Community Organizing

All disabled people have the right to organize and participate in associations concerned with public and political life, as affirmed by Article 29 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This page centers disabled people’s expertise and is informed by disabled-led movements that have transformed societies.

Community organizing builds collective power to make change. Disabled people have used organizing to secure accessible transit, end institutionalization, pass civil rights laws, and build mutual aid networks. Organizing is relational, strategic, and grounded in community—not institutions.

What Community Organizing Is

Community organizing involves:

Bringing people together around shared issues and experiences
Identifying and developing leaders from affected communities
Building relationships across differences
Developing strategy and choosing effective tactics
Taking collective action to win concrete demands

Organizing is different from service provision. Services help individuals navigate existing systems. Organizing changes the systems themselves.

Core Concepts

Base-Building

Base-building means growing a network of people directly impacted by the issue you’re organizing around. A strong base includes:

People with lived experience of the problem
Diverse perspectives within the affected community
Commitment beyond single events or actions
Capacity to mobilize when needed

Your base is your power. The more people you can mobilize, the more leverage you have.

Power Analysis

Power analysis means understanding who has decision-making power and how to influence them. Ask:

Who makes decisions on this issue?
What do they care about?
Who influences them?
What would move them to act?
What pressure points exist?

Effective organizing targets power strategically, not randomly.

Strategy and Tactics

Strategy is your overall plan for winning. Tactics are specific actions within that plan.

Good strategy:

Builds power, not just attention
Connects short-term wins to long-term goals
Accounts for your resources and capacity
Anticipates opposition responses

Tactics should serve strategy. A dramatic action that doesn’t advance your goals may feel good but doesn’t win change.

Leadership Development

Organizing develops leaders from within affected communities. This means:

Creating opportunities for people to take on increasing responsibility
Supporting people to develop skills through practice
Building leadership that’s accessible and sustainable
Planning for succession and shared leadership

Strong movements don’t depend on single charismatic leaders—they develop many.

Collective Access

Organizing that excludes disabled people isn’t disability organizing. Collective access means:

Remote participation options for those who can’t attend in person
Breaks, rest spaces, and flexible timing
Sensory considerations (lighting, noise, scents)
Plain language and multiple communication formats
ASL interpretation and captioning
Physical accessibility of meeting spaces
Access notes shared in advance

Access isn’t an add-on. It’s how movements practice the inclusion they’re fighting for.

Examples of Disabled People’s Organizing

1977 Section 504 Sit-In

When the federal government delayed implementing Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, disabled people organized nationwide protests. In San Francisco, over 100 disabled people occupied the federal building for 28 days—the longest occupation of a federal building in U.S. history. The sit-in succeeded through cross-disability solidarity and coalition support from the Black Panther Party, labor unions, the gay community, and religious groups.

ADAPT Direct Action

ADAPT (originally Americans Disabled for Accessible Public Transit) has used direct action since the 1980s to fight for accessible transportation, community-based services, and against institutionalization. Their tactics—blocking buses, occupying buildings, getting arrested—have won major policy victories including accessible buses nationwide and the expansion of home and community-based services.

Independent Living Movement

Starting in Berkeley in the 1960s, disabled people organized to create peer-run Centers for Independent Living that provide services controlled by disabled people. The movement spread globally, establishing the principle that disabled people are experts on their own lives and should lead organizations serving them.

Disability Justice Organizing

Disability justice, developed by disabled queer people of color, expanded disability rights to center race, class, gender, and other intersecting systems of oppression. Organizations like Sins Invalid, the Harriet Tubman Collective, and the Disability Justice Culture Club organize at these intersections.

COVID-Era Mutual Aid

During the COVID-19 pandemic, disabled people organized mutual aid networks to provide food, medication delivery, emotional support, and information. These networks demonstrated disabled people’s capacity to care for each other and challenged narratives that positioned disabled people only as recipients of care.

How to Start Organizing Locally

Identify an issue impacting your community that you’re passionate about
Meet and listen to people directly affected—one-on-one conversations are foundational
Form a small organizing team of people ready to commit time and energy
Map your community’s power: Who makes decisions? Who influences them?
Build relationships with potential allies and coalition partners
Choose winnable demands: Start with something achievable to build momentum
Take strategic action: Choose tactics that build power and move toward your goals
Evaluate and repeat: What worked? What didn’t? What’s next?

Organizing is iterative. You learn by doing, adjust, and do again.

Resources

Disabled-Led Organizing

ADAPT: National direct action disability rights organization
National Council on Independent Living (NCIL): Network of Centers for Independent Living
Sins Invalid: Disability justice performance project
Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN): Autistic-led organizing

Learning Resources

Tools for Power: Resource Kit for Independent Living: International guide to organizing and movement building
National Park Service Disability Rights History: Overview of the disability rights movement
Disability Visibility edited by Alice Wong: First-person accounts of disabled life and organizing

This page centers disabled people’s expertise and is informed by disabled-led organizing globally. For questions or to suggest additions, see How to Contribute.

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Have lived experience or expertise that could strengthen this page? We especially welcome perspectives on models not well represented here, including those from the Global South and Indigenous communities.

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