AFB Blog

Image: Left to right, William Reuschel stands with Aaron Preece, looking at an iPhone, while Aaron's guide dog, Joel, appears to look for a Pidgey. It's time to dust off the old Gameboy, find the faded trading cards, and watch cartoons starring Ash Ketchum because Pokémon is making a HUGE comeback. The makers of Pokémon, Nintendo America, in cooperation with Niantic Labs, have introduced a new mobile app game, Pokémon Go. This international craze has taken over the world. It is in the news,…

Image: Left to right, Helen Keller standing with Polly Thomson at the door to their home in Easton, Connecticut, circa 1955. AFB is thrilled to publish the third in our series of posts focusing on newly digitized items in the Helen Keller Archival Collection. This week’s post is from historian David Serlin, an associate professor in the Department of Communication at the University of California-San Diego. Enormous thanks to David for contributing such a fascinating, thoughtful, and thought-…

By William Reuschel and Aaron Preece Image: Aaron Preece stands with his guide dog Joel and a Pidgey Pokémon. Pokémon mania is sweeping the nation once again! The latest incarnation of the game that has players collecting and battling fictional creatures is called “Pokémon GO,” but this version is a little different from past games. You can’t play GO on your couch. In fact, you’ll have a hard time playing it indoors at all. Pokémon GO is all about getting players outside and interacting…

We are delighted that our next post in this series of posts devoted to the Helen Keller Digitization project is contributed by Susan Pearce, a volunteer transcriber, and a very valued member of our "Captains of Transcription" team. From Susan Pearce, transcriber: This is an unbelievably interesting project. I have been getting to know Helen Keller better. Miss Keller travelled the world and affected so many people's lives. What has been wonderful to transcribe are the handwritten letters…

The American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) has awarded its 2016 scholarships to eleven outstanding students who are blind or visually impaired and are pursuing their studies at institutions of higher education. The grants support one of AFB’s most important goals: expanding access to education for students with vision loss. The awardees are as follows: The Delta Gamma Foundation Florence Margaret Harvey Memorial Scholarship: One scholarship of $1,000 to an undergraduate or graduate student…

Today, Monday June 27th, 2016—is Helen Keller’s 136th birthday. What better way to celebrate her legacy than by focusing our attention on the Helen Keller Digitization Project? As the result of a grant awarded in May 2015 by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) began the task of capturing 80,000 items in the Helen Keller Archival Collection. Using digital photography, correspondence, photographs, architectural drawings, oversize print materials…

New federal regulations on accessibility for digital and web publishing are expected to have a significant impact on the publishing industry. The American Foundation for the Blind was pleased to co-sponsor, and AFB staff were pleased to attend, a summit on accessibility in publishing, along with many other publishers and accessibility experts, hosted by the Center for Publishing Innovation. Discussions included the impact of revisions to Section 508 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act…

Friday May 27th 2016, President Barack Obama will be the first sitting President of the United States to set foot in Hiroshima since the atomic bomb devastated that city 71 years ago Wednesday October 13th 1948, Helen Keller was America’s First Goodwill Ambassador to Japan after the Second World War Helen wrote the following letter to her good friend Nella Braddy Henney on a train from Hiroshima to Fukuoka on October 14th, 1948, the day after her visit to the devastated city. The letter…

May 19 marks the fifth celebration of Global Accessibility Awareness Day—a day designed to “get people talking, thinking and learning about digital (web, software, mobile, etc.) accessibility and users with different disabilities.” This year has seen some exciting developments in accessibility. Facebook, Twitter, Apple, Comcast, and Google have all announced major initiatives. There have been setbacks, as well. Nearly six years after the Obama Administration publicly promised to make…