The UCB
Flier
A publication of
Utah Council
of the Blind
October
2019
For the latest news
updates call the Utah Connection 801-299-0670 or 1‑800-273-4569. (You may
also leave a message at the end of the announcement.) Also check out the
website: utahcounciloftheblind.org.
Mail
correspondence to: UCB, PO Box 1415, Bountiful, UT 84011-1415. E-mail us at ucb.board@gmail.com.
The UCB Flier is available in large print, Braille,
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If you would prefer to receive your newsletter in a different format, please
call the Utah Connection or send an e-mail to ucb.board@gmail.com and let us know.
In
This Issue
President’s Message.................................................................................. 3
“Getting to
Know You” Membership Drive Activity...................................... 4
Hey,
Christmas Is Coming!......................................................................... 6
Health Fair
Update..................................................................................... 8
What’s In the
Name?.................................................................................. 8
News from
Annual Meeting........................................................................ 9
Membership
Drive.................................................................................... 11
Active Shooter Preparedness for Blind and Visually Impaired
Individuals 12
Purpose.................................................. 12
Overview................................................. 13
Make a Plan............................................ 18
Afterwards.............................................. 26
Conclusions............................................ 28
Orion Visual
Cortical Prosthesis System.................................................. 28
Kitchen
Tricks........................................................................................... 30
Testing Baking Soda............................... 31
Testing Baking Powder........................... 32
Brown Sugar
Chicken............................................................................... 32
General UCB Information......................................................................... 33
Upcoming Board Meetings...................... 35
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.
These last two years have been a challenge and time of growth for me. It has been my pleasure to serve the Utah Council of the Blind. I am not sure what the next two years will hold but I am grateful to everyone who gave me the chance to serve. I hope that I have been able to contribute something to our organization and to the members of the UCB. My hope is that we will continue to serve and strengthen each other for whatever lies ahead. We may have new challenges, and we may need to work through struggles, but if we stand together, we can do whatever is needed.
I also want to take a minute to thank everyone who has ordered the Uber gift cards. I have heard a lot of excitement about the expansion of the cab program to include Uber. We will continue to make this program run more smoothly.
Please remember that I have changed the hours that I receive calls to 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. Thank you for respecting my time with Rick. He is doing better with eating, but the chemo is taking a toll, and the evening is my time to get things ready for the next day.
Thanks,
Tina Terry
By Monica Youngdell
Greetings, fellow UCB members, families, neighbors and friends! We would like to welcome you to our “Getting to Know You” membership activity on Saturday, November 2, 2019, at the Division of Services for the Blind, 250 North 1950 West, Salt Lake City, starting at 11:00 a.m. and ending at 1:00 p.m. Everyone is welcome, so please come and enjoy games, food and just hanging out with some awesome people. We will be having our membership drive, where you will have the opportunity to sign up for a membership, as well. Membership dues are $10 per person. You may pay at the activity, send a check or pay by card. Reservations for the lunches are $6 per person. Please let us know if you have any dietary restrictions when you reserve, as well as how many are in your party. Reservations for lunch are due no later than October 25, 2019, to ensure that we have enough food for all. You will need to call Tina at 801-245-9264 to reserve your spot. As an option, you can send a check with your information to Utah Council of the Blind, PO Box 1415, Bountiful, UT, 84011-1415. It is crucial to send checks or make reservations in a timely manner. We look forward to seeing you there!
By Sandy England
Email: syeangel@comcast.net
Cell phone: 801-634-8002
· Date: Saturday, December 7, 2019
· Time: 10:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
· Where: DSBVI, 250 North 1950 West, Salt Lake City
If you would like
to help this year, call me—my number is below my name. This year we will have
the puppy raiser helping.
Here comes Santa
Claus!
Get your reindeer
in shape, and get your bells out, for we are going to have a great party this
year!!! We’ll have Santa Claus, a great turkey dinner by the Golden Corral, and
wonderful tasty desserts. We are trying to get a jazz band from Copper Hills
High School, and, along with that, we will be singing Christmas carols.
