AFB Staff

Susan Mazrui, her service dog, and presenter Deborah Marriott Harrison Congratulations to Susan Mazrui, current director for Public Policy at AT&T and a former AFB Trustee, who received the 2016 Stephen Garff Marriott Award! The award honors a blind or visually impaired individual who has served as an extraordinary mentor or who has attained remarkable professional success. Mazrui currently works on disability-related public policy issues and serves as the co-chair of the Federal…

Year after year, the AFB Leadership Conference covers the most pressing and relevant topics in the field of blindness and offers many opportunities to learn from the best and brightest minds in our field, make new connections, and reunite with old friends. To find more information and register for the upcoming AFB Leadership Conference, visit www.afb.org/afblc. In 2016, we spoke with Megan Dodd—formerly with the East Texas Lighthouse for the Blind, now Director of the AFB Center on Vision Loss…

With Valentine's Day right around the corner, there's still time to share the love with beautiful Helen Keller-themed gifts that help support the American Foundation for the Blind and its programs. Plus, all jewelry is on sale for a limited time. You can choose from a sterling silver ribbon-heart necklace inscribed with Helen Keller's quote "The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, they must be felt with the heart" or a striking silver cuff bracelet…

“At the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB), we have worked for nearly a century to break down societal barriers and eliminate discrimination by achieving equal access to the world of copyrighted works. But for all the promise of technology to provide equal access to copyrighted works, the copyright laws that protect those works have sometimes served to impede that technology.” Mark Richert, Esq., Director of Public Policy, was part of an expert panel at a free Public Knowledge luncheon…

"Braille is knowledge, and knowledge is power." - Louis Braille Louis Braille, the inventor of braille, was born two hundred and seven years ago on January 4, 1809. In his honor, we've gathered 16 braille resources in celebration of World Braille Day 2016! What is braille, anyway? It’s not a language, but a system of raised dots that can be read with the fingers by people who are blind or who have low vision. Braille is a code by which many languages—such as English, Spanish, Arabic…

Patrick Dunphy is unafraid of challenges. Recently recovering from retinal surgery, he plans to run the New York City Marathon this November while raising funds for AFB. "I like how AFB encourages people with vision loss to stretch and challenge themselves to aim higher," he said. Dunphy, 32, is Assistant Principal and head of the Social Studies department at Francis Lewis High School in Fresh Meadows (Queens, NY). He has a lot in common with his hero, Theodore Roosevelt. Like the 26th U.…

We asked, you answered. Here are a collection of teacher comments made on the AFB Press Facebook page in response to the question, "What is your best advice or success about teaching reading skills to children who are blind or visually impaired?" “When I first became a TVI [teacher of students with visual impairments] I had a group of teens who were not very motivated to read or write. This was many moons ago and they wanted computer games for the brand new classroom computer (I won't tell…

In honor of Global Accessibility Awareness Day, please enjoy and share these resources, and add your own suggestions in the comments! 1. AccessWorld®—AFB's free online magazine is devoted to technology news for people who are blind or visually impaired. AccessWorld keeps people with vision loss and their families, teachers, rehabilitation counselors, product developers and manufacturers up to date about the technologies that can transform their lives: smart glasses, fitness tools, mobile…

It's been a great conference in Phoenix, AZ, so far. Day 2 of our Leadership Conference is well underway! This annual conference, which kicked off yesterday and runs through Saturday, covers the most pressing and relevant topics in the field of blindness and offers many opportunities to learn from the best and brightest minds, make new connections, and reunite with old friends. So far, we've taken a deep dive into research with our public policy team, gotten our tech on with AccessWorld…