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Independent Living News & Policy from the National Council on Independent Living

Victory at the Austin Civil Rights Summit: Watch Live Tomorrow

Under immense national pressure from advocates to include disability rights as part of the Civil Rights Summit celebrating the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Mark Updegrove, Director of the LBJ Library and main summit organizer, personally reached out to Lex Frieden and invited him to participate on the social justice panel as a civil and disability rights activist.

Lex FriedenLex Frieden, who played an integral role in the development, passage, and implementation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, has been invited to speak on a panel discussion on social justice at 2:05 p.m. Central (3:05 p.m. Eastern), Thursday April 10th – immediately following the keynote speech by President Barack Obama.

Lex will join former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin; humanitarian Maria Shriver; athlete and philanthropist David Robinson; and businessman Steve Stoute on the panel. Lex will talk about the linkage of the ADA with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, why disability rights are civil rights, and how the discrimination faced by people with disabilities is similar to that faced by other minorities.

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