Disability Community + Movement
North Star Memo

We are living through overlapping crises that threaten the very fabric of our democracy, our freedom, our health, and our lives. Yet disabled people — who have long navigated, resisted, and reimagined systems that were not built for us — are too often left out of conversations about social change.

Disability holds a critical key to unlocking liberation and justice across movements. But at this moment, resistance alone is not enough. We need a vision for the future we are fighting for.

That’s why, over the past 12 months, Disability Culture Lab brought together nearly 50 disabled leaders and organizations from across the country to develop a shared north star vision for building power and advancing transformative change.

The Disability Community + Movement North Star Memo is that liberatory vision.

Hexagon-shaped photo of three happy disabled people, two wearing high-quality filtration masks.

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Cover of the Disability Community and Movement North Star Memo. It features a photo of three happy disabled people, two wearing high-quality filtration masks.
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The U.S. Political
Model of Disability

The U.S. Political Model of Disability is a new model of disability developed during Disability Culture Lab’s Disability Community and Movement North Star Visioning that puts words to a disability pathway that many people who have already been pushed to the margins follow. Read on to learn more.

The Definition
All About the Model

Organizational Signers

  • Autistic People of ColorFund

  • Backbone Digital Leaders

  • Black Remote She LLC

  • Blue Agate Creative

  • Borealis Philanthropy

  • Center for Racial & Disability Justice

  • Crip the Law

  • Detroit Disability Power

  • Disability Action

  • Disability Culture Lab

  • Disability Media Alliance

  • Disability Policy Foundry

  • Disability Project of the

  • Transgender Law Center

  • Disability Rights California

  • Foundations for Divergent Minds

  • FWD-Doc

  • Latinx Disability Association

  • Neurodivergents of Texas

  • New Disabled South

  • RAMPD Member Network (Recording Artists and Music Professionals with Disabilities)

  • Rebirth Garments

  • Revolutionary Love Media

  • Senior and Disability Action

  • Sins Invalid

Individual Signers

  • Sanzari Aranyak

  • Wren Brooks

  • Kim Bryant

  • Anita Cameron

  • Allie Cannington

  • Keidra Chaney

  • Sky Cubacub

  • JD Davids

  • Marissa Ditkowsky

  • Lindsey Dryden

  • Ariel E.

  • Meier Galblum Haigh

  • Kyla Harris

  • Gwendolyn Hill

  • Jesenia

  • Emily Ladau

  • Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasina

  • Jim LeBrecht

  • AJ Link

  • Trinity M.

  • Jilisa Milton, JD, LICSW

  • Jess Moore Matthews

  • Ian Moura

  • Sabeerah Najee

  • Jennae Petersen

  • Héctor Manuel Ramirez

  • Kenrya Rankin

  • Dr. Sami Schalk

  • Dennis Tran

  • Kay Ulanday Barrett

  • Jen White-Johnson

  • Charity Sonia Whyte

  • Jasmine Williams-Jacobs

  • Ly Xīnzhèn M. Zhangsūn Brown