List of disability rights activists

A

• Javed Abidi – Director of the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People in India
• Fatima al-Aqel – opened a school for blind women in Yemen in 1995.
• Ola Abu Alghaib – disability activist from Palestine, focusses on inclusion, gender and disability rights.

  B

• Amanda Baggs - autism rights activist and blogger
• Safiya al Bahlani - Omani artist, graphic designer, disability rights activist, and motivational speaker.
• Jamala al-Baidhani – created the Al-Tahadi Association for Disabled Females, the first group in Yemen devoted to helping girls with disabilities.
• Julia Bascom - autism rights activist and president of the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network
• Andrew Batavia – ADA regulations drafter, co-founder AUTONOMY, Inc.
• Bellas, Cuban-American singer-songwriter Alzheimer's disease and Alzheimer's dementia advocate. She collaborates with various Alzheimer's awareness organizations, and in honor of her grandmother who died due to the disease, released a song about her.
• Sister Sponsa Beltran - worked with children and people with disabilities in Liberia.
• Tiffany Brar founder of Jyothirgamaya Foundation, a not for profit NGO for visually impaired
• Gabriela Brimmer – had cerebral palsy; life chronicled in the American-Mexican drama film , directed by Luis Mandoki
• Marca Bristo – cofounded the National Council on Independent Living with Max Starkloff and Charlie Carr
• Lydia Brown – autism advocate and writer

  C

• Jane Campbell, Baroness Campbell of Surbiton – commissioner of the British Disability Rights Commission
• Charlie Carr – cofounder of National Council on Independent Living, Boston Center for Independent Living and founder and CEO of The Northeast Independent Living Program in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Went on to become Commissioner of the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission under Gov. Deval Patrick.
• Liz Carr – British actress, stand-up comedian, broadcaster and international disability rights activist
• Mama Cax – American-Haitian model and disabled rights activist
• Judi Chamberlin – American activist, leader, organizer, public speaker and educator in the psychiatric survivors movement; her political activism followed her involuntary confinement in a psychiatric facility in the 1960s the author of On Our Own: Patient-Controlled Alternatives to the Mental Health System, which is a foundational text in the Mad Pride movement
• James I. Charlton – activist and author of Nothing About Us Without Us
• Claudia Cockburn – British activist for transportation accessibility
• Tony Coelho – former congressman from California, primary author and U.S. House sponsor of the Americans with Disabilities Act
• Rebecca Cokley – Executive Director of the National Council on Disability
• Cäsar Jacobson - Norwegian-Canadian. Bilaterally Deaf activist & United Nations Youth Champion, this person is a registered Health Care Worker focusing on Equality & Disability Rights Activism
• Kitty Cone – disability rights activist and staff member of the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund

  D

• Justin Whitlock Dart Jr. – co-founder of the American Association of People with Disabilities
• Nyle DiMarco – activist and spokesperson for LEAD-K, 'Language Equality and Acquisition for Deaf Kids' campaign for American Sign Language and English in education setting.
• Rich Donovan – economist and founder of the Return On Disability Index
• Theresa Ducharme – founder of the disabled-rights advocacy group People in Equal Participation Inc. in 1981; the organization's chair for many years thereafter
• April Dunn - helped pass Act 833 in Louisiana which helped provide alternatives to graduation for students who cannot pass the standardized tests.

  E

• Dominick Evans – filmmaker, activist, founder of #FilmDis. Media & Entertainment advocate for Center for Disability Rights in New York.
• Edward Evans – Chairman of the UK Ministry of Health Health Advisory Committee on Handicapped Persons from 1949 to 1960

  F

• Fred Fay – American advocate for disabled persons.
• Julie Fernandez – actress with osteogenesis imperfecta; founded The Disability Foundation; active on presentation of the disabled.
• Catherine Frazee – co-director of Ryerson University's Institute for Disability Studies Research and Education
• Lex Frieden – Chairman of the National Council on Disability from 2002 to 2006; key developer of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
• Judy Fryd – founded group in 1946 for parents of children with a learning disability. The group later became Mencap.
• Vic Finkelstein – South African born activist and academic, pioneer of the social model of disability

