Updates

 

IT IS FINALLY HERE! WHAT YOU ALL HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR!

 

Don Mahoney: Television Star: Chong, Peggy: 9781098082956: Amazon.com: Books

 

My first book in print!  Get your copy today!

 

Read about Don Mahoney, a man who decided to keep his blindness a secret and did so for almost ten years.

 

Please get your copy and encourage others to purchase a copy today.

 

This book is a great story for school and public libraries to include in their persons with disabilities collection.  

 

Get my book, read it and tell me what you think.

 

Peggy Chong

 

 

 

And

 

If you would like to have a presentation from The Blind History Lady, please send an email to theblindhistorylady@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

 

THOSE SOON TO BE IN OUR HISTORY

 

On December 10, 2022, We lost a major force in the legal struggles in the blind community.  Not just hear in the United States, but across the world.  

 

Scott LaBarre (1968-2022)

 

Born in Minnesota, Scott LaBarre became blind in the fall of 1978 at the age of ten. Already steeped in society’s fears and misconceptions about blindness, Scott thought that his life was over. A good education and prompt training in basic blindness skills through his local school district helped Scott to believe he might have a future.

 

In 1986 Scott applied for scholarships to attend college, including one from the National Federation of the Blind (NFB). In order to obtain the NFB scholarship, Scott and his fellow applicants were required to attend the organizations’ national convention. Scott’s plan was to take the money and run. By the end of the national convention, however, Scott was hooked.

 

Scott joined and became active in the NFB of Minnesota. He helped the organization to fight discrimination against the blind by the Valleyfair amusement park after he and a number of other blind people were denied access to rides solely on the basis of blindness. While attending college, Scott obtained an internship with Minnesota Congressman Gerry Sikorski. After finishing law school, he accepted a job in the Governmental Affairs office of the NFB at its Baltimore headquarters.

 

Scott moved to Colorado to accept a job with the Colorado Center for the Blind that, for a time, departed from his training and experience with the legal profession. In 1998 Scott opened his own law firm, LaBarre Law, which specialized in disability law. As an active member of the American Bar Association, he has worked tirelessly to educate other attorneys regarding the abilities of the disabled.

 

In 2005 Scott was elected president of the NFB of Colorado. Under his leadership, the organization secured the passage of legislation to protect the rights of parents with disabilities and obtained the adoption of laws to make Colorado’s vote-by-mail system accessible to people with disabilities. The affiliate was also responsible for the creation of a Blindness and Low Vision Services unit with Colorado’s Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR). The NFB of Colorado grew under Scott’s leadership.

 

Nationally, Scott was an original member of the steering committee for the Jacobus tenBroek Law Symposium. He led the international team that crafted the Marrakesh Treaty, which allows books for the blind to be exchanged between countries signing the treaty.

 

 

Doris Willoughby

Doris Mellott Koerner Willoughby was born on June 29, 1936, in Easton, PA, and died on 

September 8, 2021, in Lakewood, CO. She moved to Boulder, CO, with her family when she was 11 and graduated from Boulder High School as class valedictorian in 1953. She earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Grinnell College in Grinnell, IA, in 1957 and taught second grade in Cedar Rapids for 11 years. 

 

She met her husband D. Curtis Willoughby in 1966. They were married on June 24, 1967, in Cedar Rapids, IA, and honeymooned in Clear Lake, IA, Los Angeles, and Hawaii. The event in Los Angeles was the national convention of the National Federation of the Blind, the first of over fifty NFB conventions for Doris. 

 

From the time they met, Doris became a driver and reader assistant for Curtis. Since he was an electrical engineer, perhaps the first blind electrical engineer in the country, and most of the material he wanted to read was technical, Doris’s assistance was extremely valuable. 

 

During the school year 1966/7, Judy Young, a young blind woman, was seeking a degree in 

elementary education from the State University of Iowa, but the University had difficulty finding a place for her to do her student teaching. Doris volunteered to be the supervising teacher and enjoyed the opportunity to work with Judy. Together they found techniques to make Judy an excellent teacher. Doris received her certification in the teaching of blind children in 1969 after studying during the summers and evenings and then began teaching blind children. 

 

The Willoughbys moved to Des Moines in 1972, and Doris taught blind children there until 1993. Curtis was often asked to work on electrical and telephone equipment at the Iowa Commission for the Blind, and Doris often assisted. Shortly after they were married, she said with a smile, “I married an electric wire.” 

 

In 1990, she received her ham radio operator’s license. Her husband, mother and sisters have all been hams. Doris continued to work with Curtis on many projects for nearly 30 years. Doris was an active member of the United Methodist Church and invited Curtis to join. They continued in this denomination in Des Moines and in Colorado. 

 

The Willoughbys moved to the Denver area in 1993, and Doris received a master’s degree from the University of Northern Colorado soon after that. Doris taught blind children in the Adams 12 School District near Denver. She later taught blind adults at the Colorado Training Center for the Blind, where she helped students prepare for citizenship and the GED test, among other things. 

 

Doris was a pioneer and leader in the education of blind children for at least 4 decades and wrote or co-authored 4 books on that subject. At its 50th anniversary convention, the National Federation of the Blind honored Doris with its highest award in education: the Distinguished Teacher of Blind Children Award. 

 

Doris was soft-spoken, kind, generous, creative, and hardworking. She was preceded in death by her parents Margaret and Harold Koerner. She is survived by her husband and her sisters (Margery Herrington of Pueblo, CO, and Marian Lord of Omaha, NE). There are 6 nephews and nieces and 9 great nephews and nieces. 

 

Doris was an important part of the Willoughby and Koerner families, her church congregations, the NFB, and her communities and will be missed by all.