Dear AccessWorld Readers,
You may have noticed that at the end of each article, we always thank the Teubert Foundation for their support of AccessWorld. The Teubert Foundation is quite the remarkable organization and I wanted to take this space to spotlight the organization's history and work.
The James H. and Alice Teubert Charitable Trust (The Teubert Foundation) was formed from the estate of Clinton J. Teubert. Teubert was born in 1888 and began working at the local Huntington post office at age 16. He served in World War I, and once his service concluded, he returned to work at the post office. When he retired in 1955, he had become the postal auditor. He was seen as an eccentric man, wearing second hand clothing and shoes with holes in them that some say he found tossed out on the street. Teubert was also an voracious reader, and I have heard that this was one of the factors that lead him to donate the majority of his estate to those with vision loss, as he believed that it would be terrible to not be able to read. Teubert was an avid investor, and unbeknownst to many, had amassed a sizable fortune by the time of his death in 1979 at the age of 91. He was killed by being struck by a car.
At the time of his death, Teubert's holdings amounted to around $2.5 million. His will primarily left his funds to various organizations; for example, he set aside a portion to provide supplies for local little league baseball. His will was written on the back of a notice from one of the stocks that he held, and was fiercely contested in court. It was eventually ruled that the will stood, and the Teubert Foundation was founded in 1987.
Over its more than 30-year history, the Teubert Foundation has funded many blindness-related projects and organizations both local and national. In 1990, the Teubert Foundation began supporting the Space Camp for Visually Impaired Students program, which allows students with vision loss to attend the international Space Camp located in Huntsville, Alabama. The camp is slightly adapted to make it more accessible for blind/low vision participants, including braille instructions and tactile labels on controls. Based on my knowledge, students are able to do everything that their sighted peers would, including rock climbing, scuba diving, and 0-g mission simulations.
The Teubert Foundation also provided the initial funding to establish a services organization for people with vision loss in the Huntington area in the early 1990s. Called the Cabell Wayne Association for the Blind (CWAB), the organization provides free transportation, free computers with adaptive software, orientation and mobility and technology skills training, as well as many other services. The foundation provides funding to CWAB to this day.
As you may have surmised, the Teubert Foundation also provides funding to the American Foundation for the Blind. When the AFB was deciding on where to locate their West Virginia office, the offer of funding from the Teubert Foundation was a deciding factor when the decision was made to locate the office in Huntington. Huntington became the tech hub for AFB, housing AccessWorld, AFB Consulting, and AFB's app development efforts. Today, the huntington office includes AccessWorld along with portions of the Communications, Finance, and Resource Development departments.
The Teubert Foundation also hosts an annual Teubert Interagency Council, bringing together many organizations in the greater Huntington area who have interests in the field of blindness. This includes representatives from the Veterans administration, the State Department of Rehabilitation, local teachers of the visually impaired, AFB, and other local service organizations.
More recently, Funding provided by the Teubert Foundation has lead the American Printing House to have a presence in Huntington. The first grant provided funding to launch APH's Good Maps platform in several Huntington locations. In addition, training was provided for local people with vision loss on the use of the platform.
I personally have greatly benefited from the foundation's presence in Huntington. I remember attending its program for young children with vision loss; I still vividly remember having the opportunity to pet a live golden eagle during one presentation. When I entered K-12 education, CWAB provided video magnifiers along with screen reader equipped computers for my use. When I was in elementary, I also learned how to use my screen access software (Window Eyes at that time) from CWAB. I was very fortunate to be able to attend Space camp for several years thanks to Teubert sponsored scholarships and had my first job at 15 as an AFB summer intern thanks to Teubert bringing AFB to Huntington. I worked as an intern for AFB all through university and work from Huntington as your editor to this day thanks to the Teubert Foundation's support of the Huntington office.
Considering its (relative) small size and fairly rural location, Huntington is a focal point of the field of blindness thanks to the Teubert Foundation. I sincerely thank Clinton Teubert for the compassion he held for people with vision loss and also thank the Teubert Foundation for the excellent work they have done stewarding the resources left by Teubert as well as the amazing support they have provided to so many vital organizations and projects in West Virginia.
Sincerely,
Aaron Preece
AccessWorld Editor in Chief
