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Disability Policy Consortium

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Disability Policy Consortium

Redefining the role of government as it affects the lives of people with disabilities. https://dpcma.printful.me/

What we do:

- Legislative Advocacy
- Community Organizing
- Research
- Peer Support

For 25 years, the Disability Policy Consortium has fought for the rights of people with disabilities. We have a rich history of innovative and effective work in community organizing, participatory research, public policy development, and peer support. As an organization run by and for people with disabilities, we prove every day what members of our community can accomplish when they are allowed to reach their full potential. Everything about the disability community should be led by the disability community. For that reason, the Disability Policy Consortium (DPC) leads efforts to advocate for, conduct research with, and deliver services to our disabled peers. Board of Directors:

John Chappell, President
Joe Bellil, Treasurer

Anita Albright
Ellen Bresin
Cheryl Cumings
Jini Fairley
Allegra Heath-Stout
Carol Hilbinger
Jennifer Lee
Josh Montgomery
Robyn Powell
Jason Savageau
Penny Shaw
Chloe Slocum
Andrew Veith
Heather Watkins
Casandra Xavier

Executive Director:
Harry Weissman

Check out our Website: www.dpcma.org

Check out DPC’s store for exclusive AboutUsByUsaurus disabled dino swag — bold, witty, and one-of-a-kind designs created by disabled artist Emma Gelbard, only at DPC!

01/07/2026

Check out this article featuring DPC’s Legislative Liaison, Charlie Carr, and his involvement in the state Personal Care Attendant working group.

“If you aren’t at the table, you’re on the menu. We didn’t want to be in that position.”

That is how Charlie names what is at stake in the piece we are sharing today. The article looks at a state working group examining potential cuts to the PCA program, including changes around overtime tied to essential supports like meal preparation.

These are not abstract budget conversations. These are decisions that directly shape whether disabled people can live safely, independently, and with dignity in our own homes.

What matters deeply here is who is at the table. This working group includes PCA consumers, people who rely on these services every day. People who understand the real impact of policy decisions because we live them. That matters, especially when cuts are being discussed.

At DPC, our credo is simple and unwavering. About us, by us. We belong at the table, especially when decisions are being made that will impact our lives. We understand the need to address overspending and improve systems. We are not opposed to solutions. But cost savings cannot come at the expense of our safety, our autonomy, or our ability to live independently.

We are sharing this article to lift up why disability-led voices matter in moments like this. When disabled people are included, the conversation shifts. It becomes about balance, responsibility, and protecting lives, not just trimming budgets.

Read the full article here:
https://www.statehousenews.com/news/healthcare/humanservices/working-group-targets-pca-meal-prep-overtime-for-cuts/article_acaf4b39-98a9-4bf2-93ae-a763247a809f.html

01/07/2026

Being Seen vs Being Helped

Disabled people are often met in extremes. We are either overlooked entirely or surrounded by help we did not ask for. Ignored on one end. Managed on the other.

What is missing in both is being seen.

Being helped without being seen can look like someone grabbing a wheelchair without asking. Speaking to a companion instead of directly to us. Rearranging our bodies or our belongings as if they are public property. Making decisions on our behalf because it seems faster or easier.

It can also look quieter than that. A well meaning person insisting they know what we need. A space that offers help only after something goes wrong. A solution offered before a question is asked.

Help like this often comes with good intentions. But intentions do not erase impact.

Being seen looks different.

Being seen is someone asking before acting. Do you want help? What would be useful? Is there anything I can do to make this easier?

Being seen is waiting for the answer. It is believing us when we say yes. And believing us when we say no. Being seen is offering a chair instead of assuming someone cannot stand. It is checking whether there is an accessible entrance before the event, not after someone arrives and struggles. It is addressing the disabled person directly, not through whoever happens to be nearby.

Autonomy does not disappear because someone needs support. Dignity does not vanish because a body moves differently or requires assistance.

Independence is not about doing everything alone. It is about having agency over how help shows up. So many disabled people learn to accept help quickly and politely, even when it takes something from us. We learn to say thank you while shrinking ourselves. We learn that refusing help can be read as ungrateful, difficult, or rude. Being seen leaves room for choice.

