HELLO TEXAS DEAFBLIND COALITION MEMBERS & FRIENDS!
Happy Holidays to our readers — Hayley here. This is our first of many news items to follow as we gear up for the 2023 Legislative Session! We have very exciting news to share, but let me first welcome Kris, who will be joining me this time around to rally the troops for another attempt to persuade the Texas Legislature to pass a statewide Co-Navigator services bill.
Kris is both founder and Chair of the DeafBlind Service Center of Austin, and has been involved for many years in the DeafBlind community — as both a DeafBlind constituent and advocate for DeafBlind Texans.
Secondly, we want to thank Texas Association of the Deaf board members, who have come through for our coalition again by providing invaluable lobbying support. We are excited to again work with Attorney Aaron Gregg, who this time comes with a supportive and hard working colleague: Attorney Ikenna Okoro. Moreover, the DeafBlind Service Center of Austin again has partnered with Attorney Kate Goodrich to join our advocacy efforts.
And now for our big announcement! Representative Mary González (from El Paso) has just filed essentially the same Co-Navigator services bill that she filed for our coalition two years ago. This new CN bill has been numbered HB 140. Click here to read.
As you may recall, our bill moved to within a hair’s breadth of passing two years ago, and the fact that Representative Mary González has filed a new bill—ON THE SYMBOLIC FIRST DAY OF FILING—is promising. Being filed early gives us more time for increasing awareness, beefing up our numbers, and preparing for testimony before the official start date of the next legislative session: January 10 of next year!
We hope you will follow along and support our efforts. And for those history buffs out there, we’ve posted on our website’s “Research” page a timeline titled “Advocating for Statewide Co-Navigator Services in Texas: A History.” Click here to read. We’ve also posted the revised SSP White Paper titled “Deafblind People and Support Service Providers in the 21st Century.” Click here to read. Both of these documents can be found here on our website “Research” page: texascn.org/research.
AGAIN, HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
Hayley Broadway
Co-Chair, TAD CN Legislative Sub-committee
Vice-Chair, DeafBlind Service Center of Austin
Owner, Touch Seeds, LLC
Kris Cué
Co-Chair, TAD CN Legislative Sub-committee
Chair, DeafBlind Service Center of Austin