The Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind (AIDB), operated by the U.S. state of Alabama in the city of Talladega, is the world’s most comprehensive education, rehabilitation and service program serving individuals of all ages who are deaf, blind, deafblind and multi-disabled. Founded in 1858 by a young medical doctor who wanted to educate his deaf brother, AIDB now serves more than 36,000 infants, toddlers, children, adults and seniors with hearing and vision loss throughout Alabama each year. 

The current institution includes:

• Alabama School for the Deaf

• Alabama School for the Blind

• Alabama Industries for the Blind

• Helen Keller School

• E. H. Gentry Technical Facility 

The AIDB has regional centers in Birmingham, Huntsville, Tuscaloosa, Montgomery, Mobile, Dothan, Auburn, and Tuscumbia. The AIDB currently serves nearly 24,500 residents from all 67 counties of the state.

American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults is devoted to assisting blind youth, elderly blind and, deaf blind individuals when they are not able to find the assistance they need from governmental agencies or other entities.

The American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults' name used to be just American Action Fund, but was changed to better identify the groups of individuals for which they provided services. The American Brotherhood for the Blind also later became part of the American Action Fund.

American Association of Blind Teachers (AABT), formerly the National Association of blind Teachers, is a non-profit organization affiliated with the American Council of the Blind.

Our members, most of whom are blind or visually impaired, teach a wide range of subjects on all levels from elementary to graduate school. While some members are itinerant teachers of the visually impaired and others work in traditional residential schools for the blind, most of our members teach in either the conventional public school or college classroom

Throughout the year, AABT conducts workshops and "teachers' lounge" sessions via telephone on Sunday evenings at 8:00 Eastern. We hold an annual meeting as part of the ACB Conference and Convention each year in July. Our meeting includes a breakfast and presentations on a wide range of topics of interest to blind and visually impaired teachers. You can hear recordings of past programs on our AABT Programs and Workshops page.

If you would like to support the American Association of Blind Teachers, please consider donating securely on line so we can continue our important work.

American Council of the Blind is a nationwide organization in the United States. It is an organization mainly made up of blind and visually impaired people who want to achieve independence and equality (although there are many sighted members with common aims The American Council of the Blind strives to increase the independence, security, equality of opportunity, and quality of life for all blind and visually impaired people. 

The mission of the American Foundation for the Blind is to create a world of no limits for people who are blind or visually impaired. We mobilize leaders, advance understanding, and champion impactful policies and practices using research and data. 

Conduct Research to Advance Cange AFB collaborates with researchers and educators to better understand the issues facing people who are blind or visually impaired. We use that knowledge to develop evidence-based solutions in areas including education, employment, socio-economic mobility, rehabilitation services, aging and vision loss, healthcare, and technology.

AFB collaborates with researchers and educators to better understand the issues facing people who are blind or visually impaired. We use that knowledge to develop evidence-based solutions in areas including education, employment, socio-economic mobility, rehabilitation services, aging and vision loss, healthcare, and technology.

Promote Knowledge and Understanding. We educate policymakers, business leaders, advocates, and the public about the challenges and opportunities that exist for people who are blind or visually impaired. That knowledge influences attitudes, improving acceptance, accessibility, and inclusion.

Through research, education, and advocacy, we're changing the way employers see job seekers and employees who are blind or low vision. 

Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER) is a professional membership organization dedicated exclusively to professionals who provide services to persons with vision loss. Our aim is to promote and support the professions by advocating for evidence-based practices, high quality standards, value-added resources and giving voice to issues of critical importance. AER provides professional development via face-to-face conferences, virtual offerings and publications to strengthen the knowledge, skills and abilities of professionals within the field. AER provides networking, mentoring, connectivity, awards and scholarships for professionals to advance excellence within the field. Our aim is to ensure that persons with vision loss will have optimal gains and greater independence by giving timely, intentional and value-added support to professionals in the field

Blinded Veterans Association (BVA) is a U.S non-profit organization that was established to "help veterans and their families meet and overcome the challenges of blindness". o promote the welfare of blinded veterans so that, notwithstanding their disabilities, they may take their rightful place in the community and work with their fellow citizens toward the creation of a peaceful world. To preserve and strengthen a spirit of fellowship among blinded veterans so that they may give mutual aid and assistance to one another. To maintain and extend the institution of American freedom and encourage loyalty to the Constitution and laws of the United States and of the states in which they reside.

Braille Institute of America (BIA) is a nonprofit organization with headquarters in Los Angeles providing programs, seminars and one-on-one instruction for the visually impaired community in Southern California. Funded almost entirely by private donations, all of the Institute's services are provided completely free of charge Braille Institute is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to positively transform the lives of those with vision loss. Braille Institute serves more than 37,000 people through a variety of free programs, classes and services at centers and community outreach locations throughout Southern California – from Santa Barbara to San Diego counties 

Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB) works together as a community of peers that acts to improve the individual and community quality of life of people who are blind, deaf-blind, or living with low vision. To promote the well-being of those people who are blind or have low vision. To work with other groups of persons with low vision or who are blind. To promote measures for the conservation of sight and the prevention of blindness for all. The Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB) is a membership-based not-for-profit organization that brings together Canadians who are blind, deaf-blind or living with vision loss through chapters within their own local communities to share common interests and social activities.

