[Njabs-talk] Issues for washington seminar

[Mary Fernandez]

Hey All. For your information. A brief summary,
basically, one has to do with being safe when walking. (quiet cars)

2. Electronics, such as I'm assuming, microwaves and such should be
designed so that blind users can utilize them.
3. Has to do with SSI, from what I can gather, and i might be
completely wrong, they are trying to let blind people earn more and
take less out of SSI. Don't take my word for it though. So here they
are.



LEGISLATIVE AGENDA OF BLIND AMERICANS:
PRIORITIES FOR THE 111TH CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION


	The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) is the oldest and largest
organization of blind people in the United States.  As the Voice of
the Nation's Blind, we present the collective views of blind people
throughout society.  All of our leaders and the vast majority of our
members are blind, but anyone can participate in our movement.  There
are an estimated 1.3 million blind people in the United States, and
every year approximately 75,000 Americans become blind.  The social
and economic consequences of blindness affect not only blind people,
but also our families, our friends, and our coworkers.

	Three legislative initiatives demand the immediate attention of the
111th Congress in its first session:
1.	We urge Congress to ensure the safety of blind and other
pedestrians by passing the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act.  This
legislation would require the U.S. Secretary of Transportation to:
•	Begin a study within ninety days of its enactment to determine the
most practical means of assuring that blind and other pedestrians
receive essentially similar information to what they now receive from
sound emitted by internal combustion engines;
•	Determine the minimum amount of sound necessary to offer sufficient
information for blind pedestrians to make safe travel judgments based
on appropriate scientific research and consultation with blind
Americans and other affected groups;
•	Within two years of beginning the study, promulgate a motor vehicle
safety standard to address the needs of blind and other pedestrians by
requiring either a minimum level of sound or an equally effective
means of providing the same information as is available from hearing
internal combustion engines; and
•	Apply the standard to all motor vehicles manufactured or sold in the
United States beginning no later than two years after the date it is
promulgated.


2.	We urge Congress to work with blind Americans to create a
Technology Bill of Rights for the Blind that mandates consumer
electronics, home appliances, and office equipment to provide user
interfaces that are accessible through nonvisual means.  This
legislation should:

•	Mandate that all consumer electronics, home appliances, and office
equipment be designed so that blind people can access the same
functions as sighted people through nonvisual means and with
substantially equivalent ease of use;

•	Create a commission comprised of essential stakeholders to establish
standards for nonvisual accessibility of electronic devices intended
for use in the home or office;
•	Endow the commission with enforcement powers or locate it within a
government agency having such powers; and
•	Authorize it to reexamine and rewrite standards to keep pace with
the evolution of consumer electronic technology.

3.	We urge Congress to promote and facilitate the transition by blind
Americans from recipients of Social Security Disability Insurance
benefits to income-earning, taxpaying, productive members of the
American workforce by enacting legislation to:

•	Replace the monthly earnings penalty with a graduated 3-for-1
phase-out (i.e., a $1 reduction in benefits for each $3 earned above
the limit);

•	Replace the monthly earnings test with an annualized earnings test
with an amount equal to twelve times. Substantial Gainful Activity
amount; and

•	Establish an impairment-related work expense deduction for blind
Social Security Disability Insurance beneficiaries equal to the amount
applicable for this deduction when determining an appropriate income
subsidy under Medicare Part D or 16.3 percent of earnings, whichever
is greater.


	For more information about these priorities, please consult the
attached fact sheets.

	Blind Americans need your help to achieve our goals of economic
security, increased opportunity, and full integration into American
society on a basis of equality.  Enactment of these legislative
proposals will represent important steps toward reaching these goals.
We need the help and support of each member of Congress.  Our success
benefits not only us, but the whole of America as well.  In this time
of national economic insecurity, these measures will contribute to
increasing the tax base and encouraging the purchase of consumer
goods.

ENHANCING PEDESTRIAN SAFETY:  ENSURING THE BLIND CAN CONTINUE TO
TRAVEL SAFELY AND INDEPENDENTLY


Purpose:  To require hybrid, electric, and other vehicles to emit a
minimum level of sound to alert blind and other pedestrians of their
presence.

