Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired

Psychosocial Services Division“An Umbrella of Opportunities”

Spring, 2013 Newsletter

Notes from the Chair

Debbie Wllis, Division Chair

We want our members to know what we have been doing lately and what some of our plans are for the future, as discussed in recent executive committee conference calls. We have been working on the Psychosocial Services Division Website for the last several years. It is beginning to take shape, but there is still a lot left to do. Of course, this website is ongoing and we will always be adding to it. Presently we are working on getting the division members’ names added to the Membership section so everyone can have excess to them. It is hoped that in the near future we will be able to complete more of the sections, which include Announcements , History and Awards, Newsletters, VI Role Models on a Shelf, Assessment, and Resources. We invite our members to go to the AERBVI.org website and look at the Psychosocial Services Division Home page and website. See what contributions you might be able to make to it, as we welcome input.

Julia Klienschmidt, Past-chair, reported on the recent AER Webinar on developing websites that she attended. She said that there was helpful information presented and that she found out our division was further along in developing our website than some divisions, but well behind others. She learned the AER staff has requested that there be only one person per division or chapter contacting or sending information to the staff for the website. As reported in February, our executive committee decided that our contact person would be the Secretary, Joe D’Ottavio. We are grateful that he agreed, so we will be sending anything that needs to go on the division website to Joe. He will edit it, make corrections if necessary, and send it on to the AER staff contact person to put on the website for us. If, occasionally, you find errors or changes you feel need to

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be made, contact Joe and he will present the suggestions to our executive committee for direction. He will then work with the AER staff to make those changes, if deemed appropriate. The executive committee found that there were a few small mistakes on the division Home Page. We reported them to AER, and they have now been corrected.

Another subject that was discussed in conference calls was the need for a list of educational and psychological assessment materials. Joe also suggested a need for comments about the use and usefulness of common tests used for the blind. (See Joe’s article on “Developmental Disability Services Eligibility for Blind Students” which follows on the next several pages of this newsletter.) These comments will eventually be included in the Assessment section of our website. A list of Resources is being developed and members are asked to submit suggested materials to be included in the list. Janie Blome, Chair-elect, volunteered to make additions and/or changes to this list.

According to information obtained by Martha from the “AER-Lift on Line” webinar, divisions will be required to review their Division By-laws and change them into a Policy and Procedures Manual. They must also look at the AER Policy and Procedures manual at AERBVI.org and plan any changes that will be necessary to make the division policy and procedures compatible with those of the AER organization itself. Once this is done, the division manual should be sent to Jim Adams, President, and Lou Tutt at AER by January 15, 2014, after which it will be presented to the AER Board of Directors.

Division members are encouraged to begin making plans to attend the AER International Conference in San Antonio, Texas, July 30-August 3, 2014. Please watch for Call of Papers deadlines and get your presentation proposals in so we can be well represented at the conference. Our division sessions are usually very well attended and are helpful to many colleagues, especially those working in areas other than psychosocial services.

In reference to the next division newsletter, members are encouraged to start thinking of how they can contribute. This is your newsletter and you should want to have input. The division is also looking for a Newsletter Editor, as Martha announced that she is retiring soon! Please contact us if you are interested in being our new Newsletter Editor.

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Developmental Disability Services Eligibility for Blind Students

Joe D’Ottavio, Perkins School for the Blind

As a School Psychologist at Perkins School for the Blind, I help refer students who will need services from the Massachusetts Department of Developmental Services (DDS) after they graduate. These students need services such as long-term job support or day activity programs, but this is more than state agencies for the blind can provide. Without this support, students may go home to a sedentary life and often experience isolation and depression. I have a problem. DDS serves adults who have an intellectual disability but some blind students who desperately needed their services were initially rejected based on a partial measure of I.Q. rather than on need. There is no I.Q. score for a blind student using the standard measures.

The Problem of the Vanished I.Q. Score States in New England have similar DDS criteria. According to one state, “To be found eligible for services, the … person’s IQ score must be 69 or less. At the same time, the person must have deficits in adaptive functioning…” This seems clear enough.Several states list accepted measures for assessing intelligence. The list includes the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-IV, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-IV, and the Stanford Binet Intelligence Scales-5. Unfortunately, these tests do not provide an IQ score for a blind person. A Full Scale IQ is based on visual and verbal subtests. The visual portions of the Wechsler scales are unusable with someone who is blind and a Verbal IQ is no longer available. I like the Stanford-Binet-5 but an IQ cannot be calculated because most test items require vision.

