Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians



TABLE OF CONTENTS

Editorial: Misconceptions Hurt People's Lives!

A New Way of Thinking

Yellow Truck Hits the Road

Event Highlights Needs of the Blind

Get Proud by Practicing

Each Bus Stop Must Be Announced

Paramedic Wins Human Rights Case

Cab Driver Ill Informed for Banning Guide Dog

Differences Between Discrimination and Hatred

20 False Assumptions of Employers

What Leads to Success in Getting a Job?

Maps, Menus, and More Myths About Guide Dogs

I'm Partially Sighted, and I Use a White Cane

Am I Blind?

Programs Empower Visually Impaired

A Three-Year-Old's Curiosity

Equality of Educational Opportunity

Changing the Public's Attitudes

Boomers Aging with Vision Loss

Courtesy Guidelines for the Deaf-Blind

HIV/AIDS and Vision Loss

Student is Dispelling Myths About Albinism

Keep Eyes Peeled for Specs Discrimination

Alpine Holiday

Travelling to China

Blind Aids Set for Public-Housing Estates

St. Lucia Gets Help from Cuba

President's Report: Perspective and Possibilities

Impressions of the 2007 AEBC Conference

2007-08 AEBC Board of Directors

Highlights of Recent AEBC Activities

New Resources

AEBC Membership/CBM Subscription Form

EDITORIAL: MISCONCEPTIONS HURT PEOPLE'S LIVES!

By: John Rae

Today, even after decades of extensive public education work, outdated and stereotypical notions about blindness and the capabilities of persons who are blind still abound. These misconceptions remain pervasive and hard to dispel. For some reason, progress is painfully slow, even when facts are presented that contradict these myths.

Prevailing erroneous beliefs prevent our full participation in all aspects of Canadian society--they hurt people's lives. Why are they still so ingrained?

Part of the answer can be found in the media and literature where persons who are blind are too often portrayed as "super," "amazing," or virtually helpless, and very little in between, but these depictions do not adequately or accurately reflect our reality, and only serve to reinforce false notions.

Family, friends and even people who are, or become, blind themselves frequently hold these same views about blindness. However, we are neither heroic nor tragic figures. We are people who simply cannot see fully and who have learned, and continue to learn, how to function without sight-nothing more and nothing less.

In the 21st century, many sighted individuals still cannot conceive how persons who are blind do things, but we do! The evidence is all around us.

We go to school and gain post-secondary degrees; we work in an ever growing range of jobs, though our level of unemployment remains a national disgrace; we travel on buses, trains and airplanes; we cook enjoyable meals for ourselves and friends; we go to the theatre and movies; we enjoy sex; we marry and raise children; and we vote.

We may do some things a bit differently--reading and writing using large print or braille; travelling safely and independently with a white cane or guide dog; cooking a meal and determining food readiness by texture, smell, sound or taste; surfing the internet using screen magnification or screen reading software--but the important point is that most of us want to be seen as ordinary individuals, pursuing the same range of life experiences as our sighted counterparts do.

We assumed that our increased visibility in our communities would make a real difference in the ways we are viewed and treated, and it has helped some. But showing by example is seemingly still not enough.

Our lives would be enhanced by increased common courtesy. We wish the public would ask if we need help in reaching our destination instead of dragging us in a direction we may or may not wish to go. We would like to be addressed directly, as we can speak and make decisions for ourselves, rather than have someone speak to our companion instead of to us. And those with guide dogs would appreciate the public asking permission to pet or talk to the animals when they are in harness, as distracting a dog while it is working can be dangerous for both the guide dog and the handler alike.

Do we really respect and embrace diverse groups, including people who are blind, within Canadian society, as we profess to do?

According to Helen Henderson's article, "Diversity Ideal Excludes Disabled," (Toronto Star, November 17, 2007) there's a growing disconnect between the terms "diversity" and "inclusion." She says, "Diversity should include all people who look and think and communicate and move in ways that distinguish them from the majority, but these days the term 'diversity' is used almost exclusively to refer to skin colour and ethnicity."

This is one reason why the disabled community has begun using the terms "inclusion" or inclusive communities."

People with disabilities must be active participants in constructing accessible communities, building a truly inclusive education system, and drafting government or private-sector policies and programs that actually respond to our needs. Henderson adds, "Given the right tools, kids with disabilities can thrive. Given the right supports, adults with disabilities can reach our full potential."

But all this takes planning and real commitment! It also requires an "awareness" that investing in the necessary participation and inclusiveness pays off, both for persons with disabilities and for society as a whole.

The phrase "Nothing about us without us" reflects our frustration over the slowness of progress, and that so many life-affecting decisions are made without our meaningful involvement. We know best what we need, as we live disability every day. We are our own best spokespersons.

We know how marginalization hurts! We know what the increasing wealth gap is doing to us. We know that unemployment and poverty add to health care costs. And we want our governments at all levels to commit to a true poverty reduction strategy that will set targets and timetables and include us in developing the needed programs to make such a policy reality.

We want to see the achievement of the elusive theme of the International Year of the Disabled Persons 1981, "full participation and equality," and see it achieved in our lifetimes, and we expect to play a key role in attaining that goal.

Organizations like the Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians exist to encourage individuals to dream, to try out new ideas, and to provide a vehicle for collective action aimed at change. We are here to shatter stereotypes about blindness and to show others (including those who are blind themselves sometimes) not only what is possible, but also what barriers and challenges we face, and solutions to meet these needs. We're on the way to making lasting change. Will you join us?

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."--Margaret Mead

A NEW WAY OF THINKING

By: Kathie Snow

Editor's Note: This article is reprinted from the Disability Is Natural website:

Throughout history, a variety of strategies have been used to solve the "problem" of disability. In ancient times, Grecian and Roman laws mandated the abandonment or death of babies with disabilities, to fulfill society's quest of achieving "human perfection." During the early part of the Christian era, the presence of disability was often thought to be the result of the person being sinful. Religious leaders tried to cure individuals with disabilities through prayer or healing practices, as well as by "beating the devil" out of the "afflicted."

Fast forward to the first half of the twentieth century, when the solution to cure "deviancy" was found in the "special training" available only in institutions for the "feeble-minded." Hundreds of thousands of children and adults were abandoned in institutions, where segregation, isolation, abuse of all kinds, and death were commonplace.

Under the conventional wisdom of the time, "feeble-mindedness" and other conditions were thought to be hereditary, so the ultimate cure was preventing people with disabilities from making more of "their own kind." Thousands of men and women with disabilities were involuntarily sterilized. This inhumane practice was upheld by the United States Supreme Court, with Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes proclaiming, "Three generations of imbeciles is enough." Eugenics (creating a society of the "well-born") ruled the day.

A few years later, Adolph Hitler and the Nazis in Germany adopted American eugenics methods. Yes: Hitler and his minions learned from "eugenics experts" in the United States of America.

Before embarking on the extermination of "undesirables," the Nazis experimented to ensure their methods would work. They first practiced on people with disabilities before taking on the larger population of Jewish people and others who didn't represent Hitler's view of a desirable master race. Isolation, segregation, incarceration, sterilization, abuse, experimentation and murder were Hitler's "cure for deviancy."

The Ancient Greeks and Romans wanted a society that represented "human perfection." In the 20th Century, American eugenics experts, on one side, and Hitler's Nazi Germany, on the other, used horrendous methods in their efforts to create a more perfect human race. In between, other societies have sought "improvements" by eliminating people who, for one reason or another, were seen as invaluable or unworthy.

Wisdom?

Today, we look back on history and shake our heads in sadness and disgust, recognizing that the conventional wisdom of the past was wrong-horribly, horribly wrong.

It seems we've come a long way. In the United States today, people with disabilities are protected by laws that prohibit discrimination based on disability. In addition, the inhumane institutional practices of the past have been replaced by community-based programs, services and interventions. Mission statements of disability organizations and service provider agencies include references to inclusion, integration, the value of people with disabilities, and other "progressive" ideals.

Progress?

But perhaps we haven't come as far as we think. Today, society doesn't condone the murder or abandonment of "defective" babies at birth. Instead, we simply kill many before they're born, thanks to "advances" in prenatal and genetic medicine. (Is the "new science" of genetics just another version of eugenics?)

Instead of incarcerating individuals with disabilities in large state-run institutions, we now utilize community-based services and programs. But these special services often result in life-long physical segregation and social isolation. Too many children with disabilities are effectively hidden behind the closed doors of segregated special education classrooms. Too many adults spend their days in congregate "working" environments or day programs, and their nights in congregate living quarters. Segregation, isolation and invisibility are still with us.

We may have changed the locations where people with disabilities spend their time, but today's social policies still reflect the attitude that the "problem" of disability is within the person. Thus, a continuum of services exist: from treatments designed to "fix" or "help" those who (it's thought) may one day achieve some measure of an "able-bodied" standard, to programs which "protect" those who won't, and everything in between.

If-in hindsight-we know the conventional wisdom of the past was wrong, shouldn't we thoughtfully ponder today's conventional wisdom? Or will we continue to accept the status quo (even when it appears to be progressive), and leave it to future generations to wonder, "In the early part of the 21st century, people talked about the importance of inclusion, but why did they continue to embrace special programs that isolated and segregated people who had been labelled with disabilities?"

A New Direction

Advocates in the field have traditionally agitated for more services and more funding. But we do not need more special programs that isolate and segregate people who have been labelled with disabilities. We need, instead, inclusion in schools, communities, employment, and in other typical environments. To move toward that direction requires us to recognize that disability is a "natural part of the human experience" (as stated in the U.S. Developmental Disabilities Act and other laws). In addition, we need to acknowledge that people with disabilities are fine, just the way they are!

Instead of focusing on the "problems" or the label of a person, we need to open our eyes a little wider and recognize and celebrate the abilities, strengths, talents, interests, and dreams of those who have been labelled. Isn't that what we do for ourselves and others who have not been labelled? When was the last time you broadcast all your problems to the world? Don't you share your strengths instead?

Instead of trying to "fix" people with labels, we need to ensure they have the tools they need for success (such as assistive technology devices for movement, speech, and other needs) and accommodations (physical, social, or other types of support), to enhance their successful inclusion and participation in the typical, ordinary environments most Americans take for granted. Isn't this also what we do for ourselves? We use tools, such as computers and other devices; seek and acquire the supports we need; and do whatever it takes to fulfill our dreams. Why should the lives of individuals who have been labelled with disabilities be any different?

Instead of thinking people with disabilities are incompetent-unable to learn, succeed, make decisions, and more-we need to presume competence. When we expect a person to learn, expect her to succeed, and expect her to make decisions about her life, she will! She may need assistive technology, supports or accommodations to accomplish her goals, but so do we all.

Instead of believing people with disabilities are doomed to live pitiful, needy lives, we need to ensure they have the same opportunities as others to live Real Lives! And what's the definition of a Real Life? It's simple: what would the person be doing if he didn't have a disability? With assistive technology, supports or accommodations, there's no reason why this can't happen.

Instead of using special services, which isolate and segregate individuals with disabilities and their families from the mainstream of their communities, we can forgo these "entitlements" and find the help and assistance we need from the natural supports and generic services in our communities. This is not rocket science, and it's happening today. In the process, individuals with disabilities and their families are living Real Lives, included in their communities. (And those who provide special services can change the way they do business to ensure services are provided in natural, inclusive settings!)

Today's laws and services may represent progress, and many benefits may have accrued from these legal and social policies. But the real solution to creating an inclusive society rests in the hearts and minds of each of us, and in the souls of our communities.

A Gentle Revolution

Nothing short of a paradigm shift in how we think about disability is necessary for change to occur. Disability, like ethnicity, religion, age, gender, and other characteristics, is a natural part of life. Some people are born with disabilities; others acquire them later in life. (And if we live long enough, many of us will acquire a disability through an accident, illness or the aging process.)

A disability label is not the defining characteristic of a person, any more than one's age, religion, ethnicity or gender is the defining characteristic. We must never use a disability label to measure a person's value or predict a person's potential. And we must recognize that the presence of a disability is not an inherent barrier to a person's success.

We do not need to change people with disabilities! We need to change ourselves and how we think about disability. When we think differently, we'll talk differently. When we think and talk differently, we'll act differently. When we act differently, we'll be creating change in ourselves and our communities. In the process, the lives of people with disabilities will be changed, as well.

I am the proud parent of two wonderful young adults, one of whom has been given a disability label. I am also a wife, a daughter, a sister, a neighbour, a member of my community, a resident of Colorado, a friend of many people with and without disabilities, a reader, a seamstress, a traveller, a public speaker and trainer on disability issues, and much more! If I live long enough, I may become a person with a disability. And I want to live in a society in which all people are valued, included, and live the lives of their dreams. I hope you do, too.

This is an exciting time, full of hope and promise! Each of us has an extraordinary opportunity to contribute to a gentle revolution that will enable adults and children with disabilities to move from clienthood to citizenship! Are you ready for the change? Ready to embrace new ways of thinking? Ready to make a difference? Ready to promote positive images of children and adults with disabilities? Then let's get started! Explore all the pages of this website, be open to new ideas, sit and think awhile, talk with others, and do whatever it takes to create positive, long-lasting change. We can do this!

Used with permission. Copyright 2007.

YELLOW TRUCK HITS THE ROAD AGAINST DISCRIMINATION

The Anti-Discrimination Tour Will Take in 21 Countries

Editor's Note: This item is taken from the website of the European Parliament, European Union (EU), May 3, 2007: europarl.europa.eu

Last Wednesday, 25 April, saw a large yellow truck parked outside the Parliament in Strasbourg. It was there at the start of an anti-discrimination tour of 21 countries in 7 months. The specially adapted truck will act as a mobile exhibition with the public encouraged to visit and take part. Its cargo--or message--is twofold: Firstly, that discrimination based on race, gender, age, disability and sexual orientation is unacceptable. Secondly, that people have rights and should know them.

The truck tours message is "For Diversity, Against Discrimination" and it forms part of the events organized as part of the 2007 "Year of Equal Opportunities for all."

A Europe "Where Everyone is Equal"

MEPs (members of the European Parliament) from all sides of the hemicycle were there at the launch of the truck tour to show their support for the initiative. Michael Cashman, for the Socialist PSE Group, said, "The European Union was built out of the ashes of the second world war, and during that war we saw individuals who, because of their religion, their beliefs, and their sexual orientation were taken off to concentration camps..."

He pledged action against discrimination, saying, "We are determined to create a Europe where everyone is equal and if someone is attacked, it is our duty to defend them."

A key theme of the tour is to inform people that they have rights and should exercise them. French PSE member, Martine Roure--who acts as Parliament's rapporteur for the year of equal opportunities--put the problem down to the complexity of EU law. She said that "the EU passes very complex and badly known legislation to protect its citizens" and added that "very often citizens do not appeal to Europe to lodge their rights because they do not know of {the} existence of this European legislation."

The truck's role will be to act {as} a forum where people can receive information about their rights under national and EU legislation. As it travels from country to country, NGOs (non-governmental organizations) in the field will use it to host exhibitions and discussions about diversity and discrimination.

Special Focus on the Disabled

An estimated 37 million people across the EU are believed to be disabled in some way or another. This puts enormous stress on their families and on medical and social services. It also requires a response from society at large to deal with this number. It requires that they are treated with equality, dignity and empathy.

As Liz Lynne, a Liberal ALDE member, put it at the launch: "we must make sure that disabled people are treated exactly the same and that legislation is implemented across all member states equally and that excluded sectors, like older and disabled people, are included."

As well as having full wheelchair access, the yellow truck has a braille guide that allows visually impaired people to access information on its website (see the link below). It also has another novel feature to create awareness of the barriers disabled people face: visitors can sit in a wheelchair and navigate obstacles. Visitors can also try to identify sounds, smells and everyday objects using limited senses. As well as these, there will be song contests, poster exhibitions and quiz shows in the truck.

See the truck online and in person if you want. Just click on the link below to see where it stops.

Further information:

Yellow Truck Tour: truck07.844.0.html

EU Anti-Discrimination Website: 95.0.html

EVENT HIGHLIGHTS NEEDS OF THE BLIND

By: Leo Leonidou

Editor's Note: The following article is reprinted from Cyprus Mail, Cyprus, April 26, 2007.

DISCRIMINATION is rife in Cyprus, with stricter measures needed in the fight against prejudice, lack of tolerance and inequality.

That was the verdict of Christos Nicolaides, the President of the Pancyprian Organization for the Blind, who was yesterday speaking at a special event at the St. Barnabus School for the Blind on the occasion of European Equal Opportunities Year.

"Half of all Europeans believe that attempts to stop discrimination against the blind are not enough, so our organization has decided to undertake an information campaign relating to matters of equal opportunity, which must be for all," he said.

Law Commissioner Leda Koursoumba, who is also the President of the National Institution for the Protection of Human Rights, made a speech on the current situation regarding equal opportunities in Cyprus, and she was followed by Justice Minister Sophocles Sophocleous, who also addressed the audience.

Nicosia Mayor Eleni Mavrou was also present, speaking out on equal opportunities from theory to practice, while Greek MP Eleftheria Bernidaki-Altous spoke of the right to equal opportunities for blind women.

Layia Karpasitis, who is a teacher at St. Barnabas, told the Mail that there are 1,050 people in Cyprus who are registered as blind, but that the organization believes the total number is over actually around 2,000.

She added that the most important thing is to make people aware of the problems facing the blind.

"Once they receive education and training, blind people can function just like everybody else. We don't want to create myths about the blind as they're just ordinary people."

The European Commission has designated 2007 as "European Year of Equal Opportunities for All" as part of a concerted effort to promote equality and non-discrimination in the European Union. The European Year is the centrepiece of a framework strategy designed to ensure that discrimination is effectively tackled, diversity is celebrated and equal opportunities for all are promoted.

European Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Commissioner Vladimir Ipidla, said: "Europe must work towards real equality in practice. The European Year of Equal Opportunities for All and the framework strategy will provide a new drive towards ensuring the full application of EU anti-discrimination legislation, which has encountered too many obstacles and delays. Fundamental rights, non-discrimination and equal opportunities will remain key priorities for the European Commission."

The four core themes of the European Year proposed by the Commission are: Rights, representation, recognition, and respect and tolerance.

GET PROUD BY PRACTICING

By: Kathi Wolfe

Editor's Note: The following article is reprinted from Washington Blade, DC, July 20, 2007.

The ADA's (Americans with Disabilities Act) anniversary is Independence Day for "queer crips."

Years ago, I broke my nose one night en route to a "blind" date. Being visually impaired, I didn't want my (potential) Ms. Right to know that I used a white cane. Trying to pass, I banged into a post, running for a bus without my stick. This put a dent, so to speak, in my romantic encounter, but people tell me that my nose is "interesting."

Today, I wouldn't dream of not using my cane. Crossing the street, I point it at drivers when they try to turn illegally, when I have the right of way. At poetry readings, I enjoy walking to the podium with my stick, and then throwing the pages of my large print manuscript on the floor as I read.

"I'm crip, queer and a diva," I tell them jokingly. After a beer, I'm on the dance floor, knowing my tone-deaf, low-vision moves belong there as much as anyone's.

Along with increasing numbers of people with disabilities, I now have a sense of pride in who I am. Like others who are queer and crip, I'm "out and proud" about my disability and my sexuality. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, about 54 million Americans have some type of disability. Some of us call ourselves "queer and crip" to reclaim pejorative terms.

Like the concept of Gay Pride, disability pride has evolved, hand in hand with a civil rights movement (the disability rights movement).

Beginning in the late 1960s, disabled people, mainly in New York and California, but also in Washington, D.C., got fed up with being turned away from schools, turned down for jobs and barred from physically entering buildings because of their disabilities. They began to fight this discrimination. The late Hugh Gregory Gallagher, a gay man who had polio, was instrumental in getting the Architectural Barriers Act of 1968 passed.

Over the years, this battle became a nationwide struggle, culminating with the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990. July 26 marks the 17th anniversary of the ADA, a civil rights law that protects people with disabilities from discrimination in everything from employment to public accommodations.

Though it's not known how many people are crip and queer, the ADA covers many in the gay community, including people with HIV/AIDS, recovering alcoholics and drug addicts and breast cancer survivors. Gay rights activists worked with disability rights advocates to get the ADA passed.

For me and many other crips, July 26 is our Independence Day. We think of our lives as being divided between the time before and after the ADA.

In the late 1980s, I was asked to leave a coffee shop one day. What had I done to merit being thrown out? Nothing. The owner thought that a blind woman eating a tuna sandwich would be "too depressing for the other customers." Then, I had no legal redress. Today, if this happened, I'd have the ADA.

As important as the legal protection that the ADA offers is the increased visibility of people with disabilities in the wake of the law.

And the sense of pride that being out provides.

On July 21, the fourth annual Disability Pride parade will be held in Chicago.

"In 2004, we expected only a few people," Yoshiko Dart, the grand marshall of the first Disability Pride parade told me, "but more than 1,500 people came! They sang and wore Pride T-shirts (showing a fist in a power salute)."

Last year, more than 3,000 people participated in the parade. This year, even more people will likely come to the parade from across the country. (For more information, visit .)

"Embrace yourself and be proud of who you are," is an important lesson that the disability rights movement has learned from the gay community, said William Stothers, a disabled journalist involved with a mentoring program for disabled youth called What's Next? in San Diego.

This sense of pride energizes us to be out--in the workforce, college campuses, bars and restaurants. People may not be happy to see us there. But once out, you're not going back in the closet.

It's not a perfect world. Discrimination still exists and being proud isn't always easy. But, as disability activist and lesbian poet Laura Hershey writes in her poem, "You Get Proud By Practicing": "You are the one/who can make you proud. /Just practice."

On July 26, I invite you to share our pride.

RULING MEANS EACH BUS STOP MUST BE ANNOUNCED

Editor's Note: The following article is reprinted from the Winnipeg Free Press, August 6, 2007.

Toronto--A blind Toronto lawyer's successful battle to have the city's transit system announce each and every stop has set a precedent that will reverberate through public transportation systems across the country, legal experts say.

Two years after the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal ordered the Toronto Transit Commission to announce every station along its subway lines, the tribunal ruled it must do the same on buses and streetcars by the end of this month.

The case was championed by blind lawyer David Lepofsky, who said the July 26 ruling applies, at least in principle, to every province across the country.

"Blind people have the same need to know where they're getting off, whether it's a bus in Toronto, or Montreal, or Calgary, or Regina," he said.

"Tell me there's a city in Canada that has more traffic, or bus routes, or diversity than Toronto. If you can do it here, then you can do it in London, or wherever."

In April, the Canadian Transportation Agency ruled in favour of Terrance Green, a blind lawyer from Ottawa, who said a bus driver forgot to call out his requested stop not just once, but twice.

"We've been caught out. Not just us, but Toronto and every other place," said Alex Cullen, an Ottawa city councillor and chair of the transportation council.

In Ottawa's case, he said they are only obligated to announce major intersections and requested stops, but that the tribunal's decision underlines the urgency of the issue.

"It's forcing us to move and I don't think that's a bad thing at all, but now it's about how we get there."

Last month, Ottawa city council rejected an $8-million proposal to install an automated announcement system. It's planning on announcing every major and requested stop, starting in September.

However, it's only a matter of time and money before the city buys an automated announcement system, said Cullen, particularly in the light of the recent ruling.

"It'll spread like wildfire, because if they can do it in Toronto, then they should be doing it everywhere."

The Toronto Transit Commission would have been compliant with the order by the end of 2007 in any event, said chair Adam Giambrone. They are currently implementing a $6.6-million project on all Toronto surface routes, he said.

If the Ontario ruling is applied properly across the country, just announcing major intersections and requested stops won't be acceptable, said human rights lawyer David Baker.

Baker, who has worked on some of Canada's most high-profile disability rights cases, said that although individuals could sue their own cities to get equivalent rulings, he would be surprised and disappointed if it were necessary.

"I would think it would be as simple as people raising the issue with their transportation providers," he said. "They would very likely comply quite quickly in light of this decision, because it's hard to see how there could be a defence in their case if there wasn't one in this case."

Vancouver's Coast Mountain Bus Company recently upgraded their vehicles and they lobbied hard to have an automatic announcement system, said communications director Doug MacDonald.

"There are a lot of distractions for operators and they can forget. It's something we've always been trying to come to grips with," he said. "We pushed pretty hard to have that feature simply because its difficult to ensure that all stops are being called. Clearly it's worthwhile."

Working with people like Rob Sleath, founder of Vancouver's Advocates For Sight Impaired Consumers, the city was able to institute driver sensitivity training and equipment designed to facilitate public transit for everyone.

Lepofsky said what disturbs him the most is that instead of doing the same and replacing an outdated system, Toronto spent taxpayer dollars fighting his case. He said he's worried other cities may do the same.

"If they force blind people to go and sue them, then that's not a good sign," he said, adding that an archaic policy on disability rights hurts Canada's image abroad.

"The United States is significantly ahead of us in making public transit accessible to people with disabilities," he said. "It's hurting our public and it's hurting our tourism."

C 2007 Winnipeg Free Press. All Rights Reserved.

PARAMEDIC WINS IMPORTANT HUMAN RIGHTS CASE IN ONTARIO

Eyesight Problem Stopped Veteran Employee from Driving But Did Not Prevent Him from Continuing to Work

Editor's Note: The following article is reprinted from the National Union of Public and General Employees website: nupge.ca

Barrie (18 July, 2007)--An arbitrator has ruled that a paramedic can continue to work in Ontario despite an eyesight problem that cost him the F-class licence needed to drive an ambulance in the province.

The decision says the Human Rights Code can prevail over a provincial Ambulance Act requirement stipulating that all Ontario paramedics must be legally able to operate an ambulance.

Dave Rogers, a 17-year Simcoe County paramedic veteran, was told by his employer in 2005 he could no longer work because of the Ambulance Act regulations.

His case was appealed by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU/NUPGE) on grounds that, since no paramedic drives to an emergency alone, and since the restriction does not apply to volunteer ambulance personnel, Rogers should be able to remain on the job in an "attend-only" capacity.

Arbitrator Morley Gorsky accepted the argument, ruling that Rogers was entitled to accommodation by his employer and that the Human Rights Code should prevail in his case.

"This is a great decision for Dave Rogers," says OPSEU Ambulance Division Chair Jamie Ramage. "Now we will bring further attention to this issue as we feel other paramedics in this situation should have the same opportunity."

CAB DRIVER ILL INFORMED FOR BANNING GUIDE DOG

By: Elham Asaad Buaras

Editor's Note: The following article is reprinted from the Muslim News, United Kingdom, November 24, 2006: muslimnews.co.uk

A senior Muslim scholar has said mini-cab driver Abdul Rasheed Majekodunmi, who refused to allow a guide dog in his car because it would breach Islamic law, was "ill-informed" about Islam.

Last month, Majekodunmi was fined 200 pounds and told to pay 1,200 for costs under the Disability Discrimination Act for refusing to carry out the booking.

He picked up Jane Vernon, a legal officer at the RNIB (Royal National Institute of the Blind), in west London. She later said the incident in October 2005 made her feel like "a second-class citizen."

Chair of the inter faith relations committee of the Muslim Council of Britain Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra said the driver had been ill-informed about Islamic law that says Muslims should wash before praying if they come into contact with dog saliva, which is considered unclean and impure.

Shaykh Mogra told The Muslim News, "Muslim law lays down general laws, but there are circumstances where allowances have to be made."

A Disability Rights Commission spokeswoman said the Muslim Shariah Council confirmed four years ago that assistance dogs can accompany disabled people into restaurants or taxis managed or driven by Muslims.

But she said it would be "dangerously wrong" to suggest discrimination was "the preserve of a particular group" as "misconception and downright ignorance of the law is rife."

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN DISCRIMINATION AND HATRED

By: Chris Hofstader

Editor's Note: The following article is adapted from Blind Confidential (Blog), October 12, 2006:

The struggle to reach equality for people with disabilities is different in many substantive ways from the movement against racism over the past century and a half, but there are also similarities. The difference comes in the form of hatred or the lack thereof. Excepting some incredibly eugenic Nazi types who would destroy us for having birth defects, no one seems to truly hate people with disabilities. While we may receive condescending treatment from everyone from well meaning and well-educated do-gooders to ignorant people working in retail, I can't ever remember people treating me differently out of actual hatred for blind people.

Sighted people, at one point even old friends of mine, have asked me on job interviews if I could actually do a specific job with "your condition." I would say, "Yes," but learn that they chose someone sighted with a third of my skills and a quarter of my experience, but with profoundly more vision.

One group, in the Santa Cruz area, had their Vice President of Engineering go so far as tell me that he couldn't in good conscience hire me as their office had no hospital nearby and, even if I chose to live near enough to walk to work, if I strayed out into traffic, a car might hit me and the company and its leaders, then friends of mine, would feel horrible if I suffered badly waiting for a helicopter to take me to a hospital in San Jose.

I had done my homework and said that California, especially Santa Cruz County, had excellent Para transit and that I could live in the very accessible downtown and get a ride to work every day. He claimed that the danger was still too great.

This hurt, and I questioned my friendship with these people and today, nearly ten years later, I only remain in contact with one or two of those guys and none who held a position with the authority to make hiring decisions.

I hear about blind people struggling with discrimination issues on a daily basis. On a similarly frequent basis, I hear about other minorities being attacked verbally or physically for nothing more than the colour of their skin, their accent or their gender identity. While the California company may have had other reasons for not hiring me and used blindness as their excuse, they didn't do so out of hatred for blind people but perhaps because they thought I didn't fit their model and, as friends, they felt that using my personal safety as an excuse would hurt less than "we found someone smarter" or "we didn't feel that your specific skills fit our model."

Meanwhile, blacks, gays, Latinos and other minorities who struggle against discrimination actually have people who hate them and will, when they get the chance, perpetrate violence against them. I've never been attacked just because I cannot see.

Persons with disabilities are the world's largest and most disenfranchised minority (or so says the United Nations). We are often treated as second-class citizens and people will talk to our companions rather than to us. There exists overwhelming ignorance of how to treat a person with a disability, but I don't think this is the same as having an organization like the KKK (Ku Klux Klan) or the National Alliance or the various border patrol militias pointing guns at people out of simple hatred.

I think some tactics from the civil rights movement can be used by people with disabilities in our quest for equity, but others will probably not have an analogue. While the discrimination we feel is pretty similar to that of our friends in other minority groups, we don't feel the same kind of hatred, nor are we subject to the same kind of violence. I've never heard of a blind person being dragged around behind some pick-up truck or tied to a fence and beaten until he died simply because of our minority status. If anything, we need to deal with discriminatory, self-righteous and ignorant people who feel that they should help us do something we can do for ourselves.

Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela and others are still my heroes but, if a group of blind people chose to peacefully stop traffic and march down the streets of Birmingham to protest Alabama's refusal to have an ADA- (Americans with Disabilities Act) like law that applies to the state employees there, I doubt that the mayor or police chief would send out attack dogs or hit us with fire hoses.

I still believe strongly that discrimination against people with disabilities in technology, the workplace, places of public accommodation, transportation and many other aspects of life in the modern world is deplorable and needs to be stopped. Direct action should be considered as a tactic, along with litigation and other manners of creating a more equitable world.

20 FALSE ASSUMPTIONS TO TACKLE AS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

By: Jim Hasse

During the ADA's (Americans with Disabilities Act) 15th anniversary, eSight(r) members took the opportunity to provide employers with their perspectives about what is most harmful in hindering their efforts to gain meaningful employment. In 2005, perception, fear, myth and prejudice continue to artificially limit understanding and acceptance of disability as a form of human diversity, especially in workplaces around the globe.

During July 2005, nearly two dozen individuals on eSight's "Swimming in the Mainstream" (SiM) blog examined their own misconceptions and used that insight to understand and address the false assumptions an employer may have about their ability to thrive in a mainstream job. Specifically, they discussed this question: What one myth about employing people with disabilities do you wish to dispel among employers?

For the purposes of this article, I'm using the following definitions:

"Perception" is the level of awareness through discernment based on knowledge about a set of social issues, such as disability employment.

"Fear" is an emotion stemming from an expectation or awareness of personal danger and can be founded on fact, as well as falsehood.

"Myth" reflects an unfair prejudice that stems from beliefs, often learned in childhood, which have never been re-evaluated. Unlike prejudice, myth is not malicious and can be more easily challenged by facts.

Those who hold onto a belief in spite of overwhelming proof to the opposite show "prejudice."

I have used these four definitions to place the following snippets from the SiM blog participants into categories. The quotes I selected describe 20 false assumptions about disability that I believe can be helpful for companies as they consider options for meeting their Equal Opportunity Employment obligations.

Perception:

"I wish employers would realize that it is NOT expensive to provide accommodations, that people with a disability do NOT do less work (and, therefore, the rest of the team does NOT need to 'carry them'), and that, b and large, people with a disability have a lower turnover rate and better attendance than employees without a disability."--Janet

"I would like employers to realize it's false that just because we have a visual disability we can't comprehend things. That causes people to talk down to us as though we are children who can barely speak. Also, when they talk to someone else about what we can and can't do, they often do it right in front of us--as though we can't understand or make decisions on our own."--Anet

"My main wish is that employers realize that, as visually impaired employees, we do not require a babysitter. Our capability, capacity and autonomy are questioned and invalidated by people who want to care but are under-educated about how to care."--Connie

"Employers need to realize that we're just human like everybody else ... that we do make mistakes just like everyone else etc."--Jake

"I would wish that employers would focus on abilities. It is the perception that my disability or need for mobility assistance will present a problem when the problem is not with me but with the employer and those in the employer's workforce who cannot see the value in a team member who does not look quite like them.

"In 15 years with my chronic illness, I have not missed a single day of work due to my illness. I have been sick, but ... colds/flu are part of life. If disability were not a natural part of life, it might be easier to understand.

"Different? Yes, that I am, since my walker is my companion and aid for mobility. I would wish that the conversation with employers could cover the questions that are never asked. They aren't, and so the understanding of lack of understanding continues.

"There is a broader and more important discussion with employers that needs to take place that is beyond the scope of the ADA. Until that happens, I believe that most employers will pay lip service to the ADA and the disabled community in the mistaken notion that it is too difficult to accommodate people with disabilities, and that somehow we cannot contribute on the same level as the non-disabled--which is blatantly false. Each interview is an opportunity to educate those with whom I interview and hope to move the process of building a true community of people forward."--Barney

"...There needs to be education and training provided to employers by blind people for those blind people looking for work, complete with those who are already steadily employed as support for employers. This training needs to be as consistent as the celebration of White Cane Day or Save the Earth Day and needs to be followed up to make sure the ADA is not just another piece of legislation that receives lip service as a diversion from undercover prejudice."--Natalie

"Ah ha! Wouldn't it be surprising for employers to realize that every person with a disability doesn't necessarily hang out with others 'of their own kind,' so to speak? I've been asked, 'Oh, do you know so-and-so? He/she is blind.' Just because the cat had kittens in the oven doesn't mean you call them biscuits!"--Jo

Fear:

"Often employers are afraid to hire people with visual impairments because they believe they can't fire them if things don't work out. People who are blind are just like anyone else. They just can't see. They should be treated like adults and thus like any other employee."--Mary Ellen

"I just wish employers would stop imagining what they would be able (or, more likely, not able) to do if they went blind. It's to their advantage as well as to ours that they realize one can get along plenty well enough without perfect vision. Besides, an interview with me is not about them. It's about me and what I can do."--Nan

"I don't know whether to laugh or cry when an employer makes the false assumption that, even though I got myself to the interview and spoke intelligently and even asked relevant questions, I cannot possibly live alone and take care of my basic needs. Oh, and I just MUST live close to my parents who help me because, otherwise, how would I manage? Employers seem to be stuck in time, unwilling even to think about how I manage to eat, dress, shop, feed the dog, climb the stairs etc. in 'my condition.'

