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The Modern Disability Rights Movement and its Progress Leading Up to the Americans with Disabilities Act
The Modern Disability Rights Movement and its Progress Leading Up to the Americans with Disabilities Act
Fallon Marie
Imagine being a 5-year-old little girl and being told you cannot go to school. Imagine being told your presence is a “fire hazard” Imagine not being able to access public sidewalks, public buildings, buses, trains, and beyond. This is the environment disabled people had to endure before the disability rights movement began. Disabled children were not given equal education. Disabled people were put in institutions. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was a massive step forward in the disability rights movement. However, the ADA was not the beginning of the movement, nor is it the end. The work that was done prior to the ADA was /life-changing, world-changing work. To create a more just and inclusive world, we need to understand where we came from. The modern disability rights movement began in the 1960s and made multiple strides prior to the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Specifically, disability rights activists achieved the independent living movement, the passage of Section 504, and the first mass protests by the disability community.
The disability rights movement was inspired by the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education case and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. At the time, many disabled people were still sent to facilities and were barred from access to a free and equal public education. Even if disabled children were allowed in public schools, they were still given a sub-par education Society thought disabled people were hazards and incapable of learning anyway. Why educate someone who cannot learn? (Lengyel, Vandergeik, 2021). Brown vs. Board of Education inspired parents and other activists by showing that these issues were civil rights as well and could be legally decided in courts. The thinking was that if segregation was declared illegal among races, then it is also illegal to separate people based on physical, mental, emotional, or cognitive disabilities. Activist and author Judy Heumann writes about her experiences of being denied an education. As a child, her mother took her to the local public school in Brooklyn, New York, and…
