Hi to all.

I am aware of the HIPAA laws, and as has already been stated several times,
Handi-Hams has no latitude on the HIPAA paperwork.  It's the law.

My point is that I am not asking for Rehabilitation Services, and it seems
to me that for those of us who are mostly able bodied, there should be some
way of getting materials in an accessible format to prepare for a Federal
exam.  I am saying that it is time that some type of materials were put in
a format that someone with a 4-track cassette player, or a Book Port, or a
Victor Reader could read without having to disclose a lot of personal
information.  I realize that organizations like ARRL would not want to put
their materials out in electronic format because hams being the stingy
so-and-sos that many are would copy them all over creation.  However, I do
think there has to be some middle ground.  Way back in the late 1980's, I
started to fill out a Handi-Hams application, long before HIPAA, and
started to see questions that I felt were none of their business, and
decided to go it alone.  That should be my right to make that
determination.  I understand what their position is and what their purpose
is, and I really don't have a problem with it.

But, I am a member of the ARRL.  I pay a reduced membership dues because I
am blind and cannot read QST, so I don't have them mail me one.  They
didn't have to ask for a physical, or anything long and drawn out.  All I
would ask is that the materials that I need should exist some where where I
don't have to become the client of some Rehabilitation agency to get the
same materials that sighted amateur radio operators just buy.  And, I think
it's time that a bunch of us hit up the publishers of these materials to
find a way to produce these materials for sale that is in a format that is
accessible to blind users.

That's my position on this situation.

I'm not calling Handi-Ham's motives into question, or trying to bash
them--they are simply not my cup of tea.

73, de Lou K2LKK



Louis Kim Kline
A.R.S. K2LKK
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Work Telephone:  (585) 697-5753