0:00

Welcome to change makers, a

0:02

podcast from APH. We're

0:05

talking to people from around the world

0:07

who are creating positive change in

0:09

the lives of people who are blind or visually

0:11

impaired. Here's your host. Hello,

0:14

and

0:14

Welcome to change makers. I'm BPH is

0:17

public relations manager, Sarah

0:19

Brown. And today we're going to talk about how APH

0:21

gets the funding to develop educational

0:24

products for students who are blind or visually

0:26

impaired. We'll also going to talk about

0:28

what you can do to provide your input

0:30

to the leaders in Washington. After

0:33

that we'll have a check-in with partners with

0:35

Paul here

0:37

to talk about president Biden's budget for

0:39

the next fiscal year and how that impacts

0:43

APH . We have APH Vice President

0:45

Government and Community Affairs, Paul Schroeder.

0:47

Hello, Paul, and welcome to Change Makers.

0:50

Happy to be here.

0:51

Paul, can you tell us how APH

0:53

is included in the federal budget?

0:57

Yeah , it has changed a little bit over the years,

0:59

but for now, and for the last

1:02

several years, APH has funded

1:04

under something called Special Institutions

1:06

for Persons with Disabilities under

1:08

the Department of Education. And just

1:10

for fun, I'll tell you other organizations

1:13

under that area would include Gallaudet

1:15

the university that focuses on the needs

1:17

of deaf students. Um, the

1:20

Helen Keller national center serves

1:22

deaf blind people, of course, and

1:24

the national, oh, it's NTID

1:27

it's National Technology Institute for

1:29

the Deaf, maybe in Rochester. Um,

1:31

all also receive funding under

1:33

that part of the Department of

1:35

Education. So it's kind of interesting. We have

1:37

a couple of post-secondary institutions

1:40

in there, along with , with APH.

1:43

Okay. Paul, the president recently

1:45

proposed his budget request for the next fiscal

1:47

year, which starts in October. So it

1:49

is on the horizon and

1:52

that expenditure is increasing by 3

1:54

million dollars in the coming year. What

1:57

are the next steps and finalizing

1:59

funding levels. And when will the decisions

2:01

be finalized?

2:03

Uh , when will the decisions be finalized is

2:05

always a tricky question , uh

2:08

, and has been for a while in Washington.

2:10

Unfortunately it is very hard for Congress,

2:12

but let me do a little one-on-one on

2:14

how the budget works. Uh,

2:16

and first say that we were very appreciative

2:19

of the president

2:21

and the, the Biden administration for

2:23

, uh, recommending a $3

2:26

million increase for , for APH , uh,

2:29

which as you pointed out will

2:31

go directly into support

2:33

for students in the form

2:35

of quota and research and outreach

2:37

, um, that we're going to be able to do with

2:39

that funding. But here's how the process

2:42

works. It has changed a

2:44

bit over the years, the President

2:46

recommends a budget , uh, and that

2:48

usually happens in February. It

2:50

is always delayed when there's a new president,

2:53

because as you know , you all know the president

2:55

comes in January 20th and

2:58

getting that Federal budget done in about 10

3:00

or 11 days , uh,

3:02

that would be near impossible, you know, back

3:04

in the old days, people might read it . Remember

3:07

, um, presidents would talk

3:10

about and put their hand on that budget.

3:12

And I don't know, it's a book, it's a series

3:14

of books, that's waist high or something. If you,

3:16

if you were to print it out, it's no longer printed out

3:18

in paper, but if it were, so

3:21

that happens usually in February

3:23

this year, it happened in may,

3:25

June, I guess, actually. So some of it may,

3:27

and then a more detailed look in June

3:30

so much later, of course, but

3:32

here's the , how the process goes. The president recommends

3:35

a budget. The Congress

3:38

then decides what it's going

3:40

to , um , what,

3:43

what is the top line number they call

3:45

it? What's the big number that we're going to spend?

3:48

You know , how many trillion dollars, how many billion

3:50

dollars are we going to spend this year? Totally. And federal

3:52

money. What's, what's going to be our outlay. Then

3:55

they start to allocate that across

3:58

agencies. How much are we going to spend in education

4:00

this year? How much are we going to spend in health and human services,

4:03

et cetera. Um, this

4:05

is how the process supposed to work. So the president

4:07

makes a recommendation. Congress makes a decision

4:09

about numbers , big numbers, overall numbers.

