From dandrews at visi.com Thu Oct 23 23:53:28 2008 From: dandrews at visi.com (David Andrews) Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2008 18:53:28 -0500 Subject: [blindlaw] Server Report Message-ID: Dear NFBNET.ORG users: I am pleased to be able to tell you that we have successfully gotten the new nfbnet.org server to work and switched services over to it. There are still a few things to clean up, but most things are as they were previously, or as you would expect them to be with the new software. We still need to process the message archives to adjust some links, which have changed. Otherwise our mailing lists should function as they did before. This processing may not take place until early next week, but otherwise the lists should function normally. For you web masters, the sites are up and running. We are going to try and sync content once more tonight, to capture the changes that some of you made last weekend or earlier this week. That should happen this evening, hopefully. I will write web masters separately with new instructions. If you have any problems, or find something that doesn't work, please contact me at dandrews at visi.com Once again I thank everybody for your patience. Because of the complexity, the process was somewhat messier then we would have liked. It turns out that there was a bug in the software that IBM uses to control the RAID array for our disk drives. They characterized it as a "code issue," but it was a bug if you ask me. Once we got the firmware updated things happened as expected. Happy computing! David Andrews, SysOp and List Owner From jduncanhines at gmail.com Fri Oct 24 03:01:49 2008 From: jduncanhines at gmail.com (joe hines) Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2008 23:01:49 -0400 Subject: [blindlaw] is thier any laws on visualy impaired signs Message-ID: <00e501c93584$dc8ea1a0$6401a8c0@93LRNC1> I live on a county road in Ohio and I cannot get the township or the county to install visually impaired signs. I'm at low vision and am service connected blind and can get no answers from the township say it is a county problem, they say the county road isn't wide enough to walk on so I'm pretty much grounded to the property accdording to the ashland county engineer.Mr. Cooper. Does anyone have any information on any ruling from the sate joe hines From Noel.Nightingale at ed.gov Fri Oct 24 19:01:39 2008 From: Noel.Nightingale at ed.gov (Nightingale, Noel) Date: Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:01:39 -0400 Subject: [blindlaw] FW: [Jobs] FW: Attorney Vacancies at the U.S. Department of Justice Message-ID: <4313AD4429551F4595A8A414A660C75F1648F639@wdcrobe2m05.ed.gov> -----Original Message----- From: jobs-bounces+noel.nightingale=ed.gov at nfbnet.org [mailto:jobs-bounces+noel.nightingale=ed.gov at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Maurer, Patricia Sent: Tuesday, October 21, 2008 8:40 AM To: jobs at nfbnet.org Subject: [Jobs] FW: Attorney Vacancies at the U.S. Department of Justice ________________________________ From: Hunter, Sue [mailto:Sue.Hunter at usdoj.gov] Sent: Tuesday, October 21, 2008 11:34 AM To: ncai at ncai.org; nedy at wyjlaw.com; newmedia at ja.org; Neysas at dnfsb.gov; Maurer, Patricia; nijc at aol.com; nlove at opd.state.md.us; nmcconnell at jackscamp.com; noconnell at tabinc.org; noryrp at cox.net; nromulus at gmail.com; ntb at boglechang.com; ocaaba at cox.net; omanager at lawyerscomm.org; palsd at hotmail.com; patel at fr.com; patsyy at bellnunnally.com; pchanster at yahoo.com; pchapman at koonz.com; pgrewal at daycasebeer.com; pkim at lordbissell.com; Maurer, Patricia; pmorrison at state.wv.us; poppy.johnston at unlv.edu Subject: FW: Attorney Vacancies at the U.S. Department of Justice To learn more about our attorneys and what they like most about working at DOJ, please visit our attorney profiles at, http://www.usdoj.gov/oarm/arm/profiles.htm , and the video clips of our attorneys and interns available at https://www.avuedigitalservices.com/ads/jobsatdojoarm/index.jsp We encourage you to share this email with interested colleagues and peers. If you no longer wish to receive these periodic email announcements, please respond to this email address and ask to be removed from our mailing list. Thank you. Current Department of Justice Attorney Vacancies * UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA ASSISTANT UNITED STATES ATTORNEY FRESNO, CALIFORNIA OCTOBER 20, 2008 09-EDCA-01A This position will be open until filled. Date posted: 10-20-2008 * ASSISTANT UNITED STATES ATTORNEY UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE EASTERN DISTRICT OF TENNESSEE VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT #09-EDTN-AUSA-01 Applications must be received by Friday, November 7, 2008. Date posted: 10-17-2008 * U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE CIVIL RIGHTS DIVISION EMPLOYMENT LITIGATION SECTION DEPUTY CHIEF, GS-905-15 (Vacancy #2) These positions are open until November 7, 2008. Date posted: 10-17-2008 * U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE CIVIL RIGHTS DIVISION EMPLOYMENT LITIGATION SECTION DEPUTY CHIEF, GS-905-15 (Vacancy #1) These positions are open until November 7, 2008. Date posted: 10-17-2008 * U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE EXECUTIVE OFFICE FOR UNITED STATES ATTORNEYS LEGAL INITIATIVE STAFF ATTORNEY-ADVISOR, GS-0905-15 VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT NO: 09-EOUSA-004 Announcement closes October 29, 2008. Date posted: 10-15-2008 * ATTORNEY VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE UNITED STATES MARSHAL SERVICE OFFICE OF GENERAL COUNSEL GS-14 FPL 15 OPEN: OCTOBER 16, 2008 CLOSE: OCTOBER 26, 2008 Date posted: 10-15-2008 * U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE U.S. TRUSTEE'S OFFICE -- ATLANTA, GA TRIAL ATTORNEY Applications must be postmarked by the closing date of November 10, 2008 and will be accepted up to five calendar days after the closing date. Date posted: 10-15-2008 * ASSISTANT UNITED STATES ATTORNEY VACANCY UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF IOWA ANNOUNCEMENT NUMBER: 09-AUSA-NDIA-01 This position will remain open until filled, but initial consideration will be given to application packages received by November 14, 2008. Date posted: 10-15-2008 * U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE U.S. TRUSTEE'S OFFICE -- TAMPA, FL TRIAL ATTORNEY Applications must be postmarked by the closing date of October 28, 2008 and will be accepted up to five calendar days after the closing date. Date posted: 10-15-2008 * DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE U.S. TRUSTEE'S OFFICE -- OAKLAND, CA TRIAL ATTORNEY Applications must be postmarked by the closing date of October 27, 2008 and will be accepted up to five calendar days after the closing date. Date posted: 10-10-2008 * SPECIAL ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY U.S. ATTORNEY'S OFFICE EASTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS SHERMAN, TEXAS VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT NO.: 09-EDTX-01 (SAUSA) OPENING DATE: OCTOBER 10, 2008 CLOSING DATE: OCTOBER 31, 2008 Applications must be received by 5:00 p.m. Central Standard/Daylight Time on October 31, 2008. Date posted: 10-10-2008 * ASSISTANT UNITED STATES ATTORNEY UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE DISTRICT OF OREGON 09-OR-03 Position is open until filled but no later than two weeks after posting. Date posted: 10-10-2008 * U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE EXECUTIVE OFFICE FOR U.S. TRUSTEES WASHINGTON, D.C. EXPERIENCED ATTORNEY (GENERAL ADMINISTRATIVE LAW)/GS-13/14/15 ANNOUNCEMENT NO. 08-38-14001 This position must be postmarked by October 17, 2008. Date posted: 10-10-2008 * U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE EXECUTIVE OFFICE FOR U.S. TRUSTEES WASHINGTON, D.C. EXPERIENCED ATTORNEY (CIVIL ENFORCEMENT)/GS-13/14/15 ANNOUNCEMENT NO. 08-38-14002 This position must be postmarked by October 17, 2008. Date posted: 10-10-2008 * U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE EXECUTIVE OFFICE FOR U.S. TRUSTEES WASHINGTON, D.C.(2) EXPERIENCED TRIAL ATTORNEYS (APPELLATE)/GS-14/15 ANNOUNCEMENT NO. 08-38-14003 This position must be postmarked by October 17, 2008. Date posted: 10-10-2008 * ASSISTANT UNITED STATES ATTORNEY UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE EASTERN DISTRICT OF ARKANSAS VACANCY NUMBER: 08-EDAR-06 POSTED 10-09-2008 All applications must be postmarked by October 24, 2008. Date posted: 10-09-2008 * ASSISTANT UNITED STATES ATTORNEY UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF GEORGIA VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT NUMBER 08-AUSASDGA-06 Applications must be received no later than October 17, 2008. The hiring process is ongoing and will remain open until the position is filled. Date posted: 10-08-2008 * ASSISTANT UNITED STATES ATTORNEY UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE DISTRICT OF OREGON ANNOUNCEMENT NO. 09-OR-02 Position is open until filled, but no later than two weeks from posting. Date posted: 10-08-2008 * ASSISTANT UNITED STATES ATTORNEY UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE DISTRICT OF OREGON 09-OR-01 Position is open until filled but no later than October 22, 2008. Date posted: 10-08-2008 * ASSISTANT CHIEF (GS-905-15) U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE ANTITRUST DIVISION LITIGATION III SECTION Applications must be received no later than October 16, 2008. Date posted: 10-08-2008 * DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE DRUG ENFORCEMENT ADMINISTRATION OFFICE OF CHIEF COUNSEL DIVISION COUNSEL - SAN DIEGO DIVISION SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA ATTORNEY/GS-15 Applications must be received by November 7, 2008 Date posted: 10-08-2008 * U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE DRUG ENFORCEMENT ADMINISTRATION OFFICE OF CHIEF COUNSEL DIVISION COUNSEL - DALLAS DIVISION DALLAS, TEXAS ATTORNEY/GS-15 Applications must be received by October 22, 2008 Date posted: 10-08-2008 * UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE NATIONAL SECURITY DIVISION OFFICE OF INTELLIGENCE EXPERIENCED ATTORNEYS / GS-13 T0 GS-15 Announcement remains opened until positions are filled. Date posted: 10-07-2008 * DEPUTY GENERAL COUNSEL (1 POSITION) EXECUTIVE OFFICE FOR UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL COUNSEL'S OFFICE 09-EOUSA-001 Closing date October 21, 2008. Date posted: 10-07-2008 * CRIMINAL ASSISTANT UNITED STATES ATTORNEY UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE WESTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN GRAND RAPIDS OFFICE Your cover letter and resume must be received by 5:00 p.m.Eastern Time on October 14, 2008. Date posted: 10-07-2008 * U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE FEDERAL BUREAU OF PRISONS CONSOLIDATED LEGAL CENTER FEDERAL CORRECTIONAL COMPLEX COLEMAN, FLORIDA ATTORNEY ADVISOR GS-905-12/13 This position is open until filled, but no later than October 17, 2008. Date posted: 10-03-2008 * U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE DRUG ENFORCEMENT ADMINISTRATION OFFICE OF CHIEF COUNSEL / CIVIL LITIGATION SECTION EXPERIENCED ATTORNEYS / GS-11 to GS-14 (PROMOTION POTENTIAL to GS-15) Applications must be received by October 31, 2008. Date posted: 10-03-2008 * U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE CRIMINAL DIVISION OFFICE OF OVERSEAS PROSECUTORIAL DEVELOPMENT, ASSISTANCE AND TRAINING EXPERIENCED ATTORNEY / GS-14 to GS-15 VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT NUMBER: 08-CRM-OPDAT-040 Applications will be accepted until October 31, 2008. Date posted: 10-03-2008 * ASSISTANT UNITED STATES ATTORNEY UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE WESTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT NUMBER: 09-WDTX-AUSA-01 Position is open until filled. Date posted: 10-03-2008 * U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE CRIMINAL DIVISION OFFICE OF OVERSEAS PROSECUTORIAL DEVELOPMENT, ASSISTANCE AND TRAINING EXPERIENCED ATTORNEY / GS-14 to GS-15 (ILA-ALBANIA) Applications will be accepted until the position is filled. Date posted: 10-03-2008 * BUREAU OF ALCOHOL TOBACCO FIREARMS AND EXPLOSIVES OFFICE OF THE CHIEF COUNSEL (ADMINISTRATION AND ETHICS DIVISION) GENERAL ATTORNEY, GS-905-15 WASHINGTON, DC Applications must be received by November 4, 2008, which is the closing date of this announcement. Date posted: 10-03-2008 * DEPUTY CHIEF, NARCOTIC AND DANGEROUS DRUG SECTION ES-905 DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE CRIMINAL DIVISION WASHINGTON, D.C. VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT NUMBER - 08-CRM-SES-05 Closing date October 15, 2008. Date posted: 10-02-2008 * U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE CRIMINAL DIVISION OFFICE OF OVERSEAS PROSECUTORIAL DEVELOPMENT, ASSISTANCE AND TRAINING EXPERIENCED ATTORNEY / GS-14 to GS-15 VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT NUMBER: 08-CRM-OPDAT-39 Applications will be accepted until this position has been filled. Date posted: 10-02-2008 * FEDERAL BUREAU OF PRISONS CONSOLIDATED LEGAL CENTER METROPOLITAN CORRECTIONAL CENTER NEW YORK, NEW YORK SUPERVISORY ATTORNEY-ADVISOR GS-905-14 This position is open until filled, but no later than October 15, 2008. Date posted: 10-01-2008 The purpose of this email is to advise potential interested persons of employment opportunities at the Department of Justice. The Department of Justice cannot control further dissemination and/or posting of this information. Such posting and/or dissemination is not an endorsement by the Department of the organization or group disseminating and/or posting the information. -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ Jobs mailing list Jobs at nfbnet.org http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/jobs To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for Jobs: http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/jobs/noel.nightingale%40ed.gov From Noel.Nightingale at ed.gov Fri Oct 24 21:50:31 2008 From: Noel.Nightingale at ed.gov (Nightingale, Noel) Date: Fri, 24 Oct 2008 17:50:31 -0400 Subject: [blindlaw] Washignton State Bar Association young lawyers' division Message-ID: <4313AD4429551F4595A8A414A660C75F1648F641@wdcrobe2m05.ed.gov> ________________________________ From: Moni Law [mailto:monil at wsba.org] Sent: Friday, October 24, 2008 1:47 PM To: adavis at seattleu.edu; bbloom at frankfreed.com; ccc at saclawfirm.com; druss at pierce.ctc.edu; FlTracylaw at aol.com; kevind at nwjustice.org; ktran at staffordfrey.com; Lisa Dickinson; lisa.decora at hhs.gov; melissab at nwjustice.org; michael.heath at ubs.com; blancar at nwjustice.org; Hassan_Abedi at ml.com; jchung at nwwlc.org; jhernandez at schwabe.com; leeperthuynguyen at yahoo.com; nstacy at quinault.org; rrarangol at lawdome.com; Tiffany.Tull at dhs.gov; tprice at rmlaw.com; aaron.w.reiman at uscg.mil; ben.santos at metrokc.gov; Denise Tran; donnae at atg.wa.gov; dpenta969 at gmail.com; Keith.talbot at gov.wa.gov; lsomerville9 at comcast.net; LupeA at nwjustice.org; nsklaw at gmail.com; rsaade at schwabe.com; shav235 at lni.wa.gov; Anh Kiet Ngo; Camara Banfield; Dolly Hunt ; Horace Lee ; Juliana Wong ; Kammi Mencke ; Karla Kane ; Kevin O'Rourke ; Natasha Coleman ; Sheley Secrest; Thi Huynh ; Tina Bondy ; Aaron S. Kiviat; Amy Jo Tangeman; Amy Robinson; Aric Sana Bomsztyk; Brahmy Poologasingham; Candice Eun-Lyi Kim; Ciarelle Jimenez Valdez; Craig Sims; Dainen Penta; J.D. Smith; Janet Chung; Janet Kim Lin; Jill Otake; Naomi Kim; Naomi Stacy; Nicole Mcgrath; Pallavi Mehta Wahi; Rachel S. Black; Shawn Michael Murinko; Thuy Nguyen-Leeper; Tracy Sarich Subject: Job opening at WSBA- encourage applicants please Greetings: I apologize if any of you receive this more than once. I manage four staff here including the support staff to the young lawyers division. Our WSBA Young Lawyer Division Liaison Jenny Resendez received a call back a year after applying for the Gates Foundation, and we understand her taking this rare and sought after opportunity. The WYLD Liaison position is a very meaningful job with great exposure for a young professional (including law school graduates or new attorneys who want to try some nonprofit work). The pay is comparable to some starting attorney positions and the benefits are excellent. Or if you know of any other qualified friends or family or people in your network who are looking for work, please encourage them to apply. Please feel free to forward the attached job announcement that posted today. Thanks for your help! Moni Washington State Bar Association Bar Leaders Program Manager Member and Community Relations Department 1325 4th Avenue, Suite 600 Seattle, WA 98101-2539 Phone: 206-727-8239/800-945-WSBA Fax: 206-727-8319 Email: monil at wsba.org Website: www.wsba.org ---------------------- Washington Young Lawyers Division Liaison Member and Community Relations Dept. Job Grade E8; Exempt; Full-time; Monday-Friday Starting Salary Range: $46,461 - $50,000/year DOE+ benefits (Posted 10/24/08) This position plans and manages various activities between the Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) and its Washington Young Lawyers Division (WYLD) involving related committees, groups, volunteers, law school liaisons, and varied stakeholders. The primary responsibilities are to strategically develop and implement programs and outreach opportunities that encourage the interest and participation of new or young lawyers in the profession, as well as enhance the quality of the legal profession in the larger community. This position principally coordinates and implements strategies that improve and enhance the effectiveness of programs in tandem with the WYLD Board of Trustees (BOT), WYLD President, and WSBA associates. This position ensures that all decisions and activities are made in accordance with the mission, policies, by-laws and long-range plans of the WSBA. This position also builds rapport and