1994. Hotel rates are $47 per night for single and double rooms and $57 for triple and quad at the fabulous Palmer House Hilton. Those rates are indeed a bargain. Chicago, a city of natural and man-made wonders, named the beautiful city, offers miles of lakefront parks and beaches, neighborhoods of many ethnic cultures, restaurants of every cuisine, and the world's tallest skyscrapers, including the Sears Tower, the world's tallest building. You should take time to cruise the Chicago River and see the fabulous skyline from Lake Michigan. The city is filled with great sculpture and architecture, and there are 35 museums that display and demonstrate everything from old radios at the Museum of Broadcast Communications to the most exciting hands-on museum in the world, the Museum of Science and Industry. For shopping, there is the famous "Magnificent Mile" on Michigan Avenue and State Street, called "The Great Street," with fantastic shops and boutiques, all located near the hotel. Your tour committee will be arranging visits to many of these sites, but to make your visit to Chicago complete, you should allow several extra days before or after the convention. The dates for ACB's 33rd convention are July 2 through 9, 1994. The Palmer House Hilton Hotel is located at 17 E. Monroe St. in downtown Chicago. Call (312) 726-7500. Room reservations can be made now by calling this number, but your room will not be confirmed unless a credit card number, check or money order covering the first night's lodging is provided. All activities of the convention including exhibits will take place at the Palmer House. MID-YEAR MEETINGS The ACB board of directors and the boards of a number of ACB's special interest groups will be meeting during the weekend of February 4 to 6 at the Palmer House. Also, President LeRoy Saunders is planning a meeting of ACB affiliate presidents for Sunday afternoon and evening, February 6, and Monday morning, February 7. If your special-interest affiliate is planning to meet, you should be contacting Jennifer Sutton, coordinator of membership development, in the ACB national office. Advise her of the estimated number in your group, the date and time of your meetings, and any special arrangements you desire. This should be done as soon as possible. Hotel reservations for this weekend and for the convention can be made at any time. However, the cutoff date for the February meetings is January 14, 1994. Convention rates will apply. TRAVEL AGENCY For 1994, ACB will again establish an agreement with International Tours of Muskogee, Okla., as ACB's official travel agency. International Tours will be establishing contracts with American Airlines, Delta, and perhaps USAir for ACB in 1994. As a result, International Tours can provide discounted rates for travel. Their toll-free number is (800) 259-9299. Please use this travel service for all your ACB- related travel needs. This will assist ACB in reducing travel costs for convention planners and staff. You will find the personnel at International Tours very courteous and most willing to assist you with your travel concerns. The convention coordination committee for 1994 has been appointed by President Saunders. Some changes are: Cynthia Towers, Seattle, Wash., will serve as assistant convention coordinator, and Sheryl Queen from El Cerreto, Calif., will manage the exhibit hall. Jennifer Sutton will be assisting the committee. Jennifer and I had the privilege of attending the state convention of the Illinois Council of the Blind in early October. At that time, President M. J. Schmitt organized, and we met with, a great host committee which will be working closely with the convention committee. As a result, we are looking forward to a great convention in Chicago in 1994. TOUCHING WORDS BRINGS CHRISTMAS CARDS TO BLIND AND SIGHTED by Sharon Lovering With the holidays approaching, many people are making their Christmas card lists, checking them twice, and making sure they have enough cards to send to everyone. But how do you merge the spirit of Christmas with the spirit of the Americans with Disabilities Act? Rhonda Kraft has the answer: send one of her Touching Words cards. Touching Words is part of DesignKraft, the inspirational greeting card company she founded in 1992 while still working full-time as a commercial interior designer. "Interior design is good for some," she says, but not for her. When work became unfulfilling for such a demanding job, Kraft began to ask, "What can I do that might make a difference in the lives of others?" Her answer: Write inspirational greeting cards. She began to write inspirational cards in her spare time in 1992 "as a personal need to do something different," she explains. "Ultimately I thought I could give back to society some of what I've been blessed with." At first she had no intention of including braille on the cards. But after starting the business, she felt that something was missing. She realized the artist within her was still looking for something with visual interest that would set her cards apart from the other cards on the rack when it occurred to her: add braille. "A whole new world opened up with braille," Kraft states. Her cards reached many blind people, and they added "another dimension of friendship. I think I've found the right track, at least for me." DesignKraft offers inspirational and juvenile cards, invitations, announcements and corporate thank-you notes. The company is working on boxed sets of assorted cards. "It's a lot of fun, and inspiring," she says. "What I like to do is work with people on an individual basis." Though Kraft's card business is currently mail-order -- phone orders are acceptable - - she hopes to get into retail soon. She is currently working with a retailer of braille cakes at a local grocery chain. Her cards are also priced competitively. The average greeting card costs $3 and corporate thank-you notes about $1.50. Custom wedding and birth announcements are available with a minimum order of 100. All-occasion cards come in boxed sets of 20 per box. Kraft eventually wants to make cards full-time. She does the set-up part of the job. Friendly Productions in Fort Worth produces the cards, but she hopes to produce them herself in the future. "It is my sincere hope that Touching Words by DesignKraft will reach many people, both sighted and non-sighted, and offer a new avenue of expression to all who read," Kraft states. For information on DesignKraft, or to order cards, contact Rhonda Kraft at 4822 Chilton Drive, Dallas, TX 75227-2918; phone (214) 249-4201. Custom orders require a 50 percent deposit and 30 to 45 days for production. It may be too late to order custom Christmas cards for this year, but save her name and number -- you might need it next year. LEGAL ACCESS GOVERNMENT BY COP-OUT by Charles D. Goldman, Esq. (Reprinted with permission from "Horizons," November 1993.) This is November and time for that big Thanksgiving dinner. Here's some food for thought to go with your calories. Thanksgiving is turkey time. Is there any bigger turkey now than our dysfunctional federal government? It's time to realize that the "system" requires more than simply "reinventing government." The traditional tools of our tripartite system of government are not working. Thus, additional mechanisms are being created to make decisions officials can't or won't make. These other mechanisms do the nitty-gritty work and produce an "all-or-nothing" choice, with the "nothing" being a not very palatable result. The time has come for fundamental changes. What we have is just not working. What we have is government by the abdication of responsibility, government by cop-out. In the judicial sphere, in legal circles, what is now in vogue in the courts and administrative agencies is "ADR," Alternative Dispute Resolution. Using ADR, parties can mediate or arbitrate their disagreements rather than go through the formal judicial or administrative adjudicatory systems. ADR is the more informal "fast track." ADR has come to the fore because the current modes -- courts and administrative hearings -- were taking too long and costing too much. There were too many cases in costly, cumbersome proceedings. ADR can be very effective. The United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has an ADR pilot project for resolution of charges being filed under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Where it is being utilized, such as in the EEOC's Washington, D.C., district office, the results can be dramatically better (more cases resolved sooner) than where it is not, such as in the Baltimore district office. The need for ADR is obvious. EEOC has had almost 15,000 complaints under the Americans with Disabilities Act alone in little more than a year. ADR, where available, such as in the EEOC pilot project, is essentially voluntary and must be elected by the parties. Understand that where ADR does not work to achieve resolution, the parties to the dispute fall back into regular processing of EEOC (or the other agency where the matter is pending), not exactly a pleasant prospect, given the lack of resources and leadership (more on that later) at the agency. Where