Dallas Area Council of the Blind promotes local chapter programs, asks commission for a welcome at national ACB conference

Ted Harper, president of the Dallas Area Council of the Blind, addressed the City of Dallas Commission on Disabilities on Feb. 25 to describe the chapter’s activities and invite the commission to the national American Council of the Blind conference in Dallas in July.

Harper said the local chapter formed in the early 1990s and “our mission or purpose is to raise up those that are blind and visually impaired in the Dallas area.” He outlined two signature programs: academic scholarships for full- and part-time college students and a technology grant intended to provide assistive devices when other avenues have been exhausted.

Harper said the national American Council of the Blind conference will be held in Dallas “July Fourth through the Eleventh at the Hyatt Regency here in downtown,” and he estimated roughly 700 attendees for the national conference. He invited a commissioner to give welcoming remarks at the convention’s general sessions and offered to connect the commission with conference organizers.

The commission thanked Harper and asked how it might best collaborate; Harper pointed to state-level funding streams and urged encouraging state agencies to claim federal funds. He also noted the chapter’s community work—donations, holiday meals and meetings on the third Saturday of each month—and indicated the best way to follow the chapter’s activities is through the chapter’s website (contact details were discussed during the meeting but a web address was not confirmed in the transcript).

No formal action was taken.