Resources for Advocates

Table Of Contents
  1. Disability Policy Consortium
  2. MA Guardianship Policy Institute
  3. Your Health Care. Your Choice
  4. You've Got the Power: An Advocate's Guide to Shaping Public Policy
  5. Joining Public Boards and Commissions
  6. Inclusive Language
  7. MassHealth Eligibility Information
  8. Accessible Media Guide
  9. Inspiration Porn

Disability Policy Consortium

Learn more about DPC from the DPC slide presentation (pptx) or the DPC slide presentation (pdf) by Harry Weisman, Executive Director at the Disability Policy Consortium.

  • DPC is Massachusetts’ leading disability rights advocacy organization.
  • Guided by the credo “About Us, By Us,” our mission is to ensure that the disability community plays a leading role in making decisions that affect our lives
  • We accomplish this through:
    • Grassroots advocacy & policy development
    • Community-based, participatory action research (CBPAR)
    • Disability-led training and consulting services
    • Helping people with and without disabilities get the care they need from their health insurance plans
  • Large majority of staff and board have disabilities
  • Check out DPC’s 2025 Impact Report

MA Guardianship Policy Institute

Learn more from the MA Guardianship Policy Institute slide presentation (pptx) or MA Guardianship Policy Institute slide presentation (pdf) by Wynn Gerhardt.

Wynn Gerhardt, JD, Guardianship Policy and Practice Fellow,
Massachusetts Guardianship Policy Institute, and Guardian Community Trust

Mission: The Policy Institute’s vision is a world in which all guardians are trained and supported to be the best possible advocates for people with a guardian.  They strive to make research accessible to those serving as guardians through fact sheets, infographics, and decision-making tools. They believe the Center’s work will lead to high-quality support for people subject to guardianship.

Public Guardian Services’ Mission

  • Public Guardian Services provides guardianship and conservatorship services to indigent Massachusetts adults in Suffolk, Norfolk and Plymouth Counties who are decisionally impaired and who have no other suitable person to help.
  • Public Guardian Services provides stability by making informed decisions about needed personal, medical, social and housing services while respecting our client’s wishes, preferences, and capacity, maximizing independence, and choosing the least restrictive alternatives.
  • Our approach as guardian is to support our clients so they can live as independently as possible.

Your Health Care. Your Choice

Ellen DiPaola, JD, President and CEO of Honoring Choices MA

Read a Presentation on Honoring Choices (pdf) – 12/8/2025.

Honoring Choices Mission

  • Inform and empower adults to make a health care plan.
  • Support care professionals to engage adults in planning conversations and connect adult to community care.
  • Work in shared leadership to impact policy and program change.

You’ve Got the Power: An Advocate’s Guide to Shaping Public Policy

In October 2024, DignityMA leaders, Paul Lanzikos and Dick Moore gave a presentation on Advocacy at the Mass Councils on Aging Conference. Their presentation slides are below.

You’ve Got the Power: An Advocate’s Guide to Shaping Public Policy (pdf) created from a Powerpoint

Joining Public Boards and Commissions

There are many opportunities for older adults and people with disabilities to influence public policy in a wide variety of areas through service on one of the Boards and Commissions. Attached is a guide to how to become a member of a board or commission, and a list of State Boards and Commissions that are aligned with DignityMA. Local boards, committees and commissions should also be considered.

Inclusive Language

A common message in all of the Inclusive Language resources is that Words Matter!

  • apa.org – American Psychological Association – Inclusive Language Guidelines
  • cdc.gov – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – Preferred Terms for Select Population Groups and Communities
  • NASAA-Arts.org – Inclusive Language Guide from the National Assembly of States Arts Agencie
  • GBH Inclusive Language Guidelines (2020) – (in the process of being updated, the new version will be released soon)

Inclusive Language regarding Aging

Inclusive Language regarding Disabilities

  • disability.Stanford.edu – Disability Language Guide from Stanford University
  • UNGeneva.org – Disability-Inclusive Language Guidelines from the United Nations Disability Inclusion Strategy
  • ADAta.org – Guidelines for Writing About People With Disabilities from the ADA National Network
  • ds.GMU.edu – Inclusive Language from the George Mason University Disability Services
  • media.specialolympics.org – Disability Language Guidelines for Intellectual Disabilities from the Special Olympics
  • UN.org – Disability-Inclusive Communications Guidelines from the United Nations
  • StyleManual.gov.AU – People with disability from the Australian Government Style Manual

MassHealth Eligibility Information

Accessible Media Guide

Inspiration Porn

Inspiration Porn is where disabled people’s lives are flattened into saccharine narratives about overcoming adversity, usually designed to make nondisabled people feel uplifted and grateful. Two New York Times articles that explain Inspiration Porn are Helen Keller And the Problem of “Inspiration Porn Helen” and  “Inspiration Porn”: Paralympic Know It When They See It. The following video offers additional insights: The North Face presents: ASCEND, Reframing Disability in the Outdoors.

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