Crafters Division Info for Dallas National Convention

Dear Krafters, I just received a confirmation for our plans on the Craft show in Dallas at Convention this year. We will be having the NFB Krafters Division Craft Show on June 30th from 12 noon to 6 PM in Dallas at NFB Convention. We will also be hosting Crafting Make and Take demonstrations during this event. We have limited table space for this so please contact me [Blindhands@aol.com] as soon as possible. We need your information included in your email: name, address, phone number and email address. If you will be sharing your table or having other blind crafters items we need their contact information too. We need to know what you will be selling. You need to cover your table and handle your sales. The NFB Krafters Division is not responsible for this and does not take any part of your sales. For rental of 1 table and 2 chairs you and each blind crafter who items are being sold at the table must be a paid member for2012-2013 membership[$10] and a donation of $25 for the table. We will have a special PayPal link available for the $35. We are looking for harkers to work the hall for 1 or 2 hour sessions we will be offering a fee for this. Please contact me if you are interested. Thank you for your interest in the NFB Krafters Division and much success to a good Craft Show and Convention in 2012. Joyce Kane www.KraftersKorner.org Blindhands@AOL.com

OFB Draft college funding proposal

Got this from the Office for the Blind, you might want to take a look at it and pass it on From: Hall, Elaine Sent: Friday, May 11, 2012 3:00 PM Subject: OFB Draft college funding proposal Hello all, Attached is the Draft document that OFB is proposing related to helping with college funding. Please look over it carefully. Please forward it to your parents if they might be interested. Below are dates where there will be public hearings related to this funding. Please try to go if you feel strongly about the attached draft. Elaine Hall School Counselor Kentucky School for the Blind 1867 Frankfort Avenue Louisville, KY 40206 502-897-1583 ext. 238 DRAFT Policy Directive FY2012-09 TO: VR Counselors and Assistants Managers FROM: Allison Jessee, Director Division of Consumer Services DATE: RE: Training Assistance Policy Effective fall of 2012, the following Training Assistance Policy is in place for eligible consumers attending any post-secondary training in Kentucky. Eligibility Consumers who are interested in attending a post-secondary training program and wish to have financial support from OFB must meet the following guidelines. 1. Complete and submit a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) each year. This can be submitted online at http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/. 2. Be in good standing with the school’s financial aid office so that they are eligible to receive financial aid. Students that have defaulted on loans or owe money to the school will not be eligible to receive financial assistance from OFB until they are in good standing with the financial aid office. Consumer’s Responsibilities 1. Provide the counselor with a copy of the Student Aid Report (SAR) each year. The SAR is the report that the individual gets after successfully completing the FAFSA each year. 2. Provide the counselor with a copy of the Financial Aid Notification (FAN) from their school’s financial aid office each year. 3. Provide the counselor with a copy of their schedule for the upcoming term and grades from the previous term. Authorizations for payments to schools and bookstores will not be generated until both of these items are received. 4. Maintain contact with their counselor and promptly notify their counselor of any changes in major, schools, dropping a class, or any other changes that might impact their progress and funding. These changes must be agreed upon by the counselor and consumer. Status and Progress Information 1. All consumers should be enrolled full-time according to their training institution’s definition of full-time status. For many schools on a semester system, this means 12 hours as an undergraduate and 9 hours as a graduate. 2. Students pursuing an undergraduate degree must maintain a 2.0 grade point average (GPA) to continue to receive funding through OFB. Consumers pursuing a graduate degree must maintain a 3.0 GPA. 3. Consumers will be allowed 1.5 times the expected time for completion of a program or a degree. For example, those enrolled in a 4 year program will have 6 years to complete their degree. Those enrolled in a 2 year program will have 3 years to complete their degree. Those enrolled in a 12 month program will have 18 months to complete their degree. 4. Only 1 remedial or non-credit course will be paid for by OFB during a consumer’s college coursework. Consumers needing to take more than one remedial or non-credit course will be expected to pay for the classes themselves or through other sources of financial assistance. 5. Summer school will only be allowed if the student is full-time and it will allow the consumer to graduate a semester early. Consumers must provide proof that they have applied for financial aid for summer school before OFB will calculate the amount that can be paid for summer school. 6. Intersession classes must be approved by the Regional Manager. Payment for Training Related Expenses 1. OFB will not pay for college application fees or housing deposits. 2. The amount paid will be based on the student’s unmet need. The unmet need is determined by taking the school budget and subtracting the Estimated Family Contribution (EFC), grants, work study, 1/3 of SSI/month for 9 months, and other non-merit awards. Students will be required to submit to the counselor each year their Student Aid Report (SAR) and the Financial Aid Notification (FAN) documents. The SAR will be sent once the FAFSA is completed, and the FAN will come to the student from the school’s financial aid office. This information will need to be resubmitted to the counselor if there are any changes to either form. 3. Merit awards, while not considered in the calculations, should be considered by the counselor when negotiating the amount that OFB will pay. 4. The total amount paid for an academic year should not exceed $5000 for tuition and room and board and $300 for books. The amount paid for the year will be the lesser of the student’s unmet need or $5000. 5. The total amount paid for summer school is $2500 for tuition and room and board and $150 for books. 6. Consumers who are offered the opportunity to participate in the work study program are expected to take part in the program. This will give the consumer the opportunity to build work skills and develop a work history to put on their resumes. Any exceptions to the above guidelines must be approved by the Regional Manager.

