AdvocateDadCO#AdvocateDad · Western Colorado

From Western Colorado to Washington

The D.C. mission

Rob and Isabelle Harris are bringing lived experience with blindness, special education, transition, rural access, and disability systems directly to national leaders.

Why we are going

Policy needs the truth only lived experience can carry.

Washington, D.C. advocacy tripSeptember 29–October 3, 2026

Rob and Isabelle will participate in a small, 12-person delegation of self-advocates and professionals in blindness, low vision, and deafblindness convened by Dr. Amy Parker and Lanya Elsa.

The delegation is preparing conversations with national education leadership, disability organizations, Colorado leaders, and policymakers on Capitol Hill. Confirmed meeting details will be added when schedules and participants are ready to be public.

Rob and Isabelle’s working priorities

Three concrete directions for change.

These priorities reflect Rob and Isabelle’s advocacy. Delegation-wide requests will be updated as the group’s shared briefing is finalized.

  1. Deliver access from day one

    Make timely Braille, accessible instructional materials, assistive technology, O&M, and Expanded Core Curriculum instruction an expectation—not an exception families must repeatedly fight to obtain.

  2. Build the qualified workforce

    Strengthen the pipeline of TVIs, COMS, interveners, and related professionals, with specific solutions for rural communities where distance and shortages compound inequity.

  3. Share power with lived experience

    Include disabled young people and families meaningfully in policy design, implementation, evaluation, and oversight—not only after decisions have already been made.

Why Isabelle’s presence matters

She is not going as a symbol.

Isabelle is going as a 19-year-old Braille reader, assistive-technology user, white-cane traveler, and self-advocate. Her daily experience contains evidence about what becomes possible when access is provided—and what is lost when systems delay, underestimate, or exclude.

Rob’s role is to connect those experiences to systems and policy without speaking over Isabelle’s own voice.

Follow the week

Help lived experience travel farther.

Take the briefing with you

One-page advocacy briefing

A concise printable summary of who Rob and Isabelle are, why they are going, and the priorities they are carrying to Washington. The same information is available in HTML on this page.

Download the PDF
Prepared for October 4

What happened in Washington—and what comes next.

After the trip, this page will document meetings held, lessons learned, commitments made, media coverage, and the follow-up work supporters can help carry forward.