[Nfbf-l] Please sign and share there is only nine days left and this is extremely important to me and so many others.

[Miranda Kilby]

Dear  colleagues, Friends, and Family,

 I need you to sign a petition that forces action and actually matters:
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/direct-us-department-justice-promptly-release-ada-internet-regulations

 The American’s with Disabilities Act (ADA) went a long way toward
ensuring that individuals who are blind, deaf, use a wheelchair, or
have any number of different disabilities enjoy independent access to
numerous aspects and benefits of our society. 25 years ago, the ADA
produced regulations that ensure the accessibility of physical spaces
(think of curb cuts for wheelchairs and Braille labels on doors). But,
today, the internet has become an absolutely essential part of the
daily life of virtually all Americans, and the ADA has nothing to say
about the internet. That is why, in 2010, President Obama directed the
Department of Justice to make rules defining accessibility of websites
under the ADA. Regrettably, no such rules have materialized, and now
they say it will be 2018 before they come out. Of course, in 2018, we
may well have a Justice Department with different priorities than we
do today, and the rules may be made much weaker, or scrapped
altogether. This is why I need your help. The Obama administration,
through it’s “We the People” initiative, promises to provide a formal
response to any petition that garners 100,000 signatures. We are
pushing a petition that would force the administration to either push
the Department of Justice to release the regulations, or to explain to
blind Americans like me why this is no longer a priority. This may
sound trivial, but imagine you were blind. Imagine that there were
technology that could enable you to access websites completely
independently. In fact, such technology exists. I am using it right
now. But developers often do not know exactly how to ensure that their
websites and online services are accessible and usable with such
technology. Now imagine that, like me, you found yourself frequently
unable to use online banking, purchase airline tickets, engage in web
commerce, access educational content, launch media players to enjoy
entertainment and news, and fill out online applications. Further
imagine that you, like me, knew full well that these barriers were
artificial and unnecessary, and that if developers simply had
guidelines on accessibility to follow, you, too, could feel like a
fully valued and included member of our American family. We can make
that happen, but the Obama administration and Justice Department must
act. Please add your name to this petition. This isn’t “slacktivism,”
if you and 99,999 others take the minute to do this, President Obama
will have to explain to blind Americans why our access to the internet
is no longer a priority. Please sign here:
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/direct-us-department-justice-promptly-release-ada-internet-regulations

 It is easy as 1, 2, 3. Click the link above; provide your name, email
address and zip code; and click the confirmation link in the
autogenerated email that the White House sends you. That’s all! And it
will have a real impact!

 Please forward this far and wide, share on social media, and tell
your friends to take 60 seconds to ensure that the internet is open to
all Americans, including the blind.

 Sincere thanks,



-- 
Miranda B. Kilby
President
Tampa Bay Chapter, National Federation of the Blind of Florida
Vice President
Florida Association of Blind Students
2nd Vice President National Federation of the Blind of Florida
Ph: (352)942-0417