Tuesday Topics

# Get your holiday shopping done. Hear about current ACB affiliate fundraisers and from Leslie Spoone about the upcoming holiday auction.

All of our discussions will center around holidays! How do blind people feel about Halloween? How do blind parents handle the holiday? What about blind children? What was your experience as a child with Halloween? Did you like it? Were you nervous about it? Did you like parties better than trick or treating? And then there are other holidays! Thanksgiving! Christmas! Easter! Valentine's day! How a...

# Are we being protected by white cane laws? How should we handle white cane safety? October is also Disability Employment Awareness Month. The employment rate for people who are blind remains at 30 percent, leaving 70 percent of people who are blind not employed. Why is that? Can anything be done to fix it?

During the first hour I want to talk about the new wave of covid 19. Is it different from the earlier one? Is our country handling it well? Has it affected people who are blind more? Where do we think we go from here? When we are through with the discussion of the pandemic, I am going to try something very different! I suppose we could call it open mike. The idea is that we will let those of you w...

Join Paul to provide your feedback on this year’s ACB convention and for a discussion on state and special-interest affiliates. Find out more at https://acb-tuesday-topics.pinecast.co

# This week we are continuing last week’s discussion with the same group of folks about our constitution and bylaws. They will be able to report to us what happened during the meeting of the Constitution and Bylaws Committee last Thursday. We will only go for an hour, allowing folks to attend the final  meeting of the groups that are discussing the changes to our governing documents in preparation...

Episode Notes Tuesday Topics welcomes committee members about the constitutional changes that we will be considering on the 14th. From the Constitution and Bylaws committee we have Dan Spoone and John McCann. From the Voting Task Force we have Jeff Thom, Patrick Sheehan and Koni Simms. Our two hour program should give us enough time to not only get a clear idea of what the proposals are and are no...

On Tuesday Topics this week, I would like to do some dreaming while we are awake! ACB is working in lots of areas now! However, there may well be an area that you would like to see our organization concentrate on. What might that be? Maybe you would like more particularity on an issue that ACB is already working on! Perhaps you think there is a huge gap with an issue that ACB really needs to focus...

# I thought it might be interesting to talk about a question that is widely debated by people who are blind and also by people with other disabilities. Despite the passage of the ADA and the Rehab Act, the unemployment rate among people who are blind remains quite high. In fact it does not appear to have changed significantly over the last thirty years. Why is that? What can we do to change it? Is...

# There have been a few times in my life when I have sat in a bar for a long time because the conversation was just too good to miss! My guest on Tuesday Topics this week was responsible for a conversation that started in a bar, continued through dinner and ended much later outside in the late evening. My guest has three books on BARD, at least. He has won the Ned E. Freeman award and has probably...

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...