The Braille Forum
Vol. VI May 1968 No. 6

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

* Editor
Ned E. Freeman 
136 Gee's Mill Rd. 
Conyers, GA 30207

* 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.

*****

** Statement of Editorial Policy

The BRAILLE FORUM is dedicated to promoting the greater independence, autonomy and dignity of all blind people. 

The FORUM will carry ACB official news and programs, but its pages will also be available for free expression of views of organizations and agencies of and for the blind and any developments of interest to its readers. Timely material is solicited. 

Selections of material will be made on the basis of interest, timeliness, originality, clarity and forcefulness of expression. In controversial matters space will be made available for the presentation of divergent points of view.

***

The BRAILLE FORUM is available in braille, large type and on tape, 7-inch, dual track, 3-3/4 ips. Miss June Goldsmith, 652 E. Mallory Avenue, Memphis, Tennessee 38106, should be notified of any change of address or of any person desiring to receive the braille or large type editions. 

The tape edition may be obtained from Ned Freeman, 136 Gee's Mill Road, Conyers, Georgia 30207. 

Letters and material for publication should be submitted to the Editor or to one of the Associate Editors.

*****

** Table of Contents

Let's Face It

ACB President's Message 

Special Announcements 

Tribute to a Great Leader 

The Humphrey Amendment: Pros and Cons -- Don Nold vs. Ray Dickinson 

Bionics -- A New Science 

Archeology by Wheelchair 

Six Steps Forward 

Study Group Findings 

A Skiing Adventure 

New Problems for the Home Teacher, Juliet Bindt 

Is the Standard Slate Backwards?, Mary Walton 

A New Look at LC, Earl Scharry 

Ned's Corner 

Needed -- Regional Schools, George Card 

Whose Rights? 

Small Loans for the Disabled 

Here and There with George Card 

A Dream, Dave Krause 

Letters from Readers 

Refugees from the Round File 

ACB Officers

Directors

*****

** Let's Face It

All the world is designed for sighted people. We blind must, if we are to get a measure of success and satisfaction from it, learn to conform and adapt ourselves to a world wholly unsuited for us. No general would send his army against a force that had them outnumbered 500 to 1. So it is with us, the blind, who must do most of the learning to live with. We want and need to get as much out of life as possible and we are dependent upon the sighted world. We don't really want to lick 'em, but we do very much want to join 'em. 

(The Washington State WHITE CANE)

*****

** ACB President's Message
Reese H. Robrahn

Creation of the National Accreditation Council on agencies and services for the blind as a result of the study and deliberations of its temporary predecessor, the committee on standards and accreditation of agencies and services for the blind, commonly known as Comstac, is characterized in some quarters of the organized blind as an agency set up by agencies for the blind for the purpose of protecting and reserving their shortcomings and for perpetuating "the system"; that it is just a big bucket of white-wash. 

The American Council was one of 2 or 3 non-agency organizations of the blind which participated in the proceedings of Comstac, while other organizations of the blind followed that time-worn practice of wailing and flailing and gnashing of the teeth and proclaiming that those who participate and let their voices be heard are condoning all of the ills of agencies for the blind. 

In the past, this, too frequently, has been the typical reaction of the organized blind. The approach is very much like the citizen who complains about and criticizes elected public officials, but who never goes to the polls on election day to cast his ballot; and then equates the exercise of the voting franchise by other citizens as a condonation of all the corruption and "do-nothing" policies of all politicians and public officials. The foregoing is wholly repugnant to the democratic concept and process.

It is very easy to tag a scapegoat. It is easy to set up a straw man and then rip him to shreds. It is easy to criticize. Even children play at those games. The organized blind of this nation have always claimed the right to criticize and advise agencies and programs and services for the blind, and the right to be consulted. For the most part, this has been denied us. So why, when the door is opened to us in such cases as in Comstac, and the National Accreditation Council, does a substantial quarter of the organized blind respond so negatively?

Of what consequence is a so-called action group if all of its so-called action is ex parte? A group can sit at Des Moines or San Francisco and all convention-long criticize and pass resolutions, but the impact of this is virtually nil unless translated and transformed into some real action at the legislative halls and at the conference table or through some form of interaction.

I urge all who read this message to take a good, long, hard look at the leadership of your organization. What is their typical reaction? Is it negative? Does the leadership of your organization stand at the back door begging to be given or demanding to be accorded a place at the conference table inside? Or is their posture one of maturity evolved out of knowledge and experience and integrity? Do they exhibit confident, persuasive and positive attitudes and approaches? Are they willing to communicate through interaction? For this is the stature and these are the attributes which your organizations must acquire through its leadership, if it is to become truly successful. If this is the quality of your leadership, then your organization will be invited, yes, even sought after, to sit at the conference table with administrators of programs for the blind and personnel of agencies for the blind and legislators, to criticize, advise, and to be consulted. Your organization will then influence policies, deter the undesirable and untenable, and assist in the improvement of programs and in the creation and implementation of new programs for the blind.

It is the intention of the American Council to fulfill its civic responsibility and obligation to its members and all blind people of this nation by participating whenever and wherever possible and in any forum which affords to us the opportunity to express and urge our viewpoint, opinions and positions, suggestions and recommendations concerning any and all aspects of programs and services for the blind.

*****

** Special Announcements

The Washington Office of the American Council of the Blind will be officially opened June 1, 1968, with Durward McDaniel, National Representative. The address will be 20 E. Street NW, Suite 215, Washington, D.C. 20001. This is about four blocks from the Capitol grounds at a convenient distance from congressional and governmental office buildings. Durward is very happy with this location and hopes that you will come see him anytime you are in the D.C. area, or write to him whenever the Washington office can be of service to you or your organization. 

Be sure to send in your reservations for the EIGHTH ANNUAL ACB CONVENTION to be held in San Francisco, July 17-20. The Hotel Bellevue, 505 Geary St., zip 94102, has given us the price of $12, single, and $16, double, plus 5% city tax. Program plans have appeared in earlier FORUMS and a complete program will appear in the July issue. Plans include a tour of Chinatown and dinner; a boat trip on the Bay with lunch on the wharf, and night club tours. The Associated Blind of California will host the Champagne reception Tuesday evening, for which there will be no charge. The number of rooms available at the Bellevue is limited -- so get those reservations in NOW. See you in San Francisco!

Three more members have indicated their availability for election this year to the ACB Board of Directors: Paul Knowles, Wayne, Mich.; ACB charter member and long-time field representative for Leader Dogs, now retired.

Boyd Wolfe, Columbus, Ohio; ACB charter member, editor of THE VOICE, a magazine for the deaf-blind; vice president of the National Association of the Deaf-Blind; active in the affairs of the Ohio Council of the Blind, and has served as chairman of the multiply handicapped committee of both OCB and ACB. 

Merrill A. Maynard, Taunton, Mass.; experienced in small retail business, factory press operation, municipal politics. Served as president of Associated Blind of Mass.

*****

** Tribute to a Great Leader
Jacobus tenBroek -- 1912-1968
George Card

Perhaps only those blind men and women who have lived and worked and traveled about. our country during a good part of the period from 1940 to the present can be fully aware of the dramatic change which has taken place in the attitude of the general public toward blindness and the blind. Only those of us who have had some contact with the personnel of agencies for the blind and who have pretty well kept up with the writings of these professional workers and administrators can realize how profoundly their formerly complacent positions have been shaken. To appreciate how much brighter and more hopeful the picture now is, one must have the perspective which comes with a knowledge of how bad things were a quarter of a century earlier. 

And what has brought about this on-going revolution? In my view, it has been the steady pressure exerted by the organized blind movement. 

That movement, in its national phase, came about through the relentless drive, the tireless energy, the indomitable fighting spirit, the towering personality, the unflagging zeal, the organizing genius of one man, Jacobus tenBroek. Perhaps his supreme gift was his never-failing ability to inspire others with the fire and the dedication which he felt within himself. 

In 1940 there were a pitifully small number of state and local organizations of the blind, largely isolated and unaware of even the existence of other groups like themselves. In a few states faltering and ineffectual gestures had been made in the general direction of their respective state legislatures. Many archaic and barbarous laws affecting the blind were on the statute books; even with the advent of Social Security five years earlier, public assistance was wretchedly inadequate and vocational rehabilitation for the blind was still thought to be a preposterously unrealistic concept. No one in authority so much as dreamed of consulting the blind themselves or of attempting to elicit their opinions. 

In 1939, while the young tenBroek was a graduate law student at the University of Chicago, living with his bride, Hazel, in a single room, he began corresponding with the leaders of the existing organizations of the blind with a view to a meeting somewhere. That meeting actually took place the following year, in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Representatives from seven states -- Pennsylvania, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Missouri, California and Ohio -- were there. Of these, tenBroek was the only one still going full blast at the end of the 28 years since Wilkes-Barre.

Out of that meeting came the first national civilian organization of the blind in the U.S., the National Federation of the Blind. Young tenBroek had brought with him a draft of a constitution which was adopted with very little change. He demonstrated that he was a natural born "take charge guy," even though he was probably the youngest of the delegates, and he was unanimously chosen as the first president of the newborn N.F.B. He was to be re-elected annually for the next twenty-one years, always by acclamation.

The growth of the N.F.B. under its dynamic president, its steadily increasing influence in Washington, its attainment of world-wide prestige, is a story too familiar to need retelling here. As he began to fill speaking engagements all over the country, tenBroek exhibited a truly unique and awesome oratorical ability. Without resorting to any sort of histrionics and rarely even raising his voice, he was able to sweep audiences off their feet and arouse them to tremendous enthusiasm. I believe I have heard all -- or very nearly all -- of the great orators of my generation. I have never heard his equal save for Winston Churchill. 

Perhaps no one knew the real genius of this man quite as well as I did because for ten years I was his first vice-president and we worked as a team. Many have said that we were a mighty effective team. 

