Music:
Live the life you want.
Nobody can stop you.
Shoot for the sun.
And break on through.
So you’re blind, you’ll be fine, we got good news
You can live the life you want, yes we know the truth
Speaker 1:
The following message is brought to you by Mark Riccobono, President, National Federation of the Blind. Live the life you want.
Music:
... you can live the life you want.
Yes, we know the truth.
Mark Riccobono:
Greetings, fellow Federationists. Today is Thursday, July 31st, 2025, and this is Presidential Release 551 for the month of August, and I want to congratulate all of our membership on a fantastic Federation convention this summer.
It was great by all measures that you can think of and to those who were available to be in person, the 2,600 of us, I know you had a great time and it was wonderful to offer some of the general sessions and other content to the many hundreds of you that were able to tune in virtually.
For those of you who didn't make it to convention or I would even say for those of us who did and couldn't be in all places at all times, now's a great opportunity to catch up on some of the content you might've missed or might've gone by you because you were helping someone out or engaged in an interesting conversation with the first-timer. We are putting the convention highlights up on the website and making other convention content available to you.
And our local chapters are a good place to discuss some of the content that came out of the Federation, whether it be philosophical presentations that were given during the convention or learned about in breakout sessions, policy discussions, like reviewing our resolutions that were passed or maybe going through Eve Hill's great legislative legal update to the convention.
Or again, Federation policy, reviewing the resolutions and talking about how we can activate those at the local level. Lots of great content for us to follow up on in the months ahead in our chapters, and I encourage you to do that.
If you want to connect with this content, you can of course go to the NFB convention page, nfb.org/convention and you will find it.
You can go to the Nation's Blind YouTube Channel to find content that we've posted there, and of course, you can tune in to the National Federation of the Blind Radio Network, either on your Amazon device by asking it to open Nation's Blind or through TuneIn or some other provider. You can also get to NFBRN on our website and you will frequently come across convention content there.
And I should say that it's not too early to make plans in your calendar, at least to be with us at our 2026 convention in Austin, Texas, from July 3 to July 8. So as you're thinking ahead, starting to save some money, starting to plan your summer next year, please keep in mind the importance of having you at our national convention in Austin, Texas.
Now, I do have a couple of other items to raise for our chapters this month, and the first of those is, again, looking ahead and preparing. We want to prepare for Blind Equality Achievement Month, which the National Federation of the Blind celebrates every October.
Chapters across the country take this opportunity to put together outreach events, celebrations, interesting activities to help change the image of blindness throughout our local communities in a positive way.
We would like you to submit your events and celebrations to [email protected], [email protected], so that we can post them to our Blind Equality Achievement Month website, which is found at nfb.org/blind-month.
And this is an opportunity to remind you that you should please use the term Blind Equality Achievement Month or Blind Month or #blindmonth when referring to our work during October and posting about it in social media.
I would love to have an event listed for every single chapter in the Federation, an event of some sort. I think it's an achievable goal, so I encourage every chapter to put some energy now while we still have a couple of months to plan some sort of outreach event for Blind Equality Achievement Month 2025.
And then make sure you let us know about it so we can post about it, support it, and help build the momentum of the Federation.
Now, there are some immediate things though that we can do, especially related to our legislative advocacy. Now, we have a whole list of bills that we've talked about on these releases before, and I'm sure you all have already done work on them.
Many of you have already gotten co-sponsors for them, but we have some more new ones that are coming back and we have a good shot at getting these passed in the Congress.
Really excited that the Transformation to Competitive Integrated Employment Act was introduced in Congress on Thursday, July 24th. Senators Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, Steve Daines of Montana, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, that's two Rs and two Ds, as they say, so bipartisan support, introduced S-2438.
This is the Transformation to Competitive Integrated Employment Act. Then on the following day, Friday, July 25th, representative Bobby Scott of Virginia and Pete Sessions of Texas, again bipartisan, introduced a companion bill in the House, HR 4771.
This bill, as you will remember, is the same as it's been in the past. It will forever eliminate in federal law the potential of paying people with disabilities less than the guaranteed federal minimum wage, and it puts together a plan to transition to that and puts supports together to make that happen.
This is really important legislation. Some of our affiliates have already passed state-level legislation to outlaw subminimum wage payments, so this is consistent with state law, and this needs to happen on a federal basis.
It will help in so many areas including sending the message that people with disabilities simply deserve the same pay as everyone else, is a great item to work on. You've worked on it before. I think we've got a really good chance of passing it and just a kudos again to our members in Texas.
