The New York Vision Rehabilitation Association’s Blog

Think about it - OTs do not teach people how to cross streets safely, but Medicare does reimburse them for meeting vision rehabilitation therapy goals.

OTs DO NOT and CANNOT teach people who are visually impaired to cross streets or other activities taught by O&Mers, but they do get reimbursed by Medicare to meet vision rehabilitation goals of newly visually impaired people and “close cases successfully”, even though this important aspect of safety has been left unaddressed!!! This craziness MUST BE STOPPED!!! LICENSURE NOW!

From: LRS ALERT

Sent: Tuesday, September 13, 2011 4:45 PM

To: Licensure Supporters!

Subject: S03880A

Same as alert

A8576  - Lupardo

Provides for the licensing of licensed orientation and mobility specialists and vision rehabilitation therapists

09/13/11 referred to higher education

It took some time to make it official- but now it is! Welcome Donna Lupardo as the new Key Sponsor for VRT OMS Licensure! This is our year!! 

In the wake of Weinergate, Governor Cuomo brought some much needed good political news to New Yorkers when he announced his selection for Special Deputy Superintendent of the New York Liquidation Bureau of the newly created Department of Financial Services. That person is none other than our bill’s main sponsor in the Assembly, Jonathan Bing. While this is great news for New York and for Assembly Member Bing, the timing couldn’t have been worse for our final push to get licensure passed this year.

But before we get into the ramifications for our bill, we should pause a moment to thank both of our sponsors. Assembly Member Jonathan Bing has been our bill’s main sponsor in the Assembly. He has always believed that vision rehabilitation professionals should be licensed in New York. As our main sponsor, he has driven our issue to the forefront of the ongoing overall licensure debate in the Assembly and made great efforts on our behalf over a number of years. His enthusiasm and dedication to our cause will be missed. We thank him for all of his support for licensure for vision rehabilitation professionals and wish him the best in his new position.

In the Senate, Senator Joe Griffo is our newest champion and we applaud his great efforts. As our bill’s main sponsor, Senator Griffo was inspirational on our lobby day and demonstrated his commitment to licensure by navigating our bill to the floor of the Senate where it passed unanimously. We are thrilled with his efforts and look forward to working with him to enact licensure in New York.

Prior to this announcement, 2011 was a banner year for VRT/O&M licensure. Our efforts have been very productive. We want to especially thank our enthusiastic and hardworking supporters from all over the country who helped make the case for licensure. Thank you for the memos of support from AER, NYSAER, AFB and all of those who sent their own letter and/or signed on to Dona Sauerburger’s letter, Marjie Wood and the O&M Division. Thank you to NFB for participating in an ongoing dialog to iron out our differences.

All of our calls, emails and faxes made by our numerous supporters continue to garner the attention of Assembly Members, Senators and their respective staff. These efforts have seen the sponsors of the Assembly bill rise to seventy-three and counting. And, finally, as previously stated, the New York State Senate unanimously passed our bill sponsored by Senator Joe Griffo.

It is with great pride and satisfaction that I can report that there are now only two final issues that stand in our way. 1) We need the Assembly to name the licensing board we will join as a subset, and 2) we need confirmation that, once licensed, the State Education Department will implement the same or similar procedures for us that were created for licensed social workers. This allows social workers to work for a person who is not a social worker – otherwise known as the “Corporate Practice Fix.”

Next year is the second year of the 2011/12 session and Assembly Member Glick (the Higher Education Committee chair) promised during the 2009/2010 session to do something for our bill during the 2011/2012 session. We expect her to honor her promise. We are hopeful that she will move our bill out of the Higher Education Committee so that it can get to the Assembly floor for a vote. In a very positive development, we already have several offers from Assembly Members who have an interest in being the new main sponsor of our Bill. We are confident that we will have great news of our new main sponsor in the coming weeks.

While losing Assembly Member Bing right at the end of session was a setback, it is far from defeat. It is vital that we remain positive and make sure that we do not lose the momentum that we have been building. To that end, we will continue to ask all of you who have been so supportive to help in a number of different ways moving forward to make sure that our licensure bill remains a hot topic in the legislature all the way into next year until we get it passed and signed into law!

Thank you again for all of your commitment, hard work and enthusiasm! Let’s keep this going!! Let’s get licensure in New York!!!

Assembly Sponsor Jonathan Bing (D, 73 District Manhattan) addresses the VRT O&M licensure supporters.

