This past year, producer and host of AFB Possibilities Tony Stephens traveled to west Virginia to capture the stories of six individuals who are blind or have low vision. Traveling by train from the East Coast, he experienced first hand the states beauty and ruggedness as they crawled through the Appalachian Mountains before settling on the banks of the Ohio River. What he discovered was a strong spirit of independence standing on the shoulders of communities that strive to take care of one-another. The same values that made these mountain towns thrive in the early days of our nation's founding remain just as strong today in the stories of these six individuals: Heather, Lee, Earl, Asher, John and Aaron.

The stories were featured in the 2025 documentary short film Unseen Horizons, which is available to watch on YouTube.

A production of the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB), the documentary film was made possible through the generous support of the Teubert Foundation.

Produced and edited by Tony Stephens at the Pickle Factory in Baltimore, Maryland with digital media support from Kelly Gasque and Breanna Kerr.

Theme music for this episode is "As Far As the Eye Can See" by Tristan Barton licensed through ArtList.IO.

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In 2025, the American Foundation for the blind (AFB) launched the AFB Scholars Program, which provides substantial financial support and mentoring to graduate and undergraduate students who are blind. Our first cohort welcomed four students into the program, and we had a chance at the 2025 AFB Leadership Conference to sit down and meet with two of the scholars, Josh Olukanni at Georgetown and Annika Ariel at Stanford. Applications are open through February. 17th for our next class of scholars. Visit the scholars program page to learn more and apply. Goto: https://www.afb.org/scholarships.

Visit the podcast page for other episodes and transcripts, and to learn more about AFB or to support our work creating a world of endless possibilities for people who are blind or have low vision, visit us online at www.afb.org.

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Welcome back to another episode of AFB Possibilities, a podcast from the American Foundation for the Blind. In this episode, Tony Stephens sits down for a conversation with Matt Ater.

Matt is Senior Vice President for Vispero, a leading global assistive technology and digital accessibility company. In this episode, Matt share his own journey as a blind leader in the digital accessibility space. Together, he and Tony cover the span from the early days of low tech, to what exciting opportunities are on the horizon through high tech. Matt's leadership has helped make the world more accessible for people who are blind or have low vision -- he's even in the kiosk Hall of Fame. So, we hope you enjoy this conversation.

You can learn more about the exciting work of Vispero at: https://vispero.com

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To learn more about AFB or to support our work, visit us online at www.afb.org.

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