[nfb-talk] Former Senator Chris Dodd to Speak at Fourth Jacobus tenBroek Disability Law Symposium

[Freeh, Jessica]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE



CONTACT:

Chris Danielsen

Director of Public Relations

National Federation of the Blind

(410) 659-9314, extension 2330

(410) 262-1281 (Cell)

<mailto:cdanielsen at nfb.org>cdanielsen at nfb.org




Former Senator Chris Dodd to Speak at Fourth
Jacobus tenBroek Disability Law Symposium




Baltimore, Maryland (April 13, 2011): The 
National Federation of the Blind (NFB) and the 
American Association of People with Disabilities 
(AAPD) will present the fourth Jacobus tenBroek 
Disability Law Symposium on April 14–15, 2011, at 
the NFB Jernigan Institute in Baltimore.  The 
symposium, entitled "Bridging the Gap Between the 
Disability Rights Movement and Other Civil Rights 
Movements,” and named for NFB founder and 
pioneering legal scholar Dr. Jacobus tenBroek 
(1911–1968), will gather public officials, legal 
scholars, and disability rights advocates for a 
two-day seminar on the state of disability law in 
the United States, and will discuss how 
disability rights may be advanced in the 
future.  Chris Dodd, former senator for the state 
of Connecticut, will be the keynote speaker.

“Our first three Jacobus tenBroek symposia were 
extraordinary events, and we are looking forward 
to once again hosting leading players and 
thinkers in the disability community, including 
our esteemed keynote speaker Senator Dodd,” said 
Dr. Marc Maurer, an attorney and President of the 
National Federation of the Blind.   “Disability 
law is rapidly changing at the national and 
international level, and this forum will provide 
an opportunity for everyone to assess 
developments and plan strategies in this dynamic 
and critically important field.”



Senator Dodd said: “I am honored to have the 
opportunity to address the nation’s foremost 
symposium on disability rights.  I worked closely 
with the disability community while authoring the 
Help America Vote Act, and have long considered 
myself an advocate for people with 
disabilities.  I look forward to contributing to this important discussion.”



Dr. Jacobus tenBroek was a constitutional law 
scholar, a blind professor at Berkeley, and an 
author of treatises on the Fourteenth Amendment 
and social welfare.  Dr. tenBroek created the 
concept that civil rights should apply to 
disabled Americans, and he published extensively 
on the application of the law to those with 
disabilities.  His efforts to advance civil 
rights for the blind and others with disabilities 
included drafting the model White Cane Law, which 
has had a profound influence on the development 
of civil rights laws for the disabled throughout 
the United States, and publishing authoritative 
articles like “The Right to Live in the World: 
The Disabled in the Law of Torts.”



The proceedings of the symposium will be 
published in the Texas Journal on Civil Liberties and Civil Rights.



For more information about the National 
Federation of the Blind, please visit <http://www.nfb.org/>www.nfb.org.





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About the National Federation of the Blind



With more than 50,000 members, the National 
Federation of the Blind is the largest and most 
influential membership organization of blind 
people in the United States.  The NFB improves 
blind people’s lives through advocacy, education, 
research, technology, and programs encouraging 
independence and self-confidence.  It is the 
leading force in the blindness field today and 
the voice of the nation's blind.  In January 2004 
the NFB opened the National Federation of the 
Blind Jernigan Institute, the first research and 
training center in the United States for the blind led by the blind.