National Council on Disability
Cultural Diversity Advisory Committee (CDAC)
April 7, 2004 - Record of Public Meeting

The Designated Federal Official (DFO) called the meeting to order at 4:02 PM.

Participants: Jean Lin, Deb Smith, Glenn Fujiura, Darrell Simmons, LaDonna Fowler, Paul Leung, Lilly Rangel Diaz, Jeff Rosen (NCD Director of Policy/General Counsel), Milton Aponte, JD (NCD Council Member and CDAC Liaison), Gerrie Hawkins, Ph.D. (Designated Federal Official), and Kim Borowicz (NCD short-term student intern, Senior at Michigan State University).

After the Call to Order and introduction of any guests, the DFO reviewed the proposed agenda. The meeting proceeded according to that agenda, since the agenda was confirmed as proposed.

Primary purpose for the Call: The main focus of this public meeting was to provide an opportunity for NCD to obtain input regarding perspectives on the vision, direction, and next steps, and timeframe(s) for this committee's consideration. To stimulate discussion a number of items for consideration were sent to members prior to the meeting that addressed how to use earlier CDAC work such as the committee's goals and objectives; the role of the original CDAC workgroups (Outreach & Networking; Policy Issues); CDAC members' suggestions for possible Capitol Hill connections sharing the CDAC brochure with Hill staffers as well as connections with broader civil rights groups; and determining CDAC's involvement with NCD's priorities.

Dialogue Opportunity: The DFO shifted the discussion lead to NCD's Council Liaison for CDAC, Milton Aponte, JD who welcomed participants and explained that their contributions would be used to clarify what role CDAC plays in advising NCD on matters pertaining to diversity, as well as providing perspectives on any of NCD's work. He envisioned the committee as vital to the future of NCD's work particularly with consideration for the changing demographics of the country and the disability community. Mr. Aponte also stated that a great deal depends on the level of involvement of each CDAC member. He invited participants to express their views.

Discussion Summary: Members mentioned that the initial path taken by CDAC seemed to work well for supplementary activities to highlight diversity issues. However, the dialogue centered primarily on the strong sense of how more direct communication with the NCD Council members can assist with guiding and setting CDAC's direction to be more closely aligned with NCD's annual priorities. Information gleaned from the CDAC meeting participants was summarized in terms of several needs, including the need:

• for repeated dialogue and interaction with NCD Council members that will assist CDAC in elevating awareness of the Council about diverse cultural issues, and in sharpening CDAC's focus for selecting committee activities;
• to be provided access to NCD's priorities; this will allow the committee to build upon the work in complementary/mutual benefit ways for meaningful impact, after determining which targets are the most feasible and to which CDAC individuals and/or full committee membership can commit time;
• to consider looking at NCD's current or near future priorities in terms of which ones would help the committee to capitalize upon the earlier CDAC, as well as NCD's Cultural Diversity Initiative Forum (CDI) ideas such as --(a) outreach efforts that place disability on the table with organizations that are broader in scope than disability organizations--for example, developing ways to persuade the broader civil rights community to begin to address disability in proactive ways; and/or (b) determine how CDAC can assist NCD in introducing disability issues to or raising awareness in diverse communities; and
• to plan how to turn these perceived needs into action items with specific strategies, timeframes, and evaluation factors.

When asked for his summary comments near the end of the meeting, NCD's Director of Policy/General Counsel Jeff Rosen expressed that: . . ."obviously the thing that NCD does best is to produce evaluative reports with findings and recommendations. We have produced several critical ones with respect to diverse cultures, focusing recently on Native Americans and a literature review that was published last year. . . [as well as at least four other major reports on diverse cultures in the past decade]. The frustration is that these reports have provoked very little response and actual change across the spectrum."

In July 1999 NCD released its report, Lift Every Voice: Modernizing Disability Policies and Programs to Serve a Diverse Nation, at a White House Forum on Disability and Cultural Diversity.. The forum, convened by the White House and NCD with support from the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, focused on how to improve outcomes in education, employment, and civil rights enforcement for people with disabilities from diverse cultural backgrounds. Of longstanding concern, however, is that Lift Every Voice, as well as subsequent NCD reports essentially repeated all of the findings and recommendations that the Council produced in its 1993 report to the President and Congress. In this regard, Mr. Rosen stated, "So clearly, we need to go beyond just producing reports . . . During today's meeting, Mr. Aponte and NCD staff have discussed the Council's mission and a broader sense of how our work can promote opportunities for people with disabilities, including people from diverse cultures that go beyond just advising the President and Congress. That was the impetus for the CDI Forum last summer and the CDI toolkit that is in production . . .[In addition] my main interest has been in hearing the expression of CDAC that we want to do more to raise up the issue of disabilities in traditional diverse organizations. I would like to focus on turning the needs into action items."

Referring to key points from today's meeting, Mr. Rosen noted that among participants' comments were changing the way that the federal government reaches out to diverse communities and cultures, as well as options for working with traditional civil rights organizations. He challenged the committee to determine which targets are the most feasible and how to collectively select and communicate this to target audiences. Finally, he identified as a possible gap between report findings and actions the lack of communication of information to parties or entities that can help transform ineffective and fragmented processes into seamless and effective systems that support the empowerment of people with disabilities.

Given CDAC members' limited time based on daily commitments, a question was raised about NCD's current priorities and action items. In conjunction with meeting participants remarks about the need for synergy and generating concrete ideas, Mr. Rosen suggested that before developing a roadmap for current work, CDAC also might consider prior committee work that was done along these lines. For example, perhaps: (1) reviewing and referring to the committee's vision and objectives that were set forth during the July 2002 face-to-face meeting in Washington, DC.; and (2) the work that was generated with specific actions developed at NCD's July 2003 Cultural Diversity Initiative Forum.

Comments pertaining to communication included the need for implementing strong and clear personal and interpersonal communications, with attention to CDAC leadership needs, and NCD's role with its limited staff in providing work that is reasonable for strictly voluntary committee members to undertake. In addition, the discussion of more direct Council members' and CDAC communications resulted in a call for a series of near future dialogues--perhaps, bi-monthly. The DFO was asked to work with NCD staff to arrange for such calls as soon as possible. The DFO indicated that participants would be notified by e-mail regarding a proposed schedule.

Regarding a question on the status of the CDI project, the DFO stated that NCD had fulfilled the request to post information on the agency website. Materials include the Outreach and People with Disabilities from Diverse Cultures: A Review of the Literature, with findings and recommendations and a summary of the July 28, 2003 Outreach for All Forum Summary Paper: Paths to Support Individual Empowerment of People with Disabilities from Diverse Cultures proceedings. NCD was also asked to share with the federal agencies the Outreach Toolkit for follow-up and information updates. At the time of today's meeting, NCD had encountered and was beginning to work through unexpected technical issues. CDAC will be provided status updates as work continues, including interagency feedback, added information and links anticipated in the near future.

Continuation of the committee and recruitment of new members to fill the current CDAC vacancies were mentioned briefly. Factors brought to the forefront were the need for attention to various overlaps and to attention to the present committee composition, keeping in mind efforts to achieve balance among the major diverse cultures. Updates on this topic will be included in future meetings.

Business for future meetings: It was noted that two specific items were postponed for future discussion. The first involved the CDAC goals and objectives that were identified in the July 2002 face-to-face meeting. The second was the feasibility of continuing earlier structure for carrying out CDAC efforts through two workgroups--(1) Outreach and Networking Workgroup; and (2) Issues Workgroup.

Adjournment: After a recap of key points from the discussion and an expression of appreciation to all participants for their time and valued input, the meeting was adjourned at 5:10 p.m.