The Wechsler Full Scale I.Q. is currently based on ten subtests in four domains: Verbal Comprehension, Working Memory, Perceptual Reasoning, and Processing Speed. The index scores for only two of these Wechsler domains are obtainable for blind students and adults, the Verbal Comprehension Index (VCI) based on only three subtests, and the Working Memory Index that is based on two subtests.

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It is inappropriate to use an index score or a single subtest as the sole criteria for denying DDS services. The law does not state that a person’s strengths or only part of their ability determines eligibility.

Some of my students have memory strengths. They may have a good ability to recall information or the meanings of words, but have multiple disabilities that resulted in poor concept development, limited practical knowledge and reasoning, impaired spatial skills, extremely limited tactual skills, and functional deficits. The VCI does not reflect these concerns. It frequently correlates poorly with functional skills.

Until recently, the Full Scale I.Q. was often used inappropriately to determine DDS eligibility for everyone in Massachusetts. This hurt all applicants, including blind students. On one occasion, the person making the eligibility decision refused to consider the adaptive functioning of one of my students because one available index score did not meet an overly strict interpretation of the IQ score criteria.

Recent Changes in Massachusetts Regarding Intellectual DisabilityThe July 30, 2012 Boston Globe article: Mass. Rule on Mental Disability Faulted reported that the Massachusetts Appeals Court ruled that the state agency that serves people with intellectual disabilities failed to justify why it established an IQ score of 70 or below as a major criterion to qualify for services. This decision led to Chapter 433 of the ACTS of 2012 that was approved and signed into law in January 2013. This new law makes the Massachusetts definition of intellectual disability consistent with the most recent definition provided by the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. It explicitly states that limitations often coexist with strengths, and that functional limitations should be considered when making eligibility decisions.

Three StudentsWithin the past several years, three of my students were initially rejected for DDS services because their VCI was above 70. Before the new law went into effect, one rejection in Massachusetts was reversed after several appeals because the student’s adaptive functioning was severely impaired. Rejections of two students from other New

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England States were appealed for the same reason and we are still waiting for a final decision.

Several years ago, I received a letter from a state Vocational Counselor about one of these students. He said that he wanted the student to apply for services from his state’s department of developmental disabilities because their state agency for the blind could provide only 18 months of support services. He felt that long-term funding would be required. This student’s Wechsler VCI was above 70 but his working memory and tactual abilities were impaired, resulting in severely limited functional skills. As his counselor, I encouraged him and his family to request DDS services and I encouraged them to appeal when he was denied. A year and several appeals after his initial application we still do not have an answer. The hearing officer requested a neuro-psychological evaluation but he still could not decide. My former student is now receiving a job assessment with a job coach at a mall. He called me last week and said that he loves meeting people at the mall but he was worried because the assessment and support was time limited. He sat at home for half a year after graduating and now worries that he will soon be sitting at home again.

ConclusionThe problem of providing adequate services for blind students with intellectual disabilities is likely to be nationwide. Few School Psychologists have experience with blind students, making it difficult for them to advocate effectively for needed services without strong support from a team of people who have that experience. Information about adaptive functioning is essential and can only be provided by parents, teachers of the visually impaired, and other professionals who work with the student.

There is an obvious need to train school psychologists and to develop new test instruments for assessing the cognitive abilities of blind individuals, but we need more than a way of obtaining an IQ score. We need a way to integrate a team and all the critical factors such as safety into decision making concerning DDS eligibility. We need to advocate for change in the DDS eligibility process for blind individuals.

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Let’s Consider A Book:Sharing Thoughts on a Worthwhile Read

Julia J. Kleinschmidt, Ph.D.

My Beloved Worldby Sonia Sotomayor

Imagine a child, a child of uneducated Puerto Rican immigrant parents living in the drug and gang infested tenements of the Bronx. The child is diagnosed with insulin dependent diabetes at age seven and then earns her J.D. from Yale Law School. A memoir by the first Hispanic Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, My Beloved World provides a fascinating roadmap for overcoming obstacles and achieving success. For those of us in AER who work with a population facing multiple life hurdles -living with vision loss in a sighted world, the challenges of attaining education, training and independence, and dealing with societal myths and stigma, Sotomayor’s story provides an engaging read and a rich source of strategies that work.