Computer Instructor Position In Virginia

Good morning! The below listed position may be accessed directly in the Recruitment Management System (RMS) by clicking on the Quicklink. If you already have your application established in the RMS, applying for the position will be very streamlined and take only a few minutes. If you have not yet completed your online application in the RMS, you may visit <http://jobs.agencies.virginia.gov> http://jobs.agencies.virginia.gov to begin the process or simply click on the Quicklink below. While the system will not allow you to apply until you have established your application, you will be able to access the application through this site. Please be aware that we ONLY accept fully completed RMS online applications (required) and applications only are accepted for advertised vacancies. You may attach cover letters and resumes and in some cases are required to submit college or university transcripts or professional certifications (see job posting for instructions). These may be scanned and attached to your online applications, faxed, or mailed to the appropriate recruiting contact. Please review the posting for any special requirements or instructions. Agency: Virginia Rehabilitation Center for the Blind and Vision Impaired Job Title: Computer Instructor for the Blind and Vision Impaired Location: Henrico (suburb of Richmond) Position #: 00038 Closing Date: 5/31/2012 Quicklink: http://jobs.agencies.virginia.gov/applicants/Central?quickFind=146944 Melody Roane, Director Virginia Rehabilitation Center for the Blind & Vision Impaired 401 Azalea Avenue Richmond, Virginia 23227 Phone: 804.371.3323 Email: melody.roane@dbvi.virginia.gov Worldwide Web: http://www.vrcbvi.org

NFB of Kentucky 2012 National Convention Financial Assistance Info

Dear Colleagues: Please distribute the Financial Assistance application to all chapter and division membership! Individuals who are attending their first National Convention are eligible to be considered for financial assistance. The deadline to submit applications is May 28, 2012. Please see the application below and also attached for your distribution convenience. Sincerely, John Glisson NFBK Financial Assistance 2012 National Convention Saturday, June 30—Thursday, July 5, 2012 Hilton Anatole Hotel 2201 North Stemmons Freeway Dallas, Texas 75207 Reservations: Call (214) 761-7500. ***The NFBK Board of Directors do expect those awarded financial assistance to ‘PRE-REGISTER’! Pre-registration is now open. To pre-register online visit www.nfb.org/registration. To pre-register through the mail, please use the pre-registration mail-in form (PDF). When purchased online or through the mail by May 31st, the pre-registration fee for convention is $25 ($30 on-site), the cost of a banquet ticket is $50 ($60 on-site), and the cost of the BBQ is $40 ($45 on-site). Hotel Rates: For the 2012 convention they are singles and doubles, $63; for triples and quads, $68. In addition to the room rates there will be a tax, which at present is 15 percent. No charge will be made for children under sixteen in the room with parents as long as no extra bed is requested. Please note that the hotel is a no-smoking facility. Name: Address: City: State: Zip: Phone: E-Mail: Are you a member of NFBK? (Please identify Chapter, Division, etc.) Is this your first National Convention? Are you a scholarship applicant? Have you received NFBK financial assistance to attend a National Convention before (excluding conventions held in Louisville)? *NFBK plans to award financial assistance up to $300.00 based on the need of the individual attending a NFB National Convention for the first time. The NFBK State Board requires you to remain in General Sessions throughout the day, to attend the Banquet and other meetings and seminars pertinent to your NFBK membership interests and responsibilities, such as those regarding the Parents Division, Student Division, Merchant Division, Technology Assistance Division, etc. NFBK promotes self-reliance and responsibility! Application DEADLINE: Have this application completed and submitted to Tonia Gatton no later thanMay 28, 2012. E-Mail is preferrable but if not applicable, call for a directive. *Tonia Gatton at 502-594-2810 or by e-mail at tonton@insightbb.com

