From: Pete Donahue 
Subject: accessible literature for blind persons in direct sales
Hello marcia Fellow Federationists and friends,
I believe you are not opening a can of worms at all.  If you have studied
any of the Nfb's resolutions, more specifically those adopted at the 1990
Golden Anniversary Convention you will find thatresolution 9007 deals with
this issue.  In fact Mary and were the authors of that resolution.  In
short the resolution calls upon direct sales companies to make sales and
training literature available to blind distributers, (and we should have
included blind customers)in accessible meedia.  We are Amway Distributers
and we too have been battling the same situation.  Amway, and I am sure to
one extent or other other direct sales companies have been unwilling to
make their sales and training literature abailable to their blind
distributers and customers and they cry poverty, but they are willing to
spend thousands, and sometimes millions of dollars on such things as
professional sports teams, environmental concerns, and other causes such
as Easter Seals and political fund raising events as well.  In the light
of this I wonder if any court would buy their excuses of the demand not
being big enough to make it worth their while.  It is interesting to note
that the Texas Department of Human services is willing to spend several
thousand dollars to make it's employee manuals available in braille for
just one blind employee.  I know because Mary is proofreading the stuff
for them.
As has become true in recent years the courts are not always the best
arena for fixing problems such as this.  However, in light of the above
resolution I mentioned I believe we should get more agressive in dealing
with this issue since it will create more employment opportunities for
blind persons.  I would suggest that we make contacts with the Direct
Selling Association to make it's members aware of the potential for
expanding employment opportunities for blind persons desiring to be
involved in direct selling.  We saw what can happen when we worked with
book publishers to change the copywrite laws.  Perhaps we could do the
same hear with direct selling companies.
If the following sounds like something from a previous post forgive the
duplication as I am having some trouble with some of my hard composed and
lengthy messages being returned to me with a message of host un known
attached to them.
There are a few other ways you might be able to deal with this challange.
I would agree that you should contact Avon and make them aware that you,
other blind Avon Distributers, and customers would benefit from their
putting sales training and customer literature in to accessible meedia.
Get other blind Avon Distributers and customers you know to let their
contacts know of this need as well.
Amway makes abailable to it's distributers computer software that allows
them to submit orders on-line, and to receive the latest pricing
information.  You may want to find out if Avon has a similar service since
you use a computer.  I wouold suggest trying out both the Dos and Windows
versions to see which one will be the easiest for you to use.  Also see if
you can get their catalogs on disket or on cd-rom if you have a cd-rom
drive.
Amway has a programme by which you can sign up credit card customers so
they can order their products directly from Amway Corporation.  They
simply placed their order with Amway, Amway sends them their merchandise,
and they send you your money.  This not only helps to solve the material
access, but I can help solv any transportation difficulties you may be
having as well.  Immagine being able to have customers all over the
country?  Find out if Avon has a similer programme.  That way you can have
customers no matter whare they live.
Well I hope this will give you some more ideas of how to deal with the
literature access delema that those of us in direct selling find ourselves
in.  Hope you got some good ideas from this message.  Have a good evening
and don't let any one steal your dream.
Yours truly,
Peter Donahue
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