Dave Mason And A Place That’s Far Away

by Kevin Burton    There was just one song that brought Dave Mason into my top-40-based musical awareness in the 70s, but that was enough to keep him there.    Mason died April 19, and tributes began to pour in from people who knew him as I didn’t,  as a co-founder of the British rock …

Floating An Idea For Next Year’s Anniversary

by Kevin Burton    From out of the blue, (and from the Associated Press) I get a super idea for a fun adventure. And my wife is shooting it down.    But wait.  I say this is a developing story. We have almost a whole year to talk things over.    Stay tuned dear readers, …

Blind Moroccans Locked Out Of Services

by Khadija Tachfine Hespress.com    The more than 400,000 visually impaired people in Morocco continue to struggle to access education, employment, health services, and other services, despite reforms the country adopted to promote inclusion.    From the UN Disability Convention to the 2011 Constitution and Framework Law 97.13, which aims to protect and promote the …

The Last Jump Shot Of A Confirmed Gym Rat

by Kevin Burton    My most recent place of employment was a three-story church, which had, on the third floor, a gymnasium.    I almost never went up there because my work was on the other two floors. But the whole time I worked there, there was a basketball on the floor, in the office, …

The “Voice Of The Blind” Opens In Romania

by Oana Ghita and Rodica State Agerpress    Romania’s First museum dedicated to the history, culture and contributions of blind people opened Thursday in Bucharest.    The ‘Regina Elisabeta’ Technological High School in Bucharest, in partnership with the Light into Europe Foundation, inaugurated the ‘Regina Elisabeta’ Museum of the Blind Community and Education.   According to …

The Weather Outside Was Cold, Not Frightful

by Kevin Burton    Those color-coded national weather maps always showed the true snow calamity hitting other regions. We in Central Kansas were to be spared.    But there were breathless local forecasts calling for eight inches of snow on Saturday. My “rule of half” said we would get about four.    Sure enough, by …

Disabled Musicians Make Sound Beyond Limits

By Kintan Andanari The Straits Times (Singapore)    When Siti Sakinah Zainal sits at the piano, fingers poised on its keys, she begins not by looking at the conductor’s purple baton, but by listening intently.    She focuses on the sound of his slow, measured breath, amplified through his microphone. On cue, she starts Georges …

Opportunity Lost, Conscience, Laundry Clean

by Kevin Burton    I set the phone down in the office, just long enough to go downstairs and start a load of laundry.    How virtuous is that!    But alas, in doing so, I let a precious opportunity slip away. “Kicking myself” is not the half of it.    I don’t often leave …

Look Both Ways And Beware Of Jay Drivers

by Kevin Burton    What I see 20 feet away, you can see 200 feet away. By definition therefore, I am legally blind.    So you would think, all other things being equal, my career as a jaywalker could/should be painfully short, or maybe even disastrously shortened.    I was very nearly run over by …

Blind Cape Town Riders Facing Cuts To Service

by Kiara Wales Daily Maverick    National Disability Rights Awareness Month in South Africa ran from Nov. 3 to Dec. 3, but two visually impaired Cape Town residents have never felt less visible.    Sergil January and Benjamin Pedro are employed at the Cape Town Society for the Blind (CTSB), as an awareness officer and …