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 a lot to be thankful for.  Please join us on New Year's Eve for an amazing Community-Athon, starting at 3pm ET, as we celebrate all we've accomplished in 2020 and look ahead to a new year of endless possibilities. We will not only be on Zoom for 12 hours of showcasing events held and celebrating this community which continues to thrive because of those who care about and depend on it, but we will have drawings throughout, entertainment, fun, and most importantly, be together to greet 2021! And it will all be streamed live on ACB Radio Community. Just ask Alexa to, "Open ACB Community." If you would like to support the work of the American Council of the Blind and our ACB Community, for every $25 donated, your name will be placed into the Community-Athon drawing for prizes drawn at the end of each hour. Visit https://tinyurl.com/y8zb3cv5 to make a donation. For information on how to join this event, sign up for our community email list at http://acblists.org/mailman/listinfo/acb-community-events, or send an email to [email protected].  Happy New Year!

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 momentum into the New Year, please consider ACB in your end-of-year giving by visiting: https://acb.org/give2020. A New Year’s Eve Community-Athon – Celebrating a Year of Friendship 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 a lot to be thankful for. Join us on Thursday, December 31 from 3pm to 3am ET for 12 incredible hours of good conversation, lots of laughs, a few surprises, and a chance to show ACB and those who have kept the community going, how much these events have truly meant to you. Without generous donations, no matter how big or small, ACB could not have travelled all the way from across the miles into your home and your heart. Your presence and your contribution are what will make this special event a huge success. We look forward to spending time with you. So bring your favorite hors d’oeuvres, a glass of bubbly, your fancy dress or your PJ’s, and most importantly your memories, and let’s bring 2020 to a close and bring in 2021 together as a community. Make sure to join our community email list to receive the information on how to join for this event, and others, by sending an email to [email protected]. ACB Makes Christmas Eve Jolly and More Accessible for Kids Who Are Blind 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 December 24, 2020 at 7 PM ET on ACB Radio to make holiday cheer more widely available to all this season. The Christmas Eve program will also feature a special audio described production of Rory Hoffman’s “The Twelve Days of Christmas”, a visit from Santa himself and live phone calls from kids. The program will close with an historic airing of an audio described version of the 2015 White House holiday greeting including a tour of The White House at Christmas time. Listen at http://acbradio.org/cafe or ask your Amazon device to “Open ACB Radio Café.” You can also listen to ACB Radio via telephone by calling (518) 906-1820 and selecting number 4 for the ACB Radio Café. Christmas-Themed Videos With Audio Description Did you know that over 100 movies are available with audio description from streaming services or on DVD? Neither did we! That’s why we researched this topic and compiled a listing for users of the Audio Description Project’s website. We even allow you to sort the list by vendor so you can check out your favorite streaming service’s offerings. With the same movie sometimes available from different vendors, Netflix has over 50, followed by about 25 each from Disney+, iTunes, and Prime Video. You’ll find “A Charlie Brown Christmas” and the Mariah Carey Christmas Special on Apple TV+, and 15 or so titles on DVD. So check out acb.org/adp/holidayad.html for the complete list!  You’ll find a link at the top of that page to sort by vendor. iPhones Can Now Automatically Recognize and Label Buttons and UI Features for Blind Users iPhones can now automatically recognize and label buttons and UI features for blind users. Screen Recognition, available now in iOS 14, is a computer vision system that has been trained on thousands of images of apps in use, learning what a button looks like, what icons mean and so on. Such systems are very flexible — depending on the data you give them, they can become expert at spotting cats, facial expressions or, as in this case, the different parts of a user interface. The result is that in any app now, users can invoke the feature and a fraction of a second later every item on screen will be labeled. And by “every,” they mean every — after all, screen readers need to be aware of every thing that a sighted user would see and be able to interact with, from images (which iOS has been able to create one-sentence summaries of for some time) to common icons (home, back) and context-specific ones like “…” menus that appear just about everywhere. Read the article by visiting: https://techcrunch.com/2020/12/03/iphones-can-now-automatically-recognize-and-label-buttons-and-ui-features-for-blind-users.   Adobe Delivers Enhanced PDF Reading Experience for Accessibility Adobe recently introduced a new way to read PDF documents on mobile devices, called Liquid Mode, found on the Adobe Acrobat Reader app (iOS and Android). Liquid Mode provides a much easier way to read documents on mobile and comes with some incredible benefits for a more accessible PDF reading experience. It automatically reformats text, images, and tables in PDFs for quick navigation and consumption on small screens – regardless of which application was used to create it. Read more at: https://blog.adobe.com/en/2020/12/10/adobe-delivers-enhanced-pdf-reading-experience-for-accessibility.html.

