Chet Cooper, is best known as a leading advocate for people with disabilities, most notably in the areas of education, equal employment, and housing.http://abilitymagazine.com/ChetBio.htm , ABILITY Magazine, Chet Cooper Biography Cooper is the founder/creator of ''

ABILITY Magazine ''Ability'' is an American bimonthly magazine founded by Chet Cooper in 1990, and launched as the first newsstand magazine focused on issues of health and disability. ''Ability'' is ranked in the Top 50 Magazines in the World — ,and is the mag ...

'', ABILITY Awareness, and JobAccess.org.

ABILITY Magazine

In 1991 Cooper launched ''ABILITY Magazine'', the first newsstand magazine focusing on issues of health and disability., Ketupa.net, A Media Industry Resource Distributed by Time Warner, ''ABILITY Magazine'' is a bimonthly (6 issues annually) publication.

ABILITY Awareness

In 1995 Cooper founded ABILITY Awareness, a non-profit foundation dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for people with disabilities through housing, employment, education, media and volunteer opportunities. In response to the growing population of low-income people with disabilities, Cooper created ABILITY House, a program of ABILITY Awareness. Partnering with

Habitat for Humanity Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI), generally referred to as Habitat for Humanity or Habitat, is a US non-governmental, and nonprofit organization which was founded in 1976 by couple Millard and Linda Fuller. Habitat for Humanity is a Ch ...

, ABILITY House creates accessible homes for low income persons all over the United States, including Oahu, Hawaii."Ability House Meets Habitat For Humanity.
MidWeek Windward Pa'ina May 03, 2006. ABILITY Awareness created the ABILITY Magazine Award (via ThinkQuest Internet Challenge), which provides scholarships to winning teams of students where one or more members have a disability.

ABILITY Jobs - abilityjobs.com

Ability Jobs - Online job board

Cooper also developed abilityjobs.com (formerly JobAccess.org), an internet employment site for people with disabilities. Abilityjobs.com helps those with disabilities find jobs within companies, government and non-profit organizations. According to Cooper, eighty percent of workers with disabilities are unemployed looking at the Percent of Population in Labor Force numbers the government provides. However, many have given up searching for work after countless unsuccessful attempts. As a result, they no longer are classified as unemployed and consequently government estimates of disabled people without work is substantially less than the real number., Colby, Jamie. "Employment for People With Disabilities." Fox News December 23, 2009.

Ability Job Fair - Online career fair

Continuing his work to improve employment for people with disabilities, he started ABILITYJobFair.org, an online, face-to-face career fair experience for job seekers with disabilities and recruiters.

Awards and Recognitions

He has been honored by President George W. Bush at a private White House ceremony where he was presented with the President's Community Volunteer Award, the highest national honor bestowed upon a volunteer. Chet Cooper has further been recognized by the California Governor's Committee for "exemplary leadership in the community" and has received a special Congressional recognition for outstanding community service and the Easter Seals Awareness Award, to name a few.

Public Speaking

He is a member of the California Governor's Media Access board, Rosalynn Carter's Mental Health Partnership Steering Council and serves on committees for COSD (Career Opportunities for Students with Disabilities), Actors with Disabilities Showcase and LAP (Local Access Place). Cooper is a speaker and has addressed audiences on both national and local levels including serving as the keynote speaker at the President's Committee on the Employment of People with Disabilities national conference and two-time speaker at the National Community Service Conference, which was held in conjunction with the

Points of Light Foundation Points of Light is an international nonprofit, nonpartisan organization headquartered in Georgia, United States dedicated to engaging more people and resources in solving serious social problems through voluntary service. Each year, Points of ...

. He has spoken in Switzerland, China (Beijing, Wuhan, Guangzhou, Hong Kong), Israel, England, Abu Dhabi, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Armenia, Qatar, and Scotland. Chet Cooper has also been pontificating about the power social media has on promoting awareness for disability issues. From speaking to the UN on September 7, 2011,,"How to Engage Media to Promote Awareness."
Inclusive September 7, 2011. to organizing and moderating the first panel at the UN on disability and social media on September 13, 2012, ,"UN Enable." Cooper continues to present the tremendous influence such social media channels as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube have. He discusses social media tools, their measurable performance, Web influencers, value of unique information and content generation.,"Social Media and Disability." United States International Council on Disabilities.

Personal life

Cooper has personally been diagnosed with

ADHD Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by excessive amounts of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity that are pervasive, impairing in multiple contexts, and otherwise age-inapp ...

Dyslexia Dyslexia, also known until the 1960s as word blindness, is a disorder characterized by reading below the expected level for one's age. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, r ...

, and shares family members also with disabilities,, Gee, Elise. "Rebuilding their abilities.
Daily Pilot October 30, 1999. Cooper has completed an undergraduate degree in biology at California Poly Tech and attended law school at Western State University.

References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, Chet American magazine publishers (people) American disability rights activists Living people Year of birth missing (living people)