Marca Bristo

North American Region

Vice President

President and CEO

USA

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A pioneer of Chicago’s disability rights movement, Marca Bristo helped launch Access Living, one of the country’s first centers for independent living, in 1980.  Marca Bristo and Access Living have helped craft local, national and international reforms to protect the rights of people with disabilities and equip them with tools to lead independent, satisfying lifestyles.  Access Living has provided direct services and peer support to over 40,000 people with disabilities, and it has won systemic improvements in housing, public schools, public transportation, public access and long-term care.

Beyond Chicago, Bristo helped draft and win passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, signed in 1990.  In 1994, President Clinton appointed Bristo to chair the National Council on Disability, the first person with a disability to do so.  Today, she serves as Vice President of North America for Rehabilitation International and President of the United States International Council on Disabilities, where she participated in the construction of, and negotiations leading to, the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities.  After the United Nations adopted the Convention, Bristo led a campaign to promote the signing of the UN Convention in the United States.