Too often, disabled people are helped without being heard and spoken for without being asked. The result is a kind of invisibility disguised as care.

Real support starts with listening. It starts with slowing down. It starts with understanding that the goal is not to feel good about helping, but to actually help.

Being seen requires humility. It means trusting disabled people to know our own bodies, our own needs, and our own limits. Help matters. But respect comes first. And being seen is not optional. It is the foundation.

01/06/2026

“Ask First” Is About Dignity

Most people are trying to be kind. I see it all the time as a wheelchair user. Someone rushes ahead of me to hold a door open. They smile. They mean well. They want to help. But what often happens next is not help at all.

They stand in the middle of the doorway, holding the door in a way that makes it harder for me to get through. My turning space disappears. I am left trying not to run over their feet, apologizing while navigating around the very help that was supposed to make things easier.

What they do not realize is that if they had asked first, I could have told them what actually works for me.

Sometimes it is easier for me to open the door myself. Sometimes it helps if someone steps fully aside. Sometimes help is welcome. Sometimes it is not. That choice matters.

And this moment is not unique. It usually happens quickly. A hand on a wheelchair. A task finished mid-sentence. Someone stepping in before a word is exchanged.

For many disabled people, help arrives before consent. Not because someone means harm, but because they are rushing, assuming, or trying to be efficient. And in that moment, choice disappears.

Offering help is not the problem. Taking over is. This is why asking first is about dignity.

Disabled people experience these moments every day.

Assumptions made mid-motion. Decisions made because someone thinks they know what will be faster or easier. Most of the time, it comes from kindness. And still, it causes harm. When help is automatic, autonomy disappears. Choice is removed. Control shifts away from the person who actually knows their body, their movement, and their needs. Asking first slows the moment down. It creates space for agency. It turns help into support instead of takeover.

Sometimes the answer is yes. Sometimes the answer is no. Sometimes the answer is “not like that.” All of those answers are valid.

Asking first also means recognizing that not everyone communicates the same way. Some people speak. Some use AAC. Some respond through gestures, facial expressions, or body language. Some need time. Some use trusted supporters to help interpret, not decide. Those responses are still voices. They still deserve to be waited for.

Asking first is a pause in that pattern. A moment of listening. A way of saying, your body is yours, your choices matter, and I trust you to lead.

And sometimes, dignity looks exactly like that.

01/05/2026

Why It Matters Monday: Autonomy is Dignity

One of the most overlooked truths in disability justice is this: autonomy is not a privilege. It is dignity. It is the foundation for a meaningful life. Yet disabled people are often treated as if decision making is something we are not entitled to.

Professionals speak about us and for us without speaking with us. Families make choices in our absence. Systems built to “support” us can quietly erase our voice.

Think about IEP meetings or goal meetings in group homes. Rooms full of adults talk about a disabled person’s future while that person sits silently beside them, expected to nod, behave, and accept that other people know best.

But autonomy means something else.

It means disabled people get to be the experts in our own lives. It means our choices are not filtered through someone else’s assumptions about what is safe or appropriate. It means we are allowed the same humanity as everyone else, including the freedom to try, to falter, to succeed, and to learn.

This is where dignity of risk matters. Every person has the right to make mistakes, take chances, and grow from them. Disabled people are often denied this because fear, liability, or protection becomes more important than agency. But without risk, there is no learning. Without choice, there is no ownership of self. When we strip disabled people of the ability to choose poorly, we also strip them of the ability to choose beautifully.

Autonomy shows up in many forms. Some communicate through words, others through art, music, fashion, movement, writing, or photography. Some express who they are through advocacy, some through quiet presence, some through humor, and some through a single sentence spoken at exactly the right moment.

There is no one way to have a voice. The work is not to speak over people. It is to listen for how they speak and make room for it.

It is to ask instead of assume. To include disabled people in the conversations that shape their futures. To recognize that each person is the narrator of their own life, not a character in someone else’s plan.

