List of disability rights activists

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A disability rights activist or disability rights advocate is someone who works towards the equality of people with disabilities. Such a person is generally considered a member of the disability rights movement and/or the independent living movement.

Contents 1 By achievement 1.1 Helped pass the ADA 1.2 Founded or co-founded an organization 2 By occupation 2.1 Actors 2.2 Authors 2.3 Broadcasters 2.4 Lawyers 2.5 Physicians 2.6 Politicians 2.7 Scholars 3 By nationality 3.1 American activists 3.2 Australian activists 3.3 Canadian activists 3.4 Chilean 3.5 Indian activists 3.6 Irish activists 3.7 United Kingdom activists 4 References

[edit] By achievement

[edit] Helped pass the ADA

• Robert Burgdorf - drafted the first version of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA)
• Charles Carr - Chair, NCIL Legislative and Advocacy Committee worked to build a coalition of CILs and single disability groups to buy into and pass the ADA
• John A Chappell, Jr Worked on passage of the ADA and was involved in passage of the Virginians with Disabilities Act which many consider a forerunner of the ADA
• Tony Coelho - original congressional sponsor of the ADA
• Justin Whitlock Dart, Jr. - helped pass the ADA; co-founder of the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD)
• Bob Dole - Republican senator from Kansas who was a co-writer of the bill with Harkin.^[1] Partly disabled through war injuries.
• Fred Fay - chair, Justice for All
• Lex Frieden - executive director, National Council on Disability
• Tom Harkin - Democratic senator from Iowa who introduced the ADA in the Senate. Harkin also delivered part of a speech in sign language so his deaf brother could understand
• Steny Hoyer - sponsored the passage of the ADA
• Douglas Martin - first executive director of the Westside Center for Independent Living; national leader in social security and health benefits reform; helped pass the ADA; coordinator of ADA and 504 compliance at UCLA
• Arlene Mayerson - directing attorney, Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund
• Major Owens - helped pass the ADA
• Evan Kemp - was involved with the passage of the ADA, Chairman of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

[edit] Founded or co-founded an organization

• Tilly Aston (1873-1947) - Australian disability activist; founder of the Association for the Advancement of the Blind in 1895
• Elmer Bartels - co-founder of the Boston Center for Independent Living
• Jacquelyn Brand - founder of the Disabled Children's Computer Group and Alliance for Technology Access
• Mary Lou Breslin - co-founder and director of the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund
• Marca Bristo - executive director of Chicago's Access Living; former chair of the National Council on Disability; co-founder of the National Council on Independent Living
• Joel Bryan - founder and director of Disabled Students' Services, UC Riverside and UC Davis
• Sylvia Caras, PhD - on-line mental disability support group pioneer, Protection & Advocacy, Inc. board member, founder of PeopleWho
• Charles Carr - founder of the Massachusetts' Northeast Independent Living Program; co-founder of the National Council of Independent Living
• John A Chappell, Jr - Co Founder of Handicaps Unlimited of Virginia; Co-founder of Endependence Center of Tidewater, Virginia's first Independent Living Center; Co-Founder of the National Council on Independent Living (NCIL); assisted in developing Democrats with Disabilities during the 1988 Presidential Campaign
• Carol Cleigh (Sutton), co-founder of Suburban Access Squad (SAS)
• Diane Coleman, founder of Not Dead Yet (group)
• Ivan and Charika Corea - founders of the Autism Awareness Campaign in the UK.
• Justin Whitlock Dart, Jr. - helped pass the ADA; co-founder of the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD)
• Fred Fay - co-founder of Boston Center for Independent Living and American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities; instrumental in development of adaptive computer technology
• Linda Fullerton - President/Co-founder of the Social Security Disability Coalition, which offers free information and support with a focus on SSDI reform; author of the Social Security Disability Reform Petition, and the Fullerton - Edwards Social Security Disability Reform Act
• Isabelle Goldenson - lobbied the United States Congress for legislation to assist the disabled; co-founder of United Cerebral Palsy
• Paul Hearne - co-founder of the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD); president of The Dole Foundation
• Judy Heumann - co-founder of Disabled in Action; deputy director of the Center For Independent Living, 1976; co-founder and co-director of the World Institute on Disability
• Neil Jacobson - co-founder of the Computer Training Project, Berkeley, 1974
• I. King Jordan - co-founder of the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD)
• John D. Kemp - co-founder of the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD)
• Sharon Lamp - co-founder of Suburban Access Squad (SAS)
• Joan Leon - co-founded the World Institute on Disability
• Ed Roberts (activist) - co-founded the World Institute on Disability
• Ayo Maat, Ph.D. (activist) - founder of BNICEH ("be nicer"), the Black Network in Children's Emotional Health March 1992; founded IMPRUVE aka Independent Movement of Paratransit Riders for Unity, Vehicles, Equality 2000; co-founded Transit Boycott Ad Hoc Coalition July 2007 Chicago IL
• Mary Jane Owen - founder and national director of Disabled Catholics in Action; executive director of the National Catholic Office for Individuals with Disabilities
• June E.Roberts (activist) - founded Suffolk Independent Living Organization aka SILO aka Self Initiated Living Options
• Ken Rutherford, PhD - co-founder of the Landmine Survivors Network

