Advertisment: Discover a variety of phones designed with accessibility in mind on Canada’s best national network. Plus special savins are available for customers with accessibility needs. Learn more. bell.ca/network Bell.
VISIONS
Canadian Council of the Blind Newsletter
October 2020
“A lack of sight is not a lack of vision”
President’s Message
Welcome to Fall
Fall is when we usually begin our programs. This year there will be some changes for everyone as we now seem to be entering a second round of COVID-19 in many areas. This is indeed troubling for everyone. It is most important that we continue and also improve our methods of staying safe. Mask wearing is vital as much as we may dislike doing so it will reduce or chance of contracting the virus. Stay vigilant.
On a disappointing note the decision has been made following lengthy discussions with officials, staff, and committee members etc. that the CVICC event will not take place in 2021 for safety reasons especially with the growing rate of COVID cases in central and some western provinces. Also, the Atlantic Sports and Recreation Weekend to be held in St. John’s has been put off until 2022. It is very difficult for teams and chapters to do any fundraising at this time. Also, many venues may not be available to host us. It is most important to err on the side of safety.
To continue to stay in touch with our chapter members and friends we can use social media for many. For those not connect to internet then a telephone conversation on a regular basis keeps in touch with everyone.
CCB National office and board have been busy preparing for membership renewals as most of you are aware that an on line option is now available for both old and new members. We are also preparing to send out the “new” Bylaws to all members followed by a special meeting to vote on same. Stay tuned for information to arrive in your mail. Following this meeting the AGM will take place in late November or early December.
All our committees are back in action working on several projects.
I continue to be involved with one of the drug companies as they research new treatments for eye diseases. This is an international company. Jim Tokos is also involved in a different aspect as well.
Leo Bissennette has been involved with AIRA with information going out to members about what is new there for you. This is a app that can be helpful in guiding you as you travel or are looking for something on a store shelf plus more.
We continue to meet with CAG every two months. One item of interest is in the preparation of a paper on the use of e-scooters. Watch for future updates on this effort.
Our GTT meetings continue and have been a great resource for many individuals across Canada. Check out the schedule to find a time to connect at ccbnational.net.
Our report for early April regarding the survey results on affects of COVID-10 on our lives continues to be reviewed many. We hope that there will be more changes in providing attention to the concerns brought forward to government.
Check your mail for messages from our National Office regarding upcoming members’ meetings.
Stay safe, wear your mask when in public spaces is most important.
Louise Gillis, National President
Announcements
CCB GTT introduces exciting new initiatives.
As many of you know the Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB) has been offering an exciting program called “Get Together with Technology” (GTT), over the past several years. The CCB GTT Program has enjoyed tremendous success across Canada.
For those of you that may be late to the game, so to speak, let me review the basics of GTT while at the same time, introduce you seasoned veterans to some new and exciting goings on.
The whole concept of the CCB GTT program is based on peer support and mentoring. Who better to teach the unique skills of adaptive technology to the blind and low vision end user then other blind and low vision folks that possess that knowledge. That is what peer support, and in general, what the CCB is all about.
There are several components associated with the CCB GTT program, they include local meetings (subject of course to future Covid-19 restrictions, please stay up to date with our blog for more details when they become available, blog location gttprogram.blog )
We offer as support list (have a tech question, ask it on the list and one of close to 300 members will in all likelihood come up with an answer or solution, list location gttsupport.groups.io )
We offer a Buy, Sell and Trade list for adaptive tech that you might not need or want anymore, but that could perhaps benefit others. list location CCB-tech-buyselltrade.groups.io
Social media presence, we have a Facebook page, Twitter feed and Blog.
Facebook page,
Twitter feed,
Blog, gttprogram.blog
Some one on one training. Are you new to technology? Need some extra help? Don’t know what phone, computer or software to buy? We can help. Simply call or write us.
1.877.304.0968 Ext 513
As Covid-19 has forced us out of the traditional face to face meeting mode, at least temporarily, the CCB GTT has adapted by holding many group sessions via Zoom. Zoom is a platform that lets us gather and participate in a meeting from our homes. Even our CCB BC-Yukon division is now using Zoom for the chapter call in sessions! If you need some basic help in understanding how zoom works, call us we can help.
Using zoom has created some new opportunities that might not have existed, or at least been thought of, prior to Covid-19. We are now moving forward by offering some more specialized groups. A new group for Android users is underway, check the blog for more info). Two more groups are in works for an early fall premier, those being a group for Women in Tech and Low vision users. Again, keep checking the blog, the list or your inbox for more info.
