[NABS-L] Conversation Starter: How do you feel about the agency pledge resolution?

[Justin Salisbury]

Aloha Fellow Federationists,

I am enjoying the discussion surrounding one of this year's resolutions. I want to know how our NABS members feel about it, so please share your thoughts. Here is the resolution:

Resolution 2020-05: Regarding Blind Leadership at Private Agencies for the Blind
WHEREAS, over 200 private agencies in the US have been created to serve the blind; and
WHEREAS, an essential part of the governing structure of an agency for the blind is to include the processes, policies, and procedures that will ensure that the agency for the blind administration is responsive to the interests, needs, and aspirations of its constituency; and
WHEREAS, the most authentic representatives of the constituency of agencies that serve the blind are blind people who have the lived experience of blindness and have shown the commitment to engage in self-organization and who are willing to be partners, directors, or managers of agencies for the blind and advisors to them: Now, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this eighteenth day of July, 2020, that this organization call upon agencies for the blind to adopt the formal goal of committing to a governing structure with numeric parity between blind and sighted directors and managers, which will ensure partnership with the blind who have dedicated their lives to improvement of blindness services nationally; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we call upon and invite all United States blindness agencies to formally adopt the following Blindness Parity Pledge, to wit:
Our agency, the [NAME OF ORGANIZATION], was created and exists to help blind people. We believe that those in whose name we serve should be represented in parity in the governing board of directors and agency management. This parity will result in blind people having a significant contribution to help guide the services our agency provides and guiding the most effective ways to give it. Therefore, we pledge ourselves to the values and commitments that follow:
We are managed by executives who are compensated for their work, and those executives, in turn, are managed by a board of directors. We believe that blind people must be a part of any blind agency's management team at both of these levels. While setting any particular percentage may appear to be arbitrary, we know that, without a number it is impossible to measure whether we are meeting our goal of significant involvement. We therefore pledge that this agency will measure, in five years or less, at least half of our management team be composed of people who are blind. We further pledge that within the same five-year period our organization will commit to a minimum of 50 percent of its governing Board of Directors be composed of people who are blind.
To underscore the importance of parity representing those we serve, we pledge to amend our by-laws to ensure that the parity, once achieved, will continue as a hallmark and point of pride in our agency in perpetuity.

We believe there is no better way to demonstrate our commitment to the constituency we serve than to have blind people contributing by being part of our management. Our agency's current operation and its goals for the future must be informed by those we serve, and we must, in appearance and in fact be guided by blind peoples' experience and aspirations at every level.
The effect of blind parity and inclusion will ultimately help our agency address the accessibility needs of those we serve. They will help ensure that every document we create will be accessible. With our full community engaged, we will strive to see that our presence on the World Wide Web is exemplary and serves to demonstrate that websites can be both visually attractive and completely usable with screen reading technology. Furthermore, our commitment to accessibility will extend far beyond the written word. When we produce charts, graphs, and documents with pictures, we will use state-of-the-art technology to make these accessible for the blind.
We value the feedback and active participation of blind people in the development and implementation of the services we provide. In addition to reaching parity on our board and management team, we pledge also to create a working committee of the consumers we serve to meet regularly throughout the year and advise on best practices in our programs and services. The members of this independent advisory committee and the chairperson of the committee will be chosen by the consumers themselves and meet at least quarterly with senior management to build an agency which will continue to grow in responsive, relevant and blind-positive ways.