American Council of the Blind 62nd Annual Conference and Convention
7/4/2023 9:30 AM

CONFIDENTIAL ROUGHLY EDITED REALTIME FILE
Compliments of HRICART.com

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This file was created in real time by a Human Realtime Captioner for the purpose of communication access. It is not a certified legal transcript and may not be entirely verbatim. It is intended for use by the consumer only as notes of the proceedings. A consumer should check with the presenter for any clarification of the presentation.

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AMERICAN COUNCIL OF THE BLIND
62ND ANNUAL CONFERENCE AND CONVENTION – GENERAL SESSION
JULY 4, 2023, 9:30 AM
CONFIDENTIAL ROUGHLY EDITED REALTIME FILE
Compliments of HRICART.com
***************************************
This file was created in real time by a Certified Realtime Captioner for the purpose of communication access.  It is not a certified legal transcript and may not be entirely verbatim.  It is intended for use by the consumer only as notes of the proceedings.  A consumer should check with the presenter for any clarification of the presentation.
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	>> We are on the air.  Good morning, everybody, on ACB Media 1.  So Deb, anytime you want to start, feel free.  
	>> DEB COOK LEWIS:  Just to remind you again, in the exhibit hall, we have a lot of nice things, and the mini mall, I haven't bought it all out yet so you have a chance with the mini mall, and the MMS, the Monthly Monetary Support Program.  And then you can take a look at the Angel Wall, which is very cool.  We will be having some angels today, so you can have a look at the Angel Wall, and finally, make sure that you go, if you have not signed up for the walk, you can still do that.  Even if you have already walked, you get some extra credit for walking, so sign up for the walk, and that would be good.  So everything is over there, and be sure to thank the exhibitors when you busily hand them your credit card.  Be sure to thank them because they are marvelous this year.  
	Did you like the Sunday night exhibits?  Was that a good thing?  Okay.  They said that was a good thing.  I thought so.  So yeah, that's all good.  Okay.  Do we have Margaret back?  Okay.  Good.  Very good.  All right.  So I think we're close to on time?  Check?  We're going to start in just one more minute.  We like to be on time, so we'll do that.  Trying to get all my stuff organized.  We have a lot for you today, so I'm really glad you're here and in Zoom and listening on ACB Media and I think we're in Clubhouse as a listen-only option as well.  So all those things are good. 
	All right, ladies and gentlemen, let's begin.  It's time to convene our meeting for Tuesday.  I think we've been here about six weeks now.  And so it's all good. 
	Welcome to the convention today.  We do have a full program.  But because you are all so good yesterday, I discovered there are only one or two powers that the president has.  One or two, not much.  The president doesn't get to decide much at all, but the president does get to decide whether you get a break or not, at least an official one, and whether or not there is one and whether or not there are door prizes in it.  There will be a break, it will have door prizes in it, and yay!  All that. 
	So before we do our flag and other things here, I was asked to describe the banners that we have for the state, and the stage banners are hung to the left and right, they are framing the stage, and to the far left is the far screen, which is displaying all of our sponsor logos in a loop, so that's pretty cool.  The top of the banner has a logo with the American Council of the Blind name and for the state, it has the state name, the emblem, the map, the bird, the flower, and then the city and date of the establishment of the affiliate associated with the state.  So these are really, really neat banners, and we didn't do them last year, just because of all the logistics, but we had a lot of requests to bring it back, so they are here with us here today.  So that's great.  Yes. 
	And at the bottom, thank you, and at the bottom of the banner is the dates and the cities, rather, of the convention held in that state.  Of course, I would not remember that because my state hasn't had any conventions. 
	It's time to do our flag salute, and to lead us in our flag salute, we have a veteran, Marjorie, and then Kolby Garrison is going to lead us in America the beautiful.  All right.  
	>> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.  Have a great day!  [Applause]  
	>> Good morning, ACB!  All right, happy Fourth of July!  
[Singing]
O beautiful for spacious skies for amber waves of grain 
For purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain!  
America!  America!  God shed his grace on thee 
And crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea!  [Applause] 
	>> DEB COOK LEWIS:  Oh, wow, that was great.  That was so great, showing a little respect for our country there.  [Laughter].  We should.  Yes, we should.  She's already gone down, but boy, we should, we'll have to get that done before the week is over. 
	Thank you.  Now, it's time, we're going to have this morning a few video presentations.  I see that most of you have your imaginary popcorn right ahead of you to reach out and have that, and the Cokes and such.  Be careful with those in here.  Let's begin with our corporate sponsor recognitions.  The American Council of the Blind would like to thank our 2023 convention sponsors.  Their continued support is sincerely appreciated.  Diamond sponsors -- JPMorgan Chase and Company, Microsoft, Vispero, Vanda Pharmaceuticals, Comcast. 
	Emerald sponsors -- Amazon, MGM Resorts, Cruise, Verizon, Janssen. 
	Ruby sponsors -- AT&T, Google, Waymo, Uber, Netflix, National Cable and Telecom Association (NCTA), HumanWare, Charter Communications, Adobe. 
	Onyx sponsors -- Seleste, American Printing House (APH), AIRA, Democracy Live Incorporated, Walmart, United Airlines. 
	Pearl sponsors -- ACB Families, ACB Lions, National Industries For the Blind. 
	Pearl sponsors -- Library Users of America. 
	Walk sponsors -- Macular Degeneration Foundation. 
	>> DEB COOK LEWIS:  Thank you.  All right. 
	Thank you to our corporate sponsors.  We couldn't do this without you guys.  Thank you very much.  Next, we have a Diamond Sponsor presentation by video this morning.  It's hard to get people here on the Fourth of July.  We're doing well with that, but it wasn't possible with everyone.  Our next diamond sponsor is Jenny Lay-Flurrie, chief accessibility officer, Microsoft, in Redmond, Washington.  
	>> I'm Jenny Lay-Flurrie, I'm the chief accessibility officer here at Microsoft, joining you in my office in Microsoft, in Redmond, Seattle.  It is sunny.  That is a rarity here in the Pacific Northwest and we are thrilled to be here as a full part of the national convention. 
	I'm wearing a green dress, you see a lot of miscellaneous stuff behind me, ability, which is in its 13th year at Microsoft, miscellaneous T-shirts, my team is all about T-shirts, and Microsoft, probably wearing a Microsoft accessibility T-shirt of some time.  
	It's an honor to be with you to talk about accessibility and to be a very small part of your very big event.  I had the honor of attending ACB several times, both virtually and in person over the years, and I always learn something that is need, wanted, or we need to advance on when it comes to accessibility, but the privilege of being in this role now, 7 1/2 years now, with the company, 18.  And we take that feedback really seriously and I'm thrilled at some of the progress but I'm always impatient about what we need to do going forward.  
	What does that progress mean, what is my role?  My role for anyone new to the gang is really a holistic approach to accessibility.  So me and my team here work with the hundreds and thousands of people around Microsoft, 220,000 people now around the world.  Many of them have accessibility that is dedicated or a part of their role to make sure we embed accessibility into things like Xbox and gaming, Windows, Office, and yes, what you may have heard of a lot in the press this year, AI.  Whether we focus -- a lot of it would surprise you.  
	We continue to be incredibly laser-focused on our core products, Windows, whether you use an eraser as our embedded screen reader or you use one of the three products, NVDI, jewels [phonetic] are common, embedding and realizing that experience, maintains one of our core priorities for the company.  We are continuing to give that focus, and I'm thrilled that we've been able to get out of the door some improvements this year with a lot more still to do.  Narrator in Excel is a big boost, just a few weeks ago just to make sure we're putting that one forward and there's a lot of activity in magnification with some of those embedded features along with high contrast, a whole bunch of high contrast filters.  
	We moved accessibility in Windows 11, and if you haven't upgraded to Windows 11, I would recommend it.  Jenny, accessibility can be hard to find in Windows, and I did some research on it, and the shocking results of that research was ease of access or ease of use, which was the common term in Windows 10 wasn't easy for people to remember, so we changed it to accessibility, put it right there in the start manager, and if you see Windows 11, accessibility is one of the common features in the bottom right hand menu, which is one you click for WiFi, so you can quickly, quickly turn on any feature you may need and quickly turn it off if you don't need it as you're going through. 
	Some of the examples of what this team really does get involved in, Windows, Office, continue to iterate on Zoom functions and more within Office, And Office Gaming, which also has its own embedded screen reader and narrator from Xbox. 
	One thing I was thrilled about that launched in early May was Blind Assist in one of our common gamers, forza [phonetic], and they worked with an amazing consultant to realize blind driving, and it's a series of audio features that would allow you to drive around the racing track and change gears, know everything and change everything about your car, and know the speeds that our going, brakes, which were I'm shockingly bad at when I take the road around the track.  Some of these features are coming soon.  There's brilliant YouTube videos and I really would recommend checking those out.  Get a good sense of that experience. 
	So taking forward the future of gaming, particularly blind and low-vision gaming is having we're silly passionate about, making sure there is access to everyone, including the board of gamers around the world with disabilities. 
	Windows, Office, Gaming.  Let's talk about what's top of mind in the news this year, which is AI.  Some of you will know, number one, AI app, which is seeing AI.  So those that don't know about it, and you have a device, please download it.  It's a free app.  It was created in 2017 by an amazing team of folks of employees, one of whom is Jack [phonetic], a brilliant blind developers, now living over here in Redmond.  
	It was designed in 2017 to use what was available then, which is cognitive services, which is about artificial intelligence.  Taking pictures of menus, of places, of clothes, of people in meeting rooms, and using artificial intelligence to describe what color those clothes are so you can make decisions on what you were to wear in a more forthright way.  
	Our currency and -- well, many countries now have tactile indicators on currency.  The U.S. still doesn't, as do many other countries.  And also, you know, recently, adding indoor navigation channels, which is a new channel that launched in May. 
	Now, there's a brand-new advancement in the West, which is adding GPT.  GPT4, specifically.  This is part of a ChatGPT that you may have heard about, and to take a step back, where does ChatGPT comes from, it comes from Open AI, which Microsoft is a big part of, but they're an independent company, and they came out with ChatGPT around holiday this year.  In fact, my holiday was fascinating, pinging around the period, chatting about accessibility, what they need to do, about the potential of some of this technology.  
	ChatGPT4 gives very detailed images, which is really can add an incredible layer of information that could be invaluable to many of you and many of the users of Seeing AI.  So it's coming soon.  There's a beautiful video that's on my profile on my social media, and I'm sure if you look it up on any search engine -- Bing is my preference -- it will come right up, but we can walk through a second, showing what I can do as you walk around, clearly, an aquarium with his son here in Seattle. 
	It's also, the same technology that many of you may have heard about Be My Eyes, and that's based over in Europe and headquartered there for many years.  It is a company that we worked with a long time, again, going back to 2017, where Be My Eyes technology, we embedded into technical support process.  We do have a free technical support team called the disability -- and now, coming soon, if you call Be My Eyes and you have a technical problem -- you have a technical problem, you're not sure where to plug cables in, Be My Eyes, you can get through everything, the last, six years, you can get through to one of our help functions.  Now, we're adding GPT4 into that so you can take a picture of that situation and allow the technology to describe, potential help.  It's a pilot.  We'll see how it goes.  Potentially help you to solve that issue, whatever it may be.  You may not have to speak to a human.  
	Now, you want to speak to a human, it is available 24/7, don't hesitate to pick up the call.  We take about 13,000 calls a month.  It remains just a really important support operation for -- that should be running over a decade now, 1.5 million calls in that time.  
	And the general theory of why I started it, I wanted every single customer, and employee, to be able to get online, quickly, whether you're just getting something new out of the box or there's an issue that's come up and need some assistance.  That's why, again, something that remains an absolute value to that operation space.  But we are going to continue to see what we can do to make that -- even quicker, easier, and more independent for everyone to be up to using, get to get online as quickly as you can.  So I'll be fascinated what you think.  I urge you to give it a try.  And offer to try out Be My Eyes pilot, as they partner with us on AI and are leveraging that technology. 
	It's an exciting time, but let me boilerplate it back on artificial intelligence, because I've had many questions about it.  And I'm excited about the potential with artificial intelligence as it gets embedded into many of our products.  
	You may hear the term co-pilot, Windows co-pilot, Office co-pilot, and this is leveraging artificial intelligence to help you build documents, get what you need to get the results you want quicker.  So the best and quickest example I can give, you're trying to build a document, you have a list of bullet points and you have your research or you want to find the research that will help you for your document.  If you type that into GPT -- and Bing GPT is our engine -- it can help you to fill in the gaps.  It can fill out articles that may be relevant and you can decide.  You are the co-pilot.  You are in control.  
	What is the best thing to embed?  For me, I build a lot of decks and I look at a lot of PowerPoints and I can take my outline on my Word into PowerPoint and it will create the deck for me.  It's going to be an immense time saver and remember three key principles.  Number one, it's got to be accessible.  The bar of accessibility doesn't shift.  In many ways, it goes up.  It's got to be an accessible implementation. 
