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The ACB Minnesota State Convention: Zooming into 2025 was an exciting gathering of Minnesota’s blindness community, offering insights, connections, and resources. Highlights included updates from State Services for the Blind, discussions on assistive technology like the NLS e-Reader, and opportunities in employment, including pharmacy technician training for those with low vision. The convention also featured a Metro Mobility Q&A, a goalball team headed to nationals, and an inspiring keynote from Scott Thornhill on embracing blindness. Attendees engaged with exhibitors, workshops, and a film screening of “Possibilities”—making this a must-attend event for Minnesotans with vision impairments.
To find out more about the services provided at State Services for the Blind, and what they can do for you, contact Shane DeSantis at shane.desantis@state.mn.us or call Shane at 651-385-5205.
Full Transcript:
{Music}
Jeff: Welcome to blind abilities. I’m Jeff Thompson. I just got back from the American Council of the Blind of Minnesota’s state convention. Zooming into 2025, it’s been a few years since I attended a convention, but it was very enlightening to meet up and catch up with so many different people from different areas around Minnesota that are involved in the blindness community. There is Natasha Jerde. She’s the director of State services for the blind in Minnesota. She talked about what’s coming up, what plans they have for the future. That’s looking pretty bright. We talked to John Davis and Terry Wilding from the academies down at Minnesota State Academies for the blind and the state of their buildings and funding and their goalball team going to the nationals, which was really neat to hear from John and Terry. We heard from others from around the state, whether it was from Minnesota Department of Education or the Minnesota Braille and Talking Book Library. We learned about the NLS E-reader. It’s a free Braille display just for the asking, basically.
This is a way that you can meet up with these people, actually sit down and have a conversation with them and find out more. Ask questions. I have to admit, I’ve kind of forgot that part of what a convention is like.
Dacia Van Alstyne, employment specialist at SSB, talked about a program they have with pharmacies around the state of Minnesota. Some of these pharmacies are nationwide about training people with low vision to become techs at a pharmacy. It was really interesting. And before we broke for lunch, get up and get moving. That’s a group from the National American Council. They came on and got us to stretch our arms, raise our arms, kick our legs, do stuff that while we’re sitting at the table that we could do. And this is stuff that you can do every day. It is working out, they claim.
So we broke for lunch and when we came back, we heard from the senior manager at Metro Mobility. This is a paratransit service that a lot of people in the audience do utilize. And you talked about delays and regulations, all the changes that are coming, and it got a little heated once in a while when certain topics came up, but it was really good for the people to ask questions right from the senior manager. And then we got a lesson on fashion design, the do’s and don’ts from Trisha from Blind Girl Design. And you can check her out on BlindGirldesign.com. It had a lot to do about washing your clothes, what to put in the dryer, what not to put in the dryer.
A lot of us were taking notes on this one.
Then we had a really interesting topic. It was I, the good, the bad and the ugly. This was presented by blind information technology specialists Jeff Bishop. This was really good because it kind of opened up the minds of people in the room about how AI can help them on a daily basis. So it was really interesting. Then we heard from Scott Eggen, and he’s the president of the Randolph-sheppard Vendors of America. He talked about how to become a vendor, the opportunities that there are, and how it extends beyond the borders of Minnesota nationwide. If you’re willing. There’s opportunities out there in the business enterprise program.
that wrapped it up. All that was left now was the exhibitors. And that opened up a room full of exhibitors, vendors talking about their products and their services, from essential oils to refreshable Braille to Scensi products, jewelry, all sorts of gadgets and gadgets. And I’ll play a little bit of that at the end of this. But first, at the banquet we had for the keynote speaker, executive director of the American Council of the blind, Scott Thornhill.
