The John R. Lewis Intersectionality Award

October 5, 2015
DREDF is proud to establish the John R. Lewis Intersectionality Award. Mr. Lewis, an icon of the civil rights movement has continually recognized that the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as disability, race, class, and gender create overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage.

Posted in ADA

The Making of the ADA – Week Two

July 19, 2015
Memories from the 10th Anniversary
This Week: Senator Tom Harkin, Arlene Mayerson, and Pat Wright
In an effort to capture the day–to–day memories of some of those who were part of this historic event, the University of San Francisco and Access Video, collaborated with DREDF during 1999 and 2000 to interview some of the people who were central to the law's passage.

Tom Harkin. ...sometimes to move a piece of legislation . Sometimes it just happens

Posted in ADA

Celebrating Kitty Cone: 1944 – 2015

March 25, 2015
Long-time DREDF champion, staffer, and former member of the board of directors, Kitty Cone died at her home in Berkeley, California on Saturday, March 21, 2015. She was 70. Kitty was closely aligned with DREDF for nearly two decades, endorsing and supporting our use of law and policy as instruments for long-term reform.

Posted in ADA

National Association of the Deaf, et. Al. v. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

February 12, 2015
DREDF and co-counsel filed a complaint against Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), on behalf of the National Association of the Deaf and four individuals to gain equal access for deaf and hard of hearing individuals to the videos that the university makes available on the Internet — including courses offered through MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW), videos on the MIT Video website, much of which lacks proper captioning. [...]

Advocates Protest San Francisco’s Potential Threat to the ADA

January 9, 2015
San Francisco has long been recognized for its leadership in disability rights. From Mayor Moscone's support of the 1977 Section 504 sit–in that led to the implementation of the Rehabilitation Act, to the Department of Public Health's commitment to persons with HIV, to its ongoing efforts to enhance accessibility in museums and other tourist destinations, San Francisco is viewed in many ways as a model of disability-friendly policies and politics.

Posted in ADA

A Matter Of Life and Death: Out-Of-The-Water Survival Craft

February 6, 2014
Your letters, and as many others as possible, are needed ASAP to the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation on an important issue that is new to many of us: that U.S. Coast Guard rules require passenger vessels to maintain survival craft that keeps the individual's body out of the water, not just afloat (think Titanic-like conditions).

It’s What We Hoped Would Happen: HEALTHCARE STORIES

January 12, 2014
It's absolutely satisfying to see DREDF's HEALTHCARE STORIES videos make their way into the hands of our primary target audiences: providers of healthcare services and medical educators. On January 24, 2014, Mary Lou Breslin will screen a selection of our HEALTHCARE STORIES at the University of California, San Francisco, one of the leading medical centers and schools in the US.

Mary Lou Breslin: 2013 Purpose Prize Fellow

November 11, 2013
"I knew going into this new career that to reverse deeply entrenched policies and attitudes would take a long time," she says. "After almost a decade of policy advocacy, research and training and collaborations, we can report some important incremental changes—and a few splendid victories."

Posted in ADA

TECHeQUITY 2013: Recalculating the Route to Equality

August 23, 2013
TECHeQUITY 2013: Recalculating the Route to Equality: Disability and technology both make us recalculate how we live our lives, and we know there's an intersection where they meet.

Posted in Uncategorized