Earlier this year Tuesday Topics did a program on the history of blind advocacy. As is very common on our show, we did not finish. We got past the formation of the American Council of the Blind but that still leave us with over half a century to cover. Sheltered workshops, NAC, the ADA, the independent living movement, affiliate rights and responsibilities, the growth of special interest affiliates, ACB Radio, Facebook, Twitter, the internet, audio description, and much more. The history of all of these elements is perhaps different from what you might think. Join us to talk about the past as prelude to today. Episode Notes

Notes go here

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Remember to join Tuesday Topics as we explore how ACB encourages new leaders! More than that there is a mentoring program which is now in its second year of operation. I was a part of the first year and I look forward to guests who will tell us how year two is going. Tuesday Topics hopes that former fellows, first timers and some of the cohort of the first year of the mentoring program will come and tell us what these programs have meant to them.

It is hard to know how to develop leaders. It is hard to know how to develop diversity. It is hard to know even how to get new people to become a part of ACB. Tuesday Topics will have the honor of exploring all these issues next program.

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This may be one of the most significant Tuesday Topics in our history. We will once more welcome guests from our ACB Employment Committee and will extend invitations to two other people who may or may not join us. I will tell you as this message proceeds who they are. Two components of our program will involve looking at data that the Employment Committee has put together from a recent survey. Second we will explore together what the role of the ACB Employment Committee ought to be and how we can forward their efforts at the state and national level.

At the ACB convention last July, we had a presentation concerning the "big data" project as it applied to people over the age of 65. It was clear that the data that was developed under the leadership of the Vision Serve Alliance under the aegis of extremely well-qualified statistical experts provided information about this population that painted a picture that was more detailed and nuanced than any data we have had at our disposal till now. That data which includes national information and state details allowed us to see just how precarious a condition many of our seniors who are blind or have low vision are in. That project represented phase one of the data collection process. Less than a month ago data became available for phase two which looked at some of the same issues for people who are blind or have low vision aged 18 to 64. The data that was collected came from surveys that were done in 2019 so as to avoid being influenced by COVID.

The state of Florida bought access to this data for the nation and for the sunshine state. We may look at the Florida data for the sake of comparison but our primary goal will be to explore the national findings of phase two which seriously contradict some of the commonly held beliefs about employment, education and health for this population.

We will send panelist invitations to Director Robert Doyle and to Lee Nasehi, Executive Director of the Vision Serve Alliance. Neither is required to be there but we wanted to be sure they both knew they were welcome to join us.

I believe that the data in this report sheds much new light on a population where we have tended to generalize about rather than measure using credible data. When we apply ourselves we discover much that we did not know and much that asks us to rethink many of the beliefs we have taken for granted.

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Next Tuesday is Valentine's Day Eve. We thought it would be a good time to explore relationships. How have folks with visual impairments fared with internet dating sites? Which have you tried? How have they worked? If you don't use the internet, how do you start relationships? Are there tricks you can share with us? Are you looking to date people who are blind or people who are sighted or either will do? Have getting started with relationships become harder or easier post-pandemic?

Are people who are blind better at relationships than folks who do not experience vision loss? If so, why? If not, why? What are the characteristics of "blind" dating?

This discussion would be very boring if you weren't with us to share your experiences.

Episode Notes

Notes go here

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One of the joys of being a part of the American Council of the Blind is that, in addition to having state affiliates as members, the organization has welcomed the formation of more than a score of organizations formed based on an interest or a set of skills. Over the past couple of months there is no question that the affiliate most often garnering our attention was BITS. Blind Information Technology Specialists has been around since the early 1980s but, in its earlier history, it was a group that was mostly interested in welcoming computer programmers. Some years ago the organization changed its name and became much more open to having others join its ranks. Over the past six months or so, the President of BITS has been Jeff Bishop. He has a long history of service to ACB. He has been a Board member. He currently serves on the Board of Publications. He has been a leader in the effort to expand ACB Media is the host of ACB'S "main menu" program.

Jeff will be joining Tuesday Topics partly to tell us about three initiatives that BITS is making that will certainly positively impact ACB and its members. I have no intention of talking about any of them here. There have been announcements but I want you to hear from Jeff not just what they are but why they are being offered. Perhaps these new initiatives will alter the way that special interest affiliates operate to get new members. Perhaps the approach will have lots of long term consequences for ACB that we can't even foresee yet.

