Upcoming Events
September 27-29, 2012: Braille Symposium
The symposium, to be held at the NFB Jernigan Institute, will provide professionals, blind people, and other interested parties with an opportunity to learn about and discuss promising practices in Braille instruction and teacher preparation in Braille. Speakers will include leading experts who will discuss the most innovative work that is being done on Braille today. Learn more at www.nfb.org/BrlSym.
September 28, 2012: National Forum on Disability Issues
On September 28, a national non-partisan forum on disability issues will be held at the Hyatt Regency in Columbus, Ohio. This historic forum will feature time slots for the Presidential candidates to individually present their visions for the future of disability policy in America. Over 500 Ohio voters will attend the forum. A live internet stream of the event will also be broadcasted nationally. Limited registration is now open. For more information about this event, including online forum or webcast registration, please visit www.nfdi.org.
October 2012: Meet the Blind Month
Each October, the National Federation of the Blind holds Meet the Blind Month, a nationwide public awareness campaign. Chapters and affiliates host events in local areas demonstrating the capacity of blind people and sharing the many resources available through the NFB. Members regularly make presentations to school-age students and seniors facing vision loss, host literature tables at local fairs and festivals, and participate in various community service events. To learn more about this year’s campaign, please visit http://www.nfb.org/meet-blind-month and follow the #NFBMTBM12 hashtag on Twitter!
April 12-13, 2013: Tactile Graphics and STEM Education for the Blind
The National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute will host a conference on how tactile graphics can and are being made, and how the use of tactile graphics enhances STEM education for the blind. This subject is especially relevant in light of the recently published BANA guidelines, the rapid adoption of digital textbooks, and the 2010 DOJ letter and 2011 FAQ to colleges and universities and K-12 schools mandating equal access to educational materials. Registration is now open. For more information, please visit www.nfb.org/tactilegraphicsconference.
What's New
NFB and DAISY Consortium Concerned that State Department May Not Require
Fully Accessible E-readers
The National Federation of the Blind and the DAISY Consortium have submitted a response to a Request for Information (RFI) from the U.S. State Department regarding its planned e-reader initiative. The RFI follows the rescission of the State Department’s June 7, 2012 sole-source proposal for a program then called the Kindle Mobile Learning Initiative. The NFB, the DAISY Consortium, and other organizations had filed a formal complaint with the State Department’s Office of Civil Rights regarding that proposal because most Kindle devices are not accessible to people who are blind or who cannot read print. The NFB and the DAISY Consortium believe that the RFI is a positive step in that it requests specific information about accessibility from potential vendors. The comments, however, express concern that the RFI does not actually require accessible e-reader devices and appears to require compatibility with outdated and inaccessible devices and file formats. For further information, please read our full comments.
NFB Collaborates with AccuWeather®
The National Federation of the Blind and its newspaper service for the blind, NFB-NEWSLINE®, have announced a collaboration with AccuWeather®, an online weather information service, to provide emergency weather alerts to blind and print-disabled subscribers throughout America. NFB-NEWSLINE® is a free audible information access service that provides over three-hundred newspapers and magazines to the blind. The AccuWeather® information service will be offered on NFB-NEWSLINE®, giving blind and print-disabled people instant access to emergency weather alerts. For more information, please read the official press release.
NFB Holds Nationwide Protests
of Goodwill Industries
On Saturday, August 25, the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) conducted over ninety coordinated informational protests of Goodwill thrift stores across the country in order to promote public awareness of the unfair, discriminatory, and immoral practice of paying subminimum wages to workers with disabilities. The NFB is leading a boycott of Goodwill Industries International, Inc., due to its payment of subminimum wages to many of its workers with disabilities. Freedom of Information Act requests filed by the NFB confirmed that Goodwill Industries employees have been paid as low as $0.22 an hour. The NFB and over fifty other organizations support legislation, the Fair Wages for Workers with Disabilities Act (H.R. 3086), which would phase out and then repeal the nearly seventy-five-year-old provision of the Fair Labor Standards Act that permits special certificate holders to pay subminimum wages to workers with disabilities. For further information on this issue or links to the media coverage of our protests around the country, please visit www.nfb.org/fairwages.