The Southeast ADA Leadership Network Celebrates 19 Years of Facilitating Voluntary Compliance of the Americans with Disabilities Act

July 26, 2009 marks the 19th anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).  The Americans with Disabilities Act and the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 gives civil rights protections to individuals with disabilities similar to those provided to individuals on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, age, and religion.  It guarantees equal opportunity for individuals with disabilities to access businesses, employment, transportation, State and local government programs and services and telecommunications.

The DBTAC: Southeast ADA Center (Southeast DBTAC) is one of ten regional information centers on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) that facilitates voluntary compliance via a broad and diverse network of partners across the Southeast.  The Center consists of a regional office, located in Atlanta, Georgia together with State and Local ADA Affiliates in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.  The Southeast DBTAC is a project of the Burton Blatt Institute: Centers of Innovation on Disability at Syracuse University (BBI).

The Affiliates—community-based organizations that work closely with the regional office to build local ADA knowledge and capacity—form the Southeast Region’s ADA Leadership Network.  The ADA Leadership Network strengthens each state’s ongoing efforts to facilitate voluntary compliance with the ADA by supporting local ADA activities and by collaborating with groups and individuals representing disability, business, and government entities dedicated to informing their constituents, people with disabilities, and the general public about the ADA. 

Since 1991, the Southeast DBTAC and its ADA Leadership Network have worked together to promote voluntary compliance with the ADA.  Some significant accomplishments achieved during this past year include:

• Receiving a new five-year award from Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) to operate the Region IV (Southeast) Training and Technical Assistance Center (TACE). The TACE Region IV is a partnership of the Burton Blatt Institute, the Southeast DBTAC, and local, regional, and national leaders and experts.  The TACE Center covers the following states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.  Its  mission is  to provide technical assistance (TA) and continuing education (CE) activities to meet the training and organizational development needs of State Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) agencies and their partners. For more information, visit: tacesoutheast.org.
• Offering an 8 week moderated version of the popular online course “ADA Basic Building Blocks” to vocational rehabilitation professionals and others who are interested in obtaining CEU and CRCC credits;
• Launching a new online tutorial, “Title II for ADA Coordinators;”
• Publishing new information on the project’s website including…
  • TIPS—Technical Information Perspectives and Solutions—a new series of publications that provides answers to challenging and often unique ADA hot line inquiries answered by the Southeast DBTAC Technical Assistance Team
  • CASE LAW ALERTS—easy to read summaries of ADA-related litigation in the Southeast Region’s circuit courts
• Implementing an innovative research plan to reduce and eliminate barriers to employment and economic self-sufficiency and to increase the civic and social participation of Americans with disabilities. 

As the Southeast DBTAC and the ADA Leadership Network reflect on 19 years of notable accomplishments in the advancement of the Americans with Disabilities Act, we recognize the importance of continued efforts and look forward to positive changes in the future. A new year brings fresh and exciting challenges, new venues for conducting training programs and disseminating information, a new research agenda to advance the inclusion of people with disabilities into all aspects of life, and new opportunities for increasing awareness and access for people with disabilities.

For more information about the Southeast DBTAC, the ADA Leadership Network, and/or the ADA, contact us toll free at 1-800-949-4232 (voice/tty) or send an email with your request to sedbtacproject@law.syr.edu.