On Fri, 21 Apr 2000, Bill Gallik wrote:

If they (the NFB) are so
> presumptuous to
> speak for myself or my friends they will find themselves in
> court with a lawsuit.
>
> They are quite welcome to their own opinion, but they should proclaim it
> as their own opinion and not
> be so presumptuous as to speak for the majority of blind persons.

Hello bill,

the unfortunate thing is that when organizations seek assistance from
groups such as the NFB or self-appointed ADA experts, they often get
inaccurate, incomplete, misleading or even false information about
accommodating the information access needs of blind persons.  Decisions
are made by these self-appointed experts and the one who is threatened
with litigation or actually litigated against is not the NFB but the
organization that took their advice and ignored other information.

We can seek access and policy change ourselves by directly filing comments
with the FCC and other regulatory agencies.  After all written comments
are written comments.  More than 50 submissions by blind people will have
more impact than one comment filed on behalf of 50,000.  One might be
surprised to learn how few comments agencies actually receive on any given
issue.  Technology allows us to easily produce written documents that are
gramaticcally correct, and well written without the need for lots of
sighted helpers.  We can use technology to let our voices be heard loud
and clear.  Look for an opportunity to tell Washington what you think
about atm access in the next few weeks.  I will be posting a message with
all the info on how everyone can participate to demand rules that require
atm's to be voice-enabled.

BTW:  While the NFB was complaining about audio description of
television programming, the stock of Disney, which owns the ABC
television network, is up more than 40 percent since January 1.  This is
despite a big sell-off that has left the major stock indexes in negative
territory for the year.  Looked at in another way, $10,000 worth of Disney
stock bought on the first trading day of 2000 would be worth more than
$14,000 today, just three and a half months later.  it is certainly
evident that video description won't break their bank.

kelly


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