Writer, aggregator Kevan
Worley.
Contributing editor Dan Burke.
Here is what you need to
know
Are You Ready for the Run Up to The May 31 NFBCO 6 Dot Dash 5K?
Mark your calendars for Sunday, May 31. Registration will be open soon!Join us Sunday morning for the race or participate virtually no matter where you live. Details about virtual participation coming soon!
NFBCO 6 Dot Dash-run the race you want!
Marade.
National Federation of the Blind
of Colorado is first and foremost a civil rights organization. Every year we
take pride in walking side by side with thousands for one of the largest Martin
Luther King Jr. celebrations in the nation. As the struggle for equality for
all continues. It is worth noting that the last time Martin Luther King Jr.
spoke in Denver more than 50 years ago there were protesters burning crosses
and cars outside of the arena. Marching From the I Have a Dream Monument to
Civic Center Park, members of the NFBCO and staff and students from CCB joined
thousands on Martin Luther King Jr. Day for the annual Marade. 
Fort Collins Meet Up. A Red Robin Night.
This is a reminder from Ileen Gallegos:
Where: Red Robin
701 E. Harmony RD.
Fort Collins, CO 80525
When: Tuesday,
January 28, 2020
From 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Bring your appetite, ideas, guests, and something to jot
down some notes if you like.
Our goal is to network, make friends, and discuss helpful
ideas involving blind people.
It will be a fantastic, fun feeling, as we fill ourselves
with food.
Can’t wait to meet up.
Next step. The organizing of a new NFBCO chapter in the
Poudre Valley.
Live the Life You Want, by Scott C. LaBarre.
From the aggregator: On the last blog of 2019, we urged
our readers to give some thought to the tagline of the National Federation of
the Blind, “Live the Life You Want.” I received a number of comments which we
will post in the weeks to come. And for those of you who subscribe to our
Colorado Talk list serv, and everyone should, you likely have seen some very
interesting takes on our tagline. We would like to share with you a post from Scott
LaBarre. Here is what he shares:
First of all, I want to wish
everyone here a very happy new year! My hope is that 2020 will be
outstanding for all of us.
Next, I want to thank Jenny for
raising the topic of what our tagline “live the life you want!” really
means. I appreciate everyone’s thoughtful comments about how it should be
interpreted and implemented.
Before I delve into the
substance of my comments, I want to give you a little background which helps to
form my perspective. I first joined the NFB in 1986, and I have had the
honor and privilege of being a very active member and leader on many different
levels. As part of that experience, I served on a committee which was
formed in 2013, maybe even late 2012, whose purpose was to develop our plan for
celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the Federation. After some
discussion, we decided that it was time to rebrand our messaging so that we
could more effectively communicate who we are. One part of that
rebranding was changing our tagline from “we are changing what it means to be
blind” to the current “live the life you want!” Beyond just the tagline,
we developed a comprehensive brand architecture which has many elements that
would serve as an excellent focal point for future discussions. In any
event, I mention all this because I think I have some idea of what we intended
regarding the message we were attempting to communicate.
Ever since I have been involved
in the NFB, there has been this conception that the NFB only supports and
celebrates the “super blind” and that if you don’t go about blindness in a very
specific manner, you are not really living the life the NFB endorses. I
emphatically and whole heartedly believe that this misconception is not
true! There is no such thing as a model Federationist, and there
certainly is not one, singular script from which we must all lead our
lives.
The idea of “live the life you
want!” is that your blindness should not hold you back from pursuing your
dreams and ambitions. Undeniably all of our dreams and ambitions are
limited and somewhat governed by the realities we face, whether those are
financial, educational, health based, or otherwise. There is no one way
to live the life you want. It doesn’t matter if you are pursuing a high
stakes profession, working from home, volunteering in the community, or not
working at all. Our main message is that whatever you are doing
with your life, your blindness should not be the chief reason holding you
back from whatever brings you fulfillment and purpose in life. Our one-minute
message, another creation of our rebranding, brings this point out.
“The National Federation of the
Blind knows that blindness is not the characteristic that defines you or your
future. Every day we raise the expectations of blind people, because low
expectations create obstacles between blind people and our dreams. You can live
the life you want; blindness is not what holds you back.”
A key part of this message is
that we are raising expectations. That has both an external and internal
aspects to it. On the external side, we are working to convince the
general population that they can and should expect more from us. All of
us often run into very low expectations held by the public. Pretty much
every time I travel to and through an airport somebody tells me how amazing I
am for simply putting one foot in front of another.
On the internal side, we should
encourage one another to become the best versions of ourselves that we
can. Doing so must always be done with love and understanding.
