AFB Leadership Conference 2015
Registration is now open for the joint 2015 AFB Leadership and Arizona AER Conference (AFBLC), which will take place at the Renaissance Phoenix Downtown Hotel, April 9–11, 2015.
AFBLC attendees are eligible for a special hotel rate of $179/night. Please visit the Marriott reservations page or call 1-800-309-8138 to book your room today.
The American Foundation for the Blind's annual Leadership Conference covers the most pressing and relevant topics in the field of blindness and offers many opportunities to learn from the best and brightest minds in our field, make new connections, and reunite with old friends while earning ACVREP and CRC CEUs.
The AFBLC attracts established and emerging leaders in the blindness field. Conference attendees include technology experts, corporate representatives, university professors, teachers of students with visual impairments, orientation and mobility instructors, rehabilitation professionals, and parents. They come from diverse organizations and institutions spanning the public and private sectors, including school districts, schools for the blind, Veterans Administrations, hospitals, private agencies, and universities.
The 2014 AFBLC attracted over 440 attendees from 39 states and 8 countries.
HIMS and Diotek Announce Plans to Enhance and Expand Technologies for the Blind and Visually Impaired Through New Global Partnership
HIMS International Corporation, the parent company of Austin-based HIMS Inc., a global leader in the assistive technology field, is a software company specializing in multi-lingual technologies for smartphones including handwriting, voice recognition, OCR, Speech Synthesis and language translation tools.
Together, HIMS and Diotek have the resources and technical prowess to create new and innovative software and hardware solutions to benefit the blind and visually impaired, as well as international language and other human interface solutions, for enhancing electronic communication for consumers with a variety of abilities and disabilities around the world.
"Diotek intends to grow HIMS", says Yang Taik Yoon, President of HIMS International Corporation. "This alliance enhances the resources and capabilities available to HIMS, offering us additional software development resources and core technologies to enhance the continued development of our assistive devices for the blind and visually impaired."
"Diotek does not intend to change the focus of HIMS International's mission", added Min Cheol Kwak, the President of Diotek. "but rather, intends to enhance it with its additional development resources to provide blind and low vision users with technology that is even more mainstream competitive and compatible, ensuring those who are visually impaired are even more productive and competitive in school and the workplace."
HIMS Inc. President, James McCarthy, in response to this new partnership shared "This partnership and its implications for the future of HIMS accessible technology is very exciting. Both companies have made significant contributions to their respective marketplaces and the merger of these technologies will be the foundation of new products and product-feature enhancements to our Braille, OCR, and magnification products that our blind and visually impaired customers will be excited about as well."
Austin, Texas-based HIMS Inc. and HIMS International Corporation will both continue to serve the blind and visually impaired as they have been doing for more than 15 years, providing assistive technology solutions for education, employment and entertainment, as well as after–sales service and technical support for their customers in North America and around the world.
Michael Collins of Perkins Named to Hall of Fame for Leaders and Legends of the Blindness Field
The late Michael T. Collins was recently inducted into the Hall of Fame for Leaders and Legends of the Blindness Field in Louisville, Kentucky.
Collins, who passed away in 2008, led education programs for children who are deaf-blind at Perkins School for the Blind for 30 years, including the supervision of Perkins' renowned Deaf-blind Program. Most notably, he launched Hilton/Perkins International to expand deaf-blind education in the developing world. Under his leadership, the program grew from serving a few hundred students to reaching tens of thousands of children, families, and educators in 67 countries. He traveled the world championing education and government policies to improve opportunities for children who are deaf-blind and blind with additional disabilities.
In addition to his work with Perkins, Collins also led Deafblind International, served on the board of the International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment and founded the National Coalition on Deafblindness. He received the distinguished Perkins' Annie Sullivan Award, Deafblind International's Lifetime Achievement Award and their Distinguished Service Award. Collins studied theology at St. John's Seminary in Boston and received a master's degree in Special Education from Boston College where he met his wife, Linda.
Collins will be most vividly remembered for the way he touched the lives of individual children. "His love for children with multiple disabilities and his deep understanding of their needs was evident when he visited programs and dangled children on his knee." Nandini Rawal, project director of the Blind People's Association in Gujarat, India.
The Hall of Fame is dedicated to preserving the tradition of excellence manifested by specific individuals through the history of outstanding services provided to people who are blind or visually impaired in North America. It is housed at the American Printing House for the Blind (APH) in Louisville, Kentucky, but belongs to all.
