When I first volunteered to write this article, I really expected a far greater history to write about, and I was appalled to realize that assistance for the disabled to get around in the public sphere was far newer than I realized. In fact, it seemed to have started just about the time that I myself was launching out in the world – the 70s. (I realize some of you youngsters out there might consider the 70s a long time ago, but for me it was like yesterday. :-}) Oh, there were some attempts to integrate returning World War II veterans, and that was probably the beginning of the discussion. And there had been attempts before to assist certain disabilities like blindness and deafness, but it was more a “separate but equal” system. As we stand on the threshold of what could be a giant leap backwards in this field, I think it’s good to take note of what rights we have won so that we can fight even harder not to lose them.
But first, some intriguing claims about the earliest mentions of disability in written history. According to Disability History,1 the Rig-Veda, a sacred poem in Sanskrit (3500 – 1800 B.C.), may be the first written record of a prosthesis. According to this site, the poem says Queen Vishpla, who lost her leg in battle, was fitted with an iron prosthesis, and returned to battle. The site claims Aristotle mentioned the deaf in 321 BC and in 218 BC,
“Marcus Sergius, a Roman general who led his legion against Carthage… in the Second Punic War, sustained… a right arm amputation. An iron hand was fashioned to hold his shield and he was able to go back to battle. He was denied a chance to be a priest because one needed two normal hands.”
(First mention of disability discrimination?)
This website also mentions2 the first US attempts to recognize disability and the need for access:
“…in 1935, a group in New York City called the League for the Physically Handicapped formed to protest discrimination by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The league's 300 people – most disabled by polio and cerebral palsy – all had been turned down for WPA jobs. The Home Relief Bureau of New York City was supposed to forward their job requests to the WPA, but was stamping all their applications 'PH' for physically handicapped, as a signal … not to give these people jobs. Members of the league sat in at the Home Relief Bureau for nine days; and went to the WPA headquarters and held a weekend sit-in there. They eventually generated a couple thousand jobs nationwide.”
So, this might be the first sit-in for disability rights!
New York City, which in some areas was leading the recognition of the need for disabled access, was struggling with these issues in the 1940s. According to the NY Parks Department2
“In July 1945, Commissioner Robert Moses had to release a statement …to allay the protests of returning war veterans when Parks officials inadvertently denied access to wheelchair-bound parkgoers at the Coney Island Boardwalk…”
Apparently a well-meaning group from a nursing home for disabled veterans wanted to give them a day at the beach, but during the discussions, it became clear that the park didn’t want them “mingling” with the regular Boardwalk users. The statement said:
“Just before the time came for the experiment, additional conditions were imposed and arbitrary demands by the Halloran volunteer group which would have made it impossible for us successfully to carry out the plan. It turned out that the idea back of the experiment was that these veterans should mingle with public crowds in the face of the fact that they are seriously wounded cases requiring constant attention of a large number of nurses and doctors, especially on park trips of this kind. Under these circumstances, the park officials must find means of protecting them from curiosity seekers, small children, etc. The success of an experiment of this sort depends not only upon knowledge of nursing but of park operation. Under the conditions, we were forced to notify the hospital people that we could not attempt the experiment in the face of the arbitrary and unworkable orders they insisted upon.”
To be fair, they were talking about 26 wounded vets – and 124 support staff! Hard to tell now if this was discrimination or legitimate crowd control. In many ways, the issue of accommodation continues to be hotly debated.
The earliest Federal legislation seems to be the Architectural Barriers Act of 1968, which required disabled access to facilities designed, built, altered, or leased with federal funds. Of course it seemed to be enacted with the slowness of a stereotypical government committee – according to the US Accessibility Board3, their work began in 1975; in 1978 they began to design minimum standards of accessibility and to include communication access as well as physical access; they actually published their guidelines in 1991 and only got to electronic communications in 1998, some of which was included in their 2004 updated guidelines (!!)
It’s not surprising that they have not actually been in the news that much. 😁 But this might be a board to keep an eye on, as we watch to see what damage the Republicans are going to do. Especially since part of Obamacare directed the board to look into accessibility to medical diagnostic equipment.
Then the mandate widened to include organizations that receive government funding. (Wikipedia) The US Rehabilitation Act of 1973 replaced the Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (the fastest Fed replacement ever?) Sections 501 and 503 were non-discrimination clauses for Federal organizations and contractors, but according to the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF),4
“Section 504 was… historic because for the first time people with disabilities were viewed as a class – a minority group. Previously, public policy had been characterized by addressing the needs of particular disabilities by category based on diagnosis. …Section 504 recognized that while there are major physical and mental variations in different disabilities, people with disabilities as a group faced similar discrimination in employment, education and access to society.”