Background:  Until recently independent travel for the blind has been
a relatively simple matter, once a blind person has been trained in
travel techniques and has learned to use a white cane or travel with a
guide dog.  Blind people listen to the sounds of automobile engines to
determine the direction, speed, and pattern of traffic.  Sounds from
traffic tell blind pedestrians how many vehicles are near them and how
fast they are moving, whether the vehicles are accelerating or
decelerating, and whether the vehicles are traveling toward, away
from, or parallel to them.  With all of this information, blind people
can accurately determine when it is safe to advance into an
intersection or across a driveway or parking lot.  The information
obtained from listening to traffic sounds allows blind people to
travel with complete confidence and without assistance. Studies have
shown that sighted pedestrians also use this information when
traveling.

	Over the past few years, however, vehicles that are completely silent
in certain modes of operation have come on the market, and many more
silent vehicles are expected in the near future.  These vehicles are
designed to have many benefits, including improved fuel efficiency and
reduced emissions, but they do not need to be silent in order to
achieve these intended benefits.  An unintended consequence of these
vehicles as they are currently designed is that they will reduce the
independence of blind Americans and endanger the lives, not only of
blind people, but also of small children, seniors, cyclists, and
runners.

	Currently the most popular of these vehicles is the gasoline-electric
hybrid, which alternates between running on a gasoline engine and on
battery power (although a few electric automobiles are already on
America's roads and new all-electric models are planned).  The blind
of America do not oppose the proliferation of vehicles intended to
reduce damage to the environment, but for safety these vehicles must
meet a minimum sound standard.

	On April 9, 2008, Congressmen Ed Towns and Cliff Stearns introduced
H.R. 5734 (the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act of 2008).  This
legislation sought to solve the problem of silent cars by authorizing
a two-year study to determine the best method for allowing blind
individuals to recognize the presence of silent cars, and by requiring
that, two years after the study was completed, all new vehicles sold
in the United States must comply with the solution determined by the
study.  In the 110th Congress, eighty-eight members of the House
cosponsored this legislation.

Need for Congressional Action:  For several years the National
Federation of the Blind has been concerned about the proliferation of
silent vehicles.  Recently automobile manufacturers have acknowledged
the problems posed to blind pedestrians by silent vehicle technology
and have begun to work with the National Federation of the Blind to
seek solutions.  However, federal regulators have indicated that, in
the absence of statistics on injuries or deaths caused by hybrid
vehicles, nothing can be done.  Congress must therefore direct the
Department of Transportation to take action.  It is crucial that this
problem be addressed before the inevitable avalanche of tragedies
involving blind people, small children, seniors, cyclists, runners,
and newly blinded veterans shocks the nation.

Proposed Legislation:  Congressmen Towns and Stearns have reintroduced
the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act to direct the Secretary of
Transportation to conduct a study and establish a motor vehicle safety
standard that provides a means of alerting blind and other pedestrians
of motor vehicle operation, based on appropriate scientific research
and consultation with blind Americans and other affected groups.  This
national motor vehicle safety standard must have the following
characteristics:
•	In all phases of operation (including times when the vehicle is at a
full stop) vehicles shall be required to emit an omni-directional
sound with similar spectral characteristics to those of a modern
internal combustion engine.
•	The sound should vary in a way that is consistent with the sound of
vehicles with combustion engines to indicate whether the vehicle is
idling, maintaining a constant speed, accelerating, or decelerating.
	The standard need not prescribe the apparatus, technology, or method
to be used by vehicle manufacturers to achieve the required minimum
sound level.  This approach will encourage manufacturers to use
innovative and cost-effective techniques to achieve the minimum sound
standard.
	The addition of components to emit a minimum sound discernible by
blind and other pedestrians will not negatively affect environmental
benefits of gasoline-electric hybrids and other automobiles running on
alternate power sources, and the emitted sound need not be loud enough
to contribute to noise pollution.  Automobiles that operate in
complete silence, however, endanger the safety of all of us; silent
operation should be viewed as a design flaw comparable to the lack of
seat belts or air bags.

Requested Action:  Please support blind Americans by cosponsoring the
Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act to authorize the U.S. Department of
Transportation to establish and promulgate regulations specifying a
minimum sound standard for all new automobiles sold in the United
States.  In the House of Representatives, members can be added by
contacting Emily Khoury in Congressman Towns's office, or James Thomas
in Congressman Stearns's office.  In the Senate members can support
independence for blind Americans by sponsoring companion legislation.


