A New Path for Disability Community Advancement

Bay Area Access exists to ensure accessibility is delivered as an enforceable condition, equity, and respect in every aspect of society. We do this by exercising community-governed power: holding institutions accountable, enforcing accessibility laws, and fostering services and innovations that advance independence, autonomy, and self-determination for disabled people.

Our mission is unapologetically rooted in majority-disabled governance. Blind, DeafBlind, and disabled people do not merely advise our direction—they control it. Representation is written into our bylaws, leadership authority is vested in disabled community members, and participation is protected from retaliation. Freedom of expression is treated as both a core democratic value and a prerequisite for accountability.

Bay Area Access was intentionally designed to avoid the governance traps that have weakened disability nonprofits for decades. Our bylaws embed structural power, not symbolic inclusion.

We guarantee:

• Real Representation – Blind, DeafBlind, and disabled people hold majority decision‑making authority in leadership—not token seats.
• Community Advisory Council (CAC) – A permanent, independent body empowered to nominate leaders, review policies, and hold the Board accountable to community standards.
• Open Public Meetings – At least twice a year, community members can address leadership directly—freely, transparently, and without fear of retaliation.
• Recruitment Safeguards – Leadership pipelines prioritize qualified disabled candidates, with particular attention to DeafBlind representation and lived expertise.
• Accountability Standards – Misconduct, harassment, or failure to maintain a safe, respectful, and transparent environment are grounds for removal.

Bay Area Access is both a watchdog and an innovator: demanding accountability from institutions while pioneering community‑governed models that expand independence and accessibility.

Bay Area Access was founded out of necessity, but its roots run deep. For decades, deafblind and blind advocates have fought for accessibility and accountability. Our founder helped lead the grassroots movement that secured passage of the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA) of 2010, a landmark law ensuring accessible technology for people with disabilities.

Yet even after that national victory, the struggle continued at home. Many disability-serving nonprofits in California and nationwide, primarily led by non-disabled people and sometimes disabled people answering to non-disabled individuals with ultimate decision-making powers, either were plagued by deep governance failures or failed to incorporate the lived experiences of disabled people. These failures left deafblind and blind people denied access to essential services, stripped of independence, and diminished in dignity. For too long, the community confronted persistent patterns of exclusion and, in some cases, outright exploitation by  institutions that claimed to serve them.

The response was clear: protests and administrative complaints by community members. In one case, grassroots community members organized a regional campaign exposing governance failures at major disability nonprofits and demanding structural reforms.

Their work revealed a painful truth: even members of the blind community entrusted with governance are unwilling to enact structural changes that are in the community’s best interests.

Bay Area Access is the answer. We were created to offer a new path: a community-led nonprofit built on transparency, accountability, and respect. From national advocacy to local action, Bay Area Access transforms decades of grassroots struggle into a lasting institution, one that not only operates from the Bay Area, but also stands as a model for disability nonprofits nationwide.