[Nfbmd] {Disarmed} Legislative Agenda of Blind Americans:

Fri Feb 8 00:11:17 UTC 2013

Legislative Agenda of Blind Americans:    

Legislative Agenda of Blind Americans:

Priorities for the 113th Congress, FIRST Session

The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) is the nation's oldest and largest nationwide organization of blind people.  As the voice of the nation's blind, we represent the collective views of blind people throughout society.  All of our leaders and the vast majority of our members are blind, but anyone can participate in our movement.  There are an estimated 1.3 million blind people in the United States, and every year approximately 75,000 Americans become blind.  

The NFB's three legislative initiatives for 2013 are: 

·        The Fair Wages for Workers with Disabilities Act 

This legislation phases out Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, which allows employers to pay disabled workers subminimum wages.  By ending this exploitative, discriminatory practice, disabled Americans will receive equal protection under the law to earn at least the federal minimum wage and reach their full employment potential.   

·        The Technology, Education and Accessibility in College and Higher Education Act 

Electronic instructional materials and related technology have replaced traditional methods of learning in postsecondary settings.  Although it would be inexpensive to create e-books, courseware, applications, and other educational devices and materials in accessible formats, the overwhelming majority of these materials are inaccessible to disabled students.  This bill calls for minimum accessibility standards for instructional materials, ending the "separate but equal" approach to learning.

·        Equal Access to Air Travel for Service-Disabled Veterans (HR 164)

The Space Available Program allows active-duty military, Red Cross employees, and retired members of the armed services to travel on military aircraft if there is space available.  HR 164 reverses the exclusion of 100 percent service-disabled veterans who were discharged before retirement and entitles them to the program's privileges.   

The real problem of blindness is not the loss of eyesight; it is the misunderstanding and lack of information that exist.  Given the proper training and opportunity, blindness can be reduced to a physical nuisance.  Blind Americans need your help to achieve these goals and reach economic security and full integration into society.  Supporting these measures will benefit more than just the blind, as promoting our economic welfare increases the tax base.  We urge Congress to hear our demands for equality and support these legislative initiatives.  

Equal Access to Air Travel for Service-Disabled Veterans (HR 164)

The Space Available Program denies 100 percent of

Service-Disabled Veterans the opportunity to participate.

Discharged service-disabled veterans are not entitled to air travel privileges to which other members of the military have access.  The Space Available Program allows members of the active military, some family members, Red Cross employees, and retired members of the armed services to travel on military aircraft if space is available.  However, members of the military who are 100 percent service disabled do not qualify for this program because they do not fall into one of those categories.

This unintentional exclusion denies discharged service-disabled veterans a privilege to which they would be entitled had they not been disabled during service.  Those service members who are disabled during active duty and are medically discharged do not have the chance to stay on active duty or fulfill the twenty years requirement to become qualified for this program.  Had they not been medically discharged, 100 percent service-disabled veterans are likely to have served until retirement. These men and women have earned the right to space-available travel just as others have because they have defended our country.  

Equal Access to Air Travel for Service-Disabled Veterans would:  

Provide travel privileges to totally disabled veterans.  This bill amends Title 10 of the U.S. Code, to permit veterans who have a service-connected, permanent disability rated as total to travel on military aircraft in the same manner and to the same extent as retired members of the Armed Forces entitled to such travel. 

HONOR OUR SERVICE-DISABLED VETERANS WITH 

PRIVILEGES THEY ARE ENTITLED TO.

Cosponsor HR 164.

To cosponsor the bill, contact:

Mirium Keim, Legislative Assistant

Office of Congressman Bilirakis (R-FL)

Phone: (202) 225-5755 email: mirium.keim at mail.house.gov

For more information contact:

Jesse Hartle, Government Affairs Specialist

National Federation of the Blind

Phone: (410) 659-9314, Extension 2233 email: jhartle at nfb.org

The Fair Wages for Workers with Disabilities Act of 2013

Current labor laws unjustly prohibit workers with disabilities 

from reaching their full socioeconomic potential.

Written in 1938, Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) discriminates against people with disabilities by allowing the secretary of labor to grant Special Wage Certificates to employers, permitting them to pay workers with disabilities less than the minimum wage.  Despite enlightened civil rights legislation prohibiting discrimination on the basis of disability, this antiquated provision is still in force, with some disabled workers making only three cents an hour. 

The subminimum wage model actually benefits the employer, not the worker. Subminimum wage employers receive taxpayer and philanthropic dollars because the public believes they are providing training and employment for people with disabilities.  The executives use the substantial proceeds to compensate themselves with six-figure salaries on the backs of disabled workers they pay pennies per hour.  People who raise their own standard of living while taking advantage of those who do not have the same rights as every other American are engaging in discrimination, not charity.  

This discrimination persists because of the myths that Section 14(c) is:

Myth 1.a compassionate offering of meaningful work.  Although the entities that engage in this practice demand the benefits that come from being recognized as employers, subminimum wage work is not true employment.   These so-called employers offer days filled with only repetitive drudgery for which workers are compensated with third-world wages, leading disabled employees toward learned incapacity and greater dependence on social programs.

