[Nebraska-students] Fwd: [Nfb-legislative-directors] Schools out against the TEACH Act!

[Tony Olivero]

All:

The following message comes from Lauren McClarney who has been heading
up national advocacy efforts relating to the TEACH act. Please take a
moment and contact your congressional representatives to express our
support for this act. As always, we are emphasizing the creation of
guidelines (not regulations) which will provide schools and technology
developers with ideas on how to make their products accessible.

If you would like to call or tweet our deligation, information is
below. If you want to write a letter, feel free to send it to me and I
will get it to the right person in each representatives office.
Students, please ensure you take a few moments to express your support
for the TEACH act as it's implementation will impact  your ability to
access your course materials.

Nebraska House Deligation contacts:
NE-1 Jeff Fortenberry, (202) 225-4806, @jefffortenberry
NE-2 Lee Terry, (202) 225-4155, @leeterryne
NE-3, Adrian Smith, (202) 225-6435, @RepAdrianSmith

Please let me know off-list that you have contacted your
representative and feel free to contact me should you have questions.

Regards,
Tony Olivero, Legislative Coordinator
National Federation of the Blind of Nebraska

---Forwarded Message---
Hi Team,

I am writing to urge you to take action on some frustrating news. The
American Council on Education (ACE) is an outspoken lobbying
association that represents colleges and universities; and last
Friday, ACE wrote a letter to Senator Harkin outlining their position
on his proposed higher education draft. In that letter, ACE opposes a
provision modeled, almost verbatim, after the TEACH Act. This is what
ACE said:

"Accessible Instructional Materials (Sec. 931): This provision creates
an impossible to meet standard for institutions and will result in a
significant chilling effect in the usage of new technology. Such a
proposal, if implemented, will seriously impede the development and
adoption of accessible materials, harming the very students it is
intended to assist."

Most of you have hopefully seen President Riccobono's blog
post<https://nfb.org/blog/vonb-blog/unachievable-or-unwanted-why-ace-opposed-accessibility-guidelines>
about this, so you probably already read this and find it puzzling.
The provision does not create any standards, let alone an "impossible
to meet" one, and ACE offers no explanation or data to back up their
claims that this will stifle innovation and result in the opposite
outcome of what the bill intends to do. Even more puzzling, it is in
ACE's best interest to get accessibility guidelines that will make it
easier for them to comply with the law and avoid litigation! The NFB
has tried repeatedly to engage ACE through Congressman Petri, but the
best ACE can offer is this two sentence statement that seemingly makes
no sense. The TEACH Act is almost a year old and is only four pages
long - where is the meaningful analysis and dialogue? We have no
choice, but to assume they are just against finding a solution for
blind students.

Members of Congress are keen to listen to the higher education lobby
at times like this, but blind students are stakeholders too. We cannot
allow this empty statement to carry more weight than our sound,
data-driven position that guidelines are the best solution. The
Members of Congress are returning on Monday, so use this weekend to
mobilize your membership and make calls, send tweets, and email
staffers about this! Below is a model letter, but make it your own. We
have to come back from this recess swinging and ACE's statement is the
perfect springboard for a new wave of advocacy. Let me know how I can
be a tool for you to coordinate this effort, and share with me how it
goes!

Cheers,
Lauren

Sample letter:

Dear [Staffer's name],

I hope you had a nice recess! I am writing on behalf of the National
Federation of the Blind of [Fill in NFB affiliate] about the
Technology, Education and Accessibility in College and Higher
Education Act (S. 2060/H.R. 3505), or TEACH Act. I last reached out on
[fill in prior date], but as a reminder, the TEACH Act offers a
simple, non-controversial solution to the very complicated problem of
inaccessible educational technology and the impact that kind of
discrimination has had on blind college students.

Most offices want to know what schools think about the bill. Last
Friday, the American Council on Education (ACE) sent a letter to
Senator Harkin regarding a provision in his higher education
reauthorization draft that is modeled after the TEACH Act. Their
statement can be found here,
http://www.aascu.org/policy/federal-policy/outreach/LettertoHarkinHEA09292014.pdf,
and they totally missed the mark. It says the provision creates an
"impossible to meet standard," that will chill the usage of new
technology. It goes onto say the provision will do the opposite of
what it intends to do without any data or explanation for how that is
so.

You have asked us challenging questions about this bill, so we hope
you will look at ACE's position with the same critical eye. The TEACH
Act creates voluntary accessibility guidelines that tells schools what
accessibility looks like so they'll know what to demand and how best
to comply with the law; how is this an "impossible to meet standard?"
The bill also incentivizes schools to use those guidelines with a safe
harbor from litigation; isn't this what ACE should want? Our goal is
to stimulate the market, but ACE says guidelines will have the
opposite effect. I hope you will reach out to ACE and demand an
explanation for why this is true and ask if they have a substitute
proposal that might have a better outcome.

We want to improve access for students with disabilities, so we
developed a solution that has widespread support. Fifteen different
groups endorse the initiative, and over fifty Members of Congress have
cosponsored, including your fellow delegates, [fill in delegate
names]. You can see how well-received our solution is by visiting
www.nfb.org/teach. ACE has offered no solution and no public comment
other than this two sentence statement. Who will you side with? I hope
your boss will overlook their rhetoric and come on board as a
cosponsor. Can we count on his/her support?

Sincerely,
[Your name and contact info.]



Lauren McLarney
Government Affairs Specialist
National Federation of the Blind
200 East Wells Street
Baltimore, MD 21230
410.659.9314 ext. 2207

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.