According to Wikipedia5 The original 1973 Act defined a “handicapped individual” as
“any individual who (A) has a physical or mental disability which for such individual constitutes or results in a substantial handicap to employment and (B) can reasonably be expected to benefit in terms of employability from vocational rehabilitation services provided pursuant to titles I and III of this Act.”
But the 1974 Amendment stipulated,
“any person who (A) has a physical or mental impairment which substantially limits one or more of such person's major life activities, (B) has a record of such an impairment, or (C) is regarded as having such an impairment.”
As you can see, that’s a big deal – the “reasonable expectation of benefit” has been removed – possibly because deciding what is “reasonable” is always a loaded topic. Also, the “proof” of impairment was widened considerably.
If the accessibility discussion started in the late 60s and 70s, the primary legislation did not happen until 1990 – and that is only yesterday! The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. § 12101) prohibits unjustified discrimination based on disability. According to Wikipedia, the bill was modeled on the Civil Rights Act of the 60s, but was modified and debated in a way that seems very familiar. Apparently, churches complained that they were not “public places” and, according to Wikipedia,
“Church groups such as the National Association of Evangelicals testified against the ADA's Title I employment provisions on grounds of religious liberty.”
(The more things change, the more they remain the same…) Also:
“Testifying before Congress, Greyhound Bus Lines stated that the act had the potential to ‘deprive millions of people of affordable intercity public transportation and thousands of rural communities of their only link to the outside world.’”6
Obviously that didn’t happen, which is something we all need to remember when we hear these cries of hardship, like we are hearing about Obamacare.
But there was also disagreement about which disabilities and how much to cover and how much “mainstream” to insist upon. So there was much delay, until a rather dramatic event occurred.7
“After the day’s rally and speeches, over 60 activists abandoned their wheelchairs and mobility devices and began crawling the 83 stone steps up to the U.S. Capitol Building. During which people were loudly chanting ‘What do we want?’ ‘ADA!’ ‘When do we want it?’ ‘NOW!’”.
The Capitol Crawlers, as they came to be known, apparently shamed the legislators into moving forward with passage if the bill. If you haven’t seen it – here’s footage, and I doubt you can watch with a dry eye.
So once the concept of disability rights became codified, there were individual applications that were very important. For example, under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (1990), a school district must provide every disabled child with an Individualized Education Plan (IEP). I have been to a couple of meetings, which usually involve school administrators and the child’s guardians, and can include a professional advocate, interpreters if needed, counselors (like me), and other specialists. This group creates goals for the child and creates a game plan which is reviewed regularly. IDEA was known as the “Education for All Handicapped Children Act” (EHA) from 1975 to 1990. It has its own website, but we probably better check it out soon, before the new Administration gets to it. Oddly, the Dept. of Ed doesn’t have much in the way of history of its forming, so I had to rely on Wikipedia for a lot of this.
In this decade, the guarantee of rights for PWD has become a global effort. Article 9 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities commits signatory countries to provide for full accessibility in their countries. The text was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 13 December 2006, and opened for signature on 30 March 2007. Following ratification by the 20th party, it came into force on 3 May 2008.
Accessibility has many details, and like many folks, I was only familiar with those that most applied to me. Wikipedia is again helpful, defining the difference between assistive and adaptive:
"Assistive technology is the creation of a new device that assists a person in completing a task that would otherwise be impossible. Some examples include new computer software programs…assistive listening devices, including hearing aids, and traffic lights with a standard color code that enables colorblind individuals to understand the correct signal…Adaptive technology is the modification, or adaptation, of existing devices, methods, or the creation of new uses for existing devices, to enable a person to complete a task. Examples include the use of remote controls, and the autocomplete feature in computer word processing programs...”
As we move into a time of almost constant electronic interface, PWD have gained much beneficial technology, but also have to deal with more complicated demands, it seems.
For example, there have been new areas of progress in leisure accessibility. (But these that might be the most threatened because they have not really been enacted yet.) The movie theaters access law came in to affect January 17 of this year, and needs to be completely implemented by June 2, 2018. The Disability Scoop7 says,
“To comply, theaters must make equipment available at a person’s seat so that captioning or audio description is only available to the individual who requests it. In addition, movie theaters are required to notify the public of the availability of such technology and have staff on hand to assist with the equipment. Theaters that show only analog movies are exempt from the new mandate.”
There are also other exceptions, and this could very well be the kind of rulemaking that gets undone quickly. For example, the Access Board continues to work on guidelines that are important to many of us.10
“The Board is developing new guidelines for public rights-of-way that will address various issues, including access for blind pedestrians at street crossings, wheelchair access to on-street parking, and various constraints posed by space limitations, roadway design practices, slope, and terrain. The new guidelines will cover pedestrian access to sidewalks and streets, including crosswalks, curb ramps, street furnishings, pedestrian signals, parking, and other components of public rights-of-way….Once these guidelines are adopted by the Department of Justice, they will become enforceable standards under title II of the ADA.”
