Happy 20th Anniversary, ADA

Tomorrow, July 26, is a very special day for me and the other 54 million
Americans with disabilities. It is the 20th anniversary of the day the
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), our civil rights law, was signed into
law by President George H. W. Bush. As I think about this day, I'd like to
reflect on what I feel the promise of the ADA has been and if that promise
has been fulfilled.

The ADA promised that I or anyone else with a disability could apply for a
job, and be treated equally to our non-disabled peers in all employment
decisions such as employment application, interviewing, hiring, firing and
promotion. It told employers, judge people with disabilities solely on
their qualifications to do a job, not on their disabilities. While I feel
that ADA has opened up a lot more work opportunities to people with
disabilities, the unemployment rate for people with disabilities is stil
unacceptably high. For example, it's around 70% for people who are blind or
visually impaired. Clearly, much more needs to be done to educate and
assist employers, particularly small businesses, to hire more people with
disabilities.

Much of my advocacy work over the past 18 years has been in the area of
transportation. The ADA promised greater access to transit, and for those
people with disabilities who could not take public transit, improved
paratransit services. I believe that for the most part these promises have
been realized. I travel every day on the Chicago area commuter rail and L
systems, and feel much more confident since there are detectable warning
strips at the platform edges. I can rest assured knowing that stops wil be
announced so that I know when it's time to get off. Busses that stop
audibly announce which route they are, making independent travel much
easier. I rarely have problems accessing paratransit service.

While I rarely have difficulty with paratransit, I believe work still needs
to be done regarding that service. The ADA needs to recognize that people
with disabilities who live in areas where there isn't much in the way of
public transit need to be able to get around too, and they may not be able
to drive like their non-disabled friends and neighbors. Incentives need to
be put in place to expand paratransit type service to such areas. Also, I
believe that further clarification of how people are to be certified for
paratransit needs to be provided. I shouldn't have to go through filling
out a long application and being interviewed every four years to make sure
I'm stil eligible for paratransit. After all, I am blind and that's not
going to change. This holds true for many with permanent disabilities.
More focus needs to be put toward this issue.

The ADA promised that state and local Governments would be required to make
their programs and services more accessible. I believe they have, but I
also believe that many, myself included, haven't always asked for the things
we need. For example, I attend our local village board meetings fairly
frequently. I have never asked for an egenda in Braile, even though it's my
right to do so. I have participated in our village's biennial town meeting
and been provided with assistance in voting

Accessible voting in local, state and Federal elections has been the biggest
impact of ADA I've seen in state and local Government services. Gone
forever are the days when I would have to tell someone how I wantd to vote,
and trust that my ballot was marked as I requested. Now, I can do it all by
myself, how empowering.

The ADA promised that places of public accommodation would have to make
their services accessible to people with disabilities. My experience in
brick and mortar establishments is that they have. I very rarely have
problems receiving assistance in stores, restaurants, sports venues, and
other places of public accommodation. However, this promise as not been
completely fulfilled because of the advent of the World Wide Web. ADA's
protections need to be extended to cover entities that sel products or
provide services over the web. Southwest Airlines is a great example of a
company that was sued under ADA for lack of website access, found they
didn't have to do anything, but then made changes that make their website
very easy to use with screen reading software.

The ADA promised that telecommunications services would be more accessible
to people who are deaf, hard of hearing or deaf-blind. While in many
respects this has happened, it's protections need to be extended to help
combat access challenges faced by people with other disabilities.

So everyone, take a little time tomorrow, and think about all that has been
accomplished in the last 20 years since ADA was signed into law. Then,
let's roll our sleeves back up and get to work because more still needs to
be done.

Copy of Letter Sent to Mr. Gary Shapiro, President, Consumer Electronics Association

Hello:

This is a copy of a letter I sent to Mr. Gary Shapiro, President, of the
Consumer Electronics Association. This is in response to the Opp. Ed. Piece
he wrote against H.R.3101 that was published in the Washington Times on June
9, 2010. Read and enjoy, and write your own letter to Mr. Shapiro via
e-mail at gshapiro@ce.org.

=====start letter text=====
Hello Mr. Shapiro:

This message is my response to the Opp Ed by you which was published June 9,
2010 by the Washington Times, against H.R.3101, "The 21st Century
Telecommunications and Video Accessibility Act." I will respond from three
viewpoints, as a person who is totally blind, as a leader in the organized
blind movement and as a professional working daily in the field of adaptive
technology with people who are blind or visually impaired.

