[Nfbmt] Some thoughts On Washington Seminar 2016

[Bruce&Joy Breslauer]

Greetings again, Montana Federationists.

 

While it is still fresh in my mind, I want to share some thoughts about the
Washington Seminar I just attended January 25-28, 2016.

 

Here is a short summary of the concerns we brought before the Montana
Senators and Congressman.  More information is available for those interested
at www.nfb.org. Search for Washington seminar.  The fact sheets are also
there, explaining in more detail the concerns we highlighted.

 

1.   the Transitioning to Integrated and Meaningful Employment (TIME) Act,
H.R. 188 - S. 2001, the passage of which would responsibly phase out the use
of Section 14C of the FLSA, thus ending the era of paying subminimum wages to
workers with disabilities.  Vermont and New Hampshire already have done so.
In my opinion, just because you can doesn't mean you should.  See below for a
link to the NBC Rock Center program which aired on June 21, 2013.

 

NBC-Harry Smith exposes Loophole that Allows Goodwill to pay handicapped
employees $0.22 an hour

 

www.nbcnews.com/video/rock-center/52280748

 

2.  the Accessible Instructional Materials in Higher Education Act (AIM HE),
which would provide for the development of voluntary accessibility guidelines
by which institutions of higher learning and technology developers would know
how to comply with current ADA law in order to avoid litigation and make the
higher education environment in the classroom, on the web, and on campus
equally accessible to all students, including those who are blind, visually
impaired, or otherwise print disabled.  See my comment below about our
discussion about what can constitute true accessibility. 

3.   Equal access to air travel for Service Disabled Veterans, HR 2264.
Currently there are veterans who are 100 percent disabled who do not qualify
for space available on military aircraft because they were disabled before
they had a chance to retire.  We want to see those who were disabled before
September 23, 1996, included.  This seems like a no-brainer to me. 

4.  The Marrakesh Treaty, which, when ratified, will facilitate the
cross-border exchange of books in a specialized accessible format for the
blind and otherwise print disabled individuals, similar to what the Chafee
Amendment now does for the United States.  You might think of it as "books
without borders." 

 

So violet Sun Child and I represented the NFB of Montana on Capitol Hill on
Tuesday and Wednesday.  We came into town on Monday the 25th, after the
airports which were closed for the week end due to a monstrous snowstorm were
reopened.  It took a few days for life in D.C. to approximate anything
resembling normalcy.  Most of the government offices and museums were closed
on Tuesday, but we did meet with the staff of Congressman Zinke that day.  I
was going to leave our appointments as had been previously scheduled on
Tuesday, but the senators were not going to be there and either were their
staff members.  Due to violet's suggestion, we were able to arrange to meet
personally with the Senators and their staff members on Wednesday, which is
always preferred.

 

There was going to be a Congressional reception put on by the NFB on Tuesday
evening, but that plan was changed since many of the Congressmen and their
staff members were still trying to get back to town, so the NFB planned a
reception at the hotel for those intrepid souls who made it to the Washington
seminar.  That was a lot of fun.  

 

Our appointments with the Senators were scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, so
on Wednesday morning Violet and I took a break and walked over to the Native
American Museum.  I know that's not its proper title, but the actual title
escapes me at the moment.  It was a really wonderful experience.  We went to
the fourth floor to wander through the exhibits.  The second and third floors
were still close due to the snowstorm.  Since our appointments were not all
on the same day, we had a little down time to relax a bit and enjoy ourselves
and not be in such a rush.  

 

What generally happens at a Washington seminar is that we get to the hotel on
Monday in time to gather in the evening for what they call The Great
Gathering In, which is when we all come together, perhaps meet a
Congressperson or two, familiarize ourselves once again with the issues we
have been studying up on, and go over some pointers concerning how we want to
present these issues to the Senators and Representatives with whom we will be
meeting, and generally get jazzed up for the hard work we will be doing
during the next few days.  Then the next two or three days consist of keeping
our scheduled appointments, and coming together each evening to discuss what
went well, what didn't, what questions we had good answers for, and what
questions we were asked that we didn't know how to answer.  Then we leave a
report of whether the people we spoke with were ready or willing to sponsor
or cosponsor a bill that either has already been presented or soon will be,
or whether they were undecided or had questions.  Then the National team and
the Washington Seminar delegate and alternate from each state follows up with
each state's Senators and Representatives to see if we can answer their
questions or address their concerns and move them from the "no" column closer
to the "yes" column.  

 

Then during the year it is up to us all to keep our concerns on their radar
screens, tweeting them, showing up at town hall meetings and other
meet-and-greet opportunities in the local cities and towns in each state, and
generally doing whatever we can to get a commitment concerning these
important issues.  It's very important work.

 

A discussion was held one evening after the day's work to illustrate what
accessibility is, because often companies or employers or institutions of
higher learning do not know.  The illustration went like this:  

 

Jon and Jane Blindfolk bought a talking thermostat for their home from the
Talking thermostat Company, assuming that since it said it was accessible to
the blind and that it talks that it truly would be accessible.  They brought
it home and had it installed, only to find out that it was not accessible to
them, meaning they could not program or use it independently without
assistance.  So they wrote a letter to the company and contacted them on
FaceBook and Twitter, and eventually got hold of the CEO on the phone.  Jane
Blindfolk explained that they had bought a talking thermostat from his
company and that it was not accessible to them.  "What do you mean it's not
accessible?" asked the CEO>  "It talks, doesn't it?"

 

Jane Blindfolk agreed that it did talk, but that didn't mean it was
accessible.  She asked the CEO if he had an IPhone.  He said he did.  So she
explained to him how to turn on Voiceover, and then put it through its paces,
showing him all the marvelous things she could do with her accessible IPhone.
He was so impressed that he said he was going to go back to the drawing board
concerning his supposedly accessible talking thermostat, and make sure that
his new and improved model would truly be accessible, now that he had a
better understanding of what accessibility is. 

 

Your NFB at work.

 

Joy Breslauer, President

National Federation of the Blind of Montana 

Address: P.O. Box 1325, Great Falls, MT 59403 

Phone: (406) 454-3096

Email: president at nfbofmt.org

Web Site: www.nfbofmt.org

 

Live the life you want 

 

The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the
characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise the
expectations of blind people, because low expectations create obstacles
between blind people and our dreams. You can live the life you want;
blindness is not what holds you back.

 

It's TIME to Eliminate Subminimum Wages for People with Disabilities

http://www.nfb.org/TIME

 

Donate to the National Federation of the Blind of Montana
<http://www.nfbofmt.org/donate.html>