Allow Everyone Access to E-books

Please consider signing the petition started by the  Reading Rights Coalition.   This organization began after Amazon released their latest version of their E-Book reader, the Kindle 2.0. The product which has built in Text to Speech has been attacked by the Author’s Guild. The Guild argues that this feature which uses synthetic speech to [...]

ACB Legislative Seminar 2009: An Advocacy Play by Play

  This recent article provides additional information focusing on the “play by play” activities involved in meeting with representatives.    Monroe County resident lobbies in Washington for the blind – poconorecord.com – The Pocono Record

ACB Legislative Seminar 2009:A Day on Capitol Hill

So, it’s finally the big day!  It was the culmination of at least two months of preparing in an effort to become familiar with the issues concluding with the Legislative Seminar.  There are 19 representatives serving the interests of Pennsylvania residents, two senators and 17 congressmen and women.  The 19 representatives were divided among the [...]

ACB Legislative Seminar 2009: Local Coverage in the Poconos

A special report from the Pocono Record featuring members of the Pennsylvania Council of the Blind and the reasons for attending the ACB Legislative Seminar.   Read the article here…

ACB Legislative Seminar Day 2: The Issues

Hello again from Arlington Virginia, across the Potomac from Washington D.C. where we have been hard at work acquiring information on the American Council of the Blind’s Imperative issues for 2009 along with other very important and interesting topics which are of significant concern to persons who are blind or visually impaired. The morning began [...]

Legislative Update

A person cannot turn on the news without hearing about the Economic Stimulus Package, formally called H.R.1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. What I’m not sure everyone is aware of is that this package will have a strong impact on the disability community.  For instance, Congress is proposing $500 million for vocational rehabilitation services [...]

Blindness in the Mainstream This Week

ABC’s "What Would You Do?" aired a segment on accessible currency. As a way to bring attention to the difficulties US currency presents to people who are blind, the producers decided to stage a store clerk purposely cheating two separate customers who were blind. The question, "What would you do?" applied to both, would you [...]

Congratulations Red Rose

Our Pennsylvania Council of the Blind chapter mate, Red Rose Council of the blind in Lancaster, PA is successfully working their way to having APS devices installed throughout their county.   The work and lessons learned in one county can hopefully help not only other chapters throughout PA, but throughout the country as well.   [...]

Braille karaoke

I know of one specific MCCB member who would love to get her hands on this. A way to make Karaoke accessible to people who are blind.   Here’s how it works: Nippon Telesoft Co. has developed braille karaoke software that translates song lyrics on an online karaoke system, then sends the data to a [...]

NLS Funding Passes Congress

One step closer to assuring all Americans who are visually impaired or blind have equal access to library services.   From the article: Eric Bridges, ACB’s director of advocacy and governmental affairs, noted, “Access to a public library is something that many Americans take for granted.The ability to read books, whether novels, books on politics, [...]