Give for Good Provides Glimpse into The Dot Experience

Since 1858, APH has called Louisville, KY home, growing alongside the community we proudly serve. Though much of our work at APH is funded through The Federal Act to Promote the Education of the Blind (The Act), as a nonprofit, we also rely on the support of donors to serve our customers and community across the nation and the world. On Thursday, September 12, 2024, we were honored to join forces with our neighbors in Kentuckiana to participate in Give for Good Louisville, an annual day of giving that connects supporters with local causes. This year’s Give for Good was a testament to the power of our community’s generosity, and thanks to those donations, we are making significant strides toward building APH’s new innovative museum, The Dot Experience.

This year, community members across an 8-county region in Kentucky and Southern Indiana came together to support hundreds of organizations in honor of Give for Good Louisville. Hosted by the Community Foundation of Louisville, Give for Good Louisville has now become the biggest online giving day in the Kentuckiana region. For the past 11 years, this day has been a great way for local organizations to connect with current donors and grow new relationships. This year, APH was one of the 591 organizations that participated in Give for Good Louisville, where a total of 25,517 donors came together to raise $9,524,908! $17,274 of that total was raised in honor of The Dot Experience.

To celebrate Give for Good Louisville, APH hosted a special behind-the-scenes sneak peek that evening at Solid Light, the nationally recognized design firm helping to build The Dot Experience. At the event, guests got to view and interact with a variety of prototypes and activity concepts that will be a part of The Dot Experience when it opens in 2026. All of these stations showcased aspects of the accessible and interactive nature of The Dot Experience. One station demonstrated how we are creating touchable replicas of artifacts from the museum collection that cannot be touched. This station had an original scroll casket, given to Helen Keller on a trip to India, mounted in a glass case and below it was a 3D tactile recreation of the scroll casket that guests could touch and explore up close. This scroll is just one of many items in our collection that we are recreating so that all visitors who come to The Dot Experience have access to the entirety of our exhibits, not just a portion of them.

Another activity included at the Give for Good event was the prototype for the Helen Keller Archive station. APH currently houses the Helen Keller Archive, which offers a wide-ranging view of Helen Keller through her own words, photographs, artifacts, and more. This archive station will give visitors the opportunity to dig deeper into a curated series of themes and stories all supported by and featuring Keller’s life work. Guests at Solid Light got to explore a prototype digital kiosk with accessible navigation tools that allow visitors with varying abilities to explore this digital interactive with ease.

The activities showcased at APH’s Give for Good Louisville event offered just a glimpse of the exciting developments underway for The Dot Experience. While there is still much work ahead before we open in 2026, the generous contributions from this year’s donors are helping us move closer to that goal. We extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone who donated, supporting the resources and opportunities needed to bring The Dot Experience to life. If you missed the chance to participate in Give For Good but would still like to contribute, there are many ways to make a donation to The Dot Experience and APH.