[IL-Talk] at large minutes January 2024
David Meyer
datemeyer at mysero.net
Wed Jan 31 22:55:49 UTC 2024
National Federation of the Blind of Illinois
Minutes of meeting held Sunday, January 7th, 2024
Members present: President Dave Meyer, Vice President Linda Hendle,
Secretary/Treasurer Bill Reif, Dustin Cather, Debbie Pittman, Josh
Ninten, EileenTruschke, Ken Schad, State President Marilyn Green,
Michael Babcock, Michelle Alt, Jemal Powell, Yvonne Agyarko and Leslie Hamric.
Debbie moved, and Bill seconded, approval of the minutes of the
December 2023 meeting. Motion passed.
Program:
Debbie introduced Michael Babcock Manager of Customer Experience at A T
Guys and the many accessible products it offers for sale. The Michigan
Company web site is www.atguys.com and can be phoned at (269) 216-4798.
All products are usable by those with no vision. Products he described
include the Versa Paperless Slate, accessible portable power banks, the
Slinger in which the phone can be carried on a lanyard, several head
sets, keyboards including the Orbet Writer and the Hable, and the Blind
Shell 2 phone. These products are more fully described on the web site.
Presidential Release:
Presidential Release 534 was played. January 4th is World Braille Day.
Activities are described on the web site braille.day the NFB
established last year and lists over 250 ways in which Braille can be used.
Blind Inc, our Minnesota training center, has suspended operations as
of January 1 2024. The center does not have the resources to maintain
the historic building in which it operates. The program will be re
imagined. The Washington Seminar fact sheets have been distributed and
are available at www.nfb.org/washington-seminar. The NFB sent a letter
of opposition to the leaders in Congress outlining concerns about the
Cogswell-Macy Act. You can find that letter on the policy pages of our
web site. The act attempts to amend the Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act by adding new sections that we firmly believe negatively
impact blind students. In specific, our concerns include that the
proposed bill will create new assessments that are not in concert with
the current IDEA assessment standards. In addition, the current
language does weaken the Braille provision, which this organization
worked very hard to get into IDEA in the late 1990s. Also, the bill as
proposed fails to leverage dear colleague letters and recent rulings by
the Supreme Court that we would love to see codified in the law to the
benefit of students with disabilities and certainly blind students.
For more information about our opposition to this bill, you can contact
Justin Young, our governmental affairs specialist. You can reach him
at jyoung at NFB.org or extension 2210 at the national office. He
congratulated us on some fantastic movement on the Access Technology
Affordability Act. In the House, we have HR 3702. And we gained 28
new cosponsors during the month of December. That brings the total
number of cosponsors in the House up to 72. In the Senate, Senator
Booker, Ernst, and Tillis all added their names to the cosponsor list
for S 1467. This brings the total number of cosponsors on the Senate
side up to 17.
Riccobono reminded membership coordinators from chapters and divisions
to make sure that you go in during December and use our member
management module to update the members for your chapters and divisions
who have paid dues for 2024. If you don't update them in January, on
January 31st the membership moves from the grace setting to expired. he
encouraged all members to pay your dues for 2024. He encouraged all
members to use the membership profile on the web site. You can log in
and you'll have access to your membership record and be able to make
updates. If you haven't taken the time to check out your membership
profile, your log in is simply the email address you have connected to
your membership. So you can use that address, and if you haven't been
in yet, you haven't set it up, go to members on the web site and opt to
reset your password even if you haven't set it up before, and it will
prompt you to log into your program. And you can do that by selecting
the opt to change password option. If you have questions, you are
encouraged to send an email to membership at NFB.org.
State Affiliate Report:
Marilyn reported on the upcoming Washington Seminar, which begins
January 29th. Denise Avant, Dustin Cather, Michelle Alt, BilipShaw,
Aboo Elfauki, Katelyn Ryan, and Kira O’Bradovich will be representing
us in Washington. Our National Convention will be at the Rosen Center
July 3rd through July 8th. Rooms are $129 per night. BELL program in
Springfield the week of July 15th, and in Chicago the two weeks
beginning July 22nd. Scholarship applications for National are due
3/31, with state applications due 4/30.
Dustin reported further on the upcoming seminar. the following 3 issues
will be discussed:
The Web Site and Software Applications Act, hr5813 and s2984, have been
recently introduced and only have a few cosponsors.
The Medical Device Non-visual Accessibility act, HR1328, has 49
cosponsors, 5 of whom are from Illinois and include Sponsor Jan
Chacowski. There is not yet a Senate companion bill.
The Blind Americans Return to Work Act does not yet have sponsors or a
bill number. This bill will phase out the sharp cut off that serves as
a disincentive for SSDI recipients to accept full-time work.
Although not one of the main issues, we will be discussing the
Transformation to Competitive Employment Act, S533 with 1 cosponsor and
hr1263 with 26 cosponsors including Illinois representatives Robyn
Kelly and Mike Quigley. Finally, we are still working on the Access
Technology Affordability Act, S1467 and HR3702. There will be much more
info at the upcoming Chicago Chapter meeting which will be virtual
until the Chapter can locate a new meeting place. The Exchequer is no
longer available to us. Dave noted that the fact sheets are also on NFB
Newsline under each state's Information Channel.
The next meeting will take place Sunday February 4th via Zoom. Dave
noted that our elections will take place at the April meeting and
anyone interested in running should let him know. The meeting adjourned
at 8:29 PM.
Respectfully Submitted,
Bill Reif, Secretary
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