History of the disability rights movement

The disability rights movement is a movement to secure equal rights and access for people with disabilities. The history of the disability rights movement goes back to the 1800s in the United States, though the movement became much more prominent in the 1960s and 1970s, after the civil rights movement helped spark political and social movements in other minority groups. The disability rights movement is ongoing, though the movement has helped bring about numerous laws, regulations, and social changes in the United States and other parts of the world.

Overview

Before the disability rights movement in the United States, people with disabilities often lived outside the mainstream of society and relied on others, mostly their families and members of their communities, for care and survival. Some people with disabilities had to beg for money and food to survive. They were avoided and feared by most of society. They were not considered to have beliefs, hopes, and dreams that those without disabilities had. Accommodating the needs of people with disabilities was not prioritized or even considered by most people before the late 1800s. Before the twentieth century, many people believed that people with disabilities could not work or contribute to society.

People with disabilities—who realized that having certain accommodations would help them work efficiently, care for themselves, learn effectively, and more—took the first steps in the disability rights movement. Some early advances for certain disabled communities occurred in the 1800s and early 1900s. For example, Louis Braille, a blind French educator, developed a system that allowed blind people to read. The National Association of the Deaf, the first national organization in the United States to fight for the rights of people with disabilities, was founded in 1880. In the United States, any advances in society for disabled people occurred because of individuals and some private organizations.

The government became more involved in protecting people with disabilities in the United States in the twentieth century. In the 1930s, the Social Security Act provided funds that states could use to help children with disabilities. In the 1940s, the government passed the National Mental Health Act, which created a National Institute of Mental Health. Although the government created some laws and regulations to protect people with disabilities, the government did not have laws that specifically protected them at work, at school, and in the community. Two decades later, the government passed the Social Security Amendments of 1960. These changes allowed the Social Security program to give benefits to disabled people of all ages, not just children.

In the 1950s and 60s, the civil rights movement became the most important social movement in the United States. In July 1964, the United States passed the Civil Rights Act, which protected individuals against segregation in public places and employment discrimination based on race, color, sex, religion, or national origin. The law did not apply to people with disabilities. However, many Americans with disabilities considered the Civil Rights Act to be a template for the type of law they believed people with disabilities should demand from the American government. After the passage of the Civil Rights Act, the disability rights movement became stronger and more unified, as the people in it all sought the goal of obtaining legal civil rights protections for people with disabilities.

In 1965, the government passed the Older Americans Act, which created the National Aging Network, the first federal movement to provide older adults with comprehensive services. The law helped states provide older individuals living in the United States with nutrition assistance, home- and community-based services, and medical services. The law also helped to create the National Family Caregiver Support Program and the Native American Caregiver Support Program, which help support the caregivers of people with disabilities.

The disability rights movement in the United States reached another important milestone when the government passed the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Although the act was originally vetoed by President Richard Nixon twice, he finally signed it into law in 1973 after it had been significantly changed. The law was important mostly because of its Section 504, which prohibited discrimination against disabled people from programs and institutions receiving federal funding. The law helped create a legal framework that people with disabilities could use to ensure that they were not discriminated against. It also raised public awareness about the challenges that disabled people faced throughout the country. Section 504 would later be clarified and refined in other laws. That same year, the first handicap parking sticker, a system that later became ubiquitous throughout the country, was created in Washington, DC.

In 1975, another important piece of legislation was passed by the federal government. The law, which was originally called the Education of all Handicapped Children Act, stated that all children with disabilities in the United States receive a “free appropriate public education” in the “least restrictive setting.” The law, which was later renamed to Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) when it was reauthorized in 1990, helped protect children with disabilities. Before the original law passed in 1975, numerous states had laws that limited the education of children who were blind or deaf or had intellectual disabilities. IDEA has six specific elements that are meant to guide the education system for students with disabilities: using individualized education plans (IEPs); providing free and appropriate public education (FAPE); providing least restrictive environments (LRE); using appropriate evaluations, including parent and teacher participation; and using procedural safeguards.

The 1970s also brought about changes in the way people with disabilities were represented in media in the United States. Before the 1970s, most media portrayals of people with disabilities indicated that they were helpless and relied on other people. The children’s series Sesame Street became one of the first to positive portray people with disabilities. The series included a deaf actress as well as people with other disabilities. Soon other media outlets also began changing how disabled people were portrayed. In the 1980s, the old axiom, “nothing for us, without us,” became popular in the disability rights movement in the United States and elsewhere when an activist named James Charlton used it to talk about his experience under Apartheid in South Africa. In 1988, students from Gallaudet University, an American university for deaf and hard of hearing students, began protesting because the school had never in its history had a deaf president or a majority-deaf board of trustees. The students used the phrase “nothing for us, without us” to express the importance of the change. Gallaudet University listened to its protestors, and the university hired its first deaf president just months after the protests began.

In 1988, the Civil Rights Restoration Act became law. The law ensured that groups that received federal funding followed federal civil rights laws in all areas. The law helped protect more people from discrimination. Two years later, the US Congress debated the passage of a new, landmark law to be called the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). People with disabilities from around the country traveled to Washington, DC, in March 1990 to show their support of the bill. Some protestors were from the disability rights organization Americans Disabled for Accessible Public Transit (ADAPT). The ADAPT famously protested in Colorado by taking over public transport and refusing to leave. The members of this group brought awareness to the inequities in the public transportation system, especially for people who used mobility aids such as wheelchairs. Members of ADAPT attended the protests in Washington, DC, and again wanted to send a powerful message about the inaccessibility faced by many people with disabilities each day. They and other activists staged a protest in which they stopped using their mobility aids and crawled up the Capitol Steps in the National Mall. The protest, which became an iconic part of the history of the disability rights movement, was effective, and months later Congress passed the bill. President George H. W. Bush signed the ADA into law at a ceremony outside the White House on July 26, 1990.