	Number 2, we've got to embed disability data into artificial intelligence.  All the artificial intelligence is smart agents that are going through reams and reams and reams of data.  If we have data in there and pictures of canes, Braille devices, Braille reader, it's got pictures of glasses, pictures of anything that you can imagine would be important to your daily life, then it's going to give smarter decisions and recommendations.  Data matters, and it must be disability representative. 
	And thirdly, we want to educate, and we need to educate, and we need to innovate going forward.  That innovation piece is crucial, and Be My Eyes, the integration of Windows Disability and Seeing AI are some of the early examples of what you're going to see going forward.  If you have any questions about anything I've just spoken about, come back, cool, dad, let us know your feedback.  We're always listening.  
	My happiest times -- because I am a bit of an operationalist, and I've been at the company, gosh, through many iterations and worked on many different things, but I love, love hearing your feedback.  It's what pivots us daily.  It creates that priority for the coming weeks, for the months, for the year.  It's where you need us to invest.  We'll be listening.  And we also partner with a number of amazing organizations, including the ACB, and also, to our nontech acceleration partnerships through many organizations around the world focused on disability and accessibility. 
	It's all about learning.  I love doing that.  We will be able to raise the bar on accessibility, not just in technology, but on hiring and scaling.  So if you want to know anything more about what I've talked about, please check out Microsoft.com/accessibility.  What we have on LinkedIn, my name is Jenny Lay-Flurrie, L-a-y F-l-u-r-r-i-e, and we just opened up partners at LinkedIn, six new accessibility skimming courses to help people who may be new to our cool gang to want to learn more about accessibility and more.  So do check us out.  Do let me know your feedback, and please enjoy the rest of the conference.  I look forward to hearing any and all of your thoughts, and I will see you -- well, hopefully in a sunny time soon.  Take care.  Bye-bye.  [Applause] 
	>> DEB COOK LEWIS:  That was a marvelous presentation, and I have to tell you that if you do ever get an opportunity to meet Jenny Lay-Flurrie, she is just as awesome in-person as she could possibly be.  She is the most genuine person and just really cool. 
	Let me also mention really quickly that Microsoft had a lot of really interesting sessions during the virtual portion of the convention.  I think that was several years ago now, wasn't it?  Been a while.  A couple of weeks ago.  But it was really, really a great -- a couple of presentations, one kind of sharing some of the stories and lives of the people who work there who are blind, but the other was definitely a little bit more close up and personal on their AI projects, and very, very, very fascinating stuff.  So that will eventually be available in a podcast, and when it is, I do absolutely encourage you to take advantage of hearing it, because it was really very interesting. 
	And I have to hear it again, because I got called away for several technical assistance things during the middle, so I missed some of it myself. 
	All right.  We are continuing this morning with our ACB Angels.  We took some time out from our Angel tributes yesterday because we had so much business to do.  But now we are able to once again focus a little time on our ACB angels.  I told you that we had 14 ACB Angels this year, which is a phenomenal number of them.  It says two things, we are losing some of our members and friends, which is always a hard and sad thing.  But it also said we do absolutely buy into this idea of commemorating people and not forgetting them.  So I every year go out and look at the Angel Wall because there are several people out there who are on our wall, and it's a nice remembrance.  
	This morning, we're going to start our angel tributes which many of us know, and that is Dan Sippl from Eau Claire, Wisconsin.  
	>> ACB, and below each, Braille, ACB presents ACB Angel, Daniel Frances Sippl.  Dan, a white man with thinning hair, wears glasses and a suit and tie.  Scott Eggen, president of RSVA and I'm here to remember Dan Sippl.  Dan was a very dear friend to me.  Certainly we started a work relationship a number of years ago, and long story short, he did invite me in to be the head of the Sagebrush Committee, the chair of Sagebrush Committee, so I did accept that post and got to work closely with Dan.  As the years went on, we really forged a very deep relationship. 
	Besides all the work issues, we often talked about family and friends and things going on in our lives.  And when it came time, he wanted to step away from being the president, so I did step up, and he told me many times, I got your back.  I got your back.  Don't worry about what's ahead.  I'll be here with you.  And my gosh, you know, just, you know, any -- anything that we were close on, we just became so much closer.  He was always there for me.  I would call him up often and say, what do you think about this, what should I do about this.  Always had an answer.  Always prepared to listen to anything I had going on in my brain, and sometimes it was just ramblings and sometimes he would say, yeah, that makes sense.  And just forged a really close relationship with him and, you know, so many people told me after Dan passing that he was just always so open, so willing to help.  I have to put myself on that same list.  He's missed. 
	Big hands, big heart for Dan.  He was an amazing man, always willing to share his knowledge, always willing to teach, always trying to have that moment with people, and just so many people looked up to him.  Just -- you never heard a bad word about Dan.  He just had an amazing heart.  He always wanted to help.  Always ready to help anybody he could, and kept everything going.  
	I learned so much from him, and there's not a day, there's not a day goes by here that he passed that I don't think about Dan, and so many times, I just want to grab the phone and call him and say, Dan, I've got some questions and I can't quite figure some things out.  And yeah, he was an important piece to me.  He was an important piece to RSVA.  We're definitely a different organizations without him, and I just know he loved his family, he loved his wife, loved his kids.  Loved to talk about his family.  Loved to talk about his friends.  Loved to talk about his RSVA family.  The world is not the same place without Dan.  It really isn't.  And we love you, Dan.  We miss you so much.  And thanks for all that you've done for us.  I never got a chance to say thank you when you were with us, but thank you, Dan.  You just have meant the world to me.  You've meant the world to so many people you've touched, and we all miss you.  So thank you so much.  
	>> Our logo, ACB, in Braille, American Council of the Blind, together for a bright future.  [Applause] 
	>> DEB COOK LEWIS:  That's definitely the kind of tribute you want to have on video because it would be too hard to do live.  All right.  Very, very nice. 
	All right.  Our next angel will be Terry Camardelle.  And she -- this is from Marrero, Louisiana.  Let's do this one.  
	>> Our background, the letters, ACB, and below each, its corresponding Braille cell.  ACB presents ACB Angel.  Terry Camardelle, September 23, 1945 to September 5, 2021. 
	Terry is a white man, bald, with a goatee and mustache.  He holds a beer and a snack.  Kim Venable.  
	>> KIM VENABLE:  Terry Camardelle was born on September 23, 1945, into one of Louisiana's oldest family.  The Camardelle family had resided there for nearly 100 years prior to Terry's birth, and they are widely respected throughout the community as honest and hard working folks.  His father, Roy Camardelle, was a shrimper by trade and also worked at the shipyard.  Terry's mother Frances was a homemaker known for her quiet, gentle, yet strong demeanor.  Terry was born with a low-vision disability that did not become apparent until he began elementary school which was ill equipped to accommodate his low vision disability, Francis was unable to read or write herself, would walk Terry to school, return with his lunch, walk him back to school for his afternoon session and accompanied him home after school dismissed.  School was difficult for Terry and made socializing even more chances.  They decided to home-school Terry after he completed the third grade.  At that point, Terry could not read or write.  With great wisdom, Francis apprenticed Terry, and Terry not only learned the daily routine of a small grocery business, but mastered reading, writing, and arithmetic.  He was allowed to progress at his own pace and the nurturing environment of family and friends.  Through his younger years, Terry took up the Camardelle qualities of honesty and hard work, eventually building many enduring business partnerships and becoming the manager of a local supermarket. 
	Then in the mid-1970s, Terry learned of the Louisiana Randolph-Sheppard Program and decided to enroll into it.  At that time Randolph-Sheppard candidates were trained on the job by senior, well-seasoned managers.  Terry overtook the training an successfully landed his first stand in a short order.  Since 1975 Terry has operated over 35 Randolph-Sheppard stands in the metro New Orleans market, more than any vendor in the history of the Louisiana Randolph-Sheppard program.  
	Terry assumed the chairmanship in the Louisiana Randolph-Sheppard Program more than 25 years ago and has helped guide the program through many challenging times.  As the executive director of Randolph-Sheppard Vendors of Louisiana, RSVL Inc., Terry has been a big part in building RSVL into a self-sustaining, nonprofit organization that owns and operates one of the largest bingo halls in the state of Louisiana.  The Azalea Bingo Hall has become the lifeline of funding for Randolph-Sheppard Vendors of America, and the Louisiana Council of the Blind and also active in blind advocacy groups, he remains active in the Randolph-Sheppard program of America, Randolph-Sheppard Vendors of Louisiana, Louisiana Council of the Blind, American Council of the Blind.  Terry is a member of the local Mason's lodge.  Through his tenure has counted among his friends some of the most renowned figures in the Blind Movement, including until Robert Humphreys, Terry McDaniel, Walter Sigh, and Gene [phonetic], just to name a few.  
	The Randolph-Sheppard program is a family affair to the Camardelles.  Terry's wife of over 50 years, Bonnie, has operated the Randolph-Sheppard with Terry, and they have all worked for the RSVL Inc.  That supported blind vendors.  When asked what the Randolph-Sheppard program meant to him, it gave me opportunities I wouldn't have had otherwise.  It allowed me to operate and build a small business and support my family without leaving my wife or my daughters or my mom.  It gave me the opportunity to buy a home and remain in Louisiana all these years.  It gave me a chance for all blessings I've received.  Most of all, Randolph-Sheppard helped me realize many things about myself that I wouldn't have found any other way.  Sadly, Terry passed away on September 5, 2021, at the gauge of 75.  
	>> The logo, ACB, in print and Braille, American Council of the Blind, together for a bright future.  [Applause] 
	>> DEB COOK LEWIS:  Wow.  Yeah, that's amazing.  Great stories.  I love the stories.  I really do.  It's so good.  I didn't know Terry actually, but that's a good story.  Our final angel for this morning is Richard Bird from Cleveland, Ohio.  The letters ACB is below each, the corresponding Braille.  Richard L. Bird, December 8, 1952 to December 26, 2022, a white man with dark hair and mustache.  Ardis Bazyn.  
	>> ARDIS BAZYN:  I'm here to talk about Richard Bird as an RSVA angel.  He served in the national -- served in the Army from the Vietnam War, and later he joined the RSVA, which is the Randolph-Sheppard Vendors of America.  He had a burning desire to make the Randolph-Sheppard program better than ever, to employ other blind and visually impaired persons.  He wanted to make sure that other blind people had the same opportunities that he did.  He was the president of RSVA for several years.  And was very active advocate for RSVA and Randolph-Sheppard mentors.  He served on the original committee for Sagebrush, which is the national training BEP conference for RSVA vendors and staff working with the vendors, and he helped make that training the best it could be. 
	He was given very, very many awards.  One of the awards was a certificate from the Prius loco [phonetic] Ohio vendors organization for helping Ohio in the 1990s they tried to eliminate the Randolph-Sheppard program in Ohio and he and many other advocates in Ohio made sure that that program kept going. 
	In 1997, he received the Vendor of the Year award from Randolph-Sheppard Vendors of America.  In order to get that award, you have to be active for five years, locally and nationally. 
	In 2014, he received the Don Cammen [phonetic] award for advocacy for RSVA members who have been in RSVA for a minimum of 20 years and have advocated locally, statewide, and nationally for the Randolph-Sheppard program. 
	He was also an active part of the Blind Veterans Association, and he worked with them to make sure they understood what the Randolph-Sheppard Act was all about, making sure that other blind people who had lost their vision while serving or after serving could join the Randolph-Sheppard program.  He also was an active member of the Visually Impaired Veterans of America, which is another ACB affiliate.  He tried to keep that affiliate going, because he knows it's important for ACB members to be aware of the Randolph-Sheppard Act, and he wanted to make sure that all visually impaired people were aware of this program, that veterans could join as well as other blind and visually impaired persons. 
	He was beloved by many people in RSVA, locally, and in the state.  Many people felt that he was a very good friend, and I did too.  I met him in the '80s at Sagebrush and have known him, have known him for over 30 years.  And found him to be a wonderful friend and supporter of blind and visually impaired people.  He did join some local fundraisers in Ohio, first RSVA chapter, and later on, a benefactor for many organizations and would help blind and visually impaired people.  Especially the Randolph-Sheppard program because he felt that program was a good opportunity for any blind and visually impaired person. 
	So I want you to remember Richard Bird.  He was a great angel for ACB and RSVA.  
	>> The logo, ACB, in print and Braille, American Council of the Blind, together for a bright future.  
	>> DEB COOK LEWIS:  All right.  Thank you to all of our presenters for angels this morning, and goodness, lots of loss for RSVA, but we are moving on and so I have moved a part of the program up from Thursday to today, because we have a little bit of extra time to do that.  And so we are going to hear from our access and peer support mentoring program with Kenneth Semien, Sr., and he's going to introduce what has been happening this past nine months in our mentoring program and share some of the highlights of that with you for the next few minutes.  
