Hanni & Me on Chicago TV

October 28, 2008 • Posted in Beth Finke, blindness, Uncategorized by

It’s official. Hanni and I are the Chicago poster children for disability issues. And why not? I work for a disability organization — Hanni leads me to meetings at Easter Seals Headquarters in downtown Chicago every week. Plus, Mike and I raised a child with disabilities. And, hey…I’m blind!

So last week when ABC Chicago decided to do a story on the presidential candidates and their views regarding
disability issues, they came over to Printers Row to film Hanni and me. If you missed our 8 seconds of fame on the morning ABC Chicago news last Sunday, never fear! The story is available online.

Karen Meyer, the reporter who covers the “Disability beat,” for ABC-Chicago, is deaf. As far as I know, she is the only newscaster in America who can’t hear. I unfortunately do not know sign language — thank goodness Karen reads lips. She interviewed me for about ten minutes, but I have a feeling there is more footage of Hanni in the finished piece than there is of my fascinating talk. The cameraman had Hanni walk me down the street a number of times after the interview was over. He needed just the right shot of the real TV star: Hanni!

Kristen On October 29, 2008 at 3:01 pm

Hey Beth! You and Hanni looked and sounded great in the Karen Meyer segment. Pretty cool. Go Obama! 🙂

Beth On October 29, 2008 at 4:53 pm

Thanks, Kristen — comforting to hear we looked good! I talked to Karen Meyer yesterday and she said they used the footage of Hanni walking me down the block as their “tease” for the piece. Fun to think of ourselves as teases…

Sandra Murillo On October 30, 2008 at 1:50 pm

Hi Beth,

I only saw a few seconds of the story on Sunday. Glad it was still online! Speaking of elections, have you (or any other readers of this blog) ever used the touch screen machines with audio output? If so, are they accessible? This is my first time voting, so that’s why I’m curious.

Sandra

How Can You Vote if You Can’t See? « Safe & Sound blog On October 30, 2008 at 10:14 pm

[…] Vote Act of 2002, National Federation of the Blind, talking computers, voting A comment to my Tuesday blog post from a young woman named Sandra gave me the idea to write this post about voting. Sandra is blind, […]

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