ACB Tuesday Topics
Live Tuesdays on ACB Radio Mainstream

S1E136 - 20231010 - Tuesday Topics - White Cane Safety Day and its related laws.

October 11, 2023

We have been threatening for the last couple of programs to spend

a program discussing White Cane Safety Day and its related laws. It now appears that the time for that has come! All over the country agencies and organizations of people who are blind cooperate to create awareness of folks who are blind on White Cane Safety Day. What impact do these activities have? What impact do White Cane Laws have? Can anyone provide evidence of a single driver who has been stopped for violating the law? When accidents happen, do a preponderance of the drivers get fined for inappropriate behavior? Is there any truth to the notion that all accidents involving people who are blind are blamed on the pedestrian? What good does it do to have a maximum charge of a misdemeanor no matter what the outcome of the accident is? These are just some of the questions surrounding a law that is different from state to state. In virtually all cases these laws have been on the books since the 1930s or 1940s without change. What changes would we propose? Are we ready to do away with White Cane Laws? If so, do we replace them with something else? If we read some of the laws they actually suggest that people who are blind do very strange things to identify themselves in the street like holding their canes up in the air! Is that relevant or okay? We need your input on a law that is perhaps being taken for granted or ignored now! The President

no longer issues a White Cane proclamation. It now has to do with employment.

Find out more at https://acb-tuesday-topics.pinecast.co

S1E135 - 20231003 - Tuesday Topics - The ACB Employment Committee.

October 3, 2023

Tuesday Topics has welcomed ACB'S Employment Committee in the past and are happy to welcome some of them again this week. Peter Altschul, Melanie Sonohui and Carrie Muth will be our guests. The committee has been very busy since we last had them on. They have been creating podcasts, collecting and spreading job announcements and, now, they have released a survey that they would like us to know about and obviously they would like us to participate by completing the survey as well. To start our Tuesday Topics next week then, we look forward to seeing some members of the ACB Employment Committee. It could be that they will have enough to fill our whole program. In case they do not, there is one additional topic we plan to at least have on tap.  October is Disability Employment Month. What does that mean? We will ask our Employment Committee guests but we are asking you as well. How should the month be used? What do we want to highlight? We hear about special and positive characteristics of disabled employees! What are they? Are they valuable? Are there other ways we could promote the employment of people with disabilities? What are some of these? We know that discrimination plays a part! What should we do about that?

Clearly there are a huge number of people who are blind or have low vision who are not working! Surely that ought to be a major concern of all of us! If you ran the zoo, how would you change this unacceptable state of affairs!

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S1E134 - 20230926 - Tuesday Topics - Cruising.

September 26, 2023

Remember to join us for Tuesday Topics! have a guest who runs a cruise assistance business and exhibited at ACB this Summer! We are heard From 7 to 9 PM on Tuesday September 26 cruising will be served on Tuesday Topics. You are invited to sit at the captain's table and bring with you stories both droll and drear of your experiences on the rolling sea, preferably aboard a ship! How is cruising for people who are blind? Did you have a special group with a sighted person getting folks from place to place? How was the cooperation of the shipping company with whom you dealt! How was accessibility on the ship? How was it in ports of call? What was your favorite thing about cruising? What did you least like? Would you cruise again? We are encouraging folks who book cruises to join us and tell us what they have to offer!

Find out more at https://acb-tuesday-topics.pinecast.co

S1E133 - 20230919 - Tuesday Topics - people who are blind and go to college.

September 22, 2023

Tuesday Topics will explore people who are blind and college. What was it like for you to decide to go to college. Was it intimidating? Did you live in the dorm? How was that adjustment? Were you treated well and fairly at College? What was the worst thing about college for you? What was the best thing about college? Was college worth it? What would you change about your college experience at college if you could?

There are lots of questions and issues. There are lots of memories attached to the experience of higher education.

Find out more at https://acb-tuesday-topics.pinecast.co

S1E132 - 20230912 - Tuesday Topics - Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon, and Unions.

September 13, 2023

We have a habit on this program of biting off more than we actually chew. This happened with our last program. We ended up spending a lot of time talking

about going back to school and really did not get to Labor Day. Even though it's a little late, we thought it might be of interest to see what people think of Labor Day as a holiday. Is it something that folks value because of unions? Have you been a member of a union? How did that go for you? Did Labor Day become a day you spent watching telethons for folks with disabilities? Probably the most famous one was the one done by Jerry Lewis! Was Labor Day just the day that heralded the beginning of the pro football season. Were there special family activities that went on on Labor Day? Last week we looked at going back to school. Usually just after Labor Day college semesters used to start. If Labor Day doesn't take all of our time it might be interesting to talk about how ready you were for the college experience. Was the service you received from your college good? How was getting books? Was going to college a little scary? How was living in a dorm? Were your professors understanding and helpful? What was the worst thing about college for you? What was the best thing about college for you? Is college easier or harder today than it ", say, twenty years ago? Why so? Obviously we may well find ourselves going in entirely different directions where post-secondary education is concerned and that's just fine! It also may happen that we will be talking about college on the show that follows this one if our Labor Day and Fall discussion prospers.

