Help

In short

Help when you need it. Newly Blind covers the first 30 days after vision loss. Types of Blindness explains the major conditions in plain language. Find Help in Your State, Resources, and Voting point you to real assistance — and Contact reaches a human being.

Newly Blind: First 30 Days

Losing your vision is a shock, and the first month is about getting steady, not getting everything. Make three calls: your state's blind or vocational rehabilitation agency, the free NLS talking-book library, and Hadley.

Types of Blindness

Blindness isn’t one condition — it’s many, from macular degeneration and glaucoma to diabetic retinopathy, each affecting vision differently. The reassuring news: most types are manageable or treatable, especially caught early, and total blindness is rare — most blind people have some usable vision.

Find Help in Your State

Help for blind residents is mostly run state by state — and the best-funded program most people have never heard of is the blind vending program. Start there.

Resources

Free training, apps, podcasts, and communities — including the ones nobody told you about. No gatekeeping: if it helps blind people, it belongs here.

Voting

Federal law — the Help America Vote Act of 2002 — requires at least one accessible voting machine, with an audio headset and tactile keys, at every polling place for federal elections. If a poll worker does not know how to set it up, ask for the head poll worker, then call the Election Protection hotline at 1-866-OUR-VOTE (1-866-687-8683).

Contact

Tell us what's on your mind — pick the reason below and we'll ask the right questions. Every message is read by a person, and we usually reply within a couple of days.