What is the disability rights movement?
The Civil Rights movement of the 1960s didn't specifically include people with disabilities, but it showed us all what a determined group of activists can do when it comes to making themselves heard. Inspired by the heightened awareness and civil rights successes of the time, disability rights activists such as Ed Roberts in California and Judy Heumann in New York took the lead in overcoming discrimination and extending the basic right to full participation in society to include people with disabilities.
The following is an overview of some major milestones in the disability rights movement:
No otherwise qualified handicapped individual in the United States shall, solely by reason of his handicap, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Section 504 of Title V
- 1850s
- Deaf people begin establishing local organizations to advocate for their interests. These local groups merged into the National Association for the Deaf in 1880.
- 1930s
- League of the Physically Handicapped holds protests against the federal government for discrimination against disabled people in federal programs.
- 1940
- National Federation of the Blind is founded, as is the American Federation of the Physically Handicapped - the first cross-disability national political organization to urge an end to job discrimination and lobby for passage of legislation to this effect.
- 1946
- Disabled soldiers returning from World War II establish the Paralyzed Veterans of America.
- 1964
- Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, religion, ethnicity, national origin, and creed (gender is later added as a protected class).
- 1965
- Medicare and Medicaid are established through passage of the Social Security Amendments of 1965, providing federally subsidized health care to disabled and elderly Americans covered by the Social Security program.
- 1968
- Architectural Barriers Act prohibits architectural barriers in all federally owned or leased buildings.
- 1970
- Ed Roberts leads a group of students with disabilities to start the "Rolling Quads" program on the Berkeley campus - a group that will soon set its sights on accessibility issues across the nation.
Urban Mass Transit Act requires that all new mass transit vehicles be equipped with wheelchair lifts (it will be twenty years - primarily because of machinations of the American Public Transit Association (APTA) - before the part of the law requiring wheelchair lifts is implemented).
- 1972
- Ed Roberts and associates found the Berkeley Center for Independent Living with funds from the Rehabilitation Administration. It is recognized as the first center for independent living.
Congress passes a rehabilitation bill that independent living activists cheer, but President Richard Nixon's veto prevents this bill from becoming law. Disability activists launch fierce protests across the country; In New York City, Judy Heumann, an early leader for disability rights, stages a sit-in on Madison Avenue with eighty other activists, stopping traffic.
- 1973
- After a flood of angry letters and protests, Congress overrides Nixon's veto and passes the Rehabilitation Act, which prohibits discrimination in federal programs and services and all other programs or services receiving federal funding.
- 1974
- Wade Blank founds the Atlantis Community, a model for community-based, consumer-controlled, independent living.
- 1975
- Developmental Disabilities Bill of Rights Act establishes, among other things, Protection and Advocacy services.
Education of All Handicapped Children Act (PL 94-142) requires free, appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment possible for children with disabilities (this law is now called the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)).
United Nations proclaims 1981 as the International Year of Disabled Persons (IYDP).
- 1977
- U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare Joseph Califano refuses to issue regulations implementing and enforcing 1973 Rehabilitation Act; ultimatum is issued with a deadline of April 4, 1977, which date passes without movement.
On April 5, demonstrations by people with disabilities take place in ten cities across the country. By the end of the day, demonstrations in nine cities are over. In one city - San Francisco -- protesters refuse to disband. There, more than 150 people with disabilities take over the federal office building and refuse to leave. They stay until May 1, not leaving until they have reviewed and approved of the regulations issued by Califano on April 28.
- 1978
- Wade Blank and the Atlantis Community found American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit (ADAPT) to bring attention to the fact that access to public transportation is a necessity if people with disabilities are to live independently in the community
Amendments to the Rehabilitation Act establish the first federal funding for consumer-controlled centers for independent living and create the National Council of the Handicapped under the U.S. Department of Education.
Wade and nineteen disabled activists hold a public transit bus "hostage" on the corner of Broadway and Colfax in Denver, Colorado -- ADAPT will eventually mushroom into the nation's first grassroots disability rights activist organization.
- 1981
- United Nations' International Year of Disabled Persons (IYDP). The IYDP called on all nations to recognize their disability populations, many of whom were doubly disadvantaged by poverty. The U.N. urged governments, communities, religions, and organizations to adopt the IYDP goal of full and equal participation of people with disabilities in all aspects of life.
- 1983
- Ed Roberts, Judy Heumann, and Joan Leon co-found the World Institute on Disability (WID), an advocacy and research center promoting the rights of people with disabilities around the world.
Amendments to the Rehabilitation Act provide for the Client Assistance Program (CAP), an advocacy program for consumers of rehabilitation and independent living services.
Max Starkloff, Charlie Carr, and Marca Bristo found the National Council on Independent Living (NCIL), one of the only national organizations that is consumer-controlled and promotes the rights and empowerment of people with disabilities.
- 1985
- Mental Illness Bill of Rights Act requires protection and advocacy services for people with mental illness.
- 1988
- Civil Rights Restoration Act counteracts bad case law by clarifying Congress' original intention that under the Rehabilitation Act, discrimination in any program or service that is a part of an entity receiving federal funding - not just the part which actually and directly receives the funding - is illegal.
Air Carrier Access Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in air travel and provides for equal access to air transportation services.
Fair Housing Amendments Act prohibits discrimination in housing against people with disabilities and families with children; also provides for architectural accessibility of certain new housing units, renovation of existing units, and accessibility modifications at the renter's expense.
- 1990
- Secretary of Transportation Sam Skinner issues regulations mandating lifts on buses, thus implementing the Urban Mass Transit Act passed in 1970.
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is adopted.
The acronym ADAPT becomes "Americans Disabled for Attendant Programs Today," and the fight begins for a national policy of attendant services and the end of institutionalization.
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is signed into law - provides comprehensive civil rights protection for people with disabilities; closely modeled after the Civil Rights Act and Section 504 of Title V of the Rehabilitation Act and its regulations.
Of course, having the ADA in place is not the end of the story. There is still much to do -- laws must be enforced to be effective, and attitudes and assumptions about what people are capable of doing -- which in turn impact social policies such as Medicaid's long-standing bias toward institutionalization -- take years (...and years) to shift.
Organizations like RCIL fight battles -- large and small, every day -- to ensure that individuals with disabilities have full access to their communities and the unobstructed right to direct their own lives in the most independent and integrated setting possible.