VI Guide-MAPVI Board of Directors

The 2003 MAPVI Board of Directors are:

Susan Rawley (Newsletter Editor)
24 Champlain Dr
Hudson MA 01749
(978) 562-2389
E-mail: srawley@granahan.com

Barbara Slattery (MA regional representative)
24 Old Deerfield Rd
Fitchburg MA 01420
(978) 345-5729
E-mail: slattery@massed.net

Kris Thurston (Database Coordinator)
38 Willow Rd
Sudbury MA 01776
(978) 443-2059
E-mail: kithurston@comcast.net

Judy Westgate (President and Treasurer)
22 Old Marlboro Rd
Maynard MA 01754
(978) 897-3005
E-mail: westgatene@aol.com

If you are interested in assisting in any of MAPVI's current projects or becoming a board member, please send an e-mail to mapvi-info@viguide.com.

Some of our current projects, funded in part from a grant from the Hilton-Perkins Foundation, are:

Developing a lending library of Descriptive Video Services (DVS) videos, for use by our members. These videos are for children of all ages and have an extra audio track overlaid during quiet moments in the soundtrack to describe what is occuring on-screen. These are "mainstream" movies, including Disney movies.
Increasing our outreach efforts, by mailing brochures to Massachusetts' neonatal intensive care units (NICUs), level II nurseries, and Lions Clubs. By doing this, we hope they will spread the word about MAPVI's existence to their families, clients and colleagues, thus helping to ensure those individuals have access to additional resources about visual impairments. This expands upon our 1997 outreach effort which involved doing a similar mailing to Massachusetts early intervention offices, ophthalmologists, Special Education directors, teachers of the visually impaired, orientation and mobility specialists, and various blindness-related organizations.organizations.
Continuing our efforts to educate and train MAPVI members and friends about various technology topics such as: accessing information through the Internet and games which are accessible to children with visual impairments. This year, we will emphasize taking our most popular speaker topics to various parts of the state, to ensure access by a wider audience.
Expanding our web site to share information from our speaker meetings, past newsletters, etc.
Offering a wider variety of social and experiential activities for our children and their families in various parts of the state, including opportunities to talk with others in similar circumstances.

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