Thursday morning's session was mainly devoted to Mr. James Gashel's
report on various topics including the future of Randolph-shepherd
to which he advised vendors not to be complacent; that if they
wanted this program to continue as a viable program for the blind
that the time to act is now.  He said that because of conflicting
decisions in 2 federal circuit courts we had no choice but to
petition the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the cases.
Since this is a pivotal time in the history of Randolph-shepherd he
strongly recommended that we urge our state licensing agencies to
submit Amicus briefs in favor of upholding the 8th circuit decision
and to contact him for information and procedures.
We also must keep the pressure on congress if we wish for separate
agencies for the blind to survive as the National Council on
Disabilities is advocating a single agency approach to
rehabilitation.  Their recommendation was originally going to be
issued in a report to the President and Congress but they held off
in favor of asking the General Accounting office to conduct a study
on the matter.
He reminded us that this council was spawned by the National
Councils on Independent Living which were created by the federal
government in 1978 and now less than 20 years later are trying to
take over the entire rehab program; and that if they could do that
it would not be a far leap to opening the Randolph-shepherd program
to all disabled groups.
He also spoke of the Keesler Air Force base arbitration which we
lost.  When a mess hall facility is put up for bids, a competitive
range is supposed to be established.  If the state licensing agency
falls within that competitive range it is automatically put at the
head of the list.  In this case, the agency fell within that
competitive range, but instead of being placed at the top of the
list, Keesler established a second competitive range which the
licensing agency did not fall within so they accepted the second
competitive range.  
We had no problem with multiple competitive ranges provided the
S.L.A. is given the priority accorded it by law on each of them. 
Only the secretary of Defense on a case by case basis can declare
an exception.  But the decision said you could have competitive
ranges till you got to the last one.  Mississippi has decided not
to appeal.
We also lost an arbitration in Colorado which is now in the courts. 
We hope the court will follow the 8th circuit decision referred to
earlier because it says that both commissions and competition are
outlawed when the income of a blind vendor would be diminished.
A bright side that Mr. Gashel had for us was that he did not feel
that Congress would touch Rehabilitation at this time.
On the legislative front, a joint committee of Senate and House
members is working on amendments to Idea, the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act.  The major positive impact of these
amendments now approved by this committee is that when a child is
blind you must begin with the assumption that he or she needs
braille as part of their I.E.P.  Currently, you must rule braille
in; with these amendments, if passed, braille is automatically
assumed to be necessary and for it to be ruled out all members of
the team determining a child's I.E.P. must consent to it.  While
this does not mean that one member of the team has a veto, it does
mean that a majority of the team must concur for braille to be
ruled unnecessary in a specific case.
Under current law, if there is a dispute as to whether or not
braille is needed, print is taught until the dispute is settled. 
Under the new amendments, braille would be taught until the dispute
is resolved.  While this is a gray area, it would appear that under
these amendments the spirit of the law would indicate that the
parents would have final authority in this matter.. 
2 bills are now pending to restore the linkage between blind Social
Security recipients and those 65-69 years of age.  The house bill
is H.R.612 proposed by Barbara Kennelly of Connecticut to which
there are about 100 co-sponsors as of this writing. 
The senate bill is S.375 proposed by John McCain of Arizona of
which there are about 20 co-sponsors.
Unfortunately, Congressman Jim Bunning of Kentucky who has opposed
this linkage is still chairman of the Social Security Subcommittee,
but we hope this time to win.  
 We have also crafted a bill providing for non-visual standards for
computers hooked up to the internet.  Also the contract for
purchase of said equipment must contain a clause that the
administrators thereof will comply with the non-visual standards
set by this bill upon enactment. 
After a general discussion of Social Security in which Mr. Gashel
advised us to:
1.  find the earliest legal proof of blindness possible and hang on
to it for dear life.  And 
2.  Have at least 2 years of post retirement earnings in order to
achieve top dollar benefits during your retirement years, the
conference was adjourned.
However, an optional post conference seminar on Social Security was
offered at 1 P.M. for those wishing to attend.  It was conducted by
Richard Aranosian the Field Representative for the Las Vegas Social
Security office.   
A good time was had by all and we left the conference ready to
confront the challenges set before us and looking forward to the
convention.  We are a spirited Disciplined group and will do
whatever needs to be done to better the lives of not only vendors
but of all the blind.  Great job President Allen and all who worked
hard to put this conference together!  We look forward to the 1998
conference wherever it may be.
Harvey 
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