As the new Chair of the Committee on Disabilities and Persons with Disabilities, I would like to take this opportunity to reacquaint the Board and our membership with the purpose of this Committee.

The Committee on Disabilities and Persons with Disabilities was initially formed in 2001 with Diane Strock-Lynskey as the Chair and Marquessa Brown as Co-Chair. The mission of the committee is to serve as an advisory body on matters pertaining to disability and persons with disabilities to the Board o f Directors, committees, and membership-at-large of the Association of Baccalaureate Program Directors. Some of our goals include offering consultation and assistance related to matters of disability and persons with disabilities, providing leadership in developing Baccalaureate Social Work Education curriculum as it pertains to disability, using the strengths perspective, advising the BPD Program/Conference Committees on matters pertaining to disability and conference planning such as workshops, papers, presentations, and speakers related to disability as well as other considerations such as accessibility and accommodations.

Accomplishments had included assisting the Board in identifying and establishing suitable funding within the annual BPD conference budget for participants who may have requests regarding accommodations, integrating ASL interpreters into plenary and other major conference sessions, partnering with other BPD diversity-related committees to provide joint programming, participating in and contributing to the BPD Board strategic planning process, developing and implementing a Committee-specific strategic plan, partnering with the CSWE Council on Disability and Persons with Disabilities to provide disability-specific feedback on curriculum and accreditation revisions, assisting in the review of abstracts submitted for BPD conference presentations, increasing the number of presentations and workshops selected for the BPD conference, conducting an annual Disability Forum, sponsoring, planning and implementing annual Committee special presentations.  Some examples of special presentations include a workshop held at last year's conference on the ADA and students with mental health disabilities that was attended by over 50 participants.  

During our committee meeting in Austin, it was decided our current goals remain relevant. It was further decided to possibly develop a check list to assist with accessibility standards, develop fact sheets explaining the types of disabilities and etiquette when speaking with a person who has a disability.

Currently this Committee is in the process of a transition in leadership as Diane has stepped down as Chair. Robin Kohn has volunteered for this task and will now continue what Diane so graciously and successfully began. As with any transition period, time is needed to reflect and identify goals and a realistic plan for the upcoming years. The input and feedback of our membership is vital to accomplishing this task. We are also in the process of recruiting new interested members as several previous members have resigned. During the committee’s special presentation in Austin, a list was circulated and possible new members were identified. We would like to build on this and include anyone interested.