NCLB in Dallas

The National Blindness Professional Certification Board (NBPCB) is trying to determine whether sufficient interest exists for individuals who wish to sit for the National Certification in Literary Braille (NCLB) exam this summer during the Dallas NFB Convention. In order for us to offer the exam this year, we would need a minimum of six (6) individuals registered by June 16 in order to offer the exam. Please let us know as soon as possible if you would be interested in taking the exam. We will base whether we administer the test upon your responses. PLEASE know that if you say yes, payment for the exam must be submitted no later than June 16th. If you are interested and/or need additional information, contact Deja Powell at 318-257-2029, or dpowell@latech.edu. Deja M. Powell, MA, NOMC Program’s Manager Professional Development & Research Institute on Blindness at Louisiana Tech University Phone: 318.257.2029 Email: dpowell@latech.edu www.pdrib.com REGISTER TODAY FOR THE NATIONAL CERTIFICATION IN LITERARY BRAILLE, GO TO WWW.NBPCB.ORG/NCLB!!! “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.” –Dr. Seuss

National Federation of the Blind Applauds New Jersey Ruling on Braille Instruction for Blind Child

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Chris Danielsen Director of Public Relations National Federation of the Blind (410) 659-9314, extension 2330 (410) 262-1281 (Cell) cdanielsen@nfb.org National Federation of the Blind Applauds New Jersey Ruling on Braille Instruction for Blind Child After Three-Year Battle, Hank Miller Will Receive Braille Instruction Oceanport, New Jersey (May 7, 2012): After a three-year administrative and legal battle against their local school board, the Oceanport Board of Education, Jeffrey and Holly Miller obtained a ruling (docket number: 2011 17218) from an administrative law judge that their eleven-year-old son Henry "Hank" Miller was improperly denied instruction in Braille, the reading and writing code for the blind. The legal victory, obtained with the assistance of the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), comes on the heels of a letter from 26 U.S. Senators urging the Department of Education to take steps to ensure that blind children who need Braille instruction receive it. Holly and Jeffrey Miller brought the legal case on behalf of their son, Hank, whom they adopted from China and who is blind due to albinism and nystagmus. Hank has limited vision that allows him to read enlarged print for short periods of time, but he is unable to read for sustained periods of time. Although Hank's parents continued to tell school officials that their son was experiencing visual fatigue and was having difficulty reading, the school board and its consultant, the New Jersey Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired (CBVI), insisted that Hank was a proficient print reader, notwithstanding his continued placement in a special resource room for language arts. In a nearly ten-day hearing, held under the due process provisions of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004, Mrs. Miller testified that she watched Hank routinely struggle with his homework, suffering from eye strain and fatigue, but was unable to convince school officials or the CBVI that Hank needed Braille instruction. She also testified that Hank's schoolwork was not of the same quantity and quality as that of his classmates. Although experts from the school and the commission claimed that Hank was a "visual learner" and should participate in the "sighted world," experts hired by the Millers and the NFB concluded after thorough assessment that Hank could not read print for extended periods of time without eye strain, neck and back pain, fatigue, and loss of reading speed and comprehension. In her order, Administrative Law Judge Lisa James-Beavers found that the school board and the commission displayed a clear "bias against Braille." She found that the school board and the commission had failed to assess Hank's "sustained reading ability" with print, relying instead on reading assessments involving only brief passages, and citing Hank's alleged failure to complain about struggling to read print. The judge was unconvinced by the board and CBVI's contention that Hank could rely on audio technology as reading demands increased through his school years, noting that "as pointed out by all of petitioners' well-qualified experts, listening does not equate to reading. One does not enhance the active skill of comprehending text by passively listening, even if one is following along with the reading." The order noted that "the CBVI failed to do what Oceanport relied on them to do, which is to help construct a program that would give H.M. meaningful educational benefit considering H.M.'s future needs." Judge James-Beavers ordered that Hank Miller be provided with Braille instruction for forty-five minutes, five days a week, and that the school board provide compensatory instruction because of the three years that Hank was not provided with Braille instruction, in the form of intensive Braille summer programs or tutoring. Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said: "Based on the experience of countless parents of blind children and blind adults who had never learned Braille and have contacted us over the years, the National Federation of the Blind has consistently argued that blind children are being improperly assessed and denied Braille instruction when it is clearly appropriate. Now after a thorough and comprehensive examination of the evidence in Hank Miller's case, an independent judge has confirmed what we always knew. We hope that school and agency officials across the nation take note of this landmark ruling and commit to giving blind children access to Braille, the true key to literacy for the vast majority of children who are blind or losing vision. The National Federation of the Blind will continue to stand with families like the Millers who find themselves pitted against the educational establishment in obtaining the equal education to which their children are entitled and which they deserve." Holly Miller, Hank's mother, said: "I am obviously thrilled with this ruling, although I am still saddened that it took such a prolonged battle to achieve it. I am stepping forward to tell Hank's story in hopes that other parents of blind children will not have to struggle as we did. I thank the National Federation of the Blind and all of the individuals and experts who came forward to assist in this case. I plan to strongly and publicly advocate with the National Federation of the Blind for Braille instruction for blind children." The plaintiffs are represented in this matter by Sharon Krevor-Weisbaum of the Baltimore firm Brown, Goldstein, and Levy, and Jayne M. Wesler of the Cranbury firm Sussan and Greenwald. For more information about the National Federation of the Blind, please visit www.nfb.org. For more information about Braille, the reading and writing code for the blind, please visit www.braille.org. About the National Federation of the Blind With more than 50,000 members, the National Federation of the Blind is the largest and most influential membership organization of blind people in the United States. The NFB improves blind people's lives through advocacy, education, research, technology, and programs encouraging independence and self-confidence. It is the leading force in the blindness field today and the voice of the nation's blind. In January 2004 the NFB opened the National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute, the first research and training center in the United States for the blind led by the blind.

