The Braille Forum 
Vol. XVIII January, 1980 No. 7

Published Monthly by the American Council of the Blind 
Mary T. Ballard, Editor

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* President: Oral O. Miller 
3701 Connecticut Avenue, N.W. 
Suite 236 
Washington, DC 20008 

* National Representative:
Durward K. McDaniel
1211 Connecticut Avenue, N.W. 
Suite 506 
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 833-1251

* Editor:
Mary T. Ballard
190 Lattimore Road
Rochester, NY 14620 
(716) 244-8364

** ACB Officers

* President: Oral O. Miller, 3701 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Suite 236, Washington, DC 20008 

* First Vice President: Delbert K. Aman, 115 Fifth Avenue, S.E., Aberdeen, SD 57401

* Second Vice President: Dr. Robert T. McLean, 2139 Joseph Street, New Orleans, LA 70115 

* Secretary: M. Helen Vargo, 833 Oakley Street, Topeka, KS 66606

* Treasurer: James R. Olsen, 6211 Sheridan Avenue, S., Minneapolis, MN 55423

** Contributing Editors

George Card 
605 South Few Street
Madison, WI 53703

Elizabeth Lennon 
1315 Greenwood Avenue
Kalamazoo, MI 49007

The Braille Forum seeks to promote the independence and dignity of all blind people; to stress responsibility of citizenship; to alert the public to the abilities and accomplishments of the blind. The Braille Forum carries official news of the American Council of the Blind and its programs. It is available for expression of views and concerns common to all blind persons.

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** Contents

ACB Officers

Report from the ACB President, Oral O. Miller

Communication Aids for the Blind -- Part One: Personal Reading Machines, by Harvey Lauer and Leonard Mowinski

Protecting Programs for the Visually Impaired Within the New Department of Education

From the Archives: Who Is Hollis Liggett?, by Aileen McDaniel

Hearings Begin on National Health Insurance, by Kathy Megivern

Need Something in Braille?

Hyde Park Corner: 
Concerns about Proposed Changes in SSI, by Donald Moore
Color Me Green, by Donald S. Nash

Waiver Authority Sought by Florida Legislators, by Kathy Megivern

ACB Affiliate News:
Aloha Council Cements Community Service into a Sidewalk, by Myrtle M. Leong
An Overview of the ACBI Annual Convention, by Jere G. McClarigan
Oregon Council of the Blind Convention, by Brian Charlson

In Memoriam: Homer Nowatski, by Joanna Cargill

Here and There, by George Card

Notice to Subscribers

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** Report from the ACB President, 
Oral O. Miller

Another court victory by a blind teacher who was assisted by the American Council of the Blind!! The importance of the case and the satisfaction derived from it are underscored by its history and that of the plaintiff, Richard Fischer, a Merrilan, Wisconsin, high-school teacher who lost his sight in 1971. Soon thereafter, the school district for which he had been working for many years refused to renew his employment contract on the grounds that, due to his loss of sight, he could not perform his former duties as a teacher. Mr. Fischer appealed the decision to an administrative board, which ruled in his favor. Nevertheless, the school board chose to stick with its original decision and to appeal the matter. 

It was then that the long, frustrating years of waiting started for Mr. Fischer. It was also soon afterwards that Mr. Fischer attempted to get the Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare to intervene and to take action in protecting his rights. Although I shall not attempt to summarize all the procedural steps taken thereafter, it should be mentioned that this matter first came to the attention of the American Council of the Blind and the American Blind Lawyers Association about 1977. We immediately asked the National Association of Blind Teachers to provide Mr. Fischer and his attorney with pertinent information concerning the disposition of another case involving a blind teacher. At that time we also started encouraging and counseling Mr. Fischer. During the same period, the school board, which seemed intent upon punishing him for challenging its decision, took the extreme action of barring him from speaking, by invitation of the students, at graduation ceremonies held at the school where he had formerly taught. 

In the meantime, the decision eventually came from the Office for Civil Rights that it would take no action in Mr. Fischer's case, inasmuch as his situation involved the problem of only one person and not a group of people -- a decision which would not please any individual whose rights were at stake. Thereafter, more time was taken by administrative and judicial procedures. 

However, the matter came to a glorious conclusion on June 29, 1979, when the Dane County Circuit Court, acting pursuant to an appellate decision, ordered the school district to pay Mr. Fischer approximately $96,000 in back salary and other payments (minus legal deductions) and to give him credit for the years beginning with 1972 for purposes of teacher retirement benefits. Mr. Fischer chose not to return to the classroom, but to pursue the line of work which he had entered during the intervening years. 

In a letter dated September 11, 1979, to the Editor of The Braille Forum Mr. Fischer said: "As a result of the Circuit Court decision, we have finally come to a settlement agreement and a battle for the blind has been won. I think that our case will be a landmark decision for all handicapped of the future, and there should not have to be any seven-year battles to have a right to get the chance to do a job. As a result of our settlement, we have received seven years of back salary, less what we earned during that period, and also won the right to return to the school system at our previous job. ... Regarding the job, I declined to return to the position because of a good number of ignorance which still exists, and more so because I am presently doing much better financially, as well as doing a more enjoyable and appreciated type of work. ...

"I just returned from a week-long bear-hunting trip with a bow and arrow, and I am now looking forward to a 90-day deer season, so my bow is getting a good workout. ...

"My family is all relieved of the strain that made life so unpleasant, but it now seems that the majority of people seem to realize that we were right all along in our pursuit. Please relay this information to Mr. Oral Miller and give him special thanks for all that he and your organization have done for us. I know that we have taken a step in the right direction, and all help will always be appreciated."

While it is obvious that the victory described above would never have come about if it had not been for the personal determination and courage of Mr. Fischer and his family, the members of the American Council of the Blind may be proud of the part which this organization and its special-interest affiliates played in assisting Mr. Fischer. This case proves again that the considered and reasonable approach of this organization is very effective in protecting the rights of the blind.

For many years, the American Council of the Blind has been interested in training its members to be better leaders and more effective consumer advocates, but the lack of funds has restricted our ability to provide such assistance. I am pleased to be able to report that, other than workshops and seminars conducted during the week of the national convention, the ACB took its first separate step toward helping to provide such training in October, 1979, when it made a small grant to the Sacramento Valley Chapter of the ACB of California to help with the conduct of a consumer training workshop planned by that chapter. The money was used primarily to assist with the travel expenses of workshop participants who lived a great distance from Sacramento. Although the workshop was planned somewhat hurriedly, it attracted participants from several states. We commend those who were involved in planning and conducting the workshop.

Success breeds success! That maxim, coupled with this organization's long-standing desire to train its members to be better leaders and more effective consumer advocates, helped to motivate the ACB Board of Directors at its December, 1979 meeting in Louisville, to agree to co-sponsor a regional workshop for the purpose of providing such training to its members. All the details have not yet been worked out concerning the workshop, which will be co-sponsored by the ACB and the Illinois Federation of the Blind (the ACB affiliate in Illinois), but it is likely that the workshop will take place in late April and that the ACB affiliates in the states around Illinois will be invited to send members for training. Details concerning the workshop will appear in The Braille Forum, and detailed invitations will be sent to the affiliates involved. While it is hoped that some of the money allocated for the project by the ACB and the Illinois Federation can be used to assist with the travel expenses of workshop participants, those funds cannot possibly pay all the travel expenses so the affiliates in the states around Illinois should, if at all possible, start planning NOW to set aside or raise funds to send members to the workshop.