Dr. tenBroek was probably the most complex individual I have ever known. With all his great and wonderful qualities, he was not a knight in shining armor. When dealing with those he liked or believed he could use, he could be graciousness and charm itself. Toward nearly all agencies for the blind and toward most social workers, he was ferociously and indiscriminately belligerent and ruthlessly hostile. He was a master of devastating sarcasm but there were times when what he said became merely heavy-handed abuse. On himself he imposed a code of the strictest and most scrupulous financial honesty, but he was quite willing to look the other way when some of the members of his inner circle took some pretty dubious shortcuts.

The N.F.B. reached its apogee at the great 1956 convention in San Francisco, where the sessions were attended by upwards of a thousand people. But it was also at that convention that the first faint indications of dissension became apparent to a few of us on the inside. A new and sinister influence began to be felt. It became more obvious at New Orleans in 1957 and came out in the open at Boston and Santa Fe in 1958 and 1959. 

In the first sixteen to eighteen years of his presidency, Dr. tenBroek had never needed to resort to "managing" conventions. He was so idolized and so completely trusted that the conventions were only too happy to accede to his every wish. He talked about democracy in inspiring terms, and he could afford to practice it. But in the last years of the united N.F.B. it was borne in on some of us that things had changed. Either our beloved leader had come under the domination of a stronger personality of else he seemed to be afraid he might be losing his power in the organization and was deserting the democratic method for the power play. Between the 1959 Santa Fe convention and that in Miami the following year, the seven infamous "conditions were drafted and affiliates ordered to accept them or, as it turned out, be suspended and then expelled." The "conditions" gave the then leadership the power to perpetuate itself indefinitely by forbidding all "attacks" on members or officers of the Federation and interpreting all criticism as attacks. The tragic denouement, of course, came at Miami in 1960 and the following year at Kansas City. Jacobus tenBroek and his little clique kept control — but at fearful cost. 

However, this is a time to pay tribute to his greatness, not to recount his human foibles and weaknesses. One of the most attractive and heartwarming sides of this man's character and personality was his role as a husband and father. The home life of the tenBroeks was truly a thing of beauty. The parents remained sweethearts and completely devoted to each other. They adored their children, Jacobus, Jr., (called "Dutch"), Anna Carlotta and the youngest, named Nicky after the distinguished blind leader in California, Dr. Nicholas Perry. 

The future great leader was born with normal sight in 1911 in one of the western prairie provinces of Canada. At the age of seven, while practicing archery with a playmate, an arrow struck him full in one of his eyes, destroying the sight permanently. Sympathetic ophthalmia soon took the other eye. His father moved back to California so that Jacobus could enter the residential school in Berkeley. There he thoroughly enjoyed the rough and tumble games and pranks of his schoolmates and also proved to be an excellent student. When he went on to the University of California at Berkeley his academic career was a dazzling succession of triumphant achievements. After graduation he went on to Harvard and Chicago for the highest attainable doctoral degrees in law and was then welcomed back to his alma mater as a member of its faculty. He became a full professor and head of his Department in a phenomenally short time and was famous on the Berkeley campus as a lecturer and a master of the Socratic method of teaching. His earned academic degrees numbered five, and he was the recipient of an honorary doctorate. He gained national recognition and received the 1955 Woodrow Wilson Award for the best book of the year in the field of political science. He served as Chairman of the California Board of Social Welfare. In his final years he traveled to Europe several times and founded the International Federation of the Blind -- which may or may not survive the loss of his leadership and organizing genius. 

Jacobus tenBroek was cast in the heroic mould. His spirit was indomitable. Stricken with an incurable type of cancer he fought hard to the very end -- and he was fighting for others! He was struck down while in the full flower of his genius. He died March 26. We shall not see his like again.

*****

*** The "Humphrey Amendment" -- Pros and Cons

Note: The following is the result of editorial comment in DIALOGUE magazine and subsequent correspondence with the two spokesmen.) 

** Don O. Nold, Editor-in-Chief, DIALOGUE 

A bill at this writing rests in the Congress that originally was known as the Humphrey Amendment. Basically, it calls for a pension -- some call it insurance -- of a small amount to be given to each blind person in the country, regardless of need. Some say it is "for the additional cost of being blind." In short, if this bill passes, each blind person would automatically become at least a part-time ward of society. 

It would seem that all of us would insist that those in need have adequate support from society, given in a way that will make it acceptable with dignity. The point of contention: that this not be given to those not in need, and that a means test which must necessarily prove need not be one degrading or embarrassing to the recipient. To say that one need not apply for it if he does not want it, or need it, does not remove the stigma of being a ward of a welfare state from those able and willing to support themselves. I, for example, do not believe that this is a form of insurance as erroneously suggested by members of your Council, whether or not it is a part of the social security program. This is beyond the original conception of social security and when it is offered to persons as young as 21 years for the rest of their lives, it cannot be construed as insurance. Another objection is that when it is offered only to those who need it most; those unable because of additional handicaps to blindness of earning even this much equity in this so-called insurance. 

I suggest, therefore, that this program be removed from social security and placed where it rightfully belongs as a welfare pension to those unable to provide adequately for themselves. It is probably only a fine distinction and to many not worthy of the difference. Many tell me that if I were unable to support myself, I would not see it this way. Perhaps not, but when we are working so hard at DIALOGUE and as you are doing in the Council to uplift the image of blindness, it seems incongruous to support the pension as presented.

Instead of pressing for collective social advantages which many cannot live with, no matter how soft-shelled they might appear, let us press for individual consideration. Let us insist that each of us be accepted for his or her own talents and abilities. Let us have legislation that would reduce discrimination against the blind because of their blindness alone. 

One way we can do this is by each of us making a special effort to improve ourselves. We can start today by assuming a more cheerful, positive attitude. We can prepare ourselves for something better. Those young enough can expand their education either by returning to school, studying by correspondence, or by learning a trade. Those with productive years behind them can develop hobbies and interests that will keep their minds alert. And each of us can take a more active part in our communities' civic and social affairs. Expound your talents. Make them available to benefit your church, service clubs, and lodges. Yes, you can make yourselves first-class citizens whether you need a little help from society or not. In this way, each of us will be speaking for ourselves.

Whether the proposed payments are called insurance or social security benefits, they still come from funds provided by taxes or payroll deductions of those gainfully employed. Those who have contributed to these funds over a lifetime can accept old age benefits with dignity. Those who have been unable to contribute because of incapacitating afflictions also deserve meaningful assistance that they can accept with dignity. However, cradle-to-the-grave pensions with no other qualifications than blindness should be rejected by those capable of living productive lives. 

* Ray Dickinson, Associate Editor, DIALOGUE 

(Note: Replying to Mr. Nold's editorial -) Leaving out of consideration the fact that you are expressing a point of view of the self-supporting or rehabilitable handicapped person who has also a conservative approach to American life, I think you are missing the point of justification of blind or otherwise severely handicapped people. 

There are obviously certain expenses which blind people have which seeing people do not have. This can be made up in one of two ways -- either by a salary differential which nobody would favor from the employer's point of view, or a compensatory allowance which is the philosophy back of the so-called Humphrey Bill. Those who do not need this allowance need not accept it. This is the system which is used in Germany and some other foreign countries. You tend to relate this to dependence. I am sure the people who favor it think it is one means of dramatizing the special needs of the blind without making beggars out of them. 

My justifications for a so-called pension for the blind break down into the following points: (1) it compensates, inadequately, some of the extra expenses of blindness; (2) it takes some of the needs of blind people out of the pauper public assistance category, recognizing however that this will not meet all needs which public assistance can and should fill; (3) it sets up a public compensatory policy; and (4) it breaks down the concept of the relationship between poverty and blindness.

We should keep in mind that if the employed blind people do not need this, the unemployed and poverty line ones do, and we should keep their needs in mind. I also accept the principle that if blind people should get a pension, so should other severely handicapped people.

*****

** Bionics -- A New Science
Herbert Kupferberg

(St. Louis Post-Dispatch via Missouri Chronicle)

On a quiet Cambridge residential street, a man comes out of his house after the sanitation truck has passed to pick up his empty garbage cans. Although it is broad daylight, he is holding a square "flashlight" and he points it in front of him as he moves toward his receptacles, and stashes them alongside his driveway.

On a Canadian Lake, a man with a similar instrument confidently navigates his small boat until he comes to a place he knows where the fishing is especially good.

On a downtown Boston street, a girl using still another device steps briskly across a thoroughfare, mounts the sidewalk on the other side, and continues on.

These people are all blind, and in each case the instrument that is helping them perform their daily tasks with such confidence is part of an ultrasonic arsenal that helps them "see" by hearing. And far more sensitive and sophisticated weapons in the war on sightlessness are being tested in today's laboratories, pointing the way toward a brighter future for the blind than had been anticipated even a few short years ago. These exciting new advances stem from a new science called "bionics," a combination of biology and electronics which aims to develop machines that can perform or supplement the functions of the living organism. Through bionics, attempts are being made to enable the blind to "see" through the use of ultrasonic impulses, laser beams, and television-like cameras that can be worn on the head like a helmet. Most of these are still in the experimental stage, but scientists expect the first devices to be available to the public within the near future. About 1,000 of the square flashlights -- called Kay-Ultra Mobility Aids -- are already in use on an experimental and evaluation basis in 20 countries. These aids are expected to cost about $200 each.

"By the 21st Century there is absolutely no reason why we won't be able to achieve at least some kind of minimal visual sensation by blind people -- whether by hearing, skin sensation or direct stimulation of the brain, that will enable blind people to 'see'." So says John K. Dupress, 45-year-old director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Center for Sensory Aids and Evaluation. Dupress is blind himself, as the result of a battle injury in the last week of World War II. The center is possibly the world's only clearing house for mobility aids to the blind, and Dupress possesses instant, encyclopedic knowledge about everything going on in this highly specialized field. If there is one point Dupress is insistent upon it is that there is no electronic scheme, device or gadget now under development that will replace or eliminate the standard cane or guide dog. The new electronic aids provide much more mobility for a blind person, but they cannot be relied upon alone. For instance, while they can detect a hole, they can't tell how deep it is. They can warn of steps ahead, but not how many or how high they are. Furthermore, they require long hours of intensive training in their use. Nevertheless, blind people who have mastered the new devices report that they are of great value in getting around in an unfamiliar environment 

The most basic and oldest of aids to the blind, the cane, has been adapted by bionics to provide additional service. Under the sponsorship of the Veterans Administration an elongated "laser cane" has been developed which emits three pinpoint light beams -- one near eye level, another waist high, the third just above the ground. The device, which so far exists only in prototype, can thus scan the area immediately ahead of a blind person. 

