CAABVI Newsletter - December 2024
CA Agencies for the Blind & Visually Impaired
November 27, 2024
This issue of the CAABVI newsletter includes a letter from President Shellena Heber, dates and topics for Lunch N Learn presentations through May 2025 and highlights from VisionServe Alliance, “The Prevalence and Characteristics of People Aged 18 to 64 Years with Blindness and Low Vision.”
From CAABVI President, Shellena Heber:
Dear CAABVI Members,
What a great season of progress and participation we are having together. I am filled with gratitude for the many agencies that have participated in the Lunch-N- Learns, committee meetings, and calls to actionvs. As we have seen in legislation and policy over the past two years, working together has really worked!
To support our ongoing three initiatives, our colleagues have been partnering on various deliverables which will continue to move the needle for Californians who are blind or have low vision. The Marketing and Fund Development Committee has been actively working toward building CAABVI a social media presence intending to amplify CAABVI, build a stronger community to leverage our collective knowledge, and to drive more viewership of our website. The Advocacy Committee is working on an introductory SSI/SSDI guide for agency staff/client use, a media toolkit for building more interest in TVI/O&M as a career path, and an agency Public Policy Advocacy guide.
A special thank you to three of our state’s Assistive Technology vendors, NorthState AT, Access Ingenuity, and Sterling Adaptives, for joining CAABVI at our most recent Lunch-N-Learn. We had great participation and a valuable discussion about advances in technology, the impact of AI on AT, and their favorite new devices. It was clearly a conversation that will need to be continued as we experience so many transformative changes in the A-T field.
Be on the lookout for the exciting upcoming series of Lunch-N-Learns, including Children and Youth Services and Guide Dog Schools. We ask that you please encourage people from your organizations to join us for these important professional development and collaboration opportunities. Member agency staff can register for our newsletter to stay informed here: https://www.caabvi.org/news-letter-sign-up
We wish you a beautiful holiday season. Thank you for working together with us to create opportunities for all Californians who are blind or visually impaired to flourish!
Warmly in service,
Shellena Heber
Lunch-N-Learn Schedule Reminders:
Presentations will take place on the 2nd Friday of the month from 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Friday, December 6 , 12:00 p.m. -1:00 p.m.
OIB/AB 2480 Discussion facilitated by CAABVI
Friday, January 10 Children & Youth Programs
Sarah Orth, Blind Children’s Center, Angie Rowe, Beyond Blindness, and Diane Christian, Partners in Pediatric Vision, will discuss their organizations approach to serving children and their families and facilitate a discussion on services for our children and youth.
Friday, February 14, 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Valley Center for the Blind staff discuss what we need to know about SSI (Supplemental Security Income) and SSDI (Social Security Disability Insurance)to support our consumers and employees.
Friday, March 14, 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Issues of Importance to Guide Dogs Schools
Lynn Dubinsky, Guide Dogs for the Blind, and Caren Gates, Guide Dogs of the Desert, will share areas of concern for guide dog schools and training programs such as the need for orientation and mobility training, rideshare denials for graduates and building mutual referral network resources.
Friday, April 11, 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. (tentative)
Preparation for Advocacy Week.
Friday, May 9, 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Discussion facilitated by Mike Cole, President and Executive Director, East Bay Center for the Blind, regarding information and referral services.
A zoom invitation will be sent one month before each presentation. Please encourage any staff member that might benefit from these programs to plan to attend.
DID YOU KNOW?
Following is an overview of some of the notable findings in VisionServe Alliance’s California Working Aged Data Report for members of CAABVI to consider in grantmaking, fundraising, advocacy, and community education efforts.
Unless otherwise noted, all data points to information about people aged 18 to 64 who live in California and report vision loss or have serious difficulty seeing.
Report Highlights:
8.7 million people between the ages of 18 to 64 and 4 million people who are 65 or older report blindness and low vision in the United States (a total of 12.7 million people ages 18 and older).
In California, nearly one million people ages 18 to 64 report being blind or having serious difficulty seeing.
Compared to only 4.2% of people without visual impairment, nearly 22% of people who report vision loss feel they are unable to work. This means that people with visual impairment are five times more likely to feel like they are unable to work in California when compared to people who do not report visual impairment.
People who report blindness and visual impairment in California are 3.5 times more likely to report fair/poor health (5.27% vs 15.1%).
People who report low vision and blindness are twice as likely to have less than a high school education, and 3.5 times more likely to have not graduated from college.
Over 66% of Californians who are blind or have low vision live on less than $35,000 a year, or below the poverty line.
Californians who report blindness or have low vision are significantly more likely to also face other adverse health conditions, including 5 times more likely to have kidney disease, 4.5 times more likely to have a hearing impairment, over 3 times more likely to have a stroke, and 2.5 times more likely to have diabetes and depression.
People living in California who are blind or have low vision report significantly more challenges related to their disability. Over 43% of people who are blind or low vision report issues with cognition, 37% have difficulty walking or climbing stairs, and nearly 26% report challenges running errands, which is between 5 and 7 times more than Californians with no vision impairment.
Studies show that the correlation between working and health-related quality of life is very significant in the population of people who are blind or have low vision. Risk of diabetes, depression, stroke, kidney disease, and severe hearing impairment was up to 11.5 times more likely for people who report blindness or low vision and are out of work, compared to those working for wages.
People who report blindness and low vision and are working for wages or are self-employed report substantially more favorable outcomes compared to those who are unemployed in four functional disability measure categories: walking/climbing stairs, concentrating/remembering, bathing/dressing, and running errands.
Data indicates that individuals who have graduated from college and report blindness or low vision are significantly more likely to be working and in the labor force.
For individuals who report blindness, are out of the labor force, and are not a student, an average of 65% are living with an annual household income of less than $25,000.
Nearly 63% of people who report blindness and low vision who report being unable to work suffer from depression.
Direct quote excerpts from the end of the report, titled “Discussion:”
Working aged people often face economic and social barriers described under the rubric of Social Determinants of Health; that is upstream factors, such as income, education, and geographic location, which contribute to downstream health effects.
Many people, working or not, report low household income, and they report a disproportionately lower level of education.
36.3% of working-aged people with vision impairment who are working have household incomes less than $25,000.
Among those who report not being able to work, 71.3% report incomes below $25,000.
Working aged people with vision impairment report disproportionately higher prevalence of chronic conditions compared to people without vision impairment. Among people with vision impairment, chronic conditions are substantially higher among those out of the labor force, except among students.
Suggested Citation:
VisionServe Alliance (2023). The Prevalence and Characteristics of People Aged 18 to 64 Years with Blindness and Low Vision, United States, 2019, Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, St. Louis.