Thank you to The Inspiration Foundation and the Vision Serve Alliance for their support!

The San Diego Center for the Blind is pleased to announce that we are the recipient of a 2020 Assistive Technology Grant for $1,000 from The Inspiration Foundation (a philanthropic division of Cleanlogic, a company offering quality bath and body accessories).

These grants were created to help nonprofit organizations purchase assistive technology equipment for classrooms. The founder of Cleanlogic was inspired by his mom, who lost her sight when she was 7, but never let it stop her. Through her hard work, she became a passionate advocate, helping other blind and visually impaired individuals gain employment.

The Inspiration Foundation’s Board believes that successful job placement and retention depends on strong technology skills and that independent living skills are augmented by technology. The Inspiration Foundation Assistive Technology Grants are awarded to smaller nonprofits to help them keep their technology class rooms up to date.

With these funds SDCB has purchased additional web cameras, tripods and other video accessories, and additional Zoom Meeting licenses. The impact of this  technology is as follows:

• SDCB is providing quality remote training to clients. This includes utilizing the newly acquired cameras, video accessories and licensing to continue with a modified version of our training such as group and individual adjustment to vision loss counseling, independent living skills, Braille, accessible computer training, assistive technology and kitchen skills.
• The addition of licenses for Zoom meetings allows us to provide quality expanded services to both the individuals with vision loss as well to their families, friends and the workplace.
• An unintentional consequence of this was the significant increase in our client’s ability to better utilize current technology to continue living as independently as possible. For example, clients and staff were able to solve accessibility issues regarding remote access through their smartphones, tablets, and computers. This resulted in higher success rates for access to training as well as providing an increase success in learning.
• SDCB has remotely served 375 clients, in part, as a result of this grant.