During school presentations, I show schoolkids how I read Braille. I tell them how I listen to books on tape. I explain how a talking computer works and describe the way I use a screen-reader to read email messages and check out newspaper articles online. The kids learn I can’t read print. So when teachers […]

Over 300 kids gathered in Nelson Elementary School’s gymnasium Thursday morning to hear me give a talk about my blindness, my children’s book and my bond with my Seeing Eye dog. Okay. That’s a lie. The reason they came had nothing to do with me. They were there to see Hanni! A second group of […]

  I called my great-niece while Mike and I were standing in line last night. Anita is 13 years old. Her father is from Jamaica. Her mother (my blonde-haired, blue-eyed niece Janet) raised Anita on her own. “Remember the part of that video Obama showed at the convention?” I asked Anita. “You know, where his […]

What a pleasure it is to introduce guest blogger Sandra Murillo today, the day she voted in her first presidential election. I met Sandra when she was still in high school – I interviewed her for a Chicago Tribune story about how kids who are blind are educated in the public schools. Sandra is now […]

My brother Doug and his wife are featured in a story in today’s NY Times about undecided voters. I’m proud of my brother — he’s a smart guy and an excellent jazz musician. (You can listen to a song he wrote and performed–complete with a political reference–using the link at the bottom of this post.) […]