[NFBOH-Cleveland] Reminder from President Mark Riccabono

[Cheryl Fields]

Dear Friends:

We need your help to make sure that the clock is not turned back for
blind rehabilitation consumers. The Association for the Education and
Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER) announced at
the end of the summer last year that it was taking over the agency
accreditation program formerly administered by the National
Accreditation Council for Blind and Low Vision Services (NAC). This
would undo the tremendous progress that has been made in allowing the
blind to determine our own destinies and control the programs that
directly influence us.

The former NAC accreditation program did not consider, or serve the
needs of, blind people and was dropped by most agencies. While we
support high standards and certain accreditations, as described in
this Braille Monitor article by Dr. Edward Bell, the NAC program was
based on low expectations of blind people and other flawed principles.

NAC represents the way the world was; the National Federation of the
Blind represents the world of today and the future. We demand a say in
the programs that serve us; we demand to be the ones who evaluate
them. NAC would turn back the clock, but we live in the present and
are actively using our time to shape the future.

We are asking each of you reading this message to do two things:
first, read this article from the January issue of the Braille
Monitor, written by NFB President Mark Riccobono. Next, take one or
more of the actions that President Riccobono outlines at the end of
the article to let AER know that blind people will not stand for the
revival of NAC.

It is time, once and for all, to say #GoodbyeNAC. Help us put the past
behind us and continue building a future where the blind have a say in
the lives we will live.

Sincerely,

Mark A. Riccobono, President
National Federation of the blind





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