Today begins the seventy-ninth year for the National Federation of the Blind. During the past six weeks I have worked with blind people from at least a dozen states—having traveled to four of them—and have gained insight from visiting with blind people in two foreign countries. While this six weeks was more travel-intensive than most periods, the fact that I spent time with a diversity of blind people is not unusual. Read more On Our 78th Birthday, Celebrating 78 Years of Stories...
We’ve often heard users of access technology products express frustration over the cost to keep their technology up-to-date. With a software maintenance agreement (SMA), a user incurs a periodic fee to make sure they have the latest version of their screen access program. For users on a limited or fixed income, this frequently means running an outdated version of their software and higher pricing to catch up later. Read more SMA No More? JAWS and ZoomText Annual Home Licensing: A Win for Consumers...
We've certainly come a long way, but voting still isn’t completely free of barriers for blind people. One such barrier can be transportation to the polling place. This can be a particularly troublesome issue for people who live in cities or rural areas that don’t have adequate public transportation. That’s why this year the National Federation of the Blind is pleased to partner with Lyft, the makers of the popular ride-hailing app, to help blind voters get to the polls. Read more A Lyft to the Polls...
There are those that have a hard time accepting a cane, and for a long time I was one of them. I was told it made me “look blind,” which was something I wanted to avoid at all costs. No kid likes feeling different, and I was no exception.
But while I didn’t grow up loving my cane, I did, and still do, love Halloween. Read more Canes and Costumes...
"We’ll find out..."
It was a phrase said to me repeatedly by two of my greatest mentors, Fred Sanders and Jim Platt. Almost fifty years later, that phrase seems to pop out of my own mouth with increasing regularity.
Read more A Photographer's Insights on Vision Loss...
In 2005, I was blessed and fortunate to marry my lovely wife, Latonya. After the marriage ceremonies, the most frequently asked question of me was, “When are you going to have children?”
Read more The Confidence To Be a Blind Parent...