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<p>Cullen, thank you. I've just read them.</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>Al</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 6/27/23 13:25, Cullen Gallagher via
Massachusetts-NFB wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:9182C85B-2B4E-4503-A6EC-8F727570C4F1@gmail.com"><base
href="https://nfb.org/resources/speeches-and-reports/resolutions/proposed-2023-resolutions">
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<div class="Apple-Mail-URLShareUserContentTopClass">
<div class="Apple-Mail-URLShareUserContentTopClass">Hello
everyone,</div>
<div class="Apple-Mail-URLShareUserContentTopClass">These 16
resolutions will be considered by the Resolutions Committee on
Sunday afternoon, July 2. Those that the committee passes will
be brought to the convention floor for a vote on Wednesday,
July 5. </div>
<div class="Apple-Mail-URLShareUserContentTopClass">The 16
resolutions are below. Please note that this list could change
slightly following Sunday's committee meeting.</div>
<div class="Apple-Mail-URLShareUserContentTopClass">Looking
forward to seeing many of you in Houston,</div>
<div class="Apple-Mail-URLShareUserContentTopClass">Cullen</div>
</div>
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<title>Proposed 2023 Resolutions | National Federation of the
Blind</title>
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<a
href="https://nfb.org/resources/speeches-and-reports/resolutions/proposed-2023-resolutions"
moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://nfb.org/resources/speeches-and-reports/resolutions/proposed-2023-resolutions</a><br>
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1.95552em; line-height: 1.2141em; margin-top: 0px;
margin-bottom: 0.5em; text-align: start; display:
block; max-width: 100%;">Proposed 2023 Resolutions</h1>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">The following resolutions
will be considered by the resolutions committee on
July 2. Those that pass will be considered by the full
convention on July 5.</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;"><span
class="converted-anchor" style="max-width: 100%;">Resolution
2023-01: Regarding the Promulgation of Americans
with Disabilities Act Title III Website Regulations</span><br
style="max-width: 100%;">
<span class="converted-anchor" style="max-width:
100%;">Resolution 2023-02: Regarding the
Preservation of the Vocational Rehabilitation
Program in the United States through the
Liberalization of Policies Governing Federal
Expenditures</span><br style="max-width: 100%;">
<span class="converted-anchor" style="max-width:
100%;">Resolution 2023-03: Regarding the
Accessibility of Twitter</span><br style="max-width:
100%;">
<span class="converted-anchor" style="max-width:
100%;">Resolution 2023-04: Regarding the Opposition
of the Brennan Center for Justice, Common Cause, and
Free Speech for People to Fully Accessible
Vote-By-Mail</span><br style="max-width: 100%;">
<span class="converted-anchor" style="max-width:
100%;">Resolution 2023-05: Regarding Audio Delays
During Live Radio Play-by-Play Broadcasts</span><br
style="max-width: 100%;">
<span class="converted-anchor" style="max-width:
100%;">Resolution 2023-06: Regarding the Enforcement
of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973</span><br
style="max-width: 100%;">
<span class="converted-anchor" style="max-width:
100%;">Resolution 2023-07: Regarding Text Formatting
in Real-Time Refreshable Braille</span><br
style="max-width: 100%;">
<span class="converted-anchor" style="max-width:
100%;">Resolution 2023-08: Regarding the
Transportation Security Administration</span><br
style="max-width: 100%;">
<span class="converted-anchor" style="max-width:
100%;">Resolution 2023-09: Regarding the
Accessibility of Training Administered by the
American Red Cross</span><br style="max-width:
100%;">
<span class="converted-anchor" style="max-width:
100%;">Resolution 2023-10: Regarding Opposing the
Revival of Eugenics for the Blind</span><br
style="max-width: 100%;">
<span class="converted-anchor" style="max-width:
100%;">Resolution 2023-11: Regarding the Nonvisual
Accessibility of Hearing Aids</span><br
style="max-width: 100%;">
<span class="converted-anchor" style="max-width:
100%;">Resolution 2023-12: Regarding Expediting the
Plan to Achieve Self-Support Processing</span><br
style="max-width: 100%;">
<span class="converted-anchor" style="max-width:
100%;">Resolution 2023-13: Regarding Artificial
Intelligence Chatbots and their Information on
Blindness</span><br style="max-width: 100%;">
<span class="converted-anchor" style="max-width:
100%;">Resolution 2023-14: Regarding the Schedule A
Hiring Authority for Individuals with Disabilities</span><br
style="max-width: 100%;">
<span class="converted-anchor" style="max-width:
100%;">Resolution 2023-15: Regarding the
Inaccessibility of C-SPAN's Coverage of
Congressional Votes</span><br style="max-width:
100%;">
<span class="converted-anchor" style="max-width:
100%;">Resolution 2023-16: Regarding Urging the
National Council of State Agencies for the Blind and
Council of State Administrators of Vocational
Rehabilitation to Promote Certifications Issued by
the National Blindness Professional Certification
Board</span></p>
<h2 style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 1.43em;
max-width: 100%;">Resolution 2023-01: Regarding the
Promulgation of Americans with Disabilities Act Title
III Website Regulations</h2>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, on July 26, 1990,
the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed
into law, including Title II requiring that state and
local governments be accessible to Americans with
disabilities and Title III requiring places of public
accommodation to be accessible to Americans with
disabilities; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, the twelve examples
of public accommodation provided in Title III of the
ADA include, but are not limited to: places of
lodging, establishments serving food or drink, places
of exhibition or entertainment, places of public
gathering, sales or rental establishments, service
establishments, public transportation
terminals/stations, places of public display or
collection, places of recreation, places of education,
social service center establishments, and places of
exercise or recreation; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, on July 26, 2010,
exactly twenty years after the ADA was signed into
law, the United States Department of Justice published
an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM)
regarding website accessibility regulations for both
Title II and Title III of the ADA; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, six years after the
publication of the ANPRM, the Department of Justice
issued a supplementary advance notice of proposed
rulemaking for only the Title II regulations on May 9,
2016; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, just nineteen
months after the publication of the supplementary
advance notice of proposed rulemaking, the Department
of Justice suddenly announced that it was withdrawing
the website ANPRM entirely on December 26, 2017; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, thirty-two years
after the ADA was originally signed into law, and
twelve years after the original ANPRM regarding Title
II and Title III website regulations, the Department
of Justice announced in the Fall 2022 Unified Agenda
that it would issue an NPRM regarding Title II website
regulations in the spring of 2023, but has failed to
announce any plans regarding Title III website
regulations: Now, therefore,</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">BE IT RESOLVED by the
National Federation of the Blind in Convention
assembled this fifth day of July, 2023, in the City of
Houston, Texas, that this organization demand the
United States Department of Justice immediately begin
the process of promulgating Americans with
Disabilities Act Title III website regulations by
publishing a notice of proposed rulemaking.</p>
<h2 style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 1.43em;
max-width: 100%;">Resolution 2023-02: Regarding the
Preservation of the Vocational Rehabilitation Program
in the United States through the Liberalization of
Policies Governing Federal Expenditures</h2>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, a
disproportionately high rate of unemployment and
under-employment exists among the nation’s blind,
