[Ctabs] AMAZING NEWS TODAY!!!

Kathryn Webster kathrynwebster.nfb at gmail.com
Mon Jun 22 21:31:09 UTC 2015


Wait for it. wait for it. wait for it.

What we all, particularly students, have been waiting for for months!!!

Finally, I have an announcement to make! No longer will the National
Federation of the Blind be pushing the introduction and support of the
Technology, Education, and Accessibility in College and Higher Education
(TEACH) Act any longer.

Instead, a TEACH Act compromise has been reached!

 

We've spent the last eight months engaging in a long and exhausting
negotiation process with the higher education lobby to reach a consensus
regarding the TEACH Act. Particular Members of Congress are highly
interested in having the schools endorse our effort to get guidelines, and
blind students can't afford to wait, so in order to advance this effort we
sought a compromise. 

 

 

We have successfully done that, without undermining our goals or weakening
the quality of the bill! 

Now, instead of TEACH Act, we are calling this new bill the 

"Stimulating the Market to Make Accessibility a Reality Today Act," or
"SMART Act" for short. You'll see that it accomplishes the same goals as our
original bill.

 

The similarities between the TEACH Act and now SMART Act are::

-                      It still authorizes the creation of voluntary
accessibility guidelines for electronic instructional material and related
technologies used in higher education;

-                      It still incentivizes schools to adopt those
guidelines and use accessible technology through a safe harbor mechanism;

-                      It still calls for harmonization with pre-existing,
nationally and internationally recognized accessibility standards.

 

 

Some changes are:  

-                      The title; TEACH Act is now the SMART Act

-                      Who creates the guidelines;  The Access Board has
been replaced with an independent, purpose-based Commission that will be
compromised of representatives from the three major stakeholder groups, most
of which will have been appointed by Congress;

-                      What is in the guidelines; In addition to creating
new guidelines where none exist for uniquely pedagogical material, the
Commission will also compile a list of relevant, pre-existing standards and
then annotate that list with suggestions for its application to general IT
in the higher education context. This list is a resource to expand the scope
of this effort outside of the classroom. 

-                      The safe harbor mechanism has become bifurcated; In
the TEACH Act and now in the SMART Act, schools will be rewarded with an
absolute safe harbor from litigation for only using material that is
conformant with the guidelines. In the SMART Act, there is an additional
incentivize for schools to implement the guidelines into their policies and
practices, and then consult those guidelines during decision making
processes. Those schools can be rewarded with a limited safe harbor (from
damages only) regardless of their ultimate decision so long as they take the
steps listed above and document certain delineated information.

 

So basically, having the support from these stakeholders is exceptional!
Regardless, what's most important is pushing Congress. I will keep you all
up to date with any new information that comes my way, but everyone deserves
a big glass of wine tonight!!!

 

Love,

Kate

 

 

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