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National Federation of the Blind. Live the life you want.
Marilyn Green:
Good afternoon, Senator Allen.
Pam Allen:
Hello. It is so wonderful to welcome all of you to Washington DC. Thank you so much for making the trip.
Marilyn Green:
Thank you for having us. So I want to introduce myself. My name is Marilyn Green and I have my colleagues here, Ben Dallin, who's going to talk about protecting education and employment and independent living skills for the blind.
And then my colleague, Sheila Wright, who will talk about Access Technology Affordability Act. We're from the state of Illinois and we want to talk to you today about items that are affecting blind people. Are you familiar with the National Federation of the Blind?
Pam Allen:
Yes. Thank you so much for the important work that you do. I know we look forward every year to meeting you on the Hill.
Marilyn Green:
Well, I thank you for that. Yes, we're a grassroots advocacy organization with members throughout all 50 states plus DC and Puerto Rico. We are the blind speaking for ourselves. We are member-led and member-informed. So all of the issues that we bring forth to you today are informed by blind people.
So I want to start out by introducing Ben Dallin, who's going to talk to you about protecting education, employment, and independent living skills. And then we'll turn to Sheila for Access Technology Affordability Act. And I will close out with the Blind Americans Return Work Act. Does that sound good, Senator?
Pam Allen:
That sounds excellent. And thank you so much for this fact sheet. It's so helpful to have a preview of information.
Marilyn Green:
Great.
Pam Allen:
Hi, Ben. Nice to meet you.
Ben Dallin:
Yes. Nice to be with you. Thank you. Nice to be here with you again, Senator. Thank you for taking the time to meet with us. We really appreciate it. And just as Marilyn indicated, I'm going to talk to you a little bit about the areas of education, employment, and independent living.
And I think it's really important that we don't look at those as completely separate areas, but areas that really affect each other and create some really good cycles if we can get good resources and good things going and all of those. And so all of these priorities that I'm going to mention really impact each other and feed off each other.
So as you may be aware, in the last year, there's been a lot of cuts and proposed cuts in certain government programs. And so we feel that it's an appropriate time to talk about some of our priorities that we feel need to be protected.
These are laws that have been in place for a long time, and we really want to make sure that our legislators understand the importance of these programs in our lives. And just to give you a little bit of my background, I grew up in a very rural town in Alaska, actually, that wasn't even on the road system and was only reachable by air.
And I was the only blind child in my town. And if it wasn't for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, also known as IDEA, that has been on the books for 50 years, I would very likely have not received a free and equal education, which this law mandates. And because it was on the books, I was able to receive an education that allowed me to participate and proceed along with my peers who were sighted. And I've reaped the benefits from that since then.
So the programs that that administers are very important and we hope that they can be protected. As I got older, I benefited from the Rehabilitation Act, and that's been on the book since 1973, and that does a lot of different things as you are well aware, but it allows me to have received rehabilitation and vocational rehabilitation and job training skills and access technology that have helped me be successful in the workplace.
And very important, also prohibits discrimination in technology used by federal entities. So very important that the programs under this law get the funding and administration that they need. I have many friends here in Illinois and around the country that are vendors in the Randolph-Sheppard Program.
And as you know, those vendors are able to receive priority as blind vendors when it comes to facilities on federal property for dining and vending. And the unemployment rate is still stubbornly high for blind people.
And this, being on the books as it has for 90 years has really provided people a way to participate in the workforce and contribute, and in many cases, help our government run better and the facilities on our government sites function well. Just two more programs I'd like to mention briefly. The older individuals who are blind program is very important. As you can well imagine, as people age, blindness becomes an increasing likelihood, unfortunately, related to many different conditions.
And this program provides seniors who are adjusting to blindness a way to get training in several important areas such as Braille, cooking, travel, independent living. And that's so important in so many ways, psychologically, physically, and other ways for them to be able to receive that adjustment. And I know many people personally who have benefited from these programs.
Last but not least, the American Printing House for the Blind actually is over 150 years old and is the oldest and largest nonprofit agency that produces Braille textbooks in the country and has actually received federal funding since the 1870s to produce Braille textbooks and materials on a national level.
