College of Education and Social Services

Center on Disability and Community Inclusion

About the CDCI

Max Barrows, Outreach Director of Green Mountain Self-Advocates describes "Nothing About Us Without Us" the motto of the disability self-advocacy movement.

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We believe disability is an equity issue.

And we work to create a space where people with disabilities and their families, are fully included in their homes, schools, and communities.

OUR MISSION:

To connect Vermonters with disabilities with services and resources to participate fully in the communities of their choosing.
To connect learners with classes, scholarship and opportunities to make disability a professional priority.
To connect the dots through research into how things are, and how people with disabilities want them to be.

WHAT WE DO:

WE PROVIDE SERVICES:

We're home to 17 active projects serving different areas of disability access and inclusion, such as the Vermont Continence Project, Project SCOPE VT, Vermont Early Mobility, and the UVM Autism Collaborative.
We share resources related to digital and physical accessibility, such as the CDCI Accessible Events Guide (.pdf).
We support other disability advocacy groups around Vermont with funding and promotional work.
We work as part of the Vermont Community of Practice in examining how Vermont's disability advocacy can and must be responsive to issues of diversity, including racism, homophobia, sexism, classism, and language bias.

WE TEACH:

We offer a graduate certificate in disability studies, taught by and with people with disabilities.
We're home to the innovative and nationally recognized Think College VT program, that provides students with disabilities supported access to an undergraduate education at the University of Vermont.
We partner with people with disabilities in creating courses with other departments, such as this Global Disabilities course in the Special Education department.
We work to use Universal Design for Learning (UDL) strategies to promote inclusion, diversity, and self-determination.

WE RESEARCH:

We conduct research to improve disability services and advocacy policies. In 2022, our research into the suspension and expulsion of children with disabilities in Vermont (video) was instrumental in creating new legislation around early childhood education.
We partner with researchers in our college, university, and other organizations in prioritizing disability advocacy in research.
We share our own and other people's research in multiple accessible formats.

OUR VALUES:

Disability is one form of diversity and it requires cultural and linguistic competency. Diversity is essential to everyone's success.
All services and supports for children and youth should be family-centered.
All services and supports for adults should be person-centered. Individuals and families should have personal choice and control over their lives.
All children should live in safe homes with their families. As people mature they should have the opportunity to live in homes of their own with appropriate community supports.
All supports should be within the community. Individuals and families needing supports should exercise control over funding, delivery, and quality of supports.
Everyone should have access to personally meaningful places and activities. Opportunities should be available for everyone to develop networks of meaningful relationships.
Effective change stems from a strengths-based approach, rather than a problems approach. That means first looking for the positive rather than the negative, and building from there.
Prevention, rather than crisis intervention.

What's a UCEDD?

The CDCI is Vermont’s University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities Education, Research, and Service, otherwise known as a UCEDD. That means we're one of 67 centers nationwide funded by the Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act.

Funding: This project is supported in part by grant number 90DDUC0062, from the U.S. Administration for Community Living, Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, D.C. 20201. Grantees undertaking projects with government sponsorship are encouraged to express freely their findings and conclusions. Points of view or opinions do not, therefore, necessarily represent official ACL policy.

CDCI's Copyright Policy

The CDCI respects copyright, and commits to using materials with consent, giving credit when asked, and being transparent about fair-use.

The CDCI licenses all our materials including websites, videos, podcast episodes and reference guides, with Creative Commons 4.0.

This license is often abbreviated as "CC BY-NC-SA 4.0".

This means that we welcome you to use and reproduce our materials for non-commercial purposes ("NC") as long as you give us credit ("BY"). It also means that you cannot claim copyright over those materials; this is called "Share-Alike" ("SA").

If you have questions about copyright and our materials, please contact us, or email Audrey Homan directly.

CDCI Image credits

CDCI's Accessibility Policy

CDCI aims to make all its websites and digital materials meet the AA-level of accessibility as specified by the 2.1 Web Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

At a minimum, that means we commit to:

Videos with captions
Audio with transcripts
Images with meaningful alt-text or an image description
Best practices in web design

But we also welcome questions and requests around accessibility that goes beyond those guidelines.

If you'd like the materials on this website in a different format, would like materials presented in a specific way, or have other questions about accessibility, please email Audrey Homan.