The ADA Legacy Project (TALP) has just launched DisBeat, a new communications initiative designed to coordinate and promote proactive messaging on disability rights issues throughout the country. DisBeat will use a variety of communication tools, including social media, to bring attention to disability issues from a disability perspective. DisBeat will also maintain a database of subject-matter fact sheets, talking points and experts.
DisBeat is a play on the word Beat, a type of specialized, in-depth reporting on a particular issue or organization over time. Combined with the root Dis, the name DisBeat points to a focus on in-depth communication of disability issues from the perspective of people with disabilities. In other words, DisBeat is about people with disabilities: their news, perspective, and proactive response to current events.
Similar to The ADA Legacy Project national council that has provided oversight to the organization, DisBeat has its own team of communication specialists and subject-matter experts to guide its content and actions.
Initial Partners include ADAPT of Montana, Center for Disability Rights, Disability Visibility Project, Disability Rights Center, EIN SOF Communications, Nothing Without Us Media, and Shepherd Center.
In its first 2 months of operation, DisBeat has helped coordinate messaging regarding CNN’s investigation of Ability One/Source America and related disability employment issues; the tenth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina; Get Out the Vote efforts for the 2016 elections; ADAPT’s Fall Action; and the newly launched #CrappyCurb campaign from Rooted in Rights.
DisBeat is a natural outgrowth of The ADA Legacy Project’s highly successful effort to coordinate ADA25, a national celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. ADA25 included hundreds of anniversary events around the country; The ADA Legacy Tour, which logged 23,000 miles and more than 115 stops in 33 states from July 25, 2014 to July 28, 2015; “Equal Access, Equal Opportunity,” the ADA25 official publication; #BecauseoftheADA, a social media campaign to gauge the impact of the ADA on individual lives; the new Disability Rights Museum on Wheels, sponsored by the US Business Leadership Network; fine arts, exhibits, and pride events at the Kennedy Center and Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History; two events at the White House; and a gala and march on the Capitol in Washington, DC.
The mission of The ADA Legacy Project is to preserve the history of the disability rights movement; celebrate its milestones; and educate the public and future generations of advocates.
To learn more about DisBeat, contact Tari, [email protected].