The New York Times aptly titles its review of this book, “The Bronx, the Bench, and Life in Between.” Sotomayor was born into a struggling family in 1954. Her father’s alcoholism and unpredictable behaviors, and her mother’s instability and fury at her inability to change him, created in Sonia the conviction that she could not rely on the adults in her life. She would have to be self-reliant. Aware that her parents were not resources to help with her diabetes regimen, Sonia, at age seven, learned to manage her insulin injections. “I cared deeply for everyone in my family, but in the end I depended on myself.” By age ten, inspired by Nancy Drew books and Perry Mason on TV, she decided on her life course - she would be an attorney or a judge.

Sonia was a focused, persistent, bright student who enjoyed the competition of school and who succeeded against all odds. She attended Princeton and Yale on full scholarships and learned to navigate those institutions as one of only a handful of Latinos. She was admitted to the New York Bar in 1980 and then worked as an assistant

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district attorney in New York. She later enjoyed a solo practice followed by work with a commercial litigations practice group. In 1992 she was appointed a federal judge for the Southern District of New York followed in 1997 by an appointment to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. In 2009 she was sworn in as an Associate Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court.

Justice Sotomayor’s memoir provides a warm and honest account of her life and of how she got to where she is. Her fierce determination and drive to succeed shine through on every page, and there is much to be learned that we in AER can share with the population that we serve. Some of these strategies and perspectives include:

Sotomayor identifies and learns to appreciate the positive impact that the misfortunes of a dysfunctional family and diabetes have had on her life. “There are uses to adversity…” Even as a young child she acquired a self-reliance and confidence in herself that served her well as she worked toward her goals.

Sotomayor’s 5th grade teacher awarded gold stars for achievement which spurred in this child competiveness and a willingness to work hard to succeed. She credits this strong competiveness for awards, promotions, and achievements throughout her life.

Sotomayor realized early how much she could learn from others, and, describing herself as “a happy sponge”, she has used and appreciated many mentors. Her introduction to the value of mentors began when she approached an academically successful 5th grade classmate and asked for study skills advice. The classmate provided the advice, Sonia’s grades improved dramatically, and she had learned a critical lesson, “Don’t be shy about making a teacher of any willing party who knows what he or she is doing.”

Sotomayor identifies her unstable childhood as a motivator, when approaching

tasks and challenges, to always intensely anticipate, prepare and not leave anything to chance. This intense preparation and readiness have contributed greatly to her many successes.

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I found My Beloved World to be inspirational, full of ideas that could be of help in our work around issues of vision loss, and a fascinating read. It is not yet available through Talking Books, but it can be accessed through BookShare (www.bookshare.org).

New Employment Resource for People with Visual Impairments

Karen Wolffe, Ph.D.A new international career planning and employment website designed specifically to address the needs of individuals with visual impairments is available for immediate use: Project Aspiro (www.projectaspiro.com). With fiscal support from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, the World Blind Union (WBU) and Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) worked in partnership to develop the website and make it available without subscription. WBU Employment Working Group decided to establish the website to share information with visually impaired individuals, their families, the service providers working with them throughout their lives, and prospective or current employers.

The importance of work cannot be downplayed – it is the means by which most adults support themselves and their families. Work is how modern people contribute to the larger community – giving of their energies and talents for the greater good. It is through work that individuals develop and maintain confidence and self-esteem. Unfortunately, one of the greatest challenges people with visual impairments throughout the world face is that only a very small percentage of them will manage to secure employment in the competitive labor market.

Visually impaired people throughout the world experience low rates of employment (LaGrow & Davey, 2006; United Nations, 2012; US Department of the Census, 2010; Vision Australia, 2012; Wolffe & Spungin, 2002). Employment statistics in developed countries such as the United States, Australia, Canada, and the UK have remained fairly stable for many years – employment has hovered between 30 and 40%, depending on individuals’ level of education, age, amount of vision, and overall health. In developing

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countries, the rate of employment for adults with visual disabilities is even more abysmal – rarely being reported above 10%.