Autonomy is dignity. It is belonging. It is knowing you are trusted to make your own way.

When we honor disabled agency, we do not just protect rights. We nurture identity, pride, growth, and possibility. The world becomes less guarded around disabled people and more curious. Less controlling and more collaborative. That shift is where true inclusion begins. And there are practical ways to build that shift.

Instead of telling someone they are going to day program, offer choices and listen to their answers. Rather than laying out clothes for a person the night before, ask what they want to wear and give them time to decide. If a plan falls apart or someone hesitates, do not rush to fill the space with solutions. Let them lead. Let them ask for help if they want it.

Making room for disabled people to make their own decisions sends a message that their voice matters. It shows that dignity is not just spoken about. It is practiced.

01/03/2026

January Sneak Peek

A new year often comes with talk of fresh starts and lighter goals. But this January, we are going deeper.

Over the next few weeks, we will be focusing on autonomy, dignity, and disability history. Not as abstract ideas, but as lived realities.

The kind that shape daily life for disabled people in ways that are often unseen, misunderstood, or ignored. We will be asking hard questions. We will be naming uncomfortable truths. And we will be revisiting history that still echoes loudly in the present.

Why?

Because disabled people are facing growing threats to our rights, our care, our independence, and our safety. And pretending everything is fine does not protect us. Talking honestly does.

This January, you will see posts that challenge assumptions, slow us down, and ask us to look more closely at how autonomy is taken and how dignity is practiced. You will see lived experiences, reflections, and history woven together. You will also see ways to get involved, stay connected, and take action, because awareness alone is not enough.

We invite you to keep checking back. To read closely. To share what resonates. To comment with your experiences when you feel comfortable.

We are broadening what we ask of our social spaces this year. Not to provoke, but to protect. Not to divide, but to deepen understanding. This work is not always easy. But someone has to do it. And we are glad to be doing it together.

01/02/2026

December at DPC: Holding the Work Through December

As we wrap up December, we want to pause and reflect on the work we moved forward together this month. December is often quieter on the surface, but behind the scenes it was full of relationship-building, advocacy, community connection, and laying the groundwork for what comes next.

~ Community Support and Giving

Earlier this month, we shared our Giving Tuesday post as an open invitation. An invitation not just to donate, but to learn more about who we are, what we do, and why disability-led work matters. Support from our community makes it possible for DPC to keep showing up. It sustains advocacy led by disabled people, strengthens community organizing, and allows us to respond when policy moves quickly and our voices are needed most.

Donations help ensure that disabled perspectives are not an afterthought, but are centered in the rooms where decisions are being made.

If you are new to DPC, or have been following our work and are considering supporting it, we invite you to donate here: https://www.dpcma.org/donate

On December 30, we also released our 2025 Impact Report, which reflects what that collective support makes possible. From legislative advocacy to training, education, and community building, it tells the story of a year shaped by shared effort and lived experience. We encourage you to take a moment to explore it and see the impact our community has made together.

View our impact report here: tinyurl.com/DPCImpactReport-2025

~ Advocacy Updates

Wheelchair Repair Reform continued to move forward this month as we deepened conversations and built momentum. We have a meeting scheduled with the Chair of House Ways and Means to speak directly about the urgency of the wheelchair repair bills and the real impact that repair delays have on disabled people’s daily lives. We also connected with Senate leadership and the Attorney General’s office, further strengthening support as we work to move these bills across the finish line.

Parenting Bill S.1164
The parenting bill was regrettably sent to study this session. While this outcome is deeply disappointing, it does not diminish the importance of this legislation or the need it addresses. DPC remains committed to this work and to the disabled parents and families who have shared their stories with us. We will continue advocating for this bill and preparing for future legislative sessions.

~ Ongoing Legislative Work

Much of our advocacy happens outside of public view. Throughout December, we continued following up with committees where several of our priority bills are currently sitting, including affordable accessible housing AHVP S.1004/H.1481, the Health Care Anti-Discrimination (HCAD) bill H.1360/S.869, and hearing aid coverage H.3946.

