The Braille Forum
Vol. VII July 1968 No. 1

Published Bi-Monthly by the
American Council of the Blind
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

* Editor


* Associate Editors
George Card
605 South Few St.
Madison, WI 53703

Earl Scharry
5714 Ridgeway Ave.
Rockville, MD 20851

* Executive Office
ACB Board of Publications
652 East Mallory Ave.
Memphis, Tenn. 38106

* President
Reese Robrahn
329 Woodbury Lane
Topeka, KS 66606

* National Representative
Durward McDaniel
20 E. Street NW Suite 215
Washington, DC 20001

To inform its readers and to provide an impartial Forum for discussion.

*****

** Contents
The Braille Forum -– July 1968

Involvement -- A Guest Editorial 

ACB President's Message 

Hurry! Hurry! Curtain Going Up! 

Growing, Growing, Growing 

New Social Security Provisions 

Leap Year Is Election Year 

Cooperation Pays Dividends 

Economic Opportunities
 
A Champion Retires 

States Jumping Through Loophole 

More Funds for Handicapped Children 

In Support of the Braille Slate 

A Great Man Dies 

Selective Placement Essential 

Ned's Corner 

Going Home to Pioneer 

Handicap, Anyone?
 
A Breakthrough 

A Common Question Answered 

Here and There with George Card 

Letters from Readers 

Refugees from the Round File

*****

** Involvement: A Guest Editorial
(Bulletin of the Akron (Ohio) Council of the Blind)

"I don't want to be involved." How often we hear that expression. An accident happens. Witnesses turn their backs and leave the scene to avoid being involved. The neighbor or friend has a problem. You refrain from talking with them, because you don't want to be involved. Even the blind are guilty. You are not on Aid to Blind. Therefore, you are not interested in the difficulties of AB clients. You have places to go and ways to get there. You can't be bothered with others' social problems. This could go on and on. When it is "I" who is pinched financially with nothing to do and no one to help me to do it, then the shoe is on the other foot. Every affiliate is a private agency, which should assume the responsibility of contacting every blind person in its community, who can possibly be reached. It is the responsibility of each affiliate to learn of the various services that are available to blind persons, to learn who renders these services, and how to go about getting these services that are available, to learn who renders these services, and how to go about getting these services for themselves and other blind persons. Of course, the affiliates do not have social workers or rehabilitation counselors in their membership, but this is no reason why they cannot contact other blind people to acquaint them with what is available. If the blind are not interested, and do not want to become involved in the problems of the blind, how can the blind expect the sighted world to become involved?

*****

** ACB President's Message
Judge Reese H. Robrahn

It is becoming ever increasingly apparent that the United States Post Office Department and the General Services Administration have succumbed to pressures of Federal employee unions -- (Federal officials prefer to call them employee groups or organizations) -- with respect to vending stands and vending machines on Federal properties, with the almost day by day result that another blind person is denied the opportunity of vending stand employment or his income is taken away in whole or in part. The American Council has pledged itself to the task of resisting these encroachments upon the rights of stand operators under the Randolph-Sheppard Act, wherever, whenever, and by whatever means possible. It is also becoming increasingly obvious that more than exertion of pressure by Federal employee unions has been accomplished for we have come to believe that the U.S. Post Office Department has obligated itself under the terms of contracts with employee unions extending to them concession rights on postal facilities. We have requested copies of such contracts from the Post Office Department, but our requests have been denied.

In order to circumvent the provisions of the Randolph-Sheppard Act and in order to give its action in this regard some color of legal sanction the Post Office Department has issued regulations creating "Employee Welfare Committees" which are called instrumentalities of the United States. These so-called Employee Welfare Committees are comprised of representatives of the several employee unions and the Postmaster or Chief Administrator of the facility, the latter must be the chairman of the committee and must approve all actions of the committee. Thus the legal fiction and the claim that such committees are instrumentalities of the United States are mere extensions of the arm of the Government. This latter principle has been given recognition by some Federal District Courts, but the question of the obvious subterfuge involved in the situation where the priority rights of a blind operator under the Randolph-Sheppard Act are weighed against the claims of Federal employee unions has never been ruled on squarely.

On May 29, the American Council filed an action in the Federal District Court for the District of Kansas on behalf of and in the name of a blind vending stand operator at Kansas City, Kansas in which we hope to obtain rulings on several basic issues which have not been properly presented heretofore.

Approximately three weeks prior to this writing I was alerted to the imminence of the situation with regard to this stand operator by Harry E. Hayes, Director of the Kansas Division of Services for the Blind. On May 27, I was called into conference with Division staff members and their legal counsel, and the outcome of this meeting resulted in the Kansas Division of Services for the Blind proceeding with its administrative appeal and with the filing of the law suit mentioned above through the offices of the American Council. We have the complete cooperation and support of Harry E. Hayes and the Kansas Division of Services for the Blind. These actions were deemed necessary after exhausting other avenues of action such as transmittal of resolutions by local organizations of the blind and much letter and telegram writing to postal officials and Kansas Congressmen.

On very short notice our National Representative, Durward K. McDaniel, came to Topeka and prepared and filed the law suit and met an eleventh hour deadline in obtaining a temporary restraining order against Post Office officials enjoining them from the enforcement of their order directed to the Kansas Division of Services for the Blind to discontinue as of May 31, the maintenance of fifteen vending machines at the Kansas City, Kansas main Post Office, which if carried out will reduce by approximately one-half the income of the stand operator who is the sole support of his wife and one child.

Even if the American Council of the Blind is not successful in this court action, we can accomplish three things through it and other like court actions: 1. We can obtain a definitive decision by the courts which either will strengthen the Randolph-Sheppard Act or will demonstrate very dramatically just how weak are its provisions. 2. We can inform the public through mass media of the existence of Federal employee unions, a fact that is not generally known and of their circumvention and subversion of the Randolph-Sheppard Act with the aid and cooperation of high government officials. 3. If the courts have spoken adversely to the interests of blind vending stand operators, then with the weight of public opinion the Congress will not have much alternative but to amend the Randolph-Sheppard Act so as to assure without question the rights and priority of blind stand operators under its provisions.

Yes! The American Council of the Blind will accomplish these three things, and we will demonstrate a fourth that the ACB is the National organization of the Blind in this new era. Our time, funds and collective talents and "know-how" are expended upon the advancement of the well-being of blind people of this nation and not upon internal politics and self-aggrandizement.

If you wish to help in this effort on behalf of vending programs of this nation, I urge you to contact me at 539 New England Building, Topeka, Kansas 66603, or contact our Washington Office, Suite 215, 20 E St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20001, and inquire about joining the Randolph-Sheppard Vendors of America, a new National organization of vending stand operators founded at our 1968 convention at Wichita, Kansas.

*****

** Hurry, Hurry! Curtain Going Up!
Catherine Skivers, ACB Convention Chairman

The members of the Associated Blind of California are proud and happy to host the Annual Convention of ACB. We are working hard and long hours to try to live up to all the excellent conventions held in the various states in the past. If you have not made your reservations or received confirmation of your reservations, please notify my office at 836 Resota Street, Hayward, California 94545. Rooms in San Francisco in July are at a premium.

We have a number of persons engaged in interesting and varied programs for and in behalf of the blind in California and many of our speakers are from this area. The planning committee has planned to bring information to you that will be of interest and helpful, too. Dr. Berthold Lowenfeld, well-known educator of the blind and for many years Superintendent of the Berkeley School for the Blind, will present a paper on the multi-handicapped blind child of California. This paper should be meaningful to people all over the country. He will speak Wednesday evening, and his report will be followed by a report from George Fogarty, Chairman of the Committee on Multi-handicapped Children for the American Council. Parents of blind children have been asked to speak. We believe that it is vital for parents to become aware of and interested in ACB, and we could think of no other way than to ask them to express the problems of their children as they see them.

Robert Melody, Administrator of California's Business Enterprise Program which deals directly with the vending stand operators, will speak on Thursday morning. Thursday afternoon will be devoted to blind persons engaged in different and unusual occupations. Don LaThrop, Executive Director of Goodwill Industries in San Jose, will speak on Thursday afternoon. Mr. LaThrop is blind himself and is in charge of a group which furnishes employment to many different kinds of handicapped persons. Time does not permit us to go into detail about all the items planned for the convention. You will just have to come and let us show you what we have thought up for the occasion. Just remember to bring your coats. San Francisco gets chilly even in July.

Trips in Chinatown and Bay Cruises will be available along with special breakfasts and luncheons, etc. If you need an agenda or would be interested in having one, please notify my office.

