First, our speaker, Steve Tompkins, NFB Newsline Coordinator, provided some very informative and valuable information to help you with your daily living. If you are not familiar with Newsline, it is service for those who cannot or have trouble reading the newspaper. It is a free service that allows you to access newspapers, TV listings and some magazines from across the nation. You may have the newspapers read to you via your telephone or the screen reader on your computer (PC or Mac). If you are interested in more information about Newsline or to get signed up, please contact Steve at stompkins@nfb-texas.org or 512-323-5444. You may also check out the NFB Newsline website at http://www.nfb.org/nfb/Newspapers_by_Phone.asp
Second, we discussed the upcoming Insight Expo 2011. You may recall that I previously mentioned the recently-formed Houston Area Visually Impaired Network (HAVIN,) a group connecting the various support groups (including HLVC) and resources for visually impaired people across the vast area of the Bayou City. While HAVIN might be new, our leadership comes from individuals involved with these different groups and have been busy planning our first big event where we want to bring together Houston’s visually impaired community.
The Houston Area Insight Expo 2011 will be a day-long event with workshops, feature speakers, panel discussions, information, assistive technology and other resources for the visually impaired. The Insight Expo will be held on Saturday, March 5, 2011, from 8:30 am until 4:30 pm. The location will be at the College of Optometry on the University of Houston main campus.