The National Council on Independent Living (NCIL) is an American nonprofit organization focused on disability rights advocacy. It is a membership organization of centers for independent living that provide services, advocacy, and referrals to people with disabilities; statewide independent living councils; and other organizations with related missions. NCIL works with the non-partisan VoteRiders [1] organization to spread state-specific information on voter ID requirements.
NCIL was founded in 1982 by Marca Bristo, Charlie Carr, and Max Starkloff. [2] The first independent living program was founded by disability rights activist Ed Roberts as a college student in Berkeley, California.
NCIL hosts an annual conference in Washington, D.C. that includes a rally and march. [3] NCIL's online news publication is The Advocacy Monitor. [4]
NCIL advised on the design of a "low entry ramp" to promote wheelchair-accessible entry for Motor Coach Industries' new buses. [5] In 2019, NCIL launched the Elevate Campaign Training program to train people with disabilities to run for elected office. [6] NCIL also collaborated with a health insurance corporation, Centene, on a project called the Provider Accessibility Initiative to improve health care for people with disabilities by increasing the number of medical care providers whose offices and services meet accessibility standards. [7]
Accessibility is the design of products, devices, services, vehicles, or environments so as to be usable by people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design and practice of accessible development ensures both "direct access" and "indirect access" meaning compatibility with a person's assistive technology.
The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) is a UK charity offering information, support and advice to almost two million people in the UK with sight loss. The charity affords practical and emotional support to those affected by sight issues and acts as an advocacy body.
The disability rights movement is a global social movement that seeks to secure equal opportunities and equal rights for all people with disabilities.
Health Net, LLC, a subsidiary of Centene Corporation, is an American health care insurance provider. Health Net and its subsidiaries provide health plans for individuals, families, businesses and people with Medicare and Medicaid, as well as commercial, small business, and affordable care insurance.
An assisted living residence or assisted living facility (ALF) is a housing facility for people with disabilities or for adults who cannot or who choose not to live independently. The term is popular in the United States. Still, the setting is similar to a retirement home, in the sense that facilities provide a group living environment and typically cater to an older adult population. There is also Caribbean assisted living, which offers a similar service in a resort-like environment.
Independent living (IL), as seen by its advocates, is a philosophy, a way of looking at society and disability, and a worldwide movement of disabled people working for equal opportunities, self-determination, and self-respect. In the context of eldercare, independent living is seen as a step in the continuum of care, with assisted living being the next step.
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.
Centene Corporation is a publicly traded managed care company based in St. Louis, Missouri, which is an intermediary for government-sponsored and privately insured healthcare programs. Centene ranked No. 25 on the 2023 Fortune 500.
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is an international human rights treaty of the United Nations intended to protect the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities. Parties to the convention are required to promote, protect, and ensure the full enjoyment of human rights by persons with disabilities and ensure that persons with disabilities enjoy full equality under the law. The Convention serves as a major catalyst in the global disability rights movement enabling a shift from viewing persons with disabilities as objects of charity, medical treatment and social protection towards viewing them as full and equal members of society, with human rights. The convention was the first U.N. human rights treaty of the twenty-first century.
The Mental Disability Advocacy Center (MDAC) is an international human rights organisation founded in Hungary in 2002. It is headquartered in Budapest.
Max Starkloff was a disability rights activist. Starkloff became disabled in a car accident in 1959 and subsequently co-founded three organizations.
The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization which advocates for the legal rights of people with disabilities. AAPD is based in Washington, D.C., and does not provide direct services but can be contacted at (202)457-0046 or also has a website http://www.aapd.com that includes information about the program.
Marca Bristo was an American disability rights activist.
Rebecca A. Hare Cokley is an American disability rights activist and public speaker who is currently the first U.S. Disability Rights Program Officer for the Ford Foundation. Prior to joining Ford, Cokley was the founding director of the Disability Justice Initiative at the Center for American Progress. During the Obama administration, Cokley served as the executive director of the National Council on Disability.
Mary Lou Breslin is a disability rights law and policy advocate and analyst. She is an adjunct faculty member at the University of San Francisco in the McLaren School of Business Executive Master of Management and Disability Services Program. She is the co-founder of the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF), a leading national civil rights law and policy center led by individuals with disabilities and parents of children with disabilities. She served as the DREDF's deputy and executive director, and president and chair of board of directors.
Marilyn E. Saviola was an American disability rights activist, executive director of the Center for the Independence of the Disabled in New York from 1983 to 1999, and vice president of Independence Care System after 2000. Saviola, a polio survivor from Manhattan, New York, is known nationally within the disability rights movement for her advocacy for people with disabilities and had accepted many awards and honors for her work.
The National Centre for Independent Living (NCIL) was a non-profit staffed organisation controlled by and run for disabled people active in social care issues to campaign for and support the independent living of disabled people in the community and using personal assistants, as opposed to living in institutions such as care homes and hospitals. It ceased its work in December 2011.
Deidre Davis Butler, born Deidre Ann Davis, was an American disability rights activist and federal official.