To champion the rights of people with disabilities through education, advocacy and litigation.

Disability Rights Legal Center (DRLC) uses education, outreach, advocacy, and litigation to ensure that people with disabilities, including those affected by cancer, have full access to government and private services and activities. We focus on ethnically and geographically diverse communities. In the past years DRLC litigated numerous high impact cases. Our cases included ensuring access to In Home Supportive Services so people remain in their homes instead of hospitals or institutions, class actions to ensure special education and general education in Los Angeles County Jail and juvenile detention facilities, and a case to ensure that emergency preparedness plans in Los Angeles County give people with disabilities an equal chance at survival. The Cancer Legal Resource Center (CLRC) is the only dedicated national resource for legal related information on cancer rights in the United States. The legal issues addressed include employment discrimination, access to health care and government benefits, and navigating managed care. We have piloted conferences about disability rights and advocacy, including focusing on experiential learning, utilized DRLC Young Professional Alliance to facilitate parent education academies for parents of students with special education needs, in both English and Spanish,and are litigating in the areas of access to government services, housing, transportation and recreation facilities. The CLRC has hosted national cancer rights conferences in Boston, Chicago, DC and Michigan as well as Los Angeles and Orange County, CA. We will continue to improve our program evaluation tools to ensure that our clients receive the most effective services for their needs. DRLC has also developed a new strategic plan and a communications plan to improve the effectiveness of our work. The board of directors is developing a succession plan for board leadership as well as for the executive director position.