by Charles H. Crawford
If it ever happens that a history of our national blindness community at the start of the 21st century is written, it will surely mark this year as a watershed time of unprecedented success, and the name of the American Council of the Blind will headline each event. Truly this has been a year in which ACB members and friends have altered the course of events as builders of the future.
Our belief in and support for each other has led us, as a community, to realize a level of participation in our society that has and will benefit all blind people. Moreover, the heroes of our success include many individual ACB members who simply understood the need and acted with the support of all of us.
While leaders such as Debbie Grubb, Brian Charlson, Julie Carroll, Debbie Cook, Earlene Hughes, and Jonathan Mosen help shape our successes in many areas such as pedestrian safety and information technology access, people with names like Dorothy, Jo, Donna, Ralph, Peggy, Mike, Kim, Sue, Pat, Al, Carla, Dan, Barbara, Billie Jean, Cathy, Ed, and so many more were taking the issues to the local level and making sure our concerns were raised and acted upon. Indeed, the list of ACB heroes is far too long to fit in this short message, but you all have made this year one to be remembered for many years to come.
In a single year, ACB and our partners changed television broadcasting through the introduction of descriptive video as a requirement for the future. We secured standards of pedestrian access for the public rights of way, and we even got the waterways covered through passenger vessels access standards as well. We set a direction of access to the Internet and office computing through our work on web sites and federal development of standards for electronic equipment! We protected the rights of blind people to services aimed at our issues and accountable to us. We launched ACB and the blind community into the era of Internet radio and we made online convention registration and membership applications a reality.
Thanks to the willingness of ACB members to believe in each other enough to make the impossible happen, we have launched an era of success that will benefit all blind people and we’ve only just begun! For now, let us enjoy the holidays and get some rest. We will need it since the future holds new challenges, and while we may not be blessed with lots of money, we have shown the power of the greatest wealth of all: our faith in ourselves, in each other, in our families and friends, in ACB, and in the knowledge that we have the hands to build the future and the hearts to change the world.
I wish all of you peace, happiness, blessings and love this holiday season, and I thank you for who you are and what you have done for ACB and all people who are blind.