Registration is open for the annual DC Leadership Conference. This year’s event will be held virtually from February 21st-23rd, bringing together affiliate leaders and advocates from across the country. Programming for the conference is split into two main events, a day-long presidents meeting, open to all, which provides best practices to strengthen affiliates, and a two day legislative seminar, which educates attendees on key issues facing our community and prepares attendees for meeting with Members of Congress

Materials:

Agendas

Download the Presidents' Meeting Agenda

Download the Legislative Seminar Agenda

Legislative Imperative Documents

Download the Legislative Imperatives One Pager

Last Chance to 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.

Young People Who Are Blind Write Reviews of Film and Video

The American Council of the Blind's Audio Description Project (ACB-ADP) and the Described and Captioned Media Program (DCMP) are continuing their co-sponsorship of an exciting opportunity for blind and visually impaired young people, in four categories from ages 7 to 21: the Benefits of Audio Description in Education (BADIE) contest.

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.

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.

2020 Accomplishments

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.

Get Up & Get Moving: A Call for Leveraging Technology to Improve Health and Wellness

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.

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.