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S1E131 - 20230905 - Tuesday Topics - going to school.

September 6, 2023

What memories do we have about going back to school? Many people who are blind went to schools for the blind. Was going back a happy thing or was it sad?

If you were mainstreamed, was the end of the Summer a good thing or a bad thing? What was your Summer like when you were growing up? Were you lonely? Were there things you looked forward to each Summer?

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S1E130 - 20230829 - Tuesday Topics - Remembering ACB President Oral Miller.

August 30, 2023

It is our intention to make this edition of Tuesday Topics an occasion where those who knew Oral Miller who died on August 6 could come and share some memories of his life and work.

Oral lived to the age of ninety and made contributions to people who are blind in a variety of ways. He was the fourth President of ACB. He served only one term because he chose to go to work for ACB as its national representative where he served till 1998. During the last of his tenure he was ACB'S Executive Director. He was active in the Blind Bowling Association, Ski for Light, the United States Association of Blind Athletes and as part of the International Blind Sports Association. Many members of ACB can tell us stories about Oral and we hope that many will join us to share your memories of one of ACB'S most important figures.

Find out more at https://acb-tuesday-topics.pinecast.co

S1E129 - 20230822 - Tuesday Topics - explores a final rule and more.

August 23, 2023

We will spend time exploring some Federal actions. Most of our time will be spent exploring the

adoption of a final rule by the Architecture and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (ATBCB). This Board has been operational for more than half a century and is responsible for overseeing regulations that assure that people with disabilities are fully included in society through the adoption of rules and regulations that determine how buildings will be built and how access through roads and other elements of the built environment will be made usable. This particular final rule goes into effect on September 7th and is known as a final rule. This final rule governs how people who are walking or using wheel chairs get access to sidewalks and roads and roundabouts and street crossings and so on. The rule is commonly called "PROWAG" which stands for Public Right Of Way Accessibility Guidelines. I am certainly not an expert on this subject but we have invited two people who are much more knowledgeable than the Tuesday Topic team to join us. Becky Davidson and Chris Bell will join us to help us understand this new rule. We have also invited a representative of Polara, a company that manufactures accessible traffic signals to bring us up to date on their products. What does it include that specifically involves people who are blind? What problems does it seek to solve? Has it made things perfect for pedestrians? Is there more that we need to do? Who do the regulations cover? How are they enforced? What else do we need to make things better? We will also, if we have time, talk about some other Federal developments that could well be significant for people who are blind and we will spend a little time telling you how regulations work and how you can do your part to make them better!

Find out more at https://acb-tuesday-topics.pinecast.co

S1E128 - 20230815 - Tuesday Topics - Internet radio.

August 16, 2023

It is a common thing for Tuesday Topics to bite off more than it can chew. We did it again last night! We thought we were going to spend an hour talking

about our experiences with radio and then move on to other things. Not so much! We spent a truly fun two hours romping together through the past of radio and us! If you missed the show, catch the repeats or the podcast! It was great fun! However, oh dearly beloved as Kipling would say, we have unfinished business! There is an amazing resource out there called internet radio and there are an amazing number of ways to access it. We want to spend some time talking about this phenomenon that makes tens of thousands of radio stations from all over world available to us! Of course, among the many available options are the ten channels of ACB Media! There are apps that aggregate huge collections of radio stations. Some do it by country; others by genre; and still others collect everything to do with their topic! You can use a note taker, Alexa, Google Home, or apple's smart speaker! You can use your phone, your computer or actual internet radio receivers! What are your favorite internet radio stations? How do you listen? What apps do you use and why? The Victor Reader Stream is about to change how it handles internet radio. Is that a good thing? Will Humanware come onto our show and give us a sneak peak at what they plan? Probably not but, of course, they are welcome! Is there a particular kind of music you like? Do you miss old time radio? Is our media three not enough for you? Would you like to hear news from other countries without the static of short wave? The internet has created a space where people can and do run their own stations and where people who are blind have become proprietors of radio empires and disk jockeys on larger stations developed and run by blind and visually impaired folks. We hope to learn lots from you and may have a few things to teach you as well.

Find out more at https://acb-tuesday-topics.pinecast.co

S1E127 - 20230808 - Tuesday Topics - Radio Needs You.

August 9, 2023

This week we are going to discuss a topic that we hope will be of some interest to many blind and visually impaired people. From the time I was three years

old in 1948, radio had become a critical part of my life. I don't think I am alone. I lived outside the United States for many years and listened to short wave radio even more asiduously than I had listened ! AM radio in the US and Canada before. I spent time listening to distant AM stations at night and became a fan of presenters in cities I had never visited. How did radio impact your life? Were you a listener from the time you were a child? Do you remember the days when radio had dramas instead of music, news and politics? Do you view radio as an entertainment medium or just an information source? Did you listen to stations from other countries on short wave? Do you use internet radio now? What stations do you like and recommend to others? Has changing technology made you less likely to listen to radio? Help us explore what many might believe is the most relevant medium for people who are blind or have low vision!

Find out more at https://acb-tuesday-topics.pinecast.co