Road To Freedom Bus Tour

ADA Watch/CDRJ work to AMPLIFY the voices of the U.S. disability rights movement.

Promoting disability rights as fundamental civil and human rights, our brightly branded red, white and blue Road To Freedom bus has traveled to every state in the continental United States. Combining mobile cause marketing with media outreach, concerts, petitions and voter registration drives, the tour features a multimedia history exhibit of the disability rights movement. Bus stops include state capitols, city halls, sports stadiums, national parks and other sites. One particularly effective bus stop took place at the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Arkansas. Local advocates were grateful that the nonpartisan event attracted policymakers and media whose attention they had previously struggled to obtain.

“This was a monumental event for us,” said Billy Altom, then-executive director of the Delta Resource Center for Independent Living. “The message of civil rights for people with disabilities went out all over the state! The governor was there! Every newspaper and TV station was there! And we had disability advocates from every major group in the state!”

Upon passage of the ADA Amendments Act, and along with many of our colleagues, ADA Watch/CDRJ was thanked on the floor of the U.S. Senate for traveling the U.S. and educating Americans about the threats to our rights and freedoms, as well as the need for restoring ADA protections which had been weakened in the courts.