Introducing ConnectAlt: The BLV Community's One-Stop, Accessible Calendar, Built by and for the BLV Community

What’s Happening Next?

Every week I hear the same question in different words: “Where do I find what’s happening next?” ConnectAlt.com answers it with a single, accessible hub for blind and low-vision (BLV) events, programs, and resources, so you spend less time hunting and more time showing up. It’s a straightforward promise: one searchable calendar with sensible filters that points you to what matters, when it matters.

Here’s what I’ll cover: the discovery problem ConnectAlt solves; the team behind it, creator and co-founder Lucie Courtois (who is blind), with Carol Trapani and Ella Deshautreaux, and why that mix works; how readers, organizations, and VR/educators can put it to work today; what to expect around independence, accessibility, and sustainability; and where your participation and feedback can help it grow. The goal is practical and immediate: make it easier for our community to find, share, and attend the opportunities already out there.

The Discovery Problem: Why Centralization Helps

If you’re part of the BLV community, or support it, you already know the drill: information is scattered across websites, listservs, newsletters, and social feeds. That fragmentation carries a cost. People miss opportunities, organizations duplicate planning, and readers and caregivers spend too much cognitive energy just figuring out what exists and when it happens.

A hub helps because it shortens the path from “I’m looking” to “I’m going.” One searchable index with sensible filters, keyword, date, organization, and location (including virtual), reduces time-to-find and, in turn, boosts participation. Centralization simply complements the great local newsletters and specialized lists we all rely on; a good hub aggregates pointers and context, not ownership. And “good” here is concrete: fresh, verified listings, transparent submission guidelines, and an accessible presentation that everyone can navigate.

What ConnectAlt Is: Product, Scope, and Access

At its core, ConnectAlt is a searchable calendar and directory with filters that actually map to how you look for things, keyword, date, organization, and location, including virtual. It indexes three buckets our readers care about most: events (workshops, conferences, meetups), programs (education, rehab, mobility, tech training), and resources (support services, tools, organizations). The build is accessibility-first, keyboard-friendly structure, clear hierarchy, screen-reader considerations, and skip-links, with improvements treated as an ongoing practice, not a one-and-done checkbox.

Listings enter through organization submissions and team curation, with updates aligned to major BLV convenings, and simple public contact points for corrections. Like any hub, the watch-items are listing freshness, geographic coverage, and moderation capacity; the team’s posture is to measure and iterate, tighten update cadence, broaden regional intake, and refine workflows with community feedback, so the directory stays useful day to day, not just on launch day.

Built By And For The Community: Meet The Team

Meet the trio behind ConnectAlt. Lucie Courtois, creator and co-founder, is blind since birth and serves as the project’s voice of the end-user, shaping purpose and usability; she’s also the author of Miracle: Endless Possibilities (2021). Carol Trapani, co-founder, leads outreach, partnerships, and scale, drawing on deep community leadership as Board Chair at Beyond Blindness and a parallel career as a Senior Vice President at CBRE, where enterprise prospecting and negotiation are the job. Ella Deshautreaux, co-founder, runs media, communications, and day-to-day operations, the connective tissue across channels and campaigns.

Why this team matters is simple: lived experience (Lucie) + relationship capital and execution rigor (Carol) + operational follow-through (Ella) is the right mix for a national aggregation effort. They’re publicly reachable (info@connectalt.com 📧️, carol@connectalt.com 📧️, ella@connectalt.com 📧️) and they show up where the community gathers, from exhibitor presence at NFB 2025 to Carol planning to speak at the Blind Travel Summit in Austin on November 13—14, 2025. That combination, accessibility by design, accountability in the open, and visible presence, builds the kind of trust a hub like this depends on.

What This Means for Tidbits Readers: Use Cases and Wins

For individuals and families, ConnectAlt means no more trawling six sites to piece together your week, you search once, filter by keyword, date, organization, or location (including virtual), and get what you need. Educators and VR counselors can quickly surface programs by topic and region, shortening the time between “I have a student/client who needs this” and “they’re registered and on their way.”

For nonprofits and providers, a single submission reaches a concentrated, relevant audience without duplicating outreach across multiple channels. Employers and AT leaders can track skills-building and hiring-adjacent events against a community calendar, aligning outreach with when people are already gathering. The net effect is simple: less searching, fewer missed opportunities, higher attendance, and better fit between needs and offerings.

