The Disability Rights Movement

During the Sixties

American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today (ADAPT)

Demonstration, Las Vegas, 1994. Photo courtesy of Tom Olin.

The view on disability has shifted dramatically throughout the years, especially over the past thirty-five years. America’s involvement in two world wars profoundly changed the way people with disabilities were viewed and treated. The first vocational rehabilitation programs were established in the 1920s to provide services to veterans with disabilities and some of the biggest changes came with the civil rights movements of the 1960s.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the country gave birth to the framework of the independent living/disability rights movement. People with disabilities have organized and acted to change the conditions of their own lives. The disability rights movement shares many similarities with other 20th-century civil rights struggles by those who have been denied equality, independence, autonomy, and full access to society.

In this web page, I have included a timeline of some key events of the Disability Rights Movement, as well as two interviews with individuals who are involved in the Disability Rights Movement today.

Timeline

The Disability Rights Movement is ongoing as shown in the following abbreviated chronology of the Disability Rights Movements, which reflects events occurring as far back as the early 1800s. Click here to view a complete listing of the chronology developed by San Francisco State University.

1817	The American School for the Deaf is founded in Hartford, CT, which is the first school for disabled children in the Western Hemisphere.
1864	The Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb and Blind is the first college in the world expressly established for people with disabilities.
1907	The first issue of the Matilda Ziegler Magazine for the Blind is published.
1920	The Fess-Smith Civilian Vocational Rehabilitation Act is passed, creating a vocational rehabilitation program for disabled civilians.
1935	The Social Security Act is passed to establish federal old-age benefits and grants to the states for assistance to blind individuals and disabled children.
1954	Congress passes the Vocational Rehabilitation Amendments, authorizing federal grants to expand programs available to people with physical disabilities.
1956	Congress passes the Social Security Amendments of 1956, which creates a Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program for disabled workers aged 50 to 64.
1962	Edward V. Roberts becomes the first severely disabled student at the University of California at Berkeley.
1963	John Hessler joins Ed Roberts, along with other disabled students, to form the Rolling Quads to advocate for greater access on campus and in the surrounding community.
1964	The Civil Rights Act is passed and will become a model for subsequent disability rights legislation.
1965	Vocational Rehabilitation Amendments of 1965 are passed, authorizing federal governments for the construction of rehabilitation centers and expanding existing vocational rehabilitation programs.
1968	The Architectural Barriers Act is passed, mandating that federally constructed buildings and facilities be accessible to people with physical disabilities.
1970	The Physically Disabled Students Program (PDSP) is founded by Ed Roberts, John Hessler, Hale Zukas and others at the University of California at Berkeley and becomes the nucleus for the first Center for Independent Living (CIL), which is founded in 1972. The CIL also sparks the worldwide independent living movement.
1974	The first Client Assistant Project (CAP) is established to act as advocates for clients of state vocational rehabilitation agencies.
1976	The Disability Rights Center is founded in Washington, D.C.
1979	Vermont Center for Independent Living (VCIL) is founded.
1990	The Americans with Disabilities Act is signed by President George Bush bringing full legal citizenship to Americans with disabilities.
2002	The National Organization on Disability (NOD) releases “The State of the Union 2002 for Americans with Disabilities” document. It calls to expand opportunities for people with disabilities.

Interviews

I chose to interview two individuals who have been involved in the ongoing Disability Rights Movement.

Click on the individuals name to view the interview.

Ø Mr. Barry Bernstein is one of the founders of VCIL, Vermont Center for Independent Living, which is the first disability rights program in the state run and staffed by people with disabilities.

Ø Ms. Deborah Lisi-Baker is the current Director of VCIL and is a member of the National Disability Rights Movement.

Thank you for visiting this web page, which was created by Susan Brouillette for a class project. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please feel free to contact me at susan.Brouillette@uvm.edu.

Last revised: April 27, 2002