The Disability Law Center (DLC) would like to share with you some upcoming events and some recent happenings. We would also like to restate DLC’s commitment to protecting and advocating for the health, safety, and well-being of all people with disabilities. We work to ensure that people with disabilities can live independently in the community of their choice and have the opportunity to support themselves, maintain independence and be able to make decisions about their own lives. We operate under a federal mandate created by laws passed by Congress to keep people with disabilities safe from harm, fight illegal discrimination, and ensure they have access to healthcare, housing, jobs, and education. |
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| Save The Date! | | DLC is excited to announce its Annual Fundraiser will be on September 10, 2026. Sponsorship opportunities and tickets are available online! | |
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| DLC In the Community! | | We will be in Brockton, Boston and Online in the next few weeks - and we want to hear from you! Come meet us and tell us your thoughts on the most pressing issues the disability community is facing. | |
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| Can't Make the In-Person Events? | | We still want to hear from you! Each year, DLC works with the disability community to identify the legal problems that are the most pressing, widespread, or that no other organization is working on. We want to work with you to figure out how our small office can make a big impact. We will be holding in-person meetings and a virtual forum to gather input. You can also help us by completing our online focus area survey. Your feedback is important and will help shape our work for the next year. | |
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| We're Hiring! | | We are looking to hire for a Litigation Attorney and a Staff Attorney. Please consider applying or helping us spread the word! | |
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| Helping Schools Help Students | | DLC co-hosted a webinar that focused on providing information to schools about the tools available to them with the new Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) regulations around reducing and eliminating the use of time-out rooms in Massachusetts schools. | |
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| REV UP 2026 Webinar | | During this year's webinar, we focused on the rights of voters with disabilities, including who has the right to vote; voter registration options and tips for holding a successful voter registration drive; and ways to vote accessibly, whether you are voting from home, a facility, or at your polling place. We will also discuss ways to get involved with the REV UP MA coalition, including through voter registration drives and polling place accessibility surveys. | |
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| New Podcast Episode! | | Tune in to DLC's new podcast episode focusing on how the City of Boston's Disability Commission connects with the community. | |
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DLC's podcast is available on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon Music, and iHeart Radio! You can also access it on YouTube. |
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| New Self-Help Materials | | Check out our self-help materials. New materials have been added for Assistance Animals in Housing and Emotional Support Animals in Housing. | |
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DLC works on many large systemic legal advocacy efforts. We focus on protecting and enhancing the rights, access, health, safety, and independence of people with disabilities. It can take years, or even decades, to make large-scale, lasting changes to existing policies, practices, or organizational structures that discriminate against people with disabilities. |
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| Client Highlight | | Vivian and her son, Nicholas, needed to move out of their apartment in central Massachusetts because of ongoing noise issues coming from neighbors above and below their unit. Nicholas is a person with autism and anxiety, both of which were triggered by the noisiness of the apartment building. The landlord would not address the family’s noise-related complaints and refused to let them out of their lease early. | |
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In addition, the housing authority that administered the family’s subsidy would not let them move during the first year of their lease. Vivian contacted DLC. DLC worked to persuade both the landlord and the housing authority that Nicholas was entitled to a disability-based reasonable accommodation to end the lease early and move to a new apartment that would better meet his needs. Within two months, Nicholas and Vivian moved into a new ground-level apartment with no units above or below it. "We live in a wonderful quiet place now . And I’m very grateful to [DLC Senior Attorney] Matt Steele without him and all his efforts that lease wouldn’t have been broken. He did a wonderful job and everyone I dealt with from DLC was very professional and helpful." |
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| Advocacy Highlight | | John is a former DLC client. He came to DLC looking for help when he learned that his group home had been taking his “food stamps,” or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for four years, and pooling it with other residents’ benefits to purchase communal snacks and meals. | |
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John’s group home told him this was mandatory under Department of Mental Health (DMH) rules, but he wanted the opportunity to choose his own food with his SNAP benefits. John's situation was not unique. Group home clients from all over the state had reached out to DLC for help getting access to their SNAP benefits. DLC contacted the agency that ran John’s group home, but the agency would not agree to change its SNAP procedures. DLC, Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, Greater Boston Legal Services, NAMI Massachusetts and others formed a coalition to change this practice and allow people living in group homes to have access to their SNAP benefits. The coalition brought the stories of Tom and other DMH clients forward to DMH, DTA, and EOHHS, all of which agreed this issue of autonomy for clients living in group homes needed to be addressed. DMH recently announced that effective July 1, 2026, it will no longer permit the pooling of SNAP benefits in its state- and vendor-operated group homes. With these changes, people like Tom will now have the independence to make decisions about their benefits and choices about what foods are best for them. |
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Six Flags New England’s Hurricane Harbor now has water wheelchairs available for children and adults with disabilities and new rules concerning access to water attractions for guests using park-provided water wheelchairs or their personal wheelchairs or mobility aids. For more details, see the park’s Guest Accessibility Guide starting on page 54. |
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Through DLC's Protection and Advocacy for Beneficiaries with Representative Payees (PABRP) Program, we help ensure certain social security beneficiaries are protected from financial exploitation and other abuses. We also help ensure that funds are being used appropriately and in the best interest of the person with the disability. |
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| | DLC staff are active in reaching out to the communities we serve through attending events throughout the state and providing trainings to people with disabilities and service providers. The most recent include Annual NOSSCR Conference, Older Adult Behavioral Health Network Conference, DLC's REV UP Webinar, and DLC's Helping Schools Help Students Webinar. | |
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| | DLC joined disability advocates from across Massachusetts in celebrating changes to the state's Qualified Allocation Plan (QAP). These changes will require many new state-funded affordable housing developments to make 10% of their units wheelchair accessible when projects include 10 or more units and an elevator - this is double the current state and federal minimum requirement! | |
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We are very active in voting advocacy and ensuring people with disabilities know their legal rights when it comes to voting. Learn more about these efforts through REV UP! MA and the partnerships with other organizations that encourage people with disabilities to register to vote, become educated on the issues, and out to vote. You can also watch our training on Polling Site Surveys!. |
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Disability Law Center
11 Beacon Street, Suite 925 Boston, MA 02108
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![Frame of a house with a picture of a group of disability advocates with yellow construction hats reading 'affordable, accessible [housing]'. Several people hold signs with accessible housing-themed graphics. Some members of the group are standing and others are wheelchair users. They pose in front of a drop-down screen. Photo credit to Jason Montgomery from Stavros. Announcement reads 'DLC at the QAP Celebration May 21, 2026' with the DLC logo](https://www.dlc-ma.org/wp-content/uploads/newsletter/thumbnails/2026/06/QAP-Celebration-580x0.png)
