Women with Disabilities & Allies Forum Being Held This Month AAPD and NOW Foundation Collaborate
October 8, 2003

WASHINGTON, DC- This month, which is National Disability Employment Awareness Month, the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) and the National Organization for Women (NOW) Foundation are collaborating to present a joint forum on disability and women's rights. To be held October 17-19, 2003, the Women with Disabilities & Allies Forum will address issues of mutual concern to the feminist and disability rights movements.

"Now more than ever, disability rights advocates must cultivate diverse allies in our common struggle for justice, dignity, and respect for human and civil rights. AAPD is delighted to join with the NOW Foundation to bring together leading activists and organizers for an historic opportunity to reinforce and reinvigorate our combined efforts to achieve equality, empowerment, and justice for all," said AAPD President and CEO Andrew J. Imparato. The Women with Disabilities & Allies Forum begins Friday, October 17 at 7:00 p.m. and concludes Sunday, October 19 at 5:00 p.m. It will be held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Bethesda, Maryland. The Forum will be comprised of plenary sessions, workshops, facilitated panel sessions, networking groups and an "emerging leaders" panel. Topics to be covered will include health care access and end-of-life choices, women's economic empowerment, political activism and grassroots organizing, reproductive freedom, hate crimes and violence against women with disabilities, Title IX, the future of civil rights, and how to bring together the disability rights movement and feminist movement issues.

"All women-including women with disabilities-share the dream of full equality, economic and personal independence, educational and employment opportunity, reproductive freedom and full participation in society," said NOW Foundation President Kim Gandy. "Women living with disabilities face multiple forms of discrimination, making it even harder to achieve their goals. Breaking down these barriers is a long-standing priority of the NOW Foundation."

Forum speakers will include Purna Shova Chitrakar, Coordinator, Ban Landmines Campaign Nepal, and Founding Member, Youths for Peace Campaign, Nepal; three-time Paralympian Ann Cody, Chair, International Paralympic Committee's Commission for Women and Sport; internationally-acclaimed disability rights movement leader Marca Bristo, former Presidentially-appointed Chairperson of the National Council on Disability (NCD); Michele Tingling-Clemmons, founding member, National Welfare Rights Union; Kathy Martinez, a 2002 Presidential appointee to NCD; Kim Gandy, President, NOW; Andrew J. Imparato, President and CEO, AAPD.

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