Legislature(2007 - 2008)BELTZ 211
05/03/2007 01:30 PM Senate LABOR & COMMERCE
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| HB136 | |
| HB170 | |
| SB117 | |
| SB94 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| *+ | SB 94 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | HB 170 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | TELECONFERENCED | ||
| += | SB 117 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| += | SB 99 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| += | HB 136 | TELECONFERENCED | |
SB 94-SERVICES FOR THE BLIND
2:17:46 PM
CHAIR ELLIS announced SB 94 to be up for consideration.
KATE HERRING, staff to Senator Ellis, sponsor of SB 94,
explained that Senator Ellis introduced SB 94 at the request of
several constituents who feel that the blind community in Alaska
would be better served by an office specifically addressing the
blind community rather than the existing Vocation Rehabilitation
Program that covers Alaskans with a variety of disabilities.
Sometimes the blind community can get lost under the umbrella of
the larger program.
She said that SB 94 establishes a Division of Blind Services in
the Department of Health and Social Services and makes related
changes to the administration of the Vocational Rehabilitation
Program (DVR).
2:20:14 PM
SANDY SANDERSON, President, Alaska Independent Blind, said it is
an organization of 450 blind members and that he supported SB 94
for two reasons. He said that nationwide 80.4 percent of blind
are unemployed; but in Alaska the figure is 93 percent. This
does not say much for those who are supposed to be working with
and for the blind.
2:21:06 PM
He and a friend started the Center for the Blind over 30 years
ago and to this day it is not properly funded. It takes
professionals who are trained to work with blind people to get
them employment. This is not happening because the center is
paid a fee for services which means it gets paid when someone
comes to it for help. If no one comes, they don't get paid and
you can't get people with university degrees on nickels and
dimes. People have been brought in off the street to train blind
people in various things not knowing the first thing about it
and that should not be the situation.
MR. SANDERSON said figures from the DVR indicate there are
29,000 disabled people in the State of Alaska. Of those, 10,000
to 12,000 are visually impaired. Being 40 percent of a disabled
community, they should have their own area of health and
guidance.
2:24:08 PM
KARLA JUTZI, Director, Alaska Center for the Blind and Visually
Impaired, said this is the agency that Mr. Sanderson helped
found 30 years ago. She said the Center does not have an
official position on this bill, but she wanted to point out
several aspects that deserved more attention. One of them is
that the definition of "blind person" who would be served by
this agency is very narrow, because it is limited to those who
are legally blind. In fact, with Vocational Rehab services as
well as her older clients, she serves quite a few people who are
not yet legally blind, but who have a visual disability that
doesn't allow them to work or to live independently. She didn't
want this legislation to reduce the number of people already
being served.
The second issue was on page 7, line 15, that establishes and
maintains an orientation and adjustment center with qualified
instruction for training eligible blind persons and that appears
to set up a state-operated agency for training. This would put
the Center out of business since that is the agency that
provides this adaptive field training in Alaska and it is a
nonprofit agency. She assumed it wasn't the intent of the
legislation to put an effective organization out of business and
though it important to discuss whether the intent is that the
state would somehow take over her agency because it could not
afford two training centers for the blind.
2:27:29 PM
MS. JUTZI said it's also important that funding this bill
wouldn't take funding away from current services provided to
visually disabled people.
LYNN CORRAL, Alaska, Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired,
said that blind teachers need specialized training. She was told
at first that she didn't have an impediment to employment.
However she, like most people, felt that she wanted to do
better. She appealed and now has a different counselor and has
been working for the division for 13 months.
We just believe that this is the right time to have a
separate state plan for blind services - will give us
better quality services. We know that separate
agencies that exist in the United State have a better
employment outcomes and better pay at closure.
She was also concerned that the Division of Vocational
Rehabilitation was using public funds to talk to vendors against
this idea instead of using it to positively deal with their
issues of services for the blind.
JANICE WEISS, Juneau resident, said she has two daughters who
are both visually impaired since childhood and they are now both
adults. Both used DVR services and she has absolutely no
complaints about the service they received. The reason they used
the DVR services is because they wanted to become self-
sufficient and also wanted college and professional careers. Had
the same services been offered through the Department of Health
and Social Services (DHSS), they would not have been nearly as
willing to use them, because even though they were visually
impaired, they did not see themselves as being dependent on any
government services for their current living as opposed to using
DVR which is under the DOLWD - and therefore much more inclined
to be seen as helping people with careers rather than helping
them with not being able to take care of their own lives.
She said the Center for The Blind has been absolutely wonderful
in working with both of her daughters in many different areas.
Having a separate place for the blind to receive the services
that DVR now provides would duplicate administration and
services that are already established and doing a really good
job. She said the DVR counselors have knowledge of many more
resources that are available for many kinds of disabilities and
often people who have visual disabilities have other
disabilities as well.
2:34:25 PM
ELMER LINDSTROM, Project Manager, Office of the Commissioner,
Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS), urged the
committee to also take testimony from the Division of Vocational
Rehabilitation, Department of Labor and Workforce Development
(DOLWD), as that is the lead agency that has the expertise and
knowledge of the underlying federal law. This bill would require
a separate division in the DHSS to meet federal requirements and
it would end up being a very small fish in a very big pond. It
could easily have a result that is different than anyone
intended. Having said that, he said he would be happy to work
with the committee and all the advocates interested in this bill
to discuss how services can be improved.
