[humanser] Have you faced barriers in your Human Services related internship?

[Dr.Mary Chappell]

-----Original Message-----
From: HumanSer [mailto:humanser-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Jonathan Franks via HumanSer
Sent: Sunday, April 22, 2018 9:28 PM
To: Human Services Division Mailing List
Cc: Jonathan Franks
Subject: [humanser] Have you faced barriers in your Human Services related internship?

Fellow Federationists,

My name is Jonathan Franks and I am the 1st Vice President of the National Federation of the Blind Human Services Division and the Legislative and Advocacy chair for the division. In 2016, we as an organization passed a resolution to endeavor to make internships more accessible for blind students. I faced some accessibility barriers in
2015 for my Bachelor’s level internship and I will be taking on a Master’s level internship in the spring of 2019. On behalf of the Human Services Division, we are wanting to work alongside our National organization in working towards that goal. Therefore, if you are in the Human Services field and have faced accessibility barriers in your internship, I would love to hear from you. We ask that you write a letter regarding your internship barriers and email them to me at jfranks at nfbtx.org and I will pass them along to our Governmental affairs team and President Riccobono.

I have pasted the language of the resolution passed in 2016 below my signature.

Warm regards and thank you,

Jonathan Franks BSW
1st Vice President
National Federation of the Blind Human Services Division Graduate Student Masters of Social Work program Texas State University

Resolution 2016-05
Regarding Equal Access for Educational Internships WHEREAS, educational internships are often a curricular requirement for graduation from a college or university; and WHEREAS, educational internships can provide graduates with invaluable experiences and training that enhance graduates’ likelihood of being hired in their chosen career fields; and WHEREAS, Titles II and III of the Americans with Disabilities Act prohibit colleges and universities from discrimination against and disparate treatment of individuals with disabilities, and ultimately mandate the provision of equal access to opportunities for such persons; and WHEREAS, Americans with Disabilities Act protections include off-campus educational internships offered as a part of a school’s programs, services, and benefits; and WHEREAS, blind students regularly face discrimination by college internship coordinators who fail to coordinate auxiliary aids for off-campus internships and mistakenly believe that blindness will limit a student’s ability to perform an internship: Now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this fourth day of July, 2016, in the City of Orlando, Florida, that this organization hereby condemn and deplore the actions of colleges and universities that have restricted blind students’
participation in educational internships, required blind students to complete internships only with assistance from sighted peers, or denied accommodations within these internships; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we demand that colleges and universities implement procedures, train employees, and otherwise take active measures to ensure that educational internships are fully, equally, and independently accessible to blind students.




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The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise the expectations of blind people, because low expectations create obstacles between blind people  and our dreams. You can live the life you want; blindness is not what holds you back.

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