This year we will
have a very small craft fair (6 tables). These will be first come first served,
and you must be blind to set up your table. Instead of a cost for the table
this year, we would ask for a small donation from your sales (you give what you
think is best). Call me if you are interested.
We will have
gifting tables this year (one for adults and one for children). How this works:
We ask each participant to bring an unwrapped gift; it may be something you’ve
been wanting to give away, something you have made, or something lightly used
(no clothing, please); for the children, you might bring a new or lightly used
toy. There is no money value on these, the gift can be anything that is nice. At
the end of the activity, each person will have a chance to pick something from
the gifting table for themselves.
Watch for more details
in the November newsletter.
Due to circumstances beyond our control, we have decided to postpone the Health and Information fair. We will keep everyone updated on when it is rescheduled. This will also give us time to gather additional information to present. We appreciate everyone's support in this and hope that we can make the fair bigger and better.
By Tom Mitchell
You’re going to see a couple of changes in this newsletter in the next two or three months, and one of them will be its name. But, the problem is, we haven’t been able to come up with just the right name. We agree it’s time for a name change. Fliers are usually 2- to 4-page sheets describing the upcoming events for a short period of time. This newsletter does more than that. In our opinion, it’s a fine magazine for our organization, but we need your help in deciding what to call it. You won’t win a prize except the satisfaction of seeing the title you created on the cover of our newsletter each month, but we’d like to know what you think.
So, what should we call this newsletter? E-mail your suggestions to newsletterucb@gmail.com, or phone them to the Utah Connection and leave your suggestion after the announcement. Put on your thinking-caps and help us out.
The annual business meeting of the UCB was held on Saturday, September 21, 2019, as stipulated in the bylaws. Minutes of last year’s meeting were presented and approved, and reports were received from the treasurer, Vicki Flake; the president, Tina Terry; and the executive director, Leslie Gertsch. Members participated in lively discussion regarding various programs and activities.
Leslie Gertsch, the Scholarship Committee chair, expressed thanks to her committee and presented scholarships to James Reed and Erin Nightingale. Cordie Weed, the Awards Committee chair, expressed thanks to her committee and presented the Albert M. Talmage Award to Mary Roberts and the Sarah Talmage Award to Lisa Nelson for lifetime service to the blind community.
Cordie Weed, chair of the Nominating Committee, expressed thanks to her committee and conducted the voting process. The following individuals were elected by acclamation:
· Tina Terry, president
· Sandy Ruconich, secretary
· Aunilie Hathaway, board member
· Sandy England, board member
· Tom Mitchell, board member
The proposed bylaws amendment was approved. The updated bylaws will be available on the website within the next few weeks.
After the meeting adjourned, everyone enjoyed visiting and eating a fried chicken lunch from KFC.
We’d like to express special thanks to those who came early in the morning to set up for the meeting and all those who stayed after the meeting to help with take-down and clean-up.
It’s that time, again, when we begin collecting dues for the upcoming year. The easiest and most fun way to update your membership is to come to the “Getting to Know You” activity announced earlier in this publication and pay your dues at that time. We’d love to see you there. If, however, you are unable to join us in November or that’s not a convenient time to pay your dues, watch for the membership mailer and return it with your dues as soon as possible. Alternatively, you may visit our website at utahcounciloftheblind.org to download the application and pay your dues.
If you are a lifetime member, there is, of course, no need to pay dues, but this is a great time to think of making a donation to the UCB. As always, these charitable donations are tax deductible.
By
Pete Lane
August 2019
Blindabilities.com
This document is intended to provide suggestions for what to do if we find ourselves in an active shooting event: how to recognize signs of potential violence around us, how we might react, and what to expect after an active shooting takes place.