A word, if I may, to future convention chairman: Start early, as we did. But then make allowance for unusual experiences -- for instance, our banquet speaker, who was the first man to be invited, finds that he will be in Europe. Do come and enjoy our surprise banquet program -- looks as though it will be a surprise for all of us. But we will have fun -- or at least sure give it a try.

*****

** Growing, Growing, Growing
George Card, ACB Membership Chairman

As of May 19th, an application for affiliation by the Wisconsin Council of the Blind was forwarded to ACB President Reese Robrahn, together with a copy of the Charter of Incorporation and a check for $100 to cover maximum affiliation dues. I am proud and happy that after these seven long years of isolation, the Wisconsin Council will again be a part of the organized blind at the national level. The Wisconsin Council itself is composed of representatives from its five state affiliates; the Blind Concessionnaires of Wisconsin, the Alumni Association of the Wisconsin School for the Visually Handicapped, the Badger Association of the Blind the North Central Automatic Venders, and the Midwest Association for the Blind, and is one of the oldest and strongest state organizations of the blind. It is an outgrowth of the Alumni Association of the Wisconsin School for the Blind which was organized in 1894. The affiliation of the Council with ACB will bring with it the membership of all five of its autonomous affiliated groups with a total membership exceeding 700. 

An application for affiliation with ACB has also been received by President Robrahn from the Lone Star Federation of the Blind in Texas, another old and well-established organization. This group, with a present membership of about 80 persons, will serve as the nucleus of affiliated organizations in the East Texas area. Plans are presently being made to organize additional chapters in this area. 

Two other state organizations of the blind have requested affiliation application forms, and it is anticipated that these applications will be filed in due course. As this issue of the FORUM goes to press, however, these applications have not as yet been received by President Robrahn, so we will have to report future developments in a later issue. Nevertheless, ACB is GROWIN, GROWING, GROWING!

*****

** New Social Security Provisions

Changes Made in Medicare (Note: Only those 65 years of age or older are eligible for Medicare. The Medicaid program providing health services for the blind and severely disabled is a separate program, and questions regarding this should be directed to your state or local public assistance office.) There are two ways to collect medical insurance benefits under Medicare. One is for the doctor (or other supplier of service) to collect the Medicare payment. (If he agrees to do the so, he accepts the reasonable charge as his full charge.) The second way is for the payment to be made to you. In the past, you had to pay the bill first before the Medicare payment could be made to you. You can now apply for it even if you have not yet paid the doctor just by sending in the itemized bill with the Request for Medicare Payment. If the physician completes Part II of the form, you do not even need to send in an itemized bill. The full reasonable charges for laboratory, X-ray, and other radiology services are covered under Medicare when you are a bed patient in a hospital if you have both hospital and medical insurance. Beginning July 1, 1968, medical insurance can help pay for outpatient physical therapy services furnished under the supervision of a participating hospital, or an approved clinic, rehabilitation center or public health agency -- at your home or elsewhere. Physical therapy services are also covered -- under the new law as under the old when they are furnished under the direct supervision of a physician, or to homebound patients under a home health plan. All hospital outpatient services -- either for diagnosis or for treatment -- are covered by medical insurance. The same $50 deductible that applies to other medical services will also serve as the deductible for outpatient services. A person who had Medicare hospital insurance and was admitted to a hospital before January 1, 1968, but could not get Medicare benefits because the hospital did not take part in Medicare, may not be able to get partial benefits for this past period. If you are a patient in a hospital or an extended care facility but you are eligible for hospital insurance benefits (for example, because you have used up all your hospital benefit days), your medical insurance can cover some services (such as laboratory services and X-rays) which could not be covered by either part of Medicare under the old law. Your hospital insurance provides more hospital benefit days. A "lifetime reserve" of 60 additional benefit days (during which your hospital insurance will pay all but $20 a day for covered services) was added to hospital insurance benefits on January 1, 1968. You can use them if you ever need to use more than the 90 benefit days covered in each spell of illness. Unlike the 90 days, which are renewed when a spell of illness ends, these 60 additional days are not renewable. Medical insurance can now help pay for either rental or purchase of certain medically necessary equipment such as wheelchairs, hospital beds, etc. Payments for purchased items will be in the same amounts as if the equipment has been rented and will continue as long as the equipment is medically necessary or until the purchase price is met.

* Medical Insurance Enrollment 

People 65 or older before 1968 who do not have medical insurance had only until April 1, 1968, to enroll. If they did not enroll by that date, they will have to wait until the first 3 months of 1969 for another opportunity to enroll. (Note: If you have the medical insurance part of Medicare, you do not need to do anything to have it continue).

* The Medical Insurance Premium 

If you are enrolled for the medical insurance part of Medicare, your premium will be increased in April from $3 to $4 a month. The government will continue to match the increased premium, so the insurance will continue to be worth twice the amount of the premiums you pay for it.

** Changes in Retirement, Survivors and Disability Insurance 

The new law increased all monthly benefits by at least 13 percent, beginning with the checks due early in March 1968. Under the new law, a beneficiary who works after becoming entitled to benefits can earn $1,680 a year and not have any benefits withheld. If a person under 72 who is receiving monthly Social Security payments works and earns more than $1,680 in a year, some of the payments are withheld. He may earn a good deal more than $1,680, however, and still get part of the benefits. If there are some months in which his earnings are low, he can get benefits for those months; and after he reaches 72 years of age, the benefits are payable regardless of how much he is earning. (Note: Different rules, which include medical considerations, apply to work performed by people receiving benefits because of disability.)

A severely disabled widow, widower, or surviving divorced wife may now get monthly benefits at 50 instead of having to wait until 60 (widow or divorced wife) or 62 (widower). This change provides payments in a reduced amount at 50 for certain severely disabled survivors who would have been able to get benefits under the old law when they reached 60 or 62. A worker who is disabled before reaching age 31 can get disability benefits with less work credit than the old law required. Under the old law, disabled workers generally could get benefits only if they had social security credits for at least 5 years of work in the 10 years before they became disabled. Under the new law, workers severely disabled before reaching 24 can get benefits if they have credits for 1 1/2 years of work in the 3 years before they became disabled. Those disabled between 24 and 31 can get benefits if they have credits for half the time between age 21 and the time they became unable to work. (Note that the above provisions which applied only to blind persons under the 1965 amendments have been extended to cover all severely disabled people).

Members of the armed forces and their families get greater protection. Only military base pay counted toward social security under the old law. The new law provides additional credits, generally amounting to $100 for each month of active duty after 1967. No additional deductions will be made from pay checks for these credits. The new law makes it easier for the dependents and survivors of a woman worker to get benefits based on her earnings. Under the old law there were cases in which benefits could be paid to a woman worker's children (or to her husband or widower if she was furnishing half or more of his support) only if she had social security credits for 1 1/2 years out of the last 3 years. Now benefits can be paid on behalf of some children, husbands, and widowers if the woman had worked long enough to be insured, even if she had not worked in the three years before she retired, became disabled or died. 

If you have any questions regarding your social security, eligibility or benefits, contact your social security office. A Medicare handbook is to be issued shortly covering all phases of Medicare and this may be obtained from your Social Security office, or a tape recording of this handbook may be borrowed by writing to the FORUM editorial office.

*****

** Leap Year Is Election Year
Juliet Bindt
(The ABC Digest, January, 1968)

It's not only Leap Year in the romantic sense of the term, but being Election Year it means we have an opportunity to leap into decision-making via the ballot box as to our local, state and national destinies. Here a blind man unquestionably is equal with all other citizens! It is hoped that every blind citizen will take full advantage of his opportunity to mold our future and also to make his contribution to our way of life. If we let someone else make the decisions, we certainly have no right to grumble about the results. 

There are several ways in which we can participate. We can join organizations working for causes and holding opinions in which we believe. Naturally, I would hope that all alert blind persons would join some organization that is actively working to improve conditions for the blind. But, also I hope that all good citizens will affiliate with some political party, a civic improvement group, an international relations organization or other action group working for the betterment of our society. 

In these organizations we can make telephone calls from brailled lists, fold letters, lick stamps, count out campaign buttons. Because of so many issues and candidates this year there will be a great demand for volunteer workers. And, from a selfish point of view, it is an excellent way of making new friends. I would suggest that your services might be needed more by those candidates and issues that are not getting major publicity. You'll find it easier to campaign for a city councilman or Water District Director and for some specialized kind of bonds, because voters know less about these matters, than for the Presidential candidates or a major ballot issue. But these elections are important and need support. 

