Our mission is to create a world of no limits for people who are blind or visually impaired. As part of our effort to mobilize leaders, advance understanding, and champion impactful policies and practices using research and data:

  • We conduct research to better understand the issues facing people who are blind or visually impaired, and develop evidence-based solutions
  • We promote knowledge and understanding, to influence attitudes and improve acceptance, accessibility, and inclusion
  • We advocate for policies and best practices to make workplaces, schools, and communities more welcoming for people who are blind or visually impaired

Your Support Makes It All Possible

When you give to AFB, your tax-deductible gift makes it possible for us to produce timely, accessible research to ensure Americans with vision loss have equal rights and opportunities to fully participate in society.

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AFB’s Current Research Projects

  • Flatten Inaccessibility Report—AFB collaborated with 15 other organizations to examine the impact of COVID-19 on adults with visual impairments early in the pandemic. The Flatten Inaccessibility survey focused on adults with visual impairments and their access to healthcare, information, education, online work environments, transportation, food and other supplies, and voting.

  • Access and Engagement to Education—Our research team investigated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the education of children and youth with visual impairments, including those with multiple disabilities and deafblindness.

  • Workplace Technology Study—we are taking a multi-pronged approach to understand the technology experiences, training tools, required tasks, barriers, and accessibility needs of people in the workforce who are visually impaired.

  • Best Practices for Hospitals Treating Patients Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired—In collaboration with the Cabell Huntington Hospital Foundation, AFB has designed a research program and is currently conducting focus groups and interviews in order to identify departments or processes where patients most commonly face barriers, and then develop best practice guides that can improve experiences for visually impaired patients in hospital settings.

  • Guide Dogs for the Blind—AFB will use a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to gather data from those who have had direct experience with GDB, O&M instructors, and clients at other dog guide schools in Europe, to answer specific questions GDB has about guide dog use and provide evidence-based recommendations to help them increase guide dog use in the United States.