by Tony Cobb
From the Editor: This helpful information comes from Tony Cobb, who for many years served as a fixture in the lobby of our convention hotels. Here is an important warning for those who may be considering how to pay for their stay:
Every year at our national convention we have serious trouble with use of debit cards or cash payments at hotel check-in, and, having worked to solve these problems for years, I can tell you they can nearly ruin the convention week for those experiencing them. Planning to attend our national convention should therefore include thinking seriously about how to pay the hotel, and I cannot urge you strongly enough to avoid using cash or a debit card as your payment method. Doing so may seem convenient, but you should not do so. If you do not have a credit card of your own to use instead, prevail upon a close friend or family member to let you use one just for convention. Here’s why:
If you are paying in actual currency, most hotels will want enough cash up front at check-in to cover your room and tax charges for the entire stay, plus a one-time advance incidentals deposit to cover meals, telephone calls, internet service, and other things you may charge to your room. The unused portion of the incidentals deposit may be returned at check-out or by mail after departure. Understand, however, that, if your incidentals charges exceed the incidentals deposit credited, you are responsible for payment of the full balance at check-out. The total can end up being a very large sum indeed.
If you use a debit card, however, you are really at a potentially painful disadvantage. The hotel will put a hold on money in your bank account linked to the debit card to cover the estimated balance of your stay—that is, for the entire week’s room and tax charges plus a one-time incidentals deposit to cover meals, movies, and so on charged to your room. You should be aware that the hold can therefore be a considerable amount of money and that you will not have access to that amount for any other purchases or payments with your card. Hotels sometimes also put authorizations on credit cards, by the way, but those are not often a problem unless they exceed your card’s credit limit.
Holds can remain in effect for three to five days or even a week after you check out. If you have pre-authorized payments from your bank account, for example your monthly mortgage payment, or if you try to make a purchase with your debit card and it's refused, the hold from the hotel can cause you trouble or result in very large overdraft fees for payments you thought you had money in your account to cover. I have seen this hit some of our members in the form of hundreds of dollars in overdraft fees.
This means that, if you use a debit card, you would have to be certain you have a high enough balance in your checking account when you come to convention to cover any debit card holds. This is a perilous practice since charges may exceed your estimate by a considerable amount. Some frequent travelers even open a separate checking account used only for debits like these. Remember, a hold is going to be placed on your debit card regardless of how you end up paying the bill, and the hold is not necessarily released right away, even if you pay with a credit card or cash when you check out of the hotel.
Planning ahead in this area can ensure an untroubled week at convention, leaving you free to enjoy fully the world’s largest and most exciting meeting of the blind.
San Francisco, California (April 29, 2024): A jury in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California rendered a verdict in favor of Lisamaria Martinez, a blind entrepreneur, in her equal access lawsuit against the County of Alameda. The jury found that the county Clerk-Recorder’s Office deliberately violated her rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and California law and awarded damages in the amount of $30,500 dollars.
The lawsuit stemmed from an incident on March 29, 2019, at the Alameda County Clerk-Recorder’s Office, where Ms. Martinez was denied assistance to write information on a printed form in order to register her business name. The lawsuit asserted that this refusal contravened federal and state disability laws. Personnel at the office cited internal policy that prohibited clerks from providing transcriber services to assist Ms. Martinez in completing a paper form. Title II of the ADA specifically requires state and local government entities to provide auxiliary aids and services, such as a reader/transcriber to help blind or print-disabled people fill out forms.
“This case underscores the legal obligations of public entities to ensure equal access and non-discriminatory treatment for all individuals, including the blind,” said Mark Riccobono, President of the National Federation of the Blind, which supported the litigation. “Even when technological solutions are available, the policies of these entities must be flexible so that blind people have the same options that are available to everyone else, including the ability to fill out a paper form. The fact that we had to join Lisamaria Martinez in her courageous five-year fight for one of the most basic accommodations contemplated by the law is shocking. Fortunately, the jury recognized and rectified this injustice. We stand ready to collaborate with any entity that seeks our help with best practices for providing both human and computer-based access for blind residents depending on their needs, but we will not tolerate willful discrimination and are prepared to fight until we win.”
"After a grueling five-year journey, my Federation family and I have reached a verdict that upholds the right to equal access for all,” said Lisamaria Martinez. “When Alameda County refused to collaborate with us on a solution, I was faced with a choice: remain silent or fight against a clear injustice. In choosing to fight, I risked being told my rights were different because I am blind—a risk worth taking to ensure no other blind person faces this kind of discrimination. I am grateful to the jury and proud to have torn down artificial barriers so that no other blind person who enters an Alameda County office will encounter them."
Lisamaria Martinez was represented by Timothy R. Elder of the San Francisco-based TRE Legal Practice, www.trelegal.com and Tomiyo Stoner of Undaunted Law Firm, P.C.
Maurice Mines sends us the following: Jonathan Mosen will be our main speaker. He was so excited about coming that he asked if he could stay for the entire division meeting. I of course, said yes. We will also have the head of the I Can Connect program nationally coming to join us in Orlando. She’ll talk about the program’s offerings. In addition, we have the regional director of Helen Keller coming to talk with us. Two professional blind women will speak; one of them is, of course, a long-time author, Deborah Kendrick, and the other is our former Second Vice President Danielle Burton. They’re going to talk about how they got their jobs and what challenges they faced. They’ll also give some tips to others looking for employment.
We have confirmed that Orbit Research and HumanWare will attend and present. There may be more to come, but that’s what I have so far set up for the division agenda this summer.
Sonos is a company that produces high-quality audio products, such as speakers and other components, that connect to the internet and each other through home wi-fi networks. Many blind people have been enthusiastic users of its products over the years because the company maintained high standards of accessibility. With the recent redesign of the smartphone app that is used to control a user’s devices, there was a severe degradation of screen-reader accessibility. Sonos has since acknowledged the issue and reached out to the National Federation of the Blind to ask for our help in recruiting blind beta testers for future iterations of the app. Since the company says that it will be rolling out accessibility improvements through the end of June, signing up right away will likely be the best way to test these improvements and provide feedback. If you are a Sonos user and would like to participate in its beta program, here is the link to sign up: https://beta.sonos.com/key/passport.
We anticipate that a future Monitor and other Federation communications will contain more information on our advocacy with Sonos.
I pledge to participate actively in the efforts of the National Federation of the Blind to achieve equality, opportunity, and security for the blind; to support the policies and programs of the Federation; and to abide by its constitution.