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News
- The Iowa Cane: Once a basic tool, and today a sign of independence.
- Changing Attitudes: Kathryn Hovey shares how IL services have changed her life.
- Evolution of Audio Magazines: Discover how the Library is stepping into the future.
- Iowa BEP: Origins - Former managers and operators reflect on the growth of BEP.
- Independence & Technology: Will new devices and gadgets replace the cane?
The Iowa Cane
Once a basic mobility tool, now a sign of independence.
By Karen Keninger, IDB Director
The long white cane is both a practical tool and a symbol of independence. Simply put, through the use of the cane, a person with limited or no vision can go safely and independently where and when she wants to go.
The cane is a very efficient tool. The user holds the cane in the center of her body, tip on the ground. She arcs it back and forth as she walks, tapping it gently on each side of her path. This way, she can locate and avoid obstacles. She can move safely and confidently down the sidewalk, up and down stairs and escalators, in and through stores and businesses, on trains, planes and busses, and even on country roads and hiking paths.
The long white cane also symbolizes two characteristics of its user--blindness and independence. At first glance, these two aspects seem to be incompatible.
How can you be blind and independent at the same time? But over 50 years of experience has proven that with the proper tools, training and opportunities, thousands of blind people--canes in hand--have claimed both their independence and their lives. The long white cane has evolved over centuries from a simple wooden stick to a precisely designed and highly effective travel tool.
The IDB recommends the Iowa Cane, which staff use in training clients. The Cadillac of canes, it has four distinguishing features--its fabrication, length, handle, and tip.
The cane is made of a length of sturdy, somewhat flexible fiberglass. Lighter than wood and more flexible than aluminum, the fiberglass allows vibrations to travel through the shaft, providing valuable feedback to the user each time it is tapped.
The length of the cane is important. Each user’s cane is sized to the individual’s height and walking speed. Generally, the top of the cane should reach just below the person’s chin, although some people prefer it to be as tall as they are. Arcing a long cane provides the blind person with sufficient time to respond appropriately to stairs, street crossings, obstacles, and other changes in the path. It extends the user’s view of the environment to the full length of the cane.
The handle of the Iowa Cane is straight, smooth, and green. With a straight smooth handle, the user can grip and manipulate the cane properly. Older-style canes--and even some newer models--still have a crooked handle, which tends to get in the way.
The tip of the Iowa Cane is especially important. Actually manufactured to serve as a chair glide, it is a flat, round metal disk attached to the end of the cane by a rubber fitting.
The shape of the tip allows it to glide smoothly across many surfaces and to resist getting stuck in cracks or grass. And the metal provides a distinct sound each time it taps the ground, which can be used to identify the surface. In addition, tapping the cane also provides valuable audio feedback in the form of echoes which, with practice, can be used to locate doorways, obstacles, and other changes in the surroundings. The tip can be replaced easily when it wears out. People often resist carrying a white cane because of the unambiguous identification it provides as a person with severe vision loss.
Unfortunately, oftentimes, a person’s attempt to hide vision loss results in other people making some less flattering assumptions about them. One fellow told me he started using a cane when he realized that people in his town had, for a long time, assumed he was always drunk. With his cane in hand, he signaled to people what the issue really was and at the same time began to navigate his world with much more grace and ease.
Other blind or visually impaired individuals have had similar experiences. Once they start to use their canes, they come to enjoy their newfound freedom and independence. They go to places they hesitated to go before, and they feel more comfortable asking for assistance in a store or restaurant. We often hear them say, “Why did I wait so long?”
Changing Attitudes and Influencing Lives
By Barb Weigel, IL Project Specialist
The Independent Living (IL) program has been providing services to Iowans with vision loss since 1980. It started with a project director, a secretary, a library assistant, and four independent living teachers. The program’s primary purpose was to help blind and visually impaired Iowans live independent and productive lives, and the goal was to serve 400 individuals a year.
IL primarily serves individuals who, due to age, health limitations or co-disabilities, do not wish to pursue paid employment.
Today, the Independent Living program consists of a program director, eight Independent Living Teachers, two Project Specialists and a secretary, and the program serves about 950 individuals per year.
Throughout the program’s 30 years many things have evolved over time, and the IL team works hard to meet the ever-changing needs of the people it serves. Not only are people living longer, but there are more community resources and housing options (e.g. assisted living facilities) available to help individuals live life on their own terms and as independently as possible.
In the 80s, IL teachers used to travel throughout the state by bus. Today, hired drivers and Department issued vehicles are the chosen methods of transportation. Teachers used to assist individuals with learning to use typewriters and today they teach computers. Rotary phones have been replaced with cell phones. Library services have gone from records to cassettes and now digital.