Scott: I didn’t want that cane. It was like a scarlet letter. Why do I want a cane? Everybody’s gonna know I can’t see. What does society think of people with disabilities? They’re lesser than. They’re not as good. They can’t do stuff. They’re needy. Who wants to be that? Not me. So I had to do a 180 degree turn in my perception of what it meant to be blind, of what it meant to be someone who didn’t ask for this, who didn’t want this. But this was my situation. So we had our real estate brokerage, and I was in our home office one evening in 2007, after the peanut butter Eye experience and finding out it was just a progression of the disease, I went to Utah. I didn’t qualify for the trial. They said you would have in February, but you don’t now because of the change. And so I got back and I’m sitting in the office. Right. And we have this real estate brokerage. And I’d been using high contrast and high contrast wasn’t working anymore. And our five year old son, Will, who’s 22 now, and our five year old son reading real estate contracts to me.
Voice from audience: Oh my goodness.
Scott: Because I couldn’t read them. I could fill in the blanks. I could negotiate, but I couldn’t read what other people would send us by fax. So I’d say, hey, Will, Come here. Come here. I need you to read this contract. Daddy, I don’t want to read another contract. I was like, That’s Star Wars video game is not gonna pay the mortgage. Read the freaking contract. No, I didn’t say that. I’m kidding. I wasn’t that bad. But I would ask him and he’d say, oh, fine, he’d read the contract. And so people would say, you had a five year old boy reading your contracts? I’d say yes. And he’s welcome for his vocabulary because I helped him immensely. There’s not a lot of five year olds that know what you know where to, and here upon and whatever. I mean, there’s not a lot of them say, I mean, Chris might correct me back there, but that’s some legalese. I mean, and, you know, he’d be like, can I go now? I was like, no, you’re on page three. We got four more pages. Keep reading buddy. Yeah, I’ll get you a snack, you know. Anyway, but that was the kind of stuff, right? That’s what we were. That’s what I was doing. And then, you know, Jane realized this was not a great long term plan, and, um. And I didn’t want to leave. I didn’t want to leave the house.
And she’s like, you can’t stay. You can’t curl up in a fetal position in the. You know, you’re too much of a people person. You got to get out. So I got my cane and I made 180 degree turn because, you know, one night I was in that basement office, and I sat there and I thought to myself, I was by myself. And I was so mad. I was so frustrated. And I said, why me? Why me? It wasn’t why me? As in, I don’t deserve this. I shouldn’t have shouldn’t have to deal with this. It was why me? As in and I am a person of faith. But. But you don’t have to be in order to understand what I’m saying. I said, why me? As in, why have I been chosen to deal with this? Why have I been chosen to be the person who’s called upon to persevere and to show others what’s possible? Why? Why me? I don’t think I can do it. I don’t think I have it in me to do it. I played sports, man. I was student council. I was I was like, kind of almost a cool kid, you know? Almost. And yet here I am with a cane. And here I am with, like, using a screen reader. And here I am having to tell my high school friends that I’m blind. Oh my gosh. I mean, it was like, just in my mind, I just thought, I don’t know.
And then you get a little bit of confidence and you start to realize, If I’m going to live my life, if I’m going to get out and do what needs to be done, if I’m going to take care of my family, if I’m going to make the life the one life that I’ve been given, if I’m going to make it something to remember and leave an impact, a positive impact on this world, I need to learn how to live as a blind person. And that’s what I had to do learn how to live as a blind person. And now it’s almost hard to remember not being blind. You know, it’s hard, but. And I am going to finish up for Janet tackles me. But what I say is, what I want to tell you is this we have and I and I’m just going to say this because I don’t know who’s listening on the stream. It doesn’t matter. I mean, I care, but I but I don’t care. We have sometimes the ability. I was talking to some folks earlier today, like we can snipe at each other within ACB a little bit. Any, any membership organization. Some people will kind of have some sharp comments or say some things and other people have feelings. There’s these little gossipy and little groups get together and all that. And I think it’s just natural, any group.
Voice from audience: Right.
