[Colorado-talk] Start Calling, Tweeting and e-mailing about TEACH!
Dan Burke
burke.dall at gmail.com
Mon Sep 8 21:49:40 UTC 2014
Greetings!
It's time to go to work defending and promoting the TEACH Act. On
August 29, the American Council on Education (ACE) said this to the
Senate HELP Committee about TEACH language:
" This provision creates an impossible to meet standard for
institutions and will result in a significant chilling effect in the
usage of new technology. Such a proposal, if implemented, will
seriously impede the development and adoption of accessible materials,
harming the very students it is intended to assist.
That of course isn't true, and doesn't even make sense. But we need
to make sure our Congressional delegation hears from us. At the end
of this message is the contact info for the Colorado Delegation,
including phone, e-mail, and social media. I'm also giving you the
excellent rebuttals from President Riccobono and NFB of Mass.
President Kyle Shakmut in case you want to share these with members of
the delegation:
The Message
Basically, the message we need to get across is this:
Blind Americans want, deserve and insist on access to electronic
educational materials. The NFB believes that the TEACH Act is what
colleges and universities want - voluntary standards that help protect
them from litigation over access to electronic learning media. The
American Council on Education should join is in looking forward
instead of trying to leave blind and other print-disabled college
students behind.
Social Media
Here are some sample tweets for those using Twitter, and these can
also be easliy pasted onto the members' Face Book pages. Be sure to
put the members' twitter handle at the beginning of the tweet:
@NFBCO looks forward to electronic access in #TEACH; @ACEducation
looks backward in opposing it. goo.gl/0V2rIy
@NFBCO's blind students deserve access. @ACEducation opposes optional
#accessibility guidelines. #TEACHAct goo.gl/qjvbgv
Demand @ACEducation give data-based reasons for opposing optional
#accessibility guidelines. #TEACHAct @NFBCO goo.gl/0V2rIy
E-mail Letter
Also as a reminder, I am posting the sample letter that Lauren
McLarney distributed last week if that's what you'd prefer to do.
Where possible, you can send the e-mail to the staffer listed for the
members:
Dear [Staffer's name],
I am writing as a member of the National Federation of the Blind of
Colorado about the Technology, Education and Accessibility in College
and Higher Education Act (S. 2060/H.R. 3505), or TEACH Act. We
discussed this at length in January when we visited Capitol Hill.
The TEACH Act offers a simple, non-controversial solution to the very
complicated problem of inaccessible educational technology and the
impact that kind of discrimination has had on blind college students.
Last Friday, the American Council on Education (ACE) sent a letter to
Senator Harkin regarding a provision in his higher education
reauthorization draft that is modeled after the TEACH Act. Their
statement can be found here,
http://www.aascu.org/policy/federal-policy/outreach/LettertoHarkinHEA09292014.pdf,
and they totally missed the mark. It says the provision creates an
"impossible to meet standard," that will chill the usage of new
technology. It goes onto say the provision will do the opposite of
what it intends to do without any data or explanation for how that is
so.
You have asked us challenging questions about this bill, so we hope
you will look at ACE's position with the same critical eye. The TEACH
Act creates voluntary accessibility guidelines that tells schools what
accessibility looks like so they'll know what to demand and how best
to comply with the law - hardly an "impossible to meet standard." The
bill also incentivizes schools to use those guidelines with a safe
harbor from litigation. We think that this is what informed,
data-driven university administrators would want.
Our goal is to stimulate the market, but ACE says guidelines will have
the opposite effect. I hope you will reach out to ACE and demand an
explanation for why this is true and ask if they have a substitute
proposal that might have a better outcome.
We want to improve access for students with disabilities, so we
developed a solution that has widespread support. Fifteen different
groups endorse the initiative, and over fifty Members of Congress have
cosponsored, including Colorado's Mike Coffman. You can see how
well-received
our solution is by visiting
www.nfb.org/teach.
ACE has offered no solution and no public comment other than this two
sentence statement. Who will you side with? I hope your boss will
overlook their
rhetoric and come on board as a cosponsor. Can we count on his/her support?
Sincerely,
[Your name and contact info.]
Share these links
Here are the links to the 2 main articles we would like to direct
people too in e-mail or social media. Shortened versions are included
in the sample tweets above:
President Riccobono's Blog Post about ACE opposing the TEACH Act:
https://nfb.org/blog/vonb-blog/unachievable-or-unwanted-why-ace-opposed-accessibility-guidelines
Kyle Shachmut (student & NFB of Massachusetts) Boston Globe Op-Ed
about why ACE & schools should support the TEACH Act:
http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2014/09/05/education-technology-college-lobbyists-are-keeping-disabled-students-behind/jQ8UFe44BeFBumbTTqBzFL/story.html
Colorado Congressional DelegationPhone, Twitter and Face Book
District 1
DeGette, Diana D
2368 RHOB
202-225-4431
@RepDianaDeGette
http://www.facebook.com/DianaDeGette
e-mail page
https://degette.house.gov/contact/send-me-an-email/email-me
District 2
Polis, Jared D 1433 LHOB
202-225-2161
@RepJaredPolis
https://www.facebook.com/jaredpolis
e-mail: https://polis.house.gov/forms/writeyourrep/default.aspx
District 3
Tipton, Scott R
218 CHOB
202-225-4761
Education LA
lindley.kratovil at mail.house.gov.
@RepTipton
https://www.facebook.com/CongressmanScottTipton
District 4
Gardner, Cory R
213 CHOB
202-225-4676
Education LA
carolyn.warren at mail.house.gov
@repcorygardner
https://www.facebook.com/CongressmanGardner
Distric 5
Lamborn, Doug R
2402 RHOB
202-225-4422 Veterans' Affairs
@RepDLamborn
Education LA
brandon.miller at mail.house.gov
https://www.facebook.com/CongressmanDougLamborn?fref=ts
District 6
Coffman, Mike R
2443 RHOB
202-225-7882
@RepMikeCoffman
https://www.facebook.com/repmikecoffman
District 7
Perlmutter, Ed D 1410 LHOB
202-225-2645
@repperlmutter
https://www.facebook.com/Ed4Colorado?ref=ts&fref=ts
https://www.facebook.com/RepPerlmutter?fref=ts
Colorado Senators Contact Info
January 2014
Bennet, Michael F. -
(D - CO)
458 Russell Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510
(202) 224-5852
Face Book:
https://www.facebook.com/senatorbennet
Twitter:
@SenBennetCO
Online Contact Form:
http://www.bennet.senate.gov/contact/email
Greetings,
On this morning's news I heard that Senator Mark Udall was one of the
first two Democrats to call for the resignation of the VA director.
Whatever your politics, I think this is a great time to ask him to
support Senator Tester's bill, S. 346, that permits 100-percent
disabled veterans to be included in the military's Space Available
transport program. Senator Bennet is already a cosponsor.
Please call or e-mail Senator Udall this week. His office should
contact Jorge Rueda in Senator Tester's office to become a cosponsor.
Dan
Udall, Mark -
(D - CO)
Class II
730 Hart Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510
(202) 224-5941
Contact:
www.markudall.Senate.gov/?p=contact
Online Message Form:
http://www.markudall.senate.gov/?p=contact_us
Face Book page:
https://www.facebook.com/markudall
Twitter:
@MarkUdall
******
--
Dan Burke
My Cell: 406.546.8546
Twitter: @DallDonal
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