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For Immediate Release
March 3, 2025

 

Oregon celebrates Developmental Disabilities Awareness Always

 

Salem, OR (March 3, 2025) – On March 7, 2025 at noon, people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) and their families, community partners and state agencies will gather at the Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS) Barbara Roberts Human Services Building (500 Summer St. NE, Salem) to kick off Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month. This year’s theme, Disability Awareness Always, highlights that awareness takes more than a month – it’s something we do all year.

Governor Tina Kotek signed a proclamation declaring March 2025 to be DD Awareness Month in Oregon. The proclamation invites everyone to celebrate members of Oregon’s I/DD community and the many ways they contribute to their local communities. The celebration event, organized by the Oregon Council on Developmental Disabilities (OCDD), will feature a reading of the proclamation as well as remarks from:

Nearly 67,000 adults and children in Oregon have developmental disabilities.[i] They live and work side by side with their neighbors to form strong, diverse communities.[ii] The DD Awareness Always theme highlights that every person has valuable strengths, infinite capacity to thrive, and the potential to make important contributions to their local communities. We all deserve to live full lives that include opportunities for competitive, integrated employment, safe and accessible housing, meaningful relationships and access to physical and mental health care.

To learn more about the celebration event and developmental disabilities awareness, visit https://www.ocdd.org/dd-awareness, or call (971) 225-3659.

 

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About OCDD

OCDD in one of 56 Governor-appointed Councils on Developmental Disabilities (DD Councils) across the United States and its territories. The DD Councils support programs that promote self-determination, integration and inclusion for all people in the United States with developmental disabilities. With a vision that all communities welcome and value people with disabilities and their families, OCDD advances social and policy change so that people with developmental disabilities, their families, and communities may live, work, play, and learn together.

 

MEDIA CONTACT: Johanne Regunathan
johanne.regunathan@ocdd.org

 

Sources:

[i] Prevalence of intellectual and developmental disabilities: Estimates from the 1994/1995 National Health Interview Survey Disability Supplements. American Journal on Mental Retardation, 106(3), 231 252.

[ii] Census Bureau population data: https://data.census.gov/profile?q=United%20States&g=010XX00US .
The current national prevalence rate of people with developmental disabilities is 1.58%, determined using the calculation identified in the American Journal on Mental Retardation 1994/1995 National Health Interview Survey Disability Supplements. Larson, S.A., Lakin, K.C., Anderson, L., Kwak, N., Lee, J., & Anderson, D. (2001).