Disability Dialogue with Bill

Home Maintenance: Disassembling Wooden Frames Without Eyesight

Have you ever wondered how a completely blind person is able to accomplish home maintenance projects; for example disassembling somewhat large wooden frames around raised vegetable garden beds by touch and sound only?  I would not think most of you have thought about such things therefore I will explain for those interested in learning one person’s technique and strategy.

Why: Over 25 years ago before I went completely blind I built three redwood raised vegetable garden beds in the house we rented.  Over each of the beds I built large redwood frames where I placed weather resistant sun filtering cloth that allows air through but blocked out direct sunlight. I could then manually roll out  the sun filtering  cloth over the frame as needed to protect the plants from the intense direct sun. Since I lost my eyesight in May of 1999 the two remaining garden beds and the frames covering them had developed a desperate need of repair. To start the needed transformation   and the required repair of my vegetable garden area I planned to remove the two frames around each bed that were  left to allow the vegetables to  grow in natural unfiltered sun.  My plan is to recycle and reuse the wood from the frames for plant stakes as well as other uses for the wood around our yard thus preventing the waste of valuable wood and trees.

Strategy: I figured out all the tools I would need ahead of time to complete this project. Since I walk with two canes, one support cane and one long white cane for navigation, I have no extra hands to carry anything when I walk which makes planning crucial. After I located  one philips screwdriver, one flat blade  screwdriver, needle nose plyers, regular plyers, hammer, a plastic bottle of water  and my trusty  Huntsman version of a Swiss Army knife (my go to knife when I used to backpack) I was prepared. My loving wife Kathy set up a chair where I could sit as I worked on my project. Kathy also brought me all the tools I listed including an empty coffee can. This can was used so I could place any hardware in it during the disassembly process. I carefully placed my tools and coffee can near the right side of my chair so I could find everything more easily. Once Kathy had dragged each frame with some difficulty over to me one at a time I was ready to begin my fun.

Fun: As I sat in the chair with  the frame resting  across my legs with it’s four legs pointing in unknown directions I explored all sides of the frame with my fingers and hands to determine the layout  in my minds-eye and as to how I assembled it many years ago. After I had the image of how the frame looked I then determined the best approach to disassemble it. Then I felt around at each joint to determine if I used screws or nails as fasteners.    From feeling small indentations at the center of each fastener with my finger tip I determined they must be screws that held down each metal bracket.  These L-brackets attached each leg to the top square frame I had assembled with the same style brackets. I then selected my Swiss Army knife’s small screw driver and started to remove each screw. Some screws were extremely tight which required me to position myself in my chair in a way to maximize leverage.  This tactic allowed me to keep the required pressure on the screw as I removed each one. After removing a leg of the frame I found a short piece of wood that was connected to it. By feeling no indentation in the top of the fastener on this short piece of wood I determined I had put in nails which held the short piece of wood to the leg.  These short pieces of wood connected each leg on two sides to the top of the frame at 45 degree angles reinforcing each leg. After removing the short pieces of wood by pulling them off by hand or prying them off with the claw end of the hammer I used my plyers or hammer to pull out each nail. To keep my work space organized as I disassembled each section I stacked the shorter pieces of wood to the left of my chair, the longer leg pieces to my right in the corner resting up against the fence and placed all screws, nails and brackets in the coffee can.

When I was working on the second frame I noticed for some reason the screws did not turn, therefore did not loosen. This difficulty made me wonder if these were nails preventing my Swiss Army knife screwdriver from biting in the head of the screw as I attempted to twist it out. I then cheated and asked my wife Kathy if the screws were philips or straight blade types since I could not determent what they were by touching them with my fingertips. After Kathy looked she found some were phillips and others were corroded therefor I switched to my longer handled screw drivers to get more leverage. When I made this minor adjustment I was again well on my way to completion of this project. After removing many screws, nails, and all brackets I was pleasantly surprised when I reached down towards my feet and in front of me where I would keep the frame pieces that still needed work and found nothing but air as I grasped around with outreached hands. I also double checked by kicking out my feet keeping them low to the ground searching by touch and sound for them to connect with something solid  just in case a piece of frame landed out of hands reach during   the disassembly process. I was happy to discover that this test failed to locate any stray pieces, therefore I called Kathy over (she was working in some other area of the yard) to confirm I did not miss any. After verifying with Kathy that the first frame was completely disassembled she dragged the second one over for me to disassemble. When I had completed the second frame and had Kathy confirm that I had, she told me I did not miss disassembling a single piece of wood, removing a screw or any nail. This made me smile with joy.   When I had completed this project I then organized my longer pieces of wood that I placed to my right against the fence to later saw off the damaged parts to prepare each piece for a new life.

What I learned from this simple project:

• Overcoming the thought of completing a project like I describe and doing something that requires more exertion than one is accustomed to or have ever attempted before may be the most difficult part. Because of these challenges it is best to just plan and get started.
• Despite any challenge or disability if one plans thoroughly it is possible to participate in or complete many projects on your own.
• Although disassembling a large wooden frame like I described may be difficult or awkward with challenges such as being blind which is the equivalent of wearing a blindfold or walking around using canes, the satisfaction of completing a project is worth the challenges.
• If assistance is not available and you are forced to improvise and utilize work-arounds, it is still possible to complete projects.
• Being prepared with everything you may need before you start will help reduce the stress of having to stop in the middle of your project to locate something you may need or even worse find out you may be missing something required to complete the project.
• Keep a positive attitude and if you are outside, take advantage of relaxing in the sun, listening to the birds, the wind rustling through tree leaves, breathing fresh air and the joyful sounds of neighbors experiencing life. Pace yourself and enjoy the option to be outdoors.

