Over the last couple of decades, the disability rights movement has gained much more momentum and relevance in a society built around the able person. The fight for equal rights for disabled people started long before the passing of the American Disabilties Act in the late 20th century, which marked the first global comprehensive legislation in protecting civil rights for people with disabilities (Mayerson, 1992).
The work of early local advocacy groups helped to challenge the notion that being disabled meant being condemned to a life of institutionalization. From those small local groups formed larger groups which began to fight for and provide services for people with disabilities to assimilate within the community, such as the right for disabled children to be provided accomodations to learn in the same schools as normal children. As such, these kinds of changes required “reversing the centuries-long [beliefs] of ‘out of sight, out of mind that the segregation of disabled people served to promote’” (Mayerson, 1992). The legislation passed during the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s served as a template for future disability legislation as well. In particular, the passage of section 504, which banned discrimination against disabled persons for organizations that recieved federal funds, had been modeled after Civil Rights legislation that banned discrimination based on race, ethnic origin and sex (Mayerson, 1992).
The ADA owes its existence to all of the people that fought long and hard in attending protests, testifying, negotiating, filing lawsuits and doing whatever else was necessary to fight for a cause they believed in. ADA could have very well not existed without the work of the many dedicated individuals that fought long and hard for the movement.
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Written by: Shreya Bhardwaj
Date Published: 12/15/2023
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SOURCES:
Mayerson, Arlene. “The History of ADA.” Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund, https://dredf.org/about-us/publications/the-history-of-the-ada/. Accessed 15 December 2023.
“25th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.” National Archives |, https://www.archives.gov/calendar/ada25. Accessed 15 December 2023.
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