Mark Riccobono:
Greetings, fellow Federationists. Today is Thursday, May 29, 2025, and this is Presidential Release 550, the official release for the month of June. And it is great to know that the convention is right around the corner because the excitement is really building here at our national office, and I know throughout the Federation.
First of all, to begin this release, let me say Happy Pride Month to Federationists across the country, and I wasn't sure that I said it on the May release, but it's worth saying again. We celebrated Mother's Day in the month of May, so, Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. If I said it, it's worth saying again, and if I didn't, Happy Mother's Day.
Now we are steamrolling toward the National Convention, online registration is closed by the time you will hear this, but you can still come to the National Convention if you can find yourself a room and you can certainly register when you get to the convention, the online registration will have closed. But if you're making a last minute decision, oh, I really got to be at the convention, which is a great decision, you can still sneak in, especially if you can find a place to be.
If you're not going to be with us in New Orleans, remember that you can register for our virtual convention experience. You can tune in on Zoom to our sessions and our special virtual experience activities. You can get all of that information as you already know, NFB.org/convention.
You will need to register for the virtual convention to be eligible for virtual door prizes, so I do urge you to do that. And the registration for the virtual experiences for a modest donation to the Federation. So, if you can't be with us in New Orleans, please register and participate in the virtual experience and stay plugged in to all of the great conversations we'll be having.
Now, our advocacy work continues at a full pace even as we come into the summer, and I want to say keep up the great work that's happening to move our legislation. Earlier this week, the Access Technology Affordability Act was introduced in United State Senate, congratulations to us on that work.
This is S.1918 introduced by Senator John Boozman of Arkansas, a longtime friend of the National Federation of the Blind, and our lead co-sponsor on this bill is Ben Ray Lujan from New Mexico. So, really proud to have this bill introduced and to have bipartisan leadership support for the bill in the Senate.
We of course have the ATAA in the House already, that's H.R.1529. So H.R.1529 and S.1918, please continue to talk to your members of Congress and encourage them to support these bills, even as they are advancing other discussions of taxes and credits in the Congress, this bill should continue to be on their radar.
We had a moment of disappointment that our bill was not included in the big bill that's currently being considered in Congress, but as we've dug a little deeper, one of the reasons is that that bill is largely based on the campaign promises that the President of the United States made. Although our bill has a lot of merit, we weren't one of the campaign promises. So don't think the fact that our bill was not included is a negative.
In fact, our bipartisan support for this bill continues to be its strength and your pushing it forward is going to make it happen. Please remind members of Congress that this bill is projected to save the federal government 315 million dollars over a five-year period. There's a lot of talk about saving money in the government, this is a very important fact about this bill.
Now also, in case you missed it, our Websites and Software Applications Accessibility Act was introduced finally in Congress. We announced this on the Presidential Release Live earlier this month. It was introduced in the House of Representatives on May 14, and that bill is sponsored by Representative Pete Sessions from Texas, and the lead co-sponsor is Representative Steny Hoyer here from Maryland.
The bill number is H.R. 3417, we do expect the Senate's version of this bill to be introduced soon. Again, another great example of keeping the advocacy pressure on. So please, if your members of Congress haven't supported these bills, urge them to get on board because we're going to want this momentum going into the summer and going into our national convention.
Now, I have a few announcements to discuss with you and it happens that they all have to do with shopping. So, I guess we're getting ready for Christmas in June or something like that. We announced on the Presidential Release Live earlier this month, an important partnership opportunity that we put together with a company called Innosearch AI.
I like to say that being a member of the National Federation of the Blind has many benefits, and this is one of them. The size and reach of our organization allows us to partner with individuals and organizations in ways that we could not otherwise achieve without the scale that we have. And we have announced that we are working with Innosearch AI to provide NFB members with special benefits and to help build our community of blind people.
Now, when we establish a partnership with an entity like Innosearch AI, which I'm going to talk about here in a minute, it's not done lightly. We kick the tires on it, we make sure that the entity we're dealing with takes accessibility seriously.
And in this case, Innosearch AI provides a new exciting platform for using artificial intelligence to access thousands of online retail sites and to give users curated information about the products that you're interested in. And to be clear, this innovative approach does not at all diminish our expectation that all e-commerce platforms out there will be usable and accessible to blind people.
This however, is an important option as it provides some functionality which is accessible to blind people, but I think really powerful and usable by all sorts of people who want to cut through the flashy images and get right to the facts and figures and dive into the details of the products that they're considering buying.
So, Innosearch AI is an online platform that allows you to search thousands of online retailers and ask questions. And using their AI engine, they are able to surface information about what you're looking for. Just as an example, the Riccobono's, we're looking to buy a new lock for our front door. We have a push button lock that we've had for about a decade.
Wanted a new one. Well, I could go online and find them, but I really wanted to make sure that what I bought had real physical tactile buttons on it, not just some flat touchscreen. I used Innosearch AI and was able to ask these questions and identify what locks had real physical buttons and identify a unit that I could purchase.
NFB members will get a special promotional credit when you set up an Innosearch AI account, a 10 dollar credit. You can find the link to get this promotional credit by going to your NFB member profile at NFB.org. You will need to use that link and special code to get this 10 dollar credit. This is a good benefit to NFB members.
If you have forgotten your NFB member profile information, you can go to NFB.org, go to the membership link, and you can hit change password if you've forgotten yours and use the email address that you believe NFB has on file. If you do log into your member profile, go to the membership tab and you will find your membership information, but also find benefits like Innosearch AI.
And while we're on it, you can find information about the very special deal that IRA offers exclusively to members of the National Federation of the Blind.
Now, in addition to offering an online shopping service, Innosearch also offers a telephone-based system, and this is really slick, especially if you set up your online account and put in your phone number, it'll recognize you when you call their online shopping system.
