ABOUT JFA

The Justice For All E-mail Network (JFA) exists to defend and advance disability rights. JFA seeks to work with individual advocates and organizations of people with disabilities to share information and call people to action. The contentdisseminated on JFA is selected to promote the goals of the Americans with Disabilities Act - equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency. JFA also promotes the inclusion of people with disabilities and disability issues as central partners at the political and policy tables of decision-making. To accomplish this goal, JFA will disseminate information not just about national disability policy issues but also about the broader domestic policy and political debates that shape disability-specific priorities.

Justice For All was founded by Justin Dart Jr., Mark Smith, Fred Fay and Becky Ogle in 1995. After several years of national leadership and advocacy, the co-founders decided to pass the baton to the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD). On July 26, 2001 AAPD formally became the host of the Justice For All E-mail Network. AAPD is committed to sustaining the well-known listserv and fulfill the JFA co-founders' mission of enhancing grassroots advocacy. AAPD wants JFA to be the preeminent e-mail information network in the disability community.

The Justice For All E-mail Network is central to AAPD's mission of promoting the political and economic empowerment of more than 56 million children and adults with disabilities in the U.S. Anyone can subscribe to JFA by following the instructions in the Subscribing link. You can also review the JFA Archives, which include every JFA posting since the JFA E-mail Network began in 1995. For more information about AAPD, visit the AAPD home page.

The JFA Moderator is Jonathan Young, Ph.D. Young served as President Clinton's liaison to the disability community from 1998 to 2001 and as National Coordinator of AAPD's National Disability Mentoring Day from 2001 to 2002. He received his Ph.D. in American history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in August 2002 and is currently a student at Yale Law School.

The JFA E-mail Network is maintained by the Metro West Center for Independent Living in Massachusetts.

JFA CONTENT

The JFA E-mail Network serves two main purposes: 1) issuing Action Alerts to the disability community; 2) sharing information about issues important to people with disabilities.

Action Alerts ask disability advocates to take specific actions - typically contacting members of Congress or the presidential administration. The positions advocated in Action Alerts are generally - though not necessarily - endorsed by AAPD. The JFA Moderator will try to reserve Action Alerts for high-priority issues that require immediate attention. When you receive an Action Alert, do your best to take the recommended action. JFA Action Alerts will only make a difference when people with disabilities respond in force!

The JFA Listserv is also designed to share information of interest to people with disabilities. This may include press releases, news articles, communications from the White House and various public officials, comments/letters from JFA subscribers, and other materials as deemed appropriate by the JFA Moderator. In general, the JFA Moderator will select information that furthers the goals of the ADA: equality of opportunity; full participation; independent living; and economic self-sufficiency.

PLEASE NOTE: Information circulated over the JFA Listserv does not necessarily express the views of AAPD. In many cases, the JFA Moderator will circulate arguments on both sides of a given issue to help promote dialogue in the disability community. As a service of AAPD, the JFA Listserv is non-partisan. While JFA will post information expressing partisan viewpoints from the disability community, the JFA Moderator will promote balance in selecting items for circulation.

Submitting Articles

AAPD welcomes and encourages advocates to recommend content for dissemination on JFA - both Action Alerts and other information. To submit an article to be considered by the JFA Moderator for dissemination, please observe the following guidelines.

Main guidelines:

Send your submission via e-mail: jfa@jfanow.org.

The subject heading of an e-mail must read, in all caps:

JFA SUBMISSION

JFA Submissions must be in the form of e-mail text; attachments cannot be opened.

The text of JFA Submissions should be clean (e.g., without indentations and extra marks from being forwarded) and formatted as plain text only (e.g., no symbols such as bullets; nothing in bold or italics)
Additional guidelines:

Please DO NOT place the jfa@jfanow.org e-mail address on any e-mail distribution lists. The JFA Moderator will disregard all such e-mails. If you operate a group list and want something considered for JFA, please send a separate e-mail with the appropriate subject heading and with clean, unformatted text.

JFA will NOT post announcements about meetings and conferences. For information about events, or to have your event publicized by AAPD, visit the AAPD home page and click on the Calendar of Events link.

JFA will NOT advertise commercial products.

The JFA Moderator reserves the right to edit submissions for clarity and length, provided the original tone and content is not substantially changed.

The JFA Moderator will not post anything defamatory in nature.

JFA E-Mail Alerts