Last week, the National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals participated as a full partner at the Disability Policy Seminar in Washington DC that was hosted by The Arc. Once again, as an advocate, gatherings that are largely led by people with lived disability experience remind me how far we’ve come as an industry, and once again, the experience acknowledged the critical role that direct support professionals play in the lives of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.  

For decades, we have fought for professional recognition, living wages, and real career paths for direct support professionals. These are the people who support independence, inclusion, and dignity for individuals with IDD every single day, yet their contributions have too often been overlooked. To hear the voices of some powerful advocates being represented on a federal stage gave me a renewed sense of hope and purpose. 

What made this seminar even more urgent was the ongoing threat to Medicaid. Right now, all disability advocates must unite to protect Medicaid from further cuts. Medicaid is the backbone of home and community-based services and without it, not only do individuals with disabilities lose access to the services they rely on, but the already-strained workforce faces even greater instability. 

This seminar reminded me that our advocacy must evolve. It’s not just about pushing for better pay or training for direct support professionals, it’s about defending the entire system that makes their work possible. We need every voice at the table: self-advocates, families, professionals, and allies. The stakes are too high to work in silos. Leaving the seminar, I felt a renewed sense of solidarity and urgency. After four decades of pushing for change, I believe we are on the edge of a turning point, but only if we stand together and speak out. 

Take Action After the Disability Policy Seminar

Many of you may have seen circulating reports, including recent coverage in Disability Scoop, raising serious concerns about the weakening of services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. These are not distant policy debates. They reflect real pressures on funding, oversight, and the future of Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS).

At the same time, you are living the reality every day: inflation rising again, costs climbing, and wages that still fall short of what this work demands. Programs are stretched. Providers are struggling to recruit and retain staff. And too often, DSPs are asked to carry the weight of a system under strain.

Let’s be honest—this is a difficult moment for our field.

NADSP continues to be engaged in national conversations and is working aggressively, through advocacy and coalition building, to ensure that decisions being made do not weaken services or further undermine the DSP workforce.

Our focus is clear:

• Protect HCBS and the people who rely on them
• Fight for sustainable funding and better wages for DSPs
• Push back on policies that add burden without improving outcomes
• Elevate the role of DSPs as essential professionals

We will not be passive. We will not be silent. But advocacy cannot come from national, state or local organizations alone. It must come from all of us.

Now is the time to educate elected officials about the realities facing people with IDD and the direct support professionals who support them. Lawmakers need to hear directly from you about what this work requires, what people need to live with dignity, and why DSPs must be supported with fair wages and sustainable careers.

I urge you to stay in touch with your elected officials at every level:

• Members of Congress
• Your state legislators
• Local leaders and community stakeholders

Click here to contact your representatives.

Just as importantly, continue to educate the public. The more people understand this work, the stronger our collective voice becomes. Advocacy is a tool that everyone of us can use. And this is the moment when we must use it to protect and strengthen the IDD system.

This field has faced serious challenges before; funding crises, workforce shortages, and policy shifts that threatened stability. Each time, we endured. Not by accident, but because DSPs showed up, and because this community organized, advocated, and pushed forward.

That is what we are doing again, right now.

You are the reason this system works. And your voice, your work, and your professionalism are central to protecting its future.

We are in a tough stretch. But NADSP is fully committed to standing with you, fighting for you, and ensuring that the people you support, and the workforce that makes it possible are not left behind.

We will get through this. Together.