[CT-NFB] NABS Needs Students from CT to Help with Legislation

Fri May 29 02:13:34 UTC 2020

HI everyone,

I am forwarding a message from Amy Albin, one of the members of the NABS Legislative and Self-Advocacy Committee. She's from New Jersey and trying to reach students from Connecticut. 

In short, student voices are needed right away to help gain cosponsors for the Access Technology Affordability Act. This is a project coordinated through our national office. 

Thanks, everyone!

Justin Salisbury

-----Original Message-----
From: Amy Albin <amyralbin at gmail.com> 
Sent: Thursday, May 28, 2020 9:46 PM
To: Justin Salisbury <PRESIDENT at alumni.ecu.edu>
Subject: CT Letter

Hello Students! This is important and time sensitive!
I hope that you are doing well during this COVID-19 pandemic. NABS needs your help to pass important legislation to make access technology more affordable for blind people, including students.

We need students in your state to contact both Senators and their individual Representative. This means that each student would contact three offices. We need as many students as possible to make these contacts because we need more legislators to sign onto the bill before they all return to DC on June 1. This means that we need to contact them right away so that they can learn about the bill, make decisions, and have their name added to it before June 1.

If anyone is already cosponsoring the bill, we want to thank them instead of asking for cosponsorship.

To find out who the staff contact for ATAA is for the people who
represent you, please e-mail Jesa Medders   at jmedders at nfb.org or
simply find the general e-mail address for your representatives. To do this and to make your follow-up phone calls, call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask for your representative and their e-mail address. To find out who represents you:
https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative
The senators are the same statewide for everyone, but House representatives may be different.
To see who is already cosponsoring the bill, these 2 links S. 815 Cosponsors:
https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/815/cosponsors?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22s815%22%5D%7D&s=4&r=1&overview=closed#tabs
H. R. 2086 Cosponsors:
https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/2086/cosponsors?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22hr2086%22%5D%7D&s=6&r=1&overview=closed#tabs

Below my signature is a draft email that you all can use to ask your Senators and Representative to cosponsor the bill.

Could you please send such an email right away, as well as help me get in touch with all other blind students inyour state?

Thank you in advance!

Amy Albin
amyralbin at gmail.com
973-223-8044

Subject: Draft Email to Legislative Staff Members

To: staff contact
Cc: Kaloc, Jeff JKaloc at nfb.org, Trisha Kulkarni trishak.nfb at gmail.com, Kathryn Webster nabs.president at gmail.com, and Team Lead (Justin Salisbury President at Alumni.ECU.edu or Justin Young jty727 at gmail.com)
Subject: Please Cosponsor S. 815/H.R. 2086

Dear ###,

I am one of your constituents from City, State. I write to respectfully request that my Senator/Congressman/Congresswoman co-sponsor the Access Technology Affordability Act (ATAA) (S. 815/H.R.
2086).

<give some background on yourself in order to establish rapport>

The cost of critically needed access technology is out of reach for most blind Americans. By providing a refundable tax credit for qualifying purchases, Congress will stimulate individual procurement of this technology and promote affordability of these tools. The
COVID-19 pandemic has forced many Americans to become much more dependent upon technology, which has exacerbated the challenges that blind students, job seekers, and employees were already facing.

This bill already has bicameral bipartisan support. S. 815 currently has 22 cosponsors, and H.R. 2086 currently has 91 cosponsors. I wish to see my Senator/Congresswoman/Congressman sign on as a cosponsor.

Will Senator/Congresswoman/Congressman #### please cosponsor this bill?

I have copied Jeff Kaloc jkaloc at nfb.org with the National Federation of the Blind national office. He is available to answer any detailed questions you might have.

Thank you in advance,

Your Name
Your Address (where you vote)
Your Contact Info

On 5/26/20, Justin Salisbury <PRESIDENT at alumni.ecu.edu> wrote:
> Hey Team!
>
> Thanks so much for all the great work that you all have put in so far! 
> Some of you are ahead of schedule, which is awesome! I have reattached 
> our schedule, without changes, for your reference. Every bit of work 
> that we do helps improve our chances of getting cosponsors and 
> ultimately getting this language to become law. The sooner we act, the better our results!
>
> I have also attached a template email that you can use to reach out to 
> state student presidents to get the ball rolling in each state. 
> Remember, find blind students however possible, but don't skip this step.
>
> Here are our state assignments:
>
> Maurice Mines: California, Alaska, Delaware, Nebraska, Kansas Laura 
> Vincent: Utah, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Arizona Neel Sheth: 
> Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee, Idaho, Montana Sam Flax: 
> Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota Shawn 
> Abraham: Colorado, Ohio, Virginia, Oklahoma, West Virginia Amy Albin: 
> New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island Earl 
> Williams: Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Arkansas, Missouri 
> Kun Lee: Georgia, North Carolina, Hawaii, New Mexico, Wyoming Haley 
> Sumner: Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Illinois, Maine Qualik Ford: 
> Maryland, Kentucky, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama
>
> Use this link to find contact info for each state:
> http://nabslink.org/content/contact-our-state-divisions
>
> That's a good resource for the future, too. We use it all the time in 
> NABS and do our very best to keep it up to date. If you happen to find 
> that any info is out of date, please do let your team lead, Trisha, 
> and Kathryn know about it.
>
> Please keep your team lead (Justin Young or me) posted with any questions!
>
> Justin
>
>
> Justin Mark Hideaki Salisbury
> he/him/his
>
> Board Member | National Association of Blind Students
>    A proud division of the National Federation of the Blind
> (808) 797-8606
> president at alumni.ecu.edu | www.nabslink.org
>
> If you need help with a current accessibility barrier in school, visit:
> https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeXoK5sWCpBjvAu4EMOANUufEoJPy
> Ulu4QeJnMB6pIdeohmsg/viewform
>
>
> If you have a story about an accessibility barrier you faced in higher 
> education, please tell your story here:
> https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf68TacBetKMAHZcMhGJLmYgeWDIj
> jpSm9Sz1OUwYKxzsIEAg/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1
>
>
>
>
>
>
>