American Council of the Blind

Conference and conventionamerican Council of the Blind Inc's (acb) 62nd annual convention was a hybrid convention. Virtual sessions were held prior to the in-person portion of the convention. All eligible acb members had the opportunity to participate in the proposed resolution discussions and elect board members during acb's business meetings. Informative breakout sessions were held on issues of interest to our community. There were over 150 workshops, seminars, and business meetings held. Individuals could attend sessions live or listen to the podcasted sessions. There were both virtual and in-person exhibitors, and many tours for registrants to attend.

Membership and organization services acb strengthened its affiliates through one-on-one peer support, formalized leadership training, and acb board liaisons to affiliates to promote consistent communication. In 2023, acb's community platform trained more than 100 volunteers who actively hosted over 5,000 community events via zoom and clubhouse. These community events were social, educational, and topic-driven, from assistive technology to health and wellness, and provided peer support. In 2023, acb's community platform averaged 400 events monthly and since its inception in 2020, has reached its 15,000th event. In 2023, members contributed more than 34,300 volunteer hours.

Public awareness acb significantly increased spanish language content for events, presentations, and awareness initiatives. the third annual acb audio description awards gala was broadcast live on youtube and peacock, allowing acb to extend its reach across the nation. Acb media's 10 radio stations reached 21,100 listeners for a total of 164,800 listening hours, and working with the acb community event platform, generated 1,500 unique podcasts with over 250,000 downloads. Its 40 podcast streams (1 in spanish) generated 240,400 listens.

Advocacy and governmental affairs in 2023, the advocacy and governmental affairs team held the annual leadership conference with both in-person and virtual components. During the conference, the team held acb's first accessible currency rally. Acb submitted comments on several proposed rules, including title ii of the ada and section 504 of the rehabilitation act. the team worked in coalition with other disability organizations to get key legislation, such as the websites and software applications accessibility act and the communications, video, and technology accessibility act, reintroduced in the 118th congress.audio description project (adp)acb's audio description project sponsors a broad range of activities designed to build awareness of audio description. In 2023, the adp: held its third audio description awards gala, celebrating the media industry's advancement of audio description; served on the fcc's disability advisory committee; sponsored its annual essay contest for students; conducted two sessions of the audio description training institute; and participated in the unidescription project's effort to create audio description for national park service brochures.acb scholarships and awardsin 2023, acb awarded $80,950 across 20 scholarships to Blind post-secondary students. Acb partnered with the American foundation for the Blind (afb) and several of our affiliated organizations, with acb managing the administrative process of these scholarships. Scholarship amounts ranged from $2,500 to $7,500. the jpmorgan chase leadership fellows and dkm first-timer awards helped to foster future leaders through mentoring, training, and peer development. the awardees had the opportunity to attend acb's conference and convention to connect with one another, discuss issues of importance, and develop leadership skills.information and peer supportacb provides vital information and referral services to individuals and family members experiencing vision loss who are seeking support in a number of areas, including accessible technology services, daily living skills, and advocacy-related inquiries. Many callers are looking for someone they can talk to about dealing with vision loss. Acb has expanded these services over the past four years by building a virtual peer support community event platform.