AAPD Honors Disability Rights Activists
March 7, 2005

An AAPD Press Release:

THIS WEEK, AAPD TO HONOR DISABILITY RIGHTS ACTIVISTS AT AAPD LEADERSHIP GALA IN WASHINGTON, DC

Remarks to be Given by Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta and White House Chief of Staff Andy Card

(Washington DC) March 7, 2005 -- The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) will hold its fourth- annual AAPD Leadership Gala on Wednesday, March 9, 2005 at the Capital Hilton (16th and K Streets, Northwest) in Washington, DC. Several extraordinary disability rights activists will be honored: recipients of the Paul G. Hearne/AAPD Leadership Awards, Henry B. Betts Award, and Linda Chavez-Thompson Award.

In addition to the awards ceremony, White House Chief of Staff Andy Card and Secretary of Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta will deliver keynote remarks. A host of Congressional leadership will also participate in the program. The Honorable Tony Coelho will serve as Master of Ceremonies.

This year's Henry B. Betts Award recipient is Paul Longmore, Ph.D., an internationally-recognized disability rights activist, historian, and spokesperson for the rights of people with disabilities. He is a major founder of the field of disability studies, an interdisciplinary field that studies social, political, economic and cultural aspects of disability and calls for the translation of those insights into public policy; he helped to establish and now directs the Institute on Disability Studies at San Francisco State University. This award is named in honor of Henry B. Betts, M.D., a pioneer in the field of rehabilitation medicine and AAPD Board member who started his career with the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago in 1964 and has devoted himself to improving the quality of life for people with disabilities. The award annually honors, acknowledges and supports the work of an individual who during the course of his or her career has made extraordinary contributions to the quality of life of people with disabilities.

The Paul G. Hearne/AAPD Leadership Awards will be presented to three emerging leaders of the disability rights movement. Berhanu Joffe Deboch is a political refugee from Ethiopia who organized disability advocacy groups while living in camps in Kenya and Mozambique, and now works to break down the barriers faced by refugees with disabilities and all people with disabilities in this country. Alan Muir works to improve career opportunities for college students with disabilities and ensure they get adequate preparation and training, and promotes to employers and organizations the idea of improving career employment prospects for students with disabilities; he co-founded and is Executive Director of Career Opportunities for Students with Disabilities (COSD). Elise Roy, who was recently appointed to serve as a representative for the United Nations Disability Caucus, is an emerging leader among young Deaf lawyers in America, and a tireless advocate working to increase awareness of the importance of ensuring recreational and athletic opportunities for people with disabilities. This program was established in 1999 to recognize and carry on the work of Paul G. Hearne, a renowned leader in the national disability community and AAPD's founder; it seeks to cultivate potential leaders to carry on the disability movement.

This year's Linda Chavez-Thompson Award will be presented to Richard Womack, Assistant to the President of the AFL- CIO, who has been a strong and consistent voice for disability rights and empowerment within the labor movement. This award annually recognizes an individual from within the labor movement who has demonstrated extraordinary leadership in including people with disabilities and their families as part of the labor movement and the U.S. workforce.

AAPD is the largest cross-disability membership organization in the country, with more than 100,000 members. AAPD is dedicated to promoting the economic and political empowerment of all people living with disabilities in the U.S. AAPD was founded in 1995 by a group of cross-disability leaders to help unite the diverse community of people with disabilities, including their family, friends and supporters, and to be a national voice for change in implementing the goals of the Americans with Disabilities Act: equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic self- sufficiency.

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