NCDR Membership Information

(Washington, DC) The National Coalition for Disability Rights (NCDR) is an alliance of nonprofit organizations united to advance inclusion, economic opportunity and social justice for children and adults with physical and mental disabilities.

The National Coalition for Disability Rights (NCDR) is a disability-led 501(c)(3) nonprofit, cross-disability alliance of national, state and local disability and allied organizations.

We are united to protect and advance the civil and human rights of children and adults with physical, mental, developmental, cognitive, intellectual and sensory disabilities.

NCDR pools expertise, resources and influence to build the capacity of nonprofit disability, civil rights and social justice organizations to further a National Agenda for Disability Rights.

With a particular emphasis on community organizing, preservation of disability social history, media and public outreach, NCDR promotes an understanding – impacting both social consciousness and public policy – of disability rights as essential civil and human rights.

NCDR fosters communication and resource sharing among its member organizations, serves as a source of information about disability rights issues, and initiates joint advocacy strategies. NCDR members also act in their organizational capacities to develop and implement their own strategies to achieve the goals of the National Agenda for Disability Rights.

Focus/Issue Areas:

In addition to the promotion of the National Agenda for Disability Rights, the NCDR national and state advisory council has identified key areas of focus for our educational and advocacy efforts:

• Civil Rights & Discrimination
• Poverty & Social Justice
• Healthcare & Public Policy
• Community Organizing & Coalition-Building
• Public Outreach, Media & the Arts
• Disability Rights History

Programs:

NCDR programs include the association of statewide cross-disability coalitions, Road To Freedom (bus, documentary film, book and public information campaign), ADA Watch disability rights news and action network, Campaign for Fair Judges, Disability Rights Concert, and Wired On Wheels accessibility rating system and database.

Statement on Inclusion:

The disability rights movement has lost much ground since passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990 and the disability community has grown significantly fractured. NCDR rejects polarizing – and often self-serving – characterizations about the greater disability community including supposed dichotomies as disabled/nondisabled, lawyers/lay-advocates, Inside/Outside the “Beltway”, physical/mental disabilities, research/rights organizations, and the like.

In recognition of the formidable opponents we regularly face and in respect for the unifying values of great disability rights leaders like Justin Dart, we seek to forge a common agenda among the disparate members of our constituency. As such, NCDR, while disability majority-governed, is comprised of national, state and local organizations; legal, non-legal and self- advocacy organizations; youth organizations; rights and reasearch-based health organizations; student and educator organizations; parent and family organizations; aging organizations, as well as associated non-disability led civil rights and social justice organizations.

Membership Contact:

National Coalition for Disability Rights (NCDR)
1701 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Suite 300
Washington, DC 20006
Email: info@ncdr.org
Voice: 202-448-9928

Membership:

Hundreds of national, state and local coalition partners have previously joined our efforts by simply signing-on their organization to one or more of our advocacy campaigns. There are no dues are fees. NCDR also recomends enhancing membership by assigning an organizational representative to the NCDR Advisory Council and by demonstrating support for our National Agenda for Disability Rights. Associate membership is open to allied organizations from the civil rights, aging, mental health and other social justice communities. Members of the NCDR Advisory Council may be elected to the Board of Directors which will consist of no more than ten directors.

Organizational members who join our National Advisory Council are asked to appoint a person within the organization to participate in the Coalition’s activities and to receive and disseminate Coalition information and actions. NCDR recognizes the limited resources and significant demands on the time of our coalition partners, therefore membership requires very little in-person staff time. NCDR prefers that the CEO of an organization be listed with membership, while the point person may be another staff member. As an organizational member, your organization will be listed on NCDR materials and will have the option to sign-on or opt-out of coalition policies and positions. NCDR positions are formalized with a simple majority vote of the Board and Steering Committee and campaigns will consist of multi-organization sign-on statements comprised of endorsing members.

Association of Statewide Cross-Disability Coalitions:

In 2006, ADA Watch/NCDR was reorganized in response to the call for national representation from a number of statewide, cross-disability coalitions. NCDR now functions, in part, as the association of statewide cross-disability coalitions representing state and local disability and disability-allied organizations. NCDR – Statewide Coalition policies and positions, when distinct from the national, are formalized by a simple majority vote of the State Coalition Steering Committee. Any policies or positions singlalry reached by the association of Statewide Cross-Disability Coalitions must be clearly delineated as such.

Governance – National:

Consistent with the disability rights slogan, “Nothing About Us Without Us!,” at least a majority of our Board of Directors and National Advisory Council, as well as the NCDR Steering Committee members are people with disabilities. Founded as ADA Watch in 2001, our first Chairman was the late disability rights icon, Justin Dart.

The NCDR Board of Directors and National Advisory Council are comprised of national disability and allied organizations and recognized national, state and local disability rights leaders:

NCDR Board of Directors and National Advisory Council
(*) indicates Board Member

Nan Aron
Alliance for Justice

Ron Bassman*
NARPA

Robert Bernstein
Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law

Marca Bristo
Access Living

The Honorable Tony Coelho
Former Member of Congress

Len Doran*
The Wexford Group

Curtis Decker*
National Disability Rights Network
Consortium of Citizens with Disabilities

Kyle Glozier
National Disabled Student Union

Claudia Gordon
National Black Deaf Advocates

Wade Henderson
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights

The Honorable Judith Heumann

Bob Kafka
ADAPT

Janine Bertram Kemp*
Cedar Media

John Lancaster
National Council on Independent Living

Ralph Neas
People For the American Way

David Oaks
MindFreedom International

Mike Oxford
NCIL, ADAPT, TILRC

Lee Page*
Paralyzed Veterans of America

Brewster Thackeray*
AARP

Debra Robinson
Speaking For Ourselves

Marcie Roth*
National Coalition for Disability Rights

Phil Sparks
Communications Consortium Media Center

Nancy Starnes*
National Organization on Disability

Betsy Valnes
National Youth Leadership Network

Jim Ward*
National Coalition for Disability Rights

Susan Henderson*
Disability Rights Education and
Defense Fund

Tony Young
NISH

Governance – State and Local:

NCDR is the association of statewide cross-disability coalitions. NCDR supports capacity-building of existing state coalitions and disseminates best practice methods for the development of new statewide coalitions. Local organizations are signed-on as dual members of NCDR and their respective state coalition.

NCDR’s State Coalition Steering Committee consists of the leaders of statewide cross-disability coalitions. At least a majority of the NCDR State Coalition Steering Committee is comprised of people with disabilities.

These state coalitions are represented in seven geographic regions:

NCDR State Membership & Governance Regions

Region 1: California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Alaska, Hawaii

Region 2: Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas

Region 3: Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan

Region 4: Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee

Region 5: Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina North Carolina

Region 6: Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Washington, DC, Pennsylvania, New Jersey

Region 7: New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine

NCDR State Coalition Steering Committee

Catherine Blakemore
California Respect-Ability Coalition

Dennis Borel
Coalition of Texans with Disabilities

Lynn Breedlove
Survival Coalition of
Wisconsin Disability Coalitions

Sharon Fields
Kentucky Disabilities Coalition

Stan Kosloski
Connecticut Disability Advocacy
Collaborative

Bill Olsen
Oregon Cross-Disability Coalition
Jim Moench
North Dakota Disabilities Advocacy
Consortium

Carol Westlake
Tennessee Disability Coalition

Mary Troupe
Mississippi Coalition for Citizens
with Disabilities

Julie Reskin
Colorado Cross Disability Coalition

Vanessa VanGilder
West Virginia Fair Shake Network

Kathryn Wyeth
Michigan Disability Rights Coalition