However, these employment statistics only take into consideration people “in the labor market” – they don’t consider the many adults who’ve given up in despair and are no longer even attempting to find work. The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has been reporting on the labor market participation and employment of people with disabilities since 2006 and it now estimated that nearly 80% of working-age adults with visual disabilities are no longer even attempting to find work. Some of these out-of-work people are unemployed by choice – they’ve chosen to retire after losing vision or they have chronic illnesses or other disabling conditions in addition to blindness that inhibit their ability to work. However, research in a number of countries, including the US and Canada, has indicated that approximately two-thirds of those who are unemployed would like to gain employment (Taylor, Krane, & Orkis, 2010; Statistics Canada, 2010). Project Aspiro is designed to help those individuals explore career options and secure jobs, if they would like to do so.

The website is a comprehensive career planning and employment resource for individuals with visual impairments of all ages and in any stage of their careers throughout the world. There are four main sections to the website.

The first section is targeted to individuals who are blind or have low vision. Information on the site is designed to help people plan and then implement their careers. We share techniques and strategies for living independently, describe how to gain skills through formal and experiential learning opportunities, provide career exploration and job seeking skills activities and resources, and describe job maintenance and career advancement approaches. We do this with FAQs, tip sheets, and checklists designed to make the content meaningful and easily accessible.

The second section is geared toward service providers: teachers, counselors, employment specialists, or any other professionals working with individuals who are blind or have low vision. This section details how to help students and clients help themselves in exploration of their interests, abilities, values, and work personality; assessment of the labor market and information about available jobs

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and career paths, preparation for work, and describes the supports needed to facilitate successful placement into employment.

The third section is written with families and friends of individuals with visual disabilities in mind. Because we recognize that career development starts at birth and continues throughout people’s lives, this section describes the typical career development process and details how families and friends can support their children, relatives, or friends and acquaintances when they are ready to engage in work and successfully advance through their careers.

The final section is written for employers who are considering hiring applicants with visual disabilities or who have current workers losing vision. Information about appropriate job site accommodations are described for workers without vision and those with low vision. Concerns that employers have expressed related to blind or low vision individuals’ ability to work safely, travel to and from work and get around within the work environment, access printed and pictorial information, and meet productivity standards are addressed.

Each section of the website includes FAQs, tip sheets, checklists, and links to programs, services, and organizations; as well as, annotated resource listings. In addition, there are a number of audio/video segments highlighting successfully employed individuals from around the world. Project Aspiro is meant to be a dynamic website and it is anticipated that more video footage and audio interviews with successfully employed individuals with visual disabilities will be posted over time.

Please visit Project Aspiro often and share your feedback with the authors (karenwolffe@gmail.com or Arie.Opps@cnib.ca).

ReferencesLaGrow, S. J., & Daye, P. (2005). Barriers to employment identified by blind and vision-

impaired persons in New Zealand. Retrieved from http://www.msd.govt.nz/about-msd-and-our-work/publications-resources/ journals-and-magazines/social-policy-journal/ spj26/26-barriers-to-employment-identified-by-blind-and-vision-impaired-persons-pages173-185.html#References9

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Statistics Canada. (2010). The 2006 participation and activity limitation survey (PALS). Ontario: author.

Taylor, H., Krane, D., Orkis, K. (2010). The ADA, 20 years later: Kessler foundation and National Organization on Disability report. Retrieved from http://www.2010disabilitysurveys.org/

United Nations, (2012). Disability and employment fact sheet. Retrieved from http://www.un.org/disabilities/default.asp?id=255

US Department of the Census. (2010). Disability among the working age population. Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/prod/2010pubs/acsbr09-12.pdf

Vision Australia. (2012), Employment Research Survey Report 2012. Melbourne: Vision Australia Research and Measures Team – International and Stakeholder Relations Department.

Wolffe, K.E. and S. Spungin (2002). A glance at worldwide employment of people with visual impairments. Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness, 96, 245–254.

Update: The Tactile Assessment of Performance (TAP) Workshop

Dr. Joan B. ChaseHi, Division 4 friends,

I hope you are having a great Spring. I know many of you are dealing with weather and flood challenges, as well as the aftermath of the events in the news. I send good wishes to all, and hope you and your families are well and safe. The Bellevue conference provided a good chance to catch up and see those we only connect with intermittently. I send regards to those who couldn’t make it to Washington, and hope we meet soon. I have now conducted two workshops about the TAP. There were people who couldn’t make the most recent one because of Sandy’s aftermath. I have only a few kits left, so I am arranging to train up to 12 additional psychologists. The final workshop will take place in Tampa, FL on October 4, 2013.

