Legislative learning

Student travels to D.C. for legislative experience
By Martha Harris
As students, we have many opportunities to become involved in politics. Students can vote, but we can be even more directly involved by lobbying for issues which we think are important.
As the president of the Pennsylvania Association of Blind Students and a member of The National Federation of the Blind (NFB,) I had a chance to become a part of this process. Starting in 1940 in Wilkes-Barre, Pa, the NFb is the oldest blindness organization in the country. It is one devoted to advocacy where blind people speak for themselves; in the past, NFB has helped blind people vote and during last year’s Washington seminar, we lobbied for the Louis Braille coin act, which will give $4,000,000 to a Braille literacy campaign.
This year’s Washington seminar was from January 29 to February 1. there were two important issues. The first one was the Higher Education Textbook Access Act. As college students, you probably don’t think about getting books; you go to the bookstore or buy from places such as ebay and amazon.com. I do this as well, but it is just the first step in a process. If the books aren’t available in audio or electronic Braille formats, which most aren’t, I have to scan them, which takes a long time. For example, if I have to read four chapters of a book by Wednesday and it is Monday, I will spend at least 5 hours scanning and editing the pages before I can actually read the text for comprehension. Therefore, as blind students, we wanted to require higher education textbook publishers to produce electronic editions in an accessible standard format.
According to NFB representatives, “Sporadic help to meet the need for accessible texts is provided by on-campus disabled student service offices, by libraries for the blind in some states and by service organizations. Publishers, however, currently do little or nothing to support production of accessible texts. The Association on Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD), which represents over 1,500 postsecondary institutions, acknowledges the legal duty of institutions to meet access needs of blind students. Without greater support from textbook publishers, however, they cannot meet this obligation.”
When other blind students and I talked to a legislative aid for Congressman Paul E. Kanjorski, who is the representative for this area, he seemed interested in this issue. According to the legislative aid, “It makes sense to me. If I had to wait hours or even weeks to make my textbooks accessible, I don’t think I would have the job I do now.”
Our other issue was being able to vote. You might think that it’s not a big deal; you make the choice to vote and go do it. However, for thousands of blind people like me, it is not that simple. Finally, in 2006, blind people using electronic machines with text-to-speech software were able to vote-for the first time in history-by themselves in secret without having to take someone with them to press the correct lever or punch the right hole in the ballot.
Now, however, according to the NFB, “Questions have arisen about the reliability and security of electronic voting systems. As a result, jurisdictions have implemented a wide array of measures to address these concerns, most of which rely on some kind of paper record of ballots cast. In the rush to implement these so called voter-verified paper trails, little consideration has been given to the effect upon nonvisual access. The result, however unintended, is that blind people use equipment considered unfit for sighted voters and have their ballots segregated from the others.”
Congressman Rush Holt from New Jersey proposed to sponsor The Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act in the House and have his colleagues cosponsor and support this legislation.
All in all, Washington seminar is a positive experience. It allows students to become directly involved in the political process by talking to representatives, senators and legislative aids about issues that are important to us. The team of six people I was in talked to seven representatives, and because of those small groups, every person in the national legislature heard about issues affecting blind people all over the country. Hopefully, Congress will help us by passing laws giving us access to textbooks on time and ensuring our right to vote independently with security. Washington seminar is an annual tradition, and because of the continuing work of the NFB, it will be one which helps blind people to achieve equality and opportunities in all areas of life.

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