"What REALLY irks me about employers and others who have misconceptions about blind people is that they are comfortable holding onto the misconception no matter what you do or say. I believe that it stems from fear of becoming blind or fear that they themselves might be unable to adapt to life without eyesight."--Jo

Myth:

"When I see 'EOE' (Equal Opportunity Employer) in ads or on websites of prospective employers, I can't help but feel that this has not been true for me. Employers really need to realize they are committed to what ... 'EOE' means when they use that designation.

"It took me about a year to find a job. I just found two part-time jobs. That's good for now, but I need benefits.

"Anyway, one damaging myth is that it is costly to employ blind or visually impaired people. Adaptations, which there may not need to be many, could really be low-cost.

"Also, the other myth is that I can't fit into their business--the way they use computers and other equipment and paperwork--with the little vision I have. In reality, I can use the microscopic lens (strong prescription eye glasses) that I already have to read most everything to complete the job. I can memorize where things are kept and mark buttons on devices, if needed."--Brenda

"One of the things I have found working in various places and being visually impaired is that people treat you as if you are either mentally challenged or you cannot hear. So they yell. It is impossible for some individuals to comprehend the nature of one's disability."--Jan

"Interviewers have told me ... when I show them a note-taker device and talk about it, that it is interesting. They then ask more about blindness and want to know how it will affect my performance on the job. I tell them that it won't and that all I need is some adaptations to the computer, learning where the washroom is, where the lunchroom is and then I will be able to be like any other employee.

"They act like I am someone from another planet. They write down this information, but it doesn't influence a hiring decision. I think that the employer would rather hire someone without a disability because they feel we will be too much of a problem for the organization or company."--Kerry

"One of the biggest myths about employing people with a disability is we're all slow in some way. We come across as slow learners. People need to know that we work harder than the average Joe and have much more stamina and less distraction."--Betty

Prejudice:

"The thing that gets to me is that people think I am unhealthy because I am blind. The reason this bothers me so much is that I get this from neighbours and even family, as well as workplace peers. I also really hate that people assume, because I am visually impaired, I wish to give up my right to make decisions about my life. I am not stupid, incapacitated or sick. I am blind. That does not diminish who I am; it is part of who I am."--Connie

"People assume ... my abilities are based upon what they can see and based upon their suppositions. Potential employers and acquaintances might talk to me indirectly because I'm deaf or they think I'm an ... imbecile. People also think they're helping by arbitrarily doing things for me instead of letting me learn by guiding me kinetically because they don't realize I have to budget my time to do what I need--just like they do.

"The assumption is that our interests and the way we live life are identical. It's kind of like among the sighted population that, 'if you see one blind person, you've seen them all.'"--Natalie

"While working, everything is fine--until someone finds out I am visually impaired. Then they seem to change how they treat me--as though I am no longer capable to do the job I was doing."--Anet

"People who are applying for positions must be judged solely on their capabilities as a person--not to be judged as a group."--Len

"If only our qualifications were considered, we would have the opportunity to show all we can do for an employer."--Brenda

"Just pure ignorance prevents employers from hiring us because they assume that we're less capable human beings. As a 32-year-old visually impaired person, I've personally struggled with this narrow-minded society where leaders pretend to equally help everyone but, in reality, they're only concerned with elite and able-bodied folk. Yes, I'm glad the ADA is here to help us gain our civil rights, but, we, as a disabled population, must unite and fiercely demand true equal access to fair treatment in the workplace."--Carlos

This article funded by a grant from American Express Foundation first appeared online at eSight Careers Network, , the online community providing career management resources for people who are blind or physically disabled, on August 3, 2005.

eSight is a registered trademark of The Associated Blind, Inc.

Copyright (c) 2000-2007 eSight Careers Network (r). All rights reserved.

WHAT LEADS TO SUCCESS IN GETTING A JOB?

The CNIB Employment Success Facilitators Study

By: Alexander Shaw, PhD, and Deborah Gold, PhD

Editor's Note: Dr. Alexander Shaw is Senior Researcher at CNIB and Dr. Deborah Gold is CNIB's Associate Director of Research. The following is adapted from the executive summary of CNIB's employment study. Visit: ib.ca/en/research/past-projects/Default.aspx

Research evidence indicates that approximately 70% of the blind and partially sighted population in Canada is without work. This statistic creates great concern about employment opportunities for people living with vision loss. However, like many statistics, this figure draws attention to barriers to employment and often overlooked is the fact that there are many persons who are blind or partially sighted with full-time jobs, often in high-ranking positions.

What enables these people to be successful in employment? What skills or resources do these people have that others do not? These are the main questions that were considered in this project.

Funded by CNIB (formerly known as the Canadian National Institute for the Blind) and the Social Development Partnerships Program of Human Resources and Social Development Canada, the Employment Success Facilitators study was conducted in order to both learn more about factors related to success in employment and to develop a tool that could be used to assess a person's preparedness for the world of work.

The study had two phases. In Phase 1, we developed a comprehensive list of factors related to employment success based on an extensive literature review, focus groups across Canada with consumers, employers and rehabilitation workers, and a survey of successfully employed people who are blind or partially sighted.

In Phase II of the study, we focused on the development of the tool (using the list of employment success factors identified in the first phase) and a statistical examination of the relationships between various factors and successful employment outcomes, which allowed us to group factors together into scales.

What is Employment Success?

Discussions with focus group participants and an examination of the literature in the field of employment revealed that success in employment can be defined in many ways. On the one hand, given the high number of people who are blind and partially sighted who have simply given up looking for work, being in the labour market can be considered a level of success. Those looking for work were considered successful if they received a job interview or a job offer. On another level, success was defined as being employed.

What did we learn in our Focus Groups?

Focus group participants were asked to report on the factors that they believed enabled them to gain employment. Some attributed their success in finding work to the good fortune of coming across an employer who was knowledgeable about vision loss and/or willing to accommodate them, while others thought that their personal efforts to educate an employer had paid off. Participants felt that an extensive work history was extremely helpful and education was also viewed as very important; however, focus group participants were varied in their opinions about whether success was a result of attendance at regular or special schools, or both.

Participants also felt that attitude, level of motivation, self-esteem, and willingness and ability to self-advocate were linked to employment success. They said that it helped greatly to be highly skilled in a number of areas, pointing to communication, life, networking and technological skills. A person's work-related strategy was also felt to be important--in particular, working harder than sighted peers, planning ahead, and being creative in the job search.

Finally, legislative support and public attitudes were environmental factors that participants felt had either negatively or positively affected their employment opportunities.

Based on the literature review and focus group findings, a comprehensive list of employment success factors was developed. But while knowing what leads to success in employment is important, it is perhaps even more critical to have an understanding of how a person compares to others in various domains, and whether he/she is competitive. The employment success tool was designed with this in mind, and with the intention of identifying areas where vocational counselling could be focused or where a person could improve personal chances for employment success.

The tool consists of a list of statements to which participants respond on a five-point scale from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree." (e.g., "I am skilled in the use of an email application"; "There are people in my life who would be willing to help me financially in a job search.")

The tool has 12 scales (groups of items)--seven relevant to everyone, regardless of relationship to the labour market; four specific to those who have looked for work in the past five years (whether or not they have been employed); and one relevant only to those who are currently employed. There is also a demographic section (such as gender, age, location, work status and vision level).

What did we learn about employment success based on the tool?

Success was associated with proficiency in technology, availability of social or instrumental support, communication skills, a person's work history, upbringing, proficiency in a second language, and awareness of one' s entitlements as a person with a disability. Success was also linked to pursuing a proactive job search strategy, having networking skills/ability, being willing to educate a prospective employer, and seeking positions that are a good match with one's qualifications. Success on the job (defined as satisfaction with work and perceived opportunities for advancement) was related to support from employers and co-workers and the availability of accessible, job-related materials.

Employment success was also linked to a number of demographic factors, including educational level, age of onset of vision loss, health, and level of vision, but one's opportunities for employment success are not determined solely by demographic factors. How one fares on each of the scales is also important.

What findings really stood out?

A few of the employment success factors identified in this study really stood out, either because they were related to several different employment outcomes and/or because they were revealed in different parts of the study as key factors in employment success. Education was strongly associated with employment success in terms of both labour market status and having received an interview and/or a job offer. In addition, the importance of education was emphasized in the focus groups.

Technological skills and access to technology were also strongly associated with employment success in terms of both labour market status and having received an interview and/or a job offer. These skills help people who are blind and partially sighted to both access job listings and meet job requirements.

Technology also mitigates against some of the on-the-job access issues related to vision loss. Specifically, employers may be more apt to hire a person who is blind or partially sighted if they a) are aware of the access technology that is available and, b) believe that the applicant is skilled in its use.

A person's technological skills must be evaluated in relation to the age group with which they are competing for jobs. Specifically, since today's youth are generally raised to be fairly technologically savvy, youth with vision loss will benefit from even greater proficiency with technology in order to be competitive and compensate for some of the perceived disadvantages and stigma associated with their vision impairment.

Parental expectations and attitudes (one's upbringing) were strongly associated with labour market and employment status. Participants whose parents had had high expectations that they would pull their load, be independent, and hold some kind of paid employment were more likely to be in the labour market and more likely to be employed. This finding is important because it suggests that the way in which a child is raised is likely to have long-lasting effects on future employment opportunities. In general, those raised to be more independent (despite having a disability) are more likely to develop the skills that are valued by employers. This supports a related finding in our previous work indicating that the higher the expectations of participation in activities of daily living in childhood, the more likely it is that the person will be employed in adulthood.

Participants from Quebec scored much higher than those from Ontario on several of the scales. This suggests that people who are blind or partially sighted may be better prepared in Quebec than in Ontario for the world of work. One explanation for this finding is that Quebec has more extensive employment supports for people with disabilities, including a program linked to the Quebec Manpower office SEMO (Service Externe de main-d'oeuvre), which offers counselling and referrals to subsidized employment programs, rehabilitation programs through Institut Nazareth et Louis-Braille and the Montreal Association for the Blind, and counselling and support for people with vision loss after they have been hired.

Employment supports also include job-hunting clubs designed specifically for people who are blind and partially sighted, which have counsellors who help with everything from preparing a resume to preparing for an interview. Finally, INCA (CNIB in Quebec) offers special equipment and computer training to interested parties currently involved in a job search or already working.

Conclusion

In summary, one of the main outcomes of the CNIB Employment Success study has been a 12-scale tool that can be used to assess preparedness for the world of work. It can be used by vocational counsellors and directly by consumers to identify areas where further training or access to resources would improve opportunities for employment. While the study revealed a range of factors that are linked to success in employment (and particularly in finding work), educational level and technological skills are two of the most important. But upbringing, specifically parental expectations and attitudes, are also critical. Encouraging children with vision loss to be independent and having high expectations for them can, and does, contribute to their employment success later in life.

MAPS, MENUS, AND MORE MYTHS ABOUT GUIDE DOGS

By: Devon Wilkins

Editor's Note: Devon Wilkins is from Collingwood, Ontario. She is Canadian Vice-President of the International Association of Assistance Dog Partners, a director at large of Guide Dog Users of Canada, and founder and editor of The Harness, a magazine for people who use assistance dogs. She also serves as Director at Large for the Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians.

A few years ago, at the Montreal Comedy Festival, an individual was planted on one of the city streets with a guide dog and a map. In true Candid Camera fashion, the individual asked passers-by to outline the route he should take in order to reach a particular location. Only too willing to help, a number of people actually crouched down, map in hand, and showed the dog the route to take.

Then, there's the lady in Victoria who eventually lost her patience when a restauranteur wouldn't take a few minutes to go over the menu with her.

"Do you suppose my guide dog is going to read it to me?" the customer asked sarcastically.

"Well, yes," the surprised restauranteur stammered. "I really did think he would."

These are two particularly glaring misconceptions about guide dogs, but there are many others that are much more common.

"How does your dog know where you want to go?" children frequently ask when Oak and I visit their classrooms, most often during White Cane Week.

I answer that question with one of my own.

"Does your parents' car know where to take you?"

I go on to explain that like someone who gets behind the steering wheel, I need to know the streets to cross in order to reach a specific destination.

Speaking of intersections, contrary to popular belief, guide dogs can't tell when the light is green. The blind handler needs to determine when it's safe to cross by listening to the direction of the traffic. But if a handler, totally unaware of the presence of a hybrid car making its way into the intersection, gives the "forward" command, the guide dog is trained in what is called intelligent disobedience. The handler needs to practice this traffic technique often to keep the guide dog on its toes.

Another important fact for the public to remember is that guide dogs are dogs first. They aren't robots that are immune to distraction, any more than anyone else is. Given the choice, who of us wouldn't want to play rather than work? But in this particular instance, a moment of inattention on the part of the guide dog could have fatal consequences for both dog and human partners.

That's why it's vital that when a dog is wearing its harness, members of the public should refrain from calling, playing with, feeding, or otherwise distracting it. I tell children that the harness is the dog's uniform. You wouldn't bother a doctor who was stitching someone up, or a police officer in the midst of handcuffing a suspect. In the same way, you shouldn't distract a dog that is in harness.

That doesn't mean that you can't stop to pass the time of day with the human member of the team. You might even be able to have a word with the dog if the human partner is agreeable, but always ask first.

A misconception that has no doubt cost the five training programs across the country plenty of fundraising dollars is that guide dogs are trained by the CNIB (formerly known as the Canadian National Institute for the Blind). Nothing could be further from the truth. The fact is that for many years, CNIB tried to discourage clients from applying to guide dog training centres. Now, however, they have realized that guide dogs are here to stay, and they allow their orientation and mobility instructors to prepare people for their month at the training centre, and to assist in dealing with problems that might arise during the course of the relationship between guide dog and handler.

The mention of training programs reminds me to remind you that not all guide dogs are Seeing Eye dogs. The Seeing Eye is only one training centre, albeit the first in North America, which is located in Morristown, New Jersey. There are five training programs here in Canada, and several in the States.

If you want to know whether a guide dog would be suitable for you or your loved one, or if you have a question that you've always wanted to ask, don't hesitate to contact the national office of the Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians to ask for a brochure that has recently been written on the subject. Alternatively, visit the website of Guide Dog Users of Canada at: gduc.ca

I'M PARTIALLY SIGHTED, AND I USE A WHITE CANE

By: Peggy Chong

Peggy Chong

Editor's Note: The following article is reprinted from Future Reflections, Special Issue: Low Vision and Blindness, 2005:

As a very young child, I was aware that I did not see as well as the other kids in the neighbourhood. It was well known that the family down the block was made up of a mother and several of her children who could not see too good. Congenital cataracts run in my family.

While I was growing up, it was stressed that I should try to fit in, to be like everyone else. What I was being told was to "look sighted."

A graphic example of this was in church. We were always told to sing along using the songbook, even though my sisters and I could not read it. If I would try to read it by putting the book up to my face, a hand would come over and move the book down to the sighted reading distance. So, I pretended to read the songbook, to be sighted.

In my teens I knew that this was not going to work if I wanted to get ahead in life and be happy. I had met blind adults who were working, buying their own homes and raising families. I wanted to have the same happiness I saw in their lives.

A counsellor from the state agency for the blind recommended shyly-and outside of my Mother's earshot--that I get a folding cane just for identification purposes. She did not get me one or tell me how to use a cane, so the topic was just dropped.

In my late teens, I bought a cane and started carrying it to places when I did not know my way around. One of my sisters was about three at this time, and she asked my Mother, "Why does Peggy have a cane?" My Mother's reply was loud and meant for me to overhear. "She is pretending to be blind."

That hurt a lot. My Mother was blind. In fact, she had less vision than I did at the time. But she did not want to be blind or have anyone think that she might have difficulty seeing. She always travelled on my Dad's arm. Mom would not go shopping without a sighted person. This was not what I wanted for myself.

But her comment hurt so much that it was very difficult for me to take my cane from the corner where I parked it when I got home.

For the next ten years or more, I would only take my cane when I was travelling alone, or to a place I did not know well, or where I was sure no one would see me who might tell my folks.

When I used my cane, people treated me better. They did not get mad when I asked them to show me where something was in a store. Bus drivers were friendlier when I asked what number route that bus was. I felt less frustrated after trips I made with my cane.

But because I am a "high partial," there was this little voice inside of me that echoed my Mother's words: "You're just pretending to be blind."

I started to do some soul searching. Why did I resist taking my cane shopping when I knew it would be helpful? Sales clerks did not follow me around like I was going to steal the place when they saw me looking closely at things. I could get clerks or other customers to read the packages for me if I was carrying my cane. There was no need for lengthy explanations when trying to get a person behind the counter to read me what was on the menu that hung right behind them in a fast food restaurant.

I also took a look at what others might be thinking when they saw my cane. It became obvious to me that there were many conflicting emotions about blindness tied into the symbol of the cane. I found it fascinating to discover that the most negative feelings were held by blind people who did not use a cane, like my Mother and sisters.

The blind people that did use a cane felt good about their cane. They felt good about themselves. But most importantly, they were the blind people out there doing something with their lives! They were the happy, successful blind people.

Then, in 1992, I decided it was time to get some real training as a blind person. I spent nine months at an NFB training centre where I had classes in computers, braille, and of course, cane travel.