There are also electronic labeling devices, a talking bill identifier to distinguish a five dollar bill from a twenty, a color identifier to determine the colors of your clothing, and more. But with all these changes, the basic techniques used over the past 30 years still remain effective.
The IL teacher’s role not only includes teaching those techniques but also educating clients on their choices and helping them implement the technique of choice. After 30 years in play, this formula still works and continues to help individuals reclaim their independence, allowing us to bring to you stories like Kathryn’s.
Kathryn’s Story
In November, Kathryn Hovey of Charles City began receiving IL services after her eye doctor encouraged her to contact IDB. Looking back, she says IDB services have been “a Godsend.”
Although Kathryn’s vision loss began in the late 1980s, it didn’t significantly impact her daily functioning until a few years ago. She is a self-proclaimed busybody and with her increasing vision loss, she stopped using the stove and doing her beloved crafts. She started relying on others for meals, began having trouble reading her mail, couldn’t read her bank statements or balance her checkbook, struggled to plug in her coffee pot and more. “It got to be very frustrating.”
Through IDB services, Kathryn has learned “to perform a lot of duties … [things] I don’t have to do, but I want to do. And I want to say `I can do!`” She now uses bumps to set her oven, washer, thermostat and other appliances by touch. She has labeled her food items so she can identify them independently, has learned to fold her money and identify coins, uses talking time pieces, plugs her coffee pot in by touch, is doing her crafts again and much more.
Possibly the biggest change in Kathryn is her attitude. Before IDB services, she admits “I was a grouch. I was feeling a bit sorry for myself. I felt like I was doomed.” When Kathryn’s eye doctor explained there are millions of people with Macular Degeneration and that each person has to cope with it in their own way, her attitude began to change. She thought, “I have to take the cards I am dealt and play them the best way I know how” and she took a proactive approach to vision loss.
At our first meeting, I remember Kathryn being soft spoken and reserved. She didn’t have much emotion during conversations. About six months later, that all changed.
Kathryn is now full of smiles and excitement. She laughs, jokes, and is eager to tell about all the things she’s done since our last visit. “The things you think are mission impossible are not if you really want to do it.” She also says, “I appreciate all the help I have gotten through the Iowa Department for the Blind. I highly recommend them.”
One of Kathryn’s favorite poems is “I Can” and she refers to it often. She has come a long way in a few short months and her attitude and determination play a big part in where she is today. She is determined to do what she wants to do and doesn’t let her vision loss stop her. If she has a problem, she figures out a solution.
The Evolution of Audio Magazines
By Beth Hirst, Assistant Library Director
The Iowa Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped now offers all of its circulating magazines on digital cartridges. This exciting new format allows the reader to browse through a magazine easily, stopping on articles of interest while skipping past others. This simple act of navigation, akin to flipping through a print copy, has been difficult or non-existent in previous types of audio magazines. The new method of circulation is personalized and driven by each patron’s reading habits. A look back at the history of magazine service for the blind illustrates how revolutionary the digital format is.
The National Library Service for the Blind (NLS) began producing talking books in 1934. The first “magazine” recorded on disc was Talking Book Topics, produced by the American Foundation for the Blind in 1939, and a subscription cost $1.00 per year. In 1964, Jack and Jill was the first recorded children’s magazine.
In the late 1960s, NLS experimented with light-weight, “flexible” discs. Library patrons greeted this change with enthusiasm. By 1971, all NLS talking magazines were produced on flexible discs.
The Iowa Library began working with volunteers to record textbooks and other materials on open reel tape shortly after the Library was established in 1960. One narrator has been volunteering continuously since 1963.
Once cassettes came on the scene, locally recorded magazines soon followed. Cassettes were easy to duplicate and to ship, and they could be reused several times before being recycled. By 1980, a library staff position was dedicated exclusively to magazine circulation and subscription management.
Through the mid-'80s, NLS was phasing out production of rigid discs and converting flexible discs to cassettes. At the same time, the Library began increasing the number of copies produced for each magazine issue, from six subscribers per copy, to three subscribers per copy, and finally to a copy for every subscribing patron. This drastically reduced the turn-around time for each issue. Each patron received a personal copy without having to wait for others to finish reading it.
In 1996, the Iowa Department for the Blind and the Iowa Department of Corrections formed a new partnership to support the recording program at the Library. Located at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center at Oakdale, the Reading Assistance Program (RAP) included inmate narrators and an inmate duplication clerk.
Narrators recorded numerous magazines, textbooks, tutorials, and children’s books. The clerk took over mass duplication projects, including all circulating magazines. Despite an occasional inmate problem, the RAP arrangement has been very successful.