Does anyone have any stories to share that explain projects you have attempted or completed where you overcame any challenge you may have? Do you have any tips for me and others to help us overcome what some people perceive as challenges to fully participate in projects and life? Any ideas to increase the probability of completing projects when help is limited or not readily available?  Any other experiences you want to share to help us take the required steps to experience all aspects of life, including the uncomfortable, unfamiliar or challenging aspects of enjoying life?

We all look forward to hearing from you.

Bill Tipton

Contributing Author,

Global Dialogue Center

http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/wdtipton

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bill.tipton.39

Twitter: http://twitter.com/wdtipton

Helen Keller Achievement Awards & Exploring NYC Without Eyesight

In June, I was grateful to be invited by my employer to attend a Helen Keller Achievement Awards Ceremony / Dinner presented by the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) in New York City, NY (NYC), with my wife Kathy, colleagues and other attendees. This trip was my second opportunity to travel on a commercial airline since losing all of my eyesight. After I received the invitation to attend the event, I immediately started my planning and preparation to facilitate a successful trip that would hopefully be as trouble free as possible. I describe my trip preparation in a past blog post I wrote entitled Employee of the Year.

At the Helen Keller Achievement Awards Ceremony / Dinner I truly enjoyed listening to the people who introduced the award recipients, describing the work the recipients do to assist the visually impaired or blind by improving the quality of life, enhancing job opportunities by reducing barriers by increasing accessibility. I also enjoyed listening to the recipients humbly accept their awards and explain some of what they did to achieve this meaningful recognition.

The following day I was invited to go to AFB’s corporate headquarters and take a tour through the Helen Keller archives museum and meet with AFB. Being completely blind myself and belonging to some blind / low vision organizations in my local area, I have heard a few things about Helen Keller. During the tour I was pleased to learn many new things about Helen Keller. Now I have a better understanding of what a wonderful and remarkable person she was, and how she has helped change the world to assist blind, visually impaired, deaf, and hard of hearing, as well as many other people.

SIGHTSEEING with My Wife: The Art of Using All My Senses
This was my first trip to NYC, therefore I wanted to take advantage of my short time in-between meetings and award ceremonies to see (sense) some sights. With my wife Kathy’s assistance we walked on foot paths next to the Hudson River near the 911 Memorial towards Battery Park. Kathy described many wonderful statues, memorials, flowers, trees, old iron fences, old fashion street lamps, and other beautiful and distinctive old style architecture built with many bricks. I took the time to touch some of these objects so I could sense their texture and physical size. This enabled me to more accurately imagine what these objects looked like in my minds-eye. She also described the color and perceived depth and width of the river, as she also described the Statue of Liberty at a distance across the river. She also described the many ferries and boats on the river, and helicopters flying above the river. The same day after our AFB meeting and tour we walked from Madison Square Garden and Pennsylvania (PENN) Station to 26th Street then towards 51st Street, Madison Avenue, Broadway Avenue and many streets in-between. On 34th Street Kathy described Macy’s department store (the largest in the world we were told). She also described the Empire State Building, Time square, Rockefeller Center and St. Patrick’s Cathedral. We went into St. Patrick’s Cathedral and since it was a warm day the cool temperature in the Cathedral was an exhilarating and pleasant treat. We walked throughout this remarkable large old Cathedral as Kathy described the many carvings, statues and stained glass windows. To help me visualize how large this Cathedral is in my minds-eye I felt one of the very large columns that held up a portion of the large roof. The column was so large I could not wrap my arms around it, and it felt like it was made of stone, or a concrete material. I took this opportunity to sit down on one of the many pews in the Cathedral and prayed. After we left the Cathedral we passed Radio City Music Hall, many other landmarks and numerous stores. I truly applaud my wife’s site guiding technique and expertise, walking through NYC, evading hundreds of people, obstacles, yellow cabs, cars, and crossing busy streets with a variety of Hard (90 degree angles) and (Soft) curb cuts that gently sloped down at each intersection. All of this navigation was accomplished while at times I could not hear Kathy’s verbal instructions warning me about upcoming obstacles due to the loud traffic, and sirens from police cars and fire engines. Luckily I have learned to feel Kathy’s body movement with either my left hand on her right shoulder, or right upper arm with my right hand on my support cane while she sight guides me. With this technique I can react to her body movement and not rely on any verbal cues. By the time we did our very quick walking tour of mid town New York, it was getting close to dinner so we searched for a taxi. After observing which streets had the most taxies driving down the streets, we strategically placed ourselves on one of these streets in a location in which a taxi could easily pull up to the curb. By using this technique we soon found a taxi to take us back to our hotel in time for a wonderful dinner with a co-worker. After our wonderful meal and great conversations we went back to our hotel and prepared to leave for home the next day.

The Rest of the Story
Kathy and I had an incredible time listening to the remarkable people who were recognized for their work and received the Helen Keller Achievement Awards, listening about the valuable work AFB is doing to help the blind, visually impaired and visiting NYC briefly. Everyone we met on our trip was thoughtful, courteous and seemed to celebrate life and companionship.

A few days after we returned home we celebrated our 25th Wedding Anniversary. We honored and celebrated our life together, our companionship, devotion and our never ending love that will continue for all eternity. Read another blog post I wrote about our 20th Anniversary entitled:
Anniversaries: What they mean to you.

Have you had the opportunity to take a tour with assistance? This assistance does not need to be sight guiding or verbal descriptions, like the invaluable assistance I received. Maybe you have other challenges or disabilities which require other types of assistance when traveling and sightseeing you want to share? Has anyone attended or received a Helen Keller Achievement Award? Any other thoughts or comments?

We look forward to your comments to help us all grow personally and professionally, and expand our knowledge and awareness.

