All disabled people have the right to organize and participate in associations concerned with public and political life, as affirmed by Article 29 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This page centers disabled people's expertise and is informed by disabled-led movements that have transformed societies.
Community organizing builds collective power to make change. Disabled people have used organizing to secure accessible transit, end institutionalization, pass civil rights laws, and build mutual aid networks. Organizing is relational, strategic, and grounded in community—not institutions.
Community organizing involves:
Organizing is different from service provision. Services help individuals navigate existing systems. Organizing changes the systems themselves.
Base-building means growing a network of people directly impacted by the issue you're organizing around. A strong base includes:
Your base is your power. The more people you can mobilize, the more leverage you have.
Power analysis means understanding who has decision-making power and how to influence them. Ask:
Effective organizing targets power strategically, not randomly.
Strategy is your overall plan for winning. Tactics are specific actions within that plan.
Good strategy:
Tactics should serve strategy. A dramatic action that doesn't advance your goals may feel good but doesn't win change.
Organizing develops leaders from within affected communities. This means:
Strong movements don't depend on single charismatic leaders—they develop many.
Organizing that excludes disabled people isn't disability organizing. Collective access means:
Access isn't an add-on. It's how movements practice the inclusion they're fighting for.
When the federal government delayed implementing Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, disabled people organized nationwide protests. In San Francisco, over 100 disabled people occupied the federal building for 28 days—the longest occupation of a federal building in U.S. history. The sit-in succeeded through cross-disability solidarity and coalition support from the Black Panther Party, labor unions, the gay community, and religious groups.
ADAPT (originally Americans Disabled for Accessible Public Transit) has used direct action since the 1980s to fight for accessible transportation, community-based services, and against institutionalization. Their tactics—blocking buses, occupying buildings, getting arrested—have won major policy victories including accessible buses nationwide and the expansion of home and community-based services.
Starting in Berkeley in the 1960s, disabled people organized to create peer-run Centers for Independent Living that provide services controlled by disabled people. The movement spread globally, establishing the principle that disabled people are experts on their own lives and should lead organizations serving them.
Disability justice, developed by disabled queer people of color, expanded disability rights to center race, class, gender, and other intersecting systems of oppression. Organizations like Sins Invalid, the Harriet Tubman Collective, and the Disability Justice Culture Club organize at these intersections.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, disabled people organized mutual aid networks to provide food, medication delivery, emotional support, and information. These networks demonstrated disabled people's capacity to care for each other and challenged narratives that positioned disabled people only as recipients of care.
Identify an issue impacting your community that you're passionate about
Meet and listen to people directly affected—one-on-one conversations are foundational
Form a small organizing team of people ready to commit time and energy
Map your community's power: Who makes decisions? Who influences them?
Build relationships with potential allies and coalition partners
Choose winnable demands: Start with something achievable to build momentum
Take strategic action: Choose tactics that build power and move toward your goals
Evaluate and repeat: What worked? What didn't? What's next?
Organizing is iterative. You learn by doing, adjust, and do again.
This page centers disabled people's expertise and is informed by disabled-led organizing globally. For questions or to suggest additions, see How to Contribute.