[NFBV-Announce] Virginia General Assembly Legislative Update from the Legislative Committee

[jackibruce6 at gmail.com]

>From Bonnie O'Day, NFBV General Assembly Legislative Director

bonnoday at gmail.com <mailto:bonnoday at gmail.com>  

This email provides a summary of our very successful legislative term with
the Virginia General Assembly. In a nutshell, we had four issues: a hiring
initiative for individuals with disabilities, a bill to require accessible
technology in elementary and secondary schools, a bill requiring all workers
with disabilities to be paid minimum wage, and an increase in the budget for
the Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired. I am pleased to report
that the hiring initiative passed, and the education technology bill was
referred to a study. We are still waiting to hear about the DBVI budget
increase, and the minimum wage bill died in the House of Representatives. 

Our success is substantially due to robust and enthusiastic participation in
the Richmond Seminar, your follow-up calls to General Assembly members, and
our hardworking legislative committee, consisting of Bonnie O'Day (Chair),
Michael Beattie, Earl Everett, John Halverson, Stewart Prost, Mark Roane,
Tracy Soforenko, and Moe Yousef. Derek Manners provided expert legal advice
and legislative drafting. We provide more details below.

Hiring People with Disabilities. HB710, passed unanimously by the Virginia
General Assembly and signed by the Governor on April 11, adds hiring of
people with disabilities who are otherwise qualified for the job as a
priority for local governments to the existing program for prioritizing the
hiring of Veterans and Veterans with disabilities. It says simply, ".any
locality shall take into consideration or give preference to an individual's
status as an honorably discharged veteran of the Armed Forces of the United
States or status as a person with a disability in its employment hiring
policies and practices, provided that such veteran or person with a
disability meets all of the knowledge, skills, and eligibility requirements
for the available position." Now that the bill is law, we must work with
local human resources departments to educate them about this important
legislation and help to make hiring of people with disabilities by local
governments a reality.

Accessibility of Education Technology. Based upon testimony from parents and
students, we know that school boards are purchasing technology that cannot
be used by students who are blind or have other disabilities. The recent
shift to virtual learning during the pandemic dramatically increased the
access challenges these students face. HB1246, our access to education
technology bill, traversed a long and winding road during the legislative
session. As originally introduced, it required local school boards to
include accessibility requirements in the procurement process for technology
used in public schools and required technology vendors to assume the costs
arising from any lack of product accessibility. This bill was converted to a
study, first conducted by the Virginia Department of Education, and then
changed to the Joint Commission on Technology and Science, which consists of
House and Senate members, and should provide an unbiased report. We will
follow up with the Commission to ensure that the study exposes the problems
blind students face with access to technology and includes our suggested
solutions.

Minimum Wage. HB 676 would eliminate the reference to Section 14(c) in the
Virginia minimum wage law. This would require Virginia employers with a
federal 14(c) certificate to pay workers with a disability at least the
Virginia minimum wage. This bill died in the House, not a surprise since the
lobby supporting payment of sub-minimum wages is quite strong. We will
continue to work with the growing constituency of minimum wage supporters to
ensure that Virginia joins the ten states that already bar the payment of
sub-minimum wages to disabled workers. 

Funding Increase for the Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired
(DBVI). Our request for an increase of $842,000 for rehabilitation services
for blind and low vision adults was included in both the House and the
Senate versions of the budget, but the House and Senate are still working
out final budget details with the Governor. We do not have a definitive
answer as to whether the increase for DBVI will be included in the final
budget.

Thanks to everyone for their hard work during the legislative session. It is
due to your diligence that we experienced such success!

 

Bonnie O'Day

 





 

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