From the Margins to the Mainstream: Disability Rights Advocates You Should Know

Did you know that 15% of the global population—an estimated one billion people—lives with some form of disability, making up the world's largest minority? A 2024 study from the CDC reported that 28.7% of Americans fall into this category, a number that is only rising as the workforce ages and affordable medical care becomes increasingly inaccessible.

On July 26, 1990, President George H.W. Bush officially signed the Americans with Disabilities Act into law. While this was a much-needed and long overdue step that finally prohibited discrimination against Americans with disabilities and brought accessibility requirements to public spaces, it was but one step in a long—and unfinished—road towards justice, equality, and dignity.

While readers may be familiar with the achievements and impact of disability rights advocates like Judy Heumann, Ed Roberts, or Justin Dart Jr.—those whose hard work helped pass landmark legislation and bring disability rights into the public consciousness—we want to take this opportunity during Disability Pride Month to shine the spotlight on a few lesser-known figures whose lives and activism have made equally meaningful contributions to the movement.

Dr. Timothy Nugent

"I just kept knocking. I wasn't the smartest or had the best ideas, but when I was told no, I just kept knocking."

Known as “the Father of Accessibility” despite being non-disabled himself, Dr. Timothy Nugent was born in 1923 and was influenced by growing up with a deafblind father and sister before serving in World War II—where post-war conversations with disabled fellow veterans helped him understand the need for more inclusive educational opportunities. Using GI Bill funding (and finding loopholes and technicalities whenever he could), Nugent became the director of the first higher education program in the country specifically designed for students with disabilities: what is now called the Division of Disability Resources and Educational Services at the University of Illinois. 

He ceaselessly advocated to get his students what they needed, from petitioning the university’s administration for ramps and curb cuts on academic buildings to organizing the first fixed-route accessible campus bus system and study abroad program for students with disabilities. His early research on accessible architectural standards including door and hallway width would end up directly influencing regulations that were part of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Nugent also knew the importance of providing fun and leisure opportunities for disabled people, and in this spirit founded the National Wheelchair Basketball Association in 1949—helping the sport blossom into Paralympic recognition and eventually being inducted into the United States Olympic & Paralympic Hall of Fame as well as the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. 

Bradley Lomax

“Brad was able to get the Black Panther Party to see that [disability rights activism] was critical to the work that they were doing.” - Judy Heumann

A civil rights and disability rights advocate born in Philadelphia in 1950, Brad Lomax experienced racial segregation on childhood visits to family in Alabama that had a major impact on his worldview. While attending Howard University and becoming involved in anti-war and Black Power protests he began to experience symptoms of multiple sclerosis, which would eventually require him to use a wheelchair. After helping found the Washington, DC chapter of the Black Panthers he moved to Oakland, where public barriers to accessibility led to his deepening involvement in the disability rights movement. Lomax worked with Ed Roberts to found the East Oakland Center for Independent Living, an organization which offers resources to help disabled people live self-sufficient lives. 

When regulations promised in the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 remained long delayed in 1977, Lomax mobilized the Black Panthers to support the 504 sit-ins of federal buildings—bringing daily hot meals to occupying activists like Judy Heumann despite efforts from FBI agents to keep them out. Eventually the protestors' demands were met, a powerful example of nonviolent action and coalition building. While Lomax passed away in 1984 at only age 33, he left behind an influential legacy of intersectional justice for those who came after.

Alice Wong

“There is so much that able-bodied people could learn from the wisdom that often comes with disability. But space needs to be made. Hands need to reach out. People need to be lifted up.”

Alice Wong was born in 1974 with the neuromuscular disorder spinal muscular atrophy, and has used a wheelchair since childhood. An award-winning writer, activist, and organizer, she is perhaps best known as the founder and director of the Disability Visibility Project. This online community is dedicated to collecting and amplifying the stories and oral histories of disabled people and disability culture, a segment of the population whose voices are rarely heard in the mainstream media. Believing that her community needed a tangible, documented history—and critical of the idea that the ADA had "solved" issues of education, economic security, and healthcare disparity—she founded the DVP to raise public awareness of the everyday lives of those with disabilities. 

Wong also works with disabled writers, editors, and journalists, was a presidential appointee to the National Council on Disability, and was the first person to visit the White House and meet the President via telepresence robot. The recipient of a 2024 MacArthur "Genius Grant" for her writing and disability justice activism, she continues to create cultural space for her community and advocate for the voiceless wherever she goes.

Haben Girma

“Communities designed with just one kind of person in mind isolate those of us defying our narrow definition of personhood.”

Haben Girma was born in Oakland in 1988 to Eritrean immigrants and lost her vision and hearing to an unknown progressive condition at a young age. As someone who benefited academically from ADA-mandated accessible technology like digital Braille devices, she has been a staunch advocate for disability rights her entire life. As an undergraduate student she fought for accommodations in her school cafeteria before becoming the first-ever deafblind graduate of Harvard Law School in 2013. 

Since passing the bar, she has used her position to work on behalf of those with disabilities—especially in the realm of technological accessibility. She represented the National Federation of the Blind in a lawsuit that ruled the ADA also covers online businesses, increasing access to blind-geared digital content. She met with President Barack Obama at the White House in 2015 to discuss the importance of accessible technology, and her 2018 Washington Post op-ed on the value of teaching Helen Keller's life story led to the reversal of a Texas State Board of Education curriculum removal decision. In 2025, she's hard at work advocating for more and more aspects of society to be accessible and inclusive—from museums and classrooms to rideshare apps and public architecture—using technology to build a world that thoughtfully accounts for differences. 

As we all strive to build a world where everybody belongs, we remember the famous disability rights slogan: "Nothing about us without us." From increasing access to educational spaces and medical care to holding those in power accountable and simply making it easier to navigate daily life, we're grateful for and inspired by the contributions of disability rights champions throughout history—those dedicated to doing the hard and necessary work of centering inclusivity and ensuring that everyone can participate in society, living independent and joyful lives without ever needing to compromise who they are.