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As there will be a small group, it will be held at the FIMC-VI, and will be one day for those who are familiar with assessing learners who are totally blind. We hope to have attendees who are less experienced with our population, as we did for the first two workshops. These Florida psychologists will have a session, probably the day before the training, that prepares them for the materials they will receive at the training. We will NOT offer CE’s this time.

If you know any psychologists who would be interested, please have them contact me very soon (see Joan’s contact information below). This is a final opportunity to have the training and receive a TAP kit, along with the other materials I distribute at no cost. Thanks to all who already participated and for your helpful responses. I have heard from several people who are using the materials, and it is gratifying to know that students who rely on tactile/ auditory input are being evaluated with a wider range of instruments. Best wishes,Dr. Joan B. Chase, jbchase@gte.net 727-733-7771

Meet – A – Member

Terrie Terlau

Editor’s Note: In each of our division newsletters we have an opportunity to meet some of our new members through our Meet-A-Member column. By their answers to our questions concerning their jobs and their training, as well as their feelings about our service to persons who are blind and visually impaired and our Psychosocial Services Division itself, we hope to get to know a lot about them. All members of our division are invited to send in information about themselves and we look forward to receiving it.

This Spring’s Newsletter introduces Terrie Terlau of the American Printing House for the Blind in Louisville, Kentucky. We welcome her to our division and hope that we all get to meet her in the near future. Here are Terrie’s responses to our inquiries:1. Describe your current employment and work/volunteer history.

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I work as the Adult Life Project Leader in the Research Department of the American Printing House for the Blind. After a product is accepted for development by APH, it is assigned to a project leader who works with the expert who proposed it to finish it and make it producible. My products range from transition to geriatrics and have included the following: Dr. L. Penny Rosenblum’s video, Reclaiming Independence: Staying in the Driver’s Seat When You No Longer Drive; Dr. Karen Wolffe’s Transition Tote, Revised; The Braille DateBook; and Dr. Fabiana Perla and Betsy O’Donnald’s O&M Family Booklet, and lot more.

I am a licensed Counseling Psychologist and, before coming to APH in 2001, I worked with adult survivors of severe child abuse at a Rape Crisis Center and in private practice. I also worked at a university counseling center.

2. Why did you enter the field?

I was drawn to the VI field because I, as a blind adult, believed that I had gained a perspective and perhaps some wisdom that I might be able to share with the field. I was exploring direct client service options when I saw the APH position. I enjoy working with products that may benefit persons with visual impairments and professionals across the field.

3. What changes would you like to see in our profession?

We need major publicity about our credentials and what we do so that we can attract young, qualified persons to our profession.

4. What do you see as the benefits of belonging to our Psychosocial Services Division?

I believe that mental health issues, as they pertain to learning the VI skill set and belonging to a stereotyped group, need to be addressed far more than they are. I value this division for addressing these issues. As a long-time mental health professional, I deeply appreciate the perspective of other kindred spirits.

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Thanks so much Terrie. We all look forward to meeting and working with you soon.

Blind Musicians

Billy Brookshire

Editor’s Note: We found out recently that Billy Brookshire, one of our past Division chairs, has been doing a lot of research on musicians who are blind or visually impaired. We asked him to start sharing some of his findings with us. Here is the first of what we hope will be many submissions about these musicians who have made a name for themselves over the years. Some may be very familiar to you, while others may be new to all of us. We hope you enjoy reading about them and we thank Billy for sharing them.

Billy says he’s been researching “Blind Musicians” for a presentation and keeps tumbling onto wonderful bits of information. For instance, check out these findings from recent studies:-“…researchers think it is possible that the traditionally visual areas [of the brain] might have been recruited for some other function, possibly for processing touch input they receive by reading with their hands.”Dr. Harold Burton and Colleagues, Washington University, St. Louis (2002)

- “…blind people are up to 10 times better at discerning pitch changes than the sighted -but only when they went blind before the age of 2.”Pascal Belin, University of Montreal (2004)

- “…48 per cent of blind children demonstrated great interest in everyday sounds, compared to 33 per cent of those who were partially sighted and 13 per cent of those who had full sight. Ninety percent of blind children were particularly keen on music, against 67 per cent of partially sighted children and 38 per cent of those with full sight. Sixty-eight per cent of the blind and partially sighted children played at least one instrument, compared to 41 per cent of the sighted group. Parents of the blind children also reported that music was particularly important as a source of comfort, helping youngsters relax and express their emotions.”