Scott: …any organization. But what I want to leave you with is this when you get up in the morning, you get to choose what your attitude is going to be. I get to choose what my attitude is going to be. One day I, it was during Covid and I came downstairs and I don’t know how things work here, but I was I was in our house and I walked by my wife in the kitchen and she said, today’s a trash day. And I was like, dang, honey, it just started like, you don’t have to be so negative. She’s like, no, no. I just looked at the refrigerator and today’s only a trash day. There’s no recycle. And I was like, oh, oh, so they’re only picking up our trash today. Not, not oh, okay. I thought you were saying today was a trash day. Like, it was just like a terrible, like already a terrible day. And it dawned on me I was like, there are people that have something happen in the morning. They spill their coffee and they’re like, this day sucks. This tastes terrible. It would be the worst day. Oh, it’s a terrible day. I’m like, you’re five minutes into the day and you’re it’s already the worst day. But we can choose not to have it be the worst day. I know it’s not easy. Look, you know, I used to say people talk about positive attitude, and then I slam my head into a door, and all of a sudden, it’s not so positive, right? I mean, you know, I literally I was I was at the airport in Greensboro and I’m, I’m getting to, you know, 5:00, 4:30 actually in the morning I was like, oh, what am I doing anyway? So the Uber driver was like a little to your left, I go a little to the left and I headbutt a column.
So, you know, those of you who can see I’ve got this, like scratch above my left eye and, you know, it’s like you do that and you go, I am a experienced traveler. What am I doing? You know, like slamming my head into a column. But, um, anyway. And then I have, like, you know, I’ve got this thing in my neck, like this vertebrae thing. So I have this, like, soft neck brace I wear when I’m on my computer because being blind, I put my head down all the time because I don’t have to see my screen. So now I have neck problems. I’m like, when I wear my neck brace and I have my cane and I’m walking around, you know, it’s like people are probably like this dude, man, what happened to him? The gray hair, the neck brace, the cane, you know, and somebody said it here and they’re like, yeah, you should see the other guy, right? I mean, I took him out, but, but what I, what I want to just tell you is that we have the ability as an organization. I said this in Kentucky, and Janet will be mad at me too, probably. But the Kentucky people, I think, might have been a little upset. Uh, next year you could have twice the number of people that are here. You could have twice this number next year. Twice. And she’s like, no, I don’t want a bigger hotel. No, no, no.
Janet: But I’m being quiet. I’m listening.
Scott: But here’s what I’m saying is, is there are people out there who need what we have. Who need positivity in their lives. That’s what we need to be offering is that you can live as a blind individual, not alone in your house, not feeling like isolated, not feeling like you can’t do anything, get out, have some camaraderie, have some friendship, do some fun things. You know, I think that’s our calling, I really do. I think that’s for me. I was like, why me? Why am I, why am I, why am I the one chosen to do this? And so I think we have to look at that and say, this is not a punishment. This is not some whatever curse upon us or whatever we want to call it. This is something that everybody deals with, something I’m going to tell you that I know that for a fact. Even the person who you think has nothing wrong and is wealthy and has all these things right. I guarantee you they have something going on in their lives that’s a struggle. We all do. And so, as the executive director of the American Council of the blind, an organization that I think, you know, over 63 years has done incredible work and has meant a difference to so many people.
Think about how many have not heard about it yet, and think about how many people are out there thinking, my life’s over. It’s a death sentence. They told me, I’m going to lose my vision. And we have the opportunity to tell them there’s more for you. There’s more ahead. There’s more to your life. You are special. You are someone who can do incredible things. You are worthy. You are someone who is going to influence someone else’s life in a positive way. And if we get our eyes, no pun intended, if we get our eyes off of ourselves and quit looking internally and nitpicking at all the little things, and we look out and we start looking for other people who are struggling and have no idea how they’re even going to make it to the next day. We can make a bigger impact than we ever thought we could make.
Jeff: One of the biggest takeaways that I got from attending the ACB Minnesota State convention was connection. People that I knew long ago, meeting up with them again, meeting new people and getting in conversation with some of the people that I’ve just seen on listservs, that I’ve seen on zoom, meetings that I’ve seen at council meetings. It was just really nice to feel like you’re part of the group, part of the conversation. So that’s my big takeaway. Now, I attended Saturday, but on Friday in the afternoon, they had a showing of the film documentary, “possibilities”, which celebrated the legacy of Helen Keller. It was audio described and I heard it went great, but also our very own Stephen Letnes from Saint Paul was there to talk about composing the soundtrack for the documentary. And on Sunday they had the business meetings and a big giant bake auction. And on Thursday, they had a virtual zoom meeting where you can meet all the vendors, listen to their pitch, talk about their products, and ask them questions.