ADR does not work in the courts, the parties get back on the technical, judicial track. Also understand that the EEOC's formal process (not ADR) entails hearings before administrative law judges (and eventually court filings) and is based on the federal Administrative Procedure Act. The critical underlying rational for the Administrative Procedure Act, when it was adopted many years ago, was that administrative hearings process would be a quicker, less rigid methodology of case resolution than the judicial process. Sound familiar? Like the rationale for ADR? Let's turn from the judiciary and independent regulatory agencies to the executive branch of government. The new health plan is vague at best. But one thing seems clear: some new government agency is to be created to administer it. The "devil in the details" may not yet be visible, but the potential for federal government employment is clear. Why does Washington believe that every new program requires a new entity to execute it? What about the Health Care Financing Administration or the Social Security Administration? Couldn't these entities administer the new program? To make health insurance visible, why not put the program in the Office of the Secretary of Health and Human Services? From what sketchy details are available, it appears the Clinton administration thinks a whole new entity, a new National Health Board, is needed to ensure universal health insurance. If we don't create the new entity, then the basic principle of universal coverage will be lost -- another major unpleasant thought. Another variation on the theme of government by cop-out is the lack of critical appointments. Almost a year after taking office, Clinton has yet to appoint an EEOC Chairperson and General Counsel (two critical posts at the agency), a Director of the Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contracts Compliance and, at the Department of Justice, the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights (after the failed Lani Guinier nomination). It is possible the president will make these nominations in the time between this is written and the time it appears. The basic point is that the great lateness in making these appointments is a felonious leadership failure on civil rights. Is it any wonder that there are swastikas on buildings in Washington, D.C., that are within jogging distance of the White House? But it is not just Clinton. Congress, too, is guilty of government by cop-out. No one in Congress speaks out over the lack of crucial appointments in civil rights. Congress' silence compounds the mess. Democratic presidents are a rare species for most Senators and Representatives. Relatively few were on the Hill when Jimmy Carter was president, way back in 1977-1981. In the past quarter century, the Democrats have controlled the White House but eight years. The Democrats' reticence is understandable, if unforgivable. Nevertheless, the time has come for something from Congress. Memo to Congress: Don't forget the laws, such as the ADA, you passed and programs you funded. Don't just sit there in health care university, bogged down studying new initiatives. Major existing mandates, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, can go unimplemented. It is a classic Washington, inside the Beltway, failing to think enactment of a law solves a problem. Item: Of the almost 15,000 charges (complaints) filed with the EEOC under ADA, a grand total of three have wound up in the courts. Item: Under ADA Titles II and III, the Department of Justice, which has received almost 2,500 complaints, has filed one case on its own and appeared in five others, making its grand total six court filings. By not speaking out, by not holding oversight on the Clinton administration's lack of vigor, by not providing adequate resources for responsible civil rights enforcement, Congress is aiding and abetting the situation, becoming a part of the problem, not the solution. By not eliminating agencies whose missions have become outdated, outmoded, or subsumed by changes in the laws, Congress perpetuates bureaucratic ensconcement. What are the answers? A few good women and men of courage not worrying about their re-election or pension would be a good opener. Bill Clinton should make more like Ronald Reagan than George Bush. Play hardball, not consensus politics. Stop worrying about the second term, lest the first one go down in flames. Ask Presidents Carter and Bush about their second terms. Memo to Bill Clinton: "Civil rights" are two words you can say out loud and not be booted back to Arkansas. To the contrary, if you don't, you may be there sooner than you think or want. Make the critical civil rights appointments. Get this part of your team in place so that there is leadership on civil rights on a day-to-day basis. Effective implementation of your views will result when experienced prosecutors are in total charge of the programs. Mr. President, zero budget the federal programs you deem unnecessary and don't give them back. Get the majority leader in the Senate and the speaker of the House of Representatives to put the elimination of these activities all in an omnibus bill, a package with major infrastructure projects or with the appropriation for Congress itself. Be creative. Allow the dedicated public officials whose agencies are being eradicated to work for your leaders in the new programs you establish. Play hardball, not slow-pitch softball, Mr. President. Better to succeed once around the track. But the solutions are not the province only of Mr. Clinton. Congress needs to reinvigorate the Administrative Procedure Act by streamlining it. Get away from formal, evidentiary hearings in all cases and mandate alternative dispute processing that is binding, not voluntary. What about creating specialty forums to adjudicate all labor, housing, government contract issues? Better yet, what about consolidation of all administrative hearings into a single administrative forum, complemented and reinvigorated by changes in the basic administrative law process to simplify and expedite proceedings? This would mean carving turf from almost every federal agency, which, depending on where you sit, makes this concept inherently good or bad. The unified administrative law tribunal would result in financial savings, another factor not to be overlooked. Congress needs to do its part in ending the perpetuation of federal deadwood and redundancy of agencies' functions. Take a realistic look at the micro (compared to other programs and budget items) area of disability programs and policies. How many federal agencies must there be issuing accessibility standards/guidelines? At last count there were at least six! This multiplicity/redundancy can be eliminated by giving all the responsibility (with resources!) to one agency, the Department of Justice. Surely, the President's Committee on Employment of Persons with Disabilities, the President's Committee on Mental Retardation, the National Council on Disability, have outlived their due. Are the projects of Mary Switzer Scholars and other researchers actually being done? Are these projects worthwhile or duplicative? Wouldn't the NIDRR assistive technology program or special education services for children with disabilities be better investments of resources? Is it time to realize that the laws and tenor of times have passed by certain activities and a new, consolidated entity (which could draw the best and brightest from current programs) is needed to bring disability programs into the 21st century? Let's put in this perspective. Even after the Cold War was won and everyone realized some defense bases could close, Congress and the White House could not decide which military bases should be eliminated. So they created a base closure commission which makes a series of recommendations to the president, who must accept them all or none and then present the same choice to Congress. If all of the commission's recommendations are not accepted, then it is back to square one and all the bases are allowed to continue in operation -- the one thing that no one wants. At the very least, Congress should enact legislation establishing the same process for civilian agencies and programs, creating a Sunset Commission to do the civilian equivalent of base closure. Mind you, Congress could eliminate any program it wanted to (and had the political backbone and oomph to do so) by a separate law. But that mechanism is rarely used. At least with a Sunset Commission, if Congress and the president don't have the courage to cut particular programs, they can hide behind the all-or-nothing rationale. Again! Congress also must match the rhetoric of authorization with the realistic appropriations. There is an awful lot of policy budget, or as lawyers are wont to say, the lack thereof. The grandiose ideals and speeches when the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed must be measured against the fact that the Department of Justice has 16 attorneys for its total national effort to implement Title III of the ADA, Public Accommodations! The Department of Justice has fewer than that for Public Services (state and local