[NFBF-L] My resignation

[Mark Tardif]

I certainly understand your concerns, but I’m going to put up a friendly challenge to what you have said.  And please keep in mind that what I am going to say is just my opinion.  Concerning last year’s convention, the elevator systems in both hotels were a challenge and took some patience getting used to.  But I actually found the system to be quite accessible once you knew what to do.  The elevators even spoke to you if you pushed that long button at the bottom of the key pad.  I think that’s a whole lot better than listening for a door to open and hoping that this particular car was going up or down.  Street intersections and traffic patterns in many cities are becoming more complex and, well, crazy, so that does seem to be an area where the national organization has some work to do, researching intersections between hotels and explaining how they actually work.  I would also say, however, that in Houston, the two hotels are connected by an indoor walk through a convention center.  It’s always a terrible thing when someone gets hit by a vehicle, so perhaps further attention to traffic safety should be considered.  But even in the past, we have often had overflow hotels at national conventions.  Take Chicago, 1988 when the main hotel was the magnificent Hyatt but there was at least one overflow hotel, the Executive House Ramada.  And anybody can challenge me on this, but most of the time it seems to work.  I say that, of course, as someone who likes to visit new urban areas.  But I do think that it would be a whole lot fairer, regarding virtual voting, for national to relax that policy.  Yes, as members who take the NFB pledge, we pledge to “abide by its constitution,” so we do have to respect that.  So maybe the thing to do is to phone and email National to see if amendments can be considered in this area.        

Mark Tardif 
Nuclear arms will not hold you. 

From: Lauren Bishop via NFBF-L 
Sent: Saturday, June 03, 2023 12:50 PM
To: NFB of Florida Internet Mailing List 
Cc: Lauren Bishop 
Subject: Re: [NFBF-L] My resignation

  It seems like NFB is no longer considering the needs of its membership. For example, the convention was held in New Orleans. People had difficulty with getting to their hotel rooms because one had to find a keypad and enter the number of the floor. They were trying to travel to, and identify the correct elevator. One was not able to efficiently do that when there were roughly 3000 blind people trying to do the same thing. Furthermore, the exhibit hall was located in another hotel, and people had to cross a complicated intersection to get to that other hotel. I know a seasoned traveler who was struck by a vehicle, trying to cross that street.  This year, the organization has chosen yet another convention location that will prove problematic for a lot of people trying to attend that convention.  If the NFB wants to be an in person organization, they should actually think through things, and endeavor to make the experience equitable.  An organization can’t demand accessibility when they failed to provide it themselves.  




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