Goals and Priorities
2026 - 2027
Each year, Disability Rights Oregon surveys the community about what issues are most important to you. Based on community input, the Board of Directors and Mental Health Advisory Council work with Disability Rights Oregon’s staff to determine issues the organization will prioritize in the year ahead. We focus on issues that will have the greatest impact on the lives of the greatest number of Oregonians. These priority areas of work are listed below.
For issues not included in our annual goals, Disability Rights Oregon provides tools and advocacy strategies to Oregonians with disabilities. These tools are meant to help you know your rights and advocate for yourself.
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Ensure Full Integration of People with Disabilities throughout Oregon
Promote community-based supports, housing, and healthcare, including mental health care.
Promote accessibility of sidewalks, crosswalk improvements, and public transit.
Facilitate effective community placements and advocate for sufficient resources to prevent institutionalization.
Facilitate effective discharge and release planning from facilities and institutions to prevent re-institutionalization.
Decriminalize disability through pre-arrest or pre-booking diversion for people with mental illness and by reforming Oregon’s Aid and Assist process.
Ensure all students with disabilities in the K-12 setting have access to a full day of educational services by preventing the use of shortened school days and inadequate behavior supports.
Promote community-based supports, housing, and healthcare (including mental health support).
Advance and retain employment for social security recipients by addressing legal barriers to employment goals.
Advance employment, financial stability, and independence by offering work incentives planning and assistance (WIPA) to SSI and/or SSDI beneficiaries residing in Oregon and Washington State who are employed or seriously considering work.
Ensure People with Disabilities are Free from Abuse and Neglect
Investigate allegations of abuse and neglect and death investigations with probable cause when not adequately addressed by state and local authorities.
Enforce the rights of people with disabilities to be free from abuse and neglect by monitoring and building relationships in facilities.
Enforce the rights of all children with disabilities in the foster care system to ensure children with disabilities are living in the most integrated setting, free of abuse and neglect.
Decriminalize disability and decrease abusive practices towards people with mental illness by law enforcement organizations.
Enforce the rights of people with mental illness to be free from abuse and neglect by monitoring and building relationships in carceral facilities.
Verify that representative payees across Oregon are appropriately using the financial benefits of Social Security beneficiaries through quality assurance monitoring and providing educational visits to ensure representative payees fully understand their duties and responsibilities.
Protect beneficiaries by educating representative payees about their responsibilities and identifying cases of financial exploitation.
Promote Self Determination
Provide people with disabilities the tools they need for self-advocacy.
Provide education, training, and assistance to promote full participation in the electoral process for individuals with disabilities.
Advise and inform clients, client applicants, and other individuals with disabilities of all the available services and benefits under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and of the services and benefits available to them under Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Advocate for people who have been denied medically necessary assistive technology.
Enforce Title I of the ADA reasonable accommodation in the workplace, including applying Olmstead and Lane to employment settings.