Who We Are

The Social Work Disability Justice League (SWDJL) is a collective of social workers, educators, and community advocates committed to transforming practice, policy, and pedagogy through the principles of Disability Justice. We are practitioners, scholars, activists, and organizers who believe that social work must fundamentally shift to center disabled people's leadership, wisdom, and lived experiences. We recognize disability not as a deficit to be fixed, but as a natural and valuable part of human diversity that enriches our communities and deepens our understanding of justice, care, and liberation.

 

We come from diverse backgrounds and hold multiple identities—many of us are disabled, neurodivergent, chronically ill, d/Deaf, or Mad-identified. We are Black, Indigenous, people of color, and white. We are queer, trans, and gender-expansive. We work in clinical practice, policy advocacy, research, education, and grassroots organizing. What unites us is our commitment to reimagining social work through a disability justice lens and our refusal to accept ableism as inevitable in our profession.

 

Our Origin Story

SWDJL emerged from a growing recognition that while social work claims to champion social justice, the profession has historically marginalized, pathologized, and harmed disabled people. From the eugenics movement to contemporary practices of forced treatment and institutionalization, social work has too often been complicit in ableist violence. At the same time, disabled social workers and allies within the profession have long been doing the work of resistance, building alternative practices rooted in interdependence, collective care, and liberation.

 

We formed SWDJL because we needed each other. We needed a space where disability justice wasn't an afterthought or a specialty area, but the foundation of everything we do. We needed a community of practice where we could learn together, challenge each other, support one another, and imagine new possibilities for what social work could become. We needed to move beyond individual acts of resistance and build collective power for systemic transformation.

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Join Us

SWDJL is a collective, which means we grow and evolve through our members' participation. Whether you're a social work student just learning about disability justice, a seasoned practitioner working to transform your agency, an educator reimagining curriculum, or a community organizer building cross-movement solidarity—there is a place for you here.

We believe in "many paths, many contributions." We need people who write, organize, teach, research, create art, build technology, fundraise, provide mutual aid, show up for actions, offer care, and envision alternatives. We need your particular gifts, experiences, and commitments.

 

Disability justice teaches us that access is collective work. We are committed to building SWDJL in ways that honor diverse capacities, energy levels, and ways of participating. We practice flexibility, patience, and the understanding that our contributions will look different in different seasons of our lives.

Ready to get involved? 

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The Social Work Disability Justice League acknowledges that we organize on the stolen lands of Indigenous peoples. We commit to honoring Indigenous sovereignty and building solidarity with Indigenous-led movements for land back and decolonization.

Acknowledgments: The ten principles of Disability Justice were developed by Patty Berne, Aurora Levins Morales, David Langstaff, and the artists and organizers of Sins Invalid. We are grateful for their visionary work and leadership. Learn more at www.sinsinvalid.org