THE BRAILLE MONITOR April-May, 1989 Kenneth Jernigan, Editor Published in inkprint, Braille, on talking-book disc, and cassette by THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND MARC MAURER, PRESIDENT National Office 1800 Johnson Street Baltimore, Maryland 21230 * * * * Letters to the President, address changes, subscription requests, orders for NFB literature, articles for the Monitor, and letters to the Editor should be sent to the National Office. * * * * Monitor subscriptions cost the Federation about twenty-five dollars per year. Members are invited, and non-members are requested, to cover the subscription cost. Donations should be made payable to National Federation of the Blind and sent to: National Federation of the Blind 1800 Johnson Street Baltimore, Maryland 21230 * * * * THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND IS NOT AN ORGANIZATION SPEAKING FOR THE BLIND--IT IS THE BLIND SPEAKING FOR THEMSELVES ISSN 0006-8829 NFB NET BBS: (612) 696-1975 WorldWide Web: http://www.nfb.org THE BRAILLE MONITOR PUBLICATION OF THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND CONTENTS April-May, 1989 YES, IT'S LATE WHAT IS THE CHANCE FOR BRAILLE? by Marc Maurer I JUST HAPPEN TO HAVE A PICTURE by Barbara Pierce SIGHT by Mark Schulzinger DOES REACHING OUT WORK BRAILLE: A TOUCHY ISSUE GIVING THE WRITE IMPRESSION CONGRESS TAKES A HAND IN THE FIGHT AGAINST DISCRIMINATION BY THE STATE DEPARTMENT LEGISLATIVE AGENDA 1989 SPECULATIONS ABOUT CD ROM EDUCATION FOR THE BLIND, MENTALLY RETARDED CHILD: WHERE AND HOW by Colleen Roth OF SURVEYS AND TRAFFIC HAZARDS by Seville Allen SEMINAR FOR COMPUTER BEGINNERS by Curtis Chong FIGHTING BLIND: Bonnie Peterson Challenges Stereotypes About the Visually Impaired Recipes Monitor Miniatures Copyright, National Federation of the Blind, Inc., 1989 YES, IT'S LATE From the Editor: And some of you have not yet made your reservations for the National Convention in Denver. I am writing this in March, and you won't be reading it until some time in late April or early May but I know that some of you haven't. There is still time, but not much. You don't want to miss our first convention in Denver since 1949 the program, the tours, the hospitality, and the overall excitement. There will not only be prizes but surprises. Better hurry.WHAT IS THE CHANCE FOR BRAILLE? by Marc Maurer Recently I received a letter from a woman who aspires to be a Braille teacher. She took what she regarded as the first logical step in her plan she learned Braille. Although she does not yet have a teaching certificate, she thought that her knowledge of this skill might be useful in her local school district and, therefore, might help her get a job. So she went to the administrator of the program for blind students and asked for a job as a teacher's aide. The result was unfortunately all too predictable. The administrator could not imagine why blind students should be taught Braille, and when the aspiring teacher began to explain (apparently her explanation was both spirited and enthusiastic), the administrator announced that she was being defensive and that the interview was at an end. As I read the letter, I wondered again what the chances are for blind students to learn Braille. The attitude of this administrator is so commonplace as to be the norm. It is shocking not because of its occurrence but because of its prevalence. In widespread among school officials that I think there is a real possibility that this woman's having learned to read Braille (not only with her eyes but also with her fingers) may be a real disadvantage to her as she begins to look for jobs. Some administrators believe that teachers who have achieved fluency in Braille will spend too much time trying to teach it. They assume that using Braille is an outmoded skill and that such teachers are trying to rely on techniques that may have been acceptable in the 1800's but are no longer sufficiently up-to-date. I attended a school for the blind in Iowa for the first five years of my education. Students there were introduced to Braille in the first grade, but I did not learn it. First graders were given a little Braille primer with stories about Dick and Jane and Sally. For a week this primer sat on my desk each day. The person in the front seat of my row (there were two rows in my class) was asked to read the first page. Then the second person was instructed to read the same page. After that it was the turn of the third person. By the time the teacher came to me (as I remember it, I was the next to the last in the row), I had memorized the words on the page. I recited them to the teacher and the class, after which the teacher put a gold star on the first page of my book. It was the only gold star I ever received from first grade through law school. The teacher suggested that I take the book home and show it to my mother. I very often was able to go home on the weekends because we lived only a little over a hundred miles from the school for the blind. So I took the book with me and proudly displayed my gold star. My mother asked me to read the page, so I recited the text. Since she has always been a suspicious woman, she borrowed the book from me. Later, my mother, who had received certification from the Library of Congress as a Braille transcriber, brought me a Brailled sheet of paper and asked me to read it to her, but I could not. She then explained that it was a copy of the first page of my Braille book. I regret to say that, despite my mother's early detective work, I managed to finish the first grade without learning any Braille. During the following summer, however, she took me in hand. I complained as loudly and vigorously as I knew how, but it did me no good. My mother insisted on teaching me how to read. As I write this article, I am returning to the National Center for the Blind from California, where I have delivered a speech to the Southern California Safety Institute about the airline problems faced by blind passengers. The speech was written in Braille, and without it I could not have done the job effectively. My mother was right; I needed Braille. My Braille problems are solved or at least partly so. I can read and write effectively. Of course, there is not enough Braille, and there are an increasing number of professionals who would argue that its use has diminished because it is no longer necessary. The real cause of its decline, however, is that the teachers who are supposed to teach it do not know it, and administrators do not recognize that the ignorance of these teachers is a shocking disgrace. In this environment what chance does the blind student have? Of course, the National Federation of the Blind is committed to the teaching of Braille. Some states now require by law that it be offered to blind students. There are other states with regulations mandating that interested youngsters be taught it. These laws and regulations did not come about by accident. The National Federation of the Blind recognizes the importance of Braille and has worked to make it possible for students to learn it. If many of those who are teachers and administrators of educational programs for the blind had their way, Braille would not only become obsolescent but obsolete. But the blind simply will not let it happen. Literacy is necessary for a full life. Without it many opportunities cannot be grasped, and many challenges cannot be met. We will help enlightened teachers and would-be teachers, and we will encourage blind students. Here is what one aspiring teacher, Beth Marsau, describes as her experience in trying to bring more Braille to blind students. Her first effort failed, but she has made a start. In the long run she will succeed because we will help her do it. Her letter expresses the determination of the Federation to obtain a decent education for blind students and to enable them to participate fully on terms of equality with the sighted. Here are excerpts from Beth Marsau's letter: Because I want to serve and survive until I can achieve teacher training, I have been applying for teacher aide positions in the public schools. I feel that I have the right kind of attitude to help students learn Braille and the knowledge and ability that are necessary. I have had teaching experience with pre-schoolers, youth groups, and adults, and I feel confident. I have met Dr. Sally Mangold and have purchased her teaching manuals for study. [ Monitor readers will recognize Dr. Mangold's name from the article about Charles Cheadle in the January, 1989 issue. Dr. Mangold recommended Braille for Charles after evaluating him at the request of the State of Maryland, the school district, and his parents. But back to Beth Marsau's letter.] I know I need more formal training, but I feel that I have the right attitude, the love, and the knowledge of Braille literacy, and I could use four years of teacher aide experience while I am enrolled in the formal university teaching program. I do not know if the local school district administrator or the state service for the blind program would hire me. I have been interviewed by one special services administrator, and I was surprised by the situation I found. I have learned that in the small town where I live, three high school students who are severely visually impaired are receiving no Braille instruction. One of the students, age nineteen and still a junior in high school, has been blind for several years. She can read print if she holds it close to her face, but I do not believe she has ever been given the opportunity to learn Braille. I know that she has been asked by friends of mine who have been substitute teacher aides if she would like to learn it. She said yes. But the teaching of Braille has not been provided. When I offered my services to teach Braille and even when I offered to provide a free demonstration to the three students and their parents, I was told by the administrator of the special services program that he wanted to wait and think it over. When I showed him a slate and stylus and explained that it serves as a pencil or pen for the blind, he asked me what value there is for a blind student in writing Braille. Why not give each student a dictaphone? He insisted that I predict the writing speed of a slate user. When I argued that we ought to encourage basic literacy in school, that the value of writing notes is important, that I could not predict individual writing speed but that I had personally witnessed speedy note takers who use the slate and stylus, that giving a dictaphone to a blind person as the only alternative to writing is as ridiculous as telling kids to forget about fourth grade arithmetic because there are calculators, and that to offer dictaphones to the blind means a lifetime supply of cassettes and batteries, not to mention denying literacy, the administrator stopped the interview. He told me that I was defensive and that no job opening was available at this time. Rest assured that I come to you as a friend and an advocate for the blind. I will pursue this situation in my home town and keep you posted on what happens. I hope to be hired because I want to serve and survive. But even if I am not hired in this particular situation, I will do what I can to reach these students. Perhaps the public schools will end up hiring some other, more qualified teacher, who will help better than I could. It would be good for these students to have a qualified teacher. But my gut feeling is that it won't happen, so I will strive to locate them privately outside the school system. This is what Beth Marsau says, and we should ponder carefully the implications and nuances. As we struggle (sometimes pleading, sometimes arguing, sometimes reasoning, and sometimes fighting) for the right of our blind children to be taught Braille, the circumstances are remotely reminiscent of the situation of the Christians in the catacombs of Ancient Rome. Let us take a lesson from that early minority, and let our opponents also take a lesson from it. I JUST HAPPEN TO HAVE A PICTURE by Barbara Pierce Occasionally one of the regrets but, more frequently, one of the pleasures of being blind is never having people offer to show you their family snapshots. This ranks in the minds of most of us with the delight of having a built-in excuse for avoiding those interminable evenings filled with neighbors' vacation slides consisting mostly of out-of-focus shots of strangers doing absurd things and of undistinguished scenery taken when the light had been perfect ten minutes before. The people who are really interested in looking at one's pictures, of course, are members of the family, and the Federation family is no exception. This is the reason we began including photographs in each issue of the Braille Monitor . It is why we report weddings, births, and deaths among our members. Love is the glue that binds us together as a movement, and the details of each person's life are important to us all. Our NFB scholarship winners are people of whom we are most proud. We chose these men and women from among the most outstanding American students, and we have worked with them and given them ourselves and our experience. As we are fond of saying, the greatest gift we have to offer each year's class of scholarship winners (and, indeed, every new member of the Federation) is the NFB itself and its life-enriching philosophy. With all this going for them, it is no wonder that our scholarship winners are accumulating an impressive stack of honors and employment records. So here is a chance to flip through the NFB album of word snapshots. The list is only partial. After all, our winners are many and varied, and it is hard to keep up with them. Most are still in school, but here are some of the most interesting reports we could find in a quick survey. Michael Baillif was a member of the scholarship class of 1984. He was then a freshman at Claremont College in California from which he has now graduated with honors. He traveled in Europe on a Watson Fellowship in 1988, and he has now been one of the first students admitted to the Yale University School of Law for the fall, 1989, semester. In early December of 1988 Steve Benson, President of the NFB of Illinois, was making a Job Opportunities for the Blind call on the personnel director for the Pandex Division of the Baxter Health Care Corporation, a pharmaceutical company. She mentioned that Pandex would be interested in hiring blind employees and that at the moment they were looking for a chemist and a software engineer. Mr. Benson knew a blind chemist with a background in business who is now actually being considered for a job, but he could not think of a software engineer. Still, he gave the woman a general pep talk about the importance of Pandex's willingness to consider blind candidates, and he promised to keep his ears open for the name of a blind applicant for the job. When he called back six weeks later to see what the situation was, the personnel executive mentioned that they had hired a blind software engineer. It was Larry Silvermintz, a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and a 1984 NFB scholarship winner. Chris Chaltain was also a member of the scholarship class of 1984. When he completed his master's degree in mathematics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, he applied widely (to more than fifty companies) for jobs. IBM was the only one to offer him a job, and they gave him the choice of two. In August of 1988 he became an Associate Programmer in the General Technologies Division. Eileen Rivera (scholarship class of 1986) and Mildred Rivera (class of 1988) are sisters, both of whom have