And speaking of more info, if you would like more information on the CCB GTT program in general, just contact us at the divisional or national level and we will get your inquiry to the correct person.
STAY SAFE everyone!
By Corry Stuive
A Special and Important Message About Your CCB 2021 Membership.
Many of you have inquired and/or wondered about your 2021 CCB membership. “How can I pay when we are not getting together?” is by far the number one question. First and foremost, thank you for your patience and understanding as we considered all options available during this difficult time.
Obviously collecting the fees at a face to face gathering or meeting is not doable this year. Let me reconfirm with absolute certainty the health and wellbeing of our CCB family, that includes members, volunteers and staff, is by far our top priority!
We are excited to now offer an online registration and payment option. The link to the CCB membership page on the Council’s website is listed below. We can also send you, or happily walk you through step by step instructions that we hope will make the process a bit more user friendly. Please rest assured that this payment and registration process is totally safe and secure. An SSL certification is enabled. Also, the CCB will not retain any credit card information if you elect to use that payment option.
Please find the CCB’s membership webpage at:
If you have any questions on the membership process, or would like us to send you step-by-step instructions on how to submit your on-line membership fee, please contact us at:
Toll-Free 1-877-304-0968
E-mail: ccb@ccbnational.net
We understand and appreciate that this may be new and/or difficult for many of our members. We get it and we have your back. Rest assured that NO MEMBER WILL BE DELETED from our organization because of non-payment. During these difficult times it is extremely important for us to maintain and have an active membership roster. This helps us generate additional funds from various sources, so we encourage you, and appreciate very much your willingness to pay your membership fee and give that support to your Council.
Thanks and Stay safe everyone!
AIRA and the CCB
Organization Plan
Aira is proud to partner with The Canadian Council of the Blind to make visual interpreting services available to more people. To encourage CCB members to try our service, we are extending special CCB Membership pricing from October 1st, 2020 through December 31, 2020.
CCB Member Intro Plan
Minutes: 30 per month
Price: $20.00 per month
Plan Share: no additional users
CCB Member Enhanced Plan
Minutes: 140 per month
Price: $99.00 per month
Plan Share: up to two additional users
To qualify for these plans, one must be a member in good standing of The Canadian Council of the Blind or its affiliates or chapters for the current membership year. Membership will be verified through our Customer Care Team.
Aira provides visual information through our smartphone app and trained agents, 24/7, 365 days per year. Agents are screened and adhere to strict security protocols. Our app uses the camera of your smartphone plus GPS and other powerful tools to give you the visual information you need, on your terms. To learn more about Aira, visit our web site at www.aira.io or call our Customer Care Team at 1.800.835.1934.
In addition, our Customer Care Team will need a direct contact and established method to verify membership in the organization. In order to continue these offers we do require that membership be validated by each organization at regular intervals.
Jenine Stanley
Explorer Community Manager
jenine.stanley@aira.io
1.614.600.7408
Aira Tech Corp.
Aira, the description of life, on your terms
www.aira.io
Us and Canada 1.800.835.1934
Australia: +1-800-765-096
New Zealand: +64-800-425-451
UK: +44-800-046-5668
Next-generation wet AMD therapy Beovu®, now available in Canada, receives positive recommendation from CADTH Drug Expert Committee
- Beovu® is an anti-VEGF treatment that offers patients extended treatment period between doses following initial dose with no compromise in efficacy2,3
- Positive recommendation by CADTH speaks to evidence and clinical benefit of Beovu®1
DORVAL, QC, Oct. 5, 2020 /CNW Telbec/ – Novartis Pharmaceuticals Canada Inc. (Novartis) is pleased to announce that Beovu® (brolucizumab injection) is now available in Canada for the treatment of neovascular (wet) age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The next-generation anti-VEGF therapy for wet AMD, offers the option for eligible patients to start on three-month dosing intervals after the loading phase. Beovu® has been reviewed by the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH) Canadian Drug Expert Committee (CDEC) and has received a positive recommendation for reimbursement by participating public health plans.
With wet AMD, which can be aggressive in its progression, abnormal blood vessels form and grow under the central retina (macula) and cause it to swell up, distorting central vision. These abnormal blood vessels may leak fluid or blood in the eye, interfering with the macula’s function and causing increasingly severe central vision loss.
