The Facts

Organization

The Illinois Advocate For The disABLED

Mission

To help other Parents and Family of People with disabilities, utilizing past experiences and knowledge of Parents and Family of People with disabilities (as well as federal, state and local government, organizations and agencies) to navigate the often times complicated problem resolution process of living with a Disability.

Vision To create new, establish proposed and expand our programs to educate Parents and Family of People with disabilities. Our vision is to insure that every Person with disabilities and their families are informed of their rights and are better enabled to protect themselves. History Michael F. Santiago III founded the Illinois Advocate For The disABLED; after his daughter’s wheelchair was stolen by the company he had ordered it from. Mr. Santiago worked as a professional political operative and has worked on staffs of the elected officials in their district offices. So, he has quite familiar with the resources available to people to have problems and issues resolved. Mr. Santiago ran into many roadblocks in resolving the theft of the wheelchair, he called upon some elected officials to help with the resolution of the theft. Unfortunately, even they could not help, so Mr. Santiago decided to have the law changed utilizing the same politicians. The bill was passed unanimously in both Houses of the Illinois General Assembly and is presently waiting for the Governor’s signature, which he has acknowledged that he would sign this bill. Now he is using his knowledge and that of other Parents and Family of the Disable to help protect the People with disabilities. Target Our target clientele are the People with disabilities whose claims against companies and people taking advantage of them have gone unresolved using our best tactics, as well as, their own and having these problems resolved. When they are told that their cases are not financially feasible, we would like to offer them an alternative. Legal Clinic Our legal clinic will be a last resort to filing a complaint in our legal system. Our office will utilize federal, state and local elected official’s offices to accommodate a speedy resolution to their complaints. When our efforts have failed to remedy the situation we will have the attorneys send a letter asking for a resolution before we enter the legal process. Then, of course, if this fails we would have our attorneys file on behalf of our client and seek a determination from the court.