[nfb-talk] Letter To Congressman Cummings:

[Kenneth Chrane]

Dear Congressman Cummings:







As an American who is concerned about equal opportunities for people with 
disabilities in our society, I wish to draw your attention to an important 
incident in the Department of Education Office for Special Education 
Programs.  The DOEd is normally the only source of funding for audio 
description for educational videos for classrooms.  Audio description is a 
critical accessibility accommodation for students with visual impairments to 
be able to acquire vital information from the videos used in classrooms in 
K-12 education.  The DOEd did not offer new competition grants for audio 
description in 2008, but did announce new competition grants for audio 
description for 2009.  Suddenly, without explanation, on or about March 10, 
2009, when the application period was set to begin, the new grants suddenly 
disappeared from the DOEd website.



I join hundreds of other interested organizations and individuals in 
demanding reinstatement of these grants which not only provide equal access 
to education for blind students but also provide jobs for disabled 
professionals in media production.  I also request an investigation into the 
circumstances that lead to the sudden apparent cancellation of these grants.



I am aware that the DOEd budget was recently doubled with a $100 BILLION 
appropriation in the reinvestment Act, and these grants would only cost 
between $2.5 Million and $12.5 million.  Clearly, if education is the 
priority that the new budget would suggest, then blind students should not 
be eliminated from the large number of students who will undoubtedly benefit 
from such spending.



Below, I have included language from the DOEd website concerning these 
grants for your reference.



Sincerely,

Kenneth Chrane

The following information was listed on the Department of Education's 
Forecast of

Funding Opportunities.

Program Office:

Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP)

CFDA Number: 84.327

Program Type: Discretionary/Competitive Grants, Contracts, Cooperative 
Agreements

Also Known As:

Technology and Media Services for Individuals with Disabilities; also known 
as Special

Education-Technology Development, Demonstration, and Utilization; Media 
Services;

and Instructional Materials.

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

The purpose of this program is to: (1) improve results for children with 
disabilities

by promoting the development, demonstration, and use of technology; (2) 
support educational

media services activities designed to be of value in the classroom setting 
to children

with disabilities; and (3) provide support for captioning and video 
description that

is appropriate for use in the classroom setting.

TYPES OF PROJECTS

This program supports technology development, demonstration, and 
utilization. Educational

media activities, such as video descriptions and captioning of educational 
materials,

also are supported.