May 25, 2025

From the Editor

May was a busy month! BSCB had our Spring Conference on the 17th at Perkins, which you’ll hear more about in the board news section. The 16th was also my birthday, which was very nice weather wise considering it’s been rainy and cold more often than not (I’m currently in southern Maine). My parents and I went out for Greek food that night and had a lovely time.

I am pleased to have been re-elected to my board seat for another term, and in case you missed it, the Advocacy, Communications, and Membership committees all collaborated on an advocacy brochure to hand to legislators in Massachusetts as part of an initiative being spearheaded by the Advocacy committee. I made the layout from scratch and we used Staples for the printing process; Perkins will be providing braille overlays that say BSCB, which we are going to adhere over our logo on the front page. These brochures are being handed to sighted individuals, but they will accurately represent us as a blindness and low vision organization.

Other than that, I am gearing up for Dallas. In addition to being the delegate for Bay State again, I am also the convention chair for CCLVI, ACB’s low vision affiliate, meaning I will have an eventful but fun schedule during the hybrid convention week.

If you are a BSCB member and will be attending the national convention in person in Dallas, please reach out to me via email at dianna.L93@gmail.com. Convention procedures have changed this year and the opening general session is during virtual week at the end of June, which is when we have to notify ACB of how many chairs our affiliate needs at our table in Dallas. Thanks to those of you who have contacted me thus far.

Don’t forget about our blog! You can read member spotlight articles and all past member-submitted articles to BayLines Express by going to https://acbofma.org/blog. Blog posts are ordered newest to oldest, and there are several of them per page. Each individual post’s title is a link that will take you to the full body of text.

If you would like to contribute information or comment on ways to improve BayLines Express, please contact Dianna Leonard at newsletter@acbofma.org. And if you have an idea for a monthly article and would like to contribute your writing, please contact Myra Ross at newsletter@acbofma.org. The newsletter mailbox is shared between Myra and Dianna.

News from the Board

The BSCB Spring Conference and Convention was held on May 17 at the Perkins School for the Blind’s Grousbeck Center in hybrid fashion. There were about 40 in-person and 20 remote participants, respectively. It was also broadcast on ACB Media 9 and a full recording will soon be issued by Rick Morin.

The full recommended slate of candidates for directorships from the Nominations Committee was elected unanimously, including two returning directors, Dianna Leonard and Pam Lock, and two new directors, ElizabethAnn Johnson and Nora Nagle. 

Awards were presented to:

• Richard Jackson: Outstanding Service Award.
• Harry Duchesne: Community Access Award.
• Aaron Spelker: Betty Gayzagian Advocacy Award.
• Jane Perry: Special Advocacy Lifetime Achievement Award

The membership approved two resolutions: one related to the MCB annual budget, and a second one endorsing a pending bill on Beacon Hill proposing the introduction of fines on transportation network drivers who discriminate against riders with disabilities who use service animals.

Two changes to the BSCB Constitution also passed: Insertion of text related to the Code of Conduct, which was passed last year; and a bylaw modification clarifying the process of paying annual dues, as well as introduction of an optional online payment system.

Together with the Perkins Library, BSCB organized an Arts Access Information Day at Perkins on April 26. In-person attendees were able to take part in a fascinating tactile arts tour, and all, remote attendees included, were able to listen to a number of speakers from the Boston and Worcester areas involved in making the arts more accessible. Open the following link to listen to the program speakers:

Arts Access Information Day Speakers

The Board last met on May 12 and appointed Dianna Leonard and Nona Haroyan to serve as BSCB delegate and alternate to the ACB Convention, respectively. Dianna will be attending in-person in Dallas and will receive a $1200 stipend to defray travel and lodging expenses, as is standard BSCB policy. Nona will attend remotely; the Board approved a $200 stipend for the substantial amount of time involved in serving as alternate. It was stressed that this is not intended to set a precedent because stipends have always been granted solely for defraying travel-related expenses rather than as reimbursement for volunteer work. It was also mentioned that this will probably be the last year for an affiliate vote being taken at convention, potentially removing the justification for appointing delegates and alternates.

Jennifer Harnish was appointed as the BSCB representative to the Nominating Committee.

President David Kingsbury thanked Jim Badger and Ken Chernack for their two years service to the Board.

The Social Committee is organizing an afternoon of bowling at Kings Bowling Alley in Dedham on June 8. Longer term, the Social Committee also plans on organizing a cruise to Bermuda in August 2026.

Events Calendar

The next meeting of Blind and Visually Impaired User Group (VIBUG) will take place on Saturday, June14, 2025 at 1:00pm. Further information and how to join is listed at https://vibug.org/.

The next Perkins Library Without Walls will meet on Tuesday, June 10, 2025. To RSVP or listen to the upcoming LWW schedule, call the voice mailbox system at (617) 972-7852.

The next Third Thursday with the BSCB will be on June 19 at 8:00pm via Zoom. We will discuss the ACB affiliate vote: What it is, and the proposal being made to the ACB Constitution to remove it. Please be sure to subscribe to our Announce List at bscb-announce+subscribe@acblists.org to stay up to date.

