The Ford Foundation has announced the launch of a grantmaking program dedicated to advancing the rights of people with disabilities in the United States.

In shaping the grantmaking strategy of the U.S. Disability Rights Program, the foundation consulted approximately two hundred disability leaders across the United States. With an annual budget of $10 million, the program will focus on advancing economic justice; strengthening disability organizations through multiyear, core funding support; building a pipeline of a diverse disability leadership, both within disability rights and justice organizations and in the broader social justice arena; and countering disability stigma.

Initial grant recipients include the Century Foundation for efforts to build a national disability and economic justice roundtable that will help coordinate a disability agenda in policy arenas; the Disability Rights and Education Defense Fund in support of building a national association of disabled journalists; Access Living of Chicago to expand its work with survivors of gun violence; Crushing Colonialism to use moving image storytelling to uplift Native Americans with disabilities and their advocacy work; and MEAction to advocate for the recognition, education, and research around myalgic encephalomyelitis or chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) and the emerging long-haul COVID community.

"Any efforts to combat inequality can only be successful by explicitly including disability," said U.S. Disability Rights program officer Rebecca Cokley. "As a person with multiple disabilities, I am honored to continue serving the disability community in building collective power and fighting for their perspectives and experiences to be included in policy decisions that affect them. Critical to this work is a diverse disability leadership that represents the full experience of the community, interconnected social justice movements that understand how disability is situated in all justice areas, a society that celebrates disability pride, and a philanthropic sector that bolsters support for the community."