The Caravan for Freedom and Justice for Persons with Disabilities stops in Athens

The Disability Caravan for Freedom and Justice, a national campaign promoting voting rights and accessibility for disabled communities, visited the Athens-Clarke County Library on June 14, from 13 hours. 17 hours

The Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities, the Georgia Office of Advocacy, and several other local disability-related organizations partnered with the Disability Freedom and Justice Caravan to host this event.

Sandy Hanebrink, an advocate for people with disabilities, is leading the caravan across the country accompanied by her service dog, Sasha.

“The caravan is not a business,” Hanebrink said. “It is a coalition of disability rights activists, disability-led organizations, service organizations and allies working to celebrate the history of the disability rights movement disabled people, sharing the stories and resources available today, then working towards the future.

Tables in the library lobby featured resources from groups including the Athens-Clarke County Transit System, University of Georgia Special Collections Library, R&R Mobility, MultipleChoices for Independent Living and the ACC Library, offering information on services available in Athens. residents with disabilities.

Attendees enjoyed coffee provided by Java Joy, a program of Extra Special People that employs people with disabilities. They also entered a raffle, played braille bingo and listened to speakers discuss issues and resources relevant to the local disability community.

Speakers included Nancy Peeples of the Disability Resource Center, Garrick Scott of MultipleChoices for Independent Living, Richard Burnham of R&R Mobility and many others, each accompanied by an ASL interpreter.

“Their goal is to raise awareness about the kinds of laws we need to be fully inclusive and the kinds of things we need to do to make accessibility more accessible to more people,” Theresa Rice, coordinator of adult programs from the ACC Library. , said.

The Athens-Clarke County Board of Elections was also on hand to register voters and inform people of their right to vote and the housing available to them. To demonstrate how the voting process worked, they set up a simulated election room where participants were able to walk through the voting process and experience for themselves the accommodation arrangements available to them.

“Our disabled community has the privilege of voting and requesting an absentee ballot and only having to apply once and receiving all ballots for the entire year by selecting the back portion of the application form. vote by mail to indicate she wants to register “That’s state law,” said Charlotte Sosebee, ACC elections director.

The caravan now heads to South Carolina, making stops in Mauldin, Anderson, Columbia, Spartanburg, McCormick, North Augusta and Aiken. After that, he will travel to Birmingham, Alabama, for the National Disability Policy Summit, before returning to South Carolina and then traveling to Augusta, Georgia, to celebrate the anniversary of the decision Olmstead.