Matilda Ziegler Magazine for the Blind the source for blindness news and information since 1907

Martin Luther King, Jr., was born on January 14, 1929 in Atlanta, GA and died on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, TN where he was supporting striking African-American sanitation workers. Shortly after 6pm, Doctor King left his second story room at the Lorraine Motel to go to dinner when a gunshot to King’s jaw severed his spinal cord.

When I think of Doctor King’s legacy and nonviolent approach to achieving racial justice, I reflect on the Prayer of Saint Francis. To better understand the relationship between Doctor King’s philosophy and Saint Francis of Assisi’s Prayer, the beginning of that prayer is presented below:

“Make me a channel of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me bring your love.”

Countless were the times during his civil rights leadership that the Reverend Doctor King met the venom of vicious hatred with the soothing salve of love. In his “I Have a Dream” speech to which I will refer several times in this article, Doctor King urged his supporters to respond to hatred with the nonviolent resistance of love.

Where there was a desert of despair, Doctor King brought an oasis of hope. In his now famous “I Have a Dream” speech, Doctor King encouraged the half million people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., to go back to their communities and continue fighting for equality and justice (By Googling “I Have a Dream,” you can hear an MP3 version of this August 28, 1963 speech).

Where there was the darkness of discontent, the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. brought the light of his dreams for better tomorrow. Again referring to his “I Have a Dream” speech, Reverend King expressed his hope that one day, his four little children would be judged, not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

Tragically, Doctor King, Jr. paid the ultimate price for daring to dream of wrongs righted and injustices invalidated. In March, 1969, James Earl Ray, an avowed racist who escaped from a Missouri prison in 1967, was convicted of Doctor King’s assassination.

Another point worth noting here is that, though achieving racial justice and equality was Doctor King’s primary focus, he was also concerned about economic equality. One way Doctor King addressed this issue was by organizing an interracial Poor People’s Campaign that was held in Washington, D.C. in 1968.

What has made Doctor King’s legacy a lasting one is that, out of the ashes of the violence he deplored and the economic inequality he fought against arose new hands, hearts and voices building bridges to peace, highways to hope, and pathways to justice.

When I heard the news of Doctor King’s death, I was doing my homework at the Overbrook School for the Blind where I was a 15-year-old sophomore. Where were you when you heard the news?

Additional Sources: www.doctorkingonline.com, en.wikipedia.org, and www.history.com.

Is driving while sick with the common cold or flu as dangerous as driving while drunk? According to a recent study conducted by Young Marmalade, a U.K.-based car insurance company, and Cardiff University, it just might be.

The motor safety experts who conducted the research reported that the driving skills of subjects who were ill dropped by 50 percent compared to healthy drivers.

In an ABC News report, researchers are quoted comparing the dangers of driving while sick to those of driving while drunk. Concentration and reaction time were affected so significantly that driving while sick was like driving after having four double whiskeys, investigators said.

Since neither Marmalade nor Cardiff researchers shared enough about the study for it to be reviewed, we can draw no definite conclusions. Clearly, though, this report gives us food for thought. To quote a marketing director from Marmalade: “The study serves as a warning to all drivers that being behind the wheel with a cold can impair a driver’s mood, concentration and judgment.”

To relate these findings to cold sufferers in the United States, Americans experience about 500 million (that’s half a billion) colds a year, and around 90 percent of people in the U.S. are on the road on any given day. This means that, on any day, one million Americans might be driving with a cold.

Though I would never want to be driven by someone who had been drinking, I’ve never thought about being driven by a person who has a cold or the flu and might be drowsy from routinely taking medications. It’s also a safety hazard for pedestrians as well if there are sick drivers buzzing around America’s roads. I’m eager to hear your thoughts in Readers Forum.

Source: Chattanooga Injury Blog: www.masseyattorneys.com/…/new-study-dangers-driving-with-cold/

I hate singing, “Rudolph, the Red-nosed Reindeer!” I hate it because I never seem to get right the sequence in which the reindeer names occur. Not to be a total “bah humbug,” though, I will add that I have always enjoyed the song’s happy ending, and will sing it cheerfully if asked.