Bill Tipton
Contributing Author,
Global Dialogue Center
http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/wdtipton
Facebook: http://profile.to/wdtipton
Twitter: http://twitter.com/wdtipton

Believe in Your Vision for Success

Do your goals ever seem out of reach? Have you had challenges or unexpected set-backs on your way to reach success? I sincerely hope we never stop stretching our self emotionally, physically, and educationally. As part of lifelong learning, we need to continuously increase our understanding and ability to value, accept and respect the differences in others, including the disabled, to help increase our successes. If we stop growing, one tendency might be to settle in a place we are familiar with, that requires no change or extra effort on our behalf. Settling for anything less than our clear vision for success will prevent us from fully flourishing in our professional or personal life.

To live with vitality, drive and positivity I believe we need vision and passion for life and work. Vision and passion can be considered fuel for our body and mind. If we are lacking in either of these sources of positive energy, it is very difficult to live up to our best potential.

How can we keep focus directed on our vision and believe in our abilities for success? How can we maintain our passions when we are at times, exposed to negativity, misunderstandings, experience difficulties and perceived road blocks? All such challenges need to be put into perspective or they will distract and blur our vision. How can we embrace the attitude to expect and dare to believe our vision will become a reality?
If we listen and believe the words of negativity spoken, and about doubt by some in our abilities and value, it could be possible for these words to suffocate our passions and drive.

Anything that diminishes my vision and belief in success and recovery I describe in the analogy below.
The smoke that occurs when a forest fire’s first embers smolder can be the first sign one is losing vision. Soon more and more wisps of smoke fill the air. Shortly after, if left unchecked, there is a blazing forest fire out of control. It is very difficult to get your vision and belief in success   back until the fire is out, the smoke has cleared, trees and brush have grown back and all of the wild life has returned, bringing the forest back to a place filled with life and tranquility.

Restoring the forest back from such a set-back can take as long to recover as recovering our vision, once we have lost our way. Therefore it is critical not to loose focus or be distracted by negativity or non-believers.

We should not hold negative past experiences in our hearts when we relentlessly, tactfully and ethically pursue our goals. This diminishes our effectiveness for success. Forget the past and those who did not understand and were critical, and pursue ahead confidently with a clear vision. Partner and network with others who share our passion for life and positivity. These partners will keep our forest of life strong and vital keeping any minor set-backs and embers of doubt from igniting into anything that cannot be easily contained and managed.

Remember on our journey to our vision’s success, we will not be able to please everybody our work touches. This mind-set is one of the more difficult lessons to remember for me when I drive to produce quality and beneficial work.

Just imagine what we can accomplish if we keep our vision and passion alive!! Do not give up your vision before you allow your seed of vision to mature, take root and turn into a forest of success.

Look forward to hearing your thoughts and suggestions to help us to have ever increasing expectations of our vision. We can benefit from hearing how your vision of success has become a reality and celebrate with you. 

Bill Tipton
Contributing Author,
Global Dialogue Center
http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

." On Sept. 18, 2007, only a month after doctors told him that he had three-to-six months to live following a recurrence of pancreatic cancer, he presented a lecture called "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" to a packed auditorium at Carnegie Mellon.

The moving and often humorous talk recounted his efforts to achieve such childhood dreams as becoming a professional football player, experiencing zero gravity and developing Disney World attractions. In the process, he shared his insights on finding the good in other people, working hard to overcome obstacles and living generously.

"If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself," Pausch said. "The dreams will come to you." Listen to Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.

What I learned from Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture.

• Teach by story telling.

• Never loose the childlike wonder, it is just too important.

• Focus on people, not yourself. • If you do the right thing, people will listen.

• Find the best in everybody.

• Show gratitude

• Do not complain, just work harder.

• Brick walls are there for a reason. They are there to see how much you really want it. These walls are there to keep out the people who do not want it bad enough.

• If you are doing Pioneering work you will get arrows in your back.

 

What did you learn from listening to Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture?

What childhood dreams came true of yours?
Do you have a story around accomplishing your dream?

What lessons did you learn from making your dream a reality?

Did you learn something from not accomplishing your dreams?

How did your dreams help you in your personal or professional life?

 

We all look forward to hearing your comments and thoughts.

 

Bill Tipton

Contributing Author

Global Dialogue Center

http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

4 Square Without Eyesight

Recently I had the opportunity to play a game I had not played since elementary school called four square.

One difference from the last time I played this game is I am now completely blind and need two canes to walk safely. I am also about 35-40 years older than the last time I played

I am not sure if they play this game called four square in other countries? If so, maybe it is called something different.

How I Was Given this Opportunity to Challenge my Senses
I was at a recent family gathering enjoying everyone’s company and cheerful conversation. I walked out to the driveway to ask one of my cousins a question when I heard the laughing and the bouncing rubber ball near by. These sounds caught my attention with curiosity and wonderment. Thoughts raced through my mind wondering if I could play this game with no eyesight.

Soon my nieces, great nieces and great nephews asked me to join them in the game. At first thought I imagined how I might be able to play without any eyesight, and wondered if I should attempt to try this.

To play this game there are four squares on the ground. These squares are usually drawn on the ground with chalk. Each of the four people in the game stands in their own square. The goal is when the ball comes into your square you are to hit the rubber ball into another person’s square. The person who misses the ball or overshoots another person’s square looses that game.

I thought to myself why not give this new challenge and experience a try.

I folded up my long white cane and put it into its holder and fastened it to my belt. I folded up my white support cane and partially stuck it down the back of my pants to secure it since I only had one cane holder. I could have set my support cane aside while I played, but I wanted my support cane for emergencies in case I started to fall or get unsteady standing and moving around in my square with no canes.

