Welcome to the Silicon Valley council of the Blind's web site. We hope you enjoy it and come back often.
For membership information, contact our membership chairperson at membership@svcb.cc. You can also leave a voicemail message at 888-652-5333.
A distant view of an overcast sandy beach shoreline with low waves and people walking along the water's edge, with a moon low in the sky above a sea mist and nearby cliffs.
A photo of the silver metal engraved plate on a dark wood plaque has the ACBlogo at the top, with each line engraved in Braille, and reads:
"The Hollis K. Liggett Braille Free Press Award Presented to Mike Keithley and the California Council of the Blind for affiliate newsletter excellence, July 6, 2008, Louisville, KY."
Launched in 2010, this program annually awards a grant of up to $1000 to a Santa Clara County blind or visually impaired person who can best demonstrate the need for adaptive technology that will improve his/her quality of life or advance his/her educational and/or employment opportunities.
Examples of items that the grant might fund include, but are not limited to:
Our first recipient, Fulton Mah of San Jose, received a Trekker Breeze, a GPS system designed for visually impaired people, at SVCB's February, 2011 meeting. Fulton told us how his award will help him travel on foot and use public transit.
For more info about the Barbara Rhodes Technology Grant, call 888-652-5333 or email svcb@onebox.com.
Don't miss our next meeting! If you are in the San Jose area, please come and join us. Our meetings take place every third Saturday in the dining room of the Monte Vista Terrace Apartments (1101 Grant Road in Mountain View) and run from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. The Monte Vista Terrace Apartments are one block from the intersection of Grant Road and El Camino Real and are accessible by bus #22.
To read timely announcements and find out what will be happening during our next meeting, read our Phone Tree message here.
The Silicon Valley Council of the Blind (SVCB) is a membership organization of persons who are blind or visually impaired, our families and friends. Our goal is to improve the quality of life for all persons with vision loss through advocacy and mutual support. We are organized as a chapter of the California Council of the Blind, which is a state affiliate of the American Council of the Blind, and draw our membership largely from Santa Clara County.
To read SVCB's complete Mission Statement, follow this link.
SVCB is a support group for visually impaired people. If you're visually impaired or want to help, become a member. Although our meetings are open to everyone interested in the blindness community, SVCB membership has these additional benefits:
Becoming an SVCB member is easy, just fill out a membership application (along with membership dues of $10) and send it to P.O. box 493, Mountain View, CA 94042-0493. You can download a large print application here and follow the instructions. For more information, email membership@svcb.cc or call our voicemail box at 888-652-5333.
For visually impaired people, getting around is a head-scratching, serious problem. Member Cam Acker tells us about what's happening with Bay Area transportation, and you can access her transportation page here.
A photo of Roger standing with a smile on his face in front of a bank ATM machine holding the top of his cane in his right hand and cash and a receipt in his raised left hand after making a withdrawal, with his listening headset still plugged into the ATM machine.
Sit back and listen or read about what's going on at SVCB. In the In Touch newsletter archive, you can read, stream or download text or audio formats of InTouch newsletters issues. Click here to go to our In Touch Newsletter Archive page.