The Road To Freedom bus tour and national awareness campaign is a project of:
ADA Watch and the National Coalition for Disability Rights
601Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Suite 900S
Washington, DC 20004
Website: www.adawatch.org
Email: jimward@ncdr.org
Voice: 202-415-4753
The Road To Freedom is a national awareness campaign inspired by the historic journey of Justin and Yoshiko Dart to mobilize support for passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Our year-long, cross-country bus journey launched from Washington, DC on November 15th, 2006 and aims to engage audiences across the United States in the story of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the history of the disability rights movement. We hope to mobilize Americans to keep the promise of the ADA – freedom, inclusion, and opportunity for children and adults with physical, mental, cognitive and developmental disabilities.
Throughout this journey, national and state disability leaders will be joined by young people with disabilities, family members and others in a campaign to restore and strengthen the ADA.
Here’s how we’ll get the word out:
• The Road to Freedom Bus will stop at more than 80 locations nationwide, from state capitals to disability conferences to sporting events to malls and parades.
• Tom Olin’s historical photographs of the struggle for disability rights are featured in our traveling exhibit. Olin’s work has been featured at the Smithsonian Institute. This exhibit also includes a narrative of the history of the disability rights movement and the ADA.
• We plan press conferences, radio shows and TV interviews highlighting both the obstacles —and the victories— of Americans with disabilities.
• The tour will visit schools and colleges to design youth curriculum, working with our partners, the National Youth Leadership Network.
The Road To Freedom bus tour and traveling exhibit is a project of ADA Watch and the National Coalition for Disability Rights (NCDR), an alliance of hundreds of disability, civil rights and social justice organizations.
ADA Watch/NCDR Board of Directors*
and National Advisory Council Members:
Jim Ward* President and Founder
Curt Decker* Co-Chair
National Disability Rights Network, CCD
Nancy Starnes* Co-Chair
National Organization Disability
Nan Aron
Alliance for Justice
Robert Bernstein
Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law
Janine Bertram Kemp*
Disability Rights Center
Marca Bristo
Access Living
Honorable Tony Coelho
Former U.S. Congressman
Robert Coward*
Capitol Area ADAPT
Len Doran*
The Wexford Group
Kyle Glozier
National Disabled Student Union
Claudia Gordon
National Black Deaf Advocates
Wade Henderson
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
Ron Bassman*
National Association for
Rights Protection and Advocacy
Honorable Judith Heumann
John Lancaster
National Council on Independent Living
Ralph G. Neas
People For the American Way
Tom Olin
Photographer and Social Documentarian
Mike Oxford
NCIL, ADAPT, TILRC
Lee Page*
Paralyzed Veterans of America
Debra Robinson
Speaking For Ourselves
Marcie Roth*
National Spinal Cord Injury Network
Brewster Thackeray*
AARP
Betsy Valnes
National Youth Leadership Network
Patrisha Wright
Disability Rights Education and
Defense Fund
Tony Young
NISH, CCD