Advocacy and Public Policy Overview by NIB’s Public Policy Team
I. Welcome by Anita Aaron
II. Introduction of Speakers
Rick Webster, Vice President, Public Policy
Rick Webster, vice president, public policy at National Industries for the Blind (NIB), is responsible for the organization’s efforts in advocacy and outreach to Congress on key issues impacting the employment of people who are blind. Mr. Webster seeks to harness the power of NIB associated nonprofit agencies in this work, including members of the Advocates for Leadership and Employment program, which trains employees who are blind working in NIB associated agencies to represent their agencies’ interests before the U.S. Congress and with state and local policymakers.
Mr. Webster, who joined NIB in June 2011, has served as a public policy professional for nearly 40 years, with extensive experience in advocacy, policy research, and outreach at the local, state, and federal levels, including leading grassroots lobbying and messaging campaigns. His past work includes issue areas such as labor policy, taxes, public lands, border security, and international travel facilitation at three national nonprofit organizations, as well as one local nonprofit, prior to joining NIB. His current advocacy and policy work focuses on disability employment and federal procurement.
Mr. Webster holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Hope College in Holland, Michigan, where he participated in the college’s Washington Honors Semester Program in the nation’s capital during his senior year. He served on the college’s alumni board of directors, and for over 30 years has served in multiple leadership roles at Vienna Presbyterian Church in Vienna, Virginia.
Vivian Fridas, Public Policy Specialist, Public Policy
Vivian Fridas currently works as the Public Policy Specialist at NIB. she also manages the Advocates for Leadership and Employment program. This program seeks to train blind employees of NIB associated nonprofit agencies on the public policy and advocacy process. She holds a master’s degree in government and politics with a concentration on International Relations from St. John’s University in New York. Over the past ten years, Vivian has dedicated her time working to promote, protect, advance, and advocate for the rights, participation, and full inclusion of marginalized and vulnerable groups, specifically people with disabilities. She has been a disability inclusion consultant on issues such as political participation, international development, and employment. Vivian also has expertise advocating for child protection and gender-based violence prevention and response strategies for women and girls with disabilities in humanitarian contexts and crises.
III. Advocacy and Public Policy Overview by NIB’s Public Policy Team
Vivian gave a brief overview of the NIB Advocates Program, which she has been involved with since 2020.
NIB affiliated agencies can send a staff member for training that are interested in Public Policy and Advocacy. NIB provides the staff with guidance on how to build and maintain relationships with elected officials and use them effectively over a two year period.
What advocacy is, what does it seek to accomplish, what are some good tools you can use
Advocacy is the act or process of supporting a cause and is informative.
Public policy works on the same cause or process in which we use an assortment of structures- seeking a transformative change to occur.
Advocacy finds resolutions to complex struggles that people find on a daily basis.
When you advocate you ask something of others and creating a space for public discourse.
When we take the time to become a trusted and invaluable resource to those who have the power to impact meaningful change, we can more effectively turn advocacy into public policy.
How can we as advocates educate those who are able to evoke transformative change?
Whether in DC or in Sacramento, the basic legislative systems and best practices are quite similar and the training we do for the advocates can be applied either at the federal or state levels.
California has a bicameral legislature- a State Senate and an Assembly
These houses break up the majority of the work into committees, where much of the influence has to happen on a piece of legislation to move it forward.
Knowing what committee the legislation is in is important so you know who you need to work with.
To prepare for a meeting with an elected official:
Do your homework! A little bit of background information can go a long way.
Understand their background
How do they vote on key issues?
What can you learn about their biographies?
What are they interested in?
What role do they have?
What committees are they on?
Study up on the lawmaker in advance so you are prepared to connect with them and communicate effectively with them.
Know your role and your purpose in the meeting
Are you just building a relationship or do you have a specific purpose for being there?
If you go with other people, have a plan for who is responsible for saying what.
Know your mission and your work.