Every year that I am in the Federation, I learn so much from our members on how
I can lead my life in a better way, a new technology trick or something that
enhances my independent travel or whatever it might be. I certainly
haven’t figured it all out, and I know that sometimes I do in fact let my
blindness limit me in a way that isn’t truly necessary.
Regardless, we must accept
people where they are in their lives and be ready to encourage them to achieve
more when that is appropriate. This is what we aim to do at our
centers. We work with people from all walks of life and who have a wide
variety of challenges. No student’s program is or should be the
same. We have some general policies and expectations, but same are always
adjusted to the individual student.
Living the life you want is all
about independence and freedom. As our founder Dr. tenBroek so
eloquently put it, we have a right to live in the world. That means
we have the right to be free and independent and to determine our own
destiny. The exact mechanism we use to achieve that freedom and
independence is not the key issue, but rather that we know and believe that we
have the right to achieve it. I think the Federation’s best speech
regarding independence is the Nature of Independence by Dr. Jernigan from the
1993 Convention. If you haven’t read it, I encourage that you do
so. It is available through our national website.
Before closing this out, I want
to address another point Jenny raised in her original message, the idea that
perhaps we sometimes focus and emphasize success stories based on traditional
notions of success and that we don’t celebrate other forms of achievement.
I think this is a great point, and we should endeavor to paint a more
comprehensive picture. Convincing an animal shelter to let you volunteer
despite your blindness is just as important as someone winning a national
scholarship based on academic achievement at the highest level. Both are
part of living the life we want.
In closing, I want to share two
other elements from our brand architecture, the Brand Promise and Value
Proposition. I do this because, for me, it so eloquently sums up why I am
involved in our Federation. “Together with love, hope, and determination,
we transform dreams into reality. I am filled with hope, energy, and love
by participating in the National Federation of the Blind because my
expectations are raised, my contributions make a difference to me and to
others, and I can celebrate the realization of my dreams with my Federation
family.”
Warmly,
Scott
Scott
Dance, Dance, Dance!
Come and learn to Latin
dance step-by-step. Learn from a world-renowned Latin dance teacher!!!
The Denver chapter meeting
will start at 10 AM and at 11:45 AM lunch will begin being served for purchase.
The dance class will begin at 12:45 promptly and end at 2:45 PM
If
you have any questions, please contact Maureen at 215-353-7218 or maureenbassmaster@gmail.com.
The Passing of a Tremendous Leader.
What an amazing, AMAZING, sweet, smart, delightful
woman.
We received this sorrowful news from Rob Harris, Treasurer, NFBCO Grand Valley Chapter:
It is with great sadness that I
inform every one of the passing of Ms. Margaret Williams, January 20. Our
president, and matriarch of the Grand Valley Chapter. I remember first meeting
Ms. Margaret at the BELL Academy we held in Grand Junction. Margaret was so
passionate about so many things and her determination to live the life she
wanted will always be etched in my memory. In her 90's she participated in the
One Touch self-defense class, rafted the mighty Colorado River not once but
twice and was always so eager and energetic at all of our events. She shared
with me that her greatest desire was to keep the NFB of Colorado Grand Valley
Chapter going because it did so very much for her. From Seniors in Charge to
our bake sales to the farmers market on the main street I know I will miss her
stories of yesteryear. On our way back from last year's leadership retreat she
gleamed talking about riding in a ship to go overseas with her husband and the
American muscle car, they zoomed around Europe in, often to the dismay of the
Germans with its loud engine.
Our chapter is putting a small get
together to share in our memories and I will keep the group posted if you are
interested in attending. Margaret was loved by so many in this community and
beyond that, there will be stories to talk of for years to come and I am truly
honored to have known her and served with her on the Board. Please keep her
family in your thoughts and prayers there are plans for a memorial on March
26th which would have been her 95th birthday. I will always remember one thing
she told me, there is never a good excuse to not do the next right thing. She
loved the NFB, the NFB of Colorado and all of you. She will be greatly missed,
and I rejoice in my time to get to know her.
Join Us Under the Golden Dome. Dan Burke Reminds Us All.
Wednesday February 5th, members of our Federation and our
friends and supporters will again reach out to our legislators. Our Day at the
Capitol has become a tradition of great value and possibility. Join 100 or so
as we enjoy a legislative briefing from Federation leaders and members of the
General Assembly. We begin at 12:15 in the Old Supreme Court Chambers. At
approximately 1:00 that afternoon, we will fan out through the capital to take
our legislative agenda and positive message of hope and opportunity to legislators
and their staff. For information contact Dan Burke, dburke@cocenter.org.
