April 7, 1997

Director of US Dept of Labor’s Disability Initiative to Deliver

Twilight Lecture at Middlebury College

Rick Douglas, director of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Disability

Initiative, will give a Twilight Lecture at Middlebury College

on Monday, April 28. The talk, “The Last Great Civil Rights

Issue: (Dis)Abilities,” will be delivered on campus at 4:30

p.m. in the Concert Hall of the Center for the Arts.

The Disability Initiative is designed to enable the department

to include people with disabilities into its policies, training

programs, enforcement activities and its work force. Previously,

Mr. Douglas, a member of the Middlebury Class of ‘65, served as

executive director of the President’s Committee on Employment

of People with Disabilities in Washington, D.C., under both the

Bush and Clinton administrations. Mr. Douglas was the first person

with a disability to serve as the committee’s executive director

and is the first director of the DOL’s Disability Initiative.

He also served as Vermont’s director of vocational rehabilitation

for six years, managing programs that provided vocational counseling

and services to Vermonters with disabilities.

A highly regarded speaker, Mr. Douglas has traveled to 49 states,

meeting and addressing groups from disability rights coalitions

and organizations, universities, government, labor and business.

He created a new focus at the committee to help work with the

media to educate the public on people with disabilities and employment,

and to position the president’s committee as a leading resource

for media. He has appeared on CBS News, ABC Evening News, Good

Morning America, NBC Today, CNN, and other shows. His advocacy

for access to commuter aircraft created national media coverage

and motivated United Airlines to change its policy to include

people with disabilities.

For the Twilight Lecture, Mr. Douglas will discuss a variety of

issues from both a personal and professional perspective relating

to Civil Rights and disabilities. One area of recent interest

is the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial and the controversy about

whether or not FDR should be pictured in his wheelchair.

The Twilight Lecture is free and open to the public. Anyone seeking

further information may contact ADA Coordinator Elizabeth Christensen

at (802) 443-5851 voice, or (802) 443-7437 TDD.