DREDF Statement

DREDF Applauds President Biden’s Plan To Increase Essential Support for Disabled Americans

October 29, 2021
DREDF applauds President Biden for delivering on his campaign pledge to make government work better for disabled people in yesterday's announcement of the Build Back Better Framework which would go a long way to improve the lives of disability communities, and the individuals who live in them, across our entire nation. Systemic change doesn't happen by accident. It requires the allocation of deliberate, strategic resources as President Biden's plan does. [...]

DREDF Opposes Fast Tracking Assisted Suicide

Leave a reply

October 7, 2021
On Tuesday, October 5, Governor Newsom signed SB-380 – which shortens the wait time for receiving lethal assisted suicide medication to 48 hours – into law without comment. Previously the period between making two separate requests to take the deadly drugs had been 15 days. The law, which was originally set to expire in 2026, was also extended for five additional years. [...]

73rd Primetime Emmy Awards: Complaint of ADA Violations

2 Replies

September 7, 2021
The Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF) and Law Office of Michelle Uzeta represent Oscar-nominated director and sound designer James LeBrecht regarding the inaccessibility of the stage constructed for use at the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards on September 19, 2021. [...]

Supreme Court Ruling Leaves ACA Intact

Leave a reply

The Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund applauds the June 17, 2021 Supreme Court decision in California v. Texas, which upheld the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and its critical nondiscrimination and healthcare expansion provisions. The ruling by the nation's highest Court rejected a significant challenge to the constitutionality of the ACA. In 2020, DREDF and a number of allied organizations filed an amicus brief opposing attempts to dismantle the ACA provisions that people, including many with disabilities, rely on to receive the healthcare services and supports they need. [...]

DREDF Condemns Domestic Terrorism

Leave a reply

January 8, 2021
The Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund condemns the violent insurrectionists loyal to Donald Trump who stormed the U.S. Capitol Wednesday, January 6, in an attempt to overturn the presidential election, threaten the nation’s democracy, and keep a duly elected President from taking office.[...]

In Honor of Richard “Dick” Thornburgh 1932-2020

Leave a reply

January 1, 2021
"Perhaps the most satisfying change the ADA has brought about is a change in attitude. As new generations of Americans have worked, lived and played side-by-side with persons with disabilities, the debilitating barriers of stereotypes and prejudices are disappearing. Participation in everyday American life has brought a sense of self-worth for persons with disabilities."
- Richard A. "Dick" Thornburgh, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 2, 2015

DREDF Condemns ICE’s Involuntary Sterilization of Immigrant Women

2 Replies

The Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund ("DREDF") is horrified by reports of coerced hysterectomies being performed on women in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ("ICE") custody. On September 14, 2020, Project South filed an administrative complaint on behalf of immigrants detained at a Georgia detention center. Among other allegations of medical neglect, inadequate protection against COVID-19, and hazardous living conditions, the complaint alleges that women in the facility have been sterilized en masse without proper consent or medical necessity. Numerous women described being coerced into surgery and confused as to why the procedure was performed. Some described being yelled at by medical staff when they resisted the procedure. Many explained that they felt as if ICE was "experimenting with [their] bodies."

DREDF Mourns the Passing of Civil Rights Leader Congressman John Lewis

1 Reply

July 18, 2020
DREDF mourns the passing of civil rights leader Congressman John Lewis. We honor Mr. Lewis' long lifelong commitment to fighting injustice and working towards his vision for a Beloved Community.

On the Racist Killings of Black Americans

2 Replies

May 29, 2020
We support the protesters in Minneapolis, Louisville, and across the country. The protests are a response to embedded institutionalized violence and hate, to the murder of George Floyd, and the failure to jail the police officers who killed him. They are a response to the elected racist president whose message to them is, "when the looting starts the shooting starts." And they are a call to action for all of us who refuse to be complicit in the betrayal of people of color during the period of moral crisis that now confronts us.

Reinstate Medical Deferred Action for Disabled Disabled Immigrants

2 Replies

September 11, 2019
No disabled child, adult or family of a person with an illness or disability should face certain death through deportation because of policy changes in Washington DC. Join DREDF and the other groups fighting to save Isabel Bueso and people like her with rare and life-threatening conditions whose lives are at risk because of medical deferment policy changes.