"The Virtual Center for Independent Living for West Virginia""The Virtual Center for Independent Living for West Virginia"Home > Advocacy in Action > Legislative Agenda > West Virginia Library Commission
Mountain State Centers for Independent Living (MTSTCIL) supports legislation that requires inclusion of people with disabilities on state policymaking boards and commissions to ensure that people with disabilities have a voice that promotes equal access.
As part of the National Library Services for the Blind & Physically Handicapped, the WV Library Commission (WVLC) offers a free library program for blind and visually impaired and physically handicapped residents of West Virginia who cannot access traditional printed library materials.
Updates:
On March 17, 2004 HB 4639: Increasing the size of the library commission to ten members and requiring that one member of the library commission be a blind person failed to complete the legislative process.
On February 20, 2004 this Bill (Bill Number: 589; Title: Increasing membership of library commission and including blind person as member)was sent to the Senate Government Organization. Please contact your senators by email, phone, fax and/or write letters. Senate members to contact are: Edwin Bowman-Chair, Billy Wayne Bailey-Vice Chair, Caldwell, Chafin, Jenkins, Kessler, McCabe, Minard, Rowe, Snyder, White, Boley, Minear, Smith and Weeks. See Senate contact list for telephone number and email addresses.
Sample letter or email text:
The WV Library Commission, Special Services Department, is committed to providing library materials in alternative format to individuals who cannot read printed material. Recorded books, magazines, descriptive videos and large print books are mailed free to eligible residents across our state. Newsline, a telephone dial-up newspaper service, is also available through the WV Library Commission.
There are currently 9 commissioners serving on the WV Library Commission. Our research revealed there are 3,564 individuals participating in the WVLC Special Services program of which 1,478 are blind and 1,499 are visually impaired. There are currently 217 registered Newsline users.
MTSTCIL contends that since 83.5% of the participants of the WVLC Special Services program is either blind or visually impaired, that none of the present commissioners are apparently blind and/or visually impaired, they would be unable to adequately address the nedds of the blind and visually impaired population of West Viriginia. Therefore, MTSTCIL supports legislation that will add a tenth position to the WV Library Commission, person would be a qualified blind individual with voting privileges, be from any part of WV and the person could be either gender. Not adding a blind individual to the commission is equivalent to not having an attorney on the licensing board of WV Bar Association.
Background
The WV Library Commission, Special Services Department, is committed to providing library materials in alternative format to individuals who cannot read printed material. Recorded books, magazines, descriptive videos and large print books are mailed free to eligible residents across our state. Newsline, a telephone dial-up newspaper service, is also available through the WV Library Commission. Participating newspapers include the Charleston Gazette, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the US Today, and the Huntington Hearld-Dispatch. The WVLC also provides special playback equipment to program participants because talking books are recorded at slower than normal speeds.
There are currently nine commissioners serving on the WV Library Commission. Our research revealed there are 3,564 individuals participating in the WVLC Special Services program of which 1,478 are blind and 1,499 are visually impaired. There are currently 217 registered Newsline users.
MTSTCIL contends that since 83.5% of the participants of the WVLC Special Services program is either blind or visually impaired, that none of the present commissioners are apparently blind and/or visually impaired, they would be unable to adequately address the needs of the blind and visually impaired population of West Virginia. Therefore, MTSTCIL supports legislation that will:
Not adding a blind individual to this commission is equivalent to:
Updated: March 17, 2004
