« ACBMaine Newsletter August 2024

Welcome to the ACB Maine Newsletter for August 2024

President's Message

Hello to all of you; I hope you are enjoying your summer with all this wonderful weather. The summer is flying by and fall is fast approaching. Please take note of some events coming up, the scholarship application is open for submissions.  If you or someone you know is legally blind and enrolled in college, please visit our website to complete the scholarship application. The White cane walk is on October 12 hosted by Iris Net Work. The ACB Maine conference will be November 2 and details are below.

Please feel free to join us in our next meeting October 5, 2024.

Look below for resources, upcoming event details, and delicious recipes included in this newsletter. Enjoy the rest of your summer.

 Calendar Events

Annual Conference

Reflective Essay

from Courtney Tabor

Disability Community and the Power of Friendship

Growing up as a blind child in a tiny town, I didn’t know many others with vision loss. Adults tried to engage me in activities for blind youth, but I insisted that I had no need for blind friends.

As I progressed through young adulthood and later into motherhood, I found that blindness can be powerfully isolating. Navigating one new challenge after another, I often felt quite alone. How do I get to my college class when the sidewalks aren’t cleared of snow? How do I frost cupcakes and not make them look awful? Why is it so hard to just take my kids to the playground? It was easy to believe a narrative of my own incompetence when none of my sighted peers had the same struggles.

I have dramatically strengthened my confidence since then, and one of the great gifts of that growth is the connections I’ve built to others with vision loss.

Nowadays, when I spend hours of frustration on inaccessible forms just to file my taxes, my blind friends can relate. When I am distractedly rushing down the sidewalk and face plant into a thornbush, I offer a sheepish grin to passersby and then text my blind friends so they can laugh along with me.

This week, during a quiet minute in an otherwise packed workday, a dear friend and colleague shared with me a proud moment from her own life with vision loss. We do this sometimes, two blind women catching quick opportunities to hold each other’s joy or heartache, then going on with our days feeling lighter and more loved. Our deep mutual empathy nurtures belonging and trust. This is the beauty of disability community. Friendships like these remind me of our common strength and worth, and inspire me to live with authenticity and joy.

Recipe