« February 2025
Welcome to the Newsletter for the American Council of the Blind
Maine Chapter
February 2025
President's Message
Greetings to all! Amanda here.
I feel like the first meeting of the year went very well. We accepted October minutes, reviewed and voted in favor of the 2025 year budget. There was some discussion relating to some important matters in the blind community that threaten to affect all of us gravely. On a more positive note,. I am proud to welcome three new members to ACB Maine in 2025.
Last but not least I want to thank all my board members for stepping up and committing themselves to various committees to make this another successful year.
I appreciate all of you and I couldn’t do any of this without you.
Cheers to all of
you. Let’s make year 2025 a great one!
Navigating
Health Care with Vision Loss
from Ginger Kutsch
Medical appointments can be stressful for anyone. When you add in vision loss, these appointments can feel overwhelming. From navigating buildings and rooms to filling out forms and signing your name, there can be lots of stumbling blocks. Listen to the Hadley Presents podcast for tips and advice to help make managing medical appointments a bit easier.
You Don't Have To Leave Your Couch To Visit The Library
from Ginger Kutsch
In exchange for nothing more than your library card, you may be able to access books, movies, and other materials from your local library’s digital collection. Many libraries offer an extensive range of digital services, including e-books, audiobooks, streaming media, and online courses that can be accessed from your computer or mobile phone. So go ahead, reach out to your library and see what’s available from the comfort of your own home.
Registration Is Now Open for the D.C. Leadership Conference!
The 2025 American Council of the Blind (ACB) Leadership Conference will be a hybrid event. ACB’s Board Meeting, Presidents’ Meeting, Legislative Seminar, and Capitol Hill visits will take place March 14th-18th, at the Sheraton Pentagon City Hotel in Arlington, VA.
Visit our conference page for details: Leadership
Conference
Conference Registration
To register for the conference, visit members.acb.org. Log into your account or create an account by clicking the "Create an Account" button. If you have an account but can't remember your username and/or password, please call our Minnesota office at (612) 332-3242.
Once you have logged in, visit the "DC
Leadership Registration" link at the top of the page, read through the
instructions and hit the "Begin with Preferences" button. To register by
phone, call our Minnesota office at (612) 332-3242.
Hotel Reservations
The room rate for the Sheraton Pentagon City Hotel is $155 per night, plus tax. This rate applies to any night starting on Monday, March 10, 2025 till Tuesday, March 25th, 2025. The Sheraton Pentagon City Hotel is located at 900 S. Orme St., Arlington, VA 22204.
To make a reservation at the Sheraton,
click here: ACB Leadership - Hotel Reservations
You can also make a reservation by calling 1-800-325-3535 and
informing the Marriott representative that you will be attending the
“ACB Leadership Seminar” to receive the group rate. The room block
cutoff date is Monday, February 17, 2025. If you experience any issues
booking a room, please email Hannah Park at - hpark@acb.org.
In-Person Schedule of Events
The schedule of events is as follows:
• Friday, March 14: Afternoon Tour (12:45 pm - 2:30 pm ET)
• Saturday, March 15: Board Meeting (9:00 AM – 5:00 PM ET) & Evening Welcome Reception
• Sunday, March 16: Presidents’ Meeting (including luncheon) (9:00 AM – 5:00 PM ET) & Evening Dine Around in Pentagon City
• Monday, March 17: Legislative Seminar (including luncheon) (9:00 AM – 5:00 PM ET)
• Tuesday, March 18: Attendees may visit Capitol Hill to meet with their representatives.
Stay tuned for more details as they become
available on our conference page.
Guide Dog News
from Ginger Kutsch
Emergency Veterinary Expense Fund for Guide Dogs
Occasionally, a guide dog will require major surgery,
emergency care or some other significant medical procedure for which its
handler may need help to pay. The Pine Tree Guide Dog Users Mary T. &
Curtis D. Lovill Trust Fund is intended to assist Maine guide dog handlers
in these circumstances. (Handlers need not be members of Pine Tree Guide
Dog Users to apply.) Download the policy for more details.
For more information - click this link
- Pine Tree Guide Dog Users
Tech Tip
from Amanda Frost and Dan Day
To those who use JAWS
or ZoomText Fusion,
On an AI technology call the other day, they were describing
certain AI tools, including the FS Companion, which is short for Freedom
Scientific Companion. Since I do not use JAWS, I’m a little
sketchy on the full details, but you can ask questions of the tool about
JAWS or Windows. The tool is built into JAWS 2025, but if you have
an earlier version of JAWS, you can still use the Companion by going to a
website to pose the questions.
Here is an example as I can best recall from the
session. Suppose you are in MS Word and want to know how to center
some text in a document while using JAWS. You first invoke the
Companion by pressing the keys Insert-Spacebar, followed by the F1
key. You should then get a conversation box to type in a
question. Note that you must type in the question, as it does not
currently accept voice input. You then type the question, “How do
I center text in MS Word?” and press enter. JAWS will return the
answer and read it.