As an individual, the most important action is voting, first in the June primaries and later at the run-offs in November.

(Editor's note: Most, if not all, states have special provisions for blind and physically handicapped persons in voting. Find out about these and be sure you register and vote.)

*****

** Cooperation Pays Dividends

The American Council of the Blind has, from its beginning, advocated and practiced cooperation with governmental and private agencies of and for the blind and participated in and offered constructive criticism of existing or planned programs of services. As early as 1963, the then-president of ACB recommended periodic, centralized meetings which would bring together administrators of federal programs of services to the blind and representatives of organizations of the blind, or those for whom the services were intended. All of the federal agencies contacted at that time approved of the suggestion and promised to cooperate. However, very limited response was received from organizations of the blind. Since that time, however, efforts at amplifying the voice of the organized blind in national programs have continued and much progress has been made. 

There has recently been appointed a Planning Committee for a National Citizens Conference on Rehabilitation. This Conference is intended to do what we of ACB have advocated. That is, bring together those responsible for supplying services to the handicapped and representatives of the client groups being served. ACB President Reese Robrahn has been appointed to this Planning Committee. 

In reporting on the first two meetings of the Planning Committee, President Robrahn has stated, "It was rather amazing to hear Mary Switzer propose at the outset of the first conference that intended recipients of rehabilitation services ought to be involved in the planning and carrying out of rehabilitation programs. It was also amazing to hear another staff member of HEW state at the second conference that it is not their intention to permit the National Citizens Conference on Rehabilitation to become a big publicity stunt for HEW encouraging development, and we shall keep you advised of future progress along this line."

Much has been said and written, both pro and con, concerning Comstac and its successor, The National Accreditation Council of Agencies Serving the Blind. In the May issue, President Robrahn's message spoke of this matter at some length, and we will not dwell on the history and structure of this organization. It should be emphasized, however, that from the first ACB officers and members actively consulted with the various committees developing the standards, and ACB was the only national organization of the blind which both participated in and financially supported the National Conference on Standards which led to the formation of the National Accreditation Council. In view of our active participation, it is appropriate that ACB President Reese Robrahn has been elected to serve on the Board of Directors of NAC, and, thus, the organized blind will have a strong and authoritative voice in the decisions and activities of this organization. 

In the FORUM for September, 1967, the new regionalized structure of the American Association of Workers for the Blind was reported. At that time, it was recommended that national, state and local organizations of the blind participate actively in the formation of state or regional chapters and let their voices be heard at national, regional and local meetings and workshops concerned with improved programs. Since that time, a number of state AAWB chapters have been organized, including one in Georgia. Acting on his own advice, the editor of the BRAILLE FORUM, who also serves as President of the Georgia Federation of the Blind, has been active in promoting the formation of a state chapter in Georgia, and at the first organized meeting of the chapter, he was elected to a four-year term on the state board of directors. 

For the first time, a national organization of the blind will be among the exhibitors at the national conventions of both the American Association of Instructors of the Blind and the American Association of Workers for the Blind, both of which will be held in Toronto this summer. The American Council of the Blind has made arrangements for exhibit space, and Ned Freeman will man the ACB booth for both conventions. It is the feeling of the American Council of the Blind Officers and Directors that such participation will further strengthen the voice of the organized blind in national and regional affairs. 

If you want to have your voice heard, go where the action is and speak directly to those who have the legal and financial responsibility for bringing about improvements.

*****

** Economic Opportunities
Victor C. Johnson, MFB President
(The Missouri Chronicle, excerpts from MFB 1967 Banquet Address)

Webster says opportunity is a quality or state of being useful and he further states that economics is a state pertaining to the management of man's needs, or the science that investigates conditions and laws affecting production, distribution, and consumption of wealth or material means of satisfying man's human desires. In other words we are interested in Social Economics even as much as Political Economics. Both are basic in our lives.

My many years' experience as a door-to-door salesman and operator of a vending stand enables me if not entitles me to set forth a few of my own ideas and experiences pertaining to Economic Opportunity. In discussing a subject of this nature it is not improper, I believe, to say something about the opportunities the blind have now on leaving school or college in contrast to what they were some 47 years ago. At that time there was no rehabilitation or vocational counseling and training; rather, the blind were simply turned out of school to fend for themselves. To be sure, some of them, particularly in the professions, were very successful. It was discovered early, however, that merely to provide an education for the blind was not sufficient to insure them of an equal opportunity of first-class citizenship. There has always been challenge and a special kind of audacity in accepting it. There are so many things to be done and still have to be done and now done in new ways. Through the years the blind have acquitted themselves with honor, fortitude and courage. It is not unfair also to note the paltry few occupations which were considered suitable for the blind a century or so ago as compared to the many in which the blind are engaging successfully today. In fact, it has been said by a prominent blind leader of today that whenever he has considered certain occupations improper or unsuited to blind people just then is when he hears of some blind person who is making a success at what he had considered impossible. John D. Rockefeller said, "I believe every right implies responsibility, every opportunity is an obligation and every possession a duty." 

In line with these thoughts we must frankly admit that in enlarging the Economic Opportunities for the Blind we find it is not a one-sided project or a one-way street. It means that we blind cannot too readily or too often give our handicap as a reason for obtaining what we want and think we can do for specialists in this field of job-placement specialists who try to represent us to employers, tell me that often there are not enough blind persons qualified for jobs which are available. Every blind person who can work should be given the necessary training and an opportunity to work. This is one of our goals, today.

Remember, Thomas A. Edison said success is one point inspiration and nine points sis perspiration. Therefore, we must all know in the last analysis it will require hard work, perseverance and nothing less to reach our goals. This is as true with reference to the blind as to the sighted. Our own determination will enable us to win despite the readiness of some blind persons who have succeeded in certain fields of endeavor to imply or even pronounce that same field unsuitable for other blind persons.

Therefore, always let us be ready to refute and oppose the old bugaboo that certain blind persons who succeed are exceptions to the rule because of their peculiar or unusual abilities and talents, and we must put forth the idea that all blind people are capable of engaging in some sort of useful and rewarding occupation and the ability of the blind rather than their disability must be held high and publicized throughout the land. Despite the fact that we have hundreds of counselors seeking jobs for blind persons, it is still nothing more nor less than an uphill battle. We must not overlook the possibility of additional legislation being helpful along this line. Although it has never been accepted in this country, many European governments have adopted quota systems making it compulsory that companies employ a certain percentage of handicapped persons and in Argentina at the present time there is a provision that companies must employ one blind person to every 1,000 employees. It might be well for us in American legislation to study these possibilities. 

So, in conclusion, may I urge each of you to seek that which you can do; do not give up until you do it and when you have the appointment, then give it your best and you will surely succeed.

*****

** A Champion Retires
(Listen, April)

The Honorable Lister Hill who, along with the late Rep. John E. Fogarty of R.I., formed a Congressional partnership that furthered government programs in medical research and rehabilitation has announced that he will not seek re-election this year and will retire from the Senate when his current term ends in January, 1969. The Alabama Democrat, who is 73, will have served in Congress for 45 years.

Senator Hill's achievements as "an influential champion of federal support for medical research" were praised in an article in the January 26 issue of "Science," weekly publication of the American Ass'n for the Advancement of Science. The senator's "immense power" in the formation of government health programs came "by virtue of two crucial committee posts", the article says. The posts are chairmanship of the Senate Labor and Public Welfare Committee -- which writes legislation affecting the Public Health Service and chairmanship of the appropriations subcommittee -- dispenser of funds for the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. 

Working with Senator Hill and Congressman Fogarty in an effective "combine" which "shaped the government's burgeoning effort in medical research during the postwar decades" was Dr. James A. Shannon, director of the National Institute of Health for the past 13 years. Hill's retirement will remove the last of the three from active government service, the magazine article points out. Dr. Shannon is due to retire in September. Congressman Fogarty died in January, 1967, after 26 years as a member of the House of Representatives. 

According to the journal, a typical yearly pattern saw Dr. Shannon's agency requesting an increase in funds from the previous year, Fogarty's House appropriations subcommittee recommending a boost above the request and the Senate sub-committee under Senator Hill recommending an even greater increase. The eventual NIH appropriation was usually close to Hill's recommendation, causing heads of other agencies outside the health field to ask with envy, "Where is our Lister Hill?"