Note: This material has been adapted to include a few fundamental actions which blind and visually impaired individuals might find helpful in an active shooter crisis situation. Some are offered as suggestions for consideration, in which case alternative ideas are also offered. Precisely what actions we might take will depend upon a variety of factors, including the specific environment in which we find ourselves during a crisis, our level of usable vision and our mindset at the time.
Based on research done by the FBI, most shootings are concluded within 5 minutes or less from start to finish. Accordingly, we don’t have very much time to think about what we should do in such a crisis. This is why we need to know what to do before it actually happens.
Sometimes there’s nothing we can do to survive, but we may get a chance to act, and will only have seconds to figure out what to do. Our stress will be high, so we should make a plan of action now that we can call upon wherever and whenever we go.
This is especially important when we realize that the human mind tends to process events in terms of our day to day activities, that is, if we hear something that is out of the ordinary, we tend to frame that sound as a routine experience in our minds. This means we might not react to an unusual or foreign sound such as gun shots as quickly as we should. We might chalk it off to being something familiar, like the back firing of a car, or just some unknown loud sound, rather than the truly life-threatening sound that it is. However, if we have a clear plan in mind, our conscious and subconscious thoughts may allow that plan to kick in, over-riding that tendency to mis-characterize the event and allow us to react more quickly. All this to say that it is absolutely crucial that we plan now for what we might do then.
One key step will be to maintain situational awareness wherever we go. If we think about it, as blind or visually impaired individuals, we actually maintain this awareness all the time. When we leave our home, we are taking in our surroundings, listening, smelling, feeling and seeing with any usable vision we can muster to prepare ourselves for what we might encounter. We are actively immersed in each new environment we enter. It is a routine preparedness measure we utilize to carry out even our most basic day to day activities and it may prove beneficial in a crisis situation. So, let’s stay alert, be aware of our surroundings, trust our instincts and be ready to act quickly.
Remember three actions to follow during an active shooting situation:
Run. Hide. Fight.
Prepare in advance – Be Informed:
· Sign up for an active shooter training
class when available. These are often offered by employers,
community organizations, local law enforcement and other
civic groups. Be sure to take advantage of them when they are
available.
· Get training in CPR and AED techniques –
these too are offered by employers, the Red Cross or other civic or similar
organizations.
· Take a self-defense class. Note: one self-defense program offered specifically to blind and visually impaired persons is called: 1 Touch Project, the details of which can be found at: http://www.1touchproject.com/.
· Option: Have you considered arming
yourself with a firearm for self-defense at home? If so, attend firearms
training immediately.
· Option: Some believe that as blind
people, arming ourselves with a firearm is unwise and unsafe. Conversely,
some of us, particularly those of us who live in the US believe that we have a
constitutional right to arm ourselves, and choose to do so, so think long and
hard before pursuing this option.
· If you see or hear something out of the ordinary which gives you concern, say something to an authority right away. For example: suspicious postings on social media, or odd or unusual behavior of an individual. Also try to be cognizant of physical changes to your school or church buildings or other locations. To illustrate this last point, we know that the Virginia Tech shooter tested his plan by placing locked chains on doors prior to his actual shooting rampage. Nobody seemed to notice these, and campus security personnel weren’t informed. See something, say something.
· Sign up to receive local emergency alerts and register your work and personal contact information with any work, school or other sponsored alert systems so you will receive up to date information on these kinds of events. This would include social media feeds for local law enforcement where you would be likely to learn of incidents such as an active shooter situation in your area.
· Consider traveling with a buddy or companion when going to an unfamiliar area.
· Is there a group in your city or town
which provides sighted assistance to accompany blind travelers or shoppers when
visiting an unfamiliar area? Consider taking advantage of such a service.
· Make a plan with your family and ensure everyone knows what they would do, if confronted with an active shooter, whether at home or elsewhere.
· Whenever possible, locate the two nearest exits anywhere you go, have an escape path in mind & identify places you could hide. We know this is not often practical or even possible but keep it in mind whenever visiting a new location. Don’t hesitate to ask someone. In this day and age, people aren’t likely to think you are being nosey or unnecessarily curious if you wish to identify possible exits from the facility or area where you are.
