National Federation of the Blind

National Federation of the Blind

The Braille Monitor

August/September, 2002

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National Federation

of the Blind 2002 Resolutions

Resolution

2002-01

WHEREAS, access to educational

materials and textbooks is the primary means to provide successful educational

experiences to blind and visually impaired children; and

WHEREAS, inaccessibility

to such materials denies blind and visually impaired children the opportunity

to become successful and equal participants in school and careers after graduation;

and

WHEREAS, the Individuals

with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the Rehabilitation Act, and the Americans

with Disabilities Act (ADA) do not prescribe relevant or specific accessibility

standards or a means by which textbooks can be provided in the particular nonvisual

format needed by a blind student; and

WHEREAS, schools do not

presently have a legally enforceable or practical means of ensuring that publishers

provide electronic files of textbooks in enough time for the books to be reproduced

in alternate formats; and

WHEREAS, pending legislation

in Congress, entitled the Instructional Materials Accessibility Act (IMAA),

developed in consultation with the Association of American Publishers, calls

for a process to make instructional materials available to blind and visually

impaired persons at the same time they are provided to other students; and

WHEREAS, once enacted,

the IMAA will create a process for the development of an agreed-upon electronic

file format and establish a repository for electronic files of educational materials

from which all school districts in America can promptly access them; and

WHEREAS, the IMAA will

also require publishers of instructional materials to provide the electronic

files to the repository and will authorize grants for states to establish or

augment their means of producing materials in alternative formats; and

WHEREAS, the implementation

of IMAA will ensure equality and opportunity for blind and visually impaired

children in elementary and secondary schools in America: Now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the National

Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this ninth day of July, 2002,

in the City of Louisville, Kentucky, that this organization urge Congress to

pass the Instructional Materials Accessibility Act (IMAA) during its current

session to insure henceforth that America's blind children will have access

to instructional materials equal to that of their sighted peers.

Resolution

2002-02

WHEREAS, an increasing

amount of instruction in schools is presented through electronic information

systems, often with little or no thought given to their nonvisual accessibility;

and

WHEREAS, as this trend

continues, blind students will find themselves at a greater and greater educational

disadvantage; and

WHEREAS, the State of Maryland

recently passed a law requiring

compliance with accessibility

standards in the purchase of instructional technology; and

WHEREAS, an effort is underway

among a consortium of disability-related educational groups to include such

a provision in legislation now before Congress to amend the Individuals with

Disabilities Education Act: Now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the National

Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this ninth day of July, 2002,

in the City of Louisville, Kentucky, that this organization call upon Congress

and those state legislatures which have not yet done so to enact legislation

requiring that all instructional technology purchased by schools ensure the

availability of nonvisual access to both the technology and content by rigorously

applying accessibility standards (including standards for nonvisual access)

and by using audio description where appropriate and necessary to convey essential

information.

Resolution

2002-03

Failed to Pass

Resolution

2002-04

WHEREAS, Braille, with

all of its various codes, represents a viable and essential tool of literacy

for the blind; and

WHEREAS, the current literary,

math, and computer Braille codes used in the United States have been learned

and used by more than a generation of blind persons and found to be extremely

effective; and

WHEREAS, the relative stability

of these codes has enabled the United States to accumulate a collection of math

and science textbooks which rivals that of any other English-speaking country;

and

WHEREAS, since 1992 the

Braille Authority of North America (BANA) and later the International Council

on English Braille (ICEB) have been engaged in an effort to create a Unified

English Braille Code (UEBC), which would combine the literary, math and science,

and computer codes into one unified system to be used by all English-speaking

countries; and

WHEREAS, the proposed UEBC

would effectively destroy the mathematics, scientific, and technical codes used

by Braille users in this country, not to mention making nontrivial changes to

literary Braille; and

WHEREAS, the proposed UEBC

does not address a particularly labor-intensive part of the process to convert

printed material into literary Braille--specifically, it does not make it easier

to produce properly formatted Braille from printed material originally prepared

for visual presentation; and

WHEREAS, transition to

a system as radically different as the UEBC would make obsolete the vast holdings

of mathematics, scientific, and technical materials in the United States and

require Braille teachers to be retrained, skilled Braille transcribers to be

recertified, training materials to be rewritten, and computer software to be

modified--all at a cost of millions of dollars; and

WHEREAS, the theory of

an unambiguous, expandable, and unified Braille code for English-speaking countries

seems attractive, but the inevitable sacrifices in brevity and quality--particularly

in the areas of mathematics and science--far outweigh any gains that might be

brought about by the adoption of an unproven, untested, and radically different

system; and

WHEREAS, given the already

relatively scarce resources available to the blindness community, a new Braille

system in no way superior to the system currently in place cannot justify the

great cost and effort required for its implementation; and

WHEREAS, with the imminent

passage of a bill in Congress requiring textbooks to be made available in a

predefined electronic format, Braille in the United States is poised to reach

a new and exciting level of availability, making this a particularly poor time

for radical changes in the Braille code; and

WHEREAS, there is no question

that from time to time, in response to changes in print usage, Braille codes

require alterations; and

WHEREAS, BANA has abrogated

its responsibility for Braille code creation by allowing Committee II of ICEB

to develop the Unified English Braille Code, which has not been adopted by other

English-speaking countries: Now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the National

Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this ninth day of July, 2002,

in the City of Louisville, Kentucky, that this organization express strong support

for the continued use of all of the Braille codes used in this country today:

the Literary Code, the Braille Code for Textbook Formats and Techniques, the

Nemeth Code for Mathematics and Science, the Computer Braille Code, and the

Braille Music Code--all of which, taken together, have enabled literally thousands

of blind people to achieve literacy in our society; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED

that while acknowledging that minor changes in Braille codes will always be

necessary for this system of literacy to flourish and adapt in a constantly

changing world, this organization express its opposition to any drastic changes

in Braille, particularly if such changes would eliminate or severely diminish

any of the valuable Braille codes used today; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED

that this organization strongly urge the Braille Authority of North America

to retain its responsibilities for maintaining and improving current Braille

codes in North America for Braille users in North America.

