The Minnesota State Council on Disability cosponsored several Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) activities recently, which included the participation of Mr. Justin Dart, the current Chairperson of the President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities and Chairperson of the Congressional Task Force on the Rights and Empowerment of Americans with Disabilities. Mr. Dart led the fight for the passage of the ADA and is now traveling to all 50 states to meet with disability leaders, employers, and organizations representing individuals with disabilities to discuss implementation of the Act. Mr. Dart addressed a group of employers from the metro area at an ADA Employers Reception on July 31st and co-led a training session at an ADA Workshop on August 1st. On August 2nd he took part in the ADA Celebration held at Lake Phalen.
A result of the ADA Workshop on August 1st was the establishment of an ADA Statewide Steering Committee. The State Council along with the Division of Rehabilitation Services and Courage Center will be hosting the first meeting of this Committee on September 26th at Courage Center. For more information please call Margot Imdieke at 296-6785 (V/TDD) or 1-800-652-9747 (V/TDD).
State Council staff continue to conduct ADA presentations and workshops throughout the State. Our most recent presentations were conducted at Piper, Jaffray & Hopwood; the 1991 Institute for Partnerships in Education Conference hosted by the Rum River Special Education Cooperative; and the 1991 Minnesota Summer Vocational Conference hosted by Hennepin Technical College in Eden Prairie. Future presentations include the Minnesota Institute of Legal Education, Employer Education Service of the University of Minnesota and the Internal Revenue Service. If you would like a presentation for your group or employer, please call Margot Imdieke or Kurt Strom at 296-6785 (V/TDD) or 1-800-652-9747 (V/TDD).
The Council is also in the process of producing a half-hour videotape introduction to the Americans with Disabilities Act, which we expect to be available in a month.
Several new publications and brochures are now available from the Council on Disability. For those who want to know about new laws affecting people with disabilities, the Council has produced an overview of disability-related legislation passed by the 1991 Minnesota Legislature. In addition to summarizing these laws, the report also gives their chapter numbers and effective dates. It also briefly discusses some major disability legislative priorities which failed to be enacted this session.
One of the new laws modifies the disability parking statutes, and these changes are reflected in an updated Council brochure on disability parking. This is one of three new Council brochures. The other two describe the Council and its functions and discuss the basics of physical accessibility. These publications are available without charge from the Council office at:
Minnesota State Council on Disability, 121 East 7th Street, Suite 145, St. Paul, Minnesota 55101 Telephone: 296-6785 (V/TDD) or 1-800-652-9747 (V/TDD)
We are hard at work on other informational resource which will be available in the near future. Among them is an update of the Council’s popular awareness book “Responding to Disability: A Question of Attitude.”
