Connecting allies, advocates, activists, and accomplices for greater access.
A recent, approachable account of the grassroots self-advocacy movement led by people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Effective advocacy begins when disabled people have the support and opportunity to define their own goals, speak from lived experience, and exercise leadership.
A research-oriented overview of digital accessibility as a disability-rights issue, including the importance of involving disabled people in testing and evaluating outcomes.
As services and civic participation move online, inaccessible technology can become as exclusionary as a physical barrier. Disabled users must be included in designing and testing digital systems.
A discussion of agency, consent, language, and the danger of reducing disabled people to inspirational or charitable narratives.
Personal stories can build understanding and motivate action, but advocacy communications should preserve the storyteller’s dignity, complexity, agency, and control.
A practical guide with recommendations for accessible outreach, meetings, communications, venues, and participation.
Inviting disabled people to participate is not enough. Governments and organizations must remove the procedural, physical, digital, and communication barriers that prevent meaningful participation.
An examination of the barriers that can prevent disabled people from participating in civic life and public decision-making.
Communities cannot make sound accessibility decisions when meetings, information, technology, transportation, or participation processes exclude the people most affected.
A first-person discussion of person-first language, identity-first language, disability identity, and how language reflects different experiences and preferences.
Respectful communication requires listening rather than enforcing a universal vocabulary. When possible, ACT should honor the language individuals use for themselves.
An explanation of the important distinction between supporting self-advocacy and turning it into an institutionally controlled service.
Organizations can support disabled leaders, but the self-advocacy movement must remain directed by the people whose rights and lives are at stake.
A concise guide covering preparation, rights, documentation, priorities, communication, and follow-through in self-advocacy.
Advocacy becomes more effective when people understand their rights, organize the relevant facts, clearly identify the requested solution, and preserve records of the process.
An influential essay explaining how changes designed to remove barriers for excluded communities frequently benefit society more broadly.
Accessibility should be pursued because disabled people have a right to participate. Its wider benefits also show that removing barriers can strengthen communities, services, and public spaces for everyone.