Resolution

2002-05

WHEREAS, the Braille Authority

of North America and the International Council on English Braille have for the

last decade worked on a project to unify all the English Braille codes into

one single code; and

WHEREAS, proponents of

this effort have expressed the mistaken belief that current Braille codes (particularly

those related to math, science, and computer notation) are hard to learn, hard

to teach, and hard to translate with computer software; and

WHEREAS, the only one of

these three alleged flaws in Braille that has any validity is that Braille translation

software has not achieved the sophistication that Braille advocates want; and

WHEREAS, with the imminent

passage of a bill in Congress that would require textbooks to be made available

in a predefined digital format, Braille in the United States is about to reach

a new and exciting level of availability, making this a particularly poor time

for radical changes in the Braille code; and

WHEREAS, the promise of

much more widely available Braille throws into sharp relief a weakness of the

Braille unification effort: it proposes to modify the code in vast and undesirable

ways but does not in any way affect the greatest single challenge of computer

Braille translation--specifically, properly formatting in Braille material that

was originally prepared in print for visual presentation; and

WHEREAS, the real problem

with Braille is not its alleged ambiguity, but rather the lack of a sufficient

quantity of material to make computer routines and protocols easy to write,

test, and validate; and

WHEREAS, with huge new

quantities of easily accessed material in a predefined digital format soon to

be available, protocols supporting easier formatting and significantly improved

translation of the more technical aspects of the Braille code are just over

the horizon; and

WHEREAS, once a vast array

of textbooks in a predefined digital format becomes available, it will take

at least five years for Braille translation, formatting, and educational practices

to benefit from the effects of having a virtually limitless supply of material

that can be readily brailled; and

WHEREAS, this desirable

outcome will be thwarted if time has to be wasted relearning a new code, teaching

the new code, and rewriting all the computer programs for a new code that is

actually more cumbersome and bulky than the current one while not in any way

solving the true challenge of computerized Braille production--formatting; and

WHEREAS, stasis in the

Braille code while the reading and translating communities assimilate the changes

that will result from having available textbooks in a predefined digital format

is highly desirable: Now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the National

Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this ninth day of July, 2002,

in the City of Louisville, Kentucky, that this organization call upon the Braille

Authority of North America (BANA) and the International Council on English Braille

(ICEB) to cease and desist all efforts to make radical changes in the Braille

code while the new circumstance of having readily available electronic textbooks

is assimilated and understood; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED

that this organization urge BANA, the ICEB, and the Office of Special Education

and Rehabilitative Services of the United States Department of Education to

make wise use of this vast change in Braille availability to study its effects

and to experiment with minor changes which enhance ease of computer translation,

ease of formatting during translation, and Braille readability, while retaining

the fundamentals of today's Braille codes--the most flexible and powerful reading

and writing tools blind people have ever enjoyed.

Resolution

2002-06

WHEREAS, the Rehabilitation

Act of 1973, as amended, provides federal financial assistance to rehabilitation

agencies in every state designed to meet the needs of blind and disabled adults

with services such as training for independent living, including independent

travel, Braille literacy, and daily living skills; use of specialized aids and

devices; and other goods or services needed for blind people to work and live

independently; and

WHEREAS, the emphasis of

this program is on assisting individuals to achieve an employment outcome, providing

only a small amount of funding needed to serve seniors who may not have a goal

of employment but still need services through a program based on the rehabilitation

model in order to live independently with blindness; and

WHEREAS, more than six

million Americans age fifty-five and older are blind or severely visually impaired,

yet fewer than 5 percent of them can receive rehabilitation services at the

current level of funding specifically targeted for older blind individuals under

Chapter 2 of Title VII of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended; and

WHEREAS, the void in quality

rehabilitation services for the older blind creates huge costs, such as those

reported by the Alliance on Aging Research, which disclosed that visual impairment

is one of the top four reasons why seniors lose their independence, contributing

to medical and long-term care costs of $26 billion annually; and

WHEREAS, without these

services older blind individuals are often forced to exhaust their resources

and live at public expense in assisted-living facilities or nursing homes, which,

compared to living independently, results in significant expense for state and

federal programs; and

WHEREAS, rehabilitation

agencies have demonstrated expertise in providing services required to assist

blind seniors to remain independent, active, and contributing members of society;

and

WHEREAS, the Medicare program

Title XVIII of the Social Security Act provides health insurance coverage and

pays for reasonable and necessary services consistent with the goals of rehabilitation

but delivered and supervised only in a medical model, with services provided

by qualified medical rather than rehabilitation personnel; and

WHEREAS, while seniors

losing vision often need treatment appropriately provided through a medical

model, the reacquisition of independence for newly blind people requires professional

expertise in rehabilitation and is not traditionally or effectively addressed

as part of a medical discipline; and

WHEREAS, Congressman Martin

Frost has introduced H.R. 2674, the Medicare Coverage Equity Act for the Blind,

which amends Title XVIII of the Social Security Act to permit state rehabilitation

agencies serving blind persons age fifty-five and older to serve as Medicare

providers and obtain reimbursement for the cost of serving older blind beneficiaries

who also qualify for Medicare; and

WHEREAS, Congressman Frost's

proposal, using the rehabilitation model, will save billions in medical costs

from injuries and unnecessary nursing home placements while saving the most

important thing of all for seniors and those who love them: the dignity and

independence of strong, able persons who happen to be blind due to aging; and

WHEREAS, an alternative

proposal introduced in Congress as H.R. 2484 and S. 1967 calls for extending

Medicare coverage to so-called "vision rehabilitation" services for

Medicare beneficiaries of any age, when such services are provided or supervised

by a physician, thereby allowing medical practitioners to be paid by Medicare

for services that they are not trained to provide or qualified to supervise;

and

WHEREAS, although the ability

of medical doctors, ophthalmologists, and optometrists to help maintain, enhance,

or restore sight is a necessary component in treating an individual's physical

condition, learning to live as a blind person is not a medical condition but

a confluence of skills and attitudes best learned from other blind people and

qualified experts in rehabilitation; and

WHEREAS, supporters of

H.R. 2484 and S. 1967 recognize the need for support of the senior blind, but

the approach of this bill would place private providers beyond the reach of

state and federal rehabilitation accountability or accountability to consumers

and legislators: Now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the National

Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this ninth day of July, 2002,

in the City of Louisville, Kentucky, that this organization commend Congressman

Martin Frost for his leadership in promoting the Medicare Coverage Equity Act

for the Blind, which will amend Title XVIII of the Social Security Act to include

Medicare coverage for rehabilitation services provided to older blind individuals

by funding rehabilitation services through qualified state agencies designated

under the Rehabilitation Act; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED

that this organization urge Congress and the Bush administration to adopt this

legislation during the current session of Congress and continue to advise Congress

that H.R. 2484 and S. 1967 represent an ill-conceived and unacceptable approach

of providing rehabilitation services based on a medical model rather than a

rehabilitative model.

Resolution

2002-07

WHEREAS, the continuing

development of the Internet creates the potential for direct access to information

for blind people, thereby reducing the necessity for reliance on assistance

from readers; and

WHEREAS, it is presently

possible for a blind person to apply for Social Security benefits using the

Internet; and

WHEREAS, in addition to

submitting an initial application, members of the public, including the blind,

should also be able to conduct other business with the Social Security Administration

online, provided that this information is available in a secure environment;

and

WHEREAS, if all forms were

accessible to blind people, routine business such as reporting work activity,

seeking reconsideration of unfavorable decisions, or submitting a Plan to Achieve

Self-Support (PASS) could be done much more efficiently and independently by

blind persons; and

WHEREAS, the Social Security

Administration makes the vast majority of its forms available in Adobe's portable

document format, which is not accessible to many blind people; and

WHEREAS, the unfortunate

result is that, while the promise of the Internet for fast, private, independent

handling of business with the Social Security Administration is present, its

reality is denied to blind people by Social Security's use of inaccessible forms,

leading to the absurd situation that those most in need of alternative access

to printed forms are not able to communicate with the Social Security Administration

using the Internet; and

WHEREAS, the technology

currently exists to make all of these forms available in a format that is fully

accessible to all blind people with a minimum of time and effort: Now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the National

Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this ninth day of July, 2002,

in the City of Louisville, Kentucky, that this organization call upon the Social

Security Administration in a timely manner to make all electronic applications

and forms accessible to the blind through nonvisual means.