*****

** States Jumping Through Loophole
Chicago American via We The Blind

More than 900,000 elderly poor are being deliberately "robbed" by their states of around 40 million dollars in public assistance funds provided by the federal government. Thirty-eight states are guilty of this "legalized burglary." It is being perpetrated through a loophole in the Social Security Act as revised in 1965 raising old age benefits by 7 percent -- with a minimum of $4 a month to enable the very poor to pay the $3 monthly Medicare insurance charge. It is the $4 minimum that states are using to pilfer some 40 million dollars in federal public assistance funds from the needy. Only 12 states are "living up to the letter of the law" and not doing that. They are: Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Nevada, South Dakota, Vermont, Wyoming and the Territory of Guam. Four other states are partially abiding by the intent of the law -- Alabama, California, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. 

This is the charge of Sen. Vance Hartke, member of the Finance Committee. Hartke is vigorously pressing an amendment to wipe out the little-known loophole "that gives benefits to the states instead of the poor" ... The loophole making this possible is an optional provision in the 1965 raise in Social Security benefits. Sen. Hartke explains it as follows: "We in Congress included in the Social Security amendment a provision which allowed, but did not require, the states to pass along an amount up tb $5 a month of added Social Security benefits to individuals by excluding it from income calculated for old age assistance and other federal-state welfare programs based on need." But although Congress made it clear,  Hartke contends that its intention was to "assist our elderly poor and not to enrich the treasuries of the states. Thirty­-eight of them have failed to pass this money on." He cited the case of Illinois. "Illinois has an annual public aid budget of 350 million dollars, half of which is supplied by the federal government," declared Hartke. "The gain to Illinois by refusing to pass on the $4 exclusion to its aged poor is $110,000 a month, or $1,320,000 a year. That certainly was not the intent of Congress and is little short of legalized burglary of the unfortunate people who can afford it least."

*****

** More Funds for Handicapped Children
(The Washington Report, Published by AFB, Irvin P. Schloss, Editor)

Public Law 90-247, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act Amendments of 1967, as approved by the President, improves programs for the education of handicapped children as follows:

1. Provides new authorization for regional resource centers affiliated with institutions of higher learning, state education agencies, or combinations thereof for testing, evaluation, and development of programs for education of handicapped children;

2. Authorizes the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare to make grants or contracts with public or non-profit private agencies for the construction and establishment of regional centers for deaf-blind children which are to include (a) comprehensive diagnostic and evaluative services, (b) adjustment, orientation, and education services; (c) effective consultative services for parents, teachers and others; (d) research into all aspects of service to deaf-blind children; (e) training of specialized personnel; (f) dissemination of information.

3. Establishes a program of grants and contracts with public or private agencies and institutions for the recruitment of educational personnel needed in programs for handicapped children and for dissemination of information about such programs.

4. Extends the program of captioned films for the deaf to cover educational media for the instruction of all types of handicapped persons with increase in the authorization of appropriations for this purpose.

5. Broadens the program of grants for research and demonstration projects in the education of handicapped children to include contract authority and extends the authorization of appropriations for this purpose to fiscal 1970 with an increase to $18 million.

6. Amends Title III of the ESEA, which provides for a broad range of supplementary education activities and services including innovative and exemplary programs, to specify that not less than 15% of the funds appropriated for such programs shall be devoted to special projects for the education of handicapped children.

7. Guarantees full funding of grants for the education of handicapped children in state supported schools for the handicapped under Title I of ESEA.

*****

** In Support of the Braille Slate
Charles W. Thibodo

Among other problems of the blind, I am greatly stirred up by the arguments pro and con over Braille slates versus Braille writers and Braille slates versus Braille Slates with slate boards. 

I was totally blinded in military service in World War II twenty-three years ago. After my blindness, I went to college and university for six years and received my Master's degree in Social Work and have been a social worker ever since. I have no use for a braille writer and have given two of them away to Braille Transcribers who use them for transcribing school materials for blind and visually handicapped children who attend public schools. In my work as a social worker, I am constantly using braille slate and slate board and stylus in my note taking. I could never constantly carry a braille writer around with me, let alone find a place to set it, if I were to try to use one. I am not bothered by writing backwards and reading forwards. However, I am bothered by two things. 

The first of these is that in Santa Clara County, California there are several dozen blind and visually handicapped children attending our public elementary and high schools and our half dozen colleges. Not one of these students is taught anything but the braille writer while in school. They admit to me that they suffer because they do not know how to use a braille slate and slate board, particularly when they have finished school and are out on the job where carrying a braille writer into court or a meeting is just not possible, but a slate and slate board used on their laps would do the trick. 

Secondly, I am greatly frustrated over the sizes of braille slates and slate boards, the smallest of which holds nine and one-half inch by 12-inch paper, but the common size is 14 by 14 inches. These are clumsy sizes, and someone needs to develop a slate and slate board for standard 8 1/2 by 11-inch paper to fit braille paper punched for a standard three-ring notebook, for easy carrying and filing. 

In my twenty-three years of writing braille with a slate and slate board I have been constantly frustrated in obtaining braille paper of the right size and quality for use with a slate. It is awfully discouraging to the person learning to write braille by slate to have to cut the paper to their own needed size and many times the paper is so tough that it practically, and sometimes does, break or bend the stylus in attempting to punch through it. This tough paper may work well in a braille writer, but it is frustrating and exhausting to use in a braille slate.

We, the blind, cannot conveniently and comfortably use braille slates and slate boards and styli unless the agencies for the blind are willing and able to furnish us with the necessary equipment and braille paper for us to use in our work.

*****

** A Great Man Dies

(Editor's Note -- Many of you will remember meeting our son-in-law at the Atlanta Convention banquet, 1966)

He led no nation through crisis. He piloted no spacecraft -- only a motorized wheelchair. He won no plaudits for athletic prowess: his muscular ability was restricted to labored movements of fingers and head. He had to be lifted from bed to chair to the right front seat of the car, but his outreach to others was unlimited. Although he was in constant pain of greater or less severity for seventeen years, his enthusiasm for life was an inspiration to all he met.

Sidney Herring contracted polio while serving as an Ensign in the Navy during the Korean War.  From his wheelchair, he established himself in a career as an accountant. When a heart attack in 1958 forced his retirement from his position as assistant to the Comptroller of Emory University, he built a house out on the family farm in Conyers and plunged heart and soul into civic affairs. As president of the local Jaycees, he led that group to recognition as the outstanding chapter in the State and was himself awarded several citations for outstanding leadership. Although he was defeated in the only political race which he entered personally, he was influential in the election of two congressmen.

He was just as active in the affairs of his church, having served on the vestry and as treasurer of the Church of the Good Shepherd, Covington, and on the vestry and senior warden of St. Simons Church, Conyers, which he helped to organize, design, build and equip.

During the years of his "retirement," he established from his office at home a small business services agency with requests from more clients than he was able to serve. 

His final year was typical. As Director of the County Economic Opportunity Program, he organized and directed what has been recognized as one of the most outstanding programs in the State of Georgia. Although he had been repeatedly warned by his doctors that he must slow down and take things easy, he continued to devote his entire energy, day and night, to the program. Although he well-knew the pace was too much for his weakened heart, he refused to quit or even to slow down except when the angina required hospitalization or complete bedrest.

His heart was weak and growing weaker, but it was still big enough to encompass the whole of mankind. Although he could not walk and needed no shoes himself, he purchased shoes, so that children might not have to go to school barefoot; not to mention clothing and other necessities also provided.

To the requiem celebrating his eternal birthday flocked high and low, rich and poor, black and white. It was truly said that, had all of those whose lives he had influenced for good attended, the Atlanta Stadium could not have encompassed the crowd.

Because they had faced almost daily for ten years the ultimate separation, his wife could say, "It is fitting that he is being buried on our anniversary. It marks the completion of twelve perfect years of marriage." From this union came four wonderful children.

Yes, a great man has died. The small, crippled, worn-out shell has been laid to rest. His spirit and the impact of his life and work can never be effaced.

*****

** Selective Placement Essential
F. Raymond Davis, Ohio Governor's Committee
(Performance, April, 1968)

Most local committees and Governors' Committees on Employment of the Handicapped consider that their area of concern should cover all of the factors that may have a part in the placement of a handicapped person in suitable employment.

Suitable employment implies that the job secured will lead to reasonable utilization of the individual's most significant capacities, coincide with his realistic interests, and offer wholesome opportunities for the development and realization of his potential level of development and achievement.

The prime target of Governors' and community committee effort is employer acceptance of the handicapped. Much progress has been made in gaining employer realization that only rare jobs require more than a small segment of a normal individual's total mental and physical capacity. This fact, coupled with research findings which indicate that the average individual has the physical and mental potential to learn to perform 1,000 different jobs efficiently, emphasizes the wide range of suitable jobs for the handicapped.

