On Tuesday, July 26, the Nassau County Courthouse in Mineola held a program in collaboration with Albertson’s The Viscardi Center to commemorate the 32nd anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The event spotlighted Nassau’s role in advancing disability inclusion and highlighted the courthouse’s inclusion efforts.
“Today is a glorious day; a milestone moment; a celebration of the 32nd birthday of one of the most far-reaching pieces of civil rights legislation ever enacted,” Chris Rosa, Viscardi president and CEO said. “Today we benchmark our progress, but we have a long way to go when it comes to true and meaningful inclusion of people with disabilities.”
Signed in 1990 by President George H.W. Bush, the Americans with Disabilities Act is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability.
In 2019, the total civilian noninstitutionalized population with a disability in the United States was 41.1 million, according to the Census. Of that, 7.9 million people aged 18 to 64 with a disability were employed in 2019.
District Attorney Anne Donnelly, who has a son diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, spoke about how appreciative she was of the monumental act.
“My son Jack was born at 25-and-a-half weeks and weighed 1 pound and 12 ounces,” Donelly said in a statement. “As he developed we realized he was going to face challenges. He was non-verbal until the age of five and is a developmentally disabled adult on the Autism spectrum but has thrived under the programs and opportunities afforded to him.”
“As we move hopefully to job training and group home living,” Donnelly continued. “I appreciate the equities the ADA has provided for him and many more.”
The program also included remarks from Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman and featured a panel discussion including Assistant District Attorney Ken Kunken, Judge Robert Pipia and James J. Weisman, president and CEO of United Spinal Association, a nonprofit dedicated to enhancing the quality of life of people living with spinal cord injuries.
The Viscardi Center’s K-12 school serves medically fragile and severely disabled children with a graduation and college acceptance rate of 86 percent. The center, located in Albertson, provides after-school athletic programs, transportation and modern technologies and curriculums designed to give students an accessible but rigorous academic experience.
The other side of the center offers programs to disabled adolescents and adults and school districts looking for transitioning planning services, prevocational work, testing and job placement. The center places roughly 120 people a year in competitive, integrated employment and provides support and advocacy beyond a participant’s tenure at the center.
The educational and employment services the Viscardi Center offers serve 2,000 people a year from all five boroughs of the city, and Westchester, Nassau, and Suffolk counties.