Resolution

2002-08

WHEREAS, on May 29, 2002,

the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published "Program

Memorandum to Intermediaries/Carriers Transmittal AB-02-078," which permits

approved Medicare Providers, including occupational and physical therapists

supervised by a physician, to supply rehabilitation services to a blind person

under a written treatment plan; and

WHEREAS, this approach

clearly imposes the medical rather than the rehabilitative model on services

to blind persons; and

WHEREAS, training in the

essential attitudes and skills needed for effective adjustment to blindness

is not part of either the occupational or physical therapy disciplines, and

neither profession currently has access to information which would allow its

practitioners to be effective providers of self-sufficiency training to this

specialized population suddenly placed on the list of reimbursable services;

and

WHEREAS, occupational and

physical therapy are both general health and medical rehabilitation professions

serving a vast array of varied disabilities, while the firsthand experience

of the National Federation of the Blind demonstrates that blind people achieve

their greatest independence when they receive specific training in the skills

of blindness designed to foster a constructive and realistic understanding of

blindness aimed at building self-confidence; and

WHEREAS, all blind Medicare

beneficiaries, regardless of age, are potentially eligible for rehabilitation

services authorized by the transmittal referred to above although the overwhelming

need for such services exists in the community of older blind people; and

WHEREAS, the services older

blind people require need not be of extended duration, but must be sufficiently

intensive to enable them to remain in their homes and communities and may in

some cases be consistent with the practices of and be offered by trained occupational

and physical therapy professionals; and

WHEREAS, the Rehabilitation

Services Administration of the United States Department of Education has funds

that could be made available to offer training and study opportunities to occupational

and physical therapists for the purpose of learning how to provide effective

services to older blind Americans: Now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the National

Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this ninth day of July, 2002,

in the City of Louisville, Kentucky, that this organization call upon the Rehabilitation

Services Administration of the United States Department of Education to take

a proactive role by funding at least one significant project having a specific

priority to establish an on-going training program on blindness for occupational

and physical therapists so that these practitioners will be equipped to provide

effective and high-quality independent living services to older blind people;

and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED

that this organization offer to the American Physical Therapy Association and

to the American Occupational Therapy Association our firsthand knowledge of

the development of positive training programs for the blind learned through

our more than sixty years of practice; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED

that this organization call upon these organizations to collaborate with the

National Federation of the Blind to develop model programs to serve older blind

people.

Resolution

2002-09

WHEREAS, the right to vote

independently, privately, and without interference should be the right and responsibility

of every citizen, whether blind or sighted; and

WHEREAS, blind voters in

the past have not enjoyed this privilege but now can enjoy it with the correct

and timely implementation of modern voting equipment, using accessible technology

properly configured; and

WHEREAS, direct recording

equipment makes it possible for blind people to vote independently and in private,

but this equipment can be configured to achieve this goal or to frustrate it,

depending on the knowledge of election officials; and

WHEREAS, direct recording

equipment can be configured to provide blind voters with the same ability to

navigate within a ballot that sighted voters enjoy by enabling functions such

as the ability to skip between election contests, the ability to return and

confirm previous choices audibly, and the ability to interrupt audio presentations

to move to the next or previous race at the direction of the blind voter through

the pressing of keys, providing the exact same freedom and confirmation of choices

in the voting process as that exercised by sighted citizens; and

WHEREAS, direct recording

equipment can also be configured to force the blind voter to listen to items

and whole races exactly as presented sequentially on the ballot, thus making

listening to the ballot much less efficient and more time-consuming than reading

the ballot in print; and

WHEREAS, a Joint Conference

Committee in Congress is now considering legislation that recognizes the importance

of nonvisual access to electronic voting by the blind, and this legislation

is likely to become law; and

WHEREAS, the primary responsibility

for conducting and overseeing elections and deploying election equipment rests

with the individual states and local governments; and

WHEREAS, the National Federation

of the Blind (NFB) recognizes that state and local election officials are the

experts in conducting fair and equitable elections but also recognizes that

these officials lack expertise in serving blind voters while the NFB, a nationwide

organization of blind people with affiliated organizations and members in every

state, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, knows by experience what works

for the blind and has the technical expertise necessary to advise on the configuration

of electronic voting equipment to ensure the most efficient and effective access

to voting by the blind; and

WHEREAS, the implementation

of federal voting access legislation by state and local governments is critical

to ensuring true access to independent and confidential voting for the blind:

Now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the National

Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this ninth day of July, 2002,

in the City of Louisville, Kentucky, that this organization call upon the appropriate

state or local legislative or regulatory bodies within each state to pass legislation

implementing nonvisual access standards for voting; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED

that this organization insist upon consultation with the National Federation

of the Blind by state and local election officials when configuring electronic

voting systems to ensure that access for blind people is efficient and equivalent

to access for the sighted.

Resolution

2002-10

WHEREAS, electronic books

that can be read using a standard desktop or laptop computer can now be purchased

through a variety of retail outlets; and

WHEREAS, if these books

could be read on computers with text-to-speech technology, an unprecedented

opportunity would exist for the blind to have access to more literature than

we have ever had; and

WHEREAS, a sighted computer

user must read an electronic book using proprietary book-reading software tailored

to a specific electronic book format; and

WHEREAS, typically the

proprietary book-reading programs now available are not compatible with screen-access

technology for the blind; and

WHEREAS, the publishers

of electronic books have apparently decided not to allow unfettered access to

synthetic speech presentations of electronic books, particularly those books

which make money for them; and

WHEREAS, in pursuit of

this goal electronic book publishers have secured an agreement with Microsoft

preventing the Microsoft Reader from presenting a spoken-word version of the

content when the book has been tagged with a "premium" security level;

and

WHEREAS, Adobe Systems,

another provider of electronic book-reading software, has already incorporated

a setting in its electronic books which, when activated, is used to prohibit

any access to the content with synthetic speech; and

WHEREAS, blind customers

are eager and willing to pay for electronic books when they can be used by the

blind but are even more determined that the electronic book (which is potentially

far more accessible than a traditional printed book) not be perverted into inaccessibility

because of ill-advised decisions made by the publishers; and

WHEREAS, the blind are

confident that the interests of electronic book publishers to maintain security

can be protected while still providing access for people unable to use the material

in a standard printed format: Now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the National

Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this ninth day of July, 2002,

in the City of Louisville, Kentucky, that this organization urge electronic

book publishers to develop policies and procedures through which the blind can

obtain access to electronic books while satisfying the reasonable concerns that

publishers may have regarding electronic book security and profitability.

