[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 162 (Tuesday, November 16, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H12081]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               HONORING NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Tancredo). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cummings) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, ``change ordinarily evolves over hundreds 
of years, but when a fundamental difference in the way we view the 
world comes quickly, the shift in our thinking is called revolution.'' 
Such revolution ``takes place not because the governing institutions 
have had a change of heart, but because the pressure brought to bear by 
individuals organized for collective action has added the necessary 
impetus.''
  These words were spoken by Kenneth Jernigan, past president of the 
National Federation of the Blind, a revolutionary organization with the 
philosophy that blind people, if organized throughout the land, have 
the strength and purpose to change the course of history.
  The NFB was founded in 1940 at a time when the opportunities for 
blind persons were lacking and society's attitudes towards them was, 
sadly, one of misunderstanding and negativity. This was also a time 
when there was no rehabilitation for blind persons, no libraries, no 
opportunity for higher education, no jobs in Federal service, no hope 
in the professions, no State or Federal civil rights protections.
  But that was another time, another generation. Headquartered in 
Baltimore, the National Federation of the Blind is today what its 
founders dreamed it would become, a truly revolutionary organization 
ensuring that blind people get equal treatment and a fair shake. It is 
the Nation's largest consumer advocacy organization of blind persons 
and is considered the leading force in the blindness field today.
  With 50,000 members, the NFB's influence is felt throughout the 
Nation, with affiliates in all 50 States, plus Washington, D.C., and 
Puerto Rico, and over 700 local chapters.
  The mission of the NFB is twofold. First, it strives to help blind 
persons achieve self-confidence and self-respect. Second, the 
organization acts as a vehicle for collective self-expression by the 
blind. These goals are achieved through the organization's numerous 
initiatives, which include educating the public about blindness and 
literature and information services, ensuring that blind persons have 
access to aids and appliances and other adaptive equipment, increasing 
emphasis on the development and evaluation of technology, and continued 
support for blind persons and their families through job opportunities 
and special services.
  NFB's commitment is critical to the 750,000 people in the United 
States who are blind and the 50,000 that will become blind each year.
  Recently I participated as the honorary chair in the NFB's Newsline 
Night '99. This yearly event makes it possible to support one of the 
organization's important services, an electronic text-to-speech 
telephone-based service which delivers seven national and over 20 local 
newspapers to blind persons throughout the country.
  Technology enables national and local news to be available on 
Newsline by 7:00 a.m. each morning. The service began as a pilot 
project in the Baltimore-Washington area, and Newsline Baltimore began 
delivering newspapers and other material via local phone lines in 1996. 
This revolutionary idea assists approximately 11 million Americans who 
cannot read regular print but would enjoy the receipt of news and 
information over a cup of coffee like the rest of the seeing 
population.
  In addition to the Newsline service, NFB supports a job opportunity 
service, a materials center containing literature and aids and 
appliances used by the blind, and the International Braille and 
Technology Center for the Blind, which is the world's largest and most 
complete evaluation and demonstration center for speech and Braille 
technology.
  When looking in total at all the services that the NFB provides and 
all of its accomplishments, one can say without hesitation that this 
organization is truly revolutionary.
  I encourage the organization to continue its revolutionary crusade 
towards full citizenship and human dignity for equal rights and for the 
right to work with others and do for yourselves. I also challenge all 
of us who have sight to recognize that we are all human and, thus, 
alike in most ways. However, we each have unique characteristics that 
allow us to contribute to society in special ways. Respect for such 
differences implies, then, just allowing someone in. It implies that we 
have something to learn and a benefit to gain from others who are 
different from us.
  I close with a quote from Jacobus TenBroek, the first president of 
the NFB, to summarize this concept. He said, ``In order to achieve the 
equality that is their right, in order to gain the opportunity that is 
their due, in order to attain the position of full membership in the 
community that is their goal, the blind have continuing need for the 
understanding and sympathy and liberality of their sighted neighbors 
and fellow citizens. The greatest hope of the blind is that they may be 
seen as they are, not as they have been portrayed; and since they are 
neither wards nor children, their hope is to be not only seen but also 
heard in their own accents and for whatever their cause may be worth.''

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