It is hoped that regional training workshops like the one being planned in Illinois can be conducted in other parts of the country as funds become available and necessary arrangements can be made. In fact, the training of members to be more effective consumer advocates is considered by the ACB officers and directors to be so important that at its recent meeting in Louisville, the ACB Board budgeted a large contingent amount to be used for that purpose during the 1980 fiscal year. The funds budgeted will not be restricted to regional workshops, but since the item is a contingent one, the full amount budgeted may not be available for that purpose the first year.

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** Communication Aids for the Blind
Part I:
Personal Reading Machines 
By Harvey Lauer and Leonard Mowinski 

(Harvey Lauer and Leonard Mowinski are blind rehabilitation specialists in reading machine research at the Central Rehabilitation Section for Visually Impaired and Blinded Veterans, V.A. Medical Center, Hines, Illinois.) 

How often have you heard the following remark: "Isn't it wonderful how technology is opening the world of print to blind people!" You may have made that statement yourself, and you probably meant it to be taken in one of two ways. If you meant that since we are using technology to fill our human environment with print, we should also use it to reduce the resulting handicaps for blind people, then we agree with you. After all, use of the printing press has revolutionized education and made braille a necessity for us. Now, typewriters and computerized printing have made reading necessary on many jobs. Growing bureaucracies with their red tape are making us more dependent in the conduct of our personal business. On the other hand, you may have meant that reading aids will be bonuses of technology -- welcome windfalls that are not really needed or deserved. If that is true, then we should be grateful for what we get and uncritical of how well they work. Judging by the results, both blind and sighted people must have considered reading aids a bonus up to now. We have demanded and been promised reading machines that worked like box cameras, with no training, from armchairs. As a result of such Utopian fores, we have received partly designed instruments which could be used only by the most capable, industrious, and desperate blind people. Had we considered reading aids to be a needed tool rather than a neat bonus, there would probably have been less discrepancy between promise and performance. There are, nevertheless, many lessons to be gained, so this article is a state-of-the-art report on reading machine development.

The first reading machines for the blind can be classified as direct translation reading machines. This is because they do not identify characters as such. They present the shapes of characters as tactile or auditory patterns. The first reading machine was the British Optophone, built after World War I and used by several people down to the present.  An Optophone presents to its user the shapes of the printed characters in tone patterns.  The pitches of the tones depict the shape of the character. When a character with a descender is scanned, the lowest tones will be heard. If the highest tones are heard, it means there is print above the middle body of the character. The most recent Optophone is the Stereotoner. It was designed and manufactured by Mauch Laboratories, Inc., of Dayton, Ohio. Reading machine research at Mauch Laboratories was sponsored by the Veterans Administration. The Stereotoner was built in the early 1970s and is no longer manufactured, but there are about twenty users.

The first reading aid with a tactile output was the Visotactor, built by Mauch Laboratories in the early 1960s. The Optacon is the most successful direct translation reading aid to date. It is manufactured by Telesensory Systems, Inc. (TSI), of Palo Alto, California, and several thousand have been sold. It was developed at Stanford University and Standford Research Institute in the late 1960s and went into production in 1971. It presents the shapes of printed characters in vibratory patterns on the user's left index finger.

We now turn to the far more sophisticated category of reading machines called the Optical Character Reader or Optical Character Recognition machine. OCR machines use a computer to identify printed characters, so their output can be presented as spelled speech, full-word synthetic speech, or braille. Among the pioneers in this area are Mauch Laboratories, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Stanford Research Institute. There are at present several ongoing efforts to build OCR machines for the blind. The Israelis call theirs Textobraille and it has a braille output. The work in Canada is conducted at Concordia University by Drs. Michael Bedoes and C.Y. Suen. The builder of the Optacon, TSI, is working on an OCR machine to be used with the Optacon, which will be described later. The one available OCR machine for the blind is the Kurzweil Reading Machine, or KRM, made by Kurzweil Computer Products, Inc., of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Using an automatic scanner and a mini-computer, it presents its output to the user in full-word synthetic speech.

Who reads, machines or people? Mr. Lauer has used and taught seven different reading machines and feels strongly that although machines may read for other machines, only people can read for themselves or for other people. What machines can do for other people is translate or transcribe.

It will be helpful to describe the reading process in four steps: (1) scanning or format handling; (2) character identification or recognition; (3) language conversion or grapheme-to-phoneme conversion; and (4) comprehension or assimilation. With a direct translation reading machine, the user is fully active in every step of the reading process.

Because that process was designed for use with eyesight, reading is slow and difficult when the job is done entirely by the human being using touch or hearing to perceive character shapes. The most typical reading speeds are between 10 and 40 words per minute, and acquiring the skill is comparable to acquiring a new language.

By contrast, the mini-computer of the KRM performs several functions, three of which are directly related to reading. It scans print, recognizes characters, and does speech conversion. When all goes well, the human user is free to perform comprehension at a much higher rate of speed. The question now is: Why do we not suggest scrapping our direct translation reading machines? We cannot make that recommendation because the computer cannot do its job perfectly. It needs the help of a direct translation reading machine, as we shall demonstrate.

We consider the task of scanning or page format handling to be as formidable a task for a computer as optical character recognition itself. Programmers in this field have only begun to work on it. In the area of OCR, the Kurzweil developers have made their most significant breakthrough, yet much work still remains. The third task, speech conversion, has been most successfully accomplished. To be sure, better speech is needed for reading machines and other uses, but it should not be improved at the expense of more necessary improvements. At this point, it takes only several hours to learn to use the spoken-word output of the KRM. It takes much longer to accommodate for the errors made in the format handling and OCR. We therefore feel that these areas need improvement first.

A hand-scanning option is being designed for the new desk-top Kurzweil Reading Machine. With it, the user will move a pen on a tablet to remotely control the camera. When the computer has trouble sorting out columns, titles, footnotes and pictures, the user can examine the page format and direct the system accordingly. This may not require much training. If the computer cannot decode damaged or unusual print, the user can do the job, though this will require greater skill. If a name and address is needed from correspondence on which the computer makes occasional errors, the user can verify the needed data by hand, but read the body of the letter automatically, using context clues to correct the errors. 

The skill to which we refer is the ability to use a direct translation reading machine. The hand scanner can have either a tactile or audible output. The first version will have a twelve-tone audible output. With it, the user should be able to read a wider variety of work-related materials. We hope that later models will provide for connection with an Optacon via its input/output plug. This arrangement would not use the Optacon's camera, but it would use much of its circuitry and its array of tactile vibrators. The shapes of the printed characters would then be read as seen by the KRM's camera. 

The need for both an audible and tactile direct translation output for a computerized reading machine is underscored by the fact that the makers of the industrial OCR machines provide their sighted users with a video monitor. This gives the user a picture of what the computer sees so he can correct its errors and more efficiently direct its operation. Why shouldn't blind people be given the same opportunity? Of course, more work will be required of us in order to make full use of the hand scanner or tablet, but it will give us a fighting chance to accomplish tasks on which we must now give up. It should be noted that Optacon and Stereotoner users commonly use their small machines when reading with the KRM, to examine formats, locate passages, verify names and numbers, etc. Now with the option to do these things built into the KRM, both the KRM and the small machines should be more valuable to us.