Resolution

2002-11

WHEREAS, important responsibilities

of the Social Security Administration (SSA) include all aspects of claims processing,

such as initial determinations, reopening and revising decisions, and conducting

an administrative appeals process; and

WHEREAS, while the Social

Security Act and regulations impose certain rigid time limits on applicants

or beneficiaries to respond or file reports within a specified number of days,

such as sixty days for an appeal, or ten days to submit information about work

and earnings during a standard disability evaluation, but few if any time limits

are placed on the SSA to respond to documents submitted or even to decide on

initial applications within a reasonable amount of time; and

WHEREAS, under present

conditions claimants often wait a minimum of many months and often several years

for the SSA to begin examination of an issue, not to mention the time it takes

to achieve a resolution of the dispute, during which benefits although needed

are denied; and

WHEREAS, claimants who

inquire about the time taken for resolution often discover that the SSA alleges

to have no record of a request or claims to have lost the file, all resulting

in a further delay; and

WHEREAS, even if the SSA

accepts a claimant's representations of timely filing, the claimant still bears

the burden and suffers the consequences of the agency's inaction, while the

SSA remains completely unaccountable to anyone; and

WHEREAS, providing specific

time limits for the SSA to make administrative decisions would force the agency

to address pending issues or suffer the consequences of a failure to act: Now,

therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the National

Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this ninth day of July, 2002,

in the City of Louisville, Kentucky, that this organization call upon the United

States Congress to amend the Social Security Act to provide specific time limits

for the SSA to resolve disputes at all stages of the administrative process;

and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED

that this organization urge Congress to include a provision stating that failure

to meet the prescribed time limits shall result in a favorable resolution for

the claimant.

Resolution

2002-12

WHEREAS, the Public Rights-of-Way

Access Advisory Committee (PROWAAC) of the Architectural and Transportation

Barriers Compliance Board (ATBCB) issued a report called "Building a True

Community," which proposed new standards and regulations to govern the

building and rebuilding of public rights-of-way such as streets, sidewalks,

and other outdoor public areas so that individuals with disabilities can access

them; and

WHEREAS, this report contained

recommendations in the form of a definition and also a set of requirements for

installation of detectable warnings, describing them as raised truncated domes

in a strip two feet deep and spanning the entire width of the curb ramp and

painted bright yellow or otherwise highly contrasting in color with the surrounding

surface; and

WHEREAS, these raised truncated

domes are thought by some to give the blind pedestrian a tactile warning underfoot

that something hazardous lies ahead; and

WHEREAS, on June 17, 2002,

the United States Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board

(ATBCB) published draft guidelines for public rights-of-way, substantially adopting

the PROWAAC report regarding detectable warnings; and

WHEREAS, the ATBCB's draft

requirement for a detectable warning surface two feet deep where the ramp, landing,

or blended transition connects to a crosswalk and in other areas rests on the

fallacy that public rights-of-way without such brightly colored tactile markings

are unsafe for blind people and that taxpayer dollars must be devoted to universal

installation of these strips of colored domes; and

WHEREAS, rather than being

supported by a demonstrated and factual need, the ATBCB's draft guideline is

based on nothing more than fear of blindness and lack of knowledge about how

blind people travel independently and safely and could bring the entire regulation,

if enacted, under fire in the courts and city halls of America; and

WHEREAS, pursuant to Federation

policy as set forth by previous resolutions, the National Federation of the

Blind filed a minority report advocating that detectable warnings be placed

only at intersections at which the approach to the street is at a slope of one

inch downward for every fifteen inches of sidewalk, commonly called a slope

of 1:15 or flatter, since intersections with an approach to the street of 1:15

or less are virtually flat and are the only places where it may arguably be

difficult for a blind person to determine when the sidewalk ends and the street

begins; and

WHEREAS, intersections

with street approaches which slope at an angle steeper than 1:15 are readily

detectable underfoot whether the blind person is using a cane, a dog, or no

mobility tool whatsoever, and therefore do not require the installation of expensive

truncated dome strips to ensure that blind people detect the street; and

WHEREAS, the ATBCB's draft

guideline is now subject to public comment and will not become a final and enforceable

rule if the facts about blindness and independent travel are presented and understood,

but previously suspended requirements for detectable warnings which differ from

the current draft guidelines are technically now in effect, the suspension having

lapsed, making a resolution of this issue inevitable: Now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the National

Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this ninth day of July, 2002,

in the City of Louisville, Kentucky, that this organization vigorously oppose

the ATBCB's draft guidelines calling for the universal installation of detectable

warnings; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED

that this organization petition the ATBCB to reinstate the suspension on guidelines

for detectable warnings while further consideration is given to the draft guideline

on public rights-of-way, in order to avoid confusion and needless installation

of warning strips that are apt to be inconsistent with the eventual guideline

regardless of the result; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED

that this organization urge the ATBCB to adopt a final guideline based on facts

rather than fear and which may include installation of detectable warnings only

when the slope of the curb ramp at an intersection equals 1:15 or less.

Resolution

2002-13

Failed to Pass

Resolution

2002-14

WHEREAS, the National Federation

of the Blind has a keen interest in promoting high quality educational and vocational

rehabilitation professionals in work with the blind (because of the dismal past

performance of far too many service providers, between 70 and 80 percent of

all blind persons in America of working age are unemployed, and of those who

have jobs, far too many are underemployed); and

WHEREAS, the reason for

this distressing statistic is that many professionals in work with the blind

have historically failed to understand blindness accurately and have also failed

to learn and embrace those modern educational and training techniques which

have been developed by the blind themselves and which offer a proven formula

for successful empowerment of the blind; and

WHEREAS, these failures

by blindness professionals exist in spite of the fact that a continuous professional

certifying mechanism has been in place in work with the blind since 1966: first

offered through the American Association of Workers for the Blind, then by the

Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired,

and now by the Academy for Certification of Vision Rehabilitation and Education

Professionals; and

WHEREAS, this longtime

certification mechanism has failed the blind miserably in two ways--first, the

certification itself has been no predictor of competence and has had no positive

impact whatsoever on the caliber of blindness professionals working in the field,

and, second, until very recently, the old certifying entity has practiced open

and flagrant discrimination against the blind; and

WHEREAS, as an alternative

to the failed old system, a new certification, the National Orientation and

Mobility Certification (NOMC), has been established--the federal grant which

authorized this new process requires that it be nondiscriminatory; and

WHEREAS, NOMC certification

is performance-based--that is, in addition to demonstrating positive attitudes

about blindness, the candidate for NOMC certification must also demonstrate

his or her personal abilities by actually performing the techniques and skills

to be taught to blind consumers; if the candidate is sighted or partially blind,

then blindness skills are demonstrated using sleep shades; and

WHEREAS, this new certifying

strategy holds the promise of being a superior predictor of professional competence;

and

WHEREAS, this progressive

NOMC certification, together with other performance-based certifications which

will be developed, is administered by a new corporate entity, the National Blindness

Professional Certification Board (NBPCB); and

WHEREAS, Mr. James Omvig,

who serves as the president of the NBPCB, is a longtime leader of the National

Federation of the Blind and a man known, trusted, and respected by blind people

throughout the nation for his personal and professional commitment to expanding

opportunities for blind people, thereby giving the NBPCB credibility as the

only certification body in the field of blindness that is led by blind people

who share the National Federation of the Blind's positive philosophy of blindness:

Now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the National

Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this ninth day of July, 2002,

in the City of Louisville, Kentucky, that this organization express its wholehearted

support for this new nondiscriminatory, performance-based certifying body, since

the NFB has a long-standing interest in identifying and promoting competent

blindness professionals who have a commitment to excellence in outcomes.

