AFB Blog

Kirk Adams is president and CEO of the American Foundation for the Blind. It is my pleasure to be in Washington, D.C., welcoming attendees to the 31st American Foundation for the Blind Leadership Conference, and my first as president and CEO of AFB. We are delighted to have a record number of attendees this year, as well as a record number of exhibitors, including our lead exhibit sponsor, Humanware. I want to thank our conference co-host, Virginia AER, and conference ally, VisionServe…

On Wednesday, March 1, more than 120 advocates for children who are blind, visually impaired, deaf, hard of hearing, or deafblind will visit congressional offices in Washington, D.C., sharing their stories and asking our new Congress to rally behind students with sensory disabilities in support of the newly reintroduced Cogswell-Macy Act. "This bipartisan bill will help the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) keep its promise of a free and appropriate education for all…

Mark Richert, AFB's Director of Public Policy We were very pleased to see the Supreme Court ruling today in Fry v Napoleon Community Schools. The Supreme Court held unanimously that Ehlena Fry's family can pursue a lawsuit against her former public school district for denying access to her service dog, Wonder. The ruling made clear that if a school discriminates against a child for using a dog guide or service animal, parents are legally able to go straight to court to enforce the student's…

Kirk Adams is president and CEO of the American Foundation for the Blind. This weekend in the New York Times, personal health writer Jane E. Brody tackled a sensitive topic: the fear, isolation, and anxiety that many people experience when losing their sight. The Worst That Could Happen? Going Blind, People Say. In 2007, AFB commissioned a national study on people's attitudes and opinions of severe vision loss and blindness. The survey revealed that Americans believe strongly that losing one…

Every January 4, we celebrate the birthday of Louis Braille, who developed his famous braille code when he was only a teenager. Learn more about the creation of the braille code by exploring AFB's Louis Braille Online Museum. The American Foundation for the Blind's recognition of the importance of braille has been a constant throughout the 95 years of our existence. AFB took the lead to standardize the English braille code, making it cheaper and easier to produce. Our first CEO, Dr. Robert…

Image: Helen Keller walks in her garden in Westport, Connecticut, 1950. It is wintertime. Keller is seen smiling, facing the camera. She wears a long coat and woolen hat. She holds a wooden branch railing with her left hand. As the new year approaches, it’s a good time to review the progress that is being made to digitize the Helen Keller Archive. This is a mammoth task, and we are well on our way to accomplishing the work of preserving and disseminating online the over 80,000 items in the…

Kirk Adams is president and CEO of the American Foundation for the Blind. "Expanding possibilities" is both our promise and our challenge. The promise: "When we expand possibilities, we will improve people's lives." The challenge: "Can we achieve the future we believe is possible?" The American Foundation for the Blind has put forward a vision of possibilities for people with visual impairments and works to make that vision a reality. We champion the needs and dreams of millions of people…

Hollywood is waist deep into its annual awards season. There was a time when there would be little reason for blind or visually impaired people to take note of Tinseltown’s award-caliber offerings, as most visual media would have been largely inaccessible. This is less so today, thanks to emerging technologies that bring visual media to life for visually impaired audiences in theaters and at home, as well as to hard-fought legislation that is slowly making these technologies more widely…

Mark Richert, AFB's Director of Public Policy This week, 60 Minutes aired a piece on lawsuits relating to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) that is creating a lot of discussion in the disability community. [Editor’s note: the 60 Minutes video is transcribed, though not described.] The concern over the segment—which focuses on so-called "Drive-by Lawsuits"—is that it puts a negative spin on the ADA, one of our country's most comprehensive and celebrated pieces of civil rights…