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By Yair Oded and Jesús Veliz; edited by Jennifer Mathis.
In the fourth and final chapter of our ADA at 35 series, we look at what it takes to make the law’s integration mandate real on the ground. Community services — supported housing, assertive community treatment, peer support, supported employment, and mobile crisis teams — have long shown that people with significant mental health disabilities can thrive at home and in their communities. We trace that promise from Olmstead v. L.C. (1999) to the conclusion of O’Toole v. Cuomo in 2025, where nearly 1,300 New Yorkers moved from adult homes into supported housing with greater independence. The chapter also spotlights peer-led solutions, including Kiva Centers’ peer-run respites and the Alliance for Rights and Recovery’s Peer Bridger model, which helps people transition from hospitals to community life. Together, these stories show how enforceable legal advocacy plus voluntary, community-based services deliver rights and results.
Read the full piece here.
By Yair Oded and Jesús Veliz; edited by Jennifer Mathis.
The ADA’s promise applies equally to people with mental health disabilities, yet they’re too often left outside the disability-rights frame. The third chapter in our ADA at 35 blog series traces how public debate defaults to “meds and beds,” casting people experiencing mental health issues as dangerous or incapable despite evidence that they account for only a small fraction of violent acts, and shows how that prejudice fuels coercive policies and renewed pushes for institutionalization. It contrasts that trend with decades of proof that community-based, person-centered services lead to better outcomes at lower cost.
Against this backdrop, it analyzes current policy shifts — expansions of civil commitment, attacks on Housing First, and deep cuts to Medicaid that underwrite community supports — as threats to autonomy, integration, and equal opportunity. The result is a clear case for bringing mental health squarely back under the ADA’s core values: access, dignity, and life in the community.
Read the full piece here.
By Yair Oded and Jesús Veliz; edited by Jennifer Mathis.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a landmark civil rights law. But what exactly does it cover, and how does it work in practice? In the second installment of our four-part series celebrating the ADA’s 35th anniversary, we take a clear, accessible look at its core protections, from employment to public spaces to government services, and highlight why these safeguards remain essential for people with disabilities, including those with mental health conditions.
Read the full piece here.
By Yair Oded and Jesús Veliz; edited by Jennifer Mathis.
This is the first installment in a four-part series marking the 35th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and reflecting on the law’s origins, achievements, and unfinished work. Built on decades of activism, including the 1977 protests that forced the government to implement Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act, the ADA became the cornerstone of disability rights in the United States, extending legal protections across nearly all areas of public life. While it has transformed access and inclusion for millions, persistent policy threats, funding shortfalls, and entrenched prejudice — particularly toward people with mental health disabilities — continue to undermine the goals of the ADA. This piece traces the path to the ADA’s passage and underscores the need to both defend and advance its vision of equality and justice.
Read the full piece here.
By: Jalyn Radziminski
Dr. Walensky’s comments highlighted a trend of long-standing policy failures that have slowly eroded the trust of the people with disabilities, especially those who are Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC), in the pandemic response by the CDC and other agencies. Disabled lives are worth protecting from COVID-19. The CDC and other public health agencies must engage the disability community as they are making decisions related to the pandemic and beyond — something they have failed to do time and again. We are in solidarity with the #MyDisabledLifeisWorthy movement and conversation started by Imani Barbarin. We call on Dr. Walensky to rebuild trust by centering the voices, experiences and lives of people with disabilities, including those with mental disabilities, and especially those of color.
By: Jalyn Radziminski
After following the #FreeBritney movement all summer, we heard the news that “Britney was finally free” from the control of her father through a conservatorship. It is now time to take stock of the larger picture of often abusive and unjustified control over people with disabilities through systems of conservatorship, guardianships, involuntary institutionalization, and forced medication. In order to make lasting change, the voices of people directly impacted must be valued and heard.
Read more here.
By: Jennifer Mathis
During this anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), disability advocates call on Congress to pass the Better Care Better Jobs Act, which would make a greater federal investment in Medicaid home and community-based services (HCBS) for people with disabilities. This legislation would bring a much-needed expansion of HCBS by authorizing a 10% increase in federal Medicaid reimbursement for these services.
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By: Ira Burnim
A pivotal moment has come in the long and complex effort to reform the U.S. criminal justice system. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has directed officials in Alameda County, California, to fundamentally change the way it deals with people with mental illness.
Read more here.
By: Jalyn Radziminski & Sadie Salazar
“Let the shameful wall of exclusion finally come tumbling down,” declared President George H. W. Bush as he signed the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) into law on July 26, 1990. July 26, 2021 marks the 31st anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the world’s first comprehensive declaration of equality for people with disabilities. When the civil rights legislation was passed in 1990, it had overwhelming bipartisan support.
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