[Blindtlk] NFB Executive Mark Riccobono Honored by Wisconsin Alumni Association

[Freeh, Jessica]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE



CONTACT:

Chris Danielsen

Director of Public Relations

National Federation of the Blind

(410) 659-9314, extension 2330

(410) 262-1281 (Cell)

<mailto:cdanielsen at nfb.org>cdanielsen at nfb.org



NFB Executive Mark Riccobono Honored
by Wisconsin Alumni Association


Named a 2011 Forward under 40 Honoree



Baltimore, Maryland (March 9, 2011): The National 
Federation of the Blind (NFB), the oldest and 
largest organization of blind people in the 
United States, today announced that Mark 
Riccobono, executive director of the NFB Jernigan 
Institute, has been named a 2011 Forward under 40 
honoree by the Wisconsin Alumni Association.  The 
Forward under 40 award program honors University 
of Wisconsin graduates under age forty who are 
making a positive impact on the world.  Riccobono 
is a 1999 graduate of the University of Wisconsin.



Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National 
Federation of the Blind, said: “We are very 
pleased and proud to see Mark Riccobono receive 
this tremendous honor from his alma mater.  Under 
his exemplary leadership of the NFB Jernigan 
Institute, countless innovative programs that 
tackle critical issues of importance to blind 
people have been developed, including science 
academies and advocacy programs for blind youth 
and initiatives that seek to improve the Braille 
literacy rate among blind people both young and 
old.  He truly exemplifies the NFB motto: 
‘changing what it means to be blind.’”



Mark Riccobono said: “As the executive director 
of the first research and training institute on 
blindness led by the blind, I have been fortunate 
to play a role in many exciting and life-changing 
developments for blind people in 
America­including getting behind the wheel of a 
car equipped with a nonvisual interface that 
allows the blind to drive independently.  While 
we have made much progress, there is still more 
to be done.  Only 10 percent of blind children 
are learning Braille in this country, and this 
directly contributes to a 70 percent unemployment 
rate among blind people in the United States.  I 
humbly thank the Wisconsin Alumni Association for 
this great honor and hope that it will create 
interest in the work of the Federation among my 
fellow Wisconsin Alumni as well as those from other great universities.”



Riccobono was the first director of the Wisconsin 
Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired, a 
state agency that serves Wisconsin’s blind 
children.  Since coming to the headquarters of 
the National Federation of the Blind in 2003, he 
has spearheaded many initiatives, including 
educational programs designed to engage blind 
youth in the fields of science, technology, 
engineering, and mathematics.  He currently 
serves as executive director of the NFB Jernigan Institute.



On January 29, 2011, Riccobono became the first 
blind person to drive a street vehicle in public 
without the assistance of a sighted person.  He 
was behind the wheel of a Ford Escape hybrid 
equipped with nonvisual technology and 
successfully navigated 1.5 miles of the road 
course section of the famed track at the Daytona 
International Speedway.  This successful 
demonstration was part of the NFB’s Blind Driver 
Challenge™ initiative, which challenges 
universities, technology developers, and other 
interested innovators to establish NFB Blind 
Driver Challenge™ (BDC) teams­in collaboration 
with the NFB­to build interface technologies that 
will empower blind people to drive a car independently.



Riccobono and his wife Melissa, who has worked as 
a school counselor and serves as president of the 
Maryland affiliate of the NFB, live in Baltimore 
with their two small children, Austin and Oriana.



For more information about the National 
Federation of the Blind, please visit <http://www.nfb.org/>www.nfb.org.





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About the National Federation of the Blind

With more than 50,000 members, the National 
Federation of the Blind is the largest and most 
influential membership organization of blind 
people in the United States.  The NFB improves 
blind people’s lives through advocacy, education, 
research, technology, and programs encouraging 
independence and self-confidence.  It is the 
leading force in the blindness field today and 
the voice of the nation's blind.  In January 2004 
the NFB opened the National Federation of the 
Blind Jernigan Institute, the first research and 
training center in the United States for the blind led by the blind.