Writer,
Aggregator: Kevan Worley.
Contributors: Dan Burke & Erin Daley
Here
is what you need to know-
It’s Open, It’s Open! Registration for the 2021 Virtual
Convention of the National Federation of the Blind
It’s free for all! Plan to attend July
6 through 10. And we can all start dreaming of our 2022 convention in New
Orleans. https://www.nfb.org/get-involved/national-convention
Anywhere and Everywhere #NFB21.
KNOW! YOUR! RIGHTS! Thursday, March 11, Mountain Time at 5 P.M.
The second in our Mountain Time at 5
Know Your Rights Series will focus on the rights of blind travelers with
canines or canes. We will talk about white cane laws, Americans with
Disabilities Act, the most recent airline regulations with regard to guide dogs
on airplanes, and much more. As always, Mountain Time at 5 will feature subject
matter experts from Colorado and the nation, including Scott LaBarre, attorney
and President, NFBCO, experts from our National Association of Guide Dog Users,
TBA, and those from leading guide dog schools. More details coming soon, but
please mark your calendars for our March 11 Know Your Rights Mountain Time at 5
Zoom! Closed
captioning will be available.
Here are your Zoom Coordinates:
https://zoom.us/j/97417562247
Meeting ID: 974 1756 2247
One tap mobile
+13462487799,,97417562247#
Dial by your location:
+1 346 248 7799
Meeting ID: 974 1756 2247
Ginger Kutsch's dogs from The Seeing
Eye®, Easton and Willow.
THE 2020 ELECTION: HISTORIC YET DISAPPOINTING, By Scott C.
LaBarre, President, National Federation of the Blind of Colorado
Anyone who reads the above title may be fearful
that I am about to launch into some political rant about the 2020 General
Election. Fear not! Instead, the title refers to the fact that the 2020 General
Election was indeed historic for the blind of Colorado but also, in my view,
quite disappointing.
For a couple of personal reasons, the election
was quite significant. Individually, it was the first time that I could vote
absentee in a Presidential election and do so privately and independently. This
is because we, in 2019, successfully convinced the Colorado General Assembly to
adopt S.B. 19-202, championed by our good friend Senator Jessie Danielson,
which allows us to mark our ballot online using assistive technology, print it
out, and then return it either through the mail or by dropping it off at an
official ballot location.
As I recall, there were 35 different items on
my ballot on which I had to vote. Many
of them were ballot issues and local elections. Using my laptop and JAWS 2020,
I was able to access the ballot and read every last word on it. Just like my
sighted colleagues, family, friends, and neighbors who were voting by mail, I
could look at the questions presented, go and study them, and then make my
decision. It is an incredibly liberating experience to do this completely on my
own and not rely on anyone else. After I had marked my ballot, I printed it
out, placed it in the return envelope provided by my county, and then later
dropped it off at a ballot box.
The added bonus for this election was that it
represented the first time our son, Alex, had ever voted. We were able to
discuss all the issues and candidates, and voting became a family affair.
Unfortunately, Emily could not vote yet because she is only sixteen, but she
did help. After we had all filled out our ballots, we decided we would
celebrate our democracy by going to dinner. First, we stopped by the local
library and dropped off our ballots, and Emily was the one who carried them to
the box and dropped them in. Afterward, we had a great family dinner at Rice
Bistro, a great local pan-Asian restaurant that I highly recommend.
I was quite cheerful about the election
because we as blind Coloradans could use the vote by mail system as
conveniently as our sighted peers. I had hoped that thousands of blind
Coloradans would join me in taking advantage of the ease and convenience that
comes with absentee voting. After all, the vast majority, some 94 percent in
2020, of non-disabled voters in Colorado did, in fact, vote absentee, and I
assumed that it would be the same for us, especially during the pandemic where
we could vote safely in our homes.
It is at this point where my disappointment
creeps into the picture. According to information from the Secretary of State’s
Office, less than 100 of us returned our ballots by using our accessible vote
by mail system. We also have evidence that many more individuals attempted to
use the system but did not actually complete the process. For example, in
Denver, 202 individuals accessed the online ballot marking tool, but only 14 of
them actually returned their ballot after using the tool, a staggeringly low
6.9 percent. Now, I suspect that the vast majority of blind voters did vote
absentee, but instead of using the accessible ballot marking tool, they relied
on someone to fill out the ballot for them.
