Blindness & literacy
Braille, assistive technology, orientation and mobility, the Expanded Core Curriculum, and the presumption of competence.
Washington, D.C. · September 29–October 3, 2026
#AdvocateDad
From Western Colorado to the national table
Lived experience.
Lasting change.
Rob and Isabelle Harris are taking years of lived experience with blindness, special education, Medicaid, and transition systems directly to the people shaping national policy.
“Braille is not dead.”
Rob Harris · OSEP public remarks
Experience behind the mission
- CDE Certified IEP Facilitator
- Former President, Colorado Parents of Blind Children
- APH FamilyConnect Parent Advisor
- U.S. Department of Education Product Review Panel
The mission
Systems should work for people—not require people to become experts just to survive them.
I did not set out to become an advocate. I became one because my daughter deserved access, opportunity, and a future shaped by her abilities—not by low expectations or inaccessible systems.
Today, I bring a parent’s persistence, a systems thinker’s eye, and years of lived experience to every table where decisions about disabled people are made.
— Rob Harris, father, caregiver & advocate
The work
Advocacy grounded in real life.
From one family’s fight for access to statewide and national systems change.
Special education
Helping families navigate IEPs while pushing schools toward meaningful access, accountability, and ambitious outcomes.
Medicaid & HCBS
Centering families in decisions about home- and community-based services, caregiver supports, assessments, and public accountability.
Youth leadership
Creating room for blind and low-vision young people to build confidence, self-determination, interdependence, and their own public voice.
What we are taking to Washington
Three priorities. One standard: access must become action.
These priorities guide Rob and Isabelle’s advocacy. Delegation-wide requests will be updated as meetings are finalized.
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.
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.
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.
The Washington, D.C. delegation
We are taking the story to the people who can change the system.
Rob and Isabelle will join a small delegation of self-advocates and professionals in blindness, low vision, and deafblindness. The goal is simple: pair policy expertise with the truth of lived experience.
Washington, D.C. advocacy trip
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Our three asks
- Deliver access from day one
- Build the qualified workforce
- Share power with lived experience
The delegation is preparing meetings with national education leadership and policymakers on Capitol Hill.
Why Isabelle’s voice matters
Nothing about us without us begins by making room for us.
Isabelle is not going to Washington as a symbol. She is going as a young adult, a braille reader, an assistive-technology user, and a self-advocate whose experience should inform the decisions that shape her future.
“I would like to answer that myself.”
Assistive technology in real life
Stand with us
Lived experience belongs wherever decisions are made.
Travel is booked. The broader delegation continues building the support needed to carry this work forward.
Connect with #AdvocateDad
Let’s turn experience into action.
For advocacy connections, collaboration, speaking, or media inquiries, reach out directly.
Email RobEmail: info@AdvocateDadCO.org
LinkedIn: Rob Harris
Substack: Rob #AdvocateDad (@advocatedad)