Rights Now, sometimes written with an exclamation mark, was a British umbrella group of disabled people's organisations and charities which campaigned for a change in the law to prevent discrimination against disabled people and for a full civil rights law, even though the result was the flawed Disability Discrimination Act 1995. The biggest protest in numbers of people was in July 1994 at Trafalgar Square and Whitehall, London. It was a very broad-based campaign, including trade unions for example. Campaigning to improve the laws for full civil rights continued, but Rights Now as a group ended in 1995.

The Silver Jubilee Committee on Improving Access for Disabled People was established in 1977 by Alf Morris MP, the Minister for Disabled People, to report on access arrangements regarding the Silver Jubilee celebrations. He appointed Peter Large (Spinal Injuries Association, SIA) as its chair. It produced a report in 1979, Can Disabled People Go Where You Go?

In 1979 Alf Morris established the Committee on Restrictions Against Disabled People, CORAD. He again asked Peter Large to be the chair. Colin Barnes identified the creation of CORAD as the start of the UK movement for disabled people's civil rights because CORAD, building on the work of the SJAC, analysed the restrictions against disabled people systematically, including education and employment. Its terms of reference, membership, and some meeting minutes are held in the UK National Archives. Shortly after CORAD was established there was a general election and a Conservative government replaced the Labour government, so the committee reported to the new minister, Hugh Rossi MP, who reportedly ignored their findings. In written evidence submitted to Parliament in 2004, Peter Large recalled the following:

"Lord Morris asked me to chair a successor committee, the Committee on Restrictions Against Disabled People (CORAD) 'to consider the architectural and social barriers which may result in discrimination against disabled people and prevent them from making full use of facilities available to the general public; and to make recommendations.' CORAD reported in February 1982. It recommended anti-discrimination legislation covering employment, education, the provision of goods, facilities and services, insurance, transport, property rights, occupational pension schemes, membership of associations and clubs, and civic duties and functions. CORAD also recommended a regulatory body or Commission with powers to investigate, conciliate and if necessary take legal action on individual complaints."

In 1983 Jack Ashley MP used the ten-minute rule and put forward the Civil Rights (Disabled Persons) Bill which would have established a commission with legal powers of enforcement. The Bill did not have government support and was lost. Various research writings claim or estimate the number of attempts to pass a civil rights bill for disabled people between 1980 and 1995, with numbers varying between nine and sixteen bills.

Around 1985 a group of the large, national charities for disabled people, including RADAR (the Royal Association for Disability and Rehabilitation, as was), the Spastics Society (as was), came together to form a lobby group for anti-discrimination legislation, ADL, also known as civil rights for disabled people. The British Council of Organisations of Disabled People, BCODP (as was), around 1988 agreed to participate in VOADL as an observer organisation.

VOADL established an advisory committee around 1989 which was chaired by Mike Oliver who supported Colin Barnes as the researcher formally linked to BCODP. Research interviews were held at the SIA offices led by Colin Barnes, Stephen Bradshaw, Jane Campbell, and Mike Oliver. In 1991 the results of this research was published as a definitive text on ADL in the UK.

The closest successor organisation to VOADL would probably be the Voluntary Organisations Disability Group (VODG): "a membership body representing organisations within the voluntary sector who work alongside disabled people."