Author: stevekuusisto

Poet, Essayist, Blogger, Journalist, Memoirist, Disability Rights Advocate, Public Speaker, Professor, Syracuse University

Press Release: NFB and World Blind Union File Suit Against State Department

 

National Federation of the Blind Files Complaint
Against State Department

Seeks to Stop Distribution of Inaccessible Kindles Abroad

Baltimore, Maryland (June 27, 2012): The National Federation of the Blind, the oldest and largest organization of the blind in the United States and a leader in the struggle for civil and human rights for blind people all over the world, today filed a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights for the United States Department of State, alleging that the State Department’s plan to purchase and deploy 35,000 Amazon Kindles throughout the world violates federal law because blind people cannot independently access and use the devices or their content. Four international organizations representing the blind and dedicated to equal access to books and digital information—the World Blind Union, the South African National Council for the Blind,the DAISY Consortium, andthe DAISY Forum of India—are also named complainants. The State Department has announced plans to purchase 35,000 of Amazon’s dedicated e-reading devices under a sole-source contract, at a cost of $16.5 million, as part of an international learning program being referred to as the Kindle Mobile Learning Initiative. The aim of this program is to create a global e-reader program that introduces aspects of U.S. society and culture directly to young people, students, and international audiences and to expand English- language learning opportunities abroad. The plan will involve deploying the Kindles to embassies, libraries, and other entities around the world. The complaint also alleges that a previous deployment of six thousand Kindles to State Department facilities throughout the world violates the law.

Of the Kindles currently available, not all are capable of speaking the content of books. While the State Department proposal specifically calls for the inclusion of this feature, the contract makes no reference to the department’s obligation to purchase accessible technology under Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act or otherwise require that the devices procured be accessible to the blind. Blind readers cannot independently access the text-to-speech reading and voice-guided menu features of the Kindle, and cannot independently navigate within a book once it is opened, meaning that they must simply read it from beginning to end.

Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said: “Access to information is a fundamental human right, and blind Americans, as well as our brothers and sisters throughout the world, insist that this right be upheld. The State Department wants the international community to learn about United States society and culture; people with disabilities are a part of that society and culture, and the protection of our rights is a national priority as clearly expressed in the Rehabilitation Act and other laws. All federal agencies, including the State Department, are bound by these laws. We intend to see that the State Department meets its legal and moral obligations to the blind people of this country and the world.”

Marianne Diamond, president of the World Blind Union (WBU), said: “The WBU represents over 285 million blind people throughout the world and believes strongly that the blind and others who cannot read print must have access to published materials on the same terms as the sighted. It is critical that the United States demonstrate leadership in this area by procuring and providing reading technology that everyone can use independently.”

The complainants are represented in this matter by Scott C. LaBarre of the Denver firm LaBarre Law Offices.

Things are moving along with Copper Canyon Press

Just got the copy edited manuscript of my new book “Letters to Borges” coming soon from Copper Canyon Press. Michael Wiegers has done a fabulous job. Who says editing is dead? Not in Port Townsend!

America, 2012

Here is the story as I understand it. The wind comes through the silver birches and it is a god. My friend X is stuck on the New Jersey Turnpike because his car broke down. His car broke down because there is a demon. In America nowadays, everything runs according to Orphic principles, even the Pentecostal types. There’s a crack on the sidewalk. If you step on it, Jesus will never come back. Don’t kid yourself, America is officially nuts. Here is the story as I understand it. America was always nuts. Gods are fighting in my privet hedge. They just happen to look like magpies. There’s a demon in my friend’s 1993 Ford station wagon. The mechanic can’t find it. I know why: the Devil lives in the water cooler at the Pep Boys in Brunswick, New Jersey. He’s been there for about five years. He used to be at Princeton. He gets around. He used to live in my gas stove. 

 

Disability Rights Activists Focus On Proposal To Cut $800 Billion From Medicaid

We at Planet of the Blind wonder why The Rachel Maddow Show or other progressive news outlets are not covering the story of disability protest of the Romney-Ryan Plan.

