Disability Rights North Carolina is committed to promoting and preserving disability rights in the North Carolina. Due to limited resources, we must target whom we serve and the issues on which we focus. Please read our targets to learn more about the services we provide. This section outlines each of our targets for 2012. Our targets will change in the next fall so please come back

All Disability Rights NC advocacy services are based on a philosophy of self-determination, equal access, and peer support to be achieved through individual, professional and systemic advocacy. Services are delivered in a manner that is intended to maximize leadership, independence, productivity and integration of individuals with disabilities.

We welcome your feedback and encourage you to call us at 1-877-235-4210 (TTY: 1-888-268-5535) to see if we can assist.

Persons eligible for Protection and Advocacy for Assistive Technology (PAAT) are those individuals who require assistive technology devices or services because of a disability. PAAT priorities are to remove funding barriers to assistive technology services and devices.

Persons eligible for Protection and Advocacy for Beneficiaries of Social Security (PABSS) are Social Security Insurance/Social Security Disability Insurance beneficiaries. Service priorities for PABSS include the provision of individual representation (including litigation as a last resort) to eligible clients who are seeking vocational rehabilitation, employment or other support services from employment networks and other service providers.

The Developmental Disabilities Act requires that Protection and Advocacy for Developmental Disabilities (PADD) clients meet the definition of developmental disabilities.For infants and young children through age five, developmental disabilities means individuals who have substantial developmental delay or specific congenital or acquired conditions with a high probability of resulting in developmental disabilities if services are not provided.

Individuals eligible for Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness (PAIMI) must have significant mental illness or emotional impairment, and may reside in residential facilities or in the community or their own homes. The facilities, which may be public or private, include hospitals, nursing homes, community facilities, board and care homes, homeless shelters, jails and prisons. Even with the expansion of eligibility, PAIMI programs will be required to give priority to representing persons with mental illness who live in residential treatment facilities especially related to issues of seclusion and/or restraint or death investigations.

Persons eligible for Protection and Advocacy for Individual rights (PAIR) are individuals with disabilities who are not eligible for the Protection and Advocacy Developmental Disabilities or Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness programs, or whose issues do not fall within the jurisdiction of the Client Assistance Program. (Individuals seeking or receiving services from a Rehabilitation Act project, program or community rehabilitation program.)

Individuals with traumatic brain injury are eligible for Protection and Advocacy for Traumatic Brain Injury (PATBI).

Persons eligible for Protection and Advocacy for Voting Access (PAVA) are those individuals who have been denied access to vote because of a disability. PAVA cannot litigate.