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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>In case anyone needs a refresher on NFB philosophy, President Mark Riccobono expressed it well in his opening speech to the Great Gathering-In on February 10 at the Washington Seminar. You will find this in the April 2020 Braille Monitor.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText>Why have we gathered here this evening? President Barack Obama said, "Change will not come if we wait for some other person or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek." President John F. Kennedy said, "Change is the law of life, and those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future."<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>We, the blind of this nation, have come from near and far to take a stand for our future. We have come to stand for equality, opportunity, and security. We have come seeking not to be cared for by our government but to share in the responsibilities of building our nation. The blind have come because for too long we have suffered the injustice of low expectations. We stand together because we are not satisfied with the second-class education we have been offered compared to our sighted peers. We stand together because our independence is threatened by the failure of manufacturers and technology developers to include nonvisual access in their products. We stand together because we represent blind individuals from every state in the nation who seek to be the change needed. In standing together we raise expectations and eliminate the obstacles that hold us back.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>We stand together in rejecting the institutionalized systems of discrimination that have existed in the past and often continue to define the present. We stand together with hope for the future. We<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText> stand together in solidarity, supporting the conviction that blindness is not the characteristic that defines us or our future. We stand together even in the year when vision is being celebrated by every<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText> agency and organization that believes that the future is exclusively defined by eyesight. We stand together for the 2020 view on blindness, one that is defined by our authentic experience, and where we are the change we seek. We stand together knowing that united we can change the world. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>To those who say we are unrealistic and should compromise our values, take note: we stand together, and we will not back down!<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>In 2018 the Office for Civil Rights of the United States Department of Education arbitrarily changed its case processing manual to strip away the protections that we had to make sure that we could file complaints if we faced discrimination in education. The National Federation of the Blind took a stand against the government deciding on its own and without notice to take away our rights, and we invited the AACP and the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates to stand with us. The government does not get to decide when we have rights and when we do not simply because it is not prepared to deal with the barriers that stand between blind people and our dreams. As a result of our lawsuit, the Department of Education voluntarily returned to some of its previous policies; however, they did so with no guarantee that they would not make changes again in the future. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>Just a few days ago we announced a settlement agreement with the United States Department of Education Office for Civil Rights. As a part of that settlement agreement, anyone who filed an OCR complaint that was dismissed between March 5, 2018, and November 19, 2018, may appeal the dismissal, thanks to the work of the National Federation of the Blind. The United States Department of Education now knows that we stand together, and we will not back down. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>Michelle Clark is an information technology specialist with the United States Department of Agriculture. Ironically, part of her duties include Section 508 coverage for the agency. Michelle faced significant discrimination due to inaccessible workplace technologies. The National Federation of the Blind assisted her in resolving her employment discrimination complaint and in filing a Section 508 complaint against the Department of Agriculture. The evidence that we provided was overwhelming. The department was forced to investigate its adherence to Section 508 and ultimately found against itself. Specifically it found that, in procuring and implementing inaccessible technology, it had violated federal law.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>We have also stood with Amy Ruell and Joe Orozco in filing lawsuits against their employers, Beacon Health Options and the FBI respectively, because those institutions have implemented inaccessible workplace technologies that prevent blind people from being fully independent in their jobs. Similarly, we have supported NFB member Maryann Murad in filing a suit against Amazon for implementing inaccessible workplace technology that prevented her from being hired as a virtual customer assistant using Amazon's platform. We offered to help Amazon fix its platform, but instead they said that maybe Miss Murad should "apply for a more appropriate position."<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>We support these blind individuals and others to let all employers know that the future we seek is one in which the technologies do not bar us from full participation. We stand together, and we will not back down.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>Similarly, in such an important election year, we face discrimination in voting. Let any elected official who supports unequal access to the American democracy that bars blind people from having a secret, independently verifiable ballot know that we will find a way to organize, and our votes will count against you. On the issue of equal access to voting, we stand together, and we will not back down.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>We have come with solutions. We stand with a clear commitment to demonstrate to others the future we believe is possible. Long ago we recognized that the education system was failing our blind children. The limiting effects of low expectations have held generation after generation of blind youth back. We built training centers in Colorado, Louisiana, and Minnesota to cultivate the capacity that America's education system fails to recognize. But this has not been enough. So, we committed that if they will not teach them, we will teach them ourselves. We started programs in science, technology, engineering, art, and math nearly two decades ago. Now hundreds of blind youth have successfully pursued advanced degrees and careers in the most innovative and cutting edge areas of our American society. Many of those blind people have now come back to teach the next generation in the Federation education program. This commitment was made by blind people standing together for blind people. It was made with love, hope, and determination for the future that we seek to build. For the next generation we stand together, and we will not back down.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>We will not back down because our future is on the line. We have come because we want the future to be built on our terms, not on outdated notions of blindness that have held us back. We have come because we have real solutions to offer, and we are prepared to stand together as long as it takes to get those solutions enacted into law and implemented across the nation. We have come because the National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the characteristic that defines us or our future. Every day we raise the expectations for the blind because low expectations create obstacles between blind people and our dreams. You can live the life you want, and blindness is not what holds you back.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>We stand together with love, hope, and determination. We will not back down because we come to our Washington Seminar to transform dreams into reality. This is the significance of the Washington Seminar. Let's go build the National Federation of the Blind!<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>Please read the current issue or any issue of The Braille Monitor for more stirring, uplifting, and challenging articles like this, and please become an active member of the National Federation of the Blind of Montana so that we can transform our dreams into reality. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>Joy Breslauer, First Vice President<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>National Federation of the Blind of Montana <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>Web Site: <a href="http://www.nfbofmt.org/">http://www.nfbofmt.org</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>Live the life you want</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>The National Federation of the Blind is a community of members and friends who believe in the hopes and dreams of the nation’s blind. Every day we work together to help blind people live the lives they want. </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>