governments and Amtrak), Title II of ADA. How effective and balanced an enforcement strategy or technical assistance program can the Department of Justice develop with such limited resource? Justice can only overreact -- when it reacts at all. (Ask anyone how hard it is to get through to the DOJ information lines or anyone who has waited many months for the results of a Department of Justice survey of their site.) Certainly, Justice won't and can't be the 800-pound gorilla (or even the paper tiger) a federal enforcement agency should be. Justice without leadership and without resources means no justice. It is Peter Pan in Never-Neverland, a development which breeds the frustration of rising expectations in the community of affected, protected persons as well as uncertainty in the provider community as to whether they really are in compliance with the ADA. To fill the federal vacuum, there will be more private lawsuits which result in findings of major violations. This is exactly what happened when AT&T was sued for sex discrimination after the years of lax, to be polite, civil rights under President Nixon. In a nutshell, Congress, as they say in my old Brooklyn neighborhood, must put its money where its collective mouth is. Congress must put up or shut up on ADA. Thanksgiving is a break in the routine. That's the basic point here. We've got to break the patterns of not taking responsibility, of government by cop-out. IN MEMORIAM: CHESTER HOLDEN AND BILLIE ELDER CHESTER HAMILTON HOLDEN by Adeline Holden Chester was born in Henderson, Texas on April 4, 1917. He died at age 76 in Little Rock, Ark., on July 26, 1993. Chester was born blind. At the age of four, he had cataract surgery and gained some travel vision. At 34, he had a detached retina and lost all of his sight. He was raised in south Arkansas after his family moved there. Chester graduated from the Arkansas School for the Blind in 1937. In 1939, he was the third person to be employed in the Vending Stand program in Little Rock. During World War II, in 1944, he was employed at Meyer's Bakery and worked there for three years. After that he returned to the vending stand program, where he worked until his retirement in 1980. In the early '50s, Roy Kumpe helped Chester organize a group for the vendors in Arkansas. Chester was its first president. In 1952, an organization called the Braille Club began among the blind in Arkansas. Chester was active in the club until it began to be just a social organization. As long as it was doing things for the blind community, he was very interested, but when it became just a social organization, he didn't care for it. In 1961, he went to Miami for the AAWB meeting, where he wanted to get some help in establishing a national vendors' organization. That did not materialize then, but in 1969 Durward McDaniel came through Little Rock and met with Chester and others, and told them about the Randolph-Sheppard Vendors as the new national organization. Chester was hooked. In 1970, we went to Oklahoma City. Jennings Randolph was at that meeting. Chester didn't really mean to get into the national organization of the American Council of the Blind, but as he said in his speech at the San Francisco convention on July 8, he came into ACB like Columbus discovered America. He was headed for the vendors' organization and wound up in the American Council of the Blind. Chester came from a religious family. His grandfather was a missionary Baptist preacher, and as a very small child, Chester would sit up on the rostrum with his grandfather. When he was small, he would stand on a box and pretend to be a preacher. His family thought he might become one, but he didn't. He did, however, teach a Sunday school class beginning in the early '50s and continuing until March 1993. Chester was very talented in being able to speak extemporaneously. If a subject came up, he could stand up and make a speech on it. When he was going to speak, he never took notes, not even when teaching Sunday school. He could think on his feet on any subject. In the early '60s, one of the directors of the vending stand program called Chester on the carpet and told him that he need not think that only blind people were going to operate the stands in Arkansas. Chester told him, "That may be true, sir, but it will be after the fight." There was a fight, but as late as 1993 all the Randolph-Sheppard vendors in Arkansas are blind or visually impaired. Chester never tried to promote himself; he always downgraded himself. He always gave other people the credit for his efforts, but deserved a lot more credit than he ever tried to give himself. In Chester's going, I can truly say that just another old vendor found a new, better location. BILLIE P. ELDER by Barbara Duncan Billie P. Elder was born in eastern Tennessee and graduated from Lincoln Memorial University at Harrowgate, Tenn., where she received her bachelor of arts degree. She taught in the public school system in South Carolina and Tennessee before she lost her eyesight. She attended Duke University for her graduate work but received her master's degree in rehabilitation for the adult blind from Western Michigan University. After completing her adjustment training at the Arkansas Enterprises for the Blind (now Lions World Services for the Blind) in 1964, she was employed as a member of the staff. She was the supervisor of educational services prior to her appointment as a field representative. In 1976, she was active in the development of the graduate program in rehabilitation teaching at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Billie was past president of the Arkansas Association of Workers for the Blind, and served on the national board of directors. She took an active part in the organization of Chapter Eleven of the American Association of Workers for the Blind and served as chairman of the group. She served as first vice president and second vice president of the American Council of the Blind and filled other positions on the board until the 1980s. She organized and served as first chairperson of the Council of Rehabilitation Specialists, an affiliate of the American Council of the Blind, and later served on the board of directors. She helped organize Friends in Art, an interest group of the American Council of the Blind, and helped produce "The Log of the Bridgetender," a publication of that group. Mrs. Elder was a member of the Braille Revival League and the Association of Blind Teachers, affiliates of the American Council of the Blind. At the local level, she served as president of the Arkansas Council of the Blind from 1973 through 1976 and in numerous other capacities. She was the program chairperson of the national convention of the American Council of the Blind when it met in Hot Springs in 1976. She also served as the director of the Independent Living Grant for the Arkansas Department of Human Services. Mrs. Elder was the editor of "The Synergist," newsletter of the Council of Rehabilitation Specialists, and "Quazar," a publication of the Arkansas Council of the Blind. She wrote "Take a Giant Step," a historical documentary on the development of rehabilitation in the United States, and contributed articles to "The Journal of Visual Impairment," "Dialogue" and "The Braille Forum." Mrs. Elder always held a high standard of professionalism in the field of rehabilitation, and she instilled that value in the people whom she supervised and expected the same high standard of those who worked under her. At the same time, she was a very caring and giving individual. CAPTION Chester Holden speaks to ACB members about his appreciation for the group after receiving his life membership at the 32nd annual national convention in San Francisco. FIFTH JAPAN/USA CONFERENCE OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES by Michael Byington The 1980s were designated by the United Nations as the International Decade of Disabled Persons. As one of the activities of this decade, the U.N. sanctioned a conference where the two leading industrial nations, Japan and the United States, could come together to discuss human rights, technology, and independent living strategies of and for disabled people worldwide. This conference was then charged with the task of advising the U.N. concerning these issues. The first conference was held in Japan in 1985. The U.N. structure then called for the conference to be ongoing, taking place every two years, and alternating between the United States and Japan. ACB was invited to have representation at this conference from its inception. Durward McDaniel and Grant Mack were the two ACB representatives who preceded me in this assignment. My representation began upon my attending the 1991 conference, which was held in St. Louis, Mo. Oral Miller and I were both invited to attend the 1993 conference in Yamanashi, Japan, which was held Sept. 1-8. Unfortunately, however, Oral had obligations in Washington which did not permit him to leave the country. My wife, Ann, was thus accepted as a last-minute replacement for Oral, and she and I paid the portion of her expenses not covered by the Japanese, as ACB was in a financial position to send only