[Tall-Corn] Urgent Action Alert, Section 504

[Helen Mejia]

Good afternoon NFBI,

Many of you have likely seen the emails regarding a lawsuit attacking Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. We need everyone to please contact the Iowa Attorney General regarding this matter, and please encourage your friends and family to do the same. Contact info, as well as a sample letter and talking points are below.

What is the issue?
	The lawsuit is asking the court to rule that Section 504 is unconstitutional. If this happened, the Section 504 protections that we depend on for certain access in school, medical and other settings would no longer exist.
	The Iowa Attorney General reports that this lawsuit has nothing to do with disability, and that it is only contesting an attempt by the Biden administration to include gender dysphoria as a protected disability. This claim is not true. Regardless of what we think about gender dysphoria, this lawsuit ought to be concerning because it could impact all of us.

Here is a link to a Frequently Asked Questions document written by another organization that contains more information about the case. Note that this is the same link I shared the other day.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1M-hsySF3s3-Hf9Y_dDn1hCxlcc9AO11uM68mfNGjV5s/edit?usp=sharing

Please take a moment to contact Attorney General Brenna Bird's office by phone and email, and urge her to withdraw Iowa from the lawsuit. 

Talking Points:
1. Introduce yourself and provide your address, or at least your hometown so that they know you are an Iowa resident and not just a random person from out of state.
2. Share why Section 504 is important to you. Such as:
	If you had a 504 plan in high school. Note, this does not relate to IEPs.
	If you have ever needed an accommodation at the doctor’s office or for accessing medical information. This includes the online portals that many of our doctors have. Section 504 is what requires those web sites to be accessible.
3. Politely but firmly request that the Attorney General's office drop out of the lawsuit.

By email: webteam at ag.iowa.gov <mailto:webteam at ag.iowa.gov>  (
By Phone: 515-281-5164

Sample email:

Dear Attorney General Bird,

I am writing to request that you withdraw Iowa from the Texas v. Becerra case because Section 504 is important to me and all Iowans with disabilities. As a blind person, Section 504 makes sure that doctors and other medical providers provide me equal access and don’t discriminate. If you have specific concerns about one minor aspect of how the federal government is choosing to implement Section 504, there are other ways to address it than by attacking the whole thing.

Thank you very much for considering my concern
Name
Address


Thank you all for your help with this,
Helen

Helen Mejia, President
National Federation of the Blind of Iowa
hmejia at nfbi.org
(570) 983-7867

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