Philanthropy’s Role
People with disabilities and Deaf people are being targeted, excluded, victimized, and criminalized, and the threats are escalating. With structural protections disappearing at every level of society, our only hope for progress is for private funders to step up.
The Reality We Face
People with disabilities and Deaf people are disproportionately victimized, criminalized, and incarcerated at alarming rates, yet they have long been excluded from solutions to these injustices. Despite the critical role that disability, survivor advocacy, and criminal legal system reform movements play in securing freedom and safety, these fields are often disconnected, misaligned, and lack the capacity needed to work together toward real impact.
Now, we face an even greater crisis. Agencies at the federal, state, regional, and local levels have begun eliminating critical accessibility services, Deaf employees are losing accommodations and jobs, and critical interpretation services for taxpayer-funded government offices have been discontinued. These actions are a threat to individual rights, but also deepen existing systemic barriers that make people with disabilities and Deaf people more vulnerable to harm, exclusion, and incarceration.
This reality, in combination with devastating cuts, makes it even more difficult to sustain our necessary work.
We are mobilizing immediate action to bring together disability justice, survivor advocacy, and criminal legal system reform movements and drive collective solutions that create safety, healing, and freedom—not harm and punishment—for people with disabilities and Deaf people.
The challenges we face are many, but they include:
Accessibility Protections Are Being Eliminated
Various civic offices and government agencies at the federal, state, and local levels are dismantling critical accessibility equity programs, stripping accessibility services that reduce barriers to opportunity and access for people who are disabled , terminating disability-related roles, and weakening protections that took decades to secure.
Deaf and Disabled Federal Workers Are Losing Accommodations
Deaf and hard-of-hearing employees are being placed on leave, interpreters are being removed, and accommodations are being falsely labeled as “unnecessary.”
People with Disabilities and Deaf People Face Increased Targeting and Victimization
Escalating Violence, Criminalization, and Police Harm
People with disabilities and Deaf people face higher rates of violence, wrongful arrests, and police brutality, yet crisis response systems remain inaccessible and untrained to support them.Loss of Essential Services and Economic Security
Cuts to accessibility programs, workplace accommodations, and public benefits are forcing more disabled and Deaf individuals into poverty, institutionalization, and incarceration.
Criminalization of Disability Is Getting Worse
These rollbacks will further entrench over-policing and incarceration as primary responses to disability, rather than community-based support and justice-driven solutions.
Without intervention at every level, these harmful policies will escalate the cycle of victimization, leading to even higher rates of incarceration for people with disabilities and Deaf people.
The Work We Will Keep Doing
While we respond to these attacks, we remain steadfast in our long-term mission:
Expanding Deaf Services and Advocacy
Ensuring Deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals have access to victim services and accommodations.
Ending Incarceration of People with Disabilities and Deaf People
Addressing the systematic over-policing and criminalization of disability, fighting against discriminatory policies, and ensuring that disability justice is central to legal system reform efforts.
Creating Pathways to Healing
Centering survivors of violence with disabilities and Deaf survivors in survivor advocacy and justice reform efforts, ensuring trauma-informed services remain a priority.
Healing Behind and Beyond Bars
Expanding our work to reduce harm, improve conditions, and increase accessibility for incarcerated people with disabilities and Deaf people, while also reducing the number of people with disabilities and Deaf people trapped in these systems.
Building Cross-Movement Solidarity
Bringing together leaders from disability justice, survivor advocacy, and criminal legal system reform to develop shared goals and strategies that will create real, systemic change.
Our Calls to Action for Funders:
We are at a pivotal moment where disability and Deaf justice require urgent, sustained investment. As accessibility protections are being stripped away, private philanthropy and funding partners must step up where the government is failing.
Fund Movements that Expand the Concept of Equity and Justice
People with disabilities and Deaf people deserve equity and justice that includes them as part of the overarching framework – not as an afterthought.
Expand General Operating Support
Unrestricted funding allows us to rapidly respond to this crisis, from legal challenges to community mobilization.
Fund Cross-Movement Collaboration
The intersection of disability justice, survivor advocacy, and criminal legal system reform has never been more urgent. Supporting cross-sector partnerships strengthens our collective impact.
Support Policy Advocacy
Policy interventions require sustained financial backing to protect accessibility rights and prevent further harm.
Invest in Long-Term Systems Change
While emergency responses are critical, lasting transformation comes from sustained investment in capacity-building, leadership development, and community-based solutions.
The communities we serve cannot afford to wait. Your support is critical in ensuring accessibility, justice, and freedom for people with disabilities and Deaf people.
Stay engaged.
Want more information about this campaign, our work, and the progress we’re making?
Who We Are
At Activating Change, we are building a movement at the intersection of disability justice, survivor advocacy, and criminal legal system reform.
We believe:
People with disabilities and Deaf people deserve equity and justice.
Survivor advocacy and criminal legal system reform must address the criminalization of disability.
Our work must center racial, disability, and language justice.
Divestment from harmful systems and investment in community-based solutions is the path forward.