one representative. ACB'S ROLE ACB has been involved in the worldwide blindness scene for some time, as is evidenced by its active participation in the World Blind Union and other blindness- related international efforts. The Japan/USA conference, however, involves all disability groups. Of the 30 conference delegates representing the United States, only four were visually impaired, two being totally blind and two being low vision. The two other visually impaired delegates accompanying my wife and me were: Dr. Sylvia Walker, Director, Center for Disability and Socioeconomic Policy Studies, Howard University; and Mr. Darrel Lauer, Southwestern Bell, who was representing private industry, but who is also an active ACB member. The National Federation of the Blind was not represented at this conference; two years ago their designated representative failed to attend the St. Louis conference. While the U.S. delegation features representation from other largely categorical disability groups, such as the deaf and the psychiatrically disabled, the dominant philosophical representation comes from the independent living movement. A significant number of these delegates espouse the position that all segregated programming serving disabled people should be shut down, and that total community integration or inclusion in both education and the adult world is the cause around which all Americans with disabilities are united. This position, when expressed with unbridled fervor, tends to run rough-shod over advocacy efforts to maintain and strengthen categorical programming such as National Industries for the Blind-affiliated programs, residential schools for the blind, and even segregated resource rooms in public schools. All tend to find themselves on the hit list. Obviously, the positions established by ACB national conventions are not consistent with the above. ACB strongly supports categorical programming, and the ACB position on total inclusion in special education has been the subject of a number of recent "Forum" articles. Yet on the larger issues of civil rights and equal opportunities for persons with disabilities, ACB has been and continues to be a team player in coalitions of disability groups. It is essential that we remain involved with national and worldwide coalitioning efforts while making certain that our voice is strongly heard in justifying and promoting the categorical services which blind and low vision people need to continue to advance in society. Thus the prepared presentation I made before the conference advocated the recognition of blindness culture and the need for categorical programming within the larger context of the disability civil rights movement. My wife's prepared remarks dealt with the need to expand the concepts of personal assistance advocacy beyond that of dealing with attendant care for the severely physically disabled, and to include such assistance categories as readers, orientation and mobility training and assistance, guide dogs, and other service animals. CONFERENCE RESULTS While all conference proceedings will go into an extensive report which will then find its way to the U.N., the most widely circulated document will be the Japan/USA Joint Statement. This is a document summarizing the conference activities and making specific recommendations. Any such document coming out of a multi-national conference may appear a little more general than, for example, an ACB resolution. This is because of issues of diplomacy with various countries and cross-cultural differences in terms of the ways in which advocacy arguments are presented from country to country. These issues were made more complex by the fact that nine other developing nations also had representatives participating in the conference. These included: Bangladesh, Brunei, China, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. The joint statement had to be crafted in a way making it useful to these nations as well. Despite these encumbrances, this year's joint statement shows a lot of forcefulness. It calls for the elimination of discrimination and barriers impeding the lives of disabled persons worldwide, and defines such discrimination as a violation of basic human rights. It specifically recommends legislative actions where needed to achieve this goal. The implication is that these actions need to be at least as aggressive as our ADA in the United States. The statement calls for disabled people worldwide to have the option to live independently and the right to exercise free will in making choices. It acknowledges, however, that efforts in achieving this goal will differ from country to country due to cultural differences. The statement does not call for closing segregated or categorical programs even though some U.S. delegates wanted it to do so. It does, though, specifically note that peer support is as important as family support in assisting disabled people in achieving independence. It also specifically defines personal assistance services as being applicable to all disability groups. This conference offered an excellent opportunity for people from various disability groups and advocacy persuasions in the United States to come together and better define our joint positions. It was necessary to do this in order to determine what we wished to present to the rest of the world. ACB's presence was certainly felt in this process, and it was encouraging to be reminded that we are not the only champions of categorical services out there. Many U.S. deaf advocacy groups share our concerns in these areas. THEATER BY THE BLIND MAKES THE PLAY THE THING by Sharon Lovering Ike Schambelan began his career at In Touch Networks in the New York-New Jersey area recording radio plays. After several plays, he told someone, "I think it would be more interesting with blind actors." That person put him in touch with the Jewish Guild for the Blind in New York City, where he began teaching senior citizens in a weekly acting class in 1979. The class worked on scenes and a play called "Ten Little Indians." Schambelan eventually worked with his students on a play called "Barefoot in the Park." In January 1981, that play became the first production of In Touch Theater, later Theater By The Blind. "I love [that play]; it's dear to my heart," says Schambelan, the artistic director of Theater By The Blind. The play revealed its mechanics, which he likes. "Ten years later I'm still trying to get back to that." But there were "severe limits on how successful it could be," he adds. Guild rules only allowed rehearsals once a week, which was not enough for the group to get the play together. Because some of the participants were memorizing the script by listening to cassettes, "control of the phrasing was slushy." In spite of these problems, "Barefoot in the Park" was a success. It was the first time the group had risked everything, and performed as well as possible. That play was an integrated production, using blind, visually impaired and sighted people. "Audiences can't tell who's who," Schambelan says. Trying to figure out who's who often leads to wrong guesses, which "shocks" audience members. Twelve years later, Theater By The Blind still performs with a mixture of blind, visually impaired and sighted people. The company has performed works by Shakespeare and others -- including some of their own actors. George Ashiotis is an actor. "He's my star," Schambelan says. "His characters are very full now, very quickly. He has a very interesting combination of things that make him terrific for the theater." Ashiotis himself feels terrific about being an actor. "It still is the thing I most love to do," he says. He also teaches computer classes for visually impaired people at the Westchester Lighthouse in New York. He holds a master's degree in teaching English as a second language, and began teaching computers around 1986. But no matter what he was doing, he still worked at the theater. Ashiotis met Schambelan in the early 1980s. When he learned that Ike was working with blind actors, he eagerly joined the group. He has been acting and singing with Theater By The Blind ever since. He also writes for the group. "I always wanted to write," Ashiotis says. "I enjoy writing." But he doesn't know how he got started. There's even a joke that he only produces "three to six lines every two weeks." But workshops have disciplined him so that when he writes his three to six lines, he'll look back later and refine them. "I don't know where I'll go with it," he says. "It's sort of an adventure. I'll go along with it and see where it leads me." Acting has led him on numerous adventures. His biggest role was that of Hamlet in 1992. "[Hamlet] was in a way the fulfillment of another dream," he says. He enjoyed it, though the role was stressful. "Hamlet has more lines as a character than some plays have in text. It was an exhausting, almost suicidal, thing." One thing he enjoyed about Hamlet was playing him as a blind character. That "freed me from having a struggle . . . of trying to present myself as sighted," he says. "The burden of that would have been great." One innovation added to "Hamlet" was a rope during the duel scene