Advocacy News
October 8, 2009: Lighthouse International has joined other leading vision healthcare and rehabilitation organizations to hold a briefing for Members of Congress on October 8, 2009 at 12 noon at the Rayburn House Office Building, Washington,. D.C. called "Gender Equity In Eye Care and Blindness Prevention". The briefing was held to mark World Sight Day, the annual international day to create awareness about vision impairment and the prevention of vision loss. It featured Congressman Tim Bishop who is involved in the current healthcare debate, Janine Austin Clayton, MD Deputy Director for the Office of Research on Women's Health, Office of the Director of the National Institutes of Health, Louis Pizzarello, MD., MPH Chairman of Vision 2020/USA and Jennifer Klein, Senior Advisor on Global Women's Issues for the U.S. Department of State.
Caption: Left to right: Congressman Gene Green, co-chair of the Congressional Vision Caucus, Cynthia Stuen, Mark Ackermann and James Kuhn of Tuvin Associates talk at the October 8, World Sight Day Congressional Briefing in Washington, DC.
September 22, 2009: During Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) Awareness Week, September 20--26, Lighthouse International co-sponsored a Congressional briefing to raise awareness of the disease, which is the leading cause of vision loss among Americans age 65+.
The goal was to encourage members of Congress to support funding for vital AMD research through the National Institutes of Health and the National Eye Institute. The briefing spotlighted a promising research project that's taking aim at the "wet" form of AMD, which occurs when new blood vessels grow in or under the retina and leak, causing vision loss. Our co-sponsors, the National Alliance for Eye and Vision Research, the Congressional Vision Caucus, AMD Alliance International and the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, joined us on Capitol Hill, underscoring the critical importance of this growing public health issue.
From Left to Right: Dr. Cynthia Stuen, Lighthouse International; Allie Laban-Baker, AMD Alliance International; and Dr. Kang Zhang, Shiley Eye Center (University of California at San Diego)
May 12, 2009: Lighthouse International met with members of key United States House of Representatives and Senate Committees on an effort to include vision rehabilitation services as part of healthcare reform. Medicare beneficiaries with sustained vision loss need to learn specific skills to remain independent and continue to work, i.e., travel skills using a white cane, making best use of residual vision with optical devices and magnification, and specialized technology in the workplace. As such, certified vision rehabilitation therapists, orientation and mobility specialists, and low vision therapists who specialize in therapies specific to people with sustained vision loss, should be covered nationwide by Medicare. Read more about Vision Rehabilitation Coverage Under Medicare and Health Reform.
May 5, 2009: Lighthouse International joined the American Federation of the Blind and over 150 organizations in calling on the Secretary of Education to develop and implement a "National Census of Students with Visual Impairments" that will accurately reflect the number of children with visual impairments. Students who have disabilities in addition to visual impairment are often not represented as having a visual impairment in Office of Special Education Programs annual report to Congress. Such an undercount skews visual impairment data resulting in a reduction of federal funding for students with visual impairments. Read the full letter here.
April 7, 2009: Lighthouse International, joined the Reading Rights Coalition to protest the threatened removal of the text-to-speech function from e-books for the Amazon Kindle 2. Representatives from Lighthouse International participated in the protest outside the Author's Guild Headquarters in New York on April 7, 2009.
When Kindle, a popular e-book reader, introduced the text-to-speech feature on the Kindle 2, the new function promised for the first time to facilitate easy, mainstream access to more than 255,000 books for millions of people who are visually impaired in this country and abroad.
However, Amazon, under pressure from the Author's Guild, announced that it would give authors and publishers a choice of disabling the text-to-speech function on their e-books available on the Kindle 2.
According to Dr. Cynthia Stuen, PhD/ DSW, Senior Vice President, Policy and Evaluation at Lighthouse International, "Text-to-speech is a very important function for people who are visually impaired. It helps level the playing field. Removing this feature, even if selectively, would be a huge step backward. Our goal at Lighthouse International is to increase accessibility for people who are blind or partially sighted, not decrease it."
March 3rd, 2009: Lighthouse International joined Prevent Blindness America (PBA) for their Annual Eyes on Capitol Hill event in Washington D.C. The successful two day event brought vision advocates from across the country together to lobby members of Congress on issues of importance to people with visual impairments, including increased funding for prevention efforts.
December 12, 2008: Dr. Tara Cortes, CEO and President of Lighthouse International, voiced her opposition to the MTA's proposed fare hike for Access-A-Ride users. Access-A-Ride provides transportation for people with disabilities who are unable to use public bus or subway service for some or all of their trips. It offers shared ride, door-to-door paratransit service.
In a letter to MTA Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer Elliot Sander, Dr. Cortes writes, "While I understand the current economic crisis has created the need to raise revenue, the plan to increase Access-A-Ride fares by 100 percent is unjust and disproportionately impacts people who can least afford it." The letter "urges" the MTA to find alternative ways to close the budget gap and forego the Access-A-Ride fare increase.The Access-A-Ride letter in its entirety is here..
November 4th, 2008, the United States elected its 44th President: Barack Obama. Sworn in on January 20th, 2009, President Obama and his administration are now getting down to the business of running the country. But what could this change in our government mean for people with disabilities, and particularly people with visual impairments? Here is a compilation of a few important issues that President Obama discussed over the course of his campaign.
September 25, 2008: A representative from Lighthouse International testified at a New York City Council meeting that included a joint hearing of the Fire and Criminal Justice, Aging and Mental Health, Mental Retardation, Alcoholism, Drug Abuse & Disability Services Committees. The hearing addressed the FDNY building evacuation protocols and procedures for people with special needs. Read the full testimony.
September 26, 2008: Lighthouse International testified at a New York City Council Government Operations Committee regarding the need to increase outreach efforts to inform voters with visual impairments about the availability of ballot marking devices in the 2008 General Election. To read the full testimony click here.
September 9, 2008: On September 9th, Lighthouse International sponsored a Congressional Briefing titled, "Diabetes and Vision Loss: A Crisis". Representatives from the Lighthouse, with co-sponsors,American Diabetes Association, Alliance for Eye and Vision Research, Prevent Blindness America, and the American Foundation for the Blind presented on vision loss being one of the often overlooked consequences of diabetes. Click here to read a full recap of the briefing.
May 19, 2008: Assemblymember Jonathan Bing held a roundtable discussion on the New York State Assembly bill, A 8471, a bill that provides for the licensing of orientation and mobility specialists and vision rehabilitation therapists. The meeting was attended by Lighthouse International and other key stakeholders and organizations. To read Lighthouse International's position statement on licensure, click here.
January 22, 2008: On January 22, 2008 NYC Councilmember Jimmy Vacca visited the Lighthouse headquarters in Manhattan. As Chairman of the Senior Centers Subcommittee, Vacca has been an enthusiastic supporter of fighting for seniors with vision loss and raising awareness for the Medicare Low-Vision Demonstration Project. Through the help of Vacca's advocacy, Lighthouse has been able to demonstrate the gravity of vision loss, along with the benefits of the visual rehabilitation programs covered by Medicare through the Demonstration Project, to residents of Senior Centers who are most at risk for developing vision impairments.