After graduating from BLIND, Inc. in Minneapolis, I wondered how people would treat me now that I had decided that I was going to use a white cane all the time when I went out. My daughter, who had just gotten into her teens, said that it was "weird" to see me with a cane all the time. But it didn't seem to make that much difference to her for very long. Now she finds my white cane helpful. Now, when she meets me at a restaurant or large room somewhere, to save time she just walks in and asks if there is a blind lady in there.

My blind friends thought the cane was great and gave me lots of encouragement. Most of my sighted friends took it with a grain of salt. The only sticky point left was my family.

My one sighted sister and her family got used to the idea in no time. I talked to her children about why I used a cane, and it was accepted with only a few questions.

The rest of the family was different. Some of my aunts did not understand. They felt that my Mother had gone this long without using a cane, surely I could go without one, too. They were embarrassed.

I have three other sisters who are also legally blind. They are uncomfortable around my cane, as though it will give them some incurable disease. But when my cane can benefit them, well, that is another story.

We all attended a cousin's wedding a few years back. The wedding was held in an old church with long, narrow, and dark halls and many stairs. As I got there before many of my family, I was toward the front of the church, and they were near the back. As we all do at weddings, I stopped a minute or two to talk to relatives I hadn't seen in a while. When I got to the back of the church, at the top of the stairs, there were my sisters. I stopped and looked at them for a minute; there was a lengthy pause. I asked what we were waiting for. One of my sisters replied, "Well, you got the cane. You go first."

My Mother was diagnosed with cancer not long after that. If she saw the cane, she always found a way to make some comment about me trying to focus people's sympathy on myself. I didn't need any more emotional upheaval in my life at that time and thought she didn't either, so I did not use my long, straight cane when I visited her. I took a folding cane and put it in my purse.

That is when I noticed just how much I had gotten to depend on the cane. Over the years, my eyes have become more sensitive to light. Many times I will close my eyes when I walk outside in the bright light. It was difficult to walk with my eyes closed when my cane was parked in the car. I walked slower without my cane. Stairs made me nervous. During this time, I carried a folding cane to avoid hurting my Mother.

I also became convinced that a straight cane was a much better way to travel. Folding canes fold! Usually right in the middle of a six-lane intersection, or when I am carrying many things and truly need it to find everything in my path.

Now that I'm back to using a straight cane, a folding cane is still in my purse or suitcase just in case my straight cane breaks or if I am travelling on an airplane. But that is about all the use I have for a folding cane.

Mom's doctors all knew I was blind. I found that they gave me more thorough information than they gave my sisters. I have often wanted to ask the doctors why that was.

My Mother was in denial of her cancer. Did the doctors assume that Mom's denial of her cancer was related to the denial of her blindness? Did they assume that my sisters, who are also blind but try to hide their blindness, also would not want to deal with Mom's cancer?

When I went to the doctor appointments or to the hospital, I found the doctors and nurses eager to talk to someone in the family about her condition, test results, their suggestions, and recommendations. The rest of the family reported that no one talked to them. Looking back, I believe that my cane told the medical professionals that I could deal with life's frustrations successfully and move on.

Since it has been over five years now that I have used my cane almost everywhere, my family knows it is not a phase. I know my cane still makes some people uncomfortable, but this is my life. I need to feel good about myself in order to lead a happy life. If, once in a while, someone is uncomfortable around my cane, I figure they will either get used to it, or they are probably not going to be very important in my life for long, anyway.

My cane is here to stay.

AM I BLIND?

By: John G. Pare, Jr.

Editor's Note: The following article is reprinted from the Braille Monitor, June 2005:

I have brown eyes. I am sure of this. I know my height is five feet, eleven inches. I am also sure of this. But sometimes I wonder whether I am blind.

You probably think this is a silly question. How could one not know if he or she is blind? If one can see, he or she is sighted; if one cannot see, he or she is blind. But what if one can see a little? Where should we draw the line between sighted and blind?

Most people like to lump those in this middle area into a category called "visually impaired," "low vision," or even "hard-of-seeing." This group has the interesting characteristic of being neither sighted nor blind.

I was recently travelling in Asia and met a person who described me as "fake blind." He said that only a totally blind person is blind, so I was visually impaired or low vision.

I was confused. While I have some sight, I tend to think of myself as blind.

Who is correct? Am I in this middle category, that is, neither sighted nor blind, and, if so, is this good or bad?

My ophthalmologist would tell you that my best-corrected eyesight is 20/400 with no central vision. This means that I am legally blind, which is another carefully crafted term to indicate I am neither fully sighted nor completely blind. Maybe that person in Asia was correct, and I am not blind.

Well, let's analyze how my vision affects my daily life. I certainly do not see well enough to drive. In fact, I cannot see a car more than fifteen or twenty feet away, which means I cannot use my vision to cross a street safely. I could, and in fact do, use a long white cane and am able to cross a street using white cane mobility techniques.

I have used a computer all my life but can no longer see well enough to read a standard screen. I am able to use a computer only with the help of screen-reading software, which was invented to help blind computer users.

I am no longer able to read the print newspaper, but I can listen to the newspaper using NFB-NEWSLINE(r). I am not able to read print books, but I am able to get almost any book I want on tape from the Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped.

And, last, I am getting to the point where I can no longer read my own large-print notes, but I am learning to read and write braille.

So am I blind?

I think so. The critical point is that, for me to live my life the way I want to, I must use a combination of blindness skills, alternative techniques, and access technology to accomplish the tasks I used to do using vision.

So why not refer to myself as visually impaired?

The main problem with this term is that it typically keeps a person physically and mentally in a state of unproductive limbo. A visually impaired person typically does not have enough sight to perform the tasks I listed above using sight, but at the same time he or she does not use the blindness skills, alternative techniques, or access technology necessary to make doing these tasks possible.

It is not unusual for me to meet people who refer to themselves as visually impaired and who have vision better than mine, but who are not able to travel around town. I have no problem travelling around town because I use a long white cane and the appropriate mobility techniques. In fact, I know many people whose eyesight is worse than mine who are able to travel around town as well or better than I can. These people use either a long white cane or a guide dog and have received appropriate training.

This leads me to one of the National Federation of the Blind's core theorems about blindness: A person's ability to perform the tasks necessary to lead a productive, successful and happy life is not proportional to his or her level of eyesight, but to the level and quality of his or her blindness skills and attitudes about blindness.

This concept is critical to understanding why a person needs to determine whether he or she is sighted or blind. If one is sighted, he or she does not need to use blindness techniques to accomplish the tasks of everyday life. If, on the other hand, one does need to use blindness techniques, then one should work to learn these skills.

I suppose people could learn these skills and still refer to themselves as visually impaired, but this would be unusual. The key point is that most people, whether sighted or visually impaired, do not think blindness skills are either needed or appropriate for a visually impaired person. These people simply live their lives in a lesser or reduced fashion--not doing many of the things they could do if they had the appropriate blindness skills.

Those who are visually impaired do not have to learn or use all of the skills I listed above at once. For example, if a person is losing his eyesight slowly, he might begin by using NFB-NEWSLINE(r), then learn to use screen-reading software, and finally add the use of a white cane.

Using a white cane is typically the final step in accepting one's blindness and restoring one's ability to move freely and independently. Some people are so embarrassed by their blindness that they try to hide their inability to see. They know a white cane is hard to hide, so they are reluctant to use one. This is unfortunate because it only hurts the blind person.

The most important single action that helped me learn how to live with and adjust to my blindness was joining the National Federation of the Blind. The Federation provided information, role models and mentors who helped me adjust to my situation in a practical and positive way.

I was once sighted, then visually impaired, and now I am blind. Many people try to pull me back into the void of the visually impaired. Typically, these people have had very little exposure to blind people and certainly have never met a well-trained, successful and happy person who is blind. They most likely think of blindness as a tragedy, and they think they are doing me a favour by trying to pull me out of the proverbial darkness. The fact is that only the untrained blind or visually impaired person lives in a state of darkness, if I may call it that.

If you consider yourself visually impaired, ask yourself if you can travel virtually anyplace you desire, listen to almost any newspaper on the telephone or book on tape, or use a computer to send email and surf the internet.

Any well-trained blind person can easily do all of these things and more. Many are working as lawyers, writers or business owners, secretaries, receptionists, computer experts, and scores of other jobs. Many live alone or have families with children, live in their own homes, and do their own shopping, cooking, and cleaning.

So I would like to get back to my original question. Am I blind?

Yes. For me, blindness is not a tragedy. In fact, thanks to the National Federation of the Blind, since I have accepted the fact that I am blind and have taken the time to learn the necessary skills I need as a blind person, I do more now than I ever did before.

PROGRAMS EMPOWER VISUALLY IMPAIRED TO LIVE INDEPENDENTLY

By: Anja Karadeglija

Editor's Note: This article is reprinted from The Whitehorse Star, July 6, 2007.

Brantford, Ont.--Cheryl Richesin remembers one client who seemed to be faced with an impossible situation. The client, who was totally blind, had just given birth to a baby. She needed to learn how to live independently so that she could take care of the child.

"She had to learn skills so she wouldn't have the baby taken away," Richesin explains.

Teaching someone in that situation how to do things most people take for granted is the job of an orientation and mobility or rehabilitation specialist, such as Richesin.

"It's a wonderful field. You're not working with equipment. You're working with people who need you," she says.

Richesin is now the program coordinator at Mohawk College's orientation and mobility and rehabilitation teaching programs in Brantford, Ont. Orientation and mobility--or O and M--teaches blind and visually impaired people how to better travel and orient themselves. It runs parallel to the rehabilitation-teaching program, which covers a wider spectrum of life skills. Both are yearlong post-graduate programs involving two semesters of classroom work and practical training and a 12-week job placement.

"When you're working with seniors, if they're willing to learn, there's no reason to have to go to the nursing home. They can live independently," she explains.

"And the excitement of it is seeing a baby who is totally blind suddenly reaching to crawl--without fear."

Richesin says there's no reason lack of vision has to place a limit on someone's self-sufficiency.

The programs are the only two of their kind in Canada offered in English. Because the demand for the graduates is so high, almost every student lands a job after graduating.

And across the country and around the world, the demand for these graduates is likely to grow.

Mohawk College's programs are already extremely important for the blind and visually impaired in Canada, says Stacey Headey-Komenda, a professional practice leader for orientation and mobility with the Canadian National Institute for the Blind. The CNIB is the largest provider of help for those who are visually impaired in the country, and 95 percent of their orientation and mobility staff come from Mohawk, she says.

Orientation and mobility and rehabilitation encompass teaching different tasks to people of all ages and abilities--something Andrea Lisk, a Mohawk rehabilitation-teaching student, has experienced.

At W. Ross Macdonald School, a residential school for blind children and teens, she's taught everything from how to maximize the vision students already have to how to use a stove safely. Lisk's most challenging task so far involved teaching a blind teenage girl how to shave her legs.

Although such lessons are tailored to each student, the ability to adapt from established techniques is a result of the skills the students learn at Mohawk.

"Before formalized techniques, anyone could just pick up a stick and teach," Richesin explains. She says that was a problem. "After all, you could be looking at a life-or-death situation if you're crossing a busy street."

In the decades after the Second World War, when large numbers of veterans who were visually impaired or blind needed to integrate into society, the field of orientation and mobility started to be developed. Standards began to be set in teaching and equipment, such as techniques for using the white cane, and now programs like Mohawk's must be certified by international bodies dedicated to this kind of work.

The work involves teaching someone how to do things most seeing people have never had to think about.

Mohawk's orientation and mobility students practise at Brantford intersections, blindfolded, to understand how it's done.

"The main thing is the direction of sounds," explains Rabia Amir, who has been in the field for 20 years, first teaching braille in her native Pakistan. She is doing an O and M placement at W. Ross Macdonald.

She says blind people must first align themselves with the curb.

"A blind person doesn't know where the intersection is, so you must train them to know how to align themselves using traffic sounds."

Starting on quiet residential streets, orientation and mobility instructors practise with their students until they can tell where traffic is moving.

Rebecca Redmile, a life skills instructor at the school, says rehabilitation teachers must be aware of the difference between teaching a student who was born blind and someone who lost their vision later in life.

"For example, you don't have to teach seniors that they should face whoever they're talking to, but a congenitally blind student might not know that," she says.

There are challenges most wouldn't think of. Telephone skills have to be taught, and teachers must be aware that students may not understand concepts we take for granted, such as what printed letters look like or what the 12 o'clock position is.

While teaching these skills, the focus is on "turning kids into graceful, contributing members of society," Redmile explains.

Mohawk students learn how to approach these challenges through practice and experience. They are blindfolded and use low-vision simulators so they can understand what it is like to have low or no vision.

Lisk says the most terrifying experience was being blindfolded and having to walk down the stairs. But even that approach has its limitations, say the Mohawk students.

"It's fairly inaccurate because we already have motor skills. For example, I already know how to use a microwave, so it's hard to pretend I don't just because I'm blindfolded," Lisk explains.

The focus of the field is all about independence, says Brenda Barnes, an orientation and mobility specialist at W. Ross Macdonald.

That's what Lisk teaches her students to focus on. "We do a lot of kitchen safety, like safely using a can opener," she explains.

Barnes says comparing the abilities students have when they arrive and when they leave is how she can tell the difference orientation and mobility training can make.

"You don't realize the importance of O and M until they leave their comfort zone . . . they're almost like a different child," Barnes explains.

"Many are scared to death of travelling outside the school, and at the end of their time here, they're doing co-op placements across the city, walking down streets, taking the bus."

The number of people who will need these services is expected to grow because of improved health care.

"The number of seniors is growing, and as people live longer, many become low vision or totally blind. At the other end of the scale, you can now save premature babies who weigh less at birth, but that also means there is a bigger chance of blindness," Richesin says.

As well, the number of veterans with head injuries returning from places like Iraq and Afghanistan also drives up demand for the programs.

While there aren't many reliable statistics on blindness in Canada, by the year 2020, the CNIB expects the number of people they work with to double.

Lisk says the field is challenging, but she loves how rewarding it is.

"When you've worked on a task for quite a while, be it shoe-tying or whatever, there is an 'aha' moment both for you and the student when everything you've learned finally comes together," she explains. "You're just like, 'There it is--we can do this.'"

Originally published in the Brantford Expositor.

THERE ARE NO BARRIERS TO A THREE-YEAR-OLD'S CURIOSITY

Born Blind, Ethan Warren Grows, Changes and Engages the World

By: Luisa D'Amato

Editor's Note: The following article is reprinted from the Waterloo Record, April 7, 2007.

Elmira--Ethan Warren was born blind, and that has made him extraordinary in so many ways.

The three-year-old can race around on his tricycle in his family's Elmira home without ever bumping into a wall or a piece of furniture. He can walk up and down stairs without holding onto the banister, feeling for the edge of each step with his toes so he won't fall.

When his father unwraps a piece of gum, he knows by the sound. When his mother opens a tube of hand lotion, he knows by the smell. When he's in the family van, he knows if the road is curving to the left or the right.

Like many other children his age in Waterloo Region, he's beginning to learn how to read.

But while sighted three-year-olds are looking at picture books and recognizing letters as part of "pre-literacy", Ethan uses Play-Doh and marbles to develop the finger strength and touch perception he'll need for braille, the written language of raised dots used by visually impaired readers.

When a teacher from the W. Ross Macdonald School for the Blind in Brantford makes her regular visit to Ethan's home once every two weeks, Ethan rolls Play Dough into a ball and presses marbles into it.

"We're making applesauce," he says playfully.

Teacher Jocelyn Cook has him search for the embedded marbles with his fingertips and count them. Then she buries one in the soft yellow dough and has Ethan find it.

It feels like a game to Ethan, but it also helps develop the fingertip strength and sensitivity he'll need for braille.

Then there are other activities that any preschooler would enjoy, like pushing large beads onto a stiff string, or imaginary play with a plastic cup and spoon.

Ethan sits on the floor and stirs with the spoon inside the cup, pretending to make hot chocolate.

He tastes the make-believe brew. "We need some chocolate chips to make it good!" he declares, drumming his heels on the carpet in excitement.

Like many three-year-olds, Ethan has sailed out of that awkward toddler age, when most children become easily overwhelmed and frustrated by life, and don't have the words to express themselves.

Now, language starts spilling out, allowing easy communication of wishes, questions, fears and feelings to the adult world. Now, children are developing curiosity about the world around them, sympathy for others, even a conscience.

"A young child does not emerge from your toddler on a given date or birthday," says child-rearing expert Penelope Leach in her well-known book, Your Baby and Child: From Birth to Age Five.

"She becomes a child when she ceases to be a wayward, confusing, unpredictable and often balky person-in-the-making, and becomes someone who is comparatively cooperative, eager and easy to please at least 60 percent of the time.

"Children change and grow up gradually. They do not transform themselves overnight, turning from caterpillars to butterflies under our eyes, but this particular change from toddler to child, whether it takes place at two and a half or four, does have something of that sudden and magical quality.

"Looked at factually, the developments that take place in your child's third year will probably not be as great as the changes of the second, but they seem tremendous because they make her so much easier to live with and to love.

"It is as if by making it safely through infancy and toddlerhood, your child has, in some almost mystical way, got there."

Ethan is still working on some basic skills, like toilet training, but he is a master of words. Most children at their third birthday are expected to speak in two-to five-word sentences such as, "I go home now." But here's how Ethan tells a story about a lawn mower that was resting in the shed all winter and is being made ready for spring.

"I think he (Grandpa) drove it out and he checked the oil, and he put some new oil in it, and cleaned it all up, and cleared the grass (off the blades), and he cleaned it all up, and he got it ready for the spring. It goes Br-r-r-r."

His long concentration span and thirsty curiosity mean he'll likely have an intellectually rewarding life. It's usually around the age of six that visually impaired children learn to read braille. But "with Ethan, I won't be surprised if it's earlier," said Cook.