With the help of the others in the game letting me know where my square was, I positioned myself into the center of my square. Then I heard the sound of hands hitting the rubber ball. Immediately after I herd the hands of another player hit the ball I heard a different tone as the ball struck and bounced off the ground. I stood there crouched down ready to turn in any direction quickly to try to hit the ball. I imagined the rubber ball being brick red in color since that is what I remembered the color was when I last played. I listened intently as I tried to follow the ball’s sound as it bounced from square to square and from person to person wondering when it would come into my square. I was intensely concentrating on the sound of the ball hitting the ground. Soon I could distinguish the different sounds of the ball hitting the ground depending on what angle, direction and speed the ball hit the ground. After a bit, once I got into a rhythm, I imagined in my minds eye the compression of the rubber ball as it bounced off the ground. With more compression I could gauge that the ball would be traveling faster. From the sound the ball made I could hear if the ball was going towards me and would bounce in my square. If the ball did bounce in my square I would gently time my attempt to hit the ball based on my methods of gauging the speed and location of the ball from my auditory observations. When I would make hand contact with the bouncing ball I would hit the ball towards another persons square. After a few successes, I was having a great deal of fun! I was amazed I actually was hitting the ball! I was very glad I tried to play the game instead of sitting out and never knowing if I would succeed, or fail. I played the game with eagerness and joy for quite a while. I eventually stopped when I could no longer concentrate intensely enough to follow the bouncing ball accurately.
To read about another of my recreational firsts, read Hitting a Softball without Sight.

Has anyone else ever tried something they were not sure they could accomplish? If so, how did you feel after you decided to try the unknown instead of sitting on the sideline and missing your opportunity to extend yourself? Even if you did not succeed, how did you feel after making the attempt? Not succeeding in my opinion is better than not trying; depending on if not succeeding will cause you or anyone else physical harm.

We all look forward to hearing your thoughts and comments.

Bill Tipton
Contributing Author
Global Dialogue Center
http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

Celebrating Life

I personally believe we all should take time to celebrate our passions and joys in our life.

Time goes by very quickly. If we breeze through the actions of living life like a robot with no emotions, enthusiasm or interactions we would truly miss out on life’s pleasures. We need to take the time to celebrate the joys of living. Be aware of your surroundings, others feelings and share mutual passions. Embrace how different each of us are and enjoy the uniqueness in personalities, viewpoints, skills and perceived abilities.

If we do not take advantage of life’s experiences, whether negative or positive, we will truly miss out on the true meaning of why we are living on this earth.

This month has been very special for me for many reasons. I want to share three celebrations I had the opportunity to experience during a week of vacation from my valued employer. This will get us started thinking about what we all can celebrate in our lives, and how we can help others unselfishly.

To start off my week of gratitude and celebrations my first thought is that I am thankful that I have the ability to celebrate. This month is my wedding anniversary. You can read a post I wrote last year to celebrate this very special occasion with my loving and caring wife Kathy; I call Anniversaries - What They Mean to You.

I tragically missed my twelfth anniversary. Read the post to see why I missed this anniversary and why I do not want to miss any more opportunities to celebrate my anniversary and why I believe I am very lucky to have the ability to celebrate the joys in life.

I was honored and grateful to attend a book release reception with my wife Kathy for a very exciting and valuable book titled: Putting Our Differences to Work. The author of this innovative book is Debbe Kennedy, my friend, colleague, Founder, President and CEO Global Dialogue Center and Leadership Solutions Companies.

I met many positive leaders at the reception who are truly celebrating life to the fullest. They are incorporating all people in their positive and meaningful work; valuing the individual’s unique differences. I have had the privilege to have worked with some of these outstanding creative leaders in the past. Some I continue to do meaningful work with and others I just met at the reception and will work with in the future. This was a very remarkable event to celebrate life and be engaged with others who are making a positive difference in the world.
Read: Putting Our Differences to Work, to learn more about the leaders and how you can learn to be a better leader and make a difference in your organization, community and in your personal life.

To end my week my wife Kathy and I had a very nice dinner with a friend I had not seen in years. My friend and I used to go on tandem bike rides in the foothills near where I live. I started going on tandem bike rides just after I learned to walk again after a very critical medical condition which took away all of my eyesight and the ability to walk for 1 year. I now walk with two canes. I have one support cane and one long white cane.

When I would ride on the bike I would fold up my canes and attach them to my larger fanny pack so I could get to them quickly and easily if I needed to walk. I always wore a helmet on my rides. As we rode I could smell the fresh air and scents of trees and flowers. I could feel the breeze blowing around my face, arms and legs. Our rides were relaxing even when going uphill as we peddled the miles away. I would listen to the birds as we rode trying to figure out what type of bird was singing. We did a lot of talking as we rode. I think I must have talked off my riding partners ears; it seemed to me. I especially liked coming down this one steep hill where we would go very fast through some gentle curves that went from side to side. At times we would have to pass cars on the side of the road or as we made turns down side streets. I could hear when the cars were relatively close to me; but I was never a bit scared or worried. I had complete faith in my friend and riding partner. We always had a great time celebrating life on our rides.
Our night out to dinner and our talk afterwards went by so quickly. It was a very nice way to end a week full of exciting life experiences and celebrations!

If I wanted to I could have stayed at home and not been engaged with others during my week on vacation. If I did this; just think of what I would have missed if I did not choose to share myself with others and allow others to reciprocate. If I took the perceived easy way of life and rushed through this month like a robot I would have missed many opportunities to enjoy what life has to offer and the ability to meet many outstanding people.

I hope that you can live every day to the fullest and can enjoy the celebrations in your life. I hope you do not pass up any opportunities because you are too rushed by the actions of just living life. Instead try focusing on the engagements and opportunities that may come up. If you do rush through life, it is like me and my friend on the tandem bike racing down the hills. You are going too fast to see the opportunities to celebrate life, meet new people and enjoy all life has to offer.