Contact Information:
Jesse Hartle
Government Programs Specialist
NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND
Phone:  (410) 659-9314, extension 2233
Email:  jhartle at nfb.org

A TECHNOLOGY BILL OF RIGHTS FOR THE BLIND


Purpose:  To create a Technology Bill of Rights for the Blind that
mandates consumer electronics, home appliances, and office equipment
to provide user interfaces that are accessible through nonvisual
means.

Background:  In recent years rapid advances in microchip and digital
technology have led to increasingly complex user interfaces for
everyday products like consumer electronics, home appliances, and
office equipment.  Many new devices in these categories require user
interaction with visual displays, on-screen menus, touch screens, and
other user interfaces that are inaccessible to individuals who are
blind or have low vision.  No longer are settings on the television,
home stereo system, or dishwasher controlled by knobs, switches, and
buttons that can be readily identified and whose settings can be
easily discerned, with or without the addition of tactile markings by
the user.  Moreover, the use of inaccessible interfaces on office
equipment such as copiers and fax machines makes these devices
unusable by the blind and therefore a potential threat to a blind
person's existing job or a barrier to obtaining new employment.

	This growing threat to the independence and productivity of blind
people is unnecessary since digital devices can function without
inaccessible interfaces.  Today text-to-speech technology is
inexpensive and more nearly ubiquitous than it has ever been; it is
used in everything from automated telephone systems to the weather
forecasting service broadcast by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration.  Indeed, a few manufacturers have incorporated this
technology into their products to create talking menus or to
articulate what is on the display; there is no reason why other
manufacturers cannot do so as well.  And text-to-speech technology is
not the only mechanism by which consumer electronics, home appliances,
and office equipment can be made accessible to blind people.

Need for Legislation:  Currently there are no enforceable mandates for
manufacturers of consumer electronics, home appliances, or office
equipment to make their devices accessible and no accessibility
standards to provide guidance to manufacturers on how to avoid
creating barriers to access by the blind.  Congress should therefore
enact a Technology Bill of Rights for the Blind, which clearly
establishes that manufacturers must create accessible user interfaces
for their products, provide a means for enforcement, and establish
standards that will provide meaningful benchmarks that manufacturers
can use to make their products accessible.

	Congress need not mandate a single, one-size-fits-all solution for
all consumer technology.   Rather any such legislation should mandate
regulations that set meaningful accessibility standards, while at the
same time allowing manufacturers to select from a menu of potential
solutions that, singly or in combination, will allow blind users to
operate the technology easily and successfully.  This will not only
give manufacturers the freedom and flexibility they desire, but
encourage innovations that make consumer technology more usable for
everyone.


Proposed Legislation:  Congress should enact a Technology Bill of
Rights for the Blind that:

•	Mandates that all consumer electronics, home appliances, and office
equipment  be designed so that blind people are able to access the
same functions as sighted people by nonvisual means and with
substantially equivalent ease of use; and

•	Creates a commission to establish standards for nonvisual
accessibility of electronic devices intended for use in the home or
office.  Such a commission should represent all stakeholders,
including organizations of the blind; manufacturers of consumer
electronics, home appliances, and office equipment or associations
representing such manufacturers; and experts on universal design,
electronic engineering, and related fields.  This commission should
have enforcement powers or be housed within a government agency having
such powers (e.g., U.S. Department of Commerce), and should be
authorized to reexamine and rewrite standards periodically, as
consumer electronic technology continues to evolve.

Requested Action:  Please support blind Americans by introducing
legislation to create a Technology Bill of Rights for the Blind (or by
cosponsoring once legislation has been introduced) so that blind
people will be able to participate fully in all aspects of American
society.  Increased access leads to increased independence, increased
employment, and increased tax revenue.



Contact Information:
James McCarthy
Government Programs Specialist
NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND
Phone:  (410) 659-9314, extension 2240
Email:  jmccarthy at nfb.org

REMOVING THE EARNINGS PENALTY:  A COMMON SENSE WORK INCENTIVE FOR
BLIND SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFICIARIES


Purpose:  To promote and facilitate the transition by blind Americans
from Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) beneficiaries to
income-earning, taxpaying, productive members of the American
workforce.

Background:  The unemployment rate for working-age blind people is
over 70 percent.  Part of the reason for this disproportionately high
statistic is the myths and misconceptions about the true capacities of
blind people.  These erroneous perceptions are manifested when
employers refuse to hire the blind.

