DeafBlind Events

Learn more about upcoming events for deafblind individuals and their families. Want to be notified about upcoming DB Central events? Join our contact list!

Ongoing events

National Family Association for Deaf-Blind

BSBP Lean In! - Prep

  • January-May
  • Lean In! Prep is a program that is developed and facilitated for people like you by people like you. Lean In! Prep Explorers will learn about different career options that are aligned with their interests and will have the opportunity to collectively run their own small business.
  • Learn more and register for this BSBP event!

BSBP VI Resources Series

Leader Dogs for the Blind Collaboration Events

  • November 30 - September 27; 3:00 PM EST
  • Leader Dogs for the Blind Collaboration Events spotlight organizations within the blindness and low vision field that have resources that may be helpful to you. Please share these events with others who could benefit from learning about additional resources. 
  • Register for Collaboration Events!

iCanConnect: The National DeafBlind Equipment Distribution Program

  • Sending an email or chatting on the phone can be challenging for people with both significant vision and hearing loss. iCanConnect is a national program that provides free equipment and training to help people stay connected with friends, family, and the world.
  • iCanConnect provides equipment including smartphones, tablets, computers, screen readers, braille equipment, and software to people with significant combined vision and hearing loss who meet federal income and disability guidelines.
  • Apply for iCanConnect now!
  • Complete the iCanConnect MI Consumer application! 

Birth to Three Year Parent to Parent Support Group

  • State Liaisons with the CHARGE Syndrome Foundation will be hosting a virtual support group for families with children aged birth – 3 years. 
  • We recognize that this group goes through so much in the first 3 years of life and it can often feel isolating or overwhelming. We want to offer a safe place where families can get together to connect, share, ask questions and get support from other families.
  • Meetings will take place on the third Saturday of every month at 6:00 PM PT, 7:00 MT, 8:00 CT, 9:00 ET, beginning November 19, 2022. A Zoom link will be sent out monthly to registered participants. Click below to register.
  • Register for this CHARGE Syndrome Foundation support group!

Protactile Language Interpreting Pilot Cohort - Applications Open!

  • The Protactile Language Interpreting National Education Program is charged with preparing interpreters working with DeafBlind individuals in Protactile language. Training is provided by DeafBlind educators.
  • For those interpreters who work regularly in communities with greater concentrations of DeafBlind individuals, PLI is launching a Pilot cohort in 2023. This is a small cohort of 12-18 participants to maintain small mentor-to-student ratios and cohort experiences.
  • Each cohort is a community of practice, sharing their newly-applied learnings, skills, knowledge and resources with each other and their instructors and mentors.
  • View the 2023 PLI Pilot Cohort Application!

Sensing Connections: Grief Support for Families of Children with Deaf-Blindness

Wednesday Evenings at 8:30 ET for 90 minutes (starting September 7, 2022)
Sensing Connections: Grief Support for Families of Children with Deaf-Blindness are web-based, peer-to-peer meetings that allow parents who have lost a child an opportunity to process their grief and learn coping strategies that have helped others. Interested parents are asked to commit to the entire 5-month series (10 total meetings). Enrollment is free. If you are interested in joining this group, please email Molly Black.

Bureau of Services for Blind Persons Training Center (BSBPTC) Virtual Tours

Tours are available upon request. Tours are routinely scheduled Monday through Friday between the hours of 10 am and 2 pm (ET). The tour usually takes half an hour. The BSBPTC is located in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It is a residential training institute that assists persons who are legally blind increase their marketable skills through onsite technical training programs. Due to current restrictions, tours are limited to virtual hours. Visit their website to learn more about BSBPTC virtual tours!

National Center on Deaf-Blindness (NCDB): Assistance in Creating Training Series
The National Center on Deaf-Blindness (NCDB) is currently working on the first module of Teaching Children Who Are Deafblind: Professional Development for Educators to help enhance competency and skills. For use in the module, the NCDB is looking for videos of educators, children, and family members to help illustrate the strategies and skills involved when working with deafblind children. Anyone who contributes photos or videos selected for use will receive an Amazon gift card or mailed check in the following amounts: $50 per video, $15 per photograph.

Michigan Hands & Voices Membership
Anyone can become a member of Michigan Hands & Voices for $25 a year! Membership renews the next November 1; if you start a membership after March, renewal is November 1 of the following year. Benefits of a Michigan Hands & Voices membership include more than 40 events yearly, members-only events, The Communicator in your mailbox, legislative representation, and access to national parent network! They offer scholarships to aid in purchasing memberships are available as well!

            September events

            Camp T - Mystery Escape Camp

            • September 15-17, 2023; Camp Tuhsmeheta (Camp T) - Greenville, MI
            • For students in grades 6-12 who are Blind/Visually Impaired (BVI)
            • $5 per student
            • A sneaky Camp T staff member decided that students needed more of a challenge. The gates have been locked with a code, and puzzles and clues have been scattered around camp. Campers will use skills such as teamwork, puzzle-solving, orientation and mobility, reading, and more to crack the code and identify the culprit before their parents arrive to pick them up.
            • Students also participate in a fun weekend of canoeing, archery and other activities.
            • Register by August 30th for Mystery Escape Camp!

            Indiana AAC Summit 2023 - Augmentative and Alternative Communication

            • September 22, 2023; 8:00-3:00 PM (EST)
            • Making connections and bringing awareness to the communication journey for a student who is DeafBlind.
            • Registration: Early Bird $75 (May 1-June 30), University Student $50, General $100 (July 1-August 31), Late $125 (September 1-21)
            • Learn more and register for this AAC Summit!

            Family Fun Day

            • September 24, 2023; 11:00 AM-3:00 PM, Central Michigan University Finch Fieldhouse
            • DB Central and CMU Recreational Therapy & Rehabilitation are pleased to offer a day for the entire family to come have fun!
            • There will be a range of adapted recreational activities available:  bikes, rock wall, new sensory room and more!
            • Register for Family Fun Day!

            October

            Access to Learning for Students with VI and Extensive Support Needs: Tools for Your Toolbox
            • Thursday, October 5, 2023, 8:00 p.m.
            • This presentation will focus on evidence-based practices and strategies that provide access to learning for students who have extensive support needs.
            • Students who have extensive support needs (ESN) deserve access to learning. Foundational to understanding the access needs of students with ESN is to have good assessment data. Using this data, educational teams can set up learning activities aligned with the general education curriculum for their students with ESN so that they have the maximum chance of success. Making “the least dangerous assumption” (coined by Anne Donnelan) or predicting the educational programming around the belief that the child can learn is one of the primary building blocks that will be addressed. 
            • Participants will increase their knowledge of the barriers to access for students with visual impairments and additional disabilities.
            • Participants will learn how to work with educational teams to gather information about their students with ESN to enhance access, learning, and engagement
            • Participants will learn ways to plan standards-based balanced instruction for learners with visual impairments and ESN.
            • Register for this event

               

               

              National Family Association for DeafBlind: Annual Fundraiser and Documentary Screening

              • Thursday, October 19, 2023, 7:30 p.m.
              • Unseen: How We're Failing Parent Caregivers and Why it Matters
              • Many parent caregivers for children or adults who are disabled or medically complex are exhausted and isolated. Their mental and physical struggle is a public health crisis that costs us all. The “Unseen” documentary gives an unfiltered, honest glimpse into their lives to enable a change for millions of caregivers and their families.
              • Virtual Event
              • Join NFADB at our special screening of Unseen. Watch online with NFADB at home or at your watch party location.
              • Get tickets
              • Watch Trailer

               

               

              Calendar

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