Get EXCITED for Advocacy Day!

We can't wait for Advocacy Day on April 1!

As you have seen by now, Advocacy Day for Access & Independence will be entirely virtual this year to protect that safety of our community and staff. One of the good things about hosting an online event is that we have more opportunities than ever before to connect with one another across the world. This is a time when everyone needs connection, and we are here to give you that!

We are so excited to be hosting a lineup of locally and nationally acclaimed speakers for Advocacy Day this year! Here are just a few:

A little bit about them:

• Jason Hurdich is a Certified Deaf Interpreter in South Carolina who achieved statewide recognition for his interpreting during the governor's emergency press conferences. He is also an American Sign Language (ASL) lecturer at Clemson University.
• Judy Heumann is an internationally recognized leader of the disability rights movement. She helped lead the monumental Section 504 Sit-In in 1977. Under the Obama administration, she was appointed as the first Special Advisor for International Disability Rights for the U.S. Department of State. Recently, she released a memoir called "Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist," and has been featured in the Sundance documentary Crip Camp, which released on Netflix today!
• Naomi Simmons-Thorne is an activist for social justice in South Carolina and the director of the Center for Social Equity, an organization that seeks to provide and create safe spaces for Black and LGBTQ+ youth in South Carolina.
• Marcie Roth is the executive director and CEO of the World Institute on Disability. She has previous experience in emergency management in past positions such as CEO of the Partnership for Inclusive Disaster Strategies, Inc. and senior advisor to the FEMA Administrator and Director of the Office of Disability Integration and Coordination. She will address the COVID-19 response in her speech at Advocacy Day.

Are you excited yet? We are too! To get ready for Advocacy Day and to show your friends your excitement, we invite you to take the #BarrierFreeSC Challenge. Take a video or picture explaining what a #BarrierFreeSC means to you, and share it on social media with the hashtag! Click here for a petition that you can print and share.

We will see you online next week for Advocacy Day!

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