The previous model of the KRM requires print of high quality, handles only simple page formats, and permits reading at half the normal speaking rate. The new desktop KRM should enable the reading of print of ordinary quality in a number of common page formats at the speed of spoken English. We still expect high error rates on print of poor quality, which is commonly found in many homes and offices. We are not sure if newsprint and cloth-ribbon typing will be automatically readable, and we know that complex formats like bank statements and computer programs will be unreadable with the fully automatic portion of the KRM.

Telesensory Systems, Inc. is designing an OCR machine for the blind which includes the Optacon. The user is to track or scan the print with the Optacon camera. Signals will be sent from the Optacon's input/output connection to the computer, where they will be processed and then presented as synthetic, full-word speech. Users who possess the necessary skill will use the Optacon to read print which the computer cannot identify. Assuming the engineering problems remaining will be solved, there are three advantages this system will have over a fully automated one: (1) It should be half the size and price. (2) The computer does not need to be programmed for the difficult task of handling page formats. (3) It should be more versatile because the human user can learn to cope with print styles and formats which still stump the computer. The disadvantages, however, are these: (1) Much more training is involved to take full advantage of this system. (2) The human user also finds formats difficult. (3) Many people find the hand tracking of print to be a tedious and demanding task.

A second version of the TSI machine is planned in which the user will have the option of hand-tracking or automatic scanning. This version may be comparable to the new KRM with the hand-scanning option. A third, fully automated version is planned which may be comparable to the KRM without the hand-scanning option. Both TSI and KCP have done considerable work to improve the quality of the synthesized speech to be used in reading machines and for other applications.

The Talking Optacon will not have an automatic scanning system initially. Therefore, hand-tracking will be critical to its accuracy. Will the tracking aid of yesterday meet the critical standards of today's reading machines? The best tracking aid to date is the Mauch Colineator, though it needs re-designing for use with the Optacon. It is out of production and is available only in the V.A. Most people who use it prefer it whenever portability is not an issue. The Colineator can be used with books magazines, and single sheets of paper. Because the camera is held by a vertical shaft, both hands can be freed for taking notes without losing its position on the page. TSI engineers are studying the Colineator and other aids, because the computer to be used with the Optacon would be highly inefficient in combination with unaided hand tracking. We feel certain that regular Optacon users will also be in store for a surprise blessing if they have access to and are made aware of an improved tracking aid.

An audible attachment for the Optacon has been built at Illinois Institute of Technology. It is the first bimodal reading aid, and we call it the Optaudicon. Its value is being tested at Hines Blind Center. The present model provides the user with a twelve-tone stereo output. So far, it has enabled us to prove one fact and to work on several other hypotheses. We are certain that the electronic input or retina of the Optacon is very superior to that of the Stereotoner. If this had been discovered several years ago, we would have insisted on re-design of the Stereotoner or its replacement with an audible output for the Optacon. The difference was so great that re-evaluation of the audible code is warranted, we feel.

Tentatively we find that Optacon students prefer to use both outputs simultaneously. This is not surprising for two reasons: (1) Many things are naturally experienced with two or more senses simultaneously; and (2) each code presents some letter features better than the other. Stereotoner users all prefer the tonal output of the Optaudicon over the Stereotoner. Both they and the Optacon users like this bimodal approach and after several hours' experience prefer to continue using the instrument. So far, only one prototype has been built. Further tests will be conducted. 

Our reading machines of the future will have a powerful computer, a keyboard, and the means for communicating with us by speech and braille. Is it not, then, reasonable and economically essential that they be re-designed to perform several other tasks as well? Most such tasks require communication or interfacing with other machines like computers, typewriters, and braille devices. A list of such tasks includes the following items: 

1. Text editing or word processing is becoming commonplace. Many typists and writers type their material into the memory of a computer, where it can be easily corrected and edited. When a composition is completed, the computer can be directed to drive a printer, which can then automatically produce a perfect copy. 

2. A second task is data storage and retrieval. A computer can file or recover an address, phone number, or other data in several seconds -- the time it takes to type a name. 

3. Our system can also serve as a computer terminal for programmers, clerks, ticket agents, typists, professionals, and hobbyists. The day is not so far off when most homes will have computers to assist with controlling appliances, managing accounts, playing games, and communicating with people and machines. 

4. The computer can serve as a sophisticated scientific or business calculator, or do ordinary arithmetic. 

5. It can play games and serve the needs of computer hobbyists. For these services, there would be an additional minor cost of computer program tapes or discs. There could be an additional major cost for printers to produce braille and inkprint. The braille could be displayed in soft copy known as "paperless braille." If we cooperate, however, this need not be a major cost. We need typewriters, braillers, and probably paperless braillers anyway. Therefore, if these machines are appropriately designed to begin with, then the additional cost of making them compatible with our computer will also be minor. 

Developers of reading machines claim that their eventual cost will be $5,000. If they are correct, then the cost of the personal information system proposed here should be $6,000. We think that they are wrong by 100%, so the cost of the entire system may be $12,000. Wouldn't that be worth its price, since it will reduce our communication handicaps in this technological age? The challenge of designing a reading machine with effective interfaces and a versatile computer is exceeded only by the value which such a system can have in the lives of blind people. 

We predict that a reading machine or machines utilizing modern technology can be available within four years if two conditions are met. First, we must do better salvaging of lessons from scrapped projects. Nearly every project has contributed valuable lessons in design, production, training methods, and training materials. For instance, most new projects downgrade the value of training. This field is now in the process of re-learning that training is valuable and respectable. The second condition is an era of cooperation among all concerned parties, including informed consumers. If we fail to use the past, and if cooperation and consumer awareness remain at their present levels, then we predict that twenty years will be needed to get the job done. 

To all but the most scientifically minded and spiritually perceptive human beings, the world about us appears as a bewildering array of highways, byways, and jungles. According to a popular analogy, most of us are caterpillars who are not yet butterflies. If our reading machines with their artificial intelligence could reflect upon this matter, they would perhaps categorize the world of print in the same manner. By contrast, the printed world is easily comprehensible to intelligent physically sighted human beings. They do not need such categories to describe it. 

We blind people now face -- or perhaps I should say interface with -- machines by which to travel the world of print. So for the highways of print, such as books and magazines, we shall have automobiles like Kurzweil machines and talking Optacons. For the byways of cheaply duplicated and carelessly printed items, we shall have bicycles consisting of Optacons or Optaudicons and hand-scanners. For the jungles and junkyards of handwriting and badly damaged print where a machine cannot go, we shall need the help of our sighted friends. Such will be the case at least until our reading robots can be changed, metamorphosed, into butterflies.

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** Protecting Programs for the Visually Impaired within the New Department of Education

A conference co-sponsored by the American Association of Workers for the Blind and the American Foundation for the Blind was held on December 6 and 7 in Rosslyn, Virginia, near Washington, D.C. This "working conference" was held for the purpose of developing a position paper to be transmitted to the Secretary of the new Department of Education, to indicate the unified support of all those in the field of blindness and visual impairment for the maintenance and strengthening of the Bureau for Blind and Visually Handicapped when the transfer of rehabilitation functions to the new department occurs. All major organizations of and for the blind were invited to participate, and with one notable exception, they were represented. The American Council of the Blind was represented by Kathy Megivern. The meeting was chaired the first day by William Gallagher of AFB and the second day by John Maxson of AAWB. 

