GCDD Blog

Department of Justice vs Georgia: Where Are We Now?

It all started with a mom who just wanted to go home. That legal case centered around a Pennsylvania woman who sued under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to get the support she needed to move out of a nursing home and back into her community. Under Helen L. vs DiDario (1995), it was...

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Expert Update: Change is A Movement

This is an excerpt from Claudia Gordon’s keynote address given at the ADA25 Georgia Legacy Parade held on June 13, 2015 in Downtown Atlanta. Watch the entire speech in the video below. Friends, we gather together to celebrate a law that truly transformed how our society views, treats and...

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Georgia Celebrates the ADA 25th Anniversary

“Rosa [Parks] wanted to ride in the front of the bus. We wanted to get on the bus.” Perched in a tree’s shade from Atlanta’s summer sun, Mark Johnson, director of advocacy at the Shepherd Center, called those words into a microphone evoking the Civil Rights icon that helped end racial...

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The Fight for 41 Children

They came together at the Atlanta Community Food Bank for the Children’s Freedom Initiative: A 10-Year Celebration and Call to Action event honoring the coalition’s work over 10 years, but also to remind everyone that there is still more work to be done – specifically for those 41 children who...

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Eric's Excellent ADA Adventure

Eric's Excellent ADA Adventure
It began on May 11 with a double rainbow casting over the Tennessee mountains and ending with a triumphant return to Atlanta on a Friday afternoon, May 15th. Little did I know six months ago when Mark Johnson, the chair of The ADA Legacy Project, asked me if I would be interested in going on the...

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Around GCDD: Council Member Selected for Leadership Academy

Brenda Munoz, GCDD Council Member and parent advocate, was selected as one of thirty out of a hundred applicants to receive a full scholarship to attend the Leadership Academy in Santa Fe, New Mexico on June 22-25, 2015.Hosted by The Georgetown University National Center for Cultural Competence,...

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Around GCDD: Eric Jacobson Appointed to MARTA Board

Eric Jacobson, executive director of the Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities (GCDD), has been recently appointed to the Board of Directors of the Metro Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, or MARTA. The city’s mass transportation system also provides MARTA Mobility, the paratransit service...

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Viewpoint: A Time for Solidarity

Happy Anniversary, ADA. On July 26, we will celebrate the 25th anniversary of passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the most important piece of legislation for people with disabilities. It is your civil rights legislation and your movement for equality. While the fight must continue,...

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Eric's Excellent ADA Adventure

Eric's Excellent ADA Adventure
by Eric Jacobson It began on May 11 with a double rainbow casting over the Tennessee mountains and ending with a triumphant return to Atlanta on a Friday afternoon, May 15th. Little did I know six months ago when Mark Johnson, the chair of The ADA Legacy Project, asked me if I would be...

Continue Reading