July 26 is National Disability Independence Day, the culmination of a monthlong annual commemoration celebrating the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This milestone was a watershed toward equality and accessibility, transforming both lives and attitudes. The ADA’s passage in 1990 grew directly out of the inclusive spirit of the 1960s civil rights struggle, and like that dynamic social movement, determined activists forged an emerging concept of disability rights, demanding the same governmental investments in equality of opportunity.
So, happy National Disability Pride Month. I’m Joel Rhodes “Telling History.”
Fueled by his family’s vested interest, John Kennedy initiated a national conversation about Americans with disabilities, but legislative progress remained slow. That is until grassroots disabled activism pressed the issue. In April 1977, disabled Americans carried out a nationwide sit-in, an empowering demonstration of agency and solidarity that launched the disability rights movement. Their protest centered on federal hesitation to implement Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibiting discrimination against people with disabilities in the workplace. The American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities set a firm deadline for President Carter to enact the regulations, and after that date passed, for weeks hundreds of protesters across the country occupied local offices of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.
As one leader of these so-called “504 sit-ins,” Kitty Cone, explained, “People…were not thinking of people with disabilities as an oppressed minority or a group deserving of civil rights. They were thinking of people with disabilities as a group – [like] Jerry Lewis – of people who were objects of charity, objects of pity, probably a group of people who were very weak. It just was not part of the public consciousness. So, a sit-in was a really good tactic to show that we were a civil rights movement and part of the whole history of struggling for progress for our community.”
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, self-advocacy groups like the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund furthered the cause of inclusion and eliminating all barriers to independent living. The Americans Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation led a successful direct-action campaign for wheelchair accessibility on public buses. Students at Gallaudet University, a deaf institution, demonstrated in 1988 demanding a deaf president and deaf leadership on the board of trustees.
The 1990 “Capitol Crawl” protests in Washington ultimately led to the passage of the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act. Bogged down by corporate opposition to the legislation’s costly requirements, the ADA languished in Congress until disabled activists made a poignant statement on the necessity of accessibility. Leaving their crutches, wheelchairs, and walkers behind, demonstrators literally crawled up the Capitol steps.
As a result, Congress passed more than 50 pieces of legislation. In addition to the 1975 Education of All Handicapped Children Act, guaranteeing access to public education, the 1973 Rehabilitation Act supports disabled people on the job, requiring affirmative action in employment and education, and mandates equal access to electronic information. These developments led to the ADA and subsequent ADA Amendments Act in 2008. Together, the two laws are the disability rights movement’s most important civil rights accomplishments, prohibiting discrimination in public accommodations, employment, transportation, communications, and government services and programs.