Resolution

2002-15

WHEREAS, Freedom Scientific,

Inc., offers a Spanish-language version of its note takers (Braille Lite and

Braille 'n Speak), and of its print-reading software (The OpenBook); and

WHEREAS, Freedom Scientific,

Inc., advertises to Spanish-speaking customers that the Spanish version of these

products is functionally equivalent to the English-language version of the corresponding

products; and

WHEREAS, in reality many

of the features available in the English-language version such as a spell-checking

program in the note takers and a dictionary in the print-reading software do

not exist in the Spanish-language version of these products; and

WHEREAS, many existing

features in the Spanish-language version of these products, such as the file

compression program in the note takers, the capability to transfer Spanish Braille

files from or to note takers, and the help files in all products, are so poorly

designed and poorly implemented that they are useless to Spanish-speaking customers;

and

WHEREAS, for the past few

years customers of the Spanish-language version have informed Freedom Scientific,

Inc., of the problems and shortcomings in its Spanish-language products, resulting

in neither positive responses nor promises of improvements from Freedom Scientific,

Inc.; and

WHEREAS, Freedom Scientific,

Inc.'s failure to respond positively is inconsistent with its mission of meeting

the information technology needs of all blind and visually impaired people;

and

WHEREAS, providing functionally

equivalent Spanish products should not pose serious technical difficulties since

Microsoft and other key players in the information technology marketplace have

provided functionally equivalent products in all of the languages, including

Spanish, which they support: Now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the National

Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this ninth day of July, 2002,

in the City of Louisville, Kentucky, that this organization condemn and deplore

the second-class and discriminatory treatment by Freedom Scientific, Inc., towards

customers of its Spanish-language products; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED

that this organization demand that Freedom Scientific, Inc., undertake positive

measures to provide the functional equivalence that it advertises for its Spanish-language

products.

Resolution

2002-16

WHEREAS, the Public Rights-of-Way

Access Advisory Committee (PROWAAC) of the Architectural and Transportation

Barriers Compliance Board (ATBCB) issued a report called "Building a True

Community" which proposed new standards and regulations to govern the building

and rebuilding of public rights-of-way such as streets, sidewalks, and other

outdoor public areas so that individuals with disabilities can access them;

and

WHEREAS, this report contained

recommendations regarding Accessible Pedestrian Signals (APSs), which are electronic

devices that alert the blind pedestrian in an audible or vibrotactile manner

when the traffic signal has changed so that it is safe to walk; and

WHEREAS, the report recommended

that an APS shall be provided at any intersection where the timing of a pedestrian

signal is altered by push button actuation and where the signal includes a leading

pedestrian interval, a period of time during which the pedestrian is allowed

to start crossing before vehicular traffic is allowed to move; and

WHEREAS, the report further

recommended that APSs with an optional-use feature be installed at intersections

where pedestrian crossing intervals are pretimed and not affected by the push

of a button; and

WHEREAS, pursuant to resolutions

adopted by this organization, the Federation submitted a minority report urging

that the ATBCB mandate APSs in situations only where the built environment did

not provide sufficient nonvisual clues for a blind pedestrian to know when it

was safe to cross and that all APSs be vibrotactile so that unneeded and distracting

noise not be emitted into intersections; and

WHEREAS, on June 17, 2002,

the ATBCB published a draft guideline based on the PROWAAC report, essentially

disregarding both the PROWAAC report and the Federation's recommendations and

calling instead for APSs with locator tones to be installed at every intersection

with a pedestrian signal; and

WHEREAS, the PROWAAC report

proposed installing APS in an overly broad number of places but at least limited

the installation to some degree and further provided for an optional activation

feature, thereby giving each pedestrian the choice of using or not using the

APS; and

WHEREAS, the board's draft

guidelines will force installation and use of APSs at every signalized intersection

in America while costing tax payers many billions of dollars; and

WHEREAS, at the majority

of intersections the existing environment and traffic pattern provide sufficient

nonvisual cues for blind persons to cross the street safely without APSs, and

blind people do so every day: Now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the National

Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this ninth day of July, 2002,

in the City of Louisville, Kentucky, that this organization condemn and deplore

the ATBCB's narrow-minded and uninformed view of blindness as expressed in the

draft guideline proposing to require the installation of APSs at all signalized

intersections in America; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED

that this organization urge the ATBCB to reconsider and reject the extreme position

taken on APSs in its June 17, 2002, draft guidelines and adopt a position on

the placement and use of APSs that is more realistic and consistent with the

prevailing view among the blind themselves.

Resolution

2002-17

WHEREAS, the Ticket to

Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999 (PL 106-170) has resulted in

many changes that will eventually affect all persons who receive Social Security

Disability Insurance or Supplemental Security Income benefits; and

WHEREAS, all beneficiaries,

including blind beneficiaries, need to have the ability to receive prompt notice

of planned actions and must also be able to access all Social Security information

in a timely manner, including information pertaining to changes to their benefits

and information concerning expansion or reduction of program services; and

WHEREAS, this information

is necessary so that the beneficiaries, including blind beneficiaries, may comply

with all requirements of the Social Security Administration and fully benefit

from the work incentive provisions in the law; and

WHEREAS, for several years,

the Social Security Administration has had instructions in place to make Braille

notices available only in the Disability Insurance program and not until this

year in the Supplemental Security Income program, but in either case notices

in Braille have not been routine and were supposed to be provided only upon

the request of a blind beneficiary to have a Braille transcription of a notice,

a cumbersome and necessarily lengthy process at best and now apparently abandoned

by the Social Security Administration altogether; and

WHEREAS, the only options

currently available to blind beneficiaries in which to receive their notices

are by regular mail in printed form, by certified mail in printed form, or read

orally over the phone by a Social Security representative; and

WHEREAS, notices sent in

print by regular mail to blind beneficiaries may not be reviewed by them promptly

through no fault of the blind persons and due solely to lack of access to someone

who can read print, but the failure to have prompt access to these notices can

result in the loss of valuable time for taking action according to Social Security

rules; and

WHEREAS, the same is true

for those individuals who need Braille notices if the Braille notice is sent

only after the print notice is received and the Braille notice is then requested;

and

WHEREAS, choosing certified

mail can alert the beneficiary that the mail may be from the Social Security

Administration, but working recipients who are blind are not available to sign

and receive certified mail and must make a special trip to the post office to

collect the mail and still confront the reader problem when the printed notice

is acquired; and

WHEREAS, phone contact

fails as an effective alternative because there is no system to ensure that

the staff person actually reaches the recipient; and

WHEREAS, the use of technology

could allow many blind beneficiaries to access electronic information through

on-line resources independently, promptly, and efficiently, but this choice

is not currently offered by the Social Security Administration: Now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the National

Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this ninth day of July, 2002,

in the City of Louisville, Kentucky, that this organization call upon the Social

Security Administration to provide notices and other pertinent information in

alternate formats most accessible to blind beneficiaries, including audio cassette,

Braille, computer disk, and on-line by means of a secure server; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED

that this organization demand that this information be provided in a timely

manner comparable to that of the corresponding printed information.

