The National Organization on Disability (NOD) has been working for more than 25 years to include people with disabilities in every aspect of life in America. This privately-funded group is responsible for a wide array of initiatives, including increasing voter accessibility, lobbying for access to religious worship, promoting disability employment, and conducting a public opinion survey on disability issues nationwide that has profoundly changed the lives of people with disabilities.
Disability Friendly Cities
Want to know what cities are the most disability-friendly? You’ll get a good idea by checking out the finalists in the Accessible America Competition that NOD sponsors every year. In the running for 2009 were towns with populations from 300 to over 700,000: Alexandria, VA.; Denver, CO.; Indianapolis, IN.; Louisville, KY.; New Haven, CT.; Sioux Falls, S D; and Surprise, AZ. The winner of the $25,000 award, based on its accessible programs, services and facilities for citizens and visitors alike, was Indianapolis.
Voter Accessibility
Have you gone to the polls to vote and found them to be surprisingly accessible? You may have NOD to thank. NOD has distributed more than a million cards instructing poll workers on how to assist people with disabilities at the voting booth, and provides an illustrated guide on accessibility to election officials at the state and local levels. NOD also encourages major party candidates to address disability issues during their campaigns.
ADA Advocacy
NOD representatives, including then vice-president of the organization and former Press Secretary James Brady, lobbied hard for the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Brady, who served as NOD’s chief spokesman for the ADA, became an impassioned advocate for reform after being shot during an assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan.
NOD Promotes Disability Employment
Soon after the ADA was signed into law, NOD created the CEO Council by drawing on the expertise of BusinessWeek President and Publisher Jack Patten, a NOD board member. The Council sponsored ten conferences across the U.S. to acquaint the business community with ADA regulations. Furthermore, BusinessWeek has since donated $6 million in public service announcements to emphasize that it’s ability, not disability, that counts.
Former Dartmouth dean Charles Dey directs NOD’s Start on Success (SOS) Student Internship Program insert Disaboom article URL providing paid job experience to underprivileged teens with disabilities.Through supported employment, hundreds of teenagers have stayed off welfare and become productive members of the workforce.
NOD's EmployAbility Program expands job opportunities for people with disabilities who want to work, but are unemployed. The Army Wounded Warrior (AW2) Career Demonstration Program is a collaborative effort between the Army and NOD to assist severely wounded returning veterans and their families transition back into society.
Ever wondered where the data for people with disabilities and employment, income levels, education, access to transportation and health care, and involvement in political, religious and community life comes from? Since 1990, NOD has commissioned the Lou Harris poll to record a benchmark every four years of the participation of people with disabilities in American life. This gives NOD and many other disability organizations, business leaders, legislators and government entities direction for programs and funding, as well as assisting the news media to understand and further disability issues.
NOD Gains International Clout
NOD’s Accessible Congregations Campaign has garnered the participation of more than 2,000 houses of worship in the U.S. since it was begun. On an international level, NOD’s World Committee on Disability encourages religious leaders, chiefs of state and U.N. agency heads to expand the participation of people with disabilities in religious life.
Also on the world level, NOD’s World Committee co-sponsors the $50,000 Franklin D. Roosevelt International Disability Award. Since 2001, World Committee member Kenneth Behring has added the donation of 1,000 wheelchairs to the prize.
Disability Access Improves
Since its founding in 1982, NOD has been instrumental in the implementation of practical changes like curb cuts, ramps, Braille signage and TV captioning that are now commonplace in American life. People with disabilities are employed in greater numbers than ever before, and increasingly hold leadership positions in government and the private sector.
Looking ahead, NOD is eager to close the gaps that still remain for people with disabilities on the job and in their private lives.
See Related Disability Employment and Advocacy Articles:
Start On Success program puts teens with disabilities in the workforce.
Disability employment group NISH sponsors such well known programs as Goodwill and Arc.
What happens at a drive-through speaker if you are hearing impaired?
