this is a letter to Secretary of Education, Richard Riley, dated December
10,
1999 and sent by Marca Bristo.  She is chair of the National council on
Disability.  The letter below urges the Education Department to take
pro-active step's in informing post-secondary institutions on how they can
accommodate the technology access needs of students with disabilities.

kelly


                December 10, 1999

                The Honorable Richard Riley
                Secretary of Education
                400 Maryland Avenue, SW
                Washington, DC 20202

                Dear Secretary Riley:

                I write first to commend you for your ongoing leadership in
promoting education
                quality and access for all students, including students with
disabilities. With your
                leadership and support, a critical component of President
Clinton's education
                program is to have electronic and information technology in
every classroom, and
                accessible to every student.

                Higher education administrators and advocates for people
with disabilities agree
                that the civil rights provisions of the American with
Disabilities Act and the
                Vocational Rehabilitation Act apply to all education
programs. However, not all
                colleges and universities are aware of these requirements.
For example, very few
                colleges and universities are preparing accessibility
guidelines for their distance
                education programs.

                On behalf of the National Council on Disability (NCD), an
independent federal
                agency making recommendations to the President and Congress
on issues affecting
                54 million Americans with disabilities, I commend you on the
successful initiative
                you took in October 1997, in which you sent out a technical
assistance packet to
                your colleagues at the elementary and secondary level, to
bring to their attention
                that access to assistive technologies for students with
disabilities are required
                components in our investments in education technology. I
urge you to conduct a
                similar initiative for colleges and universities, to ensure
that those students who
                benefit from having assistive technologies at the elementary
and secondary level
                can now have equal access to all classes and programs at the
higher education
                level.

                Secretary Riley, I hope you will give serious consideration
to this simple, but
                effective initiative. As more students than ever before can
have equal assess to
                education at the collegiate level, we must work to ensure
that those with disabilities
                have full access to assistive technologies in their pursuit
of higher education.

                Sincerely,

                Marca Bristo
                Chairperson


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