Arizona Center for Disability Law

Our Mission: ACDL is a non-profit law firm that assists Arizonans with disabilities to promote and protect their legal rights to independence, justice, and equality. Our Vision: A society where people with disabilities enjoy full acceptance without barriers.

The Arizona Center for Disability Law is a not for profit public interest law firm, dedicated to protecting the rights of individuals with a wide range of physical, mental, psychiatric, sensory and cognitive disabilities.

As part of the nationwide protection and advocacy (P&A) system, the ACDL provides free legal services, under several major incentives:

Protection & Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness (PAIMI)
Protection & Advocacy for Individuals with Developmental Disabilities (PADD)
Client Assistance Program (CAP)
Assistive Technology Advocacy Program (AT)
Protection & Advocacy of Individual Rights (PAIR)
Protection and Advocacy for Beneficiaries of Social Security (PABSS)
Protection & Advocacy for Persons with Traumatic Brain Injury (PATBI)
Protection & Advocacy for Voting Access (PAVA).

Testimonials

"We are grateful that the milk was provided to keep Kallista healthy and growing!" said Jennifer Smith, Kallista's Mom. "We, too, are so gratified that the State did what is right," said Sarah Kader, Staff Attorney at ACDL, who represented the Smith family. "Medicaid requires that medically necessary services for children be provided, even if that requires contracting outside the network. Children getting the services they need, and in this case, food to live, could not be more important. In fact, it is the most basic need any of us have. We are ecstatic that our advocacy resulted in Kallista being able to get the nutrition she needs to grow."

Deaf residents and the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) submitted a suit for filing today in Arizona federal court seeking direct access to 9-1-1 services through text. The lawsuit seeks to make 9-1-1 services in Arizona accessible to individuals with a disability, including individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing. The lawsuit comes as few 9-1-1 centers around the country comply with federal law requiring them to be accessible to individuals with a disability. "Federal law requires state and local government entities to afford individuals with disabilities an equal opportunity to participate in or benefit from their services, programs and activities. This includes providing services necessary for effective communication - and certainly this includes access to emergency services," said Rose Daly-Rooney, the Legal Director of the Arizona Center for Disability Law.

The Arizona Center for Disability Law (ACDL) filed multiple complaints against Mohave County, Arizona, on behalf of Michael Lipshultz, a resident of Bullhead City and a person with a disability, for the County's alleged failure to accommodate him at his polling place on Election Day last November. Mr. Lipshultz has come forward publicly in the hopes that any other voters that believe they were wrongfully denied access to voting will also come forward and a make their cases known. The ACDL wishes for voters with disabilities to be aware of the options available to enforce their rights if they are denied equal voting opportunities in an election. The three laws under which ACDL has filed complaints for Mr. Lipshultz, the Help America Vote Act, the Arizona Civil Rights Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act, all contain voting rights protections that can be enforced without filing a lawsuit.