New Orleans, Louisiana (July 11, 2022): The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) has presented fifty thousand dollars in cash awards to individuals and organizations that are a positive force in the lives of blind people and whose work advances the goal of helping transform their dreams into reality. At the National Federation of the Blind annual convention, the fifteenth annual Dr. Jacob Bolotin Awards honored five individuals and organizations who are helping blind people live the lives they want.

Awards of five thousand dollars each went to Tyler Merren, a personal trainer and world-class blind athlete who has created a virtual fitness training and workout program for blind people available through a website and mobile app; Caroline Karbowski, founder of See3D, which uses 3D printing to create tactile graphics and models; and Netflix inc., for its outstanding work in audio description and accessibility. An award of fifteen thousand dollars went to blind writer and poet Jeanetta Price, who expresses a positive philosophy of blindness through her poetry and through writing workshops that she conducts with other blind people. The top award of twenty thousand dollars went to 64 Ounce games, which produces kits with Braille and tactile overlays to make popular board and card games, including educational games for children, accessible to the blind.

Dr. Jacob W. Bolotin (1888-1924) was the world’s first physician who was blind from birth. He achieved that goal despite the tremendous challenges faced by blind people in his time. Not only did he realize his own dream, but he also went on to support and inspire many others. 

“Dr. Jacob Bolotin was a pioneer who overcame low expectations and discrimination to become a renowned member of the medical profession without the benefit of the support services and civil rights protections available to blind people today,” said Mark Riccobono, President of the National Federation of the Blind. “The National Federation of the Blind is proud to honor the memory and spirit of Dr. Bolotin by recognizing and financially supporting those individuals and organizations who are also breaking through the barriers created by low expectations and doing exceptional work to help achieve the shared dream of Dr. Bolotin and the National Federation of the Blind—a society in which the blind, like all other Americans, can pursue their goals and live the lives they want.”

The Dr. Jacob Bolotin Awards Program is funded in part through the generosity of Dr. Bolotin’s nephew and niece-in-law, Alfred and Rosalind Perlman, who established a trust in their names to endow the awards. Income from the Alfred and Rosalind Perlman Trust is distributed to the National Federation of the Blind and the Santa Barbara Foundation to help administer the Dr. Jacob Bolotin Awards Program. For more information about the Dr. Jacob Bolotin Awards Program—including more about this year’s winners, as well as eligibility criteria and application procedures—please visit www.nfb.org/bolotin.