· Familiarize yourself with the building, store, mall or outdoor area when you have the time. Download a map or take time to practice walking the area to learn the layout and find the exits.
· In a Mall, the anchor stores will have
rear exits behind their business offices, as will theaters, stand-alone grocery
stores, restaurants, and other stores.
· If in a school, college, public building
or other similar facility, there will likely be an Emergency Preparedness and
an Active Shooter Plan in place. Check it out in advance on their web site if
possible or ask about it when entering the facility.
· When practical, find out if an emergency preparedness plan for individuals with disabilities exists at the location and become familiar with it. Their web site may include such a resource
· During an incident – Run – Escape, if possible.
· Getting away from the shooter or shooters is your top priority.
· Run away from the sounds of danger if you can gauge their whereabouts. Do not move closer to the sounds in order to assess what is happening or attempt to help. Trust your instincts and run away from the sounds.
· Leave your belongings behind and get away.
· Help others escape, if possible, but evacuate regardless of whether others agree to follow.
· It may be that running is dangerous to you
and/or others. Here are some options to consider:
· Option 1. If you are unable to run safely by yourself, ask for help from others. Grab an elbow or something else to allow you to run with a sighted individual. If nobody agrees to help, then don’t ask, just grab an elbow and run. Courtesy is secondary to survival, Pride in your independence goes out the window in these situations, and survival takes top priority. Keep running until you are out of the building, store, mall, or other location, or until you are absolutely sure you are free and out of danger.
· Option 2. The shooter is oriented to looking for people who are running, so find a place to drop down and hide. Offer a low profile that may be out of the shooter’s line of sight in hopes of avoiding his gaze. (See the discussion later in this document which describes the actions to take when hiding).
· Warn and prevent individuals from entering an area where the active shooter may be.
· Call 911 when you are safe, and describe the shooter, location, and weapons to the extent possible
HIDE, if escape is not possible.
· Get out of the shooter’s view and stay very quiet, preferably out of the main aisle or hallway, and the primary line of sight of the shooter.
· Silence all electronic devices and make
sure they won’t vibrate.
o Note, this would include silencing Voiceover, Talk Back or other speech system you may utilize.
· If in an open area, don’t hide in groups. Spread out along walls or hide separately to make it more difficult for the shooter. It may be that adding an extra step or two for the shooter to find or reach you may cause them to move on to more fruitful convenient targets. Remember, active shooters are looking for the most victims in the shortest amount of time.
· If in a store or restaurant, and a solid structure is not available, pull a clothes rack, display, table and chairs, food cart, or other similar covering over yourself to block you from the shooters view.
· If in a separate room, don’t hide on a wall facing the door where the gunman may come in. hide on left or right wall, out of his line of sight where he is not looking.
· Secure the room: Lock doors, close blinds, and turn off lights.
· Barricade the door with heavy furniture, a
chair under the doorknob, boxes, etc. which may add a layer for the shooter to
have to overcome, or which might stop a bullet.
· Your hiding place should be out of the
shooter’s view and provide protection if shots are fired in your direction.
· Get into offices, rest rooms, or other rooms with lockable doors if possible. Get behind heavy doors, walls, credenzas, file cabinets, desks, tables, counters, large vending machines, etc. which offer protection if possible.
· If outdoors, try to hide behind structures
or solid objects. These may include walls, barricades, power boxes, pillars or
poles. You can even hide behind a curb, which while low, may offer sufficient
protection against bullets.
Option: If no solid hiding place is available, as a last
resort, consider “playing dead” if the shooter approaches you while
hiding. Lie face down, calm or stop your breathing, don’t move
a muscle, keep your eyes open and try not to move your eyes or
eyelids.
