Disability Pride Month Series

In celebration of Disability Pride Month, Northshore Technical Community College's Diversity and Inclusion Committee will host a three-part series highlighting key conversations related to serving students, faculty, and staff with disabilities. Links to each event are provided below.

Disability Pride Month Kick-off

| July 19th - 12:15pm - 1:00pm - Presented by Dr. April Lavergne, Director of Accessibility Services and Student Serivices Coordinator | July is Disability Pride Month! This annual observance is used to promote visibility and mainstream awareness of the positive pride felt by people with disabilities. We will discuss the history of ADA, the Disability Pride Month Flag, and how individuals with disabilities celebrate their heritage, disability culture, and unique experiences as people with differing abilities and the contributions that they offer society.

Beyond Accommodations

| July 20th - 12:15pm - 1:00pm - Presented by Annie Cummer, Founder of Beyond Accommodations | Annie Cummer, Founder of Beyond Accommodations, is a Louisiana native who Graduated from the University of New Orleans with a degree in Human Performance and Health Promotion. Annie, her husband, and oldest son moved to the Northshore in 2010 three weeks before her twins were due. Her twin sons were diagnosed with autism in 2014, and her oldest son was also diagnosed with autism in 2015. Then in 2016 at the age of 42 her husband was diagnosed with Autism. These diagnoses turned Annie from a stay-at-home Mom to a disability advocate. In 2017 she graduated from Partners in Policy Making and in 2020 she began her own business, Beyond Accommodations. After years of seeing the services that are needed for people with disabilities not being provided in our community, she decided to create a business that provided those necessary services. Beyond Accommodations provides training for Relationship and Risk Reduction, Job Coaching, Advocacy, and the latest program is a Social Skills Group.

Sixty-Five Roses-Cystic

| July 22nd - 12:15pm - 1:00pm - Presented by Emily Leitzinger, Associate Executive Director of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Louisiana Chapter | Emily Leitzinger, Associate Executive Director of The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Louisiana Chapter, will discuss Cystic Fibrosis and how individuals with this diagnosis live day to day with the disorder and what they have learned as research and treatment has extended lives and about how the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Supports these individuals.