2:40:06 PM
STEVEN J. PRIDDLE, President of the State Chapter of the
National Federation of the Blind, said it is the largest
national organization of blind persons in the United States and
has chapters worldwide. In addition, he is a board member of the
Assisted Technologies of Alaska, although he is not speaking on
its behalf. He is a DVR recipient, but prior to losing his
vision, he was a logger and construction worker. Through DVR's
services, he was able to acquire several degrees including a
juris doctorate. He has worked as a corporate finance attorney
for the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission, a former
assistant district attorney for the State of Alaska and a
district attorney for the state in Whittier and he has his own
practice. He has achieved all that through the services he has
received from the DVR.
MR. PRIDDLE said that historically and consistently the National
Federation of the Blind has promoted separate services for the
blind with the State of Alaska being the exception, because
statistically speaking, he there is now way a separate agency
for the blind could even come close to what the DVR is able to
deliver at this time without a tremendous increase in costs and
funds. A separate agency in the future might become more
feasible when the state's population its budget are bigger.
2:43:11 PM
MR. PRIDDLE said also that the registry for all blind persons
the bill created was incredibly offensive to him.
2:44:35 PM
BOBBI CLELAND, Anchorage resident, said the DVR has done an
excellent job for her and concurred with Mr. Priddle that a
separate center would duplicate the same services that DVR
already provides. She has been a business enterprise program
person for the past 15 years and thought it should remain within
the Department of Labor. She was also disturbed and insulted by
the idea of being on a registry saying it would also be a
tremendous invasion of her privacy.
2:47:43 PM
WILLIAM CRAIG, Anchorage resident, said he wanted to testify in
person at the next meeting.
2:48:08 PM
JOAN O'KEEFFE, Executive Director, Southeast Alaska Independent
Living, opposed SB 94 saying the state already has the DVR and
creating a separate division for the blind would duplicate and
waste sparse state resources. She also allowed that it's
possible this would be a good bill in states with a very large
population of blind individuals and surplus funds, but pointed
out that is not the case in Alaska now. She suggested that SB 94
would increase costs more than $500,000 annually.
Also, she said that federal regulations require a new division
to have a full-time director and staff, as well as a State
Rehabilitation Counsel. Each would incur additional expense and
be a duplication of effort. She said the DVR serves
approximately 4,000 people, 2.6 percent of whom are blind. The
new division could only serve folks who are legally blind
leaving out people with multiple disabilities and the partially
blind. There would be no single point of contact for DVR
services. The federal dollars that are now granted by DVR to the
Centers for Independent Living and the Alaska Center for the
Blind and Visually Impaired would go through this new division
of blind services. However, the current system is efficient and
well managed, she said, and if passed, SB 94 would diminish its
services and be a colossal waste of money.
2:51:25 PM
CLAUDIA CRISS, Juneau resident, said she is visually impaired
and is very happy with the services she now receives from the
DVR and opposed SB 94. Her personal philosophy of disability is
that under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), universal
design has been introduced with accessibility for all. The City
of Portland, Oregon, is an example of an accessible city. She
did not think that establishing a separate agency for the blind
wouldn't help or make anything in Alaska better for them. Funds
could possibly become misused and mismanaged. She felt that
people can have success through their own skills and others need
to be educated about disability in a positive way rather than a
negative way. Her life has demonstrated that.
2:53:31 PM
RICK RENAUD said he is severely disabled and is one of the 12
vendors participating in the Alaska Business Enterprise Program.
He is the only vendor that is not blind and operates the food
services facility in the basement of the court house in
Anchorage. He stated, "The Alaska Business Enterprise Program
has been critical to my ability to function as an independent
self-reliant and contributing member of the community."
MR. RENAUD said his participation in the program has made it
possible for him to employ others and to help train blind
Alaskans to be successful vendors, too. Since this program is so
successful and growing, he couldn't see why any change in the
state law is needed. Section 10 of SB 94 would repeal AS 23.15
that allows severely individuals like him to take part in the
Business Enterprise Program. He is concerned that if he is the
only person now licensed and participating who would be
affected, that he would lose his right to change his vendor site
and beyond that, his existing vendor site could be challenged.
He noted that 25 states provide services through combined
agencies, not separate ones. In 2006, DVR serviced 3,967
individuals of which 104 were blind. He believed that the
creation of a separate blind services division would hurt, not
help, the blind population because it is unlikely that it could
duplicate the expertise and experience as well as provide the
specialized personnel now being served in the DVR.
He concluded saying that SB 94 failed to identify a problem and
didn't really offer a remedy for anything. It would create
another layer of state government.
2:58:27 PM
CHAIR ELLIS handed the gavel to SENATOR STEVENS as he had to go
to another meeting.
2:58:45 PM
JAMES SCHWARTZ, blind vendor with the Alaska Business Enterprise
Program, supported SB 94. He explained that there were two
applicants for the facility that Mr. Renaud won at the court
house and he is the other applicant who lost - even though he is
blind. State statutes clearly give priority to blind people and
he has filed a grievance, but the administrative review
supported awarding the site to the non-blind Mr. Renaud. So, he
is still going through that grievance procedure. If the DVR has
done one good thing for him it is to make him an advocate for
the blind in this state.
VICE-CHAIR STEVENS thanked everyone for their comments and held
SB 94 in committee.
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