Resolution

2002-18

WHEREAS, informed choice

has for ten years been enshrined in federal law as a key component of vocational

rehabilitation services for recipients of services in this federal-state partnership

program; and

WHEREAS, the 1998 Rehabilitation

Act Amendments and the 2001 federal regulations require the informed choice

of vocational rehabilitation recipients in selecting an employment outcome,

the services needed to achieve that employment outcome, and the providers of

those services; and

WHEREAS, a number of states

continue to interfere with this federally required exercise of informed choice

through imposition of state-level mandates that service providers be on "approved

provider lists" or meet state-imposed certification requirements; and

WHEREAS, these states persist

in making the false claim that certification standards set by the state supersede

the federally required informed choice of the recipient who is selecting a training

center by actively discouraging or even prohibiting individuals from attending

the training center of the recipient's choice, a choice which is often to attend

one of the National Federation of the Blind's training centers; and

WHEREAS, the state vocational

rehabilitation agency in Ohio is claiming that service providers with which

they contract for the provision of training services for blind persons, regardless

of the location of the service provider, must be accredited by one of the organizations

on Ohio's approved list of accrediters such as the National Accreditation Council

for Agencies Serving the Blind and Visually Impaired (NAC) or the Commission

on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF), and state agencies in

other states are considering adopting similar policies imposing state-level

accreditation requirements; and

WHEREAS, Section 361.50(a)

of the federal vocational rehabilitation regulations prohibits a vocational

rehabilitation agency from establishing any arbitrary limits on the nature and

scope of VR services; and

WHEREAS, Section 361.50(b)(2)

of those same regulations prohibits VR agencies from establishing policies that

effectively prohibit the provision of out-of-state services; and

WHEREAS, under the federal

regulatory provision found in Section 361.52(B)(3), states are required to develop

and implement flexible procurement policies and methods that facilitate the

provision of vocational rehabilitation services and that afford eligible individuals

meaningful choices among the methods used to procure vocational rehabilitation

services while they exercise informed choice; and

WHEREAS, these regulations

are administered by the Rehabilitation Services Administration in the United

States Department of Education, which has also issued RSA Policy Directive 01-03

further declaring that the exercise of informed choice must not be limited arbitrarily

by factors such as out-of-state location, time, or cost; and

WHEREAS, the Rehabilitation

Act prohibits state VR agencies from preselecting services and service providers

that must be used by any eligible individual: Now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the National

Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this ninth day of July, 2002,

in the City of Louisville, Kentucky, that this organization call upon the United

States Congress to amend the Rehabilitation Act during reauthorization specifically

to prohibit state-level accreditation and certification requirements, approved

provider lists, in-state training preferences, and other practices to the extent

that they circumvent the informed choice of eligible individuals in selecting

rehabilitation programs; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED

that this organization call upon the commissioner of the Rehabilitation Services

Administration to join in this effort for the purpose of fully effectuating

the express intent of Congress to endow rehabilitation clients with informed

choice and to prohibit state-level frustration of that intent; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED

that this organization deplore the policies in place in Ohio and efforts in

any other states attempting to do likewise when such policies limit informed

choice and, by their effect on such choice, discourage or prohibit clients from

choosing services provided in a different state.

Resolution

2002-19

WHEREAS, the Alabama Institute

for Deaf and Blind (AIDB), an agency of Alabama state government, has promoted

the introduction of a bill in the United States Congress entitled "National

Junior College for Deaf and Blind at the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind

Act" (now designated H.R. 3252 and S. 1654), which would authorize the

United States Secretary of Education to establish a junior college at the headquarters

of AIDB in Talladega, Alabama; and

WHEREAS, the approach to

educating blind people taken by the promoters of this bill is an archaic and

outmoded one, long since abandoned by both educators and rehabilitation professionals

in the United States who, along with their blind students and consumers, have

for decades used the appropriate model of integration and full participation

by blind persons in all walks of life, also enshrined in federal law in the

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the Americans with Disabilities

Act; and

WHEREAS, founding of a

segregated junior college for the blind would be a significant departure from

current and universally accepted principles of education and rehabilitation

by emphasizing isolation rather than the integration which has come to be accepted

as the standard for serving blind people and by ignoring the preferences and

capacities of blind people; and

WHEREAS, modern strategies

of educating the blind recognize the capacity of blind people to learn in classroom

settings along with their peers who can see and, in fact, demand that blind

students meet the same standards and challenges as their sighted peers to ready

them for integrated employment in America's work force; and

WHEREAS, the proposed junior

college would exactly reverse this model, creating an unnecessary artificial

and sheltered learning environment, designed to shield and protect blind students

who, in the minds of the proponents, must be delicate and fragile to need such

protection, and designed to cater to the needs of the blind as perceived by

AIDB and not by the blind themselves; and

WHEREAS, AIDB's separate

programmatic approach ignores the fact that tens of thousands of blind people

have successfully completed college courses in existing colleges and universities

designed without reference to their unique needs and thousands more do so every

year, equipping these blind men and women to work in today's work environments

alongside the same sighted peers with whom they competed and earned post-secondary

degrees; and

WHEREAS, blind people who

learn the alternative skills of blindness such as Braille, independent cane

travel, use of computers, problem-solving skills, self-confidence, and a positive

philosophy of blindness are more likely to succeed alongside students who can

see than those educated in an artificial and segregated environment; and

WHEREAS, these truths have

been so long understood and so long embedded in federal law that the only two

possible explanations for AIDB's proposal are that AIDB simply does not believe

in the abilities of blind people even though they are demonstrated every day

or that AIDB does not care about the abilities of blind people and only cares

about getting federal dollars: Now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the National

Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this ninth day of July, 2002,

in the City of Louisville, Kentucky, that this organization urge the United

States Congress to take no action to promote or fund this counterproductive

and outmoded legislation; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED

that this organization call upon the Board of Trustees of the Alabama Institute

for Deaf and Blind to withdraw its proposal to found a National Junior College

through federal legislation and to work instead for programs that are of a progressive

and mainstream nature for blind people.

