From auburngirl2021 at gmail.com Sun Sep 6 20:03:35 2026 From: auburngirl2021 at gmail.com (Jennifer Reeves) Date: Sun, 6 Sep 2026 15:03:35 -0500 Subject: [4Alabama] NFB National Announcements from NFBAL President Maneul Message-ID: *Staff Leadership Transition:* We recently announced that Anil Lewis, executive director of Blindness Initiatives, will be retiring from his staff position to accept an executive leadership role with an agency serving blind people. We support this transition as an important opportunity for Anil to bring his experience, expertise, and Federation philosophy to this new professional chapter. Read the full announcement: National Federation of the Blind Announces Staff Leadership Transition . *Removing Barriers to Work for Disabled Americans Act, H.R. 8884:* The Removing Barriers to Work for Disabled Americans Act, H.R. 8884, was passed by the House on Thursday, July 23. This bill authorizes the Social Security Administration to conduct demonstration projects within the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program. One of those demonstration projects could be a version of the Blind Americans Return to Work Act. H.R. 8884 has been transmitted to the Senate, where it must also be passed before it is able to be signed into law by the president. Senator Eric Schmitt of Missouri, the sponsor of the Senate version of the bill, is hoping to move the already-passed House bill through the Senate via unanimous consent. In order for the bill to pass the Senate via unanimous consent, we need to get every senator on board with this legislation. For that, we need your help. Please contact the offices for both of your US senators and ask them to support the Removing Barriers to Work for Disabled Americans Act, H.R. 8884. *Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services Relocated:* In August, the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) was officially relocated to the Department of Health and Human Services. This restructuring comes as a result of the executive order to eliminate the Department of Education. From what we have learned, we believe that OSERS is being moved in its entirety. This means that there should be no reduction in programs or services offered by OSERS. While this is not the outcome we would have liked, it is also not the worst thing that could have happened in the restructuring of the Department of Education. We will continue to monitor the situation and keep you informed of any changes. *Letters to AI Companies Regarding the Accessibility of the Products Produced by their Platforms:* Over the past two weeks, we have been sending letters to the top AI companies in the country (Anthropic, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, and xAI), urging them to ensure that their AI-assisted coding tools are nonvisually accessible. We further have insisted that these companies train their AI models to produce only accessible content. These letters were sent as part of our execution strategy for Resolution 2026-16 ; the letter to Anthropic can be read in full on our Policy Statements page .