The efforts to protect the rights of individuals with disabilities in Iowa will be the focus of Wartburg College’s Constitution Day program Thursday, Sept. 19.

Jane Hudson, executive director and investigations team leader at Disability Rights IOWA, the federally mandated protection and advocacy agency for individuals with disabilities in Iowa, will address issues her organization confronts during her presentation, 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., in McCaskey Lyceum of Saemann Student Center.

She will be joined by other DRI attorneys and advocates. The program is open to the public, and the audience will have a chance to ask questions at the conclusion.

Disability Rights IOWA investigates abuse and neglect of individuals with disabilities, including mental illness, and pursues legal and other remedies on their behalf. Its areas of focus include accessibility, community integration, employment, guardianship, voting, abuse and neglect, and education.

Hudson will discuss how the rights of those individuals are part of the larger civil rights movement, the constitutional and statutory foundation for their rights, and the development of protection advocacy systems during the last 30 years.

Congressional legislation passed in 2005 requires institutions of higher education receiving support from the federal government to participate in an activity recognizing Constitution Day, Sept. 17, the date the U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1787. Wartburg College has developed programs focusing on timely topics of civic interest as an opportunity to serve the Wartburg and Cedar Valley communities.