But if you want to try it out even without an account, you can dial 1-855-SHOP-GPT, or that would be 1-855-746-7478, and you can get all of the same powerful features that you would get on the web using the voice interaction on the telephone.
We're going to be finding other ways to work with Innosearch. They have included a round-up feature in their shopping experience so you can round up to benefit the programs of the National Federation of the Blind and continue to build this community.
We will be sending out information to our affiliates about working with Innosearch to provide training on the platform and other engagement that the company is interested in, and they will be at our National Convention in New Orleans. They are a White Cane sponsor, so I want to thank them for that.
Please check out Innosearch AI and give us feedback on what you find, what you think, what your experience is. You can write to Jonathan Mosen, who is our Executive Director for Accessibility Excellence. You can write to him at jmosen, M-O-S-E-N, [email protected].
Now, speaking of shopping, if you missed the Presidential Release Live, you missed the fact that we launched our e-commerce for the NFB Independence Market. I know this has been a long time in coming, that's probably the understatement of this Presidential Release, but we're really excited that the e-commerce is now live and available. You can find the products that we offer through our independence market and you can place your order.
We're still tweaking one or two things on the site, but many, many people have already written saying how pleased they are with it. You can go to Catalog.NFB.org, Catalog.NFB.org, to find our e-commerce site and do some shopping and get your products in advance of the National Convention. Of course, we will have the Independence Market at the convention, but you can buy products now anytime you want, whether the market is open or not.
Now, I also want to encourage members of the Federation to give us feedback not only on the e-commerce, but on what products you would like to see us carrying in our Independence Market. I would encourage you to write to Shawn Seward, he's our manager of the Independence Market. His email address is [email protected]. That's S-S-E-W-A-R-D at NFB.org.
I do have a few pieces of Federation family news that I regret to share with you here on this release from Maryland. We learned that Paige Trammel passed away on Monday, April 28, 2025, after a short illness. Paige served as Secretary of our Baltimore County chapter of the Federation, and was also on staff at Blind Industries and Services of Maryland.
From New Mexico, we've learned of the passing of Rosemary Garnanez, who passed away on April 2, 2025. Rosemary was a member of our Albuquerque chapter, also had some involvement with our West Mesa chapter in the NFB of New Mexico. And the affiliate would like you to keep her family in your thoughts and prayers.
From Pennsylvania, the Greater Philadelphia family has reported the loss of Ruth Chambers on May 1. She had been a devoted member of the chapter since 1979. Miss Ruth, as they called her, helped to pave the way for so many early victories in accessibility related to the work of the chapter and in the Philadelphia area. Her leadership and years of service will always be remembered, but definitely will be missed.
From Florida, we've learned from our affiliate President Camille Tate of a couple of passings. First is Kathy Roskos, who passed away on May 6 after being suddenly hospitalized. She was a long time member of our Gainesville chapter, serving in many leadership capacities. Kathy was a guide dog user and was noted for her advocacy work on behalf of guide dog users, in addition to her work to help build the National Federation of the Blind of Florida.
We also learned from Florida the passing of Bill Ottman, who passed away on May 9th following a hospitalization. Bill it says, served as Secretary of the Greater Daytona Beach chapter, and had been a member of the Florida affiliate for 30 years. He was noted as being an outstanding secretary who gave excellent reports on the work of the organization and had a great memory for details. He will be missed in our affiliate.
From Colorado. Peggy Chong, who serves as chapter President in Aurora, shares that one of the Aurora chapter members, Judy Hollyhead, passed away on Saturday, May 9th. It's noted that Judy was a longtime member of the chapter and served on its board of directors. Judy was active in the senior division in the NFB of Colorado, and also served on the board of directors. Please keep Judy in your thoughts and prayers.
And finally, in our Federation Family Notes, really sad to report the passing of Treva Olivero on Sunday, May 25. Treva was only 47 years old. Treva served as a chapter leader in our Indiana affiliate, and more recently in our Louisiana affiliate. She also served as the first Vice President in our Louisiana affiliate.
She was a teacher and strong advocate. She had a great role to play in our Braille enrichment programs, and she also served for a time as a staff member here at our national office. I'd encourage you to keep Treva's family and the family and friends of all of these members in your thoughts and prayers as we come into the month of June and into our deep convention season here.
That does bring me to the end of this Presidential Release, the last one before we get to the National Convention. We won't have one in July because we'll be together in New Orleans. I do want to take this opportunity in addition to again saying Happy Pride Month, to wish all of my fellow fathers out there a very happy Father's Day.
I know if you share in the pride that I do, that Dad is one of the best labels that I'm honored to have. So, thank you to all the dads out there. And knowing that we're going into Braille enrichment season, I'll leave you with some customary endings that were offered to me as part of a collection of endings sent to me by the Missouri BELL Academy from 2024. Let's go build the National Federation of the Blind.
Speaker 3:
Hi, my name is Leila. I have a joke to tell.
Mark Riccobono:
What is it?
Speaker 3:
Why was the library so very tall, guys?
Speaker 5:
Why?
Mark Riccobono:
Why?
Speaker 3:
Because it has so many stories.
We had a terrible storm the other night with torrential rain, booming thunder and crashing rain. My little brother watched out the window for hours and then I thought, I should probably let him inside.
Speaker 5:
I was reading a whole story, something bad going to happen. I can feel it.
Mark Riccobono:
Sounds good.
Speaker 5:
I love you, president.
Speaker 1:
The preceding message was brought to you by Mark Riccobono, President, National Federation of the Blind. 410-659-9314. Office of the President at NFB.org. Follow President Riccobono on Mastodon, just search for @president at NFB.social. Let's go build the National Federation of the Blind.