	>> KENNETH SEMIEN:  Good morning, ACB.  We have been working on our mentorship, access, and peer support program for nine months now.  And we began September 15 of 2022 and we just concluded the program on June 15 of 2023.  The nine-month pilot program consisted of 12 guides for our mentors and 12 explorers who are mentees.  That was the class of 2023 and we had a reception and graduation ceremony yesterday, and we are happy to give you more input about our program and how we're going to move forward in this upcoming few months.  So I want to introduce you now to Cheryl Cumings from the mentoring team and she'll present you some details.  
	>> CHERYL CUMINGS:  Good morning, everyone.  I'm going to talk about the purpose, share some reflections, and then talk about some of the successes we've had during this nine-month pilot program. 
	So you might have heard our origin story, because every ACB has an origin story, Dan Spoone put together different committees working towards a mentoring program and brought us together. 
	But I want to step back and talk a little bit about another sort of underpinning that led to the Multicultural Affairs Committee getting interested and focusing on issues around mentoring. 
	In 2020 there was a resolution that was passed that basically called on ACB to develop a mentoring program that would promote people of color and people from different ethnic and racial backgrounds and provide opportunities for us to access leadership opportunities. 
	So using that as an impetus for the work of Multicultural Affairs Committee, we started talking about mentoring and this is where Dan and the other committees get involved because thanks to sharing that with Dan, he was able to let me know and to invite NCAC to work with the DPM committee and the institute and with the Membership Committee to create this program.  As you can imagine, when you think of a new initiative or new idea, we were able to reach out to organizations outside of ACB that offer mentoring programs to get their guidance, and I think if you all remember, we did do community calls.  And so to get input from our own ACB community to help us develop and design, to do the structure and the content of the mentoring program. 
	As Kenneth mentioned, this was a pilot, and so we learned a few things.  We learned about the importance of -- I think defining, and Donna will talk about getting more specific about being a guide and being an explorer.  We learned about time [indiscernible] [Laughter].  And how that can impact opportunities for people to get together and talk with each other.  
	But we also learned, you know, that as mentors and mentees come together, people had goals that they identified and one of the things we learned is that sometimes you started off with a huge aspiration or a huge goal and that there's nothing wrong with having to refine that.  And we learned that there's something important about sort of sticking to a commitment.  Even inasmuch as some of the things we put together, part of the difference in time.  I was so impressed by the teams that stuck together and figured it out.  We also learned that it's important that when you come to issues, you would be able or feel comfortable reaching out and there's no shame in saying, I need some assistance.  Need some guidance. 
	And I want to end up by talking about some successes.  One, I would say that we weren't quite anticipating so soon, but we're pretty excited that it happened.  We have at least two participating mentees who achieved their personal goals of becoming presidents of their local chapters.  So we're pretty excited about that.  [Applause]   And one of our teams that had the really wide time zone issue, they have become, I think, super close, personally, and a lot of the teams talk about that.  And together, they've been working on and have presented some activities within the community.  So, again, sticking together until it works. 
	And last, but not least, is just the feedback we've received from both guides and explorers, how important the -- this opportunity has been for them because it has given people an opportunity to connect with somebody they didn't necessarily know but also to learn some skills and to share ideas and experiences that they think will, you know, are helpful to them and will be helpful as they pursue their leadership goals.  Thank you so much.  [Applause] 
	>> DONNA BROWN:  Hello -- sorry, hello, everyone, I was using my teacher voice.  Excuse me.  So I am Donna Brown, co-chair of the Institute Training Committee, and I get to do the fun part of this presentation.  So I get to introduce you to the graduating class of the pilot program.  And so as I say the names, some are going to be familiar to you.  Some of the names are going to be new to you.  And I just want to go on record and thank each one of these participants for all the hard work they did this year. 
	So as I say the names, if you could stand and I guess even if you're on Zoom, you might need a stretch break, you could pan too.  But those in the room, please stand and be recognized as I say your name.  As I say the teams, I'm going to name the explorer or the mentee first, and then I will mention the guide, or mentor. 
	So here we go.  We have Belinda Collins from North Carolina.  And Pam Shaw from Pennsylvania.  [Applause] 
Here's a familiar name next is Natalie Couch from Kentucky and Paul Edwards from Florida.  [Applause] Then we have Joe Bing from California, Deanna Noriega from Missouri.  [Applause]  Then we have Kristin Kelling from Michigan and Patty Slaby from Wisconsin.  Then, [indiscernible] Wright from Hawaii and Penny Reeder from Hawaii, one of those time zones.  Lisa sledge from Michigan and Tom from California.  Then, Mel Carpenter from Iowa and Mary Ann from Florida.  [Applause]  Christy Crespin and John from Arizona.  I don't know why I said that.  I know where he's from.  Excuse me, John!  And we have Kelsey Mick lay from Ohio and Ray Campbell from Illinois.  Here's a new name, Lisha from Missouri, and Lynne Koral from Washington.  Anthony from Hawaii and Lacie Edmonds from Michigan.  And Doralee Martinez from Nevada and Donna Williams from Pennsylvania.  [Applause]  And, again, congratulations to each one of them and thank you, ACB, for supporting this program.  [Applause] 
	>> KENNETH SEMIEN:  Okay.  This is Kenneth back, and we want to thank, once again, our participants for the pilot program, for joining in and helping us to build a better program moving forward and we will continue to seek, to identify, and empower leaders for tomorrow for ACB. 
	The pilot program has ended, so we're going to move into an official program coming up in a few months, and it will be called the ACB Inspire Mentoring Program, and the inspire, for acronyms, we have I is imagine, N is nurture, S, support, P, prepare, I, influence, R, reflect, and E, evolve.  So you will hear more about those components as we move forward, we'll begin to seek a second cohort for the mentoring program, and we hope that you will continue to read emails that's put out and an announcement that will be put out soon as a guide or explorer and feel free to ask questions at any time to any one of us.  I'm not if sure I mentioned it earlier, but some of you know that I am the chair of the [indiscernible] annual fund committee and I have really enjoyed working with the different committees of ACB and we will continue to move forward.  Now, I'll turn the mic to Donna Browning just to give you a few dates to remember.  
	>> DONNA BROWNING:  Here we go.  Bring it down to my level.  I'm little.  I'm the short one of the group.  All right.  So I'm going to give you a few important dates to remember.  Put in your calendar.  All right.  So the first thing we're going to do, we're going to have a few community calls, pretty soon, after we get home from convention.  The first will be July 13th and the next one will be July 15th. 
	Then we're going to start beginning to accept applications on July 17th and we will be done with that on Thursday, August 17th. 
	Then we will -- let's see.  Programs actually starts -- I'm getting to my times here.  All right.  It begins Wednesday, September 13th, and will conclude June 13th.  And keep your ears open.  There will be other dates as time comes along for you to put on your calendar, especially for those who do want to apply and -- when you get accepted, there will be other dates to follow that will be important for you to put on your calendar.  We're excited to meet our new class, and thank you for having us and have a great day.  [Applause] 
	>> Now, Cheryl Cumings will come back and then we'll conclude.  
	>> CHERYL CUMINGS:  Kenneth gives me more and more work.  I want to remind you something about the mentoring program.  In a lot of parts of our lives, somebody else gets to determine whether you have the potential to be a leader or not.  What I think is unique and truly important about this program is that we're asking you to make that determination for yourself.  We're asking you to apply, to step forward, and in doing so, express your own interest in being a leader.  So I truly hope that anyone who is hearing my voice, who is listening, will take advantage of this opportunity and if you really think that you've got something to give to ACB and that you want to get involved more in the work of ACB, please, please take advantage of this opportunity and apply.  [Applause] 
	>> KENNETH SEMIEN:  Okay.  We continue to be available for questions, comments, anything you have to offer to help us strengthen our program for program, send emails to ACB.mentoring@Gmail.com.  That's ACB.mentoring@Gmail.com.  Thank you so much.  [Applause] 
	>> DEB COOK LEWIS:  You tall people.  We're going to have to introduce the resolution about this height thing.  [Laughter].  Whoops.  There we go.  I think that's better.  All right.  Huh?  
	>> [Away from mic.] 
	>> DEB COOK LEWIS:  You're out of order.  [Laughter].  All right.  Very good.  All right.  Just a moment.  I lost my place.  Okay.  So I just want to mention that last night, I did go to the graduation for the maps people, and it was just so amazing.  Everybody was so enthusiastic and they -- there was so much energy there and these are the people who are our leaders and are our future leaders.  So I think we want to continue to support that program and definitely, if that's of interest to you, or members of your particular affiliate, you want to make sure that you get to those calls and learn about that application process, which is very, very good. 
	Okay.  We have a lot of great guests this morning, and I'm really excited about them.  And our presiding officer for today is going to be Denise Colley, and she is, of course, our ACB secretary.  And this is actually the session I usually have gotten to preside over, so I'm kind of jealous, because I think this one is just very, very cool.  So let's -- I'm going to move my notes for you, and I will introduce Denise Colley and she will begin to work through our program this morning.  Thank you so much.  [Applause] 
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Thank you, Deb, I agree, the best day.  Good morning, ACB, and happy Independence Day!  And I'm already prepared.  I have my blind girls flag shirt on.  I'm ready to go!  [Applause]  Our first presenter this morning is somebody that I've been excited to want to meet, I got to see her twice, because we get to see her today and anybody coming to the VRL breakfast tomorrow gets to hear her again.  Every year we have an international speaker speak to us and we're doing it again, and our guest this morning is from a place that I've always wanted to go visit.  Maybe someday I'll get there.  Please help me give a big ACB welcome to our international guest, Martine Abel-Williamson, who is -- [Applause] -- she is currently president of the World Blind Union, which we've heard a lot about, and she is from Auckland, New Zealand.  Martine, welcome!  [Applause] 
	>> MARTINE ABEL-WILLIAMSON:   Thank you.  It's really amazing being here.  First of all, I want to thank you for inviting me.  In 2019, and generally, Janet emailed me saying, oh, can you come and present to us?  I said, yeah, sure.  And two months later, the world changed.  And I must tell you people, that for me, countries -- the world just threw people at -- at the pandemic, but New Zealand closed the country down.  There was a bit of a metric.  You could say, I could do shopping, and all the sudden, you'll say at home, and you'll only take your dog for a walk and you'll avoid other people.  But, you know, and afterwards, I realized that for a little country of 5 million decided that it can only close, it's not worth people dying.  And that is why New Zealand, we -- but a bit of time now, because -- the party is getting slack.  But that's why in 2020, most of us survived.  Because we closed it down. 
	But then I just want to say that I traveled at the end of 2021 because I was a presenter [indiscernible], and I thought the least I could do is visit people.  And it was very traumatic because, you know, you travel and you go to these -- and I had to go back to New Zealand and I had to go to quarantine and all sorts.  But I want to say, it was all fine. 
	And in the end, we all have to think how do we look after one another.  How can we take care of one another.  So I became the president of the World Blind Union at a very difficult time.  It should have been 2020 and it was 2021 because of the changes for the year.  And I -- so none of us could travel.  And in 2019 I took my guide dog to [indiscernible] from New Zealand for a conference thing, and I realized, it's quite hard taking a dog 12 hours on a flight, then two hours in transit and then two hours on a flight.  But I wanted to do it because I wanted to look at the coast and a time, and that's why in 2019 I went to the NAB conference, but it was traumatic.  I got to the space.  My dog is here now, and he's -- yeah.  So I think we got lots of work to do about international travel. 
	But I also want to -- [Applause] -- because many of us want to travel with our dogs, right?  My dog, if anybody -- any one of you missed your dog, you know, it will be with me, because I've probably stolen it. 
	And then I want to tell you that when COVID struck, I think most of -- most of the world went -- what the F, you know.  But I think us as Aussie people said, oh, we just have to adjust how we do something.  If someone tells us how to do shopping, we're going to do it a different way.  And I think most of us went through COVID thinking, unless we lost someone, which I will not diminish, are like, I'm fine now, I work from home, frank goodness -- thank goodness I don't have to go to work.  I can work from home.  I can shop from home.  I remember when New Zealand closed down, we said, okay, fine, you can close us down, but how are we going to shop?  The shopping will be accessible.  And but so many people did shopping that many of us got up at midnight to do shopping.  You know.  So I would get up at 2:00 a.m., do my shopping.  Yeah.  So I think that many of us, when the world closed down and said to us over the pandemic, I think many of us were actually ready for it, because we're so used to change things.  We're so used to saying, fine, I'll just have to do things differently, because you can't handle me doing things the same way.  And that's what I want to say to people today is that COVID didn't just tell us how to do things on Zoom and Teams.  COVID actually showed the world that people can just get on with life.  [Applause]  
	Because so many people -- because so many people couldn't.  And I want to tell you guys today that -- thank you for inviting me.  You know, when [indiscernible] wrote me in 2020 and said, are you going to come and visit us?  Yeah, yeah, I'll come visit you.  Then it was changed.  And I thought afterwards, okay, what will I -- what can I bring, that you guys don't have already?  Because let's face it, you guys, you've got guide dogs, you've got your [indiscernible].  I actually got a much better solution for paratransit. 