If you do not have JAWS 2025, you can go to Freedom
Scientific
The page opens to a text box where you can type in the
question.
What is also nice about this feature is that, even if you do
not use JAWS, as in my case, you can use the website to answer questions
about Windows and other MS products, such as the Office apps.
Dan Day
President, Orlando Chapter
Foundation Fighting Blindness
(321) 263-9608
Smart Speaking to the Smart Speaker
from Amanda Frost and Dan Day
Earlier programs may be
accessed at Smart Speaking to the Smart Speaker - National
Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS) | Library of
Congress.
Restoring Sight?
from Amanda Tucker and Dan Day
Some of you have likely
heard of an approach to restoring sight that uses a microchip implanted in
the visual cortex of the brain that takes signals from specialized camera
technology and allows the brain to relearn how to see. The concept
has been around for a while, though it has not progressed as fast as we
hope. The most recent episode of the PBS show Nova devotes part of
the episode to such a project. Though it is certainly still not a
true reality, I did find the episode to be very inspiring of hope.
The participant in the project who has lost his vision was able to do some
pretty remarkable things with the technology. This approach, of
course, will apply to virtually any type of vision loss, so it is
particularly encouraging to know that research is making progress.
Note that FFB is not funding this project, but it certainly piques our
interest.
Here is the URL if you wish to view it. The show
covers multiple projects using technology to produce new and innovative
results. The part about the bionic eye is the last segment and
starts about 39 minutes into the video, in case you wish to skip to that
part.
Building Stuff: Brilliant Inventions to Boost Human
Abilities | Full Documentary | NOVA | PBS
You will need to sign
in to view the video. You can sign up for Nova by going to NOVA
On Hope
by Courtney Tabor
To my fellow members of the blind community, I want to
remind you that you matter. If you take nothing else from this piece,
please remember this...
Amid the chaos in our country right now and the threats of
massive cuts to government funding and services, many of us are feeling
vulnerable and afraid. If you are worried about the loss of your income,
your health care, or the services you require for your own well-being,
please know you are not alone. Any high-level decisions about social
services or about programs that promote our full participation in our
communities have very real impacts that those of us with disabilities feel
directly in our everyday lives. Furthermore, cutting funding to programs
serving people with disabilities sends a strong message to us that we do
not matter and that our lives are dispensable. I urge you: do not believe
it, even for amoment. Please know that you are deeply valuable simply
because you exist. You matter, and so does your voice.
As I’ve processed my own thoughts and
emotions over the past few weeks, one of my greatest sources of hope is
the restorative and generative power of human connection. I believe this
is especially important in the blind community. Blindness can be intensely
isolating, especially in a rural state where it is hard for us to find one
another, but it can also be a powerful bridge of connection. When we can
remember thatwe are joined through shared experiences, fears, and hopes,
this nurturescommunity among us and helps us find our strengths as a group
and as individuals. Living with blindness or vision loss is often
challenging, and a loss of key services will make it harder for all of us.
Nonetheless, I have witnessed first hand how living with a disability can
foster immense creativity, resourcefulness, adaptability, tenacity, and
empathy. In challenging and uncertain times, these gifts are needed more
than ever. We have wisdom and voices thatthe world needs to hear. My hope
is that during this time and going forward, wecan be grounded in the
understanding that our worth is not based on what we can or cannot see,
nor is it something that can ever be diminished or stripped away. Let us
remember this and reach out to one another if the remembering gets tough.
This will be our steadiness and our strength.
HEY - TALK TO ACB MAINE
(thanks Carolyn Bebee)
You can let us know what you think and what you need. Well, maybe not everything you want. We can't send you money though we wish we could
What's on your mind?
Drop us a line -
Write to rfuller@mainenet.org or send a message to submitACBMaine@mainenet.org
Here are some questions you might consider.
1) As ACB Maine members
and friends, do you have any ideas for topics you would like to see
covered and addressed at the upcoming fall Convention. It seems like a
long way off but it will be here before we know it!
2) In the past, we have had National ACB
folks meet with us in Maine. Are there any leaders from National ACB you
would like to attend and speak to our group about the work and priorities
taking place now. It is also an opportunity for Maine to speak
directly with ACB National on positive areas and challenges in
Maine.
3) Are there speakers
and topics you would like addressed by leaders and specialists from DBVI,
the Iris Network and Catholic Charities of Maine?
4) Are there great activities and things
happening in your life or community that are making a positive difference
you would like to share here or at the convention as a speaker or perhaps
with a panel?
4) Are there challenges
you are finding that need to be addressed that could help you and others
statewide?
5) Are there new ways
we can meet folks to let them know about ACB Maine? Times have changed in
how we connected over the years.
6) Are there any suggestions you have for
ACB Maine to continue growing in positive ways to make a difference?
Write to rfuller@mainenet.org or send a message to submitACBMaine@mainenet.org
