Formerly Women’s Concerns Committee
Linda Porelle, CA, Co-Chair
(415) 577-8437
[email protected]
Lori Scharff Co-Chair
540-471-8116
[email protected]
Ann Brash, IL
Cheryl Cummings, MA
Danette Dixon, WA
Kathy Farina, NY
Donna Pomerantz, CA
Rachel Schroeder, IL
Leslie Spoone, FL
Linda Yacks, AR
Board Liaison: Katie Frederick, OH
Staff Liaison: Kelly Gasque, VA
The purpose of the ACB Women's Committee is to address the unique needs women who are blind are faced with in our daily lives. Currently this is done through several program sessions during the annual ACB conference and convention. Topics covered are health issues, physical fitness, self-image and more. In addition, the committee has formed a monthly telephone support group for women who are blind and are coping with breast cancer. This support group is facilitated by two licensed social workers who are blind, one of whom has also had breast cancer.
DEI Reading List Materials
2020 was the unforgettable year. Three months into the year, as a result of a world-wide pandemic, we are all asked to social distance and to isolate from each other. 5 months into the year, a video is broadcast showing a White policeman kneeling on the neck of an African-American man until the African-American man is no longer breathing. It is this latter event that forces everyone to confront racism in America. We can no longer pretend that we don’t know. Yet, how to understand what we witnessed.
A group of ACB members got together and decided that one way we can begin understanding is to begin learning more about each other. Members of the Multicultural Affairs Committee, Blind Pride International, and the ACB Women developed a reading list we would like to share with ACB members. We also sought guidance and input from Asian-American members, librarians, and Native American academicians. WE are not experts. This is not a definitive list of books. Instead, these are books which we have read or were recommended to us. We invite you to read and to learn about each other.
We came up with the following criteria in order to select the books:
- The book must be available on BARD
- Provide the DB and Br number (when available)
- Focus on experiences within the United States
- Fiction: writer of a racial/ethnic, gender background presenting a story that reflects an aspect of a ethnic, racial and gender group’s past and present experiences. Within the Blindness and Person with Disabilities fiction section, we selected blind authors who write fiction even if their subject was not about blindness or disability.
- Nonfiction: window into culture; presenting experiences, chronicling history, policy, presentation of systems and how they impact life choices and options
Books focus on the experiences:
- African-American
- Native American
- Latino/x
- Asian American and Pacific Islanders
- LGBTQ+
- Women and Feminis
- Blindness and People with Disabilities
We selected 10 nonfiction and fiction books for each reading list.
This reading list was put together by:
- Regina Brink
- Anthony Carona
- Cheryl Cumings
- Mary Haroyan
- Pam Hill
- Gabriel Lopez Kafati
- Linda Porelle
Book Lists
Book List: African American
Book List: Asian American and Pacific Islander
Book List: Blindness and People with Disabilities
Book List: LGBTQ+
Book List: Native American
Book List: Women and Feminism
Book List: Latinx/Latino Culture
This web page was last updated October 7, 2021.