CONSUMER
COMMITTEE FOR THE BLIND
Call to Order and Invocation
Chair Gary Ray called the
meeting of the Consumer and Advocacy Committee for the Blind to order at
The following members were
present: Chair Gary Ray, Debbie Jackson
(Director of Services for the Blind), Kathy Davis (Outreach Director of GMS and
Vice-President of NCAER), Betty Clary (Prevent Blindness of North Carolina
representing Jennifer Talbot), Lion Ken Bucher (Board Director on NC Lions
Foundation representing Steve Walker, NC Lions Foundation, and Steve Wilson,
State Council of NC Lions), and Ron Eller (NC Council of the Blind).
The following members were
connected by conference call:
Tim Jones (State President of
Others in attendance
were: Penny Rummel (Lions Club), Lara
Handler (Outreach and Volunteer Services with NC Library for the Blind),
Barbria Bacon (School Director of Governor Morehead School), Julie Kagy (DPI
Consultant for Visual Impairment and Assistive Technology), Allen Casey (2nd
Vice President of the NC Council for the Blind), Francine Martin (Regional
Librarian of the Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped), and Carla
Parker (Executive Assistant with Division of Services for the Blind).
Welcome and Remarks
Chair Ray welcomed and
thanked everyone for their presence. He
also explained how a quorum will be determined.
If a representative is present in place of one of the voting members,
that person will be counted as a voting member and included in the number
required for a quorum. Before the next meeting in December, Chair
Ray will further investigate to see if this method for counting a quorum is
correct.
Approval of Minutes
Motion was made by Ron Eller,
seconded by Tim Jones, and carried to approve the minutes of the
Report of Entities:
Upcoming LBPH Closing Dates:
·
· November 22 & 23, 2007--- Thanksgiving Holidays
·
Note: The OPAC will be down starting
NCLBPH will experience a
brief, rare, non-holiday closing at the end of November. The Library will be closed to the public
Friday, November 30, and Monday through Wednesday, December 3rd, 4th, and 5th. As the library opens for business again on
Thursday, December 6th, library staff will be using updated computer
software to provide your library service.
The NCLBPH online public
access catalog (OPAC) will not be available while the software is upgraded,
starting
NLS Digital Book Download
·
HumanWare
announced the launch of Victor Reader Stream, a palm-size Daisy/MP3/NISO
player. For the announcement and a
complete description of the player go to http://www.humanware.com In the description of this player, HumanWare
states that the Victor Reader Stream, once authorized, will be able to play NLS
digital talking books from a removable SD card or from an attached
· NLS has opened the pilot book-and-magazine download
site to patrons who are active readers and who have purchased a third-party
digital talking-book player to read NLS digital books. The Victor Reader Stream is the first such
player. NLS DTB playback capability may
also be added to other existing and future assistive technology devices during
the next few months.
· To be eligible for the pilot project the patron must
also have high-speed Internet service such as
· Patrons who meet that criteria and are interested in
joining the pilot project may contact NCLBPH to obtain the URL to use to
request participation in this project.
NLS will notify the patron and issue the patron a user ID, password, and instructions.
Recorded Disc (RD) Circulation to Be Discontinued;
Record format declared obsolete:
NLS has declared the old
record format of talking books obsolete.
In accordance with this change in the national service, starting in
October 2007, NCLBPH will no longer house a collection of the records (RDs). If a patron needs a title in record format
that is not available in any other format, NCLBPH staff will still be able to
interlibrary loan a copy for the patron.
The few library users who are still occasionally receiving this format
will be notified of this change in September 2007. All those users are primarily using other
formats, such as cassette tape or Braille.
With the help and support of
the Friends of NCLBPH, LBPH’s new Outreach and Volunteer Services Librarian,
Lara Handler, has begun an outreach campaign to hopefully reach a population of
readers who may not yet be aware of the many services available to them from
our state as they are losing their sight.
It is hoped public libraries across the state may serve as a springboard
to reach eligible users in targeted communities. In late August, she did presentations at two
assisted living facilities in
The LBPH has historically
enjoyed a strong 2-way referral relationship with DSB, as staff of each agency
routinely informs consumers of the valuable services offered by both DSB and
LBPH. As the LBPH outreach moves more
toward previously unidentified potential users of both agencies, we hope to
continue this mutually supportive relationship.
Friends & LBPH outreach
will continue to include presentations and booths at major VI events and at
smaller group events as time allows. On
August 22nd a presentation was made at the Senior Seminar Week held at Gov.
Morehead School. In September Gary Ray
will be introducing our new Outreach and Volunteer Services Librarian to
attendees of the
The next LBPH “Tar Heel Talk”
newsletter is already in draft form and is planned for distribution in November
2007. From that point, we hope to
maintain a quarterly publication schedule.
Agencies who would like to submit information for consideration for
inclusion in the LBPH newsletter may contact Lara Handler for publication
schedule and deadline information for issues going out in 2008. She can be reached by email at lara.handler@ncmail.net or via the
library’s regular phone numbers, toll-free 1-888-388-2460, or locally
733-4376.
The date is set for NCLBPH’s
Volunteer Recognition event, funded by the Friends of NCLBPH. It will be
November 7, 2007,
Mrs. Bacon, Director of GMS,
introduced herself, giving a brief background of her work experience. Mrs. Bacon worked for the
Ann Vieregge, NCAWB
President, asked Mrs. Bacon to attend one of their Board meetings in the
future. Mrs. Bacon will contact Mrs.