These concepts judiciously applied, reveal ample opportunity for suitable placement of the handicapped. Placement in jobs where the strongest resources of the handicapped match the important demands of the job, and where impaired or lost resources will not hamper effective job performance, can make nearly every job suitable for some handicapped person. This matching is selective placement. Establishing wider employer insight into the above approaches to placement of handicapped workers can result in substantially broader and more intelligent utilization of such workers. But the employer must hire on the basis of estimated ability to meet the requirements of an existing vacancy -- ability not disability. This means that he is forced to consider only job applicants whom he can expect to perform at an acceptable beginning level.

The role of vocational rehabilitation is to take the individual as he is and develop him to the degree implied above. To do this requires a range of services as broad and as varied as the range of handicaps.

Vocational rehabilitation should not be considered complete until the client has obtained employment that is suitable as defined above.

*****

** Ned's Corner

From the time of its birth in 1962, there ensued four years of constant struggle to keep the breath of life in the BRAILLE FORUM and to prevent its starvation for lack of funds. As a result of a fund-raising program, begun early in '66, the ACB financial picture is much brighter, and there appears to be no further danger of suffocation or starvation for the FORUM. As a matter of fact, the child is in the best of health and growing stronger every day.

In the early days the funds available for clerical assistance for both the ACB president and for the editor of the FORUM were very limited, and only part-time clerical help could be employed. This has meant that as the necessary correspondence and the amount of material carried in the FORUM has increased (and especially the phenomenal growth of the tape mailing list), Loretta has had to devote more and more volunteer time to the clerical and secretarial duties of this office.

As a result of a recent decision by the ACB Board of Directors it has now become possible for Loretta to be employed full time as secretary to the editor of the BRAILLE FORUM. We believe that this will enable us to provide our readers with more information arid better service. It is our intention to render the maximum service possible to you, our readers, both in the FORUM and the tape library services supplied through this office.

Your cooperation will make this possible. Some few of you have been very good about sending us clippings from newspapers and magazines concerning the activities of blind people and other items of interest, and these have been greatly appreciated. We would like to ask each of you to serve as a clipping bureau so that we may receive the maximum amount of information nationwide to pass on to our readers.

Because of Loretta's status as an ACB employee, I shall not be a candidate for any elective office in the organization. This will mean greater managerial responsibility for the ACB Board of Publications, the majority of whom are your elected representatives. Under our bylaws, this Board is responsible not only for the selection of the editorial staff but also for the editorial policy, the content and general procedure of the FORUM, and such other publications as may be instituted in the future. 

The team of Freeman and Freeman, as well as the associate editors Card and Scharry, are at your service. Let us hear from you as you have questions to discuss with our readers or suggestions to make for the improvement of the magazine.

*****

** Going Home to Pioneer

(From New Life, Feb., 1968, Ark. Enterprises for the Blind)

One sunny day in early 1965 a 31-year-old Matthew Mussa of Panama went to lunch at his favorite cafe. There was nothing at all unusual about this procedure until Matthew picked up the menu. He noticed then that the printing looked uneven on one side. This was very odd, for Matthew's eyesight had always checked out at 20-20. He covered his right eye and looked at the menu again. It appeared a little dim but otherwise it was all right. The shocker came when he covered his left eye. He had no vision at all in his right eye. Lunch was forgotten and Matthew hurried to his doctor. Tests showed that he was suffering from acute glaucoma and blindness was only weeks away. 

"I was completely and utterly depressed," says the well-spoken Matthew who is now a trainee at Arkansas Enterprises for the Blind at Little Rock. "For six or eight months I just sat and looked at the wall. As far as I was concerned life was finished. With the help of my family and friends I began to come out of my lethargy and decided to seek help." 

Help came in the form of a fellow citizen of Panama named Amallie D'Castro, a woman who had been blind for many years but who had the spirit and courage to help herself and try to help others. She introduced Matthew Mussa to the Salvation Army School for the Blind at Ciudad Radial (Radio City). The name of the school was much more impressive than the school itself. There were few facilities but Major and Mrs. James Bosman, Salvation Army commanders, did the best they could. The class met once a week, on Fridays, and the adult blind of the area were brought together for what Matthew calls "more fellowship than learning." 

Into this almost self-teaching class for the adult blind came Raymond (Bud) Keith from Washington, D.C. who was also blind and a member of the Peace Corps. His primary program was at the Helen Keller School for the Blind Children at Panama City, but he was able to travel to Radio City each Friday to meet with the class at the Salvation Army. 

Out of this grew an idea. Matthew Mussa, an intelligent young man, had now adjusted well to the fact that he was blind. Bud Keith wrote to the American Foundation for the Overseas Blind and asked for a list of training schools in the United States where Matthew could be trained so that he might return and pioneer a similar program in his own country. 

One normal barrier was easily hurdled. Matthew had attended Junior High School in the United States Canal Zone and speaks fluent English. 

Red tape-laden wheels began their slow spin. It took almost nine months but at the end of that time Matthew Mussa had been granted a scholarship at Arkansas Enterprises for the Blind and the government of the Republic of Panama agreed to pay the rest of the expenses.

Before returning to Panama, Matthew visited other training centers in the United States. He looked forward to his return to his home country, where he felt he would be able to pass along in a professional way the training that he received at the Arkansas Center. 

"There has never been anything even approaching a complete rehabilitation course for the adult blind in Panama and I will be doing a lot of pioneering," he said. Then Matthew added: "But it certainly will be the biggest and most interesting challenge a man could ask for."

*****

** Handicap, Anyone?
(From Performance, May, 1968)

Carrie Esther Hammil believes that there are two things which one can do with any handicap -- either one handles it or it handles one. Last year when she taught classes in special education for 10- to 17-year-old children, each child realized that he was in the special class because he had a problem, and each child also realized that his teacher had problems which she had learned to handle. 

Esther is totally blind; her hearing is 95 percent gone, forcing her to use two of the most powerful hearing aids made; and she is confined to a wheelchair because her legs and chest muscles are paralyzed. In spite of these handicaps, she has continued an unbelievably active life, including teaching public school in Marana, Arizona, and attending classes at the University of Arizona. 

When asked about the difficulty of keeping a class of active youngsters under control, Miss Hammil replied: "It's not difficult at all. It's all based on the idea of mutual benefit. The children are delightful to work with, and I couldn't ask for more reliable assistants." 

Miss Hammil feels that her own physical limitations have played a large part in helping students in her classes to accept responsibility and develop independence. She says, "I can't do everything for them, so they must be responsible for their own behavior and, to a certain degree, their own learning." 

It was during Esther's high school days in Pittsburgh, Pa., in the 1940s that symptoms of multiple sclerosis began appearing, but this disease, which attacks the body's nervous system, was not diagnosed conclusively until 1956, the year she moved to Tucson, Ariz. Many attempts at higher education were impeded by recurring attacks of this ailment. A music lover, Esther studied trumpet and composing at the Cincinnati Conservatory. She recalls, "Everything went fine until I woke up deaf one morning." Her hearing returned slowly as damaged nerves repaired themselves, but there were other problems such as a fall down 120 concrete steps at Columbia University. Finally, after much perseverance, Esther graduated from the University of Arizona in 1958 with senior class honors.

Immediately after graduation, Esther began work on a master's degree in educational guidance. When she had about half of her work completed, she had another attack and was paralyzed from the waist down. She spent the next 30 months in a respirator. Despite confinement to the iron lung, she was allowed to continue her studies by special arrangements through the University. When blindness struck Esther continued her studies while racing through a 2-year Braille course in 6 weeks.

A remission of the disease enabled Esther to begin her teaching career 6 years ago when, although confined to a wheelchair, she served as a substitute in the public schools of Marana. The next year she accepted a full-time position and began commuting each school day from her home in Tucson. 

For recreation, Esther enjoys working with ceramics and playing the organ.

*****

** A Breakthrough 
(Oakland Tribune via the ABC Digest, Jan. 1968)

The Oakland Social Security Office is the first in the nation to hire and train a blind service representative. Ernest (Pete) Elliott, 10724 Apricot St., was chosen under a breakthrough program for severely handicapped persons announced recently by the U.S. Social Security Administration and the California Department of Rehabilitation. Started in California, the program is expected to be extended to Social Security offices throughout the West and eventually nationwide. 

The program was formalized in Sacramento recently when John F. Richardson, Regional Commissioner of the Social Security Administration, and Robert E. Howard, California Director of Rehabilitation, signed a joint memorandum of understanding, spelling out the broad policies and commitments of the two agencies. The state Department of Rehabilitation will be responsible for identifying and training disabled persons for possible employment in the Social Security offices. 