	In New Zealand, you can get 75% off all taxi costs because you're a blind person.  You don't have to order a special taxi and a special this and that.  I can ring up any taxi and say -- and show a card and I'll get 75% off.  [Applause]  
	So nothing special about ordering the special texts.  We need mainstream services to accommodate us.  Because if I could take a bus, which is -- 20 minutes from my home, and then I could do that.  But I think -- our message is, take mainstream services and make those accessible, right?  And I also want to say to people, thank you for inviting me to be here in person.  
	I think that, you know, we all thing -- and Zoom, I live on Zoom.  I live on Teams.  I live on Google.  I live on -- I live on it.  But being here with you in the last few days, and Dave and Anthony, I just want to say that, I think we should do a wine tasting by nation thing.  New Zealand -- New Zealand, American.  You know, we should just do something really out there, you know?  Because I think we now are ready for us all to live again and I also want to thank people who I know here, people like Dan Spoone that recruited me with the audio description standards.  And I want to thank, amongst you all, you have Kim Charlson, council -- you talk to her, because she's got the power, you know.  We -- you can say to her, you've got the world, the -- you know, what is going to happen?  Because we know, we know -- we're into promoting the -- the world site, world blind codes across the world.  This is not about codes like ICB.  This is about additional Braille -- what would you want to happen in additional world things?  So and -- [indiscernible].  
	So and now I'm going to go to a commercial.  Some four to five, 4:00 p.m., I'll be talking about how advocacy and how I'm going to -- in this world from the WBU to -- New Zealand, and information for [indiscernible] today.  Please join me at 4:00.  Is it 4:00?  Yes.  At 4:00, at 4:00 today, but I also want to ask you a favor.  I got -- it was from a -- from a single parent.  And at that time, you know, we talk about the early '70s and [indiscernible] pregnant.  As if you did it on your own, right?  
	So when I was born, my family -- my mom was in the hospital and -- which I'll tell you about later, at 4:00 p.m.  today, and the doctors helped me into this world, was -- [indiscernible], he was called out, you have to come and give this person a birth.  And I was born on 9 July, and [indiscernible] he gave me my name, because he was who he was.  So what I want to tell people today is we -- COVID showed us resilience.  COVID showed us that we can and -- we're not just the first responders.  We're not just the deficit people.  And I'm here from the World Blind Union.  And also, come tonight at 4:00 to hear about the anniversary of the -- what do you call it, the America's Treaty.  [Applause]  
	For ten years, for ten years we finally can actually order any book at any time at any cost.  [Applause]  And if you -- so you have an available book service, a special library, NLS or whatever, oh, I want Harry Potter or I want a crime novel or I want to -- all my novels are very crime, I'm into very grim stuff, grim murder and whatever.  And it's there.  But also, a supplementary agreement, which many of you might not know is available, is -- you don't have to go through your library.  You can just look, you can just go on to the go service with your ID as a blind person, and find any title, whether it's music, crime, whatever.  So I just wanted to tell people, I'm so happy to be here with you.  And please stay in touch with me and -- winds of change.  Winds of change.  And people are focused on winds of change, but philosophical, winds of change.  
	In New Zealand, we've got an Indigenous concept called [indiscernible], which is the horizon.  Now, many of you can see that if you look, you'll see where the sky touches the earth and it's the horizon.  And we can't see winds, but we can see it reveal us -- where there's light, blue sky.  So I want to stop today by telling you guys that this saying is about -- it's about horizon, and it came from COVID, and it came from all of you because we're here today in the same area.  We knocked down the distance between us but by our shared horizon, our [indiscernible].  Thank you.  [Applause] 
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Thank you, Martine.  We do have time for a few questions, so if you have a question here in the room, please get to a microphone.  If you have a question in Zoom, please raise your hand and if we have any hands raised in Zoom, you can let me know who they are.  
	>> CHANELLE ALLEN:  No hands in Zoom at this time.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  No hands in Zoom.  Any questions from the floor?  Anybody heading to a mic?  I know they're hard to find, so we'll give a few minutes.  Well, this group is really quiet today.  
	>> CHANELLE ALLEN:  We do have someone in Zoom now.  Veronica Elsea.  
	>> VERONICA:  Hi, I wanted to know if you could talk about what was experienced by blind people in various countries that maybe don't have all of the online goodies that we have and how different groups might have been impacted because maybe blind people aren't so important in some of the countries and just how maybe the World Blind Union might have addressed that.  
	>> We are getting a mic to her.  One second.  
	>> Can you repeat the question for her, please?  
	>> CHANELLE ALLEN:  Go ahead, Veronica.  
	>> VERONICA:  Okay.  My question was how much the World Blind Union either observed or got involved in in terms of the experiences of blind people in countries that didn't have all of the internet goodies and things we had to survive COVID and were they considered an important enough population to get help and services and some of the care that some of us take for granted.  
	>> MARTINE ABEL-WILLIAMSON:   Thank you.  That's a very important question.  Clearly, we tried to reach out.  When the war broke out in the Ukraine, we [indiscernible], send over 100,000 -- thanks to all of you who contributed.  So everybody is online.  And we realized that it's people from Ukraine and anywhere else that can benefit from our service.  So because we've got six regions, we've got -- in this case, in your case, North America to the Caribbean, we are in touch with people manually, not always online.  
	So we realize that sometimes that when we lose touch online, we need to connect, because of our personal networks.  So we can assure people that we do connect with people.  But please, let me know.  I mean, I -- I am -- I tell people, tell me personally, tell me, put these people on your networks.  So I want to say to people, online is great.  Artificial intelligence is great.  And we want to embrace it.  But let us know who to contact.  And if there's anybody to contact by phone or any other way, then we will do that.  
	>> Thank you.  And Madam President has a question.  
	>> DEB COOK LEWIS:  Yes, it's great to have you here today with us Martine, and it's exciting to hear the difference progress and the different issues.  So if you could change one thing for blind people globally, what would that be?  
	>> MARTINE ABEL-WILLIAMSON:   Wow.  I want people to wake up feeling a valued person.  Do you wake up feeling a valued person?  Well, we should.  I want to everybody to wake up, whether it's with a [indiscernible], whether it's sofa, whether it's work tomorrow, whether it's -- do my washing, I want people to wake up feeling, I'm a valued person, and my goodness, I'm going to make myself better.  [Applause] 
	>> I have a question.  
	>> Hold on.  Our Executive Director has a question.  
	>> Hello, Martine, it's great to have you with us today.  You've mentioned that you're on the ACVREP audio description advisory committee.  Can you tell us how you see it developing around the world with the World Blind Union?  
	>> MARTINE ABEL-WILLIAMSON:  You do a lot.  In -- we don't have cinema, we have it in seata [phonetic], but not in cinema.  So I'm also as a messenger, because I just want it to happen.  I just want to say, I don't want to know how it happens, but I want to know -- but I want to know the boxes that you've got to install and I just want to switch and it must happen.  
	And that's my message is, you know, first, I want audio description, probably “Fatal Attraction,” which was rather interesting, taking that -- it was like -- I could find the -- in New Zealand, we've got great audio description on TV, on national TV.  But not in cinema, and I realized -- and I also realized that we needed standards, not telling people what they should think, but telling people what they're seeing.  
	And that's why I'm -- you know, so my two good examples is “Eight Below,” with the dogs, people could -- the dogs could live in the Pole, and you see one dying, and the others -- but no one tells you.  You've got to just realize that where there's empty collar that a dog died.  And also look at "The Passion of the Christ," which is not audio description, but one voice telling you the language and another voice telling you the audio description.  And they -- [indiscernible].  
	So I think you guys are doing very well.  And I think that it should be legislated.  It shouldn't be up to guidelines.  And that's what I'm telling people around the world.  Don't say guidelines, guidelines, guidelines.  Oh, guidelines is great, you know.  Legislate it.  And so that's why I want to praise you all for that.  So that's why -- I love my role in that audio description world, because it's a guiding role.  It's not telling me what to think.  You look at "The Sixth Sense," when the guy realized he's dead.  No one says, oh, he realizes he's dead.  He looks and you realize it's only presenting with other people.  And I think that is such a skill.  So I want to take my hat off to you here in the states, because you're really bringing about audio descriptions, so thank you.  [Applause] 
	>> Anyone else who had questions?  
	>> Yes, may I ask a question?  
	>> Hold on.  
	>> Good morning, my name is Gregg.  You can call me triple-G, that's what everybody in the community calls me.  My question for you is this.  How do you, as proposed, a lot of people with blindness also have other disabilities.  How do we reach out, specifically virtually to people with disabilities who may not have the same level of understanding as far as connecting, you know, through Zoom and other platforms like that.  
	>> MARTINE ABEL-WILLIAMSON:   Nice question.  I'm part of the international disability [indiscernible], and because the information -- then other people, because let's face it, many of us are not just blind.  We have mental health and arthritis and dementia and other conditions.  So please remind your local provider that we need information about it.  And I can assure you that internationally, the world -- we don't just focus on one impairment, because we've got a list.  We've got to have an holistic view of society.  So stay in touch about that and online, and we definitely take that into consideration.  
	>> CHANELLE ALLEN:  Zoom.  
	>> May I ask a question?  
	>> CHANELLE ALLEN:  Yes, Vanessa Lowery, go ahead, please.  
	>> Hold on just one second.  We're going to take the Zoom question and then if there's any time left, I'll let the lady who is asking for the floor, but let's do Zoom first since we've had questions from the floor.  
	>> VANESSA:  I'll make this quick.  First, welcome to the US.  You briefly referenced the Ukraine.  What role did the World Blind Union play in moving blind and visually impaired people out of the Ukraine and into other countries, such as Poland and others that I can't think of off the top of my head so they could get their needs met, continue with education for children, et cetera, et cetera?  
	>> MARTINE ABEL-WILLIAMSON:   Thank you.  In April this year we started for the Ukraine Fund, and people contributed very generously.  So people who left the Ukraine with blindness into Poland and other countries, we could support.  Also, we're not just there to support people leaving the Ukraine, because we realized many people want to -- it's their country.  They want to live there.  And we are adding funds about how can you stay in the Ukraine and have the services you want.  So I want to thank all of you.  I know many of you -- Ukrainian conference, that -- concert.  It was just amazing, and -- all these people are so talented, and many of you contributed as artists to that fund.  So we did a lot.  And we can still do a lot.  It's not finished yet.  Because we want to do two things.  We want to help settle people in Ukraine if they want to, but we want to help people in the Ukraine because if people want to stay in Ukraine, they should have a right to.  So that is our message, personally.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  And the lady, could you identify yourself, please?  
	>> DIANE:  Me?  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Yes.  
	>> DIANE:  I'm Diane from Michigan.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  This will be our last question.  Thank you.  
	>> DIANE:  Thank you.  Do you have maybe a brief explanation of what the World Blind Union does?  Might be a tough question, I don't know, but -- thank you.  
	>> MARTINE ABEL-WILLIAMSON:   Around the world, there are 253 million blind people.  We have to unite us and we have to think, what do we all want.  Because the past politics -- we've got to look past politics.  We have to look past economics.  What do the 253 million blind people across the world want?  And then that's what the World Blind Union is for.  Education.  Is it employment?  And then that is what we're for.  Let's face it.  If you have employment and education, you can change your life and your aspirations.  If you do not have education, that is very sad.  So I want to say the World Blind Union, for the 253 million people across the world, never mind your political ideology.  We need you to be there to improve our lives for education and employment.  [Applause] 
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Martine, thank you so much for coming to share with us this morning.  If you have more questions or you want to learn more, come to Schaumburg E at 4:00 this afternoon and you'll get to hear more from Martine.  Let's give her a big thank you.  [Applause]  
	Okay.  Our next speaker is no stranger to any of us.  We know him well.  He was our ACB Executive Director for seven years.  And now is the new Executive Director for the American Foundation For the Blind from Arlington, Virginia, please help me welcome our friend and somebody we're going to really miss, Mr.  Eric Bridges.  [Applause] 
	>> ERIC BRIDGES:  Good morning, ACB.  This is kind of cool and weird.  It's been wonderful to be here and Friday night it was awesome to be able to -- during the scholarship award winners for the dinner, with Denise in her role as co-chair of the Scholarship Committee, and some woman named Rebecca Bridges. 
	Something that I'm not certain all of you are completely aware of is that about five years ago Kirk Adams, my predecessor at AFB, reached out to ACB to inquire about us being able to -- that being ACB at the time, being able to administer several of their scholarships for college-aged students.  And we said yes.  And so literally for the last -- I want to say four years now, ACB has been administering them and combining them, there are eight AFB scholarships that contribute significantly to the funding, increased funding of the ACB scholarships.  So pretty cool to be able to join in a different -- in a slightly different perspective, the scholarship winners. 