So there’s many ways to attend, like I said, virtually or on the ACB Media Live event or just by showing up. And now here’s a little word from the exhibitors at the ACB of Minnesota State Convention. Hope you enjoy.
Catalina: This is Catalina martinez, and I am a sensi consultant. Sensi products are products with wax involved, but there’s no flame whatsoever. We use warmers that you put the square wax in, and you plug it in, and there’s a light bulb. And there are many, many different textures and different colors. And the wax just melts and it just smells. It makes your house smell so wonderful. The nice thing about these waxes is they don’t have a build up, so you don’t have to worry about it sticking to your walls, like a lot of great traditional whacks are. We also have other products for scents. We have, uh, cleaners. We have body products with all the wonderful smells. And if you want more information, I can do parties or one on one consulting because the Sensi we have are over 100. And I’d be more than happy to bring my sample and show you what we have. My contact information. My phone number is (612) 227-3011. And I welcome your call.
Earl: Hey everybody, I’m Earl with Selvas BLV (Formerly HIMS incorporated. And Mr. Jeff Thompson has asked me to talk a little bit about our newest addition to our Braille family line called the Braille E-Motion. So the braille E-Motion is first and foremost a Braille display that connects to other things, other mainstream things like a computer, whether it be Mac or Windows, a tablet or a phone, for example. And you can connect up to six things simultaneously one USB and five Bluetooth. The difference between the E-Motion and other braille displays on the market is that it also has a multimedia player and recorder. It’s got stereo speakers built in, and it also has a stereo microphones built in. To take that even a step further as far as the multimedia functionality. We can also connect a USB supported plug and play devices like microphones and mixing consoles. So theoretically, you can actually make really high digital recordings of a band if you wanted with your Braille display. One of the things I love about the e-Motion is that we have ported over a lot of the applications that you will find on our flagship product called the Braillesense six, which is our our Braille tablet. But a lot of people who have the Braillesense six say that all they really want it for is note taking and using a lot of those applications, like the media player and things like that.
They don’t really care about the browser experience, they don’t really care about the Play Store. So for them, the Braille e-Motion is a good option because it’s got 40 Braille cells as opposed to the 32 that you get in the Braillesense six there is no browser experience on the Braille e-Motion, because we figure if you want a browser experience, you’re going to connect to one of those devices and use it as a terminal for a screen reader with your, you know, with your favorite screen reader. But what we have is a note pad. We’ve got a document reader, we’ve got a Daisy book reader, and we’ve got a folder called libraries, which allows us to go and access Bard Mobile. So the audiobooks that you can download from Bard, Braille and Newsline, NFB, Newsline and Bookshare. And that’s all that’s in the library folder right now. So, um, we’ve got a Wi-Fi capability, but only to the degree that you can update the device and stream audio in our web radio application or download and, um, and play books from bookshare, or read books in Braille from NLS or audio in our mobile.
So it’s got a lot of flexibility there. One of the things I love about it is the ability to, with a keystroke, just pressing the center key, which is located between that’s one and four in combination with the spacebar, uh, which is on the near side of the braille display, which has been a very common request for us to put a space bar, uh, on the near side of the Braille display versus right next to the rest of the Perkins Keys. So we’ve done that. I can press space with center, and it’ll cycle me back and forth between the internal device and whatever I’m connected to. So, for example, if I’m reading in the manual which is on board the braille E-Motion, and I’m reading all about connectivity, and I want to do what I just read about, all I have to do is press that one keystroke and, and put that into practice and just kind of flip back and forth that way as I’m reading the manual. So that is it in a nutshell. Do you have any questions, Jeff?
Jeff: It looks very portable.
