BCA has a long-standing tradition of accepting recommendations from members as part of its national and state conventions. We were unable to hold an in-person convention in 2021 but wanted to ensure that members retained the opportunity to share their feedback and ideas. Recommendations were accepted at the September BCA Inform event in 2021.
In total, eight recommendations were proposed with seven of them being adopted. A working group of BCA directors and staff was convened to work through the recommendations and implement them into BCA’s operations.
Recommendations included providing peer support, increased access to resources and information, strengthening advocacy efforts on matters relating to COVID-19 and government forms, and increasing BCA’s engagement with younger people and people new to vision loss.
While work on many of these recommendations will occur over an extended time period, we have set about increasing the variety of peer connect groups available to ensure everyone has the opportunity to meet with people who share a similar interest. We are also continuing our advocacy on all health-related matters, including COVID-19 and ensuring we continue to highlight and petition for the unique needs of people who are blind or vision impaired to be addressed by state and federal governments.
We continue to investigate new ways of providing information and access to up to date resources to all members. We have introduced several additions to our existing communications channels, including extra mail outs to members without email addresses and increasing the amount of pre-recorded information available on our phone system.
We thank those who submitted recommendations for your interest in BCA’s work and for your contributions to helping us to reflect our members’ concerns.
BCA will host another recommendations session later in 2022. We will provide more information as the date approaches. We encourage all members to consider submitting their recommendations and look forward to working with members to ensure all views are heard and our work is lead by our membership.