As most of you probably know, Rudolph is also a movie–with George May having written the story in 1939 and the movie first airing in 1964. Having not seen the movie since grade school, I have no opinion about it, but George Giulianni certainly does. This author, licensed psychologist and special education professor at Long Island University C.W. Post campus says that Rudolph sends the wrong message to children by promoting bullying.

“Rudolph is treated very, very badly, and this should never happen,” Giulianni asserts. Dr. Giulianni further makes his case by stating that the movie promotes not only bullying but also exclusion, favoritism, hypocrisy, manipulation, rejection and sexism.

During a debate on Fox and Friends, Giulianni says, “At the very beginning of the movie, Rudolph is rejected by Donner, his father, because Rudolph was born with the disability of having a nose that shone red.”

“Sexism,” Giulianni continues “is shown when Hermey, one of the elves, wants to become a dentist but is told that he can’t because elves are permitted only to make toys. And not just toys, but perfect toys, with any toy that is less than perfect being labeled a “misfit,”–a word used 27 times in this less than an hour long film. Imperfect toys are sent to a far-off island, never to be loved by a little girl or boy.”

“How would you feel,” Giulianni asks “if your child’s teacher sent him or her home for being different and told the rest of the class that they were never to play with your child!” Host Carlson ended this Fox and Friends debate by exclaiming, “It’s just a cartoon!”

Cartoon or not, Giulianni feels so strongly about this that he has even written a book entitled, “No More Bullies At the North Pole.” Giulianni rewrites this classic by having Mrs. Claus–called “Mama” in the original movie–point out Santa’s bad behavior immediately. She does this by mentioning ten things that are wrong at the North Pole and then goes about correcting them. The ending in this revision, geared toward elementary school children, is happy, but without Rudolph having to perform an extraordinary feat to be accepted. (“No More Bullies At the North Pole” can be downloaded as an E-book from www.allaboutbullying.com).

Just as Fox’s Gretchen Carlson wasn’t convinced by Giulianni’s argument, neither is Dr. Paul Friday of Pittsburgh’s Shadyside Psychological Services. In fact, Friday describes Rudolph’s story as “innocent and nice.”

“To take this story and make it into something with psychological or sociological pathology…I think Dr. Giulianni has too much time on his hands,” Dr. Friday concluded.

Let me know in Reader’s Forum if you think Rudolph sends the wrong message to children, especially when it comes to accepting classmates with disabilities. If you attended a school for the blind or deaf/blind, did bullying take place there?

Sources: www.allaboutbullying.com, www.bullyingintheworkplace.org, cbs/pittsburgh.com, google.com, huffingtonpost.com, syracuse.com and the TV show Fox and Friends.

Since 2005, I have worked at a Pittsburgh-based mental health organization called Peer Support and Advocacy Network.

Peer support in the context of my employment refers to persons in recovery from mental illness helping others with psychiatric disabilities. The background which enables me to provide this support includes: having a Masters Degree in Education with a specialization in counseling; providing emotional guidance in paid and volunteer capacities; and–most importantly–being a mental health consumer who can model recovery. I do that by helping callers to a confidential toll-free number explore options, discuss feelings and make decisions based on self-determination.

Like blindness and vision impairment, psychiatric disabilities also meet reasonable accommodations criteria under the Americans with Disabilities Act. One such accommodation is telecommuting, in which either parts or all of a job are performed from home.

At my workplace, there are employees whose anxiety and depression manifest themselves in difficult emotional feelings, uncomfortable physical symptoms or both. When symptoms become unmanageable, leaving one’s home can be virtually impossible. Since this results in chronic absenteeism, an employee with poor attendance can be at risk of getting fired. Telecommuting is the reasonable accommodation that enables individuals in mental health recovery to remain productive workers.

For some employees, success is achieved by working entirely from home. For others, however, job retention is enhanced by working partly from home and partly in an office.

In addition to job retention, other positive aspects of telecommuting include avoiding inclement weather and lack of transportation.

Although isolation can be a key drawback, the focus of this article is really on the positive aspects of telecommuting and how it can be a reasonable accommodation.

