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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#467886" vlink="#96607D" style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>Bob,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>I was unable to make this zoom call. I am interested in attending this day and making appointments with my reps. Would there be a time I could speak with you about this day and transportation? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>From:</span></b><span style='font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'> Tall-Corn <tall-corn-bounces@nfbnet.org> <b>On Behalf Of </b>Bob Ray via Tall-Corn<br><b>Sent:</b> Saturday, January 6, 2024 8:50 AM<br><b>To:</b> tall-corn@nfbnet.org<br><b>Cc:</b> bray@nfbi.org<br><b>Subject:</b> [Tall-Corn] Documents For Legislative Day<br><b>Importance:</b> High<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Greetings, attached are two of 3 documents we will be handing out. In addition, for your convenience the text from these will be posted below.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Legislative Committee<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Date: January 16, 2024.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Subject: Support for legislation mandating accessible prescription information. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>From: R.J. Ray, Mary L. McGee, National Federation of the Blind of Iowa.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>To: Iowa General Assembly.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>I. Background <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'> Every year, millions of people in the United States rely on prescription medications to sustain their health and doctors write as many as three billion prescriptions annually. Nearly fourteen million Americans, many of whom have low vision or are blind or are 65 years old or older, are not able to clearly read a prescription label. This can result in unnecessary injury or even death. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'> The Food and Drug Administration Safety Innovation Act makes it possible for consumers to receive information about their prescriptions in accessible formats, making instructions easier to follow for people who have a vision disability. Accessible prescription information equals independence, at least. At most, it can eliminate the risk of taking the wrong medicine or incorrect doses leading to preventable overdose, the mistreatment of health problems, emergency hospitalization, or death. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>II. A great need exists for an Iowa law. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'> The above-referenced Federal law and the Americans With Disabilities Act, which also requires that pharmacies provide alternative format communication to customers, are not sufficient. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'> For example, a few months ago, a blind couple went to their pharmacy as they had done for years to have prescriptions refilled and accessible information provided. This particular day, the accessible information was lacking and, in response to an inquiry, a manager told them that the pharmacy was no longer providing alternative format information because the cost of doing so is prohibitive. They endured several months of anxiety and inconveniences before they found a new pharmacy that would meet their need for alternative formatted information relative to their multiple prescription medications. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'> The scenario described above should never happen in Iowa because blind and print disabled individuals have a right to the information given in the prescriptions. The information can be easily provided to consumers because the accessible formats are known and available. Producing them will not be an undue hardship on the pharmacy business. Indeed, providing such information will add value to the community and society as a whole. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>State laws give more specific directions to pharmacies than federal ones because states license the pharmacies; thus, states can more closely define and regulate their activities. State laws also offer coverage to far more patients than do federal laws. Iowa needs a statute attaching accessibility to licensure to guarantee that blind and print disabled consumers have the same choices regarding prescription information as their sighted peers. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>III. Formal Request<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'> Receiving fully accessible prescription information for blind and print disabled Iowans is not a Democratic or Republican matter; it is a fundament right. Indeed, it’s a social justice and moral matter. Therefore, we respectfully ask all of you to support this bill. Thank you for your help!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Date: January 16, 2024.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Subject: Support for legislation mandating accessible absentee and in-person voting. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>From: R.J. Ray, Mary L. McGee, National Federation of the Blind of Iowa.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>To: Iowa General Assembly.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> The Americans With Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. S. 12101, et seq, provides important safeguards protecting disabled people’s rights. Currently, Iowa is violating this statute because, even in the 21<sup>st</sup> Century it many times requires blind voters to seek the aid of a sighted person to vote absentee or in person, thereby depriving them of an independent right to vote. The Help American Vote Act became law in October of 2022 to address the problems that occurred during the 2020 presidential election and one of the goals of the statute is to provide all American voters, including those who are blind or low vision, the opportunity to vote both privately and independently. Because of poor or nonexistent poll worker training and no electronic absentee ballot marking system, Iowa is in violation of this law as well. Therefore, the State of Iowa is in effect ignoring clear Federal mandates. Moreover it continues to deprive a protected class of its citizens a substantive Constitutional right at both the state and federal levels. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> In recent court cases involving the right of voters with print disabilities to mark a paper absentee or by mail ballot privately and independently, the Federal Courts of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and Sixth Circuit found that Title II of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act require that voters with disabilities be provided an opportunity to exercise their right to vote that is equal to that provided voters without disabilities. <u>See</u> <u>Nat’l. Fed’n. of the Blind v. Lamone</u>, 813 F.3d 494, 506 (4<sup>th</sup> Cir. 2016) and <u>Hindel v. Husted</u>, 875 F.2d 344, 349 (6<sup>th</sup> Cir. 2017). These holdings mean that blind, low vision, and other voters with print disabilities must be able to make their absentee ballot privately and independently at home as voters without disabilities are able to do. Courts in Massachusetts and North Caroline have found that when a state permits military and overseas voters to return their marked ballot electronically, voters with print disabilities must be afforded the same opportunity. Also, a number of states have passed legislation to permit voters with disabilities to receive and return their by mail ballots electronically. Tragically, Iowa is not one of these states and that is why we request your support for this bill. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> This state’s voting mechanisms present problems such as the following for blind citizens. These people have given their permission to share their stories. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> Jonathon Ice of Cedar Rapids voted absentee. He is legally blind but has a small amount of residual vision. He was only able to complete his absentee ballot independently by reading it from one inch away from his eye; this caused eyestrain and the risk of missing critical information printed on the ballot. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> Kim Brown went to vote in person at her polling place and no one there knew how to connect the headphones. She had let her husband fill out the ballot. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> Roger Erpelding has encountered precinct workers who don’t know how to operate the voting machines to make them accessible. At one precinct, an hour lapsed before precinct workers were able to make the machine work properly and the ballot printed was a different size from the others so it was not a secret ballot. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> The above stories are but a smattering of those recalled by blind and low vision Iowans, despite the ADA and HAVA. They demonstrate that Iowa is way behind the times!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> “Our American heritage is threatened as much by our own indifference as it is by the most unscrupulous office or by the most powerful foreign threat. The future of this republic is in the hands of the American voter.” President Dwight D. Eisenhower. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> As previously stated, the right of blind Americans to vote is guaranteed. It is a right that many American citizens have demonstrated for, fought for, and died for so that present and future generations can continue to exercise their right to vote. Therefore, we blind Iowans of voting age have a responsibility to exercise the right to vote, despite the state’s discriminatory election system, and we demand it. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> We pay taxes; therefore we deserve representation in government; “No taxation without representation,” John Adams said with the Sons of Liberty. Are blind Iowans not entitled to vote? Apparently. Please change this inequity by supporting the designated bill. Thank you very much! <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>