Organizations and Resources for People with Disabilities

Organizations and Resources for People with Disabilities

• American Association of People with Disabilities
  • AAPD works to improve the lives of people with disabilities by acting as a convener, connector, and catalyst for change, increasing the political and economic power of people with disabilities.

• American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
  • AAIDD promotes progressive policies, sound research, effective practices, and universal human rights for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. AAIDD’s goals are to 1. Enhance the capacity of professionals who work with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities; 2. Promote the development of a society that fully includes individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities; and 3. Sustain an effective, responsive, well managed, and responsibly-governed organization.

• Association of University Centers on Disabilities
  • The Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD) is a membership organization that supports and promotes a national network of university-based interdisciplinary programs. Network members consist of:
    • 67 University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD), funded by the Administration on Intellectual Developmental Disabilities (AIDD);
    • 52 Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (LEND) Programs funded under the Autism Collaboration, Accountability, Research, Education, and Support (CARES) Act and administered by the Health Resources and Service’s Administration’s (HRSA) Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB);
      • Title V Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grant Program
    • 14 Developmental Disability Research Centers (IDDRC), most of which are funded by the National Institute for Child Health and Development (NICHD).

• Autism Organizations – Project Spectrum

• Autism Speaks
  • Autism Speaks is an autism advocacy organization in the United States that sponsors autism research and conducts awareness and outreach activities aimed at families, governments, and the public.

• Autistic Self Advocacy Network
  • The Autistic Self Advocacy Network seeks to advance the principles of the disability rights movement with regard to autism. ASAN believes that the goal of autism advocacy should be a world in which autistic people enjoy equal access, rights, and opportunities. We work to empower autistic people across the world to take control of our own lives and the future of our common community, and seek to organize the autistic community to ensure our voices are heard in the national conversation about us. Nothing About Us, Without Us!

• Best Buddies International
  • We are the world’s largest organization dedicated to ending the social, physical and economic isolation of the 200 million people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).

• Center for Public Representation
  • CPR uses legal strategies, advocacy, and policy to promote the integration and full community participation of people with disabilities and all others who are devalued in today’s society.

• Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities
  • The Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) is the largest coalition of national organizations working together to advocate for federal public policy that ensures the self-determination, independence, empowerment, integration and inclusion of children and adults with disabilities in all aspects of society.

• Disability Scoop
  • Developmental Disability News

• National Association of State Directors of Special Education, Inc.
  • Since 1938, NASDSE has provided leadership to ensure the provision of a quality education to every child.  NASDSE focuses on improving educational services and outcomes for children and youth with disabilities throughout the United States, the Department of Defense, the federal territories and the Freely Associated States of Palau, American Samoa, Micronesia, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and the Marshall Islands.

• National Association of States United for Aging and Disabilities
  • To design, improve, and sustain state systems delivering home and community based services and supports for people who are older or have a disability, and their caregivers.

• National Organization on Disability
  • The National Organization on Disability (NOD) is a private, non-profit organization that promotes the full participation and contributions of America’s 57 million people with disabilities in all aspects of life. NOD focuses on increasing employment opportunities for the 80-percent of working-age Americans with disabilities who are not employed.

• Special Olympics, Inc.
  • The mission of Special Olympics is to provide year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. This gives them continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy and participate in a sharing of gifts, skills and friendship with their families, other Special Olympics athletes and the community.

• The Arc
  • The Arc promotes and protects the human rights of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and actively supports their full inclusion and participation in the community throughout their lifetimes.

• United Cerebral Palsy
  • United Cerebral Palsy (UCP) educates, advocates and provides support services to ensure a life without limits for people with a spectrum of disabilities.  UCP and its nearly 68+ affiliates have a mission to advance the independence, productivity and full citizenship of people with a broad range of disabilities by providing services and support to more than 176,000 children and adults every day.

• Wrightslaw.com
  • A comprehensive resource providing legal and explanatory information on your child’s special education rights.