Disability advocacy and service organization breaking down barriers and serving Chicago
12/18/2025
Three Access Living team members were named to the 2026 Fellows Class!
“The Chicago cohort represents a powerful group of 20 leaders, including professionals ranging from artists to attorneys, consultants to therapists, and writers to founders of organizations. We look forward to supporting this new cohort on their leadership journey!”
Congratulations, Barbara, Susan, and Iliana!
12/12/2025
Access Living friends and allies: We have learned that unfortunately, the Governor of Illinois, J.B. Pritzker, has signed SB 1950, the assisted su***de bill. We are extremely disappointed and troubled by this outcome.
During the last 48 hours, we and our partners worked hard to ask Governor JB Pritzker to oppose SB 1950, the Illinois assisted su***de bill. Here’s a recap of those efforts.
First, Access Living and disability partners met with Governor’s office staff yesterday. We were joined by two important guests, Melissa Ortiz and Dan Sescleifer, the father of Jane Allen. Melissa, Dan, and Jane all faced terrible disability-related situations that happened in areas where assisted su***de is legal, and where the law is similar to SB 1950. Their stories demonstrated that despite safeguards, bad situations will happen. Access Living also shared our many concerns regarding establishing an assisted su***de system in Illinois.
Second, disability organizations and individual advocates continued to contact the Governor’s office to ask for a veto of SB 1950. We thank all of you for taking action on this very controversial issue.
Third, we held a vigil with our partners yesterday outside the Governor’s Chicago offices. Access Living is part of the Stop Assisted Su***de Illinois coalition. Our coalition members vary widely in constituency and philosophy, but we share the same understanding that allowing an assisted su***de system in Illinois will create potentially grave consequences. We were fortunate to garner media attention from CBS and NPR Illinois.
Again, we are deeply disappointed by this outcome. For now, we are taking a moment to regroup and will update you, our community, on our next steps.
Illinois becomes 12th state to enact legislation to provide terminally ill patients with autonomy, dignity and peace at the end of their lives
12/03/2025
Today, December 3rd, is International Day of Persons with Disabilities!
Created by the United Nations in 1992, International Day of Persons with Disabilities aims to promote the rights and wellbeing of disabled people across the globe. This year's theme is, "Fostering disability inclusive societies for advancing social progress."
Today, Human Rights Watch also announced that Hilda Macheso, a Malawian disability rights advocate, was selected as the 2025-26 recipient of the Human Rights Watch Marca Bristo Fellowship for Courageous Leadership in Disability Rights. The fellowship was established in 2020 to honor Marca Bristo, our founder and inaugural chair of the Human Rights Watch disability rights advisory committee.
Hilda Macheso, a Malawian disability rights advocate, is the 2025 recipient of the Human Rights Watch Marca Bristo Fellowship for Courageous Leadership in Disability Rights, Human Rights Watch announced today on the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
12/02/2025
Critical supports for people with disabilities are under attack. Your gift today will go five times further thanks to a generous match, helping protect independence, dignity and hard-won progress.
Give at the link in our bio!
12/02/2025
Critical supports for people with disabilities are under attack. Your gift today will go five times further thanks to a generous match, helping protect independence, dignity, and hard-won progress. 
Over the last few weeks, Access Living staff have been responding to challenges our consumers have been facing as a result of missing SNAP benefits during the shutdown. We packed and distributed over 140 bags of non-perishable food items along with one-time gift cards to offset food costs.
Access Living is crestfallen today to learn of the passing of the incredible disability oracle and community builder, Alice Wong. Both sage and down-to-earth, Alice has been an absolute treasure of the human experience of our time. A disability justice activist, a writer, a steadfast friend and lover of cats and good food, Alice founded the Disability Visibility Project, an oral history project with StoryCorps. Through this project, Alice helped countless disabled people of all walks of life share their personal stories.
A 2024 MacArthur Fellow, Alice wrote a memoir, Year of the Tiger: An Activist’s Life (2022), and edited several collected works on disability, including Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century (2020) and Disability Intimacy: Essays on Love, Care, and Desire (2024). Each new staffer at Access Living receives a copy of her Disability Visibility book.