"Sandra Schnur - President, Concepts of Independence, New York City 1980- 1994

• Jim Sinclair of Autism Network International

"Paul Spiers, Ph.D - founder of AUTONOMY

• Jean Vanier - founder of L'Arche
• Dr. Sylvia Walker - co-founder of the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD)
• Jerry White - co-founder of the Landmine Survivors Network
• Andrew Straw, J.D. - founder of Disabled Alumni of America (527 lobby group to help disabled U.S. university graduates)

[edit] By occupation

[edit] Actors

• Nabil Shaban - actor and activist.

[edit] Authors

• Frank Bowe- author/activist, "father of section 504" and first CEO of American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities
• Judi Chamberlin - author of "On Our Own: Patient-Controlled Alternatives to the Mental Health System", NEC
• James Charlton - author/activist who developed a model of different kinds of disability activists groups in the United States
• Eli Clare - author of Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation
• Hugh Gallagher - author, international disability activist; expert on the atrocities committed against people with disabilities by the Nazi regime
• Laura Hershey -- poet, author and activist
• Harriet McBryde Johnson - lawyer, Democratic Party (USA, South Carolina) activist and author of Too Late to Die Young
• Paul K. Longmore - author
• Cedric Pugh - author; campaigner for disability rights in higher education
• Irving Zola - sociologist and author

[edit] Broadcasters

• Peter White, MBE - BBC Disability Correspondent and host of blind man on the rampage and other programmes

[edit] Lawyers

• Timothy Cook
• Karen Peltz Strauss
• Harriet McBryde Johnson

[edit] Physicians

• William Berenberg - Harvard professor and pioneer in the treatment and rehabilitation of cerebral palsy

[edit] Politicians

• Dennis O'Brien - Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives responsible for the PA Autism Task Force, and is a champion for "his kids" with Autism all around the Commonwealth of PA and beyond.
• Tony Coelho - original congressional sponsor of the ADA
• Steny Hoyer - sponsored the passage of the ADA
• Ravi Malhotra - disability rights activist and a member of the New Democratic Party
• Major Owens - helped pass the ADA
• Kathy Sinnott - Irish disability rights campaigner and politician; secretary of the Hope Project
• Roger Margulies - Philadelphia area disability rights activist responsible for existence of the Mayor's Commission on People with Disabilities
• Micah Kellner - disability rights activist and a member of the New York State Assembly

[edit] Scholars

• John Clogston - ground-breaking research on news media images of disability
• Jack Nelson - wrote The Disabled, the Media and the Information Age