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Adam Ockelford, visiting research fellow at the Institute of Education, London (IOE), Christina Matawa, Wandsworth

These findings seem to support what we’ve been taught is a blindness stereotype…that is, when vision is absent or diminished, the other senses improve…so maybe there’s more truth to that old myth than we supposed. Apparently, the brain actually does re-purpose its functions (visual areas being re-programmed to utilize auditory and tactual information more efficiently). Several research projects show that blind persons really do have a sensory advantage when it comes to discerning musical pitch. Does this pre-dispose blind kids towards interest and careers in music? Does it give blind musicians the competitive edge? I don’t know the answers to these questions; but I’m discovering some fascinating history, powerful personalities, and outstanding achievements as I explore the world of blind musicians. I’d like to share my discoveries with you. Stay tuned.

Editor’s note: Following is information about three interesting musicians who were blind or visually impaired, as discovered by Billy in his research.

Shi Kuang (572-532 BC)

Shi Kuang was a famous court musician (a traditional profession for blind persons in China during that era) in Jin (southern Shanxi province) during the reign of Duke Ping. Kuang was blind from birth, very capable, and noted for his outspoken social and political views. He sang and played the quin (a fretless Chinese board zither with seven strings). He was revered throughout China for his musical knowledge. Music historians write that ‘when Kuang played the quin, it affected the spirit.’ It has also been written that Kuang could predict good and bad luck, victory and defeat through his music. Many stories persist about his musical prowess, like the following: ‘The people of Jin once heard that Chu soldiers were coming. Shi Kuang said: “They will not attack us.” Suddenly he sang a northern air, then a southern air. Chu did not attack.’ Shi Kuang believed that music could influence the rise or fall of the state. One legendary story explains that when the king refused to listen to Kuang’s message about the suffering of

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the people and the need for reform, Kuang, to awaken his conscience, chose to commit suicide with his instrument in front of the monarch. The same legend asserts that Kuang then became the Deity in charge of music and the patron of blind fortune tellers.

http://www.silkqin.com/09hist/qinshi/shikuang.htm l

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/china-news/shi-kuang-the-deity-of-music-337341.html

Blind Harry, also known as Harry, Hary or Henry the Minstrel (c. 1440-1492)

Blind Harry is renowned as the author of The Actes and Deidis of the Illustre and Vallyeant Campioun Schir William Wallace, which was a lengthy poem recounting the life of William Wallace, the Scottish freedom fighter, written around 1477. Little is known of Harry’s life. He was most likely born into a noble family perhaps from the Lothians and thought to be blind from birth. His master-work is the main source of information on Wallace’s life, and although much quoted and an influence on both (Alexander) Scott and (Robert) Burns, it has subsequently been shown to have significant inaccuracies. The text of the poem is contained in a manuscript, now held by the National Library of Scotland. Between 1473 and 1492, Blind Harry is recorded as being paid for performances as a minstrel at the court of James IV in Linlithgow, and gained his living by reciting the Wallace poem to his own accompaniment on the harp at the houses of the nobles. (Historian John) Major is the only writer from whom any information regarding Blind Harry is known and consists of one brief sentence: “Henry, who was blind from birth, in the time of my infancy composed the whole book of William Wallace, and committed to writing in vulgar poetry, in which he was well skilled, the things that were commonly related to him. For my own part, I give only partial credit to writings of this description. By the recitation of these, however, in the presence of men of the highest rank, he procured, as he indeed deserved, food and raiment.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_Harry

http://www.thirdmillennium-library.com/readinghall/GalleryofHistory/WilliamWallace/Harry.html

Emile “Stale Bread” Lacoume (1885-1946)