become active in the Federation since learning about it through the scholarship application process. Eileen, a graduate of the Wharton School's Master's of Business Administration Program, now lives with her physician husband in Baltimore and works as the Administrative Director for the Wilmer Vision Research Center of the Johns Hopkins University. Mildred, who is finishing her law degree this semester, has chosen from among three San Francisco area law firms. She will begin working for Bronson, Bronson, and McKennan in the fall of 1990. Her new employers have given her a year's leave of absence to attend the Louisiana Center for the Blind for several months and then, perhaps, clerk for a judge for half a year. Patti Gregory won a scholarship in 1985, the summer before she entered law school. She has now graduated and begun work in November of 1988 for the City of Chicago as Assistant Corporation Counsel in the Traffic Division. She is in court every day, resolving several hundred cases, including twenty to thirty disputes before the bench. She will move on soon to another area of city case work, but her experience already has prepared her better and faster, she says, than most of her law school classmates. Chris Kuczynski, scholarship class of 1985, will graduate from the Temple University School of Law in June of 1989. Though most blind law students are denied the opportunity to work for faculty members as researchers, Chris has been lucky. In the fall of 1987, during the first semester of his second year, one of his professors approached him with an invitation to do research for her. She was a little hesitant about whether or not he could do the work, but she told him that he was clearly the student with the best grasp of the subject and also of the way in which her mind worked. He did so well at the job that he was asked to continue full-time during the summer and again during the current academic year. She also convinced the university to increase her research grant by enough money to pay Chris's reader. Now he has accepted a job beginning in September of 1989 with the Philadelphia law firm of Dechert, Price, and Rhoads. Ken Silberman also received a scholarship in 1985 at the Louisville convention. He subsequently received his master's degree from Cornell in aeronautical Engineering and now works for the Naval Ship Systems Engineering Station as a mechanical engineer. He says that his job is actually writing data bases in order to keep track of ship records. Two scholarship winners are breaking new ground in the field of nutrition and dietetics. Sandy Ryan is working as the Clinic Supervisor for the Mid-Iowa Community Action, Inc. WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) Program. She does nutritional counseling, as well as running the clinic. Bonnie Zoladz will graduate in June of 1989 from Cornell University with a master's degree in clinical nutrition. She has been offered two jobs in the Rochester, New York, area where she has been doing her clinical work, but she is being married in June and will settle in Falls Church, Virginia, where she is now looking for work. Her clinical work went well during the fall semester. She was delighted to discover that hospital personnel were flexible and reasonable when working out accommodations for her dog guide. She expects to find a job in the greater Washington, D. C., area once she has moved there. All of these scholarship recipients are confident, competent people, who truly believe that it is respectable to be blind. They have faced the difficulties in their paths as so many challenges to be solved, and they have succeeded. They are truly an inspiring and an inspired group. They are changing what it means to be blind in America. SIGHT by Mark Schulzinger From the Editor: This copyrighted story is reprinted with special permission of the author. It appeared in the November, 1986, Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact magazine, and we are carrying it so that Monitor readers can see how blindness is being handled by some of today's authors. Although the story has some of the traditional stereotyped notions (such as the foolishness that blind persons feel the faces of their acquaintances to see what they look like), it contains much that is positive. Above all, it departs from the traditional mold the notion that the blind are either totally helpless or altogether wonderful. It shows that we still have a long way to go in educating the public (including authors), but it also indicates how much progress we have made. As Monitor readers know, I have done some research (see the 1974 banquet speech) concerning the way blindness is treated in literature. When you compare this story with the way we were almost universally portrayed in pre-NFB story and song, the contrast is pleasantly obvious. Anyway, here it is. Now Jason, try again. Jason McNab pressed his forehead against the cool metal of the head rest and concentrated on the images he saw before him. Do you see the threads? Damn it, Carlie, I don't see anything that looks like anything. Relax, Jason, said Carlie Skriver. Hyperspace `looks' different from anything you ever saw before. Sometimes you just have to let the impressions flow before you can see it. I can't see it, Carlie. Just like I can't see anything else. Jason pushed himself angrily away from the head rest and felt himself bob against the seat restraints in the weightlessness of the training ship. Okay, Jason. I'll ask the captain to rotate us back to normal space. We'll rest a bit and talk, then try again. Jason heard her blow into a speaking tube and tell the bridge talker of the Lobachevsky that it was safe to re-enter normal space. There was brief silence and then he heard the power systems of the ship start up, felt the faint breeze of air being circulated again and his body sink back into the couch as the artificial gravity was restored. He exhaled and realized that he had been holding his breath. What was that? Carlie asked. Did you see something? Jason snorted. Don't make me laugh. I can't see in normal space, and I'm sure I'm blind to hyperspace as well. There's no reason why you can't see in hyperspace, said Carlie. She reached out until she touched Jason's arm. He turned toward her, the smell of fear reaching her nostrils as he did so. Listen, she continued. The only things damaged in the accident were your eyes. She felt him stiffen as she spoke the words and rushed on. The nerves from the eyes through the optic chiasm were undamaged. Since that's the part of the visual system used to `see' hyperspace, you should be able to do as well as any other navigator once you get the hang of it. Why do you keep using the word `see'? Jason shook her hand away from contact with him and sank back into the couch. I'm blind I can't see. I'll never be able to see again, and what good is an artist without eyes? I can't see the canvas or the pigments, I can't see the brushes or the subject. Hell, forget it Carlie, I'm useless. Carlie listened to his anger and his despair and felt herself tightening inside in response. She fought her body for control and spoke, keeping her voice deliberately mild. Take a break, Jason. The crew has to freshen things up before we can try again anyhow. There was a knock on the door, and she called out an invitation to enter. Hi gang. She heard the breezy voice of Hank Wells, the ship's surgeon, as the door opened. How'd it go? Not bad for starters, she answered more confidently than she felt. I think Jason needs a little rest before we continue. Sounds reasonable. Jason, do you want something to help you sleep? No. The voice was still bitter but with an edge of tiredness to it. Just leave me alone for a while. I could use some coffee, Hank said brightly. Join me, Carlie? Carlie nodded, then said Sure, Hank, for Jason's benefit. She unbuckled her straps and followed the man out of the cabin. He's not doing well is he? asked Wells once they were in the wardroom. No. I'm sure he's resisting the whole process. Carlie felt for the mug before her and raised it carefully to her lips. It's a shame. He was a brilliant artist before the accident and there's every indication he could be an excellent navigator. From what I've read, the ability to grasp spatial relationships is essential to such work. He's got a leg up on all the other trainees. That's the problem, Hank. He was `brilliant' as an artist. Now he's nothing just another blind man. She sipped the warmth of the liquid again. It doesn't make sense to me. The discovery of hyperspace opened up a whole new world to the sightless. In an environment where electricity won't work, where rotation equals linear movement, and where the sighted are visionless, the blind navigator is the only person who can tell the captain how to steer the ship. He laughed. I remember how I felt the first time I shipped out, having to sit in the dark without gravity, afraid to move. That was the first time I envied the blind. Carlie turned to face him. Never envy us, Hank. Don't pity us either. We're handicapped but we got along pretty well before hyperspace travel came along. Sometimes the ability to `see' hyperspace reminds us of all the things we can't see in normal space. She smiled. On the other hand, it feels nice to be indispensable. Jason lay on his bunk, his eyelids closed against the polished plastic hemispheres that filled the sockets where his eyes had been before they were destroyed in that silly accident. He thought back to it he was casting some gold charms using the lost wax technique. The centrifugal caster, designed to hurl the molten metal into the wax mold, malfunctioned and threw its contents across his face. He couldn't remember the pain, but he remembered the sound of his screams. Reconstructive surgery helped. The surgeon assured him that the scars had been erased from his face and that the insertion of acrylic eyeballs would give him a normal appearance. There was nothing, though, that could give him back his sight. His gift was still there but his eyes, the organs that guided his hands toward the turning of talent into tangible reality, were gone. He heard the door to his cabin cycle and then the soft tread of feet. It was Carlie's walk his sense of hearing had increased dramatically since the loss of his vision. May I sit down? she asked softly. Jason shrugged. It doesn't matter. He felt the bunk give way beneath her mass. Tell me what you saw, Jason. I saw my house, he said. The house where I had my studio. It was an old house with a tin roof streaked with sienna and cerulian. It showed glints of gold where the sunlight reflected from it and reflections of green from the old maples growing alongside it. No, I meant what you saw when we were in hyperspace. That's what I'm telling you. I saw the house. Jason. He felt the light touch of her hand on his, warm and dry. What you saw was what you wanted to see. Hyperspace looks different from anything we've seen before... before we lost our sight. To me it looks like colored threads on a black background. To some others it looks like connect-the-dot patterns. I saw the house, Jason repeated stubbornly. Okay, she squeezed his hand. Try and get some sleep. We'll make another run in a few hours. The bunk rebounded as she rose, and Jason heard the door open and close as she left. He put one hand over the one she had touched and tried to visualize how she looked. He got no message. Hoarsely he began to sob. We're going to make a short run now, said Carlie. Four lights to Centaurus. It's a straight run if you go by ship's drive but, she chuckled, an awfully long one. In Hyperspace it's shorter but more complex. Explain it to me again, said Jason. Hyperspace seems to fold differently from normal space. In normal space if you wanted to walk two city blocks, you'd start at point `A' and walk directly to point `B.' If you were doing it in hyperspace, you might have to go straight for two steps, turn 45 degrees and walk ten steps, turn 60 degrees and walk five steps.That's a poor analogy, but it serves as well as any. It doesn't make any sense. No, it doesn't. But it's the way things work. Are you ready to try? Jason nodded, then remembered she couldn't see the gesture. Okay. Carlie gave the talker the request to enter hyperspace and felt the almost subliminal hum that meant the ship's gyroscopes were being brought up to speed. Then the sound of motors stopped as all electrical systems were shut down. A whistle over the speaking tube told her that translation had been accomplished. Now look, she told Jason. What do you see? He concentrated on the blackness before him. Alicia, he replied. Huh? Alicia as I painted her ten years ago. She was sitting on a chair under one of the maples. I dressed her in a yellow sundress and a broad straw hat. The shadows chased around her in the spring breeze. Carlie sighed. Just follow along with me, Jason. Our first thread goes off at an angle to the left. She blew into the speaking tube. Ten degrees port. There was a slight disorientation as the helmsman cranked the handles that rotated the gyroscopes and moved the ship in the proper direction. Stop... Two units thrust. Microweight gripped them as hyperbolic jets were valved on. Reverse thrust. On the bridge the helmsman, timing by his own pulsebeat, followed her directions. Thank you. Now, Jason, we moved along the first thread. I can see our transfer point here. We're going to have to swing almost fifty degrees starboard. Do you see it? I see the old rowboat I painted in Kennebunkport. It was drawn up on land and placed upside down next to a building. The weathered wood was streaked with white and the shadows were cool blue. Forty-eight degrees starboard... A little slower... One unit thrust... Reverse thrust... Thank you. There's the last leg, about two degrees down and to the left. Again Carlie questioned Jason about what he saw and again he described a painting he had created. She ran through the rest of the trip mechanically, trying to tell him what she saw but not demanding any responses from him. It's frustrating, Hank, she told the ship's surgeon at supper. He just doesn't seem to see anything but his own art. Is it possible that the medical results were incorrect, that he can't see in hyperspace? I don't know how that could be, Carlie. The rehab centers do a pretty thorough job of testing potential navigator candidates. I can run him through the on-board equipment, though, if you think it'll do any good. I'd appreciate it. Without the ability to do navigator work he'll be handicapped all the time. She bit nervously at her lower lip. That's something I want to spare him. Later he asked her to come into his surgery. I can't see anything that would interfere with his ability, he told her. I can stimulate the optic nerves and get signal registration in the optic centers of the brain. He shuffled through test readouts. I can even get some photic driving. By every test available to me he shows up fit. By every test available to you , Hank. Maybe what we need is a psychologist. This bucket doesn't rate one. Remember, we only do training runs boring stuff, but we get to sleep in our own beds on weekends. As the trainer, you've got to fill that slot yourself. Carlie made a face at him. Thanks. I usually have enough trouble teaching the candidates what to look for and how to estimate angles and thrusts. Well, she shrugged, maybe a little personal reminiscence would help. Carlie, Hank placed his hand over hers, do you think you should? She reached out and felt his face, touched the frown lines around his mouth. You really care, don't you? I always have. He smiled, and her fingers trapped