[MD-Sligo] FW: [Tech-VI] Paul Parravano: Structured Negotiation Champion, Disability Advocate, Dies at 71

Sun Jan 7 18:37:54 UTC 2024

From: tech-vi at groups.io <tech-vi at groups.io> On Behalf Of David Goldfield
Sent: Friday, January 5, 2024 6:01 PM
To: Tech-VI Announcement List <tech-vi at groups.io>
Subject: [Tech-VI] Paul Parravano: Structured Negotiation Champion,
Disability Advocate, Dies at 71

Original Source <https://www.lflegal.com/2024/01/paul-parravano/> 

Paul Parravano: Structured Negotiation Champion, Disability Advocate, Dies
at 71

Posted on <https://www.lflegal.com/2024/01/paul-parravano/> January 5, 2024

On This Page

This is an article about Paul Parravano, who died in December at age 71.
Paul was a blind advocate and university administrator. He was a beloved
family member active in many communities. Paul was a braille champion who
served on the Board of the National Braille Press. His advocacy improved
access to financial information for blind people across the United States.
Paul was a friend and client of Lainey Feingold. He played an important role
in Structured Negotiation cases. These included cases with American Express
and the nation's credit reporting companies. Paul was a kind and generous
person committed to full inclusion of disabled people in all aspects of
life.

When I submitted my book manuscript to the American Bar Association in 2015,
an East Coast lawyer reviewer had but one question. It basically boiled down
to this: "How the hell do I find clients who want to resolve legal claims
without fighting? With collaboration, calmness, and kindness instead of
conflict?"

My answer was and remains simple: Structured Negotiation attracts
problem-solvers who value cooperation and relationship-building. As a
disability rights and digital accessibility strategy it attracts disabled
people committed to lasting accessibility and full inclusion of people with
disabilities in all aspects of life.

I don't have to "find" these clients because for the past 29 years these
committed and ethical problem-solvers have found me. One of those people was
my friend and client Paul Parravano, a kind, generous man, an accomplished
professional, a beloved community and family member, and an unsung hero of
Structured Negotiation.

Paul died last month from cancer at the age of 71. The top image in this
post shows us smiling together at the
<https://www.pon.harvard.edu/events/structured-negotiation-a-winning-alterna
tive-to-lawsuits/> East Coast launch for my book in November 2016 at Harvard
Law School. Paul helped organized the event and shared the stage as we told
stories and offered the strategies of Structured Negotiation, the
collaborative process he played an important role in developing.

Jump to:

o
<https://www.lflegal.com/2024/01/paul-parravano/#Structured-Negotiation-succ
esses-thanks-to-Paul> Structured Negotiation successes thanks to Paul

o
<https://www.lflegal.com/2024/01/paul-parravano/#Braille-Statements-from-Ame
rican-Express> Braille Statements from American Express

o
<https://www.lflegal.com/2024/01/paul-parravano/#Accessible-credit-reports-a
cross-the-nation> Accessible credit reports across the nation

o
<https://www.lflegal.com/2024/01/paul-parravano/#Community-praise-for-a-life
-well-lived> Community praise for a life well-lived

o    <https://www.lflegal.com/2024/01/paul-parravano/#Read-more-about-Paul>
Read more about Paul

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  _____  

Structured Negotiation successes thanks to Paul

Paul Parravano was instrumental in the success of three Structured
Negotiations.

Braille Statements from American Express

I met Paul in 2002 or 2003 when he contacted
<https://www.lflegal.com/about/about-lainey/#Co-Counsel> Linda Dardarian and
me to ask if Structured Negotiation could help convince American Express to
offer braille account statements. He had learned of Structured Negotiation
success in bringing Talking ATMs, accessible websites and braille statements
to banks in the United States. He wondered if the strategy would work to
make credit card statements accessible to him.

To Paul, access meant braille, the reading format he had relied on since
becoming blind as a toddler. The format that allowed him to succeed as an
undergraduate at Harvard, as a law student and lawyer, as an advocate, and
in his career at MIT.

