Disability rights movement
Definition Social movement to win and protect
rights of equal access and equal treatment for
people with physical and mental disabilities
The disability rights movement emerged in the United States
during the 1970’s, and it gained momentum in the 1980’s,
despite federal governmental challenges and setbacks in fed-
eral courts.
Disability rights activists had reason to be both opti-
mistic and concerned in the early 1980’s. United Na-
tions resolutions made 1981 the International Year of
Disabled Persons and 1982-1993 the Decade of Dis-
abled Persons. The Independent Living Movement
took hold globally, and governments in developed
and developing countries made progress in their dis-
ability policies. Prospects in the United States were
less encouraging. President Ronald Reagan’s admin-
istration sought to reduce the federal government’s
size and spending, which endangered legislative gains
disability rights activists had made in the 1970’s. At
risk were the 1973 Rehabilitation Act, which banned
disability-based discrimination in federally funded
institutions and programs, and the 1975 Education
for All Handicapped Children Act (later known as In-
dividuals with Disabilities Education Act or IDEA),
which required public education to take place in the
least restrictive feasible environment.
Responses to Federal Resistance Organizations
such as the Disability Rights Education and Defense
Fund (DREDF) began working against President
Reagan’s policies during his first year in office (1981).
Citizens who wrote letters to elected officials to op-
pose weakening disability rights laws were crucial to
the lobbying campaign. Such efforts earned disabil-
ity rights advocates an advantage by the decade’s
midpoint: Vice President George H. W. Bush unex-
pectedly began to support some of the movement’s
demands, and the Reagan administration reduced
somewhat its resistance to regulation in the context
of disability rights. The Rehabilitation Act and IDEA
survived, and several new measures became law,
among them the Employment Opportunities for
Disabled Americans Act (1986), the Fair Housing
Act Amendments (1988), and the Civil Rights Resto-
ration Act (1988).
The judicial system was another key front in the
1980’s disability rights struggle, with federal courts
sometimes limiting the scope and application of
laws. Activists were disappointed by U.S. Supreme
Court decisions regarding IDEA (Hudson Central
School District v. Rowley, 1982) and the Rehabilitation
Act (Bowen v. American Hospital Association, also known
as the “Baby Jane Doe” case, 1986). Results were
more favorable in federal appeals and circuit courts,
as inADAPT v. Skinner(1989), which improved pub-
lic transportation accessibility, andDaniel R. R. v.
State Board of Education(1989), which strengthened
IDEA.
Prominent Organizations and Leaders A prolifera-
tion of new organizations reflected the movement’s
energy and diversity. National Black Deaf Advocates
(founded 1980) and the Association of Late Deaf-
ened Adults (founded 1987) fortified the deaf and
hard-of-hearing communities. The alliance of femi-
nism and disability rights grew stronger with the cre-
ation of the Networking Project on Disabled Women
and Girls and the Womyn’s Braille Press (both 1980).
Concrete Change (founded 1986) worked for acces-
sibility in public housing. American Disabled for
Accessible Public Transit (ADAPT, now known as
American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today)
took radical action throughout the decade, expand-
ing its agenda from public transportation to support
for the Americans with Disabilities Act (1990, also
known as the ADA).
The movement had multiple leaders rather than
a single unifying figure. In 1983, Californians Ed-
ward Roberts and Judith Heumann built on their
work in the 1970’s by establishing the World Insti-
tute on Disability. Washington, D.C., was a major site
for activism, with Patrisha Wright of DREDF and
Evan Kemp of the Disability Rights Center fighting
against the Reagan administration and for the ADA.
Another agent of change in Washington was Justin
Dart, whose personal experience with polio, finan-
cial wealth, and government connections were in-
dispensable to the movement. At Washington’s
Gallaudet University, where the curriculum is de-
signed for deaf and hard-of-hearing persons, stu-
dent leaders organized demonstrations that gave
the institution its first deaf president in 1988.
Disability Culture and Disability Studies Disability
rights spokespersons asserted themselves in litera-
ture, journalism, performing and visual arts, and ac-
ademia during the 1980’s. Movement periodicals in-
cludedThe Disability Rag(founded 1980, now titled290 Disability rights movement The Eighties in America