[Colorado-talk] National Federation of the Blind Applauds Landmark Agreement with Seattle Public Schools Comprehensive Consent Decree Will Ensure Accessibility of School Programs and Services

[Dan Burke]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Release Date:
Thursday, September 24, 2015
Category:
National
Chris Danielsen
Director of Public Relations
National Federation of the Blind
(410) 659-9314, extension 2330
(410) 262-1281 (Cell)
cdanielsen at nfb.org

National Federation of the Blind Applauds Landmark Agreement with
Seattle Public Schools

Comprehensive Consent Decree Will Ensure Accessibility of School
Programs and Services

Seattle, Washington (September 24, 2015): Noel Nightingale, the blind
mother of a Seattle Public Schools (SPS) student, and the National
Federation of
the Blind (NFB), the nation’s leading advocate for equal access and
equal education for the blind, today applauded a vote yesterday
evening by the Board
of Directors of SPS to execute a landmark agreement that will ensure
the accessibility of all of SPS’s programs, services, and activities
to blind students,
faculty, and parents. The agreement, in the form of a consent decree
resolving litigation, will see the school system take a series of
historic steps to
ensure, in particular, that all of its electronic and information
technology will be fully and equally accessible to students, faculty,
and parents who
are blind. The consent decree must be approved by the Federal District
Court for the Western District of Washington, where the case was
brought. The steps
that SPS will take under the decree include:

list of 6 items
• Making its websites accessible to the blind, including parents like
Ms. Nightingale, through existing technology;
• Hiring or appointing a system-wide accessibility coordinator,
answerable to a cabinet-level official designated by the SPS
superintendent;
• Conducting an accessibility audit of SPS’s electronic and
information technology, as well as other programs, services, and
activities, and developing
a plan to remediate the accessibility issues revealed by the audit;
• Creating and maintaining an Accessible Education Resources Portal to
help faculty and staff communicate effectively with people with
disabilities and
ensure accessibility of educational content, and to provide
information about disability policies and services to students,
faculty, and parents with disabilities;
• Inserting language into the system’s procurement requests and
contracts requiring vendors to provide specific information about the
compliance of their
products and services with federal laws (such as the Americans With
Disabilities Act) and accessibility guidelines, and requiring vendors
to indemnify
the school system for discrimination complaints resulting from
inaccessibility of their products; and
• Training district officers, school administrators, faculty, and
other key personnel on applicable laws, electronic and information
technology accessibility
guidelines, and the creation of accessible content.
list end

Mark A. Riccobono, President of the National Federation of the Blind,
said: “This landmark agreement with the Seattle Public Schools should
serve as a
model for the nation and should put school districts on notice that we
can no longer wait to have equal education for blind students and to
have access
to information, use of school services, and full participation in
school activities by blind faculty, personnel, and parents. The
National Federation of
the Blind applauds the leadership of the Seattle Public Schools in
adopting this agreement, and as a blind father and parent of two blind
children I personally
look forward to working with the district to implement this historic
and comprehensive plan of action.”

###

About the National Federation of the Blind

The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the
characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise the
expectations
of blind people, because low expectations create obstacles between
blind people and our dreams. You can live the life you want; blindness
is not what holds
you back.

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Dan Burke
My Cell:  406.546.8546
Twitter:  @DallDonal