Diane Coleman passed away in Rochester, New York on November 2, 2024.
Coleman was born in 1953 and shortly after was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy. She was a fierce advocate for disability rights. She served as the Executive Director of the Progress Center for Independent Living in Illinois and up until her death was a valued member of the Healthcare Subcommittee of the National Council on Independent Living. She was active with the disability rights group ADAPT. With ADAPT, she fought for curb cuts, lifts on buses, and community living. She also helped to get the Americans with Disabilities Act passed in 1990.
Coleman was especially instrumental in the fight against physician assisted suicide. In 1996, she formed the organization Not Dead Yet to push back against the outdated idea that disabled people are better off dead, and to fight against euthanasia and physician assisted suicide. The statement on her death from the Not Dead Yet board of directors reads in part: “Diane was an intellectual powerhouse, a strategist, a passionate advocate, and a mentor to so many of us. Her understanding of policy, her commitment to the principles of the social and disability justice models of disability, and her ability to cut through the ableist rhetoric surrounding assisted suicide and euthanasia were unparalleled. She spoke with clarity and conviction, both in the media and in legislative hearings, where she presented testimony before Congress, co-authored amicus briefs in state, federal and Supreme Court cases for the U.S. Supreme Court, and tirelessly worked to ensure that the voices of disabled people were heard and respected in the development and implementation of public policy.”
Not only was Coleman a true force in the advocacy world, but she is also remembered for her constant friendship and support. As Kathryn Carroll, Esq., the Disability and Program Coordinator at the Association on Aging in New York, recalls: “Diane was kind and wise. Every conversation with her was a gift.”
“She told me to never stop fighting, no matter what,” said Pilgrim Tierney, a longtime ADAPT activist.
“I first met Diane Coleman in jail,” said Anita Cameron, Director of Minority Outreach for Not Dead Yet. “It was on an ADAPT action in Sparks, Nevada in 1989. We were protesting the American Public Transportation Association at their convention. We’d been arrested multiple times and the judge…sentenced most of us to two days in the Washoe County Jail. The next day…I saw Diane and shyly introduced myself. [She] was the first disabled lawyer I’d ever met…She became a mentor and friend to me…Diane was graceful, wise, and could definitely be fierce. She and I were arrested together many times in ADAPT… There was a ripple in the Force when she departed to join the Ancestors. She leaves a huge legacy. Our loss is incalculable. No one will fill her shoes.”
Diane Coleman was truly a pillar of the disability community and will be missed.