by Doug Powell, President, Alliance on Aging and Vision Loss
As I write this in late July, the eight-member bipartisan subcommittee of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee of the Senate has completed its draft of sections of the Older Americans Act (OAA) that they are willing to amend during this reauthorization. So far, it includes none of the language that the Aging and Vision Loss National Coalition (AVLNC), VisionServe Alliance (VSA), the American Council of the Blind (ACB), or the Alliance on Aging and Vision Loss (AAVL) have submitted and advocated for. But Pris Rogers and Mark Richert from the AVLNC continue to communicate with the legislative staff working on the draft to see if there is any way they would include any or all of the proposed most important language to heighten awareness of and elevate the need for improved outreach and services to the blind and low vision community of older citizens.
In our previous advocacy efforts, I think we have, through our use of VSA’s Big Data Project information, done a great job of demonstrating how underserved our community is. We have also demonstrated that lack of services leads to much higher incidence of health crises such as falls, strokes, depression, and other issues that the OAA is supposed to address and reduce. So no one argues that we shouldn’t be covered by OAA.
What we have not yet demonstrated, and what we need from ACB members, are anecdotes when we have gone to our local Area Agency on Aging (AAA), senior centers, and independent living centers (ILCs) and have been turned away or given inadequate services. So, I am asking you to write up (or have someone write up for you) those incidents for us to present to lawmakers showing them that current generic disability language has been, and still is, insufficient. If you have had an incident, especially in the last five years, where inaccessible materials have been presented to you for your participation in programs and activities, or you have been excluded from activities at a senior center because activities had no accessible materials such as braille playing cards or Bingo cards, and similar issues, we need to hear from you with:
- Your name (and the name of the person you interacted with, if known);
- Date of interaction;
- Location of interaction (including the name of the agency, city, and state);
- The request you made;
- Their response;
- Any follow-up by you or them; and
- The current status of your request.
Please submit your anecdote by September 10th to [email protected]. Even if we cannot resolve your specific issue, we appreciate your contribution to our advocacy efforts. And, if you’d like to be involved with our ongoing communications with federal, state and local officials at AAAs, senior centers, and independent living centers, please include your contact information with your submission above. We’d love to have you on your local AAA Advisory Council, or other advisory body having long-term input into programs and services so you can help inclusion of people who are blind or have low vision.