Be prepared to be clear with the lawmakers why what you do matters and why they should care about it.
You do not need to memorize everything and have it word-for-word or be a subject matter expert on every little part of a bill or topic that you are discussing but, have talking points prepared so you can have an effective conversation.
Be ready for the inevitable question from the lawmakers of “What can I do for you?” or “How can I help?”
If just building a relationship, ask them to come visit your facility or come to an event.
If you are supporting legislation, be brief but direct about why it matters.
Tips for the meeting
Be considerate- get your content in but also be sure to give them plenty of time to speak and respond.
Try to determine how long the meeting will be when scheduling and confirm upon arrival.
Treat their staff members like gold
Staff members are just as important as meeting with the lawmaker. If the lawmaker is not available, do not be disappointed. Those staff will be the gatekeepers going forward and will help to create the agendas and enable follow up meetings. If a Senator or Assembly member doesn’t show, this is not a loss!
Create lasting memories that leave an impression.
While it is important to have stats and data available for the staff to take down, the real impact for the lawmakers are people sharing their personal stories. Connect with lawmakers by connecting real people and stories to the issues you are raising. Then work with the staff on the side with the data.
Take pictures of the visit if possible!
If you are asked a question at some point and you are unsure of what the response should not be. Do not make an answer up! Say you do not know and find the answer and follow up- gives you the perfect opportunity for another touch point and makes you a good reliable resource.
Always leave a meeting with the intent to follow up with a plan for next step. Share that plan with your contact to be able to build that relationship.
Invite the lawmakers and their staff to come see what you do!
When lawmakers visit you at your facility, consider having press there. It is great for them to see the good work being done in their district and being associated with it. “They live for these sorts of visits!”
Do not forget to send a follow up “thank you” after. This is a lost art and makes a big difference.
A few more tips:
Never be confrontational in a meeting with an elected official- if it takes all your effort to bite your tongue, do it.
Let your personal politics go for these meetings.
You need them a lot more than they need you.
Use your time effectively.
In a meeting, you may just have 10 minutes. Make sure they do not filibuster that meeting. It may end up being a back and forth over personal thing and it keeps them from having to make any commitments. Politicians love to talk- don’t let them not talk about why you are there.
Be on time- Be there 15-20 minutes early. It is okay if they are late. Don’t you be late! It doesn’t start things off on a good foot. If something does happen and you may be behind, contact the office to let them know the situation. It is very likely they will give you grace.
Leveraging social media
Social media platforms are great ways to work with elected officials- take advantage of social media platforms to make your message heard.
Three main to focus on are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn.
Elected officials love to use social media- promote your scheduled meeting with them and follow up after the meeting posting the photo from the visit, if possible.
Be sure to add a photo description!
Follow your members of congress or state legislature on the various social media channels.
You can find the official social media channels through their websites.
Connecting with them will let you get noticed, keeping your message fresh and alive throughout the year and not just through one fly in event or one meeting.
It is important to develop a strategy for posting content- take a moment to create a thoughtful content strategy for how often to post and to set metrics for content and growth amongst elected officials.
Tag your elected official- they love the exposure as much as you do if not more.
Use strategically placed hashtags such as #disabilityinclusion #disability #jobs.
These hashtags are more likely that you can get something to be trending.
Make sure to capitalize long hashtags for screen readers.
Make sure your posts are accessible! Closed captioning, photo descriptions, etc will make your message will be seen by the widest audience possible.
Remember to be patient and persistent. You can always build upon your advocacy efforts. Remain calm and you will have very chance to make your case heard. Change doesn’t happen overnight. Keep at it!
You are not a registered lobbyist, they do not expect you to be an expert at lobbying. Be an expert at what you do for the community. The goal is to build and maintain relationships with your policy makers. Keep in touch with their offices throughout the year. Ass them to your newsletter distribution list. Invite them to your facility. Invite them to your fundraiser. Make yourself the indispensable resource on these topics.
