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Hi all. I thought I'd post something while my dinner is cooling. First off, those of you who haven't done so please send a message to support@blogcarnival.com, and tell them no more visual-only CAPTCHA. We need them to realize that a "no blind people allowed" sign cannot and will not be tolerated. I have heard not a word from them, and I'm told this has also been the case with a few other people who have sent numerous messages. Whether Blog Carnival will ever get the picture remains a mystery at this point, but I suppose all we can do is hope for the best. Now moving on...It appears as though the tree cutouts in my area which were once present have multiplied in number. When I first moved into this building back in mid-2004 I was living with someone who had been my neighbor when my family and I first relocated to Illinois from out east. He is also visually-impaired, and over the years his vision has decreased. But back when I lived with him, the two of us tried unsuccessfully to lobby for better sidewalks in our area. A few tutors were kind enough to help us out with that. I must say that I am saddened by the lack of respect and professionalism shown towards various accessibility issues. I've not only heard the financial argument, but what I've also heard time and time again is that those of us with a vision impairment are a minority. This is very true, but it won't be for long. Our population will increase as the baby-boom generation gets older and as people come back from places like Iraq. We are just like other minority groups in that we have rights too! Before 1965 people of color weren't allowed to drink from the same fountains as white people, nor ride the same buses, and the list goes on. This is thankfully no longer the case. It's high time we people with special needs--particularly those of us with a vision impairment--be afforded the same rights as others. But that's not the only side of the story. I truly believe that, due to certain perceptions held in the blindness "community," accessibility has been given the back seat. Not just the back seat, but I think it has been handed the guillotine. This group, which I have mentioned here previously, falsely believes that blindness is a "cut-and-dry" issue. It isn't! Take the example of me and my former roommate. I have been blind all my life, and can only sense light and dark. I use a cane and have successfully done so ever since I first learned to walk. I made the choice to stay with the cane, and my parents and some orientation&mobility instructors helped me to make that decision. I have been a Braille reader since age 6. My former roommate, on the other hand, has been losing his vision over time and now has a guide dog. That was his choice, and I don't fault him for it. In fact I'm very proud of him. The dog has worked out very well thus far. This I think clearly shows that people do indeed have differing visual acuities, therefore one size does not fit all. Furthermore, this group should wake up and stop opposing accommodations which truly do make a difference.

Finally, I'd like to talk a bit about that internship I mentioned in an earlier entry. I was originally scheduled to meet with a job coach and the managers of the restaurant where I worked, but due to various circumstances that meeting didn't happen and is scheduled to occur sometime this week. I thoroughly enjoyed working at the restaurant, and you can bet I'll be back there as a customer. I didn't get paid at all, but that's not important to me. I really enjoy helping out whenever and wherever I can, and at least at this juncture I don't care how much I'm paid or if I'm paid at all. Having said that, the CIF job is just perfect for me.

Hi everyone. I thought I'd turn my attention today to an incident which took place a few weeks ago in Florida. This incident has already attracted a lot of attention in the blogosphere, so I thought why not write about it on my blog. A five-year-old boy in Port St. Lucy was incorrectly voted out of class. This young boy--who was in the process of being evaluated for a form of autism--was placed in a kindergarten class. His teacher, Ms. Wendy Portillo, had him go stand in the center of class and had the other students each say what they did not like about him. Alex was then voted out of class, 14-2. As with most bloggers who covered this story, I am horrified by it. This "teacher" needs to be dealt with and severely punished. If Alex had been disruptive in class to the point that noone could tolerate it anymore, then yes, he should've probably been taken out of class. But, he was clearly not being disruptive on purpose. Although I do not have autism, I know several people who do have it and purposeful disruption is not one of their characteristics. Some of the material I read stated that Alex hasn't been sleeping well at night, if at all. He and/or his mom will no doubt need counseling because of what happened. Here again, indifference to people with special needs has reared its ugly head in a big way. One can't help but wonder what would've happened if Alex and his classmates had made their teacher stand in silence while they berated her for this and that.

Hello everybody. It is Friday the thirteenth here in the great United States and in most other parts of the world. I've no doubt several of you are superstitious. I am kind of superstitious. As a matter of fact I have my back door opened to let in a bit of fresh air, although it is rather hot out today. There is a door leading out back from a rather creepy hallway that connects me and a neighbor. I have purposely opened that door to create a haunting effect, as the door is rather creaky. I've not been up to much lately, except for work at CIF and an art activity last night which took place downstairs. I do however, want to alert readers who may not have been keeping up with the news within the past week or so, to the salmonella outbreak which has been linked to raw tomatoes. To the best of my knowledge all suspect tomatoes and tomato products have been pulled from store shelves and restaurant menus, and wherever else this might apply. I do, however, want to caution readers. Don't eat anything that sounds, looks and/or smells suspicious. For more on this, a neighbor of mine recommends going to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's online presence at http://www.cdc.gov. I attempted to go there a couple nights ago but had trouble locating the information, so I recommend an additional website. http://www.billmarler.com is the website for a law firm in the Seattle area which deals extensively with cases of food poisoning. Salmonella isn't the only type of food poisoning detailed on the firm's website though. This website happens to be more accessible than www.cdc.gov . I don't care much for raw tomatoes anyway, and I therefore don't tend to keep any in my apartment and haven't gotten sick. But at least 27 people here in Illinois have gotten sick to date, according to the law firm. This outbreak has affected several other states as well, and there may or may not be more reported illnesses as time goes by.

