[NFBMO] BP Letter follow-up

Gary Wunder GWunder at earthlink.net
Fri Sep 21 20:46:28 UTC 2018


So if your review has been recent or is in the next couple of months, you
are probably going to get the letter. If it is later on this year or in the
next seven or eight months of the following year, you will probably get it
along with your normal review. Am I reading this right?

While I in no way intend to defend the way this is being handled, I do think
it makes a tremendous case for looking at your mail frequently, and by
frequently I mean at least once a week. There are lots of things that we
have been successful in demanding be translated into a format we can handle
directly, but there are still many important items that come in print. We
have done a session or two about this at NFB state conventions, but I think
more blind people than we would believe simply consider print and
inconvenience that they can't handle and shouldn't be expected to. In a more
perfect world perhaps this would be the case, but in the world in which we
live, where so very much can hinge on whether or not we are responsive, I
really do believe each of us needs to think about a way to read and track
incoming mail and to be responsible for the paperwork that leaves our homes.

As some of you know, I have been allowing, or some would say fueling, a war
or a conversation about this in the Braille Monitor. Some people claim that
to use readers is a relic of a bygone era and even that those of us who do
use them are at some level selling out to the kind of accessibility that
blind people deserve. They believe that we should stand firm or in terms of
demanding Braille or large print and that we should boycott or sue any
website or computer application that is difficult or impossible to use with
a screen reader. The counter argument, just as strongly represented in my
mail, is that blind people don't yet have enough efficient access to
information that we can throw tools out of our toolbox. Proponents say that
to be efficient in research, especially where archival materials are
involved, having a cited reader is indispensable. 

It is a wonderful debate, but while we are in the midst of it, let's make
sure that we don't lose access to things that are so vital to us.

Gene, can you verify or refute my understanding that when one is tossed off
blind pension, applying and being put back on can take several months and
that this is true even if you can show that you have qualified for it for
decades and that this new letter was what got you suspended? Thank you.


-----Original Message-----
From: NFBMO [mailto:nfbmo-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Gene Coulter via
NFBMO
Sent: Friday, September 21, 2018 1:35 PM
To: 'NFB of Missouri Mailing List'
Cc: GeneCoulter at Charter.net
Subject: [NFBMO] BP Letter follow-up



I sent an inquiry to the Blind Pension office as a lot of people have
gotten the blind pension driver's license letter and a lot of folks have
not. 
Here is my inquiry to them followed by their response.:
Greetings,
We are aware that some Request For Information forms have been sent out
regarding the driver's license issue. Some folks have received them and
others have not. Were these all sent out at once or they being
staggered? When should everyone expect to receive their form in the mail
(are a quantity being sent out each week or some other method )?
Just inquiring so that no one misses their form and has some idea when
to look for the forms. And, if they have all been sent what do folks,
like myself, need to do if they do not get the form?
Thanks for your guidance.
Eugene Coulter, Social Services Liaison
National Federation of the Blind of Missouri



The Reply:
Forms have been mass mailed to our pending applications and our review
cases for September and October.  The November review forms will have
the question on them and so they will not be sent a form.  We may send a
form at other times while we are completing an action outside of an
application or review.  Otherwise, it may not be until the next review
form that the information is needed.  Does that make sense?
Also, when they do fill them out they need to make sure they sign the
form as we are getting a lot back that are not signed and having to
re-mail.

Kristin Gentry, IMCM


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