Why DRA Needs You

Dear DRA Supporters, Friends, Clients, and Allies,

We’ve learned a lot from 2020. Change is certain. Listening is critical. The fight to protect the civil rights of people with disabilities must continue.

We write to you today to ask for your support. DRA is listening deeply to the needs of our clients like Jimmy, Liz, and Kendall. Your investment today will ensure that DRA can and will rise to whatever challenges the future holds and bring about justice for people with all types of disabilities, nationwide.  

What We’ve Heard

“I’m grateful for DRA…I’m grateful for not being in ICE custody…I’m grateful of my life.” –Jimmy Sudney, Client in DRA’s case against ICE, National

“I’m enormously grateful for DRA and I urge everyone who may be listening to support DRA because this work is important and there are not a lot of people who can do it.” –Liz Fust, Client in DRA’s case against First Urology, Kentucky

“It was definitely an honor that Disability Rights Advocates decided to take our case…I got a call from DRA saying that we had won the case and my first statement was ‘History has been made!’” –Kendall Gibbs, Client in DRA’s voting rights case, North Carolina

What We’ve Learned

DRA must be ready to pivot to meet the needs of our clients (like our filing of a preliminary injunction in our case against ICE because of the new, COVID-induced life-threatening conditions)

DRA must go to where the need is greatest and fight to win wherever our clients face injustice (like filing our first cases in Kentucky and North Carolina)

DRA must build on the impact of our existing cases to expand our impact nation-wide (like expanding our California and New York voting rights work to North Carolina and Indiana)

Why We Need You

People with disabilities have been some of the hardest hit by the crisis of this year. DRA is one of the only organizations in the country with the track record, tools, and tenacity to dismantle the emerging and long-standing, illegal, systemic barriers that plague people with disabilities.  

DRA’s cases require significant time, talent, and treasure.  DRA was hit hard financially by the pandemic as courts slowed and resources dwindled. We need you, in whatever way you can, to help fuel our litigation muscle.

Your gift today (at any level significant to you) will make sure that DRA is there: when the pandemic continues, when a new political administration takes hold, when technology continues to evolve, when the next disaster strikes. And DRA needs to be there.

With gratitude and commitment,

Kate and Cristina
Interim Executive Director and Board Chair