On June 19, 1865, the Union Army reached Galveston, Texas, and read a federal order proclaiming that all enslaved persons in the U.S. state of Texas were now free, nearly two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. On June 19, 2020, and subsequent to nationwide protests following the murder of George Floyd, ACB members Verlencia Somuah and Kenneth Semien Sr. share their personal experiences and thoughts about racism and disability in America.

Join some of our own ACB members and outside educators as they talk about best practices for parents to work with their blind and visually impaired students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Parents now play a bigger role in their children’s education, and this podcast will provide invaluable tools to equip such parents. This is Part 1 of a two-part episode.

On this episode of the ACB Advocacy Update, Clark speaks with Anthony Corona, ACB’s new Marketing, Communications and Strategy Intern. During this conversation, we get to know Anthony personally and professionally, as well as hear his thoughts on advocacy and the ACB Virtual Conference and Convention.
To learn more about Anthony’s communications and advocacy work with ACB affiliate Blind LGBTQ Pride International, please visit: www.blindlgbtpride.org.
To become involved with the 2020 ACB Virtual Conference and Convention, please visit: www.acbconvention.org.

On this episode of the ACB Advocacy Update, Claire speaks with Courtney Holthus, Advocacy Director for Disability Rights Idaho, about the importance of accessible voting and the process to file an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice Disability Rights Section. Both Disability Rights Idaho and ACB have filed ADA complaints requesting the DOJ to investigate the accessibility of Idaho’s voting process. Anyone may file an ADA complaint by phone, mail, fax, or online, and more information is available at: https://www.ada.gov/filing_complaint.htm

On this episode of the ACB Advocacy Update, Claire Stanley speaks with Ron Brooks, Chair of ACB’s Advocacy Steering Committee, and Sheila Styron, Chair of ACB’s Transportation Committee, about the inaugural ACB Transportation Forum to be held during the 2020 ACB Virtual Conference and Convention. Claire, Ron and Sheila discuss the genesis of the transportation forum, what it will look like during the Virtual Conference and Convention, and what it is intended to accomplish.
To register or learn more about the 2020 ACB Virtual Conference and Convention, visit www.acbconvention.org.

On this episode of the ACB Advocacy Update, Clark celebrates Global Accessibility Awareness Day by speaking with Jeff Bishop, ACB Board Member, ACB Information Access Committee Chair, and all around nice guy. Clark and Jeff discuss how the landscape of accessible technology has changed over the past ten years with the passage of the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 (CVAA). Not only the law that re-instated audio description requirements, the CVAA fostered accessibility requirements for communications hardware and software that is enabling people who are blind to work remotely from home, participate in ACB community events, and produce the first of it’s kind, ACB Virtual Conference and Convention!
Registration for the 2020 ACB Virtual Conference and Convention opens today, May 21, for ACB members, and May 28, for the general public; to learn more visit – www.acbconvention.org.
To checkout the wide variety of ACB Community Events, visit – www.acb.org/acb-community-conference-calls.

On this episode of the ACB Advocacy Update, ACB Executive Director Eric Bridges speaks with Lee Nasehi, President & CEO of VisionServe Alliance. Learn about who composes the membership of VisionServe Alliance and what role they are playing within the blind and visually impaired community.
For more information about VisionServe Alliance, visit www.visionservealliance.org.
To access a transcript of this podcast, visit: https://acb.org/acb-advocacy-update-transcript-5-14-20.

On this episode of the ACB Advocacy Update, Claire Stanley and Clark Rachfal speak with ACB First Vice President Mark Richert about the COVID-19 waiver report submitted to Congress by the Department of Education. Mark, who is serving as Interim Executive Director for the Association of Education and Rehabilitation for the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER) shares his thoughts on what is included in the waiver report, the impact of previous advocacy efforts to ensure these waivers do not weaken the Free Appropriate Public Education in the Least Restrictive Environment protections for all students, and the vigilance required by advocates as Congress interprets these waiver requests into legislation.
To read the letter that ACB and the American Foundation for the Blind co-authored to Congress regarding waivers from the Department of Education, please visit: https://acb.org/acb-afb-joint-letter-covid19.
To learn more about AER, please visit: https://aerbvi.org/.
More information about ACB is available at www.acb.org, and if you like this podcast, please subscribe, and write a review.

This week, Claire speaks with Penny Rosenblum from the American Foundation for the Blind about a collaborative research project being conducted to assess the impact remote learning during the COVID-19 crisis is having on blind and visually impaired students. We will all be excited to learn what findings are gleaned from the survey.
To learn more and consider completing the survey, please visit: www.accessengagement.com.
More information about ACB is available at www.acb.org, and if you like this podcast, please subscribe, and write a review.

On this episode of the ACB Advocacy Update, Clark speaks with Lex Gillette, Paralympian, World Champion, and World Record Long Jumper, and Cat Bouwkamp, Membership and Safe Sport Coordinator, U.S. Association of Blind Athletes. Lex shares how he is coping physically and mentally with the delay of the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games, and Cat shares the work that USABA is doing to make fitness and exercise more accessible for everyone who is blind.
To learn more about Lex Gillette, check out: www.lexgillette.com.
To learn more about USABA’s Staying Fit While Staying Put, and United We Move initiatives, please visit: www.usaba.org.
More information about ACB is available at www.acb.org, and if you like this podcast, please subscribe, and write a review.