That is so important that the funding for this continues. Braille is so important. There's many studies that show that proficiency in Braille increases employment likelihood among the blind. And it's not just traditional Braille textbooks, but the APH also is at the cutting edge of technology and Braille and how they intersect and is producing, for example, the Monarch, which is a multi-line Braille display, which is really on the cusp of revolutionizing Braille materials and education.
So I hope that this has really provided you just a reminder of how useful and important these programs are. And they're not just programs that we rely on, but they're programs that provide us a way to contribute and reach our potential and fulfill our desires to participate in this country.
It's very important, and these allow us to be contributing citizens of the country, and they've all received bipartisan support in the past, and we really hope that that can continue in the future, and that you'd be willing to champion these for us, especially if there's any proposed cuts.
Pam Allen:
I really appreciate you sharing some of your personal story, Ben. That makes a big difference. We meet with a lot of people here every day, and so thank you for helping me to understand a little bit more about these programs. My grandmother actually has experienced some difficulty with her vision, so I'm glad to know about the programs for seniors.
So I definitely would be interested in supporting. It sounds like it is a very important series of programs that really make a positive difference. So thank you so much. What's our next issue? I know we have a vote coming up in a little bit, and I want to make sure that I give full attention to everybody.
Sheila Wright:
Hi, Senator Allen. It's nice to meet with you. I want to talk with you about a problem that is a barrier to employment in some cases, and that's the high cost of accessible technology. Most blame people cannot afford paying one to 6,000, and some, it goes even higher than that, in a piece of equipment so that they can go to work.
And I know personally, I've never had a job that provided the equipment I needed to be competitive with my coworkers. I think that the Access Technology Affordability Act is a good solution, and that's Senate Bill 1918, and this bill would create a refundable tax credit of 2,000 dollars up to 2,000 dollars. So if I need to buy a Braille display that costs 3,700 dollars, I still would have a good portion to pay toward it, but this 2,000 dollars would certainly help to make that equipment more affordable.
In addition to, the individual would have 2,000 dollars over three-year period, and this act would actually sunset after five years, and everybody would take a look at it to see if it needed to be reindexed. One of the things that I think I want to draw your attention to is that Mathematica has created or has demonstrated through a dynamic score how the passage of this bill would have be able to save the government 315 million dollars over the life of this bill.
And it would go a long way to allowing blind people to select and purchase equipment they need on the jobs they do. Thank you.
Pam Allen:
Thank you so mch. I really appreciate both of you, Ben, and you emphasis on employment and giving back to society. So I see that the contact information is for my colleague from Arkansas, so I will definitely be reaching out. Thank you so much for sharing. I didn't realize the cost of equipment, so that's really helpful to know. Okay. Marilyn, what do you have for me?
Marilyn Green:
So Senator, I want to talk to you about the Blind Americans Return to Work Act. Employment is important to blind people. Currently, the issue is that ... Well, not the issue, but there are blind people who receive Social Security Disability. And the issue with the program as it currently exists is that it's not really allowed to let blind people live the American dream.
There is an earnings cliff, Senator, and in 2026, that earnings cliff is 2,830 dollars. And what that means for us as blind people when we're receiving disability is that if we earn 1 dollar over that cliff, we lose our benefits, and that's 2,830 dollars a month if I didn't specify that, but we would potentially lose our benefits if we just go 1 dollar over that earnings cliff.
On average in 2025, the average disability check was 1,582 dollars. And so it really demonstrates how we could lose all of our benefits. So I have members here in Illinois, as well as I know people throughout the country who are really bright, intelligent people who deny themselves the opportunity to get more hours and to get promotions because they're scared of falling off that earnings cliff, because they know if they just make 1 dollar over, they lose their benefits.
And it's so important that the unemployment rate for blind people, as Ben mentioned earlier, is so high, this is one of the ways that we stay unemployed and underemployed. So the solution as we see it is to have a 10-year demonstrated program that would provide a two-for-one phase out, which essentially would be for every 2 dollars that a person earns over that earning cliff, our benefits would be reduced by 1 dollar.
Ultimately, that would allow us to gradually go off the program and not feel that complete impact of losing all of our benefits as well as ... So the advantage of doing it this way is that we begin to pay into Social Security. We're paying taxes, which everyone likes. And ultimately, with the phase out, it comes more in alignment with Social Security with SSI as it currently exists, so it increases efficiency.