4:12

And then they have subcommittees that get down to work

4:14

in both the house and Senate they're called the

4:16

, the there's a committee called the appropriations

4:19

committee. And then on that committee or subcommittee, there

4:21

are 12 of them and they have

4:24

each subcommittee has a series of agencies

4:26

that they focus on. Um, I

4:28

believe defense is the only one that is

4:31

one agency because defense occupies

4:33

so much of our budget. Um, but

4:35

, but for example, the American printing house for

4:37

the blind, as we are in the department of education,

4:40

we're part of a subcommittee call the

4:42

subcommittee on labor health and human

4:44

services, education and related

4:46

agencies. And didn't true, Washington

4:49

speak, we all call it the labor H subcommittee.

4:53

Um, so it doesn't even get education into that short

4:55

name. So labor H um, but

4:57

it is where education has found the,

5:00

both the house and Senate do it the same way. They've

5:03

got the large committee. Then they've got the sub

5:05

committees that focus on particular

5:08

agencies and those subcommittees

5:10

that's where the action is. Um , those sub committees

5:12

, these will take the

5:15

president's request. I'll also

5:17

look at what the house or Senate told them. They

5:19

could spend how much money they have available

5:21

to them. Uh , it's kind of like your allowance.

5:24

And then they start putting it into jars and decide

5:26

how much it's going to go. And they get down into the

5:28

details down to the American

5:31

printing house for the blind , uh,

5:33

and our , you know, 30, some odd million

5:35

dollar appropriation, right ? You decide

5:37

how much they will recommend through the

5:40

subcommittee process to give us. Then

5:43

it goes to the full committee. If

5:45

it's a good year , uh, both committees

5:47

, get the, get the numbers. They decide,

5:50

they make another decision. They might make another , uh,

5:52

they might make some changes to , uh

5:54

, if they need to cut spending to accommodate

5:57

other priorities. And then it goes

5:59

to each house it gets voted on.

6:01

And then the two houses, I go into something

6:03

called a conference committee where they decide what the

6:05

ultimate appropriation will look like. If

6:08

all of this were done the way it was supposed to do that

6:10

would be done August or September,

6:12

that would be completed. We'd sail into

6:14

the fiscal year with a completed signed

6:16

budget. Everyone would be cheering just

6:18

like in school house , truck . The thing of it is

6:21

it never worked. It hasn't worked that way in a long

6:23

time. And it most likely

6:25

won't this year. So what's really going

6:27

to happen is the house is doing it's

6:29

work right now. The subcommittee , by the time

6:31

you hear this podcast might well have made

6:34

its decisions and recommendations.

6:36

And even the full house committee might've made this

6:39

record foundations for spending in

6:41

the labor age. Remember that's the labor,

6:43

HHS and education subcommittee , uh,

6:46

or area of agencies. So they might, well,

6:48

it made that decision. That's supposed to be by mid

6:50

July at this point, then

6:52

the house will take up the bill and

6:54

probably passed because , uh,

6:58

the house tends to have an easier time of doing

7:00

as long as there's a, they

7:02

have an easier time getting things like that done. So

7:04

by the end of the summer, we might well know what

7:07

the house says. Uh, APH

7:09

and other federal programs are going to get this

7:11

year. The Senate on the other hand

7:13

will likely not agree , uh , because

7:15

they can't agree. It's a 50, 50 Senate, even

7:17

if it was , um, even

7:20

if it were 55, 45, they still probably wouldn't

7:22

agree because the nature of the site and it's very difficult

7:25

body to get agreement, especially on stuff , pending

7:28

issues. And so what's probably

7:30

going to happen is we'll get close to October.

7:33

Senate won't have act , yeah.

7:36

A house might have, and

7:38

they'll pass something called a continuing resolution,

7:40

which means they keep spending at the same level of

7:42

this year, which for APH 34

7:45

million, 430, 30 $1,000.

