What is your American Dream: to buy a home, have a job, go to school, start your own business? Make a 3 minute video of your dream, enter it into this contest, and compete for a $1,000 award plus a trip to Washington, D.C. in October. The National Disability Institute is sponsoring this contest along with the support of Bank of America and Traveltrust Corporation to promote the Real Economic Impact that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has had in the lives of the more than 54 million Americans with disabilities.
Who is eligible to enter? People with a disability, veterans with a disability, and family members of a person with a disability.
How to enter? Entries must be received by August 13, 2010. A complete list of submission guidelines and rules is available at http://dream.realeconomicimpact.org. For more information, contact Michael Roush, National Program Director (mroush@ndi-inc.org); questions about submission of videos can be sent to mydream@ndi-nc.org.
Tags: autism in families, Autism Society of North Carolina Go back
Thanks so much for spreading the word! We look forward to hearing some great stories.
This is a great contest–I hope we\’ll get to see the wonderful entries!
54 million people in the US with disabilities. One grand prize for $1,000. Sounds like a lottery. But anyway, my American Dream? Um, well it was this… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSagawJR2tc
A month later it all started changing.
Is there an obtainable \”American Dream\” out there somewhere for real? Besides winning the lottery of course. I mean if there is I\’d love to know about it.
\”We want to hear the stories of individuals and their families who are working to achieve their American Dream thanks in part to the Americans with Disabilities Act.\”
Can the Americans with Disabilities Act keep my home from being foreclosed? Will it provide me or my wife the high paying job that will allow us to come up with the $50,000 – $75,000 needed to cover what insurance doesn\’t as we try to keep Ben from backsliding? Will they see to it that Ben one day falls in love with a boy or a girl and lives his life in communal partnership with gentle and loving individual?
Yeah I guess the ADA will see to it that my son has a desk and can hold a pencil and that when, not if, but *when* he is abused, kicked, bitten, punished with restraints and perhaps even placed in handcuffs because of his \”disability\” that they will suspend, write a letter to, file a complaint, talk to someone on Ben\’s behalf. But then the cow\’s out of the barn now isnt it?
No I guess my American Dream is that there would be no need for the Americans with Disability Act, because in MY AMERICA, we all come together, churches, neighborhoods and family, to aid and support one another, especially those with specific needs impossible to obtain on their own. I mean how hard can it be to show compassion and understanding and to do what is morally, ethically and spiritually right?
I had a dream … once.
Bensmyson: Beautiful video of Ben–sleeping babies are so heartwarming! Wouldn\’t it be amazing if we didn\’t need laws to protect people with disabilities–no need for the ADA, no need for IDEA, no need for laws prohibiting harmful restraint and seclusion?!
I know, it\’s a paltry sum for the millions of people in the US. No, the ADA does not work miracles with the attitudes of many who see disabilities so negatively. It IS really important to adults with disabilities who have been able to have greater opportunities to work as a consequence of its passage, however–people who couldn\’t get into buildings before the ADA (remember the man who dragged himself up the steps of a TN courthouse?).
Sad that we need laws to force health insurance companies to cover treatments, interventions, and therapies that our kids need—when morally, ethically, logically, they should be doing so right now. Please help keep up the pressure on legislators to pass the autism health insurance bill in NC!