Advocacy at this stage is about staying present and persistent. It means continuing to check in, keep pressure on, and make sure disabled people remain part of the conversation, not an afterthought.

In addition to these priorities, we are also continuing to follow and support service animal-related legislation as it moves through the process.

~Training and Consulting

In December, DPC’s Director of Training and Consulting, Ellysheva, presented at the National Dental Therapy Conference in Sacramento, California. The conference was hosted by Community Catalyst, the American Dental Therapy Association, and the California Oral Health Equity Coalition.

The session, Care That Fits: Meeting the Oral Health Needs of Disabled Patients, centered disabled lived experience in conversations about oral health care access. The presentation was developed collaboratively and included videos from community members sharing their real experiences navigating dental care.

Community Catalyst reached out directly to DPC to ensure disabled perspectives were represented in this space.

This work reflects DPC’s broader approach to training and consulting. Too often, disability is missing from inclusion conversations, or reduced to minimum legal requirements. We believe disabled people deserve more than compliance. Through disability-focused training, workplace inclusion consulting, and technical assistance, DPC supports professionals and organizations in rethinking their practices and spaces in ways that meaningfully include disabled people and lived experience.

To learn more about DPC’s disability-focused training and consulting work, visit disabilitydei.org.

~ Community Organizing

Throughout December, we continued hosting both Unstuck and HALT community calls. Unstuck brings together wheelchair users and allies to identify barriers, share lived experience, and build solutions together. The group is preparing to launch the first phase of its education and awareness campaign in the New Year, and we are excited to see this work take shape. Unstuck meets bi-weekly on Mondays from 11am to 12pm ET. Sign up here: tinyurl.com/DPC-Unstuck

~Staying Connected

To stay up to date on advocacy, community calls, and ways to get involved, we encourage you to subscribe to our newsletter: tinyurl.com/DPC-Newsletter

We have also been sharing more regularly on social media, highlighting disability history, policy updates, and lived experience. If a post resonates with you, we invite you to engage, comment, or re-share. We want to hear directly from our community about what matters most.

As we close out the year, we want to thank everyone who showed up, supported, shared, donated, or stayed engaged in whatever way they could. This work is collective, and we are grateful to be doing it alongside you.

Onward into the New Year!

12/30/2025

With the new year just days away, we are so excited to present DPC’s 2025 Impact Report! ⭐️

To access a PDF copy of the full 2025 Impact Report, please visit tinyurl.com/DPCImpactReport-2025

This document contains a snapshot of everything that the DPC team has accomplished this year, including Advocacy, Research, Training & Consulting, and My Ombudsman.

None of our successes would have been possible without you, DPC's community, partners, and supporters. Your unrelenting commitment to disability justice lifts up our collective impact.

Thank you for an incredible year of advocacy and community! 🥳

12/30/2025

Myth vs Facts: New Year’s Resolutions, Disability Edition

The new year often brings pressure to reinvent ourselves, push harder, or become some upgraded version of who we already are.

But disabled people know something deeper. We are not the ones in need of constant fixing. We are already adapting every day, already navigating barriers most people never even notice.

So this year, instead of resolutions that tell us to change ourselves, we are challenging the myths and assumptions that shape how the world sees us.

We are naming the facts that tell a truer story about who we are, what we deserve, and what really needs to change.

~Myth: New Year, New You.
~Fact: You do not need to become a new version of yourself to be worthy. New Year, Same You is more than enough. The world has far more changing to do than you do.

~Myth: A positive attitude will solve everything.
~Fact: Hope matters, but it cannot open an inaccessible door or fill a gap in home care. Policy, investment, and community make those changes possible.

~Myth: Disabled people struggle because of their limitations. ~Fact: We struggle because the systems around us are underfunded, delayed, and full of barriers. These are policy failures, not personal shortcomings.

~Myth: If you push hard enough, your body will cooperate.
~Fact: Bodies have their own rhythms and limits. They do not reset on January 1. Rest, pacing, and listening to yourself are real forms of progress.

~Myth: Accessibility is a special accommodation.
~Fact: Accessibility is basic infrastructure. It belongs in every budget, event plan, committee meeting, and housing decision. It should not be an afterthought.