  G

• Haben Girma – first deafblind graduate of Harvard Law School
• Marilyn Golden – disability transportation activist
• Chen Guangcheng – Chinese civil rights activist

  H

• Laura Hershey – protested MDA Labor Day Telethon; a feminist born with a form of muscular dystrophy
• Judith Heumann – wheelchair user who co-founded the World Institute on Disability; served as its co-director from 1983 to 1993; became the Special Advisor for International Disability Rights at the U.S. Department of State
• Rick Hansen – former Canadian Paralympian. Hansen raised $20 million for spinal cord research, rehabilitation and wheelchair sports by travelling by wheelchair through 34 countries.

  I

• Davina Ingrams, 18th Baroness Darcy de Knayth – British Paralympian and Representative peer
• Malvika Iyer – bilateral amputee, a disability rights activist, and a member of United Nations IANYD's Working Group

  J

• Casar Jacobson – Autism, other differently abled persons and gender equality rights activist and a UN Women Youth Champion, Former Miss Canada, Bilaterally Deaf and uses American Sign Language.
• Harriet McBryde Johnson – a New Mobility "Person of the Year"; a disability-rights attorney and anti-euthanasia activist.
• I. King Jordan – first deaf president of Gallaudet University

  K

• John D. Kemp – American disability-rights activist. President and CEO of Viscardi center and the Henry Viscardi School.
• Bonnie Sherr Klein – directed the documentary film
• Helen Keller – American deaf-blind political activist, writer, and lecturer.

  L

• Frank Larkin – activist who, inspired by the frustrations of living with spina bifida, sought to improve the lives of others with the condition; attended the European Parliament and other continental-level events
• Paul K. Longmore – American history professor and activist who was instrumental in the establishment of disability studies as an academic discipline, and in changes to Social Security that granted people with disabilities more rights.
• Carrie Ann Lucas – disability rights attorney

  M

• Robert Martin – activist for independent living for disabled people.
• Ron McCallum – member of Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; has been on the National People with Disabilities and Carers Council; Chair of Radio for the Print Handicapped of New South Wales Co-operative Ltd.; the first totally blind person to have been appointed to a full professorship at an Australian university.
• Anne McDonald – activist for independent living for disabled people.
• Kathryn McGee – American activist who founded the National Association for Down Syndrome and the National Down Syndrome Congress. Her daughter Tricia had Down syndrome.
• Eva Middleton - Belizean advocate for disability rights and involved with the Belize Assembly for Persons with Diverse Abilities.
• Stacey Milbern - American activist who helped establish the disability justice movement.
• Paul Steven Miller – American civil rights lawyer, activist and law professor, was a Commissioner of the US Equal Employment Opportunities Commission and author of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act
• Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi – The co-founder/director of the Mizrahi Family Charitable Fund. She also currently serves as president of the disability advocacy nonprofit, RespectAbility, which is a nonprofit fighting stigmas and advancing opportunities for people with disabilities.
• Leroy F. Moore Jr. – African American writer, poet, community activist, feminist, and the founder of Krip-Hop.
• Alf Morris – introduced the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act and first "Minister for the Disabled" in Great Britain or anywhere else.

  N

• Karen Nakamura – American academic, author, filmmaker, photographer and the Robert and Colleen Haas Distinguished Chair of Disability Studies and Professor of Anthropology at University of California, Berkeley.
• Neema Namadamu – Women's rights and disability rights activist in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
• Ari Ne'eman – co-creator of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network
• Yetnebersh Nigussie – blind lawyer and disability rights and anti-AIDS activist from Ethiopia. Founded the Ethiopian Center for Disability and Development.

  O

• Corbett O'Toole – disability rights activist and author in Berkeley, California. Established the National Disabled Women's Educational Equity Project.
• Mary Jane Owen – disability rights activist, philosopher, policy expert and writer who has lived and worked in Washington, D.C. since 1979.

