Disability Rights Montana

Priorities and Objectives – Fiscal Year 2027

Disability Rights Montana’s Board of Directors, in collaboration with its PAIMI Advisory Council, annually establishes advocacy priorities. Each of the following priorities for work done in fiscal year 2027 (Oct 1, 2026-Sep 30, 2027) is implemented in a manner that follows relevant law and the organization’s vision, mission, strategic plan, policies, and case acceptance criteria. Disability Rights Montana will use all of this guidance to determine when and how to carry out its federally mandated activities of monitoring, investigation, advocacy, education of people with disabilities about their rights, and education of public policy makers. Disability Rights Montana will promote self-advocacy and partner with disability groups as it pursues the following priorities and objectives.

Priority 1

Increase Access to Housing

Priority Population(s): People with disabilities who need accessibility features in their

housing or are cost burdened in their housing or are otherwise not stably housed.

Objective(s):

  1. Increase availability of physically accessible and affordable housing for Montanans with disabilities.

Priority 2

Improve Disability-Related Government Services

Priority Population(s): People with disabilities who need government services.

Objective(s):

  1. Increase services to levels sufficient to meet the needs of Montanans with disabilities.
  2. Increase the quality and frequency of communication between government services and disabled residents.

Priority 3

Improve Mental Health Services

Priority Population(s): Adults with significant mental illness and youth with serious

emotional disturbance.

Objective(s):

  1. Increase community-based mental health services.
  2. End substandard and abusive and neglectful conditions at the legally substandard Montana State Hospital and other institutional and
  3. community settings.
  4. Reduce and, where appropriate, eliminate reliance on the legally substandard Montana State Hospital and other institutional settings.

Priority 4

Expand Supported Decision Making

Priority Population(s): People with disabilities whose ability to make important decisions

about their own lives is challenged formally and informally.

Objective(s):

  1. Increase the ability of people to make important decisions about their own lives by promoting the use of supported decision-making principles and related legal tools by professionals, including judges, lawyers, teachers, and healthcare and therapeutic professionals, as opposed to approaches that remove legal rights from individuals both formally and informally.

Priority 5

Improve Education Services

Priority Population(s): Students with disabilities.

Objective(s):

  1. Increase understanding and enforce students’ rights to Free Appropriate Public Education.
  2. Increase physical and programmatic accessibility of schools (from ramps to service animals).

Priority 6

Stop Employment Discrimination

Priority Population(s): People with disabilities who face barriers to employment.

Objective(s):

  1. Increase employment environments that understand the truth of the workers’

living circumstances.

  1. Increase access to job coaching and development.
  1. Increase awareness about the Disability population in Montana
  2. Promote workplaces that are respectful, safe, healthy, and inclusive workspaces for all abilities, including part-time workers.

Priority 7

Promote Transportation

Priority Population: People with disabilities who do not drive.

Objective(s):

  1. Increase inclusion of people with disabilities in Montana cities by advocating for a robust array of transportation options, including accessible fixed route buses, paratransit, ride hailing, taxis, and active transportation infrastructure that supports bike, wheelchair, scooter, micro-mobility device use and walking.
  2. Increase access to necessary services by bringing services to homes of people with disabilities where local services are limited and intrastate transportation options are lacking.

Priority 8

Enforce Accessibility Laws Against State and Local Government Programs and Services

Priority Population: People with disabilities who lack full access to government

programs and services due to continuing inaccessible government environments and

practices.

Objective(s):

  1. Increase the physical and programmatic accessibility and usability, including in digital spaces, of state and local government services.