causing genuine hardship and suffering; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, the National
Federation of the Blind has long championed and
advocated for programs within federal and state
government, non-profit organizations, and elsewhere
that will effectively help to minimize and address the
multiple economic and social disadvantages stemming
from unemployment and under-employment; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, the national
Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) program, a
federal/state partnership charged with supporting
disabled people who have an impediment to securing
work within an integrated, competitive environment,
has—during its hundred-plus years of
existence—received priority attention and resources of
the National Federation of the Blind, calculated to
advocating that the VR program in this country adopt
policies that positively affect the lives of blind
people by increasing choice provisions, unique
nonvisual training, and ultimately employment
opportunities; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, within at least the
last decade, Vocational Rehabilitation agencies have
started to return substantial portions of their unused
Federal VR grants to the Rehabilitation Services
Administration (RSA), a part of the United States
Department of Education, for either redistribution
through the annual federal re-allotment process or
ultimate return to the United States Treasury; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, members of the
United States Congress and other relevant Executive
Branch officials have observed that the national VR
program has increasingly been challenged to spend its
federal resources, giving the reasonable impression
that this valuable federal employment program may not
be proving effective or does not require the level of
funding it is currently receiving; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, federal VR
officials and leaders of state VR agencies that manage
the day-to-day administration of the VR program
propound different institutional reasons for the
existing Federal VR expenditure challenge, both
perspectives having some merit; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, many state VR
Directors and senior fiscal policy staff believe that
some of the reasons for state VR agencies needing to
return large portions, or occasionally the entire
federal VR grant, back to the federal government
include the strict Federal fiscal enforcement and
interpretation that has deterred state VR agencies
from spending their Federal grant dollars and the
requirement to reserve and spend 15 percent of the
federal VR grant on Pre-Employment Transition Services
(Pre-ETS) services; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, the alarming
pattern of state VR agencies returning federal VR
grant resources has caused federal leaders in both the
Legislative and Executive Branches of government to
sincerely conclude that this pattern of
non-expenditure reflects some type of dysfunction
within the national VR program or that the VR program
is simply over-funded; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, Federal officials
from RSA have been adopting administrative measures
and encouraging state VR agencies to liberalize some
of their policies and practices that falsely attribute
the inability to spend federal resources due to an
inaccurate interpretation of the federal VR
regulations; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, on October 29,2019,
the Office for Special Education and Rehabilitative
Services (OSERS) issued its Frequently Asked Questions
(FAQ) document, which granted prior approval for
certain Participant Support Costs and Equipment
Purchases, making it markedly easier for VR agencies
serving blind consumers to spend their Federal grant
dollars with greater practice and speed; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, during the
consecutive fall 2022 conferences of the Council of
State Administrators of Vocational Rehabilitation and
the National Council of State Agencies for the Blind,
senior RSA officials charged state VR agency directors
with being creative in reviewing long-existing state
policies that may be legal, but which may not fully
take advantage of latitude that the federal VR Act
allows state VR agencies to exercise: Now, therefore,</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">BE IT RESOLVED by the
National Federation of the Blind in Convention
assembled this fifth day of July, 2023, in the City of
Houston, Texas, that this organization call upon the
Rehabilitation Services Administration, the Council of
State Administrators of Vocational Rehabilitation, and
the National Council of State Agencies for the Blind,
to join together to develop policies that may be
relied on to support state VR agencies to spend their
federal VR grant resources responsibly and
consistently.</p>
<h2 style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 1.43em;
max-width: 100%;">Resolution 2023-03: Regarding the
Accessibility of Twitter</h2>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, social media has
become a significant part of many people’s lives,
serving as a vehicle for staying in touch with
friends, seeking advice, searching for jobs, and
staying up-to-date on information about local and
national news and events; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, Twitter, a
mainstream social media platform, has been a space for
the blindness community, having prioritized
accessibility by establishing a dedicated
accessibility team, and providing frequent
accessibility-related updates and communications; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, Twitter in the past
allowed for third party clients that use its
application programming interface (API) to ensure an
accessible experience; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, in the fall of 2022
Twitter laid off its entire accessibility team and
made changes to its API that have broken accessible
Twitter clients used by our community; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, frequent updates to
social media platforms and apps like Twitter introduce
new features and bring changes to existing features,
and without the accessibility team, accessibility is
no longer taken into account with new builds and
features: Now, therefore,</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">BE IT RESOLVED by the
National Federation of the Blind in Convention
assembled this fifth day of July, 2023, in the City of
Houston, Texas, that this organization condemn and
deplore all acts of blatant discrimination and
disregard of blind people by Twitter; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that
Twitter shall no longer be a platform this
organization supports due to its complete lack of
regard for equal access by the blind; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that
this organization shall not abandon our supporters on
Twitter, but shall no longer use it as a primary
source of social media engagement; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that
this organization demand that Twitter build back its
commitment to creating more inclusive experiences by
prioritizing accessibility.</p>
<h2 style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 1.43em;
max-width: 100%;">Resolution 2023-04: Regarding the
Opposition of the Brennan Center for Justice, Common
Cause, and Free Speech for People to Fully Accessible
Vote-By-Mail</h2>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, the ability to cast
a secret and anonymous ballot is a cornerstone of our
democracy that enables citizens to vote their
conscience without fear; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, Title II of the
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires that
voters with print disabilities must be provided an
opportunity to mark and return their by-mail ballot
privately and independently at home that is equal to
the opportunity provided voters without disabilities;
and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, thirty-two states
currently permit military and overseas (UOCAVA) voters
to return their marked ballot either by email, fax, or
web portal; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, twenty-eight states
currently permit blind and low-vision voters to mark
their by-mail ballot using a remote accessible
vote-by-mail (RAVBM) system, but only thirteen states
(Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Louisiana,
Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, North Carolina, North
