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The Washington Connection 2-3-25

Welcome to the Washington Connection, the legislative and information service of the American Council of the Blind. The Washington Connection is brought to you by the ACB national office. If you have any questions or comments on the information provided, don’t hesitate to contact us and ask to speak with Claire Stanley.

The Washington Connection is updated any time we have new information to share with you. The following articles are available as of January 28, 2025. Messages one through seven are new.

Thank you for calling the Washington Connection.

Registration Is Now Open for the D.C. Leadership Conference!

 

The 2025 American Council of the Blind Leadership Conference will be a hybrid event. ACB’s Board Meeting, Presidents’ Meeting, Legislative Seminar, and Capitol Hill visits will take place March 14th-18th, at the Sheraton Pentagon City Hotel in Arlington, VA.

Visit our conference page for details: https://www.acb.org/2025-acb-leadership-conference

Conference Registration

To register for the conference, visit members.acb.org. Log into your account or create an account by clicking the "Create an Account" button. If you have an account but can't remember your username and/or password, please call our Minnesota office at (612) 332-3242.

Once you have logged in, visit the "DC Leadership Registration" link at the top of the page, read through the instructions and hit the "Begin with Preferences" button. To register by phone, call our Minnesota office at (612) 332-3242.

Hotel Reservations

The room rate for the Sheraton Pentagon City Hotel is $155 per night, plus tax. This rate applies to any night starting on Monday, March 10, 2025 till Tuesday, March 25th, 2025. The Sheraton Pentagon City Hotel is located at 900 S. Orme St., Arlington, VA 22204.

To make a reservation at the Sheraton, click here: https://www.marriott.com/event-reservations/reservation-link.mi?id=1722368237939&key=GRP&app=resvlink

You can also make a reservation by calling 1-800-325-3535 and informing the Marriott representative that you will be attending the “ACB Leadership Seminar” to receive the group rate. The room block cutoff date is Monday, February 17, 2025. If you experience any issues booking a room, please email Hannah Park at [email protected].

In-Person Schedule of Events

The schedule of events is as follows:

  • Friday, March 14: Afternoon Tour (12:45 pm - 2:30 pm ET)
  • Saturday, March 15: Board Meeting (9:00 AM – 5:00 PM ET) & Evening Welcome Reception
  • Sunday, March 16: Presidents’ Meeting (including luncheon) (9:00 AM – 5:00 PM ET) & Evening Dine Around in Pentagon City
  • Monday, March 17: Legislative Seminar (including luncheon) (9:00 AM – 5:00 PM ET)
  • Tuesday, March 18: Attendees may visit Capitol Hill to meet with their representatives.

Stay tuned for more details as they become available on our conference page.

 

What Are This Year’s Legislative Imperatives?

 

Advocacy can be a slow process. It often feels as if we are working on the same projects year after year. But we should never use that as an excuse to stop advocating. The authors of the U.S. Constitution made the process to create law and govern the nation to be a slow process with a multitude of checks and balances. Things are not supposed to happen quickly. They intended to make the process slow to make sure that power is never abused or used inappropriately.

So, this month, as we look toward the March D.C. Leadership Conference, let’s not be discouraged that many of the imperatives are familiar to us. Just because they have not been passed into law yet, each time they are reintroduced, we push the ball just a little further down the field. The process is slow, but it’s important.

The Medical Device Nonvisual Accessibility Act

The majority of home use medical devices and outpatient equipment utilizes digital display interfaces that are inaccessible to blind, low vision, and deaf-blind users. Class 2 and Class 3 medical devices such as glucose monitors, blood pressure readers, and at-home chemotherapy treatments do not have any non-visual accessibility features like text to speech output, tactile markings, or audible tones built in. As a result, people who are blind, low vision, and deaf-blind cannot independently manage their health from the privacy of their own homes. We are hopeful the bill will be reintroduced in the 119th Congress.

The Websites and Software Applications Accessibility Act

Access to websites, applications and online services impacts most aspects of everyday life, and the COVID-19 pandemic has made digital inclusion more important than ever. There is a need for enforcement standards that clearly state websites, applications, and online services must be accessible to people with disabilities. People who are blind, low vision, and deaf-blind face countless barriers when accessing workplace portals, educational platforms, healthcare and public health information, transportation services, shopping, and entertainment over the Internet. We are hopeful this will be quickly reintroduced in the new session of Congress.

The Communications, Video, and Technology Accessibility Act

The 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA) guaranteed access for people with disabilities to advanced communications services, telecommunications hardware and software, accessible video displays and user interfaces and digital apparatuses, and required the delivery of audio-described content. For more than ten years, ACB and its members have worked to implement and enforce the CVAA, and in several key aspects, we have reached the limits of what the CVAA is able to enforce. Once passed, this legislation will update existing requirements for accessible media, video user interfaces, and video conferencing services. ACB urges Congress to support and pass the CVTA in the 119th Congress.

