ICYMI: Congresswoman Simon Holds Disability Roundtable with Local and National Leader, Organizing Against Republican Attacks to the Disability Community and Envisioning a More[...]

OAKLAND, CA - In case you missed it, on March 13, 2026, Congresswoman Lateefah Simon (D-CA-12) hosted a roundtable with local and national disability policy leaders at the Center for Independent Living in Berkeley, CA.

The local and national disability leaders discussed the most pressing issues facing the disability community including Republican cuts to Medicaid, threats to the care economy, transportation accessibility, attacks on non-governmental organizations, and more. The participants also strategized and developed proactive solutions for policies and a world that positions accessibility and disability justice as a primary consideration, rather than an afterthought.

Participants included: The Center for Independent Living, Disability Rights California, Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, World Institute on Disability, Disability Inclusion Fund, Hand in Hand: The Domestic Employers Network, Canary Resistance, and Bay Area Asian Deaf Association.

At the roundtable, Congresswoman Simon stated in her opening remarks:

"Since I've started my time in Congress, every single day in that Dome, my office is actively organizing based on what we are hearing from you on the ground and taking the vibrancy of who we are as a movement and intersecting our issues into every single issue that is brought on that [House] floor. It's very important for me to be an out disabled woman when we're talking about immigration or health care.

"We are the targets - disabled folks, people with intellectual or disabled disabilities, our caregivers, elderly folks. There is an administration that is hellbent on seeing us relegated in classrooms, and workspaces, and institutions. But we can win this battle."

Dr. Victor Pineda, Executive Director for the Center for Independent Living stated in his closing remarks:

"One thing that brings us together is the lived possibility of legislation that creates radical inclusion. If we can find a way to address these agency deprivations - we're being denied choices, capacity, ability to exercise our will- to transform social and public policy, to transform the disability experience to choice and empowerment and action, that changes the equation from a limitation to a possibility. We can reverse this agency deprivation to agency augmentation."

In her first year in Congress, Congresswoman Simon has introduced multiple pieces of legislation regarding disability, including the Disability and Age in Jury Service Nondiscrimination Act, the See the Board Act, and the ThinkDIFFERENTLY About Disability Employment Act which unanimously passed the House of Representatives in June 2025.

In September 2025, Congresswoman Simon also led her colleagues in demanding answers from Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer regarding the Department's failure to protect federal contractors with disabilities and demanding transparency from the Department of Labor.

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