Cold Weather and Common Sense:
The 2026 Washington Seminar
by Chris Danielsen
In the National Federation of the Blind, we raise expectations because low expectations create obstacles between blind people and our dreams. Low expectations, of course, are neither unique to the blind nor do they create the only obstacles we face, but other obstacles seem to be more evenly distributed across all of humanity. However, because we are used to facing artificial barriers created by low expectations and using problem-solving skills to surmount those barriers, members of the National Federation of the Blind are unusually resilient and flexible when things go sideways. That is probably why natural events like the winter storm named Fern did not deter as many Federationists as it might have from showing up in person in Washington, DC, to be part of the 2026 Washington Seminar.
Raising expectations does not mean expecting heroics in the face of dangerous conditions but merely adapting to circumstances as they exist. Many of us, despite our best efforts, were victims of airline cancellations and, in the case of your correspondent, frozen railroad switches and signals up and down Amtrak’s Northeast corridor that made the normally short train trip from Baltimore to the nation’s capital impossible. For this reason, the virtual component of the 2026 Washington Seminar was enhanced. By most estimates over two hundred members of our movement were already ensconced in the Holiday Inn Capitol National Mall by the time the Washington Seminar kickoff, known by longstanding tradition as the Great Gathering-In, was gaveled to order at 5 p.m. on Monday, January 26. These included thirty-two state presidents who had earlier come to the NFB Jernigan Institute for the annual Presidents’ Retreat that takes place the weekend before each Washington Seminar. Their original schedule involved leaving Baltimore on Monday morning for the short trip to Washington, but when it became clear that circumstances would likely not permit this, the efficient and indefatigable logistics team at the NFB Jernigan Institute transported them all to the hotel on Saturday evening before the snow began to fall. The retreat continued in the Capitol Ballroom the next day. Those who could not make it to DC pivoted to making virtual appointments with their representatives and senators. Prior to the Great Gathering-In, Monday brought the usual midwinter conclave of the National Association of Blind Students and a professional development seminar for jobseekers who had preregistered. These were followed by the usual legislative training session, during which members of our Advocacy and Policy team went over our priorities and allowed members to role-play in mock meetings. Then the main event of the evening arrived. The larger-than-usual crowd of Zoom listeners got a lively preview of the event from the hosts of our Nation’s Blind Podcast and others. Both the preview and the full Great Gathering-In proceedings are still available to watch on our YouTube channel and at https://nfb.org/washington-seminar.
Common Sense and a Congressional Champion: The Great Gathering-In Begins
After gaveling the session to order, President Riccobono launched into his annual assessment of the significance of Washington Seminar. This year, anticipating the celebration of our nation’s 250th birthday, he drew inspiration from Thomas Paine, the author of Common Sense, the bestselling and historic 1776 pamphlet widely credited with convincing the majority of English colonists that a break with the fatherland was not merely advisable but the logical, even inevitable, result for a people who, practically speaking, had become accustomed to freedom from paternal control. President Riccobono drew a parallel between Paine’s arguments and the realization of blind Americans that we, too, needed to declare freedom from paternalism in the forms of pity disguised as charity and agency control of our choices. He characterized our legislative goals not only as common sense in view of our own quest for individual and collective freedom, but as common sense for America as well, since these policies will allow our nation to benefit from our contributions rather than being burdened by our artificial dependency. Our President’s full remarks follow this article.
The next item on the agenda was a presentation to honor a member of Congress who, through his long history of working with us and his remarks in accepting the honor, demonstrated that he well understands the role of our movement in realizing the promise put forward at our nation’s inception. The Honorable Steny Hoyer first entered Congress in 1980 having already served for fifteen years in the Maryland General Assembly. Within the next decade, he had already made his own mark on American history in many ways, not the least of which was his fight, along with a bipartisan group of other colleagues, for the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. President Riccobono reviewed some of this history in introducing the presentation, and fondly reminisced about first meeting the Congressman during the finale of our 2009 Youth Slam, when participants marched to the brand-new Capitol Visitors Center from the Lincoln Memorial. At that event, the Congressman presented us with two of the brand-new Louis Braille commemorative coins, minted pursuant to legislation we had urged Congress to pass, that had flown on NASA’s ST-125 space mission.