Well it wouldn’t be Lobby Day if there wasn’t bad weather - this year didn’t disappoint. Hard rain and snow in upstate NY meant only the hardiest of the hardy were on hand for the appointments. Supporters were lobbying for the bill A06179A/S 3880-A which provides for the licensing of licensed orientation and mobility specialists and vision rehabilitation therapists. (to read the text of the bill go to: http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?default_fld=&bn=A06179%09%09&Summary=Y&Text=Y).

Individual supporters along with many from the American Council of the Blind New York, the Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired – Goodwill, the Association for Vision Rehabilitation and Education, Aurora of Central New York, the Central Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Helen Keller Services for the Blind, Hudson Valley Center for Independent Living, Hunter College, Lighthouse International, New York Institute for Special Education, and VISIONS Services for the Blind came to Albany on Tuesday. 

About 90 supporters met with 75 represenatives. The message - we need VRT O&M Licensure NOW, NFB no longer opposes the bill, and now there are no obstacles to licensure. Let’s do it this year!

Many of those who could not attend became members, sent in memos of support or responded to the Lighthouse International Advocacy Alert email and called their representatives. These actions also contributed to the success of Lobby Day 2011.

The Senate Higher Education Committee members received a stack of memos in support of licensure from The New York Vision Rehabilitation Association, the Association for the Education and Rehabilitation for the Blind and Visually Impaired, the American Foundation for the Blind, the American Council of the Blind New York,  Guiding Eyes for the Blind, The Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, California State University of Los Angeles, the Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired – Goodwill, the Association for Vision Rehabilitation and Education, Catholic Charities for the Blind, Helen Keller Services for the Blind, Hunter College Programs in Blindness and Visual Impairment, In Focus Mobility - JoAnne Chalom, VISIONS Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired, and several individuals including Chris Tabb,  John Kelly, Dona Sauerburger and several Ophthalmologists.

Assembly Member Bing

Assembly Member Johnathan Bing (D, 73 District Manhattan) said the bill had 57 Assembly sponsors and 3 new sponsors had signed on that morning due to ACBNY’s Lobby Day on Monday April 4, 2011. He was confident more sponsors would result from these back-to-back lobby days. Bing indicated that momentum for the bill was strong. A majority of the members on the Assembly Higher Education committee continue to sponsor this legislation. He believes members of the Assembly understand the importance of this bill.

Steve Malito, NYVRA Government Relations Expert with Senate Sponsor Joseph A.Griffo, (R-C-IP, Rome).

Senator Griffo (R-C-IP, Rome) also addressed the bill supporters. He reminded us that the NY Senate had already passed this bill 62-0 in 2008 and, in 2010, again voted it out of the Higher Education Committee. Senator Griffo felt confident that the Licensure Bill would soon be on the Higher Education Committee agenda again this year!

Nancy Nancy Miller, President of NYVRA and our driving force, addresses the VRT O&M Licensure supporters.

NYVRA President Miller reported on the large uptick of members and letters of support from the broad coalition that includes many from outside New York. The recent meetings with leadership from NFB have resulted in several changes to the bill and NFB dopping its opposition to the legislation. One change was rewriting the justification section with less emphasis on safety and greater empahsis on empowerment. Another was to include NOMC and ACVREP as examples of national certification that currently exist in these fields of VRT and O&M.

Grace Ambrose-Zaken, Vice President of NYVRA and Organizer of Lobby Day speaks with Assembly Member Bing.

The Lobby Day Event made an even greater impact because, for the first time, VRT O&M Licensure was the only large group lobbying that day. Our supporters wore the distinctive black tee with yellow lettering. The front of the shirt read “Support Safe Vision Rehabilitation Services” the back read “VRT/O&M Licensure NOW!”

There is a great deal of momentum. Albany seems to be working together and we have wide base of support. Join NYVRA on twitter @future_LOMS and/or the Facebook group NY VRT O&M Licensure. In the coming weeks it will be important to call our Assembly Members and once again urge them to put our bill on the Higher Education agenda.

Please keep your letters coming and we will keep sending them out. Memos can be sent either as a PDF file to SAM@dmlegal.com or mailed to Nancy Miller, President, NYVRA 500 Greenwich St., New York, NY 10013.

Register with lighthouse.org they will be sending out an e-alert that will enable you to support us during Lobby Day by sending messages of support to NY reps!!  http://capwiz.com/lighthouse/mlm/signup

Become a member.

JUSTIFICATION:

Vision loss does not have to be devastating. Full independence can be

achieved when there is access to highly qualified vision rehabilitation

professionals (VRPs). A significant number of the more than one million

individuals with vision loss are empowered, self-sufficient and able to

navigate through their lives independently due in part to the special-

ized services they received when they needed them.

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