The American Council of the Blind (ACB), in partnership with the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) is now accepting applications for educational scholarships for the 2021-2022 academic school year. These scholarships can be used to help with post-secondary education financial needs such as tuition, fees, room and board and other additional costs associated with adaptive technology.

Scholarships range from $2,000 to $7500, and to be eligible, students must be legally blind, maintain a 3.0 GPA, and be a full-time student or working 32 hours a week or more and taking…

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• November 2020
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A year ago, when you prepared to celebrate the holidays and ring in a new year, did you ever imagine 2020 would look the way it has? Our community members have experienced a year of opening their homes to hundreds of new friends, learning new skills or finding the support they needed to improve on a skill they already knew, and joining together on a regular basis to be lifted up by others who also knew what struggles cancer, divorce, addiction, or caring for a loved one brings. Despite the challenges that 2020 has brought, there is no denying as part of this amazing community, we also have…

2020 Accomplishments

On this week’s episode of the ACB Advocacy Update, Clark speaks with ACB President, Dan Spoone, and Executive Director, Eric Bridges, about our organizational accomplishments throughout 2020. Despite the challenges thrust upon us by a global pandemic, ACB stayed true to our core values and created opportunities to embrace, engage, and empower our community. Listen via your favorite podcast player or online at: https://tinyurl.com/yb49zh8l. To help us build upon our 2020 accomplishments and carry this…

December 15, 2020 - The Elf on the Shelf® and Elf Pets® have fast become holiday mainstays, appearing in a wide variety of popular books, toys, and videos, and loved by children of all ages all around the world. Audio description is an added soundtrack that describes visual images for the benefit of people who are blind or have low vision.

This year, the American Council of the Blind (ACB), VITAC, and The Lumistella Company are proud to offer a special radio broadcast of the animated holiday special, “Elf Pets: A Fox Cub’s Christmas Tale,” on ACB Radio to make…

Get Up & Get Moving: A Call for Leveraging Technology to Improve Health and Wellness

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the global challenges that technology can experience when pushed to the limits. This reality check has not only been disproportionately burdensome for individuals who are blind and visually impaired, but it has also exposed the pre-existing barriers that have harmed the physical, social, and psychological well-being within this community over the years. Join the American Council of the Blind for an empowering panel on how technology can…

In August, ACB sent the letter below to Congressional leaders opposing an waivers or exemptions to the ADA as part of pandemic relief policy measures, specifically those referenced in the SAFE TO WORK Act (S. 4317). These measures are under consideration once again as Congress debates another stimulus package. As we reiterate our opposition to any waivers or exemptions that would undermine the civil rights guaranteed by the ADA, ACB urges all of our friends to communicate your opposition to any ADA waivers and exemptions as part of COVID stimulus relief by contacting your members of…

Many of you, particularly those who rely heavily on the ACB e-mail lists, have noticed that their usability has been steadily slipping over the past year. Even before this time, we ran into sporadic situations where some users would suddenly stop receiving messages even though they were subscribed to the list.

We conducted an investigation as to the nature of the problems we’d been experiencing and what it boiled down to, at first, is that we had to enforce some pretty tight restrictions on ACB’s Server infrastructure to reduce and even eliminate the spam we were receiving. That…

Cindy Hollis Receives Award from VisionServe Alliance

Recently, ACB Membership Services Coordinator Cindy Hollis, received the Roxann Mayros Organizational Champion Award from VisionServe Alliance for her work with the ACB Community. This award was established to honor senior leadership members of member-driven organizations that have demonstrated extraordinary service to the field. View Cindy’s acceptance of the award and her nomination from ACB President Dan Spoone by visiting:…

December 3, 2020 – Indianapolis, IN – The ability to vote privately and independently is a fundamental right and an essential component of democracy in the United States. However, in Indiana, these rights are not guaranteed to all voters.

In fact, Indiana has one of the most restrictive absentee voting systems in the country for blind voters because it only permits them to vote at home by appointment with a “traveling board” of elections officials.  Hoosier voters who are blind or have low vision could easily vote privately and independently at home using…