American Association of the the Deaf-Blind

07/10/2017

Open Letter to Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID)

06/03/2016

05/31/2016

Gallaudet University’s Tactile Mind to present at White House! On Thursday, June 2nd, Dr. Clifton Langdon, Assistant Professor (PhD in Educational Neuroscience Program) and Jelica Nuccio, MPH, Founder of Tactile Communications will be going to the White House to represent Gallaudet University and the Tactile Mind at an event co-hosted by Stanford Medicine X on partnerships in research. The Tactile Mind, headquartered at Gallaudet, is a network of scientists, scholars, and community leaders who have been drawn together by a mutual interest in the protactile movement.

05/20/2016

We need more tech companies to think about access and inclusion. Here's a great story about how Apple incorporates accessibility in its devices. http://techcrunch.com/2016/05/19/when-it-comes-to-accessibility-apple-continues-to-lead-in-awareness-and-innovation/

The accessibility software on all of Apple's platforms empower those with disabilities, myself included, to partake in the experience Apple intends for all..

05/19/2016

Today marks the fifth Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD). The purpose of GAAD is to get people talking, thinking and learning about digital (web, software, mobile, etc.) accessibility and users with different disabilities especially the DeafBlind. Learn more at the website below:

http://www.globalaccessibilityawarenessday.org

Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) began in 2012 and takes place the third Thursday each year. GAAD's focus is on raising awareness about making the web, mobile, and other technological experiences accessible and usable to people with different disabilities.

05/03/2016

RID is conducting a Job Task Analysis (JTA) survey to help define the content that will be in the future National Interpreter Certification (NIC) exam. They would like it to be filled out both by interpreters and consumers. Please fill it out if you can at https://rid-jta.questionpro.com. Deadline is May 4th.

03/31/2016

The AADB Board of Directors will be working hard to update our website and social media. We would love to showcase photos of our community members so please send some photos our way. You can send us a private message or to the AADB-L group.

11/12/2015

NEW DEADLINE ON ELECTION PROCESS.

Please send out far and wide!! AADB needs help getting this out to all the DB groups, Facebook, and organizations of the DeafBlind or serving the DeafBlind --- so will ALL AADB MEMBERS please help distribute this announcement out to the masses?

DEADLINE EXTENSION

Hello everyone!

The AADB Election Committee is re-sending out this announcement. The Election Committee Chairperson is current AADB Board Member Jeri Cooper.

The election committee has been open to accepting applications for the AADB Board of Directors. It is time to elect a new board as we now have new by-laws and need to move AADB forward. It has been determined that due to a current lack of Administrative support of sending out postal mail that the election process needs to be primarily done online.

If you are interested or know of someone who might be interested, please follow the procedure and deadlines below:

Send in your application for the board from now: Tuesday, November 10, 2015 to Tuesday, December 15, 2015.

The applications should have a letter stating your intentions to serve on the board, a bio or resume with your background information, including your contact information for voters to contact you regarding decision-making questions, and a clear copy of a photo of you, not necessarily an ID.

Send applications to:

Adrienne Haugen

by email attachment to:

[email protected]

If sending printed formats, be sure ALL PRINT FORMATS arrive to Ms. Haugen BEFORE the December 15, 2015 deadline.

Mail Printed Postal to:

Adrienne Haugen
305 N. 7th St.
Olivia, MN 56277-1011

If applications must be in Braille format, please send to: Jeri Cooper. You may contact Ms. Cooper at her email address [email protected]. Be sure your application arrives by the December 15, 2015 Deadline.

While waiting for the applications to come in, the committee will prepare voting ballots with instructions.

Voting period is currently slated to begin:

Wednesday, December 16, 2015 until an announcement for the ending date is sent out about a week in advance.

An announcement of winners for the board will be made about one week after the ending date of the voting period.

The new board begins sometime in early 2016.

Any questions or concerns, please send them to Jeri Cooper, Election Committee Chair at [email protected].

