« April 2025

April Graphic Logo Welcome to the ACB Maine Newsletter for April, 2025. The newsletter is designed for accessibility and contains very few graphics. In the lower left hand section of the page is an accessiblity icon to change elements of the page.

Please forward the newsletter to any interested people or relevant agencies.

President's Message

Hello to all, this is Amanda!

We can all be excited warm weather is on its way. My family and I have scheduled several trips this summer, including to Florida, camping, and Wisconsin. I am looking forward to making so many new memories.

On more of a business like note, we had our April meeting, and several items came from that meeting. First, we approved that ACB Maine minutes will be sent to all members. This is to assure all members are being kept in the loop of what is happening during the meetings. You can also find minutes on the website at acbmaine.org.

Due to recent actions in Congress, so many constituents in the blind and visually impaired community have brought concerns and fears of losing resources, accommodations, income and or state and government funded programs that are needed for us to live our lives on a day-to-day basis. The news letter below will contain some important resources for us to speak out and do what we can to prevent these resources from being drastically reduced or even disappearing.

Please know and understand you are not alone in your worries, and there are actions you can take as well as groups with which you can find support.

On a lighter note - an update about our upcoming November convention will also be announced.

Please remember taking care of yourself is so important and if you ever need someone to talk to, feel down or just need to vent there is a resource - dial 988 and you will get a real person that you can share personal thoughts and concerns with.

Until next time, everyone have a beautiful beginning of summer.

Convention Notes

Exciting news! We have secured the location for our convention. The location of our November 8, 2025 convention will be held at 377 Western Ave. in Augusta, Maine, at the Homewood Suites. We are looking forward to bringing a fun filled uplifting convention theme this year. Rooms with a reduced rate will be offered to all registered participants for Friday night and or Saturday night for those who attend the convention.

FACEBOOK PAGE

We have a Facebook page! It's been functioning for quite some time. Feel free to read and share the many articles of interest.

The page is located at either of these links.

https://www.facebook.com/acbofmaine

ACB Maine - Facebook

We currently have 15 followers. Feel free to join us there as we learn and grow.

VISTA

from Linda Richards

The Vista group is a wonderful group.

We meet on the first and third Tuesday of the month at 7:00 PM until 8:30 PM

The telephone number is 207-872-5930

I love my Vista people. This just stands for, "Visually Impaired Support Team Alliance. It’s a group that meets the first and third Tuesday of every month. It’s a group where people can discuss anything and everything about being visually impaired or blind. If we can we give suggestions we try to help each other find ways to do things as blind people. The group is totally confidential what we speak about is confidential.

Anyways right now we have 26 membersand most meetings host quite a few people. It’s just a awesome group of people who you can count on to understand what you’re going through how you’re feeling and if they have any suggestions they share.

American Association of People with Disabilities
AAPD and Disability Advocates Sue Social Security Administration and DOGE to Stop Unlawful Cuts to Social Security Services

For Immediate Release: April 2, 2025
Contact: Jess Davidson at jdavidson@aapd.com; 202-465-5528

WASHINGTON D.C. - The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), Deaf Equality, the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, and Massachusetts Senior Action Council, along with individual plaintiffs, filed a federal lawsuit today against the Social Security Administration (SSA), Acting Commissioner Leland Dudek, DOGE Acting Administrator Amy Gleason, and Elon Musk in his de facto role as head of DOGE. The lawsuit alleges that recent mass staffing reductions, policies requiring individuals to seek services in person at field offices, and the elimination of critical offices within the SSA unlawfully harm Americans with disabilities and older adults who rely on Social Security services. Justice in Aging and Brown Goldstein & Levy, LLP join the lawsuit as co-counsel.

Foundation Fighting Blindness

Luxa Biotechnology has recently reported positive results from their early trial of RPESC-RPE-4W in AMD patients, with patients experiencing improved vision. Iits proprietary stem cell treatment for retinal RPE cells uses RPE progenitor stem cells from donor eye banks. In this early trial, a lower dose of stem cells was used, and the trial will now proceed to higher doses, based on the early success.

This news is encouraging and gives added hope to those with retinal disease related to the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), such as AMD and Stargardt. Luxa has not announced any plans yet to expand their trials to Stargardt, but this early success provides confirmation that adult stem cells offer hope for retinal disease treatment. To read the full announcement, go to this URL:

You can listen to the audio version of the announcement at this URL:

Vision Improvements - Stem Cell Therapy for Dry AMD

Foundation Fighting Blindess

National Library Service

The National Library Service will host an online meeting to help people navigate the use of their smart speakesrs to help read books aloud.

