[nabs-l] SHARE WIDELY: National Federation of the Blind Is Seeking to Support DREAMers

Sun Sep 24 21:07:37 UTC 2017

Joe,

I'll try to be nonpartisan here. The DACA is a major thing impacting all 
those immigrants in it.
I would guess it may impact blind  people more in the following ways:
1. It may impact their ability to receive state vocational rehab services 
that we all get or can get.
2. Unemployment among any immigrant population is hindered by  the language 
barriers. I  have seen it firsthand.
While most people can go out and grab low wage jobs, blind people are 
excluded from these service sector jobs which require little language 
skills. Immigrants including dreamers partake in these jobs such as 
housekeeping staff at hotels, cleaning facilities in public areas such as 
our colleges and universities, painting houses, and of course lawn services.
Blind people who cannot fluently read and write english are more negatively 
impacted. When an immigrant I know tried to take ESL classes at Northern 
virginia community college, it is my understanding he could not follow the 
class due to the visual nature of it such as pictures in workbooks. And, of 
course Nova is terrible at accomodations and failed to help this student 
with special needs succeed.

3. Blind Dreamers may also have a harder time securing other government 
services.
4. Dreamers may be denied other services their fellow dreamers can partake 
of.

I'm glad NFB is taking this up.

Yes it is true we are vastly underemployed in general. It is true we have a 
ways to go in that area for all Americans.
I think a huge hindrance to employment is accessibility of software. I've 
seen it firsthand. I'm hoping NFB will make headway in advocacy for 
accessibility sooner than later.

Its also true that none of the NFB national resolutions spoke of this issue. 
However, I believe the resolutions were written prior to Mr. Trump's 
decision.

Its something to ask the national office if you are still curious.
I'm a naturalized citizen too, and I definitely understand your concerns.
As a naturalized citizen, I want to be a first class citizen and earn my way 
including participating in the workforce but so far many barriers have 
hindered me such as attitudes of employers and accessibility of third party 
software.
However, Dreamers have unique needs and challenges which I, as a naturalized 
citizen growing up here in American public schools, do not have.

Good questions.
I look forward to the outcome of such studies NFB conducts.

Ashley

-----Original Message----- 
From: Joe via NABS-L
Sent: Saturday, September 23, 2017 7:06 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Cc: Joe
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] SHARE WIDELY: National Federation of the Blind Is 
Seeking to Support DREAMers

Dear all,

This post has been gnawing at me for over a week. Maybe someone can help me
understand our rationale in getting involved in an issue that is clearly
partisan.

My understanding is that the NFB seeks to enable all blind individuals to
live the life they want, irrespective of immigration status. No argument
here. I appreciate the work we do to provide equal opportunities for
everyone--regardless of their legal status, which ought not to be any of our
business anyway, and regardless of their membership in our organization.

But now we're talking about devoting already limited resources to better
inform policymakers about the administration's decision to rescind the DACA
program. I don't understand how this became a priority.

Why are we suddenly interested in providing assistance to beneficiaries of
the DACA program? If we are doing our work correctly, then one could argue
the affected blind beneficiaries are already being served.

Why would we collect statistical analyses on the unemployment rate of the
blind before and after the DACA program when we barely have a handle on the
unemployment rate among the majority of blind Americans? If the general
statistics are accurate, then the unemployment rate among the blind is
somewhere in the neighborhood of 75%. I don't understand why our limited
resources would not be devoted to solving for the employment needs of all
blind Americans as opposed to the needs of the few. The fact we are largely
excluded from the vast majority of minimum wage jobs accessible to the rest
of the population should be of greater concern than the consequences of a
program that was legally and constitutionally controversial to start.

The DACA program is not likely to result in mass deportations and other grim
predictions forecasted by one side of the highly polarizing issue. The point
is part of a larger debate on immigration reform. Congress should enact
legislation the way it should have done when the legislative measure was
originally proposed under President Bush in 2007, and to be fair, a
bipartisan effort is underway to provide at least a three-year reprieve to
the affected community. Given the convoluted and hotly contested nature of
the overarching dialogue on the matter, why would the NFB spend its limited
political capital appearing to take sides on this issue?

Looking through this year's resolutions, I see no mention of devoting
resources to beneficiaries of the DACA program. How do we go about deciding
outreach efforts in situations where our mission was not directed by the
objectives agreed to by our convention?

To me, the step feels like an opportunistic means of snagging attention on
an issue that is already steeped in controversy. We are already fighting an
uphill battle on employment equality for those individuals working in
sheltered environments. We already face educational and employment
disparities among highly qualified blind permanent residents and citizens,
born and naturalized.

But, perhaps I am missing something. I'm willing to be educated. As a
naturalized citizen, I understand the benefits of something like DACA to get
ahead in this country. For that, there are other immigration rights consumer
groups. We can trust them to take up the cry for fair treatment. We can
trust them to help undocumented individuals find and keep a place in our
society. I would like to think we place our trust in the NFB to make that
society more accessible.

Sincerely,

Joe

From: NFBNet-Members-List [mailto:nfbnet-members-list-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of President, National Federation of the Blind via
NFBNet-Members-List
Sent: Friday, September 15, 2017 9:07 AM
To: nfbnet-members-list at nfbnet.org
Subject: [Nfbnet-members-list] SHARE WIDELY: National Federation of the
Blind Is Seeking to Support DREAMers
Importance: High

National Federation of the Blind Is Seeking to Support DREAMers

As the principal vehicle for collective action for the blind in the United
States, the National Federation of the Blind is committed to enabling all
blind people, irrespective of immigration status, to live the lives we want.
To better inform our current and future advocacy and policy strategies, the
National Federation of the Blind is collecting the following information to
better understand the impact of the administration's recent decision to
rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program among the
blind in the United States. The information collected will be used to:

1. Identify DREAMers who are blind in order to better understand the
impact on blind people and help inform the National Federation of the Blind
regarding ways the organization can best provide assistance.
2. Develop an aggregate summary of the blind people in the United
States who participate in the DACA program, which can be shared with
government officials, advocates, and other interested parties.
3. Develop statistical analyses on the unemployment rate among the
blind before and after the establishment of the DACA program.
4. Highlight general narratives of blind people living the lives they
want because of the DACA program.
5. Coordinate a community of blind DACA recipients in order to maximize
the resources available.

If you or someone you know is blind and receives DACA benefits, please
complete the National Federation of the Blind DACA form at the below links
(available in Spanish and English), or share this information with them. If
you know of a DREAMer who does not have internet access, we would appreciate
your helping them complete the form.

Spanish NFB DACA form: https://nfb.org/daca-es
English NFB DACA form: https://nfb.org/daca

Together with love, hope, and determination, the National Federation of the
Blind transforms dreams into reality. Through this effort we seek to support
the hopes and dreams of blind people seeking to be fully contributing
members of our nation.

Mark A. Riccobono, President
200 East Wells Street, Baltimore, MD 21230
(410) 659-9314 | Officeofthepresident at nfb.org
Twitter: @Riccobono

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Blind

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The National Federation of the Blind is a community of members and friends
who believe in the hopes and dreams of the nation's blind. Every day we work
together to help blind people live the lives they want.

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