FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Mariana Nork
(202) 457-0046


This Week, Administration, Disability and Business Leaders
Will Gather To Help Honor Disability Rights Activists
at AAPD Leadership Gala In Washington, DC

WASHINGTON, DC, March 4, 2007 — The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) will hold its sixth-annual AAPD Leadership Gala on Wednesday, March 7, 2007 at the Capital Hilton (16th and K Streets, Northwest) in Washington, DC. Four disability rights activists and leaders will be honored: recipients of the Paul G. Hearne/AAPD Leadership Awards, Henry B. Betts Award, and Linda Chavez-Thompson Award.

Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson and a host of Congressional leadership will also participate in the program as award presenters. Renowned journalist Judy Woodruff will serve as Mistress of Ceremonies.

This year's Henry B. Betts Award recipient is Mark Johnson, a nationally-recognized activist and community organizer, and Director of Advocacy at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, Georgia. After sustaining a spinal cord injury when he was 20 years old, Johnson dedicated himself to creating an identifiable sense of community among people with disabilities. In North Carolina, he was a counselor at the Charlotte Rehabilitation Hospital, and helped establish the Metrolina Chapter of the National Paraplegia Foundation and one of the first Title VII Independent Living Centers in the U.S. Then at Holistic Approaches to Independent Living (HAIL) in Denver, Johnson ran the Transitional Living Program and was then its Director of Advocacy; he was Colorado’s first Statewide Independence Living Coordinator. Johnson helped to create Americans Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation (ADAPT) in 1984, a grassroots-driven organization that has been an effective force for change in the national disability rights movement. He joined the Shepherd Center, recognized by U.S. News & World Report as one of the top rehabilitation hospitals in the U.S., in 1987. His vision and planning resulted in the Spirit of the ADA Torch Relay, a 10th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) celebration hosted in 24 locations around the country in 2000.

This award is named in honor of Henry B. Betts, M.D., a pioneer in the field of rehabilitation medicine who 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.

Paul G. Hearne/AAPD Leadership Awards will be presented to two emerging leaders of the disability rights movement. John Register, a Gulf War veteran and silver-medalist in the Paralympic Games, is a strong disability rights advocate who believes that participation in sports can enrich the lives of people with disabilities and change public attitudes towards the disability community. Register is Associate Director of Development and Outreach for the U.S Paralympics. He also conceived of the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) Paralympic Military Program, which shows military personnel the powerful role that sports could play in rehabilitation. TyKiah Wright is a strong disability rights advocate. She grew up with a hereditary neurological disorder that affects the lower leg and arm muscles, and uses her personal experience and her entrepreneurial skills to now help high school and college graduates with disabilities. She established WrightChoice, Inc. in Ohio, to help the graduates to strengthen their career development skills and successfully find jobs and internships.

This awards 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 emerging and future leaders to carry on the disability movement.

This year’s Linda Chavez-Thompson Award will be presented to Terry R. Stapleton, Secretary-Treasurer of the American Postal Workers Union (APWU). He also serves as the liaison for the APWU Deaf Hard of Hearing Task Force. 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 - the largest cross-disability membership organization in the country - organizes the disability community to be a powerful force for change…economically, socially, and politically. It 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.

American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD)
1629 K Street NW, Suite 503 • Washington, DC 20006
VOICE: 202-457-0046 (V/TTY) • FAX: 202-457-0473 • www.aapd.com