The Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF) is deeply saddened by the loss of Becky Ogle, a gifted organizer who rallied disabled people behind the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and spent decades defending it.
Becky understood something fundamental about civil rights: passing a law is only the beginning. A law survives because people care enough to fight for it, again and again. Becky spent her career bringing those people together. She built grassroots support for the ADA before its passage in 1990. DREDF co-founder Pat Wright called her a warrior whose energy was infatigable. When Congress moved to weaken the ADA in the mid-1990s, she co-founded Justice For All so that every threat to the law would be answered by the people it protects.
Becky also knew that rights depend on political power. She worked inside campaigns and national conventions to make sure disabled delegates could participate fully, and disabled voters could not be overlooked. In the Clinton administration, she led the Presidential Task Force on Employment of Adults with Disabilities, whose recommendations gave disability employment policy a permanent home at the U.S. Department of Labor. Throughout it all, she shared what she knew freely, opened doors, and made sure younger disabled advocates were in the room where decisions got made.
“Like champagne, Becky was sparkly, effervescent, and one of a kind. And ALWAYS in the know,” said Arlene Mayerson, DREDF Directing Attorney Emerita and Of Counsel.
Our hearts are with Becky’s family, her friends, and everyone lucky enough to work alongside her. She gave the movement her skill, her stubbornness, and her spark, along with an unshakable belief in what people can accomplish together. Her legacy lives on in the community she built and in every disabled person who knows the ADA is worth fighting for. We will carry her work forward.