This leads us to wonder why the accessible and
private system is so underused, and I think we know the answer. The current
approach requires us to print out a hard copy of our ballot and then return
that ballot like our non-disabled colleagues. We have learned that the major
obstacle is that very few folks have either their own or easy access to a
printer.
When we ran our bill two years ago, I never
imagined that lack of a printer would become such an issue. Personally, I have
always had one or more printers ever since law school – in other words, for
over 30 years. I guess, however, I am kind of old-fashioned. Most people don’t
own printers any longer and rely on their smart technology to do pretty much
everything. It appears to be no different for our community.
What are we going to do about this problem?
Well, we intend to persuade our friends in the General Assembly to revise the
law we got passed two years ago to allow for electronic return as well as
electronic ballot delivery. We have learned that military and other citizens
who live overseas but are still Colorado citizens are able to not only receive
their ballot electronically, but also return it electronically via fax, email,
or a secure online portal. It should be no different for us.
Our good friend Senator Danielson is carrying
a bill that would allow us to return our ballots electronically. As of the time
I am writing this, she has not officially dropped the bill, but I expect it to
be introduced the week of March 1st. Once that happens, you can count on the
fact that we will be urging all of you to call and email your Senators and
Representatives and request that they support the bill. Stay tuned to the usual NFBCO channels.
The right to vote privately and independently
is fundamental to our democracy. Because
of our advocacy, it is possible for us to exercise that right on terms of
equality with our non-disabled colleagues whether we are doing so in person or
absentee. We will strengthen our right to vote by revising our law to permit
electronic return. Once we make this legislative fix, I urge all of you to vote
using the accessible system. In my opinion, it is the most effective and
convenient way to fulfill our civic duty and therefore protect our rights.
Until we changed the law in 2019, I never realized how rewarding and liberating
it is to vote via absentee ballot and to do so entirely on my own.
Calling Congress – Is There Anybody Home? By Dan Burke
This year, the Washington Seminar, the annual
event of the National Federation of the Blind that sees more than 500 blind
Americans traverse the halls of our nation’s Capital with white canes and guide
dogs, was instead a Zoom event. Rather than the thrilling sounds of dozens of
white canes tapping across the marble floors of Congressional office buildings
well-mixed with the jingling of dog harnesses, the most common sounds may have
been, “Sorry, can you hear me now?” But that is not to say that there were not
many positives.
First and foremost, our four legislative
priorities for 2021 were presented to nearly every one of the 535 members of
Congress, or at least their aides. The Access Technology Affordability Act
(ATAA) was reintroduced in both the House and the Senate, and cosponsors to
those bills, H.R. 431 and S. 212, were already being added. At this writing, there
are 41 cosponsors on the House bill, and eight on the Senate version. Of
Colorado’s delegation, Reps. DeGette and Crow are listed again as cosponsors,
and both cosponsored the ATAA in the last session of Congress. Along with the
ATAA, we brought forth proposed legislation on accessibility for home-use
medical devices, for creating federal regulations on web and app accessibility,
and for voting access across the United States.
In Colorado, the seven appointments we had
over the week of February 8 on Zoom meant that 30 to 40 Colorado Federationists
were on each of those calls, including staff and students from the Colorado
Center for the Blind. Of course, to keep things manageable only a handful of us
were able to talk at each meeting, but more Coloradans were able to participate
than ever before. That also meant that a number of members who might not have
otherwise been able to attend in-person or who had never had the opportunity
were able to talk about bills close to their hearts. No question, this all
makes the NFB of Colorado stronger.
The downside was that the Washington Seminar week,
February 8 to 11, was when the Senate scheduled the impeachment trial.
Immediately, we knew our chances were limited of meeting with either Senator.
Reps. DeGette and Neguse were named as managers for the House, limiting our
chances to meet with either of them, too. In the end, we met with legislative
aides in seven of the nine Colorado offices, but not a single actual member of
Congress. That was more than disappointing. As for our two new delegation
members, Senator Hickenlooper and Congresswoman Boebert, they couldn’t get it
together enough to schedule even an aide to meet with us. In the 20 years I’ve
been making appointments for Washington Seminar, first for Montana and now
Colorado, I’ve never had this happen before. Can you say, “Unprecedented”?
