Beyond Accessibility: Including People with Disabilities in Advocacy Spaces
In New Hampshire, the Disability Rights Center - NH (DRC-NH) works to protect, advance, and strengthen the legal rights of people with disabilities. In a recent conversation with the New Hampshire Center for Justice & Equity (NHCJE), Stephanie Patrick, Executive Director, and Deborah Opramolla, Community Outreach Specialist, explored the critical work DRC-NH is doing to ensure that all people with disabilities can live with dignity, autonomy, and full participation in society and advocacy spaces.
Protecting Rights and Expanding Participation
The Disability Rights Center - NH (DRC-NH) serves as the state’s protection and advocacy organization to improve the lives of individuals with disabilities. Stephanie Patrick, Executive Director of the DRC-NH, explains that its origins date back to the 1970s following an exposé by investigative reporter Geraldo Rivera on the horrific conditions at Willowbrook, in Staten Island, New York, a facility for people with developmental disabilities.
“When this showed up on the local and national news, people were horrified,” noted Patrick. “Congress recognized the need for independent organizations to protect and advocate for the rights of these individuals, leading to the creation of a Disability Rights Center in every state.”
“Congress recognized the need for independent organizations to protect and advocate for the rights of these individuals, leading to the creation of a Disability Rights Center in every state.”
The DRC-NH provides individual representation, systemic litigation, outreach, training, and advocacy. They also address issues of abuse and neglect within facilities by monitoring and conducting investigations, and engage in legislative and public policy work to drive meaningful change. Their comprehensive approach strives to improve systems and create a more inclusive world for people with disabilities.
The organization also works with partners to ensure people with disabilities are included in broader advocacy efforts. Deborah Opramolla, a Community Outreach Specialist at DRC-NH, emphasizes the importance of including the disability community in grassroots movements.
“People with disabilities care about the environment, they care about housing, they care about their local communities' recreation and parks, taxes, and all of the things that everyone else cares about,” she says.
“People with disabilities care about the environment, they care about housing, they care about their local communities’ recreation and parks, taxes, and all of the things that everyone else cares about.”
Advancing Autonomy Beyond Accessibility
When we talk about disability inclusion, accessibility is often the first thing that comes to mind — ramps, elevators, captions, and ASL interpreters. While these are critically important issues, disability also intersects with every aspect of life. Issues concerning housing, education, voting rights, healthcare, employment, and legal protections are all connected with disability justice.
An example of this is DRC-NH’s work in the last election season. In 2022, DRC-NH developed a voting toolkit (Spanish) for individuals with disabilities, available in multiple languages, and distributed it in their outreach to grassroots organizations. “Voting access is not just having an accessible polling experience [like using the one4all voting machine],” explained Opramolla. “It’s about understanding that everyone has the right to vote, including adults under guardianship.”
Guardianship is another critical area of DRC-NH’s work. This is a legal proceeding that gives someone else decision-making authority for an individual with disabilities when a judge decides that they no longer can make their own decisions. “New Hampshire has a significantly high rate of guardianship, much higher than many other states in the United States,” highlighted Patrick. “One of the things we worked on was an alternative to guardianship called supported decision-making.”
DRC-NH was instrumental in making supported decision-making a statutorily recognized alternative to guardianship for adults with disabilities and their families in 2021. “This is a way for a person with a disability to retain their rights to make decisions while receiving the support they want and need from a trusted person,” Patrick explained. “Whether it's navigating different medical recommendations or managing their finances, supported decision-making helps ensure that the individual, with the help of their chosen support, can design what works best for them.”
Creating Inclusive Advocacy Spaces
Beyond legislative advocacy, community outreach is an important piece of DRC-NH’s work. Opramolla works with other organizations to make grassroots movements more accessible and inviting to people with disabilities. “When organizations are not thinking about how to create environments where people with disabilities feel included, they're sometimes missing out on a powerful advocacy block,” she noted.
“When organizations are not thinking about how to create environments where people with disabilities feel included, they’re sometimes missing out on a powerful advocacy block.”
For DRC-NH, there are two layers to making advocacy spaces truly inclusive. First, organizations must ensure that events and meetings are accessible. “Maybe it’s setting up Zoom to participate in your meetings so that a person with a disability who doesn't have access to transportation can be a part of your group,” added Opramolla.
The second step is to actively invite people with disabilities to participate. “Put a statement on your website or your event registration page that you want to include and hear from people with disabilities,” highlighted Patrick. This simple step tells people with disabilities they are welcome and opens space for them to ask for accommodations or what they need to be able to join.
“You may have someone who needs a sign language interpreter. You may have someone who uses a wheelchair and wants to make sure there won’t be standing tables so they can still engage in conversations,” added Patrick. “Or it may be that someone needs the materials printed out in large print. It’s difficult to anticipate all of those different needs for every event, so asking eliminates the guesswork.”
Using accessible language in communication materials is also one of DRC-NH’s recommendations. “Plain language is not meant to be childish or infantilizing,” explained Patrick. “Being thoughtful about the words you're using is important to include people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. And it also benefits people for whom English is not a first language,” she added.
“When we break down barriers and work together, we build movements that truly leave no one behind.”
Many organizations are unaware of the gaps in their understanding of disability justice. Opramolla shared how, after meeting with a business group and introducing key disability-related insights, she noticed a shift in perspective and a willingness to learn and grow. “When we break down barriers and work together, we build movements that truly leave no one behind,” she emphasized.
Inclusion Strengthens Communities
Opramolla further pointed out how increased accessibility benefits everyone, highlighting the ‘curb cut effect’ as an example. “Curb cuts on sidewalks across the United States exist because of the efforts of people with disabilities following the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act,” she explained. “They were made to provide accessibility for wheelchair users, but are beneficial to many others, like travelers with luggage, parents pushing strollers, and countless pedestrians.”
“Curb cuts on sidewalks across the United States exist because of the efforts of people with disabilities following the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act. They were made to provide accessibility for wheelchair users, but are beneficial to many others, like travelers with luggage, parents pushing strollers, and countless pedestrians.”
The work of DRC-NH is a reminder that disability justice is not separate from broader social justice movements. By actively inviting people with disabilities into advocacy spaces, providing accommodations, and using language that welcomes rather than excludes, organizations can strengthen their movements and ensure that all voices are heard, ultimately benefiting us all.
About Stephanie Patrick
Stephanie Patrick joined DRC-NH as Executive Director in 2017. Stephanie was formerly the Director of Policy and Planning at the Advocacy Center, DRC-NH’s sister agency in Louisiana, where she worked on legislative advocacy, coalition building, and programmatic compliance. She graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi in 2003 with a Master’s of Social Work and also holds an undergraduate degree in social work from the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.
About Deborah Opramolla
Deborah joined DRC-NH in the Spring of 2022. Deborah is a former oncologist and holds a Master of Law from Washington University School of Law. For the past twenty-five years, Deborah has served as an Educational Surrogate Parent, assisting children in foster care who have Individual Education Programs (IEPs). Deborah also serves on a number of community groups and organizations supporting the rights of people with disabilities. Deborah is passionate about creating positive systemic changes that create Equity, Inclusion, and Justice for the Disability community. Deborah enjoys spending time with her family, riding her horses, and knitting.