List of disability rights activists

A disability-rights activist or disability-rights advocate is someone who works towards the equality of people with disabilities. Such a person is generally considered a member of the disability-rights movement and/or the independent-living movement.

A
 Javed Abidi – Director of the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP) in India
 Fatima al-Aqel – opened a school for blind women in Yemen in 1995.
 Ola Abu Alghaib – disability activist from Palestine, focusses on inclusion, gender and disability rights.

B
 Amanda Baggs - autism rights activist and blogger <refhttps://www.wired.com/2008/02/ff-autism/></ref>
 Safiya al Bahlani - Omani artist, graphic designer, disability rights activist, and motivational speaker.
 Jamala al-Baidhani – created the Al-Tahadi Association for Disabled Females, the first group in Yemen devoted to helping girls with disabilities. 
 Julia Bascom - autism rights activist and president of the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network 
 Andrew Batavia – ADA regulations drafter, co-founder AUTONOMY, Inc.
 Bellas, Cuban-American singer-songwriter Alzheimer's disease and Alzheimer's dementia advocate. She collaborates with various Alzheimer's awareness organizations, and in honor of her grandmother who died due to the disease, released a song about her.
Tiffany Brar founder of Jyothirgamaya Foundation, a not for profit NGO for visually impaired
 Gabriela Brimmer – had cerebral palsy; life chronicled in the American-Mexican drama film Gaby: A True Story (1987), directed by Luis Mandoki
 Marca Bristo – cofounded the (American) National Council on Independent Living (NCIL) with Max Starkloff and Charlie Carr
 Lydia Brown – autism advocate and writer

C
 Jane Campbell, Baroness Campbell of Surbiton – commissioner of the British Disability Rights Commission 
 Charlie Carr – cofounder of National Council on Independent Living, Boston Center for Independent Living and founder and CEO of The Northeast Independent Living Program in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Went on to become Commissioner of the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission under Gov. Deval Patrick.
 Liz Carr – British actress, stand-up comedian, broadcaster and international disability rights activist
 Mama Cax – American-Haitian model and disabled rights activist
 Judi Chamberlin – American activist, leader, organizer, public speaker and educator in the psychiatric survivors movement; her political activism followed her involuntary confinement in a psychiatric facility in the 1960s the author of On Our Own: Patient-Controlled Alternatives to the Mental Health System, which is a foundational text in the Mad Pride movement
 James I. Charlton – activist and author of Nothing About Us Without Us
 Claudia Cockburn – British activist for transportation accessibility
 Tony Coelho – former congressman from California, primary author and U.S. House sponsor of the Americans with Disabilities Act
 Rebecca Cokley – Executive Director of the National Council on Disability
 Kitty Cone – disability rights activist and staff member of the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund

D
 Emma Dalmayne – autism rights campaigner and activist
 Justin Whitlock Dart Jr. – co-founder of the American Association of People with Disabilities
 Nyle DiMarco – activist and spokesperson for LEAD-K, 'Language Equality and Acquisition for Deaf Kids' campaign for American Sign Language and English in education setting.
 Rich Donovan – economist and founder of the Return On Disability Index
 Theresa Ducharme – founder of the disabled-rights advocacy group People in Equal Participation Inc. in 1981; the organization's chair for many years thereafter

E
 Dominick Evans – filmmaker, activist, founder of #FilmDis. Media & Entertainment advocate for Center for Disability Rights in New York.
 Edward Evans – Chairman of the UK Ministry of Health Health Advisory Committee on Handicapped Persons from 1949 to 1960

F
 Fred Fay – American advocate for disabled persons.
 Julie Fernandez – actress with osteogenesis imperfecta; founded The Disability Foundation; active on presentation of the disabled.
 Catherine Frazee – co-director of Ryerson University's Institute for Disability Studies Research and Education
 Lex Frieden – Chairman of the National Council on Disability from 2002 to 2006; key developer of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
 Judy Fryd – founded group in 1946 for parents of children with a learning disability. The group later became Mencap.
 Vic Finkelstein – South African born activist and academic, pioneer of the social model of disability

