Disability Advocate and Artist Derek Heard Uses His Skills to Inspire Voters with Disabilities

Every election presents an opportunity for people to shape the future of their communities. Voting allows people to lend their voices to improving their city, state, or country. Derek Heard, an Albany native with autism, is developing a voter education campaign. The campaign uplifts the voices of individuals with disabilities and encourages them to exercise their right to vote. Using his two passions – art and activism – he is creating a documentary, Doodling for Democracy. The documentary shares his experience navigating the voting system as a person with a disability. It shows how his mentors and allies supported him.

“[Doodling for Democracy] is about teaching young people why voting is important,” said Heard. “It’s also about how allies teach me how to vote and make choices.”

While in high school, Derek was offered a job stacking clothes hangers. He declined the job offer. He explained that he already had a dream job as a graphic artist. With the help of his mentors, he learned that he was fully capable of pursuing his dreams. He learned that he should not limit himself due to his disability. 

The Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities (GCDD) is driven by its Five Year Strategic Plan goals to improve services and supports for people with intellectual and other developmental disabilities (I/DD). The Council, charged with creating systems change for individuals with developmental disabilities and family members, will work through various advocacy and capacity building activities to build a more interdependent, self-sufficient, and integrated and included disability community across Georgia.

This project was supported, in part by grant number 2001GASCDD-03, from the U.S. Administration for Community Living, Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, D.C. 20201. Grantees undertaking projects with government sponsorship are encouraged to express freely their findings and conclusions. Points of view or opinions do not, therefore, necessarily represent official ACL policy.