The Arsenal Files 8/The Arsenal Files Collection #8 (Arsenal Computer) (1996).ISO/health/summer96.txt

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IN THIS ISSUE

1996 LEGISLATIVE RAP-UP
NORMALCY IN A BLIND WORLD
VISUALLY IMPAIRED STUDENTS MAINSTREAMED
LIFE BEYOND THE WHITE CANE
TO START A BUSINESS
MC STUDENT
MSB's FIDELA SIMMONS
SPECKSSENATE VOTES FOR MSB OPEN MEETINGS, HOUSE CGM VOTES NO;
1996 LEGISLATIVE RAP-UP

by Sharon Maneki

 At our Day In Annapolis on Thursday, January 18, 1996 we brought two items to the
attention of our delegates and senators:
 (1) To ask Governor Glendening to take the client assistance program out of the Division
of Rehabilitation Services; and
 (2) to create a special board of directors to oversee and supervise the annual state
appropriation for The Maryland School for the Blind.
 Under federal law state governors have the authority to place client assistance programs
outside the state agency that administers rehabilitation services. Therefore, no bills were
introduced to have Maryland's client assistance program moved out of DORS's purview.
Legislators understood the need to locate the client assistance program outside of DORS if this
program is to be effective in advocating for rehabilitation clients. Many delegates and senators
wrote to Governor Glendening to ask him to consider our arguments and to take appropriate
action. Despite these efforts, Governor Glendening and the DORS administration remained
adamant in their opposition to moving this program, citing the large number of client cases which
were "satisfactorily resolved." They failed, however, to take into account how many clients quit
the rehabilitation process because of the difficulties in obtaining services and are too disgusted
to even try to use the Client Assistance Program.
 The decision to recommend the introduction of legislation creating a board of directors,
appointed by the Governor, to administer the Maryland School for the Blind's annual state
appropriation was the result of discussions held at our board meeting on December 2, 1995. The
Senate bill, SB 270, introduced by Sen. Hafer, was heard in the Senate Finance Committee on
February 7, while the House bill, HB 1113, introduced by Del. Cummings, was heard in the
House Commerce and Government Matters Committee on March 12.
 As expected, MSB officials mounted considerable opposition at both hearings. In his
testimony to the Senate Finance Committee on February 7, MSB's Luis Tutt made the curious
claim that MSB board meetings were open to those who needed to know about them. A month
later, he embellished his testimony to the House CGM committee, telling committee members
that notices of MSB board meetings were published in the "Daily Record." (When I inquired at
the Howard County library the reference librarian could find no announcement of MSB's March
1996 meeting in the "Daily Record.")
 Despite MSB's heavy lobbying efforts, members of the General Assembly were clearly
troubled by what blind consumers and some of the parents of MSB's students had to say about
MSB's shortcomings. MSB's assertion that it did not consider itself subject to Maryland's Open
Meetings Law also did not meet with the approval of many legislators. Unfortunately, when
requested to issue a ruling on this matter, the Attorney General of Maryland supported MSB's
claim.
 The Senate took the stronger position against MSB. Although the Finance Committee
could not support SB 270 as introduced, it did go out of its way to amend the bill to require
MSB's board of directors to include a member from the House of Delegates and a member from
the Senate, and to subject MSB's board of directors to the Open Meetings Law. The Senate
passed the amended SB 270 towards the end of March. Meanwhile, the CGM Committee had
already defeated HB 1113. Our last hope for this legislative session was to convince the CGM
Committee and the House of Delegates to adopt the amended SB 270, which went to the CGM
committee for hearing on April 2. Despite our best efforts, the CGM Committee defeated SB 270,
with a number of delegates abstaining from the vote.
 I think that the story of our work on SB 270 and HB 1113 can best be told by the various
pieces of written testimony and letters that were submitted during the course of action that the
General Assembly took on these bills. I am including six items of particular interest. The position
paper that we circulated on January 18, explains our position; Ron Metenyi submitted very
thoughtful testimony to the Finance and CGM committees, extolling the virtues of involving the
community in the education of its children; then there is the written testimony, also submitted
to both committees, of Richard Farley from Frostburg, MD, a deeply concerned parent who
provides us with valuable insight into MSB; there is my letter to Sen. Hafer on February 12, just
after the committee hearing for SB 270; and finally there are my two memoranda to the CGM
Committee on March 15, after the hearing for HB 1113, and April 2, testimony for the amended
SB 270 when it was heard by the CGM committee. These last three items, although repetitious
at times, give a clear picture of the sequence of events that occurred as these bills made their way
through the legislative process.
 There were four other bills of interest in the 1996 session of the Maryland General
Assembly. Companion bills SB 49 and HB 227 would require insurance companies to include
the educational and equipment costs for diabetics in their health insurance plans. We
recommended amendments to include accessible equipments for blind diabetics in these bills.
Both bills were recommended for summer study. Since it would represent a loss of employment
opportunity for blind persons, we opposed HB 1140, removing vending services and supplies
from the list of products that Blind Industries and Services of Maryland may sell under the state
procurement law. Despite heavy lobbying efforts by the beverage industry, the bill was defeated
in the House CGM Committee. As introduced, SB 591 would have exempted all special
education students from taking proposed Maryland school performance assessment tests for high
school graduation. We recommended an amendment excluding blind and visually impaired
students from this exemption. Sen. Van Hollen, the sponsor of the bill, supported our amendment.
In its wisdom, the Senate Economic and Environmental Affairs Committee defeated the bill.
 This was probably the most difficult and challenging legislative session we have ever had.
Although there were no clear-cut victories, we definitely brought the problems with MSB to the
General Assembly's conscience. It is fair to say that MSB will never be able to go back to its
old ways of doing business. In an ironic turn of events, MSB has recently filed a suit seeking
injunctive relief to prevent the National Federation of the Blind from entering the MSB campus
to attend its board of directors meetings. The details of this suit will be presented in the next
issue.
 I want to thank all of our members for their active participation in the 1996 session of
the Maryland General Assembly. I also want to recognize Sen. Hafer and Del. Cummings for
their valiant efforts on these bills. Here are the six items to close out this rather lengthy article.

MEMORANDUM
Date: January 18, 1996
To: Maryland General Assembly
Subject: Reform at the Maryland School for the Blind

Proposed Action: The National Federation of the Blind of Maryland recommends the adoption
of legislation to create a special board of directors to oversee and supervise the annual state
appropriation to The Maryland School for the Blind (MSB). This board of directors, to be
appointed by the governor, should consist of:
 1)  members from the Maryland general assembly,
 2)  blind persons who represent organizations of blind consumers; and
 3)  parents of blind students who represent organizations of parents of blind
     children in Maryland.
Background: The Maryland School for the Blind (MSB) is a private institution, administered by
a private self-perpetuating board of directors, which is supposed to educate blind children. This
board of directors does not answer to any public officials and has unfortunately isolated itself
from progressive ideas and practices on the education of blind children. Its members, do not
represent constituencies of either parents of blind children or blind consumers. Membership on
MSB's board of directors is not determined by an open and independent process. Board members
do not serve for fixed terms, and therefore are not subject to performance criteria for maintaining
their membership. Thus, The Maryland School for the Blind is a private institution whose
management and programs are not subject to public scrutiny.
 Although MSB claims to be a private institution, eighty percent of its annual operating
budget is derived from Maryland's taxpayers in the form of a state appropriation. In fiscal year
1995-96, MSB received $10,344,619 as a state-aided institution under the sponsorship of the
Maryland State Department of Education. MSB enjoys the benefit of public funds, but is a
private institution with no checks or balances on its operations. Given the self-perpetuating nature
of MSB's board of directors, there are no assurances that state funds are spent properly and in
the best educational interests of blind children.
 Over the years, the quality of education at the Maryland School for the Blind has declined
considerably. MSB, as the only school for the blind in Maryland, should lead in the teaching of
specialized skills that blind persons need, such as Braille reading and writing, and traveling with
the aid of a white cane. Unfortunately, this is not the case at MSB, because of the low level of
expectations for student performance held by the board of directors, the administration, and many
of the teachers. Another disturbing trend at MSB is that instruction time is frequently sacrificed
to meet administrative conveniences. Parents also have numerous complaints about MSB's unsafe
living and classroom environments. MSB's administration is unresponsive to these complaints,
and there is no mechanism for interested parties to bring their concerns to the attention of MSB's
board of directors.
 Since MSB is organized as a private corporation, meetings of its board of directors are
not subject to Maryland's open meetings law. Therefore the public is denied a vital avenue of
access to information about its operations and educational programs. Parents of blind children
who are attending MSB, parents who are considering MSB for their children's education, and
consumer organizations such as the National Federation of the Blind, which have a vital stake
in MSB and whose participation could be of great value to MSB, only have as much access to
information as MSB chooses to disclose.
 The need for greater accountability by the Maryland School for the Blind was clearly
demonstrated by the audit that the Department of Fiscal Services conducted on MSB's 1994-95
state appropriation. According to this audit, MSB misappropriated $296,156, of which it was
ordered to repay only $31,604 (used for improperly allocated employee bonuses) back to the state
of Maryland. The Maryland State Department of Education determined that repayment of the
remaining $264,552 (which was within its legal right) would have had a severe detrimental
impact on direct student services. Instead of repayment, MSB was permitted to "juggle its
figures," by covering the $264,552 with part of MSB's requested budget amendment, by
transferring the expenditures for severance payments to MSB's endowment fund, and by
transferring other allowable expenditures to the State appropriation.
 A private institution that provides such inadequate services would quickly go bankrupt
because customers would take their business elsewhere. The majority of the students at the MSB
suffer other handicaps in addition to blindness. Frequently, they are forced to attend MSB
because it is the only facility that can meet their unique needs. This group of students is
especially vulnerable and entitled to the best care that can be provided. They are also entitled to
the same quality of education that other students receive in Maryland. They should not be
penalized for their need to attend MSB. The best way to ensure an adequate level of education
for these severely handicapped students is to promote access and accountability by MSB to the
public.
 The remedy to the lack of accountability and the lack of access to information is the
creation of a public board to monitor the use of state tax dollars by MSB. A public board,
appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate, should include members of the general
assembly. This board should also include representation from organizations of blind consumers
and parents of blind children to bring education issues to the board's attention. MSB has been
operating in an educational vacuum for too many years. It is time to open up Maryland School
for the Blind to the same public accountability to which all public schools are subjected. This
can best be accomplished by the establishment of the special board of directors as recommended
by the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland.

