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!

Our show last Tuesday featured a number of people who shared their experiences going to school. While most had some pleasant memories of their education, many also had pain they chose to share with us. Learning didn't come without hurt and hardship. Some felt schools for the blind did not live up to expectations. Others felt mainstreaming didn't protect kids who are blind from harm or care much how effective teaching was. If you wanted to put in your two cents on this issue, call in early. We won't talk very long among ourselves and will get to folks who want to share pretty quickly.

There has been a lot of academic debate among experts as to whether folks who are blind do better if they have atffended schools for the blind or been mainstreamed. Experts may fight but I would be interested to know from those who actually experienced being educated as a person with vision loss what you think is best. Some say that kids who are mainstreamed are more academically prepared but far less socially ready for life after school! It is argued that those who spend time at schools for the blind do better with blind and sighted friends than those who are mainstreamed! Many mainstreamed kids do not get any access to physical education and often get little career education! A long time ago, schools for the blind kept students there most week ends! Was that a good thing or a bad thing? Now kids must go home every week end from most schools! Is that good? Is doing both mainstream and residential school the best of both worlds?

One of the hosts of Tuesday Topics is famous for his culinary prowess. Brian Charlson recently presented to the Greater Louisville Council on the subject of barbecue. There are shows on ACB Community that feature cooking. One is hosted by Florida's own Sheila Young. In the past Cooking with the Hazelnuts was a regular program on ACB Radio and a gentleman who often hosts Tuesday Topics for Clubhouse, Herbie Allen, is currently doing a cooking show.

We clearly have some resources at our disposal and I haven't talked about perhaps our most popular cooking show with Sheryl Cummings and the gentleman from Blind Mice Mart. Are there new devices that cooks are using? Do people like being able to be connected via wifi to the phone? Are there devices that are relatively inexpensive that can do cool things? We hear lots about small kitchen appliances and there is, I think, still a show and a list that explores air fryers and other such devices.

Where do folks find their recipes? Are there areas where there aren't enough instructions? Are new stoves making accessibility possible?

We hope we can persuade some of the culinary cream of the crop to be with us next week to tell you about what they do and how they do it!

We encourage folks to suggest ideas for Tuesday Topics and have, in the past, used some of those that we have received. This week we are once again availing ourselves of a suggestion made by two ladies who both happen to have similar names. Both Debbie (Hazelton) and debbee (Armstrong) have suggested we take up a topic that we think is very important. Both of them will be a part of our panel either the deb duo or the double Debby or the larger than little Debby program. Their suggestion and our topic involves technology. They ask why many people who are blind seem to be technologically challenged? Are they technophobic? What can we do about it? There are other people who are blind who seem amazingly tech-savvy! Is there a reason? Clearly there are people with no disabilities who are technologically incompetent but there is more at stake for people who are also. If folks who are blind want to work, they must be technologically effective! If they want to avail themselves of the range of options in terms of mobility, literacy or social interaction, technology is just as crucial! The Blind Information Technology Specialists are trying to do some exciting things with technology and we hope that Jeff Bishop will be here to talk about some of them. Whether he is with us or not, we want to explore with you what creates technophobia for people who are blind and what we can and should do about it! Though I have not actually previewed what these ladies will say, I suspect their view is that this "affliction" is treatable and maybe even curable and they will help us explore some of the steps all of us can take to help those who feel challenged by the time we are trying to survive! Ms. Armstrong works at a community college where her job involves making technology available to students with disabilities. Ms. Hazelton is currently teaching sociology at a college in Alabama and has a background in psychology and technology. Jeff, if he can join us, works to make computer technology accessible at a college in Phoenix. Within ACB all three of these folks work in areas where technology is crucial. I think they bring to this issue both experience and insights that I am looking forward to having as a part of our Tuesday Topic. You, our listeners, will have insights as well! Share your tech comfort levels with us! What approaches have you used to become techpetitive?

It is Tuesday Topics' plan to see if members of the employment committee want to join us! In fact I can now confirm that at least one member of that committee will be with us! There was a lot of debate in early resolutions committee meetings this year about a proposal put together by the Employment Committee. A resolution was passed and Tuesday Topics will be asking the committee what it says and how it may affect how ACB opera'tes in the employment area!

In addition to their input, we want to explore some elements of employment. The level of joblessness is lower than it has ever been. Less than four percent of our working age population is "unemployed". Yet data demonstrates that at least forty percent of people who are blind do not have jobs. We have looked at some of the reasons and we will do that again! However, we want to explore what we think ought to be done about unemployment for people who are blind! Whether you are working or not, you have ideas! Call us and tell us what we need to do! Vocational Rehabilitation thinks they know what to do! Organizations for the blind and perhaps even organizations of the blind think they know! But we are asking you! Why do you think folks aren't working? What do you think should be done about it? How much is unemployment of people who are blind our fault as blind people? How much of a role does prejudice and discrimination play? How will artificial intelligence affect our chances of work?