Our Mission
The mission of the Disability Awareness Council is to identify barriers to people with disabilities and create change. By doing this, the council enables individuals to exercise their human rights and ensures all people with disabilities are fully integrated into their communities.
Some of the services the council provides:
- Assess public facilities to promote improved accessibility for people with disabilities.
- Teach individuals about their rights under the American with Disabilities Act.
- Inform business and agencies of their responsibilities under the ADA.
- Hold information sessions and classes on disability awareness and access issues.
Our mission is to raise awareness levels regarding all aspects of disability - whether permanent or temporary conditions. We hope to dispel stereotypes and to assist individuals in assimilating and integrating into society as people, free from restrictive labels that often identify them as the disability itself.
Individuals with disabilities are not liabilities or lawsuits waiting to happen. They are not a drain on resources, but are vital, contributing members of society who are eager to participate. At one point or another, everyone requires assistance of some kind.
The council believes that a person's limitations only reach as far as the imagination. Impediments imposed by society are often harsher than the disability itself. Misconceptions can lead to barriers in social, employment or other settings. Often, breaking down attitudinal barriers is more difficult than overcoming architectural ones.
However, once physical obstacles topple, behaviors regularly follow. The disabled person is a model of the idea that all people are essentially the same. He or she may not speak, see, hear, or walk "like everyone else." However, there is a beating heart and a thinking mind inside everyone.