For the most part, the position paper will emphasize the historical support for categorical programs and categorical funding of programs serving blind and visually impaired persons. This emphasis focuses on the hope for an upgraded role for the Bureau for Blind and Visually Handicapped. The paper will urge full implementation of the provision of P.L. 93-516, which was supposed to provide ten additional full-time personnel in the Bureau, five of them designated to carry out the duties of the Randolph-Sheppard Act program. The paper also urges enforcement of the provision of the public law which made the director of the bureau a GS-18 on the Federal pay scale. 

Other topics of concern to be dealt with by the paper include the proper funding and expansion of the Randolph-Sheppard Act, the National Institute for Handicapped Research, the Research and Training Center for Blindness, the Rehabilitation Engineering Unit, and the Bureau of Education for the Handicapped. ACB suggested that the pair urge a separate appropriation for the Randolph-Sheppard program and 100% Federal funding of new locations, so that the program will be able to grow and flourish as intended by Congress when the 1974 Amendments were passed. These recommendations were accepted and will be part of the position paper.

The two-day meeting coincided with the swearing-in of Shirley Hufstedler as the new Secretary of Education, and conferees were invited to join other groups at a reception in the Secretary's honor immediately following her swearing-in. All conferees were able to meet and speak briefly with the Secretary, and the impact of their presence was obvious when she addressed the gathering. Here, among hundreds of persons primarily concerned only with the education functions of the new department, the Secretary put great emphasis upon services to the handicapped as well. 

It is hoped that our presence at this reception and our early submission of a strong, unified position paper will keep programs for the blind and other rehabilitation programs high in Secretary Hufstedler's priorities.

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** From the Archives
Who Is Hollis Liggett?
By Aileen McDaniel

If you were not active in an organization of the blind twenty years ago, you may have wondered about the author of the first two selections in the "From the Archives" series. This article is an attempt to acquaint readers with the editor of The Free Press through most of its history.

The vital statistics on Hollis Liggett give some clues to his interests and abilities. He was born in 1913 in Gibson County, Tennessee, graduated from the Tennessee School for the Blind in 1942, and during World War II worked at the Memphis Tent and Awning Company. After the war, he attended Lambuth College at Jackson, Tennessee, where he met his wife, Margaret. 

Planning to become a religious teacher, he attended divinity school at Duke University. After graduating in 1950, he resided briefly in Texas, where Margaret had a fellowship. The Methodist Church then gave him a pastorate serving five country churches in Henry County, Tennessee. This assignment was not a success. In retrospect, Hollis acknowledges that his sermons were not suitable for rural congregations. Moreover, he found that he was not enough of an extrovert to like performing the duties expected of a pastor. These factors, combined with the prejudice he had to contend with, led to his decision to leave the ministry.

Hollis returned to Memphis in 1952 and made a living as a salesman for four years. In 1956 he was assigned a small vending stand in Memphis Public Works Department. After eight years at this location, he took over a large and successful business in the City Hospital. Since 1969, he has been completely independent of the state program. 

Margaret, who had stopped teaching while their children were small, now assists in his business. The youngest of their five children are 15-year-old twin girls. The next youngest is a daughter now at Oberlin College. Hollis would like to retire, but the high cost of college educations in these times probably will keep him on the job a few years more.

Anyone who talks with Hollis Liggett after reading any of his writings is bound to be surprised by his low-key, self-effacing personality. I heard him speak only once, at the 1959 Labor Day weekend meeting of the Provisional Committee in Nashville. Most of us had never met our editor in person. Dean Sumner of South Dakota, who was presiding, interrupted the proceedings to introduce Hollis as soon as he arrived. Hollis appeared to be astonished and embarrassed at the enthusiastic reception which followed. I do not remember what he had to say; only that his speaking style was as quiet and matter-of-fact as his telephone conversation. 

He was never able to leave his business long enough to attend one of those crucial NFB conventions during the 1950-61 "civil war." What Hollis contributed to the movement was far more important than any floor speeches he might have made. Among many writers of talent who contributed one or more articles to The Free Press -- not the least of these whom were Earl Scharry and Marie Boring -- the best articulated our ideals and was the least concerned with personalities and minor issues. 

Hollis Liggett first attracted the attention of the dissident faction when we learned that he was the author of a letter opposing the Card Amendment which the Memphis Association circulated before the 1958 convention at Boston. Marie Boring read it on the convention floor during the debate. 

The next contact was at the Tennessee convention the following August. Aware of the disaffection within the Tennessee Federation (three of the four chapters having expressed opposition to the Card Amendment prior to the Boston convention), tenBroek and the two Tennessee emigres, Kenneth Jernigan and John Taylor, came to Nashville to rebuild fences. Marie Boring and Durward McDaniel also attended. On the September 12 following, tenBroek released the so-called "Warren letter," attacking the Boring and McDaniel lobbying activities in the "bedrooms and corridors." (Incidentally, the "Warren" letter was not written by J. M. Warren, nor the "Card" Amendment by George Card; their names were used because they would carry more weight than the name of the actual author, whose identity we never doubted.) Hollis immediately proceeded to set the record straight, first by detailed questioning of J. M. Warren at a Tennessee Federation board meeting, and then in two letters which were circulated and reprinted in the California Council News Bulletin of February, 1959. The following excerpts from one of these letters (addressed to tenBroek) explain how Hollis Liggett got into this fight.

When I received the first communication on this conflict within the Federation, I paid little heed to it, and accepted George Card's explanation that it was one or two persons who were disgruntled about the firing of Archibald. However, as I received other material, and learned more about the internal working of the Federation, the arguments of the "disgruntled few" seemed to make more and more sense. ... 

The charge has often been repeated that this whole thing has been stimulated and kept alive by some personal rivalry or jealousy on the part of one or two persons. It may be that the conflict was triggered by the firing of Archibald. I know nothing about this, and know nothing about the personal enmities involved; however, it seems quite incomprehensible to me that one-third of the National Federation would get so worked up over such petty issues. As for my part, I hardly know Archibald, I had no more than casually met McDaniel and Boring before the Tennessee Federation convention of this year. I have been lifelong friends with John Taylor and regard his opinions and abilities very highly. I have had much more personal contact with you than with the leaders of the opposition, so if my decision had been made on a personal basis, I do not see how I could have done anything but follow your leadership.

At the Boston convention, while we were not occupied with proselytizing, we discussed the need for a more effective means of communicating our point of view to the NFB membership -- specifically, a publication in braille. These discussions continued by letter in the fall of 1978. Hollis and other members of the Memphis group became interested and invited Durward McDaniel to a meeting which occurred on Valentine's Day 1959. There the Federation Free Press Association was formed, with Durward as Chairman, Ufemon Segura (who came from New Orleans to the meeting) as Treasurer, and Hollis as editor. At this meeting, the Memphis Association contributed $400 to finance the first issue of the l new publication, to be known as The Federation Free Press. Small contributions by individuals followed; then another sizable contribution from the Chattanooga chapter. 