[edit] By nationality

[edit] American activists

• Larry Allison - deputy director of the New York City Mayor's Office for the Disabled, 1973-1991
• James Baker - Executive director of disAbility Resources of Southwest Washington Center for Independent Living, Vancouver, Washington and Cowlitz County, Washington early 2000s
• Anita Baldwin - deputy director and head of blind services at the Center for Independent Living, Berkeley, California, early 1980s
• Billy Barner - first African American student in UC Berkeley's Cowell Residence Program for Physically Disabled Students, 1969-1973
• Elmer Bartels - co-founder of the Boston Center for Independent Living
• Gerald Belchick - California Department of Rehabilitation counselor ans liaison to the Cowell Residence program, 1970s
• William Berenberg - Harvard professor and pioneer in the treatment and rehabilitation of cerebral palsy
• Carol Fewell Billings - attendant at the UC Berkeley's Cowell Residence Program; staff member at the Physically Disabled Students' Program and the Center for Independent Living, Berkeley
• Wade Blank - ADAPT founder
• Tony K. Boatright - Long time Georgia disability rights activist leading the effort for accessibility in Atlanta's Piedmont Park. Former executive director of disAbility Link (the metro Atlanta CIL); Member of the Georgia Advisory Committee for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
• Frank Bowe - first CEO of American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities
• Jacquelyn Brand - founder of the Disabled Children's Computer Group and Alliance for Technology Access
• Edna Brean - nurse coordinator of UC Berkeley's Cowell Residence Program, 1969-1975
• Mary Lou Breslin - co-founder and director of the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund
• Marca Bristo - executive director of Chicago's Access Living; former chair of the National Council on Disability; co-founder of the National Council on Independent Living
• William Bronston - advocate for deinstitutionalization; physician at Willowbrook State School in New York; medical director and consultant for the California Department of Developmental Services, 1985-
• Janet McEwen Brown - Center for Independent Living, Berkeley, newsletter editor, 1972-1976
• Roy Brown - Former CEO of Tri-County Barrier Busters Inc. Consumer Advocate for the State of Georgia in 1999 who fought fiercely for the rights of Persons with Disabilities in North Georgia and SouthEast Tennessee. He was also a member of Georgia's Governors Council for Developmental Disabilities.
• Henry Bruyn - director of Student Health Services, UC Berkeley, 1959-1972
• Joel Bryan - founder and director of Disabled Students' Services, UC Riverside and UC Davis
• Robert Burgdorf - drafted the first version of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA)
• Charles Carr - founder and CEO of the Massachusetts' Northeast Independent Living Program; co-founder of the National Council of Independent Living
• John A Chappell, Jr - Co-founder of Handicaps Unlimited of Virginia; was consultant for the first 504 trainings from 1978 to 1981; Co-founder of National Council on Independent Living (NCIL); Member of the American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities (ACCD) Board from 1979 to 1981; helped pass the ADA and helped to author 1992 Title VII amendments to the Rehabilitation Act
• Tony Coelho - original congressional sponsor of the ADA
• Tracy Copp - an early advocate for people with disabilities
• Justin Whitlock Dart, Jr. - helped pass the ADA; co-founder of the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD)
• Dr. Gerben Dejong - director of Research, Economic, and Public Policy at Washington, D.C.'s National Rehabilitation Hospital
• Eric Dibner - housing and access specialist and staff member at the Physically Disabled Students' Program, UC Berkeley, and the Center for Independent Living, Berkeley
• James Donald - deputy director of California Department of Rehabilitation, 1975-1982
• Gunnar Dybwad - early leader of the parents' movement and advocate for deinstitutionalization
• Anna Fay - founding member of the New York Metropolitan Chapter of the National Paraplegia Foundation, the Center for Independence of the Disabled in New York, and the American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities
• Fred Fay - co-founder of Boston Center for Independent Living and American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities; instrumental in development of adaptive computer technology
• Duane M. French - past Executive Director of Access Alaska, one of the original founders of VSA Alaska, cofounder of the Alaska ADA Partners Project
• Dr. Hugh Gallagher - author; expert on the atrocities committed against people with disabilities by the Nazi regime
• Jim Gashel - director of communications for the National Federation of the Blind
• Isabelle Goldenson - lobbied the United States Congress for legislation to assist the disabled; co-founder of United Cerebral Palsy
• Paul Hearne - co-founder of the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD); president of The Dole Foundation
• Laura Hershey - writer and activist
• Judy Heumann - co-founder of Disabled In Action; deputy director of the Center For Independent Living, 1976; co-director of the World Institute on Disability
• Steny Hoyer - sponsored the passage of the ADA
• Jill Jacobs - advocate for children with disabilities; played a key role in ensuring the FDR Memorial in Washington, DC depicted President Franklin Delano Roosevelt seated in his wheelchair; founded Ability Unleashed
• Neil Jacobson - co-founder of the Computer Training Project, Berkeley, 1974
• Kenneth Jernigan - executive director of the National Federation of the Blind
• Harriet McBryde Johnson - lawyer, Democratic Party (USA, South Carolina) activist and author of Too Late to Die Young
• Mark Johnson - member of ADAPT (American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation; Director of Advocacy at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, GA.
• Mary Johnson - creator of The Disability Rag
• Cynthia Jones - editor and publisher of Mainstream Magazine
• I. King Jordan - co-founder of the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD)
• Deborah Kaplan - founder of the Disability Rights Center, Washington, D.C. in 1976; former Executive Director of the World Institute on Disability (1996 - 2004)
• John D. Kemp - co-founder of the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD)
• Gini Laurie - creator of the Rehabilitation Gazette
• Paul K. Longmore - author
• Douglas Martin - first executive director of the Westside Center for Independent Living; national leader in social security and health benefits reform; helped pass the ADA; coordinator of ADA and 504 compliance at UCLA
• Denise McQuade - executive director of the Brooklyn Center for Independent Living
• Sharon MistIer - director of the Independence Center of Northern Virginia
• David Oaks - Director of MindFreedom International, a coalition of psychiatric survivors movement organizations
• Mary Jane Owen - founder and national director of Disabled Catholics in Action; executive director of the National Catholic Office for Individuals with Disabilities
• Major Owens - helped pass the ADA
• Richard Pimentel - Disabled Vietnam veteran who helped to pass the original ADA through civil disobedience with friend Art Honeyman. Currently the subject of an upcoming 2007 film starring Ron Livingston entitled "The Music Within".
• Cedric Pugh - author; campaigner for disability rights in higher education
• Ed Roberts (activist) - head of California's Department of Rehabilitation; co-founder of the World Institute on Disability
• Robert Ruffner - president of the American Association of Disability Communicators
• Marta Russell - author of Beyond Ramps; activist
• Mary Switzer - helped shape the Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1954; commissioner of vocational rehabilitation
• Sunny Taylor - artist, writer and protestor