7:48

Um , and they'll just put that in again. So that's what they'll start

7:51

spending on October 1st because they have to have something,

7:55

some of you may remember that , uh, there

7:57

have been times in the past when they couldn't agree, even on

7:59

the continuing resolution and we shut down

8:01

the federal government. So we've had that happen October,

8:03

a couple of times , uh , where there was

8:05

not agreement, but likely there'll be that

8:07

agreement we'll get to December

8:10

and they might then be able

8:12

to, to reach some kind of an agreement from

8:14

the Senate with the numbers. So

8:17

it's hard to know , uh, when you say this

8:19

finish, we don't know , um, we

8:22

will , I wish that it would finish in September the way it's supposed

8:24

to. It likely won't, but

8:27

I do feel good about the fact that the

8:29

president has made a , a

8:31

request for APH. Then it's

8:33

an increase. That's the first time, I think in a little

8:35

while that we've, that the president had made

8:37

has made a request to increase APH . Usually

8:39

Congress does, does that when we've been, when

8:42

we've received increases in the past, and

8:44

I'll just close this by saying the president

8:47

also requested a significant increase

8:49

in funding overall for the individuals

8:51

with disabilities education act for the funding

8:53

that goes to states to support that law,

8:56

which is great federal Republicans

8:59

and Democrats, both agree that the federal government needs

9:01

to pay more than it has

9:03

for special education services. So it's good to see

9:06

, uh , the president putting

9:08

that forward and hopefully that, you know, whatever that

9:10

number will be, it will be a nice increase. And

9:12

then they've also , uh , proposed a nice increase

9:14

for heavily disadvantaged schools,

9:16

which are part of the department of education and just another

9:19

area to try to focus on , uh,

9:21

creating better opportunities in education

9:25

And what can listeners do if they want

9:28

to support funding for APH or provide

9:30

their own input.

9:32

So believe it or not , uh,

9:35

members of Congress, their staff, instead of

9:37

, they really do want to know what their

9:39

constituents care about and appropriations

9:42

that the members who sit on the appropriations

9:44

committee, and I should say that, you know, members of Congress

9:47

choose to be on the committees that they

9:49

think are going to be of most interest

9:51

to them or most use . They don't always

9:53

get what they want. I mean, it's a , you

9:55

know, it's a process like anywhere else in life

9:57

where I want to be on this committee. Now there's

9:59

too many people you don't get to be on that committee this

10:01

year. Um, appropriations

10:03

committee is definitely considered to be one of the committees

10:06

you want to be on as a member because most members

10:08

care about programs

10:11

and they care about how things

10:13

, uh, help people in their districts.

10:16

And they want to know how those programs are work. They,

10:18

they, they really do want to hear from people even

10:21

on something that's by federal budget

10:24

numbers , fairly small, like the American printing house for the

10:26

blind. I think members in

10:28

their staff would be delighted to hear

10:30

, uh, from people who

10:32

have something to say about the program.

10:35

Now, Paul hopes it's positive,

10:38

but truly , um, I

10:40

think if people have things to say about how APH

10:42

does its work, it would be important

10:44

for Congress to hear that information. So

10:47

a couple things to note the most

10:49

important, there's always,

10:52

there's always people that are more important than other people

10:54

and that's true in Congress. So the ones

10:56

that matter the most are the ones that are on the

10:59

subcommittee on appropriations that concerns

11:01

our area. And that's that labor age , labor,

11:04

health, and human services and education subcommittee

11:06

for house and Senate. The , the leaders

11:08

of that committee, that subcommittee , for

11:11

example, our Congresswoman Rosa, DeLauro

11:13

from Connecticut and Congressman

11:15

Tom Cole from Oklahoma. That's on the house

11:17

side and on the Senate side, it's

11:20

Senator Patty Murray. Who's a Democrat

11:22

from Washington and , uh,

11:24

Roy blunt, who is a Republican from Missouri

11:27

Senator. Those are, so those

11:29

are the, these, those are the most, the most

11:31

important , uh , because they're the ones that share

11:33

the sub committee or lead the sub committee . They

11:35

have the most knowledge of the programs in their

11:38

committee . So if you happen to be in Missouri, Oklahoma,

11:40

Connecticut, or Washington state , uh,

11:43

your views are really important and really

11:46

of interest to those leaders on that

11:49

subcommittee , the other members on those subcommittee . And I won't

11:51

walk through them all, and I can't remember them at

11:53

this point, but , um, there's,

11:55

you know, there's several there's there's folks from California.

11:58

And , uh, that I've said that

12:00

I can't remember all of a sudden blanking on where

12:03

anyone else's from. Uh , but there

12:05

are members from different parts of the country

12:07

on that subcommittee . And they would be very

12:10

important to , uh , because they want

12:12

to hear , uh , what you think, and

12:14

then the appropriations full committee, which

12:17

has those members plus others

12:20

is also important. Um, not

12:22

as important because they don't focus on APH

12:24

unless they're on that subcommittee . But again,

12:27

they are , they're all about federal spending. So they

12:29

do want to know if these federal programs are doing

12:31

any good, are they helping? Are they really

12:33

making a difference? And if they are,

12:36

they'd like to know what that means. So,

12:39

you know, we've had some of our , uh, ex-officio

12:41

trustees tell some great

12:43

stories to their members of Congress, about how

12:45

much products or services

12:48

have meant , uh, in , in their education

12:50

and how much it is enabled students

12:52

to pursue their opportunities.