You assert that H.R.3101 is not needed, since industry is moving to address
accessibility. If industry is doing such a good job, then why does there
continue to be only one truly accessible cell phone out of the box for
people who are blind or visually impaired, that being the IPhone? If
industry was doing such a great job, we consumers with disabilities would
have many more choices of accessible cell phones. While there are cell
phones such as those made by LG that offer off the shelf accessibility to
some features, as I stated, the IPhone is the only fully accessible phone
off the shelf providing access to all of its features. While there are
people who are blind who use and love the IPhone, many others to whom I
speak on an almost daily basis do not want to use a touch screen interface
such as that on the IPhone. Many, myself included, do not want to be
limited to AT&T Wireless as the only cell phone provider we can use. By
your assertions, you are saying it is OK that we who have disabilities and
want to buy cell phones should have limited choices.

I use Verizon Wireless as my cell phone provider. In order to get a fully
accessible phone, I had to spend $300 over and above the cost of the phone
to purchase a software package that makes all of the phone's features
accessible to me via speech output. I, fortunately, am employed and had the
money to do this. However, nearly 70% of people who are blind or visually
impaired are not employed, and therefore, cannot afford this extra cost.
H.R.3101 when passed will insure there will be more choices for off the
shelf accessible cell phones.

My wife and I purchased a home theater system about 10 months ago. Because
this system requires the use of on-screen menus to configure its settings,
we had to ask my brother-in-law to give up over half of his Saturday with
his family to come over and set the system up for us. What if something
goes wrong and the system needs to be re-configured? We will need to find a
sighted person to come help us. Contrary to what some believe, we don't
have sighted people at our beckon call for everything we need. Synthesized
speech chips and software are widely available, and it would have been very
simple to include a setting where I could have requested voice guidance
through the setup of this system. If speech synthesis technology wasn't so
widely available, why then are all of the weather forecasts you hear on NOAA
Weather Radio done using synthesized speech? Why in airports do you hear
announcements being made using synthesized speech and not humans? I ride a
commuter rail system each day to and from work, the second largest system of
its kind in the nation. When announcements are made concerning such things
as train delays, they are not made by humans. They are punched into a
computer somewhere and broadcast using synthesized speech.

My wife and I have digital cable service. We pay the same rates per month
as others with comparable plans. Yet, about all we can do is adjust the
volume, turn on and off the TV and switch channels. All of the other
features are inaccessible to us because they require use of an on-screen
menu which is not available to us via speech output. I hear announcements
about movies on demand and cannot access these to enjoy them if I wanted
too. I can't use Digital Video Recorder (DVR) service to record programs I
want to watch later. If industry was doing such a great job, there would be
a speech output feature that I could access on demand which would allow me
to access these and other features. What if tonight after composing this
letter, I cannot sleep and want to know what is on TV? I cannot access the
program guide and I don't have a sighted person at my disposal for that sort
of thing. I'd like to keep my friends as my friends, maintain peace in my
family and have good relationships with my neighbors. Since you assert
industry is doing such a good job, tell me how I can access the program
guide. I'm waiting.

If industry was doing such a great job, why then didn't the designers of the
Kindle II Book Reader sold by Amazon design menus and controls that could be
accessed using speech output? After all, they designed in speech output to
read the content of books, it would have been a simple few extra steps to
make the menus and controls accessible via speech output. If Industry was
doing such a great job, why do people who are blind or visually impaired
have to pay eight or nine times the cost that sighted people do to enjoy the
benefits of Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) technology? After all, GPS
devices like those made by Garman, Magellan and Tom Tom provide spoken
directions. It would be a simple few steps to include a keypad and voice
output of menus and controls so these systems could be independently
programmed by people who are blind.

These examples and countless others totally render your assertions about how
good industry is doing pointless. The fact is, Mr. Shapiro, that there has
been nothing achieved in the area of disability access without assistance
from the Government. We'[re seeing an example of this on America's streets
right now. Hybrid cars, which are very good for our environment are
designed to operate using an electric motor when stopped or moving at speeds
below about 25 miles per hour. When they were initially designed, no one
considered the fact that pedestrians who are blind or visually impaired and
others would not be able to hear these vehicles and know that it is safe to
cross the street. Thanks to advocacy work which has led to the introduction
of legislation in Congress to address this problem, the car companies are
taking notice.