Well, I know what Kevan Worley would say, and
I agree with him, “Forward, always forward!” And that’s how we will continue
with the issues that matter most to us as blind people. Thanks to all of you
who joined a call and those of you who spoke in a meeting. In the National
Federation of the Blind, we take on things that are hard because they are
important to us. We never slump back in our chairs and decide they are too
hard. Shoulder to shoulder, we continue to press forward, to make progress, and
in the process we grow stronger as a movement and as individuals, because we
are determined to live the lives we want.
You can read more about our four 2021
Legislative priorities on the Washington Seminar page. Below
is the list.
Access
Technology Affordability Act (ATAA) (H.R. 431, S.
212)
Medical
Device Nonvisual Accessibility Act
Twenty-First
Century Mobile Apps and Website Accessibility Act
Americans
with Disabilities Voting Rights Act
Walking While Blind in Manhattan During the Pandemic, by Peter
Slatin
From the aggregator: If one would
really like to delve into the philosophy, policies, activities, innovation, and
empowerment found in the National Federation of the Blind? I urge the reading
of our national flagship publication, The Braille Monitor. March Monitor
features a wonderful article from Peter Slatin. Peter is a 2015 graduate of our
Colorado Center for the Blind. He also serves with distinction on the Center’s
Board of Directors. Here’s how Monitor editor Gary Wunder introduces the
article. Then, click that link and enjoy all that the March Monitor has to
offer you.
From the Editor: Peter
Slatin is the founder and president of Slatin Group, a New York City-based firm
that provides education and training to the hospitality and tourism industry on
service to people with disabilities. He is also an award-winning journalist and
a 2020-2021 Encore.org Public Voices Fellow. We are fortunate that he is a
frequent contributor to this magazine and chooses to lend his talents to the
National Federation of the Blind. Here is what he says about dealing with the pandemic
as a traveler in New York City.
COVID Vaccine Websites Violate Disability Laws, Create Inequity
for the Blind
From the aggregator: When the National
Federation of the Blind advocates for completely equal accessibility, there can
be lives at stake. Making medical devices completely accessible or insisting on
website and app accessibility can be about life and death. This is particularly
true during this pandemic, as you will see if you read this story from Kaiser
Health News. It is not just about living the life you want; in many cases, it’s
about life itself.
Many
COVID vaccination registration and information websites at the federal, state,
and local levels violate disability rights laws, hindering the ability of blind
people to sign up for a potentially lifesaving vaccine, a KHN
investigation has found. …
National Federation of the Blind of Colorado Organization of
Parents of Blind Children Celebrates Learning Box Program Early Success, Seeks
More Families to Participate!
Our first two learning box activities were
hugely successful!
Your first learning box activity lesson is on
us!
Subscription Prices and Options:
$25 for a month to month subscription
$125 for a 6-month subscription
$250 for a 12-month subscription
Note: Scholarships are available. We don’t
want any family left out!
We will continue to have learning boxes on the
fourth Sunday of each month for students. Here is a tentative list of upcoming learning
box activities:
March: Science (fun experiments)
April: Literacy (create your own story)
May: Science (exploring plant life)
To join in the fun for our March learning box
activity, contact us at coloradoparentsofblindchildren@gmail.com.
Any donations are greatly appreciated.
We are indebted to the American Action Fund
for Blind Children and Adults and the Colorado Center for the Blind for their
vast knowledge, inspiration, and support for our emerging dynamic education
initiatives.
Sincerely,
Amira Lucas-President, Colorado Organization
Parents of Blind Children, a proud division of NFBCO.
Michelle Chacon, Teacher of blind students and
Chairperson, NFBCO Children’s Education Initiative.
Martin Becerra-Miranda, Director of Youth
Services, Colorado Center for the Blind.
And, For, You, Older Kids. It’s National Federation of the Blind State
and National Scholarship Time! Apply Now!
NFB national scholar deadline is March
31. Many Colorado students have found support and success through our National
Program. The state scholarship deadline is April 15. The NFBCO scholarship
committee will be hosting an information seminar on increasing scholarship
opportunities for blind students in late March. Be sure to check Colorado Talk
for further information. In the meantime, apply! And spread the word about our,
“robust!” scholarship programs.
Don’t Miss Your Next Chapter Meeting!
For a list of chapter meetings, dates, times, and
Zoom links, email assistance@nfbco.org,
or leave a message on the hotline 303-778-1130 ext. 219. This email address and
phone number is one of the best ways to communicate when you have questions
about the programs and services we offer for members and non-members. Let’s go
build the National Federation of the Blind.
That’s It for This Edition of the
Blind Coloradan.
Forward, always Forward!
