There are 7 to 10 million blind and visually impaired persons in the United States, and with the aging of the baby-boomer generation, that number is expected to increase by another 4 million by 2015. The American Council of the Blind (ACB) is one of the leading national organizations of people who are blind and visually impaired and is dedicated to improving the quality of life, equality of opportunity and independence of all people who have visual impairments.
Three issues are at the forefront of our 2007 legislative agenda: Enhancements to the Randolph-Sheppard and Javits-Wagner-O’Day Acts, access to telecommunication systems, and retaining private and independent access to the entire voting process.
Issue: The Randolph-Sheppard Act provides business opportunities in government food service contracting for Americans who are blind and visually impaired. The Javits-Wagner-O'Day Act (JWOD) also provides employment opportunities for blind and "severely disabled" people, currently focusing on direct labor in the manufacturing and contract services industries. ACB calls on Congress to protect and expand employment opportunities for people who are blind under both of these programs.
Since many states already have trained and licensed blind vendors who are waiting for business opportunities to become available under the Randolph-Sheppard Act, ACB strongly opposes any action that increases the number of people eligible to compete for contracts under either act without an equivalent expansion in the number of available opportunities.
We are also gravely concerned by proposed regulatory changes that would significantly reduce existing business opportunities for blind entrepreneurs in Department of Defense Contracting.
Proposed Action: ACB urges Congress to preserve and enhance entrepreneurial and other business opportunities under the two federal programs designed to accommodate the unique workplace needs of people who are blind. Specifically, ACB encourages Congress to adopt legislation which will –
1. Reaffirm the government-wide priority under the Randolph-Sheppard Act for blind entrepreneurs in federal food service contracts;
2. Create a new Blind Business and Employment Agency within the Department of Commerce to administer the Randolph-Sheppard Act;
3. Establish national standards for training and certification of blind entrepreneurs and their enterprises, and expand the opportunities available to qualified blind entrepreneurs to obtain additional public and private sector contracts for food service, such as food court franchises; and
4. Provide these enterprises with assistance similar to that provided to minority small businesses (i.e., low-interest loans, loan guarantees, and training and technical assistance).
Legislation aimed at modernizing the JWOD program should include the following:
1. Expanded employment opportunities for people who are blind in both management and direct labor positions;
2. Support a program that expands employee choice and encourages career advancement through multi-level workplace and academic training such as that developed by National Industries for the Blind; and
3. Clarification of responsibility for enforcing compliance by federal agencies with the requirements to purchase products and contract services offered under the JWOD program.
Issue: With increasing frequency, television and Internet products and programming rely on visual information to communicate with consumers. Products are created that utilize on-screen menus, and in programming, significant events are portrayed visually: emergency weather advisories are scrolled across screens, and telephone numbers are displayed on television screens unaccompanied by verbalization. People who are blind, or have visual impairments, are thereby denied access to a significant portion of the vast array of communications services available today.
Proposed Action: ACB urges Congress to support requirements to provide access for individuals with disabilities to modern telecommunications systems including wireless, broadband and Internet; and to clarify that the laws that already exist regarding accessible telecommunications technologies cover new communication and video programming technologies. ACB urges the following specific provisions:
1. Restoration of the video description mandate ensuring that described programming on television will be available to people who are blind and that it ensures continuing access as we transition to digital television programming;
2. Expansion of disability protections into Internet Protocol (IP) technologies;
3. Requiring accessible interfaces on video programming devices such as televisions, VCRs and DVD players. The majority of these interfaces are currently on-screen menu-driven and inaccessible to consumers who are blind or visually impaired;
4. Ensuring that access to the Internet and other virtual environments is provided just as it has been to physical places of public accommodation and the application of existing captioning obligations to IPTV and other types of multi-channel video programming services that are Internet-based;
5. Ensuring that people with sensory disabilities are capable of accessing emergency services, including both visual representation of auditory information and verbalization of critical emergency information which is commonly displayed visually for other viewers.
Issue: ACB has concerns as to the enforcement and protection of the rights guaranteed under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) due to an increased emphasis on election reform legislation requiring an independent voter-verified paper record that may not be accessible. ACB seeks to ensure that any and all measures instituted to provide enhanced security, accuracy and/or voter confidence be developed and implemented in a manner that ensures immediate accessibility for people with disabilities through the entire process.
Proposed Action: ACB urges that in any legislation that requires a paper audit trail or other means of independent vote verification, to ensure accurate and secure election, Congress require that the means of voter verification be accessible to all individuals with disabilities at the same time as the requirement goes into effect for all voters. For consistent accessibility, ACB supports the application of the EAC’s voting system guidelines for vote generation/casting to vote verification. ACB also encourages the inclusion of funding beyond a study of accessibility methods, and to include funds for appropriate research and development for such voting access technology.
For further information contact:
Day Al-Mohamed, Director of Advocacy and Governmental Affairs
Email:
DAlMohamed@acb.org
Telephone: 202-467-5081
www.acb.org