JAMES C. DICKSON

Jim Dickson is Vice President for Government Affairs of the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD). He leads AAPD’s nonpartisan Disability Vote Project, a broad coalition of 36 national disability-related organizations whose mission is to close the political participation gap for people with disabilities. The project focuses on voter registration and education, Get-Out-The-Vote drives, election reform and polling place access.

Jim played a central role with the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) effort to pass the Help America Vote Act (HAVA).

Prior to joining AAPD, Jim organized the campaign to place a statue of President Roosevelt in his wheelchair at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, DC. Jim has organized grassroots, multi-issue organizations in Rhode Island, Connecticut and California. With the support of the Sierra Club, he organized the first grassroots congressional mobilization for the environmental movement, which resulted in the passage of the first Clean Air Act.

In 1987, Jim became the first blind person to sail a boat alone from Rhode Island to Bermuda. His objectives were to have a good time and to stimulate public discussion on the abilities of people with disabilities.

Jim is a graduate of Brown University and he resides in Washington, DC with his wife and daughter.

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