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Learn Disability History
Teachers and parents! Did you know that the American Foundation for the Blind—where Helen Keller worked for over 40 years—has created free, accessible lesson plans for teaching disability history? Now is a great time to teach your children or students what blind and deafblind writers, activists, and leaders have accomplished.
The lessons are designed to teach middle and high school students how to do their own research using digital and physical archives. Topics include the difference…
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Helen Keller, Education
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TIME Tells That There's More To Helen Keller Than What You Learned at School
TIME publishing company has produced a terrific video on Helen Keller's role in disability history, "Co-Founding the ACLU, Fighting for Labor Rights and Other Helen Keller Accomplishments Students Don't Learn in School." The piece reflects upon Keller’s activism in the sphere of women’s rights, workers’ rights and civil rights—as well as her fierce advocacy for people with vision loss.
The video interviews academics and activists such as Professor Georgina Kleege, the…
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Helen Keller
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Taking The Next Steps: Moving From Understanding to Solutions
We are grateful to the thousands of individuals who have responded to our surveys. As you well know, the research reports that we released for Flatten Inaccessibility and Access and Engagement demonstrated significant impacts of the pandemic on access to education, transportation, employment, and healthcare. As AFB continues our efforts to ensure that policymakers recognize and resolve these issues, we have prepared a set of resources that you can use in your own self-advocacy. For each…
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Coronavirus (COVID-19) Resources, Education
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Thank You!
Thank you! We're so grateful to everyone who helped us surpass our #GivingTuesday goal of over 100 donors to celebrate AFB's 100 years—and deeply thankful to those of you who were able to make your gift a monthly, recurring donation. It makes a huge difference to nonprofits to have that steady, ongoing support.
Your generosity could not have come at a more critical time. While this year has been hard on everyone, it has revealed great concerns for people who are blind or have low vision. We’…
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Holidays
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Have A Happy and Healthy Thanksgiving
Photograph of Helen Keller, Anne Sullivan Macy and Polly Thomson with friends in their garden in Forest Hills, circa 1920s.
From all of us at AFB to everyone of you in our community, Happy Thanksgiving! May these words from Helen Keller's 1946 address in London on the nature of Thanksgiving provide us with the strength and wisdom necessary to safely guide us into next year as 2020 comes to a close.
"I am indeed happy and honored to be with you on an occasion endeared to us by countless…
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Helen Keller, Holidays
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Recap and Resources from the Second AFB Town Hall
Thank you so much to everyone who was able to join the second AFB Town Hall on the impact of COVID-19 on access to employment and technology for Americans who are blind or have low vision, drawing on findings from the Flatten Inaccessibility Report. A complete archive will be available soon, for anyone who missed the live conversation. As promised, here are some of the resources shared by the presenters and attendees:
Dr. Rosenblum recently published an op-ed in the Arizona Daily Star: Local…
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Research, Employment, Assistive Technology
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AFB Director of Research Pens Arizona Daily Star Op-Ed Examining Life for People Blind or Low Vision During Pandemic
In her October 28 Arizona Daily Star op-ed “I have impaired vision. COVID has made daily life much tougher,” AFB’s Director of Research Dr. L. Penny Rosenblum shares her experiences navigating daily life since the COVID-19 pandemic, and shares findings from AFB’s Flatten Inaccessibility report, which examined the impact of COVID-19 on adults with visual impairments in the United States early in the outbreak.
Dr. Rosenblum writes: “As a low-vision person, COVID-19 has impacted my life in the…
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In the News, Coronavirus (COVID-19) Resources, Personal Reflections, Research
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Recap and Resources from the First AFB Town Hall
Thank you so much to everyone who was able to join the first AFB Town Hall on the impact of COVID-19 on access to healthcare, transportation, and voting for Americans who are blind or have low vision. A complete archive will be available soon, for anyone who missed the live conversation. As promised, here are some of the resources shared by the presenter and attendees:
Aira announced support for voting in the upcoming election.
Another visual assistance option is the BeMyEyes app, which is…
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Coronavirus (COVID-19) Resources, Research, Public Policy
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Inform & Connect, Special Episode: Dr. L. Penny Rosenblum, Lead Author, Flatten Inaccessibility
In this special edition of AFB's Inform & Connect podcast, Dr. L. Penny Rosenblum discussed the Flatten Inaccessibility research report, the culmination of survey findings from 1,921 U.S. participants who are blind (65%) or have low vision (35%). The survey investigated the experiences of these participants during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to determine how they were affected in areas including access to transportation, healthcare, access to food and supplies, employment, education…
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Research, Coronavirus (COVID-19) Resources
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Neva Fairchild Appointed to Texas Governor’s Task Force On Disaster Issues Affecting Persons Who Are Elderly And Persons With Disabilities
On October 14, Texas Governor Greg Abbott appointed ten individuals to the Task Force on Disaster Issues Affecting Persons who are Elderly and Persons with Disabilities; among its members is AFB’s National Aging and Vision Loss Specialist Neva Fairchild.
The Task Force on Disaster Issues Affecting Persons Who Are Elderly and Persons Who Are Disabled will study methods to more effectively accommodate persons who are elderly and persons with disabilities before, during, and after a disaster or…
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In the News, Leadership
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