by Melanie Brunson
There have been a number of exciting developments on the legislative and advocacy fronts during the last few months. Each of these has the potential to greatly increase access options for people who are blind and visually impaired. Therefore, I want to give you an update on what's been happening.
First of all, we have an accessible textbook bill! As many of you know, ACB has worked for more than two years, in partnership with the Association of American Publishers and other blindness organizations, to craft a bill which would provide a workable means by which blind and other print disabled students in elementary and secondary schools across the country could be assured of having their textbooks at the same time their sighted peers receive theirs. The result was the Instructional Materials Accessibility Act of 2002. The bill was introduced in both houses of Congress on April 24, 2002, with bipartisan support. The bill was sponsored in the Senate by Christopher Dodd (D-Ct.) and Thad Cochran (R-Miss.). Their bill number is S2246. The House bill was introduced by Reps. Thomas Petri (R-Wis.) and George Miller (D-Calif.). The House bill number is HR4582.
This bill is groundbreaking for a number of reasons. First, it provides for the establishment of a uniform national file format, which textbook publishers will use when providing educational agencies with copies of textbook files for production in alternate formats. Second, it requires states to establish plans by which they will insure that those files will be requested and the accessible books provided to students in a timely manner. Third, it provides for the establishment of a national repository of textbook files provided by publishers, so that educational agencies and producers of alternate format textbooks can access those files more quickly and use them to provide books to their students. It also provides grants to help production centers and educational agencies build their capacity to comply with the other provisions of the bill. Finally, this bill is significant because of the broad base of support it has. All of the major blindness organizations, as well as braille and recorded book producers, special education entities and textbook publishers, had a hand in crafting the bill and are now working diligently for its passage.
We are hoping you will join us in supporting these efforts. Our goal is to get the Instructional Materials Act passed by both houses of Congress and on the president's desk before the 2002 elections in November. Congressional support is growing, but has not yet reached a level where we can be assured of the bill's passage. Please contact your senators and congress members. Ask them if they have co-sponsored the Instructional Materials Accessibility Act of 2002 yet, and if not, urge them to do so. This is an issue where support from constituents will carry a lot of weight, as many members of Congress are unfamiliar with the magnitude of the difficulties students experience while trying to get timely access to instructional materials.
Moving on to the judicial arena, ACB has resurrected another longstanding access issue. With the aid of a Washington attorney, Jeff Lovitky, ACB, along with two individual ACB members, has filed suit against the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Treasurer of the U.S. for violating Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 by refusing to design paper currency in a manner that makes it identifiable by, and therefore accessible to, people who are blind and visually impaired. The suit seeks a declaration that these entities have violated federal law by failing to design paper currency in a manner that allows independent identification of denominations by people who are blind and visually impaired. It also asks the court to grant an injunction requiring that these entities produce accessible paper currency.
The complaint sets forth a number of options that could make paper currency more accessible, including making each denomination a different size and color, incorporating larger high contrast denomination numerals into bills and including braille as well as large print denomination numerals on bills. It is our hope that this litigation will provide a basis for dialogue on these issues. To date, Treasury Department officials have been unwilling to seriously address the accessibility concerns of blind and visually impaired Americans. This is unfortunate, since they have had several opportunities to do so. In 1995, the Department of the Treasury went so far as to commission a study by the National Academy of Sciences to determine what could be done to make paper money more accessible to people with visual impairments. The National Academy of Sciences convened a panel of experts, which issued a report contending that there were several options available to Treasury officials, all of which could be implemented within three years using currently available technology. These options are similar to those outlined in ACB's complaint. However, Treasury officials have apparently not chosen to act on the recommendations contained in the report they commissioned. It is true that the most recent redesign of some bills has incorporated a larger denomination numeral, which was meant to aid users with low vision, as recommended in the report. However, that numeral is in only one corner and does not contrast sufficiently from the rest of the printing on the bill, so it is still quite difficult for many people to see.
In the meantime, Treasury officials are about to unveil yet another redesign of paper currency. Newly redesigned bills are planned for next year in an effort to combat counterfeiting. It is our hope that we can affect this process by calling attention to the fact that individuals throughout the country have experienced fraud of a sort that Treasury officials have refused to acknowledge. The inability to independently identify one's own money puts a blind or visually impaired person in a position where he or she can be taken advantage of by others who are tempted by opportunities for dishonest gain.
We will keep you informed as this matter develops. We hope that our lawsuit will provide the impetus for the creation of a solution that will enhance the accessibility of another kind of transaction that is key to our full and independent participation in the economic lives of our families, communities, and nation.
Speaking of participation in the life of our communities and nation, we are looking forward to some significant progress in access to the secret ballot! Election reform bills have passed both houses of Congress. Both bills contain provisions related to increasing access to the voting process for people with disabilities. However, the bill passed by the Senate contains stronger accessibility provisions, which would apply nationwide beginning in 2006. The House bill leaves it to each state to determine how to provide accessible voting to its voters with disabilities, and does not give the states a time frame within which to accomplish this. ACB has joined with other disability and civil rights groups in lobbying members of the conference committee that has been appointed to craft a compromise bill. We have urged them to insure that meaningful accessibility provisions, specifically those in the Senate bill, are included in the final bill. We hope individuals will contact their senators and representatives on this important issue. We need individuals to let their elected officials know they support meaningful provisions that will insure that people with disabilities will be able to vote privately and independently, regardless of which state or community they live in, and to encourage them to pass this concern on to their colleagues on the conference committee.
No matter which provisions are included in the final election reform bill, there will still be a lot of work for us to do in order to insure that local elections officials will take steps to insure us greater access to the vote. In an effort to help you with that work, ACB is about to release an accessible voting handbook. Pay close attention to "The Braille Forum" and ACB's web site (http://www.acb.org) for further information about this publication. It will contain very practical information, as well as tips on how to apply it in your own communities. We hope to make the guide available very soon!
In the meantime, stay involved and keep in touch. We'll do our best to keep you informed periodically, but if we leave something out that you want to know about, feel free to contact the ACB national office and ask.