“Novartis has a deep history in ophthalmology and an ongoing commitment to eliminating preventable blindness by bringing innovative treatments to patients with serious eye diseases. We are dedicated to continuing to invest in research and as well as programs that improve the lives of people with wet AMD and are very proud to bring this latest advancement to Canadians,” said Andrea Marazzi, General Manager, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Canada Inc. “We are pleased that the clinical value and benefit of Beovu® have been recognized by CADTH and look forward to collaborating with decision makers to ensure access to Canadians in a timely manner.”
AMD is the leading cause of vision loss in people over the age of 50, affecting more than a million Canadians. Symptoms of AMD involve loss of central vision, which is needed for recognizing faces, reading, driving and other daily activities. AMD comes in both dry and wet forms, with wet AMD being rarer and much more severe.
“It’s so easy to attribute a change in eyesight to getting older. We have been working hand in hand with Canadian vision organizations to drive the message across that any changes in vision should be immediately addressed. We know just how profound the impact of untreated wet AMD can be on a person’s quality of life. Keeping up with injections may be challenging on older adults who are less inclined to want to visit clinics and hospitals. This is truer today than ever before,” said Louise Gillis, President, Canadian Council of the Blind. “We are pleased that Beovu® is available in Canada. It’s a new option that offers the potential for Canadians diagnosed with the leading cause of blindness to maintain their vision and not have to worry about frequent visits for their injections. Missing out on treatment could potentially be catastrophic for someone with wet AMD.”
Anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) therapy is widely regarded as the standard of care for patients with wet AMD1. Approved by Health Canada in March 2020, Beovu® is the latest available anti-VEGF therapeutic advance, addressing the strong need for a treatment that reduces the need for frequent follow up.
Advertisment: Discover a variety of phones designed with accessibility in mind on Canada’s best national network. Plus special savings are available for customers with accessibility needs. Learn more. bell.ca/network Bell.
Assistive Technology
Apple News
Last month Apple released major new software versions of its iOS, iPad OS, TVOS, and Watch OS operating systems. The Tech Juggernaut will be releasing articles and other helpful resources to point out the new features and changes in the updates. We want to take a moment to highlight some of the important changes for Voiceover users, so you can hit the ground running without being hung up by these differences.
Voiceover Calendar Changes:
In the Apple Calendar app, when creating a new event, you will notice that the way you select start and end dates with Voiceover has been redesigned. Instead of just one picker, which must be swiped through, potentially taking a long time for you to find the date you want, you can now use a picker to select the month, then swipe right to see and hear all the days of the selected month by date. Simply double-tap on the date you want. You can even double-tap on the month picker to reveal a year picker, which makes it possible to quickly change the year of your start and end dates.
Time Pickers:
In both the Calendar and Clock apps, when creating events or setting alarms, you can now simply enter times in the time edit field. The process is extremely simple. Simply enter the time as a three or four-digit number, with the hour first, followed by a two-digit minute. Enter this with no punctuation. Don’t worry about deleting what’s there, or anything else. It could not be simpler. For example, if you want an alarm for 7:30, just enter 730 into the edit field as soon as you double-tap on it. Want 9:00? enter 900. Eleven O’clock would be 1100.
After you enter the desired time, swipe right to select either AM or PM.
TVOS Changes For Voiceover Users:
On AppleTV, there are now two modes for Voiceover – Navigation Mode and Exploration Mode. You can easily switch between the two modes by performing a two-finger triple-tap on the Remote Touch Surface. You will notice that the Rotor looks different, depending on which mode you are in, with few options being available in Navigation Mode, and additional options being present in Exploration Mode. Due to the design of TVOS, and its intended purpose, you will probably spend the majority of your time in Navigation Mode. In the event you ever need to reread something on the screen while in Navigation Mode, simply press and hold the Play/Pause button for a few seconds. Then, if you need a more in-depth look around with the Voiceover Cursor, such as reading by characters or words, you can switch to Exploration Mode with the aforementioned two-finger triple-tap. To change whether Navigation Mode uses Direct Touch or a different option, open Settings>Accessibility>Voiceover, and choose Navigation Style.
Note that many new features exist in all of Apple’s operating system.
Introducing a New Assistive Technology Blog: Windows from the Keyboard Tips
Hello. This is Gerry Chevalier from the GTT Edmonton Chapter. This weekly blog provides tips that I find useful as a keyboard user of Windows. The information is for Windows10 and Office 365, although many tips still apply to older versions. The tips do not require a screen reader unless specifically noted. Thus, the tips apply whether you are a keyboard user or low vision mouse user. Here is a new tip.
