Social Security is Not Above the Law

So it turns out that the Social Security Administration is not above the law. According to The San Francisco Chronicle, a judge in California has ordered the SSA to offer accessible formats to blind and visually impaired clients.

After four years of litigation, the ACB and the blind community can take a sigh of relief. No longer will the SSA be able to just send print correspondence to blind clients and expect that the letters will be read. They now will have to provide clients with the format that best fits their needs. The judge has ordered the SSA to comply with his ruling by April of next year. Part of the ruling is that all blind and visually impaired clients be notified of their right to request accessible formats by this December. The formats that will be available include braille, cd, and email by special request.

I only wish that this decision had been made years ago, maybe then I wouldn't have lost my benefits. But if I ever qualify for them in the future, I'll know that I will be able to read the letters that are sent to me.

For more information about the case and my SSA story please read "Fighting to Get the Social Security Administration to Provide Correspondence in Accessible Formats".

How will this change how you interact with the SSA? Do you think having accessible formats will lead to fewer people losing their benefits?