by Dianna Oliveira

Hello everyone, I wanted to provide some important information for the 2021 Washington Seminar. This upcoming Washington Seminar will be a bit different from years past. It will be completely virtual, which has its pros. You won’t need to travel to DC, and you won’t need to worry about frantically making it from one end of the House buildings to the other between appointments. Of course, we will miss seeing our friends and socializing in person. But we hope many more of you will be able to attend this year since you can participate from home. Washington Seminar will be held February 8-11.

The National Federation of the Blind of Virginia is a powerful force advocating for blind Virginians. For 2021, we will be conducting our legislative advocacy over the Zoom platform and we will need you to commit to attending a few brief Zoom meetings with your legislators. Interestingly, virtual appointments mean you are not required to make as large of a time commitment to participate. However, it also means we need to tell legislators that we have a constituent attending or they won’t meet with us.
Here is the 3 step process:

The following guidance is required by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Gary v. Virginia Dept. of Elections (Case No. 1:20-CV860) as the result of a consent decree.

By John Bailey

Some of us were nervous. Several had canceled at the last minute because of safety concerns. In any case, we were here in Richmond, Virginia to do a very important job for the blind of Virginia and we were not going to be deterred.

Annually, the National Federation of the Blind of Virginia hosts an event called the ‘Richmond Seminar’. For this two-day event, the vision-impaired and their friends gather in the city of Richmond to advocate for the blind by scheduling meetings with our elected officials.

By Sarah Patnaude

The sun was shining; the breeze was blowing. I could hear the crashing of waves in the distance. It was a normal week spent at my childhood vacation spot: Nags Head, North Carolina. Except it wasn’t. Unlike most thirteen year olds, I couldn’t be found bogey boarding or swimming. I wasn’t playing basketball or even relaxing inside. Instead, I made the porch my fortress for the week. You see, the back porch was my practice stage.

By Sarah Patnaude

Editor’s Note: Sarah Patnaude is our affiliate’s corresponding secretary. Among other tasks, Sarah oversees our social media channels, our website, newsletter production, and promotion campaigns surrounding events like the state convention. She is a member of the Potomac Chapter and represents the chapter in the Chapter Leadership Institute. In May 2019, Sarah graduated from George Mason with a Masters in Social Work, and before leaving the halls of Academia, she wrote an article for the university newspaper that appears below with permission.

For Immediate Release

Media Contacts

American Council of the Blind: Clark Rachfal, crachfal@acb.org , 202-467-5081

disAbility Law Center of Virginia: Colleen Miller, colleen.miller@dlcv.org , (804) 225-2042

National Federation of the Blind: Chris Danielsen, cdanielsen@nfb.org , 410-262-1281