encourages collegial relationships. Day-to-day responsibilities include coordinating and co-developing events, related materials and/or resources; enforcing project deadlines; managing all aspects of the WYLD BOT meetings and WYLD committee meetings, including scheduling, publicizing meetings, and developing agendas and meeting materials; managing information and technology content on related website pages, list serves, and databases; and managing expenditures against budget, regularly communicating issues to related stakeholders. This role also serves as the point of contact for questions regarding the WYLD and supports the collaboration between the WYLD and interested WSBA associates. As needed, this position plans and manages the election process for the WYLD Board of Trustees. The work environment calls for occasional night or weekend meetings. Some travel is required. Requirements include a Bachelor's degree and three years of professional experience in similar settings. Successful candidates will have strong communication and interpersonal skills; knowledge working through and problem-solving situations with competing demands; experience accurately scoping out projects and tasks, breaking work down into logical steps and assignments; excellent computer proficiencies; continual and conscientious strong attention to detail in composing, typing and proofing materials; experience with budgets; outstanding organizational skills; and ability to juggle multiple priorities. Experience working with volunteers in non-profit settings and/or experience in the legal field is also preferred. ________________________________________ HINT: When replying by email, please do not include the original message View and add comments online: https://www.bigtent.com/group/forum/message/14492815 2025971975 From b75205 at gmail.com Sat Oct 25 19:16:08 2008 From: b75205 at gmail.com (James Pepper) Date: Sat, 25 Oct 2008 14:16:08 -0500 Subject: [blindlaw] Accessible Voter Registration forms Message-ID: I made the National Voter Registration form accessible to JAWS and I sent it to Darren Burton who is in charge of new technologies at the American Foundation for the Blind and he found that it works in JAWS and Window Eyes and so he sent it to the Secretary of State of West Virginia. I sent it to the Elections Assistance Commission (the part of the Federal Elections Commission in charge of HAVA law and the people in charge of the accessible voting machines) and I sent them to the states. Their reactions forced me to contact the Voting Rights Division of the ACLU. Since you are more versed in accessibility law perhaps you can help. James Dickson Vice President in charge of Government Affairs for the American Association of People with Disabilities and he was the key pointman on getting the recent ADA legislation through Congress; he presented my forms to the EAC after they rejected them. Ann Taylor of the NFB has seen my forms, although I did not go to her with the voter forms but she would be a good objective source on this work. The Secretary of State of Washington's election officer wrote: "Remember, too, that federal law requires that voters be able to vote independently; the capability to complete registration applications independently is a desirable goal, but not a legal requirement at this time." He was required to do this in 1973. The State of Arkansas insisted on the blind drawing a map of where they lived on the form. I suggested a form field where the applicant describes where they live relative to the nearest cross streets, but the State of Arkansas insists on using the old printed form because the blind could fill it out in the past. This is a literacy test. And the cost of the blind to get someone to help them fill it out is a Poll Tax. I suggest that you use the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to enforce Accessibility law in this country because the states are willing to deny the right to vote to the blind because they do not want to get around to making their voter registration forms accessible, even though they were required to do this 35 years ago! The blind are a class that is discriminated against and the following laws all require accessible voter registration forms: 1. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 2. Rehabilitation Act of 1973 3. Voting Accessibility for the elderly and Handicapped Act of 1984 4. Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 5. National Voter Registration Act of 1993 6. Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1996 The number of Disabled is 50 million people, and only 30% of that number voted in the 2004 election. So they are a class under the protection of the Voting Rights Act and so the states were required to Integrate them. They have never complied. So the 14th Amendment Section 2 can be applied under the Voting Rights Act to the States, which would enable a 3 panel court in the District of Columbia to reapportion the electors (50 million votes is 99 electors) and the DC court would be required to redraw every congressional map in this country, of all the states that refuse to comply with accessibility law. Thus making a pigs breakfast of the entire country. The last thing the states want is a federal judge redistricting them and reducing their constituency in the House of Representatives. And this action make look extreme, but look at what we have to deal with in getting accessibility enforced! The blind are 71% unemployed and all of this was supposed to have been fixed years ago. The CDC says the blind costs this country 54 billion dollars a year. Mulitply that by 35 years, just the costs alone dictate action. And think about the people. Also I think that the Help America Vote Act Money should be stopped to the states until they comply with the Help America Vote Act which required them to be accessible to the blind in voter registration as of 2004, but was extended to 2006. This would stop 1.2 billion dollars from being paid to the states until they comply. The Voting Rights Act presents the ability to have this case reviewed by a three judge panel court of the DC US District Court right now before the election and the states can appeal to the Supreme Court. The ACLU is going to do an action after the election but should they do it now to get this court because technically we could issue these forms for the Election Day voter registrations in about 6 states. We have to fight for the right to vote no matter the consequences to the states! I made the forms accessible to the blind. The States and the EAC have never faced this issue before because in the past the forms were "as accessible as possible" but nobody had presented a complete solution. And so the states and the EAC when confronted with a complete solution either didn't know how to test it, didn't believe it was accessible, or they decided to do it themselves. This decision was made by either state webmasters or by people who just did not care. And so they rejected the form that worked which would have made it possible for the blind to register to vote in this election, in favor of wasting time and doing it themselves. There is a lot of overtime involved in making a form accessible to the blind. The state officials are all paid 6 figure salaries to solve the problem of accessibility and they were charged with this cause 35 years ago. They were generally offended when I pointed out that their forms were not accessible and they wanted "tips" on how to solve it. But they do not realize that they cannot do it. I developed my solutions based on having tunnel vision in college, I know how to do this because I slogged through the code for years figuring out how to make forms and documents accessible to the blind. They cannot do this "out of the box." And when I came along with a solution that would reduce their work load well you can imagine the response. Some states were outright rude about it. The EAC rejected the forms because they said their webmaster is in charge of accessibility for their agency and so she made a form which she claims is accessible to the blind 19 days after I sent my forms. The EAC was created to enforce accessibility in elections for the whole country and yet they said their webmaster was in charge of accessibility for the agency. Their form is not accessible; their form requires the blind to get assistance to fill out the form. And it is a mess; they have 23 pages of instructions in the form that is spread in areas before and after the form. Also their form also violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and HAVA which is the law that created their agency. And the innovation of my form is obvious to anyone who uses JAWS and yet they didn't use JAWS on my form. Do they own a copy of JAWS and know how to use it? They just caused the states to spend 2 billion dollars on accessibility. *42 USC 1973 - Sec. 1973ee-3. Registration and voting aids *HAVA requires enlarged text be used in their forms and documents. Their form uses tiny fonts. *TITLE 42 > CHAPTER 20 > SUBCHAPTER I-B > § 1973aa–5 (b) of the Voting Rights Act. Survey to compile registration and voting statistics. *The EAC put into their instructions the requirement that the state of South Carolina require that people state their race and if they do not, their form will not be processed. This is expressly illegal in the Voting Rights Act of 1965. And this brings up a serious issue. In order to make content accessible to the blind, you have to manually encode it, so every bit of the form and its content, the text is read and formatted for accessibility. This means the EAC put this passage in on purpose, IF they truly made their form accessible to the blind. I made the instructions into distinct files for each state and they are only text instructions, no form fields. I put the form in a separate document so you can use forms mode to fill it out and use the Read out Loud feature in Adobe Reader to read the text. And you can use JAWS or Window Eyes. All of the content, the instructions built into the form are also in the instructions because I understand that text can be missed in forms mode in JAWS. Their form cannot be read by Microsoft Narrator. My form has the text separated so the user can move between open documents and not loose their place. Their form the user gets lost, because they have to find the content and the form field and move back and forth over 23 pages of text split into two sections before and after the form and so they get lost. I use JAWS and I tested the form in JAWS as I made it, so it works. I made the form so you can fill it out, save it, open it again and fill it out some more, or correct it and save it and digitally sign it, and print it so you can put the manual signature into the form. It works in Adobe Reader versions 8 or 9 (the current version). The form is a separate file and the form is actually two forms so each form is on one page so that you sign the documents each. The form can be digitally signed so there is a meeting of the minds, in a format that the blind can access. The whole thing is made so that a blind person can fill out the form and share the same experience as someone who can see. The form can be used by people who are visually impaired who use Narrator to fill out form fields and the Read out Loud feature built into Adobe Reader, so the form can be filled out by people who do not own JAWS or Window Eyes, who cannot afford it, or who have never heard of it because they are visually impaired. And the form can be filled out by the general public. Also the EAC did not make their Spanish language form accessible, it is in the condition of the form that the EAC published until they reacted to my calls. I can make PDF forms accessible in all the languages supported by Braille Lite. Technically Adobe works in 40 languages and I can encode the forms to work in those languages but I would need help with the translations. So we can do this worldwide. I know why my forms work, how they work with JAWS and I know why software is not accessible, the technical reasons. I think the solution is to fix this so that government employees are not fixing something after the fact, that forms and documents and websites can be made accessible while they are being made by ordinary people not aware of accessibility regulations, so they are made right and made once. This can be done. We need to emancipate the blind, by making sure they have the right to register to vote. Sincerely, James G. Pepper Dallas, Texas From ckrugman at sbcglobal.net Sun Oct 26 13:37:44 2008 From: ckrugman at sbcglobal.net (Charles Krugman) Date: Sun, 26 Oct 2008 06:37:44 -0700 Subject: [blindlaw] Accessible Voter Registration forms In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <7FDE4925D937441FBA2C125278E6D866@spike> Thanks for this information. The state of California just passed legislation to upgrade the Secretary of State computer system to allow for on line voter registration. I would appreciate your sending me a copy of this form as I may be able to arrange for it to be tested and implemented in California. Please contact me off list to discuss this further. Charles L. Krugman, M.S.W., Paralegal 1237 P Street Fresno ca 93721 559-266-9237 ----- Original Message ----- From: "James Pepper" To: Sent: Saturday, October 25, 2008 12:16 PM Subject: [blindlaw] Accessible Voter Registration forms I made the National Voter Registration form accessible to JAWS and I sent it to Darren Burton who is in charge of new technologies at the American Foundation for the Blind and he found that it works in JAWS and Window Eyes and so he sent it to the Secretary of State of West Virginia. I sent it to the Elections Assistance Commission (the part of the Federal Elections Commission in charge of HAVA law and the people in charge of the accessible voting machines) and I sent them to the states. Their reactions forced me to contact the Voting Rights Division of the ACLU. Since you are more versed in accessibility law perhaps you can help. James Dickson Vice President in charge of Government Affairs for the American Association of People with Disabilities and he was the key pointman on getting the recent ADA legislation through Congress; he presented my forms to the EAC after they rejected them. Ann Taylor of the NFB has seen my forms, although I did not go to her with the voter forms but she would be a good objective source on this work. The Secretary of State of Washington's election officer wrote: "Remember, too, that federal law requires that voters be able to vote independently; the capability to complete registration applications independently is a desirable goal, but not a legal requirement at this time." He was required to do this in 1973. The State of Arkansas insisted on the blind drawing a map of where they lived on the form. I suggested a form field where the applicant describes where they live relative to the nearest cross streets, but the State of Arkansas insists on using the old printed form because the blind could fill it out in the past. This is a literacy test. And the cost of the blind to get someone to help them fill it out is a Poll Tax. I suggest that you use the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to enforce Accessibility law in this country because the states are willing to deny the right to vote to the blind because they do not want to get around to making their voter registration forms accessible, even though they were required to do this 35 years ago! The blind are a class that is discriminated against and the following laws all require accessible voter registration forms: 1. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 2. Rehabilitation Act of 1973 3. Voting Accessibility for the elderly and Handicapped Act of 1984 4. Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 5. National Voter Registration Act of 1993 6. Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1996 The number of Disabled is 50 million people, and only 30% of that number voted in the 2004 election. So they are a class under the protection of the Voting Rights Act and so the states were required to Integrate them. They have never complied. So the 14th Amendment Section 2 can be applied under the Voting Rights Act to the States, which would enable a 3 panel court in the District of Columbia to reapportion the electors (50 million votes is 99 electors) and the DC court would be required to redraw every congressional map in this country, of all the states that refuse to comply with accessibility law. Thus making a pigs breakfast of the entire country. The last thing the states want is a federal judge redistricting them and reducing their constituency in the House of Representatives. And this action make look extreme, but look at what we have to deal with in getting accessibility enforced! The blind are 71% unemployed and all of this was supposed to have been fixed years ago. The CDC says the blind costs this country 54 billion dollars a year. Mulitply that by 35 years, just the costs alone dictate action. And think about the people. Also I think that the Help America Vote Act Money should be stopped to the states until they comply with the Help America Vote Act which required them to be accessible to the blind in voter registration as of 2004, but was extended to 2006. This would stop 1.2 billion dollars from being paid to the states until they comply. The Voting Rights Act presents the ability to have this case reviewed by a three judge panel court of the DC US District Court right now before the election and the states can appeal to the Supreme Court. The ACLU is going to do an action after the election but should they do it now to get this court because technically we could issue these forms for the Election Day voter registrations in about 6 states. We have to fight for the right to vote no matter the consequences to the states! I made the forms accessible to the blind. The States and the EAC have never faced this issue before because in the past the forms were "as accessible as possible" but nobody had presented a complete solution. And so the states and the EAC when confronted with a complete solution either didn't know how to test it, didn't believe it was accessible, or they decided to do it themselves. This decision was made by either state webmasters or by people who just did not care. And so they rejected the form that worked which would have made it possible for the blind to register to vote in this election, in favor of wasting time and doing it themselves. There is a lot of overtime involved in making a form accessible to the blind. The state officials are all paid 6 figure salaries to solve the problem of accessibility and they were charged with this cause 35 years ago. They were generally offended when I pointed out that their forms were not accessible and they wanted "tips" on how to solve it. But they do not realize that they cannot do it. I developed my solutions based on having tunnel vision in college, I know how to do this because I slogged through the code for years figuring out how to make forms and documents accessible to the blind. They cannot do this "out of the box." And when I came along with a solution that would reduce their work load well you can imagine the response. Some states were outright rude about it. The EAC rejected the forms because they said their webmaster is in charge of accessibility for their agency and so she made a form which she claims is accessible to the blind 19 days after I sent my forms. The EAC was created to enforce accessibility in elections for the whole country and yet they said their webmaster was in charge of accessibility for the agency. Their form is not accessible; their form requires the blind to get assistance to fill out the form. And it is a mess; they have 23 pages of instructions in the form that is spread in areas before and after the form. Also their form also violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and HAVA which is the law that created their agency. And the innovation of my form is obvious to anyone who uses JAWS and yet they didn't use JAWS on my form. Do they own a copy of JAWS and know how to use it? They just caused the states to spend 2 billion dollars on accessibility. *42 USC 1973 - Sec. 1973ee-3. Registration and voting aids *HAVA requires enlarged text be used in their forms and documents. Their form uses tiny fonts. *TITLE 42 > CHAPTER 20 > SUBCHAPTER I-B > § 1973aa–5 (b) of the Voting Rights Act. Survey to compile registration and voting statistics. *The EAC put into their instructions the requirement that the state of South Carolina require that people state their race and if they do not, their form will not be processed. This is expressly illegal in the Voting Rights Act of 1965. And this brings up a serious issue. In order to make content accessible to the blind, you have to manually encode it, so every bit of the form and its content, the text is read and formatted for accessibility. This means the EAC put this passage in on purpose, IF they truly made their form accessible to the blind. I made the instructions into distinct files for each state and they are only text instructions, no form fields. I put the form in a separate document so you can use forms mode to fill it out and use the Read out Loud feature in Adobe Reader to read the text. And you can use JAWS or Window Eyes. All of the content, the instructions built into the form are also in the instructions because I understand that text can be missed in forms mode in JAWS. Their form cannot be read by Microsoft Narrator. My form has the text separated so the user can move between open documents and not loose their place. Their form the user gets lost, because they have to find the content and the form field and move back and forth over 23 pages of text split into two sections before and after the form and so they get lost. I use JAWS and I tested the form in JAWS as I made it, so it works. I made the form so you can fill it out, save it, open it again and fill it out some more, or correct it and save it and digitally sign it, and print it so you can put the manual signature into the form. It works in Adobe Reader versions 8 or 9 (the current version). The form is a separate file and the form is actually two forms so each form is on one page so that you sign the documents each. The form can be digitally signed so there is a meeting of the minds, in a format that the blind can access. The whole thing is made so that a blind person can fill out the form and share the same experience as someone who can see. The form can be used by people who are visually impaired who use Narrator to fill out form fields and the Read out Loud feature built into Adobe Reader, so the form can be filled out by people who do not own JAWS or Window Eyes, who cannot afford it, or who have never heard of it because they are visually impaired. And the form can be filled out by the general public. Also the EAC did not make their Spanish language form accessible, it is in the condition of the form that the EAC published until they reacted to my calls. I can make PDF forms accessible in all the languages supported by Braille Lite. Technically Adobe works in 40 languages and I can encode the forms to work in those languages but I would need help with the translations. So we can do this worldwide. I know why my forms work, how they work with JAWS and I know why software is not accessible, the technical reasons. I think the solution is to fix this so that government employees are not fixing something after the fact, that forms and documents and websites can be made accessible while they are being made by ordinary people not aware of accessibility regulations, so they are made right and made once. This can be done. We need to emancipate the blind, by making sure they have the right to register to vote. Sincerely, James G. Pepper Dallas, Texas _______________________________________________ blindlaw mailing list blindlaw at nfbnet.org http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindlaw_nfbnet.org To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for blindlaw: http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindlaw_nfbnet.org/ckrugman%40sbcglobal.net From dandrews at visi.com Sun Oct 26 19:12:24 2008 From: dandrews at visi.com (David Andrews) Date: Sun, 26 Oct 2008 14:12:24 -0500 Subject: [blindlaw] Register Now for the Motor City March! Message-ID: From: Kristi Bowman [ mailto:kbowman at nfb.org] Sent: Monday, October 20, 2008 2:37 PM Subject: Register Now for the Motor City March! National Federation of the Blind logo Graphic Photo boy with cane on the beach March for Independence logo Greetings, Summer has faded and Autumn is upon us. It's time to reengage for this year's March for Independence - A Walk for Opportunity walk-a-thon event in Detroit, this July. Once again, our goal this year is to raise at least one million dollars. This will take our collective energy, action, and imagination. I encourage all of you that have yet to register for this year's event to do so now. Whether you are a returning participant or you are signing up for the first time, you will find instructions on how to register at the end of this e-mail. We will be announcing an assortment of bonuses for those of you who are registered, raising money, and making your goals early, so sign up now and start raising your funds. Once you are registered for this year's Motor City March you can begin personalizing your Web page and sending out e-mails to your contacts, colleagues, family, and friends. This year there are some changes and additions to everyone's personal page. First of all, everyone will get a template page when they register. Pages will not carry over from last year. If you need your text from last year, or your pictures, please call. We will retrieve the information and forward it to you. Additionally, there is an option to blog on your Web page! This is not just a good marketing tool, it is also a great way to keep your network updated on your progress. We are also finalizing efforts to add widgets to social networking sites like Facebook. Stay tuned! Please pass this message and the registration instructions far and wide. We would like to see one thousand registered and raising by December 31, 2008. Together, we can do this! If you have any questions please contact Kristi Bowman at (410) 659-9314, ext. 2406 or via e-mail at < mailto:kbowman at nfb.org > kbowman at nfb.org. Thank you, Thank you...I look forward to working with each and every one of you and serving our organization for what will prove to be another exciting year. At your service, Kevan Worley Imagination Fund Chairman Register now for the Motor City march! New Participants 1. Go to MarchForIndependence.org. 2. Click the Participate, Create a Team, or Join a Team link in the left hand navigation panel to begin your registration. 3. When the screen refreshes you will be able to choose whether you will be a marcher or a virtual marcher by selecting the radio button associated with your choice. a) For "Participate" (to register as an individual marcher), when the screen refreshes click, or hit enter on, the link that says "Register to March." b) For "Create a Team," when the screen refreshes enter your new team's name and provide the team's goal amount. c) For "Join a Team," when the screen refreshes enter the name of the team you'd like to join and click, or hit enter on, Search for a Team. When you see the name of the team displayed, select the link for "Join." 4. If you would like to make an additional gift during your registration, place that amount in the edit box following Additional Gift. Here you will also have an option of making this gift anonymously or for public view. 5. The next edit box is for your goal amount, enter your fundraising goal here. Please remember that each walker needs to raise at least $250 to participate in the March for Independence- A Walk for Opportunity. Your goal needs to be at least $250. 6. Click the Next Step link at the bottom left of the page. 7. Enter your contact information as requested in the on screen form directly into the edit boxes on your screen. 8. Click the Next Step button at the bottom left of the page. 9. This screen contains the waiver to participate in the walk. If you agree to the waiver, check the I agree box and then click the Next Screen button. 10. The next screen will summarize your registration. If you need to make any changes, simply click the Edit link to re-open your registration form, otherwise, click the Complete Registration button in the bottom, right corner and the next screen confirms your registration and provides a link to your participant center. 11. Your can now begin personalizing your March For Independence - A Walk for Opportunity Web page. 12. Follow the online instructions to personalize your page. Some people find the online training in MP3 format helpful, the link for online training is in the left hand navigation bar. 13. Be creative! Remember our goal is to educate, raise awareness, and to raise at least one million dollars this year. Keep this in mind as you create your page. 14. If you have any questions or problems call (410) 659-9314, ext. 2406 for assistance. We will be happy to help get anyone registered and help build a dynamic page. 15. Spread the word, help get everyone registered. If you feel really good about managing the registration process, help train and step others through the process. 16. Have fun raising money and know that you are sharing in the NFB dream! Returning Participants 1. Go to http://www.marchforindependence.org/ . 2. Log in using your user name and password.* 3. Once you are logged on, the screen will refresh, welcoming you to the Website. 4. Click the Participate, Create a Team, or Join a Team link in the left hand navigation panel to begin your registration. a) For "Participate" (to register as an individual marcher), when the screen refreshes click, or hit enter on, the link that says "Register to March." b) For "Create a Team," when the screen refreshes enter your new team's name and provide the team's goal amount. c) For "Join a Team," when the screen refreshes enter the name of the team you'd like to join and click, or hit enter on, Search for a Team. When you see the name of the team displayed, select the link for "Join." 5. When the screen refreshes you will be able to choose whether you will be a marcher or a virtual marcher by selecting the radio button associated with your choice. 6. If you would like to make an additional gift during your registration, place that amount in the edit box following Additional Gift. Here you will also have an option of making this gift anonymously or for public view. 7. The next edit box is for your goal amount, enter your fundraising goal here. Please remember that each walker needs to raise at least $250 to participate in the March for Independence - A Walk for Opportunity. Your goal needs to be at least $250. 8. Click the Next Step link at the bottom left of the page. 9. The next screen will display the contact information that you registered with LAST YEAR. Incorrect information, changed e-mail addresses, or phone numbers can be corrected by directly editing the fields on the form. After you are sure all of the information is correct, click the Next Step button at the bottom left of the page. 10. This screen contains the waiver to participate in the walk. If you agree to the waiver, check the I agree box and then click the Next Screen button. 11. The next screen will summarize your registration. If you need to make any changes, simply click the Edit link to re-open your registration form, otherwise, click the Complete Registration button in the bottom, right corner and the next screen confirms your registration and provides a link to your participant center. 12. If you personalized your Web page last year, you will not have the same changes. This year everyone will start with the same template page. Your thermometer graphic will be reset to zero, your goal may be different than last year (if you increased it this year), and the scrolling honor roll of donor names will be empty unless you have already received gifts, in which case you will also be registered. 13. You should personalize your page with your NFB story. Education, awareness are our first priority. People will donate to YOU because of your STORY. Add your story, download pictures, show everyone how the NFB has changed what it means to be blind for you and your family. 14. If you have any questions or problems call (410) 659-9314, ext. 2406, for assistance. We will be happy to register you and help you build a dynamic page. 15. Spread the word, help get everyone registered. If you feel really good about managing the registration process, help train and step others through the process. 15. Now the fun begins.. * Click here to have your login information sent to you via e-mail. Unsubscribe | Update Preferences | Visit Our Web Site | Tell-A-Friend 1800 Johnson Street Baltimore, MD 21230 410-659-9314 From Yasmin.Reyazuddin at montgomerycountymd.gov Mon Oct 27 14:31:29 2008 From: Yasmin.Reyazuddin at montgomerycountymd.gov (Reyazuddin, Yasmin) Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2008 10:31:29 -0400 Subject: [blindlaw] is their any laws on visually impaired signs In-Reply-To: <00e501c93584$dc8ea1a0$6401a8c0@93LRNC1> Message-ID: Hi Jo, Thanks for the very interesting question. We need to understand whether you wish to have signage to indicate the name of the street or you wish to have signage indicating that a blind or visually impaired person lives in the neighborhood. In both cases your county department which takes care of the roads has a person to deal with such issues. Yasmin Reyazuddin Information & Referral unit Department of Health & human services 401 Hungerford Drive (1st floor) Rockville MD 20850 Phone 240-777-1245 (info line) 240-777-1556 (personal line) Fax: 240-777-4636 TTY: 240-777-1295 Office hours 8:30 am to 5:00 pm Languages English, Hindi, Urdu This message may contain protected health information or other information that is confidential or privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by return mail and destroy any copies of this material. Thank you. -----Original Message----- From: blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of joe hines Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2008 11:02 PM To: blindlaw at nfbnet.org Subject: [blindlaw] is thier any laws on visualy impaired signs I live on a county road in Ohio and I cannot get the township or the county to install visually impaired signs. I'm at low vision and am service connected blind and can get no answers from the township say it is a county problem, they say the county road isn't wide enough to walk on so I'm pretty much grounded to the property accdording to the ashland county engineer.Mr. Cooper. Does anyone have any information on any ruling from the sate joe hines _______________________________________________ blindlaw mailing list blindlaw at nfbnet.org http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindlaw_nfbnet.org To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for blindlaw: http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindlaw_nfbnet.org/yasmin.reyazud din%40montgomerycountymd.gov From b75205 at gmail.com Mon Oct 27 21:49:12 2008 From: b75205 at gmail.com (James Pepper) Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:49:12 -0500 Subject: [blindlaw] Accessible Voter Registration forms In-Reply-To: <7FDE4925D937441FBA2C125278E6D866@spike> References: <7FDE4925D937441FBA2C125278E6D866@spike> Message-ID: Mr. Krugman: Here are the forms. They are mutilple page PDF documents that work with JAWS without JAWS getting lost. I tested this with JAWS 9 and JAWS 10 but my forms also work with JAWS 8, Pat Pound (below) used JAWS 8 on some of my forms. I was in contact with Tony Candela at DOR for California. My forms were tested by the American Foundation for the Blind. You will need Adobe Reader versions 8 or 9 to