Last week our topic was the upcoming ACB convention and we provided lots of information about what is planned for Dallas this July and via zoom during June! As part of our convention we will be exploring some constitutional changes and, of course, we will be holding elections and perhaps doing other voting. What are the proposed changes? Will we use the same approach as last year? What specific amendments will we consider this year and what chance will rank and file members have to provide input or offer changes? Our next program will feature folks from our voting task force and will also hear about planned changes to the Constitution and bylaws of ACB. We will also explore how resolutions will be handled and when various events will occur. There will be enough time for you to become a part of the debate over proposed changes and for you to provide suggestions that can be considered.

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Each year we do a convention preview. This year we are excited to welcome three people who can give you all the information you might want about what's coming up in Dallas. Of course we will have Janet Dickelman, the heart of convention success. She is the convention coordinator and can tell you all about what is coming up in Dallas. In addition, we are lucky to have with us Rhonda Trott herself who can give you information on tours which she coordinates. Are you curious about the exhibit hall? Michael Smitherman will be with us. He is the exhibit hall boss and can give us a preview of what is on tap there. I am excited to have all these folks with us to provide the most complete and comprehensive presentation on what the convention has to offer.

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Tuesday Topics will once more take to the digital radiosphere and a bunch of other places for our last program about recreation. We expect to have 4 folks with us who can talk about a range of outdoor activities open to people who are blind. Actually at least two of the "sports" are indoor activities. We have looked at phone games, Lady a games, games that are not electronic and stand alone games that are. Now it's time to look at other games and sports that don't fit into these categories. Do you know what goalball is? Did you know there is a special game of Darts made for people who are blind or have low vision? How much do you know about the United States Association of Blind Athletes? Did you know there is such a thing as "blind tennis". We will talk about all of these activities and may well also have some folks who can tell us about skiing opportunities and other sports that are open to people who are blind. I forgot about Beep Baseball which we will certainly discuss. As Summer approaches it will be good to look at some activities that will get us outside and that can get us some of the exercise we perhaps did not get during the Winter.

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Tuesday Topics will continue its series on the games blind people play! This time we are inviting Lucy Edmonds back to talk about accessible hand held electronic games. Some of the may be bigger but the point is that games can happen in a device that is not a phone and is not a computer! Lucy will once more bring some devices with her so we will get a chance to experience how some of the games work. Not all of the products we will be showing you are designed for the blind. Many of them just happen to be accessible!

We have now talked about iPhone and video games and about games on smart speakers. This time we want to talk about old-fashioned games that we played before the computer came along. Many of us grew up playing cards. Some of us played chess and checkers and backgammon and dominoes and scrabble and monopoly and parcheesie and snakes and ladders. Many of us played games either we adapted or our families did. Games like Clue, for instance. Do we still play those games? If not, do we miss them? Do we play them on the computer or on our iPhones? Where can we find adapted games? Are there new games available we could try? Essentially, we are going to explore the way it was with games when we were growing up. We will look at memories and resources. We will explore favorite card games and we will ask whether those days are gone for good!

Last week we began our series on "games blind people play" and had Aaron join us to tell us about his experiences both with the iPhone and with other devices. This time we are truly honored to have Lucy Edmonds join us who has been doing a show on community for the last four and a half years on games you can play with Lady a. She tells me she literally has hundreds of games but will choose some that she likes best from various genres. As she does on her community show Lucy will actually demonstrate some of the games for us. The coolest thing about Alexa games is that people who are blind are just as capable of doing well as people who can see. In fact we may be better at listening and processing game information quickly. I am over the moon excited to have the queen of Amazon Alexa games as our guest on Tuesday Topics.

20250401 Tuesday Topics Originally Broadcasted April 1, 2025, on ACB Media 1 Game on! We talked about accessible games on phones, computers, Alexa, and online platforms. Participants shared what they played, how they played, and why they enjoyed it!

20250325 Tuesday Topics Originally Broadcasted March 25, 2025, on ACB Media 1

Participants shared their stories about spring traditions, sports, and memorable moments! From March Madness, Baseball, to April Fools' pranks, Lent, and Easter, let’s talk about how this season impacts our lives.

Hear how a new affiliate has survived its first five years. This program is the third in a series. The first explored the ways ACB consciously works to create and foster leadership. The second program explored how our policies ought to be applied in times of uncertainty and perhaps even outright hostility to many of our cherished values. This time we o explore and celebrate one of ACB'S newest affiliates which is celebrating its fifth birthday. How has Next Gen done? What do they see as their strengths and weaknesses? What are their plans for the future? Do they contemplate major changes? How do they measure success? Is it based just on members? Does it depend on contributions to ACB? Right now membership is, I think, limited to people under forty. That may have changed! Does Next Gen believe it should fundamentally alter what it does, who can be members or altering its objectives. The idea of consciously creating an affiliate whose members have to be younger than the average ACB member seems like a good one! Has it worked?

Join us as we explore difficult questions and invite you to share your views of where ACB should go! We will explore what we believe is an important issue. There has been a lot of debate recently on the lists about how ACB should function in the future especially in an environment where some cherished liberal values are being questioned. Should ACB confine its role to dealing with blindness issues? How much should we be involved in DEI and DEIA issues? We have a longstanding history of coalitioning with other Civil Rights organizations. What have we gained from that involvement? To what extent have other organizations been prepared to be vocal on blindness issues? To what degree have minority members of ACB been welcomed by other civil rights groups? Is there danger for ACB if we align ourselves with a range of groups seeking recognition of controversial elements such as gender dysphoria? Is there a middle road? Are we obliged by our history to go all in for civil rights for minorities of all kinds? Where should we stand with regard to gender, to race, to national origin, to religion, and to other traditional components of civil rights legislation. We have put together a panel of individuals who represent a range of views. It is also my hope that you will make your opinion heard on issues that are neither easy nor simple!