The ADA has five main parts, which are called titles. Title I requires most employers to give people with disabilities equal opportunities for employment; Title II prohibits state and local governments from discriminating in any programs, activities, or services they provide; Title III requires private businesses and organizations that welcome the public (e.g., stores and restaurants) to make accommodations for people with disabilities; Title IV requires telephone and Internet companies to provide telecommunications services and accessible messages (e.g., using closed captioning); Title V includes relevant terminology and definitions.

With the ADA individuals in the disability rights movement finally saw the passage of a similar law to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 for the disabled community, those in the movement still had more to accomplish. In 2002, advocates helped to get the Help America Vote Act signed into law. The law requires state and local governments to ensure that their voting systems and processes are accessible to all voters. In 2008, the ADA was amended to broaden the scope of the term disability to offer more people protection. IDEA was also updated in 2004, 2006, and 2011.

Further Insight

People with disabilities throughout the world face discrimination, and the disability rights movement is not located only, or even mainly, in the United States. Although disability advocates around the world work to make legal and social changes to fight discrimination, international bodies created guidance for protecting people with disabilities much later than numerous individual countries, including the United States. In the 1940s, in the wake of World War II, world leaders created the United Nations (UN), and in 1948 the organization developed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. However, this publication did not include guidance about protecting people with disabilities from discrimination. The organization created the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) more than a half-century later in 2006. The CRPD aims to change attitudes about people with disabilities. Instead of viewing them as “objects” of charity, it seeks to have them viewed as “subjects” of rights, who make decisions and are active members of society. It also tries to expand the categorization of peoples with disabilities to include, not just a few, but all types of disabilities. It aims to clarify that persons with all types of disabilities should benefit from all human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Issues

The passage of the ADA was a landmark event in the disability rights movement in the United States. Although the law had bipartisan support in Congress, some Americans disapprove of it or aspects of it. While experts note that the law has helped millions of Americans receive accommodations they might not have had otherwise, they also point out that, after the passage of the ADA in the 1990s, employment rates among disabled people in the United States dropped. Some believe the decrease happened because of the law, as some employers will not hire workers with disabilities because they do not want to make accommodations. Research also indicates that the ADA likely had little impact on the pay rate that people with disabilities received. Still, disability rights advocates—many of whom are directly impacted by the law—have stated that the ADA has been overwhelmingly positive for people with disabilities in the country. Despite that, some still criticize the ADA.

One major criticism of the ADA is that often individuals, not the federal government, are the enforcers of the law. Various federal agencies have the power to enforce aspects of the law. For example, the federal government created the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC) to help enforce Title I of the law. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) oversees the enforcement of Title IV. The Department of Justice (DOJ) is supposed to oversee Titles II and III. However, the DOJ does not often enforce Title III infringements. Often this part of the law is enforced through lawsuits that individuals bring against businesses and organizations. Often, people with disabilities who experience a lack of accessibility will sue a business or organization under the ADA. Because individuals, and not the federal government, are suing, ADA lawsuits are criticized by some being as being frivolous and harmful to small businesses. Nevertheless, those who bring the lawsuits point out that the government, in most cases, does not force businesses and organizations to comply with the ADA. They assert that, for the most part, businesses will not follow ADA rules to be as inclusive as possible and will only follow the rules that have already been mandated by the ADA when they are sued—thus forcing them to experience financial penalties. The threat of such penalties also motivates some business owners who would not have otherwise complied. Still, opponents of the ADA assert that individuals have shut down small businesses after suing them for ADA noncompliance.

The ADA has also been criticized for being too vague, and often lawsuits and judges in charge of the court cases must determine its exact meaning. For example, the law says that public places, such as stores and restaurants, must make “reasonable modifications” for people with disabilities. Definitions vary as to what constitutes “reasonable modifications.” Because of this, many decisions about what should be covered by the ADA are decided on a case-by-case basis.

Some disability rights activists contend that the ADA does not provide enough protection to people with disabilities. For example, some organizations, such as religious institutions, are exempt from adhering to public accommodations. Furthermore, employers with fewer than fifteen employees do not have to follow the employment protection section of the law. Some disability advocates also believe that the law should be robust and describe additional instances where disabled workers are protected against discrimination.

In the 2020s, smartphones and other digital technologies have become impactful in the everyday lives of all Americans. For those who can access them, their speed and efficiencies have become life-enhancing. For the millions of Americans with disabilities, such as 7 million who are visually impaired, the benefits of these apps are not only unavailable, but they are also challenged to access many critical services others take for granted. This condition was acutely felt during the COVID-19 pandemic which began in 2020. Many Americans were unable to access work, school, and emergency services because devices and websites were not equipped to do so.

In April 2024, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland signed a new measure under Title II of the ADA. This was designed to increase accessibility for people with disabilities to access internet content and mobile applications. It also provided greater guidance to state and local governments on how to meet these new requirements.

About the Author

Elizabeth Mohn earned a BS in communications in 2006. She has developed social sciences content for more than a decade.

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