To help him along, Ethan's parents, Jeremy, 29, and Leanne, 26, recently purchased a "brailler," a sort of typewriter that imprints braille words on paper. Ethan uses it sometimes, and there are already braille sentences pasted into some of his books, as a translation of the printed letters he can't read.

"He needs to have braille in his environment," Leanne said, just as sighted children need to look through picture books with simple sentences inside, before they learn to read for themselves.

When Ethan was born at Grand River Hospital in Kitchener, his father worried that something wasn't right, because Ethan wasn't opening his eyes or looking around, the way other newborns did.

Within a few days, he was seen by an ophthalmologist in Hamilton. She explained that Ethan had a congenital coloboma, and a significant portion of his retina was missing. He had very bad vision, with only a small part of one eye that could see brightly lit colours or sharp contrasts between light and dark.

Perfect vision is described as 20/20 and legal blindness is 20/200. Ethan had 20/800 vision, far below the boundary of legally blind. There was no treatment possible.

"She said, 'We cannot do anything,' and she left the room, and we sat in her room. It was shocking," Leanne recalled.

She and her husband found strength in each other, in their family and friends, and most of all in God.

They carried on, determined to do what they could. They worked hard at helping Ethan learn physical skills that are difficult without sight, like rolling over and walking.

They had another child, Connor, now one year old and sighted, and another baby is on the way. Leanne plans to home-school her children.

Meanwhile, Ethan makes the most of the small bit of vision he has. He can detect a full moon in the night sky. At night, he can tell when traffic lights have changed colour.

When his parents play DVDs or videos for him, he can see movement and shapes if he peers closely at the screen. He knows his colours, thanks to transparent sheets of plastic that glow green, yellow, blue or red when laid on top of a brightly lit tabletop surface called a "light table."

Recently, he got a small cane and is learning to walk with it.

His parents, who are of Mennonite background and attend Moorefield Christian Fellowship, know that there's still a rich world of opportunity for him, despite his blindness. They wonder if, with his gift for language, he might become a preacher.

"The Christian world view we embrace is, there is a God, and everything is orchestrated by His divine plan," said Jeremy. "Children are not an accident, they are a gift from God.

"God has a plan for our lives, and God has a reason for him to have this condition."

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EQUALITY OF EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY: A STUDENT USER'S GUIDE

By: Julie Sanfacon

Editor's Note: Julie Sanfacon is a partially sighted woman from Quebec City who has a passion for languages, travel, and volunteer work in the community sector with women and students with disabilities.

In January 2006, I enrolled in a private college in Quebec City that offers intensive training in Office Systems Technology. At this institution, I faced two unprecedented barriers in my experience as a student with a vision impairment: a highly computerized school environment and, most important, a case of discrimination in education against which I had to fight promptly.

Having participated in a QAPSD (Quebec Association for Post-Secondary Students with Disabilities) project called Les Etudes postsecondaires, c'est aussi pour toi! (Post-secondary Students Are Also for You!), I knew about the importance of expressing my special needs as clearly and accurately as possible. Thus, I communicated them when I contacted my private college's induction officer by phone and when I registered for my courses.

I clearly identified myself as a post-secondary student with a disability and I took the time to describe my vision loss, its impact in a school environment, and simple and practical solutions that can help me succeed. On two occasions, I asked the induction agent if his private college had the necessary infrastructure and services to welcome and support a student with a vision disability. He reassured me twice about my integration and suggested that I make an appointment with the principal after the start of the winter term, since there is no disability office in this private college. Then, I talked to the institution's network administrator about using all the equipment in the computer laboratories, and talked to a teacher.

My courses started a week later, and after only one day of class I was able to clarify my special needs. I now wished to follow up on the solutions I had put forth during my discussions with the college's induction officer.

My next step was to meet the principal. I said that I could not read conventional print and that I would need the following documents in large print: course packs and materials to be used in class during teamwork assignments, photocopies distributed to students and, most important, exams. I also told her that my low vision centre would help me to access computer equipment in laboratories but that this would certainly require some degree of collaboration from the college and from its network administrator.

The principal told me that her private college did not have the infrastructure to welcome and integrate a student with a vision impairment and that the staff would not be able to supply me with large-print documents. She also refused to allow a public college, even if appointed and funded by the Ministry of Education, to convert the educational material into large print. Moreover, she said that I had misled her private college about the true nature of my vision loss and, later on, that I had omitted to inform them about my disability.

I did my best to keep calm and casually asked her if she had ideas or suggestions to improve my integration. She said that I should withdraw from all my courses, leave the college, and enroll in another establishment that would be better equipped to meet my special needs. She mentioned that, if I quit now, I would only have to pay a fraction of my tuition fees.

I refused to leave the college but instead contacted Serge Brassard, QAPSD's chief executive officer, and staff at the Ministry of Education, my low vision centre, and the CEGEP (College d'Enseignement General et Professionnel) de Sainte-Foy. I had already introduced myself to all my teachers and disclosed information about my disability.

From that point on, I decided to stop dealing with the principal and deal directly with teachers. Most of them were very helpful. A computer expert at my low vision centre hurried to configure and adapt a new laptop computer compatible with the college's network. However, in mid-February, few documents were available in large print and physical strain built up because I struggled hard to read course packs that were not adapted to my special needs. I had to act now.

In an email addressed to the principal, I clearly stated that access to educational supplies, such as course packs, is an integral part of equality of educational opportunity, and that a post-secondary institution that fails to fulfill its duty to accommodate a student is creating and maintaining discrimination. This email had a strong impact. Clearer strategies to assist me suddenly took form. From that point on, everything went smoothly.

In August 2006, I enrolled in a Graduate Diploma in Community Economic Development at Concordia University. I was welcomed with open arms by the program director, the professors, and the Disability Office. What a relief!

It is essential to choose an adequate post-secondary institution and, most important, to stand up and fight when equality of educational opportunity is compromised or ignored. This is, and will always be, a fundamental right.

CHANGING THE PUBLIC'S ATTITUDES: SIGNS OF INEVITABLE SUCCESS

By: Sheri Wells-Jensen

Editor's Note: The following article is reprinted from the Braille Monitor, July 2006. The report mentioned here, titled "Changing the Public's Attitude Toward Braille: A Grassroots Approach," by Sheri Wells-Jensen, Jason Wells-Jensen, and Gabrielle Belknap, appeared in the March 2005 issue of the Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness, Vol. 99, No. 3: 133-40.

I've read that the braille literacy rate is somewhere between 10 percent and 25 percent. I've also read that the unemployment rate in the blindness community is around 80 percent. If these numbers are correct, and we have no good reason to suspect they are not, we have a lot of work still ahead of us.

What can any of us possibly do to make a difference? It feels overwhelming. Some days it feels to me as if the social patterns that created and reinforce these situations are carved in unyielding stone and I am powerless to change them. But there are things--important things--we can do.

I am not here to offer the usual encouragement: steady on, do what you know is right and have faith; we're in this together. I'm here to tell you about tangible scientific facts that demonstrate that you already do make a difference, probably every day of your ordinary life. You alone, without any organized program, without public funding, without even thinking about it make significant, measurable differences in how people feel about blindness, braille, and blind people.

Here's how I know:

My training is in linguistics, and I teach at a large public university in Ohio. I like my job. I meet a startling variety of people, and lots of them are very interesting indeed--like the colleague (from another department thankfully) who came into my office one afternoon to wax poetic about how blessed the university was to have me and how inspirational I must be to my students.

Besides wishing she'd write all that down in proper academese and maybe send it to my future tenure committee, I started wondering about her remarks after she left. I sat at my desk, looking for the pieces of the good mood I'd been in before her visit. I wondered grouchily if there were any way of defusing people like that before they got into my office. If I set up some kind of maze in the hallway? Maybe a series of really rude cartoons on my door.

Then, I wondered, trying desperately to be fair, if there were anything at all to what she'd been saying. Clear hyperbole aside, does my presence in the classroom actually do something to change the way people feel about braille and about blindness?

Every semester, my students do see quite a bit of braille. I braille their names on the corners of their quiz papers so that I can return them efficiently in class. I use a braille notetaker (voice turned off) to read my lecture notes and write reminders to myself. Those who are paying attention will have noticed me consulting the braille room number on the door of the classroom as I enter. If they come to my office, they will notice the braille display on my computer and see any number of untidy piles of brailled material and print material sporting braille labels.

In my work, braille is as omnipresent and as necessary as gravity or oxygen. I don't make a point of talking to my students about it any more than a sighted professor would expound on all the print material in an academic setting, but it is everywhere. Does it make a difference? I wondered if there was some way I could really find out.

The very next semester, I suddenly found myself in exactly the situation to address this question scientifically. I have a colleague at work who went to the same graduate school as I did. We took the same classes and read many of the same books, and we share a perspective about linguistics and how to teach it.

That semester, we each had a section of the same introductory linguistics course. We used the same book and gave many of the same assignments, and our students came from the same cohort: all future public school English teachers. One difference you could note, however, is that while I used significant amounts of braille all the time, my colleague, who is sighted, did not.

That semester, we went about business as usual. And, about two-thirds of the way through, we both handed out a survey on attitudes toward braille and blindness. We didn't ask them questions about how competent or self-reliant blind people are, since my students might have been afraid to answer honestly. We kept the questions about braille and about blindness in the abstract or about the students themselves.

Although under ordinary conditions you might expect differences like the gender of the instructor to be important, it was my supposition that blindness is a much more salient factor. We hypothesized that differences between attitudes toward braille and blindness in our two classes might be traceable to the presence, or absence, of a blind, braille-using instructor.

If you want to read the whole set of results--with five-part harmony and feeling as it were--it was published in the Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness in March 2005, but here's the short story.

Students in my class had significantly better attitudes about braille. They viewed it as easier to learn and less complicated than did their peers. Perhaps even more important, they were much more likely than their peers in the other section of the same class to say they would make learning braille a priority if they lost the ability to read print, and that they would be able to learn it. They also had more positive perceptions of blind people, and many of them were strong advocates for braille signs and braille menus. Significantly more of my students were indignant about the lack of braille signs in parts of the university.

We ran the appropriate set of statistics on our findings, generating lots of printouts and little boxes with asterisks in them. The statistics told us that there was less than a one out of one hundred chance (in some cases) that these numbers were some kind of fluke. Although we can't prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that the differences were real and that they were caused by the presence of a competent blind person in the classroom, the results stood up to the standard tests of significance used in psychology today.

If these numbers are correct, and we have no good reason to suspect that they are not, we have been making some excellent progress. Every day, walking, reading, talking, working, interacting, all of us incrementally change perceptions of blindness and about braille. So social patterns may be carved in stone, but if they are, each of us is a little drop of water, slowly, inevitably doing what water does to stone. We always felt this way: now we have a few figures to back us up.

BOOMERS AGING WITH VISION LOSS: PUBLIC ATTITUDES ARE KEY

By: John Rae

Editor's Note: The following paper was presented at The Festival of International Conferences on Caregiving, Disability, Aging and Technology (FICCDAT), Toronto, June 17, 2007.

"Finally, those of us who are sighted have a responsibility to become aware of the ways in which we harbour assumptions or prejudices about blindness and visual impairment. We must work to change those attitudes in ourselves and others. I know that accepting blindness as a valid, vibrant way to live in the world seems counterintuitive when you spend your professional life fighting vision loss, but it's not. We live in a sighted culture. So long as that is true, then having sight makes functional living easier and enjoying the pleasures that sight has to offer enriches life.

"But while there are many ways to be fully human and to experience an enriching life--as sighted people--we will never experience the enrichments that blindness may itself have to offer. So long as we fear blindness and reject it, so long as we believe in some way that blindness is lesser than as a way of being, not simply a more difficult way, then we are part of the problem. We are part of what makes vision loss itself so difficult.

"We can work to save sight and work to help those who lose vision to continue to thrive by expanding their skills and making the society more accessible, and at the same time we can celebrate the richness of being human in every form. If we do this, we will truly be part of the solution, on all fronts (Mogk and Mogk, 2004)."

In attempting to help a person who is blind or partially sighted, the caregiver may over-accommodate, and thereby take away from the individual's independence, respect and dignity.

Some examples are:

In a bank, do not stand where you can hear the blind person's financial transactions unless asked to do so.

In a store, the clerk hands change to the caregiver and the caregiver accepts it.

In a restaurant, the server asks, "What does he/she want?" and the caregiver answers.

The transit operator asks, "What stop would you like?" and the caregiver answers before the blind person can do so.

Baby boomers who have lived with vision impairment for much of our lives are being joined by many who have developed vision loss in later life. The quality of life that we experience in our senior years will be profoundly affected by public attitudes about vision impairment, and the ways in which caregivers respond.

"The mistaken beliefs and false concepts are almost universally accepted by the general public, and when people lose their eyesight, they carry with them into blindness the erroneous ideas which they held when they were sighted. They then live the part they are expected to play and feed back to society the conceptions that it gave them in the first place.

"Likewise, those who are born blind are taught their roles from the beginning, and unless they are given counterbalancing information, they live as they are expected to live. They think as they are expected to think (Jernigan, 1984)."

During the past 50 years, we have seen some fundamental changes in the way in which disability, including loss of sight, is viewed by many. Learning many lessons from the civil rights, demedicalization, deinstitutionalization, self-help and women's movements, persons with disabilities have organized themselves into their own groups that are based on the principles of independent living and advocacy. The Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians (AEBC) is one such consumer organization.

Founded in 1992, the AEBC is a national, not for profit organization of Canadians who are blind, deaf-blind and partially sighted. AEBC's work focuses on public awareness and advocacy on a wide range of blindness-related issues, in an effort to change both attitudes and behaviours so that we may participate and take our rightful place on terms of equality with our non-disabled peers in all aspects of regular community life.

"Independent Living (IL) is more than a social movement; it is also an analytic paradigm that is re shaping the thinking of rehabilitation professionals and researchers alike (deJong, 1979)."

deJong's analysis shifted the focus away from the medical model, which had centred on the disability itself. Issues such as social and attitudinal barriers were identified as the real problems facing people with disabilities. People with disabilities no longer saw themselves as broken or sick, certainly not in need of repair. The answers were to be found in changing and "fixing" society, not people with disabilities.

Most important, decisions must be made by the individual, not by the medical or rehabilitation professional (Gina McDonald and Mike Oxford).

Today's senior who experienced vision loss early in life probably attended a segregated school system, worked in a sheltered workshop or stayed at home on social assistance and now may be relatively content in a retirement centre with limited facilities.

While many members of our current generation may have started in a segregated school, many of us later integrated into the public system for high school. A growing number of us attended post-secondary school and have held various types of employment during our careers.

As baby boomers, we have access to a growing range of adaptive technology, which provides us with information not previously available about our disability and programs and services that enable us to direct the kind of care and services we require. As a result, more and more of us want to remain in our own homes, and maintain as much independence as possible.

We have developed heightened expectations concerning living more active lives with vision loss. In addition, we now expect to be more involved in the development of programs, approaches and services that are designed to meet our needs. Working collaboratively with consumer organizations, and involving aging seniors in all facets of service design and delivery, will result in programs that will better meet our needs.

Attitudes of caregivers play an important role in ensuring that all individuals who are blind, deaf-blind or partially sighted live active and fulfilled lives. The attitudes of caregivers must recognize and believe in the abilities of baby boomers who live with significant vision loss. This is particularly important for aging baby boomers as we attempt to retain an optimum level of independence throughout our entire lifetime.

References

DeJong, Gerben. "Independent Living: From Social Movement to Analytic Paradigm," Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 60, October 1979.

Jernigan, K. Blindness: The Circle of Sophistry, July 6, 1984.

Mogk, M.D., Lylas G. & Marja Mogk. "Saving Lives: The Impact of Vision Loss in Later Life," Presented by Dr. Mogk at the Pfizer Ophthalmology Therapeutic Area Conference, March 25, 2004: library/savinglives.html

McDonald, Gina and Mike Oxford. History of Independent Living.

COURTESY GUIDELINES: WHAT SHOULD YOU DO WHEN YOU MEET A PERSON WHO IS DEAF AND BLIND?

By: Rita Kersh

Editor's Note: This article is reprinted from the Braille Forum, Volume XLIII, No. 1, July-August 2004:

Deaf-blind people are individuals. You can't lump them together as a group any more than you can attribute a class of characteristics to any particular individual. The keys to interacting effectively and sensitively with people who are deaf and blind, as with all people, are courtesy, flexibility and common sense. What follows is, therefore, a list of suggestions you may want to consider and apply to specific situations.

1. When you approach a deaf-blind person, let him or her know with a gentle touch on the hand that you are near. Touching the hand is less startling than a touch on the back or arm. If you touch a person's hands gently and slide your hands underneath his or her own hand, the person will know that you want to communicate.

2. Identify yourself every time you meet. Even if a deaf-blind person is partially sighted or usually recognizes the touch of your hands, it is always nice to be reassured. Identifying yourself will also save possible confusion and embarrassment, yours and his or hers. Perhaps you can work out a simple but special signal for quickly identifying yourself, such as a name sign.

3. Don't ever play the "who am I?" game. It is extremely aggravating. "Do you remember me? We met at ... [don't you] remember?" is also irksome. Assume your deaf-blind companion does not remember you, and then react with pleasant surprise if he or she does.

4. When talking with a deaf-blind friend, do not tease by poking, tickling, jostling, etc. unless he or she knows what's coming. Have you ever been startled by an unexpected slap on the back or a poke in the ribs? Hearing and vision warn us of what is coming from our immediate surroundings or further away.

5. Be flexible about communication. Your deaf-blind companion may not fit your preconceived idea of how deaf-blind people communicate, so be open, not dogmatic. Don't make assumptions about the "right" modality, primary language or fluency.

If you don't know him or her, start with tactile, medium speed, modified American Sign Language. This is the accepted "default" medium. As your companion responds, you can naturally modify your communication media and speed to make the conversation more comfortable for you both.