Does anyone have any celebrations you want to share with us? Do you have any suggestions to help others get engaged to find celebrations of life? What makes you feel life is worth celebrating?

We all look forward to hearing your thoughts, comments and suggestions’ to help us celebrate life’s joys.

Bill Tipton
Contributing Author
Global Dialogue Center
http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

Keep Up Your Self Confidence

Hello everyone,

I personally think it is difficult to keep up your self confidence when others are telling you that you are not able to complete certain tasks in their opinion. When others make verbal remarks to you that hurt and sadden you could negatively impact your self confidence. If the comments are focused on your disability; these comments may even hurt worse since nobody in my opinion ever chooses to be disabled.

I believe we can expand on our discussion we started in my post, SELF-CONFIDENCE: How to Improve to help us further. I am sure others have additional examples of how your self confidence could be negatively impacted with examples of resolutions.

I would like to know how you keep negative comments or inaccurate assumptions from diminishing your self confidence. How do you keep the anger and frustrations you feel deep down inside from negatively impacting the people you care about in your personal or professional life? How do you proceed ahead and keep positively focused on what is important so these negative attitudes do not impact the great work you may be doing? Do you have any possible solutions to help minimize the destructive feelings you may feel when your self confidence is in jeopardy.

What I try to focus on when these destructive feelings come up for me are the following:

• Don't allow your first thoughts be negative. If they are; take a breath before you speak or act. Maybe the comments are constructive to enhance your skills or talents and just may sound negative in the way they were presented to you.

• Gauge how much time you spend defending yourself. Fighting the battles to prove you are correct might take too long and use up too much of your valuable energy and resources. You will have to gauge how much time you should spend defending yourself and how much of an impact losing the battle will truly have on your life. If you let these negative feelings fester inside you, this negativity will show through in the other work you are doing in your personal and professional life.

• Think of overcoming this negativity or misunderstanding; look for the learning in the experience. I think that most leaders have to learn to deal with negative comments and you should think of your circumstances as good practice, no matter how painful they are.

• The obstacles you are facing might be a clue that one door is closing and another one is about to open for you. If this is true this is the time that is most critical for you to not let negativity cloud your mind, actions and visions.

• Maybe the work you are doing is pioneering work and has never been accomplished and is very technical and organizationally challenging. In these situations you will run into obstacles and more critical and negative comments than you would if you worked on more standard work. I would think that most leaders doing pioneering work have these same challenges before they can succeed in their dreams and goals.

If negative attitudes or misunderstandings are in your life; I hope they will not impact your self confidence. We are all valuable people in our own unique and different way and we should minimize the impact others have on our self confidence. I know this is extremely hard to achieve for sure. In the midst of your hurt and anger it is not easy to keep focused and continue to think clearly and rationally! If you want to successfully proceed ahead on your important life’s path; you will need to walk alone at times and leave the negative words and thoughts behind you.

We all look forward to hearing your thoughts and suggestions on this very essential topic. We are all too valuable and life is too short to let others extinguish the fire within us before we have a chance to light the torch of our passions!

Bill Tipton
Contributing Author
Global Dialogue Center
http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

Getting Lost is Not Always Bad

Have you ever been in complete pitch blackness where you could not even see your hand in front of your face and been completely lost? I have been in this situation. Read this true story below to learn more.

I was walking down the sidewalk in my neighborhood one day like I do for exercise and relaxation. Daydreams went through my mind as the suns relaxing rays warmed my body. The air smelled fresh as it blew all around me rustling the leaves in the nearby trees. I heard the occasional leaf rustle as it slid and tumbled by me. The delightful fragrances of the flowers and scented trees; like the Pines, Magnolias and Eucalyptus, lofted in the air.

Soon the sidewalk felt unfamiliar to the bottoms of my feet. I was stepping on unfamiliar cracks, gravel and dirt I was not used to be stepping on. As I walked further down the sidewalk, my arm brushed against bushes I was not familiar with. I reached out with my hands and explored the bushes with my finger tips and was correct. This unfamiliar bush did not grow this fast since the last time I had walked on this route; I thought to myself, as my uncertainty grew. I was crossing driveways with unfamiliar slopes and cracks and traveling unfamiliar distances to cross the driveways I would have passed normally on this route. The top of my head and forehead was brushing against low hanging branches and leaves from trees I never used to bump into at this point in time and distance on my route. Corners and intersections to the streets came up at unexpected times and locations.

Starting To Panic?

A small wave of panic ran throughout my mind and body. I thought to myself I must be lost! As this thought of being lost ran through my mind I tried to stay calm so I could concentrate, think clearly, get oriented and get back on course. I am diabetic and panicking would burn more blood sugars at a quicker rate, and I did not want to have a hypoglycemic (low blood sugar) attack while lost. I knew that having a hypoglycemic attack would cloud my mind and not allow me to reason and think clearly enough to get me out of my lost state. I did have my glucose pills in a plastic pill container in my pocket like I always do just in case of such an emergency.

You might think that being lost in your neighborhood is not such an obstacle to overcome.

Being lost in your neighborhood does create a special challenge for some when you have crossed a few streets in your route and you are completely blind and can not see a thing; only pitch blackness. The darkness I see is darker than if you put your cupped hands over your eye sockets attempting to block out all light. This is what I have seen since I lost all of my vision instantly one day after work in 1999 when I had a very critical unexpected medical condition.