Do you have any questions for me, Senator?
Pam Allen:
I appreciate that summary of the issue. I know we have a lot of work to do with Social Security, so this is really, really helpful. My staff will follow up with all of you. I'm so sorry. I've got to run.
We're being called for a vote, but I want to thank each of you for the important work that you're doing every day to really make a difference. And I'm confident that I'll be following up with you with any questions that come up. Keep up the great work, and thank you so much for being here this week.
Marilyn Green:
Thank you, Senator Allen.
John Pare:
All right. Team A, great job. Very nice presentation. You move through at a very good pace, I think steady pace through the three issues, nice introduction on the National Federation of the Blind and going through the issues, Ben, particularly going through and hitting all five of those. I know you don't necessarily have to hit all five, but you did a nice job in pacing yourself and giving a good little summary of each one and rolling in a personal story.
Same with the Sheila and the ATAA and Marilyn just running the way you ran the meeting and the Blind Americans and mentioning both the cliff and then also going back, mentioning the mathematical score, which is a critical item, and we're going to have that in everyone's packet, so we'll be talking more about that. All right, so we're going to have an opportunity for people to ask questions and answers at the end.
And so I think it's best to roll right into our mock meeting B as we're calling them. And this is going to be, maybe let's make sure now, Everette, are you here?
Everette Bacon:
I'm here. Yes, sir.
John Pare:
Oh, excellent. All right. And then I know Jessica, I heard you.
Jessica Beecham:
Yes.
John Pare:
How about Grace Pires? Grace? I think she's here. Grace, are you unmuted?
Grace Pires:
Sorry, I couldn't unmute. I couldn't find the button.
John Pare:
No problem. All right, good. Great to hear your voice. Okay. And last, Tracy, Soforenko?
Tracy Soforenko:
Yes, here. Maybe you're not hearing me.
Everette Bacon:
Tracy? You sound very far away.
Grace Pires:
Move forward to the microphone.
Tracy Soforenko:
Better?
John Pare:
Oh, much better.
Grace Pires:
Yes, much better. Yeah.
John Pare:
All right. All right. Thanks, Corp. Yeah, Jessica, team is here. Over to you.
Jessica Beecham:
All right. Well, thank you guys for having us here and we're going to be speaking with Representative Bacon today. So hi, Representative Bacon.
Everette Bacon:
How are you? It's great to have you here. I have my director of health also with me here who handles all kinds of health issues. So it's wonderful for you all to be here and meet with us, so thank you.
Jessica Beecham:
Excellent. Well, we appreciate you taking the time to see us today. Are you familiar with the National Federation of the Blind?
Everette Bacon:
I am. I have been in office here in Washington, DC. I have to get elected every couple of years, but I've been doing it for quite some time and I've seen you come back and forth to the Hill. It's always great to have you here and to see the dogs and the canes. It's wonderful.
Jessica Beecham:
Awesome. Well, we are so proud to be here representing the largest consumer advocacy organization led by the people for the people. And we have folks from across the nation here with us this week from all 50 states and from DC and Puerto Rico. And so we are so excited to be here with you as well. Thank you so much for taking the time to meet with us.
We have three issues that we are going to talk with you about today. The first one has to do with protecting education, rehabilitation, and employment services. The second one has to do with the Access Technology Affordability Act, and the last one has to do with the Blind Americans Return to Work Act.
And so I'll be speaking with you about the last one, but I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to my colleagues to present to you about protecting our education, rehabilitation services, and employment services. Thank you so much.
Everette Bacon:
That sounds wonderful. I only have a short window, so we'll have to move this along as fast as we can.
Tracy Soforenko:
Thank you, Congressman Bacon. I'm Tracy Soforenko I live in your district, and I want to share with you how blind people depend on a set of five programs that are really crucial for helping us achieve our education, employment, and independence.
I'm going to highlight all five of these programs and share some details about that. The first of these program is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, IDEA, which establishes the Office of Special Education, which formulates block grants that go out to state and local education agencies to provide special education services to ensure that students get the students with disabilities, and in particular blind students in our case, get a free and appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment so they can participate with their sighted peers in the classroom, which means these students are in classrooms with their sighted peer and able to ...