12:55

And we've had parents and individuals talk. So

12:57

that's the second thing I want to say. If you're a parent or

12:59

an individual who has received these services,

13:02

or who was interested in these services, you

13:04

are a very important part and a very

13:07

important messenger. And I would strongly

13:09

encourage you to contact your member of Congress

13:11

to describe, and to talk a little bit about

13:13

your experience, not only with APH, but

13:15

any federal program , um, because

13:17

they do need to hear this information. And

13:19

finally, even if they're not on the appropriations

13:22

committee, look, a member of

13:24

Congress is a member of Congress. They're important.

13:26

Uh they're they make decisions about policy.

13:29

They make decisions about spending. They

13:31

ultimately are whoever they are, they're ultimately

13:33

gonna vote. Um, uh, what decisions

13:35

are made for federal spending. So any member of Congress

13:38

is an important member of Congress, and

13:40

any member of Congress will want to hear from

13:42

you about your experience with these programs.

13:45

They really do care about these

13:47

things. You might think you're a member, oh, my members

13:49

, these are so-and-so, or she's

13:51

a so-and-so doesn't care about people, not

13:54

true for one thing. Uh, and to

13:56

, uh , they really do care about these issues.

13:58

They might not speak out very much

14:01

on special education or disability,

14:04

but they do care. Uh, and some will,

14:06

some will surprise you , uh, some people

14:08

who you think aren't going to be interested. I've I'm

14:11

not going to mention names, but I've had some offices

14:13

that I didn't want to go into. Cause

14:15

I , I thought they were just people that didn't care

14:17

about my issues. And it turned out

14:19

that they were some of the, some of the better champions

14:21

that we had. Uh, so people

14:23

will surprise you at what they care about. You don't

14:25

know what family impact they

14:27

might've had or where they might have an experience with disability.

14:31

Um, so they might well be a

14:33

supporter that you never thought would be. So

14:35

don't write anyone off you can't, we can't afford

14:38

to, you can't afford to. And

14:40

, uh, as long as they're going to be your representative,

14:42

they should hear from you about what you care about.

14:44

And is there anything else you'd like to share about

14:46

federal spending?

14:49

So, as I mentioned, yeah, the,

14:51

the timing and the flow

14:54

of things is a challenge. It is

14:56

not easy to understand what's happening.

14:59

I'm always happy to help explain , uh,

15:02

these issues to folks. Um,

15:04

your, your member offices might

15:06

be as well, but to simplify it

15:08

as much as I possibly can. Um,

15:11

there are these couple

15:13

of these sub committees in the house and Senate that

15:15

will make decisions about the programs that are

15:17

most interesting to most of our listeners, education,

15:20

rehabilitation, et cetera. It's

15:23

important for you to try as best you can

15:25

to seek information about what's

15:27

going on. Uh , we'll try to have some

15:29

more of that on the APH website,

15:32

so you can follow what's happening. So as, as

15:34

decisions get made in those subcommittees

15:36

, as the president makes recommendations,

15:38

we'll try to make sure you stay on top of that, but if we're

15:40

not doing it, feel free

15:42

to Google search and see where things are at as

15:45

you start to get into the summertime, Congress

15:47

every year should be starting to talk a

15:49

lot more about appropriations. It's

15:52

a good opportunity for you, especially

15:54

when a member's home , uh, and holding

15:57

a town meeting or holding a , uh

15:59

, on the street corner type meeting, go

16:01

up and talk to them or talk to their staff. You might

16:03

be able to get to talk to the member, but you can surely talk

16:06

to the staff, tell them your story.

16:08

Talk about special education. If you're a parent,

16:10

talk about your child. My goodness.

16:13

Um, I have never met a parent yet who can't

16:15

, uh, who can't just get

16:17

anybody interested in what's going on with

16:19

their child, because you're the best advocate

16:21

and, you know, well, and , and, and

16:24

either you're frustrated or you're excited about

16:26

opportunities either way, tell that

16:28

story. So I can't stress that enough. When,

16:31

when you got a chance to get to a member, you don't

16:33

need to go to Washington, grab them when they're home.

16:35

That's why they come home. They come home to hear from you.

16:38

Um, so take that opportunity to tell

16:40

your story. If you work as

16:42

an ex-officio trustee and you, and you've been told

16:44

by your state that you can't

16:46

talk to members of Congress, I understand that. Um,

16:49

but I can certainly

16:51

help you with that. I can take your stories

16:53

and I can take them even without your name

16:56

so that we know what's happening in your state. And

16:58

I can also encourage the members to reach out to you

17:00

because you can respond

17:02

to questions. That's certainly appropriate.

17:05

If a member of Congress wants to know about how special

17:07

education or APH or something is working

17:09

in the district, you can answer those questions.

17:12

Um, so even if you can't reach out yourself, there's

17:15

a lot of ways that that advocacy can happen.

