Biography

Dr. Rebecca Sheffield is the Senior Policy Researcher at the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB), responsible for AFB’s ongoing efforts to improve advocacy for people with vision loss and to share and describe research, data, and statistics about Americans with vision loss. She holds a Ph.D. in Special Education from Texas Tech University and was a fellow in the National Leadership Consortium in Sensory Disabilities. Rebecca has experience teaching and supporting infants and students with visual impairments and their families as a certified Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments in Texas. Rebecca represents the American Foundation for the Blind in leadership roles within the World Blind Union and the International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment and is an active member of the Association for the Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired. She co-leads AFB’s 21^st Century National Agenda on Aging and Vision Loss and represents AFB in the Leadership Council of Aging Organizations. Her research interests center on the national and international implications of listening to people with visual impairments of all ages in order to study the extent to which policies, programs, and services actually improve quality of life.