Resolution

2002-20

Development

of Rehabilitative Services

for Older

Blind Americans

WHEREAS, attention must

be paid to a deplorable and wholly preventable tragedy affecting over six million

blind and visually impaired Americans age 55 and older, a tragedy in which many

of these millions lose their independence due to utterly inadequate rehabilitation

services for older blind Americans; and

WHEREAS, the void in rehabilitation

services for the older blind forces many unnecessarily into nursing homes and

home-bound lifestyles, all for lack of a delivery service system for providing

to the growing number of seniors losing vision the training in alternative techniques

for living safely without sight, such as learning safe travel, daily living

skills, and the use of assistive aids and appliances; and

WHEREAS, vocational rehabilitation

programs serve those striving for career development and therefore do not address

the unique issues of older blind Americans, many of whom are no longer interested

in employment and the kinds of activity related to finding and holding a job;

and

WHEREAS, each state receives

what can only be termed a token and paltry effort to address rehabilitation

services for older blind Americans, money through Chapter 2 of Title VII Independent

Living Services for the Older Blind of the Rehabilitation Act, which serves

a mere 5 percent of those who could benefit from such programs; and

WHEREAS, the National Federation

of the Blind, the voice of the organized blind of all ages, deplores the preventable

loss of independence and dignity through the absence of quality rehabilitative

services for older blind Americans and consequently acts on this tragedy by

calling for improved funding and innovative programming such as Medicare coverage

of rehabilitative services for the older blind; and

WHEREAS, the National Federation

of the Blind advocates for the passage of H.R. 2674, the Medicare Coverage Equity

for the Blind Act, which addresses a portion of the need and also advocates

for development of new and exemplary service methods and models designed and

implemented for the particular barriers faced by older blind Americans, services

worthy of the Federation can-do spirit; and

WHEREAS, rehabilitative

services expressly developed for the older blind will permit seniors who become

blind to regain self-reliance and self-worth and to live independently in their

own homes and communities for as long as possible; and

WHEREAS, this preservation

of dignity and independence is of course the most important issue for older

blind Americans as for all blind Americans, but it should be noted that the

failure to provide effective service to blind seniors is also exorbitantly expensive

and unjustified, leading to massive outlays of personal earnings and also Medicare

trust fund expenditures for injuries and for expensive assisted living or nursing

home placement when many if not most seniors could remain safely and happily

in their own homes after the onset of blindness with simple, inexpensive rehabilitative

training and the restoration of their can-do spirit: Now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the National

Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this ninth day of July, 2002,

in the City of Louisville, Kentucky, that this organization call upon the Rehabilitation

Services Administration and other rehabilitative agencies serving the blind

to design and implement high-quality and demonstrably effective rehabilitation

service-delivery methods and models specifically geared for older blind Americans;

and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED

that this organization call upon the United States Congress and the various

state legislatures to recognize the savings in human dignity, in pain and suffering,

and in medical costs to be realized by serving instead of ignoring the growing

population of Americans who are strong, able seniors losing vision without access

to the simple, inexpensive training they need to be safe and independent.

Resolution

2002-21

WHEREAS, from infancy sighted

children are exposed to pictorial information; and

WHEREAS, educational materials

increasingly rely on pictorial information to convey information at every level

from infancy through college and adult education; and

WHEREAS, the use of pictorial

information makes it more difficult for blind children to acquire the same knowledge

as their sighted peers unless they are provided with nonvisual alternatives;

and

WHEREAS, technologies exist

for the production of both tactile graphics (maps and diagrams) and three-dimensional

models; and

WHEREAS, tactile graphics

and three-dimensional models can provide an effective and efficient means for

blind students to access the pictorial information available to their sighted

peers: Now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the National

Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this ninth day of July, 2002,

in the City of Louisville, Kentucky, that this organization express strong support

for the development of techniques, technologies, and practices designed to improve

the availability of tactile graphics and three-dimensional models as a means

of providing access for the blind to pictorial information; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED

that this organization urge Braille textbook producers to include more tactile

graphics in the material they produce and to work with the National Federation

of the Blind to make the use of tactile graphics more prevalent; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED

that this organization call upon research funding agencies, including but not

limited to the federal Office of Special Education, the National Institute for

Disability and Rehabilitation Research, and the National Science Foundation,

to establish funding priorities to support research into the use of tactile

graphics and three-dimensional models as an educational learning medium for

blind students, including an investigation of the feasibility and usefulness

of a lending library of electronic and tactile models for this purpose.

Resolution

2002-22

WHEREAS, the federal Rehabilitation

Act seeks to help eligible blind and disabled people reach their full potential

in independent living and employment; and

WHEREAS, Section 102(d)

of the act promises that consumers of vocational rehabilitation services shall

take an active part in selecting the providers of goods and services they need;

and

WHEREAS, Congress has recognized

that the choice of a provider of goods and services can make a fundamental difference

in the outcome achieved and has specifically declared that informed choice means

the choice of providers as well as the goods and services themselves; and

WHEREAS, in the experience

of blind people distinct differences exist among providers of adjustment-to-blindness

and other vocational-rehabilitation services with respect to expectations that

different providers have for blind consumers and in their knowledge of the blindness

skills needed to be competitively employed, with the result that, in the opinion

of knowledgeable blind consumers, such providers range in quality from those

which are excellent to those which can do more harm than good; and

WHEREAS, when blind rehabilitation

consumers do not have a range of choices among providers of goods and services,

they are often led into poor decisions actually made by someone else, such as

a rehabilitation counselor or supervisor, with the predictable consequence that

a poor outcome is apt to result; and

WHEREAS, the promise of

a choice of providers stated in Section 102(d) is impaired by regulations of

the federal Rehabilitation Services Administration at 34 C.F.R. 361.50, which

permit state vocational rehabilitation agencies to limit the amount they will

spend on specific goods and services through the use of bureaucratic tools including

fee schedules or payment of costs up to an in-state limit, requiring consumers

to pay the cost difference for the provider of their choice; and

WHEREAS, this regulation

is defective because it does not require state agencies to recognize factors

leading to successful outcomes such as employment rates of graduates from various

training programs; the reputation of programs in specialized areas of education

and training; the efficacy of short-term (quick-fix) versus long-term, intensive

programs; and, with respect to the purchase of goods, the quality of the technical

support available; and

WHEREAS, as a result of

this regulation and regardless of the statutory commitment to informed choice,

consumers still find that state vocational rehabilitation agencies prefer certain

providers over others and inflict their preferences by setting the amounts they

will pay for specific goods and services based on the charges of their favored

providers without regard to either the quality or efficacy of the expected outcome;

and

WHEREAS, even where state

agencies purport to compare the costs of several providers in setting the amount

they will pay for certain goods and services, the comparisons are often not

based on comparable goods or services, which prevents a fair comparison and

leads to the agency's predetermined outcome, regardless of the consumer's choice;

and

WHEREAS, the problem is

exacerbated when the provider preferred by the state agency is a program operated

by that same agency and the agency either hides or fails to take into account

all of the costs associated with operating that program, further distorting

the facts and creating an unfair comparison to third-party providers' charges;

and

WHEREAS, this system places

the consumer in the position of having to select a program the consumer knows

to be an unfit or inappropriate provider (unless that consumer can afford to

pay the cost difference); and

WHEREAS, the federal vocational

rehabilitation regulations should not undercut the statutory commitment to informed

choice by embracing state policies deliberately designed to favor predetermined

selections of providers rather than genuine choices being made by consumers

as the law intends: Now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the National

Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this ninth day of July, 2002,

in the City of Louisville, Kentucky, that this organization call upon the Rehabilitation

Services Administration to revise the vocational rehabilitation regulations

by adopting a clear and unequivocal stance in favor of informed choice and against

policies and practices of state vocational rehabilitation agencies which undercut

it; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED

that this organization urge Congress to amend Section 102(d) of the Rehabilitation

Act to prohibit policies and practices such as fee schedules and preferred in-state

providers which continue to be used by state vocational rehabilitation agencies

to limit the exercise of informed choice.

