Screenshot of the front webpage of the organisation New Disabled South - https://www.newdisabledsouth.org/ The main text reads ' NEW DISABLED SOUTH is fighting for disability rights and disability justice in 14 states. There is an outline of a map of the United States with the 14 Southern States highlighted in orange.

Building Ambition and Growing Movements for Disability Justice: A Case Study

Introduction

A case study of New Disabled South, a not-for-profit organisation in the United States that builds movement capacity and solidarity for disability justice.

This case study is from an online session at the FWD+Organise 2024 Conference held in Naarm/Melbourne. The session featured Dom Kelly from New Disabled South in the United States in conversation with El Gibbs, an Australian disability advocate. In the session, Dom shared what New Disabled South does to build movement capacity and solidarity for disability justice.

The work of Dom and New Disabled South serves as a model for setting up other organisations across the United States and around the world.

Terminology: In this article we have used the terms “disabled people” which is the preference of New Disabled South. To explore terminology related to disability justice see By Us, For Us: Disability Messaging Guide and the People With Disability Australia Language Guide.

Case Study: New Disabled South

A look at the challenges and how New Disabled South is making change for disabled people using advocacy, research and AI.

About

New Disabled South is a nonprofit disability advocacy organisation that started in 2022 and is working to achieve liberation and justice for disabled people in the Southern states of the United States. They follow the 10 Principles of Disability Justice.

They:

  • have been fighting for disability rights and justice across 14 states in the South of the US, working across the intersection of disability justice, poverty and care, criminalisation and democracy;
  • are building a coalition of disability justice activists, advocates, and organizations; and
  • have built a disability rights and disability justice strategy for the South.

In the short time they have been around they are making a big impact including:

  • Making a number of policy wins, including securing historic funding toward Georgia’s waiting list for home care for disabled people, and pay raises for care workers from $10 to $16 per hour.
  • Producing the first ever report on racial disparities in state care economy.
  • Starting an AI-powered policy dashboard to educate community and combat misinformation.

Challenges in Southern US

In the southern US there are many challenges faced by disabled people, such as:

  • “Disabled people live in poverty at more than twice the rate of nondisabled people, and poverty has historically been higher in the South than anywhere else in the United States. In fact, according to recent data from the U.S. Census, 9 out of the 10 states with the highest poverty rates are in the South.” – Source
  • In the “state of Georgia, over 7,000 people are currently on a waiting list for waivers that would allow them to receive the care they need in their homes and communities instead of in institutions. Across all 14 of our states, that number is over half a million. Out of 655,000 nationally, that is 76% in the South.” – Source
  • “20% of all disabled voters faced barriers to  in-person voting in 2022. 6% of disabled voters faced barriers to mail-in voting.” – Source
  • “Half of people killed by law enforcement are disabled. More than half of Black disabled people have been arrested by the time they reach age 28, which is double the percentage of their white peers.” – Source

How New Disabled South are Making Change

New Disabled South are making change in many different ways including taking a regional approach and organizing across many states, being advocates, doing collaborative indepth research and utilizing technology such as AI.

They stand out as they the first and only regional disability organization in the United States and are a great model for others to learn from and replicate.

New Disabled South is “…notable in the disability advocacy community for its bold approaches, authenticity, and competence. It is idealistic but focused, broad in scope, but practical and specific. And it seems to be grounded in organizational structures that both reflect and power its mission and values. It’s a model others with disabilities can learn from. – Source

Lots of disability-focused nonprofits start up every year. New Disabled South is notable. It has the potential to make an unusually focused impact – well beyond a city or small town, a tiny, insular corner of the internet, or a single disabled person’s personal ambitions. It may also serve as a model for other disability organizations, and other nonprofits, on how to make methods consistent with mission. – Source

Regional Approach

New Disabled South take a regional approach and work across 14 states approaching issues holistically and working together rather than in siloes.

Kelly and his team see similar disability issues across Southern states, like poor health coverage, waitlists for services, incarceration and police violence, poverty, and restrictive and inaccessible voting. That is why the regional approach is so important and promising. “When we can look at these critical issues from a regional perspective,” Kelly says, “look at the throughlines between Georgia and Mississippi and Louisiana and wherever else, we can think holistically about how we organize and how we find solutions. – Dom Kelly, Source

Advocacy

New Disabled South Rising is the advocacy arm of New Disabled South. They provide resources such as:

Research

They also use research, data and stories to create narrative change as opposed to using disabled people as ‘inspiration narrative’.

New Disabled South is investing in research to identify solutions that will decriminalize disability in the South; working with allies to abolish systems that harm, incarcerate, and criminalize disabled people; and organizing with disabled youth to stop the criminalization of disability in schools. – Source

New Disabled South are conducting research, looking into data, and carrying out surveys into issues facing disabled people in the South such as:

Technology

New Disabled South have embraced AI and are educating the community and countering disinformation using AI. Their Plain Language Policy Dashboard uses AI to translate complex legislation into plain language. The aim is to make legislation easier to understand and make it more accessible. The translation is then checked for accuracy.