Dakota, Rhode Island, Utah, and West Virginia) have
passed state laws or have been ordered by a federal
court to permit voters with disabilities to return
their marked ballot electronically; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, states that do not
permit electronic return of ballots require that
ballots that are marked using an RAVBM be printed out
and returned by regular mail, or placed in a ballot
drop-box, which is a barrier that prevents many voters
with print disabilities from exercising their right to
vote by mail privately and independently; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, organizations such
as Common Cause, Brennan Center for Justice, and Free
Speech for People oppose fully accessible vote by
mail, and therefore the right of voters with print
disabilities to vote by mail privately and
independently, solely on the basis of unfounded
security concerns; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, Common Cause, Free
Speech for People, and the Brennan Center for Justice
claim that their missions are to “ensure that every
eligible American can cast a ballot,” and “to ensure
people can participate equally and meaningfully in our
democracy”; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, the most commonly
used RAVBM, the Democracy Live OmniBallot portal, is
hosted on an Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud server,
which is the server used by the US Department of
Defense, Department of Homeland Security, Central
Intelligence Agency, and other US federal government
intelligence agencies to house top secret documents;
and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, Synack Security,
the nation’s premiere security testing company, has
conducted continuous penetration testing of the
OmniBallot portal since 2020, and a Synack Security
report, dated July 27, 2022, indicates that recent
testing by over four hundred independent security
testers found just one low-risk security
vulnerability, which was later confirmed to be fixed
and no longer present in OmniBallot; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, ballots
electronically returned on the OmniBallot portal are
encrypted, protected from being changed or
overwritten, and securely stored until the elections
office prints out and tabulates the ballot; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, the Democracy Live
OMNIBallot RAVBM portal has been deployed in over four
thousand elections in ninety-six countries since 2010
with no security breaches, and is the most deployed
RAVBM in the US; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, the Enhanced Voting
System, another RAVBM portal commonly used in the
United States, has incorporated Microsoft
ElectionGuard, an end-to-end verification system, that
permits the voter to verify their submitted ballot
from the time it is submitted to when it is counted:
Now, therefore,</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">BE IT RESOLVED by the
National Federation of the Blind in Convention
assembled this fifth day of July, 2023, in the City of
Houston, Texas, that this organization demand that
Common Cause, Free Speech for People, and the Brennan
Center for Justice adhere to their mission that every
eligible American be able to cast a ballot, including
a by-mail ballot by blind, low-vision, and voters with
other print disabilities, privately, and
independently, and to amend their position on fully
accessible vote by mail to reflect the actual security
status of the state-of-the-art systems currently in
use, and to reflect the requirements of Title II of
the ADA.</p>
<h2 style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 1.43em;
max-width: 100%;">Resolution 2023-05: Regarding Audio
Delays During Live Radio Play-by-Play Broadcasts</h2>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, many blind people
are sports fans who support their local sports teams;
and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, live radio
broadcasts of sporting events, where available, are
pivotal in helping many blind people to enjoy sporting
events, even when they attend the events in person,
because radio broadcasters typically provide thorough
nonvisual descriptions of the action on the field of
play for listeners; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, there may be a
significant audio delay, ranging from a few seconds to
a minute or more, between the action and the
description of the play over the live radio broadcast,
which can mean that blind people listening to the
broadcast in the stadium or arena do not receive
timely information about the action as it occurs; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, some sports
franchises have worked with their broadcast partners
to eliminate such delays, indicating that there is no
broadcast requirement that the delays be present to
meet Federal Communications Commission standards: for
example, the Baltimore Orioles worked with the Greater
Baltimore Chapter of the National Federation of the
Blind to resolve this issue; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, other franchises
have reportedly solved the problem by providing
dedicated pre-tuned receivers to blind fans, tuned to
a direct feed from the broadcast booth, allowing fans
to hear the play-by-play with no delay; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, while these
solutions have been implemented by some franchises,
there are not any league-wide policies, practices, or
standards that recognize and address the negative
effects of broadcast delays: Now, therefore,</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">BE IT RESOLVED by the
National Federation of the Blind in Convention
assembled this fifth day of July, 2023, in the City of
Houston, Texas, that we urge all of the professional
sports organizations in the United States, including
but not limited to Major League Baseball, the National
Football League, the National Basketball Association,
and the National Hockey League, to develop policies,
standards, and/or best practices in collaboration with
the National Federation of the Blind and with their
franchises and broadcast partners to eliminate audio
delays during live play-by-play broadcasts.</p>
<h2 style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 1.43em;
max-width: 100%;">Resolution 2023-06: Regarding the
Enforcement of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act
of 1973</h2>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, the Workforce
Investment Act, which significantly expanded and
strengthened the technology access requirements for
Americans with disabilities under the original Section
508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, was signed into
law in 1998; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, the strengthened
Section 508 went into effect and became enforceable in
2001; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, Section 508 of the
Rehabilitation Act requires Federal agencies to give
employees with disabilities and members of the public
access to information comparable to the access
available to others; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, Section 508
requires Federal agencies to make not only websites
and information published on the internet accessible,
but all electronic and communication technology (ECT),
including when those agencies develop, procure,
maintain, or use ECT; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, the Department of
Justice is required by Section 508 to provide a report
to Congress and the President every two years
regarding federal technology accessibility; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, the publication of
these reports has been sporadic, and frankly ignored,
with the previous report’s publication in September of
2012; and </p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, on June 30, 2022,
Senators Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Tim Scott of
South Carolina, along with five other senators, sent a
letter to the Attorney General demanding the
publication an updated Section 508 report; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, in July 2022, the
Senate Committee on Aging, led by Senators Casey and
Scott, held a hearing on the impact of lack of 508
compliance on blind and disabled employees, veterans,
and members of the public as part of a Senate
investigation on Section 508, which resulted in the
Committee publishing a Report on December 1, 2022,
entitled, “Unlocking the Virtual Front Door: An