Hollis was very reluctant to assume the editorship because of other demands on his time, and agreed only after Marie Boring firmly refused the job because of the political situation within the North Carolina Federation. In spite of considerable difficulties (including Hollis's hospitalization during this period), before the Santa Fe convention the fledgling organization managed to publish two issues of The Free Press and an "Urgent Bulletin" containing the Walter McDonald resignation materials. At Santa Fe, the name of the organization and the publication were changed and new officers were elected. Hollis continued as editor through March of 1961. 

Hollis Liggett will speak for himself in many of the articles which follow in this series. On re-reading them after the passage of twenty years, I am impressed that much of the material is timely now. It is a pleasure to read his language, just as language -- not pretentious, not wordy, not vituperative. His rational approach, his breadth of vision, and his subtle sense of humor did much to strengthen our resolve to continue in the face of odds which proved to be insurmountable.

I close with the following characteristic (and prophetic) passage from his "Disagreement with Dignity," in The Braille Free Press of December, 1960:

We believe it is natural and normal for people to disagree, and that blind people are no different from any others. There is no reason why blind people can, or ought to, agree on every major issue. We believe that we may legitimately disagree on the major goals to which our organization is striving; and we may differ as to the best methods for attaining any one particular goal. We believe that there is no clearly defined best way for accomplishing anything; that there may be many possible solutions to the same problem; that no one has a monopoly on wisdom or leadership; and that the final decision is often a matter of opinion. It is for this reason that there are different religions, different churches, and different political parties. We claim the right to express our convictions freely, to disagree with dignity, and without fear of reprisal.

Those who disagree with us should not thereby be considered depraved and dishonorable. It is difficult to understand how calling your opponents names, accusing them of all kinds of unseemly conduct, likening them to rattlesnakes and horse thieves, can really enhance your own position. The reformers cannot afford this kind of behavior, for we never know when we may be downgrading a future friend and supporter. Who could have predicted a year ago that George Card would now be one of our staunchest allies, or that Missouri would be one of our strongest supporters, or that the people in Alabama would rally to our cause in such numbers, or that friends and affiliates throughout the country would begin to rally around the banner of reform? It also shows a profound contempt for the intelligence of the blind people of America to assume that they will accept without question the sudden and precipitous fall of a person from a place of honor and respect to that of a renegade and scoundrel. This is an old propaganda technique which may work successfully for a while, but is likely to boomerang when used repeatedly.

*****

** Hearings Begin on National Health Insurance
By Kathy Megivern

For the first time in the 96th Congress, hearings have begun on the two major national health insurance proposals now pending, the Carter Administration plan and the Kennedy-Waxman bill. The first day of hearings was November 29, 1979, and the session was a joint effort by the Subcommittee on Health and the Environment of the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, chaired by Charles Rangel (D., NY), and the Subcommittee on Health of the House Committee on Ways and Means, chaired by Henry Waxman (D., CA).

Although the public will be invited to testify at later hearings, this first day's witness list was scheduled to consist of Patricia Roberts Harris, Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare; Lane Kirkland, President of AFL-CIO; and Douglas Fraser, President, United Auto Workers. Because of the length of the testimony by Secretary Harris and other delays in the hearing, Mr. Kirkland was unable to be present. Instead, a panel appeared, headed by Douglas Fraser and including Max Fine, Executive Director of the Committee for National Health Insurance.

Secretary Harris testified in favor of the Administration Plan, as expected. Prior to her testimony, Representative John Duncan (R., TN) stated his belief that national health insurance is "an issue whose time has come -- and gone." However, this belief that such a program is no longer important to Americans seemed unwarranted, indeed, in the face of the statistics contained in Secretary Harris's statement. For example, 22 million Americans have no health insurance coverage whatsoever. Because of varying eligibility tests, Medicaid covers only 35% of the nation's poor. In addition, 20 million Americans have insurance coverage so inadequate that it fails to cover basic hospital and doctor bills. And another 41 million Americans have no insurance against very large medical expenses. 

Questioning of Secretary Harris by the committee members was lively. The one question asked several times by both liberal and conservative members of the committee concerned that portion of the Carter proposal which would establish a fee schedule for doctors when treating Medicare and Medicaid patients, but provide no such schedule in the private sector. The concern expressed by several representatives, and never adequately answered by Mrs. Harris, was that this structure will further aggravate the existing gap in quality and availability of medical care between the nation's poor and elderly and those who can afford the finest doctors. If a fee schedule prohibited a doctor from charging more than $25 to treat a Medicaid or Medicare recipient, yet no such restraint was placed on the treatment of other patients, the obvious incentive would be for the doctor either to avoid the fee-controlled patients altogether or to treat them with as little attention as possible in order to fit a greater number within a shorter period of time (and thus make up for the lower fee per patient). Secretary Harris's only response was that somehow the imposed fee schedule would act as an incentive for doctors to control their charges in the private sector. This sort of voluntary control, supported by the American Medical Association and the American Hospital Association, has done little to control the runaway inflation in medical costs -- an inflation far greater than that in any other sector of the economy. 

The questions divided along the usual conservative-liberal lines, with the anti-health insurance faction being led by Representative Tim Lee Carter (R., KY), who is himself a medical doctor. The only surprise came when Representative James Corman (D., CA) began his questioning of the labor panel. Mr. Corman was the long-time co-sponsor of the Kennedy-Corman Health Security Act. He obviously could not accept the compromises made by Senator Kennedy and the labor leaders in their new bill, and the tone of his questions made it clear that he feels "deserted" in his battle for true national health insurance. 

The major compromise which Mr. Corman finds unacceptable, and which Douglas Fraser admitted is not philosophically what he would prefer, is the inclusion in the new Kennedy-Waxman bill of a role for the private insurance industry. Mr. Corman seemed triumphant by the panel's admission that, philosophically, his bill -- the old Kennedy-Corman bill -- is the most desirable. However, Congressman Waxman summed the situation up when he said, "Your heart may be with Corman, but Waxman is your co-sponsor."

None of the testimony contained any surprises, and the overriding impression left by this long morning of hearings was that, the Kennedy-Waxman compromise notwithstanding, national health insurance has made little progress in the 96th Congress.

*****

** Need Something in Braille?

The National Braille Association announces the continuation of its Reader-Transcriber Registry, which will accept all print materials for brailling, with the exception of textbooks or highly technical manuals. Transcribing is done by braillists certified by the National Library Service, Library of Congress. You may send any print materials you feel would be helpful in work, recreation, or daily living. Charges are three cents per braille page, bindings included. 

Send all materials or inquiries to: NBA Reader-Transcriber Registry, Mrs. Lawrence M. Levine, Chairman, 5300 Hamilton Avenue, No. 1404, Cincinnati, OH 45224.

*****

** Hyde Park Corner

Editor's Note: This column exists to provide a forum for the expression of divergent views of writers on timely subjects. Views expressed need not necessarily be concurred in or endorsed by the publisher.

* Concerns about Proposed Changes in SSI 
By Donald Moore

(Don Moore is First Vice President of ACB of New York State.)

It is with great concern that I, as well as other employees of the Social Security Administration, read about the position of the American Council of the Blind with J to posed changes in SSI blindness benefits (see "SSI Legislation," The Braille Forum, May, 1979). I will try to describe briefly some of the differences between Supplemental Security Income (Title XVI) and Social Security Disability (Title II) which cause me to question the value of ACB's proposal.