it. You're a great gal, and I admire you tremendously. I just don't want you to hurt yourself more than you have to. Do you say that to your wife, too? Uh, huh. Less than I should, I'm afraid. She laughed. If it's too much for me, I'll come and cry on your shoulder. Okay? Agreed. She knocked softly on the door to Jason's cabin, entering when he invited her. I wanted to talk with you again, she explained as she entered. Suit yourself. His voice told her he was on the bunk, so she moved toward the chair bolted to the cabin deck. Do you have much trouble getting around the ship? she asked as she seated herself. Some, he admitted. Do you ever wonder why I seem to get around so well? A rustle told her he was moving his head. No. I never thought about it. One of the reasons has to do with the fact that I've served on this ship for a few years, but there's another reason. There was no response. Carlie took a breath and continued. Do you remember Carlotta Russel, the ballerina? Yes. That was me. My stage name. But you Yeah. Mugged, raped, blinded right in the lobby of my condo. You were wonderful. There was awe in his voice. I was, wasn't I? But no more. No more pas de deux with some tight-bummed hunk. No more entrechats . No more pirouettes while the crowd applauded and begged for more. Jason Huh? I wanted to kill myself. I wanted to dance because I knew that if I danced I could feel cleansed of the other things that were done to me I could burnish it out of my soul through my art. But I couldn't dance. Damn! Yes, damn. And now, when we're in hyperspace, I can feel myself dance among the stars. I can feel up and down and right and left and all the other positions. Jason, navigating saved my life. I'm still blind in the real world, but when I'm doing my job, it's as if I'm whole again. Jason stood up and cautiously moved toward her voice, reached out, and found her. Did it hurt? What, the mugging? No, the learning. I felt uncomfortable until I got used to it. Then it felt wonderful. Do you miss dancing? More than I can ever say. She felt tears start from her eyes. I feel the same way about painting. I know. Can I try again? You bet! Give me time to freshen up, and I'll show you the way back home. Don't feel so bad about it, Jason. Carlie sat back in the trainer's couch and forced herself to relax. I could tell you were really trying. I feel like a total failure. Jason's voice sounded strained, as if he were holding back tears. No matter what you did to help me I still couldn't see anything but paintings. Yeah, but this time you got away from your own works. Once at least. Remember you said you saw Van Gogh's `Starry Night' on the second leg. I remember, but it wasn't Van Gogh's, it was my own copy of it. Carlie, she heard him shift in the couch, I'm still too focused on my painting on myself. I can't let go! I can't accept that, Jason. You don't want to accept it. Yeah, that's true, she said reluctantly. I want you to succeed. I want you to have a use for your abilities the way I do. I don't want you to be blind forever. You pity me. I don't know, she admitted. Maybe I pity myself because I'm not as good a teacher as I thought I was. Maybe I want you to see so much that I've developed a different kind of blindness myself a blindness to why you can't see hyperspace. Blindness and sight, Jason's voice was reflective. You use those terms a lot. That's how I think about it. But what did you tell me you felt in hyperspace? Floating? No, dancing. I'm dancing in hyperspace. And you feel the directions. Right. She paused. Maybe you see hyperspace differently because you're used to seeing paintings. Um. That's what I thought. But I see a different work every time. No repeats? No. I wonder. She grasped the speaking tube and blew into it, then asked the normal space navigator for a position check. Jason, she said, we're going to make another Earth-Centaurus run, just like the first one. This time just describe what you see. She gave the order for rotation. Well? I see one of the maples that grows next to my house. I painted it in the fall when its leaves were deep into scarlet. Can you see the house? Yes, a small corner of it. Carlie? What? I don't remember painting the house when I painted the tree. Okay, remember that fact. She gave the order for the first leg of the journey. Now what do you see? Alicia. His voice was tense. Carlie, I saw this painting before. Yeah, on the last trip out. But not in this way. The shadows are different. Wait a moment. Hey, her position has changed! It's subtle, but it's there. Uh huh. Let's go on. At each leg of the journey the pictures repeated themselves but with subtle differences. Carlie, excited by what was happening, ran the ship through the round trip without stopping, and her head ached a little from the fouled air by the time they rotated back to normal space near Earth. So I can see in hyperspace, Jason's voice was elated. That's for certain, Carlie began unfastening the straps that held her to the couch, but it certainly is a different way of seeing it. Jason laughed. I see my own paintings. I suspect the differences between one trip and the next are due to slight positional changes. That's what I think. She got up from the couch and reached out a hand for him. I also think there's another problem. How I can tell the proper `line' for each leg of a voyage? That's it. She took his hand and began to walk toward the wardroom. Jason stopped and turned her toward him. You're thinking with a dancer's mind, he said. For you everything is position and posture and muscle balance. For me, a visual artist, things are light and shadow and color and orientation on the canvas. You mean, the way I orient myself is postural and way you do it is visual? Yeah. Each one of us `sees' something different out there and translates it into something familiar. I guess I'm the first oddball trainee who was so visually oriented he couldn't translate into any other terms. All I have to do is learn the various routes, then I can reposition the ship to reproduce what I saw on each leg. It won't be easy, but we artists are used to doing difficult things. As opposed to dancers? Carlie's laugh was soft. Ouch, I deserved that. Carlie? What, Jason. May I touch your face? Of course. He brought his hands up, ran them lightly over her features. Thanks, he said. I just wanted to see the person who gave me back my sight. DOES REACHING OUT WORK From the Editor: We are sometimes told that there is no possibility of ever communicating or working co-operatively with agencies doing work with the blind. We are told this in spite of the fact that there are a number of rehabilitation centers in the country now being run by our own people who, incidentally, continue to be as strong as ever in their Federationism. In truth it is not where one works that counts, nor is it the name of the employer. Rather, it is what one believes and does and is. It is not form but substance that makes the difference. These comments result from a letter which appeared in the December, 1988, Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness , the publication of the American Foundation for the Blind. As Mr. Petrini (the author of the letter) says, he attended the 1988 Convention of the National Federation of the Blind. He was not only impressed by what he heard and saw but was willing to talk and write about it. The fact that he is a sighted rehabilitation specialist and that his article was printed by the American Foundation for the Blind should give pause to that minority among us that believes nothing ever changes and no one ever listens. Obviously one letter does not cure the ills of the agency system or change the pattern of our whole way of life, but it does show what is happening and what is possible. We have had differences with the American Foundation for the Blind, and we will undoubtedly have more in the future; but we should always be open to changing conditions and new circumstances. The fact that today is different from the world of even ten years ago is a truism, but this should not cause us to close our minds to its truth and, for that matter, its reality and implications. Be that as it may, here is Mr. Petrini's letter: _____________________ To the Editor: I am writing this letter as a private citizen. I work as a sighted blind rehabilitation specialist in the Eastern Blind Rehabilitation Center, V.A. Medical Center, West Haven, Connecticut. I attended the recent National Federation of the Blind (NFB) Convention, July 2-9, in Chicago, as an observer. As a rehabilitation teacher and concerned citizen, several issues were raised at the convention that require discussion. The first concerns the quality and appropriateness of rehabilitation agencies for blind/visually impaired people. NFB believes that many blind rehabilitation agencies are providing poor services which are not addressing the needs of blind people. As a concerned blind rehabilitation professional, I would like to address this issue which was raised at the convention. Many blind rehabilitation agencies need to become more current and appropriate in their services for the blind consumer. Some need to emphasize computer technology and low vision services for their clients. The rehabilitation programs of twenty years ago need to be modified to address the needs of blind people in the 1990's. Yet, while change is important, let's remember to keep techniques and approaches that have stood the test of time. Braille continues to be important for blind and extremely low vision people. Braille and computer Braille help blind persons to remain literate a goal we must continue to support. Since the blind/visually impaired population is getting older, we need to develop more rehabilitation programs for elderly visually impaired persons. These would include skills dealing with independent living, coping with aging (leisure and health knowledge skills), and socialization skills if needed. Let us answer NFB's criticisms by looking at our rehabilitation programs and analyzing how they can be improved. Let's get feedback from peer agencies and clients to help us meet the needs of blind clients more effectively. NFB has begun its own rehabilitation centers in Louisiana and Colorado. At these centers they reported that the instructors teach blind rehabilitation skills and help their clients to develop good, positive attitudes about blindness. In addition to the traditional blind rehabilitation skills, the students are challenged by preparing sit-down dinners for thirty people, and taking technical rock climbing classes or karate. One NFB rehabilitation student said it was like bootcamp for the blind. I was impressed by how the NFB centers tried to encourage positive attitudes about blindness in their students. These attitudes include believing in themselves as blind persons. We rehabilitation professionals need to encourage our clients to develop similar attitudes. The second issue which came to my attention as a result of the NFB convention was the issue of civil rights for the blind population. As blind rehabilitation professionals and private citizens, we have the obligation to support blind people in their quest for full civil rights in society. We must educate the public that negative stereotypes of blind people as incompetent and helpless are wrong. We know that blind/visually impaired people can be productive, independent members of society; blind people are like everyone else except that they have a visual handicap. We need to support self-help groups for blind people like NFB and ACB in their quest for full civil rights. We may disagree with some of their ideas and practices, but we should certainly support their struggle for equal rights in our society. Joseph Petrini BRAILLE: A TOUCHY ISSUE From the Editor: This article by Tim Lucas appeared in the January 31, 1989, Indianapolis Star. It is worth reading for a number of reasons, not the least of which is its underscoring of the fact that there is a beginning of public awareness that Braille is being underemphasized in the education of the blind. Ironically it seems easier for the sighted than for some of the professionals in the blindness field to understand the simple truth that those who are blind or who have extremely impaired vision need to learn Braille: Sometimes the words still come slowly for Aaron Cook. Syllable by syllable, one letter at a time, he makes his way across the line of Braille type, pausing frequently when the pattern of raised dots and spaces becomes too complex. Aaron, 14, is a first-year Braille student at the Indiana School for the Blind. After only a few months' instruction, his grasp of the writing system is, understandably, still limited. But for all his mistakes, the Indianapolis boy is already doing better than most of Indiana's blind population. Although many of us assume that Braille literacy is universal among the blind, the truth is far from that. Today, only about ten percent of all legally blind people can read Braille, says Ronald G. Matias, President of the National Federation of the Blind of Indiana. The Braille literacy rate keeps going down and down, Matias warns. And if something isn't done to reverse it... we are going to become a nation of Braille illiterates. A paper published earlier this month by the Council of Executives of American Residential Schools for the Visually Handicapped echoes Matias's concern. The paper strongly recommends a re-emphasis of Braille skills for the blind, and suggests that some teachers of the blind may themselves be deficient in Braille and thus cannot effectively teach it to their students. Matias agrees. The public assumes everyone who's blind learns to read Braille in school. That's a logical assumption, but unfortunately, it's not true. Instead, he says, most schools today favor an educational philosophy that encourages students who are not totally blind to read large print instead of Braille. It's part of the whole mainstreaming philosophy, Matias explains. Before the 1930's, teachers of the blind were often blind themselves and read and wrote Braille on a daily basis. State certification wasn't required; a proficiency in Braille was. Then, after the thirties, Teachers had to be educational professionals with college degrees. Sometimes they were blind, but more frequently they were sighted teachers... who had taken instruction in Braille but who did not read or write it on a daily basis. They emphasized large print type or sight reading of Braille in the classroom because that's what they knew, Matias says. Moe Haralson, principal at the Indiana School for the Blind, agrees to a point. There was a de-emphasization of Braille teaching for a period, he says. But it was because researchers came out with a low vision study saying people (who aren't totally blind) are better off reading print. That philosophy, as we've seen, hasn't worked, Haralson says, so now we've gone back to working with students in two modes large print and Braille. Braille is based on a six-dot unit which, when arranged variously, forms more than 200 different signs and letters. Of the Indiana School for the Blind's 162 students, 61 (or about 38 percent) can read Braille. About the same number rely on large print materials, while 20 percent are multiple handicap students who cannot read either Braille or large print. The decision to teach a student Braille is based on his abilities and desire, Haralson says. If he wants to learn it, it's available to him, he says, adding that it generally takes a student two or three years of study to become fluent in Braille. Despite the initial difficulties, though, students, teachers, and blind advocates