Tuesday Topics

This episode of Tuesday Topics explores what telling our stories has to do with our ability to raise dollars. What kind of image do we want to communicate? Why are our stories relevant? Who are we trying to communicate with? Are we making an effort to define what it means to be blind for ourselves as well? Anthony (Tony) Stephens is on his second tour with ACB. Now he directs our efforts to raise...

There is an old saying that says: "a one-eyed man is king in the country of the blind." Only ten percent of those who are legally blind are totally blind according to statistics I have seen. In ACB, how are partials doing? Are they represented in proportion to their numbers? If not, why not? Do the issues facing people with some usable vision get enough attention in our resolutions or in our polic...

On Friday, September 11th 2020, Charlie Crawford passed away. During his long life he made many friends, did many wonderful things, lived by a set of principles I admired and was my friend. This two hour episode of Tuesday Topics is devoted to a celebration of Charlie's life. You will hear the good things, the funny things, the passions, the principles and the panache that were all a part of who C...

Find out what younger members of ACB are doing and expect from ACB! Amanda Selm is President of ACB'S newest affiliate: ACB Next Generation. Minh Ha is President of ACB Students. Both of these young women are guests on this episode of Tuesday Topics. They tell us what their affiliates are up to and a little about themselves. They will also give us a chance to discuss the recruitment of younger mem...

At our ACB convention this year there was a short presentation at our General session from Lee Nasehi, chair of the Vision Serve Alliance. If you didn't hear her presentation, you will get a chance to learn much more about an organization which is in the process of reinventing itself. At its heart, the Alliance is an association of private agencies that serve people who are blind. Lee will tell us...

It seems amazing that we are now six months into the pandemic, but we are. When Tuesday Topics first started we did a show that tried to explore some of the ways that people who are blind were affected by covid-19. We looked at positives and negatives. I want us to do that again, six months into the crisis and see if our feelings have changed. How is keeping our distance going? How do other commun...

Tuesday Topics is now old enough to drink and old enough to vote everywhere. It is fitting, therefore, that we talk a little about voting at ACB and its affiliates. It will happen at 7 PM on Tuesday August 25. If you are going to be participating with us be on our Zoom connection at 6:45 Eastern Daylight Time. We want to take a long view and look back at where ACB came from and how our voting appr...

we will be discussing our twentieth topic! Time flies when you are having fun! Thank you so much, Rick as in Morin! You are what makes this little plane fly, sir! This week we are going to discuss getting older which all of us do! However, we will focus on those blind people who are old enough to call themselves seniors. Some of us become seniors having been blind most or all of our lives. Others...

For long term, happy partnerships which is better; a relationship between two blind people or a relationship between a blind person and a sighted partner? I believe there will be strong opinions on both sides of this question. For the purposes of this debate, two partials equals two blind people. Do join us for our first "great debate".

Tuesday Topics takes a look at people who have hearing loss as well as vision loss. Deborah Kendrick has written a new book about people who are blind who have hearing loss. She explores the problems multiple disabilities create and also looks at resources that are out there for people who must operate with two disabilities. We will also have a representative from SASI (the Sight and Sound Impaire...

My guests on this week's Tuesday Topics have recently lunched a new podcast called "picture this". Brian Charlson, current President of the Bay State Council and immediate past President of Library Users of America and former First Vice-President of ACB, has been an active advocate for audio description since it began. Carl Richardson is Co-Chair of ACB'S audio Description Project Committee. He kn...

Tuesday Topics is excited to welcome a distinguished duo to discuss the ADA at 30. Chris Bell is a distinguished attorney who was directly involved in writing the ADA and worked for many years for the government and later as a law partner to oversee its implementation and enforcement. He has published several seminal articles on the ADA and is acknowledged to be an expert on this subject Claire St...

Tuesday Topics is now two hours which should give people lots of time to talk about their likes and dislikes concerning the ACB convention. My co-producer of Tuesday Topics will be featured during the first hour to tell us more about how he herded cats and juggled streams during the convention. Rick Morin was awesome and I want him to tell us more about how he did what he did and I hope he will te...

This is a reminder to everyone to tune in tomorrow when Tuesday Topics will give you a chance to hear what will be broadcast where during the convention. I think that we will be able to tell which elements will be on which ACB Radio channels. The schedule for the virtual tours that will appear on the treasure Trove channel has already been published. But where will the exhibit hall be and what abo...

This week on Tuesday Topics we explore a question that demands attention. Do black blind lives matter enough? We know there is less likelihood that black blind people will be working and we know that blind black women fare even worse than their male counterparts. We think that ACB has fewer black members than we should but we currently have no way of knowing how many black members we have. Peggy G...

My guest on the next Tuesday Topics show on June 16th is Cindy Hollis who has been known as Cindy Van Winkle. She works as the membership and affiliate specialist for the American Council of the Blind. We will be talking about the huge proliferation of community calls during the pandemic. But we will also talk about the problems of attracting and maintaining members in ACB and what we can do about...

This week on Tuesday Topics we are conducting an open forum on working from home. I am hoping that lots of you who are working during the pandemic will call in to talk about your experiences. What has been easy? What has been hard? What adjustments have you had to make? Would you like to continue to do it after the pandemic is over? Are there new technologies you have had to learn? How successful...

My guest on this week's Tuesday Topics is Deborah Kendrick. Those of you who have been around for a while may remember her as the editor of TACTIC magazine. She has been a columnist for the Cincinnati Inquirer and a frequent contributor to Access World. She has written a new book which talks about how people who are blind can best navigate the daunting world of medicine. It is published (the Natio...

This week on Tuesday Topics I am deeply honored to have as my guest, Carl McCoy. On May 16th Carl turned 93. I have known him since 1977 and he was the person, for better or for worse, who introduced me to both the Florida Council of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind. He has been a member of FCB longer than anyone else; served his time on the Board of the American Council of the Blin...

This week on Tuesday Topics our guest is Sara Conrad. She is not only a member of the the ACB Board but also works as a patient advocate. This means she must coordinate services for patients and must also work to make sure that the treatment that is received in a hospital is both effective and appropriate. How are blind people being treated in hospitals? How has the pandemic affected their treatme...

During our first Tuesday Topics we asked what advantages blind people had with the pandemic. We also asked what was not going well. Brian Charlson and I will co-host the seventh Tuesday Topics and will lead a discussion to see what's changed for people who are blind over the last seven weeks. Are we doing better or worse? Are there issues we didn't see coming?

On Tuesday May the fifth Judy Wilkinson and Sheila Young were my guests. Each of them is President of a state affiliate. Judy is from California and Sheila is from Florida. How has the pandemic affected their affiliates? What have they done since it started in their states? How do they think the pandemic and its aftermath will impact the future of their affiliates? These are some of the questions...

On April 28th 2020, Tuesday Topics featured Eric Bridges, Executive Director of the American Council of the Blind. Obviously, he will tell us about some of the ways that ACB is responding to the pandemic and what he plans for the future. However, we will also get a chance to learn what it is like for two blind parents to home school a five year old boy and how the family is adjusting to a baby bar...

Nobody knows where we will be in terms of the pandemic when the general elections are due to happen in November. There is already a call to make mail in ballots much more important than they have traditionally been. In some states a mail version of voting exists that is accessible and in others we are on the verge of having an approach. Tuesday Topics will look at what is happening and at what we...

There are lots of legal and ethical issues that concern people who are blind that have come to the fore during the corona emergency. On Tuesday Topics this week we explore some of these. State guidelines exist that propose ways of choosing who will live and who will die if there aren't enough ventilators or other resources. Some of these have people with disabilities placed lower than others. What...