[il-talk] Fwd: Article from Daily Herald News Section 2016 01 24

Tue Jan 26 16:27:28 UTC 2016

I am grateful that OUR story is making it in a mainstream publication.  This
will provide the fuel for our movement.  This article is well written and
presents a positive message about what we are doing and want to have done.
Thank you.  

Robert H

-----Original Message-----
From: il-talk [mailto:il-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Denise R
Avant via il-talk
Sent: Tuesday, January 26, 2016 4:47 AM
To: Illinois Association of Blind Students List <iabs-talk at nfbnet.org>; NFB
of Illinois Nfb-i conference call Number <il-talk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Denise R Avant <davant1958 at gmail.com>
Subject: [il-talk] Fwd: Article from Daily Herald News Section 2016 01 24

Denise R. Avant
President
National Federation of the Blind of Illinois Live the life you want Sent
from my iPhone

Begin forwarded message:

> From: NFB-NEWSLINE Online <nfbnewsline at nfb.org>
> Date: January 26, 2016 at 5:24:33 AM EST
> To: Denise Avant <davant1958 at gmail.com>
> Subject: Article from Daily Herald News Section 2016 01 24
> 
> Constable: Suburban blind activists seek accessible Internet. Burt
Constable . By Burt Constable bconstable at dailyherald,com related
advertisement video Living blind, dispelling myths The Americans with
Disabilities Act has been the law of the land since President George H.W.
Bush signed it on July 26, 1990. More than a quarter century later, local
activists with the National Federation of the Blind will travel to
Washington, D.C., this week (weather permitting) with a quest to make the
ADA the law of cyberspace. "The practical reality is that's not working,"
says Glenn Moore, a 33-year-old Elgin resident who serves as secretary of
the Illinois chapter of the National Federation of the Blind. While
brick-and-mortar stores are built with adaptations to make them accessible
to people with disabilities, "things online aren't as well-established,"
Moore says. Using voice software that reads the words on a webpage, a blind
person might be getting the information he needs, only to be stopped by
something as simple as one of those Captcha boxes requiring that a human
type a message shown on the screen, or a PDF file that doesn't include an
audio file. "It depends on the website," says Leslie Hamric, 40, a
Schaumburg woman who volunteers as president of a local at-large chapter of
the NFB. Sometimes, even companies with accessible websites don't extend
that technology to their apps, she adds. "There's still a lot of work that
needs to be done," says Annette Grove, 76, a federal legislative director
for the Illinois chapter, who has been on many lobbying trips to Congress.
"The reality is some people simply cannot use some of the online tools. In a
2010 ceremony marking the 20th anniversary of the ADA, President Obama
announced that new website accessibility rules issued by the Department of
Justice would be "the most important updates to the ADA since its original
enactment," and scheduled the changes to be enacted by January 2012. That
date later was extended until sometime in 2018. "We don't expect things to
change overnight. We want it to be the beginning of a larger conversation,"
says Moore, who has gone to Washington on a couple of lobbying junkets. A
graduate of Elgin Community College, Moore worked for seven years with the
Salvation Army, operating social services for the charity's Carpentersville
Service Center. Now he's taking online classes through the University of
Missouri, working toward a business administration degree and an MBA. "For
many blind people, getting a college degree is very important," Moore says,
noting lobbyists will continue to pressure academic institutions to make
every class accessible to people with disabilities. The group already has
sponsors for bills pushing two other changes for people with disabilities.
The Transitioning to Integrated and Meaningful Employment Act, known as TIME
and presented in HR-188 , would ensure that blind workers are covered under
minimum-wage laws. Current laws allow some employers to pay lower wages to
people with disabilities. The Access to Air Travel for Service-Disabled
Veterans bill, HR-2264 , would add veterans with disabilities to a program
allowing military veterans to travel free on military aircrafts. The NFB
lobbyists also are hoping for a change in international law through the
adoption of the Marrakesh Treaty , which would eliminate some copyright
infringements and allow for the sharing of millions of printed works to be
distributed across borders in Braille, audio or digital formats. People with
vision issues "continue to face a lot of discrimination in hiring and
access," says Grove, who lives in downstate Belleville and travels often in
her job conducting compliance audits for Goodwill International. "The ADA
has been around since 1990, and 26 years later, 70 percent of blind people
are still unemployed," notes Hamric, who has worked for Easter Seals and the
Lighthouse social service agency that offers many programs for people with
vision impairments. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, Hamric, who,
with her husband, Andy, has a 6-year-old son, Michael, teaches cello and
also performs and sings with her church's musical groups. "Our motto is
'Live the life you want,'" Moore says. "We're working to make sure blind
people can have full participation, inclusion and equality in society. 
> 
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