ALERT!—Historic Bill Breaks Down Braille Barriers for All!

BLINK Act on Fast Track for Congressional Action!

In a surprise move early this morning, key leaders in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have reached bipartisan agreement on brand new landmark legislation requiring all sighted students across America to exclusively learn and use braille. The bill, entitled the Braille Literacy Is Necessary Knowledge (BLINK) Act, was only introduced late last evening in an attempt by the bill’s champions to thwart mobilized opposition by proponents of vision dependency.

Get to Know the DataFerrett! The Census Bureau and AFB's Webinar March 26th

cartoon of a ferret using a computer, DataFerrett, courtesy of Census Bureau

Last month, the AFB Policy Center ramped up our focus on demographics and data with two exciting projects:

Diving for Data: Finding the Numbers We Need in a Sea of Statistics

Laptop on the beach

Upcoming Opportunities to Learn More!

How Do Schools Meet the Needs of Students with Visual Impairment Who Are English-language Learners?

According to 2013 data from the American Community Survey (U.S. Census Bureau, 2014), an estimated 668,000 American children and youth ages 5 to 21 are blind or have trouble seeing. Of those, over 159,000 (almost 24%) speak a language other than English at home.

Feedback From the Field: AFB Organizes Letter to the Institute for Education Sciences Advocating for Research in Blindness, Visual Impairment, and Deaf-blindness

The Institute for Education Sciences (IES) is the research arm of the U.S. Department of Education, responsible for sponsoring and conducting research and disseminating evidence to support education practices and policy. IES sponsors research through grant competitions run by its national centers, including the National Center for Education Research (NCER) and the National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER).

The Joy of Voting Independently as a Blind or Visually Impaired Citizen

Voting with the Accu-Vote TS Man voting with an accessible voting machine

Recent Poll: Disability Issues Could Have a Major Impact in the 2014 Elections!

Button that says Your Vote Counts

Recently, RespectAbility (a national, disability-focused nonprofit) collaborated with major political pollsters to ask questions of likely 2014 voters in battle-ground states (states whose choice of U.S. Senate candidates in the November elections is uncertain and thus will determine the balance of power in the Senate). The poll results clearly indicate that candidates must consider disability issues in the upcoming elections!

It's National Disability Employment Awareness Month: Expect. Employ. Empower.

Each October, we mark National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM), a time to raise awareness about disability employment issues and celebrate the contributions of America’s workers with disabilities. The theme for 2014 is “Expect. Employ. Empower.”

Helen Keller at the United Nations

Helen Keller is 'listening' to a debate at the United Nations. Keller's companion Polly Thomson manually signs into Keller's hand, interpreting the debate, November 1949

As world leaders gather for the United Nations General Assembly, it is interesting to read the speech that Keller wrote for the United Nations in 1950.

"Dear Friends:

The Need for Access: AFB Testimony on Intellectual Property Law

Note: The following is testimony made by Mark Richert, AFB's director of public policy, on how copyright law affects those with vision loss. For a primer on this topic, please see All Rights Reserved—How Copyright Law Can Leave People Who Are Blind Out. Video of this testimony is also available from the U.S. House of Representatives.

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