Most exciting of all, though still in their formative stages, are various devices that utilize TV-style cameras which can be mounted upon the head and transmit to the wearer a rough image of what lies ahead. In one such device, being tested at the Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, Calif., the image is felt by the blind person's fingertips as it is received on a "board" with vibrating reeds that is hung upon his chest. By feeling the reeds, a trained subject can, in effect, build up a rough outline, say, of a person's body, a triangle, a square, etc. In another such "optical-to-tactile image converter," at the Smith Kettlewell Institute of Visual Sciences, Presbyterian Medical Center, San Francisco, the "image" is received through electrical signals that are transmitted directly onto the skin of the subject's back. Even more radical are experiments being conducted at Albert Einstein Medical College at Yeshiva University in New York in which an attempt is being made to transmit visual impressions directly into the cortex of blind people's brains. 

Like the scientists who are now working on this ancient human problem, Dupress feels that while the patch of the blind may never be cleared completely, the first glimmerings of light are beginning to appear.

*****

** Archeology by Wheelchair
Daniel J. Crowley, Ph.D.
(From ACCENT ON LIVING, Spring, 1968 issue)

Handicapped people are notorious over-compensators, and I am no exception. Ever since I heard about the "Lost City" of Machu Picchu in Peru, I knew I would have to get there some day. Hiram Bingham, an American archaeologist and later a Senator, discovered the city in 1911, by climbing an almost vertical Andean cliff 2,000 feet above the Urubamba River 70 miles northwest of Cuzco. There he found a city of beautifully fitted gray granite blocks, with a large plaza, a superb Temple of the Sun crowning one hill with an inner sanctuary and sundial, a gravity water supply, many luxurious temples, homes and public buildings, and hundreds of terraces which probably supported agricultural production. 

As a result of polio 20 years ago, I can walk only a block or so with the aid of a long leg brace, orthopedic support, and someone's arm. In the course of our four-month tour of South America, my leg brace broke four times in four places because of all the clambering around and extreme climatic changes. As a result, by the time I reached Peru, I was more or less confined to my wheelchair, and able to walk only with the help of two reasonably sturdy men. Having arrived at the site, the problem was that the ruins were around the hill from the hotel, and as usual there was a murderous flight of rough stone steps from the parking lot up to the hotel itself. As I sat looking out over the tremendous gorge I had just ascended, wondering how I managed the eight or ten steps behind me, Senor Socar Castillo, one of the station wagon drivers, presented himself and offered his services. As if by magic, three other Peruvians arrived, all fine examples of thickset, full-chested Andean Man, and proceeded to drag the wheelchair by main force across the bumpy parking lot, up the hotel stairs and along the rising path toward the entrance of the ruins. Soon we came to what appeared to be an impasse, a long descending flight of steps without guard rails and with a drop of two hundred feet on the right. To make matters worse at the foot of the stairs there were three large stones projecting out from the thousand-year-old wall -- the only means of climbing up to the doorway of the first building of Machu Picchu. I decided my chances were better if I walked it, so we all went down the steps backwards, then up the projecting stones frontwards, and I readily admit to having had my eyes firmly closed both ways. Once inside the first room I got back into my wheelchair, and although the surfaces were pretty bumpy, I got through the path. After about a block we arrived at a kind of balcony where I could see all of the ruins, the temple precincts, the military quarters, the terraces, and the homes of the nobles. 

The way back was, if possible, even more exciting, since the carriers decided that I should not walk, but insisted on carrying me in my wheelchair the whole way, in the style of the Inca emperors' sedan chair. It is entirely possible that the cold beer and high altitude had something to do with this foolhardy decision. In any case, the energy that I saved by not walking was expended in holding onto my chair, gritting my teeth, and squeezing my eyes closed. In thanking Senor Castillo, I asked him where he got the idea of carrying me Inca-style into the ruins, and he surprised me by reporting that I was the second Inca (i.e. wheelchair case) that he had carried to the ruins and there was also one Princessa. " Another man and woman, both wheelchair cases, had preceded me.

*****

** Six Steps Forward

A recent pamphlet dealing with the 1967 amendments to the Vocational Rehabilitation Act has been issued by the RSA of HEW from which we quote the following pertinent paragraphs: 

Deaf-Blind Youth and Adults -- The 1967 changes in law will make possible the funds and other assistance to establish a National Center for Deaf-Blind Youth and Adults. The Secretary of HEW may, by grant or contract with a non-profit organization, enter into arrangements to pay all or part of the costs of construction, equipment, staff, and other expenses for such a center. The deaf-blind will receive an intensive program of specialized services to prepare them for adult responsibilities and pleasures, including employment wherever this is possible. The National Center also will conduct extensive programs of research, professional training, family orientation and education, and an organized informational service for the public and interested groups and agencies. 

Handicapped Migratory Workers -- Among migratory workers, as among all groups of low-income people, health problems and disability are more prevalent than among the population generally. Some of this arises from chronic illness long neglected; in other instances, it is the result of accidents on the job, on the highway or elsewhere.

To begin dealing with this situation, the 1967 changes in the rehabilitation law authorize a special system of project grants to the State agencies, to pay from Federal funds up to 90 percent of the cost of providing vocational rehabilitation services to handicapped migratory agricultural workers. Services can also be provided to family members, including situations where it is the family member who becomes disabled rather than the worker.

Continued Growth of the Federal-State Program -- The 1965 law granting increased federal participation in the cost of vocational rehabilitation services extended only to June 30, 1968. The 1967 changes in the law have continued this financing system for another 2 years, through June 30, 1970. 

State Planning for Rehabilitation -- In nearly all states extensive planning is underway by groups appointed by the governors to measure the needs of the disabled the resources available (rehabilitation centers, hospitals, workshops, voluntary programs, etc.) and what should be done to meet the needs of all the disabled who need special help. Congress previously provided funds for a state-by-state study of rehabilitation needs and set a goal of 1975 as the time when this nation would finally be ready to serve all disabled people promptly. The 1967 amendments authorize a final year of federal support of this statewide planning in rehabilitation. 

Residence Requirements -- Most states have traditionally required that an individual furnish proof of his status as a resident of the state before services will be furnished. In some states, this is a flat requirement; in others the requirement modified in certain ways under certain conditions. Long experience in rehabilitation work for the disabled has shown that state residency requirements are a serious burden, and often a complete barrier, in trying to reach and restore handicapped people, and that this usually works to the greatest disadvantage among the poorest of the disabled people.

The 1967 amendments to the Vocational Rehabilitation Act require that all states agree to provide vocational rehabilitation services to otherwise eligible handicapped persons without requiring proof of residence. This change must be in effect in all states not later than July 1, 1969. States may introduce the change earlier if they wish.

District of Columbia -- The growing rehabilitation program in the District received far less in the federal allotment each year than was needed in relation to the increasing District funds. The gap was great and the capability of the program for meeting the urgent needs of district residents was seriously threatened. The 1967 amendments designate the District of Columbia as a special jurisdiction in the same general manner as Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Guam, with a flat allotment percentage of 75 in the formula.

*****

** Study Group Findings
Frank Kells
(From VISION, un-LTD., January, 1968)

(Editor's note: While the findings of the special vocational rehabilitation study group reported here by Mr. Kells applied specifically to Arizona, it is felt that the same needs exist throughout the country). 

Concerning "vocational rehabilitation" of blind persons of gainfully working age, we estimate that about 45% are presently not gainfully occupied in any real sense. Another 40% are "under­employed," while only 15% might be considered as engaged in occupations (including full-time homemaker) which are reasonably compatible with their potential. 

But if adequate rehab resources were available, we feel that about 90% of the unemployed or under-employed group could be employed or upgraded. 

But what about the visually impaired population as a whole, two-thirds of whom are over 65? We emphasize strongly that REHABILITATION should not be restricted to "paycheck" objectives only. In its broader sense, rehab can be an effective service to all disabled persons, bringing them greater independence, self-confidence, and overall self-fulfillment. Thinking along these lines, we identified as most prevalent and urgent their need for: 

(1) Economic security -- more employment, better wages, more adequate pensions and grants.

(2) More adequate availability of medical care.

(3) Physical mobility and orientation skills.

*****

** A Skiing Adventure
Cletus R. Holmes
(From the BVA Bulletin)

In the Spring of 1967, I had the pleasure of participating in an International Blind Cross Country Skiing Event, "The Ridderrennet," in Norway and I would like to share it with you. Blind skiers from six nations took part. There were representatives from France, Belgium, Yugoslavia, Sweden, Norway; and it was my pleasure to represent the United States. It is well to note that I had had no previous experience in skiing. The majority of participants, both men and women were totally blind. 

Upon arrival in Oslo, Norway, I was met by Mr. Audin Baysen, who is the Coordinator for the Ridderrennet, and taken to a hotel in Beitostolen, a village in Valdres. All of the skiers were housed in hotels in this area.

In preparation for the Ridderrennet, the first morning was devoted to checking all participants for proper clothing and equipment. Each was assigned an instructor, all of whom were past or present members of the Norwegian Olympic teams. The group was taken to a special practice area approximately five miles in diameter which had been previously prepared by Weasels, a type of snowmobile, used to make tracks to guide the blind in their ski efforts. The instructors carefully described and taught the proper procedures for cross-country skiing. When they felt the time had come, we were given an opportunity to try out their own abilities. After several days of hard "work outs" and "trial runs" to build confidence, endurance and dexterity, we were at last ready for the main event.  

Each participant was assigned an assistant, a sighted person, and given identification numbers and our starting time. We were then escorted to the starting place and skiers were started at one-minute intervals until all sixty blind participants were on their way.

