Tuesday Topics

most listeners know I eschew political programs because Topics

is about discussion and, I hope, balance. The elections that have just happened have altered the environment at the national level in a very significant

way. A house that is compliant and a senate that does what is asked have been replaced with a Congress that is likely to be at odds with much of what have

been core values of the current administration!

What can we expect? How will these changes affect our efforts? Is there the potential for even more chaos than we have seen? Will legislation be more likely? …

Tuesday Topics explored ACB governance and the relationship between the national organization and its state and special interest affiliates.

Members of ACB’s Constitution and Bylaws Committee joined the discussion about how individual and affiliate votes shaped decisions, how responsibilities were shared, and what changes might serve ACB in the future.

Questions included whether to reconsider affiliate voting or the process for electing officers and Board members, how to encourage greater member involvement, and what participants hoped ACB would look like in ten years. …

20261027 - Tuesday Topics on ACB Governance

Tuesday Topics takes a deliberately detailed approach to understanding where ACB governance is currently. ACB is half way through a process that will define our committees. We are building a new structure and a new hierarchy within which our committees will operate. We get a clear picture of how that will work and of the expectations that are at the heart of the changes. We ask the governance folks to help us understand their process, their philosophy and their expectations for a system that is certainly in need of change and is at the heart of how ACB does its work. …

20261006 Tuesday Topics - The Importance of Affiliates

Tuesday Topics continues its exploration of what makes ACB tick! We look at what may well be an endangered species! Some special-interest affiliates are growing but most state affiliates are not! They either remain where they are or get smaller! We explore why this happens! Obviously as with our discussion of conventions last week much of what we say is conjecture! There are probably as many reasons as there are grains of sand why affiliates are struggling. We explore some and hope others will give us other elements that contribute to their decline. Are affiliates important? …

20260629 Tuesday Topics: The Future of the ACB National Convention

This episode of Tuesday Topics explores what the ACB convention could be like in 5 years. Topics discussed includes: Will it be totally remote? Will it be shorter or longer? Will special interest affiliates operate differently? Will we hold elections in a different way? Will our business be done before or after the convention rather than during it? What about resolutions and amendments to the Constitution? Are tours important? Are there specific things that should be a part of our programs? Are there elements that should not be a part of our program? Should the convention be shorter or longer? Should we have a banquet? …

20260922 Remembering Terry Pacheco

Tuesday Topics focuses on remembering Theresa (Terry) Pacheco who has been active in ACB much longer than Paul Edwards, which is really saying something. Terry died in September, 2026 and in this episode of Tuesday Topics, people who knew and loved Terry share about her life! She was in at the beginning when the Bay State Council was started. Soon after Charlie Crawford was hired by ACB she and her husband Frank were persuaded to move from Boston to Maryland so she could become an employee of ACB. Once she left ACB Terry went to work for the Department of Education and, after retirement, she continued to remain active in…

20260915 Tuesday Topics on diabetes and ACB Diabetics in Action (ACBDA)

This episode of Tuesday Topics focuses on diabetes and the work of ACB Diabetics in Action (ACBDA), a Special Interest Affiliate of the American Council of the Blind.

Over the past three years, ACBDA has made significant progress on issues that many once considered extremely difficult to address. Insulin pumps, the cost of insulin, and accessible ways to monitor blood sugar are just some of the many areas in which ACBDA has worked to bring about greater access and change.

Larry Gassman, president of ACBDA and a member of the Tuesday Topics team, has assembled…

20260908 Tuesday Topics revisits Employment of people who are blind or have low vision

It was the day after Labor Day in the US and so it's appropriate to talk about the employment of people who are blind or folks with low vision. We explore some history, some recent information and some of our own notions of where things may be heading. Team members have had long careers, including teaching accessibility technology and operating a vending business. The team offers our perspectives on the state of the employment game. We hear from some of you who are seeking employment and what job-seekers are experiencing lately. Is it harder to get interviews? Is it harder to complete applications? …

Occasionally Topics likes to ask questions with no right answers and our first September show does that! All of us are story tellers whether we know it or not! Most, if not all of the folks who listen to this program have visual impairments! We ask the team and you to think back over your life and tell us two stories. We want to know about a particular event where being blind was just plain awful! We won't listen if you tell us you can't drive or can't see your mom's face! We want a story! We want you to tell us about a particular moment in your life that made blindness terrible!

Our show is not all gloom, though, because we also want you to think of a moment when…

20260825 - Tuesday Topics - All things Internet Radio

For the last two episodes of Tuesday Topics, we explored podcasts in great detail. Internet radio is sort of a companion to them. Everybody knows about the ten ACB Media stations but there is a huge number of stations folks can listen to if they choose. Virtually every hybrid device has internet radio access. Some are better than others and we will talk about the various options that are out there. There is a brand new app for internet radio that has been created by blind folks for blind folks and Jeff Bishop explores that program with us! …