Tech Tip from Curtis Chong.
Long-time readers of our short-time Blind Coloradoan will
know that Curtis Chong is a jack of all trades master of many. He often offers
tech tips. Here is his latest.
For anyone who uses touch
typing on the iPhone who has updated to iOS 13, please remember that touch
typing does not work very well for you unless or until you turn off "slide
to type". This is a setting that is found in Settings > General >
Keyboard.
And Bingo Was His Name-o.
From the aggregator: of course, someone had to start singing
it. In this case, we think it was Federation activist, blind merchant Pipi
Adams. Saturday night, January 25th, the Wild West Chapter held a
successful family fun fundraiser. The bingo pizza night raised about $400 for
the chapter. Thanks to BrewAbility Labs for being such gracious hosts. Special thanks
to Ileen Gallegos, Marlene Basta, Shawn Sandoval, and a whole team for making
bingo more fun than I thought it could be. Here is what Marlene Basta says:
Bingo night with
friends. Fundraiser for our National Federation of the Blind Wild West Metro
Chapter. Much fun. Thanks to everyone it was a great success. Lots of helpers
and donations. Thank you all.
Braille competition in Colorado Springs tests blind, visually impaired students' skills.
By Debbie
Kelley, journalist, The Colorado Springs Gazette. Photos by Jerilee
Bennett of The Gazette.
The mood was tense and the competition fierce Thursday in
an upper-level-math classroom at the Colorado School for the Deaf and the
Blind, where an abacus replaces a calculator and white canes hang on a coat
rack.
Clacking keys, returning carriages, ringing bells and
crackling paper being pulled out of Braille writers filled the air.
But the blind and visually impaired students weren’t
paying attention to the cacophony of their work.
With bent heads, the students concentrated on listening
to an article about the transition from high school to college, then typed the
words on manual Braille machines.
“My ears are buzzing,” 15-year-old Alacia Bates said,
pulling out ear buds that allowed her to hear the article she was translating
into Braille.
Students had just finished the first “speed and accuracy”
portion of the annual Braille Challenge.
“I think I messed up — how do you spell ophthalmologist?”
asked Alacia, who has a progressive eye disease that has slowly darkened her
vision.
The event, sponsored by the Braille Institute, is the
nation’s only academic competition specifically for blind and visually impaired
students in the United States and Canada.
The Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind is one of
54 regional host sites for this year’s challenge, which culminates in June with
national finals, held in California.
From first grade through high school, students’ skills
are measured in Braille reading comprehension, proofreading, graph and chart
analysis, spelling, and speed and accuracy.
The timed test is hard, said junior Jake Weatherby, who
is competing for his third year. “You have to listen to words and type at the
same time,” he said.
For the charts and graphs section, students must
accurately read and analyze graphs and charts in Braille, which is even
tougher, students said.
Seventeen-year-old Jake began learning Braille when he
was 11, in Chinese, his native language. But now, he reads and writes using
American Braille.
“It’s really important for us to show our best skills for
the challenge,” he said. “I cannot read print, so I read Braille.
“For people who are blind, it’s important to feel the
texture of the Braille — that’s how we learn different words and how to read
and spell.”
A total of 25 students who use Braille participated in
Thursday’s event, and other students did activities such as playing Braille Uno
and Braille Twister as part of a schoolwide celebration of the communication
method.
The Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind has hosted
the competition for 17 years, said spokeswoman Diane Taylor.
Regardless of whether students qualify for the national
level, the school awards first, second and third prizes in each category, said
Jamie Lugo, principal of the School for the Blind.
A group of nationally certified transcribers judge the
work and will release the results Feb. 4, she said.
“You hear people say Braille might become obsolete, but
we don’t believe that,” Lugo said. “It’s so important to literacy to emphasize
keeping the Braille code alive.”
Christina Cortes, a secondary science teacher of blind
and visually impaired students and who is blind, said the contest is “something
we look forward to every year.”
The event enables students to “experience healthy
competition with their peers, where they can compete on equal footing, and
practice and showcase their Braille literacy skills,” she said.
It also promotes braille awareness, Cortes said.
A Braille writer is similar to a typewriter but has just
six large keys and a space bar. The keys punch raised dots onto paper,
representing specific characters that blind and visually impaired people feel
with their fingers to interpret words.
Braille has changed in recent years to become unified and
universal to all spoken languages, Cortes said.
“I’d never say it’s easy and simple to learn,” she said.
“Our students learn it at a young age and continue to
learn through middle school and into high school until they are proficient, so
they can read and write throughout their lives.”