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 holiday cheer more widely available to all this season. The Christmas Eve program will also feature a special audio described production of Rory Hoffman’s “The Twelve Days of Christmas”, a visit from Santa himself and live phone calls from kids. The program will close with an historic airing of an audio described version of the 2015 White House holiday greeting including a tour of The White House at Christmas time. “The holidays are a wonderful time for gathering with family,” said Dan Spoone, president of the American Council of the Blind. “And even if you can’t be together physically, we can all join each other in our respective homes and listen to the sounds of the season. We’re grateful to the creators of The Elf on the Shelf® series, musician Rory Hoffman, and VITAC for the chance to share audio described versions of classic holiday entertainment. And Santa will be with us, too! What could be better?” Audio description makes video programming more accessible by inserting voiced descriptions of a television program’s key visual elements during natural pauses in the program’s dialogue, ensuring that individuals who are blind or with low vision can better understand and appreciate a program. For television, the description track can be found on a secondary audio channel available on most TV sets and accessible through the television’s onscreen menu. The audio described broadcast of “Elf Pets: A Fox Cub’s Christmas Tale” opens with a narration of the credits and description of the background imagery: “Scout Elf Productions Presents… a blue sky with light snow and white clouds…in text: “Elf Pets, a Fox Cub’s Christmas Tale”…a snowy owl swoops by...” “Santa cares about all children and hopes they share a sense of connection to the North Pole and its magic,” said Chanda Bell, The Lumistella Company co-CEO and Santa’s chief storyteller. “As Santa’s partners, we are grateful to collaborate with these trusted organizations to expand access to our animated stories.” How to tune in: “Elf Pets: A Fox Cub’s Christmas Tale” will air at 7 PM ET on December 24, 2020. The program also will feature musician Rory Hoffman, who is blind, playing “The Twelve Days of Christmas” on 12 different instruments, a visit from Santa, calls from kids, and an audio described version of the 2015 White House holiday greeting video featuring a tour of The White House at Christmas time. ACB Radio is a non-profit, internet-based, audio-only live stream. You can listen at http://acbradio.org/cafe or ask your Amazon device to “Open ACB Radio Café.” You can also listen to ACB Radio via telephone by calling (518) 906-1820 and selecting number 4 for the ACB Radio Café. Merry Christmas! Contact: Joel Snyder, PhD Director, ACB’s Audio Description Project (202) 467-5083 – [email protected] The American Council of the Blind is a national grassroots consumer organization representing Americans who are blind and visually impaired. With 68 state and special-interest affiliates, ACB works to increase the independence, security, equal opportunity and quality of life for Americans who are blind and visually impaired. Learn more at www.acb.org.

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 break down barriers to a full and enriched life, and how we can all get up and get moving toward full equality in the health and wellness arena. This presentation from the Sight Tech Global 2020 conference sets up the “Get Up & Get Moving" national campaign, which will launch in 2021 as America comes out of the coronavirus with the goal to expand health and wellness for Americans who are blind and visually impaired, particularly those with additional health concerns such as diabetes. Watch the video of this presentation by visiting: https://youtu.be/h0oIaj5cdVQ.  Pandemic Exemptions to the ADA In August, ACB sent this letter (https://acb.org/safe-to-work-act-letter-2020) 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 Congress by calling the Capitol switch board (202-224-3121) or by contacting your member of Congress directly.  DOT Travelling by Air with Service Animals Final Rule On Dec. 10, the Department of Transportation’s Final Rule on Travelling by Air with Service Animals was published in the Federal Register. ACB and our affiliate, Guide Dog Users, Inc. actively participated in this rule making. We are pleased the DOT harmonized the definition of a service animal with the ADA, however we are concerned the written attestation requirements will place an undue burden on people with disabilities. This final rule will go into effect on Jan. 11, 2021. We will remain actively engaged with the DOT to ensure that service animal handlers may travel freely and independently. Read the rule by visiting: https://tinyurl.com/y5qt4r5o. TLPC and Georgetown Communications and Technology Law Clinic Draft Accessibility Agenda for FCC Transition Team In consultation with Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Inc. (TDI), the National Association of the Deaf (NAD), the American Council of the Blind (ACB), the Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA), and the Technology Access Program (TAP) at Gallaudet University, the TLPC and our sister Communications and Technology Law Clinic (CTLC) at Georgetown Law developed an overview of critical technology accessibility priorities for a new administration at the Federal Communications Commission. Access the overview by visiting: https://tinyurl.com/y2ay6kwh.   