The official policy statements of the National Federation of the Blind of New Jersey are established every year with annual resolutions adopted at the state convention.

The resolutions committee meets early during the convention. Each proposed resolution is read, spoken for by the authoring member, considered, and then ultimately withdrawn or recommended for passage or disapproval by the Convention.

Resolution 2016-01: Regarding Protecting the Civil Rights of Blind Parents

WHEREAS, protecting the rights of parents with disabilities is a notion that, incredibly, was rejected by the United States Supreme Court in the case of Buck v. Bell 274 U.S. 200 (1927), in which Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote, “It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind”; and

WHEREAS, this insulting and unjustified view that people with disabilities, including blind people, are somehow “manifestly unfit” to be parents (or otherwise to live the lives they want and to participate as members of society with all rights and privileges associated therewith) has too often continued to prevail in the courts even as we move further into the twenty-first century; and

WHEREAS, this bias is reflected in matters involving adoption and guardianship and in contested child custody proceedings, because blind parents have been perceived by the courts, child protection agencies, guardians ad litem, hospital staff, and others as incapable of caring adequately for their children’s needs, which has resulted in blind people routinely being denied the right to be parents without unfair bias or unnecessary overreach by government entities; and

WHEREAS, for most people a fundamental aspect of living life to the fullest includes the joy of being a parent and sharing in the nurturing, growth, and development of a child; and

WHEREAS, being a parent and raising children is a fundamental right which is protected under the Constitution of the United States of America by the First and Ninth Amendments thereto and under the Fourteenth Amendment as applied to the states; and

WHEREAS, in the case of blind parents, there is a need to protect this fundamental constitutional right; yet New Jersey has no laws at all to protect the right of blind citizens to be parents and raise their children without being fearful of discriminatory treatment or unnecessary inquiries of fitness solely based on blindness: Now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind of New Jersey in Convention assembled this ___ day of November, 2016, in the Township of Stafford, New Jersey, that this organization call upon the New Jersey Legislature to enact laws that establish procedural safeguards to protect the right of blind people to be parents and prohibit discriminatory presumptions of manifest unfitness solely because a parent (or prospective parent) happens to be blind; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we urge the New Jersey Attorney General, in protecting the best interest of children in court proceedings, to use his or her good office affirmatively to protect blind parents in the state against discrimination and bias based solely upon blindness and to urge the courts, guardians ad litem, and officials of child protection agencies to base decisions about what is in the best interest of the child on the same criteria used for sighted parents.

Resolution 2016-02: Regarding Access Link’s refusal to use text messaging to communicate with deaf-blind riders

WHEREAS, Access Link is the paratransit service provided by New Jersey Transit for people with disabilities who cannot use its standard buses; and

WHEREAS, a significant number of Access Link riders are both deaf and blind (deaf-blind); and

WHEREAS, persons who are deaf-blind must use both non-visual and non-auditory technology to communicate with others; and

WHEREAS, one form of communication which the deaf-blind can use is text messaging, in conjunction with adaptive equipment that they own and use; and

WHEREAS, Access Link blows the horn and makes an announcement to alert riders that the vehicle has arrived, and uses the telephone to tell riders that the driver is running late, yet does not utilize text messaging for these purposes, claiming that it does not have the capability or authority to do so; and

WHEREAS, New Jersey Transit uses text messaging on a regular basis to communicate with its non-disabled riders to inform them of such things as traffic delays; and

WHEREAS, paratransit services in other states communicate with their riders via text messaging, thus utterly disproving the claims made by Access Link; and

WHEREAS, Access Link’s refusal to incorporate text messaging as a method to communicate with its deaf-blind riders leaves those riders unaware that their vehicle has arrived or is delayed; and

WHEREAS, not knowing that a driver is waiting for them puts these riders at risk not only of missing their rides, but also of unjustly being given a “no-show”, potentially leading to suspension of Access Link service, where other Access Link users do not have these concerns; and

WHEREAS, Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires reasonable accommodation in the use of public services; and

WHEREAS, Access Link not using a readily available technology to ensure that its deaf-blind customers can use its service as easily as riders with other disabilities is a violation of Title II of the ADA, and

WHEREAS, last year, the National Federation of the Blind of New Jersey sent to New Jersey Transit’s Department of Accessible Services a resolution addressing this very issue, yet to this point has received no response: Now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind of New Jersey in Convention assembled this ___ day of November, 2016, in the Township of Stafford, New Jersey, that this organization once again demand that Access Link implement text messaging to communicate with its deaf-blind riders.