[sasi] (no subject)

Mon Feb 22 03:46:13 GMT 2010

Hello all,

Today was another packed day.  This morning we concluded the Presidents'
meeting with discussion of good convention planning, a  brief description of
ACB's oral history project and a demonstration of the new membership
database system.  After the break, Joel Schneider spoke about ACB's audio
description project.  We then had office hours with the officers who were
present and feedback and wrapup of this meeting.

The legislative seminar started during the afternoon.  Daniel Goldstein from
Brown, Goldstein and Levy spoke about the recent settlement with Arizona
State University over its use of the Kindle E-book reader which has text to
speech but no accessible menus.  There was a question asked about use of
Braille displays with these devices.  My ALD battery was headed south at
this point so I didn't catch everything.  We next heard fromKnowledge
Ecology International regarding a proposed treaty for sharing accessible
format books across boarders.  This is important because right now NLS
material cannot be shared across boarders.  The same holds true for RFB&D.
After a break, Don Cal from the Equal Rights Center here in Washington spoke
about their work.  Melanie Brunson, ACB Executive Director, closed the
proceedings with an update on some of the recent settlements.  She made
mention of the Socialo Security settlement.  SSA is required by the Court to
provide correspondence in Braille or on data CD as an MS Word document.  If
someone needs material in another format, such as large print, they are
encouraged to call SSA and make that request.  SSA is required to consider
these requests on an individual basis.  

/This closed out the proceedings for today.  Tomorrow promises to be a busy
day as there will be discussion of H.R. 3101, the 21st Century
Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2009 and the Pedestrian Safety
Enhancement Act of 2009.  There will also be a brief discussion of the
status of health care reform and some other topics.  