TASH is an international advocacy

Advocacy

Advocacy is a political process by an individual or a large group which normally aims to influence public-policy and resource allocation decisions within political, economic, and social systems and institutions; it may be motivated from moral, ethical or faith principles or simply to protect an...

 association of people with disabilities

Disability

A disability may be physical, cognitive, mental, sensory, emotional, developmental or some combination of these.Many people would rather be referred to as a person with a disability instead of handicapped...

, their family members, other advocates, and people who work in the disability field. The organization's full name is The Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps. TASH operates as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization

Non-profit organization

Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...

. It has over 30 chapters and members in 34 countries and territories.

TASH was founded in 1974 under the name "American Association for the Education of the Severely / Profoundly Handicapped" ("AAESPH"). The name was changed to "The Association for the Severely Handicapped" (TASH) in 1980, and again to its current name The Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps in 1983.