Testimony of Ron Metenyi:

 Listeners to Radio Station W.E.E.A have heard this African proverb: "It takes an entire
village to raise a child." Evidently the First Lady believes this; for her new book on children's
issues is titled, "It Takes A Village".
 Children attending the Maryland School for the Blind have two villages: the small village
is "We, the Blind", the large village is the community at large. The members of both villages
must work closely with the School, helping it to be all that it can be and the best it can be if
each blind child is to get a good start in life. Surely nothing can be more important than that!
 If you establish the proposed oversight board, its meetings will be open. Members of the
small village will be able to learn from board members, and board members will be able to learn
from us. Also, two of us will serve on the board. These members should be representatives of
organizations of the Blind as they can most easily tap the collective wisdom and knowledge of
the small village.
 Parents have primary responsibility for the education of children. The proposed board will
include a parent. It will also include two village elders from the large village: two of the people
who make the laws governing us all. It will also include two educators.
 Now, I am not an enthusiast concerning term limits, but I strongly support having terms
of definite duration. A two-year term is good; it gives people time to accomplish things while
allowing for a fairly frequent influx of new people with new ideas and fresh approaches.
 Recently, I learned something. I was walking with a lady whom I've known for several
years when I reached to grab her arm and accidentally got one strap of her purse instead. She got
a little excited. What I learned is this: If you want to get someone's attention, grab the purse.
This often works in political life. Yes, we of both villages are concerned about the fiscal
soundness of the School. Yes, we want to ensure that our taxpayer money is being well-spent --
80 percent of the School's budget is supplied from Annapolis. While this new board is
monitoring financial matters, it can accomplish much good in many areas.
 In the spring many of us read disturbing articles in the Sun Paper concerning the school.
No one wants to see that. If we of both villages work with the school through the proposed board
we can help it do better and avoid controversies.

 Please pass the bill.

Testimony of C. Richard Farley, Jr. (Frostburg, Md.)
in support of Maryland Senate Bill 270
"Maryland School for the Blind Board of Directors"
before the Senate Finance Committee
February 7, 1996

