National Disability Employment Awareness Month comes around every year in October, but in Texas, disability awareness gets an extra boost every April with Disability Awareness Week. This year, it is April 14-20, and 2013 is also the 25th anniversary of the event.
Rendell Resneder, an entrepreneur, pastor, and educational computing professional in the Ph.D. program at North Texas State University, founded Disability Awareness Week 25 years ago when he was a freshman in high school. Randell, who is also the Executive Director of Texas Disability Awareness Programs and the current Vice-Chair of the Texas State Independent Living Council, established the event to advocate his “I CAN” philosophy.
Many organizations around Texas that serve people with disabilities have commemorative events planned for this week. The Brazos Valley Center for Independent Living launched Disability Awareness Week on Sunday, April 14 with Dining in the Dark, an event to raise awareness of blindness and low vision and also to raise funds for accessible transportation.
Click here to view a video of Randell Resneder’s story, “Looking Beyond the Obvious,” in which he discusses Disability Awareness Week.