Finding My Way Again

I continued to breathe at a steady pace so I would not get over excited. I walked for a while down the unfamiliar sidewalk listening for familiar sounds from wind chimes, fountains in yards , water running in nearby creeks and echoes and reverberations bouncing off of objects I would normally pass. I would feel for clues to where I might be with my feet and canes. I walked back and fourth and around a couple of corners to see if I could figure out where I was, based on external signals and sensations. I did not go too far in any one direction fearing I would walk further away from my destination. I tried to listen carefully to traffic on the nearby streets. I live in an undeveloped area and there is not much traffic for me to judge where I was by listening to traffic flows and patterns.
I stood in one position trying to determine where the sun was in the sky from where I felt the warmth of the sun rays hit against my body. By knowing the time of day from my brail watch and where I thought the sun was in the sky, I might have been able to tell if I was heading north, south, east or west. This method did not work well enough for me to get back on track.

Where Did I Get Lost?

I thought back along my route to see in my minds eye when and how I made a wrong turn and got off my attended route.

In my neighborhood we have rounded curbs that gently slope to the street on all sidewalks. On each corner there is a curb cut that cuts into the sidewalk from the street for wheel chair access. This curb cut gently slopes down and up on each side as you round the gradual curved corner on the sidewalk. A lot of the intersections do not meet up with each other in orderly four way intersections that are laid out in the typical plus sign configuration as two streets cross each other at even ninety degree angles. I think one possibility of what might have happened to cause me to get lost; as I walked on the sidewalk just before one of the corners where the street teed up against another street. The sidewalk became littered with small branches, dirt, leaves and small rocks. I veered towards the street to go around this minor obstacle. The sound and feedback sensations coming from the tip of my long white cane as I tapped it against the asphalt in the street felt and sounded similar to when I walked on the sidewalk with all the debris. When I veered back towards the sidewalk I still felt debris below my feet. I stayed towards the street to keep away from these obstacles and kept walking. Soon I felt a curb directly against the side of my foot. I stepped up onto the sidewalk which was clear of obstacles and debris. My only idea of how I got off track and got lost is that I must have crossed a street instead of rounding the corner as I had hoped to accomplish.

As I walked around some more attempting to get oriented I heard voices. I followed the voices until I was close enough to the person who was talking. I asked Where am I? When this question did not get a response I rephrased my question. To my astonishment this person did not know how to explain where they were. I thought to myself they might not have noticed I was carrying one long white orientation cane and one short white support cane with red tips on each and was blind. I walked some more and heard other voices in the distance. I followed these voices until I was close enough and asked again. “Where am I? What street am I on?”” I am blind and can’t see the street signs.” To my frustration and amazement this person did not know where they were either. I asked in a slightly different way what direction it was to a local street I knew I was relatively close to. They told me a direction to walk. I started walking and it did not feel or sound like it was the correct direction.

I heard another voice and once again I followed the voice to find the person who was talking. I asked the same type of questions I had asked the other two people. To my delight and excitement this person did know where they were. The last person told me the incorrect direction, and as I had thought I was walking in the opposite direction I needed to go to get back on course. These two nice and friendly people I met told me exactly where I was in relationship to where I wanted to go. They told me exactly how to get back on course. They were correct! I was back on course and back on my route once again. With great relief. I felt the sidewalk and other familiar landmarks once again that verified I was on the correct route and I was no longer lost.

I Found My Way and Made It Home

Soon I was home again. I took two hours on a walk that would have normally taken one hour. I sure had an adventure to tell my wife when I got back home after my walk.

This trip turned out to be a very good experience that provided great exercise and some good learning opportunities. Some of which I have listed below.

• Pay attention to surface changes in the routes you travel. These changes might be your only clue that you have gone off your desired route.

• Be prepared to stay out longer than you anticipate. Bring small items like I did with my glucose tablets just in case you do get lost on what you might think are short and uncomplicated walks.

• Know the surrounding streets in your route. Then if you get lost and meet up with others and they give you directions you will know how to get back on course based on their directions. Remember from my experience not all people you will meet will know where they are; or can give accurate directions. Be optimistically cautious.

• Even on short walks it is possible to get lost. I have a standard cell phone and a talking GPS system built for the blind and visually impaired which I left at home. I thought on such a short walk, which I have done dozens of times, nothing could go wrong.

• Stay calm and do not panic. This extra unintentional adventure into unknown areas should be just as enjoyable as your desired walk was meant to be. Keep smiling; it will keep you calm.

• You can think of this unintentional diversion of being lost and finding your way again as good practice. The more you get lost the better you will be at finding your way again in unfamiliar areas. Plus if I did not get lost I would have never had the opportunity to meet two very nice people.

Has anyone else been lost and been successful at finding your way again? Do you have any other tips or suggestions to help us have better orientation and navigational skills in our travels? We all look forward to your stories, comments, ideas and suggestions.

Bill Tipton
Contributing Author
Global Dialogue Center
http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

Holiday Traditions

Hello All,

Do any of you have special traditions you like to participate in during the holidays? Some of you might have limited time, failing health, medical conditions or a disability which limits the way you participate in some of your favorite traditions. After I went completely blind instantly one day after work I was able to find new ways of continuing with some of my traditions I enjoyed so much throughout the years. Even if you can not participate in your favorite tradition the way you used to; I hope you can find a way to carry on with your traditions in some way. We do not want these cherished traditions to be lost forever like some have over the years if they are not passed down from generation to generation.

