About Us
Great Lakes ADA Center
The Great Lakes ADA Center’s mission is to increase awareness and knowledge with the ultimate goal of achieving voluntary compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. This is accomplished within targeted audiences through provision of customized training, expert assistance, and dissemination of information developed by various sources, including the federal agencies responsible for enforcement of the ADA. We are not an enforcement or regulatory agency, but a helpful resource supporting the ADA‘s mission to “make it possible for everyone with a disability to live a life of freedom and equality.”
The Center provides information, materials, technical assistance and training on the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). Topics addressed includes the non-discrimination requirements in employment, the obligations of state and local governments and business to ensure that programs, services and activities are readily accessible to and usable by people with disabilities.
The Great Lakes ADA Center’s Accessible Technology Initiative, encourages incorporation of accessible information technology in K-12 and postsecondary school settings. Accessible Information Technology incorporates the principles of universal design so that people with a wide range of abilities and disabilities can access information disseminated electronically.
The Great Lakes ADA Center’s service area is designated as Region 5 and is a member of the ADA National Network which is comprised of 10 regional centers funded by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, Rehabilitation and Research (NIDILRR), a division of the Administration for the Community Living (ACL), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
The six states within the region served by the Center include: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin.We have established ADA Affiliates in each state that represent the business community, government agencies, disability rights groups, and other interested parties. The Great Lakes Affiliates enhance the Center’s mission of voluntary compliance of the ADA utilizing local resources to provide trainings, technical assistance, and engage in capacity building around the ADA in the state.
The Center is a program of the Department of Disability and Human Development under the College of Applied Health Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
Overview
The ADA, Passed in 1990, is a comprehensive federal civil rights law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability. The ADA defines a disability as:
A physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities (i.e. working, talking, hearing, seeing, caring for one’s self)
Or having a record of such an impairment;
Or being regarded by others as having an impairment such as individuals with severe facial scarring.
There are five Titles within the ADA that cover:
Title I: Employment
Annie Hofstadter
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Happy Faces of Happy Students
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