I, personally, am one of the strongest believers in the free market you will
meet. I know that America has countless talented people, ready to innovate
and design great new electronics. But I also know that at times, Government
needs to step in and help make sure people are doing what is right so that
those of us with disabilities are not left behind. Apple is to be commended
for making their products accessible to people who are blind or visually
impaired right out of the box. Not all of us want to purchase Apple
products. You and the Consumer Electronics Association should be
encouraging other companies to follow Apple's lead as Apple has proven that
off the shelf access is feasible. Since it appears you have not, then
H.R.3101 must be passed and signed into law. After all, the more devices we
who have disabilities can choose to purchase, the more profits the consumer
electronics industry will make as a whole. The population of people who are
blind or visually impaired is expected to grow exponentially over the next
several years. Most of those who will develop vision problems will be
seniors as they live longer. They are used to being active, being able to
do all sorts of things. They're not going to stand for being told, sorry,
you can't access this computer or that television set top box, and they
shouldn't. By passing H.R.3101, we can unleash the talents of designers and
engineers in electronics companies across the world to come up with products
everyone, including those with disabilities can use. You should want
nothing less, for remember, the minority group of people with disabilities
is the only one that you, a member of your family or a close friend can join
at any time.

Thank you for your time and attention. I hope you will re-think your
demeaning, ridiculous assertions about H.R.3101 and come out in support of
true access to the latest and greatest devices for all of us.

Remember True Reason We Celebrate Memorial Day

This weekend, we celebrate the Memorial Day holiday. For many, Memorial Day
signifies the start of summer. People will be visiting family, barbecuing,
enjoying sports and other things. For most workers, this is a three day
weekend.

As you celebrate this weekend, please take a little time and remember the
true reason we celebrate Memorial Day. It is to honor those men and women
who have fought and died to protect the freedoms we all cherish here in the
United States of America. To those who have fought for our country and
given the ultimate sacrifice, I say thank you to them and to their families.
There are times when our fighting men and women go to war. No matter how
you feel about the current conflicts we are involved in, or, how you have
felt about past wars, those who fought and died for our country deserve
nothing but our utmost respect and honor.

I will be going to a local Memorial Day parade tomorrow morning. My
favorite part of this parade is when the rifle squad from the American
Legion marches by. On this Memorial Day, may god continue to bless the
greatest country in the world, the United States of America.

Bizarre News Day

Talk about a bizarre news day in my area yesterday. First, we find out the
Executive
Director of our commuter rail service took his own life by, of all things,
walking in front of a commuter train. He was probably about to be fired due
to financial improprieties. It is reported that he got an unauthorized,
$56,000 bonus. Now that is bad, but is it worth taking your life over?
There had to be other things going on.

Then not more than a half hour later, we hear of a shooting at the Old Navy
store in Downtown Chicago. Seems that a woman who works there had broken up
with someone, but that someone didn't think the relationship should have
been over.

The Commuter Rail Executive Director one hit me a little hard. I had the
opportunity to work with this person. While I didn't know what was going on
in his financial dealings at the agency, he was always good to work with in
my role on the commuter rail system's Accessibility Committee. I especially
liked that he, the Executive Director was at every committee meeting, that
he said it like it is and when some of the people with disabilities got out
of hand, he put them in their place. It's too bad that he, apparently, did
things improperly from a financial sense, and it's too bad he took his life.

As far as the Old Navy deal, all I have to say is there are far better ways
to deal with a broken heart. At least, that guy is out of the gene pool;
too bad he took someone with him.

Congratulations, Arizona, Federal Government, Takle Notce and Do Something

Congratulations to the people of Arizona and their representatives for
passing tough immigration laws. As expected, the liberals in Washington who
think they know more than we do don't like it.

Arizona needed to do something because they are having a problem with
illegal immigrants. From crime, to high costs for education and health
care, the state has had enough and felt they needed to do something.

The message being sent by Arizona is simple. If you, the Federal Government
aren't going to do something about immigration reform, a serious issue, then
we are going to take action because we're sick and tired of being overrun
with illegal immigrants.

Certainly, the immigration issue is pretty complicated. In many ways, you
really can't blame illegal immigrants for coming to the United States.
There are jobs here and they come from terrible economic conditions in
places like Mexico.

