Tuesday Topics

Are we being protected by white cane laws? How should we handle white cane safety? October is also Disability Employment Awareness Month. The employment rate for people who are blind remains at 30 percent, leaving 70 percent of people who are blind not employed. Why is that? Can anything be done to fix it?

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During the first hour I want to talk about the new wave of covid 19. Is it different from the earlier one? Is our country handling it well? Has it affected people who are blind more? Where do we think we go from here?

When we are through with the discussion of the pandemic, I am going to try something very different! I suppose we could call it open mike. The idea is that we will let those of you who are there decide what we will talk about. I hope that, among other things, you will give me some ideas about what you would like Tuesday Topics to talk about in the future.

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Join Paul to provide your feedback on this year’s ACB convention and for a discussion on state and special-interest affiliates.

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This week we are continuing last week’s discussion with the same group of folks about our constitution and bylaws. They will be able to report to us what happened during the meeting of the Constitution and Bylaws Committee last Thursday. We will only go for an hour, allowing folks to attend the final  meeting of the groups that are discussing the changes to our governing documents in preparation for our business meeting this weekend at which we will vote on the final proposals.

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Episode Notes

Tuesday Topics welcomes committee members about the constitutional changes that we will be considering on the 14th. From the Constitution and Bylaws committee we have Dan Spoone and John McCann. From the Voting Task Force we have Jeff Thom, Patrick Sheehan and Koni Simms. Our two hour program should give us enough time to not only get a clear idea of what the proposals are and are not. The folks on our call receive feedback from callers before the proposals are formally made.

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On Tuesday Topics this week, I would like to do some dreaming while we are awake! ACB is working in lots of areas now! However, there may well be an area that you would like to see our organization concentrate on. What might that be? Maybe you would like more particularity on an issue that ACB is already working on! Perhaps you think there is a huge gap with an issue that ACB really needs to focus on! In any case, what we are interested in on Tuesday Topics is your notion of what our priority issue in ACB ought to be. We will explore your ideas and talk about how best to make them happen! ACB is your organization! What do you want it to be doing?

What I am hoping will happen is that we will come up with a list of priorities during our first hour. During our second we will talk about how good the ideas are and what we need to do to make them happen! A new direction is no good unless it works so it will be fun to explore how to turn dreams into reality!

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I thought it might be interesting to talk about a question that is widely debated by people who are blind and also by people with other disabilities. Despite the passage of the ADA and the Rehab Act, the unemployment rate among people who are blind remains quite high. In fact it does not appear to have changed significantly over the last thirty years. Why is that? What can we do to change it? Is the situation worse for people who are blind than it is for people with other disabilities?

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There have been a few times in my life when I have sat in a bar for a long time because the conversation was just too good to miss! My guest on Tuesday Topics this week was responsible for a conversation that started in a bar, continued through dinner and ended much later outside in the late evening. My guest has three books on BARD, at least. He has won the Ned E. Freeman award and has probably appeared more often in the ACB Braille Forum than any other author. He is a long time proponent of braille; he has become deeply involved in aging issues; and is not interested in theory. He wants to know what can actually be done to make things better for people who are blind. My guest is, of course, Larry Johnson from San Antonio Texas. That is where Larry is now but, as you will see if you tune in, it is by no means the only place he has been!

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Tuesday Topics - Resolutions:

Paul Edwards’ first ACB convention was in 1984. While he thinks he would have come regardless of the offer made to him by Grant Mack, who was then President of ACB, it certainly helped to make his decision. Mr. Mack had come to Florida where Paul was in charge of resolutions and offered him $100 to come to Philadelphia and chair resolutions. Paul says, “I had no idea what I was getting into but, if you join us next Tuesday, you will hear some of the things that happened. I am hoping that some of the folks who used to be part of resolutions will join us. We will tell some stories of what resolutions used to be like. In addition, we will talk about what resolutions are; how they get written; what makes a good resolution; and what makes a bad one! I will encourage some of you who come to actually be a part of writing a resolution. Obviously, I and others may be up there to help you get resolutions right, but we will also show how resolutions can go wrong. If you operate with some simple rules, resolutions are pretty easy to write. What are they? Do resolutions have to be long? Tune in and find out!”

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For the first hour we are going to talk about some of the controversy that has appeared on the "acb conversation" email list. Essentially there has been a lot of discussion of whether we need two different votes. This year we will have them but many wonder whether affiliate votes might go away. Are there special issues for special interest affiliates? Have they historically been effective at election time or not?

During the second hour or so we will see if we still have issues with voting and special interest affiliates. If the topic is exhausted, I would like to explore some of the options that Tuesday Topics has for the future. What would folks like us to talk about! What do people like and what do you not like? This may seem boring but I hope people will think seriously about how best Tuesday Topics can meet your needs and interests.

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