Fellow Federationists:
As the snow melts and the flowers begin to bud, we have just returned home from a wildly successful state convention, where we celebrated our 60th anniversary. We have also done a tremendous amount of work advocating for issues of importance to the blind of our state at the Maryland General Assembly. Our divisions have held life-changing seminars, and our Maryland Organization of Parents of Blind Children once again hosted a ski trip for blind children and their families. And yet, we have many important events and activities in the weeks ahead. Read on for information about what is happening in the NFB of Maryland.
NFBMD Blind Cruising 2026
The National Federation of the Blind of Maryland will be cruising to Bermuda in 2026. Join us for this five-night cruise on the beautiful Royal Caribbean Vision of the Seas, which departs the Port of Baltimore on Saturday, September 5, 2026. We will have two full days in Bermuda. Balcony cabins cost $1520.84 per person assuming double occupancy, including port charges and tax. Ocean view and inside cabins are also available at the prevailing rate. A $250 deposit is required to book the cabin, and final payment is due May 15, 2026.
Supply is limited, so please make your reservations as soon as possible.
To make your deposit for a balcony cabin, or to request pricing for ocean view and inside cabins, please contact our travel agent, Cindy Kiper, at ckiper@dreamvacations.com or at 813-418-0647.
Thank You for Flying Your Own Life!
Thank you to each of you who attended the 60th annual NFB of Maryland State Convention. Together, we were able to demonstrate that we are “Pilots of Progress,” and with 60 strong years behind us, we’re “Soaring to New Horizons.” I am immensely grateful to each of you who played a role, from running a workshop or seminar, to coordinating the Exhibit Hall and soliciting sponsors, to providing door prizes and auction items, to running sound and streaming, to organizing seminars, to speaking to the convention, to working childcare, to engaging social media, to leading a very energetic opening ceremony, to hosting hospitality, to staffing the PAC and Registration Tables, to managing door prizes and the auctions, to baking for the Fire Sale, to selling, buying, and delivering Love Notes, to selling candy, nuts, cell phone carriers, and more, to participating in Pizza and a Play and Crab Idol, and on and on and on. you can see, it takes a myriad of people to put on a convention, especially one as big and energetic as ours. Please visit our website, https://nfbmd.org, in the coming weeks to find the 2026 resolutions and some key highlights such as many important moments you’ll want to revisit.
Basket and Bag Bingo is Coming!
Would you like to win over $4,000 in prizes? Would you like to play 23 games of BINGO? Snacks and raffles will also be available. Join us at NFBMD Spring Basket and Bag Bingo, hosted by the Central Maryland Chapter, on March 13, 2025 in Catonsville. Buy your tickets early.
Prizes will feature baskets and bags from designer brands. We need financial contributions to help with these purchases. Please let us know whether you would like to sponsor a basket or bag for $200. All contributions of any amount are welcome.
You may also purchase your ticket for $30 before March 13 and for $40 on March 13 if tickets are available. Please find information on how to purchase your ticket by visiting https://nfbmd.org/bingo.
Annapolis Advocacy Continues!
We continue to advocate for our legislative priorities at the Maryland General Assembly. We attended four hearings where our members testified before the General Assembly about our primary legislative priorities, and we will testify at least two more times in the coming days. We have also testified orally on another 14 bills so far this legislative session. We have also provided written testimony to another more than 100 bills and signed on with the Maryland Cross Disability Coalition and the Maryland Education Advocacy Coalition to provide our support or opposition to another roughly 60 bills. These cover areas including access to information, education, housing, transportation, health care, voting, commerce, and employment.
On February 25, we testified on HB1027 and SB0901, our legislation to ensure access to an accessible telephone absentee voting process.
On February 25, 2026, we also testified on HB1066 and SB0727, our legislation to ensure that local governments and municipalities have the ability, should they choose, to use end-to-end encrypted, secure, and accessible voting via a mobile application. This would give us access, often for the first time, to accessible and independent voting in local and municipal elections such as those for mayor, city council, and school board.
On March 4 and 5, 2026, we will testify on SB0909 and HB1295, which will permit autonomous vehicles to come to Maryland so that we can have the opportunity to move about our communities independently and without suffering the constant discrimination many of us experience at the hands of rideshare services due to our blindness.