White House Highlights STEM Innovators in theDisability Community as "Champions of Change"

THE WHITE HOUSE Office of Communications FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 7, 2012 White House Highlights STEM Innovators in the Disability Community as "Champions of Change" WASHINGTON, DC - On Monday, May 7th, the White House will honor 14 individuals as Champions of Change for leading the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math for people with disabilities in education and employment. "STEM is vital to America's future in education and employment, so equal access for people with disabilities is imperative, as they can contribute to and benefit from STEM," said Kareem Dale, Special Assistant to the President for Disability Policy. "The leaders we've selected as Champions of Change are proving that when the playing field is level, people with disabilities can excel in STEM, develop new products, create scientific inventions, open successful businesses, and contribute equally to the economic and educational future of our country." The Champions of Change program was created as a part of President Obama's Winning the Future initiative. Each week, a different sector is highlighted and groups of Champions, ranging from educators to entrepreneurs to community leaders, are recognized for the work they are doing to serve and strengthen their communities. To watch this event live, visit www.whitehouse.gov/live at 1:30 pm ET on May 7th. The White House "Champions of Change" are: Ralph Braun is the founder and CEO of The Braun Corporation. Diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy in 1947, he began using a wheelchair for mobility. Determined to maintain his independence, he engineered the world's first motorized scooter and followed with the first accessible vehicle a few years later. The company grew substantially over the next decades, and today, The Braun Corporation is the worldwide leader of wheelchair accessible vehicles and wheelchair lifts in the mobility industry. What started as a part-time business operated from his parents' garage has grown into an international corporation with over 800 employees. Ralph is now 71 years old and is the father of five adult children. He still lives and runs The Braun Corporation from his hometown of Winamac, Indiana with his wife, Melody. Joseph Sullivan is president of Duxbury Systems, Inc., a small company that has specialized in software for braille since its founding in 1975, and which now employs two blind people and which provides braille translation software for more than 130 languages worldwide. He has also served on many braille-related committees, including the Literary Braille and Computer Braille Committees of the Braille Authority of North America, was chair of the technical design subcommittee of the Unified English Braille (UEB) project of the International Council on English Braille (ICEB), and currently serves on the UEB Maintenance Committee of ICEB. Joe believes that braille is the key to literacy for blind persons, that literacy is the key to an informed citizenry, and that an informed citizenry is essential to civilization. University of North Texas (UNT) Biochemistry graduate student Nasrin Taei is developing a model peptide system to investigate the effects of mutations that cause sudden cardiac arrest in young adults. Her model system will be used for testing potential candidate drugs that ameliorate the structural effects of heart disease causing mutations. Nasrin is a member of Phi Theta Kappa an international honor society. As a STEM model, she tutored at the community college and mentored high school students, which led to her recognition at UNT as a Soaring Eagle. Nasrin is being honored as a Champion of Change for her humanitarianism and contributions toward discovering a treatment for heart disease and making a better future for people around the globe. Maria Dolores Cimini, Ph.D. is the Assistant Director for Prevention and Program Evaluation at the University at Albany Counseling Center and has served as the Principal Investigator for over six million dollars in behavioral health projects funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and the U.S. Department of Education during the past decade. As a scientist-practitioner, Dr. Cimini has been active in promoting access to STEM for students with disabilities, particularly young women with disabilities, through her work with the American Psychological Association's Women with Disabilities in STEM Education Project for which she serves as Co-Chair and her mentoring of students and early career scientists on a national scale. Through her own experience as a scientist with a disability, she is helping our nation identify and enhance facilitators and address barriers to STEM education and career success for people with disabilities. Dr. Cimini is being honored as a Champion of Change for her work in enhancing access to the STEM disciplines by students with disabilities through her research, leadership, and mentoring efforts. As a professional and a parent, Virginia Stern has been working for more than four decades to raise