[nfbmi-talk] The Macy Act and what it is.

[Fred Olver]

Alena Roberts - Help Celebrate Ann Sullivan Macy by Signing the 
Petition and Contacting Your Representatives to Support the Macy Act

There have been numerous laws put into place over the years to support 
children with vision impairments. Some may say that we have done 
enough, but the number of blind adults that are unemployed is still too

high and the Braille literacy rate continues to fall. The American 
Foundation for the Blind has written a bill called the Macy Act that 
would improve educational standards for visually impaired students and 
add support for teachers and other personnel who work with these
students.
June 27th is the anniversary of Helen Keller's birthday. On that day, 
AFB is asking that everyone who believes in the Macy Act call their 
Senators and Representatives to ask for their support of the bill. Here

is a link that will provide you with phone numbers for contacting your 
members of congress:
http://www.afb.org/blog.aspx?BlogID=7&BlogEntryID=762

AFB has also created a petition for the act that you can sign to show 
your support as well. Sign it by visiting this link

http://www.afb.org/section.aspx?DocumentID=6028&FolderID=3&SectionID=3&T
opicID=138&mode=survey

For those that enjoy reading laws, here is a link to the act in it's 
entirety

http://www.afb.org/section.aspx?DocumentID=6028&FolderID=3&SectionID=3&T
opicID=138

Finally, because this act celebrates the work of Ann Sullivan Macy and 
Helen Keller, here is a link to a video that was recorded in 1930 where

Ann describes how she taught Helen to speak: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv1uLfF35Uw