<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><h1 class="title" data-reader-unique-id="titleElement" style="font-size: 1.5558em; line-height: 1.2141em; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; max-width: 100%; caret-color: rgb(56, 56, 56); color: rgb(56, 56, 56); font-family: -apple-system-font;">Blind Iowans worry about loss of expert guidance under governor’s proposal</h1><div class="metadata singleline" style="margin-top: -0.65em; margin-bottom: 1.45em; font-size: 0.9em; line-height: 1.6em; max-width: 100%; caret-color: rgb(56, 56, 56); color: rgb(56, 56, 56); font-family: -apple-system-font;"><div data-reader-unique-id="49" class="byline" style="margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; font-size: 1em !important; display: inline !important;">Feb. 13, 2023 4:59 pm</div></div><header data-reader-unique-id="26" style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: rgb(56, 56, 56); color: rgb(56, 56, 56); font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;"><p data-reader-unique-id="27" style="max-width: 100%;">Speakers wary of how proposed realignment of government impacts them</p><div data-reader-unique-id="28" style="max-width: 100%;"><amp-img width="525" height="275" layout="responsive" src="https://imengine.public.prod.cdr.navigacloud.com/?uuid=9646848c-58e0-5303-8b81-c8a7efd49f97&function=cover&type=preview&source=false&width=525&height=275" data-uuid="9646848c-58e0-5303-8b81-c8a7efd49f97" alt="Blind Iowans worry about loss of expert guidance under governor’s proposal" aria-label="Blind Iowans worry about loss of expert guidance under governor’s proposal" i-amphtml-layout="responsive" i-amphtml-auto-lightbox-visited="" lightbox="i-amphtml-auto-lightbox-0" data-reader-unique-id="29" class="i-amphtml-element i-amphtml-notbuilt amp-notbuilt" style="max-width: 100%;"><img decoding="async" alt="Blind Iowans worry about loss of expert guidance under governor’s proposal" aria-label="Blind Iowans worry about loss of expert guidance under governor’s proposal" src="cid:D1498EAC-09CA-4BB2-B86E-97DA58DBFB40" data-uuid="9646848c-58e0-5303-8b81-c8a7efd49f97" i-amphtml-auto-lightbox-visited="" data-reader-unique-id="30" style="margin: 0.5em auto; display: block; height: auto;"></amp-img></div></header><p data-reader-unique-id="1" style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: rgb(56, 56, 56); color: rgb(56, 56, 56); font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;">DES MOINES — Blind Iowans poured into a legislative hearing Monday to express strong disagreement with an element of Gov. Kim Reynolds’ proposal to realign state government that would enable her to appoint the director of the state agency that provides services for the blind.</p><p data-reader-unique-id="2" style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: rgb(56, 56, 56); color: rgb(56, 56, 56); font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;">Currently, a three-member commission of gubernatorial appointees in the Iowa Department of the Blind elects officers, including the agency’s director. Under Reynolds’ sweeping proposal to realign state government, the director also would be appointed by the governor and subject to confirmation by the Iowa Senate.</p><p data-reader-unique-id="3" style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: rgb(56, 56, 56); color: rgb(56, 56, 56); font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;">Blind Iowans, including the state agency’s current director, said that proposal opens the door to an appointee who may not be blind and thus not have direct experience with what it is like to live blind.</p><p data-reader-unique-id="4" style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: rgb(56, 56, 56); color: rgb(56, 56, 56); font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;">“I cannot say this is good for blind Iowans. I know I’m not supposed to say that,” Emily Wharton, who has been director of the Iowa Department of the Blind since 2016 and was born legally blind, told state lawmakers during a legislative hearing.</p><p data-reader-unique-id="5" style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: rgb(56, 56, 56); color: rgb(56, 56, 56); font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;">Other state agency directors who have testified to lawmakers on the Reynolds’ state government realignment bill have all praised the proposal.</p><p data-reader-unique-id="6" style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: rgb(56, 56, 56); color: rgb(56, 56, 56); font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;">The state estimates there are roughly 54,000 Iowans who have experienced vision loss. The Iowa Department for the Blind helps educate, train and empower blind Iowans to develop their independence and job skills.