National Council on Disability

The National Council on Disability (NCD) is an independent federal agency headquartered in Washington, DC. NCD is composed of five Presidential appointees, four Congressional appointees, an Executive Director appointed by the Chairperson, and a full-time professional staff.

Under the original name of the National Council on the Handicapped, the agency was created as an advisory body to the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare Rehabilitation by the Comprehensive Services and Disability Amendments Act of 1978 as an amendment to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. 780 et seq.). The Council was transferred to the Department of Education by the Department of Education Organization Act of 1979, and later became an independent agency in 1984 through the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1984 (PL 98-22).

In 1986, the agency recommended enactment of what became known as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) with the publication of “Toward Independence: An Assessment of Federal Laws and Programs Affecting Persons with Disabilities” and drafted the first version of the bill which was introduced in the House and Senate in 1988. The name of the agency was changed to the National Council on Disability through the Handicapped Programs Technical Amendment Act of 1988 (PL 100-630) on November 7, 1988.

Since enactment of the ADA, NCD has continued to shape the course of disability policy in the United States from within the federal government by advising the President, Congress and other federal agencies on current and emerging issues affecting the lives of people with disabilities.

A more comprehensive history of the agency can be found in NCD's 1997 publication titled “Equality of Opportunity: The Making of the Americans with Disabilities Act.”

The authorizing statute specifying the agency's membership, purpose, and terms of office was amended by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (P.L. 113-128) in 2014 which reduced its membership from fifteen to nine and altered the composition from exclusively presidential appointees to a combination of presidential and congressional appointees. The Senate Majority Leader and Minority Leader; and the Speaker of the House and the House Minority Leader each appoint one member of the Council, and the other five members are presidential appointments. The President designates the Chairperson from among the members appointed.

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