Richardson explained that "the program is an extension of the Social Security Administration's commitment to hire the best qualified persons available for all positions regardless of race, religion, sex or physical handicaps." He added that the agency will consider blind persons for jobs like service representative; deaf persons for teletype and automatic scanner operations; mentally retarded persons for routine, repetitive work, and other disabled persons for jobs in which they have demonstrated competence. 

Howard commented: "The determination of the Social Security Administration to hire more severely handicapped persons is a breakthrough for us in the vocational rehabilitation field. We hope other governmental agencies and private employers will follow this example. When a disabled person is hired, we all gain, because he becomes a productive contributor to our economy."

*****

** A Common Question Answered

The HOOSIER STAR-LIGHT, Mar. '68: Question: I'm 28 years old and have been paying the maximum social security tax for the past 9 years. It seems to me that we younger workers are bearing the brunt of increasing social security contributions. Is it true that we'll be paying much more into the system than we'll get out of it? 

Answer: Using yourself as an example, you have paid just under $1700 in social security contributions so far. You have protection worth $50,000 to $75,000, payable in monthly benefits to your family if you should die or become disabled for work. Many young people think of social security in terms of retirement, old age, and Medicare. Social security means even more to younger people -- it can mean $340 a month to disabled workers and their families or to widowed mothers and their children. A worker who becomes entitled to disability benefits can continue to get monthly checks for as long as he is disabled and unable to work.

Suppose a young father of two children, both under 5, is killed in an accident, and that his average earnings covered by social security were $450 a month. His widow and children would receive as much as $328 each month in social security, nearly $4,000 each year. By the time the oldest child reaches 18 his family could have received nearly $51,000. And this would not be all -- the widow could receive monthly benefits when she reaches 60, and the children could receive benefit payments until they reach 22 if they continue their education. In addition to the $1,700 in contributions you've paid up to now, you will pay another $11,300 in social security taxes by the time you reach 65 and retirement. To that add the interest that would have accumulated over the years -- just about doubling the amount of actual dollars you paid into social security trust funds.

*****

** Here and There with George Card

The Keystone Alliance is an informal group of leaders of the organized blind in the eastern part of the U.S. It meets once a year on the last Saturday in April. Organization politics are strictly taboo. The agenda is made up of subjects suggested by mail during the preceding year and when a subject is announced each state representative describes the situation in his own state and his views as to what changes should be sought. I attended this year by invitation and took a very active part in the discussions. I met some extremely interesting people. 

WE THE BLIND: Frank Lugiano, president of the Pennsylvania Federation of the Blind and chairman of the statewide Legislative Planning Group for the Blind, is completing his 42nd year as legislative lobbyist in behalf of the blind. -­ On the night of February 13 friends gathered from all parts of Philadelphia to honor Miss Rita Drill. In commemoration of Brotherhood Week this blind girl was given an award for her "outstanding service and dedication to humanity." Our Rita is a very busy young lady. In order to prepare herself for her regular position as a typist in the Department of Special Education at the Board of Education, she attended the Levitan Business School and graduated with such high marks that she paved the way for others to attend. She is now taking a correspondence course for medical secretaries. She also finds time to proofread for the Library of Congress and the Jewish Braille Institute of America, knit for her friends, tutor students in German and Latin, edit We The Blind and the Alumni Column of the Red & White. She does not let her own poor health deter her from her dedication to others. 

Stenhope Pier, one of the best-known and most widely respected members of the Oregon Council of the Blind, passed away last spring. He was the first blind member of the Oregon Commission for the Blind and at one time served the O.C.B. as its legislative representative. He was a long-time personal friend of this writer. 

An eastern correspondent, who is a real authority on braille, has sent me a letter typed on the new IBM electric braille typewriter. The dots are excellent and it is easy to read. He likes some features, such as the eraser key, but finds others less satisfactory. The paper must be rolled up some distance in order to read what has been written and the most commonly used Grade 2 contractions, which are activated by the shift key, are not placed in the most convenient parts of the keyboard. He is definitely of the opinion that this machine will never replace the Perkins Braille Writer when it comes to transcribing books. 

According to the American Foundation for the Blind there are now 430,000 legally blind persons in the U.S. 

LISTEN: John J. Clunk, who is generally credited with having built up the outstanding vending stand program in Massachusetts, and whose famous father Joe Clunk is now an official of the Maryland Workshop for the Blind, passed away at the untimely age of 48 in Winter Park, Florida. -- The possibility of enabling blind, mentally retarded children and adults to move around safely and with confidence is being explored by a team of Boston College specialists in cooperation with residents at the Ransom Greene unit of the Walter E. Fernald State School in Waverly: The hope is to get away from the idea that they will bump into walls or fall down stairs. According to the U.S. census there are between eight and nine thousand mentally retarded blind in institutions across the country. -- Still a novelty in the U.S. is the adoption of a child by an unmarried man or woman. More unusual is the recent case in Pennsylvania when Norma Claypool, a blind unmarried teacher, was permitted to adopt Patti Elaine, who is also blind. Patti Elaine was two when she was adopted. She was far behind other children of her age with a vocabulary of only three words and unable to walk. Now, almost a year later, Patti Elaine is a bubbling, talk-active livewire; the year of love has wrought an amazing change. -- More than 2,200 New England members of the Telephone Pioneers recently pledged their eyes for corneal transplants to the Boston Eye Bank.

ABC DIGEST (Calif.): Dr. H.F. Schluntz, formerly of Keystone, Iowa, and also formerly a two-term president of the Iowa Assoc. for the Blind (NFB affiliate) who is now a resident of San Diego, has become the newest member of the state board of directors of the ABC California affiliate. Dr. Schluntz says: "I lament the split in the blind movement, but I have backed the ACB because of its democratic principles. Due to the tendency of leadership to tend more and more to centralized decision and direction, I feel that we must be ever vigilant to retain democratic procedure." -- A resolution adopted by the Calif. Blind Concessionaires Association, Inc., has called upon the other four organizations of the blind in that state to cooperate in presenting a united front to the state legislature. -- In Kimmel, Ind., Don Cleland, who was blinded years ago, raises crickets! He has 12 huge metal tanks, each crawling and hopping with 250,000 crickets in the height of the season. When one hops, they all hop. Only the males chirp. Don raises them from eggs. When the crickets get big enough, so they no longer fall through a certain size sieve, they are put into perforated containers and sent to wholesale cricket dealers for $5 per M, as commercial bait. Don, who is one of the best cricket farmers in the nation, does everything by touch and sound. He knows the difference between male and female crickets and can tell by the sound whether his brood is happy.

ILLINOIS BRAILLE MESSENGER: Owners of the standard Perkins Brailler may obtain Extension Keys, which can be installed with a screwdriver and which make it simple to operate the writer with one hand and read braille with the other. Price, $10; Howe Press, Perkins School for the Blind, Watertown, Mass. 

Visitors to Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral will be surprised to learn that Mr. William Wilson, the artist responsible for the Bishops' Window in the nave, is still designing stained glass although for the last two years he has been completely blind. At his Edinburgh studio he visualizes the windows in his mind's eye and then dictates the design and colors to his assistants. At present he is designing windows for three churches, two in Scotland and one in the U.S. -- The Editor protests the practice of raising funds for residential schools for the blind through public subscription when the money should come from the State. -- An optical firm at Mainz has developed a pair of spectacles that change color when the sun comes out. The sun's ultra-violet rays automatically darken the glass and turn the spectacles into sunglasses and the glasses clear when the sun goes down. -- The number of volunteers working with Recordings for the Blind increased from 2,700 to 3,900 in the past year but still more are needed.

May ZIEGLER: Col. E.A. Baker, who has been honored many times for his work in behalf of the blind, died April 7 at his home in Canada at the age of 75. Col. Baker helped to found the Canadian National Institute for the Blind and directed its operation for half a century. He was also the first president of the World Council for the Welfare of the Blind, a post he held from 1951 to 1964 when he resigned. (Col. Baker was the banquet speaker at the 1963 national convention of A.C.B. in Chicago.)

Membership in the Voicespondence Club has now passed the 1,950 mark.

At a meeting a few days ago of the Advisory Council to the Wisconsin Library System (of which I am a member) I was more than a little surprised to learn that the trend toward 8 1/3 rpm recorded Talking Book discs has been abruptly halted. A few months ago we all expected that the Library of Congress would announce a complete changeover to this system, but experience has shown that the speed is so slow, and the resulting weight of the needle is so much greater that the disc wears out very quickly. Presumably NEWSWEEK will continue to be recorded at this low speed, but this magazine is only expected to be read twice and then discarded.