alike agree that it's worth the effort. I used to read large print pretty well, but now my vision (is weaker), so I can only pick up one word at a time and I make a lot of mistakes, says Aaron, a near straight-A student. Learning Braille will prepare me for the future in case I go totally blind or can't read print anymore. GIVING THE WRITE IMPRESSION From the Associate Editor: I never cease to be astonished at the occupations that sighted people presume to be off-limits to the blind because (in their minds) there is some mystical connection between the activity in question and the means usually employed by the sighted to accomplish it. The most recent job to be brought to my attention as beyond the restricted abilities of the blind is that of writer. Since I have spent a significant portion of every day for the last several years seated at my computer engaged in composition in order to justify receiving my paycheck, I greeted the discovery of this piece of information with amused incredulity. This was not always so. Though I made A's in high school English, when I hit my college composition course, I quickly drew one conclusion. Although I might not have the least idea what I would eventually major in at Oberlin College, it would not be English. I soon discovered that it was not writing that I found so hard but thinking logically. As soon as I resigned myself to taking the time to plan my sentences, paragraphs, and essays, I discovered that it was possible to survive as an English major. My emergence into the field of magazine editing has been the result of a gradual evolution, but there was never a time when I felt that blindness created a bar to my writing. Throughout the fifteen years of my active involvement with the National Federation of the Blind, I have found a few people who write well, a number more who write competently, and lots of people who would rather avoid the activity altogether. My husband, who teaches composition as well as other English courses at Oberlin, confirms my impression that in this, as in so much else, the blind are simply a cross section of society at large. In the summer of 1988 Lori Stayer (Vice President of the Writers Division of the National Federation of the Blind and Editor of its magazine, Slate & Style ) received first a phone call and then a letter of inquiry from a graduate student in Michigan. He was doing research on blind writers. Were there any good ones? If so, was it necessary for them to have had sight originally in order to write well now? How could a blind writer revise his work? Could he write convincingly about something he had never actually seen? Mrs. Stayer is a patient woman, dedicated to teaching and to destroying misconceptions wherever and whenever she can. Here is the letter she received, and her response: ____________________ Akron, Ohio July 19, 1988 Dear Ms. Stayer: In regard to our telephone conversation this afternoon, I am enclosing a check ($2.50) for the purchase of a copy of Slate & Style magazine. I am currently working on a graduate paper that deals with sight and writing. I have had interviews with blind people including a talented writer and musician; however, many questions I have are still unanswered. Perhaps you could help with the following ones: 1) Janet Emig states in her book, Web of Meaning that she has not found a single case of a noted writer in any genre who was, or is, congenitally blind. She adds that neither lyricist-composer Stevie Wonder nor dramatist Harold Krentz, for example, was born , blind, ...James Thurber and John Milton did not become blind until midlife. Helen Keller, perhaps the best known case of all, did not become blind until eighteen months of age. In a recent international writing contest for the blind, sponsored by the Jewish Braille Institute, not one writer adjudged a winner was born blind. (p.115) I find this very difficult to believe. Do you know of any professional or talented writers who were born blind? Can a congenitally blind person write about abstract notions that a sighted person could relate to? In other words, would a sighted reader know from the text alone that the writer is blind? Could a blind person write about a sunset which he or she had never seen or experienced before? 2) How do blind writers write, revise, and critique their work? A sighted person can tell if a word is misspelled by looking at it. What does a blind person do? Sighted writers usually read phrase by phrase and often read a sentence out loud in order to revise it. How does a blind writer revise? (Do they erase the braille or simply retype?) 3) A blind person told me in one of the interviews that most blind people are not interested in any type of writing. Is this true? If so, why? 4) What disadvantages, do you think, blind writers have (if any) as opposed to sighted ones? How do they overcome them? Thank you very much for offering to help. Any information you can provide will be greatly appreciated. Sincerely, ____________________ Merrick, New York July 22, 1988 Dear : I have sent you a copy of Slate & Style under separate cover. You did not tell me when your paper is due, so I don't know how much time we have to get you the answers you want. If, for example, it is not due until January of 1989, then we have the option of publishing your letter in Slate & Style and soliciting some correspondence from our membership. I have already shared your letter with Tom Stevens, who is the President of the Writers Division, and who was the winner of its fiction contest before his election. It is difficult to know where to begin answering your letter. You have made certain assumptions which underlie your questions, so perhaps I had better deal with these first. Your first assumption seems to be that because Ms. Emig says a thing, it is so. One needs to ask what sort of research she did and what her assumptions were before she began her book. You express doubt in her conclusions, but they seem to have colored your own later thinking. Your second assumption is that blind people using Braille are in some fundamental way different from sighted people using print. I wonder if it would have occurred to you to ask your question concerning writing and revising about those who read only Italian, because they don't speak English. In response to your first question, I have not read Janet Emig's book, Web of Meaning . I do, however, personally know a number of distinguished blind writers. Deborah Kent (Stein) is an acclaimed writer of Young Adult books. Dr. Kenneth Jernigan, Executive Director of the National Federation of the Blind and President of the North America/Caribbean Region of the World Blind Union, is considered by many to be the outstanding blind writer and thinker in the blindness field today. He has edited the Braille Monitor magazine for years, writing a goodly portion of each issue. He has also written numerous speeches that have shaped the thinking of a generation about blindness. I shall pass your letter on to him for possible response, though I can't guarantee that he will have the time to answer you. I should point out to you that in the blind community the distinction between congenital and adventitious blindness seems spurious. It strikes people as mostly irrelevant. If you're blind, it's generally agreed that you can't see. The feel for language, the ability to craft a phrase, is seated in the brain, not the eye. And research can be done by anyone, so Debbie Kent assures me. I do not believe a reader could know from the text that the writer was blind unless the author mentioned the information. Read the magazine I sent you. Except for June Derks and Gayle Sabonaitis (who mention their blindness), you probably won't be able to tell who is and who is not blind. As for writing a description of something you have never seen, many writers do just that all the time; they research their subject, then create a description that fits the details. By the way, how does Ms. Keller's losing her sight and hearing at the age of eighteen months make her different from someone blind and deaf from birth? Eighteen months is a pretty young age. I myself don't remember anything before my third birthday. Your second question was, How do Blind writers write, revise, and critique their work. The answer is that it varies. One man told me that he uses two tape recorders. Crescence Stadeble, who is a member of our division, uses a typewriter and sighted readers. Nancy Scott uses Braille. Some legally (but not totally) blind writers use print-enlarging devices. Some use word processors that talk or produce Braille output. Braille readers with real expertise usually those who have read and written Braille since first grade read the way any sighted person does: phrases and sentences at a time. People who are totally blind from birth probably have the advantage here of never having had anyone try to teach them using visual methods. My husband reads Braille at 300 words a minute, which is faster than many seeing people read print. It all depends on practice. The prolific Braille reader has the same advantages in learning to spell (and therefore being able to correct a text) as the sighted reader does. It will help you if you think of Braille as an alternative to print rather than an inferior method of reading and writing. Braille readers read letters and abbreviations, words and phrases, sentences and paragraphs, just as you read print. Those who read letter by letter have had an inferior education, and here, by the way, you can blame sighted educators who have never placed the value on Braille that literate blind people do. Braille does have a few limitations. It is bulky and not as readily available as print. Most blind people don't own their own books because of the cost, though we are working to change that. It is possible to erase a mistaken letter or two in Braille, but it must be done dot by dot, so most people just fill in all six dots in the Braille cell as one way to eliminate an error. A blind professional writer will probably opt for the newer technology by investing in a word processor, just as a sighted writer would. As for the person who told you that most blind people are not interested in any type of writing, he doesn't know the blind people I do. The answer to your question is, no, it is not true. How could it be? Blind people aren't a different species from you and me. They are a cross section of society and have a cross section of interests. How could it be otherwise? As to your question what disadvantages blind writers have as opposed to sighted writers, there is one very important problem. Until Braille is taught to all totally and partially blind children, we will raise generations of illiterate blind people, people who can't spell or write or read. This is a tragic problem that cuts across America today. However, if the blind are educated in the alternative techniques of blindness, including Braille, effective use of readers, and reliance on a well-trained memory, then, no, there are no disadvantages. I note with regret that you didn't ask me what the advantages of being a blind writer are. Your assumptions about limitations of blindness may color your work. As I mentioned, I will share your letter with members of the division and see what other answers I can get for you. I acknowledge that I am not blind. However, my experience includes having a blind husband and attending conventions of the National Federation of the Blind for fifteen years. I have met hundreds, if not thousands, of blind people. You would find it helpful to speak to some who have had good experiences of blindness. I shall see what I can do to have them get in touch with you. I hope I've been of some help. Cordially, Lori Stayer, Vice President Writers Division Editor, Slate & Style CONGRESS TAKES A HAND IN THE FIGHT AGAINST DISCRIMINATION BY THE STATE DEPARTMENT In the February, 1989, Braille Monitor we printed an article entitled: State Department Declares the Blind Unfit. It gives details concerning the discrimination being practiced by the State Department against blind applicants for career appointments in the Foreign Service. Monitor readers will remember that Rami Rabby, one of the leaders of the NFB in New York, received particularly shabby treatment from the State Department and took his story to the press. Simultaneously the National Federation of the Blind brought the matter to the attention of Congress, and during the Federation's Washington Seminar (held January 29 through February 1, 1989) we were able to get a Congressional hearing. On Wednesday, February 1, Congressman Gerry Sikorski held what is technically called a briefing before his Subcommittee on Human Resources of the Committee on Post Office and Civil Service. As will be seen from the testimony, members of both the blind community and the State Department were present to give their views. Since this issue goes far beyond the case of Rami Rabby or even the specific actions of the State Department, it seems worthwhile to let Monitor readers know in detail what occurred. Here is how the briefing went: Briefing Congressman Sikorski . This is a public briefing organized for the members of the Subcommittee. I've requested and received authorization from Chairman Ford to conduct these proceedings, which will be recorded. The full committee will be requested to authorize the printing of the transcript once we officially organize. We have scheduled this briefing to examine the Department of State's hiring policy regarding blind individuals who seek entry into the Foreign Service. In recent years the Department has provided readers to assist blind applicants for Foreign Service Officer positions. Exams were also provided in Braille. However, as we will hear later from some of our panelists, blind individuals who successfully passed both the written and oral portions of this very difficult exam were nevertheless denied entry into the Foreign Service for subsequently failing the Department's physical examination. That examination requires visual acuity. Now, concerns about these policies date back to at least 1975. In 1982 a complaint was filed against the State Department with the Equal Opportunity Commission (the EOC), and in 1987 the EOC completed a staff report which highlighted the Department's contradictory hiring and testing policy opening the door to opportunity, equality, and hope with one hand and closing that door with another. The EOC report concluded: It would be unwise for the Department of State to conduct a recruitment program that would raise false expectations of handicapped individuals hoping to enter the Foreign Service. It went on to add: Recruitment that leads to exclusion based on handicap will increase the possibility of discrimination complaints. The report recommended that the Department modify its recruitment program to comply with the Foreign Service Act of 1980, as well as the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended with respect to hiring, placement, and advancement of handicapped individuals. Now we see that instead of opening doors to the Foreign Service Department, the Department of State installed a dead bolt lock. Instead of changing the medical requirements or examining the practical application of the Department's so-called world-wide availability policy, the Department decided it would no longer provide the exam in Braille. Blind applicants would not be permitted to use readers, and any blind people who made it through the test would still be washed out on the physical exam even though blind people have honorably served our government and the citizens of the United States in highly sensitive intelligence areas, the Peace Corps, the civil branches of the Armed Services, and even the Foreign Service. This morning our distinguished group of panelists includes the honorable Tom Campbell from the State of California and several very talented blind individuals, who have been or will be affected by the Department's policy; Commissioner Kemp of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; and representatives from the Department of State. All of these people are here to help us understand and examine the needs of the Foreign Service and those of qualified blind applicants who seek entry into the ranks to represent our country overseas, and we thank all of them for being with us this morning. It's the tradition and almost a requirement that we begin with the members of Congress, and with us this morning at his request and with the subcommittee's great appreciation is Tom Campbell, a member of Congress from California. Welcome. Congressman Campbell . Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be here. My name is Tom Campbell. I'm the newly elected Congressman from Silicon Valley, California. But more important for today's purposes, Mr. Chairman, I am an eighteen-year veteran reader for Recording for the Blind. And that's what I want to talk to you about this morning. In the course of those eighteen years, I have worked with blind people in very many different ways as they obtain information to carry on their functions. I've worked with students at Harvard Law School, who used an Optacon to scan not involving another person, but allowing them to read as though they had sight. I've worked with readers for Georgetown Law School, trying to get them help to get their law degree and assisting them as they became lawyers and succeeded in the federal practice. As a professor at Stanford, occasionally I would teach blind students, and I had the opportunity to teach economics. (I have a Ph.D in that field.) The question arose: Could a blind student manage the supply and demand graphs? You know, with just a little accommodation, the answer is, You bet. All it takes is: trace the graphs on the palm of the student's hand, and I did that after every lecture. Mr. Chairman, on the basis of those eighteen years of experience working with blind persons, the one thing I am most sure of is that there is nothing a blind person cannot do except see. I have a personal reason for appearing here today as well. In 1980 I had the high honor to be a White House Fellow. In that class was Hal Krentz, the first White House Fellow who was blind. Hal Krentz had epilepsy, and he could not see. Nevertheless, he became a lawyer, a songwriter, and a playwright. His life was the inspiration for Butterflies Are Free. He wrote the screen play for To Race the Wind. Hal was appointed to the White House, and I think his experience is particularly important as this committee investigates this most important area, to explore exactly how he managed to succeed so very well. He was assigned to Elizabeth Dole, Mr. Chairman, and I think it might be useful to ask Secretary Dole how she was able effectively to use Hal Krentz working in the White House Office of Public Liaison. As his colleague White House Fellow, let me tell you that there was no more productive, efficient member of our White House Fellows class than Hal Krentz. In earlier arguments about the importance of keeping confidentiality in the State Department and how difficult it is to have outside readers well, I think all of those arguments apply in the White House as well. And yet Hal Krentz succeeded. Mr. Chairman, two years ago Hal Krentz passed away. And when he did, I made a silent pledge (as a number of my fellow White House Fellows did) that whenever any of us had a chance to speak at a circumstance where we knew Hal would have spoken, we would do so. I'm here today to redeem that pledge. I'm here today to speak as Hal would if he had been here. And even more importantly, we're all here today to redeem America's pledge that the best message we can send to the other countries of this world through our diplomats is that America is a country where any obstacle can be overcome. That is a message which will be sent by reversing the State Department's policy. Mr. Chairman, I applaud your holding these hearings, and I urge you and all members of Congress not only to put as much influence as we can on the State Department to change this particular policy, but to come to the personal recognition of the vision impaired segment of our population as I have and come to that realization that there is nothing they can't do. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Congressman Sikorski . Thank you, Congressman Campbell. Let me just for the record introduce you as a new member of the 101st Congress. You've taken a leave of absence from your duties at Stanford University, where you've taught for seventeen years, I believe. Congressman Campbell . I taught there only for six and a half. I had to learn something before I could teach. Congressman Sikorski . You've come here as the new Republican member of the House of Representatives. You've served as a White House Fellow, as you mentioned in your statement. You have a Ph.D in Economics. You specialized, in part, in discrimination law and discrimination economics. You've been a reader for Recording for The Blind for eighteen years. That's it. Your statement says a whole lot about the issue that we're dealing with here today and we thank you for your assistance and ask you if you want to join us up here if you'd like and if your schedule permits. Congressman Campbell . I'd be pleased to, Mr. Chairman. Congressman Sikorski . Apparently there has been some miscommunication as to who is going when and what this consists of today. We have (let me introduce for the record) copies of letters of January 25, 1989, to Mr. Charles Stout, United States Department of State, and to Mr. Sheldon Yuspeh, United States Department of State, who will be on the first panel. I'm sorry. They will be on the second panel. Apparently their rules don't allow them to appear with just citizens. The first panel will be: Mr. Avraham Rabby, who is a human resources consultant. Mr. Rabby, I had occasion last night to read your statement, which is exceptional and of great value. We're beginning with you so that you can set the stage as to how we got here this morning. Mr. Rabby passed the written portion of the Foreign Service Exam three times and the oral exam twice, yet has been denied entry into the Foreign Service as an officer despite his qualifications. As I recall, you speak four languages and have been involved in international issues for a long time. You currently manage your own consulting firm, which helps disabled individuals find employment. You were born in Israel. You lived in England for fifteen years and have also lived in Paris and Madrid. Mr. Rabby received a B.A. Honors Degree in French and Spanish from Oxford University in England, a master's degree in business administration from the University of Chicago, and has been a Fulbright scholar. Welcome, Mr. Rabby. Mr. Rabby . Thank you, Mr. Sikorski. Let me begin by giving a very brief account of my involvement with the State Department, after which I shall analyze point by point the five principal arguments which the State Department has advanced during the last two or three months as to why they believe blind people cannot or should not be employed in the Foreign Service. Since December, 1985, (that is to say, within the last three years or so) I have taken the written exam for the Foreign Service a total of three times. I have passed them all and have done so with the help of Braille papers provided by the State Department, as well as an amanuensis provided by the State Department to mark my answers. In addition, I have taken the oral assessment twice, again using for those examinations a reader and an amanuensis, also provided by the State Department. I have also been granted a security clearance by the State Department's diplomatic security office. In October, 1986, I went for my medical examination, and during the middle of my examination the State Department doctor read to me a paragraph from his medical standards manual, which said that any candidate having any kind of serious loss of vision, not to mention being totally blind as I am, would be disqualified on medical grounds. In November of 1988, just a few months ago, I was about to sit for my third oral assessment, when three days before the time came, I received notification from the State Department saying that their policy had changed and they were no longer going to provide me a reader or let me bring my own. Let me, as I said, go through the five principal points, the arguments that they have made. First of all, let's deal with the issue of world-wide availability. The State Department seems to make a distinction between blind people on the one hand and sighted people on the other. They seem to say that sighted people can and should be obligated to serve world-wide and that blind people cannot. Mr. Chairman, I, as well as my colleagues in this room, reject that kind of distinction; and we also reject any thought of relaxing the principle of world-wide availability in order to accommodate the so-called needs of blind people. We do not believe that blind people need or should have the principle of world-wide availability relaxed for them. The fact is that, while the State Department would like to think that at no more than a moment's notice it can shift its Foreign Service Officers from one place in the world to another, in reality it goes through a very laborious and very correct and careful process of analyzing the characteristics of each Foreign Service Officer and his or her applicability and suitability to a particular location and a particular profession. This may vary according to the FSO's education, experience, family involvement, languages, and very often to the desires of the FSO himself or herself. The State Department does this because Foreign Service Officers are not like Fords and Chevrolets that roll off the assembly line, each one identical with the other. Each FSO has his or her own unique strengths and weaknesses. We believe that, in the case of blind people, blindness should be just one more of those characteristics that enter into the mix of the decision-making process determining where to place the Foreign Service Officer. Let me go on to the second point: the use of assistance to read material particularly, classified documents. The State Department says that mechanical means are available for blind people to do that. Let me tell the subcommittee some truths about the technology that is now available. It is true that there are devices, such as the Optacon mentioned by Congressman Campbell and the Kurzweil Personal Reader, which enable blind people to read print. However, these machines are limited in their scope and value. They do not read some type faces. The Optacon, particularly, is extremely slow. A blind person using it usually can't read more than fifty or sixty words a minute. The Kurzweil Personal Reader is hardly a portable piece of equipment, so you can see that there are some very definite limitations to this technology. All blind professionals and management-level people, both in the public and private sectors, have recognized that although these machines have their uses, there is nothing that beats an effective human reader to make one fully efficient, speedy, and competent on the job. What we are looking for in employment in the Foreign Service is not so much independence, because none of us is truly independent, but rather efficiency and competence, speed and productivity on the job. The third point has to do with the issue of security and personal safety on the job. There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that blind people in proportionate numbers are any more prone to accidents and hazards than sighted people are. We know this. The National Federation of the Blind has conducted studies with the insurance industry to demonstrate it. Beyond this fact, however, we need to talk about the social benefits involved in employing blind people. Let me make an analogy with women Foreign Service Officers. If personal safety and security were the overriding and paramount factors in employment of FSO's, women FSO's would not be hired since, as a group, women are physically weaker than men. Women are slower than men, as a group. And yet the Foreign Service... Congressman Sikorski . (interrupts) I don't know if you would be able to prove that. I doubt that... Mr. Rabby . (interrupts) ...I don't see why women are separated in the Olympic games or in sports, for example, unless for that reason. Congressman Sikorski . Probably for the same reasons that you've been separated out. It has to do with people's prejudices and biases and... Mr. Rabby . ...The times don't show that, Mr. Chairman. The times are for running and jumping and so on. Congressman Sikorski . I expect that will change, too. Mr. Rabby . In any case, women still are hired by the Foreign Service because, presumably, it believes that the social benefit from employing women FSO's and demonstrating to the world the equality and respect with which we treat women in this country outweighs any security consideration. Well, we believe that blind people should be given exactly the same consideration and treatment. The fourth point has to do with blind people operating in unfamiliar settings and cultures. It is really amazing to me and to my colleagues in this room that this point should be brought up at all. The State Department only had to look for leadership on this issue to the Peace Corps, which has for years employed, as volunteers, blind people in all parts of the world in unfamiliar settings and cultures and has done so very, very effectively. There are people here this morning to whom this room itself was unfamiliar territory until today, and yet we managed to arrive here and find our seats, and we shall leave here. There's no reason to believe that we couldn't do it in France or China or Japan or any other country. Finally, the fifth point has to do with the visual cues and indicators that the State Department feels are a necessary part of diplomatic negotiations and which blind people cannot interpret. Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, there are in this country blind judges, blind lawyers, blind psychiatrists, blind people who in their day- to-day work have to interpret what the State Department would call visual cues and indicators. And they do so very effectively. So how do they do it? Well, one way they do it is by using audible information. Now, the State Department hasn't learned it yet, but most visual cues and indicators are accompanied by their audible counterparts, such as a smile when one is talking, the rustling of paper, the shifting about uncomfortably in one's seat, and so on. But beyond that, it is important to recognize that, in diplomatic negotiations particularly, if there is a wink or a nod by the person sitting across the negotiating table, the blind person who cannot hear some part of the visual cue is certainly not going to go on with any discussion until he or she does hear verbal response. In any case, to the best of my knowledge, no international treaty or agreement has ever been signed on the basis of a wink or a nod. Everything has to be written on paper, with the i's dotted and the t's crossed. Mr. Chairman, those are the five points that I've been able to glean from various letters and statements made by the State Department officials to members of Congress and to the media, and those are my answers to them. Congressman Sikorski . Thank you very much. Without objections your entire statement will be placed in the record as you provided it. We will move quickly to the second panel and the officials. Before you leave, Mr. Rabby, I do have a couple of quick questions. Your points were dealt with logically and nicely in your statement. I did want to hit on a couple of them. I know that the State Department has made the claim that their Foreign Service Officers must be, by virtue of their organization, their statutory authorization, available on a world-wide basis. This is the so-called world-wide availability argument. Does the Department actually follow this policy in application today? Mr. Rabby . That, of course, you will have to ask them. All I can tell you is that, to the logical mind of a human resource management specialist (which is what I claim to be, Mr. Chairman), it simply cannot be. As I said in my oral testimony, and as you will find in the written testimony, any placement of a Foreign Service Officer simply cannot be done the way you place so many identical widgets that come off an assembly line in a factory. Foreign Service Officers have specific educations. One may have an expertise in East European political history. Another may not. One may have experience in the African environment. Another may be a complete novice. One may be fluent in Hebrew; another may be fluent in Chinese, and so on. All of these are taken into consideration when they place any Foreign Service Officer in a particular post. What we would like to see is blindness treated as one characteristic and put into the mix of all the blind Foreign Service Officer's characteristics being considered each time he or she is to be stationed anywhere in the world. Congressman Sikorski . People, in fact, are looked at based on their talents, their resources, their frame of mind at the time, their family situations, and a host of personal idiosyncratic facts and whims, and then decisions are made on that basis. Are they not? Mr. Rabby . Exactly. Congressman Sikorski . Let me ask you: One of the State Department's concerns that strikes a responsive cord in a lot of hearts is that concerning classified information. You hit that in your statement. I don't recall that you detailed it in your summary this morning. The argument is that a blind individual is not able to recognize when such information is classified, and that it can be easily intercepted if a blind individual requires a reader who would read that classified information aloud. How does that concern strike you? Mr. Rabby . Oh yes, they say that the reading aloud of classified information which is used by political and economic officers is bad, except in specially designed acoustical rooms at posts abroad. I think it would be fair to ask them a number of questions. Are classified materials only used by political and economic officers as they have said, and, if so, what about public affairs officers and cultural officers and administrative officers and consular officers? Why aren't they willing to consider blind people for those positions? If out-loud reading of classified materials is prohibited, what about the oral interpreting of classified materials to FSO's who are not familiar with the language of the classified documents? Does that not ever take place? And if out-loud reading of classified materials is prohibited, what about discussion of them? Surely that goes on. It simply does not make sense. But if all discussion or reading aloud of classified material has to take place in this specially-designed acoustical room, put the blind person and the reader in there. Congressman Sikorski . The point you're making is that if it's an issue, it's an issue for sighted and blind people alike because classified information is not simply read and it's not simply written. It's interpreted; it's translated (in some instances out loud); it's discussed out loud. If that's only done in contained acoustical rooms, then there's nothing wrong with putting the blind person in these rooms. Mr. Rabby . That's right. The broader point that I am making, Mr. Chairman, is also that the State Department has so far been totally unwilling to acknowledge the valuable contribution that blind people can and should be making in the Foreign Service. If they're initially unwilling to make that kind of policy statement, they will find all kinds of reasons for which blind people should not be hired. These are just some of them. Congressman Sikorski . You commented on unfamiliar circumstances. You've lived in New York City for how long? Mr. Rabby . Eleven years. Congressman Sikorski . Eleven years and it's not the kindest, most user-friendly city in the world. Mr. Rabby . Yes. On the issue of personal safety and security, New York City in 1988 had 1,900 murders, which is the largest number of murders in any city around the world, that's to say in peace time. Congressman Sikorski . Washington, D.C., is where we are sitting this morning. It is not the friendliest place. Is there any place in the world that you would not go, refuse to go, or personally not want to go based on the fact that you are blind? Mr. Rabby . Not based on the fact that I am blind. There are plenty of places in the world where I wouldn't like to go, but the State Department ought to realize that in all of those places, there are blind people living and working very happily. Congressman Sikorski . In fact, there are blind people who are serving in our Foreign Service today. Is that correct? Mr. Rabby . Mr. Chairman, I don't have much information about blind people... Congressman Sikorski . I know one. I met Ambassador... just a few weeks ago who was legally blind, and there are blind people in the Foreign Service ... Mr. Rabby . However, I do know, Mr. Chairman, that there is a full-fledged blind, totally blind, Foreign Service officer working for the Canadian Foreign Service who has done so for at least ten years. He has served in Tokyo and is now in India. He has a reader/secretary assigned to his position so that wherever he is assigned, the reader/secretary goes with him. Congressman Sikorski . And those include both industrialized nations and... Mr. Rabby . And so-called third world countries, yes. Congressman Sikorski . I spent a year in India a few years ago during college, and I can appreciate the fact that if someone does serve there in the Foreign Service, they probably have experienced a wealth of wonderful and challenging opportunities. They probably have proven the capacity to survive in any country. Mr. Rabby, do you have anything to add? Mr. Rabby . No, I don't think so, Mr. Chairman. I think my written testimony includes just about all of the thoughts that I have ever had on this subject. Congressman Sikorski . (laughing) Will you be available for us this morning should we want to come back and ask you some questions? Mr. Rabby . Absolutely. Congressman Sikorski . Our second panel will include Mr. Evan J. Kemp, Jr. (Commissioner, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission); Mr. Charles Stout, who is the director of Policy Coordinations Staff with the Director General of the Foreign Service, Department of State; and Mr. Sheldon Yuspeh, who is the Coordinator for Handicapped Employment Programs in that same office at the Department of State. Gentlemen, welcome. Come on up. In the beginning, Commissioner Kemp was unanimously confirmed by the Senate in July of 1987. He's a tireless spokesperson for independent living by disabled people and for an end to paternalism that too often keeps disabled people dependent. Again, it's a pleasure to welcome you here this morning. Your prepared comments will be placed in the record as you wish them. You may summarize as you wish, Mr. Kemp. Commissioner Kemp . Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, staff. This briefing is very important to disabled people because I think again it shows the attitude that excludes us from the mainstream of society. The State Department's actions refusing a blind applicant the right to take a test, either Braille or with a reader or something else, sends a wrong message at the wrong time to both government agencies and to the public sector. The federal government is supposed to be a model employer of disabled people, and I don't think it's reached that very often. We do have a new administration. President Bush is committed to integrating disabled people into society and giving disabled people control over their own lives. He's talked about the 70% unemployment of disabled people. We would like disabled people to get back into the work force. Our 1986 EOC report on the State Department concluded that somebody that was disabled very rarely gets through the twin barriers of the medical standards and the world-wide availability standards. I don't know how much these standards cause the problems or whether it's the attitudes of the State Department. I do think attitudes are still the biggest barrier that people with disabilities have in getting integrated into society. I don't have (and the EOC does not have) really adequate information on how the world-wide availability standards work. Are there exceptions to that standard? It is written into the law. Sometimes these are followed by agencies very closely, and sometimes not at all. We do know that from the September 30, 1988, report that there are two Foreign Service Officers that are blind. Are they treated differently, or do they still have world-wide availability? There are a lot of things that we need to know, I think, before we can make a determination that the State Department is violating Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. From my own experiences as Executive Director of Ralph Nader's Disability Rights Center from 1980 to 1987, the State Department has a dismal record of hiring people with disabilities. It seems to me that their attitude is that they want to hire what I call the mythical American, the five-foot ten-inch, one hundred-sixty pound, male WASP in perfect physical and mental health. And I think that this is the attitude that they are going under. This does exclude disabled people and other people that are different. The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 is different from the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It says look at the individual. Look at the individual's ability and disabilities, and then look at the job. See if those two can mesh. The State Department still has the medical standards that are vague and exclude disabled people. They look at blindness and they look at groups and still exclude them. I think that this briefing is terribly important. I think that there should be hearings on this, and I think that the Congress should pass specific laws for the State Department in this area. Thank you. Congressman Sikorski . Thank you, Commissioner Kemp. I think there are specific laws dealing with handicapped individuals, and your 1987 report highlights those. We'll get into questions after Mr. Stout has had his say. Director Stout is director of the Policy Coordination staff and the Office of the Director General of the Foreign Service and the director for personnel at the State Department. That's one office. I kind of made you two different things, but that's one office, and Mr. Stout comes to us at the recommendation of and as a replacement for Mr. George Vest, who after a long and successful career, has recently retired from the State Department. Mr. Stout is also accompanied by Mr. Sheldon Yuspeh, who is the State Department's coordinator for Handicapped Employment Programs, and I understand that Mr. Yuspeh will not make a formal presentation but is available for us today to make any comments and answer any questions. If I may interject at this point, Congressman Dymally is here, and we'll turn it over to him for a statement. Congressman Dymally . Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. I come to you and my friends, especially those in California, as a long supporter of those with sight handicaps. As a member of the California legislature since 1962, I have a keen interest in this matter. I also wear another hat, Mr. Chairman, as the new chairman of the Subcommittee on International Operations of the Foreign Affairs Committee, which has some jurisdiction over the old questions of employment practices of the State Department. And after you have concluded your hearing, the subcommittee would like to join with this committee at subsequent hearings some time after the mark-up of the International Office Bill. We will work jointly on this effort. The subcommittee is committed to pursuing this matter, and I want to give my friends some assurance that the Subcommittee on International Operations, which has jurisdiction over the State Department, is going to pursue this matter with the help of Chairman Sikorski in the hope that we will have a successful resolution of this very troubling problem. So I am very pleased to join you in and want to commend you on these hearings. Congressman Sikorski . Thank you. The Chairman has been a great help and a good friend as we have gone through this Post Office and Civil Service Committee on a whole host of issues, and we thank him for his past activities and promise of future activities as well. We know that all of us can feel better because of it. Mr. Stout, do you want to make your statement? Director Stout . Mr. Chairman, Commissioner, I have a short statement. In recent years the Department of State has facilitated the Foreign Service candidacy of disabled persons by providing accommodations that enable such candidates to complete the written and oral assessment process. The relationship of the candidate's disability to performance and safety is not considered unless the candidate successfully passes the oral examination. If disqualified because of a medical or disabling condition, the candidate may request a review by an employment review committee. The ERC (Employment Review Committee) reviews such requests on a case-by-case basis to determine whether the Department can reasonably accommodate the candidate's condition without sacrificing the performance, safety, or assignability needs of the service. Generally speaking, this policy has provided a useful mechanism for giving fair and equitable consideration to many candidates with medical and/or disabling conditions. However, expressions of dissatisfaction from candidates with severe disabilities prompted a review of the overall policy. The Department established a working group in late 1988 to begin a self-evaluation of our existing pre-employment standards with respect to disabled candidates. The direction of the evaluation is two-fold. Our medical division has been reviewing the department's pre-employment medical standards with an eye towards recommending the elimination of any standard which is not based upon clear, medical management considerations. For example, an applicant who is blind or deaf but otherwise perfectly healthy would not present a medical management issue. If the functional loss, however, is due to a disease process or other medical condition, the applicant's condition would be considered in terms of the Department's ability to provide adequate medical care in the field. In addition to this medical standard review, the Department is re-evaluating functional performance and safety requirements for all Foreign Service positions. The Department has asked the Educational Testing Service (ETS) to collect information on essential Foreign Service Officer duties in functional terms as part of a