Brazos Valley Center for Independent Living

Connecting people to the power of independence

visual impairment

Living Without Limits Panel Discussion This Tuesday, February 4

February is Low Vision Awareness Month!

Come join Insightful Connections, the organization of Texas A&M students who are blind or visually impaired, to learn more about the challenges and triumphs of those who have low or no vision. Topics will be Braille, independent travel, assistive technology, and life experiences, followed by a question-and-answer session.

Logistical details are:

When: Tuesday, February 4th
Location: Koldus 111
Time: 5:30pm – 6:30pm

Local Vision Awareness Day with Assistive Technology

Learn more about living with vision loss on Tuesday, April 3, 2013. Sponsored by Christal Vision and presented by Freedom Scientific, this seminar will feature hands-on demonstrations of many products useful to people who have low vision, such as adaptive computer software, digital magnifiers, and “talking” devices. Participants will also enjoy FREE learning sessions and a free lunch.

Space is limited, so be sure to register early! Here’s the info:

Date: Tuesday, April 3, 2013Time: 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Location:
United Way of the Brazos Valley
909 Southwest Parkway E., Suite 100
College Station, Texas 77840

Register by Phone: (800) 336-5658
Register by Email: Seminars@FreedomScientific.com
Register Online: www.FreedomScientific.com/Seminars

Local and Online Tax Prep Help for People with Disabilities

It’s Tax Time again, and if you don’t see well or have any of a number of other access needs, those piles of forms can be downright daunting! But wait! There’s lots of help out there!

The Governor’s Committee on People with Disabilities once again announces “Tax Time with Lex the Service Dog,” a captioned video guiding people who have disabilities to accessible online resources for tax prep. And he even does it in sign language. Just click the red and white arrow to meet Lex:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=B6cMaSwCjU8

For those not comfortable doing taxes on the Internet, we also have great local resources to help with tax prep. Both the Bryan and College Station public libraries offer FREE tax prep assistance to anyone in the community, and they tell us they are more than willing to take the extra steps to assist their neighbors who have disabilities, such as explaining complex tax topics and reading small print forms out loud.

Here are the times and locations:

Clara B. Mounce Library in Bryan:

201 East 26th Street
Bryan, Texas 77803
(979) 209-5600

Hours are: MWF 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., T 1:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m., R 2:00 – 5:00 p.m., Saturdays 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Larry J. Ringer Library in College Station:

1818 Harvey Mitchell Parkway
College Station, Texas  77845
(979) 764-3416

Hours: MWF 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., Saturdays 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Both locations are fully wheelchair accessible. Use elevator at Bryan location to access tax help on second floor.