Join Access Living’s Healthcare Policy Analyst Neelam Dhadankar and Healthcare Community Organizer Ryan McGraw from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 5, for Disability and Opposition to Assisted Suicide, an important virtual discussion about disability opposition to assisted suicide. Aid in dying legislation, under the guise of compassionate care with “safeguards,” cuts lives short instead of providing equitable healthcare. 

Our guest panelists, Diane Coleman, President and CEO of Not Dead Yet; Anita Cameron, Director of Minority Outreach at Not Dead Yet; and Ian McIntosh, Deputy Director of Disability Outreach at the Patient’s Rights Action Fund will share their perspectives and suggest better solutions for us all to have the chance to live as fully as possible at every stage of life. 

Register for the Disability and Opposition to Assisted Suicide Webinar now! Accommodation requests and submitting questions for the panelists can be made through the registration form. Note: audience questions must be submitted in advance.

Meet Our Guest Panelists

Diane Coleman is President and CEO of Not Dead Yet, a national disability rights group which she founded in 1996 to give voice to disability rights opposition to legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia. Prior to that, she served for three years as Director of Advocacy at the Center for Disability Rights in Rochester, New York and twelve years as Executive Director of Progress Center for Independent Living in Forest Park, Illinois. Diane is a well-known writer and national speaker on assisted suicide and euthanasia. She co-authored Amicus Briefs filed in the U.S. Supreme Court and various state courts on behalf of Not Dead Yet and other national disability organizations on the topics of assisted suicide and surrogate health care decision making.

Anita Cameron is Director of Minority Outreach at Not Dead Yet.  She has met with national and state policy makers and written persuasively about opposition to a public policy of assisted suicide from the perspective of communities of color who experience disparities in access to healthcare. Anita is a lifelong disability advocate, and over the years she has worked at the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) in Washington, DC, as Systems Advocate for the Center for Disability Rights in Rochester, NY, has held several disability advocate role in Denver, Colorado and Chicago, Illinois, and she currently serves on the National Disability Leadership Alliance’s Racism Taskforce and co-Chairs the Intersectionality and Diversity Workgroup for ADAPT.

Ian McIntosh is Deputy Director of Disability Outreach at the Patient’s Rights Action Fund. He has long personal experiences with the intersection of disability and healthcare and has advocated for and written on various topics, having been published in the International Journal of Disability, Community, & Rehabilitation. Ian’s professional experience in outreach is also informed by his leadership with labor union organization in his native Ontario, Canada. Ian handles the accessibility for and outreach to leaders in the disability rights movement and the disability community.

Meet Our Access Living Moderators

Neelam Dhadankar is Access Living’s Healthcare Policy Analyst and joined our team in November 2022. She has two master’s degrees: a Master of Social Work and a Master of Public Health from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Prior to joining Access Living, Neelam worked in Madison, Wisconsin in various policy areas related to disability issues and as a researcher for many policy and advocacy projects.  

Ryan McGraw is Access Living’s Health/Home and Community Based Services Community Organizer, and facilitates two groups: Taskforce for Attendant Services, and Independent Voices. He moved to Chicago from Michigan in 2008 and received his master’s degree in disability and development from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Since then, he’s held several positions in the disability advocacy field.