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A graduate of the LEND program at the Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities, Kenneth Kelty won a national video competition in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the American with Disabilities Act.


Kenneth Kelty, a graduate of the Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disorders Program at the Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities (CIDD), won The Tuesdays with Liz video contest, a national competition sponsored by the Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD) to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Tuesday’s with Liz is a weekly video series highlighting current issues in disability policy hosted by Liz Weintraub, a long-time disability advocate, and produced by AUCD.

LEND is funded by the Maternal Child Health Bureau, a federal program within the Department of Health and Human Services, to support training of various health providers in the developmental disabilities field, including self-advocates, such as individuals with developmental disabilities who themselves attend the program side by side with other individuals who do not have a developmental disability.

Kenneth, who has autism, also won the Laura Lee Self-Advocate Leadership Award in 2017, the year he completed the UNC LEND program.

Thanks to LEND Program at CIDD, Kenneth said, “I was able to be a part of a wonderful leadership program for a person with a disability and for self-advocacy. And thanks to the ADA, I was able to get an education at an early age, which allowed me to have some inclusion with my typically-developing peers, and I was able to gain self-determination down the road.”

Kenneth went on to graduate from Western Carolina, through its two-year University Participant Program.

“Kenneth is a remarkable man,” said CIDD director Joseph Piven, MD. “He’s a tremendous advocate who often gives talks around the country about coping with developmental disabilities. He shows us every day how much we all can achieve.”

Kenneth’s video can be viewed here.

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