 Mr. Chairman, distinguished Senators...Good morning. My name is Dick Farley, and my
wife and I are parents of an eleven year old son, Richard, who is in his seventh year as a
residential student at the Maryland School for the Blind.
 I come before you in strong support for Senate Bill 270, which will establish a publicly
accountable...and parentally accessible...board of directors to oversee the more than $10 million
in state taxpayer support the School for the Blind receives annually, and to guarantee compliance
with applicable state policy.
 Let me qualify myself for what I am about to present to you by noting that I served for
two years on the Maryland School for the Blind's "Parent Advisory Committee," having been
recruited and appointed to that position by MSB's then Superintendent (now its President) Mr.
Louis Tutt. I have much sympathy for the situation Lou has found himself in. Clearly he is taking
the brunt of criticisms of MSB's operational policies, something I am about to suggest to you
is not entirely justified given what is and has been going on at MSB since earlier in this decade.
 Despite public accusations by some senior MSB administrators, I am not simply a
"disgruntled parent" unhappy with the school's 1994 staff reductions. My son has what I would
term an "excellent" program, given his handicapping condition and what is now left of the once-
unparalleled "direct services" staff of therapeutic and educational specialists, who were the "heart
and soul" of MSB.
 My efforts and intentions are intended simply and solely to maintain what quality and
resources remain at MSB, and to:
1.open the processes governing annual expenditures of more than $10 million in annual
state appropriations to public and professional oversight, allowing some "light" to shine on the
school's governance process, insuring accountability; and
2.to place into the sunlight of public scrutiny specific information that may establish why
Senate Bill 270 is necessary for preservation of Maryland School for the Blinds's viability,
maintenance of its educational and therapeutic excellence, and restoration of staff and parent
morale. We must be able to trust the school's administration and their priorities. The issue,
distinguished Senators, is integrity!
 Here is what I know from my own inquiries and interviews during the past five years with
various of the "players" in and victims of these sad shenanigans including Lou Tutt and more
than a dozen other previous AND CURRENT professionals in the MSB "family." It is a bizarre
story of ego, petty politics and manipulation. My remaining comments will summarize what I
have learned thus far.
 If you are intent on giving Senate Bill 270 your serious consideration...and beyond that,
on helping restore and preserve Maryland School for the Blind's legitimacy and integrity, I hope
you will consider holding more hearings into these matters with witnesses testifying under oath,
and with protection under whatever state "whistle-blower" statutes may apply, so you may learn
what is true.
 Essentially...the governance structure at MSB on paper...on the school's various
organizational charts...is not based on operational reality. In a nutshell the school is micro-
managed by a small "executive" sub-group on MSB's board, with board chairman Harry Wright
reportedly exercising direct control through MSB's current Superintendent, Dr. Richard DeMott.
Please bear with me for a few moments, while I give you some relevant history that will make
this clearer.
 Richard DeMott was summarily fired in the mid-1980's, by the Board of Regents of the
State of Iowa's Higher Education system. DeMott had been serving as Superintendent of the Iowa
Braille and Sight Saving School, and had tangled with that state's Governor and the Board of
Regents over reorganizational issues.
 In the mid-1980's, DeMott applied for a Director of Education position at the Maryland
School for the Blind, and was hired by MSB's then-Superintendent, Dr. Richard Welsh with
approval by the school's board of directors, then chaired by long-time MSB director and board
chairman, the late James Campbell.
 According to MSB staffers in the confidence of Dr. Welsh, neither he nor the MSB board
of directors checked into Dr. DeMott's story of why he had been fired from his Iowa position.
This fact was confirmed to me in July, 1991...when I personally inquired (as a concerned parent,
as a member of Mr. Tutt's "Parent Advisory Committee" and with Mr. Tutt's full knowledge),
of the man who was Executive Secretary to the Board of Regents at the time, a senior aide to
Iowa's then Governor. According to his recollection, nobody from MSB inquired about DeMott's
work record or why he has been terminated from the Iowa school.
 I also spoke (in 1991) with the reporter who covered higher education issues at the time,
Mr. George Clifford...of the DeMoine Register, and I located copies of relevant news reports of
DeMott's firing. These were provided to Mr. Tutt by me in 1991. And it may be instructive to
you why I had done these things.
 By 1991, after Mr. Tutt had been in place at the Maryland School for the Blind for some
time, he had ventilated to me..to some of his senior staff...and in one remarkable "outburst" to
the entire parent Advisory Committee...his anger and frustrations that he did not have control
over what was happening inside the school. He also was concerned that actions were being taken
in his name...such as transfers, program decisions and school priorities...and that these were being
executed in ways Mr. Tutt expressed were neither his style nor his preferences, particularly by
Dr. DeMott. Mr. Tutt's files, if he maintained them, should contain copies of my research and
observations, as well as his responses to me.
 Let's drop back to our search of recent MSB history.
 When former MSB board chairman Jim Campbell became terminally ill, he stepped down
and his chairmanship was assumed by Mr. Harry Wright. Without going into details or
machinations leading to this action, within a couple of years give or take some months, MSB
Superintendent Welsh resigned "to pursue other interests." He moved to Pittsburgh.
 According to senior staff and long-time "MSB parents," there allegedly had been "an
understanding" between Dr. Welsh and Dr. DeMott that, if and when Welsh moved on to pursue
professional advancement elsewhere, DeMott would be promoted heavily to become the next
Superintendent of MSB.
 And when Harry Wright took over as board chairman at MSB, his hands-on style of
management honed in Maryland's banking industry reportedly meshed nicely with DeMott's more
"behind the scenes" style as a bureaucrat and "memo warrior' of the type we who study
government structures know only too well.
 To replace Rick Welsh, a search committee of MSB senior staff and parents was
organized, and the process began. This was in the very late 1980's.
 There were four finalists, according to two search committee members with whom I have
spoken...first in 1991 and then quite recently, to verify this information.
 The four finalists for MSB Superintendent were:
1.Mike Bina, then (and now) Superintendent of Indiana's blind school. Bina was reportedly
the search committee's first choice for the job, but as he had only recently taken the Indiana
position, he decided he could not accept Maryland's.
2.Louis Tutt, then at the Missouri School for the Blind. The search committee was
impressed with Lou's gregariousness and "people skills," but did have some concerns about his
educational administrative experiences.
3.Richard DeMott, still Director of Education at MSB, and working closely with Harry
Wright on administrative issues, as Wright apparently sought to put his own stamp and corporate
style on MSB's governance and priorities. The search committee reportedly was adamant that
DeMott not be offered the top job at MSB, citing (without being more specific than is appropriate
in this venue) his interpersonal skills. According to the Iowa officials with whom I had spoken,
this was among the several reasons that state's higher education regents had also cited when they
had fired DeMott from his position there. Documentation exists on it.
4.Kirk Walter, then a long-term MSB executive...who applied for the top job to replace Rick
Welsh, but did not receive consideration as a finalist. He remains at MSB, having survived the
1994 "wholesale" removal of MSB's professional and therapeutic management team...those who
dissented from what was going on.
 In the end, Louis Tutt was offered the Superintendent's position, and he accepted. But
here the story of Tutt's and DeMott's bizarre working relationship at MSB diverges.
 According to senior staff who were present, after the MSB board had decided on Mr. Tutt
to be superintendent, it was Harry Wright who came to a gathering of MSB professionals to
announce Tutt's selection.
 Those staff distinctly recall Mr. Wright's telling them that, while Tutt had accepted the
top position, (paraphrasing), "He (Tutt) had asked that Dr. DeMott be named as his 'associate
superintendent,' and that the MSB board had agreed."
 But some six to eight months later, the story seemed to unravel and another account of
DeMott's close underpinning of Tutt's position emerged.
 To a gathering of some of those same senior staffers, Lou Tutt expressed his frustration
and he "didn't seem to have any power at all" over school operations, and that (paraphrasing),
"I have never worked for a board like this."
 Tutt reportedly told his professional staffers that, no, it had not been he (Tutt) who had
requested DeMott as his 'Associate Superintendent.' Lou reportedly told his staffers that it had
been Harry Wright, the board chairman, who allegedly had told Tutt that 'the board' wanted
DeMott to be elevated to the 'Associate Superintendent' position, and that Mr. Wright had simply
asked Tutt whether he 'had any problems' with that. Tutt, of course, simply said he did not.
 The occasion for Tutt's reported revelation to his staff about the bizarre line of command
and control seeming to lead from Harry Wright to Dick DeMott was after Tutt had not been
permitted to move his Superintendent's office from its location in MSB's Newcomer Center to
what Tutt felt was a more appropriate setting for administration and development, nearby
Morrison Hall. In Tutt's anger, which I must say here he had also ventilated to me at our next
Parent Advisory Committee meeting, he acknowledged his frustration at DeMott's alleged
undercutting of what Tutt wanted to do...with the way he wanted to do it.
 Distinguished Senators, I could go on with report after report of similar stories, outbursts
and frustrations Lou had expressed to me and to others. I could also go into extensive details
about concerns and allegations of DeMott's "heavy handedness" in dealing with dissenting staff
and challenges to his primacy. But with all due respect, I leave further inquiries to your
discretion and curiosity.
 Summary:
  Of what there can be no doubt today, Senators, is that the Maryland School for the Blind
and its non-traditional relationship with the State of Maryland, with the county and city school
jurisdictions (LEAs) and with the parents and clients it is supposed to serve is dysfunctional,
unaccountable and hostile to honest dissent.
 In such a climate, organizations do not long survive, as they run on "intellectual empty,"
fueled only by the limited views of folks who have their own agendas and priorities, and whose
previous pain and humiliations in their careers may have left them angry, feeling rejected...and
having something to prove.
 What has happened to the Maryland School for the Blind in these past five years has been
the gutting of its professional, credentialed direct-service staff. Teachers have been reorganized
and reassigned based as much or more on their internal political behaviors, whether they are
willing to go along and keep silent, than on educational needs and priorities based on what is best
for our children.
 Establishment of a statutorily empowered Board of Directors as mandated by Senate Bill
270 will go a long way toward beginning MSB's restoration of its soul...and insuring that our
"high-needs/low-incidence" children will be served.

February 12, 1996

Dear Sen. Hafer,

 First, I want to thank you again for sponsoring SB 270, concerning the Maryland School
for the Blind. I appreciate the work you have done on this bill in spite of the opposition that we
anticipated. Please be assured that SB 270 has many supporters within the blind community and
the special education profession. Many parents of MSB students also support our position, but
are reluctant to speak out because they believe that there are no other alternatives for their
children.
 I want to take a few moments of your time to answer the objections that were raised at
the hearing last Wednesday, and to outline some of the actions that
should be taken immediately.
 1.) ATTORNEY GENERAL RULING: Our understanding, frequently repeated by MSB
officials, is that MSB is not subject to Maryland's Open Meetings Law. Although Mr. Wright
took great pains to tell us at the hearing that MSB's board meetings are open to the public, the
problem remains that the schedule for these meetings is not announced and circulated to the
public. Neither are minutes of board meetings mailed out, even though the NFB has requested
to be put on MSB's mailing list on several occasions. I think that it would be helpful if you were
to request a ruling on this matter from the Attorney General to settle this matter for once and for
all.
 2.) MSB BOARD OF DIRECTORS: We think that the addition of Del. Klausmeier to
MSB's Board is a step in the right direction, and we intend to bring our concerns to her. It
remains to be seen, however whether she will have enough of an impact on the Board to see to
it that our recommendations receive fair consideration. The basic problem with MSB's Board
remains unresolved. We do not know who the Board members are and how to reach them in their
communities. Thus far, all communications with MSB's Board members must be filtered through
MSB's administration. The same also applies to parents of MSB students.
 3.) CONSUMER REPRESENTATION: To the best of our knowledge there are two blind
persons on MSB's Board. But, it is a travesty to assert that the Board represents consumer
interests to any degree. None of the Board members have made any attempt to solicit the views
of the general blind community. Last year, Mr. Wright (and Dr. Demott as well) declined to
address the annual convention of the NFB of Maryland, the best and largest public forum for
Maryland's blind community. I would invite all of MSB's Board members to the convention if
I knew who they were.4.) CONTROL OF MSB: Mr. Wright's statement to the press after
the hearing, that the NFB seeks control of his school, boarders on the ridiculous and demonstrates
an intolerance for criticism. The NFB has never questioned the Maryland School for the Blind's
right to exist and to carry out it's mission with state funds. We have sought, given our unique
perspective on blindness and blind persons, improvements in MSB's programs. MSB's Board
members (and even MSB's administration) are not expected to command the expertise that the
NFB has. Board members and administrators, however, must be able to listen to what we have
to say and to evaluate our recommendations. When they agree with us, they should put our
advice into practice. When they disagree with us, they should be able to provide rational
explanations. For this to happen, there needs to be a high level of cooperation between MSB's
Board of Directors and blind consumers.
 5.) AMERICAN COUNCIL OF THE BLIND: Members of the General Assembly perform
a great disservice to Maryland's blind community when they place the ACB on an equal basis
with the NFB. By it's own admission at the hearing last Wednesday, the ACB is a very small
organization which lacks the membership and the resources of the NFB. It is worth noting that
there were only two ACB members in the hearing room on Wednesday afternoon. All of the
other blind persons in the room belong to the NFB. Simply put, the NFB commands the resources
and the membership that it does because it has received wide-spread support in the blind
community. The vast majority of blind persons espouse the NFB's progressive thinking and
support the NFB in principle if not in fact. Members of the General Assembly should not be
overly concerned with opposition from the ACB.
 6.) CONCLUSIONS:  The NFB of Maryland is committed to bringing about much needed
improvements at the Maryland School for the Blind. While we believe that SB 270 is an ideal
and workable solution for MSB's problems, we understand that others may have different ideas,
and, as always, we are willing to consider amendments to SB 270. If there are workable solutions
other than that contained in SB 270, we would be willing to consider those proposals as well.
 Thank you again for your valiant efforts on behalf of SB 270. I look forward to your
earliest response concerning the Attorney General's ruling on the Open Meetings law as it applies
to MSB.