with Laertes, so each knew where the other was. The actor playing Laertes did the scene blindfolded. "The rope didn't take away from the thrill of combat," Ashiotis says. The scene was "interesting and exciting." He has also worked on off-Broadway productions. He auditioned for a Scranton College production of "Julius Caesar" and landed the role of Cynna the poet. "I had maybe four lines," he says. Then Richard Harris heard his reading, and augmented the role so that Ashiotis could be seen more often. "It was quite a thrilling experience," Ashiotis says. It was wonderful working with Harris, "because he liked my work." He was impressed with Harris' hiring a blind actor to perform in a sighted role. He says Harris even thanked him in writing, adding that he would request Ashiotis if the show got to Broadway. Unfortunately, the production never got that far. In spite of the problems, "He wants to do [Hamlet] again, and so do I," Schambelan says. Ashiotis agrees. "I felt there was so much more I could do with it," he says. There have been difficulties in other productions too, Ashiotis says. One time the group was set up in a room with a door leading to the hall, which three actors used as a stage door. Once they exited, the trouble began. "The door was locked," he says. "We couldn't get back in." An actor had to ad-lib some lines so he could let the trio back on stage. In another play, "Crystal Clear" -- the first fully staged play Theater By The Blind performed, in 1986 -- his character was supposed to be fully stripped. But Ashiotis and the actress who did the deed felt awkward about it. "We finally sat down and talked about it," he says. It gradually became easier, though he was only stripped to his underwear. "That was more difficult than doing Nina, now that I think about it," he says. After a performance of "Crystal Clear," he was walking down the stairs to the dressing rooms when an older woman approached him and said, according to Ashiotis, "`Oh, you were quite a treat.'" He bolted down the rest of the stairs. Nina was his role in one part of "Whattaya Blind?", the group's 1993 production. "Nina was a kind of a Vanna White character," Ashiotis says. She was the host of "Pick That Flick," a TV quiz show pitting a blind person against a sighted person. He originally read the female part "for the fun of it." After challenging himself, he performed the role. "People enjoyed it," he says. "The audience roared. Looking back, I'm very glad I put my fears and insecurities aside and did it." Schambelan agrees. "It's funny and really very bookable. People found it entertaining." After one performance, Ashiotis says, a blind woman approached him and said, "You make me very proud to be blind." And that's what he's concerned about: "representing blindness in an accurate and fair way." Other productions used audio description, but this one did not. It included a narrator on stage. "For us, it's wrong," Schambelan says. "You don't want to isolate the blind people." The play went to the Library for the Blind in New York on Oct. 16, and plans were being made for taking the play on tour to Boston and Pennsylvania. Ashiotis likes working with Shakespeare, and with Schambelan, who lets them use modern accents and works on updating the way the text is read without changing it. "I do love the language," he says. "The reason I like Shakespeare is the discovery involved. There's a lot of obscure things in Shakespeare that I may never understand." When Schambelan mentions Shakespeare, he says, "some people are almost religious about it." Those people believe there's a certain way to perform Shakespeare. But Schambelan disagrees. "We want to change the way the world does Shakespeare," he says. He envisions a photo on the cover of Newsweek with a headline about the company. But he wonders if the photo would be of him or George Ashiotis. Theater By The Blind is currently working on its fundraiser. "It's going well, but it's a tough time, and you have to work harder for the money," Schambelan says. The letters he and Ashiotis send out are "getting more targeted, but it's still a hard pull." The group is also planning its 1994 year. In May, it will present a revue. "It's really hard to say what it'll be about because we write it as we go along," he says. "We've become a theater of writers." Also during the fall some new actors came to audition. Workshops have been planned to work them into the company. The group is still trying to grow, but it needs more people. Schambelan would like to see more women come out. But being an actor isn't easy. It's not just the words of the character, or the way the character speaks or acts. "You have to have a burning desire somewhere for the theater," he says. Some of the people who come to audition aren't ready for the company's style, Schambelan says. Some ask, "`Why can't we play sighted?'" His answer: "We're bored with that." "It takes a couple of plays before people relax and let you teach them anything," he adds. And, Schambelan says, "If you're doing anything original or fresh, people will cling to [the old ways] and call you stupid." Other plans were to read plays written by blind playwrights, including "What Color Is the Rain?" by William Narducci. "The most touching stuff . . . was written by blind people," he says. "Blindness used to mean bitterness. The only way this will change is if blind and visually impaired people write it." Schambelan compared the situation of blind actors and actresses to that of deaf actors and actresses before "Children of a Lesser God." "The impact of `Children of a Lesser God' is just staggering," he says. He hopes the situation will be improved by his theater group. "I want us to win Tonys and travel around the world," he says. He wants to get to the point where people ask, "Why is there only one George Ashiotis? Why aren't there three?" He believes blind people should be allowed to play blind people, and that sighted people should be allowed to, too. "That's what acting's about," Schambelan says, "pretending to be what you're not, or are only partly." He would like to move the theater to a place with prop shelves and bookshelves. And he'd like to work other senses into the group's plays. "I'd love to work with smell, but that's down the pike. You need money to do that." If you are interested in acting or participating in Theater By The Blind, call George Ashiotis at (212) 647-1733. HERE AND THERE by Elizabeth M. Lennon The announcement of new products and services in this column should not be considered an endorsement of those products and services by the American Council of the Blind, its staff or elected officials. Products and services are listed free of charge for the benefit of our readers. "The Braille Forum" cannot be responsible for the reliability of products or services mentioned. DEAF-BLIND SPEAKERS The Deaf-Blind Speaking Group, founded in 1992 at the American Association of the Deaf-Blind Convention in Minnesota, is composed of people with hearing and vision impairments who grew up in an oral environment. Before joining, the group's members felt alone in the crowd. The group is a place where oral deaf-blind people can socialize with each other. Eleven new people have joined. The 1993 convention was held in California. The 1994 convention will be held in Greensboro, N.C. The group hopes to continue having the DBSG gathering at the AADB convention. For more information, or to get your name added to the list, write to: Deaf-Blind Speaking Group, 4918 42nd Ave. S, Minneapolis, MN 55417; (612) 729-4630 (voice/TDD). NEED A JOB? The Columbus, Ohio Speech and Hearing Center has two job openings. One is the project assistant for the deaf-blind project at the center's Comprehensive Program for the Deaf. To qualify, you must: be proficient in sign language; communicate and relate well to all levels of deaf-blind individuals; able to communicate effectively on the phone; have good typing skills; know WordPerfect; have a high school diploma, and preferably college degree. Responsibilities include handling all information calls; typing correspondence, reports and grants; maintaining Ohio Deaf-Blind census and resource directory; keep inventory of equipment and demonstrate usage to deaf-blind people; setting up and maintaining general information files, and setting up appointments with outside services. The second job opening is for a work evaluation specialist. To qualify, applicants must have a B.A. or preferably an M.A. in psychology, rehabilitation or related field experience -- prefer emphasis on testing; expert sign language skills to communicate with a diverse deaf population. Responsibilities include administering tests to determine deaf and hard of hearing clients' aptitudes and abilities; observe and evaluate the client's work habits, remedial education needs, independent living and socialization skills and employment potential; determine client's feasibility or readiness for employment, work adjustment, training, college or job coaching. If you are interested in one of these jobs, or have questions, contact Sandra Talan at (614) 263-5151. FALL CATALOG National Braille Press' fall 1993 catalog of publications