A special thank you to our videographer

The Inquisitive Outsider
William Thomas

aka Classic Reinvention
Chief Curator

Disabled, Not Disposable Campaign

The Disabled, Not Disposable campaign, led by National ADAPT, is rooted in the ‘power in numbers’ mentality. The disability community is vast, diverse, and strong. When we show up together, our voices cannot be ignored.

We know the urgency of this moment. Many of us in ADAPT feel the need to head to DC and to stand directly in the presence of those making decisions that impact our lives. That visibility matters. But real change requires more than presence, it requires people. This campaign is about collective action, about building a chorus so loud that it demands to be heard.

We are calling on our community and our allies to take part by sharing your voice. Create a short video in whatever way works for you. Say clearly and proudly: “I’m disabled, not disposable.” Share why this matters to you, your family, or your community.

Your video does not need to be perfect. It just needs to be real.

Once you’ve created your video:

Share it widely

Send it directly to your legislators

Tag @nationaladapt to help amplify the message

This movement only grows if we grow it together. It’s all of us that will carry this forward.

Here is our instructional video:

Video with captions and ASL:

Video with audio description (no captions):

Video in Spanish:

National ADAPT’s Position on Accommodations and the Political Process

ADAPT reaffirms our position against ableism and the negative stereotypes associated with it. We view holding an individual’s disability against them as an act of violence utilized by counterparts, who in their attempt to gain political power, run their campaigns on an ableist agenda. This type of situation sets the precedent that it is okay to view disability in a negative way.

It is wrong to make assumptions about someone’s ability to perform a job based solely on disability.

It is wrong to assume someone is incompetent based on other peoples’ biases towards disability.

Disability is part of life and the Americans with Disabilities Act affirms the use of reasonable accommodations that may be necessary to ensure accessibility to the person with a disability. Job seekers may need accommodations to perform the essential parts of any job. An accommodation is not something that should be looked down upon, rather, it should be viewed as a tool for equity.

John Fetterman, the current PA Lieutenant Governor, ran for reelection for the US Senate. He had a stroke earlier in the year and he is experiencing common symptoms of stroke survivors. As part of the campaign, he was challenged to and agreed to participate in a debate. Mr. Fetterman, who has difficulty with aphasia, struggled at times to get his words out. He used a closed caption television that included the questions and the opponent’s responses on screen. This is an example of a reasonable accommodation. Other potential accommodations could have been changing the format of the debate – for example receiving more time for responses, or not debating, since debating is not a requirement for holding public office.

Instead, take-aways from some people who watched the debate resulted in questions about Mr. Fetterman’s ability to comprehend the information and his ability to do the job of a Senator.

A disability does not equal incomprehension or incompetence. It does not make Mr. Fetterman less able to do the job. He stated that he is still making progress with his recovery and he is able to do the job. His doctor agrees. The ability to respond in the debate format is not an indicator of a person’s intelligence or fitness for a job. The negativity towards Mr. Fetterman as a result of the debate performance is ableism, and for every person who has experienced a disability, it’s an all too common problem.

“My advice to other disabled people would be, concentrate on things your disability doesn’t prevent you doing well, and don’t regret the things it interferes with. Don’t be disabled in spirit as well as physically.”

-Stephen Hawking

ADAPT is a national grass-roots community that organizes disability rights activists to engage in nonviolent direct action, including civil disobedience, to assure the civil and human rights of people with disabilities to live in freedom.

9/12/25 ADAPT Sentencing Statement

Note from ADAPT post-trial –
We went to court today. We received our punishment for unlawfully
protesting. Three of us plead guilty and received suspended
sentences and probation. Four of us plead guilty and received
deferred sentence agreements. Two received deferred prosecution
agreements. We are all banned from the US Senate side of the
Capitol for varying lengths of time.

