In around 2004 a new phenomenon arrived that was to alter the technology scene. As with so many developments, there was a question of whether the idea

would catch on. Now, twenty years after their first appearance, podcasts have become hugely popular, amazingly diverse and immensely entertaining. We think there are a lot of people who are blind who do not listen to podcasts. We want to tell you about some of our favorites. We want you to tell us about some of your favorites. We want to explore some of the huge variety of ways you can access podcasts and, most of all, we want to explore just how huge the selection of podcasts is. Will will also talk about at least one program and podcast about podcasts. It has sadly finished its run but there are lots of episodes that you can listen to in order to find new and exciting podcasts.

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On this show we are going to explore some of the impacts both negative and positive of

the end of the COVID era. What happened to people who are blind during Covid? We isolated; we used technology to survive; we virtually stopped traveling; we used technology to create our new communities. What impact did all those elements have? Are we less comfortable going out now? How have stores and businesses treated us since Covid ended? They didn't see much of us during Covid. When we did ask for help, we were sometimes told that, because of Covid, the usual assistance couldn't happen! Is there a new normal where people with vision impairments are at a greater disadvantage because entities feel like Covid has created an ability to refuse assistance? If things have changed for the worse, what do we do about it? Is it time for organizations like ACB to be more assertive with businesses, hospitals, doctors' offices and restaurants? Do we need to remind all these groups of our rights now that Covid is allegedly gone? Have people had experiences in other countries? Is there the same reluctance to help there than in this country?

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Yes, Janet Dickelman, our irreplaceable convention coordinator, will be our guest tomorrow on Tuesday Topics.

Illinois is getting close! Registration is open! Many tours are filling up fast! It may even be a little tricky to get rooms if you are staying before or after the convention. Janet has the knowledge and experience to guide us through all the convention variables. There will be lots of time for questions and we will talk about tips and tricks that can make the convention experience more enjoyable. How will this hybrid thing work anyway? Which programs will be hybrid and which only in person and which only streamed? How do these decisions get made? What's happening during the virtual week before the convention starts? Will the convention end right after the banquet or are there other activities? Where will ACB have its convention next year? How is registration this year? Good or should we be concerned that there aren't enough of us going to convention? I always look forward to having Janet on our show because I always learn something I didn't know about ACB or what's happening at our next get together!

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Tuesday Topics has been planning for quite a long time to do a whole show on cruising and that will happen before the end of the Summer. For now, though,

we thought it might be fun to do a show about traveling as a person who is blind. We hope that old hands will talk about getting ready for convention travel. We hope that guide dog users will tell folks what preparations they make before convention. Are there things folks should remember to take with them to convention that we might not think about. Are there things we should know about how to deal with assistance at air ports? I now use a wheel chair when I go through air ports. This has nothing to do with my visual impairment, however. Are folks taking trains or fuses these days. What can you tell us about those forms of transportation and getting the assistance we may need? I think the whole crew will be with us next week but I will actually be in the midst of a cruise to Bermuda. I expect to be good to go but, just in case I am not, others will cover for me.

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Isolation, technology and COVID are discussed. The impact of the way our lives have changed because of technology is the central concern of this week's Tuesday Topics. And it may well be that the problem we discuss have gone on for a much longer time than the point that the covid pandemic arrived. Technology has allowed us to get to lots of information on the internet. It has allowed us to make "friends" on facebook, Twitter, Clubhouse, Mastonon and via email and messaging. Suddenly, we have access to a whole "community" that we can become a part of and where we can "belong". Certainly there are good things about the new state of the situation. Many people who are blind have a place where they can feel valued and important. Before the technology reached out to include us, we would get together face to face and play games, share food and drink and even "hugs". Are people who are blind becoming more isolated because of their connection to the internet? What do we lose by not getting together in person? Should we attempt to do anything about the situation? If so, what? What are the advantages of the new connectedness? Do they outweigh our concerns?

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As often seems

to happen with our program, we only got one of our two major issues covered this time. So our next program will look at how the various notions of information affect the field of blindness! It is a little frightening to suggest that that the field of blindness and visual impairment is rife with misinformation. But why should we expect anything else? ACB and NFB have their own versions of truth! Agencies may want to emphasize elements that do not paint as clear a picture of the services they provide that they might! How do we explore what is true in the blindness field? All of us want to find ways to make our point of view seem stronger! We are not purposely propagating disinformation but we are certainly selectively choosing the facts and arguments that bolster our notions of what is right and good. Does ACB have propaganda? What's it like? How about other organizations? What might their predilections in terms of information look like? We hope that many listeners will want to help us explore how we protect the truth and learn to think critically! Propaganda is the subject of our next Tuesday Topics show! Help us explore what the truth is about blindness!

