[NFBofSC] Legislation for Washington Seminar zoom meeting Tuesday, January 19 at 8:00 eastern

[Jennifer Bazer]

Sorry about the last message, I have copied and pasted everything. See zoom
information to join call Tuesday at 8:00 p.m. Eastern.

 

The Zoom information can be found below.

 

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Meeting ID: 756 753 1013

 

 

 

Fact Sheet: Medical Device Nonvisual Accessibility Act

Issue--Advanced digital interfaces create barriers that prevent blind
individuals from independently and safely operating home-use medical devices
that are essential to their daily healthcare needs.
  

Home-use medical devices are becoming more prevalent and less accessible for
blind Americans. The rapid proliferation of advanced technology is
undeniable. Most newer models of home-use medical devices, such as glucose
and blood pressure monitors, along with the emergence of in-home devices
that offer medical care options, such as chemotherapy treatments and
dialysis, require that consumers interact with a digital display or other
interfaces. This new technology has been and continues to be developed and
deployed without nonvisual accessibility as an integral part of the design
phase, which creates a modern-day barrier. The inaccessibility of home-use
medical devices is not a mere inconvenience; if accessibility for blind
consumers is omitted from the medical technology landscape, the health,
safety, and independence of blind Americans will be in imminent danger.

Advancements in home-use medical devices have the potential to transform how
people live in society but are currently designed for those with no
functional limitations.1 This flaw in product design limits options for
blind Americans who need nonvisual access to critically important devices
that help them to maintain their health and are available to people without
disabilities.2

Nonvisual access is achievable, as demonstrated by a number of mainstream
products. Apple has incorporated VoiceOver (a text-to-speech function) into
all of their products, making iPhones, Macbooks and Mac desktops, and iPads
fully accessible to blind people right out of the box. Virtually all ATMs
manufactured in the United States are accessible, and every polling place is
required to have a nonvisually accessible voting machine. Frequently, a
simple audio output or vibrotactile feature can make a product fully
accessible at little to no additional cost for manufacturers.

Current disability laws are not able to keep up with advancements due to the
expeditious evolution of medical technology and its incorporation into
home-use medical devices. Although the Americans with Disabilities Act and
other laws require physical accessibility for people with disabilities
(e.g., wheelchair ramps, Braille in public buildings), no laws protect the
blind consumer’s right to technology such as home-use medical devices. The
National Council on Disability concluded that accessibility standards lag
behind the rapid pace of technology, which can interfere with technology
access.3 This trend of inaccessibility will continue if accessibility
solutions are ignored. Only a fraction of medical device manufacturers have
incorporated nonvisual access standards into their product design, while
others continue to resist these solutions.

Solution--Medical Device Nonvisual Accessibility Act:

Calls on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to promulgate nonvisual
accessibility standards for home-use medical devices. The FDA will consult
with stakeholders with disabilities and manufacturers and issue a notice of
proposed rulemaking no later than twelve months after the date of enactment
of the act. No later than 24 months after the date of enactment of the act,
the FDA will publish the final rule including the nonvisual accessibility
standards.

Requires manufacturers of home-use medical devices to make their products
nonvisually accessible. Manufacturers will have twelve months following the
publication of the final rule to ensure that all of the home-use medical
devices they produce are nonvisually accessible. 

Authorizes the FDA to enforce the nonvisual access standards for home-use
medical devices. Any manufactured device found to be out of compliance,
whether by a public complaint to the FDA or by an independent FDA
investigation, will incur the same penalties as failing to meet the same
safety standards as other home-use medical devices.

GOAL--END UNEQUAL ACCESS TO HOME-USE MEDICAL DEVICES FOR BLIND AMERICANS. 

Cosponsor the Medical Device Nonvisual Accessibility Act

 


Fact Sheet: Access Technology Affordability Act


Issue--The cost of critically needed access technology is out of reach for
most blind Americans.


The high cost of access technology creates a difficult economic reality.
Most access technology ranges from $1,000 to $6,000. For example, a leading
screen reader is $900, a popular Braille notetaker is $5,495, one model of a
refreshable Braille display is $2,795, and a moderately priced Braille
embosser is $3,695. According to the United States Census Bureau 69.1
percent of blind Americans are either unemployed or underemployed.1
Consequently, most blind Americans do not have sufficient financial
resources needed to purchase these items.2 These financial barriers can
ultimately lead to a loss of employment, insufficient education, or even
isolation from community activities.

