The UCB Buzz
A publication of
Utah Council of the Blind
March 2024
For the latest news updates, check out the website at utahblind.org
and follow us on Facebook and/or join our email list.
E-mail us at utahblind@gmail.com
For credit card payments, to make reservations, or for other business,
call the business office at 801-245-9264.
Disclaimer
Articles and announcements included in this publication
are presented for your information and interest. They reflect the opinions of
the respective authors and are not necessarily endorsed by the UCB.
In This Issue
Notes
From the Executive Director
Thanks
to Subsidized Transportation Program Sponsors
Board
of Directors and Management
By Kate Balzly
On behalf of the UCB and those who participate in the Subsidized Transportation Program, we express our heartfelt gratitude to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Foundation and the Kennecott Copper Charitable Foundation for providing grants to this much-needed program. If you rub shoulders with anyone who works with these great foundations, please share our gratitude.
Great News for the blind and visually impaired in the Ogden area. The UCB has contracted with a new transportation company which will honor our white cab coupons. Clint Wayment, owner of Home and Family Care Services has agreed to transport blind people who have purchased the UCB white cab coupons as payment for transportation. They serve from Farmington to Brigham City with the possibility of further distances. To use their services, please call the UCB office at 801-245-9264 and purchase the UCB white cab coupons to utilize this service. Coupons are currently $50 for $100 worth plus $5.00 for priority mail. They do not expire and can be used for the fare and tips. To book your ride with Home and Family Care Services please call 801-695-7994. They also accept Venmo and Cash.
Our Easter Basket Fundraiser is underway. It's bigger and better with many really nice items donated. The cut-off date has been extended to Wednesday, March 13th, to order. Small baskets are $15.00, and large baskets are $30.00. I recently looked at the kids' baskets offered at Walmart for $25 and they only had four items in the baskets and no candy. You still had to buy the candy! Our baskets beat the store baskets out of the water, plus 100% of the proceeds go to direct services for the blind. Tell your family, neighbors, co-workers. The baskets will be available for pick up at the UCB and Legacy Pioneers Beeping Easter Egg Hunt and Luncheon on Saturday, March 16th, from 10 am-1 pm. If you live near Logan, Ogden, Orem/Provo, Ephraim, Cedar City, or St. George, you have this same opportunity to purchase these lovely baskets. The UCB has special deliveries set up in those cities to provide these wonderful Easter baskets to you. Please specify if the basket will be for a toddler, child, teen, or adult, and the gender. We have items to fill the baskets for everyone. On behalf of the UCB and all the wonderful donations from local stores, corporations, and individuals, we thank you. So don't hesitate to support this awesome fundraising event.
Come Join the UCB and Century Link Legacy Pioneers for the Annual Beeping Easter Egg Hunt and Hot Dog Lunch. It's FREE and great for the whole family. Saturday, March 16th, from 10 am-1 pm at DSBVI, 250 North 1950 West, Salt Lake City. Hunt for beeping eggs, fill your baskets with candies, take pictures with the Easter Bunny, and enjoy a hot dog lunch. Please RSVP so we can get a count for the food and candy. Call the UCB office at 801-245-9264. Rain or shine! Bring blindfolds of some sort if the sighted want to try their hand at hunting beeping eggs.
Dear Editor,
I’d like to express appreciation for Tom Mitchell’s excellent editing and editorial messages in The UCB Buzz for the last several years. I can tell he gave much thought, time, and energy into his editorials. In other words, he’s clocked many miles in going the extra mile for us.
For quite a while, I actually wondered if he was the UCB President because he wrote so much, appearing in many issues – and what he wrote was informative, timely, and insightful. For example, he has expressed concern about the future of UCB. and invited younger people to get involved.
I, for one, will miss Tom Mitchell’s devoted participation in The UCB Buzz – I’m thankful for all his hard work that has enriched our lives. Best wishes on his new journey.
Sarah Smith,
UCB Member
Thank you, Sarah, for your thoughtful comments.
I really appreciate Sarah Smith for her insightful comments and the information she has shared with all of us who have been involved in preparing the newsletter through the years.
What a great example of an involved member she is.
Vicki Flake,
Editor Pro Temp
By Tina Terry
Be My Eyes has added two new features that we want to share with our readers. For those of you who are not familiar with the Be My Eyes app, it is an app that uses volunteers from around the world to use our back facing cameras on cell phones to assist the blind if we have a visual question.
