Pittsburgh Center for Disability Justice

01/30/2026

Are you out there helping the effort to shovel out curb cuts and other areas to provide access to disabled Pittsburghers after the city's abysmal response to snow removal?

If so consider posting a photo of yourself shoveling, or the area you cleared, and tag us! Let's get a lot of attention to this issue!

If you missed it, yesterday we put out a call for folks to help our disabled residents be able to go to work, school, medical appointments, grocery stores -- to live their lives -- by providing the access the city is unwilling or unable to provide. Our folks are trapped in their homes or on their blocks, as curb cuts are piled several feet high with snow, and lanes of travel aren't cleared wide enough for a wheelchair or mobility aid to traverse.

We have had a terrific response! Keep sharing yesterday's post! Let's keep this effort going! And post those photos, and tag us in them! This is how we keep us safe!

To REQUEST a curb cut, municipal walkway, municipal sidewalk, or similar be cleared, please use this form :

https://bit.ly/4amCyr5

To HELP CLEAR the intersections, curb cuts, walkways, and similar that are trapping disabled residents, please use this spreadsheet :

https://bit.ly/4q63X5i

01/29/2026

*** COMMUNITY NEED! ***

EDIT : If you would like to REQUEST a curb cut, municipal sidewalk, municipal walkway, intersection, or similar be cleared by volunteers, please submit this form : https://bit.ly/4amCyr5

If you are able to HELP CLEAR snow from curb cuts etc, here is the google sheet to coordinate the logistics of the effort :
https://bit.ly/4q63X5i

Pittsburgh area community, we need your help!

There was a major snow event in our region. The city's response to snow removal has been abysmal.

Snow from roads and sidewalks is being removed and placed directly into curb cuts all over the city.

This is dangerous, dehumanizing, and infuriating.

The city is clearly unable or unwilling to address snow removal appropriately, and so it is time for US to take care of US!

We need people who are able to shovel curb cuts ourselves! We should not have to, but we CAN and so we WILL! Can you shovel one or two curb cuts in a high use area? Can you talk to people who can, and ask them to do it?

Maybe start a social media photo + tag campaign as you do it, to get attention.

We can offer to purchase supplies for anyone who needs them, who can commit to and verify that they shovel out three curb cuts in high use areas in the area. Supplies could be ice melt, buckets, shovels, gloves. Email us if you need supplies and can do this work!

If folks take us up that offer, we will need funds to cover these supplies! We will do a fundraising push for this if folks take this offer.

Let's take care of our community! This is what we mean when we say 'We keep us safe'! We can do this! Let's get out there and shovel!

01/26/2026

Join us tonight, Monday 1/26 at 6pm EST virtually, as our Executive Director Opal and our Director of Advocacy Daeja speak about mutual aid! We need you in this vital, critical work.

Thank you to Access Mob Pittsburgh for facilitating this series!

Speakers: Opal, Daeja Baker You keep hearing this phrase, Mutual Aid. What is it? How does it work? How is it different from programs, charities, and other kinds of supports? And why is it so criti…

12/02/2025

Giving Tuesday is here, and we hope you will honor us with your donation!

PCDJ provides direct support and services to disabled Pittsburghers, immediately improving lives. And our mutual aid fund helps to prevent emergencies like utility shut-off, eviction, and food insecurity.

Disabled people are the world‘s largest minority, and yet severely underfunded by philanthropic and charitable giving.

Where there IS funding, it is too often focused on fixing or curing folks, as opposed to removing systemic barriers that cause inaccessibility.

PCDJ is the ONLY non-profit in the tri-state area (PA, OH, WV) that staffs all disabled adults as key decision makers. This gives us a unique understanding of the challenges our community faces.

This Giving Tuesday, we would be thankful to be included in your giving.

Please see the comments for a link to donate!

Image: A border of fall flowers and leaves in orange, red, and yellow surround text that reads: It’s Giving Tuesday! Please consider supporting the Pittsburgh Center for Disability Justice and our mutual aid fund.

11/25/2025

Giving Tuesday is fast approaching. We hope that you will honor us with your support this year.

Your donations allow us to provide a vast array of services and supports at no cost to our disabled community in the SWPA region.

What kinds of supports and services? Peer support, therapeutic groups, resource coordination, case management, social events, workshops, skill shares, mutual aid facilitation, community connections, in the field support for all sorts of things from attending medical appointments to going shoe shopping to delivering meals, body doubling, volunteer coordination for direct support of disabled adults, advocacy in legislative spaces, direct advocacy, and so much more.

We are a gap-filling organization. If our community needs something, we figure out how to do it! Out work is critical, vital, and necessary. Your donations go such a long way with us!

11/14/2025

Hello all! As we transition into our new name, we would also like to introduce you to our new team! Look for our newsletter to begin coming to your inbox again within the coming weeks, along with new offerings, ways to connect, be involved, and support our vital work!

Meet our new Mutual Aid Coordinator, Adrienne Totino!

