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.