These programs help them to achieve results because they're getting educational resources, assistive technology, the kinds of resources they need for classroom materials so they can compete alongside of all of their peers.
Each student gets an individual education plan that outlines how the tools, technology, and other resources they need so that they can actually have a quality education and both be productive during their K through 12 education and later in life.
That includes Braille, cane travel, training on assistive technology, and all the other things they need to be able to fully participate. I want to talk about a student, Gabby, who lives in your district. Gabby is a student who is doing well in school, engaged in sports, travels around my neighborhood and sells me Girl Scout cookies.
Those things are so addictive. But the trick around this is Gabby's a blind student and she's able to do the same things all of her sighted peers are able to do because she has access to the resources under IDEA so that she can compete and participate equally in the education system.
Next-
Everette Bacon:
I'd love to meet Gabby someday.
Tracy Soforenko:
That would be great. I won't be surprised if we have those opportunities to bring her along in a few years to come and participate in legislative advocacy. Next is vocational rehabilitation services. So this was established by the Rehabilitation Act, which provides a variety of things, but in predominantly the training and the alternative techniques that blind people use to be able to continue to work or return to work that could be VR.
For myself, VR skills enabled me through that training when I lost my vision to learn those alternative techniques so I could work and be successful. And this is crucial for my ability to work for the past 25 years and make a difference in our community and provide for my family. And these VR services, vocational rehabilitation services are crucial for the next generation of individuals who want to have productive lives where they're able to earn a living and make a difference.
The third service is the older blind program, which provides seniors the ability to live independently, use access technology to be able to do all the stuff we do in life, whether it's managing or financing, dealing with our healthcare, doing all of the things they need to live independently, as well as travel safely within their communities.
My buddy, Joe, he lost his vision in his 60s and he was convinced he wouldn't be able to live independently, but with older blind services, he was able to live successfully and safely in his home. He's now in his late 70s and thriving, thanks to the older blind services that make this possible.
Next, the Randolph-Sheppard Program allows individuals from throughout our state to run vending facilities and dining facilities on federal and government buildings so that they can live the American dream of owning their own business and have an opportunity to make a difference in their community by running
Everette Bacon:
Business. Very familiar with Randolph-Sheppard Act. They're very familiar.
Tracy Soforenko:
And these programs are critical ... Lastly, the American Printing House for the Blind, which provides many of those resources that are textbooks and Braille materials for educational resources to make sure that blind students are able to succeed and have the resources they need and that our local school districts can purchase the materials they need to enable that quality education. So my question is, Congressman Bacon, can you help protect these crucial services so blind people can have education, employment, and independence?
Everette Bacon:
Well, of course, we want blind people to have education, employment, and independence. That is a priority for us. We want that for all Americans. We are evaluating the Office of Special Education and all of the programs that are housed there.
And so I definitely appreciate you bringing all of this information to my attention. And again, my director of health will work with also my director of education and we'll continue to review this as we evaluate the Office of Special Education. So thank you, Tracy.
Jessica Beecham:
We certainly appreciate that. And we know that the political climate is constantly evolving and things are changing. So if you have any questions, of course, our contact information and all of the relevant information about this and all of our other initiatives are in the packet that we gave you. And I'm going to turn it over to Grace who is going to talk with you about the Access Technology Affordability Act.
Everette Bacon:
Wonderful. Hello, Grace.
Jessica Beecham:
Hello. Good afternoon. It's a pleasure to be here to speak with you about this piece of legislation that we'd like to have your support on. This is the Access Technology Affordability Act. And the issue is that access technology is extremely expensive and out of reach for most blind people.
When people need access technology to participate in employment, to obtain education, and to honestly to be able to do a lot of daily activities, like reading your mail and paying bills, those kinds of things. And it's so expensive.
The technology can cost, for example, a screen reader, which will provide you access to checking your email at work, creating documents, and just being able to access the same information that your sighted coworkers have to do your job, costs about 1,000 dollars. And Braille display, some people prefer to use Braille in addition to speech, and that's about 2,800 dollar.
So we can see how expensive it actually is for someone to pay that all at once. So the-
Everette Bacon:
And the employer doesn't buy these things for you?
Grace Pires:
In most cases, no. Most cases people bring their own because the employers say it's too much of a burden for them or they don't know what to get. So this will give the person the flexible ... Each person, everybody's different.
