World Institute on Disability

The World Institute on Disability (WID) is an international public policy center that advocates for the civil rights of people with disabilities and pushes for public policies that promote full inclusion of people with disabilities in society.

A non-profit research foundation, the WID, located in Oakland, California, was founded in 1983 by Ed Roberts, Judy Heumann and Joan Leon. Its directors and staff are people with disabilities.

Current Programs

* [http://www.proyectovision.ne Proyecto Vision] is a program to help Latinos with disabilities help find jobs. A toll-free, bilingual hotline is available.
* Health Access and Long Term Services (HALTS) works to improve the availability and quality of and access to health care and long term services for people with disabilities. The program includes training of doctors and other health care workers can make their services, structures and equipment accessible. Another area of particular concern is personal assistive services, which can mean the difference between institutionalization and independent living. Personal assistive services include help in things such as eating and dressing.
* The California Work Incentive Initiative attempts to improve Social Security work incentive rules because people with disabilities need to gain employment without losing their health care. The WID trains organizations working with people with disabilities on how employment affects public benefits in many ways, including with the website [http://www.disabilitybenefits101.org/ Disability Benefits 101] . The WID also recommends policy changes on the state and national levels.
* Access to Assets is a program that intends to reduce the economic inequity between working-age people with disabilities and their able-bodied counterparts. One way this is done is through the Individual Development Accounts (IDA) savings program.
* The IDEAS for the New Millennium Project is a project led by the WID in conjunction with other disability rights organizations. A five-year initiative that aims to exchange information about disability and rehabilitation in ten target countries, one major part of the project is [http://www.disabilityworld.org Disability World] , the first international, cross-cultural online magazine. It is aimed at government officials, policymakers, disability leaders, rehabilitation specialists, and researchers.
* The WID works to shape technology policy to make such technologies as email, cell phones, voicemail and the Internet accessible to people with disabilities. The WID did a good deal of policy-shaping in the United States that led to Section 255 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and the 1998 revision of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.

Contact information

The World Institute on Disability
510-16th Street, Suite #100
Oakland, CA 94612-1500

Telephone: [phone]

TTY: 510-208-9496
Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

References

* http://www.wid.org/
* http://www.icdri.org/North%20Amercia/wid.htm