History of the Disability Movement

6. History of the Disability Movement Slide presentation available. Contact: Tina Calabro (tina.calabro@verizon.net) Paul O’Hanlon (pohanlon@dlp-pa.org) Photo courtesy of Tom Olin

7. Disability Rights Movement • Struggle to gain full citizenship • Demand for equality, independence, autonomy, access to public life • Integration vs. “separate but equal” Source: American History Museum, Smithsonian Institution

8. In other words… • “No More Pity” • “Access not excuses” • “I’m not dead yet” • “I am not a case, and I don’t need to be managed” • “Same struggle/different difference”

9. Person-First Language

10. Common Reactions to Disability • Assumptions about level of functioning • Focus on limitations • Fear • Ignore the person • Patronize • Pity

11. Many Americans are not aware of the amount of ongoing advocacy needed to ensure equal rights for people with disabilities.

12. Historically… People with disabilities have been forced into dependency. Others speak for them, label them take care of them… often with the best intentions. Source: American History Museum, Smithsonian Institution

13. New Understandings -Disability is part of the human experience. -Barriers are not created by disability, but by society’s response to it. -People with disabilities have a right to participate in all facets of life. -Society has a responsibility to remove the barriers that exclude them.

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15. Late 1700s • Nearly total neglect of people with disabilities • 80% of people in “poor houses” and prison have disabilities • Services for disabled veterans begin. Source: Carol Berrigan, Center for Human Policy, Syracuse University

16. 1800s Rise of “asylums” – institutes for the care of people, especially those with physical and mental disabilities

17. 1817 Gallaudet founded American Asylum for Education and Instruction of the Deaf established in Hartford, CT. Emphasis on development

18. 1812 -- School for blind children opened in Baltimore. Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind (est. 1832) had curriculum like regular schools. • Early “mainstreaming” -- understanding that people who were blind or deaf could be integrated into society, did not need to be sent away to institutions. Source: Carol Berrigan, Center for Human Policy, Syracuse University

19. 1849 Reformer Dorothea Dix demanded state oversight of almshouses, where disabled people, criminals and others were thrown together. Source: ”No Pity,” Joseph P. Shapiro

20. Dix wrote that she had found people with mental illness and retardation “in cages, in closets, cellars. Stalls, pens! Chained, naked, beaten with rods, and lashed into obedience.” • Result: States took over almshouses and built more, and set up specialized facilities for disabled and others who populated the almshouses. Source: “No Pity,” Joseph P. Shapiro

21. 1854 • First legislation to obtain federal funding for facilities for physically and mentally disabled vetoed by President Franklin Pierce. • Set precedent for no federal intervention for next 50 years. Source: “No Pity,” Joseph P. Shapiro

22. 1869 First classroom for children with disabilities (deafness) in regular elementary school (Boston). Later expanded to include other disabilities. • By late 1800s, term “asylum” changed to “hospital,’ “school,” “institute” Source: Carol Berrigan, Center for Human Policy, Syracuse University

23. By 1875 -- 25 state schools and institutes in U.S Although centers may have begun with education in mind, most became custodial, segregated, isolated

24. How Americans Learned about Human Differencein 1800s Dime Museums Freak Shows Cabinet of Curiosities Source: Disability History Museum

25. Eugenics Social philosophy which advocates the improvement of human hereditary traits through intervention.The goal is to create healthier, more intelligent people, save society's resources, and lessen human suffering. Historically, eugenics has been used as a justification for human rights violations, such as forced sterilization of persons with genetic defects. Nazi Germany is example.

26. Between 1909 and 1935, California doctors used eugenics to justify sterilization of 295 patients in Mendocino mental hospital. • By 1933, 26 states had sterilization laws inspired by eugenics. Source: exhibition, “Deadly Medicine: Creating a Master Race,”Andy Warhol Museum, Fall 2006

27. In 1905, Pennsylvania legislature passed a law entitled “An Act for the Prevention of Idiocy.”

28. Governor Samueal Pennypacker vetoed the law. He wrote: “Scientists, like all other men whose experiences have been limited to one pursuit…sometimes need to be restained. Men of high scientific attainment are prone …to lose sight of broad principles outside their domain….To permit such an operation would be to inflict cruelty upon a helpless class…which the state has undertaken to protect.” Source: exhibition, “Deadly Medicine: Creating a Master Race,”Andy Warhol Museum, Fall 2006

29. 1910 Publication of The Jukes: A Study in Crime, Pauperism, Disease and Heredity, Richard Dugsdale. Claimed that mental retardation was the result of “bad blood.” Linked criminal tendencies to “feeblemindedness and mental defect.”

30. 1915 Publication of Menace of Mental Retardation, W.A. Fernald • Crime • Delinquency • Promiscuousness

31. Ideas/Terms Persist • Eugenics, until 1960s • Term “cripple” used from late 18th century to 1970s • Term “defective” used from late 1700s to 1930s • Term “dumb” (unable to speak) used from early 1800s until 1970s.

32. Term “idiot” coined by psychologists in late 19th century to describe person with severe cognitive disability. • Term “moron” coined by psychologists in 1910 to describe person with mental age of 7-12 years old Source: Disability History Museum

33. 1918-1920 First federally-funded rehabilitation programs Disability population grows – WWI veterans, victims of industrial accidents

34. 1930s – 1940s • Depression • Social Security • WWII vets

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36. 1930s - 1940sParents Organize • Parents who did not want their children institutionalized or banned from public schools sought each other and started to organize. • Concerned about lack of community resources and support, need for “special education.”

37. Questioning the statement:“Nothing can be done for your child” • Belief that society has a responsibility to help people with disabilities have decent lives • Advocated for laws that improved education, rehabilitation and civil rights

39. More than 100 responded to the advertisement and more than 200 attended the meeting

40. 88 local groups 33 different organizations in 19 States By 1950… National Association of Parents and Friends of Mentally Retarded Children

41. 1953-1973 1973-1981 1981-1992 1992-present

43. 1950s-1960s • Brown vs. Board of Education (1954) and African American civil rights movement set stage for disability rights advocacy • Civil Rights Act (1964) prohibits discrimination based on race, color, national origin

44. Brown vs Board of Education 1954 Civil Rights Act 1964

45. 1960s • Advocates fight for laws that ensured civil rights, substantive education, and rehabilitation -- and eliminated custodial practices • Federal Bureau for the Handicapped established (1966)

46. International Symbol of Access (1968)

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48. Legislative History 1954 1964 1965 1967 1972 1973 1975 1986 1990 1997 2003 P.L. 101-336 Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) Brown vs Board of Education Civil Rights Act Sec 504 Rehabilitation Act PARC Vs PA Elementary & Secondary Education Act (ESEA) P.L. 94-142 Education of All Handicapped Children Act (EHA) P.L. 99-457 EHA Amendments P.L.101-476 EHA Amendments (Becomes IDEA) P.L. 105-17 IDEA Amendments IDEA Reauthori- zattion Mills Vs Brd of Ed Economic Opportunities Act Amendments (Head Start) Head Start Reauthori- zationt PA MH/MR Act PA Act 212 Adapted from Family First Training, Temple University, 2003

49. De-institutionalization & Normalization Public exposure of inhumane conditions in institutions Families’ desire for children to live at home, attend school, and be part of the community Source: Disability History Museum

50. The Pennsylvania Mental Health/Mental Retardation (MH/MR) Act of 1967: The seeds of deinstitutionalization & normalization