We submitted the following statement to the Judge and asked to
read it before our sentencing. The Judge denied our request saying
that they weren’t going to allow political speech. Here’s what the
nine of us tried to say:

Sept. 12, 2025
ADAPT Sentencing Statement
Thank you, your Honor, for allowing us to address the Court. As we
are sentenced for unlawfully protesting in the US Senate, we would
like the record to reflect our answer to the question: “Why did you
protest and risk arrest, prosecution and punishment?”
We are disabled people. Many of us have more than one disability.
Some of our disabling conditions, that affect us most, aren’t visible
or obvious. We are also parents, grandparents and caregivers.
We are people that have had to fight for the most basic liberty – to be
in the community – our whole lives. We depend on Social Security,
Medicare and Medicaid to pay for communication devices,
motorized wheelchairs, healthcare, in-home support and
assistance, as well as household bills and living expenses. Many of
us live in public housing or receive rental assistance from HUD.
Some of us, thanks to this assistance, are taxpayers. We all
volunteer in our communities. We are good neighbors and we all
belong in our own homes and communities.

The threats to make giant budget cuts and fundamentally alter the
way programs like HUD, Medicaid, Obama Care, Medicare, etc.
operate are unprecedented. We have been working decades to
develop and improve these programs so all disabled people and
aging community members can live in our own homes and
communities. The fact remains that notwithstanding significant
improvement, programs like Medicaid home and community
services, USDA Rural Housing, HUD, SNAP, etc. have all been
woefully underfunded and never fully covered needs for years.
These programs already have long waiting-lists and/or limitations in
benefits that still leave disabled folks and seniors unnecessarily
stuck in institutions, being isolated and not having a shot at life,
liberty and pursuit of happiness. Massively cutting funding of
already fragile, insufficient programs will cause suffering and death.
Those of us in the crosshairs of this radical social experiment are
being ignored, gas-lit and plain lied to by the majority of the US
Senate; same for the House and the President.

We emailed Congress. We rallied. We wrote letters. We asked for
meetings. We sang songs and did skits. Besides our small activist
group, lots of big, important organizations also tried to at least get a
listen from the Administration and over half of Congress, but to no
avail. To have such danger to our lives and freedom be so cavalierly
dismissed by policy makers, including most of the US Senate,
became untenable when every effort to even be heard was rebuffed.
You see, your Honor, we have been down this road once or twice
before, albeit never to this magnitude. These budget cuts neither
preserve the programs nor protect the people. When federal budget
cutbacks happen, negative consequences compound at the state
and local levels when matching funds are also lost and waiting lists
for services and housing lengthen and cut-backs in types and
amounts of services happen. It also becomes harder to find and
keep staff to provide services because pay for the workforce
stagnates and there are no benefits. The direct result is increased
institutionalization, loss of liberty and increased death and suffering
for disabled and aging people.

Our simple goal is to make our government care about us and listen
to us. We just want to be treated with the dignity and respect
afforded our non-disabled peers and to live our lives fully as equal
members of society. That is a cause worth fighting for even at the
risk of our own personal well-being.

Thank you, your Honor.
Mike Oxford, KS ADAPT
Rick Macias, KS ADAPT
Tom Earle, Philly ADAPT
Dillon Warren, KS ADAPT
Nancy Salandra, Philly ADAPT
Guy Anthony Brooks, Philly ADAPT
Misty Dion, North Central PA ADAPT
Ruben Fernandez, El Paso Desert ADAPT
Albert Metz, TX ADAPT

DONATE HERE

9/28/23 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: National ADAPT calls on HHS Secretary Becerra to End Institutional Bias

9/27/23 For Immediate Release: ADAPT Demands Congress to “Protect Traditional American Values”

What: National ADAPT calls on Kate Granger, chair of the Appropriations Committee, and Congress to immediately provide the necessary funding for affordable, accessible, integrated housing

When: Wednesday, September 27, 2023, 12PM

Where: Rayburn House Office Building,
45 Independence Avenue SW,
Washington, DC 20515

Contact:
Pam Auer, pauer41@gmail.com , Phone# 717.418.0419
Gina Barbara, ginambarbara@gmail.com , Phone# 516.318.9460

ADAPT Demands Congress to “Protect Traditional American Values”

ADAPT has been engaged in the struggle to end the institutional bias for over 40 years. People with disabilities and Older Americans continue to wait for home and community-based services, continue to wait for an adequate Community Attendant Workforce that is paid a living wage, and continue to wait for accessible affordable integrated housing, so they don’t have to be institutionalized. While Congress chooses to squabble over the budget or decides to fund our services at the same level as 2023, more people with disabilities and Older Americans go without services, are becoming institutionalized, and dying.

