[NABS-L] Have you faced accessibility barriers in your Human Services field related internship?

[Jonathan Franks]

Fellow Federationists,

My name is Jonathan Franks and I am the 1st Vice President of the
National Federation of the Blind Human Services Division and the
Legislative and Advocacy chair for the division. In 2016, we as an
organization passed a resolution to endeavor to make internships more
accessible for blind students. I faced some accessibility barriers in
2015 for my Bachelor’s level internship and I will be taking on a
Master’s level internship in the spring of 2019. On behalf of the
Human Services Division, we are wanting to work alongside our National
organization in working towards that goal. Therefore, if you are in
the Human Services field and have faced accessibility barriers in your
internship, I would love to hear from you. We ask that you write a
letter regarding your internship barriers and email them to me at
jfranks at nfbtx.org
and I will pass them along to our Governmental affairs team and
President Riccobono.

I have pasted the language of the resolution passed in 2016 below my signature.

Warm regards and thank you,

Jonathan Franks BSW
1st Vice President
National Federation of the Blind Human Services Division
Graduate Student
Masters of Social Work program
Texas State University

Resolution 2016-05
Regarding Equal Access for Educational Internships
WHEREAS, educational internships are often a curricular requirement
for graduation from a college or university; and
WHEREAS, educational internships can provide graduates with invaluable
experiences and training that enhance graduates’ likelihood of being
hired in their chosen career fields; and
WHEREAS, Titles II and III of the Americans with Disabilities Act
prohibit colleges and universities from discrimination against and
disparate treatment of individuals with disabilities, and ultimately
mandate the provision of equal access to opportunities for such
persons; and
WHEREAS, Americans with Disabilities Act protections include
off-campus educational internships offered as a part of a school’s
programs, services, and benefits; and
WHEREAS, blind students regularly face discrimination by college
internship coordinators who fail to coordinate auxiliary aids for
off-campus internships and mistakenly believe that blindness will
limit a student’s ability to perform an internship: Now, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention
assembled this fourth day of July, 2016, in the City of Orlando,
Florida, that this organization hereby condemn and deplore the actions
of colleges and universities that have restricted blind students’
participation in educational internships, required blind students to
complete internships only with assistance from sighted peers, or
denied accommodations within these internships; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we demand that colleges and universities
implement procedures, train employees, and otherwise take active
measures to ensure that educational internships are fully, equally,
and independently accessible to blind students.




-- 
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.