interact with these forms. They were designed to work with JAWS. The files are made to be downloaded and saved on a user's computer and then filled out, and they can save the file and reopen it and correct their mistakes and then they can digitally sign the document, print it, place their written signature on the forms and then send it back to the state. I made the National Voter Registration form accessible to JAWS and Darren Burton of the American Foundation for the blind tested them and found they worked in JAWS and Window Eyes and so he sent them to the Secretary of State of West Virginia for this election. Darren is blind. AFB TECH 949 Third Ave. Suite 200 Huntington, WV 25701 (304) 523-8651 Also James Dickson Vice President of the American Association of People with Disabilities presented my forms to the Elections Assistance Commission. He is blind. And Pat Pound who was on the National Council on Disability and was executive Director for the Texas Governor's Committee on People with Disabilities, I worked with her on two forms for her that she said she had never been able to get anyone to make accessible. But I solved the problem and they are now accessible to the blind. Pat is blind. And if you need another opinion, you can contact Ann Taylor who is in charge of testing new technologies for the National Federation of the Blind. I have not tested my Voter Registration forms with her but she has seen other forms that I have made and she is an objective source. The forms are designed to be downloaded and filled out on the user's computer so you do not have to worry about time limits or the 600 second rule resetting the form. The 600 second rule is when the servers reset due to signal degredation and this usually resets screen readers and other devices thus giving the blind a time limit on filling out online forms that most people do not realize is present. This is particularly a problem with html forms and the problem is with hardware. So the solution is a downloadable form and that means a PDF document. The form can be filled out, saved, opened again, filled out, corrected and saved, and digitally signed so the user has a copy of what they sent that they can access, and it can be printed and signed. States require a written signature. I have a form with two digital signatures enclosed. The Voter Registration form is actually two forms and so each form occupies one page of the document so each form can be signed individually. Also enclosed is the papertool Section 508 compliance document from the Access Board where I comment on my form and the National Form which they claim is accessible but it was made on a MAC so it cannot be read properly on the Windows Platform. Since JAWS and Window Eyes are Windows based programs, designing on a MAC is useless for accessibility. I can make the font larger if you wish, I set them at Arial 12 points. The instructions are a separate file because you can have them open and switch between open documents and not loose your place. You can use JAWS or Window Eyes or you can use the built in Read out Loud feature of Adobe Reader to read the instructions. For the forms you can use JAWS or Window Eyes or Microsoft Narrator to use the form and since both documents can be open at the same time, you can use both programs simultaneously moving back and forth between the instructions and the form. This eliminates the common problem in government forms where you have to move into a form field, then find the instructions and then go back to the form field. Also I consolidated the instructions into steps which correspond with the steps in the form. The EAC, the Elections Assistance Commission National Voter Registration Form contains all the instructions and the form in the same document and their instructions are broken up into three sections, all of which must be read to fill out each form field and the instructions are split up before and after the form. So my solution makes it faster. I had tunnel vision in college and I received most of my sight back so I know what is needed for a comprehensive solution. My form is made so that it has to be printed and signed. I have a version with two digital signatures and this file is enclosed Accessible_Voter_Registration_FormDS.pdf It is the ideal solution, becasue it can be emailed to the state. I would have to change the instructions for the form, the enclosed instructions file are for the form that you have to sign with a written signature. Both forms can be sent by email and the data from the form can be extracted as a CSV file which can be dropped into a database. This is Adobe's technology. So the signed form can be opened electronically and the information can be processed and the state can then await the written signature on the form to finish the registration, so you do not have to abandon the paper trail. They are encrypted; part of the process of saving the file enables the interactive features so there is no way to get around the encryption. If people fear tampering with the form, the form data can be extracted using Adobe Acrobat Professional versions 8 or 9 and that can be done very easily to test the file to find out what is being asked and what the output of the data would be. I do not know how one would hack this but I imagine Adobe has a lot to say about their 256 encryption. If you have any questions just ask. Sincerely, James G. Pepper 214-360-0622 -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Accessible_Voter_Registration_Form.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 359551 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Accessible_Voter_Registration_FormDS.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 359639 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: California Instructions.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 92320 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: papertool_v1.0 web version Pepper forms.doc Type: application/msword Size: 868352 bytes Desc: not available URL: From my5thattempt at yahoo.com Tue Oct 28 20:30:05 2008 From: my5thattempt at yahoo.com (M BG) Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2008 13:30:05 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [blindlaw] Ipod question Message-ID: <440566.80250.qm@web36705.mail.mud.yahoo.com> I am about to purchase an Ipod classic with 120 Gig memory.  The Ipod dealer told me that there is software that can be purchased to make the Ipod speak to me commands and movement for the device.  Does anyone know what this software is called and or anyone have an Ipod and how are you navigating through it?   Misty From dandrews at visi.com Tue Oct 28 21:48:36 2008 From: dandrews at visi.com (David Andrews) Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2008 16:48:36 -0500 Subject: [blindlaw] Ipod question In-Reply-To: <440566.80250.qm@web36705.mail.mud.yahoo.com> References: <440566.80250.qm@web36705.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: This is off topic for this list, it is the Blind Law list! David Andrews, List Owner At 03:30 PM 10/28/2008, you wrote: >I am about to purchase an Ipod classic with 120 Gig memory. The >Ipod dealer told me that there is software that can be purchased to >make the Ipod speak to me commands and movement for the >device. Does anyone know what this software is called and or anyone >have an Ipod and how are you navigating through it? > >Misty > > > >_______________________________________________ >blindlaw mailing list >blindlaw at nfbnet.org >http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindlaw_nfbnet.org >To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info >for blindlaw: >http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindlaw_nfbnet.org/dandrews%40visi.com > > >No virus found in this incoming message. >Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com >Version: 8.0.175 / Virus Database: 270.8.4/1752 - Release Date: >10/28/2008 10:04 AM From lmilholland at hotmail.com Tue Oct 28 22:08:01 2008 From: lmilholland at hotmail.com (Locke Milholland) Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2008 18:08:01 -0400 Subject: [blindlaw] Ipod question References: <440566.80250.qm@web36705.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: I think it's rockbox Locke ----- Original Message ----- From: "M BG" To: "NFBnet Blind Law Mailing List" ; "Kurzweil National Federation of the Blind Reader user list" Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 4:30 PM Subject: [blindlaw] Ipod question I am about to purchase an Ipod classic with 120 Gig memory. The Ipod dealer told me that there is software that can be purchased to make the Ipod speak to me commands and movement for the device. Does anyone know what this software is called and or anyone have an Ipod and how are you navigating through it? Misty _______________________________________________ blindlaw mailing list blindlaw at nfbnet.org http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindlaw_nfbnet.org To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for blindlaw: http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindlaw_nfbnet.org/lmilholland%40hotmail.com From my5thattempt at yahoo.com Tue Oct 28 22:19:30 2008 From: my5thattempt at yahoo.com (M BG) Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2008 15:19:30 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [blindlaw] Ipod question Message-ID: <939038.30777.qm@web36704.mail.mud.yahoo.com> I am sorry I intended this to be posted to the tech page. ________________________________ From: David Andrews To: NFBnet Blind Law Mailing List Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 2:48:36 PM Subject: Re: [blindlaw] Ipod question This is off topic for this list, it is the Blind Law list! David Andrews, List Owner At 03:30 PM 10/28/2008, you wrote: >I am about to purchase an Ipod classic with 120 Gig memory.  The >Ipod dealer told me that there is software that can be purchased to >make the Ipod speak to me commands and movement for the >device.  Does anyone know what this software is called and or anyone >have an Ipod and how are you navigating through it? > >Misty > > > >_______________________________________________ >blindlaw mailing list >blindlaw at nfbnet.org >http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindlaw_nfbnet.org >To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info >for blindlaw: >http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindlaw_nfbnet.org/dandrews%40visi.com > > >No virus found in this incoming message. >Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com >Version: 8.0.175 / Virus Database: 270.8.4/1752 - Release Date: >10/28/2008 10:04 AM _______________________________________________ blindlaw mailing list blindlaw at nfbnet.org http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindlaw_nfbnet.org To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for blindlaw: http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindlaw_nfbnet.org/my5thattempt%40yahoo.com From b.schulz at sbcglobal.net Wed Oct 29 04:29:22 2008 From: b.schulz at sbcglobal.net (Bryan Schulz) Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2008 23:29:22 -0500 Subject: [blindlaw] Ipod question References: <440566.80250.qm@web36705.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: hi, tech list or not, don't buy the classic especially if you can't take it back. The store may not accept a return if you tell them you tried to install rockbox and screwed the original firmware. from what i have read, only the nano works with rockbox. i am enjoyihng using a sansa 6gig e270 version 1 with rockbox and you also cannot record with an ipod. Bryan Schulz The BEST Solution www.best-acts.com ----- Original Message ----- From: "Locke Milholland" To: "NFBnet Blind Law Mailing List" Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 5:08 PM Subject: Re: [blindlaw] Ipod question >I think it's rockbox > Locke > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "M BG" > To: "NFBnet Blind Law Mailing List" ; "Kurzweil > National Federation of the Blind Reader user list" > > Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 4:30 PM > Subject: [blindlaw] Ipod question > > > I am about to purchase an Ipod classic with 120 Gig memory. The Ipod > dealer told me that there is software that can be purchased to make the > Ipod speak to me commands and movement for the device. Does anyone know > what this software is called and or anyone have an Ipod and how are you > navigating through it? > > Misty > > > > _______________________________________________ > blindlaw mailing list > blindlaw at nfbnet.org > http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindlaw_nfbnet.org > To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for > blindlaw: > http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindlaw_nfbnet.org/lmilholland%40hotmail.com > > > _______________________________________________ > blindlaw mailing list > blindlaw at nfbnet.org > http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindlaw_nfbnet.org > To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for > blindlaw: > http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindlaw_nfbnet.org/b.schulz%40sbcglobal.net From JFreeh at nfb.org Fri Oct 31 23:29:24 2008 From: JFreeh at nfb.org (Freeh, Jessica) Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2008 18:29:24 -0500 Subject: [blindlaw] Google Settlement with Authors, Publishers Will Have Positive Results for the Blind Message-ID: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Chris Danielsen Public Relations Specialist National Federation of the Blind (410) 659-9314, extension 2330 (410) 262-1281 (cell) cdanielsen at nfb.org Google Settlement with Authors, Publishers Will Have Positive Results for the Blind Terms of Proposed Settlement Agreement Will Revolutionize Blind People's Access to Books Baltimore, Maryland (October 31, 2008): The National Federation of the Blind, the nation's leading advocate for access to information by the blind, announced today that the recent settlement between Google and authors and publishers over the Google Books project, if approved by the courts, will have a profound and positive impact on the ability of blind people to access the printed word. The terms of the settlement that was reached on October 28, among Google, the Authors Guild, and the Association of American Publishers, on behalf of a broad class of authors and publishers, allow Google to provide the material it offers users "in a manner that accommodates users with print disabilities so that such users have a substantially similar user experience as users without print disabilities." A user with a print disability under the agreement is one who is "unable to read or use standard printed material due to blindness, visual disability, physical limitations, organic dysfunction, or dyslexia." Blind people, like other members of the public, will be able to search the texts of books in the Google Books database online; purchase some books in an accessible format; or access accessible books at libraries and other entities that have an institutional subscription to the Google Books database. Once the court approves the settlement, Google will work to launch these services as quickly as possible. Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said: "Access to the printed word has historically been one of the greatest challenges faced by the blind. The agreement between Google and authors and publishers will revolutionize access to books for blind Americans. Blind people will be able to search for books through the Google Books interface and purchase, borrow, or read at a public library any of the books that are available to the general public in a format that is compatible with text enlargement software, text-to-speech screen access software, and refreshable Braille devices. With 7 million books already available in the Google Books collection and many more to come, this agreement means that blind people will have more access to print books than we have ever had in human history. The blind, just like the sighted, will have a world of education, information, and entertainment literally at our fingertips. The National Federation of the Blind commends the parties to this agreement for their commitment to full and equal access to information by the blind." "Among the most monumental aspects of the settlement agreement," said Jack Bernard, assistant general counsel at the University of Michigan, "are the terms that enable Google and libraries to make works accessible to people who have print disabilities. This unprecedented opportunity to access the printed word will make it possible for blind people to engage independently with our rich written culture. Moreover, it is refreshing to find accessibility for people with disabilities explicitly included upfront, rather than begrudgingly added as an afterthought." "One of the great promises of the settlement agreement is improving access to books for the blind and for those with print disabilities," said Dan Clancy, engineering director for Google Book Search. "Google is committed to extending all of the services available under the agreement to the blind and print disability community, making it easier to access these books through screen enlargement, reader, and Braille display technologies." ### About the National Federation of the Blind With more than 50,000 members, the National Federation of the Blind is the largest and most influential membership organization of blind people in the United States. The NFB improves blind people's lives through advocacy, education, research, technology, and programs encouraging independence and self-confidence. It is the leading force in the blindness field today and the voice of the nation's blind. In January 2004 the NFB opened the National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute, the first research and training center in the United States for the blind led by the blind. Please visit our Web site: www.nfb.org. From