ADAPT demands Congresswoman Kay Granger, Chair of the House Appropriations Committee and Congress commit and create the following:

A mandatory, fully funded, home and community services and supports program that is available in the US and Territories, that serves people without regard to age, diagnosis or type of disability that permanently eliminates waiting lists and that is available in urban and rural settings.

A “Housing Moonshot” that develops, rehabilitates, and weatherizes housing that is affordable, accessible, integrated and weather hardened, that eliminates housing waiting lists and creates a human right to housing in the US and Territories in urban and rural settings.

A home and community-based services and supports workforce that is paid a living wage with benefits and that has training available establishing adequate networks of workers available in the US and Territories in urban and rural settings.

With this increase in funding, existing programs will be enhanced and more people with disabilities will be able to receive services. It is time for Congress to keep its promise to ADAPT and all Americans – that they will truly invest in the long-term services and supports infrastructure!

National ADAPT Community

6/25/24 For Immediate Release: A PROMISE UNFULFILLED! The North Carolina Housing Crisis Casts a dark shadow over the 25th anniversary of the Olmstead Decision

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 25, 2024
ADAPT
Contact: Nicky Boyte
Tel: (910) 357-1292
Email: bellbusters@gmail.com

The Olmstead Decision established the constitutional right of all people to live in the least restrictive setting of their choosing and recognized that forcing people to live in nursing homes, institutions, and congregate living is a form of discriminatory segregation. Currently, there are 427 Nursing Facilities in North Carolina, with 36,148 residents waiting to transition into the community. This is unacceptable and unconstitutional. NATIONAL ADAPT demands immediate action to reconcile and resolve this ongoing violation of constitutional rights for people living in institutional settings.
Individuals not living in institutions regularly encounter monumental barriers to obtaining and maintaining affordable and accessible housing. In North Carolina, there are over 7,000 people on the waiting list to receive home and community-based services, and the wait list for rental assistance and Section 8 housing is 4-7 years. This is unacceptable.

National ADAPT demands:
1. Immediate investment in more permanent, affordable, accessible integrated housing!
2. Expansion of the availability of housing Vouchers for Disabled people transitioning from institutions to realize the promise of Olmstead and more accessible and visible information on how to access programs for housing vouchers and community-based services in all public human health service programs and materials.
3. Immediate investment from the State to allocate more money to fund housing and increased assistance for Disabled people applying for federal programs.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 6/24/24 National ADAPT Calls on North Carolina HHS Secretary Kody Kinsley to Uphold the Olmstead Decision.

June 24, 2024

CONTACT: Nicky Boyte

bellbusters@gmail.com
(910) 357-1292

PRESS RELEASE

National ADAPT Calls on North Carolina HHS Secretary Kody Kinsley to Uphold the Olmstead Decision.

National ADAPT demands a meeting with Kody Kinsley, HHS Secretary of the NC Department of Health and Human Services, to discuss issues with Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS), in order to improve and provide HCBS to all NC citizens with disabilities to live independently in the community. This demand falls just after the 25th anniversary of the Olmstead Decision, a landmark ruling in which individuals with disabilities are guaranteed the right to live in the most integrated setting possible.

WHAT: On Monday, June 24th, National ADAPT will be protesting to demand a meeting with Kody Kinsley, HHS Secretary of the NC Department of Health and Human Services, to discuss issues with Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS), in order to improve and provide HCBS to all NC citizens with disabilities to live independently in the community.

The demand to meet will address a multitude of issues and ensure ongoing accountability of North Carolina’s HHS office by implementing an equitable HCBS system for individuals with disabilities. People with disabilities cannot rely on churches, family, or other unpaid networks alone any longer. Additional state funding must be appropriated for people with disabilities to live integrated lives in the community. This includes a strong, well-paid community attendant workforce.

In addition, the policy for evaluating community attendant hours must be amended, to be based on an individual’s functional need, rather than their diagnosis. North Carolinians with disabilities have many barriers which prevent them from living independently in the community. They include, but are not limited to, a lack of durable medical equipment, a lack of home modifications, and HCBS funding being inequitably distributed between disability groups.