· Try to communicate with authorities silently. Use a headset or ear buds to silence your device, using text, email or social media. If possible when speaking on a 911 call, let the operator know you may be near the shooter so you may not speak or respond to questions. However, don’t risk revealing yourself to the shooter in order to do so.
· Stay in place until law enforcement tells you it’s clear and safe to move.
FIGHT – As an absolute last resort.
We
realize this suggestion is extreme, and certainly not an ideal course of
action, but there may be a time during the incident when there are no other
options short of fighting the shooter in order to prevent him from harming or
killing others, or you. This is a last resort, but if faced with such a
circumstance, commit to it fully as it may mean survival.
Just because you don’t have a gun, doesn’t mean you don’t have a weapon. A weapon can offer valuable force and may mean the difference in these drastic situations, and almost anything in your environment can be turned into a weapon: chairs, fire extinguishers, lamps, umbrellas, belts, paper weights, books, coffee mugs, even a pen can be used as an improvised weapon.
If possible, spray a fire extinguisher or chemicals in his direction, trying to aim for his face and eyes. Or throw a pot of scalding hot coffee his way. Be creative! Once the shooter is disoriented, rush him and take him down. We recognize that this may be easier said than done but remember at this point we’re considering our last resort.
Commit to your actions and act as aggressively as possible against the shooter.
Be prepared to cause severe or lethal injury to the shooter in order to save yourself and others. Don’t worry about fighting “fairly”. All is fair in such situations: bite him, poke him in the eyes, kick him, stab him with your improvised weapon, attack his soft tissue such as his throat, eyes, stomach, ears, etc. Instill whatever pain or injury you can, even disorientation if that is all that is possible.
Team up: Recruit others to help you ambush the shooter to confuse, distract or disorient him. Use weapons like scissors, letter openers, knives etc. to fight with.
· Keep hands visible and empty so law enforcement doesn’t perceive you as a threat. Do not hold on to your cell phone as this may be perceived as a weapon – keep your hands visible and completely empty.
· Know that law enforcement’s first task is to end the incident, and they may have to pass injured along the way.
· Officers may arrive in groups, will likely be armed with rifles, shotguns, and/or handguns and may use pepper spray or tear gas to control the situation.
· Officers will be
very aggressive, shout commands and may push individuals to the
ground for their safety. Try not to let this disorient you or cause you to
disregard their instructions. If practical, show them your white cane, or
otherwise let them know you are visually impaired.
· Follow law enforcement instructions and evacuate in the direction they come from, unless otherwise instructed.
· Take care of yourself first, and then you may be able to help the wounded before first responders arrive.
· If the injured are in immediate danger, help get them to safety, but not at the risk of your own life.
· While you wait for first responders to arrive, provide first aid. Apply direct pressure to wounded areas and use tourniquets if you have been trained to do so.
· Turn wounded people onto their sides if they are unconscious and keep them warm.
· Consider seeking professional help for you and your family to cope with the long-term effects of the trauma.
We hope to never find ourselves in an active shooter situation, but if we do, we can prepare to some extent to increase the chances of surviving such an experience.
If at all possible, be prepared by making a plan as outlined in this document. Try to recall some of the suggestions offered in this document if and when you find yourself in an active shooter crisis.
Remember the three components of the active shooter plan: Run. Hide. Fight.
By Sandy England
(Argus II implant recipient):
The following
information was provided by Second Sight Medical Products. It describes the company’s new Orion cortical implant
technology and their business plan to develop and market the technology while
supporting existing Argus II users.
“The Orion Visual
Cortical Prosthesis System (Orion) is an implanted cortical stimulation device
intended to provide useful vision to individuals who are blind due to a wide
range of causes, including glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, optic nerve injury
or disease, and eye injury. Orion is intended to convert images captured by a
miniature video camera mounted on glasses into a series of small electrical
pulses. The device is designed to bypass diseased or injured eye anatomy and to
transmit these electrical pulses wirelessly to an array of electrodes implanted
on the surface of the brain’s visual cortex, where it is intended to provide
the perception of patterns of light. A six-subject early feasibility study of
Orion is currently underway at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los
Angeles and the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. No peer-reviewed data is
available for the Orion system. The Company anticipates enrolling additional
feasibility subjects in 2019 while simultaneously negotiating the clinical and
regulatory pathway to commercialization with the FDA as part of the
Breakthrough Devices Program.