Like so many others, Congressman Hoyer was unable to attend the Washington Seminar in person, so we will have to wait to present him his plaque, but its content was shared with those in the room and on Zoom. It read:
National Federation of the Blind Distinguished Legislative Award
Presented to the Honorable Steny Hoyer
From your leadership of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990 to your work on the Websites and Software Applications Accessibility Act in the 119th Congress, your leadership and dedication to equality for all Americans with disabilities is unparalleled. We honor you for an enduring and distinguished legacy of service and your deep belief in blind Americans. Together with love, hope, and determination, we transform dreams into reality.
January 26th, 2026
In his remarks graciously and humbly accepting this honor, Representative Hoyer observed that when he first came to Congress, most of his colleagues knew of the blind primarily through entertainers like Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder. Those two outstanding musicians joined their voices to the landmark “We are the World” charity single a few years later. Similarly, Congressman Hoyer noted, the Federation and our allies fought to make a better world by bringing the disabled out of the shadows, just as those entertainers were trying to make one by alleviating the famine in Africa. The continued struggle to enhance equality for all is still needed, he reminded us, because while our rights are self-evident, they are not self-executing. Although he is now serving his last year as a member of Congress, Representative Hoyer promised to continue to fight with us for an America and a world where everyone’s equality is recognized and actualized.
President Riccobono followed Congressman Hoyer’s remarks by recognizing Federation dignitaries and thanking Waymo, the autonomous vehicle transportation company which, this year, sponsored our entire Washington Seminar. Next, your correspondent was introduced to talk about the many ways in which participants could share their Washington Seminar experiences, including via email to [email protected] and by using the social media hash tag #NFBinDC. Sandy Halverson then took the microphone to remind all that a bucket was being passed to defray Washington Seminar costs, including the operation in Room 275, formerly known as the Mercury Room, which she capably leads each year. Using an impromptu bit of light verse, Sandy reminded us that Mercury’s functions include providing canes for cash, collecting business cards received from Hill staffers, and helping to file meeting reports if needed.
National Movement Updates
Returning to the theme of stories, President Riccobono shared that we are launching an expanded effort to collect, create, and present them in innovative ways. These include oral histories, artistic renderings, the written word, images and video, and much more. The new and expanded effort is called Blind Unbound, and while it will incorporate our goal of launching the Museum of the Blind People’s Movement, it will encompass much more, driven by the ideas of our members. More about the Blind Unbound initiative is forthcoming in these pages and other Federation communications.
Anil Lewis, Executive Director for Blindness Initiatives, came to the lectern to creatively tie our legislative advocacy to the many education and employment programs his department oversees. Woven through his remarks was the theme that we have moved from being perceived as needing handouts to requesting a hand up to extending our collective hand for a handshake of collaboration with educators, employers, and others. Among other things, he teased that a 2027 Youth Slam to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the first such event is in the works; thanked the members of the Teachers of Tomorrow and Kenneth Jernigan Leadership-In-Service cohorts present; and announced that new summer internships will soon be available at the NFB Jernigan Institute.
Jonathan Mosen, who has now been our Executive Director for Accessibility Excellence for over a year, called out its new initiative to employ dedicated accessibility excellence advocates in specific areas. The first two of these, Charles Hiser for Education and Employment and Ron Miller for Home and Independent Living, are already hard at work. Jonathan also emphasized our continued vigilance with respect to concerning developments at Vispero, makers of JAWS and other products that are mission-critical to so many blind people.
Advocacy Updates and the 2026 Washington Seminar Issues
After a brief teaser for our National Convention provided by Norma Crosby, the president of our Texas affiliate which will host the big event in Austin this July, President Riccobono introduced John Paré, Executive Director for Advocacy and Policy, to get down to the real business of the week. John began by reminding us that advocacy takes place throughout the year, noting our work on a dozen pieces of legislation, six responses to regulatory actions in 2025 alone, and the fourteen legislative alerts sent out to activate members at critical points in the legislative process. He thanked the affiliates with members on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee whose delegations made an extra trip to Washington this past fall to protect education and employment programs when draconian cuts threatened the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (see the November and December 2025 issues of this magazine for more details). During that fall fly-in, the Alaska delegation met with both of the state’s senators and secured through Senator Dan Sullivan the room where our annual congressional reception would be held the following evening. Senator Sullivan also immediately signed on as a co-sponsor of the Access Technology Affordability Act after the meeting. This was just one example of the effective advocacy that took place.
