When we started 10 Minutes a Day, one of the most important goals we had was to support and fight for disenfranchised communities. According to the CDC, 61 million American adults have a disability, which is 26% of the population.  In 2024, 70 million American adults identified as being disabled, per the CDC. The disability community has often been overlooked in policymaking, and disabled people may have difficulty mobilizing because of health issues and a lack of accessibility in government and society. 

Our organization is run by members of traditionally oppressed classes, and it's important to us to make sure that our country includes all of us. While many people have fought hard for working Americans, it's important to also give a voice to the disabled community. We are disability led and focused.

We're committed to advocating for the disability community, whether it's fighting for important services or increasing access to allow everyone to vote and have a voice in leadership and policy. To that end, we spotlight issues concerning people with disabilities and ways to advocate for our community, and we offer resources to help make sure that anyone who wants to can take part in voting, improving accessibility, providing support, and shaping policy.

  

TAKE ACTION NOW--IT'S ALL ON THE LINE!

YOUR VOICE MATTERS!

10 Minutes A Day partners with DIYabled, a disability led and run nonprofit that helps give disabled artists a voice and space. We are so grateful to the many individuals & organizations who have come together when our very survival is under attack--to try to build a more accessible & inclusive world. Here are some easy ways to get started as a disability rights activist, from anywhere, including home or bed. We thank our friends at the #ME Action Network for offering those ideas. Also, 10 Minutes A Day & DIYabled are committed to inclusive activism, so please keep in touch, as we often have virtual events with captions, ASL, and other accommodations, so we can help more people get a seat at the table.

 

Disability Community Resources:

 

Awareness:

Often, a big part of disability rights advocacy involves trying to understand how disabilities affect people. In many cases, disabled people have an "invisible illness"--something that you can't see, but that doesn't mean they aren't disabled. This is important to know because when we presume that someone is able-bodied, we may unintentionally discriminate against them or limit their opportunities. Many chronic pain patients, for example, have been told they don't "look disabled." There is no one way a disabled person "looks" or "acts," and this is a harmful stereotype. Disabled people have been treated badly at times because their non-disabled counterparts cannot "see" their conditions. 

There are many ways we can raise awareness of how disabilities impact different people, which can be incredibly positive and life-changing to support disabled people. Here are some tools to increase awareness:

Ableist Language: Sometimes, people use words that they may not realize can be ableist and perpetuate harmful stereotypes about people with disabilities. One great way to address that is to help people learn about what type of language may be ableist and alternatives they can use. Here is a link about what terms may be ableist, with non-ableist alternatives and explanations for what the issue may be.

Driving as an Amputee: A special thank you to our friend, Eric, who reached out to share this resource about limb loss and this resources! You can find the page here.

Inspiration "Porn": This article by a member of our community explains why the idea that disabled people should be resilient is a form of inspiration porn, and that talking in that way forces disabled folks to bear additional burdens, rather than encouraging collective action. 

Spoon Theory:  (#Spoonie, #Spoonies): One woman with a chronic condition has an excellent explanation for what it means when non-disabled people tell those with disabilities that "you don't look sick." She calls it spoon theory, and reading about this and sharing it can help provide support to those people with long-term disabilities who don't "look" or "act" as some presume a disabled person "should." 

"Special Needs?": Many disabled people and disability rights advocates have tried to explain why the term "special needs" can be a problem. One woman, Michelle Swan, explains that "my needs are not special."

Another organization explains that  "People with Down syndrome [and other disabled people], like everyone else, have basic human needs – to eat, drink, breathe and sleep – to be nurtured, loved, educated and sheltered – to move, communicate, contribute and work – and to share, love and live. Sure, people with Down syndrome may need extra assistance. Sometimes they even need significant assistance, and adjustments, to meet a particular need. But that doesn't make that common human need 'special.'" This group encourages people to use #NOTSpecialNeeds on social media to raise awareness. 

In 2016, the Cognitive Research Journal studied how people perceive and react to the phrase "special needs." They found that people "are viewed more negatively when described as having special needs than when described as having a disability or having a certain disability. ...We also...found that special needs is associated with more negativity; special needs conjures up more associations with developmental disabilities (such as intellectual disability) whereas disability is associated with a more inclusive set of disabilities; and special needs evokes more unanswered questions. These findings recommend against using the euphemism special needs."

Let's help raise awareness and support people with disabilities by using alternate language!

 

 Healthcare:

Healthcare Decisionmaking & the FDA: The FDA has decided that its advisory committees will include members of the community, including patients, to help it make important decisions. For more information on that or about how to apply, visit this web page.

Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) Support: CRPS is one of the most painful conditions known to medicine, and it's nicknamed the "suicide disease" because of how agonizing it can be. A UK-based organization, Burning Nights, has a lot of great resources about CRPS, from diagnostic information to support. You can find that here. 

Docs with Disabilities Student Guide: The Docs with Disabilities (DWD) initiative is such a great resource. They focus on how to help make students who go to school for a healthcare degree have equal access & the accommodations they need, as well as how doctors treat patients with disabilities. This is their handbook for students with disabilities--it's intended primarily for  disabled students working towards healthcare degrees. DWD is excellent & has a lot of information & resources to support disabled patients, healthcare practitioners, & disabled students pursuing degrees in healthcare. You can find their homepage here. DWD was listed on Forbes' 2025 Accessibility List, which indicates their hard work to protect the disability community. 

Long COVID Clinics: We found a list of clinics that specialize in treating Long COVID, which you can access here.

Support for Long COVID: We're very grateful to our friend, Tania, for creating & sharing a resource to support those with Long COVID. They're called Still Coviding Collective Care and Love, and you can visit their Facebook page here.

Physician Assisted Suicide: We thought carefully about this & oppose it because of the way it has been weaponized as a form of eugenics. The UN makes some arguments to that effect here. We're very grateful to the coalition of disability rights activists who we've teamed up with to help create healthcare parity & equity for our community, which include Access Living & the Patients' Rights Action Fund, for their leadership on this issue. While we can understand wanting to access this as an option, we believe that because our healthcare system is broken & largely inaccessible to us, this type of proposal would target our community, which the data indicates, and we saw other marginalized communities harmed, particularly those with a wage/income gap. 

 

Disability Policies:

 Disabled people have been largely ignored and/or overlooked by our elected officials. This is despite the fact that people with disabilities make up about 26% of the electorate in the US,  or about 61 million adults with disabilities, according to the CDC.  We should use our numbers to make sure we are included in policy decisions. However, by virtue of our disabilities, it can be difficult for our community to mobilize. That's why 10 Minutes A Day is tracking efforts made by politicians to include people with disabilities in leadership and in the policies they enact. 

There are a number of ways to support the disability community by being aware of some good (and bad) policies and bills that are out there and that greatly impact disabled people. Here are some of them:

The CAPABILITY Act (HR 3070): Americans with developmental or intellectual disabilities face discrimination in the workplace. The CAPABILITY Act would create grants and programs to create more jobs for this community. Only 21% of young Americans with developmental/intellectual disabilities are employed, and this bill would help to change that. The National Down Syndrome Society has a script, and you can send your message to ask your elected officials to support the CAPABILITY Act by filling out a simple form here.

The Disability Integration Act (DIA, HR 555): In 2019, a bipartisan bill was introduced to provide people with disabilities the support they deserve and community-based resources to offer an alternative to going to a long-term care facility. To learn about that bill, go here. Want your elected officials to co-sponsor and pass the DIA? Visit this link for a script to contact your members of Congress and support this bill.

The IDEA Act: The IDEA Act was passed in 1990 and reauthorized in 2004 and 2015. According to the Department of Education, the IDEA Act was enacted to ensure that children with disabilities receive a free and quality public education with access to the accommodations/resources they need to have their needs met. There are six parts to the IDEA Act, which include protecting the rights of disabled children and their parents/guardians, early childhood intervention for disabled children and their families, ensuring that educators have the tools to provide a quality education to disabled students, and more. As of 2025, the IDEA Act turns 50!!!

H.R.7138 - Supplemental Security Income Restoration Act of 2024: This is a really important bill that would eliminate the penalty or "marriage tax" that disabled people deal with if they require SSI--it would remove the $2000 asset limit, which has been in effect for decades. Here is the bill that you can ask your members of Congress to support to end the SSI penalty for good!

ADA For The People: Former Vice-President Kamala Harris was the first presidential candidate to introduce a platform to include the disability community in policies and leadership positions. She committed to a comprehensive plan (which no other presidential candidate to date has done) to support disabled people in obtaining education, employment, affordable housing, transportation, and healthcare. She also promised to have disabled people in senior-level positions in her administration. Her platform to support the disability community, which was announced on the anniversary of the ADA, is here. You can also be a part of  Senator Harris's ADA For the People team by texting "ADA" to 70785, or you can join by visiting this website.

