Students with Disabilities Advocacy Group

New Disabled South, in partnership with the Students with Disabilities Advocacy Group, is excited to invite young disabled voters to a virtual voter education event this Wednesday, October 16 at 7-8 PM ET/ 6-7 PM CT.

Learn more about the event and find the registration link in our blog post linked below!

Access the Ballot: A (virtual) Party for Disabled Youth this Wednesday! New Disabled South, in partnership with the Students with Disabilities Advocacy Group, is excited to invite young disabled voters to a virtual voter education event on October 16 at 7-8 PM ET/ 6-7 PM CT. There is a lot at stake in this election and your vote matters. But voting alone won’t build a...

Join this fun event on 10/16 with young disabled voters across the South. Let's make our plan to vote in community and learn about absentee voting, voting accommodations, sample ballots and more! Link in our bio!

Image Description: Access the Ballot: A Party for Disabled Youth. Let's get ready to vote together! Wednesday, October 16. 7 - 8pm ET | 6 - 7pm CT. Join us over zoom to connect and imagine with other disabled youth! The graphic has a brown and orange background along with a black and white photo to the right of the text shows voters and poll workers wearing masks on election day.

Join us for our first online event, open to both disabled students and youth nationally!

Our Georgia Southern chapter’s first meeting is also set for August 27th! This is open to GSU students on both campuses as well as disabled community members in Statesboro and Savannah.

Image ID: August Events. August 21st. Crip Creatives: SDAG Body Doubling. 6:30 to 8:30, Zoom.
August 27th. Welcome Back GBM at Georgia Southern. 6:30 to 7:30pm, Hybrid.
Register for both events at sdagusa.org/events-1]

The value of disabled perspectives must be treated with more dignity in both education and employment.
Get involved with SDAG to build community so we can navigate better together.

[Image ID: 34 Years of the ADA: Nothing about us without us, GVRA. Maeve (Jill) King, Founder & Director.
Yesterday, the Atlanta Journal Constitution published an investigative article titled: ‘It’s so broken right now’: How a Georgia agency. failed to help disabled people find work. I am writing to share my own experiences and reflections with Georgia’s Vocational Rehabilitation Agency (GVRA) and to stand in solidarity with my fellow disabled Georgians who are more than frustrated with being underestimated and used fraudulently.
Today my education is financially supported by GVRA. But when I was declared legally blind in 2022, it took a year of persistence, working 3 jobs, and a policy change before I received any sort of aid.
My case manager was new to GVRA, and not familiar with blindness. From his constantly full voicemail box and constant shuffling papers in the background of calls, I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge his likely overwhelming caseload and red tape that was necessary for each of us.
Halfway through my year of persistence, after being asked to send the same set of paperwork for a third time, I sighed and said that they would likely deem me not deserving of help. I heard him stop shuffling papers before saying,
“You’re deserving of help, this system is broken.”
Throughout my year as a triad employee, it was my fellow disabled siblings who helped me figure out how to navigate the system.
Phone calls became emails, emails to my case worker now had Georgia’s Client Assistance Program CC’d. GVRA leaves far too many capable, valuable disabled people with burnout from navigating their system as it stands.
If it weren’t for blind mentors, community vents about the system at large, if my case manager had been as cruel as those penned in AJC’s article and the stories of many; I’d be one of the 37,000 disabled workers’ cases quietly closed by GVRA over the last 5 years.
(ID Continued in comments!)

This is a volunteer remote role for the Social Media Director at Students with Disabilities Advocacy Group. This position is part of SDAG's Board of Directors and will oversee and manage media planning, strategy, digital media, and digital marketing. The Board of Directors meetings are quarterly, and the media director will also manage the organization’s Instagram and Facebook accounts.

The Media Director will collaborate with the rest of the board of directors to develop media strategy and batch social media content. We encourage those who identify as disabled and current higher education students to apply.

Email us your resume at [email protected]!

Judy Heumann once said that she wanted to see feisty disabled people change the world.
Today’s student advocates are needed as we continue to navigate disability justice in higher education.

Below you’ll see our Executive Director’s cap reading Feisty Disabled Person above a rainbow pride flag.

Happy Giving Tuesday! At the Students with Disabilities Advocacy Group, we are asking you to invest in disabled success!

Be one of our first 50 donors today to become a founding donor of SDAG!

Check out our newest blog post to learn about patient advocacy from the leadership of Invisible Illness Awareness Network!

Learn about resources available to patients and how to advocate for yourself in healthcare and education!

Patient Advocacy with the Invisible Illness Awareness Network Sarah Hammes and Stephanie Miller from the Invisible Illness Awareness Network joined our Georgia Southern chapter to discuss patient advocacy! The Invisible Illness Awareness Network is a non-profit organization that raises awareness for invisible illnesses to (primarily) pre-health students so tha...