The Department of Defense (DoD) announced today a landmark policy change that will allow the 16 million U.S. veterans access to the American Forces Travel (AFT) website. According to Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Military Community and Family Policy Patricia Montes Barron, veterans will join the 10 million active duty, Guard, and reserve service members, family members, DoD civilians, and other patrons who are already receiving this benefit. On average, customers save 35-40 percent […]

Lonnie Bedwell, National Geographic 2015 Adventurer of the Year, award winning author, motivational speaker, and member of the Blinded Veterans Association’s (BVA) Indiana Regional Group, will appear in one of two Sunday, June 27 (tomorrow) episodes of National Geographic’s new series “Breaking Bobby Bones.” The Bones-Bedwell episode will air at either 10:00 or 10:30pm Eastern Daylight Time. The series, a brainchild of television and radio personality Bobby Bones himself, tests his personal motto of “fight, […]

Dear Blinded Veterans Association (BVA) Members, Families of Members, and Friends: As you all know, our country is still dealing with COVID-19. Americans know firsthand the tragedies of this pandemic with nearly 600,000 deaths to date. That is more deaths than those from World War I, World War II, the Vietnam War, and 9/11 combined.  With only 64 percent of adults having received at least one shot, our country still has considerable work ahead in […]

Key accessibility features for blind and visually impaired users are now part of Home Box Office’s massive streaming service HBO Max, helping the users enjoy the same content as sighted viewers. The new service offers audio descriptions for content, which describes action on the screen beyond the dialog and sound effects, for some 1,500 hours of third-party content, HBO originals, HBO Max Originals, and Warner Brothers movies. Several other changes are also intended to improve […]

BVA Executive Director Donald D. Overton, Jr., recently appointed as a Scholar to the prestigious Policy Vets, appears on a podcast that became available today on the Policy Vets website and can also be found on Spotify, iTunes, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, and several other popular platforms. Part 1 of the podcast series, entitled “How Service Animal Regulation Affects Veterans,” will be followed by a Part 2 airing next Friday, June 25. Policy Vets is a nonprofit […]