Examination of Federal Technology’s Accessibility for
People with Disabilities, Older Adults, and Veterans”;
and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, the December 1,
2022, report included clear and actionable
recommendations for Congress and executive branch
Federal agencies for improving data collection,
enforcement, accountability, and compliance for
Section 508; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, the effort led by
Senators Casey and Scott ultimately resulted in the
Department of Justice publishing an updated Section
508 report in January 2023, which showed a significant
level of inaccessibility among federal agency
websites, including 10 percent of external agency
pages being inaccessible, 59 percent of internal
agency pages being inaccessible, and 80 percent of PDF
documents being inaccessible; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, given the degree of
inaccessibility that the January 2023 Report shows, it
can be reasonably assumed that Federal agencies are
failing at making other types of ECT accessible in the
same way they are failing for web content; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, the United States
Access Board has regulatory authority over Section 508
of the Rehabilitation Act, and the United States Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has
regulatory authority over employment discrimination
but no authority over Section 508; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, neither the Access
Board nor EEOC have enforcement authority over Section
508, resulting in little oversight or accountability
for employees and members of the public who encounter
non-508 compliant ECT; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, inaccessibility to
this degree after more than twenty years of the law
being in effect and enforceable is outrageous,
inexcusable, and unacceptable: Now, therefore,</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">BE IT RESOLVED by the
National Federation of the Blind in Convention
assembled this fifth day of July, 2023, in the City of
Houston, Texas, that this organization demand federal
agencies immediately cease the development, purchase,
maintenance, or use of inaccessible information and
communication technology as well as the publication of
inaccessible website content and PDFs; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that
this organization demand federal agencies develop and
publish a roadmap by July 5, 2024, to remediate all
Section 508 violations; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that
this organization demand the United States Department
of Justice publish the next required bi-annual
accessibility report no later than January 2025 and
every two years thereafter; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that
this organization urge Congress to introduce and adopt
legislation that gives the Access Board and EEOC the
authority to enforce Section 508 and hold Federal
agencies accountable that fail to make their ECT 508
compliant; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that
this organization strongly urge that Congress and
executive branch Federal agencies adopt the
recommendations in the December 1, 2022, Report of the
Senate Committee on Aging; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that
this organization commend Senators Bob Casey of
Pennsylvania and Tim Scott of South Carolina for
leading a bipartisan effort to demand the Department
of Justice publish the Section 508 report and improve
Section 508 across the Federal government.</p>
<h2 style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 1.43em;
max-width: 100%;">Resolution 2023-07: Regarding Text
Formatting in Real-Time Refreshable Braille</h2>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, italics, boldface,
underlining, and other formatting attributes are often
used as an integral aspect of much written material to
emphasize certain words, indicate a shift in time or
speaker, show insertions, or otherwise convey
information that is necessary for comprehension of the
full meaning of the text; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, such text
formatting can be displayed in Braille by the use of
specifically-defined Braille indicators that clearly
identify which attribute is being used and where it
begins and ends; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, to reduce clutter,
when formatting attributes are used for visual appeal
but do not add meaning, they are generally not shown
in Braille; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, screen reader
technology makes the contents of a digital screen
accessible via not only speech output but also by
displaying the words in Braille via real-time
translation software and a connected refreshable
Braille display; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, in speech output,
most screen readers can, if set to do so, represent
italics, boldface, underlining and the like by the use
of a different pitch, tone, or voice when speaking the
affected words; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, in Braille,
indication of text attributes by screen readers is
inconsistent at best—for example, NVDA is the only
screen reader which will, when set to do so, display
the assigned Braille boldface, italic, and underline
indicators wherever these formatting attributes occur
in the text; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, a recent software
update gave Apple’s VoiceOver screen reader the
ability, in very limited circumstances, to render the
Braille boldface, italic, and underline indicators,
but the implementation does not extend to many popular
applications such as the Kindle; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, the methods
generally used by other screen readers to render this
formatting information in their real-time Braille
translation are either non-existent or are very
cumbersome and do not use the assigned Braille
indicators; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, lack of access to
this formatting information not only denies the
Braille reader some needed elements of the full
meaning of the text, but also represents a missed
opportunity for the Braille reader to learn about the
print formatting customs used in résumés and many
other documents they may be called upon to create as
part of employment or educational endeavors: Now,
therefore,</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">BE IT RESOLVED by the
National Federation of the Blind in Convention
assembled this fifth day of July, 2023, in the City of
Houston, Texas, that this organization call upon
developers of screen reader technology to prioritize
the implementation of displaying the Braille
indicators for boldface, italics, underlining, and
other attributes with assigned Braille indicators,
wherever these attributes appear in print, so that the
user can show or hide the indicators as preferred.</p>
<h2 style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 1.43em;
max-width: 100%;">Resolution 2023-08: Regarding the
Transportation Security Administration</h2>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, the Transportation
Security Administration (TSA) is responsible for
screening all passengers and their belongings for
safety purposes; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, blind people
traveling through airports every day for work,
vacation, or personal reasons interact with TSA agents
while navigating through the screening process; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, TSA agents will
frequently request long white cane users to send the
cane through the X-Ray machines, but then fail to
immediately return it, resulting in blind travelers
feeling inferior and being forced to rely on the agent
to help navigate the screening area; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, for guide dog
users, TSA officers will frequently attempt to
separate the user from their animal, require that they
be screened in a separate screening room, or attempt
to improperly remove the harness from the dog during
the detection process; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, TSA agents often
incorrectly inform these travelers that they are
breaking the law, but when pressed for said law the
agent is unable to provide further information; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, blind passengers
have been unnecessarily delayed or missed their flight
entirely because of aggressive TSA agents not allowing