Currently, blind beneficiaries of Social Security disability benefits who are terminated because they no longer meet the "substantial gainful activity" requirement are processed for SSI benefits. There are several reasons for this, the most important of which is that there is no trial work period under SSI. A blind individual can work and collect SSI indefinitely, income permitting. While the $65 monthly earned income exclusion is talked about as a basis of how much an individual can make before SSI is reduced, this is a net, not a gross figure, as is the case under Title II benefits. That is, from the individual's gross income may be deducted such work-related expenses as transportation costs, reader's fees, lunches, and special equipment, as well as all taxes.

The Social Security Claims Manual devotes several pages, in fact, to blind exclusions. Any representatives of the Social Security Administration may not be aware of all of these, because no other disability group enjoys such liberal treatment. It may, therefore, be necessary that an individual request that his or her case be specifically researched. 

My understanding of ACB's proposal is to increase the excludable limits for the blind, "to coincide with those of Title II." This could create grave difficulty. If the blind become victims of the substantial gainful activity test under Title XVI (SSI), as they are under Social Security disability, there Will be no such transition to SSI benefits as there is now. If we lose the work exclusions, we also lose a great deal. Before requesting any type of legislative change in the Supplemental Security Income program, it would help to understand fully the ramifications of such a proposal. 

Editorial Comment: ACB's proposed changes in SSI for blind persons would not impose the substantial gainful activity standard as a condition for benefits or excluded income. Likewise, the proposed changes would not affect the existing earned income exclusions under the present law. The proposal would effectively substitute $375 per month for the present $65 per month as net excluded earned income. Under the Title II formula, the amount of excluded earned income will increase through 1982, at which time it will reach $500 per month. After 1982, it will increase according to an automatic formula as the cost-of-living increases. Thus, the proposal is much simpler and economically more desirable than the present excluded income provisions. -- DKM

* Color Me Green!
By Donald S. Nash

(Donald Nash is a partially sighted instructor in French and Spanish at Roberts Wesleyan College, Rochester, New York.) 

I was somewhat disturbed by the article in The Braille Forum for October, 1979, by George Covington, in which he advocated the use of black-and-white photography to photograph paintings for the partially sighted. It was Mr. Covington's contention, as I understand it, that the use of black-and-white film would bring partially sighted people and normally sighted individuals to the same common denominator of perception. 

It seems to me that Mr. Covington has failed to take into account the fact that most partially sighted persons have color perception and are not color blind. I would, therefore, suggest that color photography should be used at least for some of the pictures on display. 

To prove my point, I shall not present an exhaustive array of research, but merely my own personal experience. Whenever I look through a picture magazine, it is usually difficult to determine what the black-and-white advertising pictures and other photographs are depicting. However, as soon as the color sections are reached, objects are easily identifiable.

When the apples are red, the grass green, the sky blue, there is no doubt what you are looking at.

*****

** Waiver Authority Sought by Florida Legislators
By Kathy Megivern

In 1975, the Florida Legislature passed a plan which reorganized the State Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services. The legislation ordered the state agency to dismantle the "umbrella" structure under which categorical program divisions operated and to integrate all these programs in a decentralized human services agency. This meant that vocational rehabilitation was no longer a separate, autonomous agency with its authority coming directly from the Secretary of State. Under the new structure, field vocational rehabilitation functions reported to a district supervisor who was in charge of many different programs.

Because of the reorganization, it was determined that Florida was no longer in compliance with the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended. That Act requires that the agency receiving Federal rehabilitation money "must be primarily concerned with vocational rehabilitation." In order not to lose these Federal funds, Florida requested a waiver of the organizational requirements of P.L. 93-112. When the Secretary of HEW determined that he had no authority to issue such a Naiver, the State of Florida went to court to force such a move. However, both the U.S. District Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the Secretary of HEW, and the Supreme Court refused to hear Florida's appeal.

As a result of the litigation, Florida modified its agency structure enough to comply with the requirements of the Act. However, Florida Congressman Edward Stack continued the battle by introducing legislation granting the Secretary of Education the waiver authority which Florida had previously requested. This legislation, H.R. 5143, is similar to the controversial "Fascell Amendment" which Congressman Dante B. Fascell, also of Florida, had earlier tried to append to the bill creating the new Department of Education.

Hearings on H.R. 5143 were held in Washington, D.C., on October 17, 1979. Among those testifying in favor of the bill were the Governor of Florida, as well as Congressman Fascell. The American Council of the Blind requested to testify at in these hearings, but because there were so many requests, the House Subcommittee on Select Education scheduled ACB to appear at a second day of hearings, which will be held early next year. The Subcommittee also scheduled hearings to be held in Lauderdale Lake, Florida, Congressman Stack's home district. Don Cameron, President of the Florida Council of the Blind, testified at those hearings in opposition to H.R. 5143. 

The organized blind in Florida opposed the re-structuring plan from the beginning, and in anticipation of the coming legislation in 1975, they worked hard to have the Division of Services to the Blind transferred to the State Department of Education. This move assured the continued delivery of services to visually impaired people by specialists rather than generalists. The Florida Council subsequently honored Don Cameron with an award for his successful efforts in getting the Division transferred. 

Despite the lavish praise heard from Florida officials concerning their new decentralized program, statistics from the Acting Assistant Inspector-General for Auditing, HEW, told a different story. "In measuring the Florida program to the program nationally, Florida does not compare favorably. For example, in the category of the number of clients rehabilitated per 10,000 disabled persons in a state, Florida fell from 20th position among the fifty states and the District of Columbia in F.Y. '73 to 44th position in F.Y. '77. In another category, the number of severely disabled clients rehabilitated per 10,000 severely disabled in a state, Florida fell from a position of 29th in F.Y. '74 to 44th in F.Y. '77." 

If H.R. 5143 is enacted into law, the Secretary of Education would have the authority to issue these waivers, and many state programs would surely suffer. Even in Florida, the Division of Services to the Blind would not be safe from such a waiver, and services to the blind and handicapped everywhere could be greatly weakened.

*****

** ACB Affiliate News

* Aloha Council Cements Community Service into a Sidewalk
By Myrtle M. Leong

First an audible traffic light system and now a sidewalk! These two projects were undertaken by the Aloha Council of the Blind and Visually Impaired so that disabled persons could have easier access to the Hawaii Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. 

Before the sidewalk was built, one had to take his chances on either being hit by a car entering or leaving a nearby golf course, or spraining an ankle avoiding potholes, or bumping one's head on swaying coconut trees. With the walkway, a disabled person in a wheelchair or a blind person using a cane has a straight pathway into the library.

Many meetings were held with government officials to obtain state funding for this project, but no such funding would be available until 1981. Nevertheless, Hawaii Governor George Ariyoshi acted swiftly to clear paperwork on the project, and Aloha Council President Coletta Whitcomb corralled and coordinated many organizations to give of their time, energy, and materials so that construction of the walkway could be completed in 1979.

The sidewalk was completed on October 29 and dedicated on November 5, 1979, with the Rev. James Swenson giving the invocation. The traditional maile lei was then cut by President Coletta. Dr. Albert Miyasato, representing Governor George Ariyoshi, gave a short acceptance speech. After this brief, but very heart-warming ceremony, all participants enjoyed home-baked cakes, punch, and coffee in the library.