expectations of persons with disabilities, their families, educators, and employers, especially employers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Since 1977 she was a guiding force of the Project on Science, Technology and Disability of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). She recognized that talented students with disabilities needed more than legislation and STEM degrees to gain employment in their chosen fields. In 1996 Mrs. Stern and her colleagues developed the flagship program, Entry Point!, to provide paid internships and develop career skills in the private and public sectors for students with disabilities in STEM. Hundreds of Entry Point! alumni have joined and continue to advance in the STEM workforce of the nation. Steve Jacobs is President of IDEAL Group. Steve is dedicated to enhancing the accessibility of STEM curriculum for students with disabilities. Steve's company offers software that translates printed STEM materials into digital formats for conversion into speech and Braille. Steve's company also developed fully-accessible STEM-enabled eBook reading software. Over the past 3-1/2 years, Steve's company has become one of the world's largest developer of mobile accessibility applications with five million installations in 136 countries. Steve is also working with many institutions to tech-transfer their STEM-related work to mobile platforms. These institutions include Smith-Kettlewell's Video Description R&D Center, University of Oregon's Mathematics eText Research Center, and Georgia Tech wireless RERC and sonification lab. Steve is a 1973 graduate of Ohio State University. Steve and wife Pauline have been married for 37 years. Pauline and Steve have two daughters, Shana and Jessica, and a granddaughter Brooke Christine... who is Steve's boss. Rafael San Miguel began his career at NASA working on the Space Shuttle program, and has spent the past 23 years as a scientist for The Coca-Cola Company. He also serves as a board member of the Atlanta Speech School, an 80-year old private institution focused on meeting the needs of those with speech and language based disabilities. Rafael, who has been profoundly deaf since infancy, creates awareness about disability by focusing on ability as he inspires young people to pursue education in science and math. Using his unique format that presents science in an exciting way, he has volunteered at schools both locally and in communities where he travels by connecting with underserved schools through the volunteer network of Points of Light. Rafael is now turning his energies toward a call to action and creating an initiative called the U.S. Science Project focused on inspiring individual scientists, businesses, legislators and community leaders to scale efforts for engaging in impact-driven volunteerism to begin to fill the science deficit in our nation through a volunteer Science Corps. David H. Rose, EdD, is a developmental neuropsychologist and educator whose primary focus is on the development of new technologies for learning. In 1984, Dr. Rose co-founded CAST, a not-for-profit research and development organization whose mission is to improve education, for all learners, through universal design for learning (UDL). Dr. Rose also teaches at Harvard's Graduate School of Education where he has been on the faculty for more than 25 years. He is the author or editor of numerous books and articles on UDL, and the winner of awards from the Smithsonian Museum, the Tech Museum, and others. Christine Reich is Director of Research and Evaluation at the Museum of Science, Boston, one of the world's largest science centers. The Museum of Science brings science, technology, engineering, and math to about 1.5 million visitors a year through its dynamic programs and interactive exhibits. As Director of Research and Evaluation, Christine oversees a department that conducts research and evaluation studies related to various aspects of the Museum experience, but her passion and expertise focus on researching ways to advance the inclusion of people with disabilities in museum learning. Prior to her current position, Christine worked as a museum educator and an exhibit planner, specializing in the development of museums exhibitions and programs that are inclusive of people with disabilities. George Kerscher began his IT innovations in 1987 and coined the term "print disabled." George is dedicated to developing technologies that make information not only accessible, but also fully functional in the hands of persons who are blind or who have a print disability. He believes properly designed information systems can make all information accessible to all people and is working to push evolving technologies in this direction. As Secretary General of the DAISY Consortium and President of the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), Kerscher is a recognized international leader in document access. In addition, Kerscher is the Senior Officer of Accessible Technology at Learning Ally in the USA. He chairs the DAISY/NISO Standards committee, and serves on the USA National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS) Board. As