Northeast ADA Center
Overview
The goal of the Northeast ADA Center is to educate and empower the diverse range of ADA stakeholders throughout New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands to increase their knowledge of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and to support them to include people with disabilities in local communities and to implement the ADA in their own lives, workplaces, businesses, and communities.
The Northeast ADA Center provides a variety of trainings and technical assistance, and it distributes materials focused on disability-related topics. It is not an enforcement agency and does not provide advocacy services.
Project Activities
Outreach: Our outreach efforts create awareness of Center services and build trust with stakeholders, so as to increase the use of Center services. We conduct general outreach to ADA stakeholders in our region with our social media, website, and newsletter. We also plan to reach out to a few specific audiences this grant cycle. These include employment service professionals, youth with disabilities, and physical access professionals.
Information dissemination: We work to educate ADA stakeholders about their rights and responsibilities under the ADA. The Center has a wealth of information about the ADA and related disability-rights laws at northeastada.org. We will be expanding the smallbusinessatwork.org site to include Title III issues and building regional data dashboards to inform policy makers in our region of relevant disability statistics
Technical Assistance (TA) on the ADA: Our TA service provides customized answers and information to ADA stakeholders when they call us at 800-949-4232. TA specialists with expertise in various facets of the ADA (and other disability regulations) respond to direct, on-demand requests from stakeholders, connecting them with individually tailored information, referrals, and resources.
Training: Our training efforts aim to increase stakeholder understanding of specific topics relevant to specific stakeholder groups. We will continue our efforts to build capacity, enhancing our ability to change intent and behavior around ADA implementation.
Capacity building: The purpose of capacity building is to aid in ADA implementation and to facilitate change in policy, practice, and behavior within communities. We use the ADA Trainer Leadership Network (TLN) and Customized Service Agreement with targeted stakeholders to empower advocates with information that they can share to support local community change initiatives.
Research: The Center’s research seeks to identify region-specific barriers, facilitators, and best practices for implementing the ADA. Our first project will examine the experiences of employers and employees with disabilities related to workplace flexibility policies and practices and implementation of Title I of the ADA. The second research project will demonstrate the impact of our largest capacity building project, the ADA Trainer Leadership Network (TLN), by mapping changes in policy, practice, and behavior that result from the efforts of TLN members.
Website
https://northeastada.orgContact Information
Hotline: 800-949-4232
Adminstrative: 607-255-8660
Email: northeastada@cornell.edu
Funding Agencies
National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR)
Principal Investigator
Wendy Strobel Gower
Collaborating Partners
The Northeast ADA Center is part of the ADA National Network. The Northeast ADA Center’s affiliates include Resources for Independent Living (New Jersey), Movimiento para el Alcance de Vida Independiente (Puerto Rico), and the Disability Rights Center of the Virgin Islands.