</p><p data-reader-unique-id="7" style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: rgb(56, 56, 56); color: rgb(56, 56, 56); font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;">Eight blind Iowans testified during Monday’s hearing, while many others listened; some of those who spoke praised the services that Iowa provides to blind residents, especially compared with other states.</p><p data-reader-unique-id="11" style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: rgb(56, 56, 56); color: rgb(56, 56, 56); font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;">They said they worry those state-run programs could become less valuable if the agency is directed by someone without the proper expertise.</p><p data-reader-unique-id="12" style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: rgb(56, 56, 56); color: rgb(56, 56, 56); font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;">“I’ve heard our governor say many times that Iowans know what’s best for Iowans. I would think that would go for blind Iowans, too,” said Mike Jones, a blind man from Des Moines. “Blind Iowans know what’s best for blind Iowans.”</p><p data-reader-unique-id="13" style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: rgb(56, 56, 56); color: rgb(56, 56, 56); font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;">Becky Young, president of the Des Moines chapter of the National Federation of the Blind, said she has been impressed by how Iowa’s state services help blind residents, and that she also worries what the program could look like in the future under Reynolds’ proposal.</p><p data-reader-unique-id="14" style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: rgb(56, 56, 56); color: rgb(56, 56, 56); font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;">“These students are prepared. They are confident blind people,” said Young, who was born blind. “It won’t be a good thing without blind people running (the department), blind people who know about blindness, not some ophthalmologist who is more concerned about the sighted than they are the blind.”</p><p data-reader-unique-id="15" style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: rgb(56, 56, 56); color: rgb(56, 56, 56); font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;">An official from the governor’s office who attended the hearing said the proposal to make the department head a gubernatorial appointee matches with the philosophical approach to Reynolds’ broader state government reorganization, which is that agency heads within the executive branch should be accountable to the governor.</p><p data-reader-unique-id="16" style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: rgb(56, 56, 56); color: rgb(56, 56, 56); font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;">“At some point we have to start paying attention to the people who are impacted by these legislative decisions,” said Sen. Nate Boulton, a Democrat from Des Moines and one of the lawmakers on the panel that is considering the legislation.</p><p data-reader-unique-id="17" style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: rgb(56, 56, 56); color: rgb(56, 56, 56); font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;">Boulton noted the meeting itself provided an example of why the involvement of experts is important: Even though the proposal includes moving the Iowa School for the Deaf in Council Bluffs from under the state Board of Regents to the state education department, no American Sign Language signer was there for the hearing. And lawmakers and staff had a difficult time communicating with the blind Iowans who wished to speak.</p><p data-reader-unique-id="18" style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: rgb(56, 56, 56); color: rgb(56, 56, 56); font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;">“The people are telling us without exception this is a bad idea — people who have experiences and knowledge,” Boulton said.</p><p data-reader-unique-id="21" style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: rgb(56, 56, 56); color: rgb(56, 56, 56); font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;">Lawmakers said they will continue their work on the governor’s proposal, <a href="https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation/BillBook?ba=SSB1123&ga=90" data-reader-unique-id="22" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(19, 157, 219); max-width: 100%;">Senate Study Bill 1123</a>, which is nearly 1,600 pages long and lays out a reorganization and streamlining of state government. </p><p data-reader-unique-id="23" style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: rgb(56, 56, 56); color: rgb(56, 56, 56); font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;"><em data-reader-unique-id="24" style="max-width: 100%;">Comments: <a href="tel:(515) 355-1300" data-reader-unique-id="25" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(19, 157, 219); max-width: 100%;">(515) 355-1300</a>, erin.murphy@thegazette.com</em></p></body></html>