~Myth: Disabled joy needs to be inspirational to matter.
~Fact: Joy can be quiet, small, messy, or simple. A calm day. A friend who checks in. A service dog sighing at your side. Everyday joy is still joy.

~Myth: This is the year you will stop needing care, accommodations, or mobility devices.
~Fact: Needing support is part of being human. What we deserve is a year where PCA services are funded, wheelchair repairs are timely, housing is accessible, and our supports actually show up for us.

~Myth: Crises in the disability community are isolated or unavoidable.
~Fact: They are the predictable result of chronic underinvestment in the services that keep us in the community. When supports fail, people lose freedom and stability.

~Myth: Disabled people should focus on self improvement.
~Fact: Disabled people are already improving every system by surviving within it. Real change starts with fixing the policies that fail us, not the people living through them.

~Myth: Disabled people need to adapt better.
~Fact: Disabled people have been adapting our entire lives. It is time for systems to adapt to us. Our leadership belongs at the center.

~Myth: You must change everything to start fresh.
~Fact: You do not have to change a single thing to step into the new year with dignity. You are allowed to arrive as yourself.

~Myth: If disabled people speak up, someone will listen.
~Fact: Disabled people speak up constantly, yet we are often unheard or sidelined. Real change requires disabled people shaping policies from the start, with seats at the tables where decisions are made long before choices are finalized.

If this year is going to look different, it will be because we demanded more from the systems around us, not because we tried to reshape ourselves into something new. Disabled people deserve policies that keep us in the community, supports that show up when they are needed, and access that is not optional.

Let the new year meet you exactly as you are. Let it find you without apology and without pressure to become someone else. The change ahead is not about fixing ourselves. It is about building a world that finally includes us.

12/29/2025

Why It Matters Monday: A New Year Can Be a Collective Shift

The New Year arrives with familiar pressure. Change yourself. Fix yourself. Become new. But disabled people live change every day. Our bodies, routines, supports, and systems evolve constantly. We do not need a calendar to teach adaptation.

What we do deserve is a world that adapts with us. Instead of treating January as a demand for personal reinvention, what if we saw it as an invitation to collective responsibility? What if the goal this year is not for disabled people to bend ourselves to fit a world that excludes us, but for the world to meet us where we are?

Disabled people already carry the work of redesign. A wheelchair user reimagines routes because sidewalks are blocked. A Deaf person navigates events without interpreters and still finds ways to communicate. A blind person learns landmarks no one bothers to mark. A person with chronic illness paces their entire life around energy limits.

The opportunity ahead is for others to join that work instead of leaving it to us. Change does not happen by watching the ball drop. It happens when people choose to participate in it.

That participation might look like making sure interpreters or captions are present at your next gathering so Deaf and hard of hearing guests do not spend the night guessing what is happening. It might look like pushing your city to clear curb cuts, not just driveways. It could mean asking access questions before hosting instead of after the problem arises. It could be choosing to listen to disabled advocates rather than assuming what we need. It might be as simple as noticing when a disabled co worker is left out of a decision and inviting their voice in. Or submitting a comment on a piece of legislation that affects disabled people. Or learning a few phrases in ASL to ease communication.

These small acts matter far more than a grand resolution you abandon by February.

A new year can also be a time to lift disabled voices. Share articles and testimony from disabled leaders. Invite disabled speakers into spaces where decisions are made. Support disabled artists, community organizers, and storytellers whose voices often go unheard.

Disabled people should not have to enter another year preparing to fight the same battles alone. The work of inclusion, dignity, and access belongs to everyone. Progress is not a sweeping transformation. It is the accumulation of small changes.

Holding the elevator for someone using mobility equipment. Asking meeting organizers to include captions. Choosing quiet spaces so autistic and sensory sensitive people can participate. Checking in on someone when storms hit and access disappears. These are the mundane but meaningful actions that make the difference.

We do not need reinvention. We need collaboration. We need people willing to look at their everyday lives and ask, “What can I shift?” If each person commits to turning listening into action, assumptions into questions, and awareness into change, then disabled futures expand.