Pete Sessions, I do believe, has officially supported every single bill of the National Federation of the Blind during this congressional term, so thank you Texas for building a very strong relationship there. And I encourage our chapters and affiliates to do the same with your members of Congress.
Now, there is another issue though that you can bring to members of Congress. On Tuesday, July 22nd, we sent a letter to all members of Congress urging them to make permanent the Medicare telehealth benefits. You recall that earlier this year, we advocated to get those made permanent and they weren't made permanent, but they were extended through September 30th of this year.
So, we now need to go back and encourage them again to make those benefits permanent. They benefit us as blind people, but they benefit all sorts of Americans and the healthcare industry appreciates it. It provides better service to people living in rural areas and certainly to us as blind people.
This letter is a result of resolution 2507 that was passed at our national convention, so it is a priority that the national convention has set. We do have a short timeline on this because those benefits will expire at the end of September, so now is the key time to talk to members of Congress about including that in the work they're going to be doing in the month of September when they come back from their recess.
So coming right out of convention, we have a lot of work to do, and I encourage you in and amongst your summer vacations since you're here at a chapter meeting anyway, take the opportunity to talk to members of Congress, do some advocacy while they're in their local communities.
Now, I do have a few Federation family notes to share with you here on this release. The first comes from Massachusetts where we learned of the passing of Annette Davis Harris, who is a member of the National Federation of the Blind of Massachusetts Springfield chapter. She passed away on May 25th.
Annette was a dedicated member of the Greater Springfield chapter and made many contributions to the chapter and the affiliate since the early 1990s. Her service does include many areas, but she might be best known in the local area for helping to spark the development of a craft event that still is thriving there in the chapter even today.
She was active in the affiliate and at the most recent affiliate convention, and she will be sorely missed in the affiliate, so please keep her and her friends and family in your thoughts and prayers.
From Ohio, Carolyn Peters tells us of the passing of Reverend Charles Holmes was a member of the NFB of Ohio's Miami Valley chapter. He passed away on May 20th. He was 90 years old and had been a member of the chapter for a number of years.
From California during our national convention, I actually shared with the convention the passing of Sassy Outwater-Wright on July 12th. Sassy was a dedicated blind advocate in many areas of life, and she was a more recent member, active member, of the National Federation of the Blind, having joined in the last five or six years. Sassy was very active in digital accessibility work with the Federation and helped out with some of our national committees.
She was known all over the country as being a strong advocate and helped many individual blind people, especially working on innovative approaches to getting blind people training through service agencies.
I urge you to keep her partner, longtime Federation member Brian Bashin, in your thoughts and prayers and the many friends that she had across the organized blind movement.
From Colorado, it is with a heavy heart that Lisa Bonderson tells us of the passing of a longtime dedicated volunteer for the NFB of Colorado, Karen Rogers, on June 10th. Lisa tells us that they called her Neighbor Karen because she was Lisa's neighbor since sometime in the 1990s, and she was very active in helping with affiliate matters and helping with the NFB of Colorado Bingo, along with her partner Teddy, and with helping Lisa with logistics for the state convention for more than a decade.
Lisa tells us that most members, if not all members in the NFB of Colorado and including national leaders who visited Colorado, interacted with Karen at some time during the past 30 years. So please keep Karen, her friends and family in your thoughts and prayers.
And also from Colorado the day after the convention, on July 14th, we received the sad news from Julie and Bob Hunter of the passing of their daughter, Lauren Hunter, who was also known recently by her married name, Doula Jarboe.
She was born with Alstrom's syndrome, which is an insidious condition that over the course of Doula's 48 years caused the loss of her vision, her hearing her, kidney function, and finally her ability to breathe.
Both Bob and Julie wish to express great appreciation for the Colorado Center for the Blind and the National Federation of the Blind in giving Doula the strength and independence skills to live the life she wanted. Even with this difficult chronic condition.
We ask that you keep Doula's husband Wesley and of course her parents, Julie and Bob, long-time members of the National Federation of the Blind of Colorado in your thoughts and prayers. And I would also add that Doula, amongst other things, was very active in our deaf-blind division and was very passionate about getting individuals with additional disabilities into the organized blind movement.
From Montana, Jim Marks shares the sad news that long-time Federationist Bruce Breslauer passed away earlier in July. Bruce was a significant contributor to the NFB of Montana. He had been dealing with aggressive cancer treatments and that resulted in a stroke, which ultimately took his life.
