Tuesday Topics

Tuesday Topics - Resolutions: Paul Edwards’ first ACB convention was in 1984. While he thinks he would have come regardless of the offer made to him by Grant Mack, who was then President of ACB, it certainly helped to make his decision. Mr. Mack had come to Florida where Paul was in charge of resolutions and offered him $100 to come to Philadelphia and chair resolutions. Paul says, “I had no idea...

For the first hour we are going to talk about some of the controversy that has appeared on the "acb conversation" email list. Essentially there has been a lot of discussion of whether we need two different votes. This year we will have them but many wonder whether affiliate votes might go away. Are there special issues for special interest affiliates? Have they historically been effectiv...

Tuesday Topics will welcome Gerard Williams who will be talking about his role at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as a 504 officer. He will also be talking about the initiative being undertaken by the FCC to create more broadband access. He is not an attorney and does not have the authority to answer legal questions, for the most part. I am looking forward to seeing what a 504 officer...

Finding the Money: How does ACB do its budget every year? Where does our income originate? How much money do we have in the bank or in investments? Is ACB healthy financially? Or should we be worried? These are just some of the questions we will explore as we invite our President, Dan Spoone; our treasurer, David Trott; and our Director of Resource Development, Anthony Stephens. These three exempl...

Meet Jeff Bishop: He is a member of ACB'S Board of Directors; a driving force with ACB Radio; has taken a leadership role in the development and implementation of the "ACB LINK" app; and is leading the effort to combine various ACB elements into a media network that will revolutionize how ACB’s media content can be accessed. Find out more at https://acb-tuesday-topics.pinecast.co

Turn about is fair play! Tuesday Topics will feature Rick and Larry as my guests. We will explore who these two fine gentlemen are and, later in the program, we will explore some new ideas for ACB RADIO with your help! Both Rick and Larry have interesting pasts. Rick has survived in the world of business as a partially sighted executive. Larry has done a variety of jobs, I think, and has just ret...

Tuesday Topics: We will be discussing life after a year of the pandemic. What kinds of disadvantages have people who are blind experienced? What do we need to ask local, state and national entities to do to make the next major emergency easier to handle? As the pandemic eases, what can we expect as people who are blind? Will jobs be easier or harder to find? Will services be easier or harder to ac...

Tuesday Topics: Over the past several months the American Council of the Blind Has made a number of changes to its email system. This week we have invited many of the key players in the email changes to come and explain what was done and why. Deb Cook Lewis, Katie Frederick, and Jason Castonguay are just a few that will join us in a narrative of the transition process. Folks will also offer tips a...

Tuesday Topics: On this week’s call, the roles are reversed, as Paul Edwards will put himself under the microscope to be interviewed by Deborah Kendrick. Among the topics that will be discussed will be Paul’s travels and work in advocacy for those with disabilities. Others will have an opportunity to ask questions as well. Find out more at https://acb-tuesday-topics.pinecast.co

Tuesday Topics: Join Paul this week as he speaks with Scott Marshall, a personal mentor and friend.  They will spend two hours talking about Scott's experience in law school as a blind person, his work for ACB in the 80's, and other jobs he has done over the years. Find out more at https://acb-tuesday-topics.pinecast.co

Tuesday Topics: This week Janet Dickelman, Chair of the Convention Committee for ACB, will stop by to give us an update on this summer’s convention and talk a bit about future conventions that have been scheduled. We will also have an opportunity to learn a bit more about Janet herself, maybe find out some of her likes and dislikes and some of her life experiences. Find out more at https://acb-tue...

As things stand, it is the intention of ACB to hold elections during our virtual ACB convention! How will it work! Who gets to vote! How will nominations from the floor be handled? How will votes be tallied? What if there are more than two candidates and nobody gets a majority? These are just a few of the many questions that surround the issue of voting at our 2021 convention. Dan Spoone will be w...

Tuesday Topics: Paul’s guest this week is a former President of ACB, an expert on the ADA, Vice-President of the North American and Caribbean section of the World Blind Union and a former President of our California affiliate. Mitch Pomerantz did not grow up as an ACB member. We will explore how he came to ACB and what his arrival along with many others meant to our organization. If you would like...