Earl: Yeah. It’s a 40 cell braille display. It’s very comparable to the form factor that you’re going to see in some of the other displays on the market. Uh, the difference is, again, it’s got the stereo speakers, it’s got stereo microphones., and it also has keys across the front, and they’re kind of kind of a slight angle for ergonomic purposes, and we’ve got on either end scroll buttons so it’ll scroll the length of the Braille display. And if you. So they’re kind of thumb keys. People have been asking for thumb keys. So we’ve given them that and the ability to reverse those. So if you want to use the left scroll button to scroll right you can actually reverse those. And then we’ve got the little chicklet style buttons that do exactly the same thing. But if you want to change them, you can. So instead of scrolling the Braille display length, you might want to scroll by paragraph or by page or sentence. Well, you can have maybe the left scroll button set to scroll by page, the right ones to scroll by paragraph, and then keep the front thumb keys for scrolling the length of the display. So there’s a lot of flexibility there.
Jeff: Wow, I like that, that you could really personalize it to your own use factor.
Earl: And it does come with multiple language support. We use all the same braille tables that we have on braille sets, which are many, many languages. And we also have all of the nuance, speeches, speech options as well. So for all the European languages, of course, in addition to Hebrew or Arabic, that kind of thing.
Jeff: So where can they find out more?
Earl: Well, if they want to go to our website, we’ve recently changed our name from Hims Inc.com, although that will still get you there because it will just redirect you. To selavis blv.com. We had to change our North American company name, but the Hims product line is still alive and well. All we’ve changed is the North American company name. So that’s spelled s e l v a s, as in Sam Blv for blind low vision Dot com. So SelvasBLV.com.
Jeff: All right. Thanks, Earl.
Earl: Thank you.
Nickie: Hey, I’m Nickie and I have a business. Called Nikki’s Nook Oils and Books. And I sell my book, Nikki’s Nook sharing the journey. As well as essential oils through doTERRA. If you go to Nickie’s oils.com and c k I e. S o I l s.com. You can find a lot of blog posts about essential oils and I also am glad to. Help you find a lot of information about essential oils. I went from being unable to do much. Independently due to chronic pain, to living independently on my own and having a higher quality of life. I was at a pain level of ten out of ten, and now I’m at an eight out of ten, and some days it’s even better than that. So that’s a short version of my story. I’d love to help you find the oils that work for you, and I’d love to talk with you and help you out.
Charlotte: Hello everyone. My name is Charlotte Lang. I am the owner of Mama Otter’s Tidbits, and I make a wide variety of gemstone and different themed jewelry items. I have seasonal items and pet themed items. I have a website and my website offers free US first class shipping. My website is mamaOtter.com. My email address is Mama Otter one at gmail.com. And my prices are very affordable for handmade jewelry and on the on the website they start at 9.99 and my most expensive piece is probably around 49.99.
Jeff: What got you started on making jewelry? I mean, it’s a business.
Charlotte: Well, I think crafting runs in my genetics because my grandmother crocheted. My mother does counted cross stitch. So I was born totally blind. Um, and I always had the desire to make things. So as a small child, I did a lot of beading, and it just kind of progressed from there. And I started doing bead work with stones when I was a teenager. And then in my early 20s, I learned how to do wire work, and I learned how to do hand knotted necklaces and stretch bracelets, and it just kind of took off from there. And people started telling me, you should sell your stuff. And so I did my first live craft show by myself as a totally blind person on December 6th of 1997. So I’ve been doing this for 27 years.
Jeff: And you can learn more about the American Council of the Blind of Minnesota on their website at ACBMinnesota.Org. That’s ACBMinnesota.org.
To find out more about all the programs at State Services for the Blind, contact Shane.DeSantis at state.mn .us. That’s Shane.DeSantis at state.mn.us.
Be sure to contact your State Services for the Blind, your Voc Rehab, and find out what they can do for you. Live, work, read, succeed.
[Music] [Transition noise] –
When we share-
What we see
-Through each other’s eyes…
[Multiple voices overlapping, in unison, to form a single sentence]
…We can then begin to bridge the gap between the limited expectations, and the realities of Blind Abilities