G
Haben Girma – first deafblind graduate of Harvard Law School
Marilyn Golden – disability transportation activist
Chen Guangcheng – Chinese civil rights activist

H
 Laura Hershey – protested MDA Labor Day Telethon; a feminist born with a form of muscular dystrophy
 Judith Heumann – wheelchair user who co-founded the World Institute on Disability; served as its co-director from 1983 to 1993; became the Special Advisor for International Disability Rights at the U.S. Department of State
 Jenny Hyslop – Scottish; secretary of her local branch of the Voluntary Association for Handicapped Persons; later worked for the Disablement Advisory Committee.
 Rick Hansen – former Canadian Paralympian. Hansen raised $20 million for spinal cord research, rehabilitation and wheelchair sports by travelling by wheelchair through 34 countries.

I
 Davina Ingrams, 18th Baroness Darcy de Knayth – British Paralympian and Representative peer
 Malvika Iyer – bilateral amputee, a disability rights activist, and a member of United Nations IANYD's Working Group

J
 Casar Jacobson – disability and gender equality rights activist and a UN Women Youth Champion, Former Miss Canada (2013), legally deaf.
 Harriet McBryde Johnson – a New Mobility "Person of the Year"; a disability-rights attorney and anti-euthanasia activist.
I. King Jordan – first deaf president of Gallaudet University

K
 John D. Kemp – American disability-rights activist. President and CEO of Viscardi center and the Henry Viscardi School.
 Bonnie Sherr Klein – directed the documentary film Shameless: The ART of Disability (2006)
Helen Keller – American deaf-blind political activist, writer, and lecturer.

L
 Paul K. Longmore – American history professor and activist who was instrumental in the establishment of disability studies as an academic discipline, and in changes to Social Security that granted people with disabilities more rights.
 Carrie Ann Lucas – disability rights attorney

M
 Robert Martin – activist for independent living for disabled people.
 Ron McCallum – member of Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; has been on the National People with Disabilities and Carers Council; Chair of Radio for the Print Handicapped of New South Wales Co-operative Ltd.; the first totally blind person to have been appointed to a full professorship at an Australian university.
 Anne McDonald – activist for independent living for disabled people.
 Kathryn McGee – American activist who founded the National Association for Down Syndrome and the National Down Syndrome Congress. Her daughter Tricia had Down syndrome.
 Paul Steven Miller – American civil rights lawyer, activist and law professor, was a Commissioner of the US Equal Employment Opportunities Commission and author of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act
Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi – The co-founder/director of the Mizrahi Family Charitable Fund. She also currently serves as president of the disability advocacy nonprofit, RespectAbility, which is a nonprofit fighting stigmas and advancing opportunities for people with disabilities.
 Leroy F. Moore Jr. – African American writer, poet, community activist, feminist, and the founder of Krip-Hop.
 Alf Morris – introduced the Chronically Sick & Disabled Persons Act and first "Minister for the Disabled" in Great Britain or anywhere else.

N
 Karen Nakamura – American academic, author, filmmaker, photographer and the Robert and Colleen Haas Distinguished Chair of Disability Studies and Professor of Anthropology at University of California, Berkeley.
 Neema Namadamu – Women's rights and disability rights activist in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
 Ari Ne'eman – co-creator of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network
 Yetnebersh Nigussie – blind lawyer and disability rights and anti-AIDS activist from Ethiopia. Founded the Ethiopian Center for Disability and Development (ECDD).

O
 Joseph Karr O’Connor - disability rights activist, educator, organizer and contributor to the accessibility of WordPress.
 Corbett O'Toole – disability rights activist and author in Berkeley, California. Established the National Disabled Women's Educational Equity Project.
 Mary Jane Owen – disability rights activist, philosopher, policy expert and writer who has lived and worked in Washington, D.C. since 1979.

