Virtual Hill Day: NCIL’s 2021 Annual Conference on Independent Living

Go to Rally page / view speaker videos
Go to March page / view images – and send your submissions to eleanor@ncil.org to be uploaded!

This year, NCIL’s Annual Hill Day will be on Thursday, July 22, 2021. Like the rest of the Annual Conference, it will once again be completely virtual! Here is some important information to help prepare you for this year’s Virtual Hill Day.

Legislation and Advocacy (L&A) Briefing

We encourage Conference attendees to attend NCIL’s 2021 Policy Briefing on Wednesday, July 14 from 3:00 – 4:30 p.m. Eastern. At this briefing, the Chairs of key NCIL Legislative & Advocacy (L&A) Subcommittees will discuss NCIL’s legislative priorities and Advocacy Priorities Guide. They will also provide talking points to prepare you for your virtual Hill meetings.

This event is free to all NCIL members and conference attendees. Registration is not necessary. Members and conference attendees will receive connection instructions this week. This briefing will be archived and available shortly after the event concludes.

Virtual March

To participate in this year’s Virtual March, make a homemade sign with your message on it, and send us a picture! You can use anything from poster board to a sheet of paper to an app on your phone. Just make sure any text is bold so we can read the message! Send your photo to eleanor@ncil.org with a short description (try to keep it to 30 words or less). We will have a page on the NCIL Conference website dedicated to showing off the Virtual Rally photos we receive.

Virtual Rally

This year’s Virtual Rally will be held on Thursday, July 22. We have a fantastic line-up of Members of Congress and NCIL leaders who will provide remarks to inform and energize you before you head to your Hill visits. You can tune in to the Rally at 10:00 a.m. Eastern at the NCIL Conference website or our YouTube page. To allow for the greatest amount of flexibility around your meeting schedules, the Rally video will be archived and available at both websites all day. ASL interpretation and CART will be provided.

Planning for your Virtual Hill Visits

Part of each Annual Hill Day is the Hill Visits. These are meetings with the Senators and Representative in Congress who represent you. A key part of any successful Hill Visit is planning ahead – and this is just as important for a Virtual Hill Day!

One way you can plan ahead for your Virtual Hill Day is to schedule your meetings with your Members of Congress. We recommend you contact your Senators and Representative as soon as possible to do this! Try to schedule your meetings for Thursday, July 22. When you request a meeting, tell the scheduler you are doing so as part of NCIL’s Virtual Hill Day to advocate for disability rights and independent living. This way, they will make sure to schedule you with the right person. You can meet with your Senators / Representative (or their staff) on your own or with other people from your state. (Please note: you do not have to attend the conference to participate in NCIL’s Virtual Hill Day, and you are welcome to have others join you!).

Virtual Hill Visits can be a call, a Zoom meeting, or another meeting format. Requests for accommodations should be made directly to the Congressional office.

As the Virtual Hill Day approaches, we will provide more information. Conference registrants will receive additional information about how to connect and coordinate with other NCIL Conference attendees, as well as some resources to help you with your Hill visits. Stay tuned, and get ready for #NCIL2021!