Medical insurance will not cover the cost of access technology. Current
definitions of "medical care," "medical necessity," and "durable medical
equipment" within common insurance policies do not include access
technology. These definitions were adopted in the 1960s “when medical care
was viewed primarily as curative and palliative, with little or no
consideration given to increasing an individual's functional status.”3 Many
states’ Medicaid programs and individual health insurance plans have adopted
similar definitions and likewise will not cover the cost of access
technology.4

Access technology enables blind Americans to participate in today’s
workforce. Blindness is well-defined and measurable,5 but affects each
person differently and at different ages. Since individuals’ needs differ,
manufacturers have designed various tools that enable each blind American to
perform tasks that they were once unable to accomplish themselves due to
their blindness. Braille notetakers are frequently used in schools,
screen-reading software allows workers to check their email at home, and
screen-magnification software can help seniors losing vision learn about
community activities. Access technology equips blind Americans to seek
employment and stay employed. For the 69.1 percent of blind Americans who
are either unemployed or underemployed, it is a vehicle that facilitates the
job seeking process. Despite this critical need, public and private entities
struggle to meet consumer demand.6 This leads to untimely delays in the
delivery of necessary technology and ultimately harms the blind consumer.


Solution--Access Technology Affordability Act:


Makes access technology more affordable so that blind Americans can procure
these items for themselves. It establishes a refundable tax credit for blind
Americans in the amount of $2,000 to be used over a three-year period to
offset the cost of access technology. The credit created by ATAA will sunset
after five years and will be indexed for inflation.

Provides flexibility for individuals to obtain access technology based upon
their specific needs. Accessibility requires an individualized assessment of
one’s own skills and needs. Therefore, blind Americans should be given the
opportunity to procure access technology on their own to ensure that they
are receiving the tools that are most useful for them.

Will increase federal income tax revenue. More blind Americans working means
more people paying taxes. It also means that those blind Americans who
obtain gainful employment through this tax credit will no longer need to
draw from federal programs such as Supplemental Security Income or Social
Security Disability Insurance and will instead be paying into the Social
Security Program. 
GOAL--IMPROVE AFFORDABILITY OF CRITICALLY NEEDED ACCESS TECHNOLOGY NECESSARY
FOR EMPLOYMENT AND INDEPENDENT LIVING.


Cosponsor the Access Technology Affordability Act (ATAA)


To cosponsor the ATAA in the House of Representatives, contact:
Crozer Connor, Senior Legislative Assistant for Congressman Mike Thompson
(D-CA) 
Phone: 202-225-3311, Email: crozer.connor at mail.house.gov
<mailto:crozer.connor at mail.house.gov> 

To cosponsor the ATAA in the Senate, contact:
Ryan Losak, Legislative Aide for Senator John Boozman (R-AR)
Phone: 202-224-4843, Email: Ryan_Losak at boozman.senate.gov
<mailto:Ryan_Losak at boozman.senate.gov>  

 


Fact Sheet: Accessible Websites Act


Issue--Websites are required by law to be accessible, but without
implementing regulations most businesses and retailers have little
understanding of what accessible means.
  


Websites and mobile applications are an essential part of modern living.
More than 313 million Americans use the internet,1 and 81 percent of
Americans say that they access the internet at least once each day.2 That
means that nearly the entire country is accessing websites and mobile
applications every day. However, the need to access websites and mobile
applications doesn’t stop when it reaches Americans with disabilities.
According to the American Community Survey, conducted by the United States
Census Bureau, there are approximately forty million Americans who currently
have a disability.3 Based on the numbers above, it is more than reasonable
to assume that the vast majority of them are using websites and mobile
applications. 

The Department of Justice announced its intention to publish accessible
website regulations more than a decade ago. On July 26, 2010, the twentieth
anniversary of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the
government published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking to address
website accessibility.4  After that initial announcement, no further action
was taken to substantially advance website accessibility. 

The past few years have seen a significant increase in the prevalence of
so-called “click-by” lawsuits. Businesses are required by law to make their
websites accessible but claim to have no clear-cut definition of what
“accessible” actually means. Meanwhile, people with disabilities must cope
with inaccessible websites. ADA Title III lawsuits, which include website
accessibility suits, hit record numbers in 2019, topping 11,000 for the
first time.5  The number of lawsuits has been increasing steadily since
2013, when the figure was first tracked.6  


Solution--Accessible Websites Act will:


Direct the US Access Board to promulgate accessibility regulations. The US
Access Board will have 12 months following the enactment of the legislation
to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking regarding website and mobile
application accessibility, then an additional 12 months to issue the final
rule. 