The course for the ski run covers rolling terrain with uphill as well as downhill slopes. Here again, tracks which had been made by Weasels, helped the blind skier find his way. The run measured approximately seventeen miles. A rest area was established near the halfway mark giving food and rest to those who wanted it.

It was a pleasure to learn that at the end of the day, all of the sixty blind participants had completed the entire run. There was, however, a great variance in the amount of time taken. 

This activity is stimulating and challenging and one that I have found very rewarding. The experience not only gives an opportunity for physical exercise, which is its primary purpose, but also provides the blind a fine opportunity to enjoy nature's wonders.

***** 

** New Problems for a Home Teacher
Juliet Bindt

Since September I have been teaching braille and typing at the California Orientation Center for the Blind and am finding some interesting problems that did not occur during my 27 years of home teaching. I now am beginning to work with the congenitally blind who have been trained in public schools. Since home teachers may also start receiving such clients, it might be helpful to point out that they need to watch out for lack of basic knowledge found in persons who lost their sight as children. 

Several did not know print letters so did not comprehend "V shaped", "S curve" or "Y in the road." One twenty-one-year-old apparently had never used scissors and even when I gave her the type used by kindergarten children she could not cut along a crease in paper and repeatedly turned the scissors at right angles. When it was discovered that she was left-­handed, we found she could do things a little more easily. A twenty-year-old boy felt that learning to use a stapler was a major accomplishment and for several weeks made a production of it. He had never learned to put stamps on envelopes nor to tear their perforations -- I was glad that I had Christmas seals for him to use for practice. Several thought envelopes should be addressed on the flap side. Another boy licked stamps with such gusto that no glue was left on them. Few had learned to sign their names in longhand. Spelling is another weak area. And although they use the Brailler easily, slate writing has been greatly neglected. With adults, they usually comprehend good table manners and need only to be shown how to affect them, but some of these youngsters do not even know what is proper at table. Blindisms, such as rocking and cocking the head, are still with them.

Only recently I discovered the excellent instruction book for transcribers prepared by Maxine Dorf and Earl Scharry, Division for the Blind, Library of Congress. There are both ink print and braille editions. Going along the ink print is a single braille volume of nothing but drill material; the sighted student uses this book to correct his transcribing assignments. I am using this single volume as reading drills for my blind students. If they cannot read the single spacing, then I can copy in wide spacing a few of these excellent illustrations. The sentences are numbered and the vocabulary simple. Words only appear as finally contracted. Many special problems are illustrated. It is all in one-side braille. The three-volume brailled textbook is interpoint and of course contains the same drill assignments. I understand that the textbook is now being revised. Those interested can write to the authors or Robert S. Bay, Chief, Division for the Blind, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. and I believe they will be sent without charges.

*****

** Is the Standard Slate Backward?
Mary Walton

Why make such a "federal case" of the fact that with a slate one must "write backward!" The article "Now a Right­-Side-Up Braille Slate" (FORUM, November 1967) was a typical piece of sighted journalism, in my opinion. For the newly blinded person, writing from right to left on a conventional slate might present its problems. Ditto with the sighted would-be braille transcriber who is learning braille without benefit of a the Brailler. Even so, I contend, as I always have, that it is the method of presentation that makes the biggest part of the problem -- or the absence thereof. 

When in Minneapolis this summer, I talked with teachers of small children in the residential school for the blind in Minnesota and find that they start beginners with the Perkins Brailler and then, much later, the slate.

When I questioned the reasoning behind this practice, the teacher said, "Why, their little hands could not master the writing with a slate and stylus at that age," and this from a blind teacher -- a thoroughly brainwashed one, I feel. When I started out as a beginner, no one told me that when I started punching I was writing backward, so I learned to be quite proficient. In fact, though I am no speed demon with a slate, I can turn out a pretty errorless page by this method which is often better than I can do with the Perkins because of a tendency to go much too fast and not think out the formation of the letters. 

In my school days, the use of the braille writer was reserved for the slow, extremely uncoordinated student who also had partial sight so that the backward bit just added confusion to the problems that he already had. On the special days when we were given our choice of things we would like to do during playtimes, the rest of us were allowed to have a turn to try our hand with the braille writer, if we liked (this, in the first through the third grades). The braille writers of those days were the big, clumsy noisy Smith-Corona or old Hall machines that preceded the Perkins by many years. It was fun to write with them at such times, making a game of seeing how accurate we'd become in a half hour or so, with this very foreign method of writing. But as a permanent method of putting things on paper, the big, old machines had little appeal for us. We did not envy the students who had to use them all the time because they could not use the slate. 

We learned on the old board slate, which I still recommend for the teaching of beginners because some who could master writing never do in schools where only pocket slates are used. The problem of the "changing of the paper" is too much for them and they write over their previous work. I also would not recommend the pocket slate to teach adult beginners. The added problem of getting the paper back correctly after one has had to take it out to see where he left off can also be a discouragement. 

I say, "Why clutter up the mind of a beginner, child or adult, with a lot of unnecessary stuff when you are attempting to teach him braille?" Learning all the rules, dot-numbering, etc. might be alright for the sighted transcriber working for the Library of Congress certification, but to  start poking a bunch of rules at a small child or adult who is making a big emotional adjustment of which braille learning is a part, and then to say when you confront him with the slate, "Now, with the slate you are writing backwards, but when you turn over the page and read what you have written, it will all come out right-side-up." is creating another negative thought, spelling eventual defeat. I would not disparage Mrs. Barr's slate without trying it, but let's not go off the deep end and hail it as a blessed breakthrough for all the blind, forgetting that many of our top notch blind braillists started out writing backward without ever giving it a second thought.

*****

** A New Look at LC
Earl Scharry
Braille Advisor
Division for the Blind and Physically Handicapped
Library of Congress

Any organization is composed of individuals, each of whom has his own special interests and his own private philosophy. Therefore, unless an organization is wholly doctrinaire and thoroughly monolithic, it may be presumptuous to characterize it as representing any particular point of view. Nevertheless, the essence of the American Council for the Blind, the thing that makes it unique among organizations, is its emphasis on shared responsibilities as well as shared opportunities. This aspect of the Council was demonstrated most effectively when from the beginning it actively supported and promoted the legislation which extended the facilities and services of the Division for the Blind of the Library of Congress to the Physically handicapped generally. As a result of this legislation, the Division for the Blind and Physically Handicapped can now serve any person who has a physical disability which prevents reading normally, including those with visual disabilities not severe enough to bring them within the legal definition of blindness. 

Thus far, the new program has resulted mainly in a vertical expansion in the number of clients benefiting from the services of the Division, rather than a horizontal expansion in the type of services offered. Mrs. Rosemary Lane, who assists in promoting the new program in her capacity as Assistant to the Chief of the Division, estimates roughly that so far it has resulted in the addition of some 20,000 new readers. She says these are distributed among elderly people with visual impairments not severe enough to qualify them as legally blind, multiple sclerosis victims, who are mostly in the age group between 25 and 40 and have had a normal mental development up to the onset of their disability, and sufferers from cerebral palsy, which strikes its victims at a very young age and therefore may involve some degree of mental retardation. A substantial number of legally blind people have been added, especially those with multiple handicaps. It is felt here that eventually there will be a demand for the creation of reading matter suitable for persons with a degree of mental impairment, rather than as at present only reproducing material already existing in print. At present, this Division lacks the resources and staff to undertake such a project, but the possibilities and problems are being explored. For the time being, Mrs. Lane concentrates mainly on publicizing the existing services to the expanded clientele. She does this in three ways: 1. Sends brochures and circulars to agencies and libraries whose clients might have need for these services; 2. Makes personal appearances and sets up exhibits at meetings and conventions such as hospital and nursing home associations; 3. Contacts personally such institutions as the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and the Kennedy Institute to explore with them the extent to which they may be able to utilize our services.

I am aware of the thinking which rejects any suggestion that services for the blind be lumped with those to any other group. The fear is that the blind will be lost in the shuffle and neglected or ignored. This fear may have some validity in certain areas, but I am convinced that there is no justification for it in this case. In the first place, the increased clientele has made more money available for the enlargement of the collection and the improvement of equipment. The blind clients of the Division can only benefit from this. In the second place, the Division has a total of seventeen blind employees, some of whom are in responsible positions where their views can be made known and will be heeded. Three examples of blind persons in such key positions may suffice to illustrate this point. Mrs. Maxine Dorf as Head of the Volunteer Services Section is responsible for coordinating the work of thousands of volunteers who transcribe into braille and record on magnetic tape throughout the country and supervises some eighteen other employees. Bill West is in charge of the rapidly expanding volunteer tape program. Mrs. Freddie Peaco was recently put in charge of a new activity, Student Services, where she helps both high school and college students to locate or procure reading matter needed in the pursuit of their studies.

From Chief Robert S. Bray on down, the Division is permeated with the belief that it is ability and not disability which counts. Moreover, this is much more than mere lip service to a hallowed cliche: It results in attitudes and actions which permit handicapped individuals to assume all the responsibility they desire and are capable of handling. The extent to which this venturesome spirit goes is shown by the fact that for some time Earl Brawner, a deaf-blind man, has been employed as operator of the thermoform machine. 

After an absence of ·more than six years, I returned to the Library of Congress last August as Braille Advisor. I found the Division for the Blind burgeoning with change. When I left in 1961 there were some 35 employees, as compared with today's 80. At that time part of the. Division was located in the Main Building of the Library of Congress, with the Regional Library and what is now the Volunteer Services Section crowded in air-conditioned isolation in the Library's Annex across the street. The entire work force is now united under one roof at 1291 Taylor Street, N.W. with adequate work, storage, and shipping areas. This physical change is symbolic of a more subtle and significant spirit. Bringing all personnel together under one roof was the realization of a long-cherished dream of Mr. Bray and has resulted in a greatly improved esprit de corps and greater cooperation and coordination. 

