From the Editor: Shawn Jacobson is a longtime member of, and leader in, the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland. For years, he served as the state treasurer. Just as our national organization puts forth a legislative program each year, many of our affiliates do as well. Here Shawn relates his experience of how the affiliate kicks off its annual effort in the state capital of Annapolis when the Maryland General Assembly convenes each winter for its three-month session. This account is from 2025:
We stand at the entrance to the Lowe Office Building waiting for someone to open the door. “Please let us in,” we say to a lady entering the building.
We had all awakened early on this chilly Thursday morning to ensure that we were on time, in my case before 4:30 a.m. My wife and I got to the meeting place for our group, the Amtrak Lounge at the New Carrollton Metro stop, just before 6:30 a.m., and the van soon arrived to take us to Annapolis for a day of talking to legislators about our issues.
For me, preparation had begun three days earlier. On Monday, we had two conference calls. The first, for team leaders like me, covered team logistics such as when to take photographs with legislators, who to send them to, and what hashtag to use. We also discussed how the team report of our meetings with legislators or their aides should be given.
The meeting for all team members covered the issues we planned to discuss, as well as things people needed for Annapolis. A photo ID is needed to admit people to the office buildings of the state capital complex. Also, business attire is required. I made sure to find my sport coat, tie, tie clip, and dress shirt. This required some effort since I am retired and do not go into an office on a daily basis.
One more act of preparation was needed. I needed to bring a small bag of candy in case someone on my team had an insulin reaction. My experience told me that such things were a possibility to guard against. With these advance preparations, I felt ready for the day.
Soon we are admitted, as security personnel agree to process our early group of advocates. Once we pass through security, we walk the short distance to the Judiciary Committee hearing room. Being early allows us to pick out choice seats as we wait for the work of the day to begin.
On the way to Annapolis, those of us who were team leaders got our team assignments. I will have four team members to lead through the day, including one member who is our dedicated photographer. Now I seek out my team as I wait for our bag of folders to leave in each legislative office we visit. On the right side of the folder is a miscellaneous collection of items we want to give people who should understand blindness issues. This includes the Courtesy Rules of Blindness, an application for our affiliate scholarship program, and one of our Kernel books. The left side contains the fact sheets for our issues.
This year we have six issues. One request is for an increase in the property tax exemption for blind homeowners. Another is to pass a bill that will allow the use of autonomous vehicles on Maryland streets; this will, among other things, solve our issues with discrimination by rideshare drivers.
We also are asking the legislature to continue the annual grant from the state to our Center for Excellence in Nonvisual Access, which benefits businesses and governments from Maryland and beyond. Even though there is a budget deficit that has been much in the news, I’m hopeful that this will be supported, particularly because legislators themselves have used this center in the past when they sought Braille business cards and other accessible materials.
The other three issues involve setting up a commission to study ways to make voting by mail both accessible and secure, setting up a grant program for service animal trainers, and providing Braille or tactile flags for veteran cemeteries. While thinking of the issues, I hear my name called; my bag is ready.
I wondered what the schedule would be. I wanted to prepare myself for our travels, the best way to make it through our assigned offices with a minimum of walking. I look through my bag to see what my schedule is, but I don’t see one.
“Where is my schedule?” I ask.
“It’s coming,” says Ronza Othman, our state president.
Sure enough, I get a folder with a schedule of the offices I’m supposed to visit. In previous years, the hour between 9:00 and 10:00 a.m. was the busiest hour for meetings. But now, the heaviest time for meetings is 11:00 a.m. to noon. My schedule shows that our first meeting is at 9:30 a.m. and our second is at 10:00 a.m.
At the bottom of the list, I see three senators with a “0” for our meeting time. These are legislators for whom we were not able to set up a time. Since it is a while before our first scheduled appointment, I decide to try getting some of these unscheduled appointments set up. Early and often is my rule for visiting offices with no prescheduled appointment.
In the next two hours, we are able to have four meetings, but none with the actual senator. One aide, in an office with a “0” appointment time, barely listens to us; he seems to want us out the door as soon as possible. The other three aides we talk to are pleasant enough, but it is hard to know if that means that the legislator will be supportive. Aides are often understandably noncommittal.
Our third scheduled meeting takes us from the James Building, where most senators have offices, to the Miller Building, where committee chairs and some other senators work. “It’s Miller Time,” I joke as we head to our next appointment.
We are scheduled to have meetings with three senators and three delegates (members of the lower house of the Maryland General Assembly) between 10:45 and 11:30 a.m., but we only get to talk to aides. I prompt my fellow team members to speak about our priorities. I don’t want to talk all the time. Also, I believe that a good leader involves the whole team if possible. Our shared presentation results in polite responses from the aides, but, again, it is hard to know just where their boss will stand on our issues.
We see our first, and only, senator when we return to the James Building for a noon meeting. Senator Benson has always been one of our great friends, so we are glad to see her. I judge it worth the wait for her to invite us into her office. Once we talk, the senator peruses our folder. Then she gets excited. “I didn’t realize you had a scholarship program,” she exclaims. She then starts asking us how we fund the program, and we discuss our fundraisers. “Why haven’t you told us about these fundraisers before?” she asks. “We should all know about them.” After a lengthy meeting, we get her support on all our issues.
The next meeting is set for 12:30 p.m. in the Miller Building. By the time we get to the appointment, we are thirty minutes late, and we miss the senator, who has to run to a committee meeting. Oh well, we get to talk to her aide. One more meeting, with an aide, and it is time for lunch.
We get to the Capitol Cantina just before 2:00 p.m., expecting to be behind the lunch rush. However, we find the place crowded with members of other teams who also have a lengthy break before their next meeting. I settle in to get my lunch, grateful that we only have two meetings left, one scheduled for 4:00 p.m. and one that is yet to be scheduled.
After lunch and rest, we get to our last meetings. The first of these is with one of the senators with whom we did not have a set time. The senator will be busy all day, so we settle for talking to an aide. Then we reach the office where our final appointment is scheduled only to find that the senator has gone to her daughter’s track meet. And so, we end our day of advocacy with one more cheerful, but noncommittal, aide. I have our designated photographer text the rest of the teams that we have finished, and we head to where an NFB van will take us to supper.
Buddy’s, the restaurant where our evening meal will happen, sits atop a jewelry store. When we leave the van, we are directed to the door and up the stairs to our dining area. It provides a view of the harbor, but we don’t stop to look.
After a good meal of cream of crab soup followed by a cheeseburger for me, we got down to the real purpose of our group meal. This main purpose is for each of the team leaders to report on their advocacy.
Because our schedule this year is ambitious (we usually don’t have six issues), the team reports run long. We are supposed to rank each legislator from one to five, five being the most favorable rating, on each of the issues. In the case of stand-alone bills, a rating of five indicates that the delegate or senator will cosponsor the legislation.
My report feels weak; we only met with one senator. Also, I did not always get the names of the aides we talked to. I explain that I prioritized talking about issues over getting the names of aides. Leaders must prioritize these things, though my prioritization is not always necessarily the best. Finally, with a great deal of relief, I end my report and thank my team members. I call my wife to pick me up at the restaurant. Finally, almost eighteen hours after I got out of bed, we return home. The Annapolis adventure is over for another year.
Looking back, I think that the day was worthwhile. We did not get to see as many legislators as I would have hoped, but in each office, we talked to someone about our issues. What may be even more important is that we showed people in Annapolis how competent blind folks can work together to put forward a highly complex program of information on blindness issues. This may be the most lasting, and most worthwhile, thing we accomplished.