The first addition that they have made is a section called Be My AI. This will allow us to have documents read, pictures described and so on using artificial intelligence. It will then let the user interact and ask questions and get further information or answers to specific questions. You can use this by going down to the bottom of your phone and touching to get focus. You will have 5 choices, the first one being, get focus, the second one will be Be My AI. When you tap on that one you will hear Starting Camera. When you tap on that button you will hear “Starting Camera” If you slide your finger up about half an inch you will find a button that says “Take Picture.” The app will then let you know that it is processing. This takes a few seconds. You will then hear the results followed by the option to ask more questions. This will allow you to dictate or type what you would like to know.
The second feature that Be My Eyes has added is a feature that will let you create your own trusted group of volunteers to help if you need someone to look at something for you. This can be very helpful if we have something that is confidential or with sensitive information like our address or finances. When using this portion of the app, you will first need to create a group. To do this you will need to flick right or arrow down until you hear “Group.” After you activate that you will have the option to create your group by asking you to create a group name. After the group name has been created, the next prompt is “Send Link.” When you activate this link several options for sending it out will pop up. I chose messages on my contacts. I then started inputting the name until it came up. After I tapped on that it would give me a space where I could make a comment or send request. The only drawback for me was that I had to send each link individually. This may take a little bit of time. I think we will all find that it is worth the effort.
After the group is created, when you use this feature it will go down your list and your first available person will answer. The people on your group will be able to choose when they are available just as the volunteers on the regular group do.
I use Be My Eyes on a daily basis and am so appreciative of these options. I hope they will help you as well.
By Tom Mitchell
Into The Groove: The Story of Sound From Tin Foil to Vinyl, by Jonathan Scott (Freelance writer) reading time 11 hours 44 minutes
Remember those funny-looking flat disks with the grooves that started at the edges and wound their way to nearly the center of the disk? And how those disks had labels and a hole in the center. In other words, remember "records"?
I grew up with records. I remember the 10-inch shellack disks, the 12-inch 33-1/3 LP record albums (I still have a bunch), and most of all those wonderful 45s with the big hole in the middle that provided so many hours of music during my young years. Mine was mostly rock 'n roll: Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Buddy Knox, Elvis Presley, Pat Boone, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Kingston Trio, Jimmie Rodgers, Rick Nelson; my, what wonderful stuff! Oh yes, and I also had some Patti Page, Eddie Fisher and Perry Como. Thank goodness CDs have come around and helped preserve those sounds. And isn't it wonderful that we can preserve sound so that memories can be preserved, not just for us, but for generations to come.
This book tells how the attempt to record sounds started, how it evolved, and how sound preservation of all kinds really began. And you'll find some absolutely fascinating facts. Did you know that the first intentionally-produced stereophonic recording was made as early as 1931?
Not only is the book a history of recorded sound, but explains how recordings were made. And it does so, not in a highly-technical manner, but simply; so that those of us who are not recording engineers can get a glimpse into the kind of thinking that caused the research to happen, and then the beginning of competition to sell records, and cylinders that came along before disks.
It's too bad the book didn't have samples of some of those old recordings it talks about. But it does tell you some websites where you can find them. I've never looked into any of them, but some of you may want to.
So, for audiophiles, or those interested in records, this book is a find, and well worth the nearly 12 hours of reading. I highly recommend it.
Editor’s Note: For those of us who are Braille addicts, David Holladay, along with his wife, Caryn Navy are some of our greatest heroes. We will greatly miss David, and our hearts go out to Caryn at this time of sorrow. For that reason, we share the following post.
Dear Duxbury Community,
This week brings sad news for our Duxbury Systems family. Our colleague, David Holladay, passed away in a hospital on Thursday, February 15th, following an accident at home that morning. David was a cancer survivor and valiantly battled multiple medical problems over his last five years.
David was an early innovator in braille software. Together, he and his wife, Caryn Navy, founded Raised Dot Computing (later Braille Planet) in 1981. David’s early work on Apple II computers was groundbreaking in support of accessibility for blind users through speech and production of braille and of print from braille input. He went on to support production of print math from Nemeth Code mathematics braille. Later work at Raised Dot Computing culminated in the introduction of MegaDots, an innovative product with unparalleled support for braille formats.
David and Caryn joined Duxbury Systems in 1999 and have been part of the family ever since. David’s work at Duxbury focused largely on extending the reach of DBT to many, many countries and languages around the world. Though confined to bed over the last several years of his life, David’s passion for braille wouldn’t allow him to rest. He was working until his very last day.
