Title: Disability Rights Movement Growing Individual Voices in Political Influence
1Disability Rights MovementGrowing Individual
Voices in Political Influence
2(No Transcript)
3Overview - 1900
Political Influence of People with Disabilities
No Organizations to encourage or support
Individuals with Disabilities.
Public Perception Should be Excluded
4Overview - 2009Political Influence of
Individuals With Disabilities
- Serving in elected and appointed offices
- Senators Governors
- County Executives
- Serving on Boards and Commissions
Maryland Disabilities Law Center
On Our Own
- As Voters, kept more informed and engaged
- Supported by outside advocacy groups
- Taking an individual voice as well as a
collective voice for the disability community
Maryland Disabilities Forum
Arc
Epilepsy Foundation
Maryland Developmental Disabilities Council
MACS
Maryland Works
5Historical Perspective
- People with Disabilities forced into dependency.
- Others speak for them, label them, and while
often with the best intentions generally dont
view individuals with disabilities as deserving
direct participation.
6A New Vision
- Self Advocacy and Individual Empowerment through
inclusion in the political process. - Independent Living, Equal Rights and Access to
ensure full citizenship and progressive
participation in every facet of society.
7Dorothea Dix
- In 1841 Dorothea Dix, a Boston schoolteacher,
began a campaign to make the public aware of the
plight of people with mental illness. By 1880, as
a direct result of her efforts, 32 psychiatric
hospitals for the poor had opened.
8Dorothea Dix Memorial To The Legislature of
MassachusettsJan. 1843
- I have seen many who, part of the year, are
chained or caged. The use of cages all but
universal. Hardly a town but can refer to some
not distant period of using them chains are less
common negligences frequent willful abuse less
frequent than sufferings proceeding from
ignorance, or want of consideration.
9Dorothea Dix Memorial To The Legislature of
MassachusettsJan. 1843
- It is not few, but many, it is not a part, but
the whole, who bear unqualified testimony to this
evil. A voice strong and deep comes up from every
almshouse and prison in Massachusetts where the
insane are or have been protesting against such
evils as have been illustrated in the preceding
pages.
10- Dix successfully petitioned the Massachusetts
Legislature to remove individuals with
disabilities from prisons, and to begin
classifying their disabilities to determine
treatment in state funded institutions. - Dix also petitioned Congress in 1848.
- President Pierce vetoed a bill sponsored by
Dorothea Dix calling for the sale of federal
lands to subsidize institutions for indigents
with mental disabilities. May 3, 1854. - Set precedent for no federal intervention for
next 50 years.
11Franklin Delano Roosevelt
- Elected President of the
- United States in 1933.
-
- In 1921, hed contracted
- a disease which paralyzed
- him from the waist down.
12FDRs Contribution
- FDR established the Roosevelt Warm Springs
Rehabilitation Institute which gave way to
technical advancements for people with
disabilities - More advanced wheelchair designs
- Accessible Restroom Designs
- Automobile Possibilities for alternatively
- controlled devices.
- He helped found the National
- Foundation for Infantile Paralysis
- (now known as the March of Dimes).
- Social Security was developed in response to
- the increasing numbers of disabled War Veterans.
-
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141930s-1940sParents Organize
- Parents who did not want their children
institutionalized or banned from public schools
sought each other out and started to organize. - Concerned about lack of community resources and
support, advocated need for special education.
15Institutionalization Is Not Necessary
16League for the Physically Handicapped
- New Deal programs label people with disabilities
as Unemployable. - In May of 1935, a group of 3 men and 3 women with
disabilities went to see the director of the
Emergency Relief Bureau in New York City to
change that policy.
17League for the Physically Handicapped
- They demonstrated for a week, demanding
handicapped people receive a just share of the
millions of jobs being given out by the
government. -
- As a result, the Works Progress Administration
(WPA) hired about forty League members. - The protest was the beginning of the League of
the Physically Handicapped, and over the next
few years they fought job discrimination and
contested the ideology of disability that
controlled early twentieth century public
policies, social arrangements and professional
practices.
