Social Justice Challenge
Welcome to our monthly social justice page. We hope these might inspire you to raise your awareness and potentially to engage in some advocacy work! Scroll down to see the ones you may have missed!
Apr. 2026
Protecting Medicaid and Community-Based Supports
Across the country, policymakers are currently debating the future of Medicaid funding and Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS), these programs support millions of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities to live, work, and build meaningful lives in their communities.
Federal legislation passed in 2025 included significant changes to Medicaid funding and eligibility rules, with the Congressional Budget Office estimating that the law could reduce federal Medicaid spending by more than $1 trillion over the next decade.
Advocates across the disability community have raised concerns that these changes could place pressure on state budgets and potentially impact services such as in-home supports, employment services, and other community-based programs that many individuals rely on.
In several states, legislators are already debating how to respond to these funding changes, with proposals that could reduce or restructure Medicaid services that support people with disabilities.
For individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, Medicaid is more than health insurance; it is the primary funding source that makes opportunities available for individuals with ID/DD to remain fully engaged in their communities. Programs funded through Medicaid help individuals develop skills, maintain independence, and remain connected to their communities rather than institutional settings.
Call to Action
Advocacy plays an important role in protecting these supports. If this issue matters to you, consider:
Learn about HCBS services and how they support individuals in your state for adults and children
Contacting your elected representatives to share why community-based supports matter
Supporting disability advocacy organizations that work to protect these services.
When individuals, families, providers, and community members raise their voices together, they help ensure that policies continue to reflect a commitment to dignity, inclusion, and opportunity for people with disabilities.
Mar. 2026
Sexual autonomy and consent are civil rights!
People with intellectual and developmental disabilities face intensified barriers to sexual autonomy, consent education, and reproductive health care, and these barriers are being spotlighted in the current national reproductive justice conversation.
This year, reproductive and disability rights advocates came together to develop a Disability Reproductive Equity Agenda, calling for policy reforms that protect disabled people’s access to sexual and reproductive health care, comprehensive sex education, and respectful, accessible services. Among the priorities are:
Ensuring nondiscrimination in reproductive health care policy and access
Protecting inclusive Medicaid coverage for reproductive services
Expanding research and training so providers can deliver disability-competent care
Advocating for equitable sexual health education tailored to disability-related needs
These intersecting advocacy efforts recognize that people with disabilities, particularly those who are Black, Indigenous, LGBTQ+, or economically marginalized, are disproportionately impacted when sexual and reproductive rights are eroded or overlooked. Inaccessible education and health care not only deny autonomy, they increase vulnerability to exploitation and abuse.
Read the Disability Reproductive Equity Agenda and join disability and reproductive justice advocates in advancing policies that ensure people with disabilities have equitable access to sexuality education, health care, and bodily autonomy.
This initiative offers detailed recommendations for policymakers, advocates, and community members aiming to advance sexual and reproductive equity for people with disabilities.
Feb. 2026
Restraint, Isolation, and the Fight for Dignity in Disability Policy
Across the country, lawmakers and advocates are confronting a long-standing disability justice concern: the continued use of restraint and isolation on students with disabilities, particularly students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (ID/DD). These practices are still disproportionately used on disabled students and students of color, despite extensive evidence that they cause harm, trauma, and long-term negative outcomes.
Nationally, legislation such as the proposed Keeping All Students Safe Act continues to shape conversations about limiting or banning dangerous restraint and seclusion practices in schools, while federal efforts to protect oversight of special education law (IDEA) highlight how fragile disability protections can be.
In Washington State, advocacy organizations, including Open Doors for Multicultural Families, are advancing legislative priorities that call for ending restraint and isolation in schools, strengthening accountability, and investing in culturally responsive, trauma-informed supports that center on student dignity and belonging.
In Oregon, current legislative efforts include bills to strengthen special education funding, expand access to school-based behavioral health supports, and study post-secondary opportunities for people with disabilities; recognizing that inclusive, humane systems must support individuals with IDD across the lifespan.
Across all levels, one message is clear:
Safety cannot be achieved through control. True safety is built through relationship, skill-building, and belonging.
Call to Action: Turning Concern Into Change
Lasting change happens when care, curiosity, and advocacy move together. This month, we invite you to take one meaningful step toward more humane, relationship-centered systems for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities:
Learn: Ask how restraint and isolation are addressed in your local schools or programs, and what proactive, trauma-informed alternatives are in place.
Advocate: Support organizations and coalitions working to replace harmful practices with approaches rooted in dignity, skill-building, and belonging.
Shift the Conversation: In your work and relationships, move from “How do we stop this behavior?” to “What support or skill is needed right now?”
Center Humanity: Encourage teams and systems to invest in relationships, regulation, and repair (not control) as the foundation of safety.
Every question asked, relationship strengthened, and system challenged helps move us closer to supports that truly honor human dignity.
Jan. 2026
Intellectual Disabilities and the Death Penalty
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in Hamm v. Smith, a high-stakes legal fight over whether a man convicted of murder in Alabama can be executed despite longstanding claims that he is intellectually disabled. The case tests how courts define and assess intellectual disability in death penalty cases and could reshape legal protections that have kept people with IDD from execution since Atkins v. Virginia established that executing individuals with intellectual disabilities violates the U.S. Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Disability advocates warn that narrowing the standards for proving intellectual disability could roll back critical civil rights protections for people with IDD nationwide.
Cases like Hamm v. Smith remind us that disability rights are human rights, and they require continued vigilance. We invite our community to stay informed, amplify disability-led advocacy, and speak out against policies and practices that put people with intellectual disabilities at risk. Learn more about how intellectual disability is defined and protected under the law, follow the voices of self-advocates and disability rights organizations, and support efforts that ensure dignity, fairness, and justice for all people with IDD.
Stay informed and support disability-rights advocacy:
• Disability petitions & action alerts: https://www.change.org/topic/disability-rights-5
• Follow advocacy from The Arc of the United States: https://thearc.org/
• Learn more about the Supreme Court case: https://www.scotusblog.com/cases/case-files/hamm-v-smith-4/