We would ask that you please keep his wife, Joy Breslauer, who is currently serving as the first vice president of our Montana affiliate in your thoughts and prayers, as well as Bruce's family and friends in the Federation.
This brings me to the end of our release for August, and I have to say that it is truly incredible that our movement does not slow down even after a very busy and dynamic national convention. I have been enjoying many social media posts and emails from folks who are undertaking Federation work and creating awareness even as they're on vacation, meeting blind people on the beach and that sort of thing.
So the work of our movement and the connections we make definitely continue wherever we are. Please take a moment to work on some of our legislative initiatives, especially those that are going to be critical in September.
As we come to the end of this release and I give you some of the customary endings, I do want to remind you that you are welcome and invited and requested to submit customary endings.
I would love in fact, to have chapters submit customary endings in the form of recordings from the chapter. We usually put about three customary endings on the release.
We'd love to receive those from you, not just from young folks in the chapter, although the young folks are always great to have on the release.
And I also want to note that after the customary endings, we are going to put for consideration the trailer, which I announced in the presidential report at the convention, the trailer for the New Walking Alone and Marching Together podcast.
So if you missed that, you may want to play it for the chapter. It's three minutes and twenty-four seconds, and it introduces a podcast that we will be releasing starting later this fall to help folks get familiar with the history and work of our movement from 1940 to 1990.
Now, here are some of the customary endings. Where do sheep go on vacation? Well, to The Bahhamas, of course, and in keeping with our theme at the banquet this year, what do you get when you cross an elephant with a fish?
Well, swimming trunks of course. Which reminds me, did you hear about the dog? Who wears a swimsuit? Well, apparently it looks very fetching. Let's go build the National Federation of the Blind.
Speaker 1:
The preceding message was brought to you by Mark Riccobono, President, National Federation of the Blind, 40659-9314. [email protected]. Follow President Riccobono on Mastodon, just search for at [email protected]. Let's go build the National Federation of the Blind.
Speaker 3:
There is no lack of books about blindness and the blind. They are about evenly divided in number between what might be called the generic and the personal. What has been lacking is the history of what blind people have done for themselves, what they have accomplished together, what they have thought and felt, and said, and aspired to be and do. This book seeks to correct that omission and to provide that history to relate the story never told.
Speaker 4:
Walking Alone and Marching Together is a podcast series that brings to life the history of the National Federation of the Blind from 1940 to 1990, based on the comprehensive book of the same name. This podcast is designed to make the rich and complex story of our movement more accessible, engaging and immediate.
Speaker 5:
The book Walking Alone and Marching Together has been available in nearly every format imaginable, but its sheer size and depth can make it daunting to approach. That's why we're bringing it to you in a multi-episode podcast, breaking it down into manageable, compelling chapters, that allow you to experience the history in a way that fits into your life.
Instead of simply looking back on events that happened decades ago, our goal is to immerse you in the times, challenges and triumphs of the organized blind movement as they unfolded.
Speaker 4:
Where recordings exist, you will hear the original voices of those who shaped our history. When no such recordings are available, our skilled narrator brings the material to life ensuring that speeches, debates, and pivotal moments are delivered with the energy and significance they deserve.
Throughout this series, you will hear from leaders, advocates, and every day Federationists who shaped the course of blind people's rights and opportunities.
Speaker 5:
We invite you to join us as we explore the victories, setbacks, and defining moments of the National Federation of the Blind. What was true then is still true today. Everyday blind people come together to decide for themselves how to raise expectations in society and create new opportunities.
This means that the blind people of the time had to make difficult decisions about priorities based on the resources available and the circumstances of the society in which they lived.
Through these episodes, we hope to not only share history, but to remind all of us of its continued relevance in shaping our future. The circumstances have changed for the better because of the collective work of blind people. History is a wise teacher for what needs to be considered in the present and the future.
Speaker 4:
We want you, our audience, not to be readers, but to fill the chairs in the rooms where it happened and to be part of the shock, the applause and the feeling of accomplishment and commitment that have kept us together since the beginning.
Speaker 6:
We are the blind and we have bonded together. We have built the legacy of hope. We have learned our value, and we will not give it back. Let us shine our value. Let us live the lives we want, and let us go build the National Federation of the Blind.
Speaker 4:
Episodes are coming out fall of 2025. Subscribe and follow now.
Speaker 7:
National Federation of the Blind. Live the life you want.