To coincide with the 20th anniversary of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Starkville Board of Aldermen has declared Saturday Disability Awareness Day and plans to attend a series of events being held at the Starkville Community Market.
Along with disability simulations for the public, the city”s elected leaders and department heads will go on an accessibility scavenger hunt, where they will sit in wheelchairs and wear goggles and attempt to find items at several different locations.
“We”ll send them out so they can see how accessible our city is or is not,” said Janie Cirlot-New, director of Mississippi State University”s T.K. Martin Center for Technology and Disability.
The T.K. Martin Center is one of a half-dozen local disability-related agencies that will set up booths at the market. The Mississippi Department of Rehabilitation, the Department of Health, the Oktibbeha County Emergency Management Agency and other organizations also will be in attendance.
Starkville Mayor Parker Wiseman will speak at 8:30 a.m. The scavenger hunt and adaptive van demonstration will begin at 9 a.m.
Also Saturday, the “Express Yourself Art Exhibit” will be open at the Greater Starkville Development Partnership”s welcome center, located at the corner of Main Street and Lafayette Street, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. and feature artwork created by artists with disabilities.
The Starkville Community Market is located at the corner of Jackson and Lampkin streets.
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