us to quickly and independently move through the
screening process: Now, therefore,</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">BE IT RESOLVED by the
National Federation of the Blind in Convention
assembled this fifth day of July, 2023, in the City of
Houston, Texas, that this organization demand that the
Transportation Security Administration adopt proper
training on dealing with blind passengers, including
how to handle long white canes, guide dogs, and
assistive technology products, as well as respectfully
asking blind people if they would like assistance, to
be consistently used at all airports while interacting
with blind travelers; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that
this organization demand that the training be
developed in direct consultation with the National
Federation of the Blind, thereby ensuring the agents
understand how to best accommodate blind travelers’
needs.</p>
<h2 style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 1.43em;
max-width: 100%;">Resolution 2023-09: Regarding the
Accessibility of Training Administered by the American
Red Cross</h2>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, the American Red
Cross is the premier organization providing first aid
and CPR training to individuals across this nation;
and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, accessibility to
these training programs is vital to individuals who
are blind and wish to administer life-saving aid to
their friends and family members who may experience
medical emergencies and need assistance prior to when
emergency medical personnel may arrive; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, members of the
National Federation of the Blind have enrolled in
American Red Cross training programs and found that
over the last several years the electronic portion of
training, including materials provided after training,
have been inaccessible to them; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, the American Red
Cross has recently begun to include videos in their
training programs, but these videos are not
audio-described and thus do not provide full access to
blind participants; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, members of the
National Federation of the Blind have communicated
with the American Red Cross for over three years to
offer assistance in making the American Red Cross
electronic materials accessible with limited success
to date: Now, therefore,</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">BE IT RESOLVED by the
National Federation of the Blind in Convention
assembled this fifth day of July, 2023, in the City of
Houston, Texas, that this organization strongly urge
the American Red Cross to take meaningful steps to
make all training programs and services accessible to
the blind and print-disabled; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that
we call upon the American Red Cross to seek the input
and partnership of blind consumers, notably the
National Federation of the Blind, in its efforts to
obtain and maintain accessibility.</p>
<h2 style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 1.43em;
max-width: 100%;">Resolution 2023-10: Regarding
Opposing the Revival of Eugenics for the Blind</h2>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">This resolution addresses
suicide. Suicidal thoughts or actions (even in very
young children, older adults, and people with
life-threatening illness/disability) are a
manifestation of extreme distress and should not be
ignored. If you or someone you know needs immediate
help, call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline
at 988.</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, people faced with
vision loss often go through an initial period of
depression, sometimes including suicidal feelings,
that are actually calls for help in living with
blindness, coping with depression, dealing with
anxiety about the future, managing grief, identifying
ways to avoid inadequate care options, and learning
independence as a blind person; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, some people who
become blind encounter lack of control, fear, and
spiritual despair; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, for most people who
express suicidal desires, public agencies operate a
network of services from public health, medical, and
legal agencies to prevent medical professionals,
caregivers, and family members from taking advantage
of or encouraging a person’s impulse for self-harm or
suicide; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, people with
disabilities are sometimes denied access to this
protective network of services based solely on a
doctor’s “good faith” diagnosis of terminal
disability, where terminal disability describes a
medical condition that some doctors would describe as
an incurable and irreversible disease that has been
medically confirmed and will, within reasonable
medical judgment, result in death within six
months—with or without medical care; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, far too many people
consider a loss of sight as a dying, as evident from
the opinion of one professional: “When, in the full
current of his sighted life, blindness comes on a man,
it is the end, the death, of that sighted life. It is
superficial, if not naive, to think of blindness as a
blow to the eyes only, to sight only. It is a
destructive blow to the self-image of a man…a blow
almost to his being itself.” Father Thomas J. Carroll,
founder and director of St. Paul’s Rehabilitation
Center for the Blind; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, under the guise of
“mercy” and “dignity” in dying, nine US states and the
District of Columbia have passed laws legalizing
physician-assisted suicide, which is a revival of old
eugenic ideologies that steer people with terminal
disabilities away from necessary mental health care,
medical care, and disability supports, and toward
death by suicide; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, this misguided
concept of mercy and dignity creates a two-tiered
medical system in which people who are suicidal
sometimes receive disparate treatment responses from
their physicians and varying levels of protection from
the state; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, people without
disabilities are encouraged in response to suicidal
desires to seek counseling, medical care, and other
protective supports; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, those with
disabilities are regarded as facing lives of
incapacity and despair that are not worth living, and
thus directed toward suicide itself; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, people who are
newly blinded often seek information from the medical
profession, and they encounter doctors who, although
they have much experience in curing ailments, have
essentially none in managing the disability of
blindness; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, these doctors
sometimes conclude that they could not possibly
function in society without sight and therefore
mistakenly believe that their patients who are blind
must face irreparable incapacity and irreversible
sorrow from an incurable condition that can never be
reversed, making the lives of these patients no longer
of any value; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, a number of groups
without knowledge of disability have decided to
persuade state legislatures that physician-assisted
suicide is a benefit to people with disabilities,
which has led to the adoption of assisted suicide
legislation in a number of states; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, such groups argue
that to permit people with disabilities to escape the
dreadful conditions of their lives is the kindest
thing that society can do; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, it becomes clear to
legislative committees that assisting people with
disabilities to achieve suicide preserves scarce
resources available to the medical and social services
communities—suicide is cheaper than providing service;
and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, in direct contrast
to this flawed perception, the National Federation of
the Blind, in the words of its founder Dr. Jacobus
tenBroek, recognizes that “…the blind as a group are
mentally competent, psychologically stable, and
socially adaptable. And that their needs are,
therefore, those of ordinary people, of normal men and
women, caught at a physical and social disadvantage.
