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Visually impaired picket summit
By JANEL STEPHENS TAMPA -- Hundreds of visually impaired people marched in front of the Crowne Plaza Hotel Friday to protest the summit meeting of a national accreditation council they say approves agencies that don't provide quality services for the blind. They chanted and sang songs. They held signs and wore buttons that read "N.A.C. means Not A Chance," and "All I want for Christmas is no more N.A.C." They came from as far away as California and Utah to show their disapproval of the NAC, or the National Accreditation Council for Agencies Serving the Blind and Visually Impaired. Much of the protesters' dissatisfaction stems from high unemployment among the visually impaired. "A lot of blind people don't have jobs," said Gloria Mills Hicks, president of the Tampa chapter of the National Federation of the Blind. She said 65 percent of NFB members were unemployed. Barbara Pierce, director of education for the NFB, accused the accreditation council of failing to have "a strong consumer voice in determining what agencies should be offering and how they should be reacting to their clients." "We are the people who come through these agencies," Pierce said. "They've come to give lip service to the conception of consumer participation, but they're not really serious about it." The accreditation council accredits clinics, schools and agencies that provide services to the blind or visually impaired. Steven Obremski, the council's president, disagreed with the protesters' criticisms. He said the council was seeking funding so it could better evaluate the impact its services have on the visually impaired. He was disappointed, he said, that the NFB had elected not to participate directly in the two-day summit and "won't come to the table to look at the changes that are needed."
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