Besides the addition of the services to the physically handicapped and to students, I found that the volunteer tape program, which six years ago was a tentatively germinating seedling, has now begun to bloom in profusion. Bill West estimates that some 600 to 700 volunteers are actively involved in this program either as readers or otherwise. There are now approximately 3800 titles available on tape. In addition, nine magazines which are not available through any other medium are regularly provided on tape. The most popular of these are Galaxy, the science fiction magazine, and OST, the publication for ham radio operators. There are approximately 10,000 borrowers from the tape collection, a rather surprisingly high figure. The tape collection supplements those titles which are in braille and talking books, and is of a somewhat more specialized nature. There is soon to be a recording studio in the Division itself, where volunteers will tape under ideal and monitored conditions. The studio will be utilized in a pilot project where experimentation in methods and equipment can be carried out. 

The Technical Section has been working on the development of a small, highly portable, tape playback and recording machine which uses a cassette rather than running the tape from one reel to another. This eliminates the hazards in a flat oblong box which is inserted into the machine by a very simple, foolproof operation and then turned over when the first side has been played. In June, about 1,000 of these machines will be issued to ten regional libraries for distribution for the purpose of testing them out in the field. At the same time these libraries will be given a number of books recorded by professional readers and which have been transferred from talking books to tape. 

The machine can be used with batteries or can be plugged into a regular electrical outlet, and it is so small that it can fit into a desk drawer. It can be used for taking notes or recording other material as well as for reading books. Ed Steffen, Technical Advisor, says that it will be entirely practicable before long to mark chapters or specific passages in a book by recording a distinguishing sound at any desired spot which can be heard when the machine is on rewind or fast-forward. This will greatly enhance the usefulness of tapes for students and others who wish to refer back to particular information. 

So, in many quarters and in many directions, interesting developments are germinating in the Division for the Blind and Physically Handicapped of the Library of Congress. It is stimulating and exciting to witness and to participate in a small degree in this evolutionary process.

*****

** Ned's Corner

Figures don't lie -- But --

Several lists of occupations in which blind people are engaged have appeared recently in this and other magazines. These have been reports by state rehabilitation agencies and show a considerable diversity of occupations; one even gave the number of individuals employed in each category. None of them, however, gave any indication of the degree of blindness, nor did they indicate the salary range, or even the average income. Nor was there any indication of the type of service rendered. For these reports to be really meaningful such information is essential. It was also obvious in a number of cases that only "orientation services" or "physical restoration" are involved, with the client either returning to previous employment or finding his own position. 

One list of "occupations for the blind" recently received gives over fifty categories listed alphabetically from A through W. At first glance this is impressive, until analysis indicates a high proportion of duplications: at least four titles which could refer to vending stand operators, five or six to sheltered workshop employment, and several different ways of referring to simple handicraft.

Here are some other occupations, few of which have appeared on official listings: anthropologist, builder, chemist, choir director, cook, corporation official, dairyman, editor, educational consultant, farmer, forestry manager, lecturer, masseur, poet, poultryman, preacher, real estate salesman, stock breeder, writer (non-fiction). A list which might be considered an adornment to the files of any vocational rehabilitation agency, until investigation indicates that these are the activities of one man over a period of some twenty odd years, as his vision slipped from the 20/200 threshold to the eventual "light perception." Vocational rehabilitation services? About $800 in supplies and equipment, six counselor visits. Income? From activities associated with rehabilitation services, about $2500 for a three-year period. 

We had hopes when the new VR reporting procedure was put into effect that we would get meaningful reports from the state and federal agencies. The information necessary to show the quality of services being rendered is available in the computerized system, but bulk figures on cases closed, without breakdown, still dominate the reports and have little or no meaning. Could it be that our agencies are afraid to divulge the true facts hidden away in the computer and behind the veil of "confidentiality"?

We still get reports of cases being written up as "closed - rehabilitated" where the individual involved had perhaps one interview with a counselor after the job had been obtained by his own efforts. At least, we assume these cases went into the files because the counselor was careful to obtain all of the background information he could. And these reports persist in spite of the ruling that a signed application for services should be obtained from the client.

We have repeatedly recommended that federal auditors make spot checks of random selections from the closed files, including a personal interview with the client.

Do those groans I hear come from counselors who fear such a procedure, or is it the continued moan of clients who have been inadequately served?

*****

** Needed -- Regional Schools
George Card

Whenever I hear talk about turning over our residential schools to the multi-handicapped youngsters and forcing our normal blind children into so-called "integrated" public schools, my blood pressure escalates.

In my view, only the exceptionally gifted blind child can successfully cope with the tensions that inevitably arise in a sighted school situation. For the average blind child, instead of "integration," there is intensified segregation in a public-school situation. He usually gets no gymnasium work, no competitive sports, no home economics, very little or no laboratory work. He is passed on from grade to grade whether he has earned a promotion or not.

Our residential schools were in the past not much better than reform schools in the matter of strict segregation, separation of the sexes, and all manner of restrictive rules. This is no longer true anywhere. I firmly believe that every blind child should be entitled to be on equal terms with his peers, at least for a few years until he has gained confidence and belief in himself. He should have the benefit of the special equipment which the residential schools make available to him but of which he is deprived in the public school. In most residential schools he will be in at least one or two classes taught by blind teachers, and he will thereby have before him the example of a truly successful blind person. 

When I compare the healthy, normal and happy graduates of our residential school with the forlorn and usually helpless graduate of "integrated" public schools, my heart bleeds for those last, who have been deprived of so much. Let's not give up the fight just yet. 

Ever since Darlene and I spent that week at Condover Hall, in England, I have been convinced that the answer for multi-handicapped blind children is the regional school. Condover Hall has been so outstandingly successful that a second such school has now been launched -- in the south of England. Condover Hall is three quarters of the way north. 

At Condover, everything is done to reproduce the conditions of a normal family group. Each family unit consists of seven or eight pupils, a male teacher and a female house parent. The "family" spends as much time together as possible, discussing the problems of its members and usually finding acceptable solutions. You would be amazed to see the almost fierce family loyalty which this system has brought about. I could go on for many pages with description and analyses of the methods at Condover Hall, but it is perhaps sufficient to say that every multi-handicapped child there reaches his absolute potential. For some, self-care and the simplest tasks are the potential; for others a skilled trade; for a few successful, transfer to a regular residential school. 

I think there could be a series of regional schools for multi-handicapped blind children in the U.S. Perhaps eight or ten. Only New York and California have enough of these children to justify a state school.

*****

** Whose Rights?
Sydney J. Harris: Wisconsin State Journal

Every day I get letters complaining about "the mess we're in," but there is one thing all these letters have in common. People are disturbed only by what directly affect them. What they call "the mess" is that part of the mess that injures their own self-interest. Nobody cares about anyone else's part of the mess. And this attitude, to me, is more significant than the actual mess -- for this attitude is what causes the mess in the first place. And hardly anyone can see this, or will accept it. Take a word like "rights." Each person is interested only in those rights that bolster his own position. Nearly every letter I get is narrow, partial and blind to the whole spectrum of rights and responsibilities. The people who want more "law and order" can't see the rampant injustices that the status quo is perpetuating; the people who call for militant action can't see the evil effect of rioting and looting and defying all authority. But it is no good being for your own rights if you are morally impervious to the rights and needs of others. Because the whole concept of rights is a seamless garment, if it is ripped in one place it will rip everywhere. If we are unjust to any segment of the social order, we are making it that much easier for the society to become unjust to us as well. What is lacking, of course, is a sense of "community." And without this sense, we have only diverse factions, each trying to protect what it has and to get more. And if each faction is concerned only with its own particular kind or rights, nobody is left to guard the whole basic idea for the community at large. This is why I cannot respond enthusiastically to the so-called "respectable" members of society who are so upset about the "lawlessness in the streets" and other current cliches. When have they ever cared about any rights except their own? Whom have they ever gone to bat for except themselves? They are for law and order because they are on top; if they were on the bottom, they would be for different laws and a different kind of order. This is not being democratic, This is not being Christian, or religious in any way. It is being self-protective. Only when we are just as deeply concerned with the basic rights of the least member of society as with our own, are we justified in appealing to the moral sense of mankind.

*****

** Small Loans for the Disabled
(BVA Bulletin, via the Hoosier Star-Light)

A joint program to help the disabled establish their own business enterprises was announced recently by Miss Mary E. Switzer, Commissioner of the Vocational Rehabilitation Administration and by Bernard L. Boutin, Administrator of the Small Business Administration. 

The venture recognizes the probability that small private businesses may offer a solution to the vocational problems of many disabled persons. 

Among other programs, the Small Business Administration administers loans under Title IV of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, which authorizes the making or guaranteeing of loans to help in setting up or strengthening small businesses. 

Boutin said he expected the SBA-VRA effort to stimulate the handicapped to make greater use of their loan programs. "It is important," Boutin said, "that the disabled persons who are capable of starting their own business operation should be aware of the help available from both of our agencies." 

"This assistance takes many forms," said Miss Switzer, "but one of the most important is preparing disabled persons to assume productive roles in the community. Many disabled persons have the knowledge and drive which makes them suitable candidates for opportunities in the business arena."

The Small Business Administration is arranging meetings with state rehabilitation agencies to provide rehabilitation counselors with information on SBA programs which counselors can use in helping disabled persons.

*****

** Here and There with George Card

From the Milwaukee Low Vision Clinic NEWSLETTER: A patient's attitude toward his limitations and realistic approach to his problem are of primary importance and greatly affect his ability to accept and use optical aids within their necessary limitations. Mental alertness has proved to be a key factor. Partially sighted persons with more than mere light perception who have the will to try should be given the opportunity. Persons suffering loss of central vision from conditions such as macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy and albinism respond well to the use of special lenses. Those overly dependent on others have more difficulty in accepting the use of optical aids. Those with severely restricted fields of vision and children under the age of 5 or 6 can seldom be helped substantially. 

