[blindlaw] Judge rules for ACB in Social Security case
Don Brown
dlb723 at comcast.net
Wed Oct 21 02:37:01 UTC 2009
Judge Alsup's decision in the ACB vs. SSA case came out today
(10.20.09):
Judge William Alsup of the US District Court, Northern District of
California in San Francisco, today issued a judgment in favor of the
American Council of the Blind (ACB) and two classes of 3,000,000
individuals with blindness and visual impairments. The suit
challenged the Social Security Administration's (SSA) failure to
provide its critical benefits communications to recipients in
alternative formats that would enable people with visual impairments
to have equal access to SSA programs as required by federal disability
civil rights laws.
This ruling signals a major victory for the disability rights
movement, and it sets precedent for the obligations of other federal
and state agencies to accommodate people who are blind or have visual
impairments. The Social Security Administration (SSA) sends out 390
million notices and forms each year. Plaintiffs won the right to
receive communications in a format that is accessible to them, and
Judge Alsup ruled that these formats, at a minimum, must include
Braille and CD.
Here are links to the
Judgment
http://www.dredf.org/SSA/2009-10-20-Judgment.pdf
and
Findings of Fact and Conclusions
http://www.dredf.org/SSA/2009-10-20-Findings.pdf
More information about the BlindLaw
mailing list