[4Alabama] NFB National Announcements from NFBAL President Maneul

[Jennifer Reeves]

*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
<https://nfb.org/about-us/press-room/national-federation-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
<https://nfb.org/resources/speeches-and-reports/resolutions/2026-resolutions#16>;
the letter to Anthropic
<https://nfb.org/programs-services/advocacy/policy-statements/letter-anthropic-regarding-their-ai-platforms>
can be read in full on our Policy Statements page
<https://nfb.org/programs-services/advocacy/policy-statements>.