From the Okla. NEWSLETTER: The State Rehabilitation Agency has joined with the Oklahoma League for the Blind in establishing a training center for the blind which is housed in the League at 106 N.E. 2nd in Oklahoma City. Trainees are given instructions basically in three areas -- travel training, home repairs and home economics. -- A special computer programming class for the blind began in August at the International Academy in Oklahoma City. The students will learn to program in several different computer languages so as to broaden their knowledge in the field and to qualify them as programmers. A great deal of time is spent debugging (correcting the program) after it is returned. Ed Reavis, President of the Duncan Chapter, who has replaced Wanda St. Clair as editor of the bi-monthly NEWSLETTER of the OFB, is one of 12 students now taking this computer programming course. 

Ever since 1959 the Board of Directors of the West Virginia Federation of the Blind has met quarterly with its state rehab agency, which has resulted in a great deal of cooperation and mutual gain. 

Waiting patiently gets us nowhere; it's working patiently that does it. -- Anon.

From the BLIND ADVOCATE (U.K.): The Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind reports Dr. Mary Croskery and Sister Sarah Darby in charge of the Society's mobile eye clinics in Southern Arabia. With their Land Rovers reinforced to give some protection against land mines, they are familiar and welcome visitors in desert villages and Bedouin encampments. 

Some of their most useful work is done in the women's quarters to which a male doctor would seldom be admitted. Trachoma is a major scourge and people with eye trouble journey for miles across the desert to attend the clinic which frequently gives more than 1,000 treatments a day. The report also draws attention to the fact that this year in 13 countries more than 200, 000 people have been treated and at least 10,000 had their sight restored or were saved from imminent blindness. -- According to Dr. Donald S. McLaren, a world authority on vitamin A, at least 80,000 of the world's children below the age of four go blind every year and half of them die because of lack of vitamin A. The difficulty is that physicians, including many in the U.S., do not know vitamin A deficiency when they see it. 

TRUE: THE MAN'S MAGAZINE has been added to the list of periodicals regularly recorded on talking books. -- Beginning this spring, Charles Scribner's Sons will publish complete and unabridged large type editions of some of its best-known titles. THE GREAT GATSBY, THE SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO AND OTHER STORIES, THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA, LOOK HOMEWARD ANGEL, A FAREWELL TO ARMS AND THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS are among the titles to be included in the new series. These complete and unabridged large type editions will be made available to libraries, schools and institutions. 

A 208-page volume entitled DEAF PERSONS IN PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYMENT, by Alan B. Crammattee, chairman of the Business Administration Department of Gallaudet College, has just been released by Charles C. Thomas, Publisher, Springfield, Ill. The new book is directed toward rehabilitation counselors, social workers and educators. It reports on-the-job experiments of 87 profoundly deaf people successfully employed in professions which require communication with co-workers who have normal hearing. Ninety-four percent attend college and seventy percent were graduated. 

From LISTEN: Dr. Charles L. Schepens, noted eye surgeon and director of the department of Retina Research at Retina Foundation, Boston, was recently honored by the trustees of Research to Prevent Blindness with their 1967 award. Dr. Schepens shared the $25,000 prize with Dr. Gerd Meyer­-Schwickerath of Essen, German. Dr. Schepens has made significant advances which have helped improve the results of treatment for retinal detachment treatment for retinal detachment and has developed a new type of ophthalmoscope and new surgical techniques which have been adopted throughout the world. In 1950 he founded the Retina Foundation with borrowed capital of $1,000. Today the foundation and its associated organization, the Institute of Biological and Medical Sciences, has an annual budget exceeding $1 million. Dr. Meyer-Schwickerath's citation was for the development of photocoagulation as a process, using light sources in place of diathermy in the treatment of certain types of eye disease, especially those of the retina. -- People with glaucoma may experience "a prompt and significant decrease of intraocular pressure" after drinking alcohol, according to an item in the Bulletin of The Society of Medical Friends of Wine. But W. Morton Grant, M. D., one of three doctors who conducted the studies, "notes that alcohol imbibed just before testing for glaucoma may produce false negative results." -- Dr. Edward J. Waterhouse, director of Perkins School for the Blind, visited Japan last fall as guest of the Minister of Education. Prompted by a growing concern in Japan about the education of deaf-blind children, the visit was the initial step in a program which would later bring a team of psychologists and educators from Perkins to Japan to evaluate the needs of deaf-blind children and to plan an educational program for them. -- The diabetic world mourns the passing of Dr. Howard F. Root. The foundation which he headed joined with the Harvard Medical School in 1954 in establishing and directing a world center for diabetes research aimed at discovering the factors that produce the disease which is one of the leading causes of blindness in the U.S. He was a key figure in major national and international conferences on diabetes held during the past 30 to 40 years. -- Dr. Henry F. Allen of Harvard Medical School's Department of Ophthalmology suggests that "a sudden sonic boom could cause an unwanted movement of a surgeon's hand, even a slight one, resulting in disastrous damage to the extent of producing permanent blindness." There may be answers to the problems that can be attacked from another angle such as more adequate soundproofing of operating rooms as the solution to the surgeon's problem. -- Science writers attending a four-day seminar sponsored by Research to Prevent Blindness, Inc., recently were brought up to date on a wide variety of developments in eye research. A research team has discovered that the blood vessels at the back of the eye are a reliable indicator of normal oxygen levels in premature infants who are placed in incubators. Any physician who can use an ophthalmoscope can benefit by this discovery. With this technique it is possible to monitor a child as often as necessary to insure keeping the oxygen at a safe level. -- Three recent developments in the field of cornea transplants were announced. A technique has been developed whereby the natural membrane is stripped from the donor cornea and replaced with a layer of silicone rubber, which prevents the admission of undesirable fluids. The technique has been used successfully on several Americans who were thought to be hopelessly blind. A method has been devised of pre-shaping the grafts, pre-fitting them with sutures and storing them until needed Since it is currently necessary to do a corneal transplant within 24 hours after the death of a donor, the "prefab" method will simplify this complicated procedure. A third development for cases of severe corneal injury consists of a tiny tube of clear plastic with a braided skirt of Dacron mesh. A depression is created in the patient's cornea into which is fitted the graft of donor tissue with the plastic implant, "skirt" side up, on top. The mesh attracts connective tissue and forms a firm union with surrounding eye tissue. Tiny radio "pills," small enough to be placed in an animal's eye, are being used to report pressure changes. The technique promises new insights into understanding and controlling glaucoma. According to Dr. Jules Stein, blindness is on the increase in this country -- "at twice the rate of the population growth. The only reasonable answer is a vastly accelerated program of eye research into causes, prevention and treatment of eye disease." -- Bradford A. Warner is the new president of the National Society for the Prevention of Blindness, succeeding Enos Curtin, who is now the new Board Chairman. -- Research workers at the department of ophthalmology of the Otaga Medical School, Dunedin, New Zealand, have been fitting rats with contact lenses so that better photographs of the rats' eyes, especially the retinas, may be made. The researchers are studying eye damage and blindness caused by high blood pressure. -- In Boston three youths, two of whom were legally blind and one totally blind, led police on a three-mile chase at high speed before being captured at a roadblock. 

In the pages of the January NEW BEACON, John Jarvis reminds us that 1968 is the 200th anniversary of the birth of the man from whom Louis Braille obtained the idea for a system of raised writing for the blind. An army officer, Charles Barbier, devised a system of raised lines, perpendicular and horizontal, by which messages could be sent to other parts of an army camp and could be read at night without having to show a light. 

From the Peoriarea OBSERVER: Caterpillar Tractor Company in Peoria employs more handicapped people than any other company in the state of Illinois. One of the local Peoria Lions clubs took over the job of painting the bus which the Peoria Blind Center purchased recently, and it is now a very handsome object. The Lions not only did the work but also paid for the material.

"The greatness of a man has to do with his 'vision,' not with the 'correctness' of his formulations; much of Newton's mechanics has been revised, much of Darwin's biology has been reformed, much of Freud's psychology has been modified -- but they remain great because they saw deeply, not because they were permanently correct." -- "How can he who thinks he possesses absolute truth be genuinely tolerant of other viewpoints?" -- Sydney J. Harris

From the AFB NEWSLETTER: The educational programs for the partially sighted, long conducted by the National Society for the Prevention of Blindness, have been transferred to the American Foundation for the Blind. ... In the area of training of school teachers, counselors, and the like, there is a growing appreciation that the practitioner should and can be equipped to deal with pupils or adults who have varying degrees of serious visual impairment. -- Interest in the problems of serving the child with visual and hearing impairments caused by the mother's having had rubella (German measles) during pregnancy is growing throughout the country, and the acuteness of the situation is leading to increasing discussions and research. 

From the HOOSIER STAR-LIGHT: Miss Sue Bowmaster, blind of Penndel, Pa., has joined the United States Peace Corps and is receiving special training in San Diego. Fluent in Spanish, Miss Bowmaster, along with her Seeing-Eye Dog Princess, will spend two years in the Dominican Republic. -- The New Jersey 4-H Clubs have been given a citation for work done by club members in the Seeing-Eye puppy-raising program. Puppies, bred by The Seeing Eye, Inc., are placed in the care of 4-H Club boys and girls who raise them to the age of 12 to 14 months. The pups are returned to the school for dog-guide training.

From the AMA NEWS: Mississippi has launched an intensive seven-county "vision conservation program" to wipe out glaucoma and cataracts. Aimed primarily at the indigent, the project is supported by a U.S. Public Health Service grant of $52,000. The program has a two-pronged goal. It will provide first-time eye care for people in an economically depressed area of the state and will provide training and experience for resident ophthalmologists from the state university. 

From the Ohio Council of the Blind BULLETIN: Although each affiliate was limited to three delegates, the total present at the February 24-25 seminar reached 60. Not a single one left during the sessions, in spite of the fac! that there were no door prizes! Thirty topics had been submitted by OCB members for discussion at the seminar. We all learned a lot. Some of the discussions will lead to the preparation of a legislative program. The next OCB Seminar will be in 1970. -- For the first time in Ohio a blind man, Donald G. Morrow, has been appointed to the position of County Welfare Director -- at an annual salary of $14,352.

