All disabled people have the right to access services, employment, education, healthcare, housing, and community participation on an equal basis with others. This section centers disabled people's expertise to help professionals provide genuinely respectful, effective, person-centered service that goes beyond minimum legal compliance.
Disabled people face systemic barriers across every sector of society—barriers perpetuated not by malice but by lack of training, deficit-based thinking, and systems designed without disabled input. These toolkits synthesize guidance from disability-led organizations, international human rights frameworks, and professional standards to help you do better.
The foundational principle threading through every page: "Nothing About Us Without Us."
Creating genuinely inclusive learning environments through Universal Design for Learning, trauma-informed teaching, presuming competence, and supporting multiply-marginalized students.
Centering patient autonomy and access through avoiding diagnostic overshadowing, accessible examination practices, communication across disability types, and respecting self-determination.
Building genuinely inclusive workplaces through collaborative accommodation processes, inclusive hiring, disclosure-friendly environments, and career advancement equity.
Supporting self-determination through person-centered planning, supported decision-making over guardianship, fighting institutionalization, and navigating benefits systems.
Creating genuinely inclusive spaces through universal design philosophy, sensory-friendly environments, cognitive accessibility, and participatory design with disabled people.
Whole community emergency planning that includes disabled people as planners, accessible communications, shelter accessibility, and medical equipment considerations.
De-escalation, communication strategies, recognizing disability versus intoxication, avoiding use of force, and alternatives to police response for mental health crises.
Before diving into profession-specific guidance, seven core principles apply universally:
Assume disabled people can understand, communicate, make decisions, and participate until proven otherwise—and recognize that "proving otherwise" often reflects your failure to provide appropriate supports, not their incapacity.
Anne Donnellan's "least dangerous assumption" framework holds that when uncertain about someone's abilities, assume competence: the consequences of underestimating someone are far more harmful than overestimating them.
Disabled people are experts on their own bodies, lives, and needs. They have developed sophisticated knowledge through lived experience that no credential can replicate. Defer to self-advocates and disability-led organizations over professionals speaking "about" disabled people.
The social model of disability, developed by UK activists in the 1970s, recognizes that "disability" results from societal barriers—inaccessible buildings, discriminatory policies, communication failures—while "impairment" refers to physical or cognitive differences. Your role is removing barriers, not "fixing" people.
Disabled people hold multiple identities simultaneously—race, gender, sexuality, immigration status, class. Disability justice emerged because mainstream disability rights movements often invisibilized people living at intersecting junctures of oppression. Black disabled students face both racism and ableism; LGBTQ+ disabled people experience compounded discrimination in healthcare.
Robert Perske wrote in 1972: "Overprotection may appear on the surface to be kind, but it can be really evil. An oversupply can smother people emotionally, squeeze the life out of their hopes and expectations."
The right to make choices—including choices you consider unwise—is fundamental to human dignity.
Rather than measuring success by how much someone can do alone, disability justice recognizes that all humans depend on each other. The goal is not maximum independence but meaningful interdependence—appropriate supports enabling full participation.
Ratified by 186 countries, the CRPD establishes disability rights as human rights. Key articles include:
Each toolkit is designed to help you:
These pages are not exhaustive—they're starting points. The most important step is building ongoing relationships with disabled people and disability-led organizations in your community.
This section centers disabled people's expertise and is informed by disabled-led organizing globally. For questions or to suggest additions, see How to Contribute.