by Susan Glass and Rob Turner

[Editor's Note: On a number of occasions in the past our friends from Silicon Valley Council of The Blind have allowed us to use the convention reports
which their delegates are required to write. A number of chapters require delegates to provide some kind of report following our statewide conventions.
I know in Bay View chapter, the delegate (newly-elected CCB board member Steve Fort in recent years) gives a thoughtful, thorough convention report. If
your chapter doesn't do this yet, the report that follows, prepared by BC Associate Editor Susan Glass (now president of SVCB and Rob Turner (its immediate
past president) serves as a good model. If your chapter does require a written report, we would gladly include it as one of our convention summaries.]

I agree with Rob Turner that having only one convention per year allows for more interesting affiliate seminars and more refreshing content at CCB general
sessions. I attended the California Library Users program (CLUA), Guide Dog users of California (GDUC), all general sessions including a Saturday afternoon
breakout seminar on leadership, the meeting of the CCB Board of Publications, and meetings of the Credentials and Nominating Committees. Here are some
highlights.

CLUA held its program on Friday, October 2. This year, CLUA has been conducting bimonthly telephone conference book discussions which, although not always
hugely attended, are always animated and fun. The conference calls take place on Sunday evenings at 7:30, and CLUA secretary Debby Berry takes notes on
the conversations and circulates them to those on the CLUA mailing list. Readers on the call have shared favorite books from childhood, historical fiction,
science and science fiction, and travel literature.

CLUA's keynote speakers were Brian Charlson, president of the ACB affiliate Library Users of America (LUA) and ACB President Kim Charlson, who shared information
about library programs and services at Perkins Institute. In his remarks, Brian CHARLSON addressed the dire consequences that result from the misperception,
sometimes held by the general public, that the availability of audio book resources in public libraries eliminates the need for braille and talking book
services. Eight years ago, the talking book library in British Columbia closed its doors for just this reason. The problem, of course, is that public libraries
generally carry only commercially available audio books, which tend to be only the most popular titles. But well-rounded library services should and do
make everything available to their sighted patrons: scholarly titles, reference materials, a wide-ranging children's collection, science materials, historical
materials; the list is endless. If you are a blind patron in BC, your pickings are slim. The state of Alaska also recently eliminated its braille and talking
book program. Blind and visually impaired Alaska residents now receive all of their braille and talking book materials from the NLS regional library in
Salt Lake City. The upside of this situation is that the NLS collection is large, varied, and growing. As a centralized circulation library, it has the
available resources to keep books flowing to the patrons who need them. The downside is that Alaskans are on their own if they want to create local reading
resources. Sighted children have long known the joys of local libraries, book clubs, and community reading activities. It's always been tougher for those
of us who are blind or visually impaired to enjoy these things. But since blind readers are spread out through the entire population, it's good that we
have centralized libraries that can reach us. Since 1900, Perkins Library has served and continues to serve patrons in Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, North
Carolina, Washington DC, and MASSACHUSETTS. Brian concluded his remarks by reminding us that libraries today are a marriage between text and technology.
Depending upon what we can afford, we can now access hard copy braille, electronic braille, digital books, professionally recorded books, books available
through our phones, and much more. Literacy, said Brian, has never been more important than it is now in terms of helping blind and visually impaired people
stay connected.

Those members of our chapter who work with guide dogs would have loved this year's GDUC program. The guest speaker was Lisa A. Pope, DVM, who worked for
several years as a veterinarian at Guide Dogs of America, and who is now Chief Medical Director of Stevenson Ranch Veterinary Center in Southern California.
Dr. Pope addressed a number of topics germane to us as guide dog handlers: nutrition and supplements, treating allergies in our dogs, and maintaining the
health and wellness of our senior guide dogs. She has since made her lecture notes available to GDUC attendees of the program.

We also heard from Dr. James A. Kutsch, Jr. President and CEO of The Seeing EYE in Morristown, NJ. Dr. Kutsch spoke about the history, purpose, and impact
of the International Guide Dog Federation (IGDF), and the three-year effort that led to the passage of guide dog protection legislation, "Dusty's Law,"
that was adopted in New Jersey in 2014. Dusty, a puppy in training, as well as his handler, were severely injured by a dog attack. Dusty's Law makes dog
attacks a criminal as opposed to a civil offense, and this distinction between civil and criminal is crucial. If your state law dictates that dog attacks
are only civil offenses, and your guide is attacked on a late Friday afternoon, for example, it's likely that your first responder will be someone from
the Humane Society or Animal Control, and this individual will have little authority with which to prosecute. If, on the other hand, your state lists dog
attacks as a criminal offense, your 911 call will be answered by police, who will have the authority to prosecute.

Let me close my portion of our convention notes by sharing the results of CCB elections, and summarizing a key resolution that was passed.

Only partial elections were needed this year. Judy Wilkinson was elected as CCB Second Vice President, and Ardis Bazyn was elected as CCB Secretary. The
newly elected CCB Board members are Charles Nabarrete, Pamela Metz, Steve Fort, Robert Wendt, and Joe Lopez

CCB adopted one significant resolution pertaining to accommodation for Federal employees who are blind and low vision. To date, the EEOC (Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission) has not mandated accommodations such as screen readers, braille reading/writing devices, etc., and this failure has resulted in
visually impaired people being denied jobs and promotion opportunities. In some instances, blind employees have even been fired when insufficient accommodations
made it impossible for them to fulfill their job responsibilities. CCB has resolved to contact Commissioners of the EEOC, and insist that it include in
its documentation to employers guidelines for accommodating potential employees with vision loss and blindness. CCB will also forward this resolution to
ACB for further action and endorsement.

