Our July meeting falls on the 33-year anniversary of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

We will recognize the legislation’s importance, and discuss ways it can be improved upon with author Fred Pelka.

Fred has been a participant, observer and historian of the disability rights movement in America for more than forty years. Himself a person with disabilities, his involvement dates back to the early 1980s at the Boston Center for Independent Living.

In the 1990s he worked as part of Justice for All, an online disability rights group organized to confront the backlash against the newly passed Americans with Disabilities Act. During this time and in the years since he has worked to preserve the history of the movement, including collecting and preserving the oral histories of movement figures and the archives of individuals and organizations at risk of being lost.

He is the author of three books on disability rights history, including the ABC-CLIO Companion to the Disability Rights Movement, and What We Have Done: An Oral History of the Disability Rights Movement, His most recent book—A Different Blaze—is a collection of poetry. He has taught a course on the history of disability advocacy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and is on the board of the online Disability History Museum.

Join us!

PDA Disabilities IOT Call
Wednesday, July 26
9pm ET; 8pm CT; 7pm MT; 6pm PT and AZ; 5pm AK; 3pm HI
Click here to register and the machine will email you your secure codes.

Hope to see you!

Can’t make it but want to be involved? Volunteer and or donate,

In solidarity,

Mike Fox for Beverly, Erika, Karla, and the rest of the IOT Membership