Promulgate standards that strive to harmonize with Section 508 standards.
The Section 508 standards promulgated by the US Access Board on January 18,
2017, are established guidelines for website and technology accessibility.
Therefore, the regulations promulgated by the Access Board should harmonize
with these standards. 

Empower the Department of Justice to investigate the accessibility of
websites and mobile applications. Either of its own volition or via a logged
complaint pertaining to inaccessibility, the Department of Justice will have
the authority to investigate accessibility concerns and commence civil
action if necessary. 

GOAL--END WEBSITE AND MOBILE APPLICATION INACCESSIBILITY FOR BLIND
AMERICANS. 


Sponsor the Accessible Websites Act


 


Fact Sheet: Accessible Voting Act


Issue--The constitutionally protected right to vote that is available to all
Americans is inaccessible for blind Americans.


Current federal election law does not reflect the guarantee of equal access
to voting for people with disabilities that is codified in Title II of the
Americans with Disabilities Act (42 U.S.C. §12132). The Help America Vote
Act (HAVA) ensures that polling locations for federal elections have at
least one voting system accessible to individuals with disabilities.1
However, the ballots produced by many of the accessible voting machines are
different in size and content from the hand marked ballots, resulting in a
lack of secrecy when only voters with disabilities use the accessible
machines.

Untrained poll workers, voting machine malfunctions, and the lack of
accessible voting machines in polling places prevent blind and low-vision
voters from fully exercising their right to vote. The blind and low-vision
voter survey conducted by the National Federation of the Blind following the
2020 general election2 found that 27 percent of blind and low-vision voters
who voted using an accessible voting machine said the machine was not set up
and operating when they arrived at the polls. One-quarter of the voters who
completed the survey in 2020 said that poll workers had problems setting up
or operating the machine. Fifteen percent of survey respondents in 2020 who
marked their ballot using an accessible machine said that poll workers did
not provide clear instructions on how to use the machine.

Paper absentee ballots cannot be completed privately and independently by
blind voters. An accessible way for blind, low-vision, or other
print-disabled voters to privately and independently mark their ballots must
be provided, as required by Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act
(ADA), and affirmed by federal courts. 3, 4 However, blind and
print-disabled voters cannot mark and submit a paper absentee or
vote-by-mail ballot privately and independently. For the 2020 general
election, only twenty-six states provided an accessible way for blind voters
to mark an absentee ballot.5 

Paper voter registration and absentee ballot request forms are inaccessible
to blind voters. Due to the inherent inaccessibility of paper forms, blind
and low-vision voters must complete these forms with assistance. In
addition, many online versions of these forms are inaccessible with
screen-access technology. A 2015 report by the American Civil Liberties
Union found that in 2014, only one state had an online voter registration
form that was fully accessible.6 Additionally, a 2020 audit of online
absentee ballot request forms by Deque Systems found that forty-three states
had forms that were not fully accessible.7  


Solution--Accessible Voting Act will:


Ensure that in-person voting is accessible for blind and low-vision voters,
in a manner that provides the same opportunity for access and participation
(including privacy and independence) as for other voters. Registering to
vote and voting must require the exclusive use of accessible and universally
designed processes, including electronic ballot marking devices for all
voters. Ballot marking devices require the same security that other forms of
voting require to ensure the process is safe and fair, and the use of ballot
marking devices at polling locations allows blind and print disabled
Americans to submit their ballots both privately and independently. 
Require the education of state and local election officials and poll workers
in the setup and operation of the machines, including accessibility
features. At a minimum, poll worker training should include instruction on
how to navigate through the audio ballot, how low-vision features operate,
and how to address potential problems with the nonvisual election technology
on Election Day. There must be enough in-person voting locations to make it
practical and reasonable to use this option. In addition, it is equally
important to ensure that the process for registering to vote is nonvisually
accessible (including certification and signature requirements). 
Require that vote-by-mail ballots and related voting materials (including
voter registration) in elections must be accessible for blind and low-vision
individuals. It is important to establish that the process for requesting,
filling out (including certification and signature requirements), and
submitting a vote-by-mail ballot is nonvisually accessible, including
electronic ballot delivery and return. Offering an accessible electronic
ballot delivery system can provide these voters with an equal opportunity to
mark their ballot privately and independently at home using a computer and
their own access technology. 

GOAL--ALL METHODS OF VOTING, INCLUDING REGISTRATION, MUST BE ACCESSIBLE TO
BLIND AND LOW-VISION CITIZENS.


Cosponsor the Accessible Voting Act


 


 


 


 

 

 

 

 

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