In order to complete my undergraduate degree in Rehabilitation and Disability Studies, I had to complete a 600 hour internship. While most of my cohort completed their internships at Physical or Occupational Therapy Clinics, or with Speech Pathologists in the school system, I headed to Montgomery to inter with Graham Sisson, the State of Alabama ADA Coordinator. During this time, I gained more knowledge about the ADA than I ever thought possible. Graham gave me dozens of resources to keep and read through to better understand the requirements and implications set forth by the ADA. I read through hundreds of pages of case law to be able to grasp the furthest successful reaches of lawsuits under the ADA, and that helped give me a solid foundation of both scholarly and practical knowledge of the ADA.

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During my internship, I worked on many different projects. The biggest project was accompanying Graham and a team of specialists to do full accessibility checks of the career centers in the state. We not only surveyed for physical accessibility, but also program and equipment accessibility for people with mobility disabilities, deafness or hard of hearing, or blindness or low vision. This gave me hands on experience with specialists within each of these disabilities, and that helped me understand not only what the requirements were, but why they mattered and why there were needed. This helped shape my perspective on accessibility, and it's now become a part of my daily life to walk into a restaurant or store and the first thing to grab my attention is always whether or not it's fully accessible.

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Some of my other projects included assembling a massive 400+ page resource guide that outlined all of the available resources for Alabamians with disabilities. I also answered phone calls from the ADA hotline, and in these phone calls I would use the resource guide to help give me people the most accurate and up to date information that best fit their needs. I accompanied Graham to countless meetings for non-profits, state agencies, and even a few depositions. Seeing the many different aspects of the State ADA Coordinator job helped me develop an understanding not only of the legal framework of the ADA, but also the citizens it directly impacts.