Kansas makes a bizarre request of blind residents trying to renew their ID | Opinion

Editor’s note: This is one in a series of guest columns by Wichita-area residents to tell their stories, in their words, spotlighting barriers that deter full participation in the life of the community. Funding for Unheard Voices has been provided by the American Press Institute through its Civic Discourse and Community Voices Fund.

I was born in Liberal and have lived in Wichita for most of my life. I am currently attending the KU School of Pharmacy at the medical campus north of downtown.

As the first totally blind student to pursue a doctor of pharmacy, also known as a PharmD, I face a lot of challenges due to the high volume of material I must learn and the completion of the technical requirements of my program that are considered visual tasks. These include giving vaccines, checking prescriptions, and mixing IV infusions.

I have proven that with some modifications, these and many other tasks can be done by someone who is blind, but it takes an open mind and a sense of curiosity on the part of the instructors and others to make this happen.

I hold two undergraduate degrees from Wichita State University, one in global studies (2011) and more recently a biology degree with a chemistry minor (2020). These are hard-won accomplishments that required more self-advocacy than studying or homework.

I do not want anyone to struggle as much as I have, because the price of my degrees was so much higher than books and tuition. The amount of time I had to dedicate to explaining why a blind person needs access to the same materials as all other students, and the innumerable conversations I had with people in an effort to convince them that blind people belong in science, is time I will never get back.

I am very proud of the way WSU has become a much more welcoming place for blind students, but there is no rest for people with disabilities, because we continue to be confronted with barriers to the privileges and responsibilities of living as an adult

People reading this might think that achieving success in a professional program such as pharmacy is the most challenging thing that a blind person will do in their lifetime, but I want to share a different perspective.

Often, it is accomplishing what people with eyesight think of as simple everyday tasks that present the highest barriers for those of us living with blindness.

I want to share one of these challenges that I have recently faced.

As a blind Kansan, I am issued a state identification card instead of a driver’s license, and I have to renew it periodically.

I have to spend a lot of time at school, and coordinating transportation to and from the Department of Motor Vehicles is not easy to do around my class and study schedule.

I was made aware of the iKan app, which is used by the state of Kansas to enable residents to complete certain tasks online. One of these is the renewal of driver’s licenses and state ID cards.

I was very excited about this, and I logged on to the app and proceeded through the steps to get a new Real ID card. I was hopeful when I started the online renewal process, not only because at first it was very usable for me, but also because I was in the system and eligible to proceed without skipping class to go in person.

Everything went very well until I was directed to provide information about a recent optometry visit. The iKan app only allows those with a vision assessment to renew a license or ID.

To be required to visit an optometrist for a vision exam, in spite of being on record as being blind and holding a state ID rather than a driver’s license, was absurd and highly frustrating.

I reached out to the state of Kansas about this issue and was informed that I would have to either go to a DMV office in person, or fill out a form that is not accessible to blind people and provide my credit card information by e mail so my ID could be renewed.

For blind people, use of online services and payment processing is a secure and convenient way of doing things, but we are excluded from the very service that would make ID renewal accessible and efficient for us.

I make use of fillable pdf documents to complete accessible forms related to my licensing as a pharmacy intern, and I can complete tasks in a timely and efficient manner.

The process to renew my state ID could be as easy as it is for sighted people, but instead it is a multi-step process involving a form I cannot use independently, and the transmission of my credit card information through email.

We have asked for online or virtual options for years, and now that these services are a reality, we are once again left out.

We are expected to put our credit card information at risk to process our requests remotely, whereas sighted people can process payments securely with the iKan system.

My husband, who is also blind, and I must routinely get assistance from sighted people to complete paperwork in order to obtain healthcare and keep our identification and other documents up to date.

This puts us in the position of revealing private or vulnerable information to others while our sighted peers have access to more confidential and secure means of doing the same things.

I shared my experience as a blind pharmacy student because I believe it shows that many things are possible and can be made accessible for participants.

This situation with the iKan app is fixable, especially because the ID cards issued to blind people are an option that the state already offers, and this could be an option in the online renewal process.

If this were changed, blind Kansans could renew and securely pay for their ID cards and get on with their lives.

This is a significant access barrier, which is a direct result of a failure to consider the special populations in the state.

When calculating and mixing IV medications is more accessible to me than a mainstream requirement such as the one I have described, it’s time to make some noise.

This is not about asking for special treatment, so much as it is about equal participation in the online renewal service that is available to sighted Kansans.