For persons who have excellent transit systems and love getting out, telecommuting would be dismal. For others, though, such as my peers with mental health disabilities and those with vision impairments who have poor travel skills, no access to transportation or both, telecommuting goes beyond being a reasonable accommodation. It becomes the difference between the humiliation of repeated job loss and the success of long-term, rewarding employment.

For more information about Peer Support and Advocacy Network, visit www.peer-support.org. To learn more about telecommuting, Google “Telecommuting as a Reasonable Accommodation.” You will find many links that lead to a variety of informative articles.

Tell us in Reader’s Forum what you think of telecommuting. Is it something that you have used to your benefit, or is telecommuting something you would never want to do?

“I am from Tuskeegee:
I fought in World War II.
I fought the fight bravely;
Was my duty to do.”

“I’m back home from fighting;
I hope some things have changed:
There’s much that needs righting;
So much to rearrange.”

“Once home in Tuskeegee,
We all went out to eat;
and were received rudely
with, ‘You can’t get a seat’!”

“But we fought for this country,”
we said with voices proud.
“That don’t matter to me;
No Negroes are allowed!”

“We’re frustrated airmen;
Upset with this nation,
We fought the war and then–
Back to segregation!”

It took some six decades
for voices to be raised.
Finally! Accolades!
These airmen have been praised!

They were from Tuskeegee;
They fought in World War II.
Airmen who fought bravely:
They’re now acknowledged, too!

Writer’s Note: The U.S. Military was segregated until 1946 when then President Harry S. Truman issued an order to integrate the Armed Forces.

On Tuesday night, November 1st 2011, seventeen-year-old Alexis Summers died after losing control of her car and crashing into a tree, according to Heather Abraham, a reporter for Pittsburgh’s CBS affiliate KDKA TV.

State police who arrived at the accident scene shortly after it was reported said that the young victim was texting while driving, as evidenced by a partial message on Alexis’s phone.

“I know she’s in Heaven now. I know she’s looking down on us and telling us not to cry, but it’s so hard,” best friend Malory Bateman shared tearfully.

The day after the life of this much-loved teen was cut short, the South Butler School District made grief counselors available to students who wanted to share their pain and remember a friend.

Those of you who read my submission in Magnets and Ladders know that my daughter was taken away from me as a toddler. Heart wrenching though that was, I would have been even more devastated if her dreams and potential had never been realized because her life had been so suddenly ended by a situation both tragic and preventable. As the mother of two children, I would be just as heartbroken were something like this to happen to my son.

Though I know all too many people who talk on cell phones while driving, I never thought much about texting while driving until I watched this tragic story in which a young girl’s virtues were tearfully extolled.

Though it comes too late for Alexis and her family, Pennsylvania will soon become the 31st state to make texting while driving a primary offense. Making that behavior a primary offense means that someone seen texting and driving can be pulled over and issued a $50 fine.

While such a law is definitely needed, I fail to understand the reason that it is not yet illegal in Pennsylvania to talk on one’s cell phone while driving. Isn’t talking while driving just as bad in terms of its potential to cause serious or fatal accidents as texting?

Last year, while crossing a downtown Pittsburgh street using both my cane and a sighted guide, I would have been hit by a driver who failed to notice my husband and me because she was talking on her cell phone. When this distracted, talkative driver finally noticed us, my husband reported that she gave me a disgusted look that said, “What are you doing crossing the street?” Well, what I was doing with my husband’s help was crossing a busy street with the light. I was neither jaywalking (a common practice in Pittsburgh), nor was I aimlessly darting between parked cars. I was neither crossing against the light nor dawdling as if I had all day to negotiate the crossing. Yet, Miss Cell Phone Talker was annoyed with me for daring to interrupt her afternoon conversation.

Though pedestrians who are blind or vision-impaired can certainly cross streets safely and confidently given proper training, we have enough traffic variables going against us–from right turn on red to quiet cars going through lights obviously red; from drivers who want to be safe but are too drowsy to focus; to drivers who are drunk and “certain” they can still drive safely.

From my multifaceted perspective as a loving mother, concerned citizen and blind traveler, I believe strongly that talking on cell phones and texting while driving must both be driving offenses.