It is our belief that the larger braille world will miss David as much as we do here at Duxbury.
From Leslie Gertsch
2-pound package frozen hash browns
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 teaspoon pepper
8 ounces shredded cheddar cheese
8 ounces sour cream
10-ounce can cream of chicken soup
Grease a large baking dish. Put in all ingredients; mix. Mix 2 tablespoons butter with 1/2 cup cereal or cracker crumbs and sprinkle on top. Cover and bake at 350° for 40-50 minutes or until bubbly.
I’d like to thank those who contributed to this newsletter: Kate Balzly, Sarah Smith, Tom Mitchell, and Tina Terry. (And Leslie Gertsch, posthumously.)
As anyone who has ever edited this newsletter will tell you, one of the biggest challenges is coming up with material that is interesting and relevant to our community. That is why, in each issue you will see our request for you, as our readers, to help us by sharing information you find interesting with us, whether it be a book review, a recipe, an opinion piece, a review of technology you have found particularly helpful (or not so helpful), helpful hints for accomplishing tasks, or anything else you can think of.
Many people tell me they don’t contribute because they are not good writers. Don’t worry about that, just get your thoughts down on paper. I’ll take care of fixing the punctuation and grammar and turning it into polished writing. That, among other things, is what an editor is for.
With your help, we can turn The UCB Buzz into a place where we can share thoughts and ideas and help each other
learn new skills and find new resources for living our best lives.
Vicki
Flake,
Editor Pro Temp
The UCB Buzz is
available in large print, Braille, audio CD, and by e-mail. If you would prefer
to receive your newsletter in a different format, please call the UCB business
office at 801-245-9264 or send an e-mail to utahblind@gmail.com and let us
know.
We are always looking for
articles, book reviews, or interesting tidbits of information from our readers
or other interested persons. You may e-mail any articles you wish to submit to utahblind@gmail.com;
send Braille, print, or audio to UCB Buzz, PO Box 1415, Bountiful, UT
84011-1415. Please allow extra time for processing Braille, print, or audio.
Anna Jeffery, President, Skills Development Program Supervisor
Donni Mitchell, Vice President
Jeana Nielsen, Secretary
Vicki Flake, Treasurer
Sandy Ruconich, Director
Sandy England, Director
Kira Larkin, Director
Shelly Hendriksen, Director
Dennie Clark, Director, Skills Development Program Assistant Supervisor
Mindi Larson, Director
David Jordan, Director
Kate
Balzly, Executive Director
Members are invited and
encouraged to attend meetings of the Board of Directors. Meetings will
typically be held on the first Thursday of selected months at 4:45 p.m. via
Zoom. To be placed on the agenda or attend a meeting,
e-mail utahblind@gmail.com or call 801-245-9264.
Thursday, March 7, 2024, 4:45 p.m. – Board Meeting
Thursday, June 6, 2024, 4:45 p.m. – Board Meeting
Thursday, August 1, 2024, 4:45 p.m. – Board Meeting
Saturday, October 12, 2024, 9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. – Budget and Training
Meeting (by invitation only)
Thursday,
January 2, 2025, 4:45 p.m. – Board Meeting
Saturday, March 16, 2024, 10:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m., DSBVI – Annual Legacy
Pioneers Easter Egg Hunt
Saturday, May 4, 2024 – U of U Sunshine Symposium – watch for updates
Saturday, May 11, 2024, tentative – Art Stroll – watch for updates
Saturday, June 8, 2024 – Games Activity – watch for updates
July 5-12, 2024, Jacksonville, Florida – American Council of the Blind
Annual Conference and Convention
Saturday, August 10, 2024, tentative – Seaquest Aquarium Activity –
watch for updates
Monday, September 9, and Wednesday, September 11, 2024, tentative –
Utah State Fair – watch for updates
Saturday, September 21, 2024, 10:00 a.m., DSBVI – Annual Business
Meeting
Friday-Saturday, November 1-2, 2024, Davis Conference Center –
Statewide Training Conference – watch for updates
Saturday,
December 7, 2024, 11:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m., DSBVI, – Holiday Celebration – watch
for updates
Sign
up for our newsletter: Click Here
Stay Connected:
Donate to the UCB: Click Here
Utah Council of the Blind FREE
MATTER
PO Box 1415 FOR
THE BLIND
Bountiful UT 84011-1415 AND
DISABLED