DISABILITY ADVOCATES AND FEDERAL WORKERS SALUTE ADA AND IDEA ANNIVERSARIES AS NATIONAL SPIRIT OF ADA TORCH RELAY ARRIVES IN VIRGINIA

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DISABILITY ADVOCATES AND FEDERAL WORKERS SALUTE ADA AND IDEA ANNIVERSARIES AS NATIONAL SPIRIT OF ADA TORCH RELAY ARRIVES IN VIRGINIA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Doris M. Ray, ECNV Advocacy Coordinator
703-525-3268 (day) / 703-671-7673 (eves)
Sunday, July 23, 2000

ARLINGTON, VA -- U.S. Department of Education Assistant Secretary Judith E. Heumann will pass the Spirit of ADA Torch to young people and federal employees with disabilities in a ceremony at the ENDependence Center of Northern Virginia (ECNV) on Tuesday morning, July 25, 2000 at 9 a.m. The "Spirit of ADA" Torch, which was first lit on the Alaskan North Shore ten years ago, is making a tour of 24 U.S. cities en route to the United Nations in New York to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the signing of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), and the 25th anniversary of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Arlington County Board Chair Barbara A. Favola and other local elected officials will join Heumann, federal employees, and over 200 children and adults with disabilities from throughout Northern Virginia in welcoming the Torch to the Washington D.C. metropolitan area for a two-day national celebration marking the ADA 10th anniversary.

The passing of the Spirit of ADA Torch is symbolic for ECNV, a center for independent living (CIL) committed to empowerment of individuals who have disabilities. One of over 400 CILs in the U.S., ECNV is a consumer-run, consumer-controlled, community resource and advocacy center that provides peer counseling, independent living skills training, information and referral, and advocacy services to individuals with all types of disabilities who reside in Arlington, Fairfax, and Loudoun Counties and the Cities of Alexandria, Fairfax and Falls Church. Last year ECNV moved into a newly-renovated, fully accessible, street level storefront space that includes a resource library, adapted computer workstations, a conference room equipped with assisted listening, and model kitchen and bath facilities that demonstrate how assistive technology can enhance an individual's independence. Tours of ECNV's state-of-the-art facility will highlight the role that universal design plays in ensuring that the promise of integration and full inclusion engendered in ADA and IDEA become reality.

An outgrowth of the self-help and disability civil rights movements, CILs were created and are run by persons with disabilities. Ms. Heumann was deputy director of the first CIL in Berkeley, California. "We are thrilled that the ADA Torch is arriving in Arlington at ECNV, a leader in the civil rights movement for individuals with disabilities," Heumann said. "The Torch symbolizes the hope and progress in the struggle people with disabilities are continuing to pursue to attain our civil rights."

Ms. Heumann, who uses a wheelchair, has been instrumental in raising awareness of independent living issues and assisted in the drafting of the ADA. Through her leadership as Assistant Secretary for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), she works to ensure integration and full inclusion for children and adults with disabilities.

"ECNV is honored to be selected as a kick-off site for the D.C. celebrations of these civil rights milestone anniversaries," says Michael J. Cooper, ECNV Executive Director. "We acknowledge not only the progress that disability rights advocates, like Judy Heumann and others, have forged to date, but the additional promise that our young leaders in the disability community bring toward a future of real, equal access and full inclusion."

Leaving ECNV at 9:30 a.m., young people and adults who have disabilities will carry the Torch down Clarendon and Wilson Boulevards to Rosslyn and cross Memorial Bridge at 11 a.m. to meet a similar group from the District and Maryland. Together they will proceed to the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial to join a ceremony to celebrate the heroes of the disability rights movement whose efforts secured enactment of the ADA. Celebrations at which the Torch is featured will continue in the D.C. area through July 26, the actual anniversary of the ADA signing. Then the Torch leaves to continue its nationwide tour.