"The job of the disability rights movement during the ADA legislative process was to demonstrate to Congress and the American people... not only how [discriminatory] injustice harms the individual subjected to it, but also how it harms our society." - Arlene Mayorson, Directing Attorney of DREDF
Passing the Americans with Disabilities Act
"Disability rights activists had hoped to amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act to include the disabled...But by the late 1980s, that option was deemed impractical... Activists thus turned their attention to fashioning a new anti-bias legislation."
- Rodman D. Griffin, disabilities historian
- Rodman D. Griffin, disabilities historian
The National Council on Disability
"In 1986... the National Council on the Handicapped (renamed the National Council on Disability in 1988) presented a breakthrough report titled Toward Independence, which included a proposal for a comprehensive, equal opportunity law for people with disabilities—the embryo of the ADA."
- National Council on Disability
- National Council on Disability
"When the president and Congress asked us to take a look at disability rights back in [1986], our number one recommendation was that there be an ADA, but no one did anything about it...In 1987, we went to Senator Lowell Weicker (R-Conn) who finally drafted the first official version of the bill". - Sandra Swift Parrino, chairman of the National Council on Disability |
In 1988, the bill was introduced to Congress, marking the start of the disability movement's height.
Senate Meetings Cause Reaction
September 1988
"Witnesses with a wide variety of disabilities, such as blindness, deafness, Down's Syndrome and HIV infection, as well as parents of disabled children testified about architectural and communication barriers and the pervasiveness of stereotyping and prejudice." - Arlene Mayerson, Directing Attorney of DREDF
The Revolutionary 101st Senate on the ADA
On September 5th, 1989, the disability movement truly mobilized, with the introduction of the Americans with Disabilities Act draft to the 101st Congress.
"The first hearing in the 101st Senate on the new ADA was an historic event and set the tone for future hearings and lobbying efforts." - Arlene Mayerson, Directing Attorney of DREDF |
- video by DREDF
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Other witnesses also spoke.
"A woman testified that when she lost her breast to cancer, she also lost her job and could not find another one as a person with a history of cancer. Parents whose small child had died of AIDS testified about how they couldn't find any undertaker that would bury their child."
- Arlene Mayerson, Directing Attorney of DREDF
- Arlene Mayerson, Directing Attorney of DREDF
For the two years it took to draft and revise the ADA, the disabled community stuck together, resisting attempts to exclude people with AIDS and mental illness.
"A team of lawyers and advocates worked on drafting and on the various and complex legal issues that were continually arising; top level negotiators and policy analysts strategized with members of Congress and their staffs; disability organizations informed and rallied their members; a lobbying system was developed using members of the disability community from around the country; witnesses came in from all over the country to testify before Congressional committees; lawyers and others prepared written answers to the hundreds of questions posed by members of Congress and by businesses; task forces were formed; networks were established to evoke responses from the community by telephone or mail; protests were planned - the disability rights movement coalesced around this goal: passage of the ADA." - Arlene Mayorson, disability historian |
The work of countless advocates allowed for the ADA's passage.
"Discrimination diaries", campaigns where "people with disabilities were asked to document daily instances of inaccessibility and discrimination", created governmental and public reaction. (Arlene Mayerson, Directing Attorney of DREDF)
Click Documents to Enlarge
ADA Demonstrations
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"Twenty years ago, I [was] a wholly equal American citizen. Today I sit here with you as less than second class citizens who are still legally discriminated against daily". - National Director of the ADAPT, Mike Auberger |
"[Activists] staged a major demonstration on the steps of Capitol Hill...Several dozen activists with disabilities threw themselves from their wheelchairs and dragged themselves up the steps of the Capitol, shocking viewers around the country and making it clear that they would wait no longer for their civil rights." - Ashley Wiseman, physically disabled
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- Lives Worth Living - PBS Documentary
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"We don't want to be dependent any more.
We want to be part of society in every way".
- Lex Friedan, quadriplegic wheelchair user
We want to be part of society in every way".
- Lex Friedan, quadriplegic wheelchair user
"In July, after having survived one Senate committee, four committees in the House and two conference committees, the final version of the bill zipped through the House on a 377-to-28 vote and the Senate by a 76-8 margin".
- Rodman D. Griffin, disabilities historian |
Julie Smart, rehabilitationist,
on the ADA's passage. |
On July 26th, 1990, the revolutionary Americans with Disabilities Act was signed, reforming America and giving equality to the growing number of people with disabilities.
- The Americans with Disabilities Act Video Gallery
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