[Diabetes-talk] Iowa Diabetes Action Network Meeting and Resolution

[Sandi Ryan]

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to let you all know that the first official Annual Meeting of the Diabetes Action Network of the National Federation of the Blind of Iowa was a success.  Our meeting was held during the state affiliate convention, on Friday afternoon, October 4, 2013.  Around 30 people attended our meeting, with 24 paying dues for 2014.  We conducted a little business--talking about the history of the division, electing a new secretary and Board member, and passing a resolution (see below).  Dr. Nancy Kane, a well-known Des Moines endocrinologist, spoke with us about diabetes basics, potential complications (including some hardly mentioned in the usual list), and answered audience questions.  We are very happy with the meeting's results.

The resolution passed by the IDAN moved on to the Resolutions Committee, where it was altered a bit and passed on to the Affiliate.  On Sunday morning, October 6, the convention passed the resolution unanimously.  

Below is the resolution passed by the convention.  We look forward to working with DANs across the country and others interested in this issue at the national level. 

Sandi

NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND

OF IOWA

 

Resolution 13-02

Regarding Advocacy to Make Diabetes Tools and Technology Accessible to the Blind

 

WHEREAS, The National Federation of the Blind has, since 1940, championed the independence of the blind and worked to make the world accessible to and safe for the blind; and

 

WHEREAS, to help increase the independence of blind people, the National Federation of the Blind has fought to make technology, readily available to the sighted, accessible for the blind; and

 

WHEREAS, according to the National Eye Institute (NEI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), diabetic retinopathy is the most common cause of blindness, affecting 4.1 million American adults over age 40, and

 

WHEREAS, very little technology currently on the market for constantly or periodically monitoring blood glucose, accurately delivering insulin, or performing other tasks to control diabetes is accessible to the blind, and insulin pens carry a disclaimer that they should not be used by the blind without supervision; and

 

WHEREAS, technology has been demonstrated to increase diabetes control in the sighted, and the same technology, made accessible to the blind would improve diabetes control among blind and visually impaired diabetics, and increase independence in maintaining such control;; and

 

WHEREAS, the need for improved accessibility of lifesaving diabetes technology has been largely overlooked: Now, therefore,

 

BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind of Iowa in convention assembled this sixth day of October, 2013, in the city of Altoona, Iowa, that the National Federation of the Blind of Iowa and its Diabetes Action Network division work closely with companies developing pens, pumps, glucometers, and other lifesaving diabetes control tools and technology to integrate accessibility for the blind into the design and manufacture of such items; and

 

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the National Federation of the Blind of Iowa enlist the support of the American Diabetes Association, the American Association of Retired Persons, the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services to establish and implement accessibility standards for diabetes technology; and 

 

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the National Federation of the Blind of Iowa urge manufacturers of technology that provides information to the blind about diabetes management to recognize that creating technology useful only to the sighted creates a circumstance that discriminates against the blind, and urge such manufacturers further to recognize that the blind of Iowa will join with other blind people throughout the nation to take such action as may be necessary to end this discrimination; and

 

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Iowa Diabetes Action Network publicize widely the inaccessibility of diabetes tools and technology as they are currently marketed, and the unnecessary hardship their inaccessibility creates in the lives of blind diabetics.