[NFBofSC] Immediate Call to Action: Legislative and Advocacy Committee Effort

[elizabethrouse.nfb at gmail.com]

Hello all,

 

The national office has called on each of us to contact our House of
Representative Congresspeople today! It appears as if the Medical Device
Nonvisual Accessibility Act is to be introduced at the beginning of next
week, and we need to gather original co-sponsors, especially those that help
exemplify bipartisan support for the bill.

 

Please reach out to your Representative's office as soon as possible, urging
them to become an original co-sponsor. You could say something like the
below message:

 

Hello, (name),

 

My name is (your name), and I am a constituent in Representative (Name)'s
district.

 

As a blind South Carolinian, I am contacting you today to urge
Representative (Name) to become an original co-sponsor of the Medical Device
Nonvisual Accessibility Act, which is likely to be introduced in the coming
days.

 

Home-use medical devices are becoming more prevalent but less accessible for
blind Americans. 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 user interface. There are
over 7 million Americans who are living with uncorrectable vision loss,
including more than 1 million Americans who are living with blindness.

 

The Medical Device Nonvisual Accessibility Act will establish nonvisual
accessibility standards for certain home-use medical devices with user
interfaces so that individuals who are blind or who have low-vision can
enjoy the same services with the same privacy, independence, and ease of use
as individuals without vision impairments.

 

Adding nonvisual access to home-use medical devices would allow individuals
who are blind or have low-vision to better meet their essential daily
healthcare needs with independence and ease. Nonvisual access can be
accomplished through means such as screen access technology, audible tones,
tactile markings, and text-to-speech applications. Further, adding
accessibility components to devices is not expensive and is already done in
some items. For example, all Apple items have VoiceOver - a text-to-speech
function. Frequently, a simple audio output or vibrotactile feature can make
a product fully accessible at little to no additional cost for
manufacturers.

 

This piece of legislation will positively impact the lives of so many,
including myself, and I know that promoting the independence and safety of
blind South Carolinians is of the utmost importance to Representative
(Name).

 

If Representative (Name) would like to cosponsor the Medical Device
Nonvisual Accessibility Act of 2023 or if you or the Representative have any
questions, please contact Gidget Benitez in the office of Representative Jan
Schakowsky at  <mailto:gidget.benitez at mail.house.gov>
gidget.benitez at mail.house.gov.

 

Thank you for helping the blind of South Carolina to live the lives we want.

 

Respectfully,

(Your Name)

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/nfbofsc_nfbnet.org/attachments/20230217/d05ed9b9/attachment.html>