Enforce Civil Rights
Expand Opportunities
Empower People With Disabilities
CPR uses legal strategies, advocacy, and policy to promote the integration and full community participation of people with disabilities and all others who are devalued in today’s society.
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Litigation
Expanding and protecting the rights of people with disabilities.
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Advocacy
Stay current on disability issues, educate yourself about the impact of proposed policy changes, and learn how to take action.
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SSI/SSDI
Representing individuals in western Massachusetts (Hampden, Hampshire and Franklin counties) who have been denied Social Security disability benefits.
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Supported Decision-Making
Learn about SDM, read how SDM transforms lives, and become a participant, supporter or advocate.
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COVID-19
Get up-to-date resources on COVID-19 and its impact on people with disabilities, including information on the latest policy developments, medical rationing, and Medicaid.
News
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May 10, 2022On April 17, 2022, the district court found the State of New Mexico finally achieved compliance with a 2019 settlement agreement and dismissed the case of Jackson v. Los Lunas Community Program. The class action litigation was originally filed in 1987 on behalf of hundreds of persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities who lived in the state’s two public institutions.
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February 15, 2022On February 4, 2022, CPR responded to MassHealth’s RFI on health equity and proposed strategies for the collection and use of social risk factor data. CPR’s submission pointed to the intersection between poverty, race, age, and disability as factors that can create multiple, compounding barriers to care.
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February 3, 2022Morgan Whitlatch, CPR’s new Director of Supported Decision-Making Initiatives, has been elected as co-chair of the Rights Task Force of the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (soon to be renamed “Consortium for Constituents with Disabilities”) (CCD). CCD is the largest coalition of national organizations working together to advocate for federal public policy that ensures the self-determination, independence, empowerment, integration, and inclusion of people with disabilities in all aspects of society.
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January 20, 2022Based upon its successful ADA class action litigation in Oregon, CPR partnered with Disability Rights North Carolina (DRNC) to pursue an initiative and potential litigation to expand supported employment services and eliminate reliance on segregated sheltered workshops in North Carolina.
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January 10, 2022In April 2021, the Syracuse Law Review convened a Symposium to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the ADA. Several disability practitioners and professors presented papers and prepared articles for a special volume of the Review. CPR’s Legal Director, Steven Schwartz, and Managing Attorney, Kathryn Rucker, authored a seminal article on class certification under the ADA titled: The Commonality of Difference: A Framework for Obtaining Class Certification in ADA Cases After Wal-Mart.