 

ACB Scholarship Application Now Available Online

 

The American Council of the Blind, in partnership with other organizations and individuals, offers educational scholarships ranging from $2,000 to $7,500 for entering freshmen, undergraduate and graduate students, and those attending technical college.

This program awards students with scholarships to help with post-secondary education financial needs such as tuition, fees, room and board and other additional costs associated with assistive technology.

To be eligible for a scholarship, applicants need to be legally blind, maintain a 3.0 GPA to be eligible for most scholarships, be a full-time student or a part-time student who works at least 32 hours per week, and be involved in their school and local community. Scholarships are awarded to students who attend post-secondary institutions in the United States.

You will need to include the following documents with your completed application:

  1. Certification of legal blindness from an ophthalmologist, optometrist or physician. Legal blindness is defined as an individual who cannot see better than 20/200 in the best eye with glasses or contact lenses or whose visual field in the best eye is 20 degrees or less at the widest diameter with glasses or contact lenses.
  2. A transcript(s) from the school you are currently attending. Entering freshmen will need to include their high school transcripts and graduate students will need to include undergraduate transcripts. Unless extenuating circumstances exist, a 3.0 cumulative grade point average is required.
  3. Two letters of recommendation from a current or recent instructor, career counselor or employer. Please submit each letter of recommendation separately.
  4. Proof of acceptance from a post-secondary school. Entering and transferring students must submit a notice or letter from the admissions office certifying acceptance or consideration for admission. If this is not available when the application is submitted, it must be submitted as soon as it is available. Students continuing at the same school attended during 2023 will not need to submit this document.

Applications for the 2025 - 2026 school year can be submitted online from Wednesday, November 1, 2024 to Wednesday, February 14, 2025 11:59 p.m. (CST).

All interested candidates must register for an ACB account prior to submitting a scholarship application online. Once you have created an account with ACB, please login and then you can access the scholarship application from the link at the top of the site. Visit https://members.acb.org/ to create an account or log in.

Scholarship winners will experience firsthand ACB’s National Conference and Convention in July, where you will meet other students who share the same life experiences, create lasting friendships and network with individuals who understand what you are going through and can help you with your journey. There are also many sessions where you can learn about new technology and what is happening in our community. 
  
For more information, please contact the ACB Office at (612) 332-3242 or (800) 866-3242, or send an email to [email protected]. We look forward to receiving your application materials.

 

ACB Advocates for Accessibility at the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show

 

ACB was invited by the Consumer Technology Association Foundation to attend the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show to advocate for accessibility for people who are blind or have low vision. The Consumer Electronics Show is held annually and brings together consumer product manufacturers from around the world.

ACB staff members Claire Stanley, Director of Advocacy & Governmental Affairs, and Kolby Garrison, Accessibility & Training Services Coordinator, spoke with countless consumer electronics manufacturers concerning the inclusion of accessibility features in their products and services to ensure equitable use by people who are blind or have low vision. Thank you to the CTA Foundation for the wonderful opportunity. ACB hopes to participate in the event again in 2026.

 

ACB Drafting Comments Regarding Accessibility of Interoperable Video Conferencing Services

 

ACB is drafting comments for the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) to help make interoperable video conferencing services (IVCS) more accessible for persons with disabilities. Systems such as Zoom have become a common part of our lives. However, blind and low-vision users still face numerous access barriers to fully using the online platforms.

The notice of proposed rule-making will allow people with disabilities to provide comments on what changes they believe need to be made. Comments from the public are due by February 3, 2025 with follow-up comments allowed until March 3, 2025. The summary of the notice is provided below.

Summary:

In this document, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC or Commission) seeks comment on whether to amend the accessibility rules for interoperable video conferencing services (IVCS) to include additional performance objectives addressing text-to-speech and speech-to-speech functionality; automatic sign-language interpretation; additional user interface control functions; access to video conferencing for people who are blind or have low vision; and access to video conference for people with cognitive or mobility disabilities. The Commission also seeks further comment on whether and how the telecommunications relay services (TRS) Fund should support team interpreting in video conferences and whether additional rules are needed to facilitate the integration and appropriate use of TRS with video conferencing.

To Submit Comments:

Visit https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/01/02/2024-30501/access-to-video-conferencing.

 

Response to Questions and Updates

 

Hello All,

Other than staff announcements and a holiday greeting, this is my first foray into the land of ACB Conversation. Please don’t mistake my lack of posting prior to today as an indication that I have not had thoughts or strong feelings about previous topics. On one hand, I take a positive viewpoint of the willingness of members to share their thoughts; it means people are engaged and passionate. The idea that we are moving towards a collaborative solution to challenges through the sharing is another question to ponder, though.

