Advocacy

Access Now While nominally a Florida organization, this group does nationwide legal public accommodations advocacy and has a national membership.

ADAPT American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today, a national direct-action group that works for legislation to get people out of nursing homes with personal attendants

Advocating for Your Child How-to help on advocating for special education services, from Wrightslaw

American Association of People with Disabilities A national cross-disability group that does advocacy and lobbying and provides benefits to members

Barrier Breakers Primarily oriented toward promoting the use of PASS plans and selling PASS-plan-related services, this site also features good advocacy alerts and a Social Security issues chatroom where people can trade advice on dealing with SSA.

Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law “Legal advocacy for the civil rights and human dignity of people with mental disability”

Center for the Study and Advancement of Disability Policy Training and information dissemination on disability policy issues and advocacy.

Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund Legal advocacy, public policy, training, and technical assistance

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Information on how to file a disability employment discrimination claim

Family Voices Advocacy and information regarding community-based services for children and youths with disabilities

Institute on Independent Living International site featuring discussion forums, links to disability issues coalitions, and information/documents on disability rights issues

LawHelp.org/NY While not disability-specific, this site, which provides connections to free or low-cost legal assistance to people with low or moderate incomes in New York State, is certainly applicable to many disability-related situations

Long Term Care Community Coalition Information and advocacy on policies and legislation concerning long-term care for people with disabilities and seniors

Mouth Magazine Simply the funniest, most radical, strangest, and best Disability Rights publication in the known universe

National Association for Rights Protection and Advocacy Mental health advocacy

National Disability Rights Network The National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) is the nonprofit membership organization for the federally mandated Protection and Advocacy (P&A) Systems and Client Assistance Programs (CAP) for individuals with disabilities. Collectively, the P&A/CAP network is the largest provider of legally based advocacy services to people with disabilities in the United States.

New York Assistive Technology Advocacy Project Information on a variety of assistive technology advocacy and payment issues

Patient Advocate Foundation Information on, and assistance with, mediation between health care consumers and insurance companies, employers, and creditors

Smithsonian Disability Rights Movement Exhibit The Smithsonian Institution’s exhibit on the history of the disability rights movement, an excellent multimedia site

The ADA Game An online game “which simulates how advocacy can promote positive changes. As advocates for disability rights, players work together in one of ten virtual communities to improve awareness and compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)”

The Advocacy Center Education advocacy information for people with developmental disabilities or head injuries, and their families, sponsored by the Western NY Protection and Advocacy for people with Developmental Disabilities program

The PACER Center The Parent Advocacy Coalition for Educational Rights, a Minnesota-based organization that has lots of information for families and students on education for children with disabilities

United Spinal Association Formerly known as the Eastern Paralyzed Veterans Association, United Spinal addresses many generic disability issues through cutting edge legal and legislative advocacy