The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) is the largest national nonprofit cross-disability member organization in the
United States, dedicated to ensuring economic self-sufficiency and political
empowerment for the more than 50 million Americans with disabilities. AAPD
works in coalition with other disability organizations for the full implementation
and enforcement of disability nondiscrimination laws, particularly the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of
1990 and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
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AAPD Overview Video
Here are some of the most frequently asked questions about the American Association of People with Disabilities:
Who is AAPD?
We are more than 50 million strong—people with disabilities in America,
plus our families and friends. We see the need for one unifying membership
organization to leverage the numbers of people with disabilities and
their families and friends to access economic and other benefits to
form an organization which will be a positive private-sector force to
achieve the goal of full inclusion in American society.
How Can We Belong to or Support AAPD?
Membership is affordable and only $15.00 annually per person.
Sign up today!
You can also
write to us for information
about Group and Corporate Memberships.
Tell Me About AAPD.
Three words that best describe AAPD: Unity, Leadership and Impact . . .
Unity, leadership and impact are the hopes and convictions of people
with disabilities and are necessary to ensure the future of inclusion
promised by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Not since advocacy and passage of the ADA has the community
of people with disabilities coalesced to support and voice common issues and needs.
However, on July 25, 1995, some 550 individuals from all
50 states, representing America's more than 50 million people with disabilities
gathered in Washington to help launch a new nonprofit organization,
the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD). The new
organization promises to bring about "the next step in the evolution
of the disability rights movement"—economic clout and power through
numbers- unity, leadership and impact.
People with disabilities do not want a handout. They want
to help themselves. For our own good, as well as theirs, it is our responsibility
to do all we can to help people with disabilities fulfill their aspirations
and take their rightful place in society.
Individuals, community agency rehabilitation personnel,
employers, and funding sources realize the benefits if everyone works
together toward common goals. The Association, therefore, would create
unity, since everyone can be a member.
People with disabilities need consumer and economic power—like
all Americans who want to get the most for the least. To help
people with disabilities move toward a consumer and economic power base,
AAPD offers financial benefits to its members in the form of services.
These services are designed to provide discounts to this population
the same as others who are fiscally responsible.
What is the History of AAPD?
AAPD was founded after five key leaders from the disability community
(who were instrumental in drafting, advocating for and passage of the
landmark civil rights law, the Americans with Disabilities Act -ADA) met
to organize what they believed would be the next logical step for people
with disabilities -- creation of a national, non-partisan organization
that can and will represent more than 50 million Americans with disabilities; an
organization which will be a positive private-sector force to achieve
the goal of full inclusion in American society - The American Association
of People with Disabilities (AAPD).
AAPD was founded by these five key disability rights
activists and leaders: Justin Dart, former Chair of the President's
Committee; Dr. Sylvia Walker of Howard University;; Paul Hearne, President
of The Dole Foundation; John D. Kemp, President & CEO, Very Special
Arts; and I. King Jordan, President of Gallaudet University.
"We recognized that beyond national unity for ADA and
our civil rights, people with disabilities did not have a venue or vehicle
for working together for common goals," said Paul Hearne. "There was
nothing that represented the unified potential of more than 50 million people
with disabilities."
What is the purpose of AAPD?
To further the productivity, independence, full citizenship,
and total integration of people with disabilities into all aspects
of society and the natural environment;
To foster leadership among people with disabilities;
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To support the full implementation and enforcement of disability
nondiscrimination laws, particularly the Americans with Disabilities
Act of 1990 and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973;
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To conduct programs to enhance the lives of people with disabilities,
including programs to reduce poverty and unemployment, to assure that
every disabled person has the right to his or her own living arrangement,
and to assure that every child or adult with a disability has access
to and funding for assistive technology.
-
To educate the public and government policy makers regarding issues
affecting people with disabilities; and
To engage in such other activities as may be desirable or required
to accomplish the foregoing objects and purposes, not without the scope
of Article third and Article Sixth hereof.
As well as recognizing the need for a unified membership
organization representing American citizens with disabilities working
together for common goals, there is a genuine need for basic benefits
- such as insurances - life, health, automobile, disability - often
unaffordable or denied and unavailable to most people with disabilities.
AAPD - a force to bring about unity, leadership and impact
is not, can not, should not be another government public program. The
potential strength to impact the future is an organization conceived
by, advised and managed by people with disabilities for people with
disabilities. It means dues-paying membership and a representational
Board of Directors.
Who Sits on the Board of Directors for AAPD?
- Day Al-Mohamed, American Psychological Association
- Joyce Bender, Treasurer – Bender Consulting Services, Inc.