We have also testified about library funding, the need to ensure AI tools are accessible in schools, preserving privacy and dignity for students who need mobile devices in schools due to their disabilities, protecting blind voters from ID and signature requirements that will disproportionately impact the blind and disabled, ensuring schools inform parents when special education services are missed, protecting the blind when it comes to bicycle lanes, Paratransit and MTA fixed bus routes, deaf-blind services, implementing privacy and chain of custody requirements for curbside voting, pedestrian protection, prohibiting ads from being louder than programming for streaming services, bus stop violation enforcement, paying para-educators appropriately, ensuring special education para-educators and other support personnel are appropriately background checked, protecting blind merchant priority in the state’s business enterprise programs, ensuring that individuals with disabilities can access recreational, boating, and other opportunities free from discrimination, and many more.
The Maryland legislature is extremely busy this year with a tremendous number of bills. In order to make sure that our delegates and senators know our matters are critical to us, we need to contact them to tell them to support our initiatives. Our State Legislation Committee is hard at work leading this effort, including holding workshops and office hours to help members with our 2026 legislative letter writing campaign. If you’d like assistance writing letters to urge the General Assembly to support our legislative priorities, please email Annapolis@nfbmd.org.
Get ready for Austin in 2026!
The NFB 2026 National Convention will take place from July 3 – 8, 2026 in Austin, Texas. The JW Marriott Austin Hotel will be the primary location and host all convention meetings and seminars, while the Austin Marriott Downtown will serve as our overflow hotel. Both hotels will offer a nightly convention rate of $139 per night for singles and doubles and $155 for triples and quads, plus a tourism fee and taxes of 19%. You can begin making your reservations on January 1, 2026 with a reservation deadline of May 31, 2026.
Convention pre-registration opened March 1 and will close May 31, 2026.
First time national convention attendees may apply for the Kenneth Jernigan Scholarship, which is a grant the NFB provides to people who have not attended a national convention in person previously. The deadline is April 15, 2026. Visit this link for more information on how to apply. https://nfb.org/get-involved/national-convention/kenneth-jernigan-convention-scholarship
Those from Maryland who are seeking financial assistance should speak with their chapter president to find out what assistance their local chapter may have available. The affiliate’s Financial Assistance Application Form is now live and must be submitted by March 31, 2026. Please note that though the Financial Assistance Committee will give due consideration to every application, the affiliate has limited resources and is unable to grant every request. Priority will be given to those who have not attended a national convention in the past and to students. Initials must both pre-register for the national convention and get a letter of support from their local chapter president in order to be eligible for NFBMD financial assistance. For questions about the Financial Assistance Application Program, please reach out to your chapter president or me at President@nfbmd.org. Applications for financial assistance may be completed here.
We hope to see you in Austin!
NFB STEM2U: Solve the Mystery! Science Experience for Blind and Low Vision Maryland Students
Join the NFB of Maryland for an exciting day of investigation and discovery on April 18 at the National Federation of the Blind in Baltimore. This year, blind and low-vision students will become forensic scientists.
Using accessible, nonvisual tools and techniques, participants will analyze clues, solve challenges, and uncover the truth through hands-on forensic experiments. Every activity builds confidence and shows how science can be accessible, engaging, and exciting for everyone. This opportunity offers your child blind role models, accessible experiments and hands-on nonvisual skills instruction.
Register for NFB STEM2U.
This program will be held from 8 am to 3 pm and is free to all registered blind and low-vision youth (K-12). Lunch and snacks will be provided and a concurrent parent seminar will take place for parents to attend. Contact Erin Zobell at 760-382-9466 or by email at erin.zobell@gmail.com for more information.
Pay Your 2026 Dues!
NFBMD maintains an online portal for individuals to pay their chapter and division dues. We are asking members to pay their 2026 dues by December 31, 2025 so we can ensure that our rolls are accurate for State Convention voting.
Individuals may use NFBMD’s Dues Portal to pay their 2026 annual dues and/or lifetime membership dues for those chapters that have lifetime membership. The portal lists all NFBMD chapters and divisions and their dues amounts. Individuals may pay for as many chapters and divisions as they wish. The portal is located at http://nfbmd.org/dues. Alternatively, individuals may mail a check to their chapter or division treasurer.
Individuals may also pay their chapter dues at the Membership Table at the State Convention, but we strongly encourage individuals to pay dues prior to convention.
Please note that those paying via the online portal will incur a small processing fee.
NFB and NFBMD Scholarship Programs
The National Federation of the Blind and the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland each administer a separate scholarship program for post-secondary students. The deadline to apply for both scholarship programs is March 31, 2026.
National Scholarship Program: Each year, the NFB awards 30 merit-based scholarships totaling $300,000.