Sincerely,
 Sharon Maneki
cc:Members of the Senate Finance Committee
 Del. Elijah Cummings
 Del. Katherine Klausmeier

Date: March 15, 1996
From: Sharon Maneki
To: Commerce and Government Matters Committee
Subject: Amendments to HB 1113

 Thank you for taking so much of the CGM Committee's valuable time on Tuesday, March
12 to hear HB 1113, Maryland School for the Blind - Board of Directors. The National
Federation of the Blind of Maryland deeply appreciates your courtesy, patience, understanding,
and objectivity on this matter.
 I would like to discuss two amendments to HB 1113 and to clarify some of the issues that
were raised at this hearing.
 1. The National Federation of the Blind of Maryland very much appreciates your concern
about the degree to which meetings of MSB's Board of Directors are open to the public. Mr.
Tutt's statement that "meetings are open to those who need to know" does not provide
satisfactory assurance that interested members of Maryland's blind community will be welcome
at future board meetings. The National Federation of the Blind of Maryland believes that MSB
will use the recent ruling of the Attorney General (that MSB is not subject to the Open Meetings
Law) as an excuse to bar public attendance at future meetings. In light of the Attorney General's
ruling the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland supports an amendment to HB 1113 to
subject meetings of MSB's Board of Directors to Maryland's Open Meetings Law. We
understand that the Senate Finance Committee is considering a similar amendment to SB 270.
The National Federation of the Blind of Maryland also supports the other amendment under
consideration by the Senate Finance Committee, (i.e. that the Governor shall appoint a member
of the General Assembly to serve on MSB's Board of Directors.)
 2. Contrary to assurances given by MSB officials at the hearing, meetings of MSB's
Board of Directors are not open to the public. As President of the National Federation of the
Blind of Maryland, I have raised the issue of open meetings with Mr. Tutt on several occasions.
I have suggested to him that, for its meetings to be "open," announcements of the meeting
schedule and minutes of past meetings should be mailed to members of the blind community,
including the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland. Mr. Tutt has never responded to
these suggestions. About three years ago, I requested attendance at a Board meeting to discuss
MSB's accreditation policy. In answering my request, Mr. Tutt invited me to attend a meeting
of the relevant sub-committee for this issue, and not to attend the regularly scheduled Board
meeting. Although I arrived early, before the beginning of the committee meeting, I was
instructed to wait outside the meeting room until the committee was ready for my presentation.
After I made my presentation I was excused from the meeting, and it was clear that my continued
presence would not be welcome. These events clearly indicate that attempts by members of the
National Federation of the Blind of Maryland to attend meetings of MSB's Board of Directors
would be futile.
 3. With regard to public announcements of meetings of the Board of Directors, the
National Federation of the Blind of Maryland first learned that MSB "announces" these meetings
in The Daily Record at the hearing for HB 1113, on March 12. It is curious that Mr. Tutt and
Mr. Wright did not volunteer this information to the Senate Finance Committee hearing SB 270,
the companion bill to HB 1113, on February 7. The inclusion of announcements in The Daily
Record is not an effective means of communicating with blind persons. Not only is The Daily
Record a publication of limited circulation, but it is also not available to blind persons in an
accessible reading medium.
 4. MSB does not have consumer representation on its Board of Directors. To the best of
our knowledge there are two blind persons on MSB's Board, but it is a travesty to assert that the
Board represents consumer interests to any degree. None of the Board members, blind or sighted,
have made any attempt to solicit the views of the general blind community. Last year, both Mr.
Wright and Superintendent Demott declined to address the annual convention of the NFB of
Maryland, the best and largest public forum for Maryland's blind community. I would invite all
of MSB's Board members to address the convention if I knew who they were.
 In conclusion, let me emphasize that the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland
is not interested in "taking control of MSB's resources." We are, however, interested in and
concerned about the quality of education and care that MSB provides to its students. (For a
complete assessment of problems at MSB, we suggest you pay most careful attention to the
testimonies offered by Mr. Farley and Dr. Jensema.) There can be no hope for improvements at
MSB until its administration and Board of Directors come under greater public scrutiny and are
held accountable to the same standards which apply to all public institutions. To this end, we
urge you to support HB 1113 with the amendments of the Senate Finance Committee.

MEMORANDUM
DATE: April 2, 1996
TO: Commerce and Government Matters Committee
FROM: Sharon Maneki
RE: In support of SB 270 as amended

 Companion bills, HB 1113 and SB 270, were introduced in an attempt to improve the
general public's access to information about the Maryland School for the Blind (MSB). The
problems with MSB's Board of Directors and the manner in which state funds appropriated to
MSB have been spent, have already been submitted to the CGM committee and will not be
repeated here. While the CGM committee has given an unfavorable report to HB 1113, the
Senate has approved SB 270 with amendments. Although the provisions of SB 270 have been
altered, the original intent has been preserved. The National Federation of the Blind of Maryland
supports SB 270 as amended, and recommends it for approval by the CGM committee.
 I wish to make the following comments in support of SB 270 as amended:
 1. The National Federation of the Blind of Maryland is still concerned about the degree
to which meetings of MSB's Board of Directors are open to the public. Mr. Tutt's earlier
statement to the CGM committee, "meetings are open to those who need to know" does not
provide satisfactory assurance that interested members of Maryland's blind community will be
welcome at future Board meetings. The National Federation of the Blind of Maryland believes
that MSB will use the recent ruling of the Attorney General (that MSB is not subject to the Open
Meetings Law) as an excuse to bar public attendance at future meetings.
 2. Contrary to assurances given by MSB officials at the hearing for HB 1113, meetings
of MSB's Board of Directors are not open to the public. As President of the National Federation
of the Blind of Maryland, I have raised the issue of open meetings with Mr. Tutt on several
occasions. I have suggested to him that, for its meetings to be "open," announcements of the
meeting schedule and minutes of past meetings should be mailed to members of the blind
community, including the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland. Mr. Tutt has never
responded to these suggestions. About three years ago, I requested attendance at a Board meeting
to discuss MSB's accreditation policy. In answering my request, Mr. Tutt invited me to attend
a meeting of the relevant sub-committee for this issue, and not to attend the regularly scheduled
Board meeting. Although I arrived early, before the beginning of the committee meeting, I was
instructed to wait outside the meeting room until the committee was ready for my presentation.
After I made my presentation I was excused from the meeting, and it was clear that my continued
presence would not be welcome. These events clearly indicate that attempts by members of the
National Federation of the Blind of Maryland to attend meetings of MSB's Board of Directors
would be futile.
3. With regard to public announcements of meetings of the Board of Directors, the National
Federation of the Blind of Maryland first learned that MSB "announces" these meetings in The
Daily Record at the hearing for HB 1113, on March 12. It is curious that Mr. Tutt and Mr.
Wright did not volunteer this information to the Senate Finance Committee hearing SB 270, on
February 7. The inclusion of announcements in The Daily Record is not an effective means of
communicating with blind persons. Not only is The Daily Record a publication of limited
circulation, but it is also not available to blind persons in an accessible reading medium. To
confirm Mr. Tutt's statement, I requested the reference librarian in the Howard County Public
Library to search for MSB's announcement about it's March meeting in The Daily Record. The
reference librarian reported that this announcement was not to be found in any of the issues
starting from March 1.
 Thank you very much for taking the time to consider the National Federation of the Blind
of Maryland's position on the problems at the Maryland School for the Blind. We urge you to
support SB 270 as amended and passed by the Senate. "A sense of normalcy in a blind world"

By Karen Gardner (Assistant Family Editor)

From the Editor: This article and the one that follows are primarily about Rachel Becker,
Christina Shorten, and the educational opportunities that our available to them in the Frederick
County school system. Much of what is positive in these two articles is due to the continuing
efforts of the National Federation of the Blind's parents organization. Danielle Becker, Rachel's
mother, is a board member of the NFB of Maryland's Parents Division. Here is the first of two
articles by Karen Gardner, which appeared on December 27, 1995, in "The Frederick News-Post."

