Alexandria, VA (March 31, 2020) — The American Council of the Blind (ACB) Board of Directors voted unanimously to forego its annual conference and convention in Schaumburg, Illinois, amidst the growing concerns about the novel coronavirus crisis. During a special meeting convened by the board on March 30^th, the elected leadership moved to explore ways in which members, partners, and stakeholders can continue to meet virtually through an engaging and enlightening experience.

“The health and safety of our members continue to be the leading voice that has guided us,”…

ACB Link 2.0 is now available for iOS and supports iOS version 13. This release brings a number of major improvements:

• This version of ACB Link adds support for iOS 13, dark mode support and a new podcast player.
• We have made changes to how the app shows text, so your dynamic text settings will work even better in this version of the app.
• High Contrast will now be handled by iOS 13 if your device supports this version, but the standard high contrast mode will still be usable if running in iOS 12 or below.
• Push notifications are back in this release.…

“Dots and Dashes” is a short newsletter featuring a variety of topics and ACB stories. This issue features information about the coronavirus, information on a call to help find ways to entertain your guide dogs during this temporary shutdown, ways to take the 2020 census, a reminder about the deadline for applying to become a leadership fellow, what to do if you’re experiencing telehealth and/or e-learning accessibility challenges, and Advocacy Updates.

Coronavirus Information

After much thoughtful consideration, ACB has decided to close both offices and move our…

On Friday, March 20, the American Council of the Blind and the American Foundation for the Blind sent a joint letter to Congress opposing language included in the pending Senate stimulus bill, the CARES Act (S. 3548), that requests a report from the Department of Educations about regulations contained in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) that should be removed. Please contact your U.S. Senators and tell them that Congress should not consider any waivers that would remove the civil rights of students with disabilities.

March 20, 2020

The…

Below are the links to the meeting minutes of the American Council of the Blind's Board of Directors for the year 2017.

• November 27 - 30, 2017 ACB Board of Directors Minutes
• October 27 and 28, 2017 ACB Board of Directors Minutes
• August 22, 2017 ACB Board of Directors Minutes
• June 30, 2017 ACB Board of Directors Minutes
• February 25, 2017 ACB Board of…

ACB is undertaking a major infrastructure update of our server platform and we expect an outage of 72 hours to complete this project. The update will take place Friday, March 20, beginning at 8pm Eastern. 

The following services will be unavailable during this outage:

• Access to ACB web sites, including acb.org and acbradio.org
• ACB Radio streaming services
• ACB Link and Amazon Echo skills
• All email lists and ACB Radio email addresses

We are moving all ACB digital assets into Microsoft’s Azure cloud to improve the security…

“Dots and Dashes” is a short newsletter featuring a variety of topics and ACB stories. This issue features information about Tony Stephens’ return to the ACB national office, information about Cathie Skivers’ memorial service (and other plans in the works), Advocacy Updates, and the winners of the Benefits of Audio Description in Education awards.

Welcome Back …

A familiar face has returned to the ACB national office. Tony Stephens is ACB’s new Director of Development.

Tony rejoins the organization after taking a year away from ACB, where…

We hope you are having a great start to the new year! Back in July 2019, ACB and OrCam began a cooperation to raise awareness of OrCam’s assistive technology among ACB members in the United States.

OrCam MyEye 2 is the most advanced wearable assistive technology that can empower and enable you to be more independent. The MyEye 2 can support you in education, employment and improve quality of life, allow you access to visual information by converting images into sounds and read it to you discretely into your ear in real-time.

If you are an ACB member, you are entitled up to…

BADIE: Benefits of Audio Description In Education

For Immediate Release - Contact: Joel Snyder, Director, Audio Description Project
jsnyder@acb.org - (202) 467-5083                       

WASHINGTON, March 2, 2020 - The American Council of the Blind (ACB) is proud to announce the winners of the 2020 BADIE Awards (the Benefits of Audio Description In Education), a “Listening Is Learning” initiative of the Council’s…

The AppleTV+ show, SEE, is looking for talented instrumentalists and vocalists who are blind or low vision to be included in the musical score of Season 2 of SEE. The performers should be good collaborators with self-recording skills, be able to pick up on melodies and/or improvise. The performers should be creative when given a suggested structure, and allow their own voice or sound to be apparent. If selected, the individuals will be asked to create their own professional recordings during the process. The…