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Campaign Works To Combat Stigma Against People With Disabilities

Photo courtesy of Oregon Supported Living Program

In 2009, Full Access and the Oregon Supported Living Program, started the “Look Me In The Eye” campaign. The initiative addresses exclusion that people with disabilities often face.

Both Full Access and OSLP provide services for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, or I/DD. Gretchen Dubie, the executive director of OSLP, said the campaign gives adults with I/DD a platform.

Credit Melorie Begay/KLCC News
Gretchen Dubie, Executive Director of Oregon Supported Living

“It’s been a nice bridge in our community for people to just put aside all preconceived notions, all of the stigmatism that’s associated with a disability and just be human to human and make that human connection,” Gretchen Dubie, executive director of OSLP, said.

Dubie said the campaign does public talks and visits schools with adults with I/DD. They also support student led clubs that are based on the initiative.

10 years ago, then Mayor of Eugene Kitty Piercy signed a proclamation designating September as “Look Me In The Eye” month.

Melorie Begay is a multimedia journalist for KLCC News. She was the Inaugural KLCC Public Radio Foundation Journalism Fellow. She has a bachelors in Multimedia Journalism from the University of New Mexico. She previously interned at KUNM public radio in Albuquerque, NM and served as a fellow for the online news publication New Mexico In Depth.