CCB Convention Notes
by Rob Turner

Here are my thoughts on the convention after nearly two weeks of reflection.

In my opinion, meeting once a year is enough. The presentations seemed fresher and more relevant. We will probably not meet at the Woodland Hills Hilton
hotel again, but it was sure mobility friendly. [Editor's Note: we in fact will return to the Woodland Hills Hotel in 2017.] An iPhone app called LowViz
Guide Indoor Navigation (sponsored by the Macular Degeneration Foundation) was helpful, but it wasn't the panacea I'd hoped for. Points of interest such
as meeting rooms, restrooms, the registration table, etc., were marked with electronic beacons. After a destination was chosen, a tone was used to indicate
the correct path of travel. The more accurate the path, the softer the tone. This is where bone conduction headphones would have been especially useful.
I felt that the LowViz Guide was too verbose to the point of distraction. Even so, it showed great promise and no doubt will improve over time.

The Technology Committee presentation was on Thursday afternoon. The highlight of the program was supposed to be a presentation from Microsoft on Windows
10, but the speaker canceled at the last minute. This problem has plagued the committee in years past, too. Let's hope their luck improves. The good news
is that Stephanie Rood, a technology trainer for the Veterans Administration, filled in and gave an enlightening presentation on Apple's IOS9. She described
several new features, accessibility enhancements and bugs, plus a few tips and tricks. The Find My iPhone and Find My Friends apps are now installed automatically.
One of my favorite new features is the improvements for selecting and manipulating text. Sharing information among apps is another. An example of this
is the ability to share voice-mails by attaching them to text messages. One of her tips is that if VoiceOver stops speaking, you can perform a warm reset
to recover by holding down both the power button and home button for around seven seconds.

The next speaker was Damien Pickering, the new West Coast sales representative for HIMS as of July. He joined HIMS because he appreciates the quality of
their products, and the agility with which they are able to roll out new features. Their new fourteen cell braille display can connect to six devices at
once, which is why it's named the Smart Beetle.

Peter Korn and Peter Cantisani showed off the new line of Fire Tablets that are accessible out of the box with Voiceview, a built-in screen reader. Narrated
audio books can be sped up or slowed down without changing the pitch of the voice. The least expensive Fire Tablet sells for under $60. I think that this
is a huge step forward for Amazon. I'll be curious to learn more about these tablets as they become more widely used.

The next demo was the Amazon Echo, which I wrote about in my August President's Message column. [Editor's Note: in SVCB's monthly "In Touch? newsletter.]
It was a huge hit. The audience was enthralled by its ability to respond to voice commands and by all the information it could speak. I get emails every
week detailing its new features. It's bound to become increasingly popular in the blind community as word gets around.

The Braille Revival League of California (BRLC) met Friday morning. Kim Charlson was the guest speaker. She mentioned a reference resource for braille
and talking book library patrons on the web at www.infoeyes.org. Give it a try if you are having trouble finding reference material, perhaps for an obscure
topic.

The Friday afternoon general session opened with a primary concern expressed by CCB about the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) which is
that it will eliminate services for individuals who want training in blindness skills rather than employment. Department of Rehabilitation (DOR) Executive
Director, Joe Xavier, said that the WIOA was signed into law on July 22, 2014, and that it contains significant mandates related to services to youth,
to independent living, to supported employment, and to the definition of an employment outcome. The presentation provided an overview of the mandates,
including those that may be of interest to individuals who are blind and visually impaired. The key concern in the blindness community is for those DOR
clients who currently receive rehab help and IA (Independent Assessment) funding for living skills such as cooking, cleaning, and home mobility, but who
have no plans to use these skills for employment. Once the new WIOA regulations take effect, DOR will no longer serve these clients, and they will be required
either to return any equipment they have received from DOR, or purchase the equipment at market value. Additionally, DOR will no longer open "homemaker"
cases if no employment outcomes are forthcoming.

The next presentation following our discussion of WIOA was titled "No Cost Or Low Cost Adaptive Technology Solutions," by Silvana Rainey, co-owner of Access
Technology Services. This was a practical, down-to-earth presentation covering low cost screen readers, screen magnifiers, optical character recognition
software, and a whole lot more. She encouraged the audience to "match the tech with the task." A thumb drive containing the software and resource documentation
was provided free of charge upon request.

We then heard a presentation concerning absentee voting, which is becoming more popular in California. It would be wonderful if a telephone-based system
could be implemented to make it easy to vote from home, or from anywhere else, for that matter.

After the Friday night general session gets underway with the welcome and invocation, participants are given a chance to say a few words about CCB members
who have died since our last gathering, followed by a moment of silence. This custom began several years ago, but it wasn't always this way. To me, it's
a rather sad way to start the convention. Perhaps this segment would be more appropriate for the Sunday morning final session.

Voting in CCB elections by individual members is done by secret ballot, so elections can be quite time-consuming. The way it works is that paper ballots
are passed out when an office is contested. To vote for the candidate recommended by the Nominating Committee, the ballot is left intact. To vote for the
candidate who runs from the floor, you tear off one corner. To vote for a second candidate, if one runs, you tear off two corners. It rarely happens, but
five candidates have been known to run. To vote for the fifth candidate, tear off all four corners. This year, elections ended just after midnight.