Innovative technology is always prominent at ACB National conferences and conventions. This year, our Crown Jewel sponsor Aira Corporation made itself known as soon as we landed at the Rochester Airport. Aira utilizes an I phone app or a dedicated phone and accompanying glasses to give blind and visually impaired people live feedback on their surroundings, and assist them to complete tasks within those surroundings. Specially trained Aira agents use their computers, GPS software, cameras, and maps to zero in on a blind person's location and help with tasks that range from way finding, to reading signage, to locating a nearby transportation service. There is a monthly fee for regular Aira subscription, but Aira made all service free for ACB convention attendees, and the free service started as soon as we landed at the Rochester Airport, and remained available throughout convention week at all Rochester locations. This was great, since one of the first things that I needed to do upon landing was find a restroom. I was also prepared to use Aira to locate baggage claim and the hotel shuttle, but bumped into some ACB convention volunteers, and so gladly went with them to find the shuttle.
Convention attendees were housed in two hotels this year, and my husband John and I stayed at the older of the two, the Riverside, aptly named since it is located on the Genesee River. The layout was simple, with the restaurant just off the hotel lobby, and a lovely grass relieving area for guide dogs immediately out the front doors, to the right, and across a small parking lot. There was only one elevator bank, and the lobby was quiet. These details probably wouldn't interest a sighted hotel guest, but they are as essential to blind convention goers as is the convention itself. Easy way finding means easier access to events, less stress, and a more enriching convention experience.
The Riverside Hotel was connected to the Convention Center and Hyatt Hotel, our other guest facility, by an indoor skywalk. Personally, I found navigating the skywalk and convention center fairly easy, but I got turned around in the Hyatt, where several convention events were held, and where several friends were staying. My mobility skills are good, so I'm guessing that I was experiencing the normal "learn it all and learn it fast" imperative of every convention: You know the most about your environment on the day you leave for home. Happily, our New York host committee and convention planning chair Janet Dickelman did a superb job recruiting sighted volunteers. Most were from the Jehovah's Witnesses organization, and all had been briefed on sighted guide techniques. The volunteers even stayed around for evening activities, which in my experience is not the norm, but which certainly makes one more willing to extend one's day. Attending personnel from guide dog schools also provided dog handlers with scheduled hotel orientations, and Braille Revival League wizard Ralph Smitherman implemented his customary Braille Orienteering Game to help braille readers learn hotel and convention center lay-outs. Once Aira agents received appropriate internal maps of the two hotels, skywalk, and convention center, they also served as expert guides. I speak from experience, having myself become an Aira explorer this summer. Initially, the hotel orientation help they offered was a little bumpy, but to be fair, I was still getting used to my equipment and the app. Once we all got our sea legs, I was surprised at how easy it became to find an empty seat in the general session meeting room, or locate a particular table in the exhibit hall.
The food at the hotel restaurants was lack luster. Menus were severely limited, and I don't think that the braille menus published everything that was available. The ACB Cafe helped quite a bit (they had great Caesar salads) and nearby restaurants were within walking, cab, Uber, or Lyft distance.
Friday, July 5, 3 of my friends from the American Association of Blind Teachers and I played hooky. This is to say that we created our own tour. We took Lyft to an equicenter located some 9 miles outside of Rochester. An equicenter is a horseback riding facility dedicated to providing therapeutic riding and other horse related activities to people with disabilities. My friend Suzanne Ament and I are active horse women, but our two friends Leslie Spoone and Tabitha Brecke were new to the experience. We spent from 10 in the morning until 3 in the afternoon riding the horses in an arena, grooming them, and learning all about tacking up (saddling and unsaddling). The day started with sunlight, but before leaving, we were treated to a New York downpour complete with thunder boomers. On the Lyft ride back to the hotel, we breezed through a fast food joint because we were ravenous. It was a day of kick-up-your-heels independence, and a big dose of the outdoors before a week of air conditioned indoor intensity.
