The disability rights movement is a global social movement that seeks to secure equal opportunities and equal rights for all people with disabilities.
Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) is a Washington, D.C.-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organisation that advocates for digital rights and freedom of expression. CDT seeks to promote legislation that enables individuals to use the internet for purposes of well-intent, while at the same time reducing its potential for harm. It advocates for transparency, accountability, and limiting the collection of personal information.
The Alliance for Justice (AFJ) is a progressive judicial advocacy group in the United States. Founded in 1979 by former president Nan Aron, AFJ monitors federal judicial appointments. AFJ represents a coalition of 100 politically liberal groups that have an interest in the federal judiciary. The Alliance for Justice presents a modern liberal viewpoint on legal issues.
David Lionel Bazelon was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
The Treatment Advocacy Center (TAC) is a U.S. non-profit organization based in Arlington, Virginia, originally announced as the NAMI Treatment Action Centre in 1997. The TAC was subsequently directed by psychiatrist E. Fuller Torrey and identifies its mission as "dedicated to eliminating barriers to the timely and effective treatment of severe mental illness". The organization is most well-known for proposed laws, policies, and practices regarding legally compelled outpatient services or outpatient commitment for people diagnosed with mental illness. The organization identifies its other key issues as "anosognosia, consequences of non-treatment, criminalization of mental illness, psychiatric bed shortages, public service costs, violence and mental illness". Advocates for mental health have criticized TAC for endorsing coercion and forced treatment.
The Burton Blatt Institute (BBI), established at Syracuse University in 2005, is an organization that aims to advance civic, economic, and social participation of persons with disabilities in a global society. Peter Blanck, a University Professor at Syracuse University, is the chairman of BBI.
Patient advocacy is a process in health care concerned with advocacy for patients, survivors, and caregivers. The patient advocate may be an individual or an organization, concerned with healthcare standards or with one specific group of disorders. The terms patient advocate and patient advocacy can refer both to individual advocates providing services that organizations also provide, and to organizations whose functions extend to individual patients. Some patient advocates are independent and some work for the organizations that are directly responsible for the patient's care.
Martha Louise Minow is an American legal scholar and the 300th Anniversary University Professor at Harvard University. She served as the 12th Dean of Harvard Law School between 2009 and 2017 and has taught at the Law School since 1981.
Disability Rights International (DRI), formerly Mental Disability Rights International, is a Washington, DC–based human rights advocacy organization dedicated to promoting the human rights and full participation in society of persons with disabilities worldwide. DRI documents conditions, publishes reports, and promotes international oversight of the rights of persons with disabilities.
Judi Chamberlin was an American activist, leader, organizer, public speaker and educator in the psychiatric survivors movement. Her political activism followed her involuntary confinement in a psychiatric facility in the 1960s. She was the author of On Our Own: Patient-Controlled Alternatives to the Mental Health System, which is a foundational text in the Mad Pride movement.
Olmstead v. L.C., 527 U.S. 581 (1999), is a United States Supreme Court case regarding discrimination against people with intellectual disabilities. The Supreme Court held that under the Americans with Disabilities Act, individuals with intellectual disabilities have the right to live in the community rather than in institutions if, in the words of the opinion of the Court, "the State's treatment professionals have determined that community placement is appropriate, the transfer from institutional care to a less restrictive setting is not opposed by the affected individual, and the placement can be reasonably accommodated, taking into account the resources available to the State and the needs of others with mental disabilities." The case was brought by the Atlanta Legal Aid Society on behalf of Lois Curtis.
The Mental Disability Advocacy Center (MDAC) is an international human rights organisation founded in Hungary in 2002. It is headquartered in Budapest.
United States v. Georgia, 546 U.S. 151 (2006), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court decided that the protection of Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), passed by the U.S. Congress, extends to persons held in a state prison and protects prison inmates from discrimination on the basis of disability by prison personnel. Specifically, the court held that Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, 42 U.S.C. §§ 12131–12165., is a proper use of Congressional power under the Fourteenth Amendment, Section 5, making it applicable to prison system officials.
