Bob Joondeph: 30 Years in the Fight for Disability Rights

For more than 30 years, Bob Joondeph has served as the Executive Director of Disability Rights Oregon (DRO). He recently announced his pending retirement, which provides an opportunity to reflect on the history and current state of disability rights in Oregon, and on disability rights as civil rights. 

About Bob Joondeph

Mr. Joondeph came to Oregon as a VISTA volunteer attorney in 1976. Throughout his career, Mr. Joondeph has represented individuals with disabilities in state and federal courts, agencies and legislatures.

Some of the changes that have taken place in Oregon during his time at the helm of DRO include:

• Closure of Dammasch state hospital and the Fairview Training Center
• The end of segregated employment in sheltered workshops
• The largest investment in safe and accessible transportation paths of travel in state history. 

DRO has also served as a watchdog for the treatment of people with disabilities in our criminal justice system, and in 2018 it joined with the Mental Health Association of Portland and Cascadia Behavioral Health to successfully petition to become a “Friend of the Court” in the ongoing case challenging the use of force against people with psychiatric disabilities. 

Mr. Joondeph has served as a member of numerous state policy groups in Oregon, and was recently appointed to the Social Security Advisory Board. A graduate of Case Western Reserve Law School and Brown University, Mr. Joondeph has lived in Oregon since 1976. He has four grown children and two grandchildren.

Interviewer

Steve Novick was a Portland city commissioner when the city council received a report detailing its abysmal track record of hiring and retaining people with disabilities. He regrets not having known more and done more sooner.

Sponsor