John introduced Dr. Justin Young, who stepped to the microphone to point out that the employment and education programs on which the blind rely are still threatened, and the Randolph-Sheppard program has come under specific attack from the United States Army Secretary, as reported in these pages last month. Therefore, in an echo of last year, one of our Washington Seminar priorities was simply to protect the programs we have. However, our advocacy focused specifically not only on Randolph-Sheppard but also the education and employment services and civil-rights enforcement mechanisms supported by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and Rehabilitation Act of 1973, funding for the American Printing House for the Blind (which is currently distributing the groundbreaking Monarch device across our nation and the world), and the Older Individuals who are Blind (OIB) program.
John took the floor again to speak about the Accessible Technology Affordability Act (H.R. 1529/S. 1918), which would grant a $2,000 tax credit over three years for blind people to purchase our own screen readers, refreshable Braille displays, hardcopy Braille embossers, and more. He advised members to show off their own access technology in their Capitol Hill meetings so that lawmakers would better understand the proposed law’s purpose. He also pointed out that the packets we would hand out contained an analysis from the respected firm Mathematica showing that, over five years, the tax credit would save the federal government $315 million, thereby benefitting all taxpayers and not just those of us who might use the credit. The fact sheets supporting this legislation and the other advocacy items mentioned here, which were also part of that packet, appear later in this issue.
Jesse Shirek, who has just assumed his new role as Director of Advocacy, addressed the audience with his characteristic eloquence and empathy to share the importance of the Blind Americans Return to Work Act. For the first time, Jesse publicly disclosed that he was a victim of the earnings cliff even as he attended his first Washington Seminar, constantly balancing trying to grow his accessibility training and website development business against keeping his income low enough to avoid losing cash and healthcare benefits for himself and his wife Sherry. It was Sherry who advised him, on his first day of work for the Federation, “Go out and change our future,” and he urged all assembled to do the same in the coming days. He armed us not only with the information about how the bill would work—by implementing a phase-out to replace the earnings cliff where one dollar of benefits would be given back for every two dollars earned in excess of the Substantial Gainful Activity (SGA) limit—but also shared that the Commissioner of the Social Security Administration had met with the bill’s chief sponsor, Representative Pete Sessions, and told him that he supported the legislation. A letter from Congressman Sessions to that effect was also included in our legislative packet. The letter reads in part:
On December 2, 2025, I met with Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano and his legislative affairs team. The Commissioner gave his full support for the legislation and affirmed that Social Security Administration would have no issue with its passage.
John then introduced Kyle Walls, whose talent is prodigious and whose functions are diverse, to go over more logistics, including explaining the ratings scale for reporting the success of Capitol Hill meetings. Then it was time for some presentations about funding our movement. Marilyn Green energetically promoted the friendly competition among affiliates to get more members on the Pre-Authorized Contribution (PAC) Plan, also encouraging members to ask their friends to contribute in this way. Patti Chang shared another new way for members and others to contribute, which is by creating a will through our new partner Freewill.com. And throughout all this, President Riccobono urged everyone to support our students by attending their auction to take place later that evening, while also engaging in friendly banter with the other two individuals besides himself who would serve as auctioneers, Qualik Ford and Everette Bacon, as to who could get the highest bids.
The final presentation before adjournment was from the aforementioned Everette Bacon in his capacity as chair of the Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award Committee for the purpose of soliciting applications and nominations.
The Congressional Reception
The next evening, as ice and snow continued to coat Capitol Hill, many hardy blind advocates filled a Senate office building room for the annual Congressional Reception of the National Federation of the Blind. President Riccobono, in kicking off the event, observed that there might well have been more blind people on Capitol Hill than members of Congress. He then wasted no time in introducing the evening’s first speaker. This was Maryland’s senior senator, Chris Van Hollen, a longtime friend of the Federation. He was introduced not only as a consistent ally, but as a recent visitor to the NFB’s Baltimore headquarters, where he announced his support for legislation to designate part of the NFB headquarters as the National Museum of the Blind People’s Movement as reported in the January 2026 issue of this magazine.
