Accessibility Summit 2011

Plans for the 2011 Accessibility Summit, taking place on April 1-2 at McLean Bible Church are underway. Please mark your calendar now!

The Accessibility Summit is a special forum for persons with disabilities, families and caregivers, faith-based organizations, educators, professionals, and government agencies to come together in one place and learn more about the issues, resources, and advances of interest to those connected to the disability community.

Dr. Temple Grandin, the most accomplished and well-known adult with autism in the world, will be the keynote speaker on Saturday, April 2. Her fascinating life, with all of its challenges and successes, was recently documented in an HBO film entitled Temple Grandin. She has authored six books, including her most recent bestseller entitled The Way I See It: A Personal Look at Autism and Asperger’s. Her books, Animals in Translation and Animals Make us Human, were both on the New York Times bestseller list. In 2010, Time Magazine named Dr. Grandin one of its 100 most influential people.

DR. TEMPLE GRANDIN

Professionally, Dr. Grandin designs livestock handling facilities and is a Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University. Facilities designed by her can be found throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. In North America, almost half of all cattle are handled in a center track restrainer system she designed for meat plants. She has authored hundreds of articles in scientific journals and livestock periodicals on animal handling, welfare, and facility design.

We look forward to welcoming Dr. Grandin to Accessibility Summit 2011!

If you are a professional and would like to conduct a workshop during the Summit, please complete and submit the Call to Presenters form. We are looking for experts on issues of interest to the disability community. The deadline for submissions is October 1st. The Summit Committee will review all speaker proposals, and speakers will be notified of the Committee’s decisions by November 5th.

Please check the web site regularly beginning in October for more details regarding the 2011 Summit. We hope you’ll plan to join us! If you have any immediate questions, please contact Rosie Oakley, Director of the Accessibility Summit at Rosie.Oakley@mcleanbible.org.