Dear fellow AEBC members: 

I hope that this blog finds everyone well.

As our 2013 AGM fast approaches, I thought that the time would be now for me to tell you that I will not be running for a second term as president of the AEBC.  With attending Law School, running my own business, and other family commitments, time would not permit me to give enough commitment and effort to the AEBC.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who took the time and made the commitment to help me over the last two years and I thank the AEBC members for having given me the opportunity to be your president.  It has been a privilege and a great learning experience for me and I wish each and everyone of you the very best in your future endeavours.

Dear fellow AEBC members:
Ah yes!  October is soon going to be a memory and here comes November.  Christmas and our holiday season are just around the corner and I can already hear Santa's reindeers arguing with each other as to who is going to sit in the front seat with Santa when he sets out from the North Pole in less than two months from now.
 
As always, I'd like to thank those of you who took the time to stop by to share your feedback and comments with me so here we go.   
 
My quote for this month is as follows:
 
The most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.
Pierre de Courbertin
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Dear fellow AEBC members:

Well!  Happy Canada Day to each and every one of you!

I hope that June has been a great month for each of you and that the oncoming summer will be an enjoyable one.  Time for us to kick back for a bit and savour the kinder weather.

I again thank those of you who have taken the time to drop by and give us your feedback and I hope that you continue to do so.  For it is only with your feedback that I along with your national board can become better at steering the ship.

You can send your feedback to info@blindcanadians.ca.  

My quote of the month is as follows:

Dear fellow AEBC members:

Well, we are almost here! Yes, just a few short weeks before our 20th AGM and I think that each and everyone of us should be very proud that we belong to an organization that has managed to stay on its feet for this long despite very rough and choppy seas! These seas are probably going to remain rough and choppy for a while longer but I know that we will weather it all.

As technology continues to travel the tracks on its merry way, we find that more and more, blind kids are struggling to keep up when it comes to being able to enjoy the excitement and fun of modern technology.  With more and more toy manufacturers coming out with nifty ways for kids to learn to read, write, do math, and spell, blind and sight impaired kids need to be given ways to enjoy all of this as well.  Each time I hear those commercials on TV of kids having fun with various learning games, I ask myself how much of this is or can be available to blind and sight impaired kids.

When it comes down to it, we could easily compare it to a slice of pie.  What am I going on about today?  Well, here goes!

In my humble opinion, we are each assigned a slice of pie when we come into this world.  Each slice is of the same exact size but we can increase or decrease the slice of our pie depending on our actions throughout our life.  If we take our slice and make things happen, if we take it and use it as a means to help expand our horizons, and if we take it and use it to help others, then the size of our pie will definitely grow.

In the normal scheme of things, we feel that it is our kids who need to listen to us but sometimes; we need to listen to our kids.  Whenever we think that they are not paying attention then guess what?  They are and much more than we think.  Whenever we think that they are shutting us out, it is we who are doing it, not them.

This topic is very near and dear to my heart.  To put things into perspective:

• Access technology is much more expensive than mainstream alternatives, and much less available on the market.   
• It is extremely challenging to have access technology repaired as opposed to its counterpart.
• There are few manufacturers of access technology hardware and even fewer developers of access technology software.
• The profit to be made for those who develop and sell access technology is much less than for those who do the same for mainstream technology.
• Access technology has to be developed in such a way as to adapt to the mainstream world.

So there is the picture.  Now where do we go from here?