Like so many of our clients, Paul had done his homework before calling me.
Linda and I put his efforts to good use when we contacted the company. As I
described in my book:

After American Express denied Paul's request for statements he could read,
Parravano discovered that the company offered braille to Canadian account
holders. We included that fact in the opening letter (the Structured
Negotiation alternative to a legal complaint), and even gave the company
contact information for the Canadian braille vendor to whom Parravano had
spoken.

In a lawsuit, "smoking gun" evidence helps convince a judge that one side
deserves to win. Proof that American Express offered braille to Canadian
customers was strong evidence that the company could offer braille in the
United States. But in Structured Negotiation we have no incentive to hide
the ball, no need to save our evidence for a motion or trial. We were trying
to solve a problem at American Express, not prove a legal violation.
<https://www.lflegal.com/book/structured-negotiation/> Structured
Negotiation, a Winning Alternative to Lawsuits (2nd Edition) page 103

That opening letter led to a
<https://www.lflegal.com/book/structured-negotiation/> robust settlement
agreement with American Express announced in a
<https://www.lflegal.com/2005/06/american-express-braille-press-release/>
June 2005 press release.

More than doing his homework before contacting us, Paul's participation in
the negotiations were crucial to the ultimate success of the project. He was
joined in this effort by  <https://www.lflegal.com/2008/06/clarence-whaley/>
Clarence Whaley, a friend he introduced us to, who died in 2008:

During two years of phone negotiations, Parravano and Whaley explained why
braille statements mattered. Initially, American Express thought (as many
companies do) that having staff read information aloud is a good alternative
to accessible formats. But braille was critical to the financial
independence of both men. Parravano explained braille's distinctive and
unique qualities. He shared his experience of "stopping his fingers" to
explore a braille word or phrase in a way that was not possible for him with
any other format.

Parravano and Whaley were both happily married. Yet, they used sincerity
tinged with levity to explain to American Express why they did not want to
rely on their sighted wives to read their statements. Whaley had a sharp
wit, and his ability to engage the (mostly male) American Express team was
palpable across thousands of miles of telephone wires.

The same was true for Parravano, who was responsible for his family's
finances. American Express negotiators were attentive as he explained that
in his busy schedule, reviewing statements independently on the bus during
his daily commute was not a convenience, it was a necessity.Structured
Negotiation, a Winning Alternative to Lawsuits (2nd Edition) page 136

The American Express opening letter reflecting Paul's advance work, and the
negotiations reflecting Paul's winning personality and serious commitment to
inclusive communication and disability civil rights, resulted in long term
change at the giant financial company. As I wrote in my book, "In 2021,
almost two decades after the agreement was signed, Parravano estimates that
his braille statements from American Express arrive before the print version
60 to 70 percent of the time."

Accessible credit reports across the nation

In 2008 Structured Negotiation led to commitments by Equifax, Experian, and
TransUnion to make free credit reports and other information available to
people who could not read standard print. In a
<https://www.lflegal.com/2008/04/credit-report-agreement/> sweeping
settlement agreement reached without a lawsuit on file the companies agreed
to make online reports accessible and offer those reports in braille, large
print and audio format.

That settlement, and those negotiations, never would have happened without
Paul Parravano.

Why?

Because two years before the law in the United States required the credit
reporting companies to offer free credit reports, Paul Parravano knew that
advocacy would be needed to make those reports available to blind people.

Having experienced the power of collaboration while working with American
Express, Paul called Linda and me to see if we could help make sure he would
have independent access to his credit information once the law went into
effect.

Paul joined with blind advocates Lucy Greco and Lori Gray and with the
California and American Councils of the Blind in proposing Structured
Negotiation, meeting with the companies, and hammering out the agreement,
announced in a press release quoting Paul:

We truly appreciate the credit reporting companies' willingness to engage in
discussions with us to find a solution to the problem of inaccessible credit
reports," said Paul Parravano, a blind M.I.T. employee in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, who was involved in the discussions. "Today's announcement,
reached as a result of the collaborative process, is an important milestone
in the blind community's quest for independent control over their financial
information. <https://www.lflegal.com/2008/04/credit-report-press-release/>
2008 Accessible Credit Report press release

Over a decade later, when the passage of time required a new advocacy
effort, Paul was there to help kick off a renewed Structured Negotiation.
Because of the relationships formed the first time around and the good faith
the companies (and we) exhibited over many years of post-settlement work,
our renewed engagement with the credit reporting companies went smoothly.

