I am proud to accept the American Council of the Blind’s Robert S Bray award

Today I was honoured to accept the Robert S Bray award from the American Council of the Blind.

The award is named after Robert S Bray, who was the first Director of the Library of Congress’s National Library service. This award may be given to an individual or an organization that has made a significant contribution to improving library services, information technology or communication access.

This is the second award I have been honoured to receive from ACB at a national level, having been given the Vernon Henley Media Award in 2001.

In accepting the award, I delivered the following remarks.

“Thank you very much to the American Council of the Blind for this award which I am honoured to accept with gratitude. There is, of course, a difference between awards and rewards. Awards like this are rare and special, but I am fortunate to be rewarded by the work I’ve done every day. Particularly through Internet radio projects I’ve established, tutorials I’ve put together, or things I’ve said or written that have made people think, my greatest reward is seeing other blind people thriving, perhaps doing things they always wanted to do but weren’t sure they could. Playing a role in helping someone live their best life is a privilege.

It is particularly special to me to receive such a prestigious award in this of all years, because next Wednesday will be the 25^th anniversary of the first episode of the first ever global call-in show for the blind community, Blind Line. Doug Geoffray, then of GW Micro, was my first ever guest, and man was I nervous. And on 1 December of this year, it will be the 25^th anniversary of me pressing the button that launched ACB Radio. That was a special time, because I was devising the playbook, building the infrastructure, and figuring out what global blindness media should be like. ACB can be rightly proud of the world-leading role it played in developing blindness media for the Internet age. It was an exciting, frenetic, innovative, special time and it raised ACB’s global profile significantly. I have many fond memories of the people I worked with and the conventions I covered.

No one is an island, so in accepting this award, I do so with thanks for the many people I’ve had the privilege of working with over the years. In particular I want to thank the ACB Radio broadcasters during my tenure, the amazing, dedicated team of fun guys at Mushroom FM, and our little Living Blindfully Team who produce content that is now heard in 113 countries.

You don’t do these things with any expectation you’ll receive an award like this one, at least I don’t. But when they happen, being acknowledged by your peers in this way is incredibly special, and means a great deal to me. It strengthens my determination to ensure that every blind person feels empowered to assert their worth with confidence, and has the tools and high expectations to live their best life. Thank you so much once again.”