6. Respect his or her "person." Communication takes longer and is often very difficult for us, but it is essential to our dignity. Do not move a person's hand for him or her, place a person into a chair, grip a person's thumb when signing (so that his or her hand does not slip off) or otherwise treat any person like an object.

7. If a deaf-blind person is alone in a room, let him or her know if you will be going in and out; whether you have come in to stay for a while; or when you are leaving. We all need to know when we are alone (and have our privacy) and when we are not. And we all need time to be alone and fully relax.

8. If you are in a deaf-blind person's home, do not be tempted to use your vision to snoop or spy.

9. Think of partial vision as useful but totally unreliable. Whenever possible, describe what you are talking about clearly and, rather than pointing at an object, let a deaf-blind companion touch it.

10. Don't make assumptions about what your deaf-blind companion may or may not be able to hear. Ambient noise, other environmental factors, or even a person's ability to concentrate on a particular day can affect his or her ability to utilize limited hearing effectively.

11. Guide a deaf-blind person's hand to objects by leading with yours. Let his or her hand rest lightly on the back of your hand as you move it slowly toward what you want him or her to touch. When you make contact, slowly slip your hand out from underneath.

12. If you visit a deaf-blind person's home, be sure to leave things as they are. Poor vision makes it easy to spill or knock things over. Half-open doors or cupboards can be a particularly painful annoyance.

13. Don't worry about "messiness." Doing things without sight may lead to a system for organization, which varies, from your definition of "the norm," but none of us should make judgments about one another's particular styles of putting things away.

14. Remember to communicate about what you are doing. Don't just move another person, or hand him or her objects without an explanation. A person who is deaf and blind will know how to reach for an object, or cooperate by stepping back if he or she understands what is going on. If you must move a person suddenly for reasons of safety, explain the reasons for your actions afterward.

15. Consider expense when planning outings or thinking of gifts.

16. Offer help if it seems appropriate to do so. It hurts to always have to ask. For the same reason, try to be unobtrusive and subtle whenever you offer assistance.

17. Ask a deaf-blind companion to join you in your tasks. Assume he or she is as willing to walk as anyone of the same age, as willing and able to carry things as anyone of the same size and build. Silly as it is, we sometimes think of deaf-blind people as fragile and we hesitate to ask them to walk far or help us carry things. Unless the deaf-blind person has a complicating disability, he or she will probably enjoy both the exercise and the opportunity to join you and to share life's chores with you.

On the other hand, some people with dual sensory losses have been forced into a sedentary lifestyle by well-meaning but uninformed caregivers. If this is the case, start slowly until your companion has had an opportunity to get in shape.

18. Do let a person who is deaf and blind think independently. Give him or her options. Provide as much information as possible, then let the person make decisions for him-or herself.

Don't make assumptions about whether a person is hungry, whether he or she wants you to cut up the meat on the plate, etc. Allow a companion an adequate amount of time to make up his or her mind about an activity or your offer of assistance. Then, if your companion requests your help, offer it without judgment or comment.

19. Personal items such as wallets, purses and keys should not be touched unless you are asked. A deaf-blind person can handle his or her own money, pay the check independently, open doors without your assistance, etc.

Along this same line of thought, be sure not to move a person's coat, cane, etc. without first telling him or her. Even if you hang it up, tell the item's owner where it is, so that when he or she is ready to leave, he or she knows where personal items are and does not have to find you or ask someone to look for them.

20. Do not be offended or discouraged if the deaf-blind person asks to go home or seems to be unenthusiastic about suggested plans. The best of friends are not always welcome. There are times when all of us are exhausted, when we have other plans, when we have chores that must be done, etc.

21. Plan things in advance so your deaf-blind friend knows what to expect and can plan accordingly. Being deaf and blind may require more organization and planning than being sighted and hearing.

22. Consider everything you say to be a promise and follow through. We often make simple statements, which are really promises such as "I'll stop by tomorrow on my way home." "I'll be right back." "I want you to come over for dinner some time." Sometimes we don't really mean "tomorrow" but "soon."

Sometimes we already know we can't do what we say we will, but we wish we could. For someone who cannot drive, has limited access to phone and bus, who has a small circle of friends, a lack of follow-through can be especially disappointing.

23. Respect the deaf-blind person's privacy and dignity. Do not ask personal questions unless you are close friends. Do not pass on information you may know about him or her without his or her knowledge and permission.

HIV/AIDS, CMV RETINITIS AND VISION LOSS

By: Yves Brunet

HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is not well known as a cause of vision loss. Losing part or all of your sight because of HIV is rare nowadays due to medical advances, but at one time there was no effective treatment for this virus or its complications. HIV-related vision loss seems even rarer be cause often those who have become blind in this way are reluctant to reveal the truth- the stigma is still that strong. Some prefer to say they have retinopathy or macular degeneration, rather than the real cause-CMV retinitis, an infection that can result from AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome).

What is CMV?

CMV stands for Cytomegalovirus. In North America, 50-85% of people over forty years of age are infected with this virus, but a normal immune system is able to keep it at bay. In fact, a person can live a long life without ever knowing they are infected.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, however, before the development of effective treatments for HIV and its complications, CMV was a major cause of death for people entering the last stage of HIV disease, often called AIDS. It can attack various organs such as the stomach (gastritis), bowel (colitis), central nervous system (AIDS dementia), lungs (pneumonia), or eyes (retinitis).

In 1986, I was diagnosed with HIV and was likely infected in 1984. In 1995, I entered the final stage of the disease (AIDS), when I was diagnosed with CMV gastritis-the virus had started "eating" the insides of my stomach. Doctors put me on intravenous (IV) treatment three times a week for what was considered to be the rest of my life--estimated at that time to be less than two years.

No effective treatment existed for HIV in those days and my condition continued to deteriorate. Two years later, the CMV virus was "chewing" on the retinas of both my eyes. My ophthalmologist told me that if it was not stopped, I would soon go blind.

I started having weekly injections directly into my eyes, something I hated--first the needles to freeze the eyes, then the needles with the medication, and finally the almost irresistible urge to gouge out my own eyes as the freezing wore off. In my case, effective HIV treatments arrived just at the right time. As my immune system slowly recovered thanks to new medications, I no longer needed the eye injections and eventually I was also able to stop having the IV treatments.

It was time to reinvent myself and reinvest in life. I still had my sight but then I started to have some complications with retinal detachments. The "chewing" of the CMV and the "poking" of the needles had left too many little holes in my retinas. They detached, necessitating vitraectomies, where the liquid in the eyes (vitreous) is removed and replaced with silicone oil. (When I give testimonials or public awareness presentations in schools, I like to say that I have silicone eyes--not silicone breasts!)

Over time, this caused cataracts to develop, which required more surgery. In 2002, after five operations, I was told that I was legally blind. The doctors still don't know the precise reason, but suspect that it's simply the result of my eyes having experienced too much trauma.

Given that HIV is manageable today through medication (even though it is not an easy task), do people with this virus still get CMV retinitis?

The quick answer is that fortunately there is much less incidence of CMV retinitis nowadays. But it is still around.

There are two main categories of people with HIV who still develop CMV--those who cannot effectively be treated and those who simply do not know they are infected with HIV. Among the former are people who do not live in conditions favourable to taking medication regularly, including the homeless, some natives, people with mental health issues, and injection drug users. Another group is those having adverse reactions to HIV medication.

Today, if HIV remains untreated or is untreatable, CMV retinitis will usually only occur in the last 6 months of life. Normally when one is infected with HIV, CMV retinitis is not the first debilitating infection to appear, but some people simply have not read the "rule book" and develop CMV retinitis as their first HIV infection. If undetected, the disease can progress in 2 to 3 weeks to the point of total blindness.

Yves Brunet lives in Ottawa, Ontario, and gives testimonials and seminars on HIV at schools, community groups, conferences etc. on a volunteer basis. He was the 2005 winner of the Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians' Alan H. Neville Memorial Scholarship. Readers with comments or questions can contact him at: pikey59@

STUDENT IS DISPELLING MYTHS ABOUT ALBINISM

By: Jodi Spiegel Arthur

Editor's Note: The following article is reprinted from the Intelligencer, September 17, 2004.

When Christopher Hoagland was born, doctors told his mother he would never see or hear because he has albinism.

Neither is true.

Although his vision is far from 20/20, he can read with corrective lenses, and his hearing is just fine.

Albinism is an inherited condition in which most people have little or no pigment in their hair, skin or eyes. Some educators and the general public aren't always well versed on the condition.

Now, nearly 16 and a high school sophomore, Christopher hopes to change that with a public awareness campaign he has developed for his Eagle Scout project.

With the help of some of his fellow Boy Scouts, he recently mailed packets of information on albinism to eye doctors, pediatricians and school districts in Bucks and Montgomery counties and invited them to attend an information session he is hosting Saturday at Upper Moreland High School.

Speaking at the session, to which the residents also are invited, are his ophthalmologist, his vision support teacher, his orientation and mobility teacher, his mother and another student with albinism.

"I want people to be aware of what albinism is from a vision point of view, an educational point of view, a social point of view and a student's point of view," Christopher said, as he sat with his family at their dining room table, his arms sunburned from a recent marching-band practice at school.

He also wants to dispel the misconceptions people have about the condition, some of them derived from books and movies that portray people with albinism as villains.

"People stare and make comments," said Christopher's mother, Beth.

"All the time, from the time I was little," he added.

"People ask whether we dyed his hair," Beth Hoagland said.

According to the National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation, a non-profit support and information group known as NOAH, albinism refers to a group of inherited conditions that affects one in 17,000 people in the United States. One form of albinism affects the hair, skin and eyes, while another affects the eyes and may affect the skin and hair only slightly or not at all. Those with the skin condition are advised to be careful about getting too much sun.

"The condition is characterized by uncorrectable low vision, typically ranging from 20/70 to 20/400," said Michael McGowan, president of NOAH's board of directors. Although many people with Albinism are legally blind, some have vision acute enough to drive a car, and most can read without braille. Some people with albinism have red-or violet-colored eyes, but most have blue eyes, while some have hazel or brown eyes.

"For the most part, there are no serious medical issues with a person with albinism," McGowan said.

The desire to teach others about albinism is not new to Christopher. He has conducted information sessions for his classmates in the past, telling them what his "low-vision" aids are and why he needs them. In addition to his glasses, Christopher uses specially enlarged textbooks for his classes and magnifying lenses to read library books.

"He's fulfilling a real need, as far as I can see," said Cynthia Curtis, Christopher's vision support teacher from the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit. "I think it's a wonderful service that he's doing for the community."

McGowan called Christopher's Scout project inspiring and gutsy because it means calling attention to himself, when what people with albinism want is to fit in with everyone else.

Jodi Spiegel Arthur can be reached at (215) 957-8148 or: jarthur@

C2004 Copyright Calkins Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

KEEP EYES PEELED FOR SPECS DISCRIMINATION

By: Vinay Menon

Editor's Note: The following article is reprinted from the Toronto Star, February 8, 2006.

It's one of TV's last acceptable stereotypes. And it's right there in front of our eyes.

Have you ever wondered why so few TV characters wear glasses? No? You have more important things to wonder about?

Well, beat it.

That's right, take your 20/20 glibness elsewhere...

Let's start again.

Have you ever wondered why so few TV characters wear glasses? How can sleazy producers get away with this abysmal representation at a time when 84 percent* of North Americans require some type of vision correction? (*Statistic totally made up to bolster questionable thesis.)

Look at some of tonight's shows.

Lost (ABC, CTV, 9 p.m.) brims with mysteries--from tropical island polar bears to cryptic numerology to menacing black clouds to the marooned inhabitants' sudden capacity to comprehend Korean.

But nothing boggles like this: how did Oceanic Flight 815 leave Sydney carrying so many passengers with perfect vision? This, my myopic brothers and sisters, is the real conspiracy.

The No Specs rule holds true for Invasion, South Beach and Freddie, though that last show might improve exponentially if the cast was forced to stumble around the set in Groucho Marx cheaters.

And would it kill just one musician to expand the acceptance speech parameters at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards (CBS, Global, 8 p.m.)?

Thank your fans, your parents, your label, your God. Fine, whatever. But, come on Kanye West, how about a shout-out to your optometrist?

Where are the role models for the world's bespectacled children? Must these poor kids, already tormented with "Coke bottle!" and "Four Eyes!" taunts, seek inspiration from Harry Potter and Napoleon Dynamite?

As somebody who spent his teenage years looking like a photonegative of Buddy Holly, I can tell you that we must change this grave situation before anguished youth throw off their glasses and start bumping into walls.

TV is overrun with doctors, lawyers, forensic scientists--occupations that usually boast a high proportion of corrective lenses in the real world. So what gives?

Beauty and The Geek (WB, 9 p.m.), which calls itself a "social experiment," is really just another show that ridicules the nearsighted while upholding a wretched pop-cultural slander: Glasses equals Nerd.

Did you watch the recent episode where the Geeks were subjected to a hasty makeover? With one exception, every Geek was stripped of his glasses, which prompted the Beauties to flutter their hands and squeal with newfound lust.

This, of course, feeds into the Before And After Transformation Empowerment Myth: 1. You start with somebody who is meek, insecure, unattractive, traits that are literally magnified by their ghastly eyewear. 2. The person is suddenly transformed, possessing a range of previously unknown strengths. The glasses are ditched and he/she adopts a new look that might even involve flamboyant costumes, including a cape. You know, like Superman. Or Elton John.

Women are also victims of television's Anti-Lens Bias. In the past, female characters were often saddled with oversized glasses to make a not-so-subtle point: this chick is not as attractive as that chick. (See: Bailey Quarters versus Jennifer Marlowe on WKRP in Cincinnati; Kay Simmons versus Valerie Irons on V.I.P.; Velma versus Daphne on Scooby-Doo.)

The other night, while watching 24, I noticed that Audrey removes her glasses when talking to Jack on a secure phone.

And so this evil stereotyping continues with tired archetypes. From the Most Deranged Sibling (Arrested Development) to the Geeky Peripheral Friend (Malcolm in the Middle) to the Guest Role of An Ugly Romantic Interest (Closer To Home), today's glasses-wearing characters are direct descendents of Skippy and Urkel.

This is a moral outrage.

So join with me now, my blind-as-a-bat brothers and sisters. Let us raise our concave glasses and call for an end to this prime time prejudice! Let us not rest until all the Desperate Housewives are fitted with horn-rims.

Let us forever remember the sacrifice of one Drew Carey, who wore glasses on TV even after laser eye surgery.

The time has come for a Million Specs March. Imagine the sight as we lock arms, our glasses pushed bravely up on our noses, our "Stop The Astigmatic Stigma!" placards hoisted into the crisp air.

Let them laugh at us, push us to the ground. We have bendable frames and scratch-resistant lenses.

We shall not stop fighting until the day arrives when every character on every show on every network is free to wear glasses without fear or persecution.

vmenon@thestar.ca

Reprinted with permission--Torstar Syndication Services.

INTERNATIONAL CORNER

ALPINE HOLIDAY

By: Joyce Main and Raquel

Editor's Note: Joyce Main lives in Toronto, Ontario, and has three children and four grandchildren. She is President of Guide Dog Users of Canada and actively lobbies for equality rights for persons who are blind, deaf-blind and partially sighted.

I arrived in Zurich, Switzerland, a little tired and eagerly anticipating a reunion with my daughter, Elsa, who had left Canada to work in Europe almost 20 years ago. After being escorted through customs and baggage area by a courteous Agent, I heard Elsa's voice calling me. I was introduced to her employer, Herr Kanel, and then we were on our way!

We stopped at a lovely park outside Zurich, where Raquel had a run and we enjoyed coffee and pastry. Herr Kanel and Elsa described the countryside as we drove through villages, towns and the city of Interlaken, just five miles from Bonigen, where Elsa lives. It is a typical Swiss village on Lake Bienz in the Interlaken-Jungfrau region, known throughout the world for its hospitality and skiing.

The two weeks that followed were wonderful! Every day before we walked by the lake, Elsa picked up her landlady's two dogs. Lake Brienz is calm and very beautiful, and Raquel and her companions swam in the lake and could even drink the water!

One Sunday we took the ferry around the lake. We had lunch onboard and stopped at the Geisback waterfalls, which are located higher in the Alps. Another day we took the cable car to the first plateau above the valley, enjoyed a Swiss meal at the restaurant and hiked the trails. On the way back to Bonigen, we hiked to an animal refuge located just above the village.

During the last week in September, cattle are brought down from the mountains and new cheese is made. I enjoyed a traditional meal with new friends and was given some cheese and gifts.

Everyone we met on our trip was friendly and helpful. They loved Raquel and were very well informed about guide dogs. My Guiding Eyes For the Blind Training Centre identification was accepted in lieu of fares on all public transit. Best of all, we were welcomed everywhere we travelled.

In Switzerland, the attitude towards blind persons is unique. We are tourists and paying guests--NOT STEREOTYPES. AND ISN'T THAT WHAT WE WANT--EVERYWHERE WE GO?

You can find out more about this beautiful country by visiting on the net. I recently sent one of AEBC's members some information about Bonigen, and I can give you specific information about the hotel and JungFrau region if you email me at: Raquel3@

"Gruezi!" HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY!

TRAVELLING TO CHINA

By: Alan Conway

Editor's Note: Alan Conway lives in Gatineau, Quebec, and works as a conference interpreter for the government of Canada.

Travelling to distant lands is something many would like to do, but few actually get the chance. I was fortunate to be able to take the trip of a lifetime in 1989, when my work as a conference interpreter took me to China. Since we don't always think of how we may be perceived by people in other countries when we're disabled, that aspect of the trip was especially interesting.

I noticed some of the first differences on the Air China flight from Hong Kong to Beijing. I might well have been travelling in economy class but it always seemed that there was someone standing there waiting to see if I needed anything. Of course, communication was difficult, and if one of my colleagues, who also speaks fluent Mandarin, hadn't told me what was going on, I might well have been unaware of the attention I was attracting.