job analysis survey that ETS has contracted to do for us in the coming year. This survey and information already collected by our standards review working group will be used to complete an evaluation of our ability to accommodate persons with disabilities in the future. It must be recognized that it is not always possible or reasonable to accommodate every type of functional loss in every job situation. Our goal here is to link directly the accommodations we provide during the written and oral assessment process to job functions which are essential to satisfactory performance in the Foreign Service. Where it is conclusively determined that an accommodation requested in the examination process is incompatible with the performance of essential functions in the field, the requested accommodation will be denied. This approach will help early in the examination process to reduce unrealistic expectations for disabled persons who have functional losses that cannot reasonably be accommodated in the Foreign Service Environment. As you may know, that environment includes the legislative requirement that members of the Foreign Service are available to serve in assignments throughout the world, as put in the 1980 Foreign Service Act. While this process is still in the early phase, our review has shown that the ability to work independently and effectively from original source documents is an essential job requirement for all Foreign Service officer positions. For this reason the Director General of the Foreign Service decided that the December 3, 1988, written examination would not be given in Braille or with a reader. The policy decision provides, however, that any visually impaired applicant may utilize any accommodation, medical or otherwise, which facilitates working independently from original examination documents. Foreign Service Officers, for example, must necessarily work from original source documents in the field: passports, birth certificates, contracts, what have you. Of all the visually impaired persons who applied to take last December's examination, only one chose not to take it under these circumstances. All other visually impaired applicants took and completed the examination. Our policy also allowed the same applicants extra time and, where necessary, assistance in marking the answer booklet. Clearly, the current policy does not impose a blanket exclusion on any protected group. This policy only affects persons applying for Foreign Service Officer positions, which comprise approximately 20% of the Department's work force. Over the past several years the Department has met all applicable standards in hiring and retaining persons with disabilities for positions in the United States. The Department employs visually impaired and blind persons in domestic positions and, where appropriate, employs readers. Thus, the policy change the Department has made is not an effort to exclude any group. It is, however, a carefully derived recognition of our limitations to accommodate in one specific way, with a reader, and takes into account job requirements which demand world-wide availability and the ability to function in a wide range of work environments. Mr. Chairman, I will be glad to take questions for the record or to go into general background questions if you have any. Congressman Sikorski . We thank you, Mr. Stout, for your statement; we appreciate it and your willingness to assist us. Let me, using the EOC findings, just kind of run through a couple of things so that we're all at the same place, and correct me if I'm wrong. According to your report, Commissioner Kemp, the application process for becoming a Foreign Service Officer is lengthy and includes a written and oral examination, medical examination, and background examination. The Foreign Service Act of 1980 mandates affirmative action, equal employment opportunity for handicapped individuals in the Foreign Service. Under Chapter One, Section 101, the Act states that people won't be discriminated against, that there will be equal opportunity and fair and equitable treatment for all without regard to political affiliation, race, color, national origin, sex, marital status, age, or handicapping condition. Under Section 105 of the same act, it discusses merit principles and protections for members of the service and minority recruitment. This is the Foreign Service Act of 1980 again. It says that the Secretary of State shall administer the provisions so that the people in the service are free from discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, and handicap. In addition, the State Department, according to your findings of 1987, established a committee to explore changing the current medical standards to standards that measure functional limitations of handicapped individuals. In that order (EOMD 712), it says, agencies are to analyze selection procedures in order to identify those that impede hiring placement, and advancement of handicapped individuals. As selection barriers are identified, alternatives are to be instituted. Now as I understand, the Department of the State policy here is consistent with the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and even broadens it, and there is no exemption for the Department of State from the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Is that correct, Commissioner? Commissioner Kemp . Yeah, that's true. I do think that Congress was very specific in 1980, but I do think that for Federal agencies and departments, especially the State Department, I think these are sort of a hortatory law, like either grapefruit week or national poultry month. And they don't take that into consideration. Congressman Sikorski . Oat bran. That's the big wave now. Commissioner Kemp . Yeah. And they're not taken seriously, and so that's why I was calling for specific laws to really start outlining what they're supposed to do. The Federal Government's been talking about hiring the handicapped since 1947. Of the fifteen million disabled people of working age, less than 1/3 of us work. That's a very dismal record. Congressman Sikorski . Director Stout, the Department of State has a policy and maybe you can read it for me, on world-wide availability. Can you give me the exact language? I think you're mandated under your statute, is that correct? Director Stout . As I read in my statement, the act provides that members of the Foreign Service are available to serve in assignments throughout the world. Congressman Sikorski . Can you read for me the words before that? Director Stout . I don't have that before me, Mr. Chairman. Congressman Sikorski . So we have the interposing issue of world-wide availability, and as I recall, we have an interposing issue of medical capacity and security (personal security) and security of information that needs to be transmitted classified information specifically. These are arguments that are made to support the elimination of blind people for Foreign Service Officer positions. Is that correct? Director Stout . I don't believe so. There are many factors that go into the assignability of a person. Obviously, not every officer is going to be assigned at every Foreign Service Post, 135 or so, whatever there are in the world. But we try to make assignments equitably based both on service needs (there are requirements to fill positions), and the preferences and various personal considerations of officers. Congressman Sikorski . The EOC report was done in 1987, and it is my understanding that the Department told them that they'd establish a committee to explore changing the current medical standards to standards that measure functional limitations of handicapped individuals. Director Stout . If I may quote, Chairman, our medical division has been reviewing the Department's pre-employment medical standards with an eye towards recommending the elimination of any standard which is not based upon clear, medical management considerations. Congressman Sikorski . No, I understand that. In one of your letters to me, you gave me credit for instituting that policy, but I am talking about 1987 and the State Department telling the EOC that they have a committee that's looking at current medical standards. That was two years ago. Mr. Yuspeh . Mr. Chairman, if I might, we have had an ad hoc group working on this for quite some time. The group.... Congressman Sikorski . What's quite some time? Mr. Yuspeh . Dating back to the date that you gave, sir. Congressman Sikorski . Oh, that ad hoc group that you are referring to now is the one that the EOC was talking about. Mr. Yuspeh . That did some of the background. Congressman Sikorski . What did they decide? Mr. Yuspeh . The group that is currently working? Congressman Sikorski . No, the ad hoc group. What did this group do that the State Department told the EOC it had established to explore the change in the current medical standard... Mr. Yuspeh . (interrupts) Chairman, if I might, the Department has been undergoing the review. We are working, and we have been reviewing drafts of revised medical standards, and we're making an effort at this time, Sir, which is still early on in the process of reviewing our standards, with an eye towards eliminating unnecessary exclusion as required under the act. Congressman Sikorski . Let me mention a suit with the EOC by Donald Galloway, who is blind and had served in the Peace Corps in Jamaica; it was settled in 1985 for about $167,000. In that settlement, the State Department had said it was committed to the policy of affirmative action with respect to the hiring, placement, and advancement of qualified handicapped individuals as mandated by Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act and its regulations. Further, the Department agreed to develop and implement uniform methods by which qualified handicapped applicants for Foreign Service employment are afforded an opportunity to provide relevant information to the Department for its consideration when a review of the specific relationship between the applicant's medical status and the Foreign Service employment is conducted. When did you begin your investigation that led to your 1987 report? Mr. Yuspeh . In the summer of 1986. Congressman Sikorski . So then in 1986 there is another investigation going on. In 1987 the report comes out (in it the State Department is credited with having established a committee to explore changing the current medical standards to standards that measure functional limitation of handicapped individuals), and then in the fall of 1988 we have a report of an individual who has passed the written test three times, the oral examinations twice, who, as it turns out, has passed the security investigation, but can't make it over the hurdle of visual acuity in the medical standards and is washed out. He speaks four languages, has a degree from Oxford, and a graduate degree from Chicago, and then, when we ask questions about it, we're told that there is a kind of a group looking at it. (laughter) My point here is I don't think that is good faith evaluation of the problem, and if we're to take the State Department's statements that they want to move ahead and clear this up and make sure that there aren't any standards or barriers (standards that act as barriers), I don't have a lot of faith in those. Director Stout . Mr. Chairman, in the statement that I read I gave you what we were authorized to say in this briefing. And, as far as I can see, the statement is straight-forward. These are commitments that we're working on, and we intend to carry them through. Congressman Sikorski . Who do you think you are negotiating with here, the Japanese? I think the American people have a right to know the conduct of the State Department and that their tax-paying money is not being used to discriminate against other American citizens. Let me back up and begin again. What came out of the settlement agreement in the Galloway case that you can point to that, as actions consistent with the sincerity of that agreement, has been taken by the State Department to lessen barriers? Director Stout . Mr. Chairman, with respect, we are not authorized to go beyond this statement. Congressman Sikorski . Do you know? Director Stout . I don't, myself. Congressman Sikorski . Do you, Mr. Yuspeh? Mr. Yuspeh . Mr. Chairman, I don't think it would be proper for us to discuss any... Congressman Sikorski Do you know, Mr. Yuspeh, what the Department of State did subsequent to the 1985 settlement saying that it would implement uniform methods to allow people to provide information to the medical review people? Mr. Yuspeh . Mr. Chairman, I'm sorry. It would be inappropriate for me to comment on that. Congressman Sikorski Why would it be inappropriate? Let me know why it's inappropriate. I'm not asking you about individual cases. I want to know what uniform methods were established subsequent to 1985 by the Department of State so that a qualified individual on everything else, but with questions on medical, can provide to the review board information on his or her medical status. Mr. Yuspeh . Mr. Chairman, I think in our statement we were quite clear. We have an Employment Review Committee established in which candidates who make it through the entire exam process can present written information to that committee so that that committee can determine whether or not we can accommodate. It's in the statement, sir. Congressman Sikorski . The statement that was not provided to us prior to the hearing? Commissioner Kemp . We have it here if you'd like a copy, sir. Congressman Sikorski . We requested it, but were not provided it. Just as the written statement barring blind people from Foreign Service was not provided to us until I had to jump through three different hoops last year, and finally it came in January of this year. And now you're telling us that you're not authorized and you don't know about some things that the State Department entered into and pointed to as good faith efforts to clear up this problem? I don't find that very reassuring. Commissioner Kemp . Mr. Chairman? Congressman Sikorski . Commissioner. Commissioner Kemp . I have a suggestion. I think that what the State Department is doing now is done by other government agencies that are really thumbing their noses at Congress. I think you should submit your questions to the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee for the Department of State before they get their money in the next budget. I think then they'll answer the question. Congressman Sikorski . Well, we'll get the answers. (laughter and clapping) I've been around the legislative process ...now this is my thirteenth year six years in the state Senate, six years and going on seven years in Congress. When I came here in 1982, I was put on the Oversight Investigation Committee of the Energy and Commerce Committee. That was Sam Rayburn's fiefdom. My chairman during that time has been John Dingle, and he's taught me that the issue is not whether we're going to get answers to questions. The issue is whether we're going to get them clearly with the least amount of discomfort to the parties involved and as quickly as we should. Now the topic of this morning's hearing is not only common knowledge and publicly discussed and debated. Not only by representatives of the blind community, but by representatives of the State Department and in the public media on radio. I have a transcript of discussion by Mr. Vest, the head of the Foreign Service Office, and National Public Radio here. And these questions are not new. As we know, they were raised as early as 1975. They were raised in the 80's. They were raised in legal