Interesting though it will be to talk about BITS, we at Tuesday Topics indicated to Jeff that we wanted more from him. He has worked at Microsoft and is probably among the most knowledgeable people we know with regard to access technology. So we thought we would ask him about the current state of tech for people who are blind! We will probably also ask him to look ahead to explore with us what the consequences of the AI revolution might be for folks who are blind. As we explore the organization, BITS, and the knowledge that Jeff brings to the table, we will, I hope, also get a chance to explore who Jeff Bishop is. Where did he grow up? What are his interests and passions? What made him leave Microsoft? We are looking forward to a chance to showcase BITS, access technology and Jeff Bishop next Tuesday.

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Not so occasionally, Paul Edwards makes commitments that he completely forgets to put on his calendar. That is what happened several weeks ago when the Awards Committee asked for an opportunity to present on Tuesday Topics.

Instead of continuing our session on the history of blindness and services to the blind, we will be joined by members of the Awards Committee of the American Council of the Blind. Every year we spend a session exploring what awards are available and how you can nominate somebody for one of them.

We end up doing a lot more than that because we also explore a little who the awards are named after and what contribution they made to the ACB.

Join us for a chance to learn about past winners, current awards and what the Awards Committee is thinking about for the future. We hope we can persuade somebody from the Board of Publications to join us as well to talk about their awards.

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Occasionally it's a good thing to look back at where we have been. Acb began in 1961; the NFB began in 1940; there were blindness organizations as long ago as the 1880s. As we approach Martin Luther King Day let's spend a little time looking at some of the history of work for and programs for the people who are blind in the United States and, perhaps, in other parts of the world as well.

What were the very first kinds of laws that operated for people who are blind? How have they changed? Who were our allies as we began to look at being more than just beggars or a burden? Where did the Federation fit in? Why ACB?

Put simply, we think it is time to look at the beginnings of change for quite who are blind. We are a tiny minority but we have been powerful and amazing! Join us and help us celebrate where civil rights really started!

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A new year will be with us by the time Tuesday Topics returns to ACB Media One at 7 PM on January 2 2024. As we suggested on our last presentation the topic this time is 2024. What will the year be like? How will it differ from 2023? How will it be the same? Are there particular things we are looking forward to seeing? As with our last presentation we will begin with the big picture and look at the country, the world and, if appropriate, beyond our planet.

Then we will focus on blindness issues. AFB has just published a five year plan. What might that mean for the future? The National Library Service continues to change and may actually know about a potential new location. The American Council of the Blind has just hired a new person to handle legislative affairs and it is likely that we will have chosen our new Executive Director by the time we get to convention this summer. There is new technology promised this year. Will it happen? There was new tech promised last year that didn't materialize.

Next year is a leap year, an election year, and a year that starts with several conflicts going on unabated! Can we find ways to step back from the abyss or will other flash points occur. What do you think? Join us and share your notion of what the next twelve months will bring! At the very least join us so you can argue with the conclusions we arrive at!

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As we suggested on our last presentation the topic this time is 2024. What will the year be like? How will it differ from 2023? How will it be the same? Are there particular things we are looking forward to seeing? As with our last presentation we will begin with the big picture and look at the country, the world and, if appropriate, beyond our planet.

Then we will focus on blindness issues. AFB has just published a five year plan. What might that mean for the future? The National Library Service continues to change and may actually know about a potential new location. The American Council of the Blind has just hired a new person to handle legislative affairs and it is likely that we will have chosen our new Executive Director by the time we get to convention this summer. There is new technology promised this year. Will it happen? There was new tech promised last year that didn't materialize.

Next year is a leap year, an election year, and a year that starts with several conflicts going on unabated! Can we find ways to step back from the abyss or will other flash points occur. What do you think? Join us and share your notion of what the next twelve months will bring! At the very least join us so you can argue with the conclusions we arrive at!

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

This week we will be doing the first of two programs surrounding the new year. We will not be holding Tuesday Topics on Boxing Day because that is a part of the Christmas holiday when many of our listeners will have better things to do than listen to us. We have a kind of tradition on Tuesday Topics though which we will follow again this year.

We do one show where we explore the year that is ending and that's what we will do during this program. What was the year like! What was the best movie? Did it win an Oscar? How about music? Books? And what about our country and our world? How did they do? We might just have a little to say about AI I suspect!Perhaps, in fact, AI might be the way we transition from the general to the more specific. How has the year been for people who are blind? What has happened? What hasn't happened? How has ACB changed in 2023? How was our convention? There must have been some less than wonderful things that happened in the blindness field this year. What were they and how have they impacted us? The four of us will have our opinions but so will you, our listeners. Plan to weigh in on the year that was and be sure to plan to be with us the next week to look at the year that will, by then, be!

Episode Notes

Notes go here

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