When I arrived at the hotel, I couldn't get over the confusion. There seemed to be people everywhere talking very loudly and the whole process seemed terribly disorganized. When I went to sign in after registering, I took out my signature guide and signed as I usually would. The entire process was met by uproarious laughter from the staff behind the counter. I remember at the time not feeling all that upset; after all, these people had probably had very little contact with a blind person.

During the conference, I couldn't believe the feeling of admiration my presence apparently caused. Someone had been assigned to be with us to act as our interpreter in situations where we needed help and weren't working. As it turned out, one of our colleagues took care of things, but this man couldn't do enough for me. He even told me that, if there was anything I wanted to do in China while I was there, I should tell him and he would arrange it. When I asked about visiting a school for the blind, he promptly told me to consider the arrangements made. He was as good as his word.

The visit to the school was most interesting. In 1989, Chinese schools were generally underfunded, but the situation was a lot worse in this particular school for the blind. At the time, parents had to pay for their blind children's education and, although the amount would have been insignificant for us (about ten dollars per term), it certainly represented a hardship for many parents. The Director told me that he saw only a small number of the students who could potentially have attended his school.

Here again, I certainly had some interesting experiences. When we arrived at the school, a lady came rushing out to help us. She didn't really know how to guide properly, so she stood behind me and tried to do so by pushing against my arm and trying to lift me.

When we finally got to the place where she wanted me to meet the Director, she began backing me towards the chair where I was to sit. My colleague, who wanted to come with me to the school, told me to kick my legs out from under me when he gave the word. It was the only thing to do, since I was being forced to back up and wouldn't be able to locate the chair. Of course, the chair was designed for someone quite a bit shorter than I, so I ended up sitting down very hard and certainly most ungracefully. As if that weren't enough, the lady was told that I was to be taken somewhere else after all that, so we began the process all over again.

The work of Dr. Norman Bethune, a Canadian who provided medical care to the communists during the revolution that ultimately brought them to power, has given Canada a wonderful reputation in China as a people. When I entered classrooms, teachers told their students that I was from the land of Norman Bethune and the children seemed particularly interested.

I'm uncertain that I would have liked to study there, but the school did a good job in training its students for traditional jobs as masseurs and for other types of manual work. AT the time, adaptive technology was almost nonexistent and, from what the director told me, higher education was unheard of. He was therefore very impressed by my own level of education.

He told me that blind people in China don't use white canes, and if they work it is their work units that look after everything. Losing a job is therefore something not to be taken lightly.

China certainly wasn't the kind of place where a blind person could travel very independently. The fact is that I was able to benefit a lot from the trip thanks to Jean Duval, a colleague who had learned Mandarin at the age of 14. He took us everywhere and even managed to negotiate some reduced prices. He actually told someone in a restaurant that we were socialist brothers from the former Soviet Union. Since the people he was speaking to didn't know English, they took his word for it and the price of our meals was promptly cut in half!

He also made sure we had plenty of unforgettable experiences to go along with all the hard work. The last Saturday we spent was marked by a meal in a typical Mongolian restaurant. The lady who owned it came up to each of us and gave us a glass of fermented mare's milk. She sang us each a song and when she was finished, we had to drink it down all at once. It was very smooth, but I certainly remember how fast it went to my head.

On balance, although I noticed that people often displayed considerable admiration toward me as a blind person, it was all too obvious that our view of an independent lifestyle in such a country would be very difficult to reconcile. Perhaps an analysis of Chinese attitudes to people who are blind is inappropriate here given the length of time that has passed since my trip, but I would describe the attitudes of the time as a real mixed bag. On the one hand, there seems little doubt that people admire the success of people with disabilities, but to say that they had anything like equal opportunity in China at the time would be in appropriate. I haven't had an overseas trip since 1989, but this one will certainly rank among the most interesting I have ever taken.

BLIND AIDS SET FOR PUBLIC-HOUSING ESTATES

Editor's Note: This article is reprinted from .hk, Hong Kong, February 18, 2007.

Improvement works to make visually impaired public-housing tenants' lives easier will be completed by the end of 2008, Assistant Director of Housing (Estate Management) Bay Wong says.

The $100 million programme involves installing tactile warning strips, tactile guide paths and voice synthesizers in lift cars, and tactile marking and braille on all lift buttons, lock pads and letter boxes.

Mr. Wong said the department launched another $20 million programme in 2001 to create a barrier-free living environment for disabled and elderly tenants.

It provides improved facilities rendering barrier-free access for wheelchair-bound tenants such as ramps, handrails and dropped kerbs.

The works in 127 public-rental housing estates have already been completed and work in the remaining 33 estates will be finished by mid-2007.

Flat Alterations

"In public-rental housing estates with the largest number of elderly tenants aged 65 or above--Sau Mau Ping Estate, Pak Tin Estate and Choi Hung Estate--facilities and landscape improvements were designed to cater for the elderly.

"Benches, sports and recreational facilities such as foot massage paths and outdoor fitness equipment were also installed," Mr. Wong said.

Apart from the additional facilities in common areas, the department has also carried out flat alterations to meet elderly tenants' individual needs or advice of their therapists.

"On average, alteration works for more than 10 units in each public-rental housing estate are completed every year. These involve lowering door thresholds, replacing thresholds with ramps, widening toilet doors, improving toilet layouts and shower facilities, re-positioning toilets and electricity switches."

ST. LUCIA GETS HELP FROM CUBA WITH STATE-OF-THE-ART REGIONAL EYE CARE FACILITY

Editor's Note: This press release is taken from (Barbados) and is dated September 2, 2006.

Work Already Underway

Castries, 2 Sept., 2006--Prime Minister Dr. Kenny D. Anthony has confirmed that the Government of Cuba is assisting in the establishment of a state-of-the-art regional eye care facility in Saint Lucia.

The Prime Minister says plans are proceeding apace for the establishment of the ultra-modern regional ophthalmology centre in Saint Lucia, which will provide expert services to patients from neighbouring islands through the Miracle eye care project, Plan Milago.

Dr. Anthony says work is already under way at Victoria Hospital, where, with material and technical assistance from Cuba, the regional centre will be based. Cuba is also providing material assistance in the construction of the sub-regional eye care centre.

The Prime Minister told a rally of the ruling Saint Lucia Labour Party (SLP), in the village of Laborie on Sunday, that when the centre is located here, "it will serve patients from Saint Lucia and other independent member states of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS)."

As such, the centre will serve patients from Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Carricou and Petite Martinique, as well as Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

"As a result of the location of the new centre here," the Prime Minister explained later, "unless they need rare or specialized eye care that must be provided in Cuba, Saint Lucians and other OECS citizens will no longer have to travel to Havana."

"All the eye care now provided in Havana," he said, "will now become available here when the centre is completed."

Prime Minister Anthony said the Cubans were assisting the Government and people of Saint Lucia "to improve our human resource capacity. At the same time," he continued, "it allows us the opportunity to reduce on the extent to which we would have to go to Cuba and stretch the generosity of the Cuban government and people."

Cuba's Ambassador to Saint Lucia, Hugo Ruiz Cabrera, agrees. He says, "The centre helps strengthen Saint Lucia's capacity to deliver the best service at home for the benefit of many countries."

Ambassador Cabrera said, "The centre will be furnished with the latest and most up-to-date medical equipment and will be staffed by the same Cuban doctors presently taking care of eye patients from these countries in Cuba."

He confirmed that Cuba "will also provide the medicines and assist with the medical and nursing staff for the modern centre."

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister says the location of the regional ophthalmology centre in Saint Lucia "is another manifestation of the selfless and valuable assistance that Cuba is providing to Saint Lucia and other Caribbean countries."

He pointed out that the Cuban medical team here "has examined over 10,000 Saint Lucians and over 1,000 have been treated in Cuba."

"And, apart from training doctors and dentists," he added, "they are also training 300 nurses, who will now each have the opportunity of extending their scholarships by two more years to graduate with a Bachelor's Degree in nursing."

Dr. Anthony, who recently visited Havana and held talks with Cuban President Fidel Castro on several issues of mutual concern to the two countries, also referred to the presence here of some 25 nurses from Cuba "who are here to assist in strengthening the capacity of our local delivery services at the island's main health institutions."

Cuba's assistance to Saint Lucia over the last 25 years has spanned several fields important for the development of the island's human resources.

Currently, over 400 Saint Lucians are studying various disciplines in Cuba, while over 200 graduates have returned home after being trained in several fields important to national development.

Altogether, there are thousands of students from the dozen English-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member states pursuing various university studies in the Spanish language in Havana.

In the case of Latin America, the number of students pursuing similar courses is in the tens of thousands. But under the Plan Milago project, over 400 thousand persons from Latin America and the Caribbean have had their eyes cared for or sight restored--which is why those who were blind and can now see have named it "The Miracle Project."

Source: St. Lucia Government Information Service

PRESIDENT'S REPORT: PERSPECTIVE AND POSSIBILITIES

By: John Rae

Editor's Note: The following is adapted from notes presented at the biennial conference of the Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians (AEBC), Victoria, British Columbia (BC), May 18, 2007.

This year, the AEBC turns 15. This is a significant milestone for any organization, especially a consumer organization such as the AEBC.

When we last met here in Victoria eight years ago under our original name, the National Federation of the Blind: Advocates for Equality (NFB:AE), we had four chapters, while today we have 11.

Until that tumultuous Conference, we looked southward to the NFB in the United States for much of our philosophy and inspiration.

However, at that watershed event in our history, much changed!

Two different philosophies and approaches clashed, and the membership decided that this country needed a vibrant, forward-looking, "made in Canada" organization that was aware of Canada's unique history, culture, geography, political system and psyche, and that would develop "made in Canada" approaches to solve Canadian problems.

During that conference, our membership adopted Resolution 1999-02, which clearly enunciated that philosophy and approach. I think it is useful to remind ourselves of at least a part of what that resolution said:

"As NFB:AE members, we take our rights and responsibilities seriously. We will not tolerate being discriminated against by any corporations, governments or other entities because we are blind or otherwise vision-impaired;

"NFB:AE members believe that blindness is only one characteristic of an individual's overall being;

"NFB:AE members believe that, with appropriate training, education, and reasonable accommodation, individuals who are blind or otherwise vision-impaired can function successfully in the community and can compete effectively in the workplace;

"NFB:AE members expect the provision of information in various alternative formats--as a right, and not a "special need"--and that this right should be universally recognized."

Since that conference, we have held many important discussions with one another, consolidated our fundamental beliefs, changed our organization's name, established new chapters, worked on many important issues, and taken our message to an ever-widening range of events and other organizations. Throughout, we have been guided by thoughtful membership resolutions, and the participation of a group of extremely talented and committed individuals who have devoted incredible amounts of time and energy to developing the AEBC into what it has become.

The AEBC exists to challenge outdated stereotypes and misconceptions about blindness; to promote the capabilities of Canadians who are blind, deaf-blind and partially sighted; to provide a focal point for personal support and work on issues in communities across our country; and to offer a consumer perspective on the development of programs and services that affect us.

Our "nothing about us without us" message focuses on developing mainstream solutions to the issues and barriers we continue to confront. The AEBC works hard to expand our range of rights and opportunities, as we attempt to achieve the elusive goal of the 1981 International year of the Disabled Person, "full participation and equality."

Today, the Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians works on a wide range of issues, from assistive devices, increasing access to information in multiple formats, to electoral reform, transportation, assisting individuals to file human rights complaints, changing public attitudes, and the bread and butter issues of increasing employment opportunities and fighting poverty.

This philosophy and approach sometimes requires us to examine our own ideas, and challenge and expand our own thinking and confront some tough issues head on.

The application by the National Broadcast Reading Service (NBRS) to the CRTC (Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission) seeking the licensing of a specialty channel to broadcast DVS (descriptive video service) programming is a prime example. While AEBC members would love to see an increase in the availability of DVS programming, we filed an intervention opposing this application, believing that a new "special" service would be a backward step in our elusive search for equality through mainstream solutions, and fearing that its approval would be used as yet another excuse by Canada's broadcasters to further drag their feet on providing DVS programming through their regular programming.

During this weekend, we will devote some time to examining the principles of Universal Design, and attempt to further elaborate how they should be applied to assist persons who are blind, deaf-blind and partially sighted to live full and fulfilled lives.

The past year has been one of the most challenging in our history, especially in the areas of political climate and funding. At the same time, it has also been one of our most exciting and productive, especially in the areas of external work, organizational growth and transition, and I believe we should be extremely optimistic about our future, though much hard work is ahead.

In the summer of 2004, the AEBC Assistive Devices Program Committee conducted a nationwide survey to determine the unmet needs of Canadians who are blind, deaf-blind and partially sighted when it comes to the equipment that would increase our independence and quality of life. In 2005, AEBC joined the BC Provincial Equipment and Assistive Devices Committee (PEADC) and Linda Bartram became co-chair.

One year later, the PEADC was working with the provincial government to develop a provincially funded Equipment and Assistive Devices Program, with AEBC playing a lead roll on the community side. As the program was taking shape, the needs of persons with vision loss became more evident to the lead Ministry, compelling them to start addressing this gap as a priority.

In March of this year, the AEBC was awarded a $355,500 grant to develop and administer a low-tech assistive devices program for British Columbians who are blind, deaf-blind and partially sighted. This is a pilot project, which will be based on the "Participation Model" being further developed for a broader, cross-disability equipment and assistive devices program. The scope of the program (what equipment will be included, eligibility etc.) is still being finalized at this time.

The AEBC will be coordinating a program that will demonstrate the Participation Model for Personal Supports, determine the current gaps in community capacity to deliver assistive devices to British Columbians who are blind, deaf-blind or partially sighted, and increase community capacity to implement the Participation Model.

At the same time, British Columbians with vision loss will benefit from the provision of at least some of the low-tech devices they need.

This project should not be interpreted as a move away from our traditional work of public awareness and advocacy. Literature on advocacy work includes developing pilot or demonstration projects, to explore different or better ways of operating. That's exactly what the AEBC is doing by testing this "participation model."

The AEBC remains active in the work of the Council of Canadians With Disabilities (CCD). In November 2006, we participated in the End Exclusion conference in Ottawa, Ontario, where the pros and cons of a possible National Disability Act were outlined, and a paper on fighting poverty was released.

In March 2007, the AEBC joined with the broader disability rights movement in Canada to celebrate two important and hard-won victories!

Last year, I reported the AEBC and three other organizations retained ARC Disability Law Centre to intervene at the Supreme Court of Canada in support of CCD's case against Via Rail. On March 23, the high court handed down a 5-4 ruling in favour of CCD that is expected to have implications for other human rights cases.

The Court's ruling reinstates the decision of the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA), which requires Via Rail to modify 13 economy coach cars and 17 service cars in the Renaissance fleet so every daytime train and overnight sleeper train would be accessible to passengers using their own wheelchairs.

Having accessible trains travelling along some routes does not justify inaccessible trains on others, reasoned Justice Rosalie Abella, saying VIA offered "no concrete evidence" that refurbishing the "Renaissance" cars would create undue hardship for the carrier.

The benefits of accommodating disabled travellers are impossible to quantify in monetary terms, but financial cost isn't the only consideration, wrote Abella for the majority of the Court.

"What's really at issue is how far society, in this case transportation carriers, must go in accommodating the disabled and other minorities," said David Baker, who has represented the Council of Canadians With Disabilities throughout this case.

"Persons with disabilities must be accommodated unless doing so would create undue hardship. Now, just because there are significant costs involved, it doesn't mean it's the end of the story," he said.

Transportation Minister Lawrence Cannon told reporters "VIA obviously will conform to the decision of the Supreme Court."

Throughout the past several years, the AEBC participated in meetings to help the Government of Canada develop its position on the proposed UN (United Nations) Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities, and On March 30, Canada was among 81 States and the European Commission that signed the Convention. 43 States also signed the Optional Protocol.

The Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities is the first human rights convention of the 21st century. The federal government is continuing to consult with the provinces and territories, and we hope Canada will also soon sign the Convention's Optional Protocol.

Signing is by no means the end of work on the Convention; ratification and effective implementation are still ahead, and the disability rights movement in Canada must continue to be involved to help ensure this Convention makes a real difference in the lives of the world's 650 million persons with a disability, most of whom live in the developing world where progress is so desperately needed.

We continue to meet with Elections Canada, and expect that voting at the next federal election will be somewhat more accessible to blind electors. Elections Canada has developed a new template, which is made of plastic, and contains both braille and raised numbers. All of their radio and TV ads will announce phone numbers. They are also working to provide lists of candidates in braille and large print at each poll location. I am delighted that the new template is being exhibited at this year's Conference.

AEBC's Scholarship Program, which supports outstanding blind, deaf-blind and partially sighted students, remains an important part of every year's work. We would like to congratulate the following recipients of our 2006 Scholarship awards and wish them every success in their futures: Laura Bulk, Victoria, British Columbia; Jennifer Dillon, Toronto, Ontario; Danielle Laplante-Ip, Montreal, Quebec; and Jacob Vaynshteyn, Edmonton, Alberta.

We continue to take our message to new places, either by staffing a booth or making presentations.

The AEBC Participated in the Northeastern Regional Conference of the Association for the Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER) Conference, Montreal; the biennial National Educational Association of Disabled Students (NEADS) Conference, Ottawa; the BC Vision Teachers Conference, Kelowna; the Disability and Information Technologies Research Alliance Conference, Winnipeg, Manitoba; the ARCH Annual General Meeting (AGM), Toronto; Inclusion and Participation: Persons with Disabilities in the Workplace--an invited symposium, Edmonton; the Vocational Disability Resource and Information Fair, Victoria; the W. Ross Macdonald School reunion, Brantford, Ontario; and the Jobs and Justice Conference of the Canadian Centre on Policy Alternatives, Vancouver, BC.

