WHAT'S HAPPENING

Sweden Selected to Host the 2021 Special Olympics World Winter Games

Sweden has been granted the opportunity to host Special Olympics' flagship sporting event, the World Winter Games in 2021. The Special Olympics World Games is one of the largest sporting events on the planet, and inspires, promotes and advances a world of full inclusion for people with intellectual disabilities. Taking place every two years and alternating between Summer and Winter Games, the World Games are broadcast globally in more than 150 countries attracting more than 2,500 journalists.

The 2021 Games are expected to host 2,000 athletes and Unified Sports Partners from 105 nations who will participate in nine various sport disciplines. Unified Sports is an inclusive sports program that combines an equal number of individuals with intellectual disabilities and individuals without intellectual disabilities. They will be joined by more than 3,000 volunteers as well as 5,000 family members.

A signature aspect of the Swedish bid was its focus on investment in public health for people with intellectual disabilities. Other features of the bid were a drive for more people with and without intellectual disabilities in organized sports; more people with intellectual disabilities active in sports at school; changing attitudes about people with intellectual disabilities; and an increased knowledge in society about people with intellectual disabilities and the way they are treated.

As Sweden celebrates the winning bid, the final countdown to the 2019 Special Olympics World Games has begun. The Games will take place in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, March 14 - 21, 2019. Visit hwww.specialolympics.org

WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM ANNUAL MEETING 2019 TO HIGHLIGHT DISABILITY INCLUSION

The need to build a more inclusive society must include the estimated 1 billion people in the world living with a disability. This will be a key message at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2019, January 22-25, in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland.

DESIGNED FOR INCLUSION: A presentation at the 2016 Tokyo Forum; This year's annual meeting will host a major exhibition, ACCESS+ABILITY

The meeting will bring together over 3,000 participants from government, international organizations, business, civil society, media, culture, as well as the foremost experts and young people from all over the world. Under the theme, Globalization 4.0: Creating a Global Architecture in the Age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, participants will focus on identifying new ideas and solutions to ensure that any further global integration will be more inclusive and sustainable. To highlight that inclusion must extend to those with disabilities and that people with disabilities have much to offer society and the economy, the Annual Meeting will host a major exhibition, ACCESS+ABILITY. Developed in collaboration with Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, it will feature designs made with and by people with disabilities and demonstrate that designing for inclusion spurs innovation and benefits everyone. Items include an eye-tracking device for hands-free communication, adaptive clothing and a Braille smartwatch.

Among disability advocates participating in the Annual Meeting are: Gina Badenoch, social entrepreneur; Susanne Bruyère, director, Institute on Employment and Disability, Cornell University; Sinéad Burke, writer and educator; Caroline Casey, inclu sivity activist; Yetnebersh Nigussie, lawyer and educator; Paul Polman, CEO, Unilever; Susannah Rodgers, paralympian athlete; and Thorkill Sonne, social entrepreneur. "With people living longer and chronic health conditions increasing, most individuals will experience disability at some point during life. Caring for people with disabilities is in everyone's interest. Together, we must design a more inclusive world that takes care of everyone's current and future needs," said Nico Daswani, Head of Arts and Culture at the World Economic Forum.

ACCESS AND ABILITY : SESSIONS ON DISABILITY INCLUSION

TUESDAY, JANUARY 22 Betazone: Designing for Everyone Stories of inclusive designs and best practices. With Sinéad Burke, writer; and Caroline Baumann, Director, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 23 Workshop: Making Disability Inclusion Work Workshop with practical toolkit for making organizations more accessible. With Susan Bruyere, Cornell University.

THURSDAy, JANUARy 24 Panel Discussion: An Inclusive Future of Education Dialogue on how to build disability-inclusive school and education systems. With Yetnebersh Nigussie, lawyer and educator.

PRESS CONFERENCE The #valuable Campaign Campaign aimed at committing 500 businesses to putting disability on the boardroom agenda. With Paul Polman, CEO, Unilever; and Caroline Casey, inclusivity activist.

PANEL DISCUSSION The Business Case for Disability Inclusion Setting an ambitious new standard for disability inclusion in 2019. With Paul Polman, CEO, Unilever.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

Sensory Dinner in the Dark. A collective experience in total darkness, led by visually-impaired guides, which aims to change perceptions of the self and what people with different abilities can do. In collaboration with Sight of Emotion.

