Clift’s Notes

Highlights from the Memphis Advisory Council for Citizens with Disabilities

By Christina Clift
The Housing, Accessibility, and Recreation committee is busy working to amend the city of Memphis ordinance that was passed two years ago that ensures all newly built single-family housing be visitable. Visitability is a no-step entrance to a home and all doorways must be at least 32 inches wide. 

This ordinance is often refereed to as the Visit Ability Ordinance.   The committee hopes to amend the ordinance to include a usable bathroom on the first floor also.  To get more information on how you can become involved with this committee please contact chairperson: Louis Patrick via e-mail at lpat@aol.com.

The Memphis Advisory Council for Citizens with Disabilities Employment and Education Committee was proud to partner with Shelby County Schools to make this year's Disability Mentoring Day a success.  This has been the best year since the beginning of observing Disability Mentoring Day with 500 high school students and 39 companies participating in the event. 

DMD was held on Wednesday October 26, 2016 and students from across Shelby County were given the opportunity to get a glimpse at possible jobs.  Companies that participated in this year's Disability Mentoring Day included: Marshall's, Gordon’s Body Shop, Goodwill Industries, Memphis Humane Society, Palazola Produce, Deaf Connect, At Home, Incredible Pizza, FedEx Ground, Lit Restaurant Supply Co., Hicks Convention Service, Spring Creek Ranch, Medtronic, Memphis Zoo, Marriot Hotel, Ave' Maria House, Hilton Hotel Memphis, Sam’s Club, Well Child, WalMart, Workforce Investment Network, Shelby County Schools Telecommunications, WMC TV, Sweet Potato Baby Cafe, 6 Home Depot locations, 5 Lowe’s locations, 2 Nike locations, and 2 Memphis Redbirds areas.

A big thanks to those companies who've partnered for this event since the beginning and welcome aboard to those companies who participated for the first time.  To become a part of this committee please contact chairperson: Veronica MacKinney via e-mail at vmac@utk.edu.

The Disability Awareness Committee is currently awaiting official approval of a new brochure that will inform individuals about who and what the Memphis Advisory Council for Citizens with Disabilities is and does.  They are also currently developing a town hall listening tour to provide information about existing policies that impact people with disabilities and to gather feedback from the community about problems they encounter in their everyday lives.  The town hall meetings will be held at locations around the city to ensure maximum participation and input by the disability community.  For more information contact chairperson: Christina Clift via e-mail at christina@mcil.org.

The Transportation committee is working with MATA to begin gathering information and reports on how MATA is doing.  They will look at performance indicators such as on-time performance, hold times, late trips, and more. This partnership is new but exciting to watch.  To become involved with this committee contact Chairperson: Louis Patrick via e-mail at lpat@aol.com.