	In addition, governmental programs intended to help blind people meet
their basic economic needs, especially the SSDI program, have had the
unintended consequence of creating an incentive for blind people to
remain unemployed or underemployed despite their desire to work.  Low
societal expectations result in low representation of the blind in the
workforce.  This low representation of the blind reinforces low
societal expectations—it is a vicious circle that perpetuates systemic
employment discrimination against the blind.

	Despite the efforts of the National Federation of the Blind,
blindness still has profound social and economic consequences.
Governmental programs should encourage blind people to reach their
full employment potential; they should not encourage economic
dependence.

Existing Law:  Title II of the Social Security Act provides that
disability benefits paid to blind beneficiaries are eliminated if the
beneficiary exceeds a monthly earnings limit.  This earnings limit is
in effect a penalty imposed on blind Americans when they work.  This
penalty imposed by the SSDI program means that, if a blind person
earns just $1 over $1,640 (the monthly limit in 2009 following a Trial
Work Period), all benefits are lost.

	Section 216(i)(1)(B) of the Social Security Act defines blindness as
a disability based on objective measurement of acuity and visual
field, as opposed to the subjective criterion of inability to perform
Substantial Gainful Activity (SGA).  For blind people, doing work
valued at the SGA earnings limit terminates benefits but does not
terminate disability.  Only blind people not working or those with
work earnings below an annually adjusted statutory earnings limit
receive benefits.

Need for Legislation:  When a blind person enters the workforce, there
is no guarantee that wages earned will replace SSDI benefits after
taxes are paid and work expenses are deducted.  For example, Jane
worked as a customer service representative with an annual income of
$35,000 until she became blind from diabetic retinopathy.  Jane meets
the criteria for SSDI benefits, which provide income of $1,060 a month
(or $12,720 a year) tax-free while she is not working.  Jane wants
additional income to meet her financial needs.  After an adjustment
period and blindness skills training, she finds employment as a
part-time representative making $10 an hour for 35 hours a week.  Jane
grosses $350 a week for an average of $1,517 a month.  Using a
conservative 25 percent withholding tax, Jane nets $1,137.50 from her
work, combined with her $1,060 disability benefit, for a net total of
$2,197.50 a month.  If Jane should have the opportunity to work full
time (40 hours), her weekly salary would go up to $400 a week for a
monthly average of $1,733.  This amount is over the 2009 earnings
limit, so Jane loses all of her disability benefits.  Using the same
25 percent tax level, Jane nets only $1,300 a month—working an extra
five hours a week has cost Jane $897.50 net income (over $10,500 a
year).  This example illustrates the work disincentive contained in
current law.

	A gradual reduction of $1 in benefits for every $3 earned over the
earnings limit would remove the earnings penalty and provide a
financial incentive to work.  The benefit amount paid to an individual
will gradually decrease, while the individual's contribution to the
Social Security trust fund increases over time.  Under this approach,
as Jane earns more, she pays more into the trust fund, and her
dependence on benefits decreases.

	Monthly earnings evaluations are unnecessarily complicated for both
the beneficiaries and the Social Security Administration.  Since the
medical prognosis for blind people rarely changes, and because
blindness is objectively measurable, blind people should be subject to
an annual earnings test with the limit equal to the twelve times
applicable monthly SGA amount.

	Under current law blind workers frequently pay for items and services
related to their disabilities that are necessary for them to work, and
they are permitted to subtract these Impairment Related Work Expenses
(IRWE) from monthly earnings when determining monthly income.
Properly crediting IRWE poses a serious challenge to the SSDI program
and creates a lack of predictability for the blind person trying to
determine whether benefits will be available.  To address both issues,
Congress should permit SSDI recipients to claim the same amount used
when determining an income subsidy under the Medicare prescription
drug program, currently 16.3 percent.

	Congress should enact legislation to:
•	Provide that earnings of blind SSDI beneficiaries in excess of the
annual earnings limit result in a gradual benefit reduction of $1 for
each $3 earned over the limit;
•	Establish an annual earnings test for blind SSDI beneficiaries; and
•	Establish one standard IRWE deduction for blind SSDI beneficiaries
equal to the amount presently applicable for this deduction when
determining an appropriate income subsidy under the Medicare
prescription drug program or 16.3 percent of earnings, whichever is
greater.

Requested Action:  Please support blind Americans by cosponsoring
legislation that provides a common sense work incentive for blind
Social Security beneficiaries.

Contact Information:
James McCarthy
Government Programs Specialist
NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND
Phone:  (410) 659-9314, extension 2240
Email:  jmccarthy at nfb.org