Author Archives: admin

NACDD Launches #GOTVaccine Campaign Encouraging People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities to Get Vaccinated

GetOutTheVaccine.org Provides Resources on COVID-19 Vaccinations WASHINGTON – Today, the National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities (NACDD) debuted the Get Out The Vaccine website and called on people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD), their loved ones, and caregivers to learn more about the COVID-19 vaccines. On GetOutTheVaccine.org people with I/DD can find trusted…

Eunice Kennedy Shriver: a voice for Developmental Disabilities

By Renee Manfredi, Hawaii DD Council Member and Sargent Shriver International Global Messenger Women’s History Month always brings amazing women to mind.  As a woman and an individual with an Intellectual & Developmental Disability, the one woman who comes to my mind right away is Eunice Kennedy Shriver. I am not sure people realize all…

NACDD Celebrates Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month 2021

By Donna Meltzer, NACDD CEO As we mark the halfway point of Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month, The National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities (NACDD) is excited to continue to celebrate the great strides made by so many people with I/DD. Everyone wants and deserves to enjoy life, feel productive and secure. But this month,…

From ACL Blog: Celebrating our Impact During DD Awareness Month

By Alison Barkoff, Acting Administrator and Assistant Secretary for Aging Each March, Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month offers us a chance to lift up the many ways people with DD make our communities stronger and showcase the hard work of self-advocates and the DD network across the country to advance the civil rights of people with…

COVID and Me

Santa E. Perez is a published author of Sitting at Eye Level: My Life s An Advocate” and an accomplished advocate. She currently serves as Chair of the Nevada Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities 2020 has been a hard year for everyone. The word pandemic was only a word that was a far-fetched event that…

Highlighting Contributions and Moving Towards Change #DDAwareness Month

              While we as a country consider the contributions that black people have made to society as we now know it, black people, in particular, are used to hearing the same names cited year after year during Black History Month. With the reckonings that have been called for and the strides that have been made…

NACDD statement on Jewish Disability and Inclusion Month

By Donna Meltzer, NACDD CEO Each year in February, the Jewish community comes together to focus on JDAIM – Jewish Disability and Inclusion Month. In past years, this month has brought together Jewish people from across the country to Washington D.C. to learn together, share their experiences, needs and concerns for themselves or loved ones…

Why Self-Advocacy Matters – – CELEBRATING AFRICAN-AMERICAN HISTORY MONTH

By: Maxwell Barrows, Outreach Director of Green Mountain Self-Advocates I first got involved in self-advocacy when I was graduating from high school. It all began when Green Mountain Self-Advocates supported students with disabilities to come together to form a local self-advocacy group. Self-Advocacy has made me discover strengths that I was not aware of when…

“Loving my Skin” – Celebrating African-American History Month

By Shari Cooper, Advocate from Ohio Having a disability poses its challenges. Being a black woman with a disability is a whole different ball game. I learned early in life by being the youngest of six “Super Coopers” children, that for me to get my wants and needs met, I was going to have to…

Disability Community Fears Paper Ballot Mandate Will Hurt Voters with Disabilities

NACDD has joined the National Disability Rights Network and nearly twenty national disability organizations to express our concerns. Today, most voters in the U.S. cast their ballot by marking a paper ballot by hand or by Ballot-Marking Device (BMD), with some use of Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting machines. No paper ballot voting system today,…