<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div>Please read below. <br><br>Audrey T. Farnum<div>Sent from my iPhone</div></div><div><br>Begin forwarded message:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><b>From:</b> "Danielsen, Chris via Nfbnet-members-list" <<a href="mailto:nfbnet-members-list@nfbnet.org">nfbnet-members-list@nfbnet.org</a>><br><b>Date:</b> February 3, 2016 at 1:38:15 PM CST<br><b>To:</b> <a href="mailto:nfbnet-members-list@nfbnet.org">nfbnet-members-list@nfbnet.org</a><br><b>Subject:</b> <b>[Nfbnet-members-list] President Riccobono's op-ed urging the release of Internet regulations</b><br><b>Reply-To:</b> "Danielsen, Chris" <<a href="mailto:CDanielsen@nfb.org">CDanielsen@nfb.org</a>><br><br></div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><div>
Dear fellow Federationists:<br>
<br>
The following op-ed by President Riccobono appeared last week on the
Congress Blog of the influential Washington newspaper <i>The Hill</i>.
The text is pasted below. You can also access the article by browsing to
<a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/civil-rights/266943-inequality-and-indifference">
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/civil-rights/266943-inequality-and-indifference</a>
<br>
<br>
Please consider sharing the above link with your contacts. Also, please
sign and share our petition to President Obama to release the regulations
referenced in President Riccobono's piece. The petition is located
here:<br>
<br>
<a href="https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/direct-us-department-justice-promptly-release-ada-internet-regulations">
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/direct-us-department-justice-promptly-release-ada-internet-regulations</a>
<br>
<br>
Thanks for your continued advocacy and tireless work to build the
Federation.<br>
<br>
Warmly,<br>
<br>
Chris Danielsen<br>
Director of Public Relations<br>
National Federation of the Blind<br>
<br>
January 26, 2016, 11:00 a.m.<br>
Inequality and Indifference<br>
By Mark A. Riccobono<br>
<br>
The recent decision by the Obama administration to delay issuing new
regulations under the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is
outrageous. The regulations would have provided guidance on how
businesses can meet their legal obligation to make their websites
accessible to people with disabilities. These regulations have been in
the works for over five years, but the Obama administration now proposes
further delaying them until 2018, effectively washing its hands of the
matter. This move is particularly shocking in light of the president’s
correct observation, made when he first announced his intention to issue
the regulations in 2010, that such rules are “the most important updates
to the ADA since its original enactment.” The urgent need for these
regulations has only increased, so why has the administration’s position
inexplicably changed? <br>
<br>
Thanks to today’s technology, people with all kinds of disabilities can
access computer information, including websites, with tools such as
text-to-speech screen readers that verbalize what the computer is
displaying, connected devices that can display the content in Braille,
and alternative input devices for people who can't physically use a mouse
or keyboard. Despite this advanced technology, however, most of us,
especially blind people like me, struggle every day to perform routine
internet-based tasks, including paying our bills, examining electronic
health records, and making hotel reservations. That’s<br>
because improperly designed websites can block our ability to effectively
access all of the information. For example, if a website uses images to
convey important information without also providing “alt tags” that a
screen reader can read, then the screen reader will spit out gibberish
because it can't “read” a picture in the way it can read text. And the
inability to access websites is not merely an inconvenience; it is a
barrier to education and employment. For example, the college graduation
rate for people with disabilities is just thirty-four percent;
inaccessible online technology used by today’s colleges and universities
undoubtedly contributes to this dismal statistic. <br>
<br>
All of this is not due to hostility towards Americans with disabilities.
While a few businesses simply refuse to provide equal access to their
websites until a legal settlement or court order forces them to do so,
many others simply don't know where to turn for guidance on how to make
their websites accessible. Organizations like the National Federation of
the Blind are doing all we can to educate business leaders and
programmers, but by issuing clear and legally binding guidelines, the
Obama administration could quickly bring reluctant businesses to the
table and show other well-intentioned but uninformed players a clear path
to providing equal service to their clients and customers with
disabilities. The administration’s continued refusal to do this is
irresponsible. Its failure to act not only leaves disabled computer users
on the wrong side of a real digital divide, but ensures that litigation,
which is costly both for disability advocates and businesses, will
continue for the foreseeable future. <br>
<br>
Recently, the National Federation of the Blind and several other
organizations representing Americans with all types of disabilities urged
the immediate issuance of the proposed regulations in a letter sent
directly to President Obama. From the business perspective, Microsoft and
other business leaders have also written to the president calling for the
release of the regulations. If the president ignores these requests, the
inescapable conclusion will be that he is indifferent to the inequality
that is part of everyday life for me and millions of other Americans.
This indifference has an intolerably high cost: we are denied equal
access to services that are readily available to everyone else, denied
educational and employment opportunities, and denied first-class
citizenship in twenty-first-century America. If the president is serious
about the civil rights of all Americans, a recurring theme in his
rhetoric, then he must not renege on the commitment to equal Internet
access for Americans with disabilities that he made in 2010. Fortunately,
he still has time to honor that commitment. I, along with millions of
other people with disabilities, fervently hope that the president will do
so immediately. <br>
<br>
<b><i>Mark A. Riccobono is president of the National Federation of the
Blind. He lives in Baltimore, Maryland with his wife and three
children.<br>
</i></b> <br>
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