Dolphin Julie Trahan - Author, activist and theatre artist

• Dr. Sylvia Walker - co-founder of the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD)
• Jim Ward - founder and president of ADA Watch and the National Coalition for Disability Rights (NCDR)
• Madeleine Will - Assistant Secretary of Education
• Frieda Zames - former president of Disabled in Action (DIA)
• Irving Zola - sociologist and author

[edit] Australian activists

• Tilly Aston (1873-1947) - Australian disability activist; founder of the Association for the Advancement of the Blind in 1895

[edit] Canadian activists

• David Lepofsky - prominent disability rights activist, chair of the Ontarians with Disabilities Act Committee
• Tanis Doe nom de plume
• Vicky D’aoust - author, researcher, educator, dancer.
• Catherine Frazee - Co-director, Ryerson RBC Institute for Disability Studies Research and Education and former Chief Commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission
• Rick Hansen - former wheelchair athlete who promotes paraplegic sports
• Ravi Malhotra - disability rights activist and a member of the New Democratic Party
• Christopher Steel - disability rights activist - artist, art gallery founder
• Elizabeth Dixon - disability rights activist - educator, actor, singer
• Boris Peterson - disability rights activist - founder of neorealite
• Scott Lutes - disability rights activist - filmmaker
• Amy Hasbrouck - disability rights activist - lawyer
• Ms. Qui - disability rights activist - political candidate
• Shelly Martel - autism advocate, long time NDP MPP (Ontario)

[edit] Chilean

• Carlos Kaiser- Founder and advisor member of Independent Living Chile, person in charge of PwD's Issues Municipal Office of Algarrobo Town

[edit] Indian activists

• Javed Abidi - Disability rights campaigner and heads the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People. NCPEDP

[edit] Irish activists

• Kathy Sinnott - Irish disability rights campaigner and politician; secretary of the Hope Project

[edit] United Kingdom activists

• Alison John - Campaigner and exemplar for inclusion particularly in play settings and young people.
• Phil Friend Chair of RADAR and a long time campaigner for social inclusion particularly for equal treatment in employment.
• Jane Campbell Independent Living campaigner and leading activist fighting against Assisted Dying legislation
• Nabil Shaban - actor and activist.
• John Knight - Commissioner for the Commission for Social Care Inspection, Justice of the Peace and leading disability rights activist
• Asta Philpot - Protagonist of a BBC documentary, advocates the right to a sexual life for physical disabled people.

[edit] References

1. ^ [1]