Acknowledgments

We extend our thanks to the members of the Alliance for Citizens with Disabilities of Hillsborough County, Florida and the Mayor's Alliance for Persons with Disabilities of Tampa, Florida for their support and continuing advocacy on behalf of citizens with disabilities.

Our special gratitude goes out to the hard-working members of the Public Awareness Committee who are able to accomplish so much among their myriad other duties at work and home. It has been a pleasure to work among people who have the amazing ability to get things done. It is through their vision, persistence, and ability to network that this project was able to be completed.

Debra D. Guest, Ed.D., Chairperson
(Florida Department of Children & Families )
(813) 871-7878

Elizabeth Mueller
(Tampa/Hillsborough County Public Library System)

Melinda Wheatley
(Hillsborough County Parks & Recreation)

Sandy Sroka
(Hillsborough County ADA Coordinator)

We are truly indebted to the extensive research, on-line and off-line, conducted by Elizabeth Mueller which identified the vast majority of the persons included as well as the references to substantiate the findings.

Also, we are particularly grateful for the persistence of Carolyn Valdez of the Florida Department of Children & Families and her amazing abilities to decipher handwritten notes as well as for word processing each entry in this document. We must also thank Robin Stawski, Hillsborough Community College student, Shriner’s Hospital volunteer, and summer employee of the Hillsborough County Parks and Recreation Department for her intrepid internet connections which were invaluable in locating elusive graphics for the accompanying display.

Myriad thanks to Liz, Melinda, Sandy, Carolyn, and Robin. Without you this effort would have extended into the new millennium.