CENTER FOR DISABILITY RIGHTS, not-for-profit, community-based organization established in New York City in 1990 that provides services to individuals with disabilities and engages in legal advocacy. At its inception, CDR was staffed entirely by volunteers; after a successful effort to get wheelchair lifts on public buses, the organization expanded and added community-based services. Now as then, CDR remains an organization managed at every level primarily by disabled individuals.
CDR functions both as a service provider and as a civil-rights advocate. It places significant emphasis on autonomy and thus supports services and legislation that allow disabled individuals to live on their own with dignity. The advocacy team engages in system-oriented strategies such as nonviolent direct action/civil disobedience, legislative advocacy, legal action, and media engagement.
CDR’s independent-living programs include skills training, individual advocacy, peer counseling, and nursing-home-transition assistance. CDR’s ASL-fluent staff members provide communication and coordination assistance services to the deaf and blind. CDR also operates a pooled trust into which individuals with disabilities can contribute assets that would otherwise render them ineligible to receive Medicaid benefits. They can then use the money to pay trust-approved expenses, such as rent.