	Well, I am thrilled to be here.  I want to thank Deb Cook Lewis and Dan Spoone and Janet for inviting me.  The AFB breakfast is back at ACB, which I'm very proud of.  Over 100 people were in the room, so you must be interested in something.  There's a lot of working done at AFB.  There's 100 years of work that's been done and being done at AFB.  We are 102 years old.  Literally Moses Charles Miguel established the American Foundation for the Blind just two years after the first world pandemic.  And, you know, then there were transportation challenges, there were education challenges, literacy, employment challenges that our community faced.  And he wanted, in standing up AFB to begin to address those issues.  Robert Irwin, the first Executive Director of AFB encountered these challenges, and then this woman walked through the door in 1924.  I just rhymed.  Didn't mean to do that.  Kind of cool.  Her name was Helen Keller.  She worked with AFB for 40 years on all the issues that I just stated and more and became an icon for AFB, the blindness field, the disability field, and I would argue the civil rights, the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement. 
	Why am I saying this now to you all?  Some of you know this all very well.  It's because AFB has not really been very visible the last couple of years.  That stops today.  [Applause] 
	It has been a time of transition at AFB, and I've been on the job -- it will be three months on July 12th.  So, you know, I am not here to make great proclamations at the moment.  What I'm here is to provide you an update on the work we're doing and look ahead.  The key to AFB's success is engaging with you all, with ACB, with NFB, with Visionserve Alliance, national streets to the blind and others.  We are here to be a resource.  We are here to assist.  We're here to identify ideas and hopefully put them into action.  We're here to convene the community.  And that's something that I'm committing to you all now this day.  Moving forward, there will be more convening.  There will be more dialogue.  It's something that I certainly valued in my career at ACB and NIB and working with AFB.  And it's something that needs to continue for the blind field to be strong and for us to be able to accomplish more.  Collaboration is key.  Open and honest discussion is key. 
	So what's going on at AFB?  Well, we've got programs.  We've got PPRI.  What is PPRI, they say, another acronym, more letters.  Public Policy Research Institute.  PPRI.  That is likely what most of you are most familiar with, our work in public policy, obviously, much of that has intersected with ACB down the years.  Much of it is technology and has been and will be technology-related. 
	In April we released the Barriers to Visual Inclusion study that really sought to highlight the existing barriers that our community faces when interacting with websites and apps.  Obviously, a lot of work, a lot of progress has been made in this area over the last, I would say, 10 to 15 years, but there's still these weird, nagging things that happen that impact our productivity, that impact our ability to enjoy, our entertainment, our access to information. 
	So a couple of the highlights here, just individuals still challenged in accessing apps and websites dealing with travel sites -- airlines.  The whole sector of healthcare, accessing your own patient data through portals and the apps that allow you access to that data.  So obviously, not shocking.  We all have felt this.  
	But the key to what AFB is and should be about, I believe, in our field is taking these problems that are stated by the consumer groups and going and serving you all.  To see just how big of problem.  The insight that AFB has is unique to our field and in some ways unique to the disability field.  So being able to take your input and do the data crunching and be able to spit out a study that now is in the hands of policymakers on Capitol Hill, at the Department of Justice and other federal agencies is very important.  It helps to underpin the advocacy work that ACB does.  That's what we want to be here to do.  Obviously, we're not a consumer group, right?  
	So the barriers to visual inclusion, we also did a workplace technology study that highlighted some of the challenges that we have all these years after the signing of the ADA in, you know, going through recruitment, onboarding, and as a result of that we're going to be introducing -- actually, we did, about six years ago, a toolkit on AFB.org that is for hiring managers to understand best practices in onboarding, recruiting individuals who are blind or have low vision.  Really important to get this in the hands of those folks that are decision-makers and have the ability to make your employment experience successful.  [Applause] 
	We also have JVIB.  Did you know that it predates AFB?  115 years old.  The leading journal on blindness and low vision.  And it's part of public policy and research.  Loads and loads of papers, some of which are free without subscription.  So I could encourage you all to take a look at that as well.  
	AFB Talent Lab.  What is AFB Talent Lab?  This is new.  This is a year old.  Again, technology umbrella.  So we know that companies struggle at times to hire individuals who are blind and visually impaired.  They have become more oriented at times to ensuring that the products and services are more accessible to us.  But what if AFB put together a curriculum and began to expose individuals who are blind or visually impaired to digital accessibility and what it means at the ground level, learning it from other interns, having apprentices and interns?  That's really what this is all about.  Having blind folks learn the principles of digital accessibility over a year-long period and give them the tools, where, when they graduate -- which 16 of them are preparing to graduate -- will equip them to go out into the workforce and have qualifications that could lead to an accessibility program manager job at a tech company.  Pretty cool.  That's exactly what we're doing.  
	These sorts of jobs way upwards of $70,000 a year, so these are good jobs.  Looking forward, we will be looking to reevaluate Talent Lab and likely even cut down the return rate from a year to, you know, four to six months.  Companies want and need these sorts of skills, and we, as an organization for the blind, want to be able to have a pipeline of qualified blind or low-vision folks ready to go when Amazon or Google or Microsoft comes calling. 
	The blind leaders development program, a neat company that has been around a couple of years.  We just graduated our third cohort at the beginning of May.  This is kind of a unique program that pairs mentors and mentees who are currently in the workforce and have been in the workforce, the mentees, for a few years, so this isn't fresh out of college or some of the other mentorship programs that you see, and I know ACB has one that sounds awesome.  This is focusing on folks that are more mid-career, and have bumped up against a glass ceiling and there's a curriculum that provides monthly leadership meetings to provide these mentees with the tools that will allow them to break through that glass ceiling to get to the next level of responsibility in their career.  And/or figure out, is this the career that I really want at this stage of my life.  Because seasons change, right?  This program has graduated 101 mentors and mentees in just the last couple of years.  [Applause]   
	So the final thing I'd like to share is a documentary.  We're going to be premiering a documentary called "Possibilities."  It's going to take place this fall and we'll have screenings around the country.  It seeks to highlight the important work of Helen Keller, why what she did still matters 
-- pardon me -- so much today, and then profiles several individuals from around the country in different parts of their work life, and really seeks to shine the light on where we've been, where we are, and where we want to go.  It's about a 90-minute audio-described -- [Applause] -- that's the only version you're going to get.  Yeah.  Open audio description.  So and we're going to be -- we're going to be premiering it later on, I'll be able to -- we'll be able to figure out how to share that with you all. 
	Tony Stevens, who is our director of communications -- you might remember him.  [Applause]  Meet the old boss, same as the new boss, right, Tony?  He's been working very diligently on this project, and we're excited to be able to share it with the world here in the coming months. 
	I am, again, really happy to be here.  It's been fun being able to catch up with folks over the last -- I guess we -- last four or five days.  I've shared all of this with you because I fear that not much of that information, programmatic information, has been very visible the last couple of years, and as I said earlier, that stops today.  We have -- we're building our communications team that is going to be just awesome.  We're going to do a much better job of reengaging with the community.  
	Later this summer and into the fall, we're going to do a strategic plan for the organization.  The last one was done six years ago, so it's needed to be redone, and all the work that I just talked about, I think, is great.  We may elect to focus on one or two of those things more than others.  We may add something.  But like I mentioned to you all, is that as we do this, we will be seeking stakeholder feedback.  So the leadership of this organization will be reached out to as we move through the plan, as well as NFB and vision service and others.  I want to make sure that we're thoughtful and listening to the needs of the community.  I want for us to be that go-to place that we have been historically, once more.  So thank you so much for having me, and have a great rest of your convention.  [Applause]  Oh, I'm told there's time for questions.  This is dangerous.  [Laughter].  I wore everybody out.  That's fine.  
	>> CHANELLE ALLEN:  We do have two in Zoom.  Actually, a little bit more than that, but -- we have Anisio Correia.  
	>> ANISIO CORREIA:  Hi, can you hear me?  First of all, congratulations on your appointment.  My question is, we know -- some of us, that have worked in the field of visual rehab for a while know there are lots of issues, and some of them came through the ACB convention this year around some of the resolutions.  I'm wondering what your feelings are at AFB becoming -- recapturing the role as a thinktank, bringing people together, bringing organizations together, to try to deal with some of these issues that are so critical.  I do believe we are at a crossroads, and I could see AFB, again, having a great opportunity to help solve those issues.  Thank you.  
	>> ERIC BRIDGES:  Thank you, Anisio.  So the convening component I spoke about, it's very important for AFB to get back to, irrespective of a strategic plan.  AFB has been a place where -- 
	>> Audio now unmuted.  
	>> ERIC BRIDGES:  And have people arm-wrestle, disagree but not be disagreeable, and wind up with a better product.  You know, my -- sixth day?  I literally started and the AFB Leadership Conference happened.  I did a lunch with leaders in the field during that conference, and there were 22 of them around -- in a room, and asked them what, you know, their relationship was to AFB and what they wanted us to do.  And in the future.  And there were a couple of different ways of saying this, but almost all of them wanted us as an organization to once again convene the field on the big issues.  And so I'm hearing that loud and clear.  You know, you pick an issue, there are plenty, but -- yeah.  The -- I think the key for us is to figure out what that looks like, what that outreach looks like.  We're getting our sea legs and reintroducing -- not reintroducing, but rejoining engagement with consumer groups on a broader scale.  But I hear you.  
	>> CHANELLE ALLEN:  Are you ready for another in Zoom?  We have four.  
	>> Let's go to the floor.  
	>> CHANELLE ALLEN:  Okay.  
	>> [Indiscernible] from Wisconsin.  I know you've alluded to it several times, but can you say more about what it is to work for an organization that's for the blind that's been -- an organization of blind and how that changes in consumer industry?  
	>> ERIC BRIDGES:  Yeah, I -- I don't have a membership to worry about.  I have other things to worry about.  [Laughter.] It's interesting.  I have to wrap my mind around that because AFB does work closely with ACB on areas of public policy.  We, I think, ought to be the organization that helps the consumer groups with research and/or defining problems.  Or bringing the problems to surface in a -- in a way that is helpful to whatever audience the consumer groups are, you know, needing, needing support.  In addition, I feel like AFB has been and still has the capacity to be an incubator for all kinds of really cool ideas that the field comes up with and that we can go get funding to work on.  So [indiscernible] is a big thing.  AFB is not out to dictate, but we are out to do some cool, innovative things to try them, to see if they succeed or not.  But a lot of it is input from you all that we'll be relying upon and hope to do that.  
	>> This is [indiscernible] from Cleveland.  I have a question.  
	>> Hold on.  Let's take another one from Zoom.  
	>> CHANELLE ALLEN:  In Zoom, we have Danielle Stephens.  
	>> I'm excited about the AFB Talent Lab.  How does someone like me, passionate about technology, apply to be a part of its cohort?  
	>> ERIC BRIDGES:  Sure.  You say you're interested in Talent Lab.  We are getting ready to graduate 16 folks and we are going to go through about a three-month review of the program, and probably the beginning of next year as part of the strategic plan, we will begin to seek applicants again.  What I will say to you is watch for -- there's this thing called dots and dashes, and/or come to our website, AFB.org.  There's a lot of stuff out there.  Check in occasionally there to see when we relaunch it and are looking for the new set of outcomes.  
	>> Now, go ahead with your question.  
	>> So here's my question.  As you mentioned before, you've been working at ADA and stuff like that.  Well, you know, ADA was basically created in the '90s.  I feel like the ADA laws need to be updated.  How are you going to do that, such as paratransit and their rules and regulations?  I feel like, as you mentioned, arm-wrestle, you have to arm-wrestle a lot more people.  
	>> ERIC BRIDGES:  Sure.  Working with AFB and NFB, frankly.  We've been working with ACB and NFB and the National Disability Rights Network on web access and software access-type stuff that, you know, the ADA didn't envision 30 plus years ago.  You know, working on issues like that.  AFB has not traditionally focused on issues related to transportation, but obviously, we've been very supportive of the work that the consumer organizations have been leading for the last two, three decades.  Does that make sense?  
	>> Chanelle, do we have any more hands raised in Zoom?  
	>> CHANELLE ALLEN:  We do, Todd Freitas, and two more after that.  
	>> Go ahead, Todd.  
	>> TODD:  I wanted to make a quick comment, and then I'll let everybody else get back to the whole thing.  I enjoyed your presentation.  I didn't understand all of it, but I really enjoyed it. 
	Also, the AFB should also take credit for the Talking Book program, that I'm very fond of.  Thank you.  
	>> ERIC BRIDGES:  It's very cool.  It's a great part of our history.  
	>> We have another question from the floor.  
	>> Liz Bottner.  
	>> Go ahead.  
