[Nfbc-info] ACTION ALERT: Support AB 947

[Shannon Dillon]

Hi Everyone,
The Northern California Association of Orientation & Mobility
Specialists (N-CAOMS), in collaboration with the California Council
for the Blind, has developed AB947 to make sure visually impaired
students in California schools get the services they need.  Please
support this bill!  Read the Action Alert and forward this email to as
many people as you can.

ACTION ALERT!
California Association of Orientation & Mobility Specialists (CAOMS)
caomsfape at gmail.com

Urgent Support Needed for Assembly Bill 947

AB 947 supports access to the Expanded Core Curriculum (ECC) and
Orientation & Mobility Instruction in Home and Community Environments
for Students with Visual Impairments!

California Assembly Member Sharon Quirk-Silva, Democrat representing
District 65 in Orange County, has introduced AB947.  This bill may be
heard in committee on March 23, 2019.
Link to the bill:  https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB947/2019

PLEASE Contact your State Assembly Member
and State Senator before March 23rd and
ask them to support AB 947

*Find your California Legislators:  http://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov/
*Please let Assembly Member Sharon Quirk-Silva know you have contacted
your state legislators in support of AB 947 at this link.

Sample letter:

Dear Assembly Member/Senator
I urge you to support for AB 947, which promotes visually impaired
students’ access to the expanded core curriculum (ECC), including
instruction in orientation and mobility (O&M), the use of braille or
large print media, assistive technology, socialization, independent
living, and sensory efficiency. Because children with visual
impairments do not have the same opportunities for visual learning
that sighted students have, they require specialized instruction in
these areas. I am a mobility teacher for blind and visually impaired
students in the school system.  I am very concerned about the
restrictions that many school districts impose which prevent blind and
visually impaired students from receiving adequate assessment and
instruction in the ECC. Some students need lessons in the ECC before
or after school hours so it won’t conflict with academic instruction.
Many school districts limit ECC instruction to school hours even
though they permit the student body to receive other school-sponsored
supplemental academic instruction and athletic, social or recreational
activities outside of school hours. Many school districts limit off
campus O&M instruction. This prevents many students with visual
impairments from learning the concepts and skills they need to travel
safely and independently in home and community environments as adults.
Visually impaired adults need to be able to access mass transit and
travel complex travel routes if they are going to have a chance to be
independent, successfully employed adults. To develop these essential
O&M skills, students who are blind or visually impaired must have
exposure to, and training in, a wide variety of settings to develop
conceptual understandings of all the environmental features they may
encounter in residential and urban areas. Your support of AB 947 will
help ensure that students with visual impairments have access to
training they require and are legally entitled to get.










-- 
SHANNON L. DILLON
Secretary and Legislative Coordinator
National Federation of the Blind
of California
The National Federation of the Blind is a community of members and
friends who believe in the hopes and dreams of the nation’s blind.
Every day we work together to help blind people live the lives they
want.
www.nfbcal.org