Richard Rueda, Director of Community Services, is visiting Taipei, Taiwan, as part of a delegation of leaders in the blind community.
On the second day of our Taipei leadership excursion, the contingent of presenters attended a Taiwan Digital Talking Books Association (TDTB) meeting at TDTB headquarters in downtown Taipei.
Upon arrival, all presenters met with Mr. Jerry Wang, TDTB President, and were greeted with gifts from Taipei. We later discussed the critical mission of the organization and employment trends of the Taiwan blind community. After a conference briefing and a quick tour of the TDTB agency, we walked to a nearby favorite lunch spot, where we feasted on seafood soups and various rice noodle entrees.
During lunch, Mr. Wang and I discussed possible partnerships between TDTB and the LightHouse. Mr. Wang and Ludy Lee, his associate, would like to assist the LightHouse in achieving its goal of reaching out to the Chinese blind community by donating some talking books in Mandarin. Additional employment-related briefings were held to assist both organizations in understanding and best serving the global employment needs of the blind community.
Other guest presenters attending this international conference included blind leaders from Hong Kong Society for the Blind, a blind leader from Japan and Robert Turner from Bookshare.org in Palo Alto, California.
We spent Monday afternoon going over the conference agenda for the next two days, followed by another business dinner in the heart of the Taipei tourist and business district.
The TDTB conference started Tuesday. I was the keynote speaker with a presentation on best practices of employing the greatest number of blind and low vision persons. The conference was expected to attract more than 200 rehabilitation officers and members of the business sector hoping to learn about and increase their working knowledge on employment and job retention of the blind and low vision community.
Writer’s note: At the time I wrote this post, I didn’t have the complete name and title of each guest presenter. Additionally, I apologize for not including pictures; my iPhone isn’t working with the WiFi so they may have to wait until I return to the office next week.