Note, your Blind Coloradoan thanks the Colorado Springs
Gazette for permission to post the above story.
What Does a Shark Order at McDonald’s?
A quarter flounder with cheese!
How does a shark greet a fish? Please to eat you!
What is a sharks favorite sandwich? A peanut butter and
jellyfish!
Why do sharks live in saltwater? Because pepper water makes
them sneeze!
Why does the Colorado Center for the Blind partner with
Arapahoe Community College to offer a shark dissection experience for blind
students? Because the National Federation of the Blind believes in science,
technology, engineering, arts, and math for all students!
Just like the great white, it’s full steam ahead for the
next shark dissection experience! Friday February 21, 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.
For more information contact Martin Becerra-Miranda at
303-778-1130 ext. 223.
On the Ice with the Avalanche!
Try Blind Hockey 2020, By Bryan Baldwin.
On Thursday, January 9th, 2020, the Colorado
Center for the Blind took 10 students, 1 intern, and 3 staff to the Pepsi
Center to get their ice legs ready for some hockey. Not only was it an
adventure for those staff and students, but for the blind hockey players also
on the ice, as well as a few professional hockey players.
“I got to try out the sleep shades and that was difficult but interesting,” said
Mikko Rantanen, Colorado Avalanche who plays the Right Wing. Mikko got the
opportunity to try out blind hockey by wearing sleep shades, a type of
blindfold to keep out all light, as well as with a modified hockey puck with
ball bearings on the inside to make the puck more audible.
Many
students that come to the Center are not aware of the things that blind people
can do. Many of the students hadn’t been on the ice since going blind, or ever
in their life.
Cameron Hughes, an 18-year-old student from Broken Bow, Oklahoma got to
experience ice skating for the first time in his life.
“I never thought I could play hockey as a blind person, but
once I saw the hockey pucks with the ball bearings inside of it, I thought to
myself that I could do this. I never knew something like this existed for blind
people,” said Hughes.
Cameron said he doesn’t have ice rinks in the area where he
lives so even if he wanted to try it, he was unable to.
“I had roller-bladed
before, and once I stood up on the skates it felt just like roller skates. Then
I got on the ice. I stayed close to the boards and had the anxiety of falling.
I just started moving my legs and after about an hour it just felt natural,” added
Hughes.
“I had watched hockey
a little as a kid but never thought it was something I could do. While I was
out on the ice the NHL players were really encouraging. I really appreciated
the opportunity to be able to go and experience this and meet the Avalanche
players. It raised my expectations of myself and opened me up to new hobbies. I
feel if I keep practicing, I could get better at this. I am going to be signing
up for blind hockey right away. This was absolutely amazing,” Cameron said with
a giant smile on his face.
I also got to experience these things for the first time. As
a cane travel instructor at the Colorado Center I wore my sleep shades
traveling to the Pepsi Center and got to get on the ice for the first time
ever. Getting to watch these students explore new heights they never thought
possible, on top of skating with the Avalanche players, is one of the best
parts of my job. We carry high expectations of our students and try to open new
doors for them. This was definitely one of those large doors for them. One of
the students that attended first came to the center afraid of walking up
stairs. Now the student was rushing to get on the ice and has now joined our
blind hockey team. The growth of our students to go live the lives they want is
what we work for.
Note from your aggregator: Blind hockey is a rather new
sport. It is likely to continue evolving. Members of the National Federation of
the Blind of Colorado who have played the sport have been concerned about what
they consider to be rules that create a hierarchy of vision. A resolution was
passed at our 2019 National Convention calling for a study committee to work on
the problem. Read the full text of the resolution
here.
More Random Stuff.
- Did you know that you can get complete audio information network schedules on NFB Newsline? AIN and NFB Newsline-all the news that’s fit to read. To apply for NFB Newsline contact cheryl.gross@worleyenterprises.com.
“If your grandma has ever been
thrown out of bingo hall for using profane language, you might be a redneck.”-Jeff
Foxworthy.
“People ask me if there are going
to be stories of Harry Potter as an adult. Frankly, if I wanted to, I could
keep writing stories until Harry is a senior citizen, but I don't know how many
people would actually want to read about a 65-year-old Harry still at Hogwarts
playing bingo with Ron and Hermione.” -J.K. Rowling
- For another perspective on living the life you want, you might enjoy this folksong from Tom Paxton. And since this is the Blind Coloradoan, Tom will be in Denver presented by Swallow Hill on February 22nd. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2ANwbmLHgM
What did mother shark say to her son? “you watch that sharcasm
young fellow!”
That’s It for This Edition of the Blind Coloradoan.
Forward, always Forward!
