Disability.gov Asks, “What’s Your Connection?”
Disability.gov Asks, Whats Your Connection?
By the Disability.gov Team
There are nearly 57 million individuals with disabilities in the United States, and all of them are connected to the people around them in some way. They are sons and daughters, sisters and brothers, parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, coworkers, neighbors and friends.
Yet people with disabilities are often treated as a separate or special population, although the reality for most is that their lives are not segregated.
Keepingthis in mind, Disability.gov (www.disability.gov), the federal government website for comprehensive information on disability programs and services in communities nationwide, created theWhats Your Connection?initiative to commemorate the sites 10thanniversary.
Launched on October 30, 2012,Whats Your Connection?promotes inclusion and reinforces the idea that people with disabilities, even those who dont identify as having a disability, are not separate, but an integral part of American society.
Has disability touched your life in some way? If so, we want to know how. Disability.gov is asking people nationwide to share their stories in two ways:
- by submitting a photograph online (less than 100KB in JPG format) along with a 250-word maximum caption; or
- by uploading a captioned, one-minute YouTube video that answers the question, Whats Your Connection?
In July 2013, we will pick the top three submissions and ask our Facebook fans to vote on their favorite. Photographs and captions can be emailed todisability@dol.gov; video submissions should be uploaded on YouTube and include the hashtag, #myconnection2, in the title.*
Our goal is to create aWhats Your Connection?movement throughout the country during the next nine months, but we need your help spreading the word. So please post information about the initiative on your Facebook page, tweet about it and tell everyone you meet!
For more information and details on theWhats Your Connection?initiative, please visit Disability.gov atwww.disability.gov/home/newsroom/what's_your_connection.
*By submitting a photograph or uploading a YouTube video with the hashtag, #myconnection2, participants grant permission to the U.S. Department of Labors Office of Disability Employment Policy to display their work on the Disability.gov website; the sites Facebook, Twitter or YouTube page; and future print publications. All submissions will be reviewed and approved by the Disability.gov team prior to being posted on the website or its YouTube page.
ABOUT DISABILITY.GOV
Disability.gov is a federal government website that provides comprehensive information on disability policies, programs and services in communities nationwide. Visitors are connected to thousands of resources from federal, state and local government agencies, academic institutions and nonprofit organizations across 10 main subject areas: Benefits; Civil Rights; Community Life; Education; Emergency Preparedness; Employment; Health; Housing; Technology; and Transportation. The site is managed by the U.S. Department of Labors Office of Disability Employment Policy in collaboration with 21 federal agency partners. For more information, visitwww.Disability.gov.