The Protection & Advocacy System On this week’s episode of the ACB Advocacy Update, Claire and Clark discuss an important resource that can be used by all ACB members and people with disabilities. With special guests from Cyrus Huncharek, National Disability Rights Network, and Thomas Crishon, Indiana Disability Rights, we learn about the federally mandated protection and advocacy (P&A) services available to people with disabilities. The P&A system offers free disability-related legal and advocacy services to residents of their region. Listen via your favorite podcast player or online at: https://tinyurl.com/yxhxvlxj. To find out more about the P&A in your area, visit: www.ndrn.org. Leadership Training – Officer Focus In our first in a series on officer positions, join the Berl Colley Leadership Institute on December 17 at 9pm Eastern to learn "The do's and don'ts for the office of Secretary". You'll get an overview of common responsibilities and duties of this office including the important elements of taking minutes, Good record keeping, and more. Whether you're a newly elected Secretary, considering running for this office in the future, or someone who's been wearing this hat for a while, let's learn together. Sponsored by the Berl Colley Leadership Institute. To receive our weekly schedule of community calls, join our Community listserv by sending an email to [email protected]. Take the ACB Consumer Survey and Be Entered Into a Drawing for an Amazon Gift Card ACB has put together a brief survey to gain a better understanding of those throughout our network. Help us out by taking time to complete the survey. Your responses will help guide our advocacy and program services. You can also enter a drawing at the end to win an Amazon gift card. Take the survey at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ACBConsumerSurvey2020.

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 Congress by calling the Capitol switch board (202-224-3121) or by contacting your member of Congress directly.  August 7, 2020 Dear Leaders McConnell, Schumer and McCarthy and Speaker Pelosi: I am writing on behalf of the American Council of the Blind. ACB is a member-based organization of people who are blind and visually impaired that strives to increase the independence, security, equality of opportunity, and to improve quality of life for all blind and visually impaired people. Our organization is reaching out in response to the recently proposed Safeguarding America’s Frontline Employees to Offer Work Opportunities Required to Kickstart the Economy (SAFE TO WORK) Act. We urge Congress not to adopt the act. This act will have a detrimental effect on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the rights of people with disabilities. The SAFE TO WORK Act chips away at important protections of individuals with disabilities. It undermines imperative protections for these individuals by limiting liability claims against any unlawful conduct and puts their safety at great risk. In other words, if people with disabilities have no recourse to challenge the unsafe conditions of a public service or business, such entities can easily neglect the safety of patrons with disabilities. Implementation of the SAFE TO WORK Act could allow a business or employer to fail to provide reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities who may be impacted by COVID-19. The business or employer could simply use the act to claim that the accommodation request is holding them liable for the virus and refuse to provide any needed services. Furthermore, the business could easily neglect a customer and hide behind the act when asked why the customer was not cared for. The abuse of the act could clearly be seen in numerous situations. This abuse fundamentally begins to alter the ADA. Consequently, it would not only impact people with disabilities in the immediate future, but could have long-lasting effects on the ADA itself. Additionally, if an employer or other business owner truly felt that accommodating a person with a disability proposed a threat to the health and safety of others that might trigger a liability claim, the business owner could utilize the direct threat provision of the ADA. Under the direct threat provision of the ADA, an accommodation or modification can be denied if accommodating the person with a disability would pose a direct threat to the person with a disability or others in the workplace. Thus, a safeguard for businesses already exists. Also, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has recently issued guidance on the ADA and COVID-19. The guidance clarifies the wide range of measures that employers are permitted to take to keep workplaces safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thank you for your continued work to guide the nation through the COVID-19 pandemic. As we commemorate the 30th anniversary of the ADA, we look forward to collaborating with you to ensure that people with disabilities are not inadvertent casualties of policies intended to heal our nation. If you have any questions or wish to discuss these issues further, please feel free to contact Claire Stanley, ACB’s Advocacy and Outreach Specialist, at [email protected] or (202) 467-5081. Sincerely, Claire Stanley Advocacy and Outreach Specialist