dandrews at visi.com Thu Oct 23 23:53:28 2008 From: dandrews at visi.com (David Andrews) Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2008 18:53:28 -0500 Subject: [blindlaw] Server Report Message-ID: Dear NFBNET.ORG users: I am pleased to be able to tell you that we have successfully gotten the new nfbnet.org server to work and switched services over to it. There are still a few things to clean up, but most things are as they were previously, or as you would expect them to be with the new software. We still need to process the message archives to adjust some links, which have changed. Otherwise our mailing lists should function as they did before. This processing may not take place until early next week, but otherwise the lists should function normally. For you web masters, the sites are up and running. We are going to try and sync content once more tonight, to capture the changes that some of you made last weekend or earlier this week. That should happen this evening, hopefully. I will write web masters separately with new instructions. If you have any problems, or find something that doesn't work, please contact me at dandrews at visi.com Once again I thank everybody for your patience. Because of the complexity, the process was somewhat messier then we would have liked. It turns out that there was a bug in the software that IBM uses to control the RAID array for our disk drives. They characterized it as a "code issue," but it was a bug if you ask me. Once we got the firmware updated things happened as expected. Happy computing! David Andrews, SysOp and List Owner From jduncanhines at gmail.com Fri Oct 24 03:01:49 2008 From: jduncanhines at gmail.com (joe hines) Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2008 23:01:49 -0400 Subject: [blindlaw] is thier any laws on visualy impaired signs Message-ID: <00e501c93584$dc8ea1a0$6401a8c0@93LRNC1> I live on a county road in Ohio and I cannot get the township or the county to install visually impaired signs. I'm at low vision and am service connected blind and can get no answers from the township say it is a county problem, they say the county road isn't wide enough to walk on so I'm pretty much grounded to the property accdording to the ashland county engineer.Mr. Cooper. Does anyone have any information on any ruling from the sate joe hines From Noel.Nightingale at ed.gov Fri Oct 24 19:01:39 2008 From: Noel.Nightingale at ed.gov (Nightingale, Noel) Date: Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:01:39 -0400 Subject: [blindlaw] FW: [Jobs] FW: Attorney Vacancies at the U.S. Department of Justice Message-ID: <4313AD4429551F4595A8A414A660C75F1648F639@wdcrobe2m05.ed.gov> -----Original Message----- From: jobs-bounces+noel.nightingale=ed.gov at nfbnet.org [mailto:jobs-bounces+noel.nightingale=ed.gov at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Maurer, Patricia Sent: Tuesday, October 21, 2008 8:40 AM To: jobs at nfbnet.org Subject: [Jobs] FW: Attorney Vacancies at the U.S. Department of Justice ________________________________ From: Hunter, Sue [mailto:Sue.Hunter at usdoj.gov] Sent: Tuesday, October 21, 2008 11:34 AM To: ncai at ncai.org; nedy at wyjlaw.com; newmedia at ja.org; Neysas at dnfsb.gov; Maurer, Patricia; nijc at aol.com; nlove at opd.state.md.us; nmcconnell at jackscamp.com; noconnell at tabinc.org; noryrp at cox.net; nromulus at gmail.com; ntb at boglechang.com; ocaaba at cox.net; omanager at lawyerscomm.org; palsd at hotmail.com; patel at fr.com; patsyy at bellnunnally.com; pchanster at yahoo.com; pchapman at koonz.com; pgrewal at daycasebeer.com; pkim at lordbissell.com; Maurer, Patricia; pmorrison at state.wv.us; poppy.johnston at unlv.edu Subject: FW: Attorney Vacancies at the U.S. Department of Justice To learn more about our attorneys and what they like most about working at DOJ, please visit our attorney profiles at, http://www.usdoj.gov/oarm/arm/profiles.htm , and the video clips of our attorneys and interns available at https://www.avuedigitalservices.com/ads/jobsatdojoarm/index.jsp We encourage you to share this email with interested colleagues and peers. If you no longer wish to receive these periodic email announcements, please respond to this email address and ask to be removed from our mailing list. Thank you. Current Department of Justice Attorney Vacancies * UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA ASSISTANT UNITED STATES ATTORNEY FRESNO, CALIFORNIA OCTOBER 20, 2008 09-EDCA-01A This position will be open until filled. Date posted: 10-20-2008 * ASSISTANT UNITED STATES ATTORNEY UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE EASTERN DISTRICT OF TENNESSEE VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT #09-EDTN-AUSA-01 Applications must be received by Friday, November 7, 2008. Date posted: 10-17-2008 * U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE CIVIL RIGHTS DIVISION EMPLOYMENT LITIGATION SECTION DEPUTY CHIEF, GS-905-15 (Vacancy #2) These positions are open until November 7, 2008. Date posted: 10-17-2008 * U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE CIVIL RIGHTS DIVISION EMPLOYMENT LITIGATION SECTION DEPUTY CHIEF, GS-905-15 (Vacancy #1) These positions are open until November 7, 2008. Date posted: 10-17-2008 * U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE EXECUTIVE OFFICE FOR UNITED STATES ATTORNEYS LEGAL INITIATIVE STAFF ATTORNEY-ADVISOR, GS-0905-15 VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT NO: 09-EOUSA-004 Announcement closes October 29, 2008. Date posted: 10-15-2008 * ATTORNEY VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE UNITED STATES MARSHAL SERVICE OFFICE OF GENERAL COUNSEL GS-14 FPL 15 OPEN: OCTOBER 16, 2008 CLOSE: OCTOBER 26, 2008 Date posted: 10-15-2008 * U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE U.S. TRUSTEE'S OFFICE -- ATLANTA, GA TRIAL ATTORNEY Applications must be postmarked by the closing date of November 10, 2008 and will be accepted up to five calendar days after the closing date. Date posted: 10-15-2008 * ASSISTANT UNITED STATES ATTORNEY VACANCY UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF IOWA ANNOUNCEMENT NUMBER: 09-AUSA-NDIA-01 This position will remain open until filled, but initial consideration will be given to application packages received by November 14, 2008. Date posted: 10-15-2008 * U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE U.S. TRUSTEE'S OFFICE -- TAMPA, FL TRIAL ATTORNEY Applications must be postmarked by the closing date of October 28, 2008 and will be accepted up to five calendar days after the closing date. Date posted: 10-15-2008 * DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE U.S. TRUSTEE'S OFFICE -- OAKLAND, CA TRIAL ATTORNEY Applications must be postmarked by the closing date of October 27, 2008 and will be accepted up to five calendar days after the closing date. Date posted: 10-10-2008 * SPECIAL ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY U.S. ATTORNEY'S OFFICE EASTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS SHERMAN, TEXAS VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT NO.: 09-EDTX-01 (SAUSA) OPENING DATE: OCTOBER 10, 2008 CLOSING DATE: OCTOBER 31, 2008 Applications must be received by 5:00 p.m. Central Standard/Daylight Time on October 31, 2008. Date posted: 10-10-2008 * ASSISTANT UNITED STATES ATTORNEY UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE DISTRICT OF OREGON 09-OR-03 Position is open until filled but no later than two weeks after posting. Date posted: 10-10-2008 * U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE EXECUTIVE OFFICE FOR U.S. TRUSTEES WASHINGTON, D.C. EXPERIENCED ATTORNEY (GENERAL ADMINISTRATIVE LAW)/GS-13/14/15 ANNOUNCEMENT NO. 08-38-14001 This position must be postmarked by October 17, 2008. Date posted: 10-10-2008 * U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE EXECUTIVE OFFICE FOR U.S. TRUSTEES WASHINGTON, D.C. EXPERIENCED ATTORNEY (CIVIL ENFORCEMENT)/GS-13/14/15 ANNOUNCEMENT NO. 08-38-14002 This position must be postmarked by October 17, 2008. Date posted: 10-10-2008 * U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE EXECUTIVE OFFICE FOR U.S. TRUSTEES WASHINGTON, D.C.(2) EXPERIENCED TRIAL ATTORNEYS (APPELLATE)/GS-14/15 ANNOUNCEMENT NO. 08-38-14003 This position must be postmarked by October 17, 2008. Date posted: 10-10-2008 * ASSISTANT UNITED STATES ATTORNEY UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE EASTERN DISTRICT OF ARKANSAS VACANCY NUMBER: 08-EDAR-06 POSTED 10-09-2008 All applications must be postmarked by October 24, 2008. Date posted: 10-09-2008 * ASSISTANT UNITED STATES ATTORNEY UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF GEORGIA VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT NUMBER 08-AUSASDGA-06 Applications must be received no later than October 17, 2008. The hiring process is ongoing and will remain open until the position is filled. Date posted: 10-08-2008 * ASSISTANT UNITED STATES ATTORNEY UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE DISTRICT OF OREGON ANNOUNCEMENT NO. 09-OR-02 Position is open until filled, but no later than two weeks from posting. Date posted: 10-08-2008 * ASSISTANT UNITED STATES ATTORNEY UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE DISTRICT OF OREGON 09-OR-01 Position is open until filled but no later than October 22, 2008. Date posted: 10-08-2008 * ASSISTANT CHIEF (GS-905-15) U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE ANTITRUST DIVISION LITIGATION III SECTION Applications must be received no later than October 16, 2008. Date posted: 10-08-2008 * DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE DRUG ENFORCEMENT ADMINISTRATION OFFICE OF CHIEF COUNSEL DIVISION COUNSEL - SAN DIEGO DIVISION SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA ATTORNEY/GS-15 Applications must be received by November 7, 2008 Date posted: 10-08-2008 * U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE DRUG ENFORCEMENT ADMINISTRATION OFFICE OF CHIEF COUNSEL DIVISION COUNSEL - DALLAS DIVISION DALLAS, TEXAS ATTORNEY/GS-15 Applications must be received by October 22, 2008 Date posted: 10-08-2008 * UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE NATIONAL SECURITY DIVISION OFFICE OF INTELLIGENCE EXPERIENCED ATTORNEYS / GS-13 T0 GS-15 Announcement remains opened until positions are filled. Date posted: 10-07-2008 * DEPUTY GENERAL COUNSEL (1 POSITION) EXECUTIVE OFFICE FOR UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL COUNSEL'S OFFICE 09-EOUSA-001 Closing date October 21, 2008. Date posted: 10-07-2008 * CRIMINAL ASSISTANT UNITED STATES ATTORNEY UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE WESTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN GRAND RAPIDS OFFICE Your cover letter and resume must be received by 5:00 p.m.Eastern Time on October 14, 2008. Date posted: 10-07-2008 * U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE FEDERAL BUREAU OF PRISONS CONSOLIDATED LEGAL CENTER FEDERAL CORRECTIONAL COMPLEX COLEMAN, FLORIDA ATTORNEY ADVISOR GS-905-12/13 This position is open until filled, but no later than October 17, 2008. Date posted: 10-03-2008 * U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE DRUG ENFORCEMENT ADMINISTRATION OFFICE OF CHIEF COUNSEL / CIVIL LITIGATION SECTION EXPERIENCED ATTORNEYS / GS-11 to GS-14 (PROMOTION POTENTIAL to GS-15) Applications must be received by October 31, 2008. Date posted: 10-03-2008 * U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE CRIMINAL DIVISION OFFICE OF OVERSEAS PROSECUTORIAL DEVELOPMENT, ASSISTANCE AND TRAINING EXPERIENCED ATTORNEY / GS-14 to GS-15 VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT NUMBER: 08-CRM-OPDAT-040 Applications will be accepted until October 31, 2008. Date posted: 10-03-2008 * ASSISTANT UNITED STATES ATTORNEY UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE WESTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT NUMBER: 09-WDTX-AUSA-01 Position is open until filled. Date posted: 10-03-2008 * U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE CRIMINAL DIVISION OFFICE OF OVERSEAS PROSECUTORIAL DEVELOPMENT, ASSISTANCE AND TRAINING EXPERIENCED ATTORNEY / GS-14 to GS-15 (ILA-ALBANIA) Applications will be accepted until the position is filled. Date posted: 10-03-2008 * BUREAU OF ALCOHOL TOBACCO FIREARMS AND EXPLOSIVES OFFICE OF THE CHIEF COUNSEL (ADMINISTRATION AND ETHICS DIVISION) GENERAL ATTORNEY, GS-905-15 WASHINGTON, DC Applications must be received by November 4, 2008, which is the closing date of this announcement. Date posted: 10-03-2008 * DEPUTY CHIEF, NARCOTIC AND DANGEROUS DRUG SECTION ES-905 DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE CRIMINAL DIVISION WASHINGTON, D.C. VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT NUMBER - 08-CRM-SES-05 Closing date October 15, 2008. Date posted: 10-02-2008 * U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE CRIMINAL DIVISION OFFICE OF OVERSEAS PROSECUTORIAL DEVELOPMENT, ASSISTANCE AND TRAINING EXPERIENCED ATTORNEY / GS-14 to GS-15 VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT NUMBER: 08-CRM-OPDAT-39 Applications will be accepted until this position has been filled. Date posted: 10-02-2008 * FEDERAL BUREAU OF PRISONS CONSOLIDATED LEGAL CENTER METROPOLITAN CORRECTIONAL CENTER NEW YORK, NEW YORK SUPERVISORY ATTORNEY-ADVISOR GS-905-14 This position is open until filled, but no later than October 15, 2008. Date posted: 10-01-2008 The purpose of this email is to advise potential interested persons of employment opportunities at the Department of Justice. The Department of Justice cannot control further dissemination and/or posting of this information. Such posting and/or dissemination is not an endorsement by the Department of the organization or group disseminating and/or posting the information. -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ Jobs mailing list Jobs at nfbnet.org http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/jobs To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for Jobs: http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/jobs/noel.nightingale%40ed.gov From Noel.Nightingale at ed.gov Fri Oct 24 21:50:31 2008 From: Noel.Nightingale at ed.gov (Nightingale, Noel) Date: Fri, 24 Oct 2008 17:50:31 -0400 Subject: [blindlaw] Washignton State Bar Association young lawyers' division Message-ID: <4313AD4429551F4595A8A414A660C75F1648F641@wdcrobe2m05.ed.gov> ________________________________ From: Moni Law [mailto:monil at wsba.org] Sent: Friday, October 24, 2008 1:47 PM To: adavis at seattleu.edu; bbloom at frankfreed.com; ccc at saclawfirm.com; druss at pierce.ctc.edu; FlTracylaw at aol.com; kevind at nwjustice.org; ktran at staffordfrey.com; Lisa Dickinson; lisa.decora at hhs.gov; melissab at nwjustice.org; michael.heath at ubs.com; blancar at nwjustice.org; Hassan_Abedi at ml.com; jchung at nwwlc.org; jhernandez at schwabe.com; leeperthuynguyen at yahoo.com; nstacy at quinault.org; rrarangol at lawdome.com; Tiffany.Tull at dhs.gov; tprice at rmlaw.com; aaron.w.reiman at uscg.mil; ben.santos at metrokc.gov; Denise Tran; donnae at atg.wa.gov; dpenta969 at gmail.com; Keith.talbot at gov.wa.gov; lsomerville9 at comcast.net; LupeA at nwjustice.org; nsklaw at gmail.com; rsaade at schwabe.com; shav235 at lni.wa.gov; Anh Kiet Ngo; Camara Banfield; Dolly Hunt ; Horace Lee ; Juliana Wong ; Kammi Mencke ; Karla Kane ; Kevin O'Rourke ; Natasha Coleman ; Sheley Secrest; Thi Huynh ; Tina Bondy ; Aaron S. Kiviat; Amy Jo Tangeman; Amy Robinson; Aric Sana Bomsztyk; Brahmy Poologasingham; Candice Eun-Lyi Kim; Ciarelle Jimenez Valdez; Craig Sims; Dainen Penta; J.D. Smith; Janet Chung; Janet Kim Lin; Jill Otake; Naomi Kim; Naomi Stacy; Nicole Mcgrath; Pallavi Mehta Wahi; Rachel S. Black; Shawn Michael Murinko; Thuy Nguyen-Leeper; Tracy Sarich Subject: Job opening at WSBA- encourage applicants please Greetings: I apologize if any of you receive this more than once. I manage four staff here including the support staff to the young lawyers division. Our WSBA Young Lawyer Division Liaison Jenny Resendez received a call back a year after applying for the Gates Foundation, and we understand her taking this rare and sought after opportunity. The WYLD Liaison position is a very meaningful job with great exposure for a young professional (including law school graduates or new attorneys who want to try some nonprofit work). The pay is comparable to some starting attorney positions and the benefits are excellent. Or if you know of any other qualified friends or family or people in your network who are looking for work, please encourage them to apply. Please feel free to forward the attached job announcement that posted today. Thanks for your help! Moni Washington State Bar Association Bar Leaders Program Manager Member and Community Relations Department 1325 4th Avenue, Suite 600 Seattle, WA 98101-2539 Phone: 206-727-8239/800-945-WSBA Fax: 206-727-8319 Email: monil at wsba.org Website: www.wsba.org ---------------------- Washington Young Lawyers Division Liaison Member and Community Relations Dept. Job Grade E8; Exempt; Full-time; Monday-Friday Starting Salary Range: $46,461 - $50,000/year DOE+ benefits (Posted 10/24/08) This position plans and manages various activities between the Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) and its Washington Young Lawyers Division (WYLD) involving related committees, groups, volunteers, law school liaisons, and varied stakeholders. The primary responsibilities are to strategically develop and implement programs and outreach opportunities that encourage the interest and participation of new or young lawyers in the profession, as well as enhance the quality of the legal profession in the larger community. This position principally coordinates and implements strategies that improve and enhance the effectiveness of programs in tandem with the WYLD Board of Trustees (BOT), WYLD President, and WSBA associates. This position ensures that all decisions and activities are made in accordance with the mission, policies, by-laws and long-range plans of the WSBA. This position also builds rapport and