Tuesday Topics: Paul welcomes the Director of the Division of Blind Services of the state of Florida, Robert Doyle. How does an agency that is doing well adapt when the pandemic essentially shuts it down? How are counselors retrained to do jobs from home and on line? Florida has more than fifteen local programs that deliver services to people who are blind. How do you measure their success or fail...

Tuesday Topics: What has a person who has worked with people who are blind all over the world gleaned about their job readiness. What are some of the characteristics that make success at work likely? Our guest this week on Tuesday Topics is in a unique position to answer these questions. She has devoted much of her career to working on transition and employment. Karen Wolffe has worked with the Am...

We are overjoyed to welcome back ACB'S President, Dan Spoone. We will talk about 2020, 2021 and will end with a discussion of the Voting Task Force. Dan must leave us to go to a meeting of that group so I thought we might use his discussion of where the group is and what plans there are to springboard a discussion of the whole voting issue for the last half hour of the show. Rick Morin, Larry Gass...

Episode Notes This episode of Tuesday Topics has two for the price of one...... Debbie Hazelton and Cindy Hollis, perhaps the most popular presenter at state conventions this Fall and the heart and soul of the community radio revolution, join Paul to talk about their plans for Christmas 2020 and New Year's 2021 on ACB Radio and the Community calls. Cindy Hollis is Paul's first repeat guest. Cindy...

Episode Notes Ninety miles off the coast of the United States is the island of Cuba. 11.3 million people, according to 2020 figures, live on an island which, since the early 1960s, has had a communist government. Paul's guests on this episode of Tuesday Topics grew up there and give us a glimpse of what life was like for people who are blind in Cuba. Roberto and Danays Perez now live in Miami. Rob...

Episode Notes In this episode of Tuesday Topics, Mark Richert is Paul's guest. Mark has had a long and distinguished career working in the disability field. He is currently First Vice President of the American Council of the Blind and interim Executive Director of the Association for the Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER). Mark talks about his experience, the sta...

Episode Notes Imagine what it might have been like for a little girl in a small village in Vietnam to lose her sight at the age of eight and suddenly be seen as a liability rather than an asset to her family. Imagine what it must have been like for a teenager who is blind to leave Vietnam where she was successful and felt useful and suddenly find herself at a school for the blind in Massachusetts...

Episode Notes This episode of Tuesday Topics Paul speaks with Jim Kracht, a friend who happens as well to have an interesting life. He is a current Board member of ACB who has lived a very full life, has a most interesting hobby and knows more about lots of things than I will ever know. Jim started out in California and ended up in Miami by way of Harvard Law. We discuss his history, his family, h...

Episode Notes Patti Cox, President of the Council of Citizens with Low Vision International (CCLVI) joins Paul Edwards, President of the Braille Revival League to discuss what the two ACB affiliates are doing and what their goals are. Our topic this week should interest people who are totally blind and those with some vision. Find out more at https://acb-tuesday-topics.pinecast.co

Re-live election night's Tuesday Topics with Paul Edwards! Callers relate their experiences and their impressions of how things went before and on election day. Anthony Corona joins Paul bringing the enthusiasm and knowledge he has demonstrated on Sunday Edition for the last several months. Paul and Anthony explore the elements of this historic election with callers from around the country. Caller...

Dr. Joel Snyder explores the history and future of audio description. How did audio description start? Who did it? Why has closed captioning become ubiquitous while audio description has to fight for hours? It's ten years since the CVAA was passed; the anniversary is this month! Should we push for changes? There are very few people who have the comprehensive knowledge of audio description that is...

Dr. L. Penny Rosenblum answers questions about two surveys that shed much light on the impact of the pandemic on people who are blind. It seems like an age ago that the pandemic began. It is therefore not surprising if most of us have given little thought to an event that occurred fairly early on. It was a survey that ACB sponsored along with fifteen or so other organizations and companies. Its ob...