Self-Advocacy

Outside Resources

  • Advocates in Action
    This is the web site of Rhode Island’s statewide self-advocacy organization, Advocates in Action.
  • Advocating Change Together
    Advocating Change Together (ACT) is a nonprofit disability rights organization run by and for people with developmental and other disabilities. We are committed to freedom, equality, and justice for all people with disabilities.
  • Central England People First (formerly Northamptonshire People First)
    An organization from the United Kingdom of people with disabilities speaking up for themselves. This site includes links to several other self-advocacy organizations, and has two internet mailing lists on self-advocacy, one for self-advocates to speak with each other and one for self-advocates and the people supporting self-advocates to speak with each other.
  • Kids As Self Advocates (KASA)
    “Kids As Self Advocates (KASA) is a national, grassroots network of youth with special needs and our friends, speaking on behalf of ourselves. We are leaders in our communities, and we help spread helpful, positive information among our peers to increase knowledge around various issues. We are an organization created by youth with disabilities for youth to educate society about issues concerning youth with a wide spectrum of disabilities and special healthcare needs. KASA believes in supporting self-determination, creating support networks and proactive advocacy for all youth with disabilities in our society.”
  • Self-Advocate Leadership Network
    The Self-Advocate Leadership Network is a team of self-advocates and professionals who will travel anywhere to train others on self-determination, community integration, participant-driven supports, and systems change. The purpose of the Leadership Network is to prepare self-advocates to play a leadership role in guiding developmental disabilities systems change in ways that promote self-determination, community integration and participant-driven supports.
  • SelfAdvocateNet.com
    “This is the home page of the SelfAdvocateNet. We are based in the lovely Fraser Valley of Beautiful British Columbia, Canada. Recently we have begun networking across our region. The region is quite large, about 50 kilometers from one end to the other. We have worked hard to develop this web site as a way of staying in touch not only across our region, but across the province and the world beyond.”
  • Self Advocates Becoming Empowered
    “OUR MISSION: To ensure that people with disabilities are treated as equals and that they are given the same decisions, choices, rights, responsibilities, and chances to speak up to empower themselves; opportunities to make new friends; and to learn from their mistakes.”
  • World Wide Web Resources on Self-Determination and Self-Advocacy
    This is a comprehensive bibliography on self-determination and self-advocacy. It contains two sections: references to journal articles, books, instructional materials, and inservice educational material; and a variety of web sites.
  • ADA Watch
    The ADA WATCH campaign is a nonprofit informational online network designed to activate the disability community’s grassroots in response to threats to civil rights protections for people with disabilities; educates and informs people with disabilities, disability advocates, members of the general public, the business community, policy makers, and the media regarding threats to civil rights protections for people with disabilities; seeks to build an online community of empowered citizens united against attempts to roll back civil rights protections for people with disabilities; and provides support to the ADA WATCH coalition, a network of disability rights, service, and consumer organizations united to protect and strengthen the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
  • Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Technical Assistance Program
    The ADA Technical Assistance Program is a federally funded network of grantees which provides information, training, and technical assistance to businesses and agencies with duties and responsibilities under the ADA and to people with disabilities with rights under the ADA. This program also coordinates ten regional Disability and Business Technical Assistance Centers (DBTACs), which provide information and referrals, technical assistance, public awareness, and training on all aspects of the ADA.
  • Barrier Breakers
    Barrier Breakers has served the Disability Rights Movement since 1990, selling posters and manuals about disability issues. Barrier Breakers is committed not only to excellence in its products and services, but also to disability rights, to freeing our people from nursing homes and institutions, and to removing barriers to work for people with disabilities.
  • Broadreach Training and Resources (formerly Axis Consultation & Training Ltd.)
    Norman Kunc and Emma Van der Klift have spent the last 20 years working to ensure that people with disabilities are able to take their rightful place in schools, workplaces, and communities. In 1990, Norman and Emma established Axis Consultation and Training Ltd., and since then have been kept quite busy providing in-service and training in the areas of inclusive education, employment equity, conflict resolution, and other disability rights issues.
  • The Judge David L. Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law
    “The Judge David L. Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law is a nonprofit legal advocacy organization based in Washington D.C. Our name honors the federal appeals court judge whose landmark decisions pioneered the field of mental health law, and our advocacy is based on the principle that every individual is entitled to choice and dignity. For many people with mental disabilities, this means something as basic as having a decent place to live, supportive services and equality of opportunity.”
  • Disability Advocacy Work With Networking (DAWWN)
    This site has links to several sites related to disability advocacy, assistance, education, and more.
  • Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF)
    Founded in 1979 by people with disabilities and parents of children with disabilities, the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, Inc. (DREDF) is a national law and policy center dedicated to protecting and advancing the civil rights of people with disabilities through legislation, litigation, advocacy, technical assistance, and education and training of attorneys, advocates, persons with disabilities, and parents of children with disabilities.
  • National Organization of Social Security Claimaints’ Representatives (NOSSCR) Online
    “Established in 1979, the National Organization of Social Security Claimants’ Representatives is an association of over 3,300 attorneys and paralegals who represent Social Security and Supplemental Security Income claimants. Our members are committed to providing high quality representation for claimants, to maintaining a system of full and fair adjudication for every claimant, and to advocating for beneficial change in the disability determination and adjudication process.”
  • The Nth Degree
    The Nth Degree is about turning light bulbs on. We are about helping folks to recognize that there is no such thing as “Us and Them,” just one big “Us.” We’re about increasing awareness and understanding; as much about the celebration of our individuality and our differences, as the search for common ground: the search for shared truths, interests, histories, goals, fears. We want The Nth Degree catalog to be a place where folks can come to find Solidarity and to share talents, skills and stories. We have lots and lots of “Awarewear” and “Awareware”: shirts and stuff for Disability Culture, the Inclusion and Independent Living Movements, and for the “Human Connection” we all share.