The American Council of the Blind is among 181 undersigned disability organizations who believe that there is an urgent need for digital accessibility regulations. We urge the Department of Justice to promulgate enforceable online accessibility standards by the end of the current Administration. The US Department of Justice has long held that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) includes websites and other technologies that are critical to accessing a business' or agency’s services or facilities but has failed to define when and how they should be accessible.

February 28,…

WASHINGTON, DC — Today, Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY) and Congressman Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) reintroduced the Medicare Demonstration of Coverage for Low Vision Devices Act. This legislation would help vision-impaired Medicare beneficiaries live safe and independent lives by creating a five-year national demonstration project to evaluate the economic impact of allowing reimbursement for low vision devices, which are currently excluded from Medicare coverage.

“Medicare coverage of low vision devices would be life changing for Americans with vision impairments. It would give…

El American Council of the Blind (Consejo Americano de Ciegos) es la organización líder, impulsada por miembros, en la nación para personas con ceguera o pérdida de visión. Con ás de 65 afiliados estatales y de interés especial a lo largo del país, el ACB está compremetido con la tarea de incrementar el nível en la seguridad, la independencia, la calidad de vida, y las oportunidades económicas, para las personas con ceguera o baja visión en los Estadus Unidos; además, el ACB se mantiene firme en la tarea de abogar con apego a nuestros valores.

Los siguentes Imperativos Legislativos…

The American Council of the Blind's Audio Description Project Announces Call for Nominations for the Fourteenth Annual ADP Awards in 2022

The Audio Description Project (ADP) is a wide-ranging audio description promotion and production initiative with goals that include:

• Building advocacy on behalf of audio description
•  Offering a range of educational resources and working to establish nationally acknowledged user-focused guidelines for quality description in its various genres as well as a professionally recognized certification program for…

Throughout the pandemic, ACB has heard from our members about the increasing importance of accessible health care information to the wellbeing of our community. As more health care providers communicate with their patients through electronic means, we want to ensure that the systems being used are usable and accessible to our members. To assist in our efforts to ensure that health care information systems are accessible to all patients, it would be very helpful if you could complete the short survey of questions below. Completing this brief survey will help ACB determine how to best…

The American Council of the Blind is the nation’s leading member-driven organization for individuals who are blind and experiencing vision loss. With over 65 state and special-interest affiliates across the country, ACB is committed to increasing the security, independence, quality of life, and economic opportunity for people who are blind and low vision in the United States, and ACB stands committed to advocacy that lifts up our values.

The following legislative imperatives represent several key issues in the 117th Congress that ACB believes will help us on our road to full…

Recently we were able to add accessible improvements in our Dots and Dashes newsletter in the form of headings. We are pleased to share with you that we can now include content headings to break up content subjects in the newsletter making reading the content a more user-friendly experience. Screen reader users are now able to jump to different sections and topics directly rather than having to read through the entire copy without any accessible distinction. These improvements are a direct result of ACB’s collaboration with Constant Contact and…

Where and when can I watch the Olympic coverage with audio description on television?

“For the Olympic Winter Games, all competitions aired during primetime hours and Prime Plus, along with the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, will include live audio description on the Secondary Audio Program (SAP) channel, provided by Descriptive Video Works. …

American Council of the Blind 
1703 N. Beauregard St. Suite 420 
Alexandria, VA 22311 

January 31, 2022

Lawrence Tabak, DDS, PhD
Acting Director
National Institutes of Health
9000 Rockville Pike
Bethesda, Maryland 20892

Dear Acting Director Lawrence Tabak: 

As the President of the American Council of the Blind (ACB), we need your help. I write to you on behalf of our members and the blind and low vision community, to urge the National Institutes of Health to develop accessible testing right away. 

ACB is deeply…

Select the link from the list below for the BOP meeting minutes you would like to read.

• November 2021
• October 2021
• September 2021
• August 2021
• June 2021
• May 2021
• April 2021
• March 2021…