American Council Of The Blind Inc

Conference and conventionthe american council of the blind's 63rd annual convention was a hybrid event, featuring virtual sessions throughout the convention, and an in-person portion with 200 workshops, seminars, and business meetings, exhibitors, and tours. All eligible acb members had the opportunity to participate in discussions about proposed resolutions, then could vote on the resolutions and elect board members during acb's business meetings. The convention included informative breakout sessions on issues of interest to the community. Individuals could attend live sessions or listen to the podcasted sessions.

Advocacy and governmental affairs held the annual leadership conference with both in-person and virtual components. Acb participated in advocacy to move timely legislation along, including the reauthorization of the older americans act and the federal aviation administration reauthorization act. Worked in coalition with other disability organizations to move key legislation, such as the websites and software applications accessibility act and the communications, video, and technology accessibility act, further along the process in the 118th congress.

Public awareness increased spanish language content for events, presentations, and awareness initiatives. The fourth annual acb audio description awards gala was broadcast live on youtube and peacock, allowing acb to extend its reach across the nation. Acb media's 10 internet streams had over 185,000 listening hours. Acb's social media presence resulted in over 16,000 followers across five platforms with consistent engagement on daily posts. Acb's website and the audio description project website allow acb to keep the public aware of ongoing activities, current initiatives, and news important to people who are blind, low vision, or who are connected to someone in the community.audio description project (adp)acb's audio description project sponsors a broad range of activities designed to build awareness of audio description. In 2024, the adp held its fourth audio description awards gala, celebrating the media industry's advancement of audio description; served on the fcc's disability advisory committee; sponsored its annual essay contest for students; conducted sessions of the audio description training institute; and participated in the unidescription project's effort to create audio description for national park service brochures.acb scholarships and awardsin 2024, acb awarded $116,200 across 28 scholarships to blind post-secondary students. Scholarship amounts ranged from $4,200 to $8,100. Many attended the conference where they networked with others who share similar life experiences. The jpmorgan chase leadership fellows and dkm first-timer awards were awarded to seven deserving future leaders empowering their growth through mentoring, training, and peer development. The awardees had the opportunity to attend acb's convention to connect with one another and develop leadership skills.information and peer supportacb provides vital information and referral services to individuals and family members experiencing vision loss who are seeking support in a number of areas, including accessible technology services, daily living skills, and advocacy-related inquiries. Many callers are looking for someone they can talk to about how to deal with vision loss. Acb has built a virtual peer support community event platform to address these needs.