A screenshot of a website. Title reads 'Plain Language Policy Dashboard A project of New Disabled South'. There is an outline of the state of Alabama. Subtitle reads 'Latest Alabama Legislation'. There are four listings of different pieces of legislation.

The dashboard is powered by AI and the bills are translated in a way that they are simple, succinct, and easy for everyone to understand without having to be able to understand legalese and complicated language. Around an average of 3,000 active users per month using the dashboard, and we received much press and media attention during its launch. – New Disabled South Impact Report 2023, Source, p. 3

Read more: A New Tool Helps Disabled People Track—and Shape—Laws That Impact Them: New Disabled South’s plain-language dashboard makes dense bills far more accessible, Mother Jones, 2023

Organising

New Disabled South center the people that are most affected, especially in a place where there has been a vaccum in organising. One of the most successful tactics to engage people and get them involved has been to focus on common ground and issues that are affecting people rather than focusing on their disability identity.

That’s the base-building challenge for us. There are people who maybe don’t identify, who have felt excluded because of ableism, or have felt excluded from disability spaces because of racism or classism. I think one of the tactics that has worked has been not trying to push people toward their disability identity, but to figure out where the common ground is and what issues resonate the most. 

I can make a choice to talk to someone about disability pride, and how important it is for us to identify as disabled, and what that means as a cultural identity, a political identity, and the power behind that. But that probably isn’t going to move the needle as much as me saying, “Hey, I benefited from Medicaid as a kid, and this was my experience with it.” And someone saying, “Yeah that’s also my experience”: so, connecting with them on the issues and politicizing them around these issues. 

It really takes thoughtfulness and dedicated investment and time with people. If we can show them that they’re not alone in [their issues] — and that we don’t have to accept that as par for the course, we can actually work to disrupt those systems and change that — that brings people in. – Dom Kelly, Source

Other initiatives are:

Setting Up Organising Programs

They have set up Organising Programs such as the health justice organizing program.

…launching a health justice organizing program, which will have organizers in key states across the region engaging with the community on issues that are determinants of health. That might be getting folks educated on how to enroll in Medicaid, working with community members on organizing care collectives [or] helping folks understand why abolition is a health justice issue. – Source

Building Coalitions

They have built the first regional coalition of disability justice leaders, the Southern Disability Justice Coalition.

Running Trainings

They run trainings such as the “Disabled Voters Rising: Political Education and Training Series” run in collaboration with New Disabled South Rising.

Self Care and Joy

New Disabled South also prioritise self care and creating disable joyful spaces.

We center care for self and community — Not a “nice to have” but a must have. – Source

Staffing Approach

The organisation has a staff, board and council that is diverse across race, gender, and sexual orientation. Every member of the staff and Board has some kind of disability. 

The organisation has flexible and generous conditions including:

  • Higher salary rates
  • Generous benefits package with health and life insurance
  • Unlimited paid time off / sick leave policy
  • Four day week
  • Working from home
    (Source)

All of these generous and flexible staffing approaches are designed to ensure that New Disabled South can have and keep the best disabled staff possible. At the same time, they demonstrate how other nonprofit employers could and perhaps should treat all their employees, especially those with disabilities. – Source

Final Thoughts

As Dom says –

Find your people in this community who motivate you and push you, work through your fears, and carve out that space,” he says. “Don’t do it alone, though. Ask the people you admire to be a part of it, hire people smarter than you, and do whatever you have to do to make the dream a reality. – Source

Listen to Podcasts

To hear more about Dom’s work here are 3 podcasts to listen to:

Podcast: Creating space in politics with New Disabled South’s Dom Kelly
Qudsiya speaks with Dom Kelly, the co-founder, President, and CEO of New Disabled South about the road that led him to political activism, the birth of New Disabled South, its grounding in the principles of disability justice, and its innovative regional organizing approach. Read Transcript.

Building a New Disabled South with Dom Kelly, Crip Crap Podcast
Justin and Kennedy spend time with Dom Kelly, founder of New Disabled South, to discuss his work in the region. They touch on policy, disability rights and justice, sustainability in movement work, and more.

Fighting for Disability Rights with Dom Kelly of New Disabled South, The Great Battlefield Podcast
Dom Kelly joins The Great Battlefield podcast to talk about his career fighting for disability rights since he was four, working as a Fundraiser Senior Disability Advisor for Stacey Abrams campaign and founding New Disabled South where they advocate for the rights of disabled people.

About Speaker

Dom Kelly is the Co-Founder, President & CEO of New Disabled South, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and New Disabled South Rising, its 501(c)(4) arm. New Disabled South is fighting for disability rights and disabilty justice by building a coalition of disability justice activists, advocates, and organizations in the South. Dom has been organizing in the southern United States for 15 years. Dom is one of a set of triplets with cerebral palsy and a lifelong disability advocate. He received a Master of Science in Nonprofit Leadership degree from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice. Dom is a part of the 2025 global cohort of Atlantic Fellows for Health Equity, was chosen as a 2024 Rockwood National Leading From the Inside Out Yearlong Fellow, and was one of ten winners of The J.M. Kaplan Fund’s 2023 Innovation Prize. He currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. with his wife Catie, their daughter Mahalia, and their dog Vivi.

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