Microsoft Word – Manual Spell Check
Word has an automatic spell check that Word can do as you type your document. However, you may manually want to spell check after you complete the document or perhaps spell check a document written by someone else.
With your Word document open, press F7 to start the spell checker. The spell check window will open, show the number of spell check issues, and place focus on the “Review all Results” button.
- Press spacebar to activate this review button and you will be taken to the first issue. Word will show what it considers to be the issue, suggest a correction, and show the sentence containing the error. If you use JAWS, it will automatically speak that information for you. If you don’t use a screen reader there is also a button to have Word read the sentence containing the error to you.
- If you agree with the suggested correction, just press Enter and Word will make the correction and move to the next issue.
- Otherwise, you may TAB through the correction dialogue where you have multiple choices of actions you may take. There is a button to ignore the issue, ignore all occurrences of that issue in the document, or add the item to Word’s dictionary so it will not be flagged in the future. You may activate those buttons as needed and you will then be moved to the next issue in the document. You may also press Escape anytime to close the spell check window and return to your document.
- Also, rather than pressing TAB to move through the dialogue controls, you may simply press a single shortcut letter. For example, press key I to ignore the issue, key G to ignore all issues, or key A to add the item to the dictionary. If you press I or G, the item is ignored, and you are moved to the next issue.
- Thus, you can quickly move through all issues by simply pressing Enter to accept the correction, I to ignore it, or G to ignore all occurrences.
- There is also a Settings button in the dialogue that you may activate to change how the spell checker behaves.
That’s it for this tip. Until next time, happy computing.
In the News
Blind skier wants to share backcountry with other visually impaired people
When Tyson Rettie started to lose his vision two years ago, he had to cut short his career as a backcountry ski guide in B.C.
But with the help of his friends, he hasn’t stopped skiing.
How does he do it?
Rettie says it depends on the terrain.
If he and his friends are skiing an area with a large number of trees and other obstacles, he’ll ski close to someone who “micromanages” him, calling out each turn Rettie must make.
The 29-year-old has a rare form of Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy, which can lead to a severe loss of central vision. The condition first affected only his right eye, but later both. Rettie says he has no central vision but has some remaining peripheral sight, though it’s severely limited.
Based in the East Kootenay community of Invermere, Rettie prefers wide open alpine terrain where a buddy will describe to him what to expect at the top of the run. Sometimes he’ll simply say: “You’ve got nothing to hit for 400 metres.” Then once his friend has reached the bottom, he’ll begin calling out to Rettie, who follows the voice down the mountain.
Backcountry skiing is an experience few blind people enjoy. Rettie hopes to change that with the new Braille Mountain Initiative.
“I just thought: If I’m doing this, why can’t others?” he told Chris Walker, host of CBC’s Daybreak South.
The non-profit initiative plans to give other blind and visually impaired people the opportunity to experience the sense of freedom and independence that backcountry skiing affords. While resorts often offer guided skiing for the visually impaired, he says his initiative would be the first to provide a backcountry experience for blind skiers.
Re-learning the ropes
Rettie admits it took some time getting used to skiing without the advantage of sight.
His first season back on the hill was a “constant adjustment period.”
Every little bump and undulation tired him out because he had no way of anticipating it. And learning how to put complete trust in his guide wasn’t easy either.
“It definitely took me a while to build the confidence to just say, ‘OK, there’s nothing to hit? If you say so,’” recalled Rettie.
One of the largest obstacles for blind people who are interested in skiing is likely finances, according to Rettie. A 2019 report from the Canadian National Institute for the Blind found that more than 70 per cent of working-age blind or partially sighted people in Canada are unemployed.
But there’s also a “public perception issue,” he says.
The majority of people don’t have a great understanding of what blind and visually impaired people can be capable of.”
‘Blind skiers doing rad things’
He hopes Braille Mountain will challenge misperceptions and “inspire newly blinded people to really take on the challenges that they had thought to not be possible.”
“This is a more interesting story than just rad skiers doing rad things in the mountains,” Rettie said. “These are rad, blind skiers doing rad things in the mountains. I think that’s a valuable thing.”
Braille Mountain’s first backcountry trip — a partnership with Sorcerer Lodge, just north of Revelstoke — is slated for next spring.