By 2000, advances in digital recording foreshadowed the passing of the cassette era. NLS embarked on a long-term plan to develop a new medium that would play on a different kind of machine. The decision was made to pursue flash memory as the next audio format.
To prepare for the coming transition and to improve sound quality, the Library added a Digital Recording Specialist to the Recording Unit. An in-house studio opened in 2006, and recording equipment for home narrators was upgraded. Within two years, nearly all narrators had converted to digital recording, and the studio was regularly booked. Auditions were more stringent, quality improved immensely, and files were stored safely on a server. Files could be copied to cassettes, but were available to convert to the new medium when the time came. A second Recording Specialist came on board in 2008.
With the release of the NLS Digital Talking Book Machine and the new flash memory cartridges in 2009, the Recording Unit moved ahead with creating digital talking books from locally recorded materials. The process required formatting changes for the narrators, as well as mark-up for navigation, encryption of the material, and write-protection for the cartridges, handled by recording staff.
In early 2011, a new process for providing locally circulated magazines on cartridges was studied and developed. The first title to be converted, Popular Science, was mailed to patrons in June. Response from readers was overwhelmingly positive, and the push to transfer all local magazines to cartridge was on. The Friends of the Library for the Blind provided funding for magazine cartridges and mailing containers. With the arrival of 2012, the transition has been completed.
The Iowa plan is unique in one major aspect. Cartridges are assigned to patrons, instead of to magazine issues. A patron may subscribe to several titles. Rather than receiving new issues of each title in separate containers, the patron will get all the latest issues on her personal magazine cartridge. When she has finished reading these issues, she returns the single cartridge, which is erased and loaded with whatever new issues are now available. If none have arrived yet, the cartridge is stored. One of the many features of the specially designed magazine application alerts library staff when new issues have come in for that patron.
With 36 magazine titles in circulation to roughly 1000 borrowers, this one cartridge per patron plan will save thousands of dollars in cartridges and mailing containers. The plan also allows for more timely delivery. Patrons are encouraged to return their magazine cartridges regularly to keep their issues flowing.
Library patrons, if you have not tried digital magazines, choose a few from our list of titles and find out what a satisfying reading experience they can provide!
A Look Back on the Origins of Iowa BEP
By Roger Erpelding, BEP Program Administrator
When the Randolph-Sheppard Act was passed in 1936, it marked a giant step forward for self-employment of blind persons. It didn’t begin with the cafeterias, military dining, vending routes, and roadside facilities we have today. It all started small with what were known as “lobby stands.” These “stands” were located in many federal facilities--at post offices in particular. They were small spaces, where a blind person handed items over a counter to the customer. The product list was quite limited, and at first these were “dry stands.” Potato chips, candy bars, and cigarettes were some of the products sold.
The next step in this process was the “wet stand.” The product line was increased to include liquid items, as the name implies--soda, coffee, juice, and milk.
As one might expect, these small businesses also were part of Iowa’s early Randolph-Sheppard program. Although the early managers are all deceased, several operators remember management of these small locations. Not only did they occur at federal locations, but instances are known of such “stands” in private buildings.
Photo: One of the first small-business employment ventures available to the blind were “lobby stands” (pictured above). These stands sold dry goods only: candy bars, cigarettes, etc.; but opportunities soon expanded.
Although it had been 32 years since its inception, Dorothy Nemmers first heard of the Randolph-Sheppard program when she was a student at the Department’s Orientation Center in 1968. A few years after her return to her home in Sioux City, she became part of the program. At that time we had two facilities in the downtown Sioux City area--a “lobby stand’ in the post office, and a small cafeteria in the basement of the Woodbury County Court House. Mrs. Nemmers was involved in both facilities. She managed the post office location from March of 1973 through November of that same year. When a vacancy occurred at the cafeteria, she became its manager from December 1973 until March of 1976. At that time she chose a short hiatus from the program.
By late in 1976, the post office stand again needed a manager. No one was readily available, so Mrs. Nemmers again managed it for about six months until a new person was trained for its operation. “We made good money, we made good managers, and the customers were friendly.” And since the contact between managers and customers was so close and direct, Mrs. Nemmers related that, “We were friendly, too.” This location was closed in 1980, and transferred to a small vending location in the basement. The building became the Federal Court House, and this vending area is now a part of a large vending route.
Mavis McVeety managed the main Des Moines post office lobby location from 1974-81. The location was closed in 1984. When the United States Postal Service published new internal regulations in the 1980’s, they made lobby locations a thing of the past. They were replaced with banks of vending machines, snack bars, or cafeterias.
