Serving the blind and low vision population of Kentucky

Members of the Kentucky Council of the Blind (KCB), the South Central Kentucky Council of the Blind (SCKCB), the Bluegrass Council of the Blind (BCB), and the NFB of Kentucky have all been busy trying hard to get the Electronic Information Access bill passed through the Kentucky General Assembly. The House version, HB-262, started out identical to the Senate version, SB-56. These were bills initially written by the NFB of Kentucky to, in essence, exclusively fund their NFB Newsline service. Though the NFB of Kentucky made no concerted efforts to work with and include the KCB, the SCKCB or the Bluegrass Council when writing the initial draft of this legislation, it was subsequently re-written by members of the KCB, the SCKCB, and the BCBK to broaden its impact. The legislation was expanded to facilitate funding of other information delivery services. These other services could conceivably include the KCB Talking Newspaper, the Radio Reading Eye, among others, including services yet to be developed.

Funding would come from a slight increase in the charges levied on each phone line in the state of Kentucky. The amount of this additional charge could be up to a maximum of 2 cents per phone line.

The Public Service Commission estimates there are as many as 2.5 million phone lines in the state of Kentucky, thus yielding a potential of substantial financial support for all of the various information delivery systems offering services to the blind and print-impaired citizens of Kentucky.