July 2022 Special Needs Living Akron/Canton

COMMISSION ON DISABILITIES

Supporting People with Intellectual and/or Developmental Disabilities

Written By Ric Brown, AA, BA, MPA

Community integration can be defined in many ways and for a wide range of people. Integration includes but is certainly not limited to characteristics like housing, transportation, general acceptance into a community, education, employment, and social/recreation/leisure activities with members of the larger community.

Oftentimes, challenges and barriers to community integration for people with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (I/DD) exist because of fear, lack of knowledge, insufficient resources to access one’s community, and discrimination, amongst other things. The vision, expectation, and goal(s) for people with I/DD and/or their families are often the same as someone without disabilities, i.e., living one’s best life to the best of one’s ability and feeling accepted while accessing a judgment-free, barrier-free community through the development of a person-centered attitude toward people with disabilities.

With an attitude to create equal access, acceptance, and benevolence towards all people, we as a community can offensively and proactively come together to maximize the support needed to help individuals with I/DD by creating an infrastructure that assists in providing full access to the community. To this end, a key element to creating this support and infrastructure with logical, effective, and positive outcomes is the development of a Commission on Disabilities at local levels within the state of Ohio.

Since 2014, I have been personally and professionally involved in the development and/or organization of, and participation in, three Commissions on Disabilities in Stark County, Ohio. These three groups include the City of Massillon, The Village of Canal Fulton, and the Village of Hartville. Both Massillon and Canal Fulton Commissions on Disabilities are spearheaded by the mayors. I am currently in discussion with Mayor Cindy Billings, in the Village of Hartville, to study the feasibility of a Commission on Disabilities there. Each municipality organizes its meetings and topics for its agendas with strategies that address and include, but may not be limited to, matters related to raising awareness, removing barriers, discrimination, and the creation of plans to create full and equal access and participation in all aspects of life for persons with I/DD. Members of each Commission on Disabilities group may include mayors, safety service administrators/staff, community leaders, individuals with I/DD and/or their families and advocates, school representatives, representatives from colleges and universities, professionals from disability organizations, and community members and other interested citizens. The Commission on Disabilities in the City of Massillon is currently seeking volunteers to participate as part of their group. Interested individuals should call the mayor’s office at 330.830.1700.

As I have written before, and it serves as a great reminder to everyone, is this: “Life is always better when you become a part of a network of friends, family, and community.”

Keeping in mind that no man should stand alone, there is an ancient African proverb that reminds us that “it takes a village to raise a child”; this brings us to a realization that it takes compassionate, community-minded, and support-minded people to participate in, and to continue, the work of Commission on Disabilities groups. These groups become the foundation and cornerstone of our identity as citizens to advocate for some of the most vulnerable people with I/DD in our communities in a way that supports basic invaluable rights, respect, dignity, equality, and acceptance. In closing, I highly encourage municipalities everywhere to consider the development of a Commission on Disabilities to help people with I/DD live successfully with others in their communities.