 Rachel Becker doesn't see the green wreaths festooned with bright red ribbons decorating
the homes in her Frederick neighborhood. She doesn't see the fat red bows topping sleds that
herald the holiday season and winter at the same time.
 Rachel didn't see the early snow that fell last month. And she doesn't see the strings of
Christmas lights on the houses in her neighborhood, nor does she see the lights on her own
family's tree.
 But she can hear the bark of a neighbor's dog, the hum of an airplane above and the din
of the neighborhood children playing. She can hear the chirps of a bird in a tree. She can hear
the crunch of the snow under her shoes, and feel its icy, grainy texture on her hands.
 Rachel, 5, has been blind since birth. Her parents, Dan and Danielle Becker, who have
normal vision, try to make life much the same for their oldest child as it is for their other two
children, who also see normally.
 Inside her house one recent afternoon, Rachel was listening to "Tales of Beatrix Potter,"
on the VCR as she picked up the toys she and her little brother and sister played with. She
stopped running around long enough to talk with a visitor.
 "I like to play ring-around-the-rosy," she said. Her favorite movies are those that have
songs she can sing along with. "Cinderella" and "Snow White" top the list.
 She attends morning and afternoon kindergarten at Waverley Elementary School, to allow
extra time for Braille and mobility instruction. After a full day, she comes home thinking of food.
"I always get hungry in school," she said.
 "When she comes home from school, she likes to get with other kids," Mrs. Becker said.
If she gets too restless, Rachel bounces on the trampoline in the basement.
 "When I get mad, I throw things on the floor," Rachel said. But in a moment of
tenderness, she said, "I like touching mommy's face with my face."
 Rachel has bilateral optic nerve hypoplasia, a condition that causes nearsightedness in
some and blindness only in the most severe form. She has some light perception. She knows
when the light's on, and doesn't like to be in a dark room. At the same time, she won't sleep
with the light on, her mother said.
 "I'm blind, but I can see my feet," Rachel said proudly. Whether she is imagining or can
genuinely see her feet is hard to tell, her mother said. Rachel made another surprising observation
not long ago. She knew when she was walking across a sprawling map in the schoolyard.
 At other times, her eyes itch or hurt. "Ouch, ouch," she said, rubbing her eyes. "My eyes
are itching." It was a motion she repeated sporadically over two hours one evening recently.
 Rachel takes karate, learning by touch. Her mom's thinking about signing her up for Girl
Scouts, if Rachel hasn't started too many other activities when she starts first grade.
 "She wrote a thank-you note to a friend the other day," her mother said proudly, as proud
as any mother of a kindergartner who's learning to write. "I helped her compose it, but she told
me what to write."
 Soon, Rachel will be writing her own notes on a slate and stylus, a Braille machine.
Several years from now, she'll get a computer system that has a Braille keyboard, with the
capability of printing in Braille and in print.
 Rachel's dad, Dan Becker, said he and his wife and the school are learning by experience
about raising and educating a blind child.
 "They don't always know how much they can push her," he said. "We say 'treat her like
every other kid.'"
 Knowing what to expect is a challenge for the Beckers. "It's something they don't have
a lot of data on," Mr. Becker said. "But overall the teachers are really trying."


"Visually impaired students are mainstreamed into 'regular' school"

By Karen Gardner (Assistant Family Editor)

(Reprinted from "The Frederick News-Post," December 27, 1995)

 Rachel Becker, like many 5-year-olds, takes karate lessons, is learning to read and loves
to play games.
 She doesn't stand out from her kindergarten class at Waverley Elementary School. But
when the class heads out to the playground, the cherubic blond child picks up her white cane.
 Rachel is blind. But for Rachel and the 45 other blind and visually-impaired students in
the Frederick County school system, life is pretty close to normal.
 "There's no reason why she can't go to regular school," said Charleen Evans-Thomas,
visually-impaired teacher for Frederick County schools.
 That's the attitude most educators, and most parents, now take toward blind children.
While these children were once shipped off to special schools, far from home, today's blind
children go to public schools, ride the school bus, take karate, dance or other lessons, participate
in Scouts and watch television.
 Yes, watch TV, and movies too. Rachel wears "Pocahontas" shoes, carries a "Lion King"
back pack, and has favorite TV shows she listens to.
 In school, while the other kids are learning to distinguish letters, Rachel is learning the
Braille counterparts. When the other kids learn sign language, the teacher simply makes the sign
in Rachel's hand, and Rachel learns it too.
 She was talking as she walked into kindergarten class the week before school started. This
was the school's meet-the-teacher day, and Rachel was an eager student.
 This wasn't her first experience at school, however. She spent the previous school year
in a pre-kindergarten class. At age 3, she began taking speech and mobility lessons two days a
week.
 "I need a place to put my cane," she announced as she walked in. Rachel is a verbal child
who is not afraid to express herself. When she was shown where to put it, she placed it in the
slot, and listened as the teacher aide described what she'd do in the coming school year.
 "We get to meet friends, play games, learn songs and the pledge of allegiance," she said
when asked what she was looking forward to
 She went school shopping like any other eager kindergartner. "We went and got her hair
cut and went and had lunch and picked out a backpack and a dress," said her mother, Danielle
Becker. "It was a pretty exciting day."
 Blind children experience a much more normal life than they did as recently as 20 years
ago, when the majority left home at a young age to attend state schools for the blind.
 "I couldn't be separated from her," Mrs. Becker said. "People suggested that I send her
away, but she's my first baby."
 "Federal law makes provisions for the visually impaired," said Celia Kirby, one of two
vision specialists at the Frederick County Board of Education.
 The law, passed nearly 20 years ago, specifies that blind and visually impaired students
be included in regular public education wherever possible. Today, most blind children are taught
in public schools.
 "The teacher does a lot of repeating, a lot of descriptions," said Connie Banes, assistant
principal at Waverley.
 Christina Shorten, 15 and a sophomore at Brunswick High, has spent her entire school
career in the public schools, and can't imagine ever having gone away to school.
 An A-student, Christina entertains thoughts of becoming a diplomat or a business owner.
For now, she has set aside her ambition of becoming a lawyer, although in a weak moment she
admits that may change.
 Her best friends are Melissa and Jocelyn, two students who sometimes interpret for her
in class. Not that Christina needs much help. She is taking college-level biology, is a member
of the school's debate and It's Academic teams, and on the student council.
 "My favorite thing to do is read," Christina said. She's competent in Braille, but prefers
books on tape. Tapes of her favorite books, which are usually fantasy and science fiction, arrive
via mail from the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore and the Library of Congress. Postage
is free.
 "I'm not a sports person," she said. But she likes to swim, walk, and rider inner tubes.
 Her past is checkered with academic awards. There's one, for creativity, that she's
especially proud of. For a middle school project, she drew plans for a computerized cookbook,
with a talking program. It's an invention she would someday like to see manufactured.
 Christina cooks and helps with housework. General Electric provides Braille panels for
free with any GE appliance, and her mother, Terri Shorten, said those have helped Christina do
her share of chores.
 She also baby-sits her brothers and the neighbor's children. And she'd like to get a part-
time job proofreading Braille books. "So she can have her own spending money," her mother
said.
 Christina and Rachel get a few special services, but they spend as much time in regular
classrooms as they do getting special education.
 This dates back to the 1950's, when a large number of blind children became school age.
Many of these children had been born prematurely. While these children would have died had
they been born before World War II, technology was such that they could survive, but many were
blind. Incubators were blamed, but the exact cause was never found.
 Schools for the blind couldn't accommodate this swell of children. Most of these children
were middle class, because poorer families often couldn't afford the medical treatment that saved
these children.
 "There was no way these parents were going to let their children go uneducated," said
Barbara Cheadle, director of the National Federation of the Blind in Baltimore, and the mother
of a blind son.
 Most of these children were sent to public schools, making blind and visually impaired
children among the first disabled students to be mainstreamed into regular education, she said.
 Today, 85 percent of all children with vision problems go to public schools, Ms. Cheadle
said. While some visually impaired children can see with magnifying glasses, the truly blind learn
to read by the Braille system. In Frederick, five of the county's 40 visually impaired students
read totally by Braille. Others use a combination of magnifying glass and Braille, or a
magnifying glass.
 "Braille is just a coded English," said Bill Van Buskirk, mobility specialist for vision
impaired students.
 Christina and Allen Huffman, another blind student, use Braille and Speak, a word
processor that has Braille keys, but allows the student to print out an essay in either Braille or
print.
 Christina's $6,000 word processor was purchased through donations made to the school
system. Rachel will be getting a Braille and Speak several years from now.
 Large print and Braille books also come from the school's Vision Impaired program. Most
Braille texts are more than $1,000. For instance, Christina's advanced placement biology text is
$1,300. It takes up several volumes.
 The Braille American Heritage Dictionary, all 30 volumes of it, is placed in each school
with a blind child.
 Blind students get more than help with reading skills in the schools. They learn how to
cross a room, use the bathroom, walk the halls and run on the playground. Younger children, like
Rachel, will play beep-ball, listening for the beep to locate the ball.
 Older children like Christina learn how to negotiate city streets, traveling to downtown
Frederick to cross busy streets and to the malls to learn how to shop.
 Shopping is nothing new to Christina, however. She shops with friends, and is pretty
adept at matching outfits, as long as she's told the color.
 Eventually, Christina will learn train and subway travel. These students learn through
public schools, but often spend a week or two in the summer at the Maryland School for the
Blind in Baltimore.
 There, girls learn makeup skills; they also learn social skills that teach them how to get
along in a sighted world. While many blind people use guide dogs, they are normally limited to
adults.
 "We try and work with the classroom teacher," Mr. Van Buskirk said. "Occasionally we'll
pull a student out for Braille lessons, but they do not spend much time out of the classroom. At
most, it's one hour, one period, out of a day."
 Celia Kirby, another vision impaired specialist who works with Mr. Van Buskirk, will
attend Christina's biology lab class with her. "If something needs to be described for Christina,
I can do it," she said.
 Ms. Kirby and Mr. Van Buskirk also make sure teachers are aware of their students'
needs. "You don't tell Rachel to line up over here," Ms. Kirby said. "Or you don't say look at
the person in the blue dress."
 "I had a visually impaired student in auto-body (class)," Mr. Van Buskirk said. "He ended
up working on my car."
 Allen Huffman, a seventh-grader who lives in Frederick and attends Gov. Thomas Johnson
Middle School, enjoys science, language arts and chorus, and has a typical adolescent's hunger
for sweets.
 Over a plate of brownies at his home, he said his goal is to learn Spanish and travel
abroad. He also likes history, and thinks he may become a history professor, if he doesn't
become president.
 His 10-year-old sister Emilie reads books to him, and he likes to listen to sports events
on TV. He also listens to books on tape. Science fiction is his favorite.
 He doesn't get out of doing chores. "I don't want to be a slob," he said.
 Allen has been in public schools since kindergarten, in regular classes for every subject
but math. This is his first year in a regular math class.
 "At school, a lot of my teachers will be scared because they don't know how to teach a
blind person," he said. "After I explain it to them, they understand I want to be treated like
everybody else.""Learning to visualize life beyond the white cane"