P
 Jean-Christophe Parisot – founder of Collectif des Démocrates Handicapés.
 Ajith C. S. Perera – Chief Executive Idiriya in Sri Lanka activist in favour of the social model of disability and Inclusive Society
 Richard Pimentel – activist for workplace rights for the disabled.
 Victor Pineda – American activist, participated as government delegate in the drafting of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
 Alex Plank - autism rights activist, filmmaker, actor, and founder of Wrong Planet

R
 Alan Reich – founder of the National Organization on Disability
 Gilberto Rincón Gallardo – Mexican politician with shortened arms who worked on disability issues
 Edward Roberts – first quadriplegic to attend the University of California, Berkeley; his fight for access at Berkeley spread into seeking access in the community and the development of the first Centre for Independent Living.
 John Elder Robison - autism rights activist and author 
 Jay Ruderman – President of the Ruderman Family Foundation, advocating for the rights of people with disabilities in the United States and in Israel

S
 Ali Saberi – member of the City Council of Tehran and one of the highest-paid lawyers in Iran with a fee around $1.7 million.
 Peggy S. Salters – first survivor of electroshock treatment in the United States to win a jury verdict and a large money judgment ($635,177) in compensation for extensive permanent amnesia and cognitive disability caused by the procedure
 Sandra Schnur – director of the New York City Half-fare Program for the Handicapped; wrote an early guide for disabled in the city; had quadriplegia
 Annie Segarra – American YouTuber and intersectional activist
Nabil Shaban – Jordanian-British actor, journalist, and founder of The Graeae, a theater group which promotes disabled performers
 Jim Sinclair – Coordinator and founder of Autism Network International, advisor to Syracuse University's Disability Cultural Center
 Eunice Kennedy Shriver – lifelong advocate for people with intellectual disabilities who founded Special Olympics International in 1968.
 Satendra Singh – doctor with disability and founder of Enabling Unit.
 Robert Stack – Founder, President and CEO of Community Options.
 Max Starkloff (1937–2010) – founded Paraquad, one of the first independent living centers in the United States. Advocated for the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990.
 John Franklin Stephens - Actor, athlete, and activist with Down syndrome
 Simon Stevens – disability issues consultant known for his high-profile work around disability issues in the UK

T
 Joni Ericson Tada – evangelical Christian author, radio host, and founder of Joni and Friends, an organization "accelerating Christian ministry in the disability community."
 Sunaura Taylor – artist, writer, and activist

U
 Chris Underhill – a founder of Thrive and ADD International (Action on Disability and Development)

V
Susanna van Tonder - Luxembourgish disability-rights activist, patient advocate and blogger with multiple sclerosis
Lizzie Velásquez – author and public speaker on themes of self-esteem and bullying of young people with disabilities.
Henry Viscardi Jr. – American disability-rights activist who was also advisor to eight US presidents on disability matters

W
 Yuval Wagner – President of Access Israel
 Ron Whyte – playwright who was on the President's Committee for the Employment of the Handicapped
 Harold H. Wilke (1914–2003) – United Church of Christ minister and founding member of the National Organization on Disability. He delivered the invocation at the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990. Born without arms, Wilke signed the ADA with his foot.
Alice Wong – founded the Disability Visibility Project
 Patrisha Wright – known as "the General" for her work in coordinating the campaign to enact the Americans with Disabilities Act

Y
 Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah – Ghanaian cyclist with one leg who rode across Ghana to raise awareness and works to increase the number of wheelchairs in his country.
Stella Young (1982–2014) – Australian journalist, comedian, and disability activist. Used a wheelchair for most of her life, editor of the ABC online magazine Ramp Up.

Z
 Frieda Zames – mathematics professor, writer and advocate for access to all aspects of public life, especially transportation. As an official of Disabled in Action, she campaigned for wheelchair access on New York City buses, ferries and taxis and buildings like the Empire State Building. With her sister, Zames wrote the book, The Disability Rights Movement: From Charity to Confrontation.
 Maysoon Zayid – Palestinian actress, comedian, and disability rights activist known for her Ted Talk, "I've Got 99 Problems...Palsy is Just One"

References

Category:Disability-related lists
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Category:Lists of social activists