Some other traditions I had to give up completely because I could no longer participate safely without any eyesight. One example of a tradition I had to give up was picking out a fresh Christmas tree from our local mountains. I used to drive to our local mountain range in my four-wheel drive vehicle. My wife and I would drive down the steep rocky and bumpy dirt trails that twisted and turned through the trees at our favorite Christmas tree farm to find the perfect spot to cut down a wonderful fresh Christmas tree. These trees had that fresh pine smell I love so much. The needles were so bright green and soft to the touch as I inspected the tree for imperfections with my fingers. Besides the joy of cutting down the tree with my family; half the fun of this tradition was the complete outing. We would get to the tree farm early in the morning. The air was pleasantly fresh, clean and cold. Sometimes you could see the fog as it wisped through the trees as the wind blew the fog and clouds up from the coast. This mountain range where the tree farm is located is near the Pacific Ocean. You could look off to the distance for miles and miles over the tree and brush covered mountains and hills. It was a very beautiful sight to behold with all of the varieties of colors outstretching as far as you could see. Some times it would be raining on our outings. On rare occasions snow would be covering the ground and the trees. We would bring hot coffee or hot chocolate in thermoses to help keep us warm. We would bring snacks and doughnuts to keep us nourished. We would also bring pieces of tissue to mark the trees as we walked through the trees so we would not get lost as we wandered in search of our perfect tree laughing and talking as we trudged up and down the hillsides with great big smiles on our faces.

Since I lost all of my vision instantly one day after work in 1999 and my loving wife does not drive on such treacherous dirt trails we had to give up this cherished tradition of cutting down a fresh Christmas tree in the mountains. Even if you have challenges I hope you find ways to carry on the traditions that are true to your heart. As you will read in my story I call Decorating a Christmas tree with a Disability you can read how I carry on with one part of this treasured tradition. Below are just a few examples of traditions others celebrate around the world that might bring back memories.

Hogmanay
Maybe you participate in Hogmanay like they talk about on BBC - Food - News and events – Hogmanay.
Hogmanay was a time for friends and fun. Friends and neighbours would get together and have drinks and the obligatory shortbread (often eaten with cheese), sultana cake, black bun and such delights as ginger or blackcurrant cordial - as well as, of course, the obligatory drams of whisky.

St. Lucia Festival, Hanukkah, Jewish Festival of Lights
Maybe you participate in St. Lucia Festival, Jewish Festival of Lights, Hanukkah or other traditions like they talk about in the California Report: Audio Archive.
Kingsburg's St. Lucia Festival
Drive a stretch of Highway 99 near Fresno, and you'll see it: an enormous coffee pot rising above the vineyards and orchards. It's really a water tower in disguise. To the 12,000 townspeople of Kingsburg, it's a proud symbol of their hamlet's Swedish heritage. The folks there rave about their Swedish coffee.
We visited Kingsburg as it celebrates a festival from the old country.
Celebrate a festival of lights -- and stays warm in the kitchen to learn the family secrets to Poppy's potato latkes, just in time for Hanukkah.

Some Great Italian Traditions
Search for Authentic Ravioli Forges Family Bonds From NPR.
New Jersey food writer Laura Schenone spent five years finding and perfecting her great-grandmother's authentic ravioli recipe.
The New Jersey writer set off on a quest to find her great-grandmother's hand-rolled ravioli recipe. Along the way, she reunited with relatives and helped mend frayed relations with others around the dinner table.

My wife and her family are full blooded Italian; so I know what a great tradition food fits into our celebrations. We have a great time on every holiday with food being the central point around family conversation and companionship. My wife told me how her grandma and mom would completely cover her bed with freshly rolled out homemade ravioli’s so they could properly dry. In the other room the sauce would be simmering on the stove giving the complete house the mouth watering aroma of tomatoes, oregano, onions, basil, beef, garlic, sausage and other ingredients as the fresh pasta sauce flavors married together to perfection. Her family would spend hours making a variety of Italian holiday cookies for us all to enjoy. I love them all; but my favorite Italian cookie is a fig cookie called Cuchidahti. The center is filled with a soft fig mixture with a delicate covering of tasty slightly crunchy dough with a delicious glaze. I am part Swedish, Scottish and Cherokee - Native American Indian; so I fit right in to my extended Italian family and do not hesitate to participate in the family food traditions we share during the holidays.

Going completely blind does not stop Bill from continuing a family tradition
I personally still like to decorate my Christmas tree. I no longer drive in the mountains where I live to cut down my own tree since going completely blind. This does not stop me from carrying on with my tradition of decorating our Christmas tree. I now decorate an artificial tree I can put together myself. Actually my loving wife Kathy helps me and we put together tree as a team. All the lights are already strung on the branches which makes it a bit easier for us. Read my story I call; decorating a Christmas tree with a Disability to help you get into the spirit of the holidays and share with me one of my favorite holiday traditions.

Do any of you have special traditions you like to participate in during the holidays? Any traditions you like to participate in other times of the year? Any traditions you have had to modify or quit because you are not able to participate any more? We wood all like to hear your tips to help us continue our traditions; if you have figured out ways to overcome any challenges you might have to allow you to continue your tradition. Any special traditions you celebrate in other parts of the world you want to share with us?

I wish you the very best in following through with your traditions; if only in your heart.

Bill Tipton
Contributing Author
Global Dialogue Center
http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

Collective Intelligence: Include The Disabled for Success

Hello everyone,

Want to be more productive at solving complex problems in groups? Work better in teams? Utilize all of your resources at their fullest potential, no matter how different some individuals might be perceived to be? Maybe you should study the way some ants bury their dead, ways fireflies in some parts of the world light up in synchronization, or the way field honey bees fly from flower to flower, collecting pollen and sweet juices, or nectar to produce honey. Read on; I am serious!

Have you ever been in a meeting and hardly anyone talked? Maybe the few outgoing people were the only ones voicing their opinions. As you might be sitting back in the meeting and listening and thinking to yourself, my thought is not valuable because it is quite different than all the other ideas that are being brought up; so I do not speak up in fear of being different.

I’ll bet you do not know how much your different point of view helps to make the outcome better for all! Without your different perspective the complete group may fail because you followed the opinions of only a few in the group; right or wrong.

If you have a disability or other unique viewpoints on the topic in discussion, or project, or program you are working on, it makes your input even more crucial to produce the very best output possible. I might even argue that if you are disabled, or have other challenges your thoughts are more important, since others do not have your unique viewpoint to offer such help or guidance.