Need I say that this new Administration has NO interest in new regulations?
However, the organizations that have worked so hard to acquire these rights are not going to allow them to disappear easily. The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) and DREDF oppose the nomination of Ms. Elizabeth “Betsy” DeVos for Secretary of Education. AAPD also opposes Jeff Sessions. I’m sure they will have much to say going forward. These organizations could use your support!
I want to end with an upbeat note – this is a partial list of some benefits that have been extended to people with disabilities in various places:
nationalpainreport.com/...
And here is a slow but interesting interview with some who were instrumental in the ADA, on its 10th anniversary.
The Making of the ADA - Justin Dart from DREDF on Vimeo.
References and Links:
- www.disabilityhistory.org
- www.disabilityhistory.org/…
- www.access-board.gov
- www.nycgovparks.org/...
- dredf.org/...
- www.gpo.gov/...
- en.wikipedia.org/...
- www.historybyzim.com/...
- Movie Theaters Target of New ADA Mandate : www.disabilityscoop.com/...
- www.access-board.gov/…
American Association of People with Disabilities: www.aapd.com
Illustrations from Wikimedia Commons
UPDATE: As we feared, they are already working to dismantle what we have worked hard for:
www.alternet.org/...
Washington’s two U.S. Senators Maria Cantwell (D) and Patty Murray (D) have demanded to know why the Department of Education has deactivated a website dedicated to empowering and assisting students with disabilities and their families.
Cantwell and Murray said in a Friday press release that newly sworn-in Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos must “provide an immediate and detailed explanation for why the resource website for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) has disappeared
…The IDEA website was set up under Pres. George W. Bush’s Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings so that “educators, advocates and parents could get a ‘one-stop’ explanation on the federal Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA), as well as know their rights under the disability law,” said SeattlePI.com.
Cantwell and Murray’s statement continued, “The website has provided accessible and informative summaries of the law, training materials, sample educational forms, presentations for the public, and so many other user-friendly resources.”
The web address now redirects users to a site that “lacks much of the information previously available.”
UPDATE 2:
Apparently DeVos is now saying it was “technical difficulties”…. hmmm…. covered well here:
www.dailykos.com/…
KosAbility is a volunteer diarist community meeting the last Sunday of each month at 4pm PT/7pm ET. We embrace people living with disabilities, who love someone with a disability, or who want to know more about the issues. Our use of "disability" includes temporary as well as permanent health/medical conditions, and small, gnawing problems as well as major, life-threatening ones. Our use of "love someone" extends to cherished members of other species. Our discussions are open threads in the context of this community. Feel free to comment on the diary topic, ask questions of the diarist or generally to everyone, share something you've learned, tell bad jokes, post photos, or rage about your situation. If you are interested in contributing a diary, contact Besame, wilderness voice, Steven Park, or CathyM.
Monday, Feb 27, 2017 · 3:46:29 PM +00:00
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CathyM
Monday: here’s a perfect example of the struggles still going on (worth reading the whole thing):
http://katu.com/news/local/man-born-without-arms-sues-kroger-for-wrongful-termination
PORTLAND, Ore. — A disabled man says he was wrongfully terminated because he could not walk his bicycle or carry it up and down a flight of stairs at a Southeast Portland business park.
Michael Trimble, 31, is suing the Kroger supermarket chain and Elwood Staffing Services, a temporary hiring agency that placed him at Kroger’s corporate offices in Southeast Portland. He says their discrimination and retaliation violated the Americans With Disabilities Act and resulted in his wrongful firing.
Trimble was born in Russia, around the time of the Chernobyl, Ukraine nuclear disaster in 1987. The power plant explosion sent plumes of radioactive smoke over Eastern Europe, killing 31 people and causing a spike in birth defects.
Trimble's disability is obvious and severe -- he’s missing both arms.
…rimble went through Elwood's office skills testing. He used his feet to perform all of the tests that others would use with their hands and arms to accomplish. He passed them all.
On Jan. 25, 2016, Elwood offered him a position in Kroger's human resources department, answering phone calls and typing reports.
…For more than a month, Kroger allowed Trimble to walk his bike through the building's front door. That suddenly changed when Kroger moved Trimble to its company's customer relations center.
Trimble says the company's loss prevention/security officer told him he had to walk his bike through the pavilion and enter the building through the building's rear entrance. To access the bike storage room from there, Trimble says he had to pass the smoker's area, then carry his bike up and down a flight of stairs.
…"I wasn't being fired for performance," Trimble said. "She said Kroger was very impressed, but it was over this whole damn biking thing and they didn't want me biking across the pavilion."
According to court documents, an Elwood representative told Trimble, "if you can't follow a simple direction such as not biking through the pavilion, how can Kroger expect you to follow more specific direction on taking calls in the future."...