[VABS] Fwd: Passed through house! Fwd: [Nfbv-announce] Need Calls on Friday: Oppose Weakening Access to Banking Web Sites - Call members of the Virginia Senate Courts of Justice Committee Today

Fri Feb 8 16:15:27 UTC 2019

Greetings VABS,

Let's work together we need to make sure this bill doesn't pass!!! Call
your State Senators.

Signed,

André

André E. Hill

-Student
French Language & Culture Major
Batten College of Arts & Letters
Old Dominion University

-Chair, Legislative Committee
Virginia Association of Blind Students
National Federation of the Blind of Virginia

-Student Member
Electronic Information & Technology Advisory Board
Tidewater Community College

-Member- Planning Activities Committee & Alumni Advisory Council
Maryland Youth Leadership Forum

"I see my path, but I don't know where it leads. Not knowing where I'm
going is what inspires me to travel it.”-Rosalía de Castro

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Kathryn Webster, National Student President <nabs.president at gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Feb 8, 2019, 6:33 AM
Subject: Passed through house! Fwd: [Nfbv-announce] Need Calls on Friday:
Oppose Weakening Access to Banking Web Sites - Call members of the Virginia
Senate Courts of Justice Committee Today
To: <andrehill6188 at gmail.com>

Kathryn Webster
President, National Association of Blind Students
(203) 273-8463
Sent from my iPhone

Begin forwarded message:

*From:* Sarah Patnaude via NFBV-Announce <nfbv-announce at nfbnet.org>
*Date:* February 7, 2019 at 11:40:14 PM EST
*To:* Sarah Patnaude via NFBV-Announce <nfbv-announce at nfbnet.org>
*Subject:* *[Nfbv-announce] Need Calls on Friday: Oppose Weakening Access
to Banking Web Sites - Call members of the Virginia Senate Courts of
Justice Committee Today*
*Reply-To:* Sarah Patnaude <patnaude.sarah at yahoo.com>

Hi Virginia Federationists,
We need you to make some phone calls right away, during business hours on
Friday.

We are opposing legislation in the Virginia Senate which weakens
protections for web site accessibility.

On Tuesday, February 5, the Virginia House of Delegates passed HB2296 which
significantly weakens protections to ensure banking web sites are
accessible. Disability advocates are united against this legislation but we
need your help to oppose this bill in the Virginia Senate. On Wednesday,
HB2296 crossed over the Virginia Senate and we need to work to get it
stopped in the Senate. The bill is still called HB 2296.

We suspect this bill will be on the Monday morning 8:00 AM Senate Courts of
Justice Committee  docket. This means we need you to call the members of
the Senate  courts of Justice Committee Friday and tell them you are
opposed to HB 2296. The same committee voted against an almost identical
bill so we believe that the Senate Courts of Justice Committee can be
convinced to stop this legislation. But, to make this happen, we need your
time to make phone calls.

We believe that HB 2296 (Patron Leftwich) will be heard at the Monday
morning , February 8 Senate Courts of Justice Committee meeting. We need
you to take a few minutes to call the Capitol phone number   for the
members of the Senate Courts of Justice committee to state you oppose HB
2296 and ask the Delegate to oppose this legislation in the committee
meeting.

You do not need to give much information other than your name and that you
oppose HB 2296. If you are a constituent, please highlight this important
detail. They may ask where you live and if you are a constituent. However,
you do not need to be a constituent to call each of the Senate offices.

Where I had notes about who is a constituent based on our Richmond Seminar
attendees, this has been included.

Here are the members of the Senate Courts of Justice Committee

  - Obenshain, Mark (804) 698-7526 Republican   Chair, Courts of Justice
committee, Harrisonburg (Jeff and Connie Lucas’s Senator)
  - Sturtevant, Glen (804) 698-7510 Republican Midlothian   (Mark, Mike
Villafane,  Sarah Patnaude,  & Jeannette’s Senator)
  - Edwards, John S. (804) 698-7521 Democrat Roanoke;
  - Petersen, J. Chap (804)698-7534 Democrat Fairfax City; Fred, Annette,
John Bailey and Annette’s Senator)
  - Chafin, Ben (804) 698-7538 Republican Lebanon (Michelle’s Senator)
  - Reeves, Bryce (804) 698-7517 Republican Fredericksburg (Michael Kasey,
Holly frisch, and Jessica Reed’s Senator)
  - Howell, Janet D. (804) 698-7532 Democrat Arlington/Fairfax
  - DEEDS, R. CREIGH (804) 698-7525 Democrat  Charlottesville
  - Peake, Mark  (804) 698-7522 Hadensville;
  - Norment, Thomas K.  (804) 698-7503 Republican Williamsburg (Jackie
Bruce and Adrianna Giddings’s Senator)
  - Stanley, Bill (804) 698-7520 Republican Moneta
  - Saslaw, Richard L. (804) 698-7535 Democrat Springfield (Senate
Minority  Leader) (Sean McMahon, Sarah Blumberg, Carl Knoettner’s Senator)
  - Stuart, Richard H. (804) 698-7528 Republican Montross
  - Lucas, Louise (804) 698-7518 Democrat Portsmouth (Mike Davis, David
Moore  & Michael Kitchen’ Senator)
  - McDougle, Ryan T. (804) 698-7504 Republican Mechanicsville;
(Domonique’s Senator)

