I don't know if you've been following this, but there has been a lot of debate lately between blind advocates and the publishing industry about the accessibility of print. It specifically revolves around cross-border sharing of documents. Which means that if a service such as Recordings for the Blind & Dyslexic has an accessible copy of a book, they cannot provide it to a blind person living in Canada. Sorry, Canadians, you have to duplicate our work and make your own. Given the cost of producing accessible materials, this is ridiculous.

After 4 long years, we now own the domain disability411.com! The others still work, but now we're easier to find!

I know this isn't a specifically disability program, but there are children with disabilities who participate, and literacy is a very important cause for me. Please take a look, and if you can spare a few dollars, please consider contributing.

http://www.readfortherecord.org/site/TR/RFTR/General?px=1390982&pg=perso...

Apparently, President Obama will announce this afternoon that the United States will sign the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Pretty sad that it took this long. Pretty embarrassing that countries with such wonderful civil rights history, like China, signed before us.

Ok, I've hinted at a really exciting trip I was taking to Washington, DC, but wasn't able to say a whole lot about it for various reasons. I still can't talk about some things because there is research coming out of it and I don't want to ruin it by letting the cat out of the bag early. But this much I can share -- an article on the White House blog about our visit! I'm in the picture, but you can't see me too well -- I'm on the far right.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/Still-Thriving-and-Excelling-Long-After-H...