The History of Commissions On Disability Alliance (CODA)
CODA formed in the spring of 2013 or 2014. Rob Caruso and Girard Plante, then co-chairs of the Newton COD, invited Kristen McCosh of Boston to a meeting. They had been talking about standardizing the APS, Accessible Pedestrian Signals, sounds across neighboring towns and cities to limit confusion.
Together with members of Cambridge and Brookline CODs, this group chose different sounds to signify East/West crossings and North/South crossings. They would be the same through the 4 cities/towns, which made it safer and easier for Blind and low-vision people commuting or traveling between these very interconnected areas.
Upon completing this project, they knew that CODs should be sharing information and best practices, and working on solutions together. They all thought that we needed a group or Alliance of any and all Commissions On Disability. No limit should be set as to membership.
Originally, it was called the Alliance of Commissions On Disability (ACOD) soon to be changed to Commissions On Disability Alliance (CODA).
Disability Policy Consortium came on board a while later, after Jeff Dougan from the MOD sent an email to all CODs across the state. Since then, a DPC community organizer has led the calls - First Colin Killick, then Lenny Somervell, and now R.