FINAL NOTE: Active AADB Members are eligible to vote. If you are not a paid up member and desire to vote, please contact Mark Gasaway (see contact info below) for membership fee info and address to send in your payment.

Thank you,

Mark Gasaway, AADB President
[email protected]

Guidelines in using AADB-L Google Group

10/28/2015

Hello DeafBlind Community Friends! As you are probably aware, there is a big movement in the DB community and, hence, the DB field, regarding the use of Pro-Tactile (PT), haptics and touch signals. It’s an exciting time as new ideas and techniques develop but this also comes with confusion and division that needs to be addressed. Interpreters need to know where you stand on these issues! I am presenting to a group of interpreters at a very large regional conference and would like to include your perspective. There is a link below to a very quick, 8 question survey has been designed solely DeafBlind community members. I would greatly appreciate you completing this survey and sharing it with your DB community connections.

SURVEY DEADLINE: Monday, 11/2/15
http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/2412998/Deaf-Blind-Community-Perspective-on-Understanding-Touch-Access

Again, this is not a survey for professionals or practitioners, it is only to be filled out by DeafBlind people. Any additional questions or comments should be directed to me at [email protected]. Thank you for your support! Susie

DeafBlind Community Perspective on Understanding Touch Access.

02/17/2015

Great news for the DB people who cannot see the VRS screen. Many thanks go to CAAG for including the DB in the development of the DBVRS.

WATCH NOW: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zh26HYQYCw0

EXCLUSIVE: First Ever DeafBlind VRS Call Enters Beta Stages Through CAAG

The DeafBlind community has gained long sought-after independence and can now call to their hearts content. The first ever VRSdb call was made through Texas-based CAAG. DHN has exclusive footage of one of their beta testers.

***The visual description and transcript are available below the video and in the comments on YouTube.

08/25/2014

Hi all,

First of all, I would like to thank you all for sharing your thoughts and making excellent suggestions for the next AADB conference. From the comments that you shared, this is a very good sign that the DB people do want a DB conference. Plus I’m in agreement with most of your suggestions and have noted it.

One observation I have notice with most big organizations such as NAD, ACB, NFB, HLAA and others, have already decided on the date and location of the conference site around six years in advance. It appears that the sponsors, exhibitors, donors and others want a commitment by AADB on the date of the conference and location before deciding to support AADB conferences. The actual planning of the conference itself comes later. So the first step that AADB needs to do is to determine the year of the conference and the location.

Before we decide on a conference site for the next six years, I have a very hard question to ask.

Should AADB paid for the SSPs room and meals during the conference?

Background information:
In past conferences, the SSPs’ room and meals has been cover by AADB for their dedication in serving as interpreters, giving vision information and a bit of O&M to the DB attendants on the average of 15 to 18 hours a day for 5 days during the conference. Most SSPs also assist the DB in most cases when traveling to and from the conference. All SSPs pay for their own transportation and meals expenses when traveling. Most of the SSPs also take time off from their place of employment, volunteering their vacation time. In some case the state DB organizations covers the SSPs expense and have someone to serve as a SSPs coordinator which AADB strongly recommend.

To provide 2 SSPs per DB for a five days conference, the cost is estimated around $250,000 to $300,000 to provide SSP service to 250 DB attending the conference. The figure is based on two SSPs per hotel room at $150 per night and $35 for meal per day.

Again the question is:

Should AADB pay for the entire expenses for SSPs’ room and meals? Or half of the expense and have the DB people cover the other half? Please expand your thought as there are no right or wrong answers.

For those who wish to join the AADB email group, you can:
Send an email to aadb-l+[email protected], or,
Visit the AADB Group website at https://groups.google.com/d/forum/aadb-l.

You don’t have to be a member to join this group.

Thanks,
Randy

08/24/2014

An inspiring story of a DB riding his bike all over the word. He was recently injured by a car.

Harald Vik, deaf since his birth 71 years ago and totally blind for 30 years, has ridden a tandem bicycle across the United States and in more than