Since 1979, we have been…

• Forming public policy on disability issues, including
  • Passage of Minnesota's Rule 40, prohibiting the use of aversive and deprivation techniques in group homes and institutions.
  • Winning $35,000 in back wages for sheltered workshop employees.
  • Organizing a rally with more than 100 self-advocates at the Capitol in Washington, DC, demanding universal health care.
  • Local and national participation in passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

  

• Building leadership in the disability community
  • Common Vision. Starting in 1995, we have developed and led this a highly participatory community organizing model designed for people with developmental and other disabilities. This training has grown quickly to include national presentations and workshops, reaching hundreds of self-advocates and allies.
  • Tools for Change Since 1996 we have developed a wide variety of leadership training material, used by hundreds of self-advocacy groups across the nation.
  • Distinguished Service Award, received from the State Council on Disability for "Building Leadership in the Disability Community."

  

• Launching Remembering with Dignity, a Minnesota-based project to increase public awareness and preserve the history of people who have lived and died in state institutions.
  • Obtained $200,000 state appropriation to begin marking 10,000 numbered gravesites of people who died in state hospitals.
  • Preserved history of people who have been institutionalized by collecting oral histories. Histories were used in History Theater production of "Let Heaven and Nature Sing" November - December 1996.
  • Now seeking a public apology from the State of Minnesota for its treatment of people with disabilities kept in institutions.

  

• Producing award-winning documentaries. ACT has received multiple national and international film awards for our production of several videos, including
  • Sticks and Stones: on the origins of the self-advocacy movement in Minnesota.
  • Self-Advocacy: Freedom, Equality, and Justice for All.
  • A Few Simple Words: a documentary of the Remembering with Dignity project.
  • Disability Culture Rap.

• Raising the visibility of people with disabilities
  • Story Wall. A public exhibit featuring photos and stories of over 250 people with developmental and other disabilities. Displayed at over 50 locations.
  • Minnesota Self-Advocacy Conference. Co-sponsor of this annual celebration of self-advocacy as a disability rights movement.
  • Self-Advocacy Resource Network. Authoring and distributing a weekly e-mail memo to facilitate national dialog on topics disability rights and self-advocacy.