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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=dlb723@comcast.net href="mailto:dlb723@comcast.net">Don Brown</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=leadership@acb.org
href="mailto:leadership@acb.org">leadership@acb.org</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Tuesday, October 20, 2009 9:30 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> [Leadership] Judge rules for ACB in Social Security
case</DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Judge Alsup's decision in the ACB vs. SSA case came
out today <BR>(10.20.09):</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Judge William Alsup of the US District Court,
Northern District of <BR>California in San Francisco, today issued a
judgment in favor of the <BR>American Council of the Blind (ACB) and two
classes of 3,000,000 <BR>individuals with blindness and visual
impairments. The suit <BR>challenged the Social Security
Administration’s (SSA) failure to <BR>provide its critical benefits
communications to recipients in <BR>alternative formats that would enable
people with visual impairments <BR>to have equal access to SSA programs as
required by federal disability <BR>civil rights laws.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>This ruling signals a major victory for the
disability rights <BR>movement, and it sets precedent for the obligations
of other federal <BR>and state agencies to accommodate people who are
blind or have visual <BR>impairments. The Social Security Administration
(SSA) sends out 390 <BR>million notices and forms each year.
Plaintiffs won the right to <BR>receive communications in a format that is
accessible to them, and <BR>Judge Alsup ruled that these formats, at a
minimum, must include <BR>Braille and CD.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Here are links to the</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Judgment<BR><A
href="http://www.dredf.org/SSA/2009-10-20-Judgment.pdf">http://www.dredf.org/SSA/2009-10-20-Judgment.pdf</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>and</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Findings of Fact and Conclusions<BR><A
href="http://www.dredf.org/SSA/2009-10-20-Findings.pdf">http://www.dredf.org/SSA/2009-10-20-Findings.pdf</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Susan Henderson<BR>Executive
Director<BR>DREDF</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>------------------------------------</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
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