Episode Notes

Ninety miles off the coast of the United States is the island of Cuba. 11.3 million people, according to 2020 figures, live on an island which, since the early 1960s, has had a communist government. Paul's guests on this episode of Tuesday Topics grew up there and give us a glimpse of what life was like for people who are blind in Cuba. Roberto and Danays Perez now live in Miami. Roberto has become quite a tech star here and his wife, Danays, had an amazing musical career in Europe. Paul had the honor of attending their wedding. Roberto is currently treasurer of the Miami Beach chapter of the Florida Council of the Blind. Both Roberto and Danays are thoughtful and caring people who are blind with a compelling story. Adjusting to a new country, a new style of government and a whole new set of expectations is not easy! An incredible story of triumph and a touching love story!

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Episode Notes

In this episode of Tuesday Topics, Mark Richert is Paul's guest. Mark has had a long and distinguished career working in the disability field. He is currently First Vice President of the American Council of the Blind and interim Executive Director of the Association for the Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER). Mark talks about his experience, the state of the blindness scene and where people who are blind might work to change the future.

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Episode Notes

Imagine what it might have been like for a little girl in a small village in Vietnam to lose her sight at the age of eight and suddenly be seen as a liability rather than an asset to her family. Imagine what it must have been like for a teenager who is blind to leave Vietnam where she was successful and felt useful and suddenly find herself at a school for the blind in Massachusetts where there were new things to learn and a whole new culture to acquire. Imagine a shy college student having to find a way to make friends and adjust to college without much help. All of these problems were faced and overcome by Anna Kim Lan McCauley, Paul's guest on this episode of Tuesday Topics. She published a book that is now available on BARD called "Miles From Home". Paul and Anna spend time talking about what Anna has done since 1984 and also discuss many things that didn't make it into her book.

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Episode Notes

This episode of Tuesday Topics Paul speaks with Jim Kracht, a friend who happens as well to have an interesting life. He is a current Board member of ACB who has lived a very full life, has a most interesting hobby and knows more about lots of things than I will ever know. Jim started out in California and ended up in Miami by way of Harvard Law. We discuss his history, his family, his passions and hobbies, along with his latest work with voting in Florida and beyond.

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Episode Notes

Patti Cox, President of the Council of Citizens with Low Vision International (CCLVI) joins Paul Edwards, President of the Braille Revival League to discuss what the two ACB affiliates are doing and what their goals are. Our topic this week should interest people who are totally blind and those with some vision.

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Re-live election night's Tuesday Topics with Paul Edwards! Callers relate their experiences and their impressions of how things went before and on election day. Anthony Corona joins Paul bringing the enthusiasm and knowledge he has demonstrated on Sunday Edition for the last several months. Paul and Anthony explore the elements of this historic election with callers from around the country. Callers tell their stories of voting in person at the polls and remotely. You may be surprised by what the callers have to say!

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Dr. Joel Snyder explores the history and future of audio description. How did audio description start? Who did it? Why has closed captioning become ubiquitous while audio description has to fight for hours? It's ten years since the CVAA was passed; the anniversary is this month! Should we push for changes? There are very few people who have the comprehensive knowledge of audio description that is possessed by the ACB Director of the Audio Description Project, Joel Snyder.

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Dr. L. Penny Rosenblum answers questions about two surveys that shed much light on the impact of the pandemic on people who are blind. It seems like an age ago that the pandemic began. It is therefore not surprising if most of us have given little thought to an event that occurred fairly early on. It was a survey that ACB sponsored along with fifteen or so other organizations and companies. Its objective was to gather data on how people with visual impairments were affected by the pandemic. A little later a second survey explored the impact of the pandemic on education. Dr. L. Penny Rosenblum has played a huge part in administering the examination of the data from the surveys and preparing a report that has just been released. Dr, Penny tells us a little about her life as a partially sighted professor and researcher and a lot about the results of the surveys. Among other things the first survey explored transportation, technology, voting, employment, access to medical care and other things. What were its findings? What do they tell us about being blind in a pandemic? What can we learn about changes that must be made in the future?

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This episode of Tuesday Topics explores what telling our stories has to do with our ability to raise dollars. What kind of image do we want to communicate? Why are our stories relevant? Who are we trying to communicate with? Are we making an effort to define what it means to be blind for ourselves as well? Anthony (Tony) Stephens is on his second tour with ACB. Now he directs our efforts to raise money but does a lot more. Paul visits with Tony, find out a little about who he was before he became a part of ACB, what he is currently working on and what his vision for ACB is.

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There is an old saying that says: "a one-eyed man is king in the country of the blind." Only ten percent of those who are legally blind are totally blind according to statistics I have seen. In ACB, how are partials doing? Are they represented in proportion to their numbers? If not, why not? Do the issues facing people with some usable vision get enough attention in our resolutions or in our policy efforts? Should we be doing more to encourage the participation of people with some vision? These are just some of the questions that we explore in this episode of Tuesday Topics. David Trott, Treasurer of ACB and one of the few partially sighted Board members is joined by my co-host Rick Morin who also has functioned for much of his life with good usable vision are on the panel.

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