[Ohio-Talk] Resolutions to be considered this year

[Barbara Pierce]

Some of you may remember grumbling at last year’s convention that you were not ready to vote on the resolutions after just one hearing. The Resolutions Committee conducts an open meeting on Friday evening to discuss the resolutions and any issues we may have with bringing them to the convention floor Saturday afternoon. We have all read these resolutions, and as far as I now know, no one on the committee has any problems with the wording of each resolution. We may have some broader issues with one of them, but that is a matter for the Friday night meeting. At Richard’s instruction I am dropping the text of all five resolutions into this message so that you can read and think about them before the meeting. You can then bring up any issues at the meeting. If you have a competing obligation, write to me off list with your reservations. Here are this year’s resolutions:

RESOLUTION 2020-01
REGARDING STATE CONTRACTING OPPORTUNITIES
FOR BLIND OR LOW-VISION BUSINESS OWNERS
 
WHEREAS, the Ohio Office of Budget and Management indicates that the State of Ohio spends nearly $1 billion annually on goods and services purchased from private businesses; and
 
WHEREAS, Ohio local and county governments also offer $100 million in contracting opportunities; and
 
WHEREAS, the State of Ohio provides contract preferences through the MWBE program to minority- and women-owned businesses because of the economic disadvantages these businesses face; and
 
WHEREAS, the State of Ohio encourages state agencies only through the Encouraging Diversity, Growth,  and Equity (EDGE) program to contract with businesses owned by blind individuals; and
 
WHEREAS, the State of Ohio does not offer any contract preferences or set-asides for individual blind business owners, despite the fact that Blind people face economic disadvantages because of the 70% unemployment rate among the Blind and because approximately 30% of them live below the poverty level; and
 
WHEREAS, business ownership offers opportunities in many different fields, offers the blind the opportunity to earn significant income, and offers them the opportunity to reduce their unemployment rate significantly; and
 
WHEREAS, access to state government, school district, and county and local government agency contracting opportunities can significantly increase the chance for a blind business owner to succeed: Now, therefore,
 
BE IT RESOLVED  by the National Federation of the Blind of Ohio in convention assembled  this 7th day of November, 2020, that this organization call upon the State of Ohio either to expand the Ohio Encouraging Diversity, Growth, and Equity (EDGE) Program to require a mandatory permanent contract set-aside for individual blind business owners or to open the MWBE program to blind business owners.
 
 
RESOLUTION 2020-02
REGARDING PROMOTING SELF-EMPLOYMENT
OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE BLIND AND LOW VISION
 
WHEREAS, Despite the overall national unemployment rate being below 8%, the National Federation of the Blind, the nation’s largest organization of the blind, currently estimates that the unemployment rate of the blind is at approximately 70%; and
 
WHEREAS, it is estimated that approximately 30% of the blind live below the poverty line; and
 
WHEREAS, the unemployment rate for the blind and the percentage of the blind living below the poverty line has not been substantially lowered in decades; and
 
WHEREAS, despite technological advances, significant societal barriers remain that prevent many blind people from achieving full-time employment, particularly in rural areas; and
 
WHEREAS, even when full-time employment is achieved by a blind person, underemployment in the traditional employment market remains a significant problem; and
 
WHEREAS, the U.S. economy has been shifting from traditional employment to increased freelance and small business opportunities, and the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that the number of Americans working as freelancers and small business owners will continue to increase to a point where by 2027 freelancers and small business owners will outnumber American workers in the traditional workforce; and
 
WHEREAS, the State of Ohio and Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities currently provide only limited support for blind people seeking self-employment, and do not provide any activities to educate Blind individuals on the advantages of self-employment; and
 
WHEREAS, with the proper resources and training, self-employment offers many opportunities in many different fields for the blind to earn significant income, and offers the opportunity to reduce the unemployment rate significantly among the blind: Now, therefore,
 
BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind of Ohio in convention this 7th day of November, 2020, that this organization call upon the State of Ohio and specifically Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities to recognize and support self-employment as a viable opportunity for the blind; and
 
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the National Federation of the Blind of Ohio call upon the State of Ohio and Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities to develop and implement a training program designed to train blind and visually impaired individuals to pursue self-employment opportunities--at a minimum the program should include elements that assist the trainees to
 
1.  Assess their skills and interests to determine their best path towards self-employment;
2.  Develop the knowledge, skills, and resources necessary properly to plan their self-employment ventures;
3.  Develop the knowledge, skills, and resources necessary for managing their self-employment venture once started;
4.  Develop the knowledge, skills, and resources necessary to market their product or service; and
5.  Access any resources necessary for any continuing education necessary to maintain or improve their skills in their chosen field in order to offer the best opportunity for self-employment success; and
 
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the National Federation of the Blind of Ohio call upon the State of Ohio and Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities to assist those who have completed the self-employment training program to obtain the financing, equipment, and other resources necessary to begin their self-employment venture; and
 
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the National Federation of the Blind of Ohio call upon the State of Ohio and Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities to train their vocational rehabilitation counselors in ways to assist clients who wish to pursue self-employment opportunities and to find and obtain resources for furthering their self-employment ventures.
 
