On this episode of the Advocacy Update, Clark Rachfal is joined by representatives from the U.S. Association of Blind athletes (USABA) to discuss the third annual and first virtual National Blind Sports Day. Cat Bouwkamp, USABA’s Membership and SafeSport Coordinator shares the impact of USABA’s work on the health and wellness of people who are blind and low vision, and Paralympian Ben Goodrich shares his personal experience as a judo athlete as well as additional resources available to help ACB members and the broader community to get up and get moving. To learn more about and participate in National Blind Sports Day on Oct. 3, visit: www.usaba.org/blindsportsday/.
This week on the podcast, Claire, the advocacy and out reach specialist, and Tony Stephens, the director of development, celebrate the two-year anniversary of the podcast. They reminisce about the first episode of the podcast, and then turn to the topic of the week: national guide dog month. They both talk about their experiences as guide dog handlers. Lots of laughs ensue.
This week on the ACB Advocacy Update, Claire and Clark discuss a newly formed coalition of organizations that is working toward equal access to voting for all people with disabilities. They speak with Jack Rosen from the National Disability Rights Network, Maria Town from the American Association of People with Disabilities, and Sarah Blahovec from the National Council on Independent Living to learn more about the coalition as well as several other exciting projects to promote equal voting rights during this voting season and for future election cycles.
To learn more about the National Coalition for Accessible Voting, visit: https://www.ncavoting.org.
On this episode of the ACB Advocacy Update, Claire and Clark recap the 2020 ACB Resolutions as adopted by the Board of Directors. They are joined by ACB Resolutions Committee co-Chair, Gabe Griffith, to discuss the work of the 2020 virtual Resolutions Committee. The episode concludes with a conversation with ACB 2nd Vice President Ray Campbell about the ad hoc task force he is chairing to modernize the ACB resolution process.
This week on the ACB Advocacy Update, Claire Stanley and Clark Rachfal discuss the launch of ACB Voices. They speak with two of the great minds behind the blog, ACB Director of Development Tony Stephens and ACB Communication Intern Anthony Corona, as well as ACB's new membership intern, Nat Ratcliffe, who has authored a post on the blog. Get ready to learn about ACB Voices and find out how you too can submit your story to the blog. Visit www.ACBVoices.org to learn more.
Clark Rachfal and Claire Stanley speak with Sarah Malaier, Public Policy and Research Advisor for the American Foundation for the Blind. They talk about their participation in the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Accessible Strategic Plan Framework. The plan is exploring all angles of accessibility in the transportation arena.
This week on the ACB Advocacy Update, ACB staff members Claire Stanley and Clark Rachfal discuss how the coronavirus has touched upon numerous areas of advocacy ACB routinely works on. They highlight issues surrounding transportation, education, and voting, as well as outline the advocacy work that has been taken up in light of the pandemic. Not surprisingly, COVID-19 has presented a myriad of new problems to tackle.
On this episode of the Advocacy Update, Claire and Clark speak with multiple guests about the advocacy work and government initiatives to ensure in-person and remote absentee voting options are accessible. We are joined by Commissioner Donald Palmer, Vice Chair of the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), as well as Carrie Chapman, President of the Iowa Council of the United Blind, and Barbara Salisbury, President of the ACB of Indiana. Commissioner Palmer shared the resources available for election officials and voters from the EAC, and Carrie and Barbara share the ongoing advocacy work in Iowa and Indiana.
To learn more about accessible voting, visit the ACB accessible voting toolkit at: www.acb.org/voting.
To learn more about the upcoming EAC roundtable on election accessibility on Aug. 19, visit: https://www.eac.gov/events/2020/08/19/roundtable-discussion-uocava-and-a....