If you need more information, details from our fact sheet are found below.

Priority #2: Support access to online banking by the blind.

Action: Oppose HB2296 (Patron Leftwich) which does not fix the supposed
problem but does dramatically weaken protections that ensure accessibility
for blind people in Virginia.

Issue: Financial institutions expect their customers to use web-based
online services to perform banking functions and manage their finances in
an efficient and cost-effective manner. When financial institutions provide
online services properly, blind people can use assistive technology to meet
their professional and personal banking needs in an increasingly web-based
world. When web services are inaccessible, blind people pay fees using a
phone representative, spend more time to perform functions, receive less
access to services versus other members of the general public, and must
reveal private and sensitive financial information to other people to
complete transactions.

Web-based banking services have dramatically improved the ability to bank
independently for blind people. Access to these services is covered under
the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”). When accessibility problems
arise as websites are updated, blind people typically inform their
financial institution, and the problems are addressed because the
institutions know they are expected to provide accessible services as a
place of public accommodation under Title III of the ADA, which has been in
effect for nearly 30 years. The bill (SB1304/HB 2296) would create
confusion and not reduce so-called frivolous litigation because it only
changes financial institutions’ obligations under state law, which they
have not been sued under, but does not change their responsibilities under
the ADA, the federal law that, when they are sued, they have always been
sued under.

Solution: Oppose HB2296 which does nothing to solve the problem raised by
those in favor of the bill but which sets a dangerous precedent that the
rights of people with disabilities in Virginia can be ignored until someone
brings a lawsuit.

As previously stated, Virginia’s financial institutions have not been sued
under state law, only under the ADA, a federal law. Thus, changing Virginia
law will do nothing to reduce so-called frivolous lawsuits.

Moreover, this bill would put in place barriers for people with
disabilities to enforce their rights, for example, by preventing people
with disabilities from going forward with a lawsuit under state law until a
financial institution that is breaking the law has been given a warning and
120 more days to stop violating the law. This would send a message to
financial institutions that they should only follow Virginia law once they
have been sued instead of following it all the time. Therefore, while this
bill would not stop lawsuits against Virginia financial institutions under
the ADA, it would set a dangerous precedent that would undermine the
Commonwealth’s desire to ensure equal access for people with disabilities.

Even though this bill would not end the so-called frivolous lawsuits
brought under federal law, it would introduce a number of technical and
substantive issues into Virginia law. For example, many website
accessibility cases end with a settlement or court order requiring entities
to implement a system to prevent future violations of the law which are
monitored for compliance by the courts. This bill would all-but eliminate
such settlements or court orders if any cases were ever brought under
Virginia law by giving financial institutions a big incentive to fix the
immediate problem without fixing the underlying problems that led to the
inaccessibility in the first place.

The ADA has been around for almost 30 years. The first version of the
accessibility standards for websites identified in the bill, WCAG 1.0, has
been around since 1999. Financial institutions that are currently breaking
the law should not have to be told that they are in violation of a
decades-old law when the guidance they wish to follow has already been
around for 20 years.

In short, this bill harms the financial institutions it intends to protect
by doing nothing to stop so-called frivolous lawsuits under the ADA and
creating a culture of non-compliance with the law. This legislation merely
offers the financial sector a false victory while simultaneously setting a
precedent that the rights of people with disabilities can be ignored until
they bring a lawsuit.

Thank you for taking the time to help us oppose this harmful legislation.
We are grateful for your efforts and need you to take action on Friday to
address this legislation before the Monday morning committee meeting.

Tracy Soforenko

President, National Federation of the Blind of Virginia

202 285-4595

Tracy.soforenko at gmail.com

www.nfb.org

www.nfbv.org

National Federation of the Blind. Live the Life You Want

The National Federation of the Blind is a community of members and friends
who believe in the hopes and dreams of the nation’s blind. Every day we
work together to help blind people live the lives they want.

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