AEBC members presented at CAILC's (Canadian Association of Independent Living Centres) Executive Directors Forum to discuss access issues; the Canadian Apprenticeship Forum Conference to raise awareness of disability issues in the apprenticeship process; two seminars on museum access for the Ontario Historical Society; appeared twice before the Ontario Citizens Assembly to discuss access to voting issues; appeared before the Ontario Standing Committee on Justice Policy concerning an overhaul to the Ontario Human Rights Code; and appeared before the federal Standing Committee on Human Resources, Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities at which we called on the federal government to develop a new National Economic Strategy for Canadians with disabilities.

And we will be making presentations at both the 11th International Conference on Mobility and Transport for Elderly and Disabled Persons (TRANSED), Montreal, and the Festival of International Conferences on Caregiving, Disabled, Aging & Technology (FICCDAT) 2007 Conferences, Toronto, in June. (Note: To read AEBC's FICCDAT paper, see "Boomers Aging with Vision Loss: Public Attitudes are Key" elsewhere in this publication.)

The AEBC is a member of ARCH Disability Law Centre; the Association of Sight Impaired Consumers (ASIC); the media Access and participation initiative; CAILC's virtual independent living centres project advisory committee; and a National Telecommunications Working Group.

As part of our public awareness work, we continue to publish our national magazine, the Canadian Blind Monitor, in various formats; created six public service announcements and circulated them to media outlets in cities where we have chapters or potential chapters; and developed employment, mentorship and guide dog brochures, all of which are available at: blindcanadians.ca

We also published an extensive advocacy manual, "Stand Up! Speak Out!", also available on our website, which examines various areas of advocacy, provides past "real life" examples, and discusses assertive and effective communication techniques to assist individuals interested in advocating for themselves or others. The AEBC believes that education about the advocacy process, assertive communication, and available resources can help individuals successfully advocate, and that through this means, and public education, a more equitable and accessible Canadian society can be created.

Despite funding uncertainty, AEBC's Human Resources Committee took the bold step of recommending that we move ahead with the recruitment and hiring of our first National Equality Director. After a national search, Albert Ruel of Victoria started work in February 2007, and he has already added a lot to our organization.

Having Albert on board gives the AEBC a senior staff member that most other national organizations take for granted. It should make it somewhat easier for future Board members, but when we hired Albert we made it very clear to ourselves that we would remain involved and active on your behalf, though hopefully somewhat less involved in day-to-day work.

As part of the transition process, we have re-established a chapter in Winnipeg, reorganized our Calgary, Alberta, chapter, and formed our very first chapter in Edmonton. Several chapters have elected new Presidents--Lisa Neufeld in Kelowna, Mitch Lindsay here in Victoria, Beryl Williams in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Lorne Daley in Ottawa, Richard Marion in Vancouver, and on Sunday we will elect a new National President.

Following last year's AGM in Kelowna, the Board was forced to sever our relationship with our primary fundraiser, and throughout this year much time and energy has been spent on disentangling our organization from the problems that remained from that relationship. We are fortunate that previous Boards had accrued surpluses that have enabled us to weather this past year quite well.

The Board has proceeded very cautiously in signing new fundraising contracts. To assist our fundraising activities, the Board established a sister organization, the Alliance for Blind Canadians (ABC), a non-profit corporation that does not have a charitable number. This fact enables it to undertake fundraising activities that would cause difficulties for a charitable organization.

As discussed last year, the political climate in Canada has changed considerably. The new Conservative government believes in far less federal involvement, especially in areas of provincial jurisdiction. And this means we must become more effective in engaging decision makers provincially.

Future Priorities: While our new National Equality Director now plays an important role, the new President and Board will remain busy and directly involved in carrying out the work of this organization. Some priority areas I see for the next couple of years will be:

* Increasing the name recognition of the AEBC across the country;

* Developing new sources of funding;

* Establishing new chapters and strengthening their Capacity to Engage. More and more, important decisions are being made at the provincial/territorial/municipal levels, and we must develop the capacity to engage politicians and other decision makers at these levels;

* Increasing membership. Every member needs to talk to friends, as the one on one approach is often what brings in new people;

* Seeking younger members. Canada's disability rights movement is led by a group of graying individuals. All organizations, including the AEBC, need to devote some concentrated time on attracting new and younger individuals;

* Seeking more members who are partially sighted and/or seniors;

* Membership development: The AEBC must continue to encourage members to participate directly in our work. All are encouraged to join at least one national committee. This is the way many of us developed the skills we now possess.

For the past nine years, I have been proud to serve on our Boards alongside a group of extremely talented and dedicated individuals. At times we have been criticized for being too slow to act, and at others for being too tough. That leads me to believe your Boards have done a pretty good job of representing the Resolutions we have adopted together.

I believe in the words of American author, Leo C. Rosten (1908-1977): "I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be honourable, to be compassionate. It is, after all, to matter: to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all."

I look forward to continuing to serve.

I want to thank all of those individuals who have contributed their energy, talent and ideas to our work, and would like to mention three in particular.

Throughout my Presidency, Denise Sanders has taken the lead on the internal side of our work, thereby enabling me to focus on my own particular strengths of writing briefs and representing our organization.

Rick Oakes, who is leaving the Board this year, has brought a wealth of experience to our deliberations.

And our youngest Board member, our Treasurer Anthony Tibbs, came on board at an extremely difficult time, and jumped right in as if he had been on the Board for years.

In conclusion, "You don't lead by pointing and telling people some place to go. You lead by going to that place and making a case."--Ken Kesey

"Let us not be content to wait and see what will happen, but give us the determination to make the right things happen."-Peter Marshall

Persons who are different can make a difference. Let's all redouble our intentions to make a real difference in the lives of all Canadians who are blind, deaf-blind and partially sighted.

A FIRST-TIMER'S FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF THE 2007 AEBC CONFERENCE

By: Jennifer Jesso

Editor's Note: Jennifer Jesso is a teacher who lives in North Vancouver, British Columbia.

This past spring, between Thursday, May 17th and Sunday, the 20th, I attended the conference held by the Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians (AEBC) and hosted in Victoria, British Columbia, by the Victoria Chapter. Held at the Harbour Towers Hotel and Suites near the city's harbour, the hotel was in a central location for various attractions offered throughout the conference, and the service provided to guests was excellent. As a new member of AEBC, I had never been to any conference surrounding disability issues before, and I found the weekend both enlightening and inspiring.

On Thursday afternoon, during registration, attendees could visit displays of blindness-related products and services. In the evening, there was a catered reception, where we were treated to a speech by the Minister of Employment and Income Assistance, Minister Claude Richmond, on the new BC Disability Strategy for employment that the government is launching.

Friday morning, after a continental breakfast, we heard the president's report from John Rae (see President's Report elsewhere in this issue).

Next, the keynote speaker, Patrick Fleck, Access Consultant, spoke about universal design, what it is, and seven principles to follow to incorporate it into everyday environmental design. Small breakout sessions ensued, where each group discussed one or two principles of universal design, and the results of each of these discussions were then shared.

Pat Danforth, Employment Coordinator, Victoria Disability Resource Centre, then spoke about the possibilities and limitations of having a National Disability Act for Canada, which she expressed ambivalence about given Canada's unique constitutional needs as a federation.

After lunch, the focus of presentations turned to the BC government and services it provides for British Columbians with disabilities.

First, Deborah Ainsworth, the Executive Director of Disability Services Delivery of the BC Ministry of Employment and Income Assistance, expanded on the BC Disability Strategy that had been introduced to delegates on Thursday evening by Minister Claude Richmond.

Next, Christine Gordon, co-chair of the Provincial Equipment and Assistive Devices Committee, spoke about a new model of service delivery for a BC Assistive Devices Program.

Finally, Linda Bartram, AEBC member and program coordinator, gave a presentation outlining the pilot project AEBC is running for the Low Tech Assistive Devices Program in BC. This initiative is funded by the BC government and provides assistive devices such as magnifiers, portable reading systems, mobility aids and talking household products to British Columbians who are blind or partially sighted.

Later in the afternoon, concurrent sessions focused on The Future of Library Services and Accessible Pedestrian Signals.

Saturday began with another continental breakfast, followed by the first presentation of the day--an inspiring workshop by Mike Yale, AEBC member and long-time disability and human rights activist, on the topic of advocacy. The presentation incorporated Mike's personal experience with advocacy, which he described as "a way of life" for him as he shared anecdotes from movements and projects he has been involved in through the years.

Throughout his presentation, Mike also drew on a recently published guide to advocacy, which he highly recommends reading. The guide, entitled "Stand Up! Speak Out! An Advocacy Guide for Blind, Deaf-Blind and Partially Sighted Canadians," written by Monika Penner, is available for download from AEBC's website at: blindcanadians.ca/publications/

The workshop concluded with a question and answer session and discussion period.

Following this, we broke out into simultaneous sessions whose topics included Meeting the Needs of Those with Partial Sight, Addressing Poverty, The Role of AEBC In Service Provision, and The Role of Independent Living Centres in Meeting the Service Needs of Canadians Who Are Blind, Deaf-Blind or Partially Sighted.

Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning were spent on board nominations/elections and on resolutions.

One important resolution that was passed was proposed by Mike Yale regarding poverty. Resolution 2007-09 calls upon AEBC to advocate to both provincial and federal governments to introduce a poverty reduction strategy that better addresses the needs of blind, deaf-blind and partially sighted Canadians who are unemployed or underemployed. This strategy would cover the following principles: income support programs addressing the cost of living; providing adequate cost for the disability itself; providing families with the basic income necessary for reasonable health and nutrition, housing (taking into consideration market rents), as well as clothing and other costs to ensure a reasonable standard of living; promoting and encouraging individuals' participation in community life, as well as providing resources to re-enter the workforce, if possible; and finally, reducing disincentives to employment with the eventual goal of their elimination altogether.

Other resolutions addressed issues such as preserving human rights, accessible elections, service animal definitions, accessible entertainment, and service provision. A complete list and the text of each of the 2007 resolutions that were adopted can be found on AEBC's website at: blindcanadians.ca/governance/resolution_list.php?year=2007

The conference was rounded out by several optional social events. The Hospitality Suite was open each evening for members to socialize with friends and meet members from other provinces. A narrated horse-drawn wagon ride around Victoria gave us the opportunity to see many historical sights and was enjoyable despite a bit of rain! A group of us enjoyed a tour of the Titanic exhibit at the Royal British Columbia Museum, with an impromptu tour led by a museum staff member that impressed us all (the tour was supposed to be unguided!). Dinner out at a variety of restaurants and ethnic establishments were enjoyable and another good chance to socialize.

All in all, the AEBC national conference in Victoria was a very informative and fun weekend. As a first-time attendee, I look forward to future AEBC conferences.

2007-08 AEBC BOARD OF DIRECTORS

President: Robin East, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan; email: robin.east@shaw.ca

1st Vice President: John Rae, Toronto, Ontario; email: rae@blindcanadians.ca

2nd Vice President: Richard Quan, Toronto, Ontario; email: quan@blindcanadians.ca

Treasurer: Anthony Tibbs, Montreal, Quebec; email: tibbs@blindcanadians.ca

Secretary: Marcia Cummings, Toronto, Ontario; email: cummings@blindcanadians.ca

Director Without Portfolio: Denise Sanders, Kelowna, British Columbia; email: dsand@shaw.ca

Director Without Portfolio: Devon Wilkins, Collingwood, Ontario; email: wilkins@blindcanadians.ca

HIGHLIGHTS OF RECENT AEBC ACTIVITIES

* AEBC Elects Sixth President

During AEBC's biennial Conference in Victoria, BC, in May, which focused on universal design, Mr. Robin East of Saskatoon was elected AEBC's sixth President.

Resolutions adopted focused on fighting poverty, accessible elections, preserving human rights protection, and AEBC's role in providing services. Further details on this year's Conference can be found elsewhere in this publication.

* AEBC Presents at Council of Canadians with Disabilities' Transportation Forum

In conjunction with CCD's AGM and National Council meetings, John Rae participated on a panel at a national Transportation Forum, which examined the current state of transportation in Canada. He raised a number of issues, long-standing and new barriers in Canada's transportation system, including the need for adequate space on airplanes for guide dogs, the problem of guide dog users getting rides from taxis at airports, the dangers of the hybrid automobile, and the introduction of onboard flat screen entertainment systems on a growing number of airplanes.

* AEBC Presents at 11th TRANSED Conference

John Rae presented AEBC's "Dangers of the Hybrid Quiet Car" paper at the 11th International Conference on Mobility and Transport for Elderly and Disabled Persons (TRANSED) held June 18-22, 2007 in Montreal, under the theme "Benchmarking, Evaluation and Vision for the Future."

This major international Conference also included presentations on all modes of transportation--air, rail, inter-city bus, ferries, and included some presentations on travel and tourism. It provided an excellent opportunity to make contacts and offer a consumer perspective on a variety of important transportation topics.

To read the paper, please visit: blindcanadians.ca/press_releases//index.php?BriefID=42

* AEBC Presents at International FICCDAT Conferences

On Sunday, June 10, 2007, John Rae presented two papers at the Festival of International Conferences on Caregiving, Disability, Aging and Technology (FICCDAT), including "Boomers Aging With Vision Loss: Public Attitudes Are Key," available on the AEBC website. Our goal in appearing was to offer a consumer perspective to this Conference comprised largely of service providers.

* AEBC's National Secretary Asked to Present at AER Conference

Marcia Cummings was asked to talk to the Ontario Chapter of the Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER) at their workshop in Waterloo on September 8, 2007. She spoke about the added independence offered her by her Trekker, one of the few accessible GPS (global positioning system) units available.

* BC Low Tech Assistive Devices Program (LTADP) Update

The LTADP has been up and running for just under two months. The four Navigators, who are all blind or partially sighted, have interviewed over five hundred applicants and facilitated the acquisition of approximately 480 devices at a total cost of $234,563.40 as of September 11. There are still about fifty applicants who are either waiting for an assessment or have not yet decided which device will best meet their needs. All the applicants will receive a follow-up call from their Navigator to determine their satisfaction with the program and their device, and to provide support or referral if required.

The most popular devices have been Daisy players and portable video magnifiers. A list of devices and where to get them will be posted to the AEBC website at the conclusion of the program, which is anticipated to be the end of the year. There will be a report of the pilot's findings that will be submitted to the BC Government and it is hoped that these findings will lead to the development of an ongoing provincial assistive devices program based on this consumer-directed model.

For more information about the AEBC LTADP, contact the Navigator Coordinator, Linda Bartram, at (250) 485-0275 or email: Lindabartram@

* AEBC Organizes Another New Chapter

The AEBC's first chapter in Edmonton, Alberta, is now up and running. For further details, contact Keith Gillard at: kgillard@shaw.ca

NEW RESOURCES

Elections Canada is developing a template with raised numbers and braille to assist voters with vision loss to vote privately and independently. Its website is also designed for easy use with screen access technology. Visitors to the website will also be able to change fonts soon. For further information, visit: elections.ca

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) offers personalized correspondence in alternative formats to persons who are blind. Call 1-800-959-8281 (English) or 1-800-959-7383 (French). A separate request must be made for an alternative format version of generic forms and publications at 1-800-959-2221. Visit: cra.gc.ca/alternate

Ontario has released the first annual report on the Access for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA). To read the report, visit: .on.ca/mcss/english/pillars/accessibilityOntario/planning/aodo_annual_report06.htm

Emergency Management Ontario (EMO) recently released The Emergency Preparedness Guide for People with Disabilities. It includes information on emergency kits, such as one for service animals, and important Considerations When Assisting Persons with Disabilities. A copy of the guide can be downloaded from the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services' website at: mcscs..on.ca/english/pub_security/emo/about_emo.html

"Yes! Something More Can Be Done! You and Your Vision Health" is a project by CNIB (formerly Canadian National Institute for the Blind) that seeks to empower seniors to manage their own vision health and inform professionals about the importance of early referral to low vision services. It includes a booklet distributed to seniors and a series of seminars for seniors and professionals alike. For the seminar schedule or to download a free copy of the booklet, visit ib.ca and select "You and Your Vision Health Workshops."

The Centre Specialise de Transfert des Connaissances (CSTC), in partnership with the Canadian Association of Independent Living Centres (CAILC), is launching a Web portal for people with disabilities who wish to take their place on the labour market or in the business world. This portal contains Francophone resources specifically developed for people with disabilities or functional limitations, and the focus is on advancing employability, workplace integration, entrepreneurship and self-employment. Visit: integrationtravail.ca

A report from RNIB (Royal National Institute of the Blind), "Ethnicity, Disability and Work," based on a three-year study by university researchers and disability organizations in the United Kingdom, challenges attitudes of employers and disability groups, and the effectiveness of anti-discrimination laws. For an executive summary of the report, visit: .uk/research

AWARE (Associates for World Action in Rehabilitation & Education) is pleased to announce the launch of its website, containing QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS on vision and services, coping with vision changes, personal and home management, braille, computers and adaptive technology, travel, additional disabilities etc. Visit:

AccessWorld contacted assistive technology manufacturers to learn when they will offer upgrades of their products to work with Vista, Microsoft's update to its Windows operating system. To read the article containing their answers, visit aw and select "back issues," "March 2007," and then "Are We Ready for Vista?"

National Braille Press offers Google It: A Guide to the World's Most Popular Search Engine ($12); Vista Keyboard Commands (reference card $5); Two children's books about blindness for kids ages 5-10 including Knots on a Counting Rope (print/braille $6.95) and The Hickory Chair (print/braille $15.95). All prices in U.S. dollars. Contact National Braille Press, 88 St. Stephen Street, Boston MA 02115 USA, Toll free 1-800-548-7323, or visit:

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