by Christie Santiago

(Reprinted from "The Sun," Sunday, March 17, 1996, page 5K)

Betsy Zaborowski:
 The National Federation for the Blind helped her deal with her blindness, this clinical
psychologist says, and now she helps the consumer organization as a consultant. A clinical
psychologist by profession, Betsy Zaborowski has a private practice and teaches part-time at
Johns Hopkins University. Although she has some residual vision, Dr. Zaborowski has been
legally blind since birth. She also works part-time for the National Federation of the Blind as a
consultant, primarily working on program development and some fund-raising for the NFB's
Newsline Baltimore project.
 People in Baltimore who can't read the newspaper can listen to stories from several daily
newspapers, thanks to the project.
 Newsline Baltimore is part of a network of adapted computers that convert electronic
newspaper text into computer-generated speech available over phone lines to thousands of blind
individuals throughout the country, 24 hours a day and at no cost to the listener.
 Dr. Zaborowski said that for the first time in her life she is able to read newspapers on
a daily basis at the same time as the general public.
 Dr. Zaborowski, 46, first became involved with the NFB in 1979.
 "I met some very successful, confident blind people that helped me make lots of
transitions," explained Dr. Zaborowski, "like the first time that I had to pick up the white cane
and use it publicly. That's often a very difficult time for people, and my blind friends at the NFB
really helped me through that."
 The NFB, with its national headquarters here in Baltimore, is the largest consumer
organization of people who are blind and visually impaired in this country.
 "I really needed to deal with my blindness [and] to get more comfortable with it," said
Dr. Zaborowski.
 "I got introduced to the NFB at that time, and it was a real life-saver for me."TEN THINGS TO THINK ABOUT IF YOU WANT TO START A BUSINESS

by Maureen Pranghofer

(reprinted from "Insight," a publication of the NFB of South Dakota, Spring 1996)
 Last November, after considerable assistance from Blind Inc., and Minnesota State
Services for the Blind, I began a small business. This past year has been a wonderful learning
process. Hopefully, if you have the yen to be an entrepreneur, you will glean something for what
I have learned.
1.KNOW WHAT YOUR ABILITIES ARE. After my accident in June of 1993, when I
became totally blind, I began thinking about what kind of career I might like to pursue. Working
from my home seemed to be the most practical thing to do.
 Make a list of the things which you are good at and think about how they could be used
in a business. As you gain skills in other areas they can be added to this list of possible
entrepreneur ideas. But it's difficult to start a business unless you know well the area into which
you are entering.
2.FIGURE OUT HOW YOU CAN USE WHAT YOU HAVE. As I indicated above, making
a list of what one can do is important. You need to know your abilities-strengths and weaknesses,
limitations and potentials. After making this list it is necessary to "weed out" what will and will
not work. For example, while I was at Blind Inc., I learned a great deal about cooking. Prior to
attending Blind Inc., making a grilled cheese sandwich was a major undertaking. Now I cook all
kinds of things ranging from Nigerian cuisine to homemade peach sherbet to just plain ordinary
fare. Could I start a business preparing some kind of food and selling it? Well, maybe, but in
looking at this there are obstacles in that cooking, though I enjoy it, is physically very tiring for
me. It would be an inefficient and fatiguing venture at best even though one could perhaps say
I have abilities in that area.
3.DON'T BE AFRAID TO DO MORE THAN ONE THING. In "weeding out" what I could
and could not do I was left with three things which were all of great interest to me and which
I felt had business possibilities. So I came up with a business which utilizes all three things. They
are separate entities but I earn money from all of them. In my case my business, therefore,
consists of transcription of print material into Braille and onto cassette tape, speaking to groups
about the needs of person's with disabilities, and writing music. I love this arrangement. It gives
me a great variation in what I am doing and keeps me from ever having the possibility of
becoming bored.
4.PUT TOGETHER A BUSINESS PLAN. I received funding for my computer and
embosser through Minnesota State Services for the Blind. They first required me to have a small
business plan. I had not a clue as to what should be contained in such a plan and so I contacted
SCORE. SCORE is a volunteer organization made up of retired business executives who assist
people in starting their own business. In one meeting I was able to find out what kind of
information should be in the plan. I would advise using them or another business expert to check
out the completed plan and assist in its original formation. Items contained in the plan can
include but are not limited to, reasons why you think you should go into business, something
about your background, a resume, the nature of the proposed business, how you will market the
business, your projected expenses in beginning the business, and your projected revenue.
5.DON'T BECOME DISCOURAGED ABOUT MONEY. I have had some other blind
individuals phone me during the last year with business ideas. The thing which has been in
common for them all is that they have no money which can be used to obtain the necessary
equipment they need in order to begin their business ventures. I obtained money from my state
agency for the blind. This is an available avenue to many people. However, it is not something
that happens overnight. I had to pursue my counselor repeatedly in order to make anything
happen. I kept coming back to him time and time again with what I wanted to do and with others
from Blind Inc., speaking up on my behalf things moved. If one source tells you "no" pursue it.
Don't be afraid, for example, to go to a supervisor. Know your rights. Know what you, as a
client of the agency are entitled to before beginning to pursue what you want. Know how to
come back to their "no" with a desire to find out exactly why they gave that answer and then to
counter that.
 And, don't give up if your state vocational rehabilitation agency is not the way to go.
Most states have a small business agency which has loads of info on how to start a small
business. With disability, thanks to the ADA, being a minority we are a protected class and
therefore eligible for many small business grants. Pursue these.
6.KNOW WHAT YOU WOULD CONSIDER SUCCESS. If, in your small business plan,
you have determined that you need to make a certain income, reach for this goal, but be realistic.
Success for one person does not mean the same thing for the next person. For example, in my
case, I have wanted to make enough money to supplement my SSDI. Because of other disabilities
it's not practical for me to get out of the system but I can still earn the monthly amount allocated
and consider that success. For others, they would never dream of doing this and would want to
earn far more money in order to consider themselves successful. Know what you are aiming for
and make it realistic for your own circumstances.
7.DON'T DROP EVERYTHING TO START THE BUSINESS. Did you know that it takes
an average of 5 years for most small businesses to really start showing a consistent profit? This
is an average, remember, and so isn't always true, of course. But, what I'm saying is because
your business is starting don't leave another job, for example, until you know you are having
regular income coming in from your business.
8.PREPARE FOR FEAST OR FAMINE. I have found in the last year that there are times
when I am not particularly busy and there are times when I feel quite overwhelmed with the
amount I have to do. This feast or famine takes some getting used to-not worrying if there isn't
a lot to do-it will come, and balancing your life when there is an abundance of work. I have had
to struggle at times to keep from working every waking hour. It's a job and don't get caught up
into unhealthy loop of working all the time simply because you work at home. When I'm not too
busy I work on things which have been sitting without deadline, for example, and when I'm
swamped I get things done but still try to stick an 8 hour work day.
9.LET YOUR BUSINESS GO WHERE IT TAKES YOU. Sometimes we get ideas of how
things should be and we want to stick just to the plans that we have made. I have found that
flexibility is essential in business. Now it may simply be that I am a creative person and think
in those terms, but I have found my business taking me in directions I never would have dreamed
it would. Almost all of my speaking to groups about disability has, for example, been made
possible because of word of mouth contacts. I have done very little marketing. One day, while
I was reading my mail, I got a card from a real estate company advertising their services. I
dropped it into the trash but did not drop the thought-"I wonder if there is any way I could
market my teaching about disability to people in this field?" I did some digging, found out where
people in Minnesota become licensed as real estate agents, and made a cold call to their
executive director. I asked if anyone had taught a course dealing with how one assists disabled
customers and issues related to accessibility in housing. He said "write a proposal, that sounds
interesting." I did and got a lucrative contract out of the deal. They have since hired me to do
a number of other classes dealing with aspects of real estate and fair housing which only
indirectly have to do with disability. This means that I am delving into new areas which I am
having to learn starting at ground zero and requiring research. However, I would not be involved
with this if I had not let my creativity take me in this direction and if I had not then used
opportunities presented to me.
10.BE CONFIDENT. I can not emphasize this last point enough. Be confident, be confident,
be confident. I have made many mistakes along the way, have constantly been learning new
things ranging from more efficient ways to use my software to evaluating how I can improve
public speaking based on audience critiques. However that is not what I let people know. The
biggest drawback I have noticed when talking to potential entrepreneurs is that they seem to lack
confidence in what they can do. Believing you can do what you set your mind to do is one of
the first steps toward doing it.MC Student Makes Use of Many Opportunities