Hi everyone. As many of you out there are probably aware, the Bush administration was expected today to announce sweeping changes to the Americans with Disabilities Act. I say "expected" because I don't know if they actually did this or not. Let me give a little primer about the ADA for those of you unaware of its existence. Hopefully that's very few of you, if any at all. But anyway, the ADA--the Americans with Disabilities Act--was passed on July 26 of 1990 to give those of us with special needs more rights. No it is not the American Disabilities Act, although I have at times heard and seen it called that. Today's supposed changes to the ADA are, in my opinion, long overdue and will hopefully go into effect very soon. I unfortunately don't know all the specifics of these changes, but one can only hope that they include stiffer penalties for lawbreakers. Here's hoping the new President and his or her administration will do better than has been seen in the past. One other thing that needs to happen is that the National Federation of the Blind needs a new president. Marc Maurer has held that position for over 20 years and I'm not kidding! Admittedly the National Federation of the Blind has done some good things, but only some. They are just overly sensitive about their blindness, and they don't seem willing or perhaps able to get over themselves. This has unfortunately lead to harmful actions.

Hey everyone. I would like to take this opportunity to wish all those to whom it applies, a very happy summer. I don't know about anyone else, but I have already started gearing up for the summertime. In fact more than that. I've already been to several cookouts, one of my favorite pastimes. There are more to come. I've also got both my window air-conditioners in. They're currently off but both work just fine. My tutor and I brought up the unit I had downstairs, and the previous tenant who lived up here was kind enough to leave behind her unit. That one does not have Braille on it or any accessible way to set the temperature, but I don't mind because the unit is rather small anyway and I don't think it has that many settings. I do have an additional ceiling fan in my bedroom too. However, my tutor and I made Braille labels for the bigger unit and I use them when I set the temperature. Another of my hobbies as of late has been travel, as I'm sure it is with many of you. There are two travel-related websites which I only recently found out about and they both come highly recommended. The first of these websites is http://www.EmergingHorizons.com. Emerging Horizons is a company which specializes in "barrier-free" travel, i.e., travel with accessibility in mind. This site discusses things such as finding an accessible hotel room while on vacation and what specifically to ask for when inquiring about these rooms. I did email the website author to ask about people with a visual impairment sitting in exit rows on airplanes and she wrote me back within about half an hour. Apparently exit-row seating was a hot topic at one time with the National Federation of the Blind. I kid you not, these lunatics actually were and no doubt still are in favor of blind people sitting in exit rows. That's not what the website author told me though and I wasn't at all surprised by her response to my inquiry. The FAA prohibits this and I think they have very good reasoning for doing so. I wouldn't want to sit in an exit row, simply because I would be unable to see the proper lighting in order to assist in the evacuation process during an aircraft emergency. But if those in the Federation really feel the need to try and help out their fellow airline passengers and crew then that's all cool with me. The problem in all this, as with most "NFB logic," is that it just simply is unsafe. That's all there is too it--it would be unsafe for someone who can't make out the proper lighting to assist in an emergency situation. But if some people want to endanger their own lives as well as the lives of others I guess that's okay with me. Or maybe it isn't. For more on the NFB's fussing about with the airline industry, go to http://www.nfb.org and do a search for "air travel." The January, 1989 issue of their monthly magazine "The Braille Monitor," specifically comes to mind because it contains a very in-depth discussion of this topic. In addition there are other Monitor issues that discuss this. Anyway on with my post. The other website is http://www.SleepingInAirports.com. I've not done this myself and I haven't really heard of any friends or family doing it, but the reviews presented on this website are a must-read. They highlight the good, the bad, and the ugly of airport sleeping. The site also contains photos and other cool stuff. I obviously cannot see the photos, but a lot of them appear to have good descriptions. I must warn readers though, there is a lot of adult language throughout www.SleepingInAirports.com, so if you're easily offended by that type of thing be careful. Another piece of advice from yours truly: There are a few descriptions of violent acts, so please use caution if and when visiting this site with young children. All in all though I think you will enjoy your visit. Both these websites are quite accessible, which is good. Happy travels!

Hi everyone. I have a death to report today. I read this afternoon on http://www.serotek.com about the death a few weeks ago of Clarence Whaley. Clarence worked at GW Micro, makers of the Window-Eyes screen reader. Although I never got to meet Mr. Whaley, I have heard a few of his training sessions and he always did a wonderful job. There is an obituary for him, and it can be accessed over on GW Micro's blog by going to http://www.gwmicro.com and choosing the link that says "Blog." As of this writing I am unsure of the cause of Clarence Whaley's death. Speaking of GW Micro's blog and on a more positive note, they have a great alternative to CAPTCHA. I've seen it on a couple other websites, though there is a slight difference which I will get to momentarily. When posting a comment on GW Micro's blog, a rather simple question is asked and only those very familiar with GW Micro and their products will know the answer. Once this question is answered correctly, posters may click on the Submit button and their comments will be allowed onto the blog. I actually wrote a comment and got the answer wrong on purpose just to see what would happen, and I was taken to the correct answer. So I hit my browser's back button and was able to correct my answer and submit my comment. The difference between this text-based CAPTCHA and others I've seen is that this one asks the same question for every visit and for every visitor. There is also a link which posters may click on to find out why that question is there. I'm not technically savvy enough to know all the ins and outs of CAPTCHA, but these text-based solutions seem to work quite well and I think the spammers are kept out too. I look forward to a day when other website owners who lock us out due to our visual and hearing impairments will implement this kind of an alternative. Yes Blog Carnival--this includes you too!