(Between The Lines)
June 20, 2012

WASHINGTON, DC– [Excerpt provided by Inclusion Daily Express] On April 23, 74 disability rights activists were arrested in the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, D.C., there to protest the Republican-led House of Representatives’ proposed plan to cut $800 billion from the federal Medicaid budget. The protest was part of the disability rights’ group ADAPT’s My Medicaid Matters Campaign.

ADAPT used to stand for American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation, but with the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act in the early 1990s, that battle was largely won. ADAPT now stands for American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today, emphasizing the need for personal care assistance to help disabled citizens to remain in their own homes and not be institutionalized.

Actor Noah Wyle, a star of the “Falling Skies” TV program, was among the ADAPT activists to be arrested at the April protest. ADAPT says that like Americans of the past, disability activists are practicing nonviolent civil disobedience to prevent the nation from stepping backward toward oppression and segregation.

Elaine Kolb was one of those arrested in the April protest. She uses a wheelchair as a result of a stabbing injury many years ago. This was her 19th arrest since joining ADAPT in 1987. She is also a singer/songwriter whose work focuses on disability rights issues. Between the Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Kolb, who explains why she participated in this latest protest, as she considers what the future may hold for Americans with disabilities.

Entire article:
GOP Proposal to Cut $800 Billion from Medicaid Budget Focus of Disability Rights Protest
http://www.btlonline.org/2012/seg/120622cf-btl-kolb.html

Hallelujah

The Lute Player

By Andrea Scarpino 

While walking the city our last day in Budapest, Zac and I wandered into a craft market wedged between two buildings. Table after table was filled with hand printed tee-shirts and skirts, handmade copper and silver rings and earrings, stationary, black and white photographs, felted purses and hats. We moved slowly from one table to the next, sunlight streaming down between the buildings, and right in the middle of that long, slow procession was a woman, guitar case open at her feet, playing guitar, singing—in Hungarian—Leonard Cohen’s famous “Hallelujah.” 

We squeezed into an empty space around a table of felted purses, the crowd around us pushing forward, and listened to her voice, a clear, lovely voice, singing words I couldn’t recognize but know by heart. Words I couldn’t recognize except for one: hallelujah. 

Over and over: hallelujah: “an expression of worship or rejoicing.”

I felt, in those three weeks of travel, that I was constantly rejoicing, full of gratitude for the chance to visit new places, for time with Zac, for meeting family. It was the first time in five years that I traveled without my computer, that I checked email only sporadically, that I allowed myself to just be, just be in a place without a schedule or timeline or expectations of what should happen next. I felt lighter than I have in a long time, free of any responsibility other than to get to the train or bus station on time for the next leg of our journey. 

Sometimes I felt overwhelmed with lack of direction—when I was brought from house to house meeting new relatives, for example, and had no idea how many relatives were left on the schedule to meet. But those moments were fleeting. Most of the time, I rejoiced in just being present where I was taken, in allowing myself to be led, in absorbing everything I could possibly absorb. Zac remarked frequently on how relaxed I looked, how free of stress in my face.

Now, of course, I’ve returned to responsibility. My next semester starts in two weeks, and even though June is officially reserved for faculty research, I’ve been spending hours in phone meetings, answering emails, preparing for July’s Residency. I’ve grown weary of beginning another semester in the middle of summer when the rest of my teaching friends and colleagues still have two months of break. I’ve grown weary of the mundane responsibilities, personality conflicts, petty disagreements probably present in every working environment.

And I’m trying to find, again, that sense of lightness, joy, rejoice. Gratitude that I have a job when so many I know do not. Gratitude at the beauty of summer in Marquette : hundreds of miles of trails to explore, rocky beaches, moderate temperatures, light until 10:30 or 11 at night. Gratitude for visiting friends, for friends wanting to visit. There is much in my life about which to rejoice, about which to feel grateful. The challenge, I’m beginning to understand, is to bring the lightness and joy I felt during three weeks of vacation into my everyday life. To remember how I felt standing in an alley in Budapest filled with color and light and music and a woman’s voice, again and again, singing hallelujah.