Media are encouraged to attend the protest and hear from constituents about the HCBS crisis in North Carolina.

WHERE: NC Department of Health and Human Services, 101 Blair Dr, Raleigh, NC 27603

WHEN: Wednesday, June 24th, 2024
11:30am

ABOUT ADAPT:
ADAPT is a national grass-roots community that organizes disability rights activists to engage in nonviolent direct action, including civil disobedience, to assure the civil and human rights of people with disabilities to live in freedom. Learn more about ADAPT by visiting www.nationaladapt.org and by following us on social media at https://linktr.ee/adaptnational

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9/26/23 For Immediate Release: National ADAPT Urges HUD to Invest in People with Disabilities

For Immediate Release

Who: National ADAPT

What: Demonstration to demand that Secretary Marcia Fudge from HUD invest in people with disabilities

When: Tuesday September 26, 2023 (Happening Now)

Where: 451 7th Street, S.W., Washington, DC 20410

For More information:

Latoya Maddox, lmaddox83@gmail.com Phone# 267.809.2454

Chris Murphy, cjohnmurph@gmail.com Phone# 507.340.3889

The disabled community has paid the price before and during COVID. We have been locked away in institutions because of lack of affordable and accessible housing and have died at an extremely high rate while waiting to transition to affordable accessible housing.

In any funding going to housing we want to double the requirement under Section 504 to have 10% of housing units built as mobility-disability accessible and 4% as sensory-disability accessible.

Create permanent funding for a Barrier Elimination for accessibility modifications for people transitioning out of facilities and those at risk of going into facilities (i.e., nursing facilities).

Make Housing Choice vouchers an entitlement for all who need housing.

Continue to issue Mainstream vouchers for disabled people to transition out of facilities or at risk of going into a facility (i.e., nursing facilities). HUD will track these vouchers.

Enact or include the Eleanor Smith Inclusive Home Design Act, this would allow for any new housing built to have one entrance to the house with no steps and a half a bathroom on the first floor, just large enough for someone in a wheelchair or other mobility device to use. This would allow for more integration and interaction of people with disabilities into their communities.

5/12/23: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE! National ADAPT Demands President Biden Keeps His Campaign Promises to the Disability Community

WHAT: Demonstration Exposing Broken Promises by the Biden Administration regarding Americans with Disabilities and their rights to community living.

WHO: National ADAPT

WHEN: Friday, May 12, 2023, 11am

WHERE: In front of White House, Washington D.C.

National ADAPT, a national grass-roots community that organizes disability rights activists to engage in nonviolent direct action, including civil disobedience, to assure the civil and human rights of people with disabilities to live in freedom for over forty years.

National ADAPT DEMANDS that President Biden follow through on his campaign promises to address the needs of people with disabilities for services and supports to live in and prosper the community! National ADAPT is demanding to meet with President Biden to present him with a real list of what people with disabilities of all ages need:

1. End the Institutional Bias by fully funding Home and Community Based Services as a right equivalent to institutional placement

2. Invest and increase access to Affordable, Accessible, Integrated HOUSING

3. Cease federal funding of Guardianships. Fund the prevention and restoration of rights under wrongful Guardianships.

4. Medicaid and state funded Community Attendant Workforce’s / Direct Support

5. Professional’s wage to be paid based on the Consumer Price Index

6. Implement a 14 day timeframe for Medicaid/ Medicare Durable Medical Equipment maintenance, repairs, and immediate equivalent backup equipment.

President Biden met with ADAPT 20 years ago, in Wilmington DE., when we were marching from Philadelphia PA to Washington DC. We Voted, Marched, and Demonstrated, so that we could get legislation to keep people in the community and not in institutions! Here we are, 20 years later and we are STILL fighting for our RIGHT to live in the community,

National ADAPT urges President Biden to NOT LET US DOWN, NOW!

Meeting with us today, shows the world that he is following through on his promise and commitment to address the needs of People with disabilities for services and supports to live in and prosper the community! Free Our People!!!

Media Contact:

Name: Chris Murphy Phone:(507)340-3889

Name: Brandon Heinrich Phone: (631)834-7598

E-mail: adaptnational@gmail.com