It is difficult to imagine today’s disability landscape without Alice’s guiding wisdom, many groundbreaking projects, and relentless gathering of storytellers. An essential part of Alice’s genius lay in simply building relationships with disabled people from all walks of life. She was a tough and courageous co-conspirator, the true embodiment of “big cat energy.” May her wisdom, humor and humanity reside in all of us as we carry on the struggle.
Image is of Alice, an Asian American woman smiling with red lipstick, an undercut hairstyle, and a blue gown with geometric designs. She is sitting in her power chair and wearing her ventilator tube. In the background are orange and black tiger stripes to reflect her “big cat energy” and to honor her memoir, Year of the Tiger. Above her is one of her quotes: “Disability is pain, struggle, brilliance, abundance and joy.” Below the quote, it says “Alice Wong 1974-2025.”
11/16/2025
Access Living is crestfallen today to learn of the passing of the incredible disability oracle and community builder, Alice Wong. Both sage and down-to-earth, Alice has been an absolute treasure of the human experience of our time. A disability justice activist, a writer, a steadfast friend and lover of cats and good food, Alice founded the Disability Visibility Project, an oral history project with StoryCorps. Through this project, Alice helped countless disabled people of all walks of life share their personal stories.
A 2024 MacArthur Fellow, Alice wrote a memoir, Year of the Tiger: An Activist's Life (2022), and edited several collected works on disability, including Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century (2020) and Disability Intimacy: Essays on Love, Care, and Desire (2024). Each new staffer at Access Living receives a copy of her Disability Visibility book.
It is difficult to imagine today's disability landscape without Alice's guiding wisdom, many groundbreaking projects, and relentless gathering of storytellers. An essential part of Alice's genius lay in simply building relationships with disabled people from all walks of life. She was a tough and courageous co-conspirator, the true embodiment of "big cat energy." May her wisdom, humor and humanity reside in all of us as we carry on the struggle.
Image is of Alice, an Asian American woman smiling with red lipstick, an undercut hairstyle, and a blue gown with geometric designs. She is sitting in her power chair and wearing her ventilator tube. In the background are orange and black tiger stripes to reflect her "big cat energy" and to honor her memoir, Year of the Tiger. Above her is one of her quotes: "Disability is pain, struggle, brilliance, abundance and joy." Below the quote, it says "Alice Wong 1974-2025."
11/11/2025
Our Vice President of Advocacy, Amber Smock was on WTTW - Chicago PBS last night to debate assisted su***de on Chicago Tonight. Watch the discussion to learn more.
Terminally ill people in Illinois may soon be able to end their lives with medical assistance.
11/10/2025
Join People Over Profit at Access Living on November 19th from 1-5pm as they host a job and resource fair! Attendees can expect a disability employment and entrepreneurship panel that will touch on various topics such as job accommodations, business ownership, and advocating for your needs on the job. After the panel, join us for a job fair! To attend, register here: https://forms.gle/3gWozLpAJHLVXzV58
Questions? Contact Larry Dean at ldean@accessliving.org
Join us at Access Living's highly anticipated Job Fair! This event is an opportunity for job seekers to connect with organizations and resources that center people with disabiliites, to explore a wide a range of career opportunities. Don't miss out on this fantastic opportunity to kick start your ca...
11/03/2025
Those in need of assistance in light of November SNAP benefits not being available can find food and connect to resources here:
Our food pantries & programs provide the help you need to get fresh, nutritious food on your table. Use our food map to see available hours and locations.
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The disability movement is really the story of many movements for the rights and freedom of people with disabilities. The work of Access Living was born from the work of the independent living movement, which co-exists with movements such as the self-advocacy movement, the Autistic movement, and others.
In 1972, the independent living movement, with roots in the civil rights and social change movements, began taking shape with the creation of the country's first center for independent living, the Berkeley Center for Independent Living. As other centers for independent living sprang up across the country, a new philosophy emerged -- an "independent living philosophy" that asserts that people with disabilities are their own best advocates and able to make the necessary decisions in order to live, work and socialize in the community. This was a significant shift away from the prevailing "medical model" which viewed people with disabilities as individuals who needed to be cared for. The community of people with disabilities entered the dawn of a new era.