THE PALMETTO AURORAN (S.C.): Blind people should be in the stream of our regular society, but it is not believed that an occasional meeting of the blind in any way constitutes being clannish. Some successful blind people feel that their social, intellectual and economic image may be tarnished, should they become in any way associated with blind persons of less stature. Frequently, as a matter of fact, prominent blind persons who participate in an organization of the blind have gained the respect and admiration of their business associates because of their efforts on behalf of their fellow blind. History has shown that when wise and fair-minded persons having a common bond join hands and work together for a just cause, whether it be in an organization of the blind or a PTA group, mankind is benefited. -- The Commission for the Blind has been granted permission by the Commission Board to place a worker in the Medical College Hospital who can assist eye patients directly and who will also be able to give general information to doctors and others about available services of the Agency. Among the Commission's plans for new programs is the establishment of a homemaking department in the city of Columbia, which will allow blind persons in training to learn how to cook, clean, use laundry facilities, iron and groom themselves. Training in home economics and home management will be a part of an over-all training program which will include mobility instruction, Braille, typing, script writing, concession stand training, orientation to sewing and arts and crafts in the Home Industries Department. -- "Director," the man practically shouted across the room at a recent regional bridge tournament, "This woman is using marked cards." The woman in question turned to her seemingly outraged opponent and calmly said, "Yes, I know. You see, I'm blind and my cards are all marked in braille." After losing her sight Mrs. E. E. Barham taught herself with no other aid than a braille alphabet card.

From the newsletter of the Wisconsin Governor's Committee on Employment of the Handicapped: There is a growing awareness in the U.S. of the striking similarity between the situations of the physically handicapped and the poverty stricken. There is a remarkable psychological similarity between the person who is disabled by poverty and one who carries some organic impairment. This is the curse of being different which breaks the flow of communication between the disabled person and the rest of society, and it is this feeling of isolation and loneliness that truly cripples the man who is different. It cripples him not only because others look upon him as not belonging but because he looks upon himself the same way. The outmoded contention that poverty is an individual matter which can always be altered through additional exertion is just as irrelevant as would be a similar theory with respect to a physical or mental handicap, impairment or disability.

LISTEN: Haystack Ski School at Wilmington, Vt., specializes in teaching handicapped people to ski, including the blind. -- A chapter of the American Association of Workers for the Blind has been established in New Jersey, making that state one of the first to implement plans adopted at the 1967 AAWB convention. –Blind for the past six years, Dr. Ramesh Nigam of New Delhi, India, is lecturing professor of surgery at Maulana Azad Medical College and is currently writing a. surgical text. -- Mrs. Mary Ann Morgan, formerly of Philadelphia, Miss., won her suit against a national drug company and was awarded $550,000 when it was ruled that a drug which she was given for rheumatoid arthritis had caused her blindness. -- The trustees of Perkins School for the Blind have ordered the immediate construction of two new units on the Watertown campus to double tile facilities for deaf-blind children at the school in the next two years. One building will be a residence providing living quarters for parents who bring their preschool children to Perkins for evaluation and for short periods of instruction. The second building will house the educational program for children with visual and auditory defects from infancy through high school. Until recently doubly handicapped pupils were few, but in the last ten years there have been between 30 to 35 on campus. With a sudden increase in deaf­blind children as the result of the maternal rubella epidemics of 1963 and 1964, Perkins is anticipating the need for increased services. It has already established a training program at the graduate level, now carried out in cooperation with Boston College which will be expanded as the new facilities are completed and will train teaching personnel not only for Perkins but for work with similar schools in this country and abroad.

May NEW OUTLOOK FOR THE BLIND: It is through motor explorations that the blind child learns about himself in relationship to the world around him. All behavior is basically motor and efficiency in the higher thought processes can be no better than the basic motor abilities upon which they are based. When physical skills improve, the academic progress of these children likewise improves. Outdoors becomes. a vital environment in which to develop gross muscular activities.

The Oregon Council of the Blind suffered a second heavy blow in the same month when Lydia Harris, of Medford, passed away on May 25. She was the unquestioned leader of her chapter and very active in her state organization over a span of many years.

The Washington State WHITE CANE: One of our firmest friends, a very large and well-known service organization, has taken over what had traditionally been an event of the Washington State Association of the Blind affair, the annual White Cane fund raising. This has always been an important cog in the WSAB's operations, but we are not included in their plans. We will be conducting our affair as usual, but sheer numbers plus publicity may well drown out our appeal. ... How come a boy can unwrap a candy bar while holding a sweater, a basketball and two books, yet can't put a garbage can lid on straight with two hands? -- Direct stimulation of the brain through permanently implanted electrodes may permit the blind to "see" and the deaf to "hear," according to a story in the Chicago American. -- In 30 of the 50 states there is nothing to prevent a man who has become blind from driving since licenses are renewable by mail.

The June issue of the MISSOURI CHRONICLE announces the retirement of Alma Murphey after eight years of dedicated service as its editor. She is succeeded by Laura Welle with Assunta Lilley as assistant editor. This issue also carries a bit of very sad news -- the passing of Raymond Parsons, who will be mourned by a host of friends and co-workers. Except for a few years as a home teacher in Wyoming, Ray served the greater part of his life in his native state, where he was extremely active in the organized blind movement. -- Fred Lilley, ACB Board member, spent 40 days in St. Mary's Hospital undergoing major surgery. He has recovered sufficiently to return to work and his group activities. -- The National Council of Jewish Women closed another season of luncheons for the blind women of the St. Louis area. They have been furnishing lunches and fine programs on a monthly basis for about 50 years. -- Roy Zuvers (who has taped ACB conventions) left St. Louis at the for Oklahoma City where he is studying computer programming at the International Academy. His training period will be about 9 months, after which he hopes to obtain a better position. 

A telephone call from Al Nichols in Vermont brought the wonderful, heartlifting news that he is over the hump. His incipient throat cancer is eliminated, and he will be with us in San Francisco.

*****

** Letters from Readers

Addresses furnished upon request.

*****

Miss C. L. Corbin, Chicago. 

I would like to remind Mr. Eugene Fleming (letters 
Column, May FORUM) that the millions of senior citizens who are drawing social security did try to do something for themselves. The problem facing these citizens is that they did not have enough social security to enable them to live — so they had to accept public assistance. This system is a disgrace to any government. Anyone who would talk about these citizens going out and doing something to earn a living certainly must not have the facts. ... It is sad that so many of the blind who are lucky enough to get jobs spend their time and efforts criticizing the ones who most likely tried just as hard but did not get the breaks that the job holders got. There is talk about the handouts. After all, our people have paid taxes for many years and many are still paying taxes, and as long as we have billions of dollars for foreign aid, I think our own aged, blind and disabled should be allowed a decent standard of living. Passage of H.R. 335 and S.1056 would give the people a decent monthly check based on the minimum annual wage.

***

Taeko Kai, Osaka Municipal School for the Blind, Japan. 

Will you please put me on your mailing list of your BRAILLE FORUM? I have read about your organization and was deeply interested in your work for the blind. I feel we would be greatly benefited out of your magazine. Of course, differences underlying in cultural background and social structure will not allow us to apply to our situations as they are in your country, still it encourages us to improve our status and solve many problems we are facing now. We shall be very grateful if you could send us your FORUM regularly.

*** 

J. N. Bilodeau, Nashua, New Hampshire 

It was most interesting to listen to this FORUM tape ... very instructive. On this tape I was particularly interested in the new rehabilitation plans. I have not much hope for them and hope we the blind will never be included with them. I hope that we can get our own commission for the blind before 1975 comes around. 

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Vernon Milam, Beaumont, Texas 

I was thrilled with the truths found in the tenBroek thing; dug Ned's (who's he?) Corner; was enthralled with the revealing dream this other guy had. I am grateful for being placed on the mailing list (tape edition); however, I wish the AFB would receive less attention in the ACB publications. 

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Charles Swank, Harrisonburg, Virginia 

I can tell you that your magazine is a great help to me when it comes to keeping up with what the blind folks are doing. The readers of the FORUM may be interested in knowing that the C. G. Conn Organ Company of Elkhart, Indiana is distributing three of the recordings I have made so far using my regular Conn Artist organ. They are Seated One Day at the Organ, Mono and Stereo; Hymntime with the Conn Organ, Mono only. The last two are running out because of the limited supply. All local Conn Organ dealers have the recordings. I am in the process of getting my organ ready for a big recording session coming up soon.

