The in-person event will run from 1:30-4:30pm EST.

The doors to the event will open at 1pm, and you'll have a full half hour to find a seat and get settled. The full event will run until 4:30pm.

• 1:00-1:30 Doors open, get settled, take your seats. 
• 1:30-1:40 Opening remarks from the CDCI and the filmmakers
• 1:40-2:40 Film 1: Including Samuel (56 minutes)
• 2:40-3:00 Break. (20 minutes)
• 3:00-3:30 Film 2: My Disability Roadmap (27 minutes with pre-audio description)
• 3:30-4:30 Conversation with the filmmakers

CDCI is requesting that all guests wear masks while attending this film event.

This is because masks help fight the spread of COVID-19, and other airborne illnesses. If you arrive without a mask, we will ask you to put one on, and we will have free disposable masks available for anyone who needs one. You may also be approached by event staff who will request that you wear a mask.

Available Accessibility Features of the Films

The two films will be shown at the Davis Center with both captions and audio description on. The lights will be dimmed as much as possible. If you would like to watch the films without captions or audio description, we can email you a link where you can watch the films online and control captions and audio description.

The Physical Location of the Event

This event is being held on the 4th floor of the Davis Center on the UVM campus. There is accessible parking in four nearby parking lots. The building has two sets of elevators. The ballroom itself seats 200 people, and we will reserve seating up front for people in wheelchairs and their carers. You are welcome to bring your service animal to the event. 

We will also have several small rooms outside the ballroom if you or a member of your party need to use a smaller, calmer space for decompression. There are also stuffed armchairs and a fireplace outside the ballroom.

Synopsis of "My Disability Roadmap"

Samuel Habib is a 21-year-old community college student with cerebral palsy and epilepsy, living in Concord, New Hampshire. For his entire K-12 education, he was included in regular classes, learning alongside non-disabled peers. He attended high school prom, played sports, got his high school diploma, and he’s pursuing a degree at a local community college. He’s interested in journalism and film as a career.

But for Samuel and millions of other young adults with disabilities, the path beyond public school and into adulthood is a precarious maze. It’s difficult to meet new people and impossible to get his 350-pound wheelchair inside his friends’ homes and cars. He thrives on connection, but with his labored speech and use of a communication device, he can’t keep up with his fast-talking friends and family. He can have a seizure at any moment and requires 24/7 support, yet he wants to get married and have children someday. How to even start dating? “I want to figure out how to follow my dreams,” he says. “But no one tells you how to be an adult, let alone an adult with a disability.”

Samuel is struggling to navigate the ableist bias of the physical and social environment. But he’s determined to avoid the statistical realities for most adults with disabilities: unemployed, isolated, and living with their families—or in institutional settings. He decides to travel to meet some badass adults with disabilities and make a film that charts how they built full adult lives—as a roadmap for himself and others.

CDCI is dedicated to ensuring that our events and gatherings are an inclusive, respectful, productive, and harassment-free experience for everyone.

This is regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, citizenship status, physical or mental ability, color, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, national origin, marital status or partnership status, pregnancy or lactation status, religion or creed, status as a veteran or active military service member or any other basis protected by U.S. federal, state, or local laws.

• Be kind to your own body, and to the bodies around you.
• Please feel free to move around the event space freely as you attend to the needs of your body.
• No one is watching you if you need to leave the space to go to the restroom, stretch, get some air, or simply decompress. Everyone is much more focused on their own bodies.
• Unwrap and eat your snacks with our blessing. The wrapper might crinkle, but we need you to stay fed and well throughout.
• If you prefer wearing noise-dampening or other types of headphones to the event, please feel free to do so.
• Everybody brought a different kind of body to this event. Be respectful of other bodies and their needs and experiences.
• Keep your hands off other bodies unless given explicit consent by another person. This includes not touching mobility aids such as wheelchairs, canes, and walkers, or headphones, all of which are extensions of another person’s body.
• If you see a service animal at this event, that animal is hard at work. Please do not pet it or otherwise disturb it from doing its job without express invitation.

Our partnership with the 2023 VFN Conference

The Vermont Family Network’s 2023 Conference “Inclusion and Well-Being”, will also be held on Tuesday, April 11th at the UVM Dudley H. Davis Center from 9:00 a.m - 1:00 p.m. EST.

VFN Executive Director, Jacqui Kelleher and Vermont Agency of Education guests, Betty Roy and Cassie Sant,o will start the day talking about “Building Inclusive Systems.” Then featured presenter Dr. Joelle van Lent, will focus on the “Well-Being and Resilience of Caregivers.” Families and helping professionals will learn practical strategies that can be used to buffer impact and increase the resilience of the care provider. For more information and to register please visit the VFN Annual Conference page.

Our film event is separate from the conference, and you will need to register for the conference and the film separately.

Directions to the UVM Davis Center

From the I-89 freeway: Get off at exit 14 West. Head west along Main Street, past the Michaels shopping center, and straight up the slight hill. Take a slight right at the sign for the Davis Center.

From downtown Burlington: Head east on Pearl Street / Colchester Avenue until you reach East Avenue. East Avenue is where Mann Hall is located. Turn right onto East Avenue. Head south along East Avenue and turn right at the first set of traffic lights. Go up the short steep hill and go straight at the next set of traffic lights. Immediately after those lights, turn left. The Davis Center parking lot will be on your left. 

Parking at the Davis Center

There is a large parking lot to the east of the Davis Center. Visitor parking is marked with green signs.

If you do not have a handicapped parking placard:

UVM uses an app called "ParkMobile" to accept payment for parking. Download the ParkMobile app. Create an account on it, and follow the directions on the green signs to tell the app where you are parking.

If you have a handicapped parking placard:

If you have a current, valid and active handicapped parking placard, you may park for free in any parking space at UVM, unless it is reserved.

Parking spaces may be reserved for electric vehicles, service vehicles, loading and unloading, or for particular people at UVM, such as the Provost. You may not park in those spaces. If you park in a reserved space, your car will get towed.

But if you have a valid handicapped parking placard, you may park in any other space on the UVM campus -- reserved handicapped parking or not, and regardless of whether you have a UVM parking permit.

Map of Accessible Parking Around the Davis Center

Here is a map showing reserved accessible parking around the Davis Center. 

Click or tap the map image to make it larger.

• There is a large parking lot to the east of the Davis Center. 
• There is some reserved accessible parking in the oval to the east of the Davis Center.
• There is more reserved accessible parking to the west of the Davis Center, between the Davis Center and Merrill Hall. 
• There is more reserved accessible parking to the south of the Davis Center, across Main Street. These spaces are next to a glass house where you can take an elevator down to a lower level, and then travel under the street to reach the Davis Center.