This thesis affirms the capacity of the blind for
self-reliance and self-determination, for full
participation in the affairs of society and active
competition in the regular channels of democratic
opportunity.”; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, the National
Federation of the Blind asserts that laws legalizing
physician-assisted suicide violate the Equal
Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by
treating people with terminal disabilities differently
as compared to everyone else who expresses a wish to
die to their medical doctor and fails to include
sufficient safeguards to ensure that a
judgment-impaired, or unduly influenced person does
not receive and/or ingest lethal physician-assisted
suicide drugs without adequate due process in waiving
their fundamental right to live; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, the National
Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not
the characteristic that defines you or your future and
encourages and supports those individuals faced with
vision loss contemplating suicide, their families, and
friends to come to an understanding that blind people
live full and productive lives, adding value to
society: Now, therefore,</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">BE IT RESOLVED by the
National Federation of the Blind in Convention
assembled this fifth day of July, 2023, in the City of
Houston, Texas, that we categorically oppose assisted
suicide and euthanasia public policy for people with
disabilities as inherently discriminatory violations
of the Americans with Disabilities Act Section 504 of
the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Equal
Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth
Amendment of the United States Constitution; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that
this organization call upon the United States
Department of Justice to enforce the protections for
people with disabilities granted under the Equal
Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth
Amendment of the United States Constitution, the
Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the
Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to assure that disabled
people, including people who are blind, have access to
adequate services from medical professionals, social
service personnel, and law enforcement agencies to
prevent fast-track assignment to suicide; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that
we demand that State medical, social service, and
rehabilitation agencies immediately desist in
supporting assisted suicide and instead provide
supportive services to affirm the value of the lives
of people with disabilities; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that
nothing in this resolution shall be construed in a
manner that limits the autonomy of any blind or
disabled individual with the capacity to make their
own medical decisions in considering and exercising
end-of-life choices.</p>
<h2 style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 1.43em;
max-width: 100%;">Resolution 2023-11: Regarding the
Nonvisual Accessibility of Hearing Aids</h2>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, the mission of the
National Federation of the Blind is to improve the
lives of blind people by fostering personal
empowerment, coordinating nationwide advocacy, and
building a network of collective achievement; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, in today’s society,
blind and deafblind individuals need equal access to a
wide variety of information as well as access to
computers, smart phones, and other communication
devices; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, recently at least
one hearing aid manufacturer, Sonova, has made the
controls for their Phonak hearing aid accessible,
demonstrating that blind and deafblind individuals can
use these controls independently and safely; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, other manufacturers
of devices should be able to duplicate accessibility;
and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, many hearing-care
professionals have the same misunderstandings about
the abilities of deafblind individuals that the rest
of the public has; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, all hearing-care
professionals must recognize the capabilities of
deafblind individuals to manage their accessible
devices; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, the United States
Food and Drug Administration has recently issued a
ruling, effective October 17, 2022, allowing the
over-the-counter purchase of hearing aids without a
prescription from a hearing health specialist; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, such a ruling opens
the market for hearing aid manufacturers to produce
more widely available, affordable, and potentially
accessible products: Now, therefore,</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">BE IT RESOLVED by the
National Federation of the Blind in Convention
assembled this fifth day of July, 2023, in the City of
Houston, Texas, that this organization call upon all
hearing care professionals, marketers, and
manufacturers to work with the National Federation of
the Blind so that blind and deafblind individuals can
incorporate independent management of their own
hearing aid and assistive listening device profiles;
and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that
this organization urge the Food and Drug
Administration to require that all hearing aids be
accessible to blind and deafblind people.</p>
<h2 style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 1.43em;
max-width: 100%;">Resolution 2023-12: Regarding
Expediting the Plan to Achieve Self-Support Processing</h2>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, a Plan for
Achieving Self Support (PASS) is a Supplemental
Security Income (SSI) provision to help individuals
with disabilities return to work so that the applicant
can find employment that reduces or eliminates SSI or
Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits;
and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, the Social Security
Administration (SSA) fact sheet on Plan for Achieving
Self-Support states, “PASS is a written plan of action
for pursuing and getting a particular type of job.”;
and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, a PASS can include
supplies to start a business, school expenses,
equipment, transportation, uniforms, and other items
or services that an applicant needs to reach his or
her employment goal; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, an advantage of an
approved PASS is that SSA does not count the money set
aside to reach a work goal, thus making the
participant eligible for SSI and other public
assistance programs such as Medicaid and SNAP; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, the SSA can take
years to make a decision on the approval or denial of
this plan, causing hardship to the applicant because
their decision is not retroactive and the client must
wait in limbo for other public assistance programs;
and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, the SSA does not
assist beneficiaries in developing a PASS, but instead
directs the applicant to seek help from the state
rehabilitation agency; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, the applicant is
forced to work with two bureaucracies, the state
rehabilitation agency and SSA, resulting in
duplication and indefinite delays; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, the state
vocational rehabilitation agency has organizational
knowledge and experience evaluating education and
training programs and already has a good working
relationship with the applicant; therefore, these
agencies should take over the approval of the plan;
and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, precedent already
exists for SSA to get information from the state
rehabilitation agency because it currently uses
disability determination from the state vocational
agency: Now, therefore,</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">BE IT RESOLVED by the
National Federation of the Blind in Convention
assembled this fifth day of July, 2023, in the City of
Houston, Texas, that this organization urge the Social
