It is generally recognized, though it isn't said often enough, that many people who are blind are overweight and sedentary. Recent research and statistics suggest that people with vision loss also experience a range of mental issues which limit their ability to function well in a complex society! We want to explore some of the resources that are available to deal with both of these areas of concern! If people are not physically capable they are not likely to be able to perform jobs well! If there are no outlets to explore the range of mental dysfunctions that we already know make job-seeking difficult, people will be paralyzed and limited in terms of what can be accomplished. ACB has recognized that both these problems exist! What is being done to ameliorate both issues? How can people get help if they need it? How do you create motivation to make things better? What can all of us do to build an attitude that will encourage? Pam Shaw will join us to explore what the mental health group at ACB is doing! Leslie Spoone and Koni Simms will come to share with us what the "get up, get moving" project is offering to those who choose to take advantage of what it offers! Join us and share what you do to become more active and more aware of your emotional and psychological status!

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We are just past Labor Day as this edition airs! We have devoted lots of programs to employment and it didn't surprise you that we offer another one. I think this one will be different! We have explored in the past what our Employment Committee is doing! We have talked some about the barriers to employment that exist but we haven't heard a lot from people who are seeking jobs! We also haven't invited those of our listeners who work to tell us about how they got their jobs. While some of our team are retired now, all of us have worked! We will tell you a little about how we got our jobs; how we kept our jobs; and how we moved from one job to another! Then we will ask you to talk to us about your efforts to find jobs! What worked and what didn't! How have things chaned for job seekers? What do you find hardest in the job search arena? If you are discouraged, why is that and what are you doing about it? There are lots of other questions we will explore but you get the idea! We need to hear from people who have gone through the employment mill to understand what works and what doesn't! A program that we did almost two years ago explored "big data" for people seeking work who are blind. Clearly the unemployment rate was not 70 percent but it was very high! More important, the number of people who are blind who are simply not in the labor market is huge. Some claim mental health issues; others multiple disabilities; still more allege family issues! At the heart of these statistics is the fact that unemployment is much more difficult to evaluate than the "seventy percent" fallacy suggests! We discussed those statistics. It is our hope that this show will encourage people to tell us about their barriers to job seeking! Do they lack training? Are they afraid of losing more than they gain from work? What would it take to make them look again? We hope we will hear stories from people who have succeeded but also stories from those who have not! Unless ACB understands the problem it cannot solve it or find ways to make it better! Maybe this program will help!

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Tuesday Topics will once more take to the various platforms where it can be heard. By then hurricane Erin will be long past concern but there will probably be other depressions to depress us by then. How should people who are disa4 handle emergency preparedness. What do those words even mean! What ought we to do in order to get ready for an emergency. Hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, wild fires and tornados are just some of the likely candidates for emergency creation. If evacuation is required how should people who are blind respond. Should we register with county programs? Should we go to shelters? What do we have the right to expect at shelters? What about guide dogs? What about medication? What does being prepared look like for people who are blind? Those are some of the questions we will explore next time on Tuesday Topics!

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Tuesday Topics, for the first time, experienced technical issues at the beginning and at the end. Our podcast, when it becomes available, will include as much as we can. We were disappeared six minutes before nine PM and that cannot be recovered. We will be back bigger and better than ever next week and apologize to everyone for the difficulties we had this week. From 7 to 9 PM on Tuesday August 19 we will once more take to the internet and clubhouse and alexa devices and phones and ACB link and lots of other spots we are not even aware of. When did you perceive yourself as different as a blind person? This question applies mostly to folks who were born blind or lost vision very early. It also applies to people who lose their vision! When did you feel like you were no longer "normal". What triggered that feeling for either group? Was there a time when you perceived yourself as inferior to those who did not have a visual impairment? Why was that? What about you felt less than "cool"? Did others encourage your sense of difference? How did they do it? What did you do about this sense of lessness? Does it still exist? Has ACB helped? Has ACB hindered your sense of self? These are some of the questions we want to explore next week but we need your input!

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Tuesday Topics will be exploring new technology. What were some of the new items seen for the first time at our convention this year? What did people buy and why? Can we see any trends in the new technology? When there are several products that are somewhat similar, how should we evaluate the differences? We would welcome it if some tech people came to talk about new products. We are more interested in those of you who were persuaded to buy tech and how you are liking what you got!

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Virtually every program on ACB Media has had Scott Thornhill on as a guest. Tuesday Topics which will be live at 7 Eastern on August 5 is now finally rectifying that situation. Obviously we will spend some time talking about Scott's past and his vision loss. We will also ask that he share with us some of the information he provided to the Board of ACB at their pre-convention meeting. What is engagement and why is it important? Can individual members or affiliates do anything to increase the engagement of ACB. What is Colby Garrison's new role? What is the idea of a "communications" position. How can ACB best operate in times where many of our values may have to be expressed in different ways? I hope Scott will tell us about the new shared resource that allows us to communicate directly with members of Congress.

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On JULY 29 at 7 PM eastern time Tuesday Topics will once more take to the internet. Once again we will be asking both our team and you to take a leap into your past and share with us the most amazing thing that has happened to you in your life. Is there one event or occurrence that has been just the most amazing and life-changing thing that has ever happened to you? That is our question! It could be something frightening! It could be something just plain awesome! Whatever the event or situation, we want the Tuesday Topics team and you, our participants, to share it with us! We are expecting to hear about a bunch of amazing things as July ends! How good the program will be will depend on you!

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For the second week in a row we will consider the convention. there were several folks who wanted to speak but didn't get a chance. We will also explore some of the questions that came up in the first show in more detail. There are some serious questions about how the convention should be handled! Should we separate the business of ACB from the convention and just do programs and training? Should we put more into the hybrid? How should our convention rules be changed to account for some of the anomalies that happened this year? Can we do that? Should we consider a constitutional or bylaw change that might fix some things? Should we try to end affiliate voting next year in St. Louis? There are lots of questions to ask and answer and we will approach them on the show this evening.

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Tuesday Topics will once more take to the "air" on Tuesday July 15 from 7 to 9 PM. I hope our whole crew will be with us to explore with you the good, the bad and the ugly of the American Council of the Blind convention. What were the high points? What could have been better? Were virtual arrangements, effective? How were tours? What about in person experiences? How was the hotel? What did you like most about Dallas? What did you dislike the most about it? What changes should ACB make next year in the way they run conventions? Do you have comments about the virtual segment of the convention? The success of this show will depend on you!

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As was suggested at the end of our last program, we are going to complete our convention preparedness show by looking at the state of ACB through the eyes of ACB'S current Vice Presidents. David Trott from Talladega Alabama and Ray Campbell from Springfield Illinois will be our guests. Ray has decided not to run for the Board this time. He has served his full terms as Second Vice President of ACB. This will give Ray a chance to reflect on the current state of ACB and on the changes he has seen. David Trott is our First Vice President and, before that, was ACB'S treasurer. He brings to our show experience and knowledge about where ACB is and where ACB is going. You will get a chance to ask these leaders about what the state of the game is and how they see the future of ACB. This will be our last Topics till after the convention so I hope many of you will join us to reflect on the state of ACB!

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