[This message is from David Mitchell, President of Society for Disability
Studies.]
Dear SDS proposers and attendees,
Thank you for your interest in this year's Society for Disability Studies
meeting. I write to you in order to inform all those interested in the
conference about an unfortunate but necessary change in this year's
conference location and dates. During our executive committee meeting in
early December we discovered that the meeting hotel with which we had
contracted was not in full compliance with standards set by the ADA. The
hotel had no accessible restrooms on the main meeting floors and, among
other problems, the accessible hotel rooms were not up to code. The Board
of SDS had been assured that the hotel met accessibility requirements, so
the failure of the hotel to meet our needs was a most upsetting surprise.
Since one of our primary goals is to provide a fully accessible conference
for all participants we felt the necessity of making alternative
arrangements.
Since the original meeting dates (June 17-20) were completely booked up in
the Washington, D.C. area, we were forced to change the meeting dates to
May 27-30, 1999. By switching these dates we were able to contract with
the Hyatt Regency Washington which meets our access requirements and is
also located on a metro stop in downtown D.C. at 400 New Jersey Avenue NW.
As this year's president I am regretful of this last minute change and
would like to apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause
you. The organization's commitment to full access led our thinking in this
matter and I am confident the new arrangement, while inconvenient, will
prove much more acceptable for all of us. I certainly hope that these
changes will not deter or prevent any of you from participating in this
year's meeting.
Even in lieu of these late negotiations we believe that this year's meeting
will prove to be provocative and significant. We already have some key
activities confirmed for the coming meeting including: 1) a special tour
of the new disability exhibit at the Smithsonian institute for all
interested SDS attendees; 2) a keynote address by Gallaudet University
Professor Lois Bragg on Deaf Studies as precursor to Disability Studies; 3)
special disciplinary focus sessions on the transformative relationship of
disability paradigms to the traditional disciplines; and 4) government
panels from officials in the departments of transportation and education.
I welcome each of you to participate in making these events an important
part of the Society's annual meeting and history.
Because of the changes in location and dates I would urge anyone who
submitted a proposal for this year's meeting but cannot attend due to these
changes to please call the new SDS office at the University of Illinois at
Chicago and inform us of your inability to attend as soon as possible so
that we can withdraw your proposal. If you proposed a panel, please notify
them of these changes. Our phone number is: 312-413-1975 (V), 312-413-0453
(TTY). You may also e-mail the office at [log in to unmask] if you would like
further information about these changes. Letters regarding the status of
your proposals will be sent in the near future. Again I sincerely
apologize for any inconvenience this has caused you and hope that each of
you will understand that the changes were warranted by the unfortunate lack
of compliance by the original hotel. Thank you for your understanding on
these matters and I look forward to seeing you in May.
Sincerely,
David T. Mitchell, President
Society for Disability Studies
Barbara Robertson
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Department of Disability and Human Development (MC 626)
University of Illinois at Chicago
(312) 413-1975 (V)
(312) 413-0453 (TTY)
(312) 413-2918 (Fax)
[log in to unmask]
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