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 helped bring things back into order, but then, we found that our security was so tight that it did away with spam completely, but didn’t allow legitimate senders to get mail to us. We loosened our restrictions a little, but the first issue reemerged where spam started trickling back into our network , causing ISPs to view our valid mail traffic as spam, therefor, blocking list traffic from getting to its subscribers. One note of solace is that we are not alone in experiencing these problems. Since the pandemic began, many organizations have gone virtual and have found ways of conducting their business online. Their e-mail practices have had to undergo changes, as well. Enter: Groups.io. Many of you may have heard of Groups.io and some of you may already be members of other lists on this platform. We spent time looking at their plans and the features they bring, deciding what plan would best serve us. Their service is longstanding in its reliability, integrity, and reputation. They are geared up for sending large volumes of e-mail and spam checkers know to give Groups.io room to do so without e-mails getting caught as potential spam. Their infrastructure has many redundant points along its network so that mail can be evenly-divided between their mail systems and sent out in a balanced way to all recipients. Our server, on the other hand, sent out all of our mail from one machine. And this is what looks suspicious to spam monitoring software, even though we are sending out perfectly valid e-mails. Not only can lists be conducted on the platform, but it has various other features to keep everyone connected and engaged, including Calendar, Zoom Integration, Live Chat, Polls, and more. We have decided that all of our ACB Lists, from acblists.org and acbradio.org, will be migrated to Groups.io. The lists from acbradio.org will be merged into the acblists.org domain. All members of all lists will be migrated to the new platform with the list’s names and address remaining the same and all members retaining their subscription and, if applicable, their moderation status. The case where the address domain changes is for those lists on acbradio.org that we are merging into the acblists.org domain. All archives from the lists on our server will be brought over, as well. Are you already buzzing with questions? Have no fear. A number of community calls are in the works to discuss these changes and answer your burning questions. We are hoping to get someone directly from Groups.io to speak with us. Generally speaking, the process of posting to and reading from the list will be the same, but there are new aspects of what can be done with message threads and other users of each list. And, of course, group moderators will be looking at quite a different interface for managing their group than what was previously seen with our Mailman system. Migration will begin soon in mid-December and more notices will become available as time gets closer to the point when we cut over from the old to the new platform. The notices will inform users what to expect, how to proceed, and give some optional information for educating oneself on groups.io. If you would like to jump right in and start learning, here are links to some helpful documentation: Groups.IO Help Center: https://groups.io/helpcenter Getting Started Guide for Group Owners: https://groups.io/helpcenter/gettingstarted Owner’s Manual - Everything You Need to Know to Create and Manage a Group: https://groups.io/helpcenter/ownersmanual Members Manual - Make the Most of Your Group Memberships: https://groups.io/helpcenter/membersmanual

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: https://youtu.be/JESsg4uw5Go. To learn more about the progress and growth that has taken place within our community this year, visit: https://acbvoices.wordpress.com/2020/12/04/acb-community-acknowledged-in-national-award/.   Take the ACB Consumer Survey and Be Entered Into a Drawing for an Amazon Gift Card ACB has put together a brief survey to gain a better understanding of those throughout our network. Help us out by taking time to complete the survey. Your responses will help guide our advocacy and program services. You can also enter a drawing at the end to win an Amazon gift card. Take the survey at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ACBConsumerSurvey2020 International Day of Persons with Disabilities In honor of International Day of Persons with Disabilities, ACB Staff Member Claire Stanley spoke with two ACB members, Kim Charlson and Mitch Pomerantz. Both have held, or currently hold, leadership positions in the World Blind Union. To celebrate the lives of disabled persons from around the globe, viewers will learn more about what WBU does. Access the video by visiting: https://youtu.be/qv_2TakisOc.   ACB Scholarship Applications 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 3.0GPA, and be a full-time student or working 32 hours a week or more and taking substantial course work. The deadline for submitting applications for the 2021-2022 school year is Monday, February 15, 2021 11:59pm (CST).  All interested candidates must register for an ACB account prior to submitting a scholarship application online. Once you have created an account with ACB, please login and then you can access the scholarship application from the link at the top of the site. Visit https://members.acb.org/ to create an account or log in.  Indiana Voting Lawsuit In a lawsuit filed yesterday in federal district court in the Southern District of Indiana, individual plaintiffs, joined by the Indiana Protection and Advocacy Services Commission and American Council of the Blind of Indiana, assert that the Indiana Election Commission and the Secretary of State are discriminating against voters who are blind or have low vision by not offering the necessary accommodations that these voters need to vote privately and independently when using the absentee vote-by-mail program. Read the press release by visiting: https://acb.org/IN-accessible-voting-lawsuit. iOS Engineers Detail Apple’s Approach to Improving Accessibility with iOS 14 Apple just gave an overhaul to its accessibility landing page to better highlight the native features in macOS and iOS that allow user’s devices to “work the way you do” and encourage everyone to “make something wonderful.” Now a new interview with Apple’s accessibility and AI/ML engineers goes into more detail on the company’s approach to improving accessibility with iOS 14. Read the article by visiting: https://tinyurl.com/y46ak6zo.