A  <https://www.lflegal.com/2023/07/credit-report-agreement-2023/> new
agreement was reached in 2023, announced by a
<https://www.lflegal.com/2023/07/credit-report-press-2023/> press
announcement just last year.

For Paul and I the renewed credit report negotiations proved to be our final
project together. We didn't want it to be.

Paul had deep roots in Italy and travelled there often. The last time we
met, in Boston in 2022, we talked about finding a way to do a talk or
training together in Italy. Paul was eager to help the Italian financial
industry become more accessible to blind people. If he'd had more time, I
know he could have made that happen.

Community praise for a life well-lived

I urge readers to dip into the content about Paul Parravano linked in the
next section to learn about Paul's long career as an Massachusetts Institute
of Technology (MIT) administrator and his unflagging civic and non-profit
engagement dedicated to improving the lives of blind people.

For this article, I asked our mutual friend Kim Charlson, one of the first
blind woman to serve as Director of a state-wide Braille and Talking Book
library, the first blind woman to serve as president of the American Council
of the Blind, and a global leader in the blind community to share a few
words:

Paul was always ahead of the curve on access issues. He knew when an issue
was going to be an access problem, and he just naturally went into advocate
mode and wanted to fix the problem.

I was privileged to work with him on several issues over the years, and
there was no stronger advocate for access for people who are blind or have
low vision than Paul. Equity was so important to him, and his other passion,
which we shared, was a love of braille and the importance of braille
literacy.

Paul served on the Perkins Library Board for nearly twenty years, and I had
so many opportunities to seek his counsel and guidance. He will be sadly
missed - the blindness community has lost a true friend.Kim Charlson,
Executive Director, Perkins Braille & Talking Book Library

The Parravano family has established the  <https://giving.mit.edu/form/#/>
Paul Parravano Memorial Fund at MIT in support of student research in the
field of assistive technology.

Read more about Paul

Paul Parravano and Lainey Feingold at the CSUN Conference in San Diego 2018

o   MIT ran this tribute to Paul after his death:
<https://news.mit.edu/2023/paul-parravano-longtime-liaison-dies-1220> Paul
Parravano, longtime liaison to elected leaders and MIT's neighbors, dies at
71 I love the subtitle on this article, which reads: "Former co-director of
the Office of Government and Community Relations is remembered for his care
and compassion."

o    <https://www.spencerfuneralservice.com/obituaries/paul-parravano>
Paul's obituary

o    <http://rwinters.com/council/121823.htm> Cambridge City Council
Resolution on Paul Parravano's passing

o
<https://www.linkedin.com/posts/smgebru_my-heart-is-very-heavy-today-after-a
-brave-activity-7139688778696122368-Lx5O?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_
desktop> LinkedIn post on Paul's passing by Samuel Gebru, Managing Director,
Black Lion Strategies and Professor of the Practice of Political Science,
Tufts University .

o    <https://www.bemyeyes.com/podcasts/meet-the-letterheads-paul-parravano>
Interview with Wil Butler and Cordelia Mcgee-Tubb on the Be My Eyes13
Letters Podcast

Posted in  <https://www.lflegal.com/category/articles/> News and Articles,
<https://www.lflegal.com/category/articles/people-in-the-news/> People in
the News,
<https://www.lflegal.com/category/structured-negotiations-articles/>
Structured Negotiation Articles
Tagged  <https://www.lflegal.com/tag/braille/> braille,
<https://www.lflegal.com/tag/structured-negotiations/> structured
negotiation

David Goldfield,

Blindness Assistive Technology Specialist

If you need help using your assistive technology learn about my training
services by visiting

WWW.ScreenReaderTraining.com <http://WWW.ScreenReaderTraining.com> 

Am Yisrael Chai

The Nation of Israel Lives!

 <https://www.freedomscientific.com/Training/Certification> 

NVDA Certified Expert <https://certification.nvaccess.org/> 

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