she/her
Janine Leffler is a person with disabilities who co-authored the nonfiction children’s book, We Want to Go to School! The Fight for Disability Rights with her mother, Maryann Cocca-Leffler. She works for Vertical Harvest Farms, a company whose award-winning employment model focuses on the individual’s abilities with an inclusive approach. Janine is a passionate reader and reviewer of books. In her spare time Janine loves Broadway plays, writing, and life! She lives in Portland, Maine.
Janine will join Maryann Cocca-Leffler when her schedule allows, in the talk titled: Disability Awareness and The History of Disability Rights
Talks
Disability Awareness and The History of Disability Rights
Janine Leffler will join Maryann Cocca-Leffler for this talk when her schedule allows.
Disability Rights are Civil Rights. The History of Disability Rights were never taught in the classroom and are still overlooked, even though these rights were fought in the 1960-70s, the same time as the Civil Rights Movement. Maryann’s passion for disability rights resulted from a lived experience as she helped her daughter, Janine Leffler, navigate life and laws as a person with disabilities. Maryann uses her two books on Disability Rights to tell the audience about important laws and the people behind them that ultimately led up to the passing of the ADA, including “Mills vs The Board of Education” which ensured a public-school education for all, and the 1977 504 Sit-in, which was instrumental in the passing of section 504.