In 1980, Access Living brought the independent living movement to Illinois when it was founded as part of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago's quest to address the growing need for affordable, accessible housing for its patients ready to leave the RIC. Access Living remained a department within the RIC until 1984, when it became an independent non-profit group.
In the early 1980's society largely ignored people with disabilities. They were invisible: disrespected and viewed as little more than recipients of charity. Few options, if any, existed for to people with disabilities to engage in the community. Disabled people were segregated in housing, in schools, in cultural and sports arenas, in restaurants, shopping and entertainment. There was limited access to quality medical care, no accessible public transportation, no curb cuts, and communications access was rarely available. Employment opportunities were less than minimal. With early support from the RIC, Access Living’s committed staff took on the challenge of removing the obstacles that stood in the way of full equality for people with disabilities.
Chicago’s First Center for Independent Living
By the mid-1980's Access Living was a thriving non-profit organization, growing from a small storefront on North LaSalle Street to a much larger loft space, headquartered on Van Buren Street. But Access Living did not let its relative youth prevent it from tackling many of Chicago’s most pressing problems: the lack of housing, personal assistance and transportation options for people with disabilities. Successfully linking powerful advocacy efforts around these and other crucial issues to specific client needs enabled Access Living to turn clients into activists, and activists into leaders.
Support and Services
Access Living’s peer-based programs, including independent living skills training and peer counseling and support, provided thousands of people with the essential skills and motivation to take back control of their lives. For nearly three decades, Access Living has impacted the lives of thousands of individuals with disabilities through direct services, advocacy and education. Access Living’s mission, based on the philosophy of the Independent Living Movement, is to empower people with disabilities so they may lead dignified, independent lives and to foster an inclusive society for all people – with and without disabilities.
Advocacy
A vocal advocate on the forefront of local and national change, Access Living has played a key role in many of the improvements that took shape in Chicago and across the country. At home, Access Living has been a part of several campaigns to make mainline public transportation more accessible. Today, 100% of all CTA buses are lift-equipped.
Also, Access Living successfully advocated for and won the allocation of $30 million of the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) budget Capital Improvement Plan for making CPS more accessible. In 2006, Access Living’s Youth Leaders led a effort to restore millions of dollars cut from the Public Schools Special Education Budget.
Nationally, Access Living initiated a disability housing coalition that was responsible for creating the Office on Disability Policy at the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and had a leadership role in drafting and passing of the historic Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), passed in 1990. Access Living also developed an innovative Fair Housing Testing Program, designed to identify discrimination against people with disabilities in the sale and rental of housing. Access Living’s Testing Program and Youth Program have served as models for the development of similar programs throughout the country. These examples are just some of the ways Access Living has made an unparalleled contribution to the progress of the disability community.
Living the Vision
In 2003 Access Living launched Living the Vision: The Campaign to Build a Permanent Home for Access Living. The goal of securing a permanent office space was to secure Access Living’s financial stability, while allowing the organization to continue to expand and pioneer new programs and standards of service for people with disabilities, both nationally and internationally.
On March 5, 2007, the dream became a reality when Access Living opened its doors at 115 West Chicago Avenue.
The new, state-of-the-art facility stands as a national model of Universal Design -- which reconceives fundamental architectural ideas and provides spaces that accommodate the broadest possible range of users. The building also will meet the needs of future users while having a limited impact on the environment, making it one of the first buildings to successfully combine Universal and Green Design.
Access Living's space is more than a new building. It is a testament to accessibility, sustainability and potential. A model of innovation, the elegant glass edifice facing Chicago Avenue welcomes everyone to pursue empowerment and independence.
While confronting the issues posed by inaccessible housing, transportation and public services may be a crucial step in achieving independence, a major component of breaking down physical barriers is changing the attitudinal barriers that built them in the first place. With an engaging array of cultural events, workshops, trainings and support groups, Access Living now focuses on instilling pride in the way people with disabilities view themselves and fosters dignity in the way others view the disability community. Access Living is also in an ongoing process of developing its ability to engage in intersectional work with a range of community partners.
