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LISTEN: Georgia’s leading nonprofit supporting people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) is celebrating the milestone 35th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) this month. The landmark law helped shape more inclusive and accessible services in the Atlanta area. GPB’s Ellen Eldridge has more.
Forty-six years ago, a group of forward-thinking parents of disabled children at Roswell United Methodist Church in Roswell, Ga., created opportunities where there were none for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
They bought a few residential homes on streets in the northern Atlanta suburb and began a small nonprofit that has grown and merged with some other groups to become InCommunity, which serves people with intellectual and developmental disabilities throughout the metro Atlanta area, CEO Meg Blackwood said.
Before the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, the system largely excluded and often institutionalized people who needed such support…