#valuable Campaign. A worldwide call to action for business, to position disability on the business agenda and recognize the value and worth of the 1 billion people globally living with a disability. for more information, please visit weforum.org

ANNOUNCING THE 2019 AAPD PAUL G. HEARNE EMERGING LEADER AWARD RECIPIENTS

Through the AAPD Paul G. Hearne Emerging Leader Awards, the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) recognizes outstanding emerging leaders with disabilities who exemplify leadership, advocacy, and dedication to the broader cross-disability community.

Two individuals each receive $2,500 in recognition of their outstanding contributions and $7,500 to further a new or existing initiative that increases the political and economic power of people with disabilities.

AAPD is proud to recognize Sarah Blahovec and Dustin Gibson as the recipients of the 2019 AAPD Paul G. Hearne Emerging Leader Awards. Sarah Blahovec is a chronically ill disability advocate. Diagnosed with severe Crohn's Disease at age 15, Sarah has always had a passion for politics and focuses her advocacy on civic engagement and issues that intersect the chronic illness and disability communities. She graduated from American University in 2014 with a bachelor's degree in International Studies, and after struggling to find mentors with disabilities in her field, began blogging about disability rights for the Huffington Post. Sarah is currently the Disability Vote Organizer for the National Council on Independent Living, where she advocates for greater accessibility in elections; educates the disability community on voting rights and works to energize a disability voting bloc; and addresses barriers to running for office for people with disabilities. Sarah is also a founding board member, former Access and Inclusion chair, and current Communications chair of New Leaders Council of Virginia, which equips diverse Millennial leaders in Virginia with the skills to impact progressive change in their communities.

PROVEN LEADERS: Emerging Leader Award winners Sarah Blahovec and Dustin Gibson are "working on leading-edge issues that are lifting up the voices and advancing the rights and inclusion of multi-marginalized youth and adults with disabilities."

With the 2019 Paul G. Hearne Emerging Leader Award, Sarah is thrilled to establish the first campaign training curriculum for people with disabilities who want to run for elected office. While this online campaign training course will be open to all, it will specifically focus on bringing together trainers from marginalized communities and multi-marginalized people with disabilities who have run for office in the past, to teach essential skills on running for office from an intersectional perspective, and to intentionally uplift prospective disabled candidates of color, women, religious minorities, and/or members of the LGBTQIA+ community.

Dustin Gibson is a community builder who develops "heartwork" to expand the collective consciousness of marginalized communities and address the nexus between race, class, and disability. He works across classrooms, neighborhoods, kid jails, and adult prisons to support individuals in finding home and engage in creating a world without jails and prisons.

Dustin works beside community members and grassroots organizations to lead campaigns and build coalitions to eliminate police violence, address community needs, end the criminalization of students – specifically black, disabled students – and advocate for the implementation of policy and legislation to reduce harm.

He has worked with all three Centers for Independent Living in the Pittsburgh region and has held positions with national independent living organizations. He co-founded Disability Advocates for Rights and Transition, an organization led by disabled people that works to end forced institutionalization of disabled people and assist them in navigating systems to live in the community of their choosing with the dignity of risk.

As a founding member of the PROVEN LEADERS: Emerging Leader Award winners Sarah Blahovec and Dustin Gibson are "working on leading-edge issues that are lifting up the voices and advancing the rights and inclusion of multi-marginalized youth and adults with disabilities." Harriet Tubman Collective and co-creator of We Can't Breathe: The Deaf & Disabled Margin of Police Brutality Project, Dustin travels across the United States to build collective power within multiply-marginalized commu nities and construct alternatives to systems of policing and imprisonment.

With the 2019 Paul G. Hearne Emerging Leader Award, Dustin will work alongside youth who are or have been incarcerated, to build a critical disability lens, gain historical context to current systems, and provide resources to assist them in thinking through issues and strategizing points of advocacy to organize themselves. The recipients of the 2019 AAPD Paul G. Hearne Emerging Leader Awards will be honored at the 2019 AAPD Leadership Awards Gala in Washington, DC on March 12, 2019. You can learn more about this year's award recipients on the AAPD website ( aapd.com).

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