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 electronic tools.  Instead, they are being forced to choose between giving up their right to vote privately and independently, risk exposing themselves to COVID-19 at the polls, or not voting at all. Click here to read the complaint. In a lawsuit filed today in federal district court in the Southern District of Indiana, plaintiffs Rita Kersh, Kristin Fleschner, and Wanda Tackett, joined by the Indiana Protection and Advocacy Services Commission and American Council of the Blind of Indiana, assert that the Indiana Election Commission and the Secretary of State are discriminating against voters who are blind or have low vision by not offering the necessary accommodations that these voters need to vote privately and independently when using the absentee vote-by-mail program.  In Indiana, the Indiana Election Commission and the Secretary of State have known for quite some time that the current absentee vote-by-mail system is inaccessible to voters who are blind or have low vision. “The American Council of the Blind of Indiana has tried to bring this problem to the IEC and SOS’s attention, but they have declined to work with us to implement an accessible way to vote at home.  That’s why this suit was necessary,” said Dee Ann Hart, a member of the Board of Directors of the ACB-I and its Advocacy and Awareness Committee Chair. Furthermore, both the Indiana Election Commission and the Secretary of State have had over 30 years to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) which was signed into law by President George H. W. Bush on July 26, 1990.   The lawsuit provides concrete examples of successful, accessible absentee voting programs that are currently being used by other states and explains how Indiana’s existing accessible military and overseas voting options could be expanded to include voters who are blind or have low vision.  “Because of Indiana’s restrictive requirements, I was deprived of my vote during this year’s general election,” said Wanda Tackett, a plaintiff in the suit. “My niece has vision impairment and I work with a young boy who is blind, and through this case, I want to empower them and other future voters to make sure that this kind of violation never happens again.” “Let’s make equal access an integral part of voting and find ways to increase civic engagement rather than make it hard,” said Kristin Fleschner, another plaintiff. “Our officials and policies will only represent our ideals if everyone is able to vote privately and independently.”  “Voting is one of our most important rights. By operating a voting program inaccessible to some people with disabilities, Indiana is creating unnecessary and unlawful barriers to the voting process,” said Tom Crishon, Indiana Disability Rights Legal Director. “Voters with disabilities must have equal access to all aspects of Indiana's voting program, including absentee voting.” “The right to a secret ballot is a fundamental right that most Americans take for granted,” said Jelena Kolic, an attorney with Disability Rights Advocates. “Unfortunately, Indiana has failed to respect that right for voters with certain disabilities. Through this case, we hope to ensure that all Hoosier voters are granted equal access to a private and independent vote.” The plaintiffs are seeking only injunctive relief, not monetary damages, and are represented by attorneys from Indiana Disability Rights and Disability Rights Advocates. Indiana Disability Rights (IDR) is the designated Protection and Advocacy (P&A) System and Client Assistance Program (CAP) for the State of Indiana. The mission of Indiana Disability Rights is to protect and promote the rights of individuals with disabilities through empowerment and advocacy. For more information, visit www.IndianaDisabilityRights.org. Disability Rights Advocates is a leading national nonprofit disability rights legal center. Its mission is to advance equal rights and opportunity for people with all types of disabilities nationwide. DRA has a long history of enforcing the rights of voters with disabilities, including their rights to accessible voting machines, polling places, and online voter registration. Visit www.dralegal.org.

Sight Tech Global is a first-of-its-kind global conference dedicated to advanced technology and the experts focused on improving the lives of the blind and visually impaired. Registration for this event is free! ACB is excited to take part in this conference on December 3rd at 11:30am Eastern, where we will introduce our health and wellness campaign for 2021, “Get Up and Get Moving”. Register for our session by visiting: https://acb-org.zoom.us/.../reg.../WN__p7xfeyuShWRnwZ34ml6Dw. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar. Visit https://sighttechglobal.com/conference-registration/ to book your free virtual seat for the full event.

