WHEREAS, Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits employment discrimination based on race, religion, sex, national origin, and age; and
WHEREAS, this enlightened and meritorious statute is seriously flawed because it does not apply to the blind and disabled; and
WHEREAS, the blind suffer severely as a result of pervasive employment discrimination based on blindness--72% of the blind of working age are either unemployed or chronically underemployed despite the fact that blind persons are successfully employed in every arena of endeavor, including the arts, the sciences, the learned professions, business, industry, agriculture, and government services; and
WHEREAS, Sections 503 and 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act failed to cover a large number of private employers, and because we the people, through our elected representatives need to make a commitment to the principle of equal access to opportunity in employment of the blind and disabled: Now, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland in Convention assembled this fourth day of October, 1987, in the City of Frostburg, Maryland, that this organization reaffirm, as a vital part of the modern civil rights movement, our long standing commitment to work with the members of Congress to fulfill the promise of the 1964 Civil Rights Act by expanding Title VII to include the blind and disabled.