Security Administration to issue rulemaking procedures
that will delegate authority to state vocational
rehabilitation agencies to approve individual plans to
receive self-support.</p>
<h2 style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 1.43em;
max-width: 100%;">Resolution 2023-13: Regarding
Artificial Intelligence Chatbots and their Information
on Blindness</h2>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, an artificial
intelligence chatbot is any computer program that can
carry on a natural conversation with a user and
provide responses drawn from a set of existing data;
and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, chatbots and other
artificial intelligence technologies are becoming
increasingly prevalent in society, including in the
provision of customer service and information; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, the National
Federation of the Blind is committed to ensuring that
blind and low-vision people have equal access to
information and technology; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, it has come to the
attention of the National Federation of the Blind that
some chatbots, including ChatGPT and Bard, may provide
users with stereotypical and inaccurate information
about blindness and blind individuals; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, the provision of
such information perpetuates harmful stereotypes and
contributes to the marginalization of blind
individuals; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, the National
Federation of the Blind believes that creators of
chatbots have a responsibility to ensure that their
technology does not perpetuate harmful stereotypes or
misinformation about blindness: Now, therefore,</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">BE IT RESOLVED by the
National Federation of the Blind in Convention
assembled this fifth day of July, 2023, in the City of
Houston, Texas, that we urge the creators of ChatGPT,
Bard, and any future chatbots that may be developed to
work with the National Federation of the Blind to
build their chatbots in a way that ensures the
provision of accurate, non-stereotypical information
about blindness and blind individuals; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that
we call upon the creators of these chatbots to
collaborate with the National Federation of the Blind
to develop and implement best practices for ensuring
that their technology is accessible and inclusive for
blind and low-vision people and that these best
practices should include the use of blind and low
vision people in the development and testing of these
chatbots.</p>
<h2 style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 1.43em;
max-width: 100%;">Resolution 2023-14: Regarding the
Schedule A Hiring Authority for Individuals with
Disabilities</h2>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, the United States
Federal government claims that one of its primary
goals is to be the model employer of individuals with
disabilities; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, the Federal
government hires individuals either competitively into
the competitive service or noncompetitively into the
excepted service; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, since the 1930s,
Schedule A appointments to the Federal government have
included a variety of categories of individuals who
are hired non-competitively and into the excepted
service; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, President Jimmy
Carter issued Executive Order 12125 on March 15, 1979,
which, for the first time, established the Schedule A
Hiring Authority for Individuals with Disabilities as
a section within the broader Schedule A Hiring
Authority, in order to create a pathway to level the
playing field for applicants with disabilities who are
seeking employment with the Federal government; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, the Schedule A
Hiring Authority for Individuals with Disabilities is
intended to create a vehicle for individuals with
severe psychiatric, mental, and physical disabilities,
including blindness, to be excepted from the
competitive hiring process in order to increase the
number of individuals with disabilities that are hired
to work for the Federal government; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, the Office of
Personnel Management promulgated the implementing
regulation for the Schedule A Hiring Authority for
Individuals with Disabilities at 5 C.F.R. 213.3102(u)
and is responsible for oversight and implementation of
this authority; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, this authority is
applicable to both veterans and non-veterans with
disabilities; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, though this
regulation has been updated and modernized on multiple
occasions in its forty-four year history, most
recently in 2013, the Federal government has still
struggled to hire and retain employees with
disabilities and routinely fails to meet its own
targets; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, the Schedule A
Hiring Authority for Individuals with Disabilities
requires a two-year trial period for newly hired
employees, which is equivalent to a probationary
employment period, while other new employees are only
required to serve one year of probationary employment;
and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, though existing
employees with disabilities may use the Schedule A
Hiring Authority for Individuals with Disabilities to
non-competitively be promoted or transferred within
the Federal government, they must serve a new two-year
trial period every time the Schedule A Hiring
Authority for Individuals with Disabilities is used,
effectively disincentivizing the process contrary to
its intent; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, the two-year trial
period was, in 1979, intended to protect employees
with disabilities because it took significant time to
procure and implement reasonable accommodations; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, technological
advancement, commercial availability, and equity
principles have significantly reduced the amount of
time to procure and implement reasonable
accommodations, rendering the prolonged trial period
unnecessary and potentially punitive; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, on November 6,
2020, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) revised
5 C.F.R. 302, which governs the general Schedule A
Hiring Authority, to require the use of veterans
preference and other significant restrictions for
excepted service positions; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, this change has
created tremendous confusion among Federal agencies
about how to implement the Schedule A Hiring Authority
for Individuals with Disabilities, resulting in
multiple Federal agencies severely curtailing their
use of this authority; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, some Federal
agencies have reacted to this amended regulation by
outright prohibiting non-competitive hiring using the
Schedule A Authority for Individuals with
Disabilities; decommissioning non-competitive résumé
databases containing applications and résumés for
Schedule A applicants with disabilities; ranking and
rating applicants who seek to use the Schedule A
Hiring Authority for Individuals with Disabilities
behind all other applicant categories, even
competitive applicants; and other consequences that
effectively render the Schedule A Hiring Authority for
Individuals with Disabilities meaningless; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, OPM has indicated
that the revised regulation does not apply to the
Schedule A Hiring Authority for Individuals with
Disabilities, but this guidance is not easily
available, prominently published, or enforced; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, on June 25, 2021,
President Joe Biden issued Executive Order 14035,
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in the
Federal Workforce, which directs the Federal
government to, “assess current practices in using
Schedule A hiring authority to employ people with
disabilities in the Federal Government, and evaluate
opportunities to enhance equity in employment
