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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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”.

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.