Song:
Live the life you want, nobody can stop you. Shoot for the sun, and break on through. So you're blind, you'll be fine. We got good news. You can live the life you want.
Speaker 1:
The following message is brought to you by Mark Riccobono, President, National Federation of the Blind. Live the life you want.
Song:
Yes, we know the truth.
Mark Riccobono:
Greetings, fellow Federationists. Today is Wednesday, January 29th, 2025, and this is Presidential Release number 546, the release for February of 2025. And on this release, I want to talk with you about our legislative work and encourage each of us to be engaged in the legislative priorities of the National Federation of the Blind.
A reminder that our national convention sets the priorities for our organization, and between conventions, our board of directors has the responsibility for carrying out those priorities. Part of the work at the national level is providing assistance, technical assistance, to state affiliates of the federation as local advocacy efforts are undertaken, sometimes. That relates to our legislative priorities at the national level as we seek legislative change at the state level in order to create momentum for our national priorities. A good example there is our work to outlaw in many places now, the use of 14C certificates, which permit the paying of subminimum wages to people with disabilities. It's now been outlawed in well over a dozen states, but still not fully outlawed at the federal level. But this gives us a good momentum, along with other policy efforts that we've implemented.
Sometimes our work is helping affiliates to advance model legislation. A good example there is our prescription drug labeling bill, which has been run in a number of places. And our team being involved allows us to sharpen those efforts, share what has worked, what hasn't worked, and oftentimes we make the model bill even better from that experience. And sometimes the technical assistance is assisting affiliates with locally generated concerns that have come up, and sometimes those end up being model bills for other state affiliates to put forward.
Our national priorities are based on our organizational direction and priorities, as set by the convention, and the work that our board does to take advantage of the issues that are going to be strategically important in any particular session of Congress. For our Washington seminar, the National Board has traditionally selected three issues to focus on. Why three? Well, the truth of the matter is, there's no magic to the number except that they do say three is a magic number. And we only have so much time in front of a member of Congress, and so we do have to use that time wisely. And over time, we've found that three is about the right number of topics to cover. Now in some meetings, fewer do get covered, but we have found that when we try to squeeze more than three in, really, none of the issues get the attention they need to generate co-sponsors. In any particular year, we pursue many more than three issues at the federal level and specifically with Congress.
For the 119th Congress that has just started, our board has prioritized the same three issues that were the focus of our Washington seminar in 2024. Before I talk about those particular priorities and give you a reminder about them, I want to talk a little bit about our success as an organization. We bring our concerns to Congress and our concerns transcend a change in administration in the executive branch. We have had success working with elected officials from all parts of the political spectrum. And in the first 10 days of President Trump's current administration, a number of members have reached out to us with questions and concerns about the effects of various policies that are being implemented and how those policies will impact blind people.
I want to reassure everybody that as always, the federation will take a careful analysis of any new policy or proposed policy changes, to make sure we have a good understanding of the potential effects that that policy will have on blind people or programs that are important to blind people. We do want to be careful not to overreact and start taking action until we've fully analyzed the policy to make sure that we have all the details and we know what's going to happen. Also, any policy action taken by the executive branch is subject to various challenges and actions, and we want to make sure that we're not jumping out to mobilize on advocacy when it may not yet be needed.
On the other hand, we do want to be very aware about proposed policies and the impacts that they may have. There's been a lot of talk. A good example is about challenges being undertaken by some states to challenge the 504 statute under the Rehabilitation Act, and its viability. And that would be something that we would be significantly concerned about. So there are items that we are monitoring, we're concerned about, and we will definitely let you know when there is cause to mobilize.
We also want to invite you to continue to share, especially with our advocacy and policy group, information, your experience, the impact of policies, information you have about what might be coming. That's all data that we can use in analyzing this information. We will always mobilize Federationists when needed, to make sure that we can counteract policies that might have an unintended consequence on laws that are important to us or for that matter, take advantage of opportunities to get disability noticed in places that it's not already.
So let me quickly then move to our priorities for the hundred 119th Congress, at least for the first year, related to our Washington Seminar. A reminder that you can review all of these in detail at our Washington Seminar page, nfb.org/Washington-seminar. I'm not going to go through every detail of the fact sheets, I do encourage you to review them, be familiar with them. But this is a good opportunity to raise in front of our chapters these issues, so that you can discuss them in more detail.
Priorities for this year and we'll be tackling them heavily in February at our Washington seminar, are number one, the Websites and Software Applications Accessibility Act. This creates clarity about accessibility in the digital areas that we all use every day to tackle the things that we need to do. Our goal with this legislation is to end inaccessibility in websites and software applications for Americans with disabilities. This law would create a clarity around accessibility and what it means in the digital environment. That's something we've been calling for. It's also something that the business community, especially the small business community has been asking for. And this law would help protect small businesses by holding the third party website developers accountable for their role in this. A lot of small businesses use platforms where the small business doesn't have control over a lot of the aspects that could impact accessibility or for that matter, inaccessibility.