	>> LIZ BOTTNER:  Congratulations to you and to every single one of us.  My question is the possibility and the initiative that ACB has with Talent Lab and anybody else which is a definite need.  Also a need for accessibility certifications in and of themselves, product testers as an example, which are at this time really not able to be completed independently by those of us who may see them as people who are low vision, and I'm wondering if there is any work that AFB has done, is currently working, doing in the future, and personally offer my assistance in helping this sort of thing because this is not a thing and it needs to be.  Thank you.  
	>> ERIC BRIDGES:  Gotcha.  Yeah.  I don't know that AFB has looked at that specific aspect with regard to accessibility.  But I hear you.  And you're not the first one to reach out and share that frustration.  And by the way, my email -- this could be dangerous also.  One letter.  You have to figure out which letters.  
	>> I have a question.  
	>> ERIC BRIDGES:  Yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Hold on.  Let's take the next question from Zoom, please.  
	>> CHANELLE ALLEN:  Debbie Grubb, please.  
	>> ERIC BRIDGES:  Hi, Debbie.  
	>> DEBBIE GRUBB:  Congratulations.  I want to go back to the question that was asked about the differences between working for a consumer organization and a policy consumer assistance organization.  And I want, I guess, two parts.  What global change are you having to make in the way you think and work and how do you believe your strong, many years of working in a consumer organization will benefit us as you lead the helm of AFB?  
	>> ERIC BRIDGES:  Sure.  Wow, that's a good question.  I'm learning.  [Laughter].  I'm still feeling my way through some of this, Debbie, to be frank with you.  I'll answer the second question first.  ACB absolutely prepared me to do this job.  A lot of it is understanding blind people, the community, the challenges that we face.  And you get a metric ton of that every week at ACB as a staff member.  You know, you get the good, the bad, the ugly, the other.  And so as, you know, I look at my role globally, and it's changed, you know, I need in my role to figure out how we at AFB spend the next three to five of our next really good years working on stuff that the entire community can care about.  And not just an adopted resolution that's telling me to do something as a staff member.  
	>> This is Debbie.  
	>> Hold on.  So hi.  No, hold on, Debbie, please.  We'll let Ray ask the last question.  This is the last question.  
	>> This is probably foolish.  There used to be many products that came out from the American Foundation of the Blind, you could buy things and I went to a camp when I lived in California that I believe was also sponsored by the American Foundation For the Blind.  The various policies and the thinking that you have done in the communities, are you still doing other things at consumer and other things, active-proactive in the community in the lives of children?  
	>> ERIC BRIDGES:  Sure.  I would say over the last decade or so, the organization has moved away from a lot of the direct service type programs and things like the Talking Book program that AFB started and led for decades.  And even some of the programs that grew up in the 2005, 2011 framework, they now reside with the American Printing House for the Blind, which is a great partner.  We're focused more now on programmatic-type areas and less so on some of these other direct services, strategic decision that was made, while that stuff costs an incredible amount of money and fundraising for that is challenging.  And so what you see today with AFB, with Talent Lab, with the leaders development program, in particular, is taking an idea and, you know, putting it into action, to have a positive impact on the blind community.  PPRI, that's been around a long time.  That will -- that will live on and may live on in different forms moving forward, but public policy and research is kind of the spine of the organization.  And something that the community needs, it's been stated, and something that we're intending to continue.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Thank you, thank you, Eric, for taking the time to talk to us about AFB.  
	>> ERIC BRIDGES:  Thank you.  [Applause] 
	>> Anybody want a door prize?  
	>> We have them, Denise.  
	>> You have them, all right!  How many do you have?  
	>> I have eight.  I'm going to do two before we go to break?  How do you want to do it, two before, two after, and four at the end.  
	>> We'll do it that way.  Good morning, ACB, Ray Campbell here.  Are you having a good time?  Again, we are so, so glad that many of you could make it to Schaumburg and those of you here virtually, we miss you and we hope you'll be with us next year in Jacksonville. 
	All right.  Real quick, if you are here in person and you win a door prize, you go to the information desk and pick that up.  Two of these that I'll be giving we are from ICB, they are bottle sleeves and a certificate for a T-shirt.  So go to the ICB booth, number 6, and let them know what size you need.  If you're virtual, you call the ICB office to let Maggie know what size you need and it will be taken care of for you.  The first door prize, the water bottle sleeve and shirt donated by the Illinois Council of the Blind, and it's awarded to Carla Hayes of Pennsylvania!  For the next one, I'm not sure if person is here in person, $25 from the American Council of the Blind and that goes to Charles Kronig.  We'll do two when we come back from break.  Thank you.  
	>> We're going to take a 15-minute break.  Everybody come back here at 11:00 a.m. sharp.  [Break]  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  We will be reconvening in three minutes.  Three minutes, we will be reconvening.  
	>> RAY CAMPBELL:  I'm ready with door prizes, Denise, when you're ready for me.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Let's start heading in, finding our seats, getting started again.  We have a couple of more exciting presentations and we want to give them ample time.  So we're going to start the door prizes.  
	>> RAY CAMPBELL:  Okay.  You know what, the worst thing about the way we do door prizes now?  It used to be you had to be here in the room or working the desk.  So now everybody doesn't say Oh.  First, we have a -- $25 Burger King gift card donated by Leslie Thom, that goes to Robert Spangler.  Robert, right over here, the Tennessee section, I believe.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  When are we going to lunch, Robert?  
	>> RAY CAMPBELL:  Yes, buying us lunch.  Another ICB water bottle sleeve and T-shirt, and that goes to Jeff Mullholland from Minnesota.  We'll be back at the end of session.  Thank you, folks!  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Thank you.  We'll have more at the end of the morning. 
	Every year, we have the privilege of hearing from NLS about what's going on there, and getting our updates.  So this morning to talk to us is Jason Yasner, who is the deputy director for the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled.  If you don't know, they've changed their name.  He's going to tell us what's going on there.  So Jason, welcome!  [Applause] 
	>> JASON YASNER:  Good morning, everybody.  Good morning, ACB.  I am so honored to be here.  I'm Jason Yasner, the deputy director of NLS, the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, which is part of the Library of Congress, I've worked for the Library of Congress for 30 years and I've been in this position for five years.  In fact, my five-year anniversary with NLS is next week, so I'm really excited to be here and to celebrate here at ACB. 
	When I first arrived on Sunday, I ran into your director of advocacy and governmental affairs, Clark Rachfal.  I don't know how to pronounce his name.  I just know him as Clark.  He's a super nice guy.  
	And he said something really important to me.  Thank you, Jason, for making this a priority.  And I said, of course!  This is a priority.  ACB is a priority.  You are my priority.  I need to know what you all think.  I need to know how I can make the NLS better and get the reading material you all want and need, so this is a perfect opportunity for me to meet with NLS patrons and hopefully spread awareness, if you know people who are potential patrons, that they come over, sign up, and become NLS patrons.  
	ACB has got me working hard today.  I'm doing four different presentations today on July 4th, so Happy Independence Day to Jason!  I'm more than happy to do it.  At 1:00 in Schaumburg C, I'll be talking about its history, its future, and I wanted to hear from you what all of you think of the device, how is it working, et cetera, et cetera.  At 2:30 in Schaumburg E, I'll be meeting with the Library Users of America.  I'll be taking your questions, talking about what's happening in NLS and talk about what's happening in the future.  At 4:00 today in Schaumburg C, I'll be talking about our BARD mobile, our Braille downloading app, making it better, stronger, I grew up in the '70s, I watched “The Six Million Dollar Man.”  Better, stronger, faster.  The only way I can do that is hear from all of you.  So you are my customers and you are my constituents. 
	So with that, I'm going to go through this little PowerPoint presentation.  I'm going to read from it to give you highlights.  What we like to say now is, we are in an era of enhancement, enrichment, and modernization.  We want everything to be better, stronger, faster.  We've been very, very lucky.  The Library of Congress supports us.  Congress supports us.  We have wonderful relationships with ACB and AFB and NFB and others and this is the way this needs to work.  We are all a family and we all want the same thing.  We all want equity, accessibility, equal rights, and in the case of NLS, we want all to read.  A little applause.  Thank you. 
	So a little history.  NLS is 92 years old, which is crazy, because I'm only 25!  I'm actually not.  For those of you, I'm a white man, 6'1 1/2", I have a shaved head, and I'm extremely good-looking.  So one of those things may be untrue.  It's up to you to decide.  But seriously, the Library of Congress started with a reading room for the blind, which was physically located in the Jefferson Building in Washington DC, so you had to physically come to that room to read the Library of Congress collection.  Obviously, that wasn't going to work for Americans so Congress was smart and passed a law in 1931 that read a service for the National Library Service for the Blind and it's expanded to include additional groups of people.  It's expanded to include additional formats, et cetera, et cetera.  
	Here we are, 92 years old.  We've made amazing strides, but we have a long way to come.  It's a library service for people with blindness, low vision, or other print disability that prevents using print materials established by Congress in 1931 and subsequent library expanded to children, people with physical disabilities, provide music materials and provide playback equipment, all formats, so it can be instantly downloaded or mailed to readers free of charge.  If you're not familiar, we are service forces, we have coordinating libraries in all 50 states and U.S. territories, and you're interacting with your local library in your local area.  
	NLS is kind of the central hub.  We maintain the catalog.  We maintain the devices.  And of course, we maintain BARD, which is the reading download application.  [Applause] 
	>> JASON YASNER:  Thank you!  I was not expecting applause yet, but I appreciate it.  As I said, we take our business very, very seriously.  And once again, we need to hear from all of you.  You are our business. 
	And so residents anywhere in the United States or its territories or U.S. citizens living overseas can receive service.  People with temporary or permanent disabilities, people with low vision or blindness, people with reading disabilities.  This is relatively new.  Folks with dyslexia are now eligible, and it's easy for them to be certified for NLS.  And preference is given to veterans.  It's something we take very seriously.  Thank you.  
	Especially on July 4th, what a wonderful time to celebrate our veterans and we have a rapid signup program where we are training certifiers in the VA so they can certify veterans that qualify for the service.  And we have almost 600 veterans signed up already and we're expecting many, many more.  So that's another thing.  If you know someone who is a veteran and they qualify for service, this may be an easier way for that person to become an NLS patron.  We're free.  We have no issues with Audible and book sharing platforms.  They're wonderful, and we encourage people to use whatever resource they want or need, but consider NLS one of these resources.  It's free.  
	There are a lot of things on the other platforms NLS has, they don't.  I ask you to think about, think of NLS has the first library, the library of first concern or first font.  And then maybe check Audible and other online book sharing.  But remember, we're free.  The others around the country and territories, very provide additional catalogs, the libraries provide technical support, reader advisory recommendations, and our collection, of course, includes best sellers to classics, books about disability and by disabled authors and title that is aren't readily available elsewhere in audio and Braille formats.  Our audio has enhanced navigation and additional content.  
	We like to distinguish between an audiobook and a Talking Book.  An audiobook you may get from a publisher, but Talking Books have additional content and features.  I believe it's a better product, so we, of course, want to keep going down that road to get as many commercial books as possible and turn them into NLS talking books.  If you're onboard, you can download the title immediately, as soon as it's available.  We include long-term equipment, many may have you have our NLS Braille reader.  We're working on, as I said, making BARD even better, and we're working on a smarter speaker app for the Alexa Amazon platform.  That's going to be really amazing.  So we're really looking at technology to provide this kind of enhanced suite of services.  So we're really excited about what's going on. 
	Quickly, other NLS resources.  We are with the U.S. Bureau of Treasury, the iBill.  If you're not familiar with it, please come, contact me, contact NLS, and ask for your iBill currency reader.  This is a, quote/unquote, stopgap until the U.S. Treasury makes paper currency accessible, and we all know that's been a long slog, and I hope it happens sooner than later.  In the meantime, this currency reader is available to all of you for free.  
	We have accessible music.  That's one thing that's very unique to NLS.  We have the largest Braille music collection in the world, and that is available to all of you as NLS patrons.  We provide reference materials and we provide materials for educators as well. 
	So as I mentioned earlier, we are looking at getting as many patrons as possible.  We need to reach more people.  We know there are millions of potential patrons out there.  How do we reach them?  Better, stronger, fast.  But our catalog, we need to make sure that the best reading material, the most popular -- well, maybe not the most popular, but reading material that is important to all of you, is available.  So right now, we have over 317,000 titles in the NLS collection, and that's 22.3 million items were circulated in FY 22.  
	So think about that.  Relatively small collection, 317,000 titles, but 22.35 million titles circulated.  I joke with some of the senior leadership at the Library of Congress.  The Library of Congress might have the largest collection in the world, but not so much high in circulation for various reasons.  But NLS is the opposite.  Relatively small collection, huge circulation.  That means a lot to us.  I think the circulation number is more important than the actual number of items, because it really shows that people are reading what we have. 
	We have over 166,000 books and magazines issues available on BARD right now, and over 4.43 million items were downloaded in FY 22.  We, of course, want BARD to be the easiest platform for all of you to use, if you are able to use a Smartphone, if you're able to use an iPad, if you're able to use a website, you have on-demand access to our catalog.  Read what you want, when you want.  