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As a youngster, guitarist Emile “Stale Bread” Lacoume led a ragtag group of very young New Orleans street musicians, the Razzy Dazzy Spasm Band, which is credited by some music writers as being the first jazz band. “Stale Bread” was a visually impaired newsboy who played a violin (sometimes described as a zither or viola) on a street corner in New Orleans to attract customers. Experimenting, he hit upon a new kind of music. It was wild, entertaining, and infectious and drew many to his corner. Eventually, attracted by the music and the resulting tips, others joined him, picking up whatever instruments they could lay their hands on. In 1896, at the age of 12, Lacoume formed his first band and christened them “Stale Bread’s Razzy Dazzy Spasm Band”. In the original band, Stale Bread played a home-made zither, Willie “Cajun” Bussey - the harmonica, Emile “Whiskey” Benrod - the string bass (constructed on a half barrel strung with clothesline cord and played with a bow made of a cypress stick), Cleve “Warm Gravy” Carven - the cheese box banjo, and Albert “Slewfoot” Montluzin - the four string soapbox guitar. Stale Bread built many of the instruments himself. In their performances, they included shouts of “Hi-de-Ho” and “Hotcha” which were later copied by many early performers. They played in front of theaters, bawdy houses, and bars (including the West End Opera House at some point.) Actress Sarah Bernhardt reputedly gave the band gratuities when they performed for her in 1900. By 1903 they were practically legitimate - playing mostly regular instruments.

For a scruffy group of kids playing homemade instruments on street corners, the Razzy Dazzy Spasm Band left a large imprint on history. Some jazz enthusiasts credit Lacoume and his band as being among the very earliest to play music that could be called jazz. Herb Asbury in his book The Latin Quarter calls them “the original jazz band” and Stale Bread has been credited by the New Orleans Jazz Hall of Fame as “one of the originators of the New Orleans Jazz sound when in 1897 he founded The Razzy Dazzy Spasm Band.” Lacoume was the only member of the band who became a professional musician. He upgraded to a store-bought guitar, taught himself how to play both guitar and banjo by listening to Skiffle bands of the era, and teamed with mandolin player Frank Landry for jobs in Storyville, the infamous red light district. He also worked with dance bands around New Orleans and at resorts on Lake Pontchartrain, as well as with the Halfway House Orchestra. He played in many of the legendary 1920’s and 30’s New Orleans jazz bands which included jazz pioneers like Monk Hazel (drums, cornet), Florencio Ramos

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(saxophone), Charlie Fishbein (violin), Buzzy Williams (ragtime piano) and Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong (cornet, trumpet, singer). Stale Bread said of Armstrong: “That boy’s got chops”. Satchmo went on to become one of the greatest Jazz performers of all time. To the end, Lacoume consistently denied the claim that he was the Jazz originator, but his gravestone (thanks to his daughter) bears the inscription “Creator of Jazz”.

http://www.19thcenturyguitar.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=121:lacoume-emile-stalebread-1885-1946&catid=46:songsters-and-jazzmen&ltemid=63

http://books.google/com/books ? id=18xaZMho67EC&pg=PA171&lpg=PA171&dq=Emile+Stalebread+Lacoume&source=bl&ots=-

l0NcPN60S&sig=QtGCE8fFstBUgbJfiDkJePTU9lw&hl=en&ei=18P4TZH6Cl64twfLvNnbCg&sa=X&oi=bo20Stalebread%20Lacoume&f=false

http://www.old-new-orleans.com/NO_Jazz_Bands.html

Division Membership Report

Our membership list has changed a little since the Fall, 2012 Newsletter. We seem to have lost a few members, according to the report from AER. Dorothy Mumford, Bret Page, and Susan Olson are no longer listed in our division. If you feel that this is a mistake, please notify the AER office. We would be interested in knowing why they choose to leave our division. Their comments could initiate some changes in the way we function. The good news is that we are able to welcome back former members, Donna Durham of Cincinatti, OH, and Brigid Doherty of Falls Church, VA. We hope they will become active again in the future and we look forward to renewing old friendships.

Psychosocial Services Officers’ Contact InformationChair: Debbie Willis Chair-elect: Janie Blome Secretary/Treasurer: Joe D’Ottaviodwillis@aph.org jblome@aph.org joe.d’ottavio@perkins.org Past-chair: Julia Kleinschmidt Newsletter Editor: Martha Simmons julia.kleinschmidt@hsc.utah.edu Grannymms@aol.com

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