NFB Youth Slam!

Yesterday, while we were at the NFB’s Jernigan Institute , my mentor Harriet and three of the members of the News Slam (Kayla, Grecia, and I) took part in a press conference and discussed some key blindness issues. The press conference focused on a formal complaint the NFB filed against the Baltimore City schools because of their lack of training blind students in the use of Braille. The lack of Braille, of course, also causes a decrease in graduation rates for those who are blind. And when students are looking for a job, they tend to be held back and/or rejected because they were not able to compete with language-based activities without the key tools blind people use every day
We discussed how the School Board and other organizations can solve this problem and how they can make things better for all blind students. It was the first time I ever took part in a press conference, let alone one that was going to be broadcast on TV and radio. We managed to make it through the press conference, even though it was a little nerve-wracking for a newbie.
In the question-and-answer that followed, we discussed what was holding the schools back from achieving the goals for all blind students in Maryland and possibly in other states. We also learned the percentage of students who are blind or visually impaired and the percentages of students who have graduated or not graduated yet. I never realized that it was so difficult for blind students to get the accommodations they needed in order to do well in school and in life. Overall, the press conference was both thrilling and a little intimidating, but we managed to get through it. There is so much to learn about the needs of blind students and how we can help give them the tools they will need to succeed in life.