SEMINARS FOR LOCAL BLIND LEADERSWe are very glad to have the opportunity to share information with you about our dynamic training seminars for local blind leaders. The importance of these seminars to the quest for equal opportunity and a full life for the blind of the nation cannot be stressed enough. These seminars are held at the National Center for the Blind in Baltimore several times a year. The number of blind people invited to each seminar is deliberately small, usually not more than thirty, because we want to be able to work closely with each individual. Typically seminar participants are emerging leaders from local communities throughout the country who arrive expectant and excited about having been chosen for this experience. Over a four to five day period, they begin each day with breakfast at seven o'clock in the morning and work—with only short breaks and meals—until ten o'clock or so every evening. Action Fund leaders conduct the sessions. It is an intensive learning experience for the participants, who typically return to their communities full of enthusiasm to put into practice what they have learned. There is much to learn during the short time that these leaders and future leaders have at the seminars. The entire system of help available to blind persons in this country is explored so that those attending can serve as resource persons to guide others in their local communities. They study the services available through state-federal vocational rehabilitation agencies, regional libraries for the blind and physically handicapped (every state has such service), and Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income programs for which many blind persons are eligible but are unable to apply because they have insufficient information. The National Center for the Blind houses the International Braille and Technology Center for the Blind, displaying for demonstration and training almost every known device for transcription and embossing of Braille, the conversion of print to spoken word, and other specialized aids useful to blind persons in employment and other activities. There is also a materials center at the National Center for the Blind which supplies literature on blindness in print, in Braille, and on cassette tapes. Specially adapted devices useful to blind persons in daily living (such as Braille watches and clocks, talking calculators, measuring devices, sewing aids, Braille writing equipment, cooking aids, and a host of other such assistive equipment) are available at the National Center for the Blind. Seminar participants learn about these resources, not only for their own use, but so they can provide information to other blind people in their home communities. The contributions of many generous individuals help make these seminars possible, and through them the American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults helps blind persons move from a negative self-image to belief in their ability to live productive, full lives—to contribute to their world and not merely to take from it. The seminar program helps enable those with leadership potential find the resources, information, and encouragement to lead others to this confidence. |