So what should the Federal Government do? First, go hard after employers
for hiring illegal immigrants. Stif fines, documentation of legal status of
all workers, and forced closure of businesses would send a strong message
that you better hire only people who belong here or else.. Not only would
this help stem the tide of illegal immigration, it would help Americans who
are out of work find work. In particular, it would help underemployed
groups such as folks with disabilities. Yes,m this may mean we Americans
have to pay more for certain things, but so what. If that puts more
Americans to work, it's a good thing.

For those illegals who are here, the Federal Government should create a path
to citizenship which doesn't put them in line ahead of anyone else, and
which reduces the cost and time to become a citizen. I believe that all
illegals must learn English, and in fact, that many want too, realizing it's
to their advantage to do so.

Immigration reform should be done in such a way that if you are here
illegally, and you commit any crime, you are kicked out, period.

There are many more things strong immigration reform should do. Arizona
shouldn't have had to take the stand that they did, but since the Federal
Government has been unresponsive to the problem of illegal immigration, they
felt they had no choice. If the Federal Government does not want more
states to take action like Arizona did, then they need to work to enact
immigration form that punishes employers for hiring illegal workers, creates
an easier path to citizenship for those here illegally, and kicks out any
illegals that commit crimes.

I Want My Country Back

I want America back. I want the America back that many including my Dad's
cousin fought for. I want the America back where Government concentrated on
the areas it was supposed to, and, didn't take over corporations and medal
into almost every aspect of our lives. I want the America back where
political debate was more civil, and while you may have disagreed with your
friend or neighbor, you could disagree without being disagreeable.

The America I want back is slowly being taken away by the likes of President
Obama, Nancy Pelosey and Harry Reed and I'm not about to let them finish
the job. I don't know yet what I'm going to do, who I'm going to work with
or how I'm going to achieve it, but I'm going to fight to get my country
back! The members of my family and others who fought for our once great
nation can't fight anymore, so it's our turn to fight.

For starters, I'm going to search out candidates running for office in
November, look over their records and resumes carefully to make sure they
represent and believe in the America I want to see and vote for those who
do. I've never volunteered for or donated to a political campaign in my
life, but that's about to change because saving our nation and returning her
to greatness is too important.

I'm going to look into the tea party movement because the more of us who do,
the less the Democrats and Media can ignore it, much as they will try.
Check out www.theteapartynation.com to find out more. I don't know if that
is a movement that has legs, but the more of us who learn about it, the more
it can work to make a difference.

What else will I do? I don't know. I don't know if I can have a say in
firing some of the 219 disgraceful members of Congress that put our
Government in charge of 1/6 of our nations economy, but I'm going to check
out www.firethe219.com and see what it's about.

As I find more ways to fight for my country, I will share them. Until then,
may God bless America and may he help us find leaders who love our great
nation and want to return her to the land of the free, home of the brave.

These People Are A Disgrace to the Democratic Party

I've figured out something I wish the Democratic party would figure out and
fix. People like Nancy Pelosey, Barack Obama, Harry Reed, the rest of the
219 who voted for the Government taking over 1/6 of our nation's economy and
others are a disgrace to the Democratic party and should be booted out.
When you think of great Democrats in history, none of these people can turn
the door knob for them, much less open the door.

I'm thinking of great Democrats like the late Senator Paul Simon, the late
Senator Ted Kenedy, and even former President Bill Clinton to some degree in
his later years. These were Democrats who held very liberal values. They
truly fought for such things as fair wages, the rights of workers to form
unions, and to help the poor and disadvantaged.

For the democratic leaders of today, it's not about fighting for America,
it's about power. Everything they are doing, from the takeover of
corporations like General Motors to passing a bill that will destroy health
care as we know it is all about achieving power over the American people,
making us more dependent onb Government for everything. After all, these
people believe that Government is the answer to all of our problems. While
they say they are fighting for the poor and disadvantaged, in truth, they
are taking them for granted.

\Democrats like Simon and Kenedy were partisans to the core, but they knew
when to reach across the aisle and work together, and they were affective at
it. Today's Democrats show nothing but contempt for anyone who disagrees
with them. Darn it, we're Americans too and we deserve to have our voices
heard.

I hope the Democrats lose big time in November, because then, perhaps, they
will bring in party leaders who respect our nation's history, remember the
leaders of the past and who will, while fighting for those things they deem
important, reach out and work with others when needed.