Statewide Advisory Council

About SAC
Meet the SAC Executive Committee
Council Nomination

About SAC

The Assistive Technology Act of 1998 as amended in 2004 requires the establishment of an advisory council to provide consumer-responsive, consumer-driven advice to the state for planning, implementation, and evaluation of the activities carried out through the grant, including setting measurable goals. Alabama’s Statewide Advisory Council ( SAC ) currently has a general membership of 18 members (with an additional 17 considered ex-officio members). Fifty-two percent of the SAC are individuals with disabilities who use AT or families of individuals with disabilities who use AT. The SAC also has state agency representation, including the Blind/Deaf Services section and Vocational Rehabilitation Service division of the Alabama Department of Rehabilitation Services, the Center for Independent Living, State Department of Education, and the Alabama Office of Workforce Development.

Members of the SAC live in counties throughout the state to ensure representation from both rural and urban areas of Alabama and are representative of the racial and ethnic diversity of the state.

Meet the SAC Executive Committee

Graham Sisson, chairperson
A 1990 graduate of Vanderbilt Law School, Mr. Sisson was in private practice specializing in disability law before being appointed deputy attorney general/assistant attorney general with the Alabama Department of Rehabilitation Services in 1998. He also serves as the coordinator of Alabama’s Americans with Disabilities Act information line and is an adjunct professor of law with the Birmingham School of Law, where he teaches disability law. In January 2006, he began teaching a doctoral course in disability law and history as a visiting professor at Auburn University. During his career, he has given more than 400 speeches/lectures on the Americans with Disabilities Act and related laws.

Barbara Crozier, vice chairperson
Barbara Crozier is the executive director of the Governor’s Office on Disability (GOOD) in Montgomery. Active in disability policy and health care issues, she has chaired the Alabama Disability Commission for many years. She has also advocated successfully for the passage of disability legislation. Ms. Crozier has served on the Easter Seals Alabama Board, the Alabama Workforce Investment Board, the State Health Coordinating Council, the Alabama Rehabilitation Council, and was the governor’s designee on the Board of Trustees of the Alabama Institute of Deaf and Blind. Her goal is to help set policies that enable all people to live in their own communities and maintain quality of life with independence, dignity, choice, and the appropriate supports.

Debbie Culver, recording secretary
Debbie began her working career in August 1980 in Gadsden, Alabama, where she worked as a teacher’s aide with the Gadsden City School System for six years. In June 1986, she joined the Alabama Department of Rehabilitation Services as a rehabilitation teacher for one and a half years before becoming rehabilitation counselor for the blind, a position she held for 15 years. In December 2003, she was appointed coordinator of blind services. She received her bachelor’s degree in social work and her master’s in rehabilitation counseling from the University of Alabama.

Cheryl Smith, treasurer
Cheryl Smith, a BS/BA graduate in finance from the University of Alabama in Huntsville, has focused her career on nonprofit management and volunteer service. As the executive director of United Cerebral Palsy of Huntsville and Tennessee Valley for the past 19 years, Cheryl has developed a number of regional and statewide programs to benefit individuals with disabilities and their families, including direct therapy services, respite, technology, equipment loan, and inclusion training programs. Cheryl shares her fund-raising, leadership and grant expertise through service on numerous local boards, civic groups and disability-related organizations.

Council Nomination

Members of the SAC become part of the council in two ways: Agency representatives are appointed by their respective agencies, while consumer representatives are volunteers solicited through networks of nonprofit disability organizations, councils, and consumer groups throughout the state. Members are encouraged to serve a three-year term to coincide with the length of Alabama’s State Plan for Assistive Technology.

SAC Nomination Form (213 Kb )
SAC minutes (61 Kb ) (Updated June 2006)
SAC schedule 2006 (97 Kb )

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