by Greg Smith,
SPUR Staff Writer

From The Editor: Since immigrating to this country from India a few years ago, Yasmin
Reyazuddin has become an active member of the National Federation of the Blind. She is an
vice-president of the Sligo Creek chapter and is highly visible at state and national NFB
activities. Yasmin's experiences growing up in India and moving to the United States with her
family would make an interesting article for a future issue of this newsletter. This article about
Yasmin is reprinted from The Montgomery College-Rockville Spur, Monday, March 20, 1995.
Yasmin completed her studies at Montgomery College, and is currently attending the University
of Maryland.
 Too many things are taken for granted now-a-days. We walk into a room and flip the light
switch, and take it for granted that the lights will come on (unless, of course, the bulb is burned
out.) We wake up in the morning and open the shade, and take it for granted that the sun will
be there (unless, of course, it's a cloudy day.) We go to class and take it for granted that we can
see the changes in our biology experiment (unless, of course, you can't see.) But how can you
conduct a biology experiment if you can't see the results, or read the text book, or even look
over the questions on Friday's test? These are the questions that I'm sure Yasmin Reyazuddin
gets asked almost every day. How can someone who can't see all the things an average student
does, even read an ordinary text book? Because, Yasmin is not your average student and her
textbook is anything but ordinary.
 Yasmin Reyazuddin, 29, is blind. She has two brothers and one sister, and is originally
from New Delhi, India. Currently, Yasmin is a full-time student taking 13 credit hours at
Montgomery College. She is a member of the Affirmative Action Committee and a board
member of the Sligo Creek Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind (NFB). She is also
on the Job Seminar Planning Committee for the NFB. In India she graduated from high school
and then went on to earn her bachelor's degree in Liberal Arts. She also started work on her
masters degree while she was there. Now, she is working on her sociology degree, and after
graduation, Yasmin intends to go into vocational rehabilitation for the blind.
 This semester she is taking Introduction to Probability, Philosophy, Human Relations in
Management, and Biology. Recently, I had the interesting experience of accompanying Yasmin
to her Wednesday biology lab. I met up with her in the morning at the Learning Center and
walked with her to class. She walked a half step behind me, to allow her reaction time to my
movement, and explained to me what the class was going to be like. It was hard to picture how
it was all going to work, but when we got to class it all started to come together. Yasmin sat
down and took out her lab papers (in Braille), a tape recorder (to take notes), and introduced me
to Ken, her student aide. Ken, who has already taken the course, is Yasmin's eyes in the class.
He explains what is going on, takes the readings down on the lab experiments, and guides
Yasmin around the class when it's time to rotate to a different lab station. However, all the
studying is left to Yasmin.
 As the class progresses, I noticed Yasmin listening intently to what was going on. The
class was on cellular respiration and the lab experiment was going to require the class to record
the metabolic rate of a gerbil in different temperature environments. This teacher, Dr. Barbara
Hoffman, went over the experiment and detailed the specifics to the class, then took the time to
personally explain to Yasmin what was expected.
 Taking Yasmin's hands in hers, Dr. Hoffman guided her student's hands over the
equipment and explained how the experiment was laid out. Yasmin familiarized herself with the
setup, even shrieked when she was introduced to the furry little subject that was the basis of the
experiment. Other than that, the class was the same as any other class.
 Later on that day, I was able to talk with Dr. Hoffman about Yasmin and her presence
in class. Dr. Hoffman explained how Disability Support Services (DSS) contacted her about
Yasmin's enrollment in her class. DSS set up a conference with her, Learning Center
representative Cheryl Berthau, and Yasmin. The three discussed what Yasmin's needs were, what
Dr. Hoffman's requirements were, and how DSS and the Learning Center could provide the
proper resources for Yasmin to meet those requirements. Yasmin was provided with models,
Braille label makers, a student aide, the complete textbook on tape, and access to the Learning
Center which had computer disks that work with the blind. In addition, Student Services has a
machine that prints out all her handbooks in Braille. Yasmin herself has her own "Perkins Braille
typewriter" and a "Braille N Speak" which helps her take notes. When asked how well all of
these resources work, Dr. Hoffman says "it's great." She also added that Yasmin is a delightful
and enjoyable person, as well as a good student who has adapted well to the class.
 In an interview with Yasmin, she had the same nice things to say about her teacher.
Yasmin enjoys the class and says that the services provided are acceptable to her needs. She
wants to let people know that she can succeed as well as anyone else. Speaking for the blind in
general, Yasmin stated that "(We are) competent and able to work. We don't want to be put in
a corner."MSB's FIDELA SIMMONS COMMITTED TO BRAILLE

From The Editor: Fidela Simmons has been a teacher of the visually and is now a librarian at
The Maryland School for the Blind, with thirty-four years of experience working with blind and
visually impaired youngsters and adults. She holds a Masters Degree in education and sixty
additional credits in supervision, special education, and library science. She has also earned an
advanced certificate from MSDE in vision, elementary and middle school, library, Spanish, and
special education K-12. Fidela Simmons received an award for her distinguished service from the
National Federation of the Blind of Maryland at it's convention banquet last November. Here are
the brief remarks she made to the luncheon meeting of NFB of Maryland's Parents Division, just
one of many activities at our 1995 convention.

 I welcome the opportunity to make some brief comments to the Parent Division of the
National Federation of the Blind.
 The Maryland School for the Blind is committed to strengthen the Braille program--from
pre-Braille skills with our younger children, to full Braille usage including slate and stylus
technology with our older students.
 Many of our students are learning to read and write with Braille. Some of our students
have demonstrated that they need Braille, though they have already learned to read print. Braille
instruction is available for anyone who needs or wants Braille.
 One of the most exciting activities during our school year is the students' participation
in the Braille Readers Are Leaders Contest sponsored by the National Federation of the Blind.
Our students have been participating in this contest for about 6 years. We have reached the stage
where students ask about the contest in the fall before staff even mention it. Each year in the
spring, after the students have participated in the contest, they and our staff are invited to the
award ceremony and a reception at the National Federation headquarters. At this reception, the
students meet and socialize with other blind students and blind adults who are the role models
our children need. Our students thoroughly enjoy the ceremony and reception, and they are
already reading in this year's contest and look forward to another visit this coming spring.
 Last year was particularly exciting for us because our school received a plaque and $100
cash prize for having the largest number of enrolled students participating in the contest. Each
student received a certificate and $10 from Friends of the Library of the Blind and Physically
Handicapped (LBPH).
 We are most grateful to the National Federation of the Blind for this reading opportunity
and the social situation which reward the students' reading endeavors.
 In the future, we plan to continue our participation in this very motivating Braille reading
activity. Thank you.1996 BRAILLE READERS ARE LEADERS CONTESTANTS

