[Ohio-talk] FW: NFB President’s Notebook - week of 10/24/2016

Tue Oct 25 10:36:59 UTC 2016

From: President, National Federation of the Blind [mailto:OfficeOfThePresident at nfb.org] 
Sent: Monday, October 24, 2016 4:25 PM
To: President, National Federation of the Blind
Subject: NFB President’s Notebook - week of 10/24/2016

President’s Notebook

National Federation of the Blind

Mark A. Riccobono

officeofthepresident at nfb.org

(410) 659-9314

Dear Fellow Federationists,

As we advance through Meet the Blind Month, I want to again call to your attention a documentary produced by the Rooted in Rights Project entitled Bottom Dollars (http://www.rootedinrights.org/videos/employment/bottom-dollars/). This film does a good job of laying out the argument for eliminating the 14(C) exemption under the Fair Labor Standards Act. We hosted a screening of the film at the national office last week and it provided a great opportunity to engage the community around our work. I encourage you to consider this as an outreach tool in your local communities. Chris Danielsen, NFB's director of public relations, can speak with you more about the film and how to leverage it in local communities.

News:

Regulatory Comments:

In addition to our legislative priorities, our government affairs team spends considerable time working on regulations that impact the lives of blind Americans. In the last ten days, we have filed two sets of regulatory comments. 

One set of comments is our response to the Department of Justice Supplemental Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding web accessibility under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which is attached to this email. The other concerns our opposition to a petition—filed by the National Association of Broadcasters, the American Council of the Blind, and the American Foundation for the Blind—seeking to extend a waiver from the Federal Communications Commission requirement to make emergency information presented in a nontextual format accessible to blind television viewers. This letter is available on our website at https://nfb.org/response-acb-afb-and-nab-joint-petition-extension-emergency-alert-crawl-waiver.

Presidential Release:

The Spanish version of the October Presidential Release is now available at https://nfb.org/images/nfb/audio/pr/spanish/pr454_spanish.mp3. 

Reminders:

NFB Voting Hotline:
We will be hosting an Election Day hotline for blind and visually impaired voters, poll workers, and voting rights advocates to call when problems with accessible voting technology or other barriers are preventing a blind voter from casting a private and independent ballot. The hotline will be available November 8, 2016, from 7:00 a.m. Eastern to 10:00 p.m. Eastern (7:00 p.m. Pacific). The number is (877) 632-1940. 

Dates to Keep in Mind:

·         Fall Conventions <https://nfb.org/state-conventions> 

·         November 8: Election Day; NFB voter hotline available at (877) 632-1940

·         January 30, 2017: Great Gathering-In 

·         January 30-February 2, 2017: Washington Seminar <https://nfb.org/washington-seminar> 

·         March 30-31, 2017: Jacobus tenBroek Law Symposium

·         July 21-29, 2017: Youth Slam, Towson University

·         September 12-17, 2017: BLAST, Nashville, Tennessee

The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise the expectations of blind people, because low expectations create obstacles between blind people and our dreams. You can live the life you want; blindness is not what holds you back.

Mark A. Riccobono, President

National Federation of the Blind

200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place

Baltimore, Maryland 21230

Phone: (410) 659-9314

Fax: (410) 659-5129

Email: officeofthepresident at nfb.org

Twitter: @Riccobono and @NFB_Voice

Web:  <http://www.nfb.org/> www.nfb.org

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