NCD and its federal partners continue to plan for this year's ADA interactive town hall meeting, which will celebrate the 16th anniversary of ADA. The meeting, which is officially known as "A National Dialogue on the State of Disability," will be held July 26, 2006, from 9:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m., at the National Press Club, National Press Building, 529 14th Street, NW, 13th Floor, Washington, DC.

The day will begin with a presentation by NCD Chairperson Lex Frieden on the current state of disability, which will be based on findings from NCD's soon-to-be released annual report, National Disability Policy: A Progress Report. Mr. Frieden's presentation will be followed by a keynote address by Department of Veterans Affairs Deputy Secretary Gordon Mansfield.

We'll then move to the interactive portion of the town hall meeting, with three consecutive panels and an opportunity for audience members to question all the panelists. The three panels are based on the four goals of ADA: equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency. Each panel will consist of four or five high-ranking federal officials and one or two consumers with disabilities. Each panelist will have three minutes to respond to the findings in Mr. Frieden's statement. At the conclusion of all opening statements, the moderator will open up each panel to the audience for a question and answer session. By the way, the moderator will be radio talk show host Greg Smith, who is currently hosting The Strength Coach Radio Show. Mr. Smith is also the founder of On A Roll - Talk Radio on Life and Disability, a nationally syndicated radio show on disability issues that aired on more than 70 radio stations nationwide over 11 years.

E-mail Questions

If you can't attend and would like to submit a question by e-mail for one of the panels, please send it to ncd@ncd.gov. Questions will be selected at random. Please tell us your name and where you live. If you prefer to remain anonymous, we will honor your request.

This town hall meeting is open to the public and free of charge. Reservations not required.