encourages collegial relationships. Day-to-day responsibilities include coordinating and co-developing events, related materials and/or resources; enforcing project deadlines; managing all aspects of the WYLD BOT meetings and WYLD committee meetings, including scheduling, publicizing meetings, and developing agendas and meeting materials; managing information and technology content on related website pages, list serves, and databases; and managing expenditures against budget, regularly communicating issues to related stakeholders. This role also serves as the point of contact for questions regarding the WYLD and supports the collaboration between the WYLD and interested WSBA associates. As needed, this position plans and manages the election process for the WYLD Board of Trustees. The work environment calls for occasional night or weekend meetings. Some travel is required. Requirements include a Bachelor's degree and three years of professional experience in similar settings. Successful candidates will have strong communication and interpersonal skills; knowledge working through and problem-solving situations with competing demands; experience accurately scoping out projects and tasks, breaking work down into logical steps and assignments; excellent computer proficiencies; continual and conscientious strong attention to detail in composing, typing and proofing materials; experience with budgets; outstanding organizational skills; and ability to juggle multiple priorities. Experience working with volunteers in non-profit settings and/or experience in the legal field is also preferred. ________________________________________ HINT: When replying by email, please do not include the original message View and add comments online: https://www.bigtent.com/group/forum/message/14492815 2025971975 From b75205 at gmail.com Sat Oct 25 19:16:08 2008 From: b75205 at gmail.com (James Pepper) Date: Sat, 25 Oct 2008 14:16:08 -0500 Subject: [blindlaw] Accessible Voter Registration forms Message-ID: I made the National Voter Registration form accessible to JAWS and I sent it to Darren Burton who is in charge of new technologies at the American Foundation for the Blind and he found that it works in JAWS and Window Eyes and so he sent it to the Secretary of State of West Virginia. I sent it to the Elections Assistance Commission (the part of the Federal Elections Commission in charge of HAVA law and the people in charge of the accessible voting machines) and I sent them to the states. Their reactions forced me to contact the Voting Rights Division of the ACLU. Since you are more versed in accessibility law perhaps you can help. James Dickson Vice President in charge of Government Affairs for the American Association of People with Disabilities and he was the key pointman on getting the recent ADA legislation through Congress; he presented my forms to the EAC after they rejected them. Ann Taylor of the NFB has seen my forms, although I did not go to her with the voter forms but she would be a good objective source on this work. The Secretary of State of Washington's election officer wrote: "Remember, too, that federal law requires that voters be able to vote independently; the capability to complete registration applications independently is a desirable goal, but not a legal requirement at this time." He was required to do this in 1973. The State of Arkansas insisted on the blind drawing a map of where they lived on the form. I suggested a form field where the applicant describes where they live relative to the nearest cross streets, but the State of Arkansas insists on using the old printed form because the blind could fill it out in the past. This is a literacy test. And the cost of the blind to get someone to help them fill it out is a Poll Tax. I suggest that you use the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to enforce Accessibility law in this country because the states are willing to deny the right to vote to the blind because they do not want to get around to making their voter registration forms accessible, even though they were required to do this 35 years ago! The blind are a class that is discriminated against and the following laws all require accessible voter registration forms: 1. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 2. Rehabilitation Act of 1973 3. Voting Accessibility for the elderly and Handicapped Act of 1984 4. Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 5. National Voter Registration Act of 1993 6. Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1996 The number of Disabled is 50 million people, and only 30% of that number voted in the 2004 election. So they are a class under the protection of the Voting Rights Act and so the states were required to Integrate them. They have never complied. So the 14th Amendment Section 2 can be applied under the Voting Rights Act to the States, which would enable a 3 panel court in the District of Columbia to reapportion the electors (50 million votes is 99 electors) and the DC court would be required to redraw every congressional map in this country, of all the states that refuse to comply with accessibility law. Thus making a pigs breakfast of the entire country. The last thing the states want is a federal judge redistricting them and reducing their constituency in the House of Representatives. And this action make look extreme, but look at what we have to deal with in getting accessibility enforced! The blind are 71% unemployed and all of this was supposed to have been fixed years ago. The CDC says the blind costs this country 54 billion dollars a year. Mulitply that by 35 years, just the costs alone dictate action. And think about the people. Also I think that the Help America Vote Act Money should be stopped to the states until they comply with the Help America Vote Act which required them to be accessible to the blind in voter registration as of 2004, but was extended to 2006. This would stop 1.2 billion dollars from being paid to the states until they comply. The Voting Rights Act presents the ability to have this case reviewed by a three judge panel court of the DC US District Court right now before the election and the states can appeal to the Supreme Court. The ACLU is going to do an action after the election but should they do it now to get this court because technically we could issue these forms for the Election Day voter registrations in about 6 states. We have to fight for the right to vote no matter the consequences to the states! I made the forms accessible to the blind. The States and the EAC have never faced this issue before because in the past the forms were "as accessible as possible" but nobody had presented a complete solution. And so the states and the EAC when confronted with a complete solution either didn't know how to test it, didn't believe it was accessible, or they decided to do it themselves. This decision was made by either state webmasters or by people who just did not care. And so they rejected the form that worked which would have made it possible for the blind to register to vote in this election, in favor of wasting time and doing it themselves. There is a lot of overtime involved in making a form accessible to the blind. The state officials are all paid 6 figure salaries to solve the problem of accessibility and they were charged with this cause 35 years ago. They were generally offended when I pointed out that their forms were not accessible and they wanted "tips" on how to solve it. But they do not realize that they cannot do it. I developed my solutions based on having tunnel vision in college, I know how to do this because I slogged through the code for years figuring out how to make forms and documents accessible to the blind. They cannot do this "out of the box." And when I came along with a solution that would reduce their work load well you can imagine the response. Some states were outright rude about it. The EAC rejected the forms because they said their webmaster is in charge of accessibility for their agency and so she made a form which she claims is accessible to the blind 19 days after I sent my forms. The EAC was created to enforce accessibility in elections for the whole country and yet they said their webmaster was in charge of accessibility for the agency. Their form is not accessible; their form requires the blind to get assistance to fill out the form. And it is a mess; they have 23 pages of instructions in the form that is spread in areas before and after the form. Also their form also violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and HAVA which is the law that created their agency. And the innovation of my form is obvious to anyone who uses JAWS and yet they didn't use JAWS on my form. Do they own a copy of JAWS and know how to use it? They just caused the states to spend 2 billion dollars on accessibility. *42 USC 1973 - Sec. 1973ee-3. Registration and voting aids *HAVA requires enlarged text be used in their forms and documents. Their form uses tiny fonts. *TITLE 42 > CHAPTER 20 > SUBCHAPTER I-B > § 1973aa–5 (b) of the Voting Rights Act. Survey to compile registration and voting statistics. *The EAC put into their instructions the requirement that the state of South Carolina require that people state their race and if they do not, their form will not be processed. This is expressly illegal in the Voting Rights Act of 1965. And this brings up a serious issue. In order to make content accessible to the blind, you have to manually encode it, so every bit of the form and its content, the text is read and formatted for accessibility. This means the EAC put this passage in on purpose, IF they truly made their form accessible to the blind. I made the instructions into distinct files for each state and they are only text instructions, no form fields. I put the form in a separate document so you can use forms mode to fill it out and use the Read out Loud feature in Adobe Reader to read the text. And you can use JAWS or Window Eyes. All of the content, the instructions built into the form are also in the instructions because I understand that text can be missed in forms mode in JAWS. Their form cannot be read by Microsoft Narrator. My form has the text separated so the user can move between open documents and not loose their place. Their form the user gets lost, because they have to find the content and the form field and move back and forth over 23 pages of text split into two sections before and after the form and so they get lost. I use JAWS and I tested the form in JAWS as I made it, so it works. I made the form so you can fill it out, save it, open it again and fill it out some more, or correct it and save it and digitally sign it, and print it so you can put the manual signature into the form. It works in Adobe Reader versions 8 or 9 (the current version). The form is a separate file and the form is actually two forms so each form is on one page so that you sign the documents each. The form can be digitally signed so there is a meeting of the minds, in a format that the blind can access. The whole thing is made so that a blind person can fill out the form and share the same experience as someone who can see. The form can be used by people who are visually impaired who use Narrator to fill out form fields and the Read out Loud feature built into Adobe Reader, so the form can be filled out by people who do not own JAWS or Window Eyes, who cannot afford it, or who have never heard of it because they are visually impaired. And the form can be filled out by the general public. Also the EAC did not make their Spanish language form accessible, it is in the condition of the form that the EAC published until they reacted to my calls. I can make PDF forms accessible in all the languages supported by Braille Lite. Technically Adobe works in 40 languages and I can encode the forms to work in those languages but I would need help with the translations. So we can do this worldwide. I know why my forms work, how they work with JAWS and I know why software is not accessible, the technical reasons. I think the solution is to fix this so that government employees are not fixing something after the fact, that forms and documents and websites can be made accessible while they are being made by ordinary people not aware of accessibility regulations, so they are made right and made once. This can be done. We need to emancipate the blind, by making sure they have the right to register to vote. Sincerely, James G. Pepper Dallas, Texas From ckrugman at sbcglobal.net Sun Oct 26 13:37:44 2008 From: ckrugman at sbcglobal.net (Charles Krugman) Date: Sun, 26 Oct 2008 06:37:44 -0700 Subject: [blindlaw] Accessible Voter Registration forms In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <7FDE4925D937441FBA2C125278E6D866@spike> Thanks for this information. The state of California just passed legislation to upgrade the Secretary of State computer system to allow for on line voter registration. I would appreciate your sending me a copy of this form as I may be able to arrange for it to be tested and implemented in California. Please contact me off list to discuss this further. Charles L. Krugman, M.S.W., Paralegal 1237 P Street Fresno ca 93721 559-266-9237 ----- Original Message ----- From: "James Pepper" To: Sent: Saturday, October 25, 2008 12:16 PM Subject: [blindlaw] Accessible Voter Registration forms I made the National Voter Registration form accessible to JAWS and I sent it to Darren Burton who is in charge of new technologies at the American Foundation for the Blind and he found that it works in JAWS and Window Eyes and so he sent it to the Secretary of State of West Virginia. I sent it to the Elections Assistance Commission (the part of the Federal Elections Commission in charge of HAVA law and the people in charge of the accessible voting machines) and I sent them to the states. Their reactions forced me to contact the Voting Rights Division of the ACLU. Since you are more versed in accessibility law perhaps you can help. James Dickson Vice President in charge of Government Affairs for the American Association of People with Disabilities and he was the key pointman on getting the recent ADA legislation through Congress; he presented my forms to the EAC after they rejected them. Ann Taylor of the NFB has seen my forms, although I did not go to her with the voter forms but she would be a good objective source on this work. The Secretary of State of Washington's election officer wrote: "Remember, too, that federal law requires that voters be able to vote independently; the capability to complete registration applications independently is a desirable goal, but not a legal requirement at this time." He was required to do this in 1973. The State of Arkansas insisted on the blind drawing a map of where they lived on the form. I suggested a form field where the applicant describes where they live relative to the nearest cross streets, but the State of Arkansas insists on using the old printed form because the blind could fill it out in the past. This is a literacy test. And the cost of the blind to get someone to help them fill it out is a Poll Tax. I suggest that you use the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to enforce Accessibility law in this country because the states are willing to deny the right to vote to the blind because they do not want to get around to making their voter registration forms accessible, even though they were required to do this 35 years ago! The blind are a class that is discriminated against and the following laws all require accessible voter registration forms: 1. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 2. Rehabilitation Act of 1973 3. Voting Accessibility for the elderly and Handicapped Act of 1984 4. Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 5. National Voter Registration Act of 1993 6. Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1996 The number of Disabled is 50 million people, and only 30% of that number voted in the 2004 election. So they are a class under the protection of the Voting Rights Act and so the states were required to Integrate them. They have never complied. So the 14th Amendment Section 2 can be applied under the Voting Rights Act to the States, which would enable a 3 panel court in the District of Columbia to reapportion the electors (50 million votes is 99 electors) and the DC court would be required to redraw every congressional map in this country, of all the states that refuse to comply with accessibility law. Thus making a pigs breakfast of the entire country. The last thing the states want is a federal judge redistricting them and reducing their constituency in the House of Representatives. And this action make look extreme, but look at what we have to deal with in getting accessibility enforced! The blind are 71% unemployed and all of this was supposed to have been fixed years ago. The CDC says the blind costs this country 54 billion dollars a year. Mulitply that by 35 years, just the costs alone dictate action. And think about the people. Also I think that the Help America Vote Act Money should be stopped to the states until they comply with the Help America Vote Act which required them to be accessible to the blind in voter registration as of 2004, but was extended to 2006. This would stop 1.2 billion dollars from being paid to the states until they comply. The Voting Rights Act presents the ability to have this case reviewed by a three judge panel court of the DC US District Court right now before the election and the states can appeal to the Supreme Court. The ACLU is going to do an action after the election but should they do it now to get this court because technically we could issue these forms for the Election Day voter registrations in about 6 states. We have to fight for the right to vote no matter the consequences to the states! I made the forms accessible to the blind. The States and the EAC have never faced this issue before because in the past the forms were "as accessible as possible" but nobody had presented a complete solution. And so the states and the EAC when confronted with a complete solution either didn't know how to test it, didn't believe it was accessible, or they decided to do it themselves. This decision was made by either state webmasters or by people who just did not care. And so they rejected the form that worked which would have made it possible for the blind to register to vote in this election, in favor of wasting time and doing it themselves. There is a lot of overtime involved in making a form accessible to the blind. The state officials are all paid 6 figure salaries to solve the problem of accessibility and they were charged with this cause 35 years ago. They were generally offended when I pointed out that their forms were not accessible and they wanted "tips" on how to solve it. But they do not realize that they cannot do it. I developed my solutions based on having tunnel vision in college, I know how to do this because I slogged through the code for years figuring out how to make forms and documents accessible to the blind. They cannot do this "out of the box." And when I came along with a solution that would reduce their work load well you can imagine the response. Some states were outright rude about it. The EAC rejected the forms because they said their webmaster is in charge of accessibility for their agency and so she made a form which she claims is accessible to the blind 19 days after I sent my forms. The EAC was created to enforce accessibility in elections for the whole country and yet they said their webmaster was in charge of accessibility for the agency. Their form is not accessible; their form requires the blind to get assistance to fill out the form. And it is a mess; they have 23 pages of instructions in the form that is spread in areas before and after the form. Also their form also violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and HAVA which is the law that created their agency. And the innovation of my form is obvious to anyone who uses JAWS and yet they didn't use JAWS on my form. Do they own a copy of JAWS and know how to use it? They just caused the states to spend 2 billion dollars on accessibility. *42 USC 1973 - Sec. 1973ee-3. Registration and voting aids *HAVA requires enlarged text be used in their forms and documents. Their form uses tiny fonts. *TITLE 42 > CHAPTER 20 > SUBCHAPTER I-B > § 1973aa–5 (b) of the Voting Rights Act. Survey to compile registration and voting statistics. *The EAC put into their instructions the requirement that the state of South Carolina require that people state their race and if they do not, their form will not be processed. This is expressly illegal in the Voting Rights Act of 1965. And this brings up a serious issue. In order to make content accessible to the blind, you have to manually encode it, so every bit of the form and its content, the text is read and formatted for accessibility. This means the EAC put this passage in on purpose, IF they truly made their form accessible to the blind. I made the instructions into distinct files for each state and they are only text instructions, no form fields. I put the form in a separate document so you can use forms mode to fill it out and use the Read out Loud feature in Adobe Reader to read the text. And you can use JAWS or Window Eyes. All of the content, the instructions built into the form are also in the instructions because I understand that text can be missed in forms mode in JAWS. Their form cannot be read by Microsoft Narrator. My form has the text separated so the user can move between open documents and not loose their place. Their form the user gets lost, because they have to find the content and the form field and move back and forth over 23 pages of text split into two sections before and after the form and so they get lost. I use JAWS and I tested the form in JAWS as I made it, so it works. I made the form so you can fill it out, save it, open it again and fill it out some more, or correct it and save it and digitally sign it, and print it so you can put the manual signature into the form. It works in Adobe Reader versions 8 or 9 (the current version). The form is a separate file and the form is actually two forms so each form is on one page so that you sign the documents each. The form can be digitally signed so there is a meeting of the minds, in a format that the blind can access. The whole thing is made so that a blind person can fill out the form and share the same experience as someone who can see. The form can be used by people who are visually impaired who use Narrator to fill out form fields and the Read out Loud feature built into Adobe Reader, so the form can be filled out by people who do not own JAWS or Window Eyes, who cannot afford it, or who have never heard of it because they are visually impaired. And the form can be filled out by the general public. Also the EAC did not make their Spanish language form accessible, it is in the condition of the form that the EAC published until they reacted to my calls. I can make PDF forms accessible in all the languages supported by Braille Lite. Technically Adobe works in 40 languages and I can encode the forms to work in those languages but I would need help with the translations. So we can do this worldwide. I know why my forms work, how they work with JAWS and I know why software is not accessible, the technical reasons. I think the solution is to fix this so that government employees are not fixing something after the fact, that forms and documents and websites can be made accessible while they are being made by ordinary people not aware of accessibility regulations, so they are made right and made once. This can be done. We need to emancipate the blind, by making sure they have the right to register to vote. Sincerely, James G. Pepper Dallas, Texas _______________________________________________ blindlaw mailing list blindlaw at nfbnet.org http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindlaw_nfbnet.org To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for blindlaw: http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindlaw_nfbnet.org/ckrugman%40sbcglobal.net From dandrews at visi.com Sun Oct 26 19:12:24 2008 From: dandrews at visi.com (David Andrews) Date: Sun, 26 Oct 2008 14:12:24 -0500 Subject: [blindlaw] Register Now for the Motor City March! Message-ID: From: Kristi Bowman [ mailto:kbowman at nfb.org] Sent: Monday, October 20, 2008 2:37 PM Subject: Register Now for the Motor City March! National Federation of the Blind logo Graphic Photo boy with cane on the beach March for Independence logo Greetings, Summer has faded and Autumn is upon us. It's time to reengage for this year's March for Independence - A Walk for Opportunity walk-a-thon event in Detroit, this July. Once again, our goal this year is to raise at least one million dollars. This will take our collective energy, action, and imagination. I encourage all of you that have yet to register for this year's event to do so now. Whether you are a returning participant or you are signing up for the first time, you will find instructions on how to register at the end of this e-mail. We will be announcing an assortment of bonuses for those of you who are registered, raising money, and making your goals early, so sign up now and start raising your funds. Once you are registered for this year's Motor City March you can begin personalizing your Web page and sending out e-mails to your contacts, colleagues, family, and friends. This year there are some changes and additions to everyone's personal page. First of all, everyone will get a template page when they register. Pages will not carry over from last year. If you need your text from last year, or your pictures, please call. We will retrieve the information and forward it to you. Additionally, there is an option to blog on your Web page! This is not just a good marketing tool, it is also a great way to keep your network updated on your progress. We are also finalizing efforts to add widgets to social networking sites like Facebook. Stay tuned! Please pass this message and the registration instructions far and wide. We would like to see one thousand registered and raising by December 31, 2008. Together, we can do this! If you have any questions please contact Kristi Bowman at (410) 659-9314, ext. 2406 or via e-mail at < mailto:kbowman at nfb.org > kbowman at nfb.org. Thank you, Thank you...I look forward to working with each and every one of you and serving our organization for what will prove to be another exciting year. At your service, Kevan Worley Imagination Fund Chairman Register now for the Motor City march! New Participants 1. Go to MarchForIndependence.org. 2. Click the Participate, Create a Team, or Join a Team link in the left hand navigation panel to begin your registration. 3. When the screen refreshes you will be able to choose whether you will be a marcher or a virtual marcher by selecting the radio button associated with your choice. a) For "Participate" (to register as an individual marcher), when the screen refreshes click, or hit enter on, the link that says "Register to March." b) For "Create a Team," when the screen refreshes enter your new team's name and provide the team's goal amount. c) For "Join a Team," when the screen refreshes enter the name of the team you'd like to join and click, or hit enter on, Search for a Team. When you see the name of the team displayed, select the link for "Join." 4. If you would like to make an additional gift during your registration, place that amount in the edit box following Additional Gift. Here you will also have an option of making this gift anonymously or for public view. 5. The next edit box is for your goal amount, enter your fundraising goal here. Please remember that each walker needs to raise at least $250 to participate in the March for Independence- A Walk for Opportunity. Your goal needs to be at least $250. 6. Click the Next Step link at the bottom left of the page. 7. Enter your contact information as requested in the on screen form directly into the edit boxes on your screen. 8. Click the Next Step button at the bottom left of the page. 9. This screen contains the waiver to participate in the walk. If you agree to the waiver, check the I agree box and then click the Next Screen button. 10. The next screen will summarize your registration. If you need to make any changes, simply click the Edit link to re-open your registration form, otherwise, click the Complete Registration button in the bottom, right corner and the next screen confirms your registration and provides a link to your participant center. 11. Your can now begin personalizing your March For Independence - A Walk for Opportunity Web page. 12. Follow the online instructions to personalize your page. Some people find the online training in MP3 format helpful, the link for online training is in the left hand navigation bar. 13. Be creative! Remember our goal is to educate, raise awareness, and to raise at least one million dollars this year. Keep this in mind as you create your page. 14. If you have any questions or problems call (410) 659-9314, ext. 2406 for assistance. We will be happy to help get anyone registered and help build a dynamic page. 15. Spread the word, help get everyone registered. If you feel really good about managing the registration process, help train and step others through the process. 16. Have fun raising money and know that you are sharing in the NFB dream! Returning Participants 1. Go to http://www.marchforindependence.org/ . 2. Log in using your user name and password.* 3. Once you are logged on, the screen will refresh, welcoming you to the Website. 4. Click the Participate, Create a Team, or Join a Team link in the left hand navigation panel to begin your registration. a) For "Participate" (to register as an individual marcher), when the screen refreshes click, or hit enter on, the link that says "Register to March." b) For "Create a Team," when the screen refreshes enter your new team's name and provide the team's goal amount. c) For "Join a Team," when the screen refreshes enter the name of the team you'd like to join and click, or hit enter on, Search for a Team. When you see the name of the team displayed, select the link for "Join." 5. When the screen refreshes you will be able to choose whether you will be a marcher or a virtual marcher by selecting the radio button associated with your choice. 6. If you would like to make an additional gift during your registration, place that amount in the edit box following Additional Gift. Here you will also have an option of making this gift anonymously or for public view. 7. The next edit box is for your goal amount, enter your fundraising goal here. Please remember that each walker needs to raise at least $250 to participate in the March for Independence - A Walk for Opportunity. Your goal needs to be at least $250. 8. Click the Next Step link at the bottom left of the page. 9. The next screen will display the contact information that you registered with LAST YEAR. Incorrect information, changed e-mail addresses, or phone numbers can be corrected by directly editing the fields on the form. After you are sure all of the information is correct, click the Next Step button at the bottom left of the page. 10. This screen contains the waiver to participate in the walk. If you agree to the waiver, check the I agree box and then click the Next Screen button. 11. The next screen will summarize your registration. If you need to make any changes, simply click the Edit link to re-open your registration form, otherwise, click the Complete Registration button in the bottom, right corner and the next screen confirms your registration and provides a link to your participant center. 12. If you personalized your Web page last year, you will not have the same changes. This year everyone will start with the same template page. Your thermometer graphic will be reset to zero, your goal may be different than last year (if you increased it this year), and the scrolling honor roll of donor names will be empty unless you have already received gifts, in which case you will also be registered. 13. You should personalize your page with your NFB story. Education, awareness are our first priority. People will donate to YOU because of your STORY. Add your story, download pictures, show everyone how the NFB has changed what it means to be blind for you and your family. 14. If you have any questions or problems call (410) 659-9314, ext. 2406, for assistance. We will be happy to register you and help you build a dynamic page. 15. Spread the word, help get everyone registered. If you feel really good about managing the registration process, help train and step others through the process. 15. Now the fun begins.. * Click here to have your login information sent to you via e-mail. Unsubscribe | Update Preferences | Visit Our Web Site | Tell-A-Friend 1800 Johnson Street Baltimore, MD 21230 410-659-9314 From Yasmin.Reyazuddin at montgomerycountymd.gov Mon Oct 27 14:31:29 2008 From: Yasmin.Reyazuddin at montgomerycountymd.gov (Reyazuddin, Yasmin) Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2008 10:31:29 -0400 Subject: [blindlaw] is their any laws on visually impaired signs In-Reply-To: <00e501c93584$dc8ea1a0$6401a8c0@93LRNC1> Message-ID: Hi Jo, Thanks for the very interesting question. We need to understand whether you wish to have signage to indicate the name of the street or you wish to have signage indicating that a blind or visually impaired person lives in the neighborhood. In both cases your county department which takes care of the roads has a person to deal with such issues. Yasmin Reyazuddin Information & Referral unit Department of Health & human services 401 Hungerford Drive (1st floor) Rockville MD 20850 Phone 240-777-1245 (info line) 240-777-1556 (personal line) Fax: 240-777-4636 TTY: 240-777-1295 Office hours 8:30 am to 5:00 pm Languages English, Hindi, Urdu This message may contain protected health information or other information that is confidential or privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by return mail and destroy any copies of this material. Thank you. -----Original Message----- From: blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of joe hines Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2008 11:02 PM To: blindlaw at nfbnet.org Subject: [blindlaw] is thier any laws on visualy impaired signs I live on a county road in Ohio and I cannot get the township or the county to install visually impaired signs. I'm at low vision and am service connected blind and can get no answers from the township say it is a county problem, they say the county road isn't wide enough to walk on so I'm pretty much grounded to the property accdording to the ashland county engineer.Mr. Cooper. Does anyone have any information on any ruling from the sate joe hines _______________________________________________ blindlaw mailing list blindlaw at nfbnet.org http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindlaw_nfbnet.org To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for blindlaw: http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindlaw_nfbnet.org/yasmin.reyazud din%40montgomerycountymd.gov From b75205 at gmail.com Mon Oct 27 21:49:12 2008 From: b75205 at gmail.com (James Pepper) Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:49:12 -0500 Subject: [blindlaw] Accessible Voter Registration forms In-Reply-To: <7FDE4925D937441FBA2C125278E6D866@spike> References: <7FDE4925D937441FBA2C125278E6D866@spike> Message-ID: Mr. Krugman: Here are the forms. They are mutilple page PDF documents that work with JAWS without JAWS getting lost. I tested this with JAWS 9 and JAWS 10 but my forms also work with JAWS 8, Pat Pound (below) used JAWS 8 on some of my forms. I was in contact with Tony Candela at DOR for California. My forms were tested by the American Foundation for the Blind. You will need Adobe Reader versions 8 or 9 to