DEAG is a student-led organization of Duke and UCLA students dedicated to equipping K-12 schools with the knowledge and resources they need to make disability inclusion and obtaining accommodations easily a part of their educational mission. We forge strategic partnerships to ensure that accommodation options and academic support are accessible and transparent to every student and family. We believe that when students have clear, accessible information about the academic supports and various institutional accommodations available to them, academic outcomes can improve across the board.
"They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself."
— Andy Warhol
After identifying a widespread lack of accessible Section 504 information across California school district websites, the DEAG team drafted legislation aimed at eliminating the knowledge barrier preventing families from accessing 504 plans.
"The absence of clear, accessible information about 504 Plans prevents students with disabilities from receiving the support that they are entitled to."
— DEAG Team
DEAG is a collegiate activism organization working at the intersection of disability rights and education policy. We partner with school districts, nonprofit organizations, and public officials to close accessibility gaps before they transform into systemic barriers. From creating legislative proposals and policy briefs on Section 504 to collaborating with school districts to increase the visibility of accommodations and foster disability education in K-12 schools, we're spearheading initiatives in order to create a more inclusive and supported community. As we expand, our aim is to support educational leaders and public officials in building equitable infrastructure for disabled students through outreach and policy development.
A widespread knowledge barrier prevents families from accessing accommodations they are legally entitled to, with most students and parents learning about Section 504 not through institutional guidance or knowledge of the accommodation system, but through informal networks or moments of academic crisis. Critical information regarding eligibility, evaluation, and accommodation processes is often inaccessible or entirely absent from district websites.
Both students and administrators frequently receive inadequate training on disability, accommodations, or accessibility practices. Without any form of disability literacy embedded in teaching, students often face preventable barriers before they receive support.
Disability is consistently treated as a secondary concern in public policy, addressed when issues become impossible to ignore. Lasting accessibility requires a paradigm shift from crisis-response to proactiveness, disability-informed design embedded in how societal institutions are built and governed.
College students are canonically embedded in the very institutional systems we are critiquing — we live inside bureaucracies, navigate accommodation processes firsthand, and feel their failures up close. That proximity, combined with the scrappy refusal to wait on someone older to fix it, is exactly why we believe younger people are heralding a new political reconnaissance.
Our founding team has collaborated with a California State legislator to draft a bill requiring school districts to make accommodation information publicly accessible on district websites and pages.
We have presented an accessibility improvement model at the Tourette Association of America's California/Hawaii Chapter Conference.
Members of our board have already founded 504activists.org, which has positioned us with an understanding of community engagement and content distribution.
We have likewise written proposals regarding assistive devices, developed public channels and galas for public viewership, and provided education about disability through varying mechanisms across the United States.
Through lived experiences, our team includes individuals who grew up with Crohn's Disease and are familiar with the accommodation system at Duke, and how important these institutional crutches are for a student's academic outcomes.
After identifying a widespread lack of accessible Section 504 information across California school district websites, DEAG drafted legislation aimed at eliminating the knowledge barrier preventing families from accessing 504 plans. Through an analysis of over 16 districts serving 300,000+ students, the proposal calls for standardized information requirements…
The bill mandates that all California school district websites include clearly accessible accommodation procedures, publicly listed district and school 504 coordinators, eligibility criteria in plain language, and multilingual…
We're seeking partnerships with school districts to pilot this model. No financial commitment.