American Association of People with Disabilities
AAPD is a national disability-led organization working to increase political and economic power, inclusion, accessibility, and opportunity for people with disabilities.
Teaching and Learning Resources
Disability Advocacy & Activism
Explore disability-led organizations and resources advancing disability rights, disability justice, accessibility, self-determination, health equity, and meaningful participation in health care and society.
Understanding disability in health care requires more than clinical knowledge. Health professionals and educators also benefit from understanding disability history, the disability rights movement, structural ableism, accessibility, self-advocacy, and the policies and systems that shape health and health care.
The resources below emphasize disability leadership and opportunities to learn directly from people with disabilities, advocates, families, and organizations working toward systemic change.
Disability Rights & History
Organizations and educational resources addressing disability civil rights, accessibility, discrimination, community integration, and the history of the disability rights movement.
Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund
DREDF is a national disability civil rights law and policy center advancing disability rights through legal advocacy, public policy, education, training, and disability history resources.
Judy Heumann — Disability Rights Resources
The official Judy Heumann resource collection preserves the legacy of one of the disability rights movement's most influential leaders and includes classroom resources, disability history, lesson plans, films, books, advocacy organizations, and materials on the Section 504 movement and Americans with Disabilities Act.
ADA National Network
The ADA National Network provides information, guidance, training, and resources on the Americans with Disabilities Act and disability access in employment, education, health care, public services, and community life.
Disability Leadership & Self-Advocacy
Disability-led organizations that center lived experience, self-determination, leadership, representation, and the power of people with disabilities to shape the systems affecting their lives.
Disability Lead
Disability Lead develops and connects leaders with disabilities who work to shift power, transform systems, increase disability representation, and redefine leadership.
Self Advocates Becoming Empowered
SABE is a national self-advocacy organization led by people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Its work promotes self-determination, leadership, voting, community inclusion, and self-advocacy.
Autistic Self Advocacy Network
ASAN is a nonprofit organization run by and for autistic people. Its work focuses on disability rights, public policy, self-determination, community inclusion, and ensuring autistic people have a voice in decisions that affect their lives.
CommunicationFIRST
CommunicationFIRST is a disability-led civil rights organization advocating for the rights, autonomy, and inclusion of people who cannot rely on speech alone to be heard and understood.
Health Equity & Accessible Health Care
Initiatives addressing ableism, health disparities, accessibility, communication, accommodations, clinical education, and systemic barriers within health care.
Disability Equity Collaborative
The Disability Equity Collaborative brings together people with disabilities, health care organizations, advocates, researchers, policymakers, and professional organizations working to address disability-related health disparities and improve equitable access to care.
Institute for Exceptional Care
The Institute for Exceptional Care works with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, caregivers, clinicians, and health care leaders to improve health care through community engagement, research, policy, and systems change.
National Roadmap for Disability-Inclusive Healthcare
Developed through the Institute for Exceptional Care, the National Roadmap outlines goals and actions for improving how clinicians are educated to provide high-quality health care to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Stanford Medicine Alliance for Disability Inclusion and Equity
SMADIE brings together health professionals with disabilities and allies to advance accessibility, disability inclusion, mentorship, health equity, research, education, and systemic change within medicine and health care.
Lived Experience as Expertise
Programs demonstrating how people with disabilities, families, and community members can serve as educators and partners in health professions education.
Project DOCC — Delivery of Chronic Care
Project DOCC was created by parents of children with disabilities and chronic health conditions to teach health professionals about disability, chronic illness, family experiences, community life, communication, and family-centered care.
Current programs continue to use parents as faculty and teachers for medical students and residents.
Patient and Family Partnership in Education
Project DOCC demonstrates a model in which parents and families are not simply subjects of clinical education. They serve as educators whose lived experience helps learners understand disability, family life, community resources, care coordination, and health care relationships.
Policy & Systems Advocacy
Organizations working at the intersection of disability, civil rights, public policy, health care systems, research, community integration, and systems change.
National Council on Disability
NCD is an independent federal agency that advises the President, Congress, and federal agencies on policies, programs, practices, and procedures affecting people with disabilities.
National Disability Rights Network
NDRN is the national membership organization for the federally mandated Protection and Advocacy systems and Client Assistance Programs that protect the legal and human rights of people with disabilities.
National Council on Independent Living
NCIL advances independent living and the rights of people with disabilities through advocacy, public policy, leadership, and a national network of Centers for Independent Living.
Association of University Centers on Disabilities
AUCD's national network advances disability policy, research, education, leadership, community service, and systems change through university-based centers and interdisciplinary programs.
Nothing About Us Without Us
Disability advocacy has long emphasized that policies, education, research, and health care affecting people with disabilities should include people with disabilities as leaders, partners, educators, researchers, and decision-makers.
In health professions education, this means moving beyond teaching about disability and creating meaningful opportunities to learn with and from people with disabilities.
About This Collection
This page is a curated starting point rather than a comprehensive directory. ADHCE prioritizes resources that support disability rights, accessibility, health equity, self-determination, disability leadership, and meaningful participation of people with disabilities. Inclusion of an external organization does not imply ADHCE endorsement of all of its content or policy positions.
About the AllianceThe Alliance for Disability in Health Care Education, Inc. (ADHCE), is a '501(c)(3) Public Charity' organization of healthcare educators and professionals who are working to integrate disability-related content and experiences into healthcare education and training programs. |
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