AFB Blog

It is with a heavy heart that I share that Phil Hatlen, AFB trustee emeritus and a preeminent leader in the blindness field, passed away earlier this week after an extended illness. Phil was an incredible mentor and dear friend to many, including myself. He was loved and admired by this field. A true visionary, Phil is widely recognized as the person who coined the phrase, “expanded core curriculum” and detailed its importance to the education of the blind and visually impaired. Because of…

“At the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB), we have worked for nearly a century to break down societal barriers and eliminate discrimination by achieving equal access to the world of copyrighted works. But for all the promise of technology to provide equal access to copyrighted works, the copyright laws that protect those works have sometimes served to impede that technology.” Mark Richert, Esq., Director of Public Policy, was part of an expert panel at a free Public Knowledge luncheon…

Paul Schroeder at the MagicaVision booth On the second day of the official CES, John Lilly and I spent most of the day among the home, health, and fitness area of the show. At Whirlpool we learned that a line of “connected” kitchen appliances will soon be launched in the US. As with the connected washer and dryer, these are toward the top of the line, so they won’t be cheap, but the Whirlpool app does seem to work reasonably well with VoiceOver and they are interested in continuing to improve…

CES 2016 officially opened on Wednesday January 6, and as Lyle Lovett might say, CES is not large, it's huge. Encompassing over 2.6 million square feet of exhibit and presentation space, there is just no way to convey the absolute awesomeness of the size of this thing. Read the full report on day 3 of CES in AccessWorld®, including our impressions of Casio's new "2.5D" printer, a system for producing tactile graphics and braille. We also took a look at Vuzix's iWear headset and M300 Smart…

Editor's note: We weren't too surprised to read the following question in the most recent installment of "Dear Prudence" on Slate: Q. Blindness: I am blind, and I wear dark glasses and use a cane. My problem is that everywhere I go, strangers will come up and grab me to help me walk and yell at me as if I am deaf. I know they mean well, but it throws off my balance when they grab me and it’s scary. I get a headache from people yelling at me. I can hear quite well so what can I do? Being…

As you read this, the CES show, an annual event about all things technology, is only just now opening, but lots has been happening already. Press events dominated Tuesday's schedule. I attended presentations by LG, Panasonic, and others. Read the full report on day 2 of CES in AccessWorld®, and you can also follow AFB on Twitter or Facebook for additional updates. I'll have lots more as the week of CES 2016 goes on, so stay tuned!

With a big thank you to the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)™, AFB is again attending "CES®," the global technology event that takes place in early January in Las Vegas. CTA, formerly the Consumer Electronics Association, again made it possible for John Lilly (who works in our tech office in Huntington, WV, and me to attend the show, along with a select delegation from the disability community. We’ll do our best to provide updates throughout this week as we try to see as many of the over…

"Braille is knowledge, and knowledge is power." - Louis Braille Louis Braille, the inventor of braille, was born two hundred and seven years ago on January 4, 1809. In his honor, we've gathered 16 braille resources in celebration of World Braille Day 2016! What is braille, anyway? It’s not a language, but a system of raised dots that can be read with the fingers by people who are blind or who have low vision. Braille is a code by which many languages—such as English, Spanish, Arabic…

Two hundred and seven years ago, on January 4th, 1809, Louis Braille was born in Coupvray, France. His invention of a system of raised dots representing letters, numbers and punctuation revolutionized the way blind people read and write and opened a wealth of knowledge to visually impaired audiences. In 1952, one hundred years after his death, Braille's body — with the exception of his hands — was removed from his home town to the Pantheon in Paris. Helen Keller was asked to give the speech on…