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** Refugees from the Round File

The Oregon Council of the Blind Reports that their Oral Hull Acres will be busy this summer but that they have no planned camp program. Anyone is welcome to use the facilities there whenever it is possible to get there. Visitors are urged to come see the park and to use the Boosters Cabin, the stove shelter, pitch tents or bring the camp trailer. This would be a delightful and inexpensive vacation spot. 

IHB Reporter (Spring '68): Sigmund Weiss, deaf-blind employee of Computer Instruments Corp., New York, has been named "Blind Worker of the Year" by Industrial Home for the Blind. Mr. Weiss has been working for the Hempstead Company since August '66, having been placed there by IHB after 25 years’ employment with IHB Industries. Mr. Weiss is not only deaf and blind, he has no speech.

A number of braille cookbooks, several on knitting, sewing, homemaking and other associated subjects may be purchased for the cost of publication only from the N.Y. Association for the Blind, Braille Transcribing Service, 111 E. 59th St., New York, N.Y., 10022. 

Complimentary copies of a braille book for children, 
"Christmas and the Year Ahead," may be obtained from The Braille Institute of America, Attention: Mrs. Betty Kalagian, 741 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, Calif. 90029.

THE CHRISTIAN HERALD FOR THE BLIND, April, 1968: A blind Navajo Indian missionary was named New Mexico's "handicapped citizen of the year" for 1967. He is Geronimo Martin, a missionary for the Christian Reformed Missionary Board. He is also a translator of religious writings and often serves as legal interpreter. The 50-year-old missionary learned to speak and write English after he lost his sight, and he learned braille by correspondence in a year's time. He helped translate parts of the new Testament into the Navajo tongue as part of the Edgerton-Hil linguistics project. Mr. Martin also translated many popular English hymns into Navajo, and some of the ancient Navajo chants into English. In his missionary work, he teaches Navajos to read their own language as a prerequisite to learning English. 

Julie Bindt has sent the following clippings from the Oakland Tribune (California) (Editor's note: How about some of the rest of you?): 

A blind man from South San Francisco, who took up chess as a hobby four years ago, will head the first American team departing March 27 for the Third quadrennial Blind Chess Olympics in Weymouth, England. Grant Metcalf, 27, founded the 26-member United States Braille Chess Association last July. He said his three teammates in the competition involving 19 countries will be Dr. James R. Siagle of Bethesda, Md., Albert Sandrin, Chicago, and Roderick J. McDonald, Arlington, Mass. 

Sixteen-year-old Joanie Hyland checked her blue sweater and gray skirt costume, then stepped off to the sound of the band with other girls from the Braintree High School drill team at half-time ceremonies of the Thanksgiving Day football game. The pretty teenager needs a little extra help from the other girls -- she has been blind since birth. "Joanie has been with the drill team all this year," said her mother. "But I never go to see her -- I'd be very nervous if she goofed. But she does have a lot of fun." Joanie practices with her teammates every day after school but still finds time to keep on the honor roll with a full load of college preparatory courses. 

The deaf children of deaf parents have a better chance of communicating than those born to parents who can hear, the California Medical Association was told yesterday. "The deaf child learns English as if we had to learn a foreign language with a sound-proof helmet on our heads and without any possible reference to anything that we know, " said Dr. Hilde Schlesinger of the University of California's Langley-Porter Neuropsychiatric clinic. Speaking at the CMA's 97th annual convention in San Francisco, Dr.  Schlesinger said 78 percent of deaf adults know sign language, but only 12 percent of parents with normal hearing who have deaf children learn the language. "Children learn how to be people from their parents," she said. "A normally hearing child, regardless of culture, has linguistic competency by the age of five, but a deaf child must struggle laboriously for means to communicate and be understood." Despite advances, she said, the deaf child suffers an educational lag of three to five years. Meanwhile, normally hearing parents of deaf children "are so distressed that they often suffer guilt, deep sorrow, or denial, all of which interfere with the normal patterns of parenthood and isolate the child further," she said. (Editor's note: We wonder if much of the above is applicable to blind parents with blind children.)

The New York Sunday Times (May, 1968): More than 15,000 blind persons would have their handicap compounded under a plan to abandon the New York City office of the State Commission for the Blind, it is charged. According to angry officials of the Commission, the office and all of its services will be transferred to a suburb of Albany by the end of the year. "All of the 33 officials here will resign if the plan goes through," a spokesman for the official said. The transfer of the city office, which was established 55 years ago and serves the metropolitan area, has been ordered by State Welfare Commissioner George K. Wyman. Officials at the Commission office at 15 Park Row are appealing to Gov. Rockefeller to block the transfer. He can do so by signing a bill, approved by the Legislature, ordering the state to maintain the commission office in New York City. 

COPH BULLETIN (1968 Spring Issue): An ancient legend from the East tells the story of a Prince who would spend hours at a time sitting on a stone and contemplating his dreams. Instead of tending to the needs of his subjects and his kingdom, the prince spent more and more time sitting on the stone and dreaming of an imaginary future. 

Then one day the prince decided that the time had come to get up and go to work for his dreams, but, alas ... the prince couldn't rise. He had grown fast to the stone!

Senator Jacob K. Javits has introduced legislation to give the disabled an income tax deduction of up to $600 to cover to and from work and to allow them the additional $600 tax deduction now given to the blind. The bill is a companion to H.R. 424, introduced in the House by Representative Eugene Keogh of New York. 

The State of Georgia is creating an unusual State park that will offer especially designed facilities for handicapped persons and their families. This complex of outdoor recreational facilities is expected to be the most extensive park of its kind in the nation. The project, financed in part by a grant from the U.S. rolling woodland of north­central Georgia.

The NEW YORK SUNDAY NEWS, April 28, 1968 reported that a blind student in Harvard Law School has been reclassified by his draft board in Mount Vernon, N.Y. and ordered to take his pre-induction physical examination. "I'm particularly anxious to take the eye test," the student, Harold Krents, said. "If I go, my ambition is to be a bombardier," he added. Krents, 23, said his 2-S student deferment had been canceled and he has been given 30 days to appeal. "It's really wild," Krents said. "I talked to my father today and he said the draft board told him: 'He very well may be blind, but he still has to take the physical.'"

More and more reading material is being made available in the large type format. Those of you who are able to utilize material in the 18 pt. type may wish to consult your local librarian as to the availability of such books. In addition to those provided by APH and the Library of Congress, a number of commercial publishers are now making some of their output available in this form at a price only slightly greater than the regular edition.

The HOME TEACHER, Feb. '68, contains the second installment of a two-part article, "Teaching Housekeeping to Blind Homemakers," by Joy Gilpen. The Sept. '67 FORUM carried excerpts from this article which contains many excellent suggestions. If there is sufficient demand, we will have this recorded on tape for circulation on a loan basis. Send requests to the FORUM editor. -- A manual of "Techniques for Eating," subtitled "A Guide for Blind Persons," is too long to be reprinted here, but we will have this, too, recorded for anyone desiring to brush up on this important skill. Probably none of us miss many meals because of our lack of technique, but perhaps a few pointers here and there might improve the impression we make on others when dining out. -- A new cookbook indexed and brailled on washable plastic with holes for a three-ring binder is available from Kitchen-Klatter, Shenandoah, Iowa 510601. Price $3.

The NEBRASKA REHAB TOPICS brings news about dogs being used to help amputees walk. A client of the Nebraska Division of Rehab had lost both legs below the knees. Feeling insecure, she purchased a German Shepherd for protection. The dog had been trained to take into account particular aspects of her disability, such as the fixed ankles of the prostheses. Soon the dog not only proved to be a good protector but also provided substantial assistance in walking. Plans are now under way to establish a dog training school for the purpose of providing dogs to the physically handicapped. 

February NEW OUTLOOK: The acute manpower shortage in many hospitals is spurring administrators to a relentless search for new sources of personnel, especially at the service and clerical levels where the shortage is most critical. Hospital administrators in Missouri have discovered one valuable source of personnel among visually handicapped persons. They have learned that those who are totally blind or who have seriously restricted vision can be employed in various jobs where normal vision is not essential for satisfactory job performance. Last year about 50 such persons were employed in Missouri hospitals as film developers in X-ray departments, medical transcribers and aides or orderlies. Several others are doing social work, and one is an executive. The Missouri Employment Services for the Blind contacts hospital administrators to supply them with information concerning the availability and work potentials of blind persons. 

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