When the organization started is a moot point when you consider the impact it has had on mothers, fathers, and children across Georgia over the last 40-plus years.  Everyone, including Arno, knows it started with parents from an advocacy perspective. “These parents were pretty fierce,” shares Arno, who remembers the founding parents at the Georgia State Capitol and advocating for their kids. The average statistic for people with Down Syndrome is one in 600, and Atlanta is fast growing city with a vast metro area. In serving families and caretakers from McDonough to Rome to Griffin to ...

Project SETA (Students Enhancing Their Advocacy) is preparing the next generation of leaders with developmental disabilities through the New Leaders grant from the Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities (GCDD). Project SETA is a leadership development program for current inclusive post secondary education (IPSE) students to learn about advocacy and professionalism. The project launched in 2022 with its first cohort of 11 ambassadors with representation from each of the nine Georgia IPSE programs. “When writing the grant proposal for Project SETA, we wanted to make sure we represente...

Naomi Williams (right), leader of Exceptional Living 101Life can change in an instant. From a loved one falling ill, to a natural disaster in your hometown, to a pandemic shutting down the world, emergencies can strike any time, any place, and to anyone. And, when it comes to people with disabilities, medical, situational and mental health emergencies can be even more critical and difficult to navigate. For example, a person who uses a wheelchair is more likely to experience a crisis if a building’s elevator breaks down, such as Naomi Williams’ son, Noah, who uses a wheelchair. He also has ...

Maria Pinkelton, Public Relations DirectorIn late 2017, the Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities’ (GCDD) late Public Policy Director Dawn Alford had an idea to support self-advocates sharing their stories with legislators. She believed that the power of constituents’ own stories was the strongest tool in legislative advocacy work for disability rights and equal access. She wanted to create a program to capture the words and images of Georgians with disabilities at school, home, and work and share this information with their state legislators. These stories would serve as a calling ...

With the expansion of telehealth and similar methods of virtual care, many people, particularly people with disabilities, may have questions about the efficacy and availability of telehealth. A study at the Morehouse School of Medicine’s (MSM) National Center of Primary Care (NCPC) strived to answer these questions.  Led by Megan Douglas, principal investigator and director of research and policy of the NCPC; Mitchell Blount, co-project lead and associate project director of research of the NCPC; and Rasheera Dopson, research assistant, the team received a one-year grant from the Geor...

The National Leadership Consortium on Developmental Disabilities’ (NLC) mission is to equip those with a passion for disability justice with the necessary skills to become great leaders and advocates. In the past, the NLC has found success with initiatives such as establishing the UnlockGA Coalition, an advocacy network dedicated to advocating for the advancement of home and community-based services (HCBS) for individuals with developmental disabilities. Now, the NLC would like to develop and expand UnlockGA by creating today what is known as the HCBS Stronger Together Coalition. ...

The startup’s goal is to enable people with disabilities to easily rate and review businesses based on their accessibility. This helps people with disabilities and their caretakers find businesses that prioritize accessibility while encouraging others to improve their accommodations.  WheelChariot co-founder Gabriel Jones and Tori Stopford, chief marketing officer, came up with the idea of the company while doing a project for a marketing consulting class at Georgia Tech. While helping his mom take care of his grandparents, Jones previously witnessed the difficulty of businesses being...