[Nfbmt] Some thoughts On Washington Seminar 2016

[d m gina]

I have a friend who got one of those it would decide it was time to go 
to 90 degrees when it was 105 outside.
or in the winter it would turn on the air.
She had someone come look at it several times to where she disconnected 
it and went to the turning knob again.
To sad.
Glad you had a swell time, not only to get to know each other better, 
but to enjoy yourselves as well.
I hope next winter will be kinder to one and all.

Original message:
> 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>



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