AFB Blog

If you know me, you know that I am a big proponent of using the white cane or the long white cane. I speak around the United States to youth and adults who are blind or visually impaired about employment, postsecondary education, and various other topics. I couldn't do it without the training I received in the area of orientation and mobility (O&M). I received my first white cane from an O&M instructor from the State of New Jersey's Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired. I…

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: Truly it is an exalted privilege for me to address such a splendid gathering representing the humanitarian public spirit of world citizenship. As United Nations Week brings home to us the far-speeding activities of our global Prometheus, it is fitting that we hail an organization whose final triumph is bound up with the…

Hi, I'm Paige, and I'm a dog guide. I've blogged here before, and so has my master, Crista Earl, who wrote a several-part diary telling how we first met. I wanted to give a shout-out to all my fellow dog guides because it's September, which is National Guide Dog Month. Recently my master and her colleagues took a trip to a wonderful place called The Seeing Eye in Morristown, New Jersey. Most of the people had never been there, but I already knew my way around since this was where I went to…

Recently, our CareerConnect® Employment Specialist, Detra Bannister, chatted with Michael Peters, a tournament-based fishing angler. Michael has glaucoma, which has led to some vision loss, but he has found ways to adapt to his low vision status. Using information from his eye specialist and from AFB, he has learned to continue doing what he loves and is eager to share his knowledge and encouragement as an AFB CareerConnect mentor.

On September 13, we lost a brilliant leader and I lost a dear friend, Richard "Rick" L. Welsh, Ph.D. Rick was a driving force in the blindness field and a huge advocate for quality services for people with vision loss. He had the ability to identify challenges and rally the field around critical issues. His professional experience spanned university preparation programs, schools for the blind, and adult agencies; he excelled in every endeavor. He was the first president of the Association for…

As society's focus on the environment has increased it is interesting to note that Helen Keller had a deep respect for the natural world and an innate understanding of the need for a healthy planet. She wrote the following (excerpted here) to Karl Menninger in 1959. Menninger was a leading American psychiatrist and founder of The Menninger Foundation in Kansas City, Missouri. "Dear Dr. Menninger, It was indeed a delight for me to receive the article, "Conserving and Using Our Open…

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. Before the United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet Hearing on Chapter 12 of…

Have you ever wondered if other people can hear your babbling talking smart phone? Have you ever wondered why the "buttons" on the screen sometimes don't work? First, yes, those polite people at the next table can hear your iPhone or Android phone babbling as you search for a contact and make a call. Solution? Headphones. I run into people now and then who never took the headphones out of the box when they got their device. They just didn't seem like a useful option to them. But the…

The True Meaning of the Value of Education by Helen Keller,The Home Magazine September 1934 It is September. Vacation time is over, and the children of the nation are going back to school. We spend more money on education than any other nation on earth. In the last thirty years the high school enrolment increased fifteen times as fast as the population, and our college students about seven times as rapidly. Yet thoughtful observers of our national life are appalled by the lack of culture…