News & Help

In short

Stay current and get help. Blind News collects the day’s blind and low-vision headlines every morning. 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.

Blind News

Every morning, this page collects the blind and low-vision news that matters — new assistive tech, lawsuits and settlements, policy changes, research breakthroughs. One list, newest first: just keep swiping.

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.

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.