California Legislation and Accessibility Issues

California Legislation and Accessibility Issues

The Braille Monitor

February

2005

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California Legislation

and Accessibility Issues

by

Nancy Burns

From the Editor: Nancy

Burns is president of the NFB of California. Here she reports on the affiliate's

recent legislative activity. Some of the things they have accomplished would

be useful projects for other states. This is what she says:

Federationist

Racquel Decipeda uses the new talking ticket-vending machine..

For the past several years

the NFB of California has had a successful legislative agenda. Both Braille

literacy issues and nonvisual access to technology legislation have passed.

AB-2525 was signed by Governor Davis in 2002. This legislation mandated nonvisual

access to voting machines. Assembly member Hannah-Beth Jackson, from Santa Barbara,

authored this bill. Members of the Santa Barbara South Coast chapter visited

her district office and were influential in her decision to author this legislation.

AB-467 was authored by assembly member John Dutra, who has been a supporter

of NFB of California legislation in the past. This bill provided nonvisual access

to ticket-vending machines for public transportation and was signed into law

in 2003.

On

February 14, 2004, Federationists, community leaders, and Ryan Spencer, principal

consultant from Dutra's office, gathered at a Burbank Metrolink station to acknowledge

installation of audible ticket-vending machines. Don Burns, NFB of California

legislative representative, presented Ryan Spencer with a certificate of appreciation

to be given to assembly member Dutra. Federationists used the ticket-vending

machines, and one member assisted a sighted couple to purchase tickets.

Don

Burns presents a certificate of appreciation to Ryan Spencer, principal

consultant from Assembly member John Dutra's office. Federationist Joy

Stigile and NFB-C President Nancy Burns look on.

The legislation which created

the most controversy and opposition in the governor's office was AB-2312. It

provided nonvisual access to point-of-sale machines and was authored by our

friend John Dutra. Over a year ago the NFB of California office began receiving

calls from Federationists throughout the state complaining that point-of-sale

(POS) machines were now using touch-screen systems and were no longer accessible.

As a result of these concerns, we passed a point-of-sale resolution during our

2003 convention. It urged the NFB of California to seek legislation to provide

access to POS terminals. This resolution resulted in AB-2312, which created

an incredible amount of controversy and opposition. Retailers, grocers, and

the hotel industry insisted that changing these point-of-sale machines would

be too expensive.

I

requested that a flood of emails and letters, both print and Braille, be sent

to the governor once the legislation had reached his desk. Our troops responded,

and apparently the governor's office was deluged with emails and letters in

support of this legislation.

Once

our bill reached the governor's desk, there were three possible courses of action.

The governor could veto it, and we were concerned this might happen. He could

do nothing, and it would automatically become law at the end of September. We

thought this was likely to be the only possibility for enactment. The third

option, of course, was for the governor to sign the bill. On Friday, September

24, Don Burns received a call from Ryan Spencer advising him that Governor Schwarzenegger

had just signed AB-2312. The NFB of California office quickly spread the word

and celebrated another victory.

Ryan

Spencer worked long and hard on this piece of legislation. He became the liaison

between the governor and the NFB of California office. The opposition met with

the governor's aide almost daily. And Mr. Spencer met with the same aide to

counter the opposition and to restate the NFB of California's position. During

the 2004 NFB of California convention Mr. Spencer was presented with a resolution

of appreciation that recognized and commended him for the professional manner

in which he worked with the NFB and for bringing this legislation to a successful

conclusion, resulting in new laws benefiting the blind and visually impaired.

Mr. Spencer played a critical role in these negotiations.

The

NFB of California has long been concerned about the quality of education received

by blind and visually impaired students. Because of these concerns this organization

has sponsored Braille literacy legislation. Our first effort to mandate Braille

instruction was vetoed by Governor Davis in 2000. Since Federationists don't

give up and go away, we returned to the legislature and were successful in getting

AB-306 signed by the governor in 2001. This Braille literacy bill, authored

by assembly member Dario Frommer, mandated Braille instruction for functionally

blind students. This was followed by AB-2326, establishing a task force given

the mission to create Braille reading standards, since none existed. Three Federationists

served on this task force and worked on what proved to be a formidable assignment.

These Braille-reading standards were carefully aligned with the print-reading

standards for sighted students in public schools. These standards can be accessed

at the California Department of Education Web site at <www.cde.ca.gov>.

We

hope other affiliates will be successful in creating similar Braille literacy

legislation. The state superintendent of public instruction, Jack O'Connell,

has acknowledged the task force for this accomplishment and is pleased that

the state of California is a leader in the effort to recognize the importance

of Braille instruction.

Continuing

with our effort to educate the sighted world about the existing crisis in Braille-literacy

instruction, our legislative team, Don Burns and his assistant Chad Allen, were

successful in bringing about Assembly Concurrent Resolution (ACR) 195. This

ACR is not a law, but it articulated the joint concerns of the California senate

and assembly regarding literacy instruction for blind and visually impaired

students. This ACR was beautifully framed and presented to Don Burns during

a recent trip to the capitol. It now hangs in the NFB of California office.

The coming legislative year will bring new challenges, and we are ready to meet

them.

__________________________________________________________________________________

If you or a friend would

like to remember the National Federation of the Blind in your will, you can

do so by employing the following language:

"I give, devise,

and bequeath unto the National Federation of the Blind, 1800 Johnson Street,

Baltimore, Maryland 21230, a District of Columbia nonprofit corporation, the

sum of $__________(or "______ percent of my net estate" or "The

following stocks and bonds: ________") to be used for its worthy purposes

on behalf of blind persons."

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