Tuesday Topics will begin its two hour fairwell to 2024. What were the high points? What are things we will be glad to see the last of, if any? Were there technological developments of consequence in the blindness field? How about ACB? What was 2024 like for our organization? A special interest affiliate became our largest chapter. We held a convention in Jacksonville where those present were about the same as those attending via zoom. We found ourselves with lots of debates but continued to grow our internet presence. We have a new Executive Director and have said good bye and hello to a number of employees. There are new resolutions we have passed; new initiatives we have begun; and new causes and concerns we have begun to espouse. The country and the world have also changed! Join us as we explore the year that almost was and will have been soon!

Tuesday Topics is winding down for 2024. We have two more shows to do. We have determined that on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve we will not be on the air. So our next show on December 10 will focus on Christmas and it will depend for its success on those of you who coce and participate. I am going to put lots of questions out there that we might talk about. We will almost certainly not get to all of them but they will give you a notion of what we will discuss. What was the best Christmas gift you ever got and why? Was there a gift you really wanted but didn't get? Tell us about it! What was the most unusual Christmas you have had? Do you have cool plans for this year? Is there a special dish you eat at Christmas? Do you have family traditions you would like to tell us about? Do you celebrate other holidays? Tell us about them! Most of us do not know as much as we she either about Hanukah or Kwanza!We will spend two hours reminiscing about a holiday we have all experienced spending well or badly! We want to hear your stories!

Two elements intersect this week. We are four days after Thanksgiving in the United States when our Topics show will air. We are also Four weeks removed from the election that saw Donald Trump elected as President of the United States. It also appears that Republicans will control both the House of Representatives and the Senate of the United States. What will this mean for legislation relating to accessibility and other elements of concern to people who are blind? What has President Trump indicated by his appointments so far about his attitudes to government? How much of Project 2025 can we expect to see and how will it affect people who are blind? These questions are not intended to be political ones! Instead we hope that we can explore what we know and what we have been led to expect! The transition from one government to another is happening now and, for the first time in many years, one party will, at least to some degree, control the executive branch and both chambers of the Congress. If simple majorities made for legislation it would be easier to predict what might occur. However we know that, for many votes, sixty is the magic number in the Senate and that may be harder for the new administration to manage. President Trump has indicated that he supports lessening the size of government and has indicated that he plans to look at a number of agencies and departments to decide if they should be retained. The Department of Education is an area where he and many others believe there is room for change. Maybe it's too early but let's explore a little what the next few years are likely to hold for people with disabilities. Let me state once more that this is not a political show and we will have no hesitation cutting people off who do not recognize this fact. We know a good deal now and we will share some of that. We also think that our members may know a good deal as well. I mentioned Thanksgiving at the beginning of this program write up. This year has been one where a lot of new elements have been rolled out for people who are blind. If our discussion on the new administration gets bogged down we can spend some time exploring some of those 2024 changes for which we can and should be thankful! Episode Notes

Notes go here

Two weeks ago we, as we often seem to, only completed one of the two elements we had proposed. Interestingly enough, during our last program our guest raised the same issue when talking about a science fiction novella he had written. Essentially what we asked two weeks ago was, "If you could have full vision for just a few minutes only once in your life, what would you want to see?" We wonder if the answers from folks who are totally blind would be different than those that people with some vision would offer. Would people who had never seen want to see anything? Might it be more abstract and general? We hope that lots of you will come and share the answer to this question. My answer is a little strange, I think but, of course, I won't tell you what it is till we are together next Tuesday!

Folks who are deaf have managed to develop a detailed and effective form of communication called in this country, American Sign Language. Many deaf people can also read lips! Some have learned to speak fairly well! If deafness is their only disability, folks with that issue can drive, can see to get around, can read regular print, and, in lots of ways, can be more independent than we as people who cannot see are! If you had a choice, would you want to be deaf or blind? Tell us why! There was a survey done well over twenty years ago where both deaf folks and blind people were asked. Would our results be the same?

Just in case these two questions aren't sufficient, I would like us to explore an assertion I have heard quite often. People who are blind have never had it so good as we do today! Is that true? Defend your position, please! For what it's worth, I am not sure what the right answer is!

It has been a while since we have invited a guest to share his or her life and opinions with us. On this program we are pleased to welcome Anthony (Tony) Candela. He has been a wrestler, a runner, a worker in the field of blindness and a writer. He has three books on bookshare. One is a sort of memoir of his athletic experiences; one is a collection of short essays that are easy to read and have certainly provoked some thought from me; the third book is a science fiction novella.