17:18

But in the end, advocacy

17:20

is always about storytelling and it's always about

17:23

person to person. Um, because that's,

17:25

it doesn't matter how many mass

17:27

messages and media buys and all that

17:29

stuff that pop politics flows

17:32

on in the end. It's the personal

17:34

story that will make the difference. That's what

17:36

a member of Congress will remember because that's what,

17:40

Okay, Paul, thank you so much for joining us

17:42

on Change Makers today.

17:45

Happy to do it and happy to come back and update folks

17:47

on where things are at, and maybe as we get into most

17:50

Definitely we will invite you back,

17:52

but you're , you know, you're welcome here anytime. And

17:57

we will include any links in the show

17:59

notes, so you can find them and

18:01

send your messages and your stories to

18:03

those in Washington. And

18:06

up next, we're going to check in with Partners with

18:09

Paul.

18:12

Welcome back to partners with Paul. I

18:14

am pleased to have with me today, once again,

18:17

Mike Wood from Vispero Strategic Accounts

18:19

Manager Education. Welcome

18:21

back, Mike.

18:22

Hey Paul, thanks for having me always a pleasure

18:24

joining you for these events.

18:26

We'll be talking about a different

18:28

product, a new product today that

18:31

APH and Sparrow have partnered with,

18:33

and that is Juno. Mike, can you tell us

18:35

about Juno?

18:37

Sure thing? Yeah, I'm excited about the Juno. This is

18:39

a really neat new product, and it was fun

18:41

working with APH to develop this.

18:44

Uh , it is a seven inch touchscreen

18:46

video magnifier with some really cool

18:49

features , uh, was created and

18:51

designed to accommodate the needs of students and

18:53

adults with low vision. So it kind of

18:55

meets a wide range of individuals

18:57

and has a lot of cool features in it.

19:00

Well, that's great. Let's hear more about that. What makes

19:02

Juneau especially unique

19:04

Sure thing. So one of the things that I've found that really

19:06

make it unique, or the fact that, you know,

19:08

one it's seven inch it's really portable.

19:11

Um, but it also have as, excuse

19:13

me, a barrel camera on the top

19:15

that actually can rotate. So you can do a little bit

19:17

of distance , uh, close up. It

19:20

gives you a lot of functionality for even self-facing

19:22

, uh , but it's also a touch screen

19:24

. And then it adds in

19:27

the capability of scanning and reading.

19:29

So it's a really powerful product

19:32

for a seven inch, you know , portable unit.

19:35

Uh , you can scan and read, you can add guidelines,

19:37

masking , uh , it's got an HTMI

19:40

output, Jack, if you want to, you know, push

19:42

it further to a larger display. And

19:45

then it also has some really cool teacher settings . So

19:47

for me, you know, in the education side of things

19:49

, uh, you know, you have a exam

19:52

mode where the teacher can lock out certain functionality

19:55

of the Juno , you know, for when

19:57

the students are taking the exam, I

19:59

, you can save multiple pages of documents

20:01

in there and then recall them at a later

20:03

time. And there's so many different features. It's

20:05

pretty cool.

20:07

So sounds like we definitely packed in quite a number of features

20:09

into this product. So how can

20:11

I purchase it?

20:13

Yeah. So the easiest thing to do would

20:15

be to go to aph.org and

20:17

search for the Juno . Uh , you've got

20:19

a great website. If you search for Juno,

20:22

it'll pull up the page where you can learn more about

20:24

it and purchase it. There there's

20:26

two options. So if you're purchasing it with cash,

20:28

it's 1295, that's one thousand, two hundred and ninety-five dollars.

20:32

If you're a quota customer it's 1095

20:35

or One thousand, ninety-five dollars.

20:38

And if I want to test drive it, is there a way for

20:40

me to do that?

20:42

There is what I would recommend you do is

20:44

reach out to [email protected].

20:47

That's [email protected], email

20:52

them, tell them you're interested in taking

20:54

the Juno for a test drive and a member of the

20:56

APH team will reply back to you and,

20:59

you know, figure out the next step to go.

21:01

Great. That sounds really good. Thanks so much for

21:03

being on today, Mike.

21:04

Hey, Paul, thanks for having me and look forward to the next

21:07

one

21:08

And check out the show notes. We've included

21:10

that link to the Juno on a

21:12

page on aph.org. So you can get

21:14

more information that way. Thanks

21:17

for joining us today and back to you, Sara.

21:21

Thanks so much, Paul, and thank you for listening

21:23

to this episode of Change Makers. Be

21:25

sure to look for ways you can be a change maker

21:28

this week.