From: empower@smart.net
Subject: Comments made about an NFB state convention
I'm forwarding this public message someone copied to me recently, not to 
endorse its content, but so that we in the NFB are aware of, 
can discuss, and possibly respond to the concerns it raises.
Jamal
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Date: Sat, 8 Nov 1997 14:59:53 -0800 (PST)
From: Kelly Ford 
To: advocacy@maelstrom.stjohns.edu, blind-x@maelstrom.stjohns.edu,
    blindfam@maelstrom.stjohns.edu
Subject: Opinions on Oregon's State NFB Convention
Greetings All,
In mid October the National Federation of the Blind in Oregon
contacted me to present a workshop about the Internet at their
state convention.  It is largely for that reason that I currently
find myself at their convention with my presentation completed.
I'm neither for or against the NFB but I am 100 percent for
accessibility and I think my track record there speaks for
itself.
I must ask how an organization that professes to care about
braille literacy and independence for people who are blind can
run such a slipshod convention.  The braille agendas they
distributed are filled with missing characters and other poor
translations.  As just one example, every apostrophe from the
printed document was translated as the braille apostrophe
character, followed by a question mark, a letter sign symbol and
finally the possessive s for which the apostrophe was necessary.
The excuse that there's not a braille reader in the state office
doesn't cut it.  If you don't know how to do something properly
you get some kind of assistance, not just crank out whatever.
There's a right way and a wrong way to do Braille and I assure
you no organization would tolerate a print document of such
inferior quality.  How can that same organization distribute
pre-convention materials to the membership in print exclusively?
The braille agendas are just the tip of the iceberg.  The Oregon
NFB convention is being hosted in this resort-like hotel that is
ridiculous to say the least.  Why does an organization of the
Blind give convention business to a hotel that can't even do the
simplest of navigation assistance by having tactile numbers on
doors.  It is after all the law these days.  If the NFB thinks
that a score of people who are blind wandering around immense
parking lots filled with winding undefined paths searching for
not only individual buildings but also doors with no numbers
promotes a positive image of blindness then they are sadly
mistaken.  I assure you, this isn't a case of people with poor
mobility skills.  Walking around the common topic of greeting
from everyone deals with how did you find your way this time.  I
don't think the best way to find your room is to repeatedly try
your key in doors until it works yet no fewer than seven people
did just that as they passed my room last evening.  I have
excellent mobility skills and still can't be certain I'm in the
exact right location which is a first in all the years I've
travelled the convention circuit.
The directions I was given by a desk clerk to find my building
were to walk to some bushes and take a right.  Mind you the
bushes are set back a minimum of five feet from any curb.  You'd
think the staff who selected the conference hotel would have done
a bit better job instructing the hotel staff about quality
directions.
In talking with one of the officials from the state office, I was
informed that this hotel was selected more than a year ago.  I
find it quite ridiculous that this same staffer couldn't even
provide me with the same set of directions twice on exactly which
of these random buildings scattered throughout the complex
grounds I was to speak in.  I would have used the info on the
Agenda but the braille was so poor that no approximation of the
room name rang a bell with the hotel staff.
Why should the world care about accessibility if organizations
that purport to be "of the blind" don't demand it in the
businesses they use?  If the NFB's changing what it means to be
blind, I think I'll stick with the old ways.  Accessibility and
quality and accurate braille have worked this long for me.  How about you?
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