Southeast ADA Center HHS Region 4

The Southeast ADA Center (SEADA) is managed in partnership with the Burton Blatt Institute (BBI) at Syracuse University. In collaboration with an established eight-state Affiliate Leadership Network and 60 state and local partners, the SEADA serves HHS Region 4 in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. The SEADA will continue to build, and expand upon, a 30-year record of multi-method, user friendly, comprehensive, and impactful system of providing ADA training, technical assistance, and accurate information dissemination, and research. The Center reaches and supports over one million stakeholders at a local, state, and regional level on an annual basis. The goal of the SEADA is to advance knowledge and understanding of rights and responsibilities under the ADA that promotes the four pillars of the ADA - full participation in the community, independent living, equal opportunity, and economic self-sufficiency for individuals with disabilities and their families. The SEADA's objectives are to: (1) encourage and support meaningful partnerships among government, business, and community organizations to facilitate effective ADA implementation; (2) improve, and continue to expand, training, technical assistance, and information dissemination that promotes voluntary (and transcendent) compliance with the ADA; (3) educate and empower individuals across the diversity of disabilities and at the intersection of race, ethnicity, age and gender to increase understanding of ADA rights and responsibilities; and (4) conduct a program of research that produces new knowledge and understanding of barriers to achieving the four core goals of the ADA. Anticipated outcomes include: • Individuals with disabilities of all ages and family members will have greater options for increased knowledge and understanding of ADA rights and responsibilities; • Employers, educators, state and local government agency personnel will demonstrate increased awareness and obligations under the ADA; • Businesses and other places of public accommodation will demonstrate increased understanding of their rights and responsibilities under the ADA; • Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC), and Latinx Communities and other underserved groups, will gain a new level of awareness and understanding of ADA rights and responsibilities; and • The Southeast ADA Center will continue to be a trusted leader in providing streamlined access to training, technical assistance, information, and cutting-edge research on the ADA and disability rights for all stakeholders. The expected products are: • Marketing and outreach materials customized and accessible to new audiences including, culturally and linguistically underserved populations (BIPOC and Latinx communities). • Training and TA in multiple formats and modalities on all titles of the ADA; • Comprehensive web site with searchable database, and accessible information and materials, that are regularly updated and disability and culturally sensitive; • ADA and Self-Advocacy for Students and Youth Curriculum; and • Rigorous research and new knowledge translation materials on impact of intersectionality on three core ADA related outcomes: employment, poverty, and internet and technology access.