Second Sight’s
plan includes the following:
· Expand research and development efforts supporting Orion and related technologies, including adding 25 new positions this year.
· Support Argus II Retinal Prosthesis Systems users worldwide.
· Continue to perform new Argus II implants with available inventory.
· Suspend new production of Argus II systems in the near future and reduce commercial spending.”
By
Sandy England
I
never knew this about baking powder and baking soda before, so I hope it helps
you.
Check
your pantry now. Do you have a box of baking soda or a canister of baking
powder tucked on a back shelf? It’s probably been there since who knows when, and
more than likely, one or both have expired.
Baking
soda and baking powder lose their effectiveness once they’ve been sitting
around for a long while. Typically, both last anywhere from 6 months to 1 year,
but make sure to check the “best used by” date on the bottom. With expired
baking soda, you can still technically use it for cleaning because it might
have some potency left, but it will not be powerful enough to use in baking.
But expired baking powder is a different story. You don’t want to use
ineffective baking powder, because you’ll end up with flat cakes, and there’s
no remedy for fixing that.
Before
you chuck that old baking soda or powder, test it to see if it’s viable. Here’s
how:
Pour
a few tablespoons of white distilled vinegar into a small bowl. Add 1/2
teaspoon baking soda — if it’s fresh, the mixture should fizz and bubble
furiously. If it doesn’t have a strong reaction, then you might want to
consider tossing it and buying a new box or just setting it aside for cleaning
pots and pans.
Pour
a few tablespoons of warm water into a small bowl. Add 1/2 teaspoon
baking powder to the warm water — the mixture should fizz moderately if the
powder is fresh. If there is no reaction, then chuck it and buy a new canister
of baking powder.
By Sandy England
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup vinegar
3 cloves smashed and chopped garlic
2 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup Sprite (I will add this once I add everything to the crockpot)
Add all ingredients, except for the Sprite, to a gallon-size freezer bag to marinate. When you are ready to cook this, put all ingredients into a crockpot, add the sprite and let cook for 3-4 hours on high.
Donni Mitchell, our vice president, volunteers in the UCB Office at DSBVI, 250 N 1950 W, Salt Lake City, UT, from 12:00 to 3:30 p.m. on Wednesdays. Adrienne Clayton keeps the office open from 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Fridays. If you are making a special trip to visit the office, we recommend you give one of these ladies a call at 801-520-3766 to be sure she is there when you come to make purchases or conduct other business.
We are always looking for articles,
book reviews, or interesting tidbits of information from our readers or other
interested persons. The deadline for submitting items for publication is the 10th
of the month, e.g. the deadline for the December newsletter is November 10th.
You may e-mail any articles you wish to submit to newsletterucb@gmail.com; send
Braille, print, or audio to UCB Flier, PO Box 1415, Bountiful, UT 84011-1415; or
drop them off to Donnie or Adrienne at the office. Please allow extra time for
processing Braille, print, or audio.
If you have questions or concerns for any board member or to be placed on the agenda of a board meeting, e-mail ucb.board@gmail.com or leave a message on the Utah Connection, and you will receive a timely reply.
Members are invited and encouraged to
attend meetings of the Board of Directors. These are typically held the fourth
Monday of each month at 4:45 p.m. at DSBVI in Conference Room R (in the north
hallway), except as noted.
· Saturday, October 19, 2019—Budget and Training Meeting—All current and newly elected officers are expected to attend, and all committee chairs are highly encouraged to attend
·
Monday, November 25, 2019
·
No December meeting unless urgent business is
pending
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