About Deborah B. Lewis
Executive Director

Deborah has been actively involved in arts and access all of her life-from producing children’s theatre performances in her garage for the kids in her neighborhood at the age of 12 to her participation in bringing the National Theatre of the Deaf to Otterbein College where she received her BA in Theatre. One of Deborah’s basic beliefs is that the arts should be open to everyone, and she brings that passion for accessible arts to her work at the ELA Foundation.

Deborah has been the Executive Director of the ELA Foundation since 1997, helping to establish its leadership in the disability rights, advocacy and arts movements.  Under her direction, the ELA Foundation distributes grants to organizations that serve adults with disabilities in arts and advocacy programs and scholarships to women with physical disabilities in graduate school.

In addition she provides ADA/Technical Assistance Consultancies to organizations including the Santa Barbara Zoo, Santa Barbara Art Museum, Pasadena Playhouse, Rubicon Theatre, LA Stage Alliance, Amaryllis Theatre Company, Arts Inc. and ArtAbility. Deborah has also provided audio description training and consultation to the Los Angeles Radio Reading Service for the Rose Parade, the Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles, ArtAbility for audio describers in Arizona, VSAarts of Georgia, the Yale Repertory Theatre of Yale University and through training audio description trainers at the Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disabilities conference.  She produced the performances of artists with disabilities including CandoCo, Light Motion, and David Roche.

Deborah joined the ELA Foundation after 15 years of work at Special Audiences in Atlanta, Georgia, where she brought the arts to over 100,000 disabled and disadvantaged people annually.  During that time she brought audio description to the state of Georgia, first by becoming a describer and trainer herself, then training over 45 describers and enrolling 50 theatres, thereby creating a program that continues today.

Margaret Staton was on the board of Special Audiences and became her mentor, encouraging Deborah to pursue her interest in expanding arts access for people with disabilities in Atlanta. Margaret also encouraged her to become well versed in the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA).  As Deborah became active in ADA issues in Georgia and the South, she began providing ADA training for arts councils and organizations such as the Georgia Council for the Arts, Fulton County Arts Council, South Carolina Arts Council, Tennessee Performing Arts Center, Georgia Association of Community Arts Agencies, Southern Arts Federation, Atlanta Theatre Coalition, High Museum, and Atlanta History Center. She administered the ADA accessibility program for the 1996 Cultural Olympiad.

With Margaret’s encouragement and the support of the ELA Foundation, Deborah collaborated with 10 arts organizations to bring about the first Cultural Paralympiad during the Paralympics in Atlanta in 1996 and received the Arts and Business (ABBY) Award for this effort.

Deborah continues to believe in the right of every individual to have access to every aspect of society.  She commits herself to “changing the face of disability on the planet” daily.