A new year is powerful when it becomes a shared commitment, not another benchmark disabled people must meet. Let this year begin with the belief that transformation is possible because we choose to show up for one another.

12/24/2025

Winter Care, Disability Edition

We have already shared ways communities, businesses, and neighbors can help make winter more accessible. This time, we are speaking directly to disabled people.

Winter adds extra layers of planning when you live with a disability. Cold weather is not just uncomfortable. It affects mobility, medical equipment, medications, service animals, energy levels, and safety. These tips are grounded in lived experience and everyday reality, focused on staying prepared, protected, and supported through the season.

Protect devices and equipment
Cold temperatures drain batteries faster than usual, especially for power wheelchairs, scooters, phones, communication devices, and medical equipment.
• Charge devices earlier and more often than you think you need to
• Keep spare charging cords or battery packs with you when possible
• Store devices indoors and away from cold windows or doors

Prepare medications and medical supplies
Some medications and supplies can be damaged by freezing temperatures or exposure to snow and slush.
• Store medications at recommended temperatures
• Use insulated bags when traveling outside
• Call medical delivery companies in advance to request supplies be placed in a safe, protected location
• Ask that deliveries be kept out of snow, slush, and extreme cold
• Plan ahead for storms or cold snaps if you rely on deliveries

Plan for power, heat, and utilities
• Keep safe backup heating options appropriate for your space
• Have extra blankets and warm layers accessible
• If you rely on powered medical equipment, ask your utility company about medical priority or life support status
• You may qualify for lower electricity or heating rates during winter. Call your utility provider to ask about discount programs, medical protections, or energy assistance

Use resources to reduce unnecessary outings
Going out in winter can be risky and exhausting. Using available resources is a safety strategy, not a shortcut.
• Schedule grocery, pharmacy, or supply deliveries when possible
• Use telehealth appointments when available
• Ask friends, neighbors, or community networks for help during storms

Maintain mobility equipment for winter
Winter is a good time to check in on wheelchair and mobility equipment maintenance.
• Wheelchair maintenance is now covered, and you may be eligible for services at no cost
• You may qualify for new tires for better traction on snow and slush
• Call your equipment provider to ask what options are available
• Addressing small issues early can help prevent breakdowns in unsafe weather

Stay warm while protecting mobility
Cold can increase pain, stiffness, and fatigue.
• Rechargeable hand warmers can help with circulation
• Heated gloves or mitts can make outdoor wheelchair use safer and less painful
• Thermal lap blankets or wheelchair covers help retain body heat
• Heated coozies can help keep drinks warm if temperature regulation is difficult

Adapt mobility aids for winter conditions
Ice and snow increase fall risk.
• Cane and crutch ice tips improve traction
• Wheelchair users may benefit from winter tires or treaded push rims
• Heated snow brushes can make clearing equipment safer and less painful
• Choose better cleared routes, even if they take longer

Care for service animals
Service dogs work through all weather, and winter can be hard on their bodies.
• Dog boots protect paws from ice, salt, and chemicals
• For dogs who dislike boots, paw balms like Musher’s Secret help protect pads
• Nose butter can prevent cracking and dryness
• Wipe paws and noses after outings to remove salt
• Watch for signs of cold stress and shorten outings when needed

Give yourself permission to adjust
• It is okay to cancel plans when conditions are unsafe
• It is okay to ask for help with errands or transportation
• Your safety and health matter more than pushing through

Winter asks more of disabled bodies and disabled lives.

Needing extra preparation, support, or rest is not a personal failure. It is a reasonable response to environments that are not built with us in mind.

Take what helps. Leave what does not. Adjust as needed.
Caring for yourself is not giving up. It is how you keep going.

If you have tips that help you get through the winter, share them. We learn best when we look out for one another.

Address

25 Kingston Street , Fourth Floor
Boston, MA
02111

Opening Hours

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Tuesday	9am - 5pm
Wednesday	9am - 5pm
Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 5pm

Website

http://dpcma.org/, https://dpcma.printful.me/

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