ACB Family Table On behalf of all of us at The American Council of the Blind, we want to wish you a happy Thanksgiving. This past year has been quite transformative for so many of us throughout the ACB family. Indeed, this Thanksgiving for many will be like none other before in our history. And in the distance that separates us all, please know we are still connected by our community that has thrived since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. That feeling of isolation is no stranger to anyone who has experience blindness. Knowing this well, we are acutely aware of those this holiday season who may be wrapped in their own feeling of solitude. All of us at ACB want everyone to know that you are not alone. So, in this holiday spirit, we wanted to share our own long-distance Thanksgiving greeting comprised of warm wishes from our staff, contractors and many of our board members. Access the video on YouTube by visiting: https://youtu.be/YDlP758nOrA. Thanks to technology, we remain connected from coast to coast, and we look forward to staying connected with you throughout the holiday season. If you’re not already on our ACB community mailing list, be sure to sign up today so you can keep in touch over the holidays and stay connected with the ACB family. Together, we are Community Strong! Be safe, stay well, and have a happy Thanksgiving. Giving Thanks to Our Supporters ACB hosted a special community event on November 19th to share all the great work that has been undertaken this year, and be able to say “thank you” for all of your support as we work to make our mission and vision a reality for every person who is blind and visually impaired. There were two parts to the community event hosted on November 19th, where we were joined by ACB leaders who shared our successes in 2020. Part 1 features ACB Executive Director Eric Bridges, and ACB Director of Development Tony Stephens: https://youtu.be/lQekygqltlY. Part 2 features ACB President Dan Spoone and ACB Director of Development Tony Stephens: https://youtu.be/RHHlb-QHM8U. Friendsgiving with ACB On this Thanksgiving 2020, you are not alone. Throughout the day, friends will be on-hand to welcome you in to our community where love, friendship, and support abound. Whether for 10 minutes or 10 hours, for someone to laugh with or cry with, please join us! Each hour we have a new facilitator and host ready to greet you. No matter the conversation of the hour, you’ll know you’ll be joining a community of friends. The Zoom info will be emailed through our Community Events email list. If not already subscribed, join for a morning email with that day's schedule: http://acblists.org/mailman/listinfo/acb-community-events. Additionally, you can listen to this event on our ACB Radio Community channel by visiting: www.acbradio.org/community, or by asking Alexa to, “Open ACB Radio Community.” Sight Tech Global Conference: Get Up and Get Moving Sight Tech Global is a first-of-its-kind global conference dedicated to advanced technology and the experts focused on improving the lives of the blind and visually impaired. Registration for this event is free! ACB is excited to take part in this conference on December 3rd at 11:30am Eastern, where we will introduce our health and wellness campaign for 2021, “Get Up and Get Moving”. Register for our session by visiting: https://acb-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN__p7xfeyuShWRnwZ34ml6Dw. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar. Visit https://sighttechglobal.com/conference-registration/ to book your free virtual seat for the full event. Zoom Lifts 40-Minute Time Limit for Thanksgiving In celebration of the Thanksgiving holiday, Zoom will be lifting the 40-minute time limit for meetings on free accounts starting at midnight on November 26th through 6am ET November 27th for meetings globally. Connect with family and friends to share a meal, raise a glass, and swap stories. Learn more by visiting: https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/17/tech/zoom-time-limit-thanksgiving-trnd-wellness/index.html. A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving With AD Apple TV+ is the new home for all things “Peanuts,” bringing together new original series and specials, along with iconic beloved specials to fans around the world, all in one place and available for the first time with audio description: https://tinyurl.com/y25u8wbw. Celebrate this Thanksgiving by watching A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, available now for free on Apple TV+ from November 25-27! Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade with AD For the first time in Macy's Parade history, NBCUniversal will be broadcasting live with audio description on the Secondary Audio Program channel (SAP). This year’s broadcast will be available with additional audio narration, describing the rich visuals of the Parade including the magnificent balloons, floats and performances, to complement the storytelling and celebration that make the Parade an annual Thanksgiving Day tradition for millions of Americans.  Learn more by visiting: https://tinyurl.com/yyhgzgvl.