In childhood, a spinal tumor and the surgeries to treat it affected her ability to walk; she used leg braces and canes as a girl, and a wheelchair later in life.

[2] Davis worked in state and national disability programs as a young lawyer, beginning at Rehabilitation International in New York in 1980.

[5] "I was one of the very few people of color in the inner layers of helping to draft the ADA, implement it, enforce it from all different perspectives," she told NPR's Michel Martin in 2010.

[6] Davis served in the White House Office of Presidential Personnel from 1995 to 2001, and was head of the ADA Technical Assistance Division at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

[8] The day before she died, she was listed as a featured panelist in an online event sponsored by the State of New Jersey, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the ADA.