From the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF), October 20, 2009
Judge Alsup's decision in the ACB vs. SSA case came out today
(10.20.09):
Judge William Alsup of the US District Court, Northern District of California in San Francisco, today issued a judgment in favor of the American Council of the Blind (ACB) and two classes of 3,000,000 individuals with blindness and visual impairments. The suit challenged the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) failure to provide its critical benefits communications to recipients in alternative formats that would enable people with visual impairments to have equal access to SSA programs as required by federal disability civil rights laws.
This ruling signals a major victory for the disability rights movement, and it sets precedent for the obligations of other federal and state agencies to accommodate people who are blind or have visual impairments. The Social Security Administration (SSA) sends out 390 million notices and forms each year. Plaintiffs won the right to receive communications in a format that is accessible to them, and Judge Alsup ruled that these formats, at a minimum, must include Braille and CD.
Here are links to the Judgment: http://www.dredf.org/SSA/2009-10-20-Judgment.pdf
and Findings of Fact and Conclusions: http://www.dredf.org/SSA/2009-10-20-Findings.pdf
Susan Henderson
Executive Director
DREDF