ChildVision at National Education Centre for Blind Children is the only place in Ireland totally dedicated to the education and therapy needs of blind and multi-disabled children. Meeting the individual needs of each child in ChildVision is at the core of what we do. Our staff work together to realize the unique potential with each boy and girl no matter how severe the disability 

Christian Blind Mission (CBM) supports India programs through its South Asia Regional Office (SARO) at Bangalore helps NGOs in India who work for the blind and visually impaired

Founded in 2008, HathiTrust is a not-for-profit collaborative of academic and research libraries preserving 17+ million digitized items. HathiTrust offers reading access to the fullest extent allowable by U.S. copyright law, computational access to the entire corpus for scholarly research, and other emerging services based on the combined collection. HathiTrust members steward the collection — the largest set of digitized books managed by academic and research libraries — under the aims of scholarly, not corporate, interests.

HathiTrust advances its mission and goals through services and programs:

• HathiTrust Digital Library preserves and provides lawful access to the 17+ million digitized items. The Emergency Temporary Access Service permits temporary, emergency access to the collection for member libraries during service disruptions caused by the glocal pandemic.

• HathiTrust Research Center offers services that support use of the HathiTrust corpus as a dataset for analysis via text and data mining research.

• Shared Print Program develops a distributed, shared network of print collections with collective print retention.

• U.S. Federal Documents Program expands access to and preserve U.S. federal publications. 

• Copyright Review Program review team finds and opens public domain materials in the U.S. and around the world.

Helen Keller Services (HKS)

Helen Keller National Center for Deaf-Blind Youths and Adults (HKNB)

Hellen Keller Services for the Blind (HKSB)

The Helen Keller National Center for Deaf-Blind Youths and Adults is a foundation in the United States that provides services for individuals who, like Helen Keller, are both blind and deaf. Helen Keller Services enables individuals who are blind, visually impaired, deaf-blind or have combined hearing and vision loss to live, work and thrive in the communities of their choice. 

International Agencies For The Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) believes in a world in which no one is needlessly visually impaired, where everyone has access to the best possible standard of eye health; and where those with irreparable vision loss achieve their full potential.

Global advocacy: Our objective will be to raise the profile of eye care with key international institutions, so it receives the attention and resources needed to achieve universal access to eye health.

Connecting knowledge: Underpinning our activities is our role in providing authoritative data and information and enabling access to up-to-date knowledge, information and practice.

Strengthening the network: We will support active partnership building both between members and with other key sectors to tackle the barriers to delivering eye care for all.

Providing services: We will aim to provide high quality, economically viable services which add value to members.

International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment (ICEVI) is a major association of individuals and organizations concerned with equality of access to appropriate education for children and youth with vision impairment. ICEVI is governed by an Executive Committee composed of the Principal Officers, Regional Chairpersons and Partner Member organizations. ICEVI operates through regional and national committees in each of seven regions – Africa, East Asia, Europe, Latin America, North American/Caribbean, Pacific, and West Asia. 

International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA): Libraries Serving Persons with Print Disabilities (LPD)

Supported by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, where it is stated that print disabled people have the right to equal access to books, knowledge and information at the same time, cost and quality as everyone else, and recognizing the fact that as of today only 5% of the world's published information is fully accessible to persons with a print disability.

Our Mission

The mission of the IFLA LPD is to advocate for library services that are equitable and accessible for persons with a print disability.

Our Goals

• Establish a global accessible library of accessible material

• Influence international policy on access to knowledge and information

• Establish and support guidelines of best practice

• Raise the profile of LPD and accessible library services within the library community

Actions Following from Our Goals

• To establish a global accessible library for people with print disabilities

• To partner and co-operate with other organizations to influence international policy on access to knowledge and information

• To establish and support guidelines and best practice for accessible library and information services

• To raise the profile of LPD and accessible library services within the library community

Further reading

• LPD Presentation [DOC]: ​This document outlines the information that is to be provided in a powerpoint presentation or a speech about the LPD Section.  Use this information to  create your own powerpoint slides

• Introducing Print Disability [PPT]: Prepared by IFLA section LPD 2011

National Federation of the Blind (NFB) is an organization of blind people in the United States. It is the oldest and largest organization led by blind people in the United States. The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise the expectations of blind people, because low expectations create obstacles between blind people and our dreams.

Paths to Literacy for students who are blind or visually impaired is a collaborative effort between the Perkins School for the Blind and the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. The website is devoted to addressing literacy needs of students with visual impairments. It contains extensive resources related to strategies and tools for accessing information and engaging in learning across curricular areas.

