[nfbmi-talk] check out final resolve clause

[joe harcz Comcast]

I suggest this is NFB MI business as are all access and civil rights issues facing the blind of Michigan!


Now we've seen  where the Director of MAHS has not only violated the rights of the blind, but also has effectively and in writing, in the state plan taken over MCB and established himself as the final agency decision maker on ALJ complaints.

Check out this unfulfilled and non-implemented NFB MI resolution past unanimously at our last state convention. And check out the last sentence.,

Has this been done?

Joe Harcz

RESOLUTION 2011-02
RIGHT TO DUE PROCESS ADMINISTRATIVE HEARINGS
 

            WHEREAS, all entities of State and local government are required to follow the effective communications requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, including the obligation to affirmatively, let alone upon request, remit information sin alternate formats to people who are blind; and

 

            WHEREAS, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 requires that all recipients of federal funds provide auxiliary aids and services to those who are blind; and

 

            WHEREAS, the United States Supreme Court found in Tennessee v Lane that state and local courts are not immune from these obligations and, indeed, have high responsibilities in these regards, for lack of access fundamentally denies “due process and equal protection under the law”; and

 

            WHEREAS, the Michigan Administrative Hearing Systems (MAHS) is both a Title II entity, federal fund recipient and an administrative law program where blind Business Enterprise Program participants and advocates, as well as others, routinely appear to seek justice and receive due process and equal protection under laws, including Public Act 260 of 1978 as well as major aspects of the Rehabilitation Act; and

 

            WHEREAS, MAHS, in documented fashion and principals therein, have denied advocates and respondents who are blind repeatedly information in accessible formats and in a timely manner; and

 

            WHEREAS, these are systemic, chronic, pervasive and fundamental violations of the civil rights of all Michigan citizens who are blind, as a class, by failure to act affirmatively in these regards; and

 

            WHEREAS, the Michigan Commission for the Blind has also been complicit in not only ensuring that MAHS follows these laws, but rather, has repeatedly violated these very same provisions of the law in these administrative proceedings which are in and of themselves conscious and malicious acts of discrimination perpetuated repeatedly against numerous blind individuals;

 

            NOW THEREFORE, be it resolved by the National Federation of the Blind of Michigan in convention assembled on November 6, 2011 in the City of Kalamazoo, Michigan that forthwith, the National Federation of the Blind of Michigan will lodge a Complaint against the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (MAHS’s parent), MAHS, and The Michigan Commission for the Blind within the United States Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Disability Rights Section, and the civil rights office of the United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Michigan.

 

            AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the NFB-MI will seek any legal support in these matters from other resources, including our National office.