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

[Cory McMahon]

I support it.

-----Original Message-----
From: NABS-L <nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Justin Salisbury via
NABS-L
Sent: Friday, July 17, 2020 3:33 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Justin Salisbury <PRESIDENT at alumni.ecu.edu>
Subject: [NABS-L] Conversation Starter: How do you feel about the agency
pledge resolution?

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.

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