This legislation would give us a clear-cut definition through rulemaking. It would establish a technical assistance center that would help provide data, information, technical assistance about website accessibility, what's covered, best practices, and those would all be informed and we could inform them through our advocacy work in the National Federation of the Blind. The law would direct, as I noted, certain aspects of the government to create rules in this area.
Our second legislative priority is the Medical Device Non-Visual Accessibility Act. And I know that many of you are familiar with this because it's something that you deal with on a daily basis, just like web accessibility. This bill would make sure that as we have advanced digital interfaces for medical devices that are meant to be used in the home, that there is a requirement specifically for non-visual access. This bill would help make sure that the laws keep up with the tremendous advancement we've seen in using technology to empower people to better manage their healthcare in their homes. It would create a non-visual access standard, which we know is achievable because it's been done in so many other aspects of life, where most of us are carrying around mainstream devices that have interfaces that have been built to be accessible because of our prior work. And we need this to happen in the medical device area because of how critical it is to our maintaining our independence in our homes and of course, our longevity.
So this bill would make amendments to current laws to make sure that class two and class three medical devices with a user interface, to make sure that those would meet the non-visual accessibility standard that would be created. The Food and Drug Administration would be responsible for helping to create the non-visual accessibility standard through regulation. And the stakeholder community, including blind people, would have an opportunity to inform and guide that work, which is really important. We've already been doing great work there, from our efforts to make sure that COVID tests and other at-home tests are accessible. This is a very important and logical next step, and we are getting good support for it in Congress. Obviously, something that impacts many of us on a daily basis.
And the third item is the Blind Americans Return to Work Act. This addresses a long-term issue that we have been concerned about. It hasn't always been a priority in Congress for us, but we do believe that there is still a good opportunity to make sure that we amend the current Social Security law to get rid of the policies that create a work disincentive because of the earnings cliff that exists. We know that blind people want to work, we want to work more, and we want to be able to earn increasingly higher wages. And so this bill would eliminate the earnings cliff by instituting a 10-year demonstration project, which would give the government great data about how effective this is. And we've done some independent research to give members of Congress some better information about how a two-for-one phase-out of earnings versus benefits would help blind people work more, more aggressively move toward independence, and moving off of Social Security disability, and allow blind people to contribute more to the tax base.
This law change would also simplify the rules under the SSDI program, make them similar to other programs that we're used to at Social Security. And again, because it's a 10-year demonstration program, give us good data to demonstrate the effectiveness of this project. This is a policy change that we've wanted, others, employers of the blind have been seeking it, and especially blind people that have been held down by the disincentive. So, I would encourage you to help promote these three bills even if you're not going to be at our Washington seminar.
Now, I did want to just quickly highlight that as I noted, there are many other issues that we are promoting and will be during the year. During the Washington seminar, we will be at least passing out information about three of those. The first is our transition to Integrated Competitive Employment Act. This is the federal legislation that eliminates section 14C of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
We also continue to promote the Access Technology Affordability Act, which would create a refundable tax credit. We've gotten great support on that bill in Congress. We do know that tax reform is going to be a topic in the next Congress, and we have a number of times been very close to having our bill included in tax efforts or other omnibus bills that have been discussed over the previous five plus years. So, we're confident that that will come to the front again.
And then we are trying to keep equal access in the emerging area of autonomous vehicles at the forefront in Congress. We know that there is a lot of discussion, will be a lot of discussion about this topic. And as a framework is set by Congress, we want to make sure that accessibility is included.
Those are just a few of the issues we will be tackling this year. And of course, our affiliates will have state-specific concerns that are being pursued. I do encourage our chapters to be well-versed in our national legislative priorities and to do your part. Every member of Congress comes home on a regular basis, engages in local conversation. You can have those meetings in local offices and keep the pressure on, even if you're not going to be with us at the Washington seminar.
Now, let me give you just a few federation family notes here before we close out this monthly message to you all. And I want to start with some of our members who we have lost recently. From New Jersey we learned of the passing of Martin Dorenbush, who passed away earlier in January. He was an ophthalmologist who went blind later in his career, and joined the federation. From Maryland, we learned of the passing of Gregory Martin on January 14th. Gregory was an active member and an elected leader in our national Harbor chapter in the NFB of Maryland. From Ohio, we learned of the passing of Jeanne Whitley, who passed away on January 2nd, 2025. From California, Tim Elder reports the passing of Beth Berenson, who passed away earlier in January. And Tim notes that Beth was someone who carried so much of the federation's positive blindness philosophy in her heart.
