Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF)

The disability rights movement has spent decades fighting against systems that exclude and lock up disabled people. Our rights were not freely given; they were won through decades of advocacy, organizing, and legal action.

We’ve worked to protect rights that make inclusion and accessibility the expectation. The right to attend neighborhood schools alongside peers. The right to live in our communities with friends and family. The right to receive the supports we need to live full lives free from discrimination and oppression.

A new AP article explores how this administration's recent actions, including moving oversight of special education out of the U.S. Department of Education and narrowing the federal government's interpretation of the landmark Olmstead decision, signal an effort to undermine those hard-won civil rights. The article includes insight from DREDF Legal Director Claudia Center on what's at stake.

Read the full article:

Trump's actions signal a move toward institutionalizing people with disabilities, advocates warn For decades, disabled people have fought for their rights to go to school and live alongside peers without disabilities.

Housing is safety, stability, health, and the foundation for living in the community.

A proposed U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) rule would make it harder for transgender people to access federally funded shelters and housing. Disabled for transgender people and gender diverse people, and disabled survivors of violence would face some of the greatest harm.

We submitted comments to HUD and explained why this proposal would:
- Increase barriers to emergency shelter and housing
- Put more disabled people at risk of homelessness and institutionalization
- Endanger survivors of gender-based violence
- Conflict with federal disability rights protections

Everyone should have equal access to safe housing and shelter, regardless of disability or gender identity.

Read our comments: https://dredf.org/protecting-equal-access-to-shelter-and-housing-for-disabled-and-transgender-people-dredf-comment-opposing-hud-proposed-rule/