2017 Disability Rights Advocates Inaugural New York Gala

Banner art for DRA's inaugural New York gala. The abstract art evokes the architectural forms of a city skyline. Text: Disability Rights Advocates Inaugural New York Gala. Civil Rights and Inclusion: Everyone Benefits.

Disability Rights Advocates (DRA), the leading national nonprofit disability rights legal center, held its Inaugural New York Gala at The Museum of Modern Art on October 12, 2017. View photos of the event on DRA’s Facebook page.

2017 Eagle Awardees

DRA presented Eagle Awards to three outstanding advocates for the disability community:

Museum Access Consortium (MAC)

Lucy Jones and Francesca Rosenberg with the Museum Access Consortium (MAC)’s Eagle Award

The Museum Access Consortium (MAC) was formed after the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act, when a small group of people working in museums and disability fields began to discuss how to best make New York City’s museums more accessible. Today, MAC offers professional development workshops and other resources to ensure that cultural facilities in the New York area and beyond are accessible to people with disabilities.

Learn more about MAC here: http://museumaccessconsortium.org/

Rebecca Alexander

Rebecca Alexander and her brother Peter Alexander with her Eagle Award

Born with Usher Syndrome type III, Rebecca Alexander, LCSW-R, MPH, has been simultaneously losing both her vision and hearing since she was a child, and was told that she would likely be completely blind and deaf by the age of 30. Rebecca is a psychotherapist, author, fitness instructor, disability rights advocate, and extreme athlete who holds two master’s degrees from Columbia University in Public Health and Clinical Social Work.

Learn more about Rebecca here: http://rebeccaalexander.co/

Starbucks Corporation

Lucy Helm holds Starbucks’ Eagle Award with Sid Wolinsky

Starbucks is committed to access and inclusion for its partners and customers. The company provides sign language interpreting services, real time captioning, adaptive equipment, and accessible software such as voice-to-text for its employees. They proudly welcome service animals into their stores and have developed tools to elevate and enhance service to Deaf customers. Additionally, Starbucks provides Braille and large print menus, and is the only company to offer Braille gift cards in its stores all year round.

Learn more about Starbucks here: http://starbucks.com

About DRA’s Eagle Awards

Every year, DRA celebrates outstanding advocates for the disability community who champion our shared vision of equal opportunities for all. Eagle Awardees are individuals, organizations and corporations who model disability inclusion and integration. Since DRA’s inception, the organization has honored more than 50 Eagle Awardees.

Sponsors

DRA is grateful to our sponsors for their generous support of this event.

About Disability Rights Advocates

Learn more about DRA’s work changing the landscape for the disability community in New York:

(Video with audio descriptions for blind and low vision people.)

DRA is the leading national nonprofit disability rights legal center. Founded in 1993 with offices in Berkeley, CA, and New York City, its mission is to advance equal rights and opportunity for people with all types of disabilities nationwide. DRA represents people with the full spectrum of disabilities in complex, system-changing class action cases. Thanks to DRA’s precedent-setting work, people with disabilities across the country have dramatically improved access to health care, employment, transportation, education, disaster preparedness planning, voting, and housing.