This disability rights timeline lists events relating to the civil rights of people with disabilities in the United States of America, including court decisions, the passage of legislation, activists' actions, significant abuses of people with disabilities, and the founding of various organizations. Although the disability rights movement itself began in the 1960s, advocacy for the rights of people with disabilities started much earlier and continues to the present.
H. Rutherford Turnbull III -- Rud --is an American author, educator and leader in the field of disability policy and law. He is Ross and Marianna Beach Distinguished Professor Emeritus of special education and law at University of Kansas. He was the principal draftsman or staff person for the NC Senate and House in revising that state's disability laws while being professor of public law and government, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1969-80). During his professorship at The University of Kansas (1980-2015), he was principal staff for the federal Assistive Technology Act and the family support provisions of the Rehab Act; principal draftsman of the "procedural safeguards" regulations under Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. He has been an expert witness on disability policy before Congressional and state legislative committees. Together with his wife Ann, he created The Beach Center on Disability at The University of Kansas, a graduate research and training center on families and disability. He also served as chairman of the university's Department of Special Education (1980-1983). He has published over 300 peer-reviewed articles and chapters, and over 36 books. He has been an expert witness on disability policy in Congress and in state legislatures. He has been president, Am. Ass'n. on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities; chairman, board of trustees of Judge David L. Bazelon Center on Mental Health Law; senior officer of The Arc of U.S.; senior officer of TASH: The Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps; and chair of the Am Bar Ass's committee on disability law. Together with his wife Ann and alongside of Pres. J.F. Kennedy and his sister Eunice Shriver, he was recognized by a consortium of seven family and professional associations in the field of intellectual/developmental disabilities as one of 36 people who changed the course of history in the 20th Century. He has taught courses at Johns Hopkins University, University of Illinois, University of North Carolina, and University of Connecticut, and he has consulted and taught in more than 20 countries. He has received over 40 accommodations from federal, state, and local professional and family service and advocacy organizations for his leadership. He is the father of Jay (1967-2009), a person with intellectual disabilities, autism, and emotional challenges; and of Amy and Kate, both civil rights advocates. The University of Kansas Archives contains his professional correspondence, especially that concerning the services he and his wife created on behalf of their son Jay and on behalf of other families and individuals affected by disabilities. He was born in New York City, raised in Bronxville, N.Y., graduated from Kent School, Kent, CT. (1955); Johns Hopkins University, University of Maryland Law School, Ll.B., 1964, and Harvard Law School. He served in the U.S. Army, 1962-3.
Gunnar Dybwad (1909–2001) was an American professor and advocate for the rights of people with disabilities, particularly developmental disabilities. He is best known for his support for the social model of disability, reframing disability accommodations as a matter of civil rights, not medical treatment. The American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities gives out the Dybwad Humanitarian Award annually in his honor.
Morton Birnbaum was an American lawyer and physician who advocated for the right of psychiatric patients to have adequate, humane care, and who coined the term sanism.
Lydia X. Z. Brown is an American autistic disability rights activist, writer, attorney, and public speaker who was honored by the White House in 2013. They are the chairperson of the American Bar Association Civil Rights & Social Justice Disability Rights Committee. They are also Policy Counsel for Privacy & Data at the Center for Democracy & Technology, and Director of Policy, Advocacy, & External Affairs at the Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network. In 2022, they unsuccessfully ran for the Maryland House of Delegates in District 7A, losing to state delegate Kathy Szeliga and delegate-elect Ryan Nawrocki.
Arlene S. Kanter is an American academic, lawyer and a Bond, Schoeneck & King Distinguished Professor of Law at Syracuse University College of Law. In 2005, she was named the Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor of Teaching Excellence by Syracuse University. She is the founder and director of the Disability Law and Policy Program and director of the Office of International Programs.
William D. Partlow Developmental Center, also known as the Partlow State School and Hospital, was a state school for people with mental disabilities, primarily intellectual and developmental disabilities in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, US. It was operated by the Alabama Department of Mental Health. It was the last such full-sized facility operated by the State of Alabama and closed in 2011.
