In September on a voice vote the U.S. House passed H.R. 3388, The SELF DRIVE Act, intending to make it easier for autonomous vehicles to take the road.  However the House did not address discrimination against people with disabilities.

The American Foundation for the Blind sent the following letter to the ranking members of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation

September 6, 2017

The Honorable John Thune

The Honorable Bill Nelson

Re: Support for Senate Commerce Committee autonomous vehicle legislation; insufficiency of H.R. 3388.

Dear Chairman Thune and Ranking Member Nelson:

On behalf of the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) and the more than 23 million adult Americans living with vision loss for whom, following Helen Keller's legacy, we advocate for a world with no limits, I write to urge your continued leadership in refining and speedily acting upon autonomous vehicle legislation which truly meets the needs, and acknowledges the capabilities, of people with disabilities, including people who are blind, visually impaired, or deafblind. It has been our privilege to work closely with your staff this year to develop draft bipartisan legislation which we believe meets these critical criteria, and we urge the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation to complete this work and act promptly and favorably on the bill.

In a world with no limits, people with vision loss will be able to benefit from the independence, employment opportunity, self-determination, social participation and mobility that so-called driverless cars have to offer. However, this will only happen if we act now to clear the public policy roadway of readily removable technological obstructions and the debris of disability stereotypes and misconceptions that are currently in the way. The legislation that we have been working with your staff to develop will, we believe, address these most critical policy challenges in the autonomous vehicle space for people with disabilities.

In order to have meaningful access to autonomous vehicles, people with disabilities must be able to enter, maneuver within, and exit vehicles, and they must be able to properly interact with vehicles' user interface and related features. Additionally, in carrying out their traditional role to set the minimum requirements for and limits on driver licensure, states must do their part to exercise such authority untainted by paternalism or outmoded stereotypes and in a manner that ensures full and equal protection of the constitutional right of all people with disabilities to travel. Thanks to the leadership which you and your staff have been demonstrating in the development of your autonomous vehicle legislation, these matters are on the right road toward the deliberation and consensus building upon which sound public policy making depends.

While, as of this writing, the House is expected to take immediate action on its approach to autonomous vehicle legislation (H.R. 3388), we nevertheless urge you to press ahead with the development and consideration of a measure that more appropriately responds to the disability community and that clearly tackles the most significant policy barriers. Unlike the approach which you and your staff have been developing, H.R. 3388 makes mere cursory reference to disability-related concerns and provides little incentive for support from our community given its hesitance to address the most critical issues through a well-defined, outcomes oriented process. It is also particularly disappointing, and a bit disturbing, to see some leading proponents of H.R. 3388 playing heartstrings and emotionally exploiting the bill's alleged tremendous promise for people with disabilities while H.R. 3388's disability-related provisions, such as they are, remain so vacuous. What an incredible missed opportunity that has left people with disabilities hitch hiking for a legislative vehicle heading in the right direction.

Again, thank you for your much-needed leadership, and we continue to stand ready to be of assistance to you and your staff to put well-crafted public policy before the Senate that both accelerates industry innovation and turbocharges the independence of people with disabilities.

Sincerely,

Mark Richert, Esq.
Director, Public Policy
American Foundation for the Blind
(202) 469-6833
MRichert@AFB.net 

Submission deadline is October 15th

"We seek proposals that offer innovative conceptualizations and advance inventive approaches. Proposals should focus on the fresh contributions the presentation will make, including sketches of the supporting arguments. The abstract should include (but not be limited to) a paragraph summarizing the issue that will be addressed and any currently contending views about its resolution. Successful abstracts will explicitly address how the proposed presentation will address the challenges of integrating legal and medical understandings of disablement.

We welcome submissions on both broad conceptual questions and more specific policy issues related to the "mere difference" vs. "bad difference" debate. 

Potential topics include:

Please note that this list is not meant to be exhaustive; we hope to receive abstracts related to the conference's central question even if the particular topic was not specifically listed here. Proposals should demonstrate a clear linkage to all three aspects of the conference-disability, bioethics, and law. Papers that focus on ethics should include substantial discussion of policy implications. Relatedly, law will be treated broadly to include governmental policy decisions more generally. Successful abstracts will propose or outline an argument/position, rather than merely stating a topic.
In an effort to encourage interdisciplinary and international dialogue, we welcome submissions from legal scholars and lawyers, bioethicists, philosophers, clinicians, medical researchers, disability rights advocates, public health practitioners, behavioral economists, government officials and staff, and others who have a meaningful contribution to make on this topic. We welcome philosophical and legal reflections from contributors across the world, but these submissions should be general or United States- focused rather than comparative in nature. We welcome submissions from advocacy organizations, think tanks, and others outside academia, but emphasize that this is a scholarly conference, and abstracts/papers will be held to academic standards of argumentation and support.

How to Participate:

If you are interested in participating, please send a 1-page abstract of the paper you would plan to present to petrie-flom@law.harvard.edu as soon as possible, but not later than October 15, 2017. If your abstract is selected, your final paper will be due on April 1, 2018, and you will be assigned a presentation slot for the conference. Please note that all presenters must provide a full final draft in order to participate and that presenters are expected to attend the conference for its full duration. We will accept conference papers of all lengths and styles (e.g., law review, medical, philosophy, or policy journal, etc.), but presentations will be limited to 15 minutes. The conference will be held on Friday, June 1, 2018. We will pay travel expenses for presenters who must travel to Cambridge; co-authored papers must name a single presenter.

In the past, we have successfully turned several of our conferences into edited volumes (e.g., with Cambridge, MIT, Johns Hopkins, and Columbia University presses). It is possible, although not guaranteed, that conference presenters will publish their papers with us in an edited volume whose chapters will be limited to 5,000 words, including references. Previous conference participants have been able to publish their submissions in different formats in multiple venues, for example both as a short book chapter and a longer law review article. However, the version that will be used for an edited volume should not have been published previously or be planned to publish separately.

How to Register:
Registration information will be available here in early 2018. Attendance is free and open to the public, but space is limited. Stay tuned for the conference agenda, which will be posted here once abstracts have been selected.

Questions:

Please contact the Petrie-Flom Center, with any questions: petrie-flom@law.harvard.edu, 617-496-4662."

http://mailchi.mp/law/call-for-abstracts-2018-petrie-flom-center-annual-conference-beyond-disadvantage-disability-law-and-bioethics