The Aloha Council extends sincere mahalos to the following organizations for giving so much to the disabled community: Cement Finishers Union Local 630, Diarnondhead Lions Club, Talking Book Readers Club, Operative Plasterers and Cement Masons Job Corps Training Program, Masonry Institute of Hawaii, Cement and Concrete Products Industry of Hawaii, Uncle Joe's Diner (delicious stew lunch), and the ladies who baked the scrumptious "low-calorie" cakes.

By spearheading this project, the Aloha Council of the Blind literally cemented a friendship, a working relationship between labor unions, management, and state agencies. Nowhere but in Hawaii! 

* An Overview of the ACBI Annual Convention
By Jere G. McClarigan

The eighth annual convention of the American Council of the Blind of Indiana was held September 14 and 15 in Goshen. The theme of the 1979 convention was, "Focus on Fellowship, Fitness, and Fun."

The Friday night session was highlighted by a stirring and enthusiastic talk by Carl E. Foley of Kettering, Ohio, on the Council of Citizens with Low Vision (CCLV).

Saturday was a very busy day for ACBI conventioneers. The highlight of the morning session was an address by James G. Chandler of College Park, Maryland. His talk, titled "Total Library Services," was especially appropriate since he pioneered the concept of voice-indexed recorded books. Mr. Chandler has also been instrumental in voice-indexing the VISTA cookbook, "Coffee Klatch Nibbles" (The Braille Forum, September, 1979).

Master of ceremonies at the noon luncheon was ACBI's very vivacious Doris Clevenger of Indianapolis. Guest speaker was Jessamine Cobb, Regional Consultant from the American Foundation for the Blind's Chicago office. The theme of her interesting address was, "Future Opportunities in the Field of Blindness."

After lunch, the real fun began. Barbara Romaine proved to conventioneers that "Fitness is fun." She did this by leading the group through a variety of exercises that could be done while sitting in a chair. It really was fun! This was followed by a description of beep baseball by ACBI member Paul Filpus of Elkhart.

At 3:00 P.M., conventioneers were given the option of either playing beep baseball or enjoying a tactile art exhibit. The art exhibit was presented by Sarah Cooke of Richmond, Indiana. Ms. Cooke was presented with a plaque in recognition of her efforts to bring art appreciation and enjoyment to visually impaired individuals.

The concluding event was the Saturday night banquet. Speaker was Fred A. Silver, Director, Blind Division of Indiana Rehabilitation Services. Mr. Silver discussed the history and possible future of rehabilitation services in the state.

The following officers were elected: President, Patricia Price of Indianapolis; Vice President, Evelyn Meyer of Marion; Secretary, Dotty Fitzgerald of Fort Wayne; and Treasurer, Dr. Henry Hofstetter of Bloomington.

* Oregon Council of the Blind Convention
By Brian Charlson

A wide range of speakers, exhibits, and activities highlighted the 25th annual convention of the Oregon Council of the Blind, held in Salem the weekend of October 19-21, 1979.

Among this year's speakers were Kay Toran, newly appointed Affirmative Action Officer for the State of Oregon; Charles E. Young, Acting Administrator of the Oregon Commission for the Blind; and Dr. Sheldon Maron, Director of Services for the Visually Impaired at Portland State University. With such subjects as "Education of the Blind Child" and "Your Taxes," the discussion was lively and the questions many.

This year's election found the Oregon Council with what we believe to be the youngest state affiliate president in ACB history -- Kim Young Charlson, age 22. Elected to serve with her were Wally Menning, First Vice President; Carol Derouin, Second Vice President; Carol Waymire, Secretary; and Dr. Donald Rohde, Treasurer.

At the Saturday evening banquet, Mildred Gibbens received the OCB Service Award for 1979. Author of "The History and Status of the Blind in Oregon," Mrs. Gibbens has served the needs of the blind for many years as a teacher of music at the Oregon State School for the Blind. She is continuing her service to the blind through a nationwide study, to be conducted as an activity of the Oregon Council of the Blind, with the goal of determining the activities, training, and/or home environment which may be responsible for the development of a successful blind person. 

Convention business was concluded with a vote for the Oregon Council to continue funding a statewide, toll-free telephone information number. This service project reaches many newly blinded Oregonians, state and Federal agencies, and the public at large.

*****

** In Memoriam: Homer Nowatski
(1909 - 1979)
By Joanna Cargill

"He was quite a guy!" 

This was the repeated response from those who were asked if they knew Homer Nowatski. 

It would be a challenge to find anyone who had engaged in more activities, belonged to more organizations, held more offices, and involved himself more completely in serving the blind than did Homer Nowatski. 

He was born in Normal, Illinois, May 2, 1909. He was graduated from the Illinois School for the Blind in Jacksonville in 1929 and received his B.A. degree from Illinois College in 1933. Homer had just enough vision to function generally as a sighted person, but was limited enough to understand the problems of the blind. 

While attending college, he worked in the school's braille print shop. He continued working there after graduation, as work was hard to find in Depression days. In 1934, he moved to Wisconsin to teach in the school for the blind at Janesville. He taught high-school academic subjects and shop work and helped with the Boy Scouts. In 1934, he had secretly married his former teacher, Edith Gillogly, but because the marriage of teachers with blind students was frowned upon (some had even lost their jobs thereby), it was not until about 1940 that the Nowatskis made their marriage known. From that time on, Edith was Homer's faithful and loyal helper in everything until her death in 1978. 

In 1946, Homer returned to Illinois to begin a long career in rehabilitation services. He was appointed chief of services to the blind in the Illinois Division of Vocational Rehabilitation. Three years later, he was appointed supervisor of rehabilitation services in Cook County, and two years later went to Southern Illinois University in Carbondale to work at developing job opportunities for the blind. In 1963, he returned to the Springfield central office of DVR to supervise the vending stand program under Small Business Enterprises.

When Homer retired from DVR in 1970, he immediately became manager of the Mary Bryant Home. He and Edith immersed themselves in services to the Home and in the problems of the aging blind until his retirement in 1977.

In the Springfield District Association of the Blind, he continually took responsibility. He worked in the Illinois Federation of the Blind promoting legislation and planning and participating in seminars. During the past two years, he served as IFB president and gave his services voluntarily to editing the Illinois Braille Messenger.

Homer died October 26 in St. John's Hospital, Springfield -- his last desire unfulfilled, to preside at the IFB convention. Recently he had become particularly interested in prevention of blindness and bequeathed his estate to Southern Illinois University for research in that field.

*****

** Here and There
By George Card

Last summer the International Federation of the Blind had planned to hold its general assembly in Senegal and the World Council for the Welfare of the Blind had chosen Nigeria. The hope was that scheduling these important international events in what used to be called "the Dark Continent" would serve to boost the morale of the blind people of Africa. It didn't quite work out. After waiting more or less patiently for reports of progress from these two developing countries, investigators were finally sent and it was discovered that in neither area had a single step been taken in preparation. Fortunately for the last-minute planners, a suitable hotel was found in Antwerp, Belgium, and the IFB began its meeting on August 18. As it adjourned near the end of the month, the departing delegates had a chance to shake hands with some of the WCWB delegates who were just checking in.