Clyde Ross writes that there are 496 known multiply handicapped blind children in Ohio. The little school,  maintained by the Summit County Society of the Blind, which can only serve a tiny fraction of this number, is nevertheless the only place where anything at all is being done to educate or train these unfortunate youngsters. 

From HORIZON (U.K.): The Russian government is now installing special telephones for the deaf and deaf-blind. When the former type rings, a table lamp winks violently; when the latter type rings, a powerful fan is started up. The phone message is transmitted by means of a Morse code tapping device. It is received by a bone membrane vibrator which enables the receiver to read the signals, with practice at about a 40-letter rate to the minute. These phones will be supplied to all who want them with installation free and monthly rates the same as for ordinary telephones.

From VIEWPOINT: Last October the third building constructed by the famous Pocklington Trust, which contains 50 flatlets for younger blind people working in and around London, was opened. Of the previous two structures, one contains 30 little apartments for retired blind people, some single flatlets and some for married couples. Residents of these are loud in their praise of the facilities offered.  -- The increased use of structural kits and an environmental approach to mathematics in the primary schools for sighted children now has its modified counterpart in the primary schools for the blind, where cuisenaire, color factor, cubarithm, the Dienes method abacus have nearly taken the place of the Taylor slate, which is clumsy to work and employs symbols not otherwise used. With certain special instruments and much normal laboratory apparatus only slightly modified, blind students can, with the background help of an imaginative teacher, happily and rewardingly do practical work on their own. Improved methods of embossing diagrams and of duplicating these on the thermoform machine have greatly helped the student of science to understand principles, once he has learned, as any student must, to master the symbolism of diagrams and to train himself in the quick interpretation of them. It is proved now that a blind student can, with exact training, even learn to understand and to execute perspective drawing, an accomplishment which may well prove useful in factories as well as valuable in the schools.

*****

** A Dream
David Krause

I had a crazy dream not long ago. In fact, it was so crazy that I thought you might like to hear about it. 

It happened the night President Johnson stunned the nation with his surprise announcement that he would not accept his party's nomination for another term as President. I suppose that's what started me dreaming about conventions and presidents and elections and that sort of thing. 

As I recall, it was July of 1968 in my dream. I know the approximate time, because Bettye and I were in the bedroom packing for our trip to San Francisco. In the living room the television was blaring forth with on-the-spot coverage of some political convention. I'm not sure, from my dream, which party's convention it was, but I know it was coming from Des Moines. I know that, because I remember thinking in my dream that it was unusual for a big political convention to be held in a place as small as Des Moines. 

It was a strange convention, to say the least. In the first place, the President himself was presiding over the convention. When they introduced the presiding officer, I remember wondering in my dream, whether this might not be some foreign political convention, because he was referred to as President I-Am-Ken. There was another thing, in my dream, that gave me the idea it might be a foreign political convention. Right after they introduced President I-Am-Ken and the wild, tumultuous shouting subsided, the first thing he did was to push through a motion or resolution or amendment or something -- you know how confusing dreams can be -- to permit the President to receive compensation. Well, who ever heard of the President of the United States working for free? Another thing that pretty well convinced me that President I-Am-Ken was not President of the United States, was the fact that he informed his enthusiastic supporters that he only intended for his salary to be twenty-five thousand dollars a year. 

Well, just about that time, in my dream, I was convinced that President I-Am-Ken must be some foreign potentate, something happened that convinced me that he must, after all, be President of the United States. For he proceeded to explain to the convention, using simple arithmetic, that paying him this twenty-five thousand dollar a year salary would actually save the country money. It all seemed to hinge on cutting out the cost of a west coast executive office and a Midwest executive office, and running everything from the "Washington Office." After all, a foreign country might have a Washington office, but it wouldn't run everything from a Washington office. 

Well, I no sooner thought I had settled that question, in my dream, but that another shock hit me like a ton of bricks. As my television continued to blare forth with this most unusual convention, guess what it turns out that this President I-Am-Ken does for a living ordinarily. He's a plumber, of all things. That's what I said, a plumber. I know because he told the cheering conventioneers that there was a john in the Washington office that wasn't working properly, and that he, President I-Am-Ken, would have to replace this john himself. 

Well, right then, somebody called for the floor and started to say something. I remember that this surprised me, in my dream, because this was the first time during the entire convention that anybody except President I-Am-Ken even tried to say anything. So naturally, I perked up my ears to find out what this new speaker was going to say, and what do you think happened? Before he could get out two words, a bell started ringing, declaring the convention adjourned. President I-Am-Ken kept shouting over and over, "The convention is adjourned. The convention is adjourned." And the bell kept ringing and ringing and ringing. Suddenly I was awake. It was the alarm clock that was ringing. It was time to get up and go to work. 

Wasn't that a crazy dream? Nothing like that could really happen -- or could it?

*****

** Letters from Readers

(Addresses furnished on request)

Eugene Fleming, Grand Junction, Colo.

The recent newsletter received from ACB carries the statement, " ... the complete failure of Congress to do anything for more than one million Americans who concurrently receive OASDI benefits and public assistance." It would be easy enough to take this part-sentence out of context, but I will try to avoid that. First, the thing that Congress is accused of not doing is giving the persons mentioned a bigger handout. Second, it is fact that if these same people would do some things for themselves, they would not have to bemoan what someone else is not doing for them. The whole idea is summed up in the bit of folk doggerel: "out your seat and on your feet; Out of the shade and into the heat!" My observations as a blind home teacher-counselor of the blind leave no room for doubt that those who ask for the most are the very same ones who do least for themselves. This is not to say that regulations governing how we may work with clients are all that either clients or workers believe they should be. Even so, there is no mistaking that those who want to become self-supporting can do so in most cases, at least in this state, under existing regulations It may or may not be "fair" to ask a client to leave his small hometown, dispose of his home that he has worked many years to buy and to leave friends and relatives behind in order to learn a new way of making a living. This is certainly not a regular practice, but in some instances it is the only way for the person to become self-supporting, and the individual must make a choice. No one says it is an easy decision to make, especially for one who does not feel comfortable with his new loss of vision. We must respect the choice of those who choose to live on welfare or social security, or a combination of the two. But let's demand of them that they stop lambasting the rest of the population for "... the complete failure ... to do anything ..." for them! 

***

Mrs. Sammie K. Rankin, Waco, Texas

As a member-at-large, I am gratified to have an opportunity to make a contribution to the work of ACB. My personal check is attached. I have enjoyed the FORUM, since Durward picked up my membership at Shreveport two years ago. I believe, however, that the current issue has topped them all. As one blind person to another, thank you for a significant service to all of us. I am beginning to think of attending a national ACB conference.

***

Edgar P. Sammons, Morristown, Tenn.

I would like to comment on Abraham Gulish's letter in the FORUM (March, 1968) and say a few words about grants for the bind. He may be right in some respects. A lot of money is being spent for the blind, but many get very little of it and some none at all.

I think that all totally blind people should draw a grant from the government or require each state to pay the same amount. This should be a fixed amount for the totally blind regardless of what they have. Very few totally blind have more than just enough for a living. Many blind people don't like to tell what they have and what their relatives have in order to get a grant.

***

Howard Goodwin, N. C. 

My wife and I are both blind and we read the BRAILLE FORUM and search every page to see what is being done for the blind ones in our Nation and around the world. We get the braille copy and deeply appreciate it. As for the ACB, we think it is one of the finest organizations for the blind in this Nation. Thanks a lot for keeping us up on all the current information for the blind.

***

Otto Peterson, Garden City, Kansas

... I would suggest that FORUM readers contribute short items or ideas on doing things (for the "Refugees from the Round File" section), such as appear in Juliet Bindt's "Handbook for the Blind" on money-saving ways, easy ways of doing various tasks that seem simple enough but (which) work for you as a blind person. They may have to do with anything from identifying ink print materials received in the mails that you need to find later to gardening, housekeeping, hobbies, or just being better-organized as a blind person to use your time more efficiently. This last is a wild ideal of everyone, but a little more efficiency never hurt any of us. I think of such a simple thing as the two dozen spray cans of everything from hair spray to insecticides around this house, and I cannot positively identify very many of them without marking them in some way -- so try to make the cap in some permanent way so that it can be put on the next can (of the same product) and hopefully we both keep the tops or lids on and then I have a chance.

***

Fred Dechowitz, Executive Secretary, AAWB, Washington, D.C. -- (Commenting on a letter from Miss Louise Cowan of Canada who reports on the cooperative relationship which exists between the organized blind and official agencies in the Dominion.) ... Organizations of the blind should take their rightful place under the umbrella of AAWB's programs and services alongside of every other agency and organization serving the blind. It is only through this common forum, where each point of view is brought forth openly and freely, that we can develop pathways that all those we serve can walk.

*****

** Refugees from the Round File

The January issue of AAIB's THE FOUNTAINHEAD: Seven persons from Michigan, including four Michigan State University faculty members, left December 31, 1967 on a people-to-people mission of assistance to British Honduras. While in the small Central American country, the group advised some 800 elementary school teachers attending a three-day educational conference on methods of teaching blind, deaf, mentally retarded, emotionally disturbed and physically handicapped children. Dr. John E. Jordan, an associate professor in education at MSU, conducted the project held in Belize, capital city of British Honduras. Involvement of Michigan citizens, particularly faculty from Michigan colleges and universities, is part of an ongoing program of technical assistance and exchange provided by the Michigan partners of the Alliance for Progress, a non-profit organization. 

A recent study conducted by Robert W. Bischoff, Ed.D., indicates that a special series of listening lessons can significantly increase comprehension in students with visual handicaps. The research was completed for a doctoral dissertation at the University of Oregon, a summary of which appears in SIGHT-SAVING REVIEW, Fall, 1967. The students tested were in grades 4 through 9 from two sources: those served by the itinerate teachers of the Tacoma Public Schools and those enrolled in special classes for the partially sighted at the Oregon School for the Blind in Salem. Dr. Bischoff, based on his study, recommends listening comprehension is a skill that can be taught effectively to partially sighted students. He further states that it appears that listening comprehension can be improved through a variety of approaches and that increased skill in listening comprehension would supplement large print and auditory media presently in use. 

