WASHINGTON, DC- October, which is National Disability
Employment Awareness Month, the American Association of People with
Disabilities (AAPD) and the National Organization for Women (NOW) Foundation
collaborated to present a joint forum on disability and women's rights.
Held October 17-19, 2003, the Women with Disabilities & Allies Forum
addressed 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 began
Friday, October 17 at 7:00 p.m. and concluded Sunday, October 19 at
5:00 p.m. It was be held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Bethesda, Maryland.
The Forum was comprised of plenary sessions, workshops, facilitated
panel sessions, networking groups and an "emerging leaders"
panel. Topics to be covered included 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 included 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.