 

 

RESOLUTION 2020-03

Adjustment in Business Enterprise Staffing and Operation

 

 

WHEREAS,  Ohio’s Business Enterprise Program provides business opportunities for approximately ninety blind licensees in this state; and

WHEREAS, this program is funded by the service charge paid by these blind licensees through their business profits and the federal match money that these funds draw down; and

WHEREAS, the covid 19 pandemic has had a devastating effect on these small businesses, greatly reducing the amount of profits and service charge collected  and drastically reducing the budget for the operation of the program; and

WHEREAS, the Bureau of Services for the Visually Impaired is the State Licensing Agency for this program, and the funds collected are used in part to pay the staff that work for this agency to manage the program; and

WHEREAS, these funds are also needed to provide daily operation of the program to keep the businesses running, and, if these funds are used to pay the staff, not enough money will be left to meet the needs of the program’s businesses such as maintenance and repair of equipment and growth of the program; and

WHEREAS, the intent of this program is to provide employment opportunities for blind businesspeople, not primarily to cover the payroll of mostly sighted state employees; and

WHEREAS, the number of employees has remained unchanged over the years even though the number of Business Enterprise facilities has decreased, thus creating an oppressive burden on the program to pay superfluous staff: Now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind of Ohio in Convention assembled  this 7th day of November, 2020, that this organization urge the Bureau of Services for the Visually Impaired to work with the Ohio Vendors Representative Committee to reduce the number of staff working for this agency as a part of the Business Enterprise Program through attrition and other means, thus reducing the burden of staff payroll on the program, allowing for more funds to be available for the current and future needs of the blind businesspeople to run their businesses more effectively and to expand the program to provide more opportunity for the blind; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization demand that the Bureau of Services for the Visually Impaired also work conscientiously with the Ohio Vendors Representative Committee to ensure that all funds collected be used efficiently and effectively to assist the blind licensees and to strengthen the program during this pandemic.

 

 

RESOLUTION 2020-04

Improvement of the Business Enterprise Program on Ohio’s Post-secondary Institution Campuses

 

WHEREAS, the Business Enterprise Program in Ohio provides business opportunities for over ninety blind licensees in Ohio; and

WHEREAS, several of these facilities are located on Ohio’s public college and university campuses; and

WHEREAS, the Ohio mini-Randolph-Shepard Act establishes the priority for these blind licensees to operate suitable vending facilities at these public universities; and

WHEREAS, the contracts for  these vending facilities do not often include the cold beverage sales because of other pouring rights agreements between the university and beverage companies, denying the blind licensees the opportunity to increase their sales and profit with the sale of cold beverages, to the detriment of the business; and

WHEREAS, the Bureau of Services for the Visually Impaired acts as the State Licensing Agency for this program and thus has the obligation to establish suitable vending facilities where the priority exists; and

WHEREAS, the agency has failed to pursue the cold beverage sales at several universities, allowing profits that should belong to the blind licensee to go elsewhere: Now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind of Ohio in Convention assembled this 7th day of November, 2020, that this organization demand that the Bureau of Services for the Visually Impaired, with the active participation of the Ohio Vendors Representative Committee, aggressively pursue agreements with Ohio’s public universities where there is currently no Business Enterprise facility, to establish suitable sites for blind licensees to operate; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that BSVI commit to working to ensure that all such agreements include the sale of cold beverages by the blind licensee; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we insist that, at universities where a current contract exists with no cold beverage sales agreement, the Bureau of Services for the Visually Impaired aggressively work to amend the agreements with the university to add the cold beverage sales agreement.

 

 

Resolution 2020-05

 

Regarding Improvements to the Vote-By-Mail Ballot-Marking System in Ohio

 

WHEREAS, since 2018 registered blind or visually impaired voters in Ohio have.   been able to use the access technology with which they are familiar to mark the printed absentee ballot privately and independently using a computer, smartphone, or tablet; an Internet connection; and a printer; and 

WHEREAS, under the current system blind or visually impaired voters must request the electronic absentee ballot ahead of time and then wait for days or even weeks to receive an email with a link to their ballot; and

WHEREAS, Ohio voters who requested an accessible absentee ballot and who did not receive the ballot in a timely manner have sometimes had to contact their county Board of Elections before receiving their ballot; and

WHEREAS, the ubiquitous nature of the Internet, combined with a wide variety of electronic content-delivery systems, has reduced the use of printers in our society—so much that printers are often not found in today's homes; and

WHEREAS, unless they own or have convenient access to a printer, blind or visually impaired voters are unable to take advantage of Ohio’s electronic accessible ballot-marking system; and

WHEREAS, in other states technology exists and is being used today in actual elections to enable registered voters to receive their electronic ballots immediately upon request and to deliver their ballots without having to print them; an

WHEREAS, voters who serve in the military or citizens who live overseas (so-called UOCAVA voters) already have the opportunity to submit their voted ballots using fax, email, or a secure web portal; and

WHEREAS, as much as Ohio’s accessible ballot-marking system represents a significant improvement for blind or visually impaired voters who want to mark the printed absentee ballot in complete privacy, it possesses three significant deficiencies:

 

1. Blind or visually impaired voters who do not have a printer or convenient access to a printer cannot use the accessible ballot-marking system,

2. Blind or visually impaired voters who submit online requests for their accessible ballots must wait before they can vote  for an email, which may not be sent,

3. Blind and visually impaired voters in many cases must request sighted assistance to prepare the ballot to be mailed: Now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind of Ohio in convention assembled this 7th day of November, 2020, that this organization call upon the Governor, the Ohio State Legislature, and the Secretary of State to work with the National Federation of the Blind of Ohio and other interested parties to 

1          . Design or procure a system whereby blind or visually impaired voters can request an accessible ballot to be made available to them electronically as soon as early voting starts and have that ballot displayed on their screens immediately after they have been verified

2, Design or procure a secure system through which voted ballots can be submitted electronically, thus eliminating the need for blind or visually impaired voters to own or find a printer, or to request  sighted assistance before returning vote-by-mail ballots.

 

 

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.