The meeting is to be held on April 17, 2025.

The Thursday, April 17, 2025, Smart Speaking to the Smart Speaker program will be on smart speaker system controls and My Talking Book skill controls—when to keep them separate and when to interchange them. The program will start with a presentation and demonstration. After the presentation, we will answer questions about system controls and My Talking Book skill controls or anything else relating to use of the My Talking Books skill on Alexa-enabled smart speakers.

Click this link below to read more and take the next steps.

National Library Services - Smart Speaking to the Smart Speaker

For those who are interested in reading Talking Books using the Talking Book skill on their Amazon Echo, below is an invitation to a Zoom meeting on Thursday, March 20, 7 PM eastern, that covers this topic.

Looking Ahead

From Foundation Fighting Blindness

For those who did not receive the below announcement, it is in the category of long-range planning, but FFB’s next Visions Conference will be next year, from June 10 to 13, 2026, in Dallas, TX. You may note that the conference, which has historically spanned 2 days, will span 4 days. FFB has partnered with the Retina International World Congress to present an international event covering retinal science. This event has the potential to draw over 1,000 attendees, and it is another indicator of how FFB is growing in its impact and reach in the area of retinal disease research.

Watch for more details and an announcement when registration opens, but, for now, I hope you’ll save the date and plan to be part of this exciting event in June 2026. For more details, you can visit this link

United in Vision '26

Social Security Changes

From Foundation Fighting Blindness.

The Social Security Administration has announced that, beginning on March 31, 2025, they are tightening security requirements to better protect against fraud. These changes will require some people to show up in person at an SSA office to make certain updates to their services, such as making changes to direct deposit. It seems that the impact will be minimal to those who typically make their SSA changes on-line. Those who rely on telephone interface with SSA will be most impacted, as verifying your identity over the phone will be more restricted.

To read more about the changes, you can visit this link - Social Security Changes

Caring for Your Senior Dog

Join Pine Tree Guide Dog Users (PTGDU) on Wednesday, May 7th at 6:30 PM EDT via Zoom where special guest speaker Dr. Erin Matern, a veterinarian at Guide Dogs for the Blind will discuss how to recognize and meet the needs of our dogs in their senior years, including tips for end-of-life care and euthanasia. A brief PTGDU business meeting will follow. Everyone is welcome. For more details, email PTGDU.

Connect And Inspire

Tune into the Hadley Presents audio podcast to hear individuals with vision loss share stories, strategies, and encouragement to help others feel less alone on their journey.

Removing Transportation Barriers

Many disabled Mainers face significant barriers to transportation access. The Moving Maine Network, a multi-sector, statewide collaborative, is currently championing two bills in the Maine legislature concerning improvements to MaineCare transportation and more coordination of community transportation options. Moving Maine is seeking supporters to sign up to offer testimony in writing, on Zoom, or in-person to the Maine Legislature. For more information, email the Moving Maine Network.

Cuts to Social Security Services

As a national cross-disability rights organization, The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) advocates for civil rights for over 70 million Americans with disabilities. Most recently, AADP and disability advocates, including the National Federation of the Blind, filed a federal lawsuit against the Social Security Administration (SSA) and DOGE to Stop Unlawful Cuts to Social Security Services. The lawsuit alleges that recent mass staffing reductions, policies requiring individuals to seek services in person at field offices, and the elimination of critical offices within the SSA unlawfully harm Americans with disabilities and older adults who rely on Social Security services.

Tell Us What YOU think

ACB Maine is here for you.

1. We are busy planning our annual conference. What are some of the topics and issues that you would like to see covered?

2. Have you heard about a special program or special speaker that you would like to hear more about?

3. Do you have some unique abilities or hints in coping with the challenges we all face?

4. Is there a program about which you want to know more?

Feel free to send us helping hints or requested services - send your ideas to Amanda Frost (amandafrostvpacb@gmail.com) or Roger Fuller (rfuller@mainenet.org)

A Work in Progress - Help Wanted

From Roger Fuller

The Androscoggin B-a-VIP group meets on the second Friday of the month at 11:00AM at the Lewiston Career Center on Mollinson Way, Lewiston. All are welcome to attend.

The group has begun a project to pull together resources and helpful information for the blind community.

We call the project Pegasus. You can see the website by clicking this link - Pegasus

The project is in draft stage, and we have worked on three counties so far - Androscoggin, Kenebec, and Cumberland.

We would love your help. If you have resources or would like to "take on a county," please contact Roger Fuller (rfuller@mainenet.org)

END of the APRIL Newsletter. Thank you for reading and listening.