American Council Of The Blind Ohio Chapter Inc

Matching grants: through our matching grants program, acb-ohio provides half the cost (up to 1,000) to help ohioans who are blind or visually impaired afford adaptive/accessible technology, which can be quite costly. In 2024, acb-ohio awarded 11 grants totaling over 6,000. Eleven individuals received funds to help pay technology that helps them live and work independently, devices that they may not have been able to afford otherwise. Grants helped recipients buy high tech, low tech, and everything in between. David green, one of our members in the cleveland chapter received 35 to help buy a talking watch-a simple, low-cost device that helped him stay on track as a busy single father. Gayle horton, a columbus chapter member, received 857 toward the purchase of a chameleon braille display/notetaker. Other grants helped pay for high powered magnifiers, meta glasses, a digital media player, and a smartvision cell phone designed for people with visual limitations. One does not have to be a member to be eligible for a grant.

Advocacy: each spring, a small group of acbo members visit washington, dc, for a day-long leadership seminar, followed by a day-long legislative seminar, during which they learn about proposed legislation that would impact the lives of people with blindness and low vision. The third day, the group goes to capitol hill to advocate for these measures, talking with representatives and their staff about these issues. Six of our members went to washington, dc in 2024, and advocated for equal rights and equal access for all, imploring representatives to support bills for web and software accessibility, expanded audio description on tv and streaming platforms, more equitable medicare and medicaid standards, accessible medical equipment, and an faa mandates that make air travel easier for people with disabilities.

Awards: acb-ohio offers awards to honor ohio individuals and groups who have improved the quality of life for the visually impaired and blind community. In 2024 the organization presented four awards: the ruth davidson award to heather greminger, an infrastructure analyst at marriott who goes above and beyond to make their reservation system accessible to blind and visually impaired employees; the clovernook center for the blind in cincinnati received our employer of the year award; voicecorps radio reading service was honored with our community service award; and lee tucker received the ambassador award for his years of selfless service to the columbus chapter. Newsletter: our quarterly newsletter, the ohio connection, goes to all newsletter subscribers and to many others who are interested in our work. Our newsletter contains articles about advocacy, upcoming events, member profiles, and articles that people submit about a wide variety of topics, including accessible technology, travel, board elections, legislative imperatives, and bios of award and scholarship recipients. We provide copies in large print, by e-mail, and each issue is on nfb newsline, an audio reading service accessible by phone. The most recent issue, as well as archives from previous years, can be found on the website. Voicecorps program: for years, acb-ohio has had a monthly show on voicecorps reading service. Each show is hosted by our board members and features guests who talk about topics of interest to people in the blindness/low vision community. In 2024 guests included technology experts, product vendors, leaders from acb's national office and other affiliates. It enables us to share what acb-ohio is doing, keep people informed, and bring awareness to state and national programs and resources. Sports and recreation: social interaction and exercise are vitally important to physical and mental health. Acb-ohio provides opportunities for recreation, physical activity to get people moving and fight the isolation and stress of living without vision in a sight-centric world. In 2024, the recreation committee planned a fallfest retreat weekend in wooster, ohio. Members from around ohio enjoyed a street fair with live entertainment, vendors, food, and activities; fishing and hiking at clear creek park and the izaak walton nature preserve, relaxing with accessible games in the hospitality room, and lively dinners at local restaurants. The wooster noon lions partnered with us, fundraising and serving as sighted guides. Scholarships: acb-ohio offers scholarships to students who are blind or visually impaired in ohio and those whose program of study benefits the bvi community, such as vision rehabilitation therapists and orientation and mobility specialists. Our 1000 friends of freshman scholarship supports and entering freshman who is blind/visually impaired and is from ohio or attending a school in ohio. Our acb-ohio scholarships provide up to 5,000 for students in 2- or 4-year undergraduate degree programs, graduate degree programs, or other postsecondary study, such as continuing education, trade or technical schools, special certification, or licensure. Acb-ohio also has endowed scholarships at three universities in ohio: the ohio state university, the university of toledo, and wright state university. We also include those scholarship recipients, chosen by the universities, in our recognition ceremony. Outreach and referral: our office receives around 15 to 20 calls and emails a week from people who are experiencing blindness and vision loss or their family members, social workers and medical personnel, representatives of other nonprofits, and the general public. We direct them to resources in ohio, and provide contacts, answer questions, and offer support.