ACB Convention Registration
ACB’s 2021 Conference and Convention registration is now open! This year’s virtual convention will be held from July 16 through July 23, 2021. For details on how to register, visit: https://acb.org/2021-convention-registration. To make sure you receive the most up to date convention information, subscribe to our convention announce list by sending a blank email to
[email protected].
Celebrating 10 Years of Global Accessibility Awareness Day
On Thursday, May 20th, at 1pm EST, the American Council of the Blind hosted a special 10th-anniversary celebration of Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD). ACB's Executive Director Eric Bridges led a conversation with digital accessibility leaders Jennison Asuncion (Co-founder of GAAD and Head of Accessibility Engineering Evangelism at LinkedIn) and Mike Shebanek (Head of Accessibility at Facebook). Together, Eric, Jennison and Mike took a look back at the growth taken place over the past decade in digital accessibility and forecast what new challenges and opportunities rest just beyond the horizon. A recording of this live event is available at https://youtu.be/EcUy3HT6bRY. Please check-out https://acb.org/GAAD-2021 for a message from ACB’s Executive Director Eric Bridges on the 10th Anniversary of GAAD.
ACB Advocacy Update: Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD)
On this week’s episode of the ACB Advocacy Update, Clark and Swatha celebrate the 10th anniversary of Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD). GAAD began ten years ago to recognize, celebrate, and increase awareness of digital access and inclusion. We are joined by Audrey Bush from the Association of Assistive Technology Act Programs, who shares the technology and training available through the state assistive technology programs, and Larry Goldberg from Verizon Media and Teach Access, who shares about innovations in accessible technology spurred on by advocacy, regulation, and corporate ingenuity. Listen via your favorite podcast player or online at https://tinyurl.com/n95rs6ns. To learn more about the assistive technology program in your state or territory, visit: www.at3center.net. To learn more about Teach Access, visit: www.teachaccess.org. To learn more about the Valuable 500, visit: www.thevaluable500.com.
2021 Scholarship Award Recipients
The American Council of the Blind’s (ACB) Scholarship Program was established in 1982. The American Council of the Blind (ACB) and the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) have partnered together to offer educational scholarships ranging from $2,000 to $7,500 for legally blind students attending a technical college or who are an entering freshman, undergraduate or a graduate student. This program awards students with scholarships to help with post-secondary education financial needs such as tuition, fees, room and board and other additional costs associated with adaptive technology. Congratulations to our 2021 scholarship recipients! Visit https://acb.org/2021-scholarship-recipients to view this year’s recipients.
ACB En Español Community Event
Join us on Wednesday, May 26 for a community event sponsored by ACB’s Multi-Cultural Affairs & Membership Committees. This is a call you don’t want to miss, facilitated by Guillermo Robles, where only Spanish will be spoken the entire time! Come find out about ACB where there is always something for everybody! No computer, no problem! Call using a landline as well. For questions, email us at
[email protected]. To get information on how to connect to this call, join our community event list by sending an email to
[email protected].
Attention All ACB Walkers!
If you haven’t signed up your team for the ACB Brenda Dillon Memorial Walk, please do so now! This year’s walk is going to be the best ever. We already have 20 teams signed up, but we want more. Just go to the ACB Walk page at: https://secure.qgiv.com/event/acbwalk2021/ pay your $25 entry fee, name your team and choose a captain for your team. Remember that you can designate up to 50 percent of the money your team raises to come back to your state affiliate, your special interest affiliate or chapter. Our goal this year is to raise over $95,000. Let’s get up and get moving together! If you have any questions, please email Dan Dillon at
[email protected].
Deadline Quickly Approaches: 2021 AD Awards Call for Nominations
The Audio Description Project recognizes outstanding contributions to the field of audio description through the Audio Description Awards. The call for nominations ends this Sunday, May 23, 2021, with winners announced during a plenary general session of the American Council of the Blind Conference and Convention in July 2021. To learn more about the award categories and how to submit nominations, visit: https://acb.org/2021-adp-awards-nominations.
Video for Airlines and Airports to Assist Travelers Who Are Visually Impaired
The Seeing Eye and Guide Dogs for the Blind (GDB) have partnered with United Airlines and Alaska Airlines on the production of a training video for airport and airline employees around the country. Now that summer travel is picking up for the first time since the pandemic, the information in this video is particularly important for airport personnel. The purpose of the video is to demonstrate best practices for assisting blind and visually impaired people, in particular guide dog handlers, as they navigate each step of the air travel process. The video places special emphasis on how to maintain social distancing protocols while assisting travelers who are blind or visually impaired. You can view an audio described version of the video here: https://vimeo.com/547734281. To read the press release about this initiative, visit https://tinyurl.com/5frs3647.
Apple Accessibility Features
Apple celebrated Global Accessibility Day this year by announcing several new accessibility features and services for customers with disabilities. One of these new features builds on recent updates that brought Image Descriptions to VoiceOver, which allows users to explore even more details about the people, text, table data, and other objects within images. Users can navigate a photo of a receipt like a table: by row and column, complete with table headers. VoiceOver can also describe a person’s position along with other objects within images — so people can relive memories in detail, and with Markup, users can add their own image descriptions to personalize family photos. To learn more about all of the new accessibility features Apple announced, visit: https://tinyurl.com/3nu2ksff.