By Ben Mussett, CBC News
Accessible Navigation:
GoodMaps, experts and innovators in accessible navigation and wayfinding, partners with the CNIB Foundation, Canada’s largest non-profit serving people with sight loss.
GoodMaps Explore, which was unveiled earlier this month, is an accessible wayfinding app designed primarily for people who are blind or partially sighted. Drawing upon GoodMaps’ state-of-the-art digital maps, the app uses audio instructions to communicate routing and critical spatial information as users move through indoor or outdoor environments.
“From the moment we began conversations with CNIB, it was clear that we shared a vision for drastically increasing the footprint of accessible buildings and overcoming the historical hurdles of accessible navigation,” says Jose Gaztambide, Founder and CEO of GoodMaps. “CNIB believes, as we do, in leveraging the latest technology to offer an extraordinary navigation and wayfinding experience for clients.”
In the past, indoor navigation for people with sight loss has often been imprecise and has typically relied on expensive, burdensome infrastructure. But GoodMaps Explore starts with laser mapping of the environment, then draws upon camera-based positioning (CPS), a breakthrough technology that utilizes sensors in a device’s camera to achieve superior accuracy with minimal hardware.
“We are absolutely thrilled to be partnering with GoodMaps,” says Shane Silver, Vice President of Social Enterprises for the CNIB Foundation. “This innovation represents a significant breakthrough in accessible indoor navigation and accuracy. The introduction of GoodMaps across the country will help ensure that Canadians with sight loss have greater access to more buildings and venues than ever before.”
The Power of one:
A united disability movement would undermine our individual and unique needs.
Steven Fletcher is the first permanently disabled person to have been elected to the Canadian Parliament, where he served four terms from 2004 to 2015, and the first permanently disabled federal cabinet minister. He was left a quadriplegic at the age of 23 after an automobile collision with a moose. He resides in Manitoba and is the principal of Fletcher Focus International.
The federal government has recognized that Canadians with disabilities are among the many who desperately need help during the pandemic. In July, Ottawa announced a one-time $600 payment to Canadians with disabilities, helping defray the costs associated with COVID-19; this policy has now received royal assent.
But this is inadequate, Al Etmanski and Kathleen O’Grady argued in a recent Globe and Mail opinion piece, “It is time to unify the disability movement – in the mode of #MeToo or #BlackLivesMatter – so that it can push with greater force “to influence decisions in cabinet or the Prime Minister’s Office” under a “common vision.”
This is a well-intentioned argument, and the authors raised many urgent issues. Notably, there is truth in their argument that systemic disability discrimination is baked into society with the false idea that “disabled people are unworthy.” As a wheelchair user, I continue to be boggled by the number of people who assume that people like me have cognitive or hearing problems; it continues to be a shock how many unnecessary curbs, stairs, and other barriers continue to exist, even though they could be easily dealt with.
But a united disability movement may be a bridge too far. Agitating this way would be to play a kind of identity politics that has many drawbacks, not the least of which is that it might ignore the fact there is no clear single definition of disability, nor collective agreement among people with disabilities. Treating everyone as individuals, and not as a collective, has worked much better in the past, and will continue to do so in the future. The range of disability is just too great, and the political opinions and wider interests of people with disabilities too varied, for a monolithic approach.
Consider the five fundamental human senses, for instance. Lacking one of them should be straightforwardly judged a disability, right? But while complete blindness is, in my view, a disability, the CNIB Foundation website declares that “people who are blind can do almost anything. They just do it differently.” It also seems reasonable to say that someone who is completely deaf is disabled, but many people who are completely deaf would disagree with that characterization; as is the case with sight, there is a spectrum on hearing. On the other hand, someone without taste or smell likely does not rise to the level of disability. And the sense of touch is difficult to conceptualize, as we are inherently touchy-feely creatures, though it may not feel essential; as a complete quadriplegic myself, however, I cannot feel anything below my shoulders and cannot move anything below my neck, and as a result, I cannot do any of the activities of daily living and require 24-hour caregivers wherever I go.
And is someone who has an amputation from the knee down on one leg disabled? How about two legs? How about an arm? Most of those individuals would certainly feel that they have a disability. But with advances in modern prosthetics, Canada Revenue Agency and Canada Pension Plan disability benefits may not see it that way. And definitions matter, especially in law.
