Goals and Priorities
2024 - 2025
Each year, Disability Rights Oregon surveys the community for what issues are most important to you. Based on the input we receive from our community, the Board of Directors and Mental Health Advisory Council work with Disability Rights Oregon’s staff to determine what issues will be prioritized in the year ahead. We prioritize 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.
Ensure Full Integration of People with Disabilities throughout Oregon
Facilitate effective discharge and release planning from facilities and institutions to prevent re-institutionalization
Promote community-based supports, housing, and healthcare (including mental health care)
Promote accessibility of sidewalks, crosswalk improvements, and public transit
Advance employment, financial stability, and independence by offering work incentives planning and assistance to SSI and/or SSDI beneficiaries residing in Oregon and Washington State who are employed or seriously considering work
Provide benefits counseling assistance to SSI and/or SSDI beneficiaries who are working or re-entering the workforce, including referral to appropriate vocational agencies, individualized benefits analysis, and work incentives planning, so that beneficiaries can make informed decisions about work
Conduct outreach events to transition-age youth (14-25 years old) and underserved communities through virtual remote presentations and tabling events, dependent on COVID-19 protocols and procedures to best protect beneficiaries, participants, and staff
Decriminalize disability through pre-arrest or pre-booking diversion of people with mental illness and by reforming Oregon’s Aid and Assist process
Decriminalize disability and decrease abusive practices towards people with mental illness by law enforcement organizations.
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 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
Enforce the rights of people with disabilities to be free from abuse and neglect by monitoring and building relationships in facilities.
Promote community-based supports, healthcare, housing and crisis response (excluding facilities and institutions)
Verify that representative payees across Oregon are appropriately using the financial benefits of the Social Security beneficiaries through quality assurance monitoring and providing educational visits to ensure representatives 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
Intervene when the civil rights of a respondent or protected person are being violated due to guardianship, including abuse or neglect
Advise and inform clients, client applicants, and other individuals with disabilities of available services and benefits under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
Provide education, training, and assistance to promote full participation in the electoral process for individuals with disabilities
Advocate for people who have been denied medically necessary assistive technology (PAAT)
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
Enforce Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) reasonable accommodation in the workplace, including applying Olmstead and Lane to employment settings
Prevent barriers to further employment or self-employment in Social Security Overpayment Cases where the overpayment is due to earned income