[Nfbmd] email to my Delegates and Senator regarding HB 287 and SB 491

[Chris Nusbaum]

Hi everyone,

In case any of you would like to read it, here is the email I 
sent to my legislators about SB 491 and HB 287:

Dear Chairmen Frosh and Hammen, Delegates Krebs, Kach, and Ready, 
and Senator Getty:

I am writing to you as both a member of the National Federation 
of the Blind of Maryland and as a concerned blind citizen of 
Carroll County, Maryland, to ask you to support House Bill (HB) 
287 and Senate Bill (SB) 491.  The issue which is the subject of 
this bill is an important one to me and to all blind people in 
the state of Maryland in our efforts to attain equality and 
first-class citizenship in the society of today.

There is a bill currently being debated in the Maryland General 
Assembly which would allow members of minority groups, including 
people who are blind or have other disabilities, to go to state 
court in Maryland in an effort to seek a remedy in cases in which 
we are discriminated against on the basis of our minority status 
in a place of public accommodation.  Too often, blind people are 
discriminated against on the basis of our blindness.  While great 
strides have been made to correct this injustice, there are still 
many instances in which blind people and people with other 
disabilities are discriminated against in places of public 
accommodation because of our disability.  The Americans with 
Disabilities Act (ADA,) passed in 1990, was written and passed to 
protect people with disabilities from discrimination.  However, 
we see instances in which people and businesses have violated 
that law many times.  Today, most of this discrimination is 
caused by a denial of access to the technology which gives people 
who live in today's society access to a very wide range of 
information.  This denial of access is not done purposefully; 
rather, it is caused by the technology in question being 
inaccessible (in other words, unusable) by nonvisual means.  An 
example of this which has effected me as well as many other blind 
people happens in many airports across the country, including 
Baltimore Washington Thuroughgood Marshal (BWI) Airport.  
Airports today use self-service kiosks to allow flyers to check 
in, print their boarding passes, and obtain information about 
their flight all with the touch of a finger.  This technology is 
operated entirely by a touch screen interface which requires 
flyers wishing to interact with it to touch the appropriate 
option on the touch screen with their finger.  This technology, 
however, is inaccessible to blind people.  Therefore, we are 
unable to check in and get our flight information without relying 
on the help of a sighted person to read the information to us and 
interact with the touch screen.  This technology can be made 
accessible, as has been shown by the VoiceOver screen reader 
which Apple has built into its touch-screen-operated iOS devices 
(iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad.) In other words, it is not that 
the technology cannot be made accessible to the blind; it is, 
rather, that it is not being made accessible.

Another example of discrimination against the blind in a place of 
public accommodation which does not have to do with access (or 
lack thereof) to technology happened in 2010.  A group of blind 
people were denied admission to an ice skating rink in Maryland 
on the basis of their blindness.  The owner of the rink had a 
very common misconception about blindness; that is, that blind 
people would somehow get injured or would not be safe in an 
environment like a skating rink, and therefore discriminated 
against the blind.  In another instance, a blind person was 
denied admission to a paintball park because the owner had 
concerns for his safety.  While concern for the safety of another 
person is an honorable and good characteristic, these two 
business owners discriminated against the blind because they 
denied us access to two forms of entertainment just because of 
the characteristic of blindness.  It is the same kind of 
discrimination which African-Americans faced in the segregation 
era when they were denied access to many parts of society for one 
reason and one reason only: because they were African-American.

When a person or group of people experiences discrimination and 
cannot solve the problem in another way, they should be able to 
take the matter to court if necessary.  That includes state court 
in the state of Maryland.  I know, as do members of the National 
Federation of the Blind of Maryland, that minority groups, 
including people who have a disability, are often discriminated 
against in places of public accommodation.  To fix this problem, 
we should be able to go to state court to seek a remedy.  This is 
why we are advocating for the passage of HB 287 and SB 491.  For 
your information, I am attaching the fact sheet which was written 
by the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland regarding 
this bill.  If you have any questions or need more information, 
please contact Sharon Maneki, Chairman of the Legislation and 
Advocacy Committee of the National Federation of the Blind of 
Maryland, by email at nfbmd at earthlink.net.  Please vote in favor 
of HB 287 and SB 491 and help citizens of Maryland who are in a 
minority group remedy discrimination and achieve full first-class 
citizenship.  Thank you for your attention to this important 
issue!

Sincerely,

Chris Nusbaum

I hope this helps some of you when writing your letters!




Chris Nusbaum
Email and Google Talk/Keychat (on the BrailleNote) ID: 
dotkid.nusbaum at gmail.com
Skype: christpher.nusbaum3 or search for Chris Nusbaum

"The real problem of blindness is not the loss of eyesight.  The 
real problem is the misunderstanding and lack of education that 
exists.  If a blind person has the proper training and 
opportunity, blindness can be reduced to a mere physical 
nuisance."
-- Kenneth Jernigan