is now available. For more information, contact National Braille Press, 88 St. Stephen St., Boston, MA 02115; (617) 266-6160. OLD GLASSES The Jewish Heritage for the Blind welcomes your donation of old eyeglasses. The project is a joint effort between the Jewish Heritage for the Blind and Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity/International. Glasses will be given to the poor in underdeveloped countries. Print your name, address and phone number on a sheet of paper and send it with your glasses to: The Jewish Heritage for the Blind, PO Box 660870, Miami Springs, FL 33266. Mark your package: "Glass -- Handle with Care." TAPES AVAILABLE Hazel Trujillo, a blind singer and guitarist, recently produced her first album on tape. It contains songs in English and Spanish. She wrote six of the songs; her father wrote two, and the rest were by other Cuban composers. If you would like one, send $5 to Hazel Trujillo, 6760 SW 78 Terrace, Miami, FL 33143. Make checks payable to Hazel Trujillo. ACCESSIBLE GED TESTS General Education Diploma testing is now available in audio cassette, braille and large print editions. For more information, call the American Council of Education at (202) 939-9490. COUNT AND COOK Harriet Roth's "fat gram counter" is available for $6.95 from National Braille Press. The two braille volumes contain more than 3,000 entries, including frozen entrees. Each entry lists the number of calories, grams of fat, cholesterol level and percentage of fat. Also available is "Betty Crocker's Low-Fat, Low-Cholesterol Cookbook." It costs $17.95, the same price as the print edition. For more information, or to order either of these items, contact National Braille Press, 88 St. Stephen St., Boston, MA 02115; phone (617) 266-6160. SHOP AT HOME Shop in the convenience and privacy of your home. Jett & Smith's Discount Shopping Service has gifts and products that are sure to please. Catalogs include: jewelry, luggage, kitchenware, flatware, sheets and towels, handmade sweaters, sweat outfits, toys, security products, etc. Cassette tapes and catalogs may be obtained free by calling (619) 325-9770. Discount prices for your Christmas shopping. HUMANWARE AWARDED HumanWare was among five finalists for the Smithsonian's Business and Related Services award in 1993 for its accessibility modules for people with disabilities. According to HumanWare's newsletter, McKesson Drug Co. won first prize for a bar code reader that could read data from 30 feet away. MIGEL AWARDED John L. Granger, president and CEO of Royal Maid Association for the Blind, Inc. in Hazlehurst, Miss., and James P. Storer, founder of the Storer Computer Access Center at the Cleveland Sight Center, are the 1993 recipients of the American Foundation for the Blind's Migel Medals, AFB's most prestigious awards. Ceremonies were held Oct. 29 at the Sheraton Manhattan Hotel in New York City. AWARD WINNER Marie Jeffries, one of the charter members of ACB of Indiana, was presented the Henry W. Hofstetter Service Award at the ACB of Indiana's annual convention. The award recognizes Jeffries for her dedicated service to ACB members in Indiana. TAPES AVAILABLE Following his performance at last summer's convention in San Francisco, many ACB members inquired whether they could obtain copies of Jeff Moyer's music tape. The Council of Citizens With Low Vision International announces the availability of Moyer's tape for $10 each. Anyone interested in receiving one should send a check with your name and address to the CCLVI Office, 5707 Brockton Dr., No. 302, Indianapolis, IN 46220-5481. Video tapes of some of CCLVI's convention sessions will soon be available. YOUR INPUT IS NEEDED IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF ACCESSIBLE TRANSIT ROUTE IDENTIFICATION SIGNS by Gene Lozano In 1991, the U.S. Architectural Transportation Barriers Compliance Board created the Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines for Transit Facilities and Vehicles to establish accessibility standards for transportation for individuals with disabilities. When the U.S. Department of Transportation published its Final Rule on Transportation for Individuals with Disabilities, Friday, Sept. 6, 1991, it had requirements for finish and contrast, character proportion, character height for bus route identification signs, and destination and route information signs for vehicles. It was felt by members of the California Council of the Blind that the accessibility signage standards for transit facilities and vehicles were very deficient and needed further development. Therefore, the CCB in convention assembled in Sacramento on May 31, 1992, passed Resolution 92-A-3 resolving that its council direct its Committee on Access and Transportation to develop model guidelines regarding issues such as the identification of bus stop locations and the size, contrast and placement of vehicle identification numbers for submission to the CCB for adoption; and further, that the approved guidelines be disseminated to the local chapters to permit them to work for adoption in their local communities. Therefore, in order to comply with Resolution 92-A-3, CAT began work on creating guidelines for tactile route identification signs during the fall 1992 convention. The committee sought input from CCB members and other interested parties that could help in the development of these guidelines. As a consequence of the committee's efforts, a few transit districts and sign fabricators from around the nation have developed an interest in these proposed guidelines. Because of the interest in this work from outside the state of California, CAT is seeking input from the readers of "The Braille Forum" as to what they would want in a tactile bus route identification sign. Our hope is that with this input the guidelines will be more representative of blind and visually impaired transit users' needs from all over the country. This could be the beginning of the development of a national standard. To assist individuals in providing input the CAT has drafted the following guidelines for your comment. PROPOSED GUIDELINES FOR TACTILE IDENTIFICATION SIGNS 1.0 Character Proportion. Letters and numbers on signs shall have a width-to-height ratio between 3:5 and 1:1 and a stroke-width-to-height ratio between 1:5 and 1:10, utilizing an upper-case "X" for measurement. Lower case characters are not permitted. 2.0 Character Height. Letter and number heights for signs of various sizes shall be as follows: (A) Route number/letter shall be a minimum of 1 inch. (B) Route destination, if provided, shall be a minimum of 5/8 inch. (C) The international bus pictogram's verbal description shall be a minimum of 1 inch. 3.0 Raised and Brailled Characters and Pictorial Symbol Signs (Pictograms). Letters and numerals shall be raised 1/32 inch upper case, sans serif type and shall be accompanied with grade 2 braille. Braille shall be separated 1/2 inch minimum directly beneath the corresponding raised characters or symbols. Braille dots shall have a rounded profile. Braille provided shall be in accordance with the standard dimensions for literary braille: Dot diameter: .059 in. Dot height: .025 in. (minimum) Inter-dot spacing: .090 in. Horizontal separation between cells: .241 in. Vertical separation between cells: .395 in. The international bus pictogram shall be used and shall be raised 1/32 inch. The pictogram shall have a minimum height of 3 inches. The pictogram shall be accompanied by the equivalent verbal description placed directly below the pictogram in raised print and braille. There shall be a minimum 1/2 inch separation between raised borders surrounding braille, raised characters, and pictograms. 4.0 Finish and Contrast. The characters, symbols and background of signs shall be eggshell, matte, or other non-glare finish. Characters and symbols shall contrast with their background, with either light characters on a dark background or dark characters on a light background. Color choices for either the character or its background should be white with black, dark brown, dark blue, dark green, or dark red. Characters and symbols shall contrast with their backgrounds by at least 70 percent. 5.0 Mounting Location and Height. Where route identification signs are provided, signs shall be installed on a standardized 4 inch by 4 inch square pole. (NOTE: The 4" x 4" is becoming a standardized pole within the transit industry.) The pole shall be located a minimum 12 inches from the curb. Mounting height shall be 60 inches above the ground to the centerline of the sign. If the width of the sign exceeds the width of the pole, the sign shall be enclosed within a display frame with beveled corners and edges. 6.0 Specifications for a Route Identification Sign Display Frame. NOTE: These are the specifications of the display frames containing printed route information used by several transit districts within the United States. These display frames could be modified to accommodate raised print characters and braille route identification signs. The route identification sign shall be affixed to a backing plate which is inserted into a one-piece, continuous glass fiber forced thermosetting polymer composite, or its equivalent, with color incorporated throughout its entire cross-section. The color of the frame shall contrast with the sign by at least 70 percent. The frame and end caps shall be molded, one-piece thermoplastic parts, or its equivalent, that resist shattering and have color incorporated throughout their cross-sections. The frame hardware shall be tamper- resistant stainless steel. 