18Cross-Disability Action
- In September 1936, the League joined forces with
the League for the Advancement of the Deaf to
secure a promise that 7 of future WPA jobs in
New York would go to deaf and handicapped
individuals. As a result, 1500 people went to
work.
19Disability Rights MovementA New Understanding
- Predicated on the notion that it is the
structural and attitudinal barriers in capitalist
society that are the fundamental cause for the
discrimination and oppression faced by people
with disabilities. - In this framework, people with disabilities are
limited by the systemic lack of physical access
to public services, the failure of educational
institutions and employers to make materials
available in alternative formats, and the
intricate bureaucracy that people must navigate
in order to get essential services such as income
support and medical services. -
- Attention needed to be redirected from the
medical impairment or medical model of
disablement to the social-political issues that
underpin disability oppression. In other words,
the first step in the liberation of people with
disabilities is a fundamental paradigm shift in
societal values.
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21Disability Rights Movement
- Struggle to gain full citizenship
- Demand for equality, independence, autonomy,
access to public life - Integration vs. separate but equal
- People First Language
22Rolling Quads
- Beginning with Ed Roberts, the Rolling Quads
were a Berkeley based student activist group
seeking Independent Living and Equal Access in
the 1960s. - The Rolling Quads questioned their living
situation. - Why were they forced to live in a hospital?
- Why was it so difficult to travel around the
city? - What options did a student with disabilities
have? - What could the University do to help students
with disabilities? - What would they do after graduation?
Ed Roberts
23Todays Rolling Quads still in Action
24Rolling Quads
- Rolling Quads members engaged in campus
demonstrations as well as political activism and
were able to accomplish - The formation of a Physically Disabled Students
Program that became the nations first Disabled
Students Office. - An independent living course to discuss
improving conditions for people with disabilities
in the city of Berkeley, as they had done with
the University. - Petitioning for government funds to create The
Center for Independent Living or CIL.
25Disabled in Action
- Founded in 1970, Disabled in Action was based
in radical activism. - Adopted the tactic of direct political protest to
raise both the consciousness of people with
disabilities and awareness of the discriminatory
barriers endemic in American society.
26Disabled in Action
- During the 1972 presidential election, militants
in Disabled in Action joined with disabled and
often highly politicized Vietnam veterans,
clearly an influential base of support for the
American disability rights movements, demanding
an on-camera debate with President Nixon. - They also organized a demonstration at the
Lincoln Memorial after President Nixon vetoed a
spending bill to fund disability programs.
27Rehabilitation Act
- The high point of the 1970s resurgence of
disability liberation politics was the remarkable
San Francisco occupation that occurred in
conjunction with protests aimed at forcing the
release of regulations pursuant to s. 504 of the
Rehabilitation Act of 1973. - The regulations were to outline how it was
illegal for federal agencies, contractors, or
public universities to discriminate on the basis
of handicap. They had been delayed by previous
Administrations but there was an expectation that
the incoming Carter Administration would fulfill
its promise to issue the regulations.
28Rehabilitation Act
- Democrats' policy makers were stalling and wanted
to substantially modify the regulations to permit
continued segregation in education and other
areas of public life. Disability rights activists
mobilized in nine cities across the United
States. -
- In Washington, three hundred demonstrators
occupied the offices of the Health, Education and
Welfare (HEW) Secretary for some twenty-eight
hours despite the termination of the office's
telephone lines by authorities and the refusal to
permit food through to the protestors.
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30Rehabilitation Act
- In San Francisco the movement raged on. There,
disability rights activists occupied the HEW
federal building for twenty-five days culminating
in total victory the issuing of the regulations
without any amendments. - Many of the participants of the occupation, at
times as many as 120, literally risked their
lives, as they were without their personal care
attendants or assistive devices, in order to
pursue their fight for social justice and
integration into mainstream society.