A grant of $268,000 which has been awarded to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by the John A. Hartford Foundation, Inc., for a three-year program to continue development and evaluation, prepare manufacturer's drawings and specifications, and build 20 production models of high-speed English-to-braille embossing system. This system has been under study at M.I.T. for the past six years. As models are developed and tested in the laboratory, developers plan to field test them in schools. The M.I.T. Brailler, paired with a conventional typewriter and linked by telephone line to a central time-shared computer -- enables a typist with no knowledge of braille to produce immediate grade two braille because the computer translates English from the typewriter into braille signals to drive the Brailler, which produces braille at more than 190 English words per minute. The system can also be used to emboss braille from the paper tapes used in printing establishments to operate typecasting machines for ordinary inkprint publication. 

A University of British Columbia professor is counting on the magic of micro-electronics to help him put a unique reading tool into the hands of the blind. Dr. Michael P. Beddoes, working on an improved version of a simpler sound code which he developed while studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, hopes that by 1970 he will have produced portable reading machines to enable the blind to read printed material. The device, which he calls a lexiphone, utilizes a melodic morse code. In operation, the book or printed page lies on a platform which moves past a scanner. As with braille, the blind must study to learn to read by lexiphone. Dr. Beddoes said that after 300 hours, a blind person should reach a Grade 4 reading level. He guessed at a possible top speed of 80 words per minute. 

The Medic-Alert Foundation has had to raise the price of its steel insignia to $7.00 and the silver to $9.00, reports THE COMMUNICATOR (Jan., 1968). They are also going to start providing gold insignia for $25.00. Anyone who cannot afford these life memberships can be given a free insignia upon the request of an agency for the blind. Requests should be forwarded to Chester Watts, Executive Secty., 1000 North Palm, Turlock, Cal. 95380 

New York Daily News - The Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that Edwin R. Lewinson, holder of a doctoral degree and an assistant professor of history at Seton Hall University, may not serve as a juror. Lewinson is blind. The state's high court handed down its decision without opinion. The ruling upheld an Appellate Division decision that Lewinson does not possess his natural faculties and therefore is disqualified for jury service.

NRA NEWSLETTER, February -- The National Rehabilitation Counseling Association and the AMVETS Auxiliary are co-sponsoring a program which will set up competition among first-year students enrolled in rehabilitation counseling programs across the nation for a $500 national scholarship to be awarded when the winner is a second-year student. Participating universities will select a candidate who has completed his first semester's work. The candidate will be judged on the basis of his academic standing, faculty evaluation of his potential for professional development, commitment to enter the rehabilitation counseling practice upon graduation, and his own statement as to how he sees such a scholarship aiding him reach his professional goal. Selections will be made progressively from the state to the regional to the national level. Although only the national scholarship is available at this time, it is hoped that funding will be made available to provide awards for regional and state winners. 

An endowment fund has been established for the Oklahoma Federation of the Blind sparked by contributions of two members. Each made an estate loan through their credit union to be paid off in one year's time. The Oklahoma Federation was made a joint owner of the account so that at the death of the donor, both the savings and an equal amount of life insurance will be paid to the Federation. The announcement of this new program for the support of the organization concludes, "Think what this can mean if each of our more than 800 members joins in this endowment plan. In what better way can we serve those blind who follow us? What better memorial can we leave to ourselves?" Perhaps some of you would like to make ACB a beneficiary in a similar plan. We, too, have a memorial endowment fund.

The December, 1967 issue of LISTEN features a picture of the first two blind employees to be hired as machine operators by the Kyodo Seiki Machine Tool Company in Osaka, Japan. According to reports, the president of the company is prepared to hire more blind persons who are as well trained. The two new machine operators are graduates of the Adjustment and Industrial Vocational Training Center of the Nippon Lighthouse. 

An audience at the Phoenix Center for the Blind had an unforgettable experience. The Hong Kong Blind Choir -- five young men and six young women, all Chinese, all blind -- presented a spine-tingling performance. They are on an extended tour of western states sponsored by the "Chinese for Christ" organization, headquartered in Los Angeles. Organized in Hong Kong some years ago from among blind orphan and slum children, the group is promoting goodwill and support for establishment of a school for Chinese blind children in Taiwan (Formosa). Among the many inspiring selections were Chinese folk songs sung in native tongue and many beautiful gospel songs in English. For an especially intriguing feature, they switched to authentic native instruments to form a Chinese orchestra. Their all-around musicianship was superb, climaxed by a marvelous rendition of the "Hallelujah Chorus" from Handel's Messiah (from VISION, un-LTD., Mar. 1968). 

The Petersons, Faye and Otto, proudly announce the adoption of a baby boy, Michael James Peterson, reports the BRAILLIST'S BRIEF (April, 1968). They advise that he weighed 7 lbs., 11 1/2 oz. and was ready for action when he arrived at their home. Faye says he is the prettiest baby she has ever seen, and Otto agrees. They say, too, "Now that we have a new 'little' responsibility in our home we are making many and pleasant changes in our lives. Michael James is boss, and we will try to keep up with him." Good luck to the Peterson family!

Also in the BRAILLIST'S BRIEF was the report that 18 blind persons at the Rehabilitation Center for the Blind at Topeka have completed the first standard first-aid course to be offered for the blind in the Midwest Area of the American Red Cross. The new program is a continuing one, so that the blind who come to the Rehabilitation Center in the future also will have an opportunity to learn first aid techniques. The course, which ordinarily is a 10-hour one, has been expanded to 12 hours to allow the blind persons more time to learn certain skills, such as bandaging. Goal of the course is to help blind persons learn how to cope with emergency problems that might arise in their homes. Among things studied in the course are first aid treatment for poisoning and burns, artificial respiration and transportation of the injured.

The March NEW OUTLOOK reports that an acoustic signaling device designed to help the blind and visually impaired to distinguish between the "stop" and "walk" lights at pedestrian crossings has been designed by AGA, a Swedish manufacturer of signaling equipment and electronics. 

The device emits a ticking sound with a frequency of about 75 pulses per minute while the light is red. After the light changes to green, the frequency is raised to about 750 pulses per minute. Normal hearing distance for the sound is about 25 feet from the box. The distinctive difference between the two frequencies makes it easy for the blind and visually impaired to determine whether they should stop or go.

The AGA developed the device in collaboration with Swedish traffic authorities and the Swedish Association for the Blind.

The February NEW OUTLOOK reports, in an article by Robert Prause, the successful competitive placement of two deaf-blind persons in the New York area. The positions can be described briefly as follows: Mr. W's job involves production work, operating a machine in a manufacturing setting; Miss I's position is in a hospital laundry where she sorts and folds clothing and sheets. It is reported that both employees are well-satisfied with the work being done by these deaf-blind persons. In fact, the hospital is reported to have employed a second deaf-blind woman.

According to NIB NEWS (Winter, 1968) a special Achievement Award for distinguished services to blind persons was presented to Honeywell, Inc. at the annual meeting of the Minneapolis Society for the Blind. The award was made in recognition of Honeywell's close cooperation and support of the Society's rehabilitation programs over a period of more than 20 years. During this time Honeywell has assigned substantial amounts of subcontract work to the society, amounting to more than $100,000 in 1967; their engineering department has provided technical assistance which has resulted in many employment opportunities for blind persons; employees and officers have devoted many hours of volunteer services to the society; and Honeywell's personnel department and management have led in direct employment of blind and visually handicapped persons. 

Sonar, used for many years to probe the sea, is now employed to look into the human eye to seek troublesome foreign objects. The new sonar technique is used in finding foreign bodies which cannot be located by any other means. The chief advantage is that the device allows a surgeon to pinpoint the location of an intraocular foreign body no matter what kind of material is involved. 

Previously, magnetic devices were used which only could detect magnetic substances like iron and steel. Then scientists developed a metal detecting device which should tell if metals of other varieties had been lodged in the eye, but neither of these devices pinpoint the foreign body. (ABC DIGEST - Calif.) 

The Rehabilitation Association of Nebraska has established an award "in recognition of outstanding services to the development and maintenance of vocational rehabilitation services in Nebraska to meet the needs of every person eligible for and in need of such services" as a memorial to Melvin R. McArtor. Mr. McArtor was a counselor with the Nebraska Services for the Visually Impaired from 1954 until his death in October of 1966 while attending the NRA annual conference in Denver. The first award for the year 1967 was presented to Mrs. Frances McArtor of Lincoln, Nebraska, as a posthumous honor to her husband "who demonstrated during his lifetime the extent to which a severely handicapped person could enrich his own life as well as the lives of countless others." 
(from NRA NEWSLETTER, Feb., 1968).

*****

** ACB Officers

President: Reese Robrahn, 541 New England Building, Topeka, Kansas 66603
1st Vice President: Ned Freeman, 136 Gee's Mill Rd., Conyers, GA 30207
2nd Vice President: David Krause, 4628 Livingston Road, S.E., Washington, D.C. 20032
Secretary: Mrs. Alma Murphey, 4103 Castleman Ave., St. Louis, Missouri 63110
Treasurer: F.W. Orrell, 5209 Alabama Ave., Chattanooga, Tennessee 37409

** Directors

Mrs. Mary Jane Schmitt, 510 Tarrington Rd., Rochester, New York 14609
R.L. Thompson, 104 N. Hanlon St., Tampa, FL 33604
Fred Lilley, 7629 Dale St., Richmond Heights, MO 63117
J. Edward Miller, 2621 Chesterfield Ave., Charlotte, NC 28205 
George Card, 605 S. Few St., Madison, Wisconsin 563703
Vernon Williams, 217 Western Union Bldg., Aberdeen, South Dakota 57401
Mrs. Catherine Skivers, 836 Resota St., Hayward, CA 94545
Floyd Qualls, 106 NE 2nd St., Oklahoma City, OK 73104 

***

This sight saving edition was assembled and mailed by members of the Oklahoma City Chapter of the Oklahoma Federation of the Blind.

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