Professional Toolkits
All disabled people have the right to access services, employment, education, healthcare, housing, and community participation on an equal basis with others. This section centers disabled people’s expertise to help professionals provide genuinely respectful, effective, person-centered service that goes beyond minimum legal compliance.
Why This Section Exists
Section titled “Why This Section Exists”Disabled people face systemic barriers across every sector of society—barriers perpetuated not by malice but by lack of training, deficit-based thinking, and systems designed without disabled input. These toolkits synthesize guidance from disability-led organizations, international human rights frameworks, and professional standards to help you do better.
The foundational principle threading through every page: “Nothing About Us Without Us.”
Choose Your Profession
Section titled “Choose Your Profession”Creating genuinely inclusive learning environments through Universal Design for Learning, trauma-informed teaching, presuming competence, and supporting multiply-marginalized students.
Centering patient autonomy and access through avoiding diagnostic overshadowing, accessible examination practices, communication across disability types, and respecting self-determination.
Building genuinely inclusive workplaces through collaborative accommodation processes, inclusive hiring, disclosure-friendly environments, and career advancement equity.
Supporting self-determination through person-centered planning, supported decision-making over guardianship, fighting institutionalization, and navigating benefits systems.
Creating genuinely inclusive spaces through universal design philosophy, sensory-friendly environments, cognitive accessibility, and participatory design with disabled people.
Whole community emergency planning that includes disabled people as planners, accessible communications, shelter accessibility, and medical equipment considerations.
De-escalation, communication strategies, recognizing disability versus intoxication, avoiding use of force, and alternatives to police response for mental health crises.
Cross-Cutting Principles for All Professionals
Section titled “Cross-Cutting Principles for All Professionals”Before diving into profession-specific guidance, seven core principles apply universally:
Presume Competence
Section titled “Presume Competence”Assume disabled people can understand, communicate, make decisions, and participate until proven otherwise—and recognize that “proving otherwise” often reflects your failure to provide appropriate supports, not their incapacity.
Anne Donnellan’s “least dangerous assumption” framework holds that when uncertain about someone’s abilities, assume competence: the consequences of underestimating someone are far more harmful than overestimating them.
Center Disabled Expertise
Section titled “Center Disabled Expertise”Disabled people are experts on their own bodies, lives, and needs. They have developed sophisticated knowledge through lived experience that no credential can replicate. Defer to self-advocates and disability-led organizations over professionals speaking “about” disabled people.
Distinguish Impairment from Disability
Section titled “Distinguish Impairment from Disability”The social model of disability, developed by UK activists in the 1970s, recognizes that “disability” results from societal barriers—inaccessible buildings, discriminatory policies, communication failures—while “impairment” refers to physical or cognitive differences. Your role is removing barriers, not “fixing” people.
Recognize Intersectionality
Section titled “Recognize Intersectionality”Disabled people hold multiple identities simultaneously—race, gender, sexuality, immigration status, class. Disability justice emerged because mainstream disability rights movements often invisibilized people living at intersecting junctures of oppression. Black disabled students face both racism and ableism; LGBTQ+ disabled people experience compounded discrimination in healthcare.
Embrace the Dignity of Risk
Section titled “Embrace the Dignity of Risk”Robert Perske wrote in 1972: “Overprotection may appear on the surface to be kind, but it can be really evil. An oversupply can smother people emotionally, squeeze the life out of their hopes and expectations.”
The right to make choices—including choices you consider unwise—is fundamental to human dignity.
Apply Interdependence Over Independence
Section titled “Apply Interdependence Over Independence”Rather than measuring success by how much someone can do alone, disability justice recognizes that all humans depend on each other. The goal is not maximum independence but meaningful interdependence—appropriate supports enabling full participation.
Know the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Section titled “Know the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities”Ratified by 186 countries, the CRPD establishes disability rights as human rights. Key articles include:
- Article 9: Accessibility
- Article 12: Equal recognition before the law (legal capacity)
- Article 19: Living independently and being included in the community
- Article 24: Education
- Article 25: Health
- Article 27: Work and employment
- Article 11: Situations of risk and humanitarian emergencies
Essential Organizations
Section titled “Essential Organizations”Disability-Led Advocacy
Section titled “Disability-Led Advocacy”- Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN): autisticadvocacy.org
- ADAPT: adapt.org
- National Council on Independent Living (NCIL): ncil.org
- Self Advocates Becoming Empowered (SABE): sabeusa.org
- Partnership for Inclusive Disaster Strategies: disasterstrategies.org
- HEARD: behearddc.org
- CommunicationFIRST: communicationfirst.org
Professional Resources
Section titled “Professional Resources”- Job Accommodation Network (JAN): askjan.org
- EARN: askearn.org
- ADA National Network: adata.org
- US Access Board: access-board.gov
International Frameworks
Section titled “International Frameworks”- UN Enable: un.org/development/desa/disabilities
- UN CRPD Text: ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-rights-persons-disabilities
How to Use These Toolkits
Section titled “How to Use These Toolkits”Each toolkit is designed to help you:
- Understand the barriers disabled people face in your professional context
- Learn concrete strategies that go beyond minimum compliance
- Find resources for ongoing professional development
- Connect with disability-led organizations doing this work
These pages are not exhaustive—they’re starting points. The most important step is building ongoing relationships with disabled people and disability-led organizations in your community.
Related Pages
Section titled “Related Pages”- Foundations: What Is Disability?
- Foundations: Disability Models
- Foundations: For Allies
- Rights & Advocacy
- Advocacy 101
This section centers disabled people’s expertise and is informed by disabled-led organizing globally. For questions or to suggest additions, see How to Contribute.
Contribute to This Page
Section titled “Contribute to This Page”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.
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.