AFB Blog

Today, Monday June 27th, 2016—is Helen Keller’s 136th birthday. What better way to celebrate her legacy than by focusing our attention on the Helen Keller Digitization Project? As the result of a grant awarded in May 2015 by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) began the task of capturing 80,000 items in the Helen Keller Archival Collection. Using digital photography, correspondence, photographs, architectural drawings, oversize print materials…

New federal regulations on accessibility for digital and web publishing are expected to have a significant impact on the publishing industry. The American Foundation for the Blind was pleased to co-sponsor, and AFB staff were pleased to attend, a summit on accessibility in publishing, along with many other publishers and accessibility experts, hosted by the Center for Publishing Innovation. Discussions included the impact of revisions to Section 508 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act…

Friday May 27th 2016, President Barack Obama will be the first sitting President of the United States to set foot in Hiroshima since the atomic bomb devastated that city 71 years ago Wednesday October 13th 1948, Helen Keller was America’s First Goodwill Ambassador to Japan after the Second World War Helen wrote the following letter to her good friend Nella Braddy Henney on a train from Hiroshima to Fukuoka on October 14th, 1948, the day after her visit to the devastated city. The letter…

May 19 marks the fifth celebration of Global Accessibility Awareness Day—a day designed to “get people talking, thinking and learning about digital (web, software, mobile, etc.) accessibility and users with different disabilities.” This year has seen some exciting developments in accessibility. Facebook, Twitter, Apple, Comcast, and Google have all announced major initiatives. There have been setbacks, as well. Nearly six years after the Obama Administration publicly promised to make…

AFB’s Communications team sat down with Kirk to ask him a few questions about his new role, his vision for the future, and his hobbies. Here’s what he had to say. Tell us about your new role at AFB. What are you looking forward to? I am honored to be the American Foundation for the Blind’s (AFB) new president and CEO. I’ve long admired AFB’s commitment to making the world a more equitable, inclusive place for people with vision loss. So I’m excited to build upon AFB’s impressive history and…

Helen Keller was always a vocal supporter for the rights of children. In 1923, she wrote a fundraising letter on behalf of the National Playground and Recreation Association of America. In it she passionately advocated for the need for outdoor spaces where children could run around safely and enjoy themselves. Keller instinctively understood that play is as important to the healthy development of a child as is study indoors. Read her words below — they are as applicable today as when she…

Crista Earl, AFB's Director of Web Operations, and I were excited to attend the Web For All (W4A) Conference this year, in Montreal, Canada to share information about the AFB Accessible Video Player. Web accessibility is an important part of our work at the American Foundation for the Blind. We are committed to making our website and all of our products—from apps to online courses and webinars to books—fully accessible to people with vision loss. The theme for this year’s conference was “…

On the heels of major accessibility announcements from Twitter and Facebook, tech giant Google recently highlighted its own efforts to build a more inclusive world for people with disabilities. Here are four ways Google is working to improve the lives of people who are blind or visually impaired: Gaining equal access to information—As part of the Google Impact Challenge the company recently awarded $20 million in grants to 29 grantees around the world. One of the grantees, the DAISY…

Dear Annie, Happy birthday! Today, we celebrate your legacy and excellence as an educator. You insisted that your student, Helen Keller, could learn and accomplish just as much as any seeing and hearing child could — and you were right. You were a tough teacher — when Helen misspelled a word in an essay or letter, you made her rewrite the entire text — but you also had a finely tuned insight into a child’s psychology. You instantly recognized that Helen was a very bright child who just…