Members of our staff, including me, have now been called out (thankfully by a relatively small number of individuals) as either being on “vacation” or at least not doing our jobs. So, I will now engage, somewhat reluctantly.

The second President Trump administration has now been in office for five days as of noon Eastern time Monday. I share this excerpt from Claire Stanley:

“First and foremost, we are in unprecedented times; things are coming at us fast and furious. We, advocates across Washington, D.C., are trying hard to digest and understand the various things that are happening. However, I assure you that we are listening and synthesizing how all of it affects ACB and the blind community at large.”

I have heard requests from “tell us you don’t know anything yet” to we should be in a position to share detailed potential impacts on the BVI community. It is understandable that a percentage of our members, maybe even a majority, are frightened about the changes and how various prior advances or those being pursued will be affected. If I were to come out with a perceived “strong message” about what the current administration is doing, some would be very happy and others would be offended; this would have been the same case, in reverse, if statements had been made regarding various issues under the President Biden administration. This is not to say that we should not send strong messages when advocating for ACB’s members and others in the blind or low vision community. We simply do not know yet exactly how some of the Executive Orders or staff changes are going to impact services or policies. While some politically motivated organizations will always use events to create fear or raise money, that does not constitute facts or the eventual outcomes, and the sharing of messages from those groups does not elevate our discussions in my opinion. Let me be clear, as the Executive Director of ACB I am discussing many issues with our staff to move our organization forward, and I will continue to support our dedicated staff members as we serve our membership together. In addition to those internal conversations, I often make myself available for questions on Community events, emails and phone calls; I remain committed to that practice.

There is no possible way we, as a staff, can analyze each Executive Order or tell you what a particular staff change will do, it would be pure speculation at this point and frankly take more time than we have considering the other projects we are also handling. Members should also use the Washington Connection to learn about what is being done at the national level. You can also visit the advocacy page at www.acb.org, which Claire tries to keep updated on what we are engaged in on the national level. You can always call or email Claire as well: [email protected]. I encourage you to visit www.congress.gov and locate your U.S. House of Representatives member and U.S. Senators, and email or call them with your concerns or thoughts about the programs most important to you; even if we do not know yet if they will even be impacted. Please know we are working hard to advocate for the blind and low vision community. We simply must balance our time and resources.

Regarding our Legislative Imperatives to be discussed and then carried to Capitol Hill at our D.C. Leadership event in March, Claire will be on Community giving a breakdown of each of them as we get into February. The Advocacy Steering Committee settled on the three to commit to and we left a “spot” open for a fourth item anticipating there would be developments with a new administration. The items for this year will also be on the D.C. Leadership Conference page this week. My hope is that the passion being shown by the individuals in various spaces will result in a large and enthusiastic crowd at our D.C. Leadership Conference; that will be a perfect time to show your desire to make a difference.

If you have feedback for me on the items addressed here, I would ask that you email me directly as my intention is not to get into any extended exchanges in this venue unless they are truly constructive.

Best,

Scott Thornhill

 

California’s 12th District Elects First Legally Blind Representative

 

This month, Lateefah Simon was sworn in as the representative for California, District 12. We are excited to see Ms. Simon in the House of Representatives as she was born Blind and is one of the few disabled voices within Congress. In the past, Congresswoman Simon has dedicated her career to advocating for civil rights, including a heavy focus on social and racial justice and disability advocacy. As a representative, Congresswoman Simon has stated that she will continue to focus on accessibility, transportation, affordable housing, and systemic inequalities. Congratulations, Representative Simon.

 

FTA Seeks Comments on Testing for Taxi, Rideshare Drivers

 

The Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) Drug and Alcohol rule requires drug and alcohol testing for employees and contractors who perform safety-sensitive functions. This includes vehicle operators. These testing requirements apply to contractors who perform a safety-sensitive function for an FTA recipient, even if the service the contractor provides is not federally funded.

Questions have arisen over the applicability of what is generally known as the “taxicab exception.” The taxicab exception is based on a lack of contractual or informal arrangement between the transit agency and taxicab company and who controls the selection of the company/driver providing the trip. Transit agencies can include drivers in their drug and alcohol testing programs when the agency schedules rides and pre-approves or designates specific drivers (like for ADA paratransit). However, when a rider uses a TNC app (like Uber) they are considered as selecting the driver themselves, and the transit agency generally cannot include that driver in their testing program because the rider controls the selection.

FTA is proposing to clarify and update in order to ensure a better understanding of when the rule applies to transportation network companies (TNCs). FTA is seeking public comments by February 13, 2025. To submit a comment, go to https://www.regulations.gov, and refer to the Federal Transit Administration and the docket number of this notice, which is FTA-2024-0020.