What are your thoughts about cell phone use and driving? Have any of you ever been hit–or come close to being hit–by a driver with eyes on the phone rather than on the road?

Ideally, a website needs to be both visually attractive and accessible to persons who use screen readers. Too often, however, websites with visual appeal entirely lack or have incomplete audio accessibility. However, one organization that has been addressing this issue is Major League Baseball.

As outlined by www.mlb.com, functional improvements they have made include creating an accessible media center for audio subscribers which enables them to control volume, choose home or away game feeds, access archived games and more.

For detailed information on how best to navigate MLB’s enhanced features, visit www.mlb.com and link to accessibilityfaqs.com. You can also ask questions or make comments by Emailing accessiblewebsite@mlb.com, the address of their dedicated accessibility staff.

Just as websites that are screen reader friendly are important to Major League Baseball, so, too is the inclusion of persons with all abilities who want to play and enjoy baseball.

A great example of this is PNC Park, which opened in 2001 and has physically accessible seating throughout the park and their Field of Dreams, an accessible field for players of all abilities–the first of which was built in Cranberry, a community north of Pittsburgh. Upper Saint Clare, a South Hills community, also has a Field of Dreams, thanks to retired baseball player Shawn Casey who grew up in that community. In addition to his initial $50,000 donation, Casey was instrumental in obtaining community support.

Features which make these fields accessible are: rubberized, cushioned turf to prevent injuries, shortened dimensions, a barrier-free dug-out, and completely flat surfaces.

There are currently more than 200 Fields of Dreams worldwide which have made playing baseball accessible to more than 200,000 special needs children and young adults. Some of the countries which proudly host these fields–along with the United States–are Australia, Canada and Puerto Rico.

To learn more about Fields of Dreams–and the unique way baseball is played on them–Google “Fields of Dreams” and follow the links.

I’d love to hear in Readers Forum about your experiences with the MLB website and its enhanced features and any opportunities you have had to play baseball on a Field of Dreams.

There is no shortage of unemployment or underemployment among persons with disabilities. Neither is there a lack of reasons for this unacceptable situation.

However, one way that the Federal Government has been raising awareness of employment issues among the disabled since 1945 is the designation of October as Disability Awareness Employment Month. Actually, it took some time before all of October had this designation. The theme for October 2011 is “Profit by Investing in Workers with Disabilities.”

When Congress passed its first law which specified a time to focus on employment and the disabled, the first week in October became “National Employ the Physically Handicapped” Week. In 1962, the word “physically” was removed to acknowledge the contributions of, and the importance of hiring persons with all types of disabilities. Twenty-six years later in 1988, Congress expanded this annual weekly campaign to a month–thus, the name, “National Disability Awareness Month,” or NDEAM.

Since 2001, when the Office for Disability and Employment Policy (ODEP) was established and made part of the Labor Department, ODEP has worked consistently to expand the scope of this crucial initiative. Though ODEP spearheads this campaign on a national level, the initiative’s backbone is a local grassroots effort with employers, organizations of all types, and schools as participants and leaders. These efforts have been as simple as putting up posters and as comprehensive as implementing educational programs that emphasize the contributions of workers with all abilities.

To summarize, the most important aspect of October’s designation is to foster a more inclusive America where every person of every ability is recognized each day of each month for a job well done.

Additional resources available for employers and job seekers concerning hiring, recruitment and accommodations are: The Employer Assistance and Resource Network; The National Organization on Disability (NOD); and the Job Accommodation Network. (Googling these resources will take you to their websites.)

In addition to the information given here, it is important to note that the American Council of the Blind and the National Federation of the Blind have committees or affiliates that seek to improve employment outcomes among persons who are blind or vision impaired. At this year’s Pennsylvania Council of the Blind Convention, for example–which will be held from October 21st to the 23rd–there will be a seminar which will focus on a variety of work options with a primary focus on the current trend of telecommuting. I’d love to get feedback from any reader who attends that presentation, including recommendations for future workshops.