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32- The impact of building cross-disability
solidarity was remarkable. - Instead of arbitrary divisions based on
diagnostic categories, people with disabilities
united around common political goals. - The HEW Occupation was one of those rare events
where the consciousness of the participants was
dramatically transformed and their largely
neglected creativity unleashed. - Many of the participants had previously seen
their oppression as personal medical problems. A
real sense of disability pride was developed that
would have lasting positive effects in building
grassroots disability rights movements.
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34Policy that Followed the Disability Rights
Movement
- 1970 Urban Mass Transit Act requires that all
new mass transit vehicles be equipped with
wheelchair lifts. -
- 1975 Developmental Disabilities Bill of Rights
Act among other things, establishes Protection
and Advocacy (P A). - 1975 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). - 1978 Amendments to the Rehabilitation Act
provides for consumer-controlled centers for
independent living.
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36- 1983 Amendments to the Rehabilitation Act
provides for the Client Assistance Program (CAP),
an advocacy program for consumers of
rehabilitation and independent living services. - 1985 Mental Illness Bill of Rights Act requires
protection and advocacy services (P A) 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. - 1988 Air Carrier Access Act prohibits
discrimination on the basis of disability in air
travel and provides for equal access to air
transportation services. - 1988 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.
37American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit
(ADAPT)
- In 1983, the organization American Disabled for
Accessible Public Transit (ADAPT) was formed by
disability rights activists in several cities
across America to highlight the inaccessibility
of public transit to mobility impaired people.
38ADAPT
- ADAPT repeatedly disrupted the conventions of the
American Public Transit Association, to the point
of requiring mass arrests, in order to raise
awareness of the industry's hostility to
implementing accessibility features that would
enable people with disabilities to participate
fully as citizens.
39ADAPT
- They also demonstrated a dramatic flair for
symbolism and a sense of strategic genius.
Crawling up the stairs of important but
inaccessible public buildings, including the
eighty-three marble steps of the Capitol
building, to demonstrate their exclusion from
American society. - Having secured a measure of victory in this
field, they renamed themselves American Disabled
for Attendant Programs Today and have continued
their direct action tactics to raise awareness of
the need for attendant care programs, that
provide assistance with activities of daily
living, to permit people with disabilities to
live independently rather than face warehousing.
40Demonstration for Accessibility
41People First
- Starting in the 1970s and permeating public
policy language and perception, self advocacy
groups chose a People First approach to change
the context of disabling labels.
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43Americans with Disabilities Act
- The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA)
is the most significant civil rights legislation
to be enacted by Congress since the Civil Rights
Act of 1964. - The ADA makes it illegal to discriminate against
anyone who has a mental or physical disability in
the area of employment, public services,
transportation, public accommodations and
telecommunications.
44President George Bush signing the American with
Disabilities Act
45A Vote is A Voice
- Voting Rights Act of (1965)
- The Voting Accessibility for the Elderly and the
Handicapped Act (1984)
- The Americans with Disabilities Act (1990)
- The Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA)
46With increasing accessibility to voting
locations, individuals with disabilities are
actively pursuing their rights as citizens to
engage in the political determination of
leadership.
Congress enacted the Help America Vote Act of
2002, which required polling places to have at
least one voting system accessible for people
with disabilities.
47- Today we find people with disabilities more often
living in the community, employed in an
integrated workforce, voting, and holding
appointed and elected offices. - While discrimination still exists, public
perception of disability has been steadily
shifting to that of equality, inclusion, and
independence for all.
48Presented By The Maryland Disabilities Forum
- A non-profit cross-disability organization led by
people with disabilities that produces statewide
systems change in order to achieve community
inclusion, civil rights, and equal opportunity.
This is accomplished through education,
leadership development and facilitating consensus
with the disability community, while respecting
its diversity. - This display offers a glimpse into the evolution
of advocacy and influence from no representation
in the policies that govern individuals with
disabilities, to advocacy, and eventually self
advocacy. In essence it is a movement from
exclusion and - segregation to full inclusion.