One of my favorite parts of convention week is attending general session. It's a congressional body where I feel that I actually do have both a direct and a represented voice. Granted, general sessions are long, running 3 to 4 hours at a stretch. But by the end of convention week, I can feel CCB's and my own chapter's connections to ACB, and to a larger, integrated map of blindness concerns. Here are a few General Session highlights. You can read a day by day accounting in the October Braille Forum.
From Saturday, July 6, opening General Session.
President Kim Charlson delivered her 6th and final convention report. She acknowledged and celebrated the following milestones achieved during her 6-year term:
* the hiring of Eric Bridges as ACB's Executive Director
* The hiring of Clark Rachfal to succeed Tony Stephens as Director of Advocacy and Governmental Affairs
* The hiring in early 2018, of Claire Stanley, ACB Advocacy and Outreach Specialist. ACB members can now listen to a weekly Legislative and Advocacy podcast delivered by Clark and Claire.
President Charlson welcomed Cindy Vanwinkle to the Minneapolis Office. Cindy is now ACB's full-time Membership Director.
In the arena of streaming media platforms and accessibility, President Charlson reported that in 2018, HooLoo, negotiating with the Bay State Council of the Blind, was the first streaming service to commit to providing audio description tracks for as many of their programs as possible. ACB's Audio Description Project Media Task force continues to reach out to other media services in hopes that they will also provide audio described programming.
TURNING to the ongoing concern of braille literacy, our assembly acknowledged that the United States has finally ratified the Marrakesh Treaty, which makes the world-wide exchange of braille books an attainable reality. The United States was the 50th nation to sign the treaty.
With regard to ACB's financial health, President Charlson reported that we recently received a substantial bequest that boosted our endowment fund. She reminded members that the MMS Program, the ACB auction, and the ACB walk are all means by which each of us can contribute to ACB's financial health. In addition, ACB members logged 18502 volunteer hours in 2018 alone. This fact can be significant when ACB applies for grant money, since each volunteer hour if paid, translates to $20.
Thursday July 11. The most significant general session activity was the election of ACB's new officers. Here is the slate:
President: Dan Spoone, Orlando, FL
Dan is retired; he formerly worked as a senior project manager for Siemens.
First Vice President: Mark Richert, Arlington, VA
Mark is the Director of Public Policy for the National Disability Institute and the founding President of Excelsis, LLC, a public policy consultancy.
Second Vice President: Ray Campbell, Glen Ellyn, IL
Ray is a Senior Accessibility Analyst for United Airlines.
Secretary: Denise Colley, Lacey, WA
Denise is a retired Disability Program Coordinator for the state of Washington. She serves as president of the Washington Council of the Blind.
Treasurer: David Trott, Talladega, AL
David is retired; he formerly worked for Alabama Industries for the Blind, dealing with contracts, budgets, employees, and supervising daily operations of various programs in his area of responsibility.
Board Member: Donna Brown, Romney, WV
Donna is a Technology Integration Specialist at the West Virginia School for the Blind.
Board of Publications Member: Zelda Gebhard, Edgeley, ND
Zelda is an administrative assistant at Wright Insurance Agency. She also serves as president of the North Dakota Association of the Blind.
There were, of course, scores of special affiliate meetings and programs, more than any individual could possibly attend. I enjoyed a presentation sponsored by the American Association of Blind Teachers that addressed the question of knowing which braille note taker on the market would be best for a given person or purpose. I also attended a presentation given by Amazon's Peter Korn, on technologically smart houses, and I spent lots of time at the National Parks booth with folks from the UNID Description Project. For recreation, I managed one work-out in the hotel gym, one walk along the Genesee River with my sister Jo Lynn, and two espresso coffees in her room to jump start especially sleepy mornings and afternoons. This was my 14th consecutive ACB convention, and it was a good one. I'm now glad to be back home.