	So with a recent resourcing at NLS, we have formed a specifics collection division and we are galloping towards 10,000 new titles every year, and maybe in the future, 15,000 to 20,000.  So we are ramping up content production.  And most of it, I should say, comes from you.  We need your suggestions.  We check with the libraries, the bestseller lists, "The New York Times," et cetera, et cetera, so please contact your network library if there are titles that aren't currently in our collection.  We want to hear from you. 
	So some of the areas that we're expanding, we're expanding our children's and youth literature, and we want informational reading as well, things like cookbooks, how to test for certifications, professional development.  We're expanding our material for veterans, Native American, Native Nations, tactile -- thank you.  We're looking at tactile graphics and things like that to expand the experience.  You can imagine getting "Game of Thrones" and hearing about all these different lands in this risk-fantasy world, but not be able to experience map.  If we can do that map on a tactile version, hopefully that expands your experience with the story. 
	And, of course, international languages, with the Marrakesh Treaty.  I assume you are familiar with that, the United States signed on a couple of years ago and it was gold for all of you and we were able to share our collection with the rest of the world, others were participating in the Treaty and they were able to share our collections with all of you.  So this has been a boon.  
	Since Marrakesh came on board, 536,000 new works on BARD, audiobooks, Braille, music scores, 101,000 patron downloads, 191,000 NLS titles have been shared with the world intellectual property organization shared with the rest of the world.  We began a new quarterly to talk about it.  We have a huge feature in "The Washington Post" back in 2022, so NLS is a big deal, putting NLS on the world map, putting you on the world map and giving you access to all these other titles that are out there.  And a lot of people don't riffle that Marrakesh titles are coming from the U.K., from Canada, from New Zealand, all content for you to read in the English language. 
	So very excited about Marrakesh and excited about the books.  
	Interesting about the Ukraine.  So all of us are very concerned about what's going on in the Ukraine.  It turns out in the NLS collection, there were no books in the Ukrainian language until Marrakesh.  And we didn't necessarily know it.  The Ukraine War breaks out and we researched and did it and found there were 116,000 titles in the Ukrainian language for those NLS patrons who wanted to read in their native language.  So we kind of featured those and got some kudos for that.  I'm quite proud of that, considering the situation going on there. 
	Another thing we launched recently is a Spanish website.  We realized that Spanish is probably the second most spoken language in the United States.  We have a Spanish website to help our Spanish-speaking patrons navigate our products and services.  We are looking at new discoverability.  There is no point in having millions of items in our catalog if you can't find it.  
	Discoverability is the new accessibility in our mind.  We are looking for much better search engines, much better cataloging so things are easier to find for all of you.  We have a patron engagement section that we launched that is reaching out to all of you directly with the many faces of BARD and patron corner.  We have a request form so that the network libraries and U.S. patrons can request specific items.  We have Braille on demand.  We're happy about that.  As you know, Braille can be expensive to produce.  It can be very, very bulky.  We now have a service where all NLS patrons can get five Braille items sent to them per month, if you want hard copy Braille, you're not as comfortable with digital Braille, we have the Braille on demand program.  We talked about tactile graphics, we talked about Marrakesh.  
	Thank you.  We launched our first reading program, and it's in motion right now, and that's something we're really proud of because we know that network libraries have been doing reading programs for years and NLS took the plunge with them.  Very, very popular.  Pop-up trainings for professional development and network libraries so they can provide you the best service possible. 
	I mentioned BARD.  BARD is gold to us.  We want to make BARD as easy as possible for all of you to use so you can get the reading material you want when you want it.  Our upgraded suite of services.  You're probably familiar with the Talking Book, that's a workhorse, working hard for 15 years now.  We're going to the next generation of the talking digital book demonstration.  Right now, we're in a field test, we have about 440,000 units out there, this will take the cartridges but also has a WiFi modem which you can connect to BARD and download directly to the device.  So it reuses the cartridges but you want to play around with BARD, you can do that.  We're excited about the VA2.  I mentioned about the Braille reader and I'll be talking about that in the focus group later.  I mentioned our smart speaker app and we're doing a field test with that.  We were working with Google as well, Google decided to deprecate the service.  That worked with us.  Boo on Google.  But Amazon has most of the market share anyway so we're working with the Alexa app for people who can't hold a book, who can't manipulate a machine, to be able to use voice control to read.  I think that's going to be a real step forward for us.  Thank you.  We had the Braille modernization efforts, we also have express Braille where if we get an eHub, we can transform it into digital Braille, and expanding the eReader program to all 50 states later this year. 
	And the last I will mention is magazine modernization.  We have a clunky system, magazine on cartridge, we're revamping that into our duplication on command system which the libraries are using so you can get multiple books on one cartridge.  Now, magazines you've been getting separately, we're now going to build mag capabilities and functions into duplication on demand.  And finally, deprecate this legacy system That's been very difficult to maintain. 
	So I'm excited about all of these things.  I mentioned easing of access, so now we're providing for more service to patients with disability.  We've seen a boon in Texas, Texas passed a law that all students with a reading disability needed to be shown or moved -- that's not -- I'm losing my thoughts here.  Be made aware of the Texas Talking Book Program, and so it was a mandate, and so all of a sudden, we started seeing thousands of students signing up for NLS because Texas passed a law.  Imagine if the United States passed a law and all of these people, automatically would be aware of NLS and sign up for the program.  So really excited about all of that.  We feel that so many potential patrons out there in these different demographics that we want to serve.  It's just a matter of, you know, making them aware of our service and what we offer. 
	I'm not sure whether a lot of you know, but NLS is not located on Capitol Hill in Washington DC with the rest of the Library of Congress.  We have a building that's in the northwest DC maybe of Pet Worth, and it's on Taylor Street annex.  We moved out there in 1967.  We moved out in a one-year lease.  So here we are, 50 some years later still at this location.  
	So we've been trying to get back to Capitol Hill for many, many years and many decades.  The good news is, it looks like it's going to happen soon.  In the next two years, NLS will be located back with the Library of Congress.  This is going to be huge for us.  We're so excited about that.  Closer to Capitol Hill.  Closer to the Capitol and Congress itself and NLS will be a place for all of you to visit.  We want NLS to be your place in Washington DC to visit and take pride in.  And with our current building, which used to be an old car dealership, not the nicest place.  In a couple of years, you're going to be coming into the Library of Congress and the Library of Congress, once again, will be -- so I'm excited about relocation. 
	Just to end on a couple of stats, and then I can take some questions if you're interested in it.  As I mentioned, over 166,000 books and magazines on BARD, over 317 items in the NLS total collection, almost 600 veterans signed up through our rapid veteran signup program, Marrakesh items, we have shared over 191,000 works with the rest of the world and our reading disability patrons are at 21,000 so I'm excited to be here once again.  As I said, you are my priority, you are my customer, and I want to hear from you as much as possible.  So thank you so much for the community.  Thank you to ACB.  Please have a wonderful convention.  [Applause] 
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  I know I'm going to disappoint all of you.  We're only going to have time for two questions.  We're going to take one from the floor and one from Zoom.  So we have Mitch from the Zoom and who do we have from Zoom?  
	>> CHANELLE ALLEN:  Pierre from Zoom.  
	>> MITCH:  You touched on it.  The more books I order, the more they seem to have begun at commercial audiobooks.  I think that effort began under your predecessor, and I think it's fantastic.  I want to know whether that is going to be the trend, utilizing commercial audiobooks as much as possible and still having some of the Talking Book recording studios but focusing on the audiobook market to turn into talking books.  
	>> JASON YASNER:  Thank you, Pierre, you're absolutely right, as we get commercial audiobook titles and we convert them into NLS Talking Books.  That's great for you, great for me, and we increase our collection.  We're never going to get rid of human narrated books, as much as the synthetic voice, nobody wants to read a whole book with synthetic speech.  I don't want to and I don't think you want to either.  So we will never get rid of human narration as long as I walk this planet.  Obviously, it takes more time, it's more expensive, so we will increase our quantity of commercial products but also increase our quality with human narration.  That's a good question.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Pierre, your question, please.  
	>> PIERRE:  Yes.  My question is, why is it so hard, like y'all will produce the first book in a series.  I've gotten one that the first book came out 30 years ago -- three years ago and the second book has been out for two years and y'all have never done the second book.  My librarian has requested it.  I've called NLS and filled out the forms and they still have not done the second book.  
	>> JASON YASNER:  When I walk the halls at these conventions, that's what people stop me.  I got to a six-book series and the sixth book isn't available and when are you going to do that.  It's very frustrating.  I don't know the specific series you're talking about.  Feel free to reach out to me later and I will look into it.  Obviously, we only have so many resources and we do have to make some priorities.  We have, you know, a lot of content requests, especially when we moved it up to the request form.  So I wish we could get every book out there that everyone wants.  It's just going to take some time.  If you let me know, maybe I can put my finger on the scale and get that volume for you.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  I have that same frustration, Pierre.  
	>> JASON YASNER:  Absolutely.  I hear you.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Thank you, Jason, for coming and sharing with us.  And you're going to have three more opportunities to talk to Jason, so put him on your calendar for this afternoon. 
	And now, because I forgot to do this when we came back from break, Deb has some announcements.  
	>> DEB COOK LEWIS:  Thank you.  Just a few quick announcements that I know you won't hear after our next speaker because you'll be trying to take off, so I want to be first.  So first of all, I'm channeling your mother.  Your mother says you have left stuff all over the building.  This has all been gathered into the lost and found.  They include a few important things.  There is a ring with dog paws inscribed, paw prints to my heart, and I don't know who lost your dog ring.  There are also black-framed sunglasses, and the sun is shining today, so you might need that.  Gold framed prescription sunglasses in their case.  We have a black pouch.  A stylus and index cards and, big one of the day, Aftershock headphones.  So if you lost this stuff, you need to go pick it up over at the lost and found, please.  And the lost and found is at the information desk and that's in the coat room and that is where -- by the stairs, Dan says, goes up to Nirvana.  
	Also, this afternoon at 2:30, the Washington Council of  the Blind and Washington Council for Citizens of the Blind youth programs are meeting in inspiration, which is not too far from here, and they were hoping that some students or some next gen folks or people younger than I am would join and get acquainted at 2:30.  If you can do that, I would so appreciate it.  That would be wonderful.  Students.  And they're visiting us this week.  It's a great program, high school students visiting us here at the convention.  So it's a great opportunity.  [Applause] 
	Excellent.  Yeah.  They'll be here and everything.  Cool stuff.  
	Finally, a reminder, reserve your banquet table at that same information desk by the stairs, and these are tables of eight and we need all the names of the people.  We will not need the names of the dogs.  But if you would please bring the names of the people, up to eight people for your banquet table to the information desk so that we can make sure we have the table set correctly and that people get to their right table.  Thank you very much.  I have one more announcement.  
	>> My name is Hannah, and I'm the author of a book, when -- vision loss and personal recovery.  And it's available on NLS as well as Bookshare.  I brought with me four print copies.  If you would like a print copy for your loved one, your best friend, someone who could do with understanding more about vision lost or perhaps you lost vision but can still read print, please leave a message for me at the hotel front desk.  Will also bring the copies to marketplace at 8:15 tomorrow morning, and if anyone likes one, I will be there.  
	>> DEB COOK LEWIS:  We're not going to take any other announcements at this time.  We do have another presentation, and Denise is going to introduce that now.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Our next presentation is from an organization that I don't know a lot about, so this will be educational for me and probably a lot of you.  The Foundation Fighting Blindness is here, and I present to you Steve Sroka, who is the associate director of events from Libertyville, Illinois.  Welcome.  
	>> STEVE SROKA:  I want to thank ACB, some applause, I'm glad to hear.  How many of you -- by applause or a raise of hand are familiar with the Foundation Fighting Blindness?  That's great to hear.  I am the associate director of events.  I have been with the foundation for 18 years now.  I'm not leaving until they kick me out because I absolutely love what I do.  I love working for the foundation.  And it's also good to hear -- well, not good to hear, but good to know today I think I'll bring you some information that some of you might not have known about the foundation.  So I appreciate the time you're going to have here today.  I'm likely going to sit down here.  My knees aren't so great.  Thank you for allowing me to do this and we'll talk about this right here.  [Indiscernible] microphone.  All right.  We have been -- just this past year we celebrated our 50th anniversary as the number one -- number one funder of retinal degeneration research.  
	We fund research for such diseases at [indiscernible], LCA, which is an important one that I'll talk about later, star gazer disease, and one that you've heard of, macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa, and most of the research going on at some level of funding from all of those eye diseases.  I've been here for three days in the hall, with our table there, and I talked to a lot of you out there that are not impacted with one of these.  I'd like to at least bring some information about the foundation and let you know there's a lot of research going on with whatever has affected your vision lost.  Go ahead and seek it if you haven't found it yet.  This entire experience I've had at this convention is worthwhile.  