I’ve seen the downsides of the collectivist approach first-hand in my time in federal politics. When the question of medical assistance in dying (MAID) arrived at the Supreme Court of Canada in 2015, the majority of organizations who claim to represent persons with disabilities warned the Supreme Court of Canada that they feared it would create a “slippery slope” to more significant harms to vulnerable populations. I, on the other hand, had spent years considering MAID through an individualist lens of self-determination, hoping to empower people with disabilities and ailments as much as possible through private member’s bills that aimed to establish strict safeguards to protect the vulnerable, while allowing competent adults to seek MAID. Despite the united legislative front against my efforts presented by every one of Canada’s political parties – including, ironically, the Conservative Party, even though its opposition would have allowed governments to overtake individual rights and tell people what they can and cannot do with their lives – the Supreme Court would go on to use much of the wording of my bills in its decision to strike down the legal prohibition against MAID.
The collectivist and individualist approaches each have their strengths and weaknesses. But it is a fundamental principle of classic liberal democracy that an individual should have the freedom to control one’s own body, and to be the master of one’s own fate, regardless of barriers or paternalistic attitudes. We are each a minority of one, and in many cases, we should agitate as such.
To be sure, people with disabilities need to be seen and need to be more involved in the political process. Most reasonable people are supportive once they become familiar with Canadians with disabilities and become educated about systemic barriers. And while it was clear that the vast majority of people in Ottawa, from politicians to media to civil servants to the common person, had no idea about quadriplegia – why would they, when I had no idea before my accident at 23? – they were accepting of me as I was. However, while Carla Qualtrough, the federal Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion, is a Canadian with a disability – and she is, I am sure, a very competent person – it should be noted that having a disability in itself does not make one qualified to deeply understand all disabilities and needs. To improve the lives of people with disabilities, we need to focus on results of public policy, rather than on some credential alone.
In my first of four election campaigns for a federal seat, I did not raise the issue of disability unless I was asked. That was because I wanted to show that people are multifaceted individuals, and that more than one issue generally animates a given person’s decision-making. This is a major part of my own worldview, at least. And that’s why I believe Canadians with disabilities should avoid uniting into a singular political movement: The individual must always be recognized, so that the solution lies in their ability to reach their full potential. After all, Western liberal democracies have long recognized the rights and responsibilities of individuals, at great cost – and artificially constructed collective identities have rarely led to desired results.
By Steven Fletcher, contributed to The Globe and Mail
…On the Lighter Side…Because We Could All Use a Laugh These Days!
PARROTS IN WILDLIFE PARK MOVED AFTER SWEARING AT VISITORS
Five parrots have been removed from public view at a British wildlife park after they started swearing at customers. The foul-mouthed birds were split up after they launched a number of different swearwords at visitors and staff just days after being donated to Lincolnshire Wildlife Park in eastern England.
“It just went ballistic, they were all swearing,” the venue’s chief executive Steve Nichols told CNN Travel. “We were a little concerned about the children.”
The African grey parrots — named Eric, Jade, Elsie, Tyson and Billy — were given to the park from five different owners within the same week, and shared a quarantining facility together before being placed on display. Most customers enjoyed the talent once the parrots were displayed.
“The visitors were giving them as much back as what they were giving to them,” Nichols said. But concern for younger customers forced staff to split up the birds and temporarily remove them from the park’s public areas. Staff now hope the birds’ language will become more family-friendly now that they have been separated.
REMINDERS
Membership Madness
Hi Everyone! Becky from the office here. Membership packages have been sent to the chapter contacts of each chapter. If your chapter would like a digital version of the membership package, please just let us know. Independent membership will be sent shortly, those who have paid online will find their invoice marked paid and sticker on their cards. Please allow for some error in this due to the time it takes for things to go through the mail. We have extended the dates this year because of the craziness caused by COVID-19.
We will not be running an Early Bird Draw this year because of situations arising from the pandemic. It is going to be harder for chapters to get together, and the post office is slower than normal. Look for this fun features return in the near future.
Chapter Rebate Deadline – December 11, 2020
All 2019 Memberships Due – December 31, 2020
White Cane Week Orders Due – December 18, 2020
WCW Insurance Requests Due – December 18, 2020
I hope this helps, and look forward to receiving your chapters’ memberships.
Becky
DON’T FORGET DONATIONS!
Donations Received in the office in 2020 are the only ones that can be receipted for 2020. Remember to send those donations in if you want receipts.
www.ccbnational.net 1-877-304-0968
ccb@ccbnational.net