[AD] [ASL] How Protection & Advocacy Agencies Protect and Advocate

How Protection & Advocacy Agencies Protect and Advocate

Protection and Advocacy agencies, or P&As, help people with disabilities when their rights are violated or when systems create barriers. There are 57 P&As across the U.S. and its territories. Their services are free and confidential.

This video shows how P&As advocate through individual cases, large-scale investigations, and policy change. From helping people live and work in their communities, to investigating abuse and neglect in facilities, to improving access to education, employment, healthcare, and voting, P&As protect disability rights every day.

P&As also create free resources and connect people to additional support when needed. Their mission is simple: protect civil rights, stop harm, and break down barriers so people with disabilities can live the lives they choose.

Transcription:
Narrator:
How P&As Protect and Advocate

Audio Description:
Animated icons, texts, and characters, act out what the narrator describes.

Narrator:
When people with disabilities face abuse, neglect, or threats to their rights, or when a law, regulation or system is creating barriers for the disability community, you can call us-your Protection and Advocacy agency-or P&A for short. There are 57 P&As, one for every state and territory in the U.S. Our services are free and information shared with us is kept private. We help with community living, employment, voting, assistive technology, education, and more. We protect and advocate in different ways. For example, we may take on an individual case. In one of these cases, a P&A helped a client with a mental health disability get out of a state hospital and get connected to better care in their community. In other cases, P&As have supported clients who are working with their employers to get the reasonable accommodations they need to succeed at their job. Sometimes, we take on a case involving lots of people. One P&A used this strategy to reduce the unfair treatment of students with disabilities in schools. In another state, the P&A was able to make a large county keep services that help many people with mental health disabilities live in the community instead of institutions. Another way we protect and advocate is through our access authority-this allows us to go wherever people with disabilities live, work, or learn, including psychiatric facilities, nursing homes, group homes, schools, hospitals, jails, and prisons. P&As are the only organizations with this unique authority, giving us the power to investigate abuse and neglect, and rights violations. One P&A used their access authority to investigate a shelter for children with disabilities so they could document and address rights violations. Another P&A used their access authority to investigate abuse at group homes, and worked with a state agency to ensure complaints are addressed more quickly in the future. Sometimes we're able to help make big changes that affect lots of people. We help pass laws that give disabled people more control over important life decisions, prevent the use of physical force on students with disabilities, and provide more accessible voting options. P&As have also led efforts to make sure people with disabilities involved in the criminal justice system have access to resources and accommodations. We also create free resources about disability rights, like reports, webinars, presentations- and videos! If we can't help you with an issue, we can connect you with organizations or resources that might be able to assist. P&As are working with, and for, people with disabilities to protect their civil rights, stop harm, and break down barriers-because everyone deserves to have their rights respected, and have the chance to live the life they want to live.