settings. They were raised in formal settings. So the answer shouldn't be that hard to come up with. The fact of the matter is, the State Department hasn't lived up to its legal obligations under the Rehabilitation Law, its legal obligations under the Foreign Service Act, the legal obligations it's taken in response to the EOC concerns and other complaints. I'm sure it's discomforting to the people here, and I'm sure they don't want to be in a position where they look as though they personally haven't been doing their work because I'm sure they're fine people with tough jobs doing the best they can. But the point is, the State Department isn't living up to its obligations and eliminating barriers to handicapped individuals and (specifically in these instances) to blind people, and I find that disheartening and disappointing, and I'm obligated to raise it in this kind of forum. I'm going to insist that the State Department answer the questions. The first question is, what has it done pursuant to the settlement in 1985 in the Galloway matter to live up to that agreement? That is the first question. The second question is... Director Stout . Mr. Chairman, may we take these questions and give you a written reply? Congressman Sikorski . Yes, that's why I'm...The second question is, what are the results of the 1987 ad hoc (well you called it ad hoc; the EOC calls it a committee) established to look at the medical applicability on a personal individual basis and make adjustments there. I'd like a written statement on the world-wide availability that establishes why it is applied in the blind situation on a somewhat academic or theoretical basis, but doesn't look at the application for non-blind, non-handicapped people in actual practice. And on that, I think I can ask you a question that you may or may not have knowledge of. Are there blind people in the Foreign Service today in active posts? Mr. Yuspeh . We have legally blind individuals, two at the moment who have self-identified themselves as being visually impaired. Congressman Sikorski. And if they had applied now to work, one of them is Ambassador to Kenya, is she not? Mr. Yuspeh . I'm not aware. I said of those who have self identified themselves, sir. Congressman Sikorski. Okay. Of these blind people who are in active service today, were they applying today, they would not be hired by the Foreign Service. Is that correct? Mr. Yuspeh . It would depend on the outcome of their exam process and the individual review. Congressman Sikorski . Well, they don't have visual acuity. Mr. Yuspeh . We did not exclude blind people from the Foreign Service, Mr. Chairman. What we did is, we recognized the limitation providing one accommodation as we've stated in our statement, Sir. What we have done is, we have determined that we could not provide readers for people overseas. That's all we did. We did not exclude blind people from serving in the Foreign Service. Congressman Sikorski . Well, I know you don't want to talk about the Rabby case, but that's just what happened in the Rabby case. He passed the written exam three times, passed the oral exam twice. He has passed the security investigation, and the doctor simply told him he's out because of visual acuity. Am I missing something here? Mr. Yuspeh . Sir, I cannot comment on Mr. Rabby's case. Congressman Sikorski . Are you familiar with the Peace Corps, Mr. Stout? Director Stout . I've never worked with it myself or been in it. I know what it is obviously. Congressman Sikorski . The State Department works on an intimate basis with the Peace Corps. They work together all over the world, and the Peace Corps is kind of, what do they say, the hardest job you'll ever love. It's as demanding physically and culturally and emotionally as the State Department job, the Foreign Service job. Is it not? Director Stout . Yes. Congressman Sikorski . And yet there are blind people who have served overseas in the Peace Corps. We know of blind people in other countries' Foreign Service. We know of blind people that are in the Foreign Service today who became blind, as I understand the facts, after they were in the Foreign Service, and they are subject to world-wide availability requirements, are they not? Mr. Yuspeh . Mr. Chairman, are you asking us if the Peace Corps... Congressman Sikorski . No. Are there any Foreign Service Officers currently serving who are not subject today to the full breadth and parameters of world-wide availability? Director Stout . Oh, there are a number of people who are medically disqualified from going abroad. Congressman Sikorski . Going abroad? Mr. Yuspeh . Yes. They are working in the Department of State. Congressman Sikorski But not in the ... Mr. Yuspeh . Foreign Service officers who are not medically qualified to go abroad. Congressman Sikorski . Okay. The question becomes, are the blind people that are in the Foreign Service subject to the same world-wide availability requirements as anyone else? These people that became blind in the Foreign Service... Mr. Yuspeh . I'm sorry. We don't have that personal information. Congressman Sikorski . That's another question. The question is, has world-wide availability been in any way diminished, weakened? Mr. Yuspeh . In theory, of course, these people are available and should be available on a world-wide basis. Congressman Sikorski . Okay. Let me just say, there's no reason for those blind applicants not to be treated the same as these blind people who are in the Foreign Service office. Director Stout . Agreed. Congressman Sikorski . But they are not. You can't hold up world-wide availability as this magic guard off- screen to protect your unwillingness, refusal to admit blind people into the Foreign Service, and at the same time... Director Stout . Mr. Chairman, we do not insist that...there's a misconception here. Someone who enters the Foreign Service must be automatically available for world- wide assignments. That is for everyone by definition. Congressman Sikorski . Then why do you hold up world-wide availability as an argument that blind people can't serve for the Foreign Service? Director Stout . I don't see it myself as an argument. Congressman Sikorski . Did you not, in your statement, hold up world-wide availability this morning as a rationale for the State Department's position? Director Stout . No. Congressman Sikorski . Okay. Has it not been... Director Stout . I mentioned, Mr. Chairman, if I may... Congressman Sikorski . I thought you quoted from it... Director Stout . I did indeed, and I said that this is in terms of reducing unrealistic expectations of disabled persons whose functional losses cannot reasonably be accommodated in the Foreign Service environment. Part of that environment is the world-wide availability. But that is not a unique matter. Everyone has to be available world-wide. Congressman Sikorski . That's the problem. I think what I see from this vantage point (and maybe my eyes aren't clear; maybe I don't see as well as some other people) from this vantage point is that world-wide availability becomes the argument to hold up blind people from the Foreign Service. Director Stout . No, sir. This is just bringing to your attention that there is this specific provision. Congressman Sikorski . Then, it is no barrier? Director Stout . An additional barrier. It is a barrier. Well, it's not a barrier. It's a requirement of the Foreign Service Act. Congressman Sikorski . But there are Foreign Service officers who are active today who are blind and are by definition world-wide available. Somehow, someone's got the idea that because someone's blind, they can't be available world-wide. Director Stout . I certainly don't make that. I don't posit that statement, Mr. Chairman. Congressman Sikorski . I think that's what your statement said this morning and that's what Mr. Vest and others have said in defense of the State Department's position eliminating Mr. Rabby or any other blind person. Director Stout . We're in difficulty in the specific point because we don't know these two blind Foreign Service personnel. We have to identify them, see where they are, what they are doing and we will provide a written response, a written comment. Congressman Sikorski . And on the general question of world-wide availability, it's a subjective classification, is it not? A subjective determination? Director Stout . It's subjective in the broad sense. An awful lot of factors go into an assignment as you know. Congressman Sikorski . Someone's desire to serve? Director Stout . Of course. And family. And schools. Congressman Sikorski . People won't go to the Soviet Union, for example, or they won't go to South Africa, or they won't go to France. Director Stout . Mr. Chairman, it's not a matter of people saying they will not go because if there is a requirement for them to go, they will be assigned there. Congressman Sikorski . People have input to that assignment? Director Stout . Of course. Congressman Sikorski . And if you want a person to remain in the Foreign Service, and that person doesn't want to honor an assignment, that assignment will not be made? Director Stout . Not necessarily, Mr. Chairman. Congressman Sikorski . But that does occur? Director Stout . Oh yes. It does occur. Congressman Sikorski . People's interest, their capacities are looked at. It's not a take X in Brazil and put Z in Moscow. Director Stout . The person has to be qualified for one. Congressman Sikorski . And so one part of the qualification is language, and not everyone speaks one hundred and (how many countries are there that we...) Director Stout . One hundred and thirty five. Congressman Sikorski . And not everyone speaks the hundred or so different languages that are available around. So that restricts world-wide availability. Director Stout . Of course, we do train people in different languages. Congressman Sikorski . I understand that. Director Stout . Particularly Junior Officers, and indeed we encourage them to get as many languages as they can....over a consistent period, but it doesn't mean that once an officer has one of these difficult languages he must serve for the rest of his career in that area of the world. On the contrary, it's wise to give people a chance to move elsewhere and do different things. Congressman Sikorski . You and I both know Foreign Service officers who won't go to certain countries for family reasons, for personal reasons, for a host of reasons, and we know people that wouldn't be considered for placement in various countries based on an analysis of their talents and where they could best be used, and they'd run into problems in certain countries. Is that correct? Director Stout . Of course. Congressman Sikorski . Now, where is the world-wide availability in that situation? Director Stout . It becomes sometimes a matter of negotiation. Congressman Sikorski . Okay. I think what we're just saying is maybe you should look at that negotiation process as applies to blind people and handicapped people generally. And I think you have sometimes promised to do that before, but we don't see any track record on it, and the most recent case was just presented here. The guy that gets washed out, who from every...if your testing process means anything, this guy is very well-qualified. If your security means anything, he's okay from a security standpoint. If the oral examination process means anything, he's very well qualified from there, and where he runs into problems is that he happens to be blind. We get the response he's not world-wide available. Not he, specifically, because you don't want to talk about that specific issue, but he happens to be blind, and he can't meet the visual acuity. Or a person in his similar situation couldn't meet the visual acuity situation. So we're back to where we began this conversation. Congressman Dymally . Just one comment. I regret I have a conflicting meeting. I must leave. I simply wanted to state to Mr. Stout and Mr. Yuspeh that your inability to respond to some of the questions prompts me to suggest to you that I want to give you some notice that the Subcommittee On International Operations, in conjunction with this committee, is going to hold hearings on this matter sometime after the mark-up of the State Department bill late this spring. I hope, by then, you will have been prepared to respond to some of the questions which you have been unable to answer today, and I remind you that the Post Office Committee and the Foreign Affairs Committee, as you are well-aware, wrote the Foreign Service Act of 1980. So there's continuing interest on both of these committees, and I'm very pleased that the Chairman has seen fit to hold these hearings because there is a problem here, obviously. Just the mere absence of any people with sight impairment in the Foreign Service suggests where there is smoke, there is some fire and we need to look at it, and I'm just giving you some grace period to come up with some...I hope that when we hold our hearings, you will have some specific recommendations to correct this problem. Director Stout . I take your point, Mr. Chairman. Congressman Dymally . Thank you very much, indeed. Congressman Sikorski . Thank you, Mr. Dymally. The EOC made two recommendations in its 1987 report: that the Department develop and implement medical standards to focus on functional requirements rather than the medical conditions in all flexibility in analysis of applicability of requirements to specific jobs and posts. That's the first. My question is, what has the Department done to develop and implement those medical standards, and I'd like that in writing. And second, the second recommendation of the EOC is that the Department broaden its interpretation of world-wide availability to allow flexibility in assigning individuals posted, or appropriate to their qualifications. And I want to know what the Department has done on that, and why (under that flexibility approach), Mr. Rabby or someone who is blind cannot be admitted? That's the second question. Mr. Stout, the final question: the Department's interest, as I understand, is having Congress provide an exemption from the Rehabilitation Act for the Department which would forever preclude handicapped individuals from entering into the Foreign Service. Is this true? Director Stout . That's news to me, Mr. Chairman. Congressman Sikorski . You're not aware of the Department requesting or asking for or preparing a request for the Congress to exempt the Department of State's Foreign Service, or any part thereof, from the Rehabilitation Act? Director Stout . No. Congressman Sikorski . Thank you, all of you. I want to give you an opportunity or whatever to make any concluding comments. Mr. Yuspeh, Mr. Stout, do you have any concluding comments? I suspect that we'll get, in a reasonable amount of time, written answers to the questions that have been left unanswered. Director Stout . You will get them. Congressman Sikorski . Okay. Commissioner Kemp, you get to clean up here. Commissioner Kemp . I think this briefing is very, very important, but I've been in this field... Congressman Sikorski . Before you leave, Mr. Stout, I want to thank you, so if you'll just hold with us for one second... Director Stout . Of course. Commissioner Kemp . I've been fighting for the rights of disabled people for over twenty years. Congress has talked about the federal government being a model employer. There have been hearings like this when an agency really stubs its toe. But until Congress, I think in the appropriation hearings, really gets serious about this, the federal government is not going to be a model employer. So I think that one suggestion from th