You may browse it by primary and secondary topics, read blogs, know about strategies, use resources, and track events

At Perkins School for the Blind, we provide unparalleled educational services to children and young adults with blindness, deafblindness and multiple disabilities. We also share our expertise and collaborate with global changemakers in the fields of education, business, medicine and policy. This work informs our purpose to prepare our students for the world and the world for our students.

In addition to educating children on our historic campus in Watertown, Massachusetts, we are constantly creating and delivering new programs that address the most pressing challenges to our population. 

Areas of Focus

Perkins consists of four distinct lines of business that collaborate on local, national and global levels that work together every day to change what it means to be blind.

Perkins School for the Blind

Perkins School for the Blind teaches children on campus and supports students and teachers in public schools across the U.S., focusing on academic, social and self-advocacy skill building. Every year, Perkins educates approximately 200 students on campus and supports 1,200 more in community programs, including in the Infant-Toddler Program, through educational partnerships with public schools and outreach programs. We also emphasize transition services to prepare young adults with vision loss for life after school.

Perkins International

Perkins International works to reach the most vulnerable children in some of the poorest places in the world. There are millions of children with visual impairment and multiple disabilities (MDVI) around the world who don’t receive the quality education they deserve. Perkins International works to put these children in school, equip educators with specialized skills they need to teach them and connect families with vital governmental and medical resources. We are expanding our work in certain countries – such as India, which has as many as 1 million children with visual impairment and additional disabilities – where we seek to improve screening and assessment, early intervention programs, school-age education and family support services.

Perkins Solutions

Perkins Solutions deploys technology to overcome longstanding and emerging accessibility barriers. Since the 1950s, we’ve manufactured and distributed the world’s most popular, most dependable braille typewriter. In keeping with our tradition of staying ahead of technology to ensure people who are blind or visually impaired have what they need to realize their full potential, we now offer digital accessibility consulting through Perkins Access. These services assist clients in ensuring digital experiences are usable by everyone, and that the online world is fully open to everyone.

Perkins Library

The Perkins Library has provided accessible reading material to people with visual impairment and other disabilities since 1837. Since then, we’ve significantly expanded our offerings to serve more people with more nuanced needs. Today, we distribute more than half a million accessible books, magazines, newspapers, DVDs and more, at no cost to the estimated 28,000 patrons we serve annually. We’ve also led the charge in distributing assistive technologies like refreshable braille displays while providing a website that enables people to download accessible reading material.

Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) is a UK charity offering information, support and advice to almost two million people in the UK with sight loss. We recognize everyone’s unique experience of sight loss and offer help and support for blind and partially sighted people – this can be anything from practical and emotional support, campaigning for change, reading services and the products we offer in our online shop. That are catalyst for change – inspiring people with sight loss to transform their own personal experience, their community and, ultimately, society as a whole. Our focus is on giving them the help, support and tools they need to realis their aspirations. A catalyst for change – inspiring people with sight loss to transform their own personal experience, their community and, ultimately, society as a whole. Our focus is on giving them the help, support and tools they need to realize their aspirations. 

Royal Society for the Blind (RSB) is a not-for-profit organization providing services to Australians who have a severe vision impairment. These services are delivered by a professional, committed and highly qualified team supported by volunteers, drawn from all age groups and walks of life.

Blindness or vision impairment can have a severe impact on a person’s lifestyle. The RSB is here to assist people to overcome their vision impairment and participate independently in the community.

1. Living with Low Vision The RSB’s Independent Living Services provide people with vision loss with the necessary skills, equipment and strategies to live life as safely and as independently as possible.

2. Disability Employment Services

Other Services Include

• Adaptive Technology

• Child and Youth Services

• Counselling

• Occupational Therapy

• Orientation and Mobility

• Peer Support

• Recreation and Leisure

• Guide and Assistance Dog Service

• Social Support

• Volunteer Services

United States Association of Blind Athletes provides information related to recreational and sports opportunities for individuals with visual impairments. 

World Blind Union (WBU) is the global organization representing the estimated 253 million persons who are blind or partially sighted worldwide. Members are organizations of and for the blind in 190 countries, as well as international organizations working in the field of vision impairment. We bring together  national and international organizations of  and for blind persons and those organizations providing services to people with low vision to work on the issues affecting the quality of their life. WBU is a founding member of the International Disability Alliance ​ (IDA), sharing their values and principles of promoting the rights of persons with disabilities. 

WBU works within a pyramid vision structure which reflects the Vision:

• The long term, twenty-year Vision is: “A world in which we, as blind or partially sighted people, can participate fully in any aspect of life we choose.”

• The short term, four-year Vision, has four ladders that together will move us towards the realization of our long-term vision.  These four Vision ladders are:

1. That WBU is recognized as the authentic voice representing blind and partially sighted persons at the international level

2. That our members at all levels have the capacity and capability to deliver their programs

3. That Blind and partially Sighted Persons live in a world that is increasingly accessible to us

4. That the WBU is recognized as an international source of information in matters related to vision impairment.