  P

• Jean-Christophe Parisot – founder of Collectif des Démocrates Handicapés.
• Ajith C. S. Perera – Chief Executive Idiriya in Sri Lanka activist in favour of the social model of disability and Inclusive Society
• Richard Pimentel – activist for workplace rights for the disabled.
• Victor Pineda – American activist, participated as government delegate in the drafting of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
• Alex Plank - autism rights activist, filmmaker, actor, and founder of Wrong Planet

  R

• Alan Reich – founder of the National Organization on Disability
• Maria Verónica Reina, Argentine educational psychologist and disability rights activist
• Gilberto Rincón Gallardo – Mexican politician with shortened arms who worked on disability issues
• Edward Roberts – first quadriplegic to attend the University of California, Berkeley; his fight for access at Berkeley spread into seeking access in the community and the development of the first Centre for Independent Living.
• Ruth Bader Ginsburg - American lawyer and jurist who is an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Spent a considerable part of her legal career as an advocate for the advancement of gender equality and women's rights.
• John Elder Robison - autism rights activist and author
• Jay Ruderman – President of the Ruderman Family Foundation, advocating for the rights of people with disabilities in the United States and in Israel

  S

• Ali Saberi – member of the City Council of Tehran and one of the highest-paid lawyers in Iran with a fee around $1.7 million.
• Peggy S. Salters – first survivor of electroshock treatment in the United States to win a jury verdict and a large money judgment in compensation for extensive permanent amnesia and cognitive disability caused by the procedure
• Sandra Schnur – director of the New York City Half-fare Program for the Handicapped; wrote an early guide for disabled in the city; had quadriplegia
• Annie Segarra – American YouTuber and intersectional activist
• Nabil Shaban – Jordanian-British actor, journalist, and founder of The Graeae, a theater group which promotes disabled performers
• Jim Sinclair – Coordinator and founder of Autism Network International, advisor to Syracuse University's Disability Cultural Center
• Eunice Kennedy Shriver – lifelong advocate for people with intellectual disabilities who founded Special Olympics International in 1968.
• Satendra Singh – doctor with disability and founder of Enabling Unit.
• Robert Stack – Founder, President and CEO of Community Options.
• Max Starkloff – founded Paraquad, one of the first independent living centers in the United States. Advocated for the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990.
• John Franklin Stephens - Actor, athlete, and activist with Down syndrome
• Simon Stevens – disability issues consultant known for his high-profile work around disability issues in the UK

  T

• Joni Ericson Tada – evangelical Christian author, radio host, and founder of Joni and Friends, an organization "accelerating Christian ministry in the disability community."
• Sunaura Taylor – artist, writer, and activist

  U

• Chris Underhill – a founder of Thrive and ADD International

  V

• Susanna van Tonder - Luxembourgish disability-rights activist, patient advocate and blogger with multiple sclerosis
• Lizzie Velásquez – author and public speaker on themes of self-esteem and bullying of young people with disabilities.
• Henry Viscardi Jr. – American disability-rights activist who was also advisor to eight US presidents on disability matters

  W

• Yuval Wagner – President of Access Israel
• Ron Whyte – playwright who was on the President's Committee for the Employment of the Handicapped
• Grace Woodhead - care in the community in 1890 in the UK
• Alice Wong – founded the Disability Visibility Project
• Patrisha Wright – known as "the General" for her work in coordinating the campaign to enact the Americans with Disabilities Act

  Y

• Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah – Ghanaian cyclist with one leg who rode across Ghana to raise awareness and works to increase the number of wheelchairs in his country.
• Stella Young – Australian journalist, comedian, and disability activist. Used a wheelchair for most of her life, editor of the ABC online magazine Ramp Up.

  Z

• Frieda Zames – mathematics professor, writer and advocate for access to all aspects of public life, especially transportation. As an official of Disabled in Action, she campaigned for wheelchair access on New York City buses, ferries and taxis and buildings like the Empire State Building. With her sister, Zames wrote the book, The Disability Rights Movement: From Charity to Confrontation.
• Maysoon Zayid – Palestinian actress, comedian, and disability rights activist known for her Ted Talk, "I've Got 99 Problems...Palsy is Just One"