Similarly, the NFB is working with EBay to enhance home-based job opportunities and feature nationwide employment listings on News Line®. If any of you are utilizing the National Federation of the Blind’s employment resources, I’d also love to hear from you in Readers Forum.

When the Pittsburgh Pirates began the 2011 baseball season by winning wonderfully and flirting with first place, I was filled with hope and enthusiasm. However, after the all-star break, the Pirates went into a slump from which they never arose.

Given such a disappointing season, I asked myself if there was anything I could still say about the Pirates that was positive. What follows are some positive Pirate ponderings:

As part of their community involvement, the Pirates do a wonderful job of celebrating diversity. In May, 2011, for example, the team celebrated Latino Day, during which time fans had a chance to meet Latino players, listen to Latino music and enjoy Latino food.

Also in May, “the Bucks” hosted a Disability Awareness Fair–an annual event which enables persons with disabilities and the organizations they represent to showcase their programs and services.

Yet another celebration of diversity occurred during the African-American Heritage Days, which were held on July 22nd and 23rd of this year. In addition to honoring the Negro Leagues and African-American contributions to baseball in general, this celebration also served as an acknowledgement of the contributions of Pittsburgh’s local black community.

The final positive point I will ponder is the Pittsburgh Pirates funding and sponsorship of the only wheelchair softball league in Southwestern Pennsylvania. This inclusive league was established in partnership with the Hope Network, a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit which focuses on health and fitness for persons with physical disabilities.

In Part Two of this series, I will discuss what Major League Baseball has done to enhance the accessibility of their website, www.mlb.com. Through enhanced accessibility, mlb.com has become much easier for persons who are blind or vision-impaired to navigate.

Do you remember what you were doing on 9/11/2001? I do.

I was working at the Allegheny County Health Department as an Americorps volunteer. The day started routinely: People were talking quietly while carrying cups of steaming coffee to their desks. Then suddenly, I heard it–“A plane just crashed into the World Trade Center!” a colleague shouted.

Though shocked, I didn’t think much about it until coworkers began yelling that airplanes had also crashed into the second tower of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Shanksville, a small Western Pennsylvania town.

More than scenes of death and devastation, however, these crash sites were also testimonies to human courage and selflessness. At the World Trade Center, one of our peers and his guide dog demonstrated how teamwork and trust could save lives.

Fifty-one-year-old Michael Hingson worked as a salesperson and manager for Quantom, a high-tech computer firm and Fortune 500 company, located on the 78th floor of the Trade Center’s North Tower.

“I heard a muffled explosion,” Michael began as he shared his unique story. “Then the building started tipping and just kept on tipping,” Hingson continued.

Being a California native, Michael at first thought it was an earthquake, but soon learned from David, his office partner, that it was much, much more. “Oh my God!” David yelled. “Something crashed into the building, millions of burning pieces of paper are floating around, and we gotta get out of here!” Hingson’s partner insisted.

With Michael’s guide dog, Roselle lying beside him, he knew that he had a job to do and so did his guide dog. Together, this team demonstrated the ultimate in animal-human bonding and trust by guiding colleagues and strangers alike down smoke-filled, increasingly hot stairwells to the lobby. Michael wasn’t safe immediately, however, as the building crumbled behind him in a shower of burning debris.

Michael, blind since birth, used this life-changing event to begin speaking nationally and internationally about disability, diversity, inclusion and teamwork that emphasizes the importance of people working together and the key role animal-human bonding can play in situations like 9/11.

Following the WTC disaster, Hingson left his high-tech job to become Public Affairs Director at Guide Dogs for the Blind in New York from 2002 to 2008. When Michael left that position, he formed the Michael Hingson Group, of which he is now President.

To engage Michael Hingson as a speaker, phone 415-827-4084, or E-mail info@michaelhingson.com.

Michael’s story can be found on michaelhingson.com, linkedin.com/michaelhingson, guidedogs.com, truthorfiction.com and by entering Michael Hingson’s name in the search box of YouTube.

Since guide Roselle died in 2010 from what Michael believes were effects of WTC on her immune system, you can learn more about her bravery by visiting www.rosellesdream.org

Finally, Michael’s book, Thunderdog, can be downloaded or ordered from amazon.com