We will discuss how moving affects people who are blind; advantages people who are born blind have over those who lose their vision later in life; April Fool’s Day tricks; and Easter traditions.

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Last week I completed the sale of my house in Miami. This was sort of traumatic for me and it has led me to ask how well those of us who are blind deal with change. I know I have found relocating to Jacksonville somewhat difficult. How is it for other people who are blind? Call in and tell us. What can we do to make it easier? What is hardest about leaving an environment you have grown accustomed to and friends you have had for many years?

Another area I have been thinking about lately is how we perceive folks who lose their vision later in life. Many people think that those of us who were born blind have it easier and are better adjusted to our disability. Is this actually true? Do people who have vision for much of their lives actually know more about what society expects and have a better attitude to work and inclusion in society which people born blind lack? What are the pros and cons for those who are congenitally blind (born that way) and those who are adventitiously blind (get that way later)? I have two other topics I thought we might get to later in the program. Can you tell me about an April Fool's experience that was pretty amazing? I hope so. I remember one person who managed to get me every year while he did it! Do you remember who that "his It started in the early eighties or maybe even in the seventies!

What kind of Easter traditions do you have? I suspect that many of us have family habits that others might enjoy hearing about! Call in and share some of them! Do you dye real eggs and hide them? Do you have Easter egg hunts that are designed to be more accessible to people who are blind? If you use plastic eggs, what is inside them? Enquiring minds want to know about your Easter!

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Perhaps the most valuable awards offered by the American Council of the Blind, at least in monetary terms, are the Durward K. McDaniel award and the Morgan-Chase Leadership Fellows award. Tuesday Topics this week will hear from members of the committee that oversees these awards. We will hear from some of the winners and what they have been up to since winning the awards and, along the way, we will hear from folks who remember Durward McDaniel. We will learn why he has this and another award named after him and some of those who knew him will tell us more about his accomplishments, his life and the work he did to make ACB the organization it is today!

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My guest is Anisio Correia whose name may not be all that familiar to all of you. He was born in Portugal, has been blind all his life, I think, and has managed to have a distinguished career during which he served people who are blind for the most part.

What is it like coming to a new country? What was it like to be blind in Portugal? Why serve people who are blind? How have services changed  during the thirty or forty years Anisio has served? How to services for people who are blind seem now?

These are some of the questions I will raise with my friend and guest Anisio Correia! What will you ask him?

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This week I would like to propose three ideas for your delectation. If you find none of them delectable, we will be in serious trouble. However, you have not let me down yet!

First, I thought it might be of interest to explore our experiences with books that feature blind people. My experience suggests that literature has contributed some to the attitude of society to those of us who are blind. How are we depicted? What are the worst depictions you remember? Have there been any good ones? What would make a depiction good! You can talk about TV shows or movies, if you like! My real intention is to talk about how we are perceived by those who get rich writing about us! Second, Easter is coming along fairly early this year! What customs do you follow? Do you do Easter eggs? What special stuff do you eat? Would you like to talk about Passover instead? What about Ash Wednesday and Good Friday?

Third and hopefully last, I want to begin to look at another element of non-verbal communication. We are going to do a whole show relatively soon. I want to explore blind people and pictures. As a child I saw lots of pictures particularly in books produced by the Royal National Institute for the Blind as it was then. I was remarkably unimpressed with them. My friend Brian Charlson shamed me by being able to identify pictures of different animals that were tactile drawings shown at a convention we attended together! He lost his sight at eleven, I think. Can we do more to make pictures accessible to people who are blind? Is it worth the effort? Can people born blind benefit much? How would we explain such things as perspective? How do paintings that are flat convey three dimensions? We need to at least understand what we don't know if we are to decide whether we want to know it or not!

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Over the past year, there has been a lot of change in the way that the American Council of the Blind shows itself to the world. Our web site is quite new and is meant to appeal as much to those who seek us out as to those of us who are members. Last year, ACB Media arrived! What is it? What can be access there? Why have we focused away from individual elements like blogs, radio, and podcasts to a single repository? What advantages does it offer? What are recent changes? What can we look forward to in the future? What are some of the new things we can do? How do we do them? Paul will talk with ACB Media manager, Jennifer Flatt, and the newest full-time ACB employee, Rick Morin. Your feedback is welcome.

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braille as our subject. Braille is the medium used by many people who are blind to read and write. It also represents the initials of one of the affiliates of the American Council of the Blind, the Braille Revival League. We will talk about that organization and what it is doing. The Perkins Braille Writer is seventy years old. Many of us would have said it was older than that! We will talk a little about that! We will explore a recent event sponsored by the New York affiliate of the Braille Revival League and we will also discuss an upcoming training class in grade three braille that might well interest some of you as it excites me.

We will also open up for questions about braille, the Braille Revival League and just what some of the issues that currently surround braille are.

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This week we will get a chance to review the year that was and look forward to the year that is ahead with Eric Bridges who is Executive Director of the American Council of the Blind. With Eric will be Clark Rachfal who leads our legislative effort at the capitol. This is Clark's first appearance on Tuesday Topics so we will find out some about his background. He is an avid fitness person so I suspect we will hear something about ACB'S efforts to make more equipment used for exercise accessible to our members.

You will, of course, have a chance to ask Questions and to raise issues. What do Eric and Clark think the major accomplishments of ACB were last year. What about 2022? Are there big plans for this year? What are they? How do we accomplish change at a time of political gridlock? Can we get more done at the state and local level? Has the pandemic left unmet needs? Does the new work environment favor or hinder people who are blind? How will the post-covid political environment affect people who are blind? These are, of course, just some of the questions we will probably discuss during our state of the council review!

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Meet some of the members of the ACB awards committees; award recipients; and learn about the people for whom some of the awards are named. How are winners chosen? How can you become involved in the awards process? Recipients must be nominated to receive an award. Thus, you are an invaluable part of the awards process.

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Last week we talked about some of the characteristics of last year. However, we did not come close to discussing all the elements of last year. 2020 seemed like a year when race relations took some steps forward. How was 2021? What did ACB accomplish in 2021? How has service delivery to newly blinded people changed with COVID? What about school for children who are blind? We heard nothing about music from last year! We didn't hear much about movies or television! Are there cool examples you can share? In your states have there been good or bad things that made 2021 stand out? How about in your towns or cities? Is there something that happened to you that made 2021 special. I almost died and that does a lot to change the perspective that one brings to the rest of one's life!

I suppose it may seem that we are looking into the immediate past too much but, for me, examining and understanding what has gone before is the only way to be able to appropriately guess at what is to come. So, as well, we may want to ask what 2021 has left behind for us! Please be a part of Tuesday Topics tonight! I will be very lonely without you!

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