“I am a slow walker, but I never walk backward… be not deceived, my friends, revolutions do not go backward.” - Abraham Lincoln
The Push for Reform Grows
"The disabled were not included as covered categories in the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, but the law's influence on them was nonetheless profound...There was a recognition...that society needed to do more than [simply] provide programs". - Rodman D. Griffin, Disabilities historian
Building the Independent Living Movement
Many small disability movements developed in the 1960s, adding kindling to the revolution with their calls for reform.
Self-help Groups
Consumerism
Before 1950, "people with disabilities were rarely given any autonomy or power over the services and products they would use". - Maggie Shreve, consultant to the Community Resources for Independence Consumerism encouraged handicapped education and consumer choice. |
De-Medicalization
The disabled also couldn't choose to refuse medication.
"[The Medical Model] supported the belief that people with disabilities needed to be fixed or kept in an institution where professionals could determine the course of their life, since they were powerless to do so for themselves." - Ability for Access, Missouri History Museum
Click Diagrams Below to Enlarge
"The medical model promoted the [Renaissance-based] idea of people with disabilities as defective."
- Ability for Access, Missouri History Museum |
The de-medicalization movement followed the "Social Model" of treatment.
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De-Institutionalization
De-institutionalization informed the disabled that they had the right to choose their housing.
"The patient who constantly asks for a dime for the pay phone, a postage stamp, or a pass to leave the institution on personal business, tends to be treated as a nuisance or labeled "manipulative." Patients do not make their own appointments, keep their own medical charts, or take their own medications. Responsibility for these things is legally vested in the institution." - Corcoran, 1978
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- Willowbrook: The Last Disgrace (trailer), 1972
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"Since... [the residents of the institutions] are only disabled by some permanent condition, placement in institutions is inappropriate and far more costly than providing those same residents with the support services they need to live in their chosen communities." - Maggie Shreve, consultant to the Community Resources for Independence
Pulling it Together: The Independent Living Movement (ILM)
"The philosophy that people with disabilities can and should integrate into their communities, living, learning, and working among their able-bodied counterparts, gave rise to the Independent Living Movement, a [vital] strand of the Disability Rights Movement". - Ashley Wiseman, physically disabled
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"The... independent living movement is a compilation of all five movements [above] as they pertain to and are defined by people who have disabilities."
- Maggie Shreve, consultant to the Community Resources for Independence, a branch of the ILM |
"Independent Living philosophy emphasizes consumer control, the idea that people with disabilities are the best experts on their own needs, having crucial and valuable perspective to contribute and deserving of equal opportunity to decide how to live, work, and take part in their communities, particularly in reference to services that powerfully affect their day-to-day lives and access to independence."
- The National Council on Independent Living
- The National Council on Independent Living
Pressing Forward (1960 - 1979)
Eager to win equality, people with disabilities worked to change public reactions to handicaps.
"Activists led marches, coordinated government sit-ins, and invoked mass arrests. Parents demanded an end to segregated education for their children with disabilities. During the 1960s, some people even stole away in the middle of the night to chisel ramps into sidewalks". - Ashley Wiseman, physically disabled |
However, the most important and lasting effort made by disabled rights activists during this time was Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. (Click Link to Follow)
“Like Rosa Parks, people with disabilities want and need to be able to ride the bus. The only difference is that Rosa Parks, as an African-American woman, was not permitted to sit in the front of the bus, while people with disabilities just want to get on the bus.” - Maggie Shreve, disabilities historian
Revolution on the Wind
(1980 - 1989)
After activists succeeded in legally dubbing 1981 the International Year of Disabled Persons, the Disability Movement picked up even more speed.
"During [those] years [spent] working on the CRRA [Civil Rights Restoration Act] and the FHA [Fair Housing Act], alliances were forged within the civil rights community that became critical in the fight for passage of the ADA." - Arlene Mayerson, Directing Attorney of DREDF and ADA activist |
In 1988, Gallaudet University for the Deaf students protested when their school elected a hearing president over two competent deaf ones. They shut down the school until stipulations were met. |
"American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit (ADAPT) was founded in 1983 with the aim to get all [Greyhound] buses equipped with wheelchair lifts... Members were notorious for getting arrested".
- Ashley Wiseman, physically disabled |
"ADAPT was born to protest and their efforts have yielded positive progress in many ways as they have channeled the frustrations of many disenfranchised persons."
- James Cherry, Section 504 activist |
Mandatory bus lifts were legalized in 1990.
The new rulings and protests altered public reaction to advocates.
"The disability community was [finally] taken seriously - it had become a political force to be contended with in Congress, in the voting booth, and in the media."
- Arlene Mayerson, Directing Attorney of DREDF