 

Disaster Relief: 

Many recent natural disasters have made it clear that the disability community isn't taken into account in government or many organizational efforts at disaster relief. Thankfully, we have friends who help members of our community obtain what they need during a natural disaster. FEMA turned a board member away during Hurricane Helene because she could enter & exit her apartment, but she had no electricity or running water, & she needed power for her wheelchair to function. The Partnership for Inclusive Disaster Strategies functioned as a hotline that people can contact if they experience a natural disaster & need more assistance than governmental & grassroots entities may initially provide. You can find their information here.

 

 Civic Participation, & Protests, & More:

10 Minutes a Day & our partner, DIYabled, hosted virtual events, including protests, so we could be as inclusive & accessible as possible. We focused our #HandsOff event on the disability community, & you can watch the event, which includes tips from Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, an advocate for our community who is on the U.S. House Energy & Commerce Committee, which is the committee that passed a terrible budget that would slash Medicaid, food stamps, & so many social services that tens of millions of Americans rely upon to survive. You can watch any or all of the event, at your pace, here. 

 

Accessibility (in General):

Forbes 2025 Accessibility 100 List: This list mentions the 100 companies & organizations that Forbes found to be outstanding, in terms of their commitment to accessibility. You can read our blog post about it & read the list on that page, which is here.

The Accessibility Fund:: 10 Minutes A Day & DIYabled are disability led & focused. We work to be as accessible as possible & include everyone who wants to attend our events. We have captions, ASL, & other accessibility features at events/

If you need an accommodation, please email info@10MinutesADay.org or DiYabledGo@gmail.com, & give us as much lead time as possible--we do all we can, but we're also disabled, so our spoons are limited..

We're still deeply commitment to accessibility, & to accomplish that, we need help. We have to pay for ASL, Zoom accessibility features, & other things to ensure that we're as inclusive as possible. If you or someone you know can contribute any amount to our accessibility fund, please go to this website. Even $1-5 helps adds up! Your contribution also helps ActBlue, which is targeted by Trump, & every time you donate to us, ActBlue gets a cut, so you're benefiting several good causes at once. Thank you! *Note: All of our events are free to attend.

 

Education:

STEM Mentoring, College Prep, & Support: In Washington, there's a program called DO-IT (Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, & Technology) that helps disabled students to provide support for STEM education. If you're interested, you can find more information here.

Digital Accessibility: The University of Missouri is rolling out new digital accessibility tools to meet federal requirements that were issued in 2024 by the Biden-Harris Administration. You can dine more information here.

Scholarships for Learning Disabilities: The National Center for Leaning Disabilities offers assistance to students who want to attend college and have a learning disability, like ADHD. If you're a high school senior with a learning disability, you may be eligble for a scholarship. You can find their website here.

Scholarships for College: If you visit this website, you can filter the search engine to use words like "disabled," "disability, etc. to find opportunities for higher education.

 

Employment: 

Getting a job, keeping it, and receiving the on-the-job accommodations needed can be extremely difficult for people with disabilities. The Coalition for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) offers job training for disabled people, advocates to help improve employment conditions, and also has job listings that the disability community can apply for. Their job listings for Virginia & the Washington D.C. area are here.

 

 Safely Navigating the Internet for People on the Autism Spectrum:

We got some feedback from someone on the ASD spectrum, who suggested we add this helpful guide. 

 

Voting:

**Note: Please check out our voting info & state-specific voting info pages for updated information about how to make sure that voting is accessible!** 

Accessibility at the Polls: The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires that certain provisions are made when elections are help so that people with disabilities can exercise the right to vote. This may mean any number of things, from ensuring that when a voter in a wheelchair comes to their polling place, they are provided with an accessible and private booth to vote in, to offering various ways to accommodate voters who may need assistance. Here is the federal law about what rights disabled voters have, with an explanation of requirements for polling stations to ensure that disabled people can easily exercise their voting rights.

 Voting for Patients in the Hospital or Long-term Care Residence: Everyone should have access to the polls, but sometimes, a medical issue comes up that doesn't make that physically possible. That's where emergency absentee ballots come in, a process where registered voters who are in the hospital (or have a child in the hospital) or a long-term care residence during an election cycle can still vote--from their rooms/beds. If you or someone you care about may need to be able to vote and may be in a hospital patient or in a long-term care facility at that time, follow this link to get help getting a ballot and voting. * Note: Updated info about this & other voting tools for the disability community can be found at our page here. 

 

Art/Creativity:

We partner with DIYabled, which is a disability led & focused nonprofit that spotlights art & creativity in the disability community. You can find information on events, art opportunities, & more here.

On May 17, 2025, 10 Minutes A Day & DIYabled hosted a #HandsOff event that included calls to action, some tips from Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, a dance, & more! Two talented artists from our community led an interactive art event that many people took part in. You can see the result here!