[Nfbv-announce] NFB Legislative Update from Richmond

[Tracy Soforenko]

Hi Virginia Fedderationists:

 

I want to provide an update on legislation in the Virginia General Assembly.
I apologize for the long note.

 

After more than 30 Federationists representing 6 of our chapters
participated in the Richmond Seminar, we were off to a good start. However,
I believe this year presents a mixed result.

 

A) Literacy Assessment Dies in Appropriations Sub-Committee

 

Our Literacy assessment Bill (HB 1325) was sent from the House Education
sub-committee to the House Appropriations K-12 sub-committee. The initial
Fiscal Impact Statement outlining the cost to the state was very positive -
No Cost. At our urging, the Department of Education conducted training in
2014 so further training was not required. This was a positive result.
However, the Appropriations committee wanted to understand the potential
impact to local school divisions. While many jurisdictions stated that the
legislation would have no impact, one school division stated that while they
had many students who were blind or low vision, none of their students were
learning Braille. If HB 1325 was passed, they would need to hire a teacher
who could teach Braille, embossers and assistive technology. 

 

Oddly enough, this is our exact argument. There are many students for who,
if they had a research based assessment that compared their reading skills
to those of their sighted peers and considered their current and future
needs, would benefit from Braille.

 

Unfortunately, we learned that the legislation would be before the
sub-committee the night before the morning meeting. No one was able to
attend the meeting the very next morning. As a result, when the committee
asked who is being harmed by the current legislation, there was no one who
spoke up for our blind students.  Our Richmond Seminar advocacy to the
committee members had not armed the committee members with sufficient
information and without a representative from the NFB, the bill died.

In my opinion, if we are going to invest in moving legislation forward, we
need resources ready to react in Richmond with short notice. We can discuss
this topic at our May 2 Board Meeting.

 

B) Transportation Network Company Legislation - A partial success

 

We had 2 goals regarding the legislation regulating services such as Uber
and Lift: Access for passengers with guide dogs and accessible technology.

 

HB 1662 originally had very specific language requiring drivers to accept
passengers with guide dogs and held the Transportation network Companies
accountable to enforce this requirement. The language was revised to state
that drivers must comply with the Americans with Disabilities and Virginians
with Disabilities Act. I preferred the more explicit language but the
Virginians with Disabilities act is pretty good. 

We were not able to integrate a requirement that the technology is
accessible into the bill.

 

The legislation is still in conference but the bill will include a means to
file complaints. If you are denied a ride with your service animal or find
the technology to be inaccessible, please file a complaint. We will provide
details on how to file a complaint once this information is available. We
will also need the details so we can build a case for revisions and
clarifications to the legislation in next year's legislative session.
Depending on the results from the conference committee, there may be an
advisory panel. If a panel is included in the final bill, we will push hard
to have a representative on the panel.

 

On both of these topics, we have a really compelling message. I am confident
that our continued advocacy will prevail. We will keep you posted and thank
you for your efforts.

 

Please feel free to reach out to me if you have further questions.

 

Tracy Soforenko

First Vice president, NFV of Virginia

Tracy.soforenko at gmail.com

202 285-4595