6.1 Dimensions. The frame shall be a minimum 7.125 inches wide and maximum of 12 inches wide. The frame shall also have a minimum 1 inch deep and a maximum 1 1/8 inch. The width of display area shall be a minimum of 6 inches and a maximum of 11 inches. The standard height shall be 28.0 inches (28.25 in. with end caps installed) or as specified by the purchaser. The frame shall have molded end caps which extend down into the message area to encapsulate and protect the tactile signage. The molded end caps are 1 inch long (e.g. a 24 in. frame will have approximately 22 in. of display space). 7.0 Bus Stop Locators. NOTE: What is to follow are two suggestions for using tactile aids for locating a route identification sign and its pole. 7.1 Option One. Bus stops shall be made recognizable to the blind and visually impaired through the use of detectable warning and directional surfaces which are yellow and have a color value contrast of at least 70 percent with the adjoining walking surface. A directional surface shall be placed on the sidewalk a minimum of 24 inches in depth across the width of the walk with the bars running perpendicular to the direction of the walk, leading from the inside of the sidewalk to the curb. The detectable directional texture shall be 0.1 inch in height that tapers off to .04 inch with bars raised .2 inch from the surface. The raised bars shall be 1.3 inches wide, 11.5 inches in length, and 3.0 inches from center-to-center of each bar. The directional surface shall transition to a rectangular detectable warning surface complying with ADAAG 4.29.2 at the curb, which will warn the blind and visually impaired that they are approaching the street. Where the bus stop pole is located at the curb, this rectangle of detectable warning surface around its base will indicate its position. 7.2 Option Two. This option would use a heavily textured surface made of epoxy and pea gravel that would be 24 inches wide and run perpendicular to the direction of the walk, leading from the inside of the sidewalk to and around the pole at the curb. All individuals interested in providing input about the content and format of the guidelines can send their comments in care of: Gene Lozano, 3701 Whitney Ave., Sacramento, CA 95821. The deadline for submission of comments is Dec. 10, 1993. Please submit comments in print or computer disk; preferably on a 5 1/4-inch disk in an IBM PC compatible WordPerfect 5.1 format. All input that is received and the final guidelines will be shared with the American Council of the Blind's Environmental Access Committee. THE ACB CONSTITUTION AND BYLAWS: FOUNDATION FOR THE PAST -- CHALLENGE FOR THE FUTURE, Part II by Charles S.P. Hodge ACB First Vice President (Editor's note: In the first article in this series, Mr. Hodge reviewed the first three articles to the ACB Constitution. This month, he reviews Articles IV and V.) Article IV of the constitution is entitled Officers, and Section A simply states that the officers of ACB shall consist of a president, first vice president, second vice president, secretary and treasurer, and that their terms of office shall be two years. The second sentence indicates that the officers shall be elected every other year in odd-numbered years at the annual convention. Over the years, some members have questioned why the organization needs two vice presidents, particularly when no specific duties are assigned by the constitution and bylaws to either of them. If in fact a case can be made for two vice presidents, why not three or four, with a requirement that each vice president come from a particular region of the country? At one point, around 1980, the convention did adopt a constitutional amendment abolishing the office of second vice president. Yet one year later, because of a very popular incumbent in the office of second vice president, the convention reversed itself and passed another constitutional amendment restoring the office. The presence of multiple vice presidents in our governing structure, and their proper role or duties, remain matters in need of clarification. Section B of Article IV states that in addition to the officers, this organization shall have 10 directors who shall be elected for terms of four years, with five directors elected in each even- numbered year by the convention. The third sentence states that only one director may be elected from any one state. There is no magic in the number of directors specified in this section. In fact, the number was originally set at eight and was raised to the current 10 by constitutional amendment adopted around 1980. Those favoring increasing the number of directors successfully argued at that time that the organization had grown and there was a need for broader representation on the board. Such an argument could be made even more strongly today in light of the growth of ACB in the past 15 years. Any enlargement of the board would have to overcome the counterargument that it already has 16 members. At what point would an even larger board become an unwieldy unworkable governing body? The third sentence of the section stating that only one director may be elected from any one state clearly guarantees broad geographic diversity among directors. Yet some have wondered why no similar provision was applied to the officers or to the membership of the Board of Directors as a whole. Although clearly the ACB electorate at annual conventions would never allow it to happen, under the current provision, all five officers, the immediate past president and one director could come from the same state. In fact, in recent years Wisconsin and Virginia have been represented on our board by a director and an officer simultaneously. While one officer and one director from the same state may be reasonable, even the theoretical possibility of up to seven board members from the same state is clearly not healthy for ACB. Instead of the present restriction on directors, it might be wise to broaden the restriction to state that no more than three members of the board come from any one state at any one time. Section C of Article IV states that the officers, the 10 directors and the immediate past president shall constitute the board of directors. It also states that the editor of "The Braille Forum" shall be an ex-officio member of the board with a seat and a voice, but no vote. Some members have asked why the immediate past president should be a voting member of the board, and have suggested that his/her elder statesman role could be adequately served if that individual were merely an ex-officio member. Additionally, some have also questioned the continuing need to have the editor serve as an ex-officio member of the board. They suggest that, in place of the editor, a member of the board of publications chosen by that body might more appropriately serve as an ex-officio member of the board of directors. Some have also argued that if the editor as a major staff person serves as an ex-officio member, then the same privilege should be accorded to the national representative and executive director of ACBES. Section D simply states that the officers may be elected for a maximum of three consecutive two- year terms to any one office and that directors may be elected to a maximum of two consecutive four-year terms. There is a stipulation that if an individual is elected at a special election to a term which is half or less of the normal duration of the term for a particular position, then that individual is eligible for election to a full complement of terms in his or her own right for that office or seat. The section also provides that all members of the board of directors, except the secretary and treasurer, must be blind. While this provision does require rotation of office and limitation of terms, by serving in different offices and director seats, it is theoretically possible under the current provision for one individual to serve an unlimited number of consecutive years on the board. Using our current president as an example, if LeRoy Saunders' successor were to serve a maximum of three two-year terms, LeRoy would have served 23 consecutive years on the board when his tenure as immediate past president concludes in the summer of 2001. It might be wise for us to consider an overall limitation of maybe 20 consecutive years of service. Section E imposes the restriction that elected officials of ACB may only be reimbursed for actual expenses incurred and may not be paid compensation. Employed staff are ineligible for election to office. These restrictions lessen conflicts of interest and keep staff from feathering their own nests through the exercise of power as elected officials. Yet these restrictions may hamstring ACB by keeping it from offering reasonable compensation