United Airlines recently began rolling out Braille placards for both seat numbers and lavatories on their aircraft, national media outlets began reporting this week. The move is one that BVA Executive Director Donald D. Overton, Jr. believes will make air travel much more comfortable and peaceful for blind and low vision veterans while, at the same time, increasing the efficiency involved in seating passengers and helping them locate the lavatories.  “Traveling by air is accompanied […]

Join BVA’s VetTech Team for an unprecedented double dose of the latest technology this Wednesday, August 2, at both 2:00pm and 7:00pm Eastern Time as we welcome, respectively, representatives from National Convention sponsors WayAround and Dot, Inc.  WayAround is a mobile application for a Smart device that provides on-demand details about everyday things. The simple tag-and-scan approach allows the user to identify objects in the immediate area both quickly and accurately. The device can also provide additional […]

BVA Chief of Staff Tim Hornik this week composed a brief historical summary of the Association’s role in the early beginnings of the first Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Blind Rehabilitation Center, which officially opened on July 4, 1948, at the Hines, Illinois VA Medical Center. The Center held an open house and reception yesterday (July 20) commemorating the significance of 75 years of service to blinded veterans at the facility. Director of District 2 […]

Join BVA’s VetTech Team this Wednesday, July 26, at 2:00pm Eastern Time as the Weekly Wednesday Webinar welcomes Amanda Ventura, Head of Communications, Marketing, and Public Affairs for Waymo, the world’s first fully autonomous ride-hailing service. Waymo is revolutionizing transportation options through the service now known as Waymo One, available 24/7 to the public in Phoenix, Arizona. Waymo also has operations in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Its mission is to make it easy for […]

The BVA Women Veterans Group (WVG) was created to serve, support, and promote camaraderie among blinded and now low vision women veterans through awareness and advocacy efforts affecting their health and welfare. The regularly scheduled general membership virtual meeting occurs on the fourth Thursday of each month via Zoom.  The July meeting to which all blind and low vision women veterans are invited and urged to attend is scheduled for this Thursday, July 27, at […]

BVA National Headquarters was saddened to learn this week of the death of Past National President Dr. Roy W. Kekahuna. He passed away on July 1 in Las Vegas. Roy served BVA in numerous regional group capacities and national offices, culminating with his election in 2009 as National President at the 64th National Convention in Portland, Oregon. Roy and his wife, Laurel, were also the impetus behind the selection and execution of the 66th National […]

After months of open registration for the BVA 78th National Convention via BVA.org, the process will finally officially close today (July 21) at 11:59pm, according to Convention planner Meredith Buono-DaGrossa. BVA members and their families who have not completed their registrations for the August 14-18 gathering may still do so for a few more hours. The same holds true for a stay at the Marriott St. Louis Grand on and around those dates.  Regional group […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has recently announced that veterans will be able to manage all interactions with VA—including health care, benefits, and services—on a single place on VA.gov. The goals of the long-term project include the reduction in the number of websites, products, and interfaces veterans must use to obtain what they are searching for. They also include making veterans’ online experiences easy and intuitive and creating seamless interactions between VA.gov, the VA […]

BVA members and their families may be familiar with the new motto of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the language changed slightly but still based on Abraham Lincoln’s original admonition “to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan.” You may have noticed also that although VA became a cabinet-level department of the federal government 35 years ago in 1988, adopting the name “Department of Veterans […]

In this week’s BVA Happenings, BVA Deputy Director of Government Relations Alek Libbin offers a few observations on the increasingly controversial U.S. Senate Filibuster.  Those of us who have followed, even just peripherally, the doings of our United States Congress during the past 20-30 years may well have asked ourselves: Why don’t they do anything? Is it partisanship, or is it just laziness, or does it have something to do with campaign financing, or is […]