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Community Programs
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Open Doors Organization is working on the new CITY of CHICAGO ACCESS GUIDE, which will highlight the accessibility of popular venues, and improve the quality and availability of information for visitors with disabilities. The partnership, led by ODO, includes the University of Illinois – Chicago, The City of Chicago Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities, Archeworks, and the Kostas Z Foundation. Through our combined efforts, we seek to create a web template that will become a model for other metropolitan areas. The City of Chicago Access Guide scheduled for completion in April 2006 is seeking more project sponsors.
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ODO would like to congratulate the engineering students and faculty at the University of Wisconsin. Through the many years of work in the UW CREATE program students have been looking to find new ways to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities. ODO hopes to increase awareness through the implementation of their innovative ideas. Look forward to their program updates here or visit their website at:
http://rehab.engr.wisc.edu/
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-CHICAGO FELLOWSHIP AND INTERN PROGRAMS
Open Doors Organization has established fellowships and intern programs with the University of Illinois-Chicago whereby graduate students from the University’s Department of Disability and Human Development receive a stipend from ODO through the University for tuition, books, and housing in return for their work at ODO.
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CHICAGO HOSTS UNPRECEDENTED DISABILITY ARTS & CULTURE EVENT
By Theresa Pacione, Disability Writer & Researcher, Open Doors Organization
Thousands of residents and visitors to Chicago attended Bodies of Work, the first Chicago Festival of Disability Arts and Culture, which took place April 20-30. With more than 60 programs and 23 venues, the 10-day event showcased both the cutting-edge and historical movements in disability arts, highlighting the work of over 100 professional artists from Chicago, the U.S., Japan, U.K., South Korea, Mexico, France, and Australia. The independent festival, started by a group of artists and activists from Chicago’s disability community, quickly grew into a consortium of more than 50 members representing some of the most recognized arts, culture, academic, health care and social service organizations in the area.
Chicago artist Alana Wallace and Dance Detour, the physically integrated dance company she founded, performed to standing room only crowds, while solo performances by actress/comedian/playwright Tekki Lomnicki in “Blurred Vision” packed the house both nights at The Second City. West coast actor and award winning playwright Lynn Manning performed his complex and conflicted one-man show, WEIGHTS, at the Museum of Contemporary Arts. And actor/ poet/ musician/writer Mat Fraser from the U.K. performed Sealboy: Freak at the Victory Garden Theatre, displaying an impressive array of performance skills for appreciative audiences there.
Adding to the star power was New Yorker Bill Shannon. Shannon, the b-boy freestyle street dancer, uses crutches with special rocker bottoms that he developed and a skateboard to perform dynamic choreographed and improvised pieces. While in Chicago, Bill thrilled audiences at the Museum of Contemporary Art and at a special children’s event, the Young People's Festival of Disability Arts and Culture, sponsored by the Open Doors Organization (ODO). This event used film, the visual arts, performance, interactive games and activities to educate youth about the disability experience. Another highlight of the event was an Arts For All workshop featuring Wisconsin artist Dwayne Szots and the adaptive tools he created to include people with disabilities in the art-making process.
Other parts of the Festival included well-attended public forums on universal design, disability culture, disability language and a 3-day Disability and Deaf Film Festival at the Chicago Cultural Center, screening nationally and internationally recognized documentary and fiction film shorts. Art exhibitions by artists with disabilities included the ground-breaking Humans Being: Disability in Contemporary Art, which brought together a roster of 20 professional artist from all parts of the country; and Navigation/Negotiation, a juried exhibition of disability-themed work presented by students, faculty, staff and alumni of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The Chicago Disability History Exhibit, presented by University of Illinois at Chicago, was the first historically-based effort to document the many roles of disabled people and their allies as meaningful participants in Chicago’s social, cultural and economic life.
A first of its kind for Chicago and the U.S., Bodies of Work has put Chicago on the map as a major international center for disability arts and culture and represents a quantum leap in the recognition and empowerment of people with disabilities
ODO is in its third year of collaboration with the GIRL SCOUTS of CHICAGO providing disability awareness programs for youth. For more information click on “Programs For Youth” on the menu bar.
ODO in collabortion with Youth Guidance, Access Living and the University of Illinois' Disabled Students Union hosted a training for school social workers and social work interns from Youth Guidance, as well as, administrative personnel from Girl Scouts of Chicago. The interactive training presented participants with a history of the disability rights movement, an overview of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and an awareness of inclusion at all levels in our society. Participants were given assessment tools and proactive intervention steps to use in their work with students with disabilities. Handouts were provided to use in their social work practice and participants recieved attendance credits toward professional development.
ODO is working with COMPUTERS FOR SCHOOLS an association of computer refurbishers from across the country. Computer equipment is donated to schools for education. For more information on the non-profit organization Computers for Schools visit: http://www.pcsforschools.org/
ODO is forging groundbreaking pathways all the way to the beach! In our efforts to get people with disabilities into the water and make beaches accessible nationwide, we have come across an ingenious device called the MOBI-MAT. ODO is now working with Deschamps, a French company that manufactures the resourceful MOBI-MAT, a removable runway made of environment friendly, technical fabric.ODO believes in the MOBI-MAT and we are testing this product in different locations. FOR MORE ON MOBI-MAT VISIT: http://www.mobi-mat-civil-access-deschamps.com/.
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