[Ohio-Talk] HB 214

[Barbara Pierce]

I just asked Chairman Lipps’s office to whom we should address written testimony. The answer is Chairman Lipps, Vice Chairman Manning, and Ranking Member West. Please take the time to write them your story. I will drop in what I am submitting so that you can see how easy it is.

January 16, 2020a

 

Dear Chairman Lipps, Vice Chairman Manning, and Ranking Member West:

 

Thank you for this opportunity to provide written testimony in favor of H.B. 214. I am a healthy seventy-five-year-old woman who has been blind all of her life. Thankfully I do not yet take multiple medications. However, my husband is ten years older than I, and he takes a number of medications. Luckily he can still manage the complex schedule of pills every day. But I am aware that at any point I could be faced with the need to supervise the times and amounts of his medications. We live in a retirement community, but residents who do not have a way of reliably managing their medications wind up in short order in assisted living.

 

The local Discount DrugMart does not offer a medication identification system to its customers. If H.B. 214 were law in Ohio, I would not face the problem that is now hanging over my head, and of course my own medical situation could change at any time, leaving me with medications to manage for myself without pharmacy support.

 

In our retirement community many people are dealing with diminished vision and complex regimens of medication. A number have given up and moved to assisted living because they cannot be confident in their ability to keep their medications straight. This move with its accompanying loss of independence and dignity could be avoided if they could just identify their medications and be reminded of dosage amounts and times.

 

Access to the information available to the reading public was supposed to be guaranteed to print disabled people by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, but it is a right still denied to most of us. I urge you to vote this bill onto the House floor and we hope on its way to passage.

 

Thank you for considering my point of view.

 

Very truly yours,

Barbara Pierce

Barbara.pierce9366 at gmail.com

198 Kendal Dr.

Oberlin, OH 44074

440-774-8077







Barbara Pierce, President Emerita
National Federation of the Blind of Ohio
Barbara.pierce9366 at gmail.com
440-774-8077
 

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

> On Jan 16, 2020, at 5:55 AM, Richard Payne via Ohio-Talk <ohio-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Dear NFBO,
> 
> The legislative session is back underway and testimony in front of the Ohio
> House Health Committee for Bill 214
> <https://www.legislature.ohio.gov/legislation/legislation-summary?id=GA133-H
> B-214>  regarding prescription drug readers for blind Ohioan's is on the
> agenda for Tuesday January 21, 2020.
> 
> There is still time for you to submit testimony or a letter of support if
> you would like.  To ensure your testimony is available to members on their
> iPads, Chairman Lipps requests that all testifying parties submit written
> testimony and a completed witness slip (if you plan to attend, form
> attached) to his office by 5 pm, January 17th. Testimony can be emailed to:
> Hannah.Stanbery at ohiohouse.gov <mailto:Hannah.Stanbery at ohiohouse.gov> .
> 
> It would be an amazing show of solidarity if a wide variety of people and
> organizations expressed their support and belief that this legislation would
> improve the health and safety of blind people.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Richard Payne,  President
> National Federation of the Blind of Ohio
> 937/829/3368
> Rchpay7 at gmail.com
> 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
> 
> 
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