National Federation of the Blind

Live the life you want

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612-872-9363
X: NFBMN
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The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise the expectations of blind people, because low expectations create obstacles between blind people and our dreams. You can live the life you want; blindness is not what holds you back.

Founded in 1920, the National Federation of the Blind of Minnesota (NFBM) is a vital part of the National Federation of the Blind, the nation's oldest, largest, and most influential membership organization of blind persons. With more than fifty thousand members, the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) has affiliates in all fifty states plus Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico, and over seven hundred local chapters. The members of NFBM come from all over the state and include students, parents, children, seniors, and other blind people with a wide range of occupations--as well as family members and friends of blind people. Our local chapters meet monthly, and we have semiannual statewide conventions.

We present talks, films, and seminars to local and statewide organizations. We serve as an information center for blind persons of all ages, their families, people losing their sight, and the public at large.
We publish and distribute free newsletters containing information on current issues facing the blind, as well as resource guides for parents, educators, employers, and blind senior citizens, and other material aimed at dispelling misunderstanding and stereotypes about blindness.
We make available NFB-NEWSLINE® for the Blind, the world's first free newspaper service, offering the blind the complete text of over 300 national and local newspapers over the telephone or in other alternative formats.
We act to be sure blind people have access to vital services such as public transportation, the voting booth, banking, airline travel, online information, etc.
We are a continuing forum for discussion of the day-to-day problems often faced by blind people and a source of practical solutions to those problems.
We support opportunities for blind persons to develop confidence in the use of the alternative techniques of blindness (for example use of white cane and Braille.)
We provide role models to help other blind people know that they, too, can live the lives they want.
We present seminars for blind students and for parents of blind children.
We help blind college students to continue their education through a state scholarship and the NFB national scholarship program.