We congratulate the 26 participants of the 1995-96 Braille Readers Are Leaders contest:

Name      City     Grade Level

Calvin JacksonBaltimore5-8
Jeremy Cheek  Bowie    2-4
Jessica MarkleBel AirP-B
Brian BlevinsAberdeen2-4
Raven BakewellHagerstown2-4
Vy Pham   Gaithersburg2-4
Laura-Sun CefarattiAnnapolis2-4
Jessica WatsonAbingdon2-4
Nicole WhitePasedena2-4
Danielle ShivesBig Pool2-4
Nikos DaleyReisterstown2-4
Lydia D. RichardsonPocomoke5-8
Michael MooreColumbia5-8
Andre Slacam  Baltimore9-12
Amanda DelriegoClarksville5-8
Allen HuffmanFrederick5-8
Emine WatsonPocomokeP-B
Carlita LuckeyBaltimore9-12
Shakir Amjad  Greenbelt9-12
Lisa JohnsonClinton9-12
Jennifer KarnsBaltimore9-12
Frank Millner Baltimore9-12
William Ransom     9-12
David WellsColora      9-12
Sean SewardBaltimore5-8
Jamelle WordBaltimore5-8

 We commend Jessica Watson, Lydia D. Richardson, Jennifer Karns, and Lisa Johnson for
reading more than 1,000 pages. We also commend Danielle Shives in grade level 2-4 for reading
703 pages.
 For the second consecutive year, The Maryland School for the Blind received an
outstanding school for the blind award for enrolling 17 students in the contest, representing 33%
of the students enrolled in it's academic program. These 17 students read a total of 7,117 pages.
 This was the largest number of students from Maryland ever enrolled in the Braille
Readers Are Leaders contest. We hope that more students enroll in the 1996-97 contest. Details
of 1996-97 appear elsewhere in this issue.SPECKS
Tips for Tough Times now available
 Tips for Tough Times is a monthly newsletter published by the Consumer Protection
Division of the Maryland Attorney General's Office. It contains a wide variety of consumer
information. Some examples from previous issues are, "What consumers should know when
stores go out of business" and "Changing your long distance company without your permission."
This newsletter is available on the National Federation of the Blind Bulletin Board, NFBNET
(612-696-1975). It is also available on computer disks, which can be obtained by contacting
Patrick Gormely, 3507 Jefferson Street, Hyattsville, MD 20781, phone number 301-864-4694.
You must provide your own blank disk. Contact Mr. Gormely for more information.

Repairs: Save money and bring your Brailler back to life. The Selective Doctor specializes in the
repair of Perkins Braillers and all IBM typewriters. Repairs made at reasonable rates. Top quality
service at yesterday's prices. Free pick-up and delivery in greater Baltimore area only. Thirty day
guarantee on repairs. Call 410-668-1143 for further details.

New Baby: On March 21, Christopher Pendleton came into the world weighing eight and a half
pounds and measuring twenty-two inches in length. Christopher's mother, Keri Pendleton, is the
friendly voice at the National Center for the Blind who handles aids and appliances orders.
Congratulations to all of the Pendletons.

Wedding Bells: On June 14, Patty Fraley, an active member of the Mountain City chapter,
married Gary Price of West Virginia. We are pleased to announce that Brenda Williams, state
board member and long-time member of the Greater Baltimore chapter, will marry Robert G.
Gladden on September 15. Congratulations to both couples.

From Dona Sauerburger
March 14, 1996
Dear Editor:
      I was very disappointed to see that in the last issue of The Braille Spectator, you reprinted
part of an article out of context from our publication, the Metropolitan Washington Orientation
and Mobility Association Newsletter. In our November 1995 issue, we published an article titled
"Point-Counterpoint: Alternative Mobility Devices for Children," in which two orientation and
mobility specialists, Joe Cutter and Joani Myers, presented opposing views.
      One view, that of Mr. Cutter, coincides with that of the National Federation of the Blind.
That view was reprinted in your newsletter, along with an introduction explaining that it was
published as a separate article titled "The Need for 'Pre-Canes": Fact or Fancy?".
      However, you did not reprint the rest of the article, which presented an opposing view,
one which is held by many (if not most) orientation and mobility instructors.
      Is it your policy to present only one side of these issues to your members? If not, please
reprint the rest of the article so that they can consider both viewpoints, or please print this letter
so that they realize that there are two sides to this issue and that our newsletter did not endorse
or present only one viewpoint, and inform them that they can get a copy of the complete article
by sending a stamped, self-addressed envelope to me.
      Thank you.
      Dona Sauerburger, Editor
      Metropolitan Washington Orientation and Mobility Association Newsletter

Talking Newspaper: For information and applications to Newsline, the telephone talking
newspaper service featuring "USA Today," "The Chicago Tribune," and "The New York Times,"
call The National Center for the Blind, 410-659-9314.

Aquarium Tour: The Parents of Blind Children Division of the NFB of MD, invites you to spend
a special evening with us at the National Aquarium in Baltimore on Wednesday, October 2, 1996
at 6PM. This is a special night at the Aquarium designed specifically for those with special
needs. The staff at the Aquarium will tailor the visit to enhance the experience for our visually
impaired children. Admission for this event is Free!!! However, due to the nature of this event,
attendance will need to be limited to our visually impaired children and a single parent or
guardian per child as necessitated by the age or special needs of the child. Sign up early!!!
Spaces are very limited. For further information or to sign up for the event contact: Tom or
Yvette Woods at 410-553-0740.NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND OF MARYLAND

THIRTIETH ANNUAL
CONVENTION

GAITHERSBURG HILTON
620 PERRY PARKWAY
GAITHERSBURG, MD

Friday, OCTOBER 25 - Sunday, OCTOBER 27 , 1995



LUXURIOUS ACCOMMODATIONS
Indoor pool, whirlpool, saunas, exercise room.
Martingayles resteraunt and louge.
For your wining and dinning pleasure.

ATTRACTIVE ROOM RATES
$60.00 for singles, doubles, triples and quads per night, tax included.

ARRIVE EARLY
Special room rate is available from Thursday, Oct. 24 to Sunday, Oct.
27.

RESERVE YOUR ROOM NOW
Send your completed reservation form and full payment for your room to Shirley Morris
by October 4, 1996. DO NOT call the hotel for room reservations.

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Call Sharon Maneki, President, NFB of Maryland [phone].ATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND OF MARYLAND
1996 CONVENTION AND DONATION FORM

Gaithersburg Hilton Hotel
Friday October 25 - Sunday October 27, 1996

Donations are appreciated.  This is the only opportunity that we have to ask for donations from
most of you.

Mail completed forms and checks to Shirley Morris, 16547 Old Emmitsburg Road, Emmitsburg,
MD 21727. Do not contact the Gaithersburg Hilton for reservations.  No reservation will be
confirmed without the total payment of your room.
                    ■═════════════════════════════════════════
Please complete and return this form by October 4, 1996, even if you do not plan to attend
the 1996 Convention or if someone else is reserving a room for you.

      Name:__________________________________________________________

      Address:________________________________________________________

      _______________________________________________________________

      City/State/Zip:________________________Telephone: __________________

My donation to NFB of Maryland:                                      $____________

_______I will     _______ I will not attend the 1996 Convention.

__________   I wish to reserve a room in my name.
             $60.00 per night singles, doubles, triples, and quads.
Arrival date: _____________   Departure date: _____________
Payment in full for _______ nights:
$____________

Transportation ($20.00 per person) from the National Center for the
Blind (1800 Johnson Street) to the Gaithersburg Hilton on October 25,
returning October 27, departure times to be announced.
Transportation for _________ persons:                                $____________

Total:                                                               $____________

                   Make your check payable to the NFB of Maryland.

I understand that in order to qualify for the special hotel rates I, and everyone in my room, must
register at the convention and pay the convention fee of $10.00.

Signature: _________________________________________

                             Continued on Reverse SideROOM RESERVATION, TRANSPORTATION, AND CHILD CARE

List names of all people, including yourself and any children, who will occupy the room with
you.  If persons in your room do not reside at your address, list their addresses and phone
numbers in the space provided.

Please check below if you or any members of your group need transportation.

■═════════════════════════════════════════

Number of persons in room: _________________
                                                          Check if      Needs

Name                                                      under 17
Transportation?
__________________________________________                 _____         ______

__________________________________________                    _____         ______

address:___________________________________
city:_____________________state:_____________
zip:________________phone:_________________
__________________________________________                 _____         ______

address:___________________________________
city:_____________________state:_____________
zip:________________phone:_________________
__________________________________________                    _____         ______

address:___________________________________
city:_____________________state:_____________
zip:________________phone:_________________

■═════════════════════════════════════════

__________   I am requesting child care service for _____ child(ren) during the Saturday
             sessions and the banquet.