Old friend Tom Parker, who delivered a stirring address at our Milwaukee national convention a few years ago, retired as of October 1, after serving as an official of the British National League of the Blind for 43 1/2 years. He returned to live in South Wales, near his birth place. He will continue as vice president of the IFB and as chairman of its European Division. 

A little over five years ago, the ACB borrowed $5,000 from the Wisconsin Council of the Blind for fund-raising purposes. When the note came due recently, the Council voted to forgive the 6% interest, which amounted to a $3,000 gift to the ACB. 

The Canadian National News of the Blind reports that our sister organization, the Canadian Council of the Blind, is celebrating its 35th anniversary. Starting with only seven clubs in 1934, it now has 93 all across the country. On its 30th anniversary, it undertook to raise sufficient funds to provide 2,000 sight-restoring cataract operations in Bangladesh. -- And from the same issue: Thanks to modern technology, computer terminals now talk. This development opens up many new jobs to blind people. Using computer terminals attached to a sensitized speech box, blind people can now become efficient telephone information operators, reservationists, information clerks, credit officers, and dispatchers. Blind writers and typists can read the audio output to type, edit, and mail documents, applications, and standard forms on the computer-based word processing system. Blind computer programmers can monitor and scan incoming and outgoing data with the audio component. Able to be used by sighted employees with a visual display screen, the equipment conceivably may be bought by many large companies using computers for rapid information retrieval and storage. 

Airlines must pay passengers up to $400 for "bumping" them from scheduled flights, according to the Civil Aeronautics Board. If you are bumped involuntarily, the airline must pay you the full face value of the fare to your destination, with a $35.50 minimum and a $200 maximum, the CAB said in a new booklet entitled "Fly Rights." If they can't arrange another flight that is scheduled to reach your destination within two hours of the original flight (four hours on international flights), the amount of compensation doubles. Free copies of the "Fly Rights" booklet can be obtained by writing Fly Rights, Consumer Information Center, Pueblo, CO 81999. 

The Illinois Braille Messenger reports that the Quincy chapter of our Illinois affiliate has purchased a piece of property on which are a tavern and a three-room cottage. The tavern is 20 by 40 feet and includes a full basement and attic. They hope to use it as headquarters and have a permanent caretaker. 

From the ACBC Digest (California): George Fogarty, with his wife Martha, went on a fall foliage tour. They started their tour in Canada, working down the east coast, and in the fourth week of the trip George and Martha visited Mt. Vernon. Most appropriate, don't you think? 

In the unusual occupations for blind people department, we come upon a UP story from Dover, Delaware, telling of the setting up of Roberta Jensen by the rehabilitation people as a practicing astrologist. She is legally blind and restricted to crutches by reason of rheumatoid arthritis. 

From The Braille Reporter (Seattle): Until the 15th century in Europe, nearly all music had been composed to accompany voices or dancing. The oldest surviving music for instruments alone is the "Fundamentum Organisandi" (1452), composed by Conrad Paumann, known as the Blind Organist of Nuremburg. He was a master organist who traveled from court to court giving recitals for the royalty of Europe. Because of his excellence as a musician, he was knighted.

From Visually Handicapped Views (South Dakota): The new Caesar's Palace gambling casino on the Board Walk at Atlantic City boasts that it has the country's first row of slot machines which are complete with braille instructions for operating. These machines are also six inches lower so that they can be comfortably operated by people in wheelchairs. Bells ring for jackpots, but for non-pay combinations these machines merely click, like the rest of the one-armed bandits. -- In the same issue: The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress, is now lending free recorded summaries of all legislation introduced in Congress which is aimed at aiding handicapped individuals. 

In the current issue of The Trumpet's Voice (Iowa), there is a very fine synopsis of the life of 69-year-old Augie McCollum, retired employment counselor who served in Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, and other parts of the Mid-West, and very possibly found more jobs for more blind people than anyone in his field. He also made several trips to Paraguay to help found a school for the blind and a rehabilitation service in that country, where he received an honorary doctorate. He had a long and honorable career. 

Otis H. Stephens, political science professor at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, and member of the ACB Board of Directors, was recently elected president of the National Accreditation Council for Agencies Serving the Blind and Visually Handicapped. Dr. Stephens had previously served as a member of NAC's Board of Directors and as chairman of the Commission on Accreditation. Also elected to NAC's Executive Committee as a member-at-large was ACB Enterprises and Services Board Chairman Raymond Kempf. LeRoy Saunders of Oklahoma City was elected to a first term on NAC's Board of Directors, and incumbents Oral Miller, Raymond Kempf, and Robert McLean were re-elected. 

From Views and Ventures (Va. Commission for the Visually Handicapped): Ribbon-cutting ceremonies for the Virginia Voice for the Print Handicapped, Inc., were held recently at the Richmond studios of the Voice, located at the Virginia Rehabilitation Center for the Blind. The ribbon cutting was a little different from the usual. Since the Voice is radio, and since most of the programs are pre-recorded on audio tape, a reel of audio tape was strung across the stage. As the first program went on the air, this tape was snipped by Roy Ward, President of the Virginia Voice Board of Directors, and Joseph Johnson, a resident trainee at the Center, to whom the first receiver had been given. 

C & P News Topics reports that a "beeping" horseshoe game has been developed by the Richmond (Virginia) Telephone Pioneers. The position board is a block of wood cut out for the player's heels, designed to maintain proper body position toward the goal and a uniform distance. The goal, or pin, employs a slow, high-pitched beep which gives a clear, pinpoint location for the blind player. Both the position board and goal are painted bright yellow and jet black, a color scheme that gives a high visual contrast to aid partially sighted players. 

The Handicapped Winter Olympics will be held in Geilo, Norway, from January 25 through February 8, 1980. There will be competition in Nordic skiing only; there will be no Alpine skiing. Oral Miller will lead the United States team.

From USABA News: Douglas Blubaugh, outstanding visually impaired wrestler of the United States, has been elected to the Wrestling Hall of Fame. Without his 
glasses, which, of course, he doesn't wear during a wrestling bout, he is legally blind. Doug has won NAAU and NCAA titles (the latter for Oklahoma State University) He won an Olympic championship in 1960 and was selected outstanding wrestler of the world. Currently he is head wrestling coach at the University of Indiana.

*****

** Notice to Subscribers

The Braille Forum is available in braille, large-type, and two recorded editions -- flexible disc (8 1/3 rpm), which may be kept by the reader, and cassette tape, which must be returned so that tapes can be re-used. As a bimonthly supplement, the flexible disc edition also includes ALL-O-GRAMS, newsletter of the Affiliated Leadership League of and for the Blind of America. 

Send subscription requests and address changes to The Braille Forum, 190 Lattimore Road, Rochester, NY 14620. Items intended for publication may be sent in print, braille, or tape to Editor Mary T. Ballard at the above address. 

Those much-needed and appreciated cash contributions may be sent to James R. Olsen, Treasurer, c/o ACB National Office, 1211 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Suite 506, Washington, DC 20036. 

You may wish to remember a relative or friend by sharing in the continuing work of the American Council of the Blind. The National Office has available special printed cards to acknowledge to loved ones contributions made in memory of deceased persons. 

Anyone wishing to remember the American Council of the Blind in his or her Last Will and Testament may do so by including in the Will a special paragraph for that purpose. If your wishes are complex, you or your attorney may wish to contact the ACB National Office.

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