When E.A. Baker returned to Canada after his rehabilitation at St. Dunstan's he brought with him a belief in the importance of good grooming and attention to personal appearances. He recognized that his future work life would be in offices, not farms or factories, and he felt he need to equip himself for that reality. His comments reflect social conditions for blind Canadians at the time.
Given his lifestyle as a white collar worker, and his St. Dunstan’s training, E. A. Baker describes to his biographer how he accomplished some of his needs for being properly attired.
Edwin Baker describes the moment in the trenches when he was injured and the immediate aftermath.
Sherman Swift to the Hon Walter Scott, Premier, Saskatchewan
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Sherman Swift to Sir Frederick Fraser
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D. Orput, Readaphone Corporation to E.A. Baker, CNIB
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Sir Frederick Fraser to Sherman Swift
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W.O. Carson, Librarian and Secretary, London Public Library to Sherman Swift, Librarian CFLB
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In 1994, inventor Ray Kurzweil received CNIB’s Winston Gordon Award, recognizing his achievements in significant technological advances benefitting people with vision loss. In this excerpt from his speech he talks about the digital revolution just beginning to unfold.
While working in 1959 as a chemistry teacher and the head of the science department at Don Mills Junior High School in Toronto, Saxton was asked by a colleague to donate two hours a week to CNIB, reading to people with vision loss. Despite having no experience in this area, Saxton agreed immediately Peter celebrated his 50th year of volunteering with CNIB in April 2008. He has spent the lion’s share of those years as a narrator for CNIB Library’s audio book service, but says that for the first seven years he did no recording at all. For his first volunteer assignment he learned two hand manual communication to assist Mae Brown with her studies. She went on to become the first deaf blind Canadian to graduate from university. Peter volunteered twice a week in the Audio Publishing program where his research skills were put to great use narrating a broad range of non-fiction topics, including many in First Languages.
