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“Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream of one day
the sons of former slaves sitting
at the Table of Brotherhood
with the sons of former slave owners
has been achieved.

The Table of Brotherhood is a table
with a computer on it and good people around it,
learning, solving problems and having a great time.

I’ve been at this table for almost a quarter of a century
and highly recommend the experience for everyone.”

Nayer, Computer Underground Railroad

Inventor, CompUrest Keyboard Stand -
U.S. Patent No. 5,188,321
Computer armrest that provides comfortable support,
reducing computer injuries

Author/Teacher - How To Compute
Quick start training system on how to use a PC

Summary: Experience using computers since 1977 to solve problems & achieve goals

n Write training notes http://www.geocities.com/computerjoint. Teach over 3,000 people how to use a computer using Microsoft Windows and Office. (Early training - Windows & Word Perfect). Accomplished w/M.S. Project Manager.

n Assist small business people in setting up and implementing their computer systems & databases.

n Write business plans (using a program - Success), promo material, programs and web pages.

n Help “underdog” candidates run for office in Harlem (Congress, State Senate and City Council.)

n Speak on PA cable shows with training shown. Training coverage, 12/97 WOR-TV

· Research environmental issues in Harlem and inform residents, politicians and organizations.

o Hanta Virus; Harlem surrounded by five open sewers; 125th Street as Manhattan’s largest earthquake fault line; Health impact of city bus stations in Northern Manhattan; Harlem’s high infant mortality rate; Harlem’s flood dangers should ocean levels rise; Ibogaine as a natural solution to the urban crack/cocaine problem; dry cleaner building used as school.

· Hold weekly community idea feasts and information events to create a dialogue of solutions and expand awareness of computers and the web.

· Create flyers, brochures, and mailings for community residents (MS Word, Excel, WordPerfect).

· Data entry, mailing, flyers, programs, cards, etc. service using WordStar, Word Perfect, Lotus 123, Ventura and PageMaker. Used DOS and Windows.

· Co created an envelope for a floppy disk that you can print the directory on (FloppyLope 4,708,285) - Did not get inventor’s credit on the ppatent, but received assignment for 50%.

· Co-created Computer Keyboard Stand (CompUrest 5,188,321) that heals computer injuries.

1981 - 84 Assisted various start-ups and busiinesses including RCA’s The Entertainment Channel, Blue Parrot Records

1981 United Press International - Account Executive - Sold service to broadcast media and corporations

1977-1980 ABC, Inc. WPLJ-FM Director of Sales Operations - Scheduled over $10 million worth of commercials and PSA’s for the ABC flagship FM station using a Marketron mid-sized computer. First computer job.

1974-77 CBS, Inc. Television Network, Executive Secretary to VP Special Programs, WBCS-TV Administrative Assistant to the Executive Producer, 60 Minutes - Secretary/Receptionist, Radio News - Desk Assistant.

1973 Inner City Broadcasting - WLIB - Traffic Manager - manually schedule commercials, on air community affairs host (Positive Vibes);

1973 National Black Network - Assistant Audio Tape Editor - Edit stories, assign stringers, interview newsmakers over the phone

J. Nayer Hardin is the founder of Computer Underground Railroad Enterprises (C.U.R.E.). With her co-inventor friend Bernard Hirschenson, she invented the patented CompUrest Keyboard Stand, which healed her extensive computer injuries in less than a month. Eleven years later, her injuries are still gone. She has also created a style of computer training, How To Compute, that’s helped over 3,000 people between the ages of 4 and 92 learn how to use a personal computer. The training was covered on New York’s WOR-TV in 1997 and her classes were featured on local cable shows including the Harlem’s Winston Gilchrist Show.

Necessity is truly the mother of invention. Nayer had three computers in her home by 1987 and helped everyone she could benefit from her computers. Carpal tunnel syndrome, repetitive stress injuries and late night computer pain became the norm in her life. She learned her extensive computer injuries were osteo-arthritis, which comes from wear and tear on the joints and nerves, like fast keystrokes and the subtle repetitive body movement from paper to keyboard to monitor and back. Her right arm was paralyzed twice from typing 119 w.p.m. and she lost her ability to walk once from back pain. Because she loves being on computers, she had to do something.

“A Course In Miracles, written at Harlem’s Columbia University, has a great lesson for inventors in the medical field. (ACIM, W, p. 250) Lesson 136 - SICKNESS IS A DEFENSE AGAINST THE TRUTH. Sickness is frequently caused because our bodies need something they are not getting, as in with AIDS, the body needs a strengthened immune system. (A great book on the subject is by a woman who healed herself from AIDS back in 1986. It is entitled WHY I SURVIVE AIDS, by Niro Markoff Asistent.) The truth I was defending against was that I stressed my body to contort to the needs of the computer, without providing the physical support my body needed.”

Nayer's grandmother, Frances “Nayer” Turner, told her to rest her arms on a pillow. She noticed an improvement the next day. ‘Maybe if I provide continuous support during the computer work, that would heal and prevent the injuries from occurring. The splint technology worked.’

Nayer, who could barely move at the time, told her friend Bernie Hirschenson that she needed an armrest with an indentation to fully support her forearms all the way to her elbows, a lowered keyboard well to eliminate bending wrists when keying and backing to hold the keyboard in place. He constructed the armrest from solid oak pieces. When she laid her arms on her CompUrest she smiled deeply. The pain relief and comfort were undeniable. “It’s cause and effect. By removing the cause, the stress created by a lack of adequate support, the effect, the injury, healed. Eleven years later, with regular use, the injuries never returned. CompUrest’s comfortable computing prevents injuries by replacing stress with support. Comfort and safety in the same product.”