Adrienne is a longtime advocate and recent mutual aid organizer. She is most skilled at building relationships, connecting people, writing, and teaching. Her neurodivergence and dynamic disabilities bring lived experience to this work.

From a young age, Adrienne has been passionate about social justice. She immediately felt at home joining DPMA (Disabled Pittsburgh Mutual Aid, a project of PCDJ), and took on a leadership role in the community as soon as she could.

In her spare time, Adrienne’s head is either buried in a book, or she is enjoying the outdoors, in awe of the natural world.

Adrienne will be taking some limited peer support clients in 2026! Look for ways to connect with her directly in our newsletter, coming soon!

[IMAGE: The photo shows a white woman from the shoulders up, with long brown hair and brown eyes. She is wearing a maroon colored tank top. The blue sky is bright behind her.]

11/14/2025

Hello all! As we transition into our new name, we would also like to introduce you to our new team! Look for our newsletter to begin coming to your inbox again within the coming weeks, along with new offerings, ways to connect, be involved, and support our vital work!

Meet our new Director of Operations, Kayte Rose!

Kayte is an autistic, disabled, q***r artist and coordinator. Kayte has been involved in disability advocacy and justice spaces for over 30 years. They spent their formative years in rural eastern Pennsylvania, pushing against rampant racism, sexism, homophobia, and ableism. Kayte loves cutting through unnecessary bureaucracy, solving problems, and facilitating others' work - they often call this "getting the boring stuff out of the way so experts can do what matters."

Additionally, Kayte is a self-taught artist and craftsperson. For close to 30 years, Kayte has used paper as a medium to practice origami, focusing on corrugations and abstract ideas, which are then translated into paintings.

Kayte will be offering limited peer support hours for administrative needs in 2026. To connect with Kayte you can email them at kayte@autisticpgh.org!

[IMAGE : A fat white person stands in front of a brick wall. They are looking to the side, and not at the camera. They are wearing glasses, their hair is brown and green, and they are holding paintbrushes. There is paint on their hand]

11/14/2025

Hello all! As we transition into our new name, we would also like to introduce you to our new team! Look for our newsletter to begin coming to your inbox again within the coming weeks, along with new offerings, ways to connect, be involved, and support our vital work!

Meet our new Director of Advocacy, Daeja Baker!

Daeja is a tireless advocate, a years-long activist, and a social worker. Born and raised on the north side of Pittsburgh. In 2017, she founded Pittsburgh Feminists for Intersectionality, a group that continues to support our city’s most marginalized neighbors. Daeja utilizes her background in social work and writing to help elect progressives up and down the ballot. Her political efforts uplift our most vulnerable in Allegheny County. She is the new school board director for Shaler Area school district, Region 1.

We are so excited for Daeja to bring her lived experience as a black disabled q***r woman to her work with us at PCDJ! Daeja will be offering peer support hours in 2026 as well!

You can connect with Dajea via email at daeja@autisticpgh.org.

[IMAGE : A black woman with neatly styled teal hair sits on a park bench. She is smiling and looking at the camera, and wearing a bright blue blazer and black shirt, glasses, and has a nose piercing]

11/13/2025

Hello all! As we transition into our new name, we would also like to introduce you to our new team! Look for our newsletter to begin coming to your inbox again within the coming weeks, along with new offerings, ways to connect, be involved, and support our vital work!

We'll start with the person you know already! Meet our new Executive Director, Opal!

Opal has been serving as the co-director for Pittsburgh Center for Disability Justice (formerly Pittsburgh Center for Autistic Advocacy) for 7 years now. Opal is q***r, trans, and Non-Binary. They bring 30+ years of experience in community organizing, social work, and leadership to their work. Opal is autistic and multiply disabled, and parents autistic, disabled, trans, and q***r young people. Opal facilitates the largest mutual aid network in the region (Disabled Pittsburgh Mutual Aid, or DPMA), and is deeply committed to working for a world that is equitable, joyful, and just.

In their personal life, you can find them singing, gardening, watching Hallmark movies, hiking, and longing for more sunlight.

To connect with Opal directly you can reach out via email at opal@autisticpgh.org.

[IMAGE : A white person with short hair stands with their arms crossed, looking at the camera. They are wearing a blue blazer, light blue shirt, and blue flower shaped lapel pin]

09/30/2025

The Pittsburgh Center for Autistic Advocacy is undergoing some exciting changes!

Our name has changed to Pittsburgh Center for Disability Justice!

We are onboarding new staff!

Our work remains largely the same.

In the coming weeks, our website, email address, and logo will shift. Our in person programming will resume. Look for exciting new events, programs, and opportunities in the coming weeks!

01/22/2025

We must be exceedingly clear: autism must never be used as an excuse for hate symbols. It is, additionally, absolutely condescending to perpetuate the idea that neurodivergent people cannot be accountable for our actions.

Do not forget, this hate ends the lives of disabled people. Many of the first victims of the European eugenics movement were disabled and nonspeaking children. Never again.