Healthy Living for All: How Sixby'15 Campaign Works to Include People with Disabilities in Public Health

In celebration of the 25^th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Sixby’15 Campaign strives to achieve six goals by the end of 2015 that will directly improve the lives of people with disabilities (PWD) across the country, including the inclusion of PWD in public health programs.   Sixby’15 is led by the Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD), a national network of interdisciplinary centers in every state and territory, which works to advance policies and practices that improve the health, education, social, and economic well-being of all people with disabilities and their communities.  AUCD connects public health partners for systems change efforts such as Sixby’15 in collaboration with state partners. The New York State Department of Health Center for Community Health adopted a policy that all public health programs must explicitly include children and adults with disabilities and their families as a target population in health promotion efforts.  This has served as a model for other states to pursue policy strategies to include PWD as a demographic in public health efforts.  Coalition strategies and political strategies are currently being used to encourage six states to adopt a policy of including PWD in state public health efforts by the end of 2015. Examples of how campaign partners are taking action on this goal from New York, Florida, Massachusetts, Iowa, Rhode Island, Ohio, Delaware, and Michigan will be shared.  National resources from AUCD and local examples and resources from the campaign partner, the National Association of City County Health Officials will be highlighted.