“Second hand information in the information age is the new slavery. If you have to go to another for your daily data, it will be old news by the time you get it, if you get it.” In the late 1980’s Nayer met Harlem’s Mother Clara Hale arranged by her daughter, Dr. Lorraine Hale. Mother Hale told Nayer that there was something going on with computers and Harlem was being left out. Nayer realized that computer illiteracy was not limited to Harlem, but Harlem was a good place to start. Another strong influence to create the training was Amazing Grace Hopper, who believed that computers should understand English, making them and the Internet accessible.

Nayer has conducted trainings from Harlem’s Convent Avenue Baptist Church, Minisink Townhouse, A. Philip Randolph Senior Center, Frederick Douglas Housing Project and in homes. She received donations from Microsoft, Prodigy, Columbia University and City College for her work.

The training, which has been used by over 3,000 people, teaches how to use a PC without fear of failure. People who never thought they would be able to use a computer have called the results miraculous. Like Harlem Senior Miss. Ruth, who wrote a letter on a computer to her mother who died 30 years earlier. She said that when her mother passed, she thought her life was over. She wrote that she finally had learned a new skill and life had begun again. Miss Ruth used the computer to re-connect with her family and moved down south to be with them.

“Computer illiteracy is dangerous in the Information Age. I learned from Harriet Tubman to ‘go forward’ toward the Lord, who has all the answers and gladly shares them in His time.” The Underground Railroad’s Tubman freed more than 300 people from the American slave system, manually bringing them over land, water and evil people, to freedom. Tubman was also known as a physical healer during the Civil War. Nayer too is committed to getting people safely and comfortably to the promised land of divinely guided computerization for all. Education is key to empowerment.

“We must all share the sacred knowledge of computer literacy.” Nayer has put the How To Compute training notes on the web. Organizations and individuals can use the material to train family, friends or membership. The cost of the training is that it be passed onto at least two other people.

Nayer was born “JoAnna LaRochae Hardin” in 1952, a descendent of the early 1900’s migration from the post slavery south to the promised land of Harlem, New York. 1952 was also the year that Amazing Grace Hopper developed the first computer compiler for the UNIVAC computer and Bessie Blount signed her invention that helped the disabled over to the French government.

By the time she was born, her family had moved to Suffield, Connecticut, where she was raised as part of a thriving New England community. Nayer's mother, Mary Scott is a retired lawyer and talented quilter; her step-father, John Scott, is a lawyer and financier. Her father, the late Joseph Neil Hardin worked for the State of Connecticut Labor Department and was a well known New England singer. She is the eldest of a very large family.

Nayer left a successful New York corporate career that included working for major broadcasting networks and stations from 1972-1984 to be able to enjoy the freedom of having computers in her home. She inherited her grandmother’s name in 1991 as a standard to live her life by.

Nayer also co-invented an envelope for a floppy disk with Peter Segal that allows the disk’s directory to be printed on it (FloppyLope, U.S. Patent No 4,708,285). Though her name was not on the patent, she did receive a 50% assignment and sold most of her interest in it to her parents, John and Mary Scott, to raise the money to do CompUrest and other computer projects.

“My best inventions are joint ventures. Both CompUrest and the How To Compute Training began in prayer. Ideas were developed in meditation and executed with the support of family and friends (in alphabetical order: All the 3,000 plus people trained by the Computer Underground Railroad, Sherwood & Edith Akuna, Richard Alexander, Chef Ashbell, Ayo Ayedemi, Dr. Ivan Black, Bernard Block, Merle Bush, Carolyn Brunson, D. H. Charles, Darnella Cordier, Albert Davis of Harlem's Langston Hughes House, Bradford T. & B. Thorne Duncan, Selma Epstein, Billy & Randy Fucci, Steve & Donna Fuentez and their children, Esteban Granados, Karima Grant and the ladies of Minisink Townhouse - Harlem, Mother Clara and Dr. Lorraine Hale, Robin & Kim & Bea & Jimmy & Leslie & Mary Frances & Keisha & Joe Neil Hardin, Lloyd & Toni Hardin, Bernard & Catherine and Valerie Hirschenson, Linda H. Humes and her associates at Yaffa Productions, David Hunsinger, Margaret S. Inge, Ellie & Karen Jones, Somayah Kambui, Tony LaMarca, Dominic Lewis, Iro Joe Lewis, Neil London, Jackie Metcalf, Ned Matola, Glen Peterson, Robert Ponce, Jerry Puchkoff, Erling Rohde, John and Mary Scott, Joan Shephard, Ed Soh, Tristan and Skye Smalls & The Cyber Kids, Peter Lance Segall , Darryl M. Stevens, Edna Thomas, Mary Toppin, Frances Turner, Atty. Lilian Vasques and her children Julie and Benny, Alfie Wade and Dwayne Waller)

Life is good. Nayer is healthy and happily engaged to be married to a great artist, Sherwood L. Akuna. Her sites (web and vision) are up and she is going forward to even greater accomplishments ‘just in time for the future.’

Inventor, CompUrest Keyboard Stand -
U.S. Patent No. 5,188,321
Computer armrest that provides comfortable support,
reducing computer injuries

Author/Teacher - How To Compute
Quick start training system on how to use a PC

Summary: Experience using computers since 1977 to solve problems & achieve goals

Inventor, CompUrest Keyboard Stand - U.S. Patent No. 5,188,321 Computer armrest that provides comfortable support, reducing computer injuries

Author/Teacher - How To Compute Quick start training system on how to use a PC

Summary: Experience using computers since 1977 to solve problems & achieve goals

Inventor, CompUrest Keyboard Stand -
U.S. Patent No. 5,188,321
Computer armrest that provides comfortable support,
reducing computer injuries

Author/Teacher - How To Compute
Quick start training system on how to use a PC