The Road To Freedom
Keeping the Promise of the Americans with Disabilities Act
On Tour November 15, 2006 – November, 2007
On November 15, 2006, the Road To Freedom – a yearlong, cross-country “bus” journey and multimedia exhibit of the ADA and disability history, disability community and accessible technology – will be launched from Washington, DC and stop in all 50 states.
Our mission is to bring mainstream attention to what it means to be living with a disability in America today and to the ongoing struggle for equal access to healthcare, transportation, education, employment and more. We hope to inform and inspire America about the compelling history of disability rights and what remains to be accomplished to fulfill the promise of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
The Promise
By signing the Americans with Disabilities Act America promised to protect the rights of people with disabilities; we promised to give people with disabilities full access to the American Dream; we promised to help people with disabilities shed the stereotype as America’s “forgotten population.” But America has not yet delivered on the full potential and promise of the ADA.
The evidence of a dream delayed can be found in the steady unemployment rates of people with disabilities able and willing to work and the disproportionately high rate of poverty among people with disabilities.
Most people remain unaware of the compelling history of disability rights in America.
Even fewer may be aware that – following a string of setbacks in the Courts – people with physical, mental, cognitive and developmental disabilities, along with family members, advocates and policymakers, are having to reclaim the civil rights protections once thought secure under the greatest accomplishment of the disability rights struggle: the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
In response, our growing coalition of disability, civil rights and social justice organizations – with support from business leaders and policymakers – have united in the production of this national awareness campaign, traveling history exhibit and year long, cross-country bus tour to promote and strengthen the call for the most basic freedoms: access to public buildings, the opportunity to live independently, and the chance to work to support one’s self and one’s families.
The Tour
The tour stops will feature personal testimonials; a display of the disability “civil rights movement” in America featuring narrative, photographs and artifacts; two highly visible and brightly wrapped buses; and a team of experienced disability community leaders – as well as photojournalist, Tom Olin, whose images are central to our exhibit and whose work has been featured at the Smithsonian.
The Tour is being launched in alliance with our coalition partners, including Paralyzed Veterans of America, Easter Seals, Consortium of Citizens with Disabilities, National Organization on Disability, National Spinal Cord Injury Association, Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation and many others. Our Co-Chairs, Curt Decker of the National Disability Rights Network and Nancy Starnes of the National Organization on Disability, lead a Board of Directors with representatives from Paralyzed Veterans of America, AARP, National Spinal Cord Injury Association, ADAPT, Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, National Association of Rights Protection and Advocacy, Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, as well as a National Advisory Council with representatives from the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, National Council on Independent Living, American Diabetes Association, Consortium of Citizens with Disabilities, and more.
Road Tour Schedule