Are you an artist living with blindness or low vision? Do you know someone who is? We are currently accepting submissions for Gallery Night 2024, scheduled for Friday, November 1. We welcome artwork in a wide range of formats. Last year’s display included paintings, photographs, digital drawings, knitted and crocheted pieces, wood carvings, ceramics, and… Continue Reading Showcase Your Talent at Gallery Night
We’re halfway through 2024, and the Council has accomplished so much already this year! But that’s no reason not to be excited about everything we achieved last year. Our 2023 Annual Report is full of the year’s highlights, including our advocacy successes, trends in vision services, our scholarship program, improvements we’ve made to our property,… Continue Reading Annual Report Now Available Online
We’re pleased to announce this year’s Council Scholarship recipients! Each year, we award $2,000 scholarships to several students from around the state who are blind or low vision and will be enrolled in post-secondary education in the fall. Past recipients have used the scholarship funds in a variety of ways to help fuel their college… Continue Reading Introducing our 2024 Council Scholarship Recipients
Suppose there’s an intersection in your town where drivers are often inattentive to pedestrians and don’t slow down even when someone obviously wants to cross the street. As a person living with vision loss, you don’t feel safe walking there, and feel forced to look for a different route. Your local transportation commission could… Continue Reading Grassroots Advocacy: Concrete Ideas for Sparking Change in Your Community
For much of our history, the Council has awarded scholarships to incoming and continuing postsecondary students to support their ongoing educational pursuits. For the 2022-23 academic year, we awarded $2,000 scholarships to eight budding scholars. Each student submitted essays about their lives and how a scholarship would help propel them toward their career goals. The… Continue Reading Congratulations to our 2022 Scholarship Recipients
You’ve probably heard the old saying “The eyes are the windows to the soul.” To a trained eye doctor, the eyes are also windows to the rest of the body and its overall health. There are many reasons it’s important to have routine eye exams. Some of them are obvious: Monitoring your eye health, protecting… Continue Reading Windows to More Than the Soul: The Importance of Routine Eye Exams
Sally Hein once discovered smoke billowing out of her microwave oven. She had placed a plastic container of food in the oven and thought she pressed the correct buttons to warm up her dinner. But with her vision severely diminished due to macular degeneration, she had had to guess which buttons to push. She guessed… Continue Reading The Power of the Dot: The Incredible Versatility of Tactile Markers
For many people, fishing is a great way to relax and get out in nature. It’s hard to think of a hobby more closely associated with de-stressing. But for people with disabilities, including those with vision loss, it’s not as simple as grabbing a rod and shoving off in a rowboat. That’s where Fishing Has… Continue Reading Fishing Outings Return After a Two-Year Absence
The Council is pleased to welcome debbie rasmussen to our staff! Debbie joined in April as fund development coordinator, working side-by-side with Lori Werbeckes, our fund development director. Debbie’s role is to maintain donor records and support fundraising efforts in a variety of other ways. Debbie holds a B.A. in psychology from the University of… Continue Reading Welcome Fund Development Coordinator Debbie Rasmussen to the Council Staff
Click toggle for topics
When a friend, family member, coworker or other person in your life loses their vision, it can be hard to know how to describe things to them. For instance, telling someone who can’t see that a chair is “over there” isn’t going to do them much good. Much of our standard language for describing things… Continue Reading Don’t Say “Over There”: How to be a Better Describer for Someone who is Blind or Low Vision
Are you an artist living with blindness or low vision? Do you know someone who is? We are currently looking for artists to feature at Gallery Night 2024, scheduled for Friday, November 1. For over a decade the Council has been exhibiting the work of artists who are blind or visually impaired at Gallery Night… Continue Reading We’re Looking for Artists for Gallery Night!
The Council is excited to announce an upcoming event, On Sight: Vision Loss Resources in Southwest Wisconsin, taking place in Dodgeville on Wednesday, October 9. The free informational event will run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Iowa County Health and Human Services Building, 303 West Chapel Street in Dodgeville. The purpose of… Continue Reading October “On Sight” Event Brings the Council to Southwest Wisconsin