to the president for the many hours he spends engaged in ACB business. The membership may well want to consider exempting the president from this restriction, or providing for an annual wage for the president that is capped and can only be raised by convention action. If we do not modify the current restriction with respect to the president, we may find ourselves in the position where the only viable candidates for ACB president will be independently wealthy blind individuals or retired blind professionals who can afford to spend the nearly full-time commitment required to be ACB president. Section F of Article IV simply provides that officers and directors must be elected by majority vote cast at a regular annual convention. Section G of Article IV is known as the Larry Thompson rule, and specifies that either the nominating committee or the presiding officer shall indicate to the convention the place of residence, the employer and the type of gainful employment of any nominees for office. Larry Thompson, a charter member of ACB from Florida, had advocated a constitutional provision making individuals who worked for rehabilitation agencies ineligible for election to office. This section was a compromise hammered out which allows agency employees to run for ACB office, but it means attendees are aware of the candidate's type and place of employment, allowing an informed electorate to simply not vote for individuals employed by rehabilitation agencies if they so choose. The provision has served its purpose, and despite it, some popular rehabilitation agency employees have been elected to office. Section H authorizes the board of directors to elect individuals to fill vacancies which may occur from time to time on the board or in elected positions on the board of publications. The provision does not apply to vacancies in the offices of president or first vice president, which are filled by automatic succession by the office immediately below those offices. When the board fills those vacancies, the elected individual only serves until the next annual convention at which time a special election is to be held to fill out the unexpired portion of the term, if any remains. Of course, the individual elected temporarily by the board is eligible to run in such a special election if he/she decides to run to do so. Since it was granted approximately 10 years ago, the board has not yet had occasion to exercise this authority. Article V is entitled Powers and Duties of the Convention, the Officers, the Board of Directors and Committees. Section A states that the annual convention of this organization is the ultimate authority on all matters other than those which are delegated by the constitution and bylaws to the final discretion of the officers, the board of directors or standing committees. In many members' minds, this ultimate authority language is troublesome since it could give license to a maverick or rogue elephant convention to ignore or temporarily overturn established constitutional and bylaw provisions if interpreted expansively by a parliamentarian. Some have suggested that this authority should be specifically limited by language stating that it cannot be wielded in a manner to effectively amend the constitution and bylaws without following the normal processes for amending them. While the ultimate authority power is clearly far from unfettered, its full breadth and the possibility of its misuse by a rogue elephant convention trouble many members. The second sentence of Section A states that the convention is responsible for establishing the time, dates and places of its future meetings. In 1989, the convention by resolution delegated its power to select future convention sites to the board of directors for a five-year period. That delegation is ripe for review and reconsideration at our next convention. While some will argue that the convention should allow the delegation to lapse, thereby reclaiming its power to choose its own future meeting sites, others will strenuously argue that a permanent mechanism for selecting convention sites other than by convention decision must be devised. Any permanent change in the power of the convention to select its own meeting sites will require significant amendment to this provision, which will need a two-thirds majority vote to pass. This will clearly be a hot topic for consideration at our next convention. The third sentence of Section A merely states that all voting members and members-at- large may make and second motions and nominations, serve on committees and be eligible for election to office at each annual convention or special membership meeting. Section B simply provides that the officers of ACB will perform the usual duties prescribed for their respective offices by "Robert's Rules of Order Revised," unless otherwise specified or set forth in the constitution and bylaws. This provision is intentionally vague, and while some of the officers are given specific duties in the bylaws, the two vice presidents are not assigned specific duties by the constitution and bylaws and are thrown back upon this catch-all provision, which indicates that the first and second vice presidents are to perform the duties assigned to their offices in "Robert's Rules of Order Revised," whatever they are. Section C states that the board of directors shall be this organization's governing body at all times between annual conventions, provided that the board shall take no actions or policy decisions that conflict with prior actions or decisions made by preceding conventions. Thus the board may act between conventions as if it were the convention, but it may not contravene or countermand earlier decisions made by the convention itself, thus protecting the ultimate authority power of the convention discussed previously. Section D states that the nominating committee will be composed of one member from each affiliate, with the method of selection of its member left to each affiliate. It also provides that an individual may represent only one affiliate on the committee, and that an ACB officer or candidate for office is not eligible to serve on the nominating committee unless he/she is the only voting member from his or her affiliate at that particular convention. It also provides that the president shall select a chairman to preside over the committee's meeting, but does not have the right to vote. The section concludes by providing that the meeting of the committee is to be closed, with only committee members present. Wherever there is a contest with two or more candidates for any particular office or position, voting in the committee is to be done by roll call. The nominating committee is the only committee established in the constitution. This may be because the founders of ACB wanted to ensure that the composition of the committee could only be changed by a two-thirds vote of the convention rather than by simple majority vote as required to change the bylaws. We may feel secure enough at this point in our maturation as an organization that the nominating committee provision should be moved to fit with other standing committees in the bylaws. The provision for a closed meeting was originally enacted to prompt candor in the committee's discussion about candidates, yet the committee's practice is merely to entertain one or two nominating speeches for each candidate with little or no internal debate. Maybe the purpose behind the closed meeting requirement no longer holds weight. The provision for roll call votes in cases where there are contests for particular nominations was enacted to ensure that blind members of the committee would know how other affiliate representatives were voting an impossibility if standing votes or hand-counted votes are used. The provision limiting membership on the committee only disqualifies officers of ACB, not directors. Some have suggested that this disqualifier should be broadened to apply to all members of the board only to be lifted if that board member is the only voting member present at the convention from his/her affiliate. The intent of such a rule would not deprive an affiliate of its right to vote on the committee, but rather to apply the same limitation or disqualification to directors and the immediate past president, which is currently applied to officers. I once again urge each and every one of you to sit down and draft proposed amendments to the Constitution and Bylaws Committee if you believe you have a better or more viable solution to any of the questions or issues raised in these articles. This is particularly true where your proposed amendment contains a clearer or more easily implemented provision than that contained in the current documents. ACB OFFICERS PRESIDENT LEROY SAUNDERS 2118 N.W. 21st ST. OKLAHOMA CITY, OK 73107 FIRST VICE PRESIDENT CHARLES S. P. HODGE 1131 S. FOREST DR. ARLINGTON, VA 22204 SECOND VICE PRESIDENT ROBERT J. ACOSTA 20734-C DEVONSHIRE CHATSWORTH, CA 91311 SECRETARY PATRICIA PRICE 5707 BROCKTON DRIVE #302 INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46220 TREASURER BRIAN CHARLSON 57 GRANDVIEW AVENUE WATERTOWN, MA 02172 CONTRIBUTING EDITOR ELIZABETH M. LENNON