[Ohio-talk] Refreshable Braille NFB Resolution

[Paul Dressell]

This is a good resolution; what do you think? 
Paul
Regarding the Distribution of Refreshable Braille Displays to Patrons of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped

WHEREAS, there are currently 119,487 libraries of all types operating in the United States, and of these only the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) is specifically tasked with distributing Braille books across the nation; and

WHEREAS, the distribution of these Braille books by the NLS and a network of cooperating regional libraries primarily occurs through the mailing of hard-copy offerings, but new, low-cost devices (known as refreshable Braille displays) can produce electronic Braille, saving money, saving paper, and using a small electronic device instead of multiple and large volumes for just one book; and

WHEREAS, in April of 2016 the Government Accountability Office (GAO) recognized the potential that refreshable Braille displays offer to increase the availability of Braille materials to NLS patrons, while simultaneously saving the NLS approximately ten million dollars annually; and

WHEREAS, in July of 2016 Congress affirmed the GAO’s findings by amending the Pratt-Smoot Act, (2 U.S.C § 135a), to allow the NLS to “provide books published either in raised characters, on sound-reproduction recordings, or in any other form,” thereby opening the door for the NLS to distribute refreshable Braille displays: Now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this fourteenth day of July, 2017, in the city of Orlando, Florida, that this organization call upon the United States Congress to authorize a one-time appropriation of five million dollars to the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, which will enable the NLS, through the bidding process, to purchase a minimum of ten thousand low-cost refreshable Braille displays, jumpstarting the distribution of these devices to the 11 percent of NLS patrons who are already accessing the library’s electronic Braille files and increasing access to refreshable Braille.