Senator Van Hollen situated the Federation’s work within the broader American civil rights tradition. He reminded the audience that the movement for blind equality helped secure the Supplemental Security Income program and expanded access to education and employment—not only for blind people, but for all Americans who benefit from a more inclusive society. Progress, he noted, rests on a fundamental commitment to human dignity, independence, and justice.
Turning to current priorities, he emphasized the urgent need to fully fund the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). While Congress originally pledged to cover 40 percent of the cost of special education, federal funding remains far below that mark. He also reaffirmed his commitment to ending the subminimum wage, calling it an injustice that still affects tens of thousands of Americans. Blind and disabled people, he said plainly, deserve equal pay for equal work.
Finally, he returned to the importance of preserving and telling the history of the blind people’s movement. Remembering the past, he observed, helps light the way forward. The proposed National Museum of the Blind People’s Movement is not merely symbolic; it affirms that the struggle for equality is part of the American story.
Senator Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire followed, praising the Federation’s steadfast advocacy and the power of personal testimony, particularly in the face of what she described as “wicked bad weather.” Legislative progress, she noted, does not happen through email alone. It happens when people show up—when they tell their stories and insist that the promise of democracy belongs to everyone.
Drawing on her own family experience, Senator Hassan reflected on the transformative impact of IDEA. Though Congress has yet to fulfill its funding commitment, the law dramatically changed educational opportunity for millions of students with disabilities, including her own son. The work now, she said, is to protect and strengthen those gains. She highlighted her leadership in eliminating subminimum wage in New Hampshire and committed to continued federal efforts to end the practice nationwide. She also pointed to legislation we support requiring nonvisual accessibility features in medical devices such as insulin pumps—a practical but vital measure to ensure equal access to health technology. (While not one of our top priorities for the second half of the 119th Congress, the National Federation of the Blind continues to work toward this legislative goal.) At a moment when disability rights protections face political headwinds, Senator Hassan urged vigilance. Progress, she reminded the audience, is rarely linear. But in a democracy, progress remains possible so long as citizens continue to raise their voices.
The evening’s third senator, Dan Sullivan, was the aforementioned official sponsor of the Senate room. He brought greetings from members of the Alaska Federation of the Blind, many of whom were unable to travel due to weather but had spoken with him via Zoom earlier that day. With obvious pleasure and pride, he shared stories of blind Alaskans pursuing careers in music, psychology, athletics, and public service. Their accomplishments, he said, reflect talent, perseverance, and ambition—qualities too often overshadowed by assumptions about disability. He announced his co-sponsorship of the Access Technology Affordability Act and said that he was seriously considering serving as Senate lead co-sponsor of the Blind Americans Return to Work Act. Public policy, he argued, should incentivize work, not penalize it. Throughout his remarks, he returned to a theme that resonated across the evening: dignity. Policies that remove unnecessary barriers allow people to thrive. The Federation’s presence on Capitol Hill, he said, makes a difference precisely because it brings lived experience into legislative debate.
The program concluded with remarks from Stefania Yanachkov, Senior Manager, Federal Policy and Government Affairs for Waymo, the Washington Seminar’s sponsor and a partner in advancing accessible autonomous vehicle policy. Waymo has expanded its fully autonomous ride-hail service to numerous cities and announced additional expansions in the year ahead, including the Federation’s hometown of Baltimore. The company credited the Federation’s advocacy for shaping accessibility features in its vehicles and app, from adaptive navigation tools to distinctive vehicle-identification audio cues. Equally important is the policy collaboration. Federationists have worked alongside Waymo to promote federal legislation ensuring that riders in autonomous vehicles are not required to hold driver’s licenses—a common-sense reform that reflects the promise of this emerging technology. This partnership reflects our broader strategy: advancing accessibility not only through advocacy, but through direct engagement with industry innovators.
Conclusion
The cold weather did not prevent Federationists from kicking off another legislative year with energy and success. Before the delegations that were able to make it in person had left the nation’s capital city, both of Maine’s senators, Susan Collins and Angus King, had signed on to co-sponsor the Access Technology Affordability Act. Along with the commitments from Senator Sullivan of Alaska, the Federation was receiving a lot of good news before the event even closed, and no doubt more will come in the next weeks and months. The Braille Monitor will provide regular updates as our legislative and policy agenda advances.