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Each scholarship recipient will receive $10,000 and additional prizes.
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Scholarships are awarded based on academic achievement, leadership, and community service.
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The 30 scholarship finalists are announced in the spring and attend the NFB National Convention, where they are mentored by blind role models.
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Application materials must be submitted (online or postmarked) by 11:59PM on March 31, 2026.
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To be eligible, applicants must:
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Be legally blind in both eyes;
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Reside in the United States, the District of Columbia, or Puerto Rico;
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Be pursuing or planning to pursue a full-time, post-secondary course of study in a degree program at a U.S. institution in the Fall of 2026 (a few scholarships may be awarded to an individual who attends school part-time with certain parameters);
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Be age 18 before July 3, 2026; and
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Attend the entire National Convention of the National Federation of the Blind (and all scholarship activities) in Austin, Texas from July 3 through 8, 2026 (scholarship finalists will receive convention grants).
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To apply, submit an application using the online application system at https://scholarships.nfb.org/.
State Scholarship Program: The NFB of Maryland will award up to four scholarships of $4,000 each as part of the John T. McCraw Scholarship Program. NFBMD may award a scholarship to a former McCraw scholarship recipient.
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Scholarships are merit-based and awarded based on academic achievement, community involvement, and leadership.
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Application materials must be submitted (online only) by 11:59PM on March 31, 2026.
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To be eligible, applicants must:
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Be legally blind in both eyes;
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reside in Maryland or be pursuing post-secondary studies at a school in Maryland;
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be age 18 prior to July 3, 2026;
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Be pursuing or planning to pursue a full-time or part-time, post-secondary course of study in a degree program in the Fall of 2026 and Spring of 2027 (priority will be given to full-time students); and
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Attend the entire National Convention of the National Federation of the Blind in Austin, Texas from July 3 through 8, 2026 and the annual convention of the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland in Maryland in February 2027 (scholarship finalists will receive convention grants).
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To apply, submit an application using the online application system at http://nfbmd.org/scholarship/apply.
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do You Feel Lucky?
The NFBMD spring raffle is beginning. During the month of May, you have the opportunity to win $50 Sunday through Friday, or $100 on Saturday. Purchase a 3-digit number raffle ticket for $5. You will be the only one who has this number. Tickets are available from chapter presidents and affiliate Board Members. Help us sell all 1,000 tickets!
Important Upcoming Dates
- March 1, 2026 – Preregistration opens for NFB National Convention
- March 13, 2026 – Basket and Bag Bingo, Catonsville, Maryland
- March 31, 2026 – Deadline for National Scholarship Applications.
- March 31, 2026 – Deadline for NFBMD Scholarship Applications.
- March 31, 2026 – Deadline for NFBMD National Convention Financial Assistance Applications
- April 18, 2026 – NFBMD STEM2U, Baltimore, Maryland
- May 15, 2026 – Deadline to pay for Blind Cruising 2026
- May 31, 2026 – Deadline to Preregister for NFB Annual Convention, Austin, Texas
- Summer TBD, 2026 – Southern Maryland NFB BELL Academy, Southern Maryland, Maryland
- Summer TBD, 2026 – Eastern Shore NFB BELL Academy, Salisbury, Maryland
- Summer TBD, 2026 – Baltimore NFB BELL Academy, Baltimore, Maryland
- July 3 – 8, 2026 – NFB National Convention, Austin, Texas
- July 27 – August 7, 2026 – Montgomery County NFB BELL Academy, Rockville, Maryland
- August 22, 2026 – Give-A-Hoot Comedy Night Fundraiser, Gaithersburg, Maryland
- September 5 – 10, 2026 – NFBMD Cruise to Bermuda, Baltimore, Maryland
- September 18, 2026 – NFBMD Crab Feast, Rosedale, Maryland
- October 1 – 31, 2026 – Blind Equality Achievement Month
- October 15, 2026 – White Cane Awareness Day
- November 14, 2026 – NFBMD Scholarship Dinner and Auction, College Park, Maryland
- November 15, 2026 – NFBMD Winter Market, Baltimore, Maryland
- January 21, 2027 – NFBMD Day in Annapolis, Annapolis, Maryland
- TBD, 2027 – Washington Seminar Great Gathering In, Washington, DC
- TBD, 2027 – NFB of Maryland Day on the Hill, Washington, DC
- February 11 – 14, 2027 – NFBMD 2027 Convention, Pikesville, Maryland