So what might work for me might not work for my friend, depending on what our needs are. So what our solution would be is me to provide a tax credit. So it's a 2,000 dollar tax credit over a three-year period, and it would help defray some of the costs of this expensive technology that would provide us the ability to work and compete like our sighted peers.
And health insurance does not cover this, so that's not an option. And the other thing that it would do is provide us the flexibility to buy what we specifically need. Like I said, everybody's different, everybody has different needs.
So I know what I need, but my friend might not need the same exact thing. She might have low vision, so she needs magnification. I need a screen reader. So it's different, see?
Everette Bacon:
Okay. Yes.
Grace Pires:
This was actually indexed by Mathematica and this program, it sunsets for five years and it says that it would save the government about 315 million dollars over the life of this legislation. So it would be a win-win situation. We would be paying more, more blind people would be working, they would be paying taxes and social security and would be getting off benefits. So I hope we can count on your support with this legislation.
Everette Bacon:
Well, I'm always interested in lowering taxes and saving money. So this is something I think my staff would definitely like to look at. So thank you so much for bringing it to my attention. It definitely looks like something that I have some interest in.
Grace Pires:
Great. Thank you.
Everette Bacon:
Thank you. Jessica, do we have time for one more? I have
Jessica Beecham:
One more quick issue just to speak with you about really quickly. And this is the Social Security Disability ... I'm sorry, the Blind Americans Return to Work Act. And so basically Social Security Disability Insurance has an earnings cliff that people fall right off.
And a really great example of this, you said you're familiar with the Randolph-Sheppard program. Yes. I'm a Randolph-Sheppard vendor and I employ a young man. He works for me. He's blind. And I've given all of my other employees raises who started work at the same time. He's a hard worker. He shows up every day. He's on time.
And I can't give him a raise because if I give him a raise, he'll earn more than the 2,830 dollars a month that blind people can earn and keep their social security benefits. So he wouldn't earn a lot more. So I might give him a raise that might earn him a couple thousand dollars more a year, but he'll lose about 18,000 dollars a year.
So he has to say no to that raise. In addition, he'll also eventually lose his health insurance benefits and things like that. And so he can't accept the raise that I'm wanting to give him. And he's not alone. Many Americans have refused raises and have refused job promotions because they're living with disabilities, they're living with blindness.
And if they accept those earnings and earn even a dollar more a month than that 2,830 that we're allowed to earn, so they can maybe earn 12 dollars more a year and then they lose their full benefits. And so again, around 18,000 dollars, depending on how much someone receives in benefits, they're losing that much a year.
And so we think that it would be helpful for blind people if we had a smoother way to reduce our reliance on Social Security while incentivizing work. And so what we would like to propose is a program that would be similar to what happens with Social Security or SSI right now, so supplemental security income, which is that when people earn 1 dollar, their benefits are reduced or for every dollar earned, the benefits are reduced by 2 dollars.
So the benefits go down, but someone's earnings go up and it allows somebody to take a gradual reduction in benefits instead of losing all of their benefits all at once. And so we are hoping that we can count on your support for the Blind Americans Return to Work Act, which is HR1175, and it is sponsored by Pete Sessions.
Everette Bacon:
Oh, okay. I know Congressman Sessions very well. He's a good friend. This sounds really interesting. We're always, again, evaluating Social Security. It's definitely something that is top of mind for my administration, for all of Congress. So this is very interesting. You've brought some things to my attention that I wasn't aware of.
And so I definitely will continue to review this and work with my staff to decide what is best to move forward. I also am familiar with the committee that represents Social Security, and so I'll be talking with some committee members as well. So thank you very much for that. I appreciate you being here. Appreciate the time. All of you came and the expense you gave to come here and see us here in Washington, DC. Please remember if I'm home in our great state that you'll come and look me up at a town hall.
I would love to have some support, some friends there. So thank you so much for coming today and thank you.
Jessica Beecham:
Absolutely. And thank you so much for your time. And we've greatly enjoyed the meeting and we look forward to seeing you at home and back in DC next year.
Everette Bacon:
Thank you. It's great. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Tracy, Grace, thank you.
Audio:
National Federation of the Blind, live the life you want.