IV. Moderated Q&A
Advice on leave behinds
1 page front and back- shorter is better- keep them wanting more- set yourselves up to be a valuable resource-
What committees would our issues be in?
There are different committees at the state level that deal with different issues. Disability issues could be in a variety of committees, such as health, social services, transportation.
What is the best way to prepare the roles for a meeting if you have a few people in the group?
Suggestion from past experience was to have 1 person who was lead on the legislation, 1 lead on the org, 1 person lead on the personal story
Having the assigned roles is very helpful and yu also have to be prepared for things to change.
If you have only 5 minutes- really quickly summarize the work that you do- focus on the issue- leverage that “well we didn’t really have time to focus on the work that we do, please come see us!”
Be flexible about where you are going to meet, it might be 3 minutes or 2 hours- you have to have a plan B.
Be able to adapt on a dime- good idea to assign different roles to different people.
General tip to plan and rehearse but do not overprepare: this is a conversation, not a presentation. You are a voter, you are a constituent- they get elected to represent you which gives you power.
What if you need to meet with a lawmaker on a committee but are not in their district?
This can be challenging because unless they are representing you then they don’t want to meet with you- any workaround?
The easiest way is to try to find a constituent that can make the connection and bring you along.
If not, they may make an exception if you bring in a number of different regions. It might be harder to say no if you have a bigger group representing the issue, even if you do not have someone clearly from the district.
V. Current Policy Efforts and Advocacy Week
AB 1902- Bill Title: Prescription drug labels: accessibility.
Introduced by Assembly Member Alanis
The bill would require a dispenser, if a person informs a pharmacy that the person identifies as a person who is blind, visually impaired, otherwise print disabled, or limited English proficient, to provide to the person, at no additional cost, an accessible prescription label affixed to the container that meets prescribed requirements.
AB 1757 Accessibility: internet websites.
This bill would provide that statutory damages based upon the inaccessibility of an internet website if the internet website fails to provide equally effective communication or facilitate full and equal enjoyment of the entity’s goods and services to all members of the public.
AB 3193 State acquisitions of goods and services: rehabilitation services.
Assemblymember Lisa Calderon
This bill would authorize the Department of Rehabilitation to award contracts for rehabilitation services, as specified, provided that the value of the purchase is less than $25,000 and involves, among other things, assistive technology devices and services, as defined. The bill would exempt those contracts from approval and oversight by any division of the Department of General Services.
AB 2002 (SANCHEZ) Vehicles: Public Safety: Blue Envelope Program – Support
13009. (a) The Department of Motor Vehicles, in consultation with relevant stakeholders shall develop a Blue Envelope Program. The blue envelope developed in the program shall contain the following:
Printed information for the envelope’s holder regarding traffic stop safety tips.
Printed recommendations to the responding law enforcement officer with interaction techniques to help promote enhanced communication and accommodation between law enforcement and community members.
Blank area where the individual, or their emergency contact, may add additional noteworthy comments pertaining to the individual’s needs or requested accommodations.
Blank area where the individual may write down the contact information of their emergency contact person.
(b) Upon request by a person who is protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (Public Law 101-336), or a person who has a condition and may need additional accommodations with law enforcement, or a parent or other family member, legal guardian, conservator, or driver of a passenger with a disability, the department shall provide the requester a blue envelope. The blue envelope shall be designed to hold a copy of the person’s operator license, vehicle registration, and insurance card.
CAABVI’s Local Advocacy Week Planning
During the week of April 22-26th, CAABVI is encouraging members to conduct district visits with lawmakers to introduce their agencies, inform about CAABVI, and request support on CAABVI’s legislative agenda.
Meetings should start being scheduled now!
CAABVI to provide:
A list of lawmakers by county
Leave behinds on individual bills and the CAABVI information
A date for the Advocacy Week kickoff meeting
A Post-Meeting Report Form