Mavis stocked and served a variety of merchandise at this small space. These included candy, pastries, sandwiches, bottled pop, gum, cigarettes, and coffee. Besides the food items, Mavis also offered notions. “I didn’t make much money, but I had direct competition from vending machines and a cafeteria upstairs, so I received money from them as well,” she explained.
The main post office is now home to several banks of vending machines, as well as a snack bar in the lunch room. Under its current make up, it is definitely a profitable facility for the current blind manager.
In the early 1970’s, a number of large private buildings also had “food stands” in their lobby. One of these, located at Banker’s Trust in Des Moines, was managed by Joseph Van Lent. It was a small square location, where you could quite literally reach in all four directions and meet many of the customer’s requests for products.
Mr. Van Lent sold bottled pop, sandwiches, cigarettes, potato chips, candy, and milk--just to name a few. This area was between two sets of revolving doors. To further diminish the available space, the south wall had a door that led into the vestibule. Since the door turned inward, most of the adjoining wall was unusable. The space was maximized by placing candy, chip, and cigarette racks on the counter.
When Mr. Van Lent began to manage the location in 1971, profit was $100 per month. When he left the location to manage the Polk County Court House Cafeteria in the fall of 1972, the profit was $700 per month. Shortly after he left, the location again became unprofitable, it was closed, and subsequently the building was torn down. “We had a lot of competition in the area,” Mr. Van Lent stated, “There was a similar location across the street that sold sandwiches and candy, plus another place in the area that sold what I did.” These two neighboring locations were not operated by blind persons.
That’s progress--from little square boxes to large facilities; from serving only a few customers who happen to pass by to thousands of customers served in a large cafeteria, vending route, or roadside rest area. And everyone has benefitted--the building managers, the building employees, the external customers, and most importantly the blind folks who profit from the operation of these facilities.
For more information about Iowa BEP and available opportunities, please contact Roger Erpelding at (515) 281-1358 or in Iowa call (800) 362-2587.
Searching for Independence Through Technology
By Curtis Chong
Historically, no technology has succeeded in replacing the cane or the guide dog as the principle tool of independent travel by someone who is blind. While no one can say with any assurance why this is the case, there is little doubt that over the past forty years, some interesting devices and gadgets have been created.
The laser cane is one technology that has been developed to modify a cane to alert the blind traveler to overhead obstacles or steps. An early version of the laser cane would emit infrared laser beams in front of the blind traveler to detect drop offs and overhead obstacles, and it would emit different tones or activate certain vibrators under the fingers when something was detected by the reflected beams. The one laser cane that I did examine in the mid 1970’s cost about $3,000, and the technology was integral to the cane. If the cane broke, a person would lose everything--the cane and the technology that went with it. Since that time, I have never met a blind person using anything like the laser cane.
The Sonic Pathfinder and the SonicGuide are two examples of technologies that were developed for the blind traveler which provide information about the distance and direction of any obstacle detected. These devices are worn on the traveler’s head and contain a number of transmitters and receivers that feed information to a microcomputer. Ultrasonic echoes are processed, and audio information is provided through earpieces which the blind traveler wears while walking. I myself had a chance to work with the SonicGuide in the mid 1970’s. Essentially, the SonicGuide was packaged in a pair of spectacles, and this was connected to a computer which was clipped to the belt. While I found the SonicGuide to be very good at helping me to locate tree branches and other overhead obstacles, I found that listening to the SonicGuide tended to distract my attention away from the immediate environment. Also, I still needed to use my cane. I suspect that this, combined with the hefty price tag (two to three thousand dollars), significantly lessened the appeal of these electronic travel technologies.
Of all the technologies that have been applied to the business of independent travel by the blind, GPS technology seems to have been the most widely adopted, despite its relatively high cost as compared to the cane. While GPS technology can in no way replace the cane, it does provide useful information that the cane cannot. For instance, it can tell a person’s direction of travel; the name of the street where a traveler is walking; the distance and direction to reach the nearest intersection; and the addresses of nearby restaurants, business establishments, or other points of interest. While riding the bus, the blind traveler can use GPS technology to find out what streets are nearby.
The very first GPS system for the blind that I recall was developed back in the early 1990’s by a company called Arkenstone. It was called the Talking Atlas, and you had to carry both a laptop computer and a GPS receiver while traveling. Since then, GPS technology has been incorporated into cell phones, note-takers used by the blind, and hand-held GPS systems designed specifically for the blind.
The perfect technology supporting independent travel for the blind has yet to be created. However, over the years, there has been some forward movement in this area, and there is every possibility that research and development in this area will continue.