This is true with software or hardware development as well. You would not want to develop inferior software or hardware products that are not accessible or usable by all people. In this highly competitive global market it is best to not limit your customer base to only a portion of the world’s population allowing your competitors to gain an advantage in which you may never have the opportunity to catch up. Include people with disabilities, we are brimming with innovative ideas!

With so much room for improvements in the current approach to working together, some groups and organizations have started to look at nature for resolutions and new ideas. Nature has done well when many members interact with each other with no one person directing, like the ants, fireflies and bees I mentioned

Do you wonder how such positive collaboration can happen?

Have you ever heard of swarm, or collective intelligence?

Swarm, or collective intelligence in one definition; is interacting as one large, self-organized group of computers or groups of people with all individuals fully participating, without infrastructure limitations. This is an emergent behavior, where complex group actions arise from simple local rules.

From Stephen Strogatz: Who Cares About Fireflies? We see fantastic examples of synchrony in the natural world all around us. To give an example, there were persistent reports when the first Western travelers went to South East Asia, back to the time of Sir Francis Drake in the 1500s, of spectacular scenes along riverbanks, where thousands upon thousands of fireflies in the trees would all light up and go off simultaneously. These kinds of reports kept coming back to the West, and were published in scientific journals, and people who hadn't seen it couldn't believe it. Scientists said that this is a case of human misperception, that we're seeing patterns that don't exist, or that it's an optical illusion. How could the fireflies, which are not very intelligent creatures, manage to coordinate their flashings in such a spectacular and vast way?

The answer on how this can happen is swarm, or collective intelligence.

In the May 1, 2001, Harvard Business Review, Swarm Intelligence: A Whole New Way to Think about Business by Eric Bonabeau and Christopher Meyer talks about the following.

What do ants and bees have to do with business? A great deal, it turns out. Individually, social insects are only minimally intelligent, and their work together is largely self-organized and unsupervised. Yet collectively they're capable of finding highly efficient solutions to difficult problems and can adapt automatically to changing environments. Over the past 20 years, the authors and other researchers have developed rigorous mathematical models to describe this phenomenon, which has been dubbed "swarm intelligence," and they are now applying them to business. Their research has already helped several companies develop more efficient ways to schedule factory equipment, divide tasks among workers, organize people, and even plot strategy. Emulating the way ants find the shortest path to a new food supply, for example, has led researchers at Hewlett-Packard to develop software programs that can find the most efficient way to route phone traffic over a telecommunications network. Southwest Airlines has used a similar model to efficiently route cargo. To allocate labor, honeybees appear to follow one simple but powerful rule--they seem to specialize in a particular activity unless they perceive an important need to perform another function. Using that model, researchers at Northwestern University have devised a system for painting trucks that can automatically adapt to changing conditions. In the future, the authors speculate, a company might structure its entire business using the principles of swarm intelligence. The result, they believe, would be the ultimate self-organizing enterprise--one that could adapt quickly and instinctively to fast-changing markets.

Listen to NPR: How Ants Bury Their Dead by John Nielsen - All Things Considered, December 9, 2006, the weekly Science Out of the Box segment considers the well-ordered world of ants. Their knack for carefully stacking their dead has sent researchers scurrying to see if humans can learn lessons in efficiency from them.

Ants work together in large groups performing very complicated task with no one leader. They fight battles find food and stack their dead in intricate precise patterns; and re-stack them sorting them as they do so. This research is helping to build robots that have intelligence like ants, among many other very exciting projects.

At the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence they are bringing together faculty from across MIT to conduct research on how new communications technologies are changing the way people work together. They are collaborating with other educational institutions, organizations and individuals to better understand and find new ways to leverage collective intelligence.

Just a few of the factors that facilitate collective intelligence from MIT’s Handbook of Collective Intelligence.

•  Diversity
•  Shared vocabulary and other infrastructure
•  Awareness

Some of the factors that inhibit collective intelligence from MIT’s handbook.

•  Biases
•  Implementation issues

As you have read or listened, swarm or collective intelligence can be interactions between computer to computer, computer to people or people to people just to name a few of the possible interactions. I would like to focus our discussion on improving collective intelligence between people to people and people to computer.

Collective intelligence can facilitate increased productivity in community, global (multiple organizations and individuals) and corporate project, or program teams. Can aid if you do work in Diversity, looking to leverage all employees uniqueness’s effectively or work in Human Resources and you desire your highly skilled and valued workforce to be agile to allow your employees to use their talents when and where best needed at any particular moment. Explaining why it is essential to develop, maintain and procure accessible and usable applications with universal design following such standards as the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and leveraging resources like the ones at Trace Research and Development Center and Association for Computing Machinery’s (ACM) special Interest Group on Accessible Computing to facilitate and allow all people to contribute equally and effectively. Such standards can leverage IT investments, save time, money and reduce duplication of efforts. It is best to leverage what nature has already perfected. People are just starting to understand and utilize techniques to improve outdated processes. Focus your efforts on actions that will facilitate collective intelligence and resolve any barriers which will inhibit your positive results!

If all people cannot equally participate fully with accessible and usable tools you are inhibiting collective intelligence. You need to create ways to facilitate collective intelligence so you can more easily find highly efficient solutions to your most difficult problems. Then you can adapt automatically to changing markets and environments with agility and grace. Make sure the disabled, or others with challenges can fully participate like all others efficiently. These individuals are your most valued path to your success in fully utilizing the benefits of collective intelligence.

Is anyone seeing results with swarm, or collective intelligence? Are you having implementation issues? What parts of your personal or professional life is this helping with? Do you see how it can help the disabled or others with special needs in their personal or professional life?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Bill Tipton
Contributing Author,
Global Dialogue Center
http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com

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