Independence, Sustainability, and Transparency

First, disclosure: ConnectAlt has joined Top Tech Tidbits as a Sponsor. Our publication remains not-for-profit and editorially independent; support like this keeps the lights on without changing how we evaluate tools for readers. ConnectAlt’s own sustainability posture is evolving, exploring sponsorships, organization-side analytics and featured placements, grants, and potential API access, while keeping core access free for the BLV community.

Centralization has risks; any hub can become a bottleneck. The mitigations are straightforward and we’ll watch for them: open submission pathways, clear and documented moderation, and a visible update cadence. On data and privacy, our bias is reader-first, keep submissions purposeful, avoid dark patterns, and state how contact data is used. Our north star doesn’t change: better to serve the few perfectly than the many ordinarily, with transparency and measurable utility over hype.

How to Get Started Today in Five Minutes

Start at ConnectAlt.com and run a quick search. Try a keyword, set a date range, and toggle virtual vs. in-person; you can also filter by organization or location to narrow fast. If you spot a gap or an error, use the site’s contact channel or email the team directly (info@connectalt.com, carol@connectalt.com, or ella@connectalt.com) with the correction.

If you’re an organization, submit your event or resource through the site’s submission flow with the basics covered, who, what, when, where, and how to register, and designate a point person to keep listings fresh. Standardize your format so updates are easy, follow and share announcements across your social channels, and point VR counselors, educators, and peers to the hub. Want to do more? Provide feedback on what you need indexed next and, if you’re interested, let the team know you’re available for accessibility testing. For org-side options like analytics or featured placements, ask the team as they evaluate monetization, core access remains free.

Roadmap and What We’ll Watch

Here’s the yardstick. Coverage and freshness first: total listings, active organizations, regional spread, and a visible update cadence. On accessibility QA, we’ll be looking for ongoing WCAG checks, regular keyboard and screen-reader testing, and a public changelog of fixes. Accessibility as a practice, not a press release. For partner integrations, the signal will be an API or embeddable feeds that let orgs surface relevant slices of the calendar on their own sites and in newsletters without copy-paste drift.

On visibility, ConnectAlt’s exhibitor presence at NFB 2025 and Carol’s planned talk at the Blind Travel Summit in Austin (November 13—14, 2025) are the right kinds of touchpoints used to deepen submissions and partnerships. Success looks like measurable outcomes reported by users and orgs: attendance lift where listings appear, submission volume trending up with fewer duplicates, and time-to-find reductions when people use filters by keyword, date, organization, and location/virtual. If an integration or metric helps you reach more of the right people, that’s what matters.

The Short Path from “Where Is It?” to “I’m There”

ConnectAlt centralizes BLV events, programs, and resources into a single, accessible hub built by and for the community, led by creator/co-founder Lucie Courtois (who is blind) with Carol Trapani and Ella Deshautreaux. The outcome is straightforward: less searching, more participation. You get clear accountability from a visible team, a sustainability posture that keeps core access free, and an accessibility practice that treats improvement as ongoing work, not a checkbox.

Visit ConnectAlt.com today, run a search, submit your next event, or share it with someone who needs it. Sincerest thanks to ConnectAlt for sponsoring Top Tech Tidbits; our publication remains not-for-profit and editorially independent, focused on practical, measurable value in your inbox every Thursday morning. Tell them what worked, what didn’t, and what you want indexed next. Your feedback helps steer what gets found tomorrow.

Sidebar / FAQ

How does ConnectAlt differ from my local listserv?

Aggregation at scale. Broader coverage across regions and categories, consistent filters (keyword, date, organization, location/virtual), and clear pointers back to the original sources.

Will Tidbits duplicate listings?

Probably. The “Featured Events” section shared by the Top Tech Tidbits and Access Information Newsletters will continue to operate independently of this new resource. We’ll continue to reference and link where it benefits readers most, keeping Tidbits and AIN focused on curation, rather than attempting to mirror a complete directory.

How do organizations avoid duplicate submissions?

Standardize your listing template and designate a single point of contact to manage updates.

Can I embed a feed?

Ask the team about API or embeddable options as they pilot integrations; they’re exploring approaches that let organizations surface relevant slices without copy-paste drift.

Cheers!

” The greatest barrier to acessibility is indifference. “

Aaron Di Blasi, PMP
Engineer, Educator, Advocate, Publisher and Journalist, President & Sr. PMP, Mind Vault Solutions, Ltd., PR Director: AT-Newswire, Publisher: AI-Weekly, Top Tech Tidbits, Access Information News, Title II Today

Mind Vault Solutions, Ltd.
President, Sr. Project Management Professional (2006 — Present)
Innovative ideas. Solutions that perform.