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We are going to explore a question that may seem beyond the scope of our program. Over the past few months we have spent quite a lot of time discussing

chat bots. Recently we have seen lots of evidence that they can get things amazingly wrong in terms of information. Our friend Jonathan Mosen reported that he and his partner Bonnie were described as having been married for the past thirty years. This is certainly not true but it highlights that there is another element of our lives where misinformation can happen, whether intentionally or not. At the same time, there are news stories that indicate that actors from China and Russia have flooded our mass media with disinformation about the arraignment of Donald Trump aimed at deepening the division within the United States. Obviously, in general, it is very difficult to know what is true and what is not. What can we do to make it less likely that we will spread information that isn't true? How do we know that what we read and hear and see is true? Do we on Tuesday Topics have responsibilities? What are they? It is a little frightening to suggest that that the field of blindness and visual impairment is rife with misinformation. But why should that topic be off limits? ACB and NFB have their own versions of truth! Agencies may want to emphasize elements that do not paint as clear a picture of the services they provide that they might! How do we explore what is true in the blindness field? All of us want to find ways to make our point of view seem stronger! We are not purposely propagating disinformation but we are certainly selectively choosing the facts and arguments that bolster our notions of what is right and good. Does ACB have propaganda? What's it like? How about other organizations? What might their predilections in terms of information look like? We hope that many listeners will want to help us explore how we protect the truth and learn to think critically! Chat Bots, bad actors and propaganda are the subject of our next Tuesday Topics!

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How well did voting work last year at ACB? What changes, if any, can we look forward to this year? How did people vote who were at the convention? Did

many need assistance? How did affiliate voting work? Are there going to be any changes in how affiliates vote this year? What do we know about who voted? Everybody voted digitally. We know that but what proportion of the vote was done by folks who were at the convention and what proportion of the vote came from those who were not there? Can we even tell? Are there ways we can encourage more voters? Will we have a candidates' forum this year? How about candidates' pages? Will there be any changes there? All of these questions will help us have a sense of where we are at a process which is still pretty new for ACB! Voting privately and independently is an important new characteristic of ACB elections. How has the new voting system affected elections? When elections only included people who attended conventions, there were expectations about how things would go. What are the expectations that the new election system creates? Members of the voting task force will be our guests next week. We don't know just who will join us from that group but believe that two or three of the members of that committee will be with us. We are looking forward to hearing from them and to an open discussion of what the new normal look like. You, our listeners, will have a chance to ask questions and to share your impressions of how things went last year and what we can expect this year.

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Don't miss a chance to choose from three issues!

Several weeks ago Tuesday Topics asked all of you to come up with subjects for us. However, we indicated that we would put together a series of topics in case our listeners did not come up with discussion issues. We did not have to use those ideas then so we will now offer three of them for this week's Tuesday Topics.

1. What piece of technology would you most like to see that doesn't currently exist? Others tell us by the technology they make available what we can have! I do not know of any company who has asked folks what they really want! Tuesday Topics is asking you!

2. What new application or device have you started using over the past year and how has that been for you? Have you found the device or app meets your needs?

3. ACB says it is interested in receiving feedback from its members! Here is your chance! What activity or approach or initiative that you think ACB is not doing much about would you like the organization to pursue. Think out of the box! What do people who are blind need? What does the rest of the world need to know about blind people that ACB can tell them? These are three questions that we will explore on Tuesday Topics on Tuesday Topics on April 4 at 7 PM on ACB Media One!

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Remember to join us when David Trott is our guest on Tuesday Topics!During that period, we will invite David Trott to share with us a notion of where ACB

is financially and in terms of membership. During the in-person segment of ACB'S recent meetings in Alexandria Virginia those present were invited to talk about membership and money. That element was moderated (David Trott. We will explore what came out of that meeting. We will look at where ACB is in terms of money and will explore the trends in membership. Have state affiliates grown since the start of the pandemic? What about special interest affiliates? Have members-at-large become more important. What might the future of membership be like? Where does the money come from that makes our organization run? Is there a change in where our funds come from? Do we have more money than we used to have? David is our current treasurer and can give us a sense of where we are and where we might want to go?

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