interact with these forms. They were designed to work with JAWS. The files are made to be downloaded and saved on a user's computer and then filled out, and they can save the file and reopen it and correct their mistakes and then they can digitally sign the document, print it, place their written signature on the forms and then send it back to the state. I made the National Voter Registration form accessible to JAWS and Darren Burton of the American Foundation for the blind tested them and found they worked in JAWS and Window Eyes and so he sent them to the Secretary of State of West Virginia for this election. Darren is blind. AFB TECH 949 Third Ave. Suite 200 Huntington, WV 25701 (304) 523-8651 Also James Dickson Vice President of the American Association of People with Disabilities presented my forms to the Elections Assistance Commission. He is blind. And Pat Pound who was on the National Council on Disability and was executive Director for the Texas Governor's Committee on People with Disabilities, I worked with her on two forms for her that she said she had never been able to get anyone to make accessible. But I solved the problem and they are now accessible to the blind. Pat is blind. And if you need another opinion, you can contact Ann Taylor who is in charge of testing new technologies for the National Federation of the Blind. I have not tested my Voter Registration forms with her but she has seen other forms that I have made and she is an objective source. The forms are designed to be downloaded and filled out on the user's computer so you do not have to worry about time limits or the 600 second rule resetting the form. The 600 second rule is when the servers reset due to signal degredation and this usually resets screen readers and other devices thus giving the blind a time limit on filling out online forms that most people do not realize is present. This is particularly a problem with html forms and the problem is with hardware. So the solution is a downloadable form and that means a PDF document. The form can be filled out, saved, opened again, filled out, corrected and saved, and digitally signed so the user has a copy of what they sent that they can access, and it can be printed and signed. States require a written signature. I have a form with two digital signatures enclosed. The Voter Registration form is actually two forms and so each form occupies one page of the document so each form can be signed individually. Also enclosed is the papertool Section 508 compliance document from the Access Board where I comment on my form and the National Form which they claim is accessible but it was made on a MAC so it cannot be read properly on the Windows Platform. Since JAWS and Window Eyes are Windows based programs, designing on a MAC is useless for accessibility. I can make the font larger if you wish, I set them at Arial 12 points. The instructions are a separate file because you can have them open and switch between open documents and not loose your place. You can use JAWS or Window Eyes or you can use the built in Read out Loud feature of Adobe Reader to read the instructions. For the forms you can use JAWS or Window Eyes or Microsoft Narrator to use the form and since both documents can be open at the same time, you can use both programs simultaneously moving back and forth between the instructions and the form. This eliminates the common problem in government forms where you have to move into a form field, then find the instructions and then go back to the form field. Also I consolidated the instructions into steps which correspond with the steps in the form. The EAC, the Elections Assistance Commission National Voter Registration Form contains all the instructions and the form in the same document and their instructions are broken up into three sections, all of which must be read to fill out each form field and the instructions are split up before and after the form. So my solution makes it faster. I had tunnel vision in college and I received most of my sight back so I know what is needed for a comprehensive solution. My form is made so that it has to be printed and signed. I have a version with two digital signatures and this file is enclosed Accessible_Voter_Registration_FormDS.pdf It is the ideal solution, becasue it can be emailed to the state. I would have to change the instructions for the form, the enclosed instructions file are for the form that you have to sign with a written signature. Both forms can be sent by email and the data from the form can be extracted as a CSV file which can be dropped into a database. This is Adobe's technology. So the signed form can be opened electronically and the information can be processed and the state can then await the written signature on the form to finish the registration, so you do not have to abandon the paper trail. They are encrypted; part of the process of saving the file enables the interactive features so there is no way to get around the encryption. If people fear tampering with the form, the form data can be extracted using Adobe Acrobat Professional versions 8 or 9 and that can be done very easily to test the file to find out what is being asked and what the output of the data would be. I do not know how one would hack this but I imagine Adobe has a lot to say about their 256 encryption. If you have any questions just ask. Sincerely, James G. Pepper 214-360-0622 -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Accessible_Voter_Registration_Form.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 359551 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Accessible_Voter_Registration_FormDS.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 359639 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: California Instructions.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 92320 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: papertool_v1.0 web version Pepper forms.doc Type: application/msword Size: 868352 bytes Desc: not available URL: From my5thattempt at yahoo.com Tue Oct 28 20:30:05 2008 From: my5thattempt at yahoo.com (M BG) Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2008 13:30:05 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [blindlaw] Ipod question Message-ID: <440566.80250.qm@web36705.mail.mud.yahoo.com> I am about to purchase an Ipod classic with 120 Gig memory.  The Ipod dealer told me that there is software that can be purchased to make the Ipod speak to me commands and movement for the device.  Does anyone know what this software is called and or anyone have an Ipod and how are you navigating through it?   Misty From dandrews at visi.com Tue Oct 28 21:48:36 2008 From: dandrews at visi.com (David Andrews) Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2008 16:48:36 -0500 Subject: [blindlaw] Ipod question In-Reply-To: <440566.80250.qm@web36705.mail.mud.yahoo.com> References: <440566.80250.qm@web36705.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: This is off topic for this list, it is the Blind Law list! David Andrews, List Owner At 03:30 PM 10/28/2008, you wrote: >I am about to purchase an Ipod classic with 120 Gig memory. The >Ipod dealer told me that there is software that can be purchased to >make the Ipod speak to me commands and movement for the >device. Does anyone know what this software is called and or anyone >have an Ipod and how are you navigating through it? > >Misty > > > >_______________________________________________ >blindlaw mailing list >blindlaw at nfbnet.org >http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindlaw_nfbnet.org >To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info >for blindlaw: >http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindlaw_nfbnet.org/dandrews%40visi.com > > >No virus found in this incoming message. >Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com >Version: 8.0.175 / Virus Database: 270.8.4/1752 - Release Date: >10/28/2008 10:04 AM From lmilholland at hotmail.com Tue Oct 28 22:08:01 2008 From: lmilholland at hotmail.com (Locke Milholland) Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2008 18:08:01 -0400 Subject: [blindlaw] Ipod question References: <440566.80250.qm@web36705.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: I think it's rockbox Locke ----- Original Message ----- From: "M BG" To: "NFBnet Blind Law Mailing List" ; "Kurzweil National Federation of the Blind Reader user list" Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 4:30 PM Subject: [blindlaw] Ipod question I am about to purchase an Ipod classic with 120 Gig memory. The Ipod dealer told me that there is software that can be purchased to make the Ipod speak to me commands and movement for the device. Does anyone know what this software is called and or anyone have an Ipod and how are you navigating through it? Misty _______________________________________________ blindlaw mailing list blindlaw at nfbnet.org http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindlaw_nfbnet.org To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for blindlaw: http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindlaw_nfbnet.org/lmilholland%40hotmail.com From my5thattempt at yahoo.com Tue Oct 28 22:19:30 2008 From: my5thattempt at yahoo.com (M BG) Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2008 15:19:30 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [blindlaw] Ipod question Message-ID: <939038.30777.qm@web36704.mail.mud.yahoo.com> I am sorry I intended this to be posted to the tech page. ________________________________ From: David Andrews To: NFBnet Blind Law Mailing List Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 2:48:36 PM Subject: Re: [blindlaw] Ipod question This is off topic for this list, it is the Blind Law list! David Andrews, List Owner At 03:30 PM 10/28/2008, you wrote: >I am about to purchase an Ipod classic with 120 Gig memory.  The >Ipod dealer told me that there is software that can be purchased to >make the Ipod speak to me commands and movement for the >device.  Does anyone know what this software is called and or anyone >have an Ipod and how are you navigating through it? > >Misty > > > >_______________________________________________ >blindlaw mailing list >blindlaw at nfbnet.org >http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindlaw_nfbnet.org >To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info >for blindlaw: >http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindlaw_nfbnet.org/dandrews%40visi.com > > >No virus found in this incoming message. >Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com >Version: 8.0.175 / Virus Database: 270.8.4/1752 - Release Date: >10/28/2008 10:04 AM _______________________________________________ blindlaw mailing list blindlaw at nfbnet.org http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindlaw_nfbnet.org To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for blindlaw: http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindlaw_nfbnet.org/my5thattempt%40yahoo.com From b.schulz at sbcglobal.net Wed Oct 29 04:29:22 2008 From: b.schulz at sbcglobal.net (Bryan Schulz) Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2008 23:29:22 -0500 Subject: [blindlaw] Ipod question References: <440566.80250.qm@web36705.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: hi, tech list or not, don't buy the classic especially if you can't take it back. The store may not accept a return if you tell them you tried to install rockbox and screwed the original firmware. from what i have read, only the nano works with rockbox. i am enjoyihng using a sansa 6gig e270 version 1 with rockbox and you also cannot record with an ipod. Bryan Schulz The BEST Solution www.best-acts.com ----- Original Message ----- From: "Locke Milholland" To: "NFBnet Blind Law Mailing List" Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 5:08 PM Subject: Re: [blindlaw] Ipod question >I think it's rockbox > Locke > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "M BG" > To: "NFBnet Blind Law Mailing List" ; "Kurzweil > National Federation of the Blind Reader user list" > > Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 4:30 PM > Subject: [blindlaw] Ipod question > > > I am about to purchase an Ipod classic with 120 Gig memory. The Ipod > dealer told me that there is software that can be purchased to make the > Ipod speak to me commands and movement for the device. Does anyone know > what this software is called and or anyone have an Ipod and how are you > navigating through it? > > Misty > > > > _______________________________________________ > blindlaw mailing list > blindlaw at nfbnet.org > http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindlaw_nfbnet.org > To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for > blindlaw: > http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindlaw_nfbnet.org/lmilholland%40hotmail.com > > > _______________________________________________ > blindlaw mailing list > blindlaw at nfbnet.org > http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindlaw_nfbnet.org > To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for > blindlaw: > http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindlaw_nfbnet.org/b.schulz%40sbcglobal.net From JFreeh at nfb.org Fri Oct 31 23:29:24 2008 From: JFreeh at nfb.org (Freeh, Jessica) Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2008 18:29:24 -0500 Subject: [blindlaw] Google Settlement with Authors, Publishers Will Have Positive Results for the Blind Message-ID: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Chris Danielsen Public Relations Specialist National Federation of the Blind (410) 659-9314, extension 2330 (410) 262-1281 (cell) cdanielsen at nfb.org Google Settlement with Authors, Publishers Will Have Positive Results for the Blind Terms of Proposed Settlement Agreement Will Revolutionize Blind People's Access to Books Baltimore, Maryland (October 31, 2008): The National Federation of the Blind, the nation's leading advocate for access to information by the blind, announced today that the recent settlement between Google and authors and publishers over the Google Books project, if approved by the courts, will have a profound and positive impact on the ability of blind people to access the printed word. The terms of the settlement that was reached on October 28, among Google, the Authors Guild, and the Association of American Publishers, on behalf of a broad class of authors and publishers, allow Google to provide the material it offers users "in a manner that accommodates users with print disabilities so that such users have a substantially similar user experience as users without print disabilities." A user with a print disability under the agreement is one who is "unable to read or use standard printed material due to blindness, visual disability, physical limitations, organic dysfunction, or dyslexia." Blind people, like other members of the public, will be able to search the texts of books in the Google Books database online; purchase some books in an accessible format; or access accessible books at libraries and other entities that have an institutional subscription to the Google Books database. Once the court approves the settlement, Google will work to launch these services as quickly as possible. Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said: "Access to the printed word has historically been one of the greatest challenges faced by the blind. The agreement between Google and authors and publishers will revolutionize access to books for blind Americans. Blind people will be able to search for books through the Google Books interface and purchase, borrow, or read at a public library any of the books that are available to the general public in a format that is compatible with text enlargement software, text-to-speech screen access software, and refreshable Braille devices. With 7 million books already available in the Google Books collection and many more to come, this agreement means that blind people will have more access to print books than we have ever had in human history. The blind, just like the sighted, will have a world of education, information, and entertainment literally at our fingertips. The National Federation of the Blind commends the parties to this agreement for their commitment to full and equal access to information by the blind." "Among the most monumental aspects of the settlement agreement," said Jack Bernard, assistant general counsel at the University of Michigan, "are the terms that enable Google and libraries to make works accessible to people who have print disabilities. This unprecedented opportunity to access the printed word will make it possible for blind people to engage independently with our rich written culture. Moreover, it is refreshing to find accessibility for people with disabilities explicitly included upfront, rather than begrudgingly added as an afterthought." "One of the great promises of the settlement agreement is improving access to books for the blind and for those with print disabilities," said Dan Clancy, engineering director for Google Book Search. "Google is committed to extending all of the services available under the agreement to the blind and print disability community, making it easier to access these books through screen enlargement, reader, and Braille display technologies." ### About the National Federation of the Blind With more than 50,000 members, the National Federation of the Blind is the largest and most influential membership organization of blind people in the United States. The NFB improves blind people's lives through advocacy, education, research, technology, and programs encouraging independence and self-confidence. It is the leading force in the blindness field today and the voice of the nation's blind. In January 2004 the NFB opened the National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute, the first research and training center in the United States for the blind led by the blind. Please visit our Web site: www.nfb.org.