Below are landing page links for the MCB Rehabilitation Council (RC), and the MCB Statutory Advisory Board (SAB). You may want to bookmark them and check them often for time-sensitive entries. They contain details of upcoming events and meetings, recordings of recent meetings, and other relevant information.

RC landing page: https://www.mass.gov/orgs/mcb-rehabilitation-council 

SAB landing page: https://www.mass.gov/orgs/mcb-statutory-advisory-board

News from the Web

Anyone near Milford and want to support a local candy shop? Sweet Inspirations is a nonprofit where nearly their entire staff has a developmental or intellectual disability.

Milford candy store provides job opportunities to those living with disabilities

Inclusive Fitness in West Roxbury is a gym built specifically for people who are neurodivergent. Learn more in the article below.

This Boston gym was built for neurodivergent people to get fit

A Facebook reel showed up for me recently featuring the Boston Renegades, our own local beep baseball team. For those not in the know, check out this NBC article showcasing the sport.

What is beep baseball? Boston team of blind athletes plays America’s favorite pastime

These devices were showcased at the Olympics and Paralympics in 2024 (at least I saw quite a few blind content creators with them) and they have made their way to several sports leagues in the U.S. Touch2See is a sort of tablet with a 3D printed court and magnets to show the ball’s movements. Learn more below.

Touch2See increases accessibility for visually impaired, blind sports fans

A Glide Retrospective, by Myra Ross

A year ago, I went to New York for one of the first Glidance Demo Days. As a cane user who has had elbow pain caused by my cane use, and as someone who has never liked dogs even though my parents had a succession of them when I was growing up, I was excited to see that someone is creating a third kind of mobility aid. Canes can be challenging particularly for newly blind elderly people, and the waitlists for dogs are pretty long. 

I was thrilled by Glide’s possibilities especially since I had worked with Amos Miller, the founder and CEO of Glidance when I participated in a couple of his working sessions about Soundscape at the 2019 ACB conference in Rochester, New York. Soundscape (now recreated as Voice Vista) was the brainchild of Amos Miller when he worked for Microsoft. A blind engineer, Miller is now devoting his significant ingenuity and knowhow to Glidance with the goal of creating a viable third kind of mobility aid for blind people with all levels of experience and independent mobility skills. I was hooked, and in July, I invested in the project by ordering one, knowing it was then in the infancy of development and that it would be quite a while before it was ready for prime time. I was happy that they sought extensive feedback from blind end users so that it would be the best it could be upon release. As developers, they were going to live “nothing about us without us.”

Two weeks ago, I attended the Glidance Demo Day in Boston. Before we did our individual demos, they told us that there was no navigation software loaded and that the hardware they had on hand was not their latest version. I was pretty disappointed that I was not going to experience the unit that Miller showcases in their YouTube videos. Compared with the original demo unit I saw in New York last year, this iteration of Glide has a lighter form factor with bigger wheels, and the Glidance engineer who ran the demos was not using a remote-control device to operate it as he had last year. I pushed Glide easily, and it did indeed propel me around obstacles and turn the corner when I told it to with my hand. It did come to a dead stop when the engineer jumped out in front of me, and again when he instructed me to quickly walk straight at the wall in front of me. I could see how it could be very helpful in “Freestyle” mode, which is the only way the Glide can be used at the moment. 

When I got home, I emailed Glidance to express my disappointment at what they had shown us, and to ask when I, as a “founding Glider,” would be able to get my hands on the real thing as a beta tester to see what it can do where I live. There are sidewalks on one side of the street if there are sidewalks at all. There are T and Y intersections with no sidewalks. One must walk on seriously potholed streets that are not flat. The sidewalks are often broken by large tree roots. If Glide works here, it will be rather good, but will it? My Boston Demo Day experience did not show me anything that would help me figure that out.

Imagine my surprise and delight when I got an email from Amos Miller requesting a Zoom meeting. He said he was grateful for my candor in the email I sent, and apologized for not having shown a more advanced unit in Boston. In our Zoom, he asked about where I live, about my blindness journey, and about my reasons for purchasing a Glide. I said that I allegedly have good skills about which I need more confidence, but that I would just like to enjoy going out for a walk without having to think about the immediate environment with almost every step I take as cane users do. He said that is the goal, and that it is almost the reality with the Glide unit that he himself is using now. He told me that the plan is first to perfect the hardware, and that the increasingly capable software will follow. He said that navigation software like Voice Vista or hardware like the Stellar Trek can be used with the Glide, independently now, and eventually possibly integrated into the Glide. In other words, the Glide will be released first as a mobility aid, but increasingly as its software develops it will also become a navigation aid. 

Then Miller told me that unfortunately there would be a delay in the release of the Glide. They have found that they need to make the hardware more durable, and they need to secure their supply chain in the face of the tariff-born manufacturing uncertainties. I actually am not surprised at the delay although I am disappointed. Even before our recently created global economic crisis, many initial product releases of all kinds have been delayed. I remain excited about using Glide next spring, and maybe even before if I am chosen as a beta tester. This invention is likely to be a game changer for some, hopefully for me, and many others.

BSCB Contact Information

Phone: (773) 572-6312

BSCB website: https://acbofma.org

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ACBOfMA/