Myth 2.an employment training tool for disabled workers. Fewer than 5 percent of workers with disabilities in subminimum wage workshops will transition into integrated competitive work.  In fact data show that they must unlearn the skills they acquire in a subminimum wage workshop in order to obtain meaningful employment.  Therefore Section 14(c) is a training tool that perpetuates ongoing underemployment.

Myth 3.a controversial issue among the disability community.  More than fifty disability-related organizations and counting support the repeal of Section 14(c) of the FLSA, and many former subminimum wage employers have abandoned the use of the Special Wage Certificate without terminating anyone.  Only entities profiting from this exploitive practice refuse to acknowledge that it is discrimination.   

The Fair Wages for Workers with Disabilities Act of 2013:  

Discontinues the practice of issuing Special Wage Certificates.  The secretary of labor will no longer issue Special Wage Certificates to new applicants.  

Phases out all remaining Special Wage Certificates over a three-year period.  Entities currently holding Special Wage Certificates will begin compensating their workers with disabilities at no less than the federal minimum wage, using the following schedule:  

·        private for-profit entities' certificates will be revoked after one year; 

·        public or governmental entities' certificates will be revoked after two years; and 

·        nonprofit entities' certificates will be revoked after three years.  

Repeals Section 14(c) of the FLSA.  Three years after the law is enacted, the practice of paying disabled workers subminimum wages will be officially abolished, and workers with disabilities will no longer be excluded from the workforce protection of a federal minimum wage.  

STOP THE DISCRIMINATION.

Create opportunities for real work at real wages.

Cosponsor the Fair Wages for Workers with Disabilities Act.

For more information contact:

Anil Lewis, Director of Advocacy and Policy

National Federation of the Blind

Phone: (410) 659-9314, Extension 2374    email: alewis at nfb.org

The Technology, Education, and Accessibility 

in College and Higher Education Act (TEACH)

Inaccessible technology in the classroom creates a separate-but-equal 

approach to learning that discriminates against disabled students. 

The evolution of technology has fundamentally changed the education system.  The scope of instructional materials used to facilitate the teaching and learning process at institutions of higher education has expanded.  Curricular content comes in the form of digital books, PDFs, webpages, etc.; and most of this content is delivered through technology such as courseware, library databases, digital software, and applications. These advancements have revolutionized access to information, but the majority of these materials are partially or completely inaccessible to students with disabilities. 

Barriers to access for disabled students create a separate-but-equal approach to learning.   According to a 2009 Government Accountability Office report, approximately 10.8 percent of students enrolled in postsecondary institutions had some disability.  The mass deployment of inaccessible electronic instructional materials creates barriers to learning for millions of disabled students.  When a website is not compatible with screen-access software, a blind student is denied access to online course information; if nondisabled students are using an inaccessible e-reader, a student who cannot read print has to petition the school for an accessible device and thus potentially different content.  This approach to access is discriminatory and places unnecessary barriers in the way of students with disabilities.  

Technology exists to remedy this discrimination, but postsecondary institutions are not investing in accessibility.   Innovations in text-to-speech, refreshable Braille, and other technologies have created promise for equal access for disabled students; yet an unacceptable number of postsecondary institutions do not make it a priority to purchase accessible technology.  Schools are buying inaccessible instructional materials and then separate, accessible items on an ad-hoc basis for students with disabilities.  Some resort merely to retrofitting the inaccessible technology, which sometimes makes accessibility worse.  Until postsecondary institutions harness their purchasing power, the market for accessible instructional materials will remain limited, and disabled students will continue to be left behind. 

Equality in the classroom is a civil right.   Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability.  The deployment of inaccessible instructional materials violates these laws.  

Technology, Education, and Accessibility in College and Higher Education Act:  

Develops accessibility guidelines for instructional materials.  The Access Board will consult experts and stakeholders to develop technical specifications for electronic instructional materials and related information technologies so that those materials are usable by individuals with disabilities.  

Establishes a minimum accessibility standard for instructional materials used by the government and in postsecondary academic settings.  The Department of Justice will implement the guidelines developed by the Access Board as enforceable standards applicable to all departments and agencies of the federal government and institutions of higher education covered in Titles II and III of the Americans with Disabilities Act.  

Promotes competition while ensuring equality.  The guidelines provide guidance to manufacturers on how to develop products that are fully accessible to disabled users, and the required standards will ensure that all colleges, universities, and federal agencies procure and deploy only fully accessible instructional materials, ending the separate-but-equal approach to learning.    

PROTECT EQUALITY IN THE CLASSROOM.

Cosponsor the Technology, Education, and Accessibility

 in College and Higher Education Act (TEACH).

For more information contact:

Lauren McLarney, Government Affairs Specialist

National Federation of the Blind

Phone: (410) 659-9314, Extension 2207    email: lmclarney at nfb.org

Sincerely,

Kenneth Chrane

.

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