Tony has worked as a rehab counselor, served some time with the American Foundation for the Blind and currently is working part time with the Blindness project housed in Mississippi. I suspect Tony has some interesting things to tell us about his life and about being an athlete and a writer. I hope he will also reflect some on the state of the game in the blindness service industry, if it's appropriate to speak of such a thing! In any case, there are lots of reasons for you to join us on zoom so you can interact with our guest with wide ranging experiences that he can discuss with all of us!

Kim Charlson will join us for a few minutes on our show to remind us about the fourth annual Audio Description Gala! It is an amazing event and we look forward to hearing all about the latest iteration of an important opportunity to celebrate audio description and those who create it.

On Election day, November 5, which is also Guy Fawkes day in the UK, Tuesday Topics will take to the air from 7 to 9 PM on November 5. Fittingly, we think, Tuesday Topics will concentrate on the election. We felt it would be good for us to be available for folks to tell us about their voting experiences this cycle. We will also explore how this election may be different from those in the past. Obviously, we will not be conducting a partisan political exercise. If we were going to do that we would have done it much sooner! We know that many of you will be glued to your media for the results. Perhaps we will talk about how they are functioning but it will be pretty early for us to look at their performance. I have not heard either Presidential candidate make meaningful statements about disabled voters. What does this tell us? Voters with disabilities represent more than 20 percent of the electorate. If there are significant disability elements that we have missed, I hope you will tell us about them! Have you played a role in campaigns this year? Would you tell us about what you have done?

It is certainly possible that the Tuesday Topics Team will be talking among ourselves a lot but I hope not! Last time our election show had interesting input from many people. We hope this one will be exciting, informative and relevant.

We are two days before Halloween but we are not going to talk directly about that! However, one of the things associated with Halloween is fear. We would love you to tell us the time in your life that you were the most scared. We suspect that people who are blind or have low vision might find different events frightening than would people with vision. I know that for me the time in my life that I was most frightened was Well, you'll have to tune in to find out, won't you! We are looking for a particular moment rather than something like cockroaches or moths.

Our topic this week, on the surface at least, may seem a little unlikely. At its heart, our question is "Are we better off because of COVID?" I am not speaking about the country as a whole. I am talking about people who are blind. Many of us had to learn skills we might not have learned were it not for COVID! We learned to use zoom! We learned to shop on line! We acquired a range of knowledge from the community programs that may even have kept us from becoming more frightened and depressed. What other skills did we acquire? Were there other COVID benefits? What about the other side of the coin? What did COVID take away? Are we less willing to go out? Did the skills we learned persuade us we didn't need to leave our houses as often? Did we learn to fear being around other people? Are we frightened of crowds now? The question, then, is, on balance, has COVID left us better or worse off? Join us and share how you feel about the legacy of COVID for people who are blind! Are you more likely to go to plays or movies or stay at home? Now that the conventions of states and ACB are being streamed, do you feel safer being at home? Has COVID made it harder for you to make friends or easier? Do you have more contacts because of the people you meet on line? Are you more  isolated?

The last month has been full of natural disasters. Hurricanes Helene and Milton have caused devastation in several states and tornadoes have contributed their destructive impact. Tuesday Topics wants to hear from people who have interacted with emergency management folks! How were you treated? What about preparations for events? Did you find adequate ways to keep in touch with what was happening? Television is supposed to provide audio description of information being scrolled across the bottom of the screen during emergency announcements. Do you know if they did that? Do you know how to turn your audio description on?

Do you have a register of people with disabilities in your area? What was your experience in a shelter? Do you use a guide dog? How did your companion do and how was he or she treated? Now that you have had experience with a disaster, what changes do you think need to be made?

Are the messages being sent great? If not, what should they say? Should they focus on pride, discrimination, employment, equity, inclusion or something else? It's your job to think about what the "big question" ought to be and then share your conclusions with us! What is the message that we would like society to share about people who are blind. in October of each year proclamations proliferate from Mayors and governors and even from the White House. Many years ago all of those missives would urge everybody to recognize and obey the White Cane law. For the past several years different emphases have emerged. Sometimes we hear about the employment of people who are blind! Sometimes we hear about the importance of disabilities and are asked to respect and value what folks in that category bring to our world. Since it appears that there is a question about what message folks think they ought to deliver, isn't it appropriate for us to share with society what we think is the most important thing they should trumpet about us? So that is what this edition of Tuesday Topics will explore!