What We Do
We are deaf and disabled people who support deaf/disabled incarcerated people. We believe that prisons should be abolished, even as we fight for the rights and dignity of our community members inside.
We support deaf/disabled individuals to fight for their rights, access emotional and legal support in their language, learn about prison and police abolition, and access financial support while inside and in the crucial months after release.
We support lawyers and advocates to learn about and defend the rights and dignity of deaf/disabled incarcerated people. We’re provided hundreds of trainings to thousands of community members, organizers, attorneys, law students, and advocates.
We organize disability communities and social movement organizations to understand incarceration and policing as part of a system that targets disabled people, that disables people, and that must be abolished.
Our work also includes systemwide organizing and advocacy based on our research and community relationships. We created and maintain the only national database of deaf/disabled incarcerated people, and we’ve successfully advocated for videophones inside hundreds of prisons across the nation where deaf people previously experienced years or decades of isolation. We’ve supported our community by providing research, interviews, and testimony about deaf/disabled people’s horrific experiences in carceral facilities to Congress, federal agencies, and state and local governments to demand that our institutions respect the dignity and humanity of our community.
To support this work you can email contact@heardadvocates.org.