Vieregge about future meeting dates.
Department of Public Instruction—Julie Kagy
Based on a recommendation
from the fiscal research division, within State government, the General
Assembly decreed that DHHS and DPI must join together to do a study to look at
3 issues regarding residential schools for the blind and deaf. The three issues are: 1) evaluation of the State’s entire service
delivery model (how services are delivered to all students across the State and
the training needs of professional staff, access to assistive technology, and
curriculum content), 2) determine whether the State schools for the Deaf and
Blind should remain under DHHS or should management of schools be transferred
to DPI, and 3) develop a plan to reduce the institutional capacity to an
appropriate level for meeting the needs of hearing and visually-impaired
students in North Carolina.
No committees have been
developed yet. If anyone has comments or questions, please contact Tom
Winton, Julie Kagy or Barbria Bacon.
Previously, audio textbooks were
provided to students in
Division of Services for the Blind—Debbie
Jackson
The Department of Health and
Human Services has a new Secretary, Mr. Dempsey Benton. Carmen Hooker Odom is leaving to take a job
in
Legislative Update: The economic needs scale changed for all of
our programs. For example, in the Rehab
Program for a family of 1, the old scale was $694 per month and with the new
scale, the monthly allowable income is $1,604.
In our Medical Eye Care
Program, the scale increased from $405 per month for a family of 1 to $1,604
per month. Income scales are currently
at 125% of the federal poverty level.
DSB also obtained additional
case service money in support of the economic needs scale changes for our VR
and Medical Eye Care Program. For our VR
Program because the State money we receive also draws Federal money, the
program should be fine. The Medical Eye
Care Program is only State money and DSB is not sure that the additional money
will take care of the added number of people that will be served. The increase in the cost of medical services
will also have an impact on the Program.
DSB also received approval
for 4 additional positions—3 Independent Living Counselor positions in the
Independent Living Rehabilitation Program and 1 Assistive Technology position.
Sally Syria, Chief of Medical
Eye Care/Independent Living Services, recently retired after 32 years of
service. Her position has not yet been
posted. It should be posted in a couple
of weeks after we determine if any changes need to be made in the job
description.
At this time, Tim Jones had
to leave the conference call.
Penny Rummel—Lions Club
A support group has been
formed for the blind and visually impaired in
Ken Bucher added that,
hopefully, this will be duplicated in other communities and the Lions will
learn more about the needs and issues the visually-impaired face.
State Council of
The Council of Governors is
starting a new program with FEMA and the Department of Emergency
Management. When disasters occur and
FEMA or the Department of Emergency Management are involved, the Lions will also
assist. First, training must occur
through FEMA and the Department of Emergency Management. The majority of the work by the Lions will be
in the staging area, away from the impacted area. The Lions will assist people with completing any
paperwork that may need to be completed so they will qualify for any assistance
available. Anyone that would like to
become a Lion and assist with this program is welcome. For more information,
contact www.nclf.org
Seven hundred and eight (708)
people attended camp this summer with 132 first-time campers. Due to construction, the camp was limited to
64 campers per week. Next summer when
the new dorm is complete, there will be room for 88 campers.
Prevent Blindness
Prevent Blindness has three
programs:
1) Preschool Vision Screening
Program which goes into preschools and day cares and does vision screening with
a photo-refractive camera. This year, the
Preschool Vision Screening Program will be screening in approximately 30
counties throughout the State.
2) School-Based Program—A
bill was recently passed mandating vision screening for all children entering
kindergarten. This will be mandatory beginning
in the 2008/2009 school year.
3) Adult Program—This program
is operated strictly by grants. Two
major screenings are coming up—the Lafiesta (Hispanic) and the State Fair,
October 12-21. At the State Fair, the
booth will be in the
Council of the Blind’s National
Convention was held in
The State Convention will be
held September 28-30 in
World Blind Union (WBU) is assisting
in getting information out about an essay competition for visually impaired
teenagers. Twenty-four visually impaired
teenagers representing all six WBU regions will join together for three days of
activities in
ACB Radio is an internet
website that broadcasts to the blind/low vision community. It can be accessed through www.acb.org.
For the past 3 years, the Council’s national convention has been
broadcast live on ACB Radio. This year Ronnie Milsap sponsored the entire
cost.
Allen Casey added he became
aware of an event with the Indian Classical Music and Dance Society. This event will involve visually-impaired
dancers from
For more information, visit www.icmds.org
National Federation of the Blind of
The National Convention was
held in
The State Convention will be
September 14-16 in
The State Legislature
allocated $75,000 for NewsLine to run this year in
Left Turn on Red was defeated
again this year.
A NCAWB Meeting was held in
July 2007 on the campus of
The Super Conference is being
planned for
Elected Committee of Vendors—Ron Eller
Question was asked about the
State Health Plan for BE Operators. For
years, BE Operators and families were covered under the State Health Plan then
the State cancelled the coverage. For
now, operators and families are temporarily covered.
Old Business
None
New Business
From North Carolina Lions
Foundation, Ken Bucher reported that only 12 sighted students of visually
impaired parents applied for scholarships.
Money is available but no one is applying for them. For more information, contact the Lions at www.nclf.org.
Next meeting of the Consumer
and Advocacy Advisory Committee is December
7 at
Following an adjournment
motion by Ron Eller, a second by Julie Kagy, and a vote, the meeting adjourned
at
Respectfully submitted,
Consumer and Advocacy
Advisory Committee for the Blind