Resolution 2008-04
Regarding a proposed Maryland Disabilities Rights Statute

WHEREAS, the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland supports legislation that expands opportunities and assures equality for blind Marylanders; and

WHEREAS, despite statutes that prohibit discrimination against blind and other disabled Maryland residents, such behavior toward them continues because existing statutes do not offer meaningful deterrents to discrimination, including adequate provision of attorney fees, sufficient compensatory damages, and provision of punitive damages in the most egregious cases; and

WHEREAS, discrimination against blind people frequently occurs because Web sites, kiosks, and other technologies in other than state government are not accessible, which denies blind people services, employment, and other benefits that sighted people take for granted; and

WHEREAS, this type of discrimination is also not adequately covered by Maryland law; and

WHEREAS, legislation will be proposed in the 2009 legislative session to address the previously mentioned failings of disability-discrimination law in this state, which, if adopted, will serve as a compelling model for states throughout the nation: Now, therefore

BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland in convention assembled this sixteenth day of November, 2008, in the City of Ocean City, Maryland, that this organization express its complete support of proposed disability anti-discrimination legislation; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization urges the Maryland General Assembly to pass and Governor O’Malley to sign such proposed legislation.

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