a child in the New York Institute for the Education of the Blind in 1949, John Boyer found that contemporary scientific material in braille was almost non-existent. John has never lost the sense of frustration he felt when the braille resources available to him were insufficient to satisfy his hunger for more science education. John believes that is the motive for his life's work. He obtained a master's degree in Computer science, with a minor in electronics engineering at the University of Wisconsin in 1980. His first company was a Braille publishing enterprise which served an international client base. Abilitiessoft, Inc., his current company, creates open source adaptive software which makes Web pages available to blind persons through a Braille display. The current project, BrailleBlaster, will allow the integration of text with Braille graphics such as maps and graphs into a format accessible to blind people. Dr. Dimitri Kanevsky is a Research staff member in the Speech and Language Algorithms Department at the IBM T.J.Watson Research Center. Prior to joining IBM, he worked at a number of prestigious centers for higher mathematics, including the Max Planck Institute in Germany and the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, New Jersey. In 1979, he invented a multi-channel vibration based hearing aid, and founded a company to produce and market this device. He also developed the first uses for speech recognition as a communication aid for deaf users over the telephone, for which he received an award from the National Search for Computing Applications from John Hopkins to Assist Persons with Disabilities. In 1998 Dr. Kanevsky introduced the first remote transcription stenographic services over the Internet, and created the ViaScribe product speech recognition concept and system that allows automatic transcription of lectures in real-time and the creation of multimedia notes. At IBM he has been responsible for developing the first Russian automatic speech recognition system, as well as key projects for embedding speech recognition in automobiles and broadcast transcription systems. He currently holds 152 US patents and was granted the title of Master Inventor IBM in 2002 , 2005 and 2010. His conversational biometrics based security patent was recognized by MIT, Technology Review Magazine, as one of five most influential patents for 2003. His work on Extended Baum-Welch algorithm in speech, another initiative for embedding speech recognition in automobiles and his work on conversational biometrics was recognized as science accomplishment in 2002 , 2004 and 2008 by the Director of Research at IBM . In 2005 Dimitri Kanevsky received an Honorary degree (Doctor of Laws, honoris causa) from the University College of Cape Breton. He was elected a member of the Word Technology Network in 2004 and was a Chairperson of IT Software Technology session at Word Technology Network Summit 2005 in San-Francisco, Calif. He also organized a special session on Large Scale Optimization at ICASSP 2012 in Japan. Henry Wedler is a graduate student at the University of California, Davis, working towards his Ph.D. in organic chemistry. Inspired by programs offered by the National Federation of the Blind in high school and with encouragement from professors, colleagues and others, Henry gained the confidence to challenge and refute the mistaken belief that STEM fields are too visual and, therefore, impractical for blind people. Henry is not only following his own passion; he is working hard to develop the next generation of scientists by founding and teaching at an annual chemistry camp for blind and low-vision high school students. Chemistry Camp demonstrates to these students, by example and through practice, that their lack of eyesight should not hold them back from pursuing their dreams. Henry was nominated by Douglas Sprei of Learning Ally, a nonprofit that produces accessible audio textbooks for blind and learning disabled students, which is an indispensable resource that allowed him to excel in school. Sina Bahram is a PhD student in the Department of Computer Science at North Carolina State University. His field of research is Human Computer Interaction (HCI). Sina's primary interest is the dynamic translation of interfaces, with an emphasis on innovative environments being used by persons with visual impairment (PWVI) to facilitate learning, independence, and exploration. His other research interests focus on using AI inspired techniques to solve real-world user-centric problems. When he is not busy with his academic pursuits, Sina enjoys staying on the bleeding edge of technology and working with small, high-tech startup companies. Sina's passion for his field originally stems from the fact that he is mostly blind and uses assistive technologies such as a screen reader to navigate computer systems and technological devices. After experimenting in the fields of bioinformatics, privacy policy/law, and systems security, Sina discovered that his heart lies in helping users of all capabilities use computer systems more effectively and efficiently. He has worked in HCI full-time ever since.