- Ralph Boyd, Jr. – Freddie Mac
- Kelby Brick – Hands On Video Relay Services
- Linda Chavez-Thompson – AFL-CIO
- Tony Coelho, Vice-Chair – Disability Rights Advocate
- Robert “Bobby” Coward – Capital Area ADAPT
- John Dziennik – Blanche Fischer Foundation
- Wendy Elliott-Vandivier – Elliott-Vandivier, Hibbs & Associates, LLC
- B. Keith Fulton – Verizon
- Alison A. Hillman – Mental Disability Rights International
- Andrew J. Imparato – President and CEO, AAPD
- Edward Kennedy Jr., Secretary – Marwood Group
- Richard Knowles – SAP Americas
- Rahnee K. Patrick, Access Living of Metropolitan Chicago
- Will Ris – American Airlines
- Helen Roth, Immediate Past Chair – Disability Policy Consultant
- Meredith Ryan-Reid, AIG Domestic Life Companies
- Laura Sanford, AT&T Foundation
- Leslie Schmid - Retired Marketing Executive, Disability Rights Advocate
- Cheryl Sensenbrenner, Chair – Disability Rights Advocate
- James Weisman - United Spinal Association
- Betsy Buttrill White – Economics Consultant
- Betty Williams – Arc of Indiana
- Tony Young – NISH
AAPD was launched on July 25, 1995, and has received its 501(c)(3) designation.
Key subcommittees of AAPD were developed to focus on three targeted
agendas: Membership and Benefits, Policy and Operations.
The board set individual membership dues at
$15.00 annually to reinforce affordability for all people with disabilities,
their friends and families. "If we are talking about an organization that is open
to all people with disabilities, we cannot forget that 2/3s of us are unemployed
and probably cannot afford more," said board member Judi Chamberlin. "Individual
membership in AAPD must be affordable."
According to founding member Justin Dart, "AAPD gives
us the opportunity for harmonious unity and will help create the strong
voice needed to overcome thousands of years of attitudinal and physical barriers."
Who Comprises the AAPD Staff?
Helena Berger, Chief Operating Officer
Jacqueline Browne, Executive Assistant
Diane DeAngelis, Director, Marketing & Member Services
Jim Dickson, Vice President, Government Affairs
David Hale, Program Manager
Andrew J. Imparato, President & CEO
Mariana Nork, Sr. Vice President, Development and Communications
Rebecca Panoff, Communications Manager
Robin Shaffert, Senior Director of Corporate Social Responsibility
Jenifer Simpson, Sr. Director, Telecommunications & Technology Policy
Anne Sommers, Policy Counsel
UniQue Webster, Development Coordinator
What does it mean to be a member of AAPD?
AAPD members will be able to demonstrate leadership both locally and
nationally on issues of concern that impact their lives. Members will
be kept up-to-date on current issues and strategies for change and impact.
AAPD will leverage its numbers and thus be able to offer people with
disabilities some of the amenities that never before have been available
to them -- life insurance, automobile, health and disability insurance,
affinity banking benefits, credit card options, telephone affinity cards,
for example.
AAPD has the potential to be the voice of and voice to
people with disabilities in America.
"AAPD can provide a unified voice for all people with
disabilities that will help influence decision making and media reporting
on our issues," said John D. Kemp, Chair, Board of Directors of AAPD
and President & CEO of HalfThePlanet Foundation. "Until our voice
of unified strength is included in the mix of national and local
decision making, the minimal quality of life experienced by many
Americans with disabilities will continue."
Can I have some background
on Americans with disabilities?
People with disabilities have made great strides in the past decade,
highlighted in 1990 by the passage of ADA.
Need for continued leadership remains strong. More
than 50 million people—one out of every five Americans—have a disability.
Nearly half the people with disabilities are of an employable age, yet
only one-third are employed and the percentage who say they want to work
increased from 66% to 78% in 1994.
The economic effect of unemployment of Americans with
disabilities in our society is substantial. The cost of direct government
and private payments to support people with disabilities of employable
age who do not have jobs is estimated to be $232 billion annually. Another
$195 billion in earnings and taxes are lost each year because Americans
with disabilities are unemployed. By comparison, the annual budget deficit
of the United States is approximately $200 billion.
"Employing and accommodating people with disabilities
in the workplace has tremendous potential to impact our nation's economy,"
said Hearne. "But, it is clear that government alone cannot make the
goals of ADA a reality. All people with disabilities need consumer and
economic power and a unity of purpose in order to promote the goal of
full inclusion in American society."
AAPD is headquartered at:
1629 K Street NW, Suite 503
Washington, DC 20006
Telephone: (800) 840-8844 (Toll Free V/TTY)
or (202) 457-0046 (V/TTY)
Fax: (202) 457-0473
(This fax number does not accept unsolicited advertisements.)
