Concerning FAASB Membership and NAC Accreditation
WHEREAS, there are many agencies that provide
services to blind and visually impaired Floridians and are also members of the
Florida Association of Agencies Serving the Blind (FAASB); and
WHEREAS, accreditation by or membership in the National Accreditation Council for Agencies Serving the Blind and Visually Handicapped (NAC) is not an indication of quality service by any agency or organization serving the blind; and
WHEREAS,
the Florida Division of Blind Services is no longer accredited by NAC, but has
admirably seen fit to obtain feedback on the quality of services it provides,
directly from its clients and the organized blind of Florida; and
WHEREAS, over the past two decades, the influence
NAC wields over the blindness field has continued to be diminished, to the
extent that the majority of states do not
have even one NAC-accredited agency; and
WHEREAS, in spite of the above, one of the prerequisites
for membership in FAASB continues to be that the organization seeking
membership be accredited by NAC: Now,
therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED by the National Convention of the
Blind of Florida (NFBF), in convention assembled, this twenty-seventh day of
May, 2002, in the City of Boca Raton, Florida,
that this organization continue to oppose actively NAC and its
meaningless, wasteful, and dangerous approach to accreditation; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED we strongly urge FAASB to
immediately omit accreditation by NAC as a condition of membership in its
organization of agencies serving the blind; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we urge FAASB to encourage its member
agencies to cease their dealings with NAC and to use any and all funds now
spent on NAC’s meretricious accreditation to fund services to blind men, women,
and children in the state of Florida.