Hi:

I generally don't forward this weekly announcement of ACB activities, but
tI thought several items might be of interest.

Peter



                NEWS NOTES FROM THE NATIONAL OFFICE

For the week ending September 20, 2002.

      *  Bush Admin says, shucks - no bucks?

      The federal court and we have heard back from the Bush
Administration on our litigation to make cash accessible to blind
folks.  They claim that the making of money is not covered by
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and even if it were, it
would impose an undue burden on the country to make paper money
accessible.  Hmmm, Now let's see; if making money is neither a
program, nor an activity, nor a service of the government, then
just what might it be?   Moreover, guess all those other
countries where they are already doing it must be in a shambles.

      The next step is for us to respond to the answer from the
feds and for the Judge to do whatever needs legally doing.  We
are optimistic that we can move this forward with the ultimate
goal of accessible cash.  Hang in there gang, it's always a rough
and tumble world in court.

      *  Women with disabilities get attention in Congress!

      ACB's own Braille Forum editor Penny Reeder attended a
fascinating meeting with the Congressional Disability Caucus on
the issues of women and girls with disabilities.  It appears that
we are not so far from the mainstream when it comes to similar
discrimination around issues of pay and schooling and so forth.
Perhaps Penny will give us the full scoop in the Forum?

      *  Broadband breakfast great!  Next day not so good?

      It's been an interesting week in the world of Washington
trying to deal with broadband high speed internet deployment and
accessibility.  ACB Executive Director Charlie Crawford spent one
morning at a stimulating breakfast in which we were treated to
mostly free market speeches and scenarios on the issue of what
may ultimately be the national policy on getting broadband out to
the people.  Unfortunately the talk with respect to disability
access seemed to center on subsidies rather than rights to
information access.  this trend was compounded the next day when
we attended a strategic meeting at the Federal Communications
Commission in which there was not a whole lot of urgent talk
about accessibility, but more concern raised for the technical
and legal issues.

      While we remain optimistic that broadband will get what it
needs in the not too distant future from either the FCC or the
Congress, our need to make sure that the contents delivered by
broadband and the equipment used in getting that content  will
have to be advanced through more advocacy than we would have
otherwise preferred.  The dangerous aspect to this whole issue is
that the redefining of telecommunications to information could
place at risk many protections we have come to enjoy under
previous laws and regulations.

      *  ACB Education Task Force winds up work.

      Well, it's ready!  The ACB white paper on the status of
education for blind kids is a wrap!  All that needs doing is the
necessary approvals from the top people within ACB and we will
launch it!

      In addition to the white paper, you'll be reading all about
it in the October Forum!  And of course like they say in the TV
ads, but wait; there's more!  We've even got statutory change
language up at Congress!

      Thanks to all who worked so hard on the IDEA task Force and
ACB can be very proud of their work!

      *  Hey, what's going on with those radio reading services?

      We are pleased to report that ACB and reps from the radio
reading services had a really good and productive heart to heart
over lunch this week.  Here are the highlights.

      1.  ACB is supportive of both audio description and radio
reading.  In those few markets where there is a conflict between
both audio description and radio reading needing to be on the
same secondary audio programming (SAP) channel, we support a
dialog within the blindness community and the television station
to allow a shared arrangement for the time it will take for the
radio reading services to find either another way of getting
their information out or until the transition to digital
television.  We understand there may be as many as 20 markets in
which this problem is occurring, but even that may be high since
cable and satellite systems are likely to carry more public tv
stations or the national feed where the audio description can be
heard versus those areas where one station is all you get.

      2.  ACB supports universal design of radios for the digital
conversion so that a blind person will be able to fully operate
an accessible tuner.

      3.  ACB supports a designation of a spot on the radio
spectrum for radio reading services to have a home they can call
their own and we can tune them in.

      In a related story, ACB is promoting the notion of a
universal information box which could well be the talking book
player of the future.  Not only would the box play talking books,
but have the ability to connect to the internet and get any
number of audio services such as ACB Radio, educational
broadcasts and more.  It would be the parallel evolution of what
is already happening with mainstream communications technologies.
In fact, smart planning of existing technologies could eliminate
the need for separate information boxes for the blind in favor of
what are called addressable units where programming is sent to a
discrete electronic address on the box.

      Whether separate or the same as mainstream information
processors, the great benefit of such a box would be no cost to
the consumer, complete consumer listening choice over a range of
information programs, and the elimination of duplicative and
redundant delivery systems that drain resources that could
otherwise be used in more productive ways.

      *  Accessible ped signals and detectable warnings get boost!

      We are pleased to share that ACB's call for folks to support
accessible pedestrian signals and detectable warnings is clearly
showing up on the U.S. Access Board radar!  While still more
comments in support of the Public Rights of Way Advisory
Committee (PROWAC) recommendations on ped signals and detectable
warnings are needed, we are optimistic that finally blind people
will have reasonable access to walk-don't walk information as
well as a detectable warning to advise us when we approach a
street or other vehicular way.  Let's remember on a very sober
note that our brothers and sisters who have died must not have
done so in vain.  Send your comment with your name and address
included to [log in to unmask]

      *  U.S. House says get busy on election reform!

      A vote yesterday in the U. S. House of Representatives
reminded the conference committee on election reform to get busy
and get out a compromise bill for Congressional action!  Thanks
to ACB folks and all of our partners for keeping up the fine work
in getting real access to voting for blind folks along with all
other Americans!

      *  DOT hears from Spot?

      Well guide dog users, all that digging in the regulatory
back yard of the U.S. Department of Transportation may have
finally gotten the gold!  No, we are not wagging yet, but the
proposed guidance on service animals worked on by Melanie and
Julie and others in ACB along with many other entities has made
it to the Department of transportation where they will be going
out for public comment!  So let's hope that soon we will be able
to give DOT a big Atta boy or Atta girl on a job well done!

      *  ACB big meeting in Minneapolis this weekend!

      News notes is a bit early this week because we will be
getting on a plane and flying off to the September Board meeting
of ACB in Minneapolis.  Remember all that talk about the budget
in the last few editions of news notes?  Well, it's the big
weekend for all the discussion for round 1 in the battle of the
budget.  So wish us luck and keep those aspirins handy!  It will
be fun and productive just as any ACB event should be!

                                ***

      News notes are a compilation of the highlights of the
preceding week and are not intended to be a comprehensive
treatment of all events or topics covered.  Keep in touch with
the Braille Forum, ACB-Radio, and our Washington Connection for a
more substantive presentation of the news!  Remember you can now
access news notes from our national office telephone system by
calling toll free on nights and weekends to 800-424-8666 and
selecting menu option 9!


VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
To join or leave the list, send a message to
[log in to unmask]  In the body of the message, simply type
"subscribe vicug-l" or "unsubscribe vicug-l" without the quotations.
 VICUG-L is archived on the World Wide Web at
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/vicug-l.html