opportunities and financial security for employees
with disabilities through different practices or
guidance on the use of Schedule A Hiring Authority”:
Now, therefore,</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">BE IT RESOLVED by the
National Federation of the Blind in Convention
assembled this fifth day of July, 2023, in the City of
Houston, Texas, that this organization emphatically
urge the Office of Personnel Management to provide
Federal agencies with clear instructions concerning
the non-applicability of 5 C.F.R. 302 to the Schedule
A Hiring Authority for Individuals with Disabilities
and direct agencies to reinstate non-competitive
hiring procedures for applicants with disabilities;
and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that
this organization urge OPM to update the Schedule A
Hiring Authority for Individuals with Disabilities
regulations to reduce the trial period to one year for
new hires and eliminate it entirely for promotions and
transfers consistent with competitive hiring
principles; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that
this organization commend the Biden Administration for
elevating accessibility including the Schedule A
Hiring Authority for Individuals with Disabilities;
and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that
this organization urge OPM to promulgate updated
regulations to implement the Schedule A Hiring
Authority for Individuals with Disabilities that
update and modernize the authority consistent with the
Federal government’s goal of being the model employer
of individuals with disabilities and include
stakeholders with disabilities, including the National
Federation of the Blind, in that effort.</p>
<h2 style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 1.43em;
max-width: 100%;">Resolution 2023-15: Regarding the
Inaccessibility of C-SPAN's Coverage of Congressional
Votes</h2>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, C-SPAN provides
complete coverage of the United States Senate and the
House of Representatives; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, typically only
C-SPAN equipment is permitted to cover Congressional
proceedings, including coverage of floor votes in both
chambers; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, as votes are taken
on bills, nominations, motions and more, a tally is
displayed on the screen listing the current vote; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, members of the
Senate cast their votes orally, however members of the
House record their votes by electronic device; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, despite the Senate
using voice votes, at no point is the changing vote
tally read out loud for either chamber for those who
cannot see the current vote margin on the screen; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, there are numerous
pieces of legislation that are debated and voted upon
that would considerably impact the lives of the
nation's blind; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, C-SPAN sometimes
interrupts coverage for a moment to speak important
details, such as what is about to be considered, but
never to say the current vote totals; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, C-SPAN has been
contacted about adding a feature to make these votes
accessible and has not returned correspondence: Now,
therefore,</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">BE IT RESOLVED by the
National Federation of the Blind in Convention
assembled this fifth day of July, 2023, in the City of
Houston, Texas, that we urge C-SPAN to audibly update
viewers as votes progress every few minutes; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that
this organization urge other services that offer
coverage of state and federal legislatures and
government proceedings to add an accessible mechanism
for following vote tallies and other pertinent
information that is readily displayed on the screen
for viewers at home.</p>
<h2 style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 1.43em;
max-width: 100%;">Resolution 2023-16: Regarding Urging
the National Council of State Agencies for the Blind
and Council of State Administrators of Vocational
Rehabilitation to Promote Certifications Issued by the
National Blindness Professional Certification Board</h2>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, all blind Americans
deserve high-quality vocational rehabilitation (VR)
services that empower and inspire them to live the
lives they want; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, there continues to
be a shortage of instructors to fill vacancies in
positions providing adjustment-to-blindness training
to blind consumers of VR services; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, the National
Council of State Agencies for the Blind (NCSAB) is
composed of specialized state agencies providing VR
services to the blind; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, the Council of
State Administrators of Vocational Rehabilitation
(CSAVR) is composed of the chief administrators of
state agencies providing VR services; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, the National
Blindness Professional Certification Board (NBPCB) was
created in 2001 and now offers certifications in
access technology, orientation and mobility,
rehabilitation teaching, and Unified English Braille
and emphasizes a positive philosophy of blindness and
the importance of blind role models; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, some state VR
agencies and contractors with state VR agencies do not
accept certifications issued by the NBPCB, but
recognize certifications by the Academy for
Certification of Vision Rehabilitation and Education
Professionals (ACVREP) when hiring instructional
rehabilitation personnel; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, the pathway to
obtaining certifications issued by ACVREP continues to
be problematic for blind applicants, thus
marginalizing blind people within the professional
community affiliated with ACVREP; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, the NBPCB was
established to administer certifications for blindness
rehabilitation professionals in a way that does not
discriminate against blind instructors and thus treats
blind and sighted instructors equally; and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">WHEREAS, blind people
holding certifications from the NBPCB have been
successfully providing VR services to blind adults
through VR programs funded by the United States
Department of Education since 2001, demonstrating
their capabilities for the last twenty-two years: Now,
therefore,</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">BE IT RESOLVED by the
National Federation of the Blind in Convention
assembled this fifth day of July, 2023, in the City of
Houston, Texas, that this organization urge the
National Council of State Agencies for the Blind and
Council of State Administrators of Vocational
Rehabilitation to urge their member agencies and
administrators to accept certifications issued by the
National Blindness Professional Certification Board;
and</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that
this organization demand that certifications issued by
the National Blindness Professional Certification
Board be treated equally to their counterpart
certifications issued by the Academy for Certification
of Vision Rehabilitation and Education Professionals.</p>
</div>
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-webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break:
after-white-space;">Cullen Gallagher</div>
<div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color:
rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start;
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normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width:
0px; text-decoration: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;
-webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break:
after-white-space;">Affiliate Secretary and Cambridge
Chapter Secretary: National Federation of the Blind of
Massachusetts
<div><br>
</div>
<div>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.</div>
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