Resolution

2002-23

WHEREAS, point-of-sale

machines, ranging from ticket machines in transportation centers to debit card

machines in retail establishments, are more and more electronic, requiring the

customer to enter numbers including personal identification numbers and to select

and confirm types of transactions and amounts; and

WHEREAS, point-of-sale

machines are not now required to present a standardized keypad that is tactilely

discernible by blind users, with the result that keypads may or may not be discernible

by touch and may in fact be touch-screen only, which is not discernible at all

by blind people; and

WHEREAS, more and more

of these electronic point-of-sale machines, like their better-known predecessor,

the automated teller machine, are handling interactive transactions requiring

the customer to make and confirm selections and confirm numbers, an impossible

task when the point-of-sale machine does not have a voice component like the

ones now required in automated teller machines; and

WHEREAS, without tactilely

discernible keypads and voiced responses for interactive functions, these machines

are unusable by blind people; and

WHEREAS, without accessible

technology, assistance from a sighted person is required to use an electronic

payment system; and

WHEREAS, disclosure of

this critical and highly confidential piece of information to a third party

in a public setting exposes the blind or visually impaired customer to extreme

security risks, including, but not limited to, robbery, personal injury, credit

card fraud, and identity theft; and

WHEREAS, the limited and

initial phase of this issue has now been addressed by the United States Access

Board, which has issued specific regulations for nonvisual access to automated

teller machines, but the board has failed thus far to address the broader issues

of tactile discernibility and of voiced interactivity: Now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the National

Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this ninth day of July, 2002,

in the City of Louisville, Kentucky, that this organization call upon the United

States Access Board to face and successfully regulate the point-of-sale machine

market to achieve the goal that all point-of-sale machines in use in the United

States be fully accessible and secure for all customers, including the blind.

Resolution

2002-24

WHEREAS, the 1998 amendments

to Section 102 of the Rehabilitation Act, as amended, provide for a presumption

of eligibility for blind individuals who receive benefits under Titles II or

XVI of the Social Security Act; and

WHEREAS, this presumption

of eligibility for beneficiaries was a congressional acknowledgement of the

need of blind beneficiaries for services in order to obtain gainful employment,

resulting in their leaving the benefit rolls; and

WHEREAS, blind beneficiaries

currently face the distinct potential of being denied services when a state

vocational rehabilitation agency institutes an order of selection; and

WHEREAS, an order of selection,

with criteria established by each state vocational rehabilitation agency, is

instituted in times of fiscal shortfall as a predefined method of choosing which

clients will be served first; and

WHEREAS, in theory an order

of selection places individuals with the most significant disabling conditions

as predefined by the agency at the head of the line for the provision of services,

but being blind or disabled as determined by the Social Security Administration

is not currently considered significant enough to assure services, regardless

of the order of selection, leading to the absurd outcome that Social Security

beneficiaries, obviously in urgent need of employment, can be placed at the

end of the line and designated not to receive services; and

WHEREAS, the denial of

rehabilitation services to eligible beneficiaries is inconsistent with and contrary

to the very nature of positive rehabilitation services and counterproductive

of potential gainful employment for men and women who urgently need and want

that employment; and

WHEREAS, to deny such services

to eligible beneficiaries raises serious questions regarding the correct focus

of governmental programs and fiscal accountability: Now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the National

Federation of the Blind in convention assembled this ninth day of July, 2002,

in the City of Louisville, Kentucky, that this organization call upon the Congress

to amend the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, to exempt blind individuals

who receive benefits under Titles II and XVI from any limitation of service

imposed by an order of selection since assuring services to blind beneficiaries

without delay due to an order of selection will increase employment potential

and thereby better achieve the purposes of the Rehabilitation Act.

Resolution

2002-25

WHEREAS, on May 2, 2002,

the American Council of the Blind (ACB) and two individual plaintiffs filed

a lawsuit against the secretary of the treasury of the United States and the

treasurer of the United States alleging that the federal government is in violation

of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended, 29 U.S.C. Section

794, by issuing all U.S. currency in an identical size, color, and texture,

which renders various denominations indistinguishable by touch, alleging that

the blind are thus largely excluded from enjoying the benefits of monetary transactions

and seeking declaratory and injunctive relief by requiring the Department of

the Treasury to implement design changes in the currency to make the various

denominations distinguishable by touch and color; and

WHEREAS, this lawsuit is

based on a false and misleading assumption that the inability to distinguish

banknote denominations by touch largely excludes the blind from participating

in commerce and other ordinary activities of life; and

WHEREAS, the theory of

this suit is disproved by the lives of tens of thousands of blind persons who

live normal lives and participate in commerce every day without difficulty;

and

WHEREAS, more than having

difficulty with money, blind people are apt to suffer great harm from the attendant

publicity surrounding this suit, fostering and reinforcing the notion that the

blind cannot easily handle currency as it now exists and, for example, needlessly

creating an albatross around the neck of any blind person seeking employment

in any position involving handling money; and

WHEREAS, to the extent

that currency identification is truly a problem for individual blind people,

various technological devices capable of identifying banknotes and audibly announcing

their denomination are available for sale, and in fact giving every blind person

in the country such a device would be simpler and cheaper than re-engineering

the nation's cash-handling capacity; and

WHEREAS, in view of its

false premise and lack of merit, there is little likelihood that the relief

sought by this lawsuit will ever be granted, thus using the blind in a publicity

stunt and showing little regard for the genuine needs and concerns of blind

people; and

WHEREAS, more than the

adverse publicity resulting from the filing of this suit itself, there is a

substantial risk of a ruling that could nullify the potential benefits of Section

504 by narrowing its scope and coverage or over-turning the law altogether,

as has happened with other recent court decisions in the area of disability:

Now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the National

Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this ninth day of July, 2002,

in the City of Louisville, Kentucky, that this organization take all appropriate

and legally available steps to advise the court that the failure to have U.S.

currency issued as sought by the plaintiffs in this suit is not an act of discrimination

against the blind and in such a fashion that the accompanying ruling does not

harm current and future efforts to achieve genuinely needed and desirable accommodations

for the blind; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED

that this organization take steps to counter the adverse effects of the harmful

publicity arising from this particular lawsuit and renew efforts to educate

the public that the blind can participate in commerce on equal terms and fully

enjoy the benefits of U.S. currency as it now exists.

Resolution

2002-26

Failed to Pass

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