Now from Texas, this was an item that got missed, but a very important one from 2024. Norma Crosby shares the passing of Lawrence Dyron. And Lawrence passed away on November 19th, 2024. Norma notes that Lawrence was the senior member of the NFB of Texas. He was 96 years old when he passed away. And she goes on to share some important information about the history that Lawrence had within the federation over these many decades. She writes in part that Lawrence spent his working life as an employee in the Sheltered Workshop System at the Lighthouse of Houston. She notes that he was one of the leaders who worked with the federation and the Teamsters Local 968 to develop a union contract at that facility. That contract took effect in 1983, and thanks to the hard work of our Texas affiliate leadership, including Lawrence, this contract gave blind workers protections and benefits that they had never had before, including better pay, benefits and protections in situations like layoffs.
She notes that seniority was one of the things guaranteed to them because of this contract, and it made a significant change in situations like layoffs where it had been the practice in the past that if there were layoffs, blind individuals like Lawrence were laid off, but the sighted individuals working at the facility were maintained in their employment status. So, Lawrence and those who worked with him truly changed history and made an impact for blind people around the country as their work at the Lighthouse of Houston helped set the stage for reforms, significant reforms in other parts of the nation. So, I do encourage you to keep Lawrence and the spirit of his work in your thoughts and prayers.
Now also very significantly, especially because we've been talking about money this year, our Missouri affiliate reports the passing of Tom Stevens, who died on January 18th at age 92. Tom Stevens was a leader in our Missouri affiliate, including serving as affiliate president for a number of years. Most federationists around the country, including myself, know Tom Stevens because of his time chairing the NFB Associates Committee, which was a program that we had at the national level to get individuals to make a contribution, a financial contribution to the organization. And as part of that, we would recognize them as associate members. That was one of our national contests for many years, and Tom dedicated his time to asking people to support the National Federation of the Blind, whether it was financially or supporting our legislative efforts at any level. And Sheila Wright, our President in Missouri, notes that generally, if Tom put his mind to working on something, he generally got it done for the blind of Missouri or the nation. So, we would definitely ask you to keep Tom's wife, Helen, and his family and friends in your thoughts and prayers.
And finally, from Colorado, we learned of the passing of John Batron on January 15th. John had been an active Federationist ever since he became blind many years ago, and he was first active in our main affiliate, where he was first elected to a leadership position. Curtis Chong notes that in addition to being a strong proponent of braille, John was always looking for a way to help bring resources to the organization in new ways. And that might have included from time to time in the local chapter in Aurora, asking members to contribute a certain amount based on how many doubles the Colorado Rockies got, or maybe donating a penny for how many miles that chapter members had traveled during a certain period of time. John was always looking for ways to support the organization.
And Curtis especially notes that for someone who lost vision in later in life, John was particularly enthusiastic about reading and writing braille, did it himself, encouraged other people to, and found innovative ways to participate in braille. So please keep John and his family and friends in your thoughts and prayers, and all of these individuals, as well as those members I may not have known about.
Now, I do have one joyous piece of news, which comes from our California affiliate, which notes that recently, Elena Blackstone and her husband Chris, joined the San Jose Silicon Valley chapter of the federation, coming there from a different affiliate. Now you might say, well, why is that significant? People move to new affiliates all the time. Well, it's significant because on January 6th, these individuals welcomed their daughter, Amber Elizabeth Lee Blackstone, who was born at 12:28 PM, and who weighed in at seven pounds 13 ounces, and measured 18 and one half inches long. We're told that the family is all doing well, so I would like to welcome Amber as the newest member of the National Federation of the Blind.
That's what I wanted to share with you on this month's release and encourage you to think about the advocacy efforts of the federation. In our movement, we teach each other how to be better self advocates, and when we know that self-advocacy is not enough, we work together in collective action to get the kind of systemic change that we need. The best way for us to do that is for each of us to be well-educated and informed and have all of the right facts about the legislation and the change that we're pursuing. So if there's something you don't understand about our legislative priorities, whether it's at the national level, at the local level, please ask those questions and make sure that you are as informed as you can be, so that you can be a better advocate with us in making sure that we get the changes we need to make sure we can live the lives that we want. And thank you for your advocacy work.
Now before we end, I do want to give you the customary endings for February 2025, and they go like this. What happens if the groundskeeper sees his shadow? We'll have six more weeks of untrimmed hedges, of course. Now, what song was a number one hit for Groundhog Elvis? Well, that would be Houndhog, of course. And finally, what did the French groundhog see when he woke up? Well, that would be his chateau. Let's go build the National Federation of the Blind.
Speaker 1:
The preceding message was brought to you by Mark Riccobono, President, National Federation of the Blind, 4106599314. Office of the President at Nfb.org. Follow President Riccobono on Mastodon, just search for @president at Nfb.social. Let's go build the National Federation of the Blind.