	When I hear that people -- one young adult I met on Saturday was not aware of the research and I'll talk later about some pharmaceuticals that have affected the visual loss of retinitis pigmentosa, RPA, and could possibly improve her vision.  For me, that was worthwhile for me to come out here just for that one encounter, so there's a lot of things, out there, working to help at least stop progression of vision loss, have vision retained and some improvement.  So there are things that have happened over the last years that I'll talk about. 
	How many of you have heard of Lulie Gund?  Gordon and Lulie Gund, founded this 1971, he has led our group, we are the world's largest, behind the federal government, $900 million raised to a lot of our members in the audience today and some cool things if you're a sports fan, I mentioned the University of Illinois in Champaign that I'm very proud of and one of the things that I learned from my five-year tenure at the university was the term "renaissance man."  He is a genuine renaissance man.  He is an artist.  He was the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers of the NBA, and I'll be going through anything, so if you can't see that, we have a photo here with LeBron James, he's a really good basketball player outside of Michael Jordan, and LeBron James, Gordon was the owner of the Cavaliers when they drafted LeBron James and he's photographed here with him.  Gordon was also the owner of the San Jose Sharks of the NHL, hockey fans, which one are you guys?  Very good.  And you'll see him, news stations across the globe.  He is one of the most -- one of the most brilliant financial minds.  
	So the foundation and the donations that we received are in very good hands, and I'll talk a little bit about that as well.  If you've ever heard of the Gund Arena, he's a very popular figure in the Cleveland air as well, and I'm very happy to be working under an organization he has grown to a level of international prominence.  As I said, we are approaching $891 million in fundraising, we've had an exponential growth as people find out who we are.  We have identified through some programs, [indiscernible], over 270 retinal-diseases causing genes identified that affect vision.  Usually, 200 grant requests for private institutions, major institutions throughout the Midwest, including the eye institute at the University of Wisconsin Madison, all sorts of institutions, primarily in the United States, but we go where the best research is available and fund that internationally if it is. 
	We have a very highly accepted board of practices and researchers that select those grants.  We usually get about 200 grants to fund a year, and usually between 70 and 100 of those, and we make sure that we are selecting the best research that's out there and oftentimes we are moving our money around.  Our money doesn't stay in the bank.  When we are raising funds and your families -- raising funds, that money basically goes right to research this year or the following year and we are making sure our board of directors or trustees that that money is being allocated as it should to the best research that's available out there and some of this here in the Midwest, a lot of you from all over the country, we have our researchers spread out throughout the country in the world, Philadelphia, one I'll talk a little bit about.  That's one I'm familiar with.  
	So your money is being cared for, we're a highly respected institution, all of the services that rank such charities.  We just -- four-star rating with charity Navigator, and we are very confident that we're doing that. 
	So we have 80 genes with retinitis pigmentosa, four with Stargardt, I'm not a clinician, I'm not a scientist, but I learn as much as I can about research so I can present it to groups like you all over the country, and every, every week, we have training on the new things that are coming up or the new, exciting things, a couple of them I'll talk about shortly here.  There is research going on constantly.  You will be glad to know, I know many of those researchers, they are an incredibly passionate group of people who want to find treatment, they want to stop regression of vision loss if you're still losing it and for those just losing their vision, I've talked to a bunch the last couple of days.  First of all, stopping regression and hopefully turning around some of that vision loss and restoring some vision. 
	When I first started here, basically, the only project out there was with the [indiscernible], and she was diagnosed with -- RPE65, and I've been here 15 years and I still don't really understand how they diagnose the dog with that.  These are brilliant scientists who I don't question, but that was all that was available.  There were no clinical trials.  In the last 18 years, really the last few years, we have really accelerated that.  In the winter of 2017, we had 20 clinical trials out there, trials you could find on clinicaltrials.gov, if you have some sort of research going on with that, it's a government-run website, so it's not ours.  I know ours is a very accurate, updated website that people use as a great resource, but you can see and do a search for whatever vision issue and you can find out and do the research if you want to be involved in a project.  As of 2017, there were only 20 clinical trials going on, which at the time was a big deal for us. 
	As of 2021, there were 42.  As of this winter, we are at 49 and I know there are a couple in the pipeline.  So really, the research is accelerating greatly and that's good news for a lot of our families that are out there. 
	One of the pharmaceuticals, this is a huge breakthrough for us, for the community, a company called spark's therapeutics in Philadelphia, one of the doctors is Bennett.  How many have heard from Dr. Bennett from Philadelphia?  Two?  Not as many as I think should be.  Her team identifies as effective, REP65, can replace that defective gene, and those experiments were approved by the FDA.  We have surgeries, have had those genes implanted.  I have had the pleasure of seeing some of those folks that underwent that treatment, and I actually had to go back several times after I said it myself, the families of how much of a dramatic change that was for the vision, where they had trouble seeing an eye chart in the doctor's office and after this instruction of pharmaceutical, Luxturna, they were able to see things they had not seen before, and to see some of them, their vision opened up, and to see some of those people have regained and also improved their vision is pretty dramatic for us.  This is a big, big break for the foundation.  This is a breakthrough for our entire vision and blind communities.  It was international news at the time and Spark Therapeutics and we're proud to be working with them. 
	The foundation, a lot of times, these doctors would never get off the ground with the research because there's a lack of funding.  A lot of money we raise is to start off those projects.  The doctors would never get off the ground if not for the donations of our family, and I want to thank all of you, if you might be interested in doing that again, thank you all for doing that because you brought us to this level where we are now seeing some results from long years of investing.  For all of these, thank you so much for that.  I appreciate it as well. 
	So just a quick thing with this, I had not met anybody that had this, they had the experiment, this was my star speaker of the day, and she was talking about the treatment and how dramatically and she comes up to the podium and she's talking about rainbows and how they weren't as exciting as she thought they would be now that she can see them.  When the audience wanted to talk about seeing things for the first time.  She recovered, and people talked about seeing rainbows and stars and fireflies and it's great to hear those things.  But for her, because people -- so vivid and colors, they just aren't quite what she thought.  However, she and her family are owners of a horse farm and for the first time, she would see the color of the hair of her favorite horse, and for her, that was quite emotional.  That's what we want to bring to our audience, that benefit by the research, there's a lot of great stories like that and we're starting to hear more of them.  I know it's a long process for those of you waiting for that treatment.  I understand that for some of you, the research is not of really big interest, but for those of you that are, these are some huge steps for us, the foundation, and really getting -- 
	>> Can we just switch mics, please?  
	>> STEVE SROKA:  Check, check.  Our D.J. from our recent wine event in Chicago ran out of batteries, and she doesn't have alternate speakers, so she had to run out to the store right before and get batteries.  Another big event that just came out for dry age-related macular degeneration is Syfovre, that's a big one, another FDA-approved drug for geographic atrophy, which can slow macular degeneration, so this stems the regression and helps increase the vision.  Right now, it's stopping regression of vision loss, which is a big deal for those of you accustomed to the level that you have right now, to know it's not going to be worse is a big deal, and we know that and this is a big first step but there are pharmaceuticals out there working hard and it's very expensive, and the research is very expensive, and one thing I spoke about, they were working on that one about 20 years.  It's a long process.  I assume any pharmaceutical, expenses, we're trying to come down, but this is exciting for a lot of our blind membership around the country, and this is a big step for us. 
	I want to also, since we are -- we have something called my Retina Tracker, a database, about 25,000 members who have downloaded it and have uploaded information about their vision.  It is a database for researchers throughout the world to advance, if they're looking for someone to fill some of the critical trials, they can go to the database and -- actually, they go through us.  This information is private, but the families, if they go to the ophthalmologists, optometrists, they can upload it in here so we have access to it.  It's a private database.  We only have two people in our entire organization that actually have access to it.  Researchers come to us and say, hey, do we have someone who gets these, Stargardt or us 2 and if there's a bigger audience, a bigger pull for them to draw from, a lot of the pharmaceuticals, a lot of the businesses out there looking to develop treatments, they look for that and they're like, okay, we could make some money off of that.  Unfortunately, a lot of businesses looking for ways to make money, that's top of mind, but for us, this is a way to bring treatment to our family.  This is a great database.  It's great.  And I'll encourage that. 
	Also, if you are looking to have genetic testing done, oftentimes, that's an expensive benefit that's not covered by, in.  We in the Foundation For the Blindness, our testing, genetic testing, they've been diagnosed with a retinal diseases, that identifies the specific genes and can be treated with some treatments.  So I -- treatments with the pharmaceuticals, thing like that. 
	Thank you for your time.  We have chapters -- I have a couple more minutes here, we have chapters throughout the country that are -- we are fundraising, promote getting folks together and please look at our website, and you'd are looking for activities, if you want to help out with bringing speakers to the local audiences, things like that, it's a great opportunity and if you have questions, you can ask me later, and our events, vision walks throughout the country, I walk six of those and support ten others.  They're in every major city throughout the country and I would love to have everybody involved.  Not only -- if you don't have a retinal disease, we have people come out who are affected by glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, whatever is affecting your vision, it's another way and opportunity to come out and talk to fellow people who are affected by vision loss and blindness and they're fun events.  That's a fun event for you to do that as well.  And also, some other opportunities as well. 
	So if you have any questions, I have a booth down the hallway.  I'd love to chat with you guys and I'd love to open it up here.  I don't know if we have time for any questions.  
	>> A question from Zoom?  [Off mic].  
	>> Steve, the Foundation Finding Blindness is very close to my wife and I.  We met at a vision conference in 1976.  Been very heavily involved in the American Council of the Blind.  So the Foundation Fighting Blindness has a very important role in fighting inherent retinal diseases.  I believe there's a tremendous foundation for the Foundation Fighting Blindness to partner with the American Council of the Blind.  
	While people are waiting for cures, this is something that the American Council of the Blind is very, very good at.  We pride ourselves in our ability to provide information referral, peer support, folks who are going through vision loss, and I believe that FFB could really, while they're working for cures, and very important, I think there are some amazing opportunities for us to be a part of your vision conferences like you're a part of ours, and for us to offer things like our community event program that offers over 100 community events that all people can take advantage of each week that deals with all kinds of support services and we're out there in so many opportunities.  So my opportunity and challenge to you is, how do we continue to work together and let ACB be a valued partner?  
	>> STEVE SROKA:  Thank you.  That's a great point.  I'm going to close with this.  We're running out of times.  There's a lot of things I didn't cover today.  Thank you so much for bringing that to us.  I want to say, I'm very proud of the fact that we are the number one research organization in the world for retinal diseases, however, we're aware that we do not provide the services that our communities need and that's a good point.  While people are waiting for treatments and cures, if you are, we do not provide those services, so we partner with ACB, as many places as we can, the vision conferences, we should be there, yeah.  
	We have an open invitation at all of our walks, all eye events, a table at vision related nonprofits, they should have a free table at all of our walks, all of our dinners, and they can bring service information.  I want to be the one-stop shop out there.  It's a great point.  We want to partner with groups such as ACB.  We do that all throughout the country.  We try very hard to make sure it's something that if you're looking for other information besides research, the groups that are experts at that, ACB is one of those, leader dogs, all of them, I appreciate that.  Yes.  Thanks so much.  And thank you all for your time.  I appreciate it.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Thank you, Steve, for a very informative presentation.  I know we have launch lunch for people to get to, but we have four more door prizes.  
	>> RAY CAMPBELL:  Are we ready for that, Denise?  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  We are ready.  
	>> RAY CAMPBELL:  Okay, for more here.  Look for your name.  If you're here, go pick it up at information.  If you're virtual, we will get it to you.  This is a bracelet, large loop chain, donated by The Literacy Project, and that goes to Marla Journey, Illinois.  All right.  Next, we've got a $25 visa gift card donated by the Wauconda, and that goes to one of my buddies, Kevin Stone of Galesburg, Illinois.  Couple of Illinoisans in a row.  I had nothing to do with that.  And next one, $50 from the ACB of Minnesota, Cindy La Hoy from Dansville, ACB action to Jennifer Tyson.  That's all we've got.  We'll be back tomorrow.  
	>> Madam Chair.  It's Jean Manning and I'd like to help raise money for ACB.  So if I could just have a couple of minutes.  Don't forget the MMS program, you can stop by our booth and we'll take some information from you and then we'll get in touch with you after the convention, or you can go to the registration office and they'll help you fill out forms for that.  If you're not here in Schaumburg, you can call our number, 888-999-3190.  Or you can email us at askACBMMS@Gmail.com.  Please leave us your name, phone number, and an email address so we can reach you after we get home.  If you do this before the end of the virtual convention hub closes, which will be over the weekend, you have a chance to win Amazon gift cards.  Thank you.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Thank you, Jean.  All right.  We are in recess until tomorrow morning at 8:30, and do not forget to check out all of the great events that are happening this afternoon and this evening.  
	[ Human realtime captioning by HRI CART.  ]