The Fight For Accessibility
Disability Rights Activists and the Americans with Disabilities Act
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in all aspects of public life. Because of the ADA, many people with disabilities are better able to live independently than ever before. But it hasn't always been this way, and the road to the passing of the ADA was long. Disability activists from all over the country worked hard to bring attention to issues of accessibility and discrimination, and public protests were essential to putting pressure on governmental actors to pass the ADA.
In celebration of 30 years of the ADA, let's look at eight of the most significant disability rights protests from the second half of the twentieth century.
504 Now Occupation: April 5, 1977
Activists staged sit-ins in federal buildings across the country to demand implementation of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. This provision, which had been modeled after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, prohibited recipients of federal aid from discriminating against anyone with a disability. In San Francisco, demonstrators ended up occupying the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare building for over a month.
Image Credit: Anthony Tusler
Gang of 19 Protest: July 5, 1978
A group of 19 activists got out of their wheelchairs in a busy intersection and blocked traffic to demand accessible public transportation.
Image Credit: Glen Martin, the Denver Post
Gallaudet Deaf President Now: March 6-11, 1988
The Board of Trustees of Gallaudet University, a school for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, announced on March 6th that they had appointed a new President for the University who was hearing. In response, Deaf students organized a week of protests, sit ins, marches, and demonstrations under the demand "Deaf President Now." The events attracted nationwide attention, and after a week of protests, the Board of Trustees appointed a Deaf person to the position.
Image Credit: USA Today
Mother's Day March: May 14th, 1989
On Mother's Day in 1989, the National Council on Independent Living (NCIL) organized a march of protesters from the Capitol to the White House to pressure President Bush to support the proposed Americans with Disabilities Act. Much to their surprise, the march actually got the organizers a meeting with White House staff the next day.
ADAPT Protest: September 24, 1989
Over 100 members of ADAPT, Americans Disabled for Accessible Public Transit, protested the American Public Transportation Association's annual convention due to the APTA's opposition to the ADA.
Image Credit: Tom Olin
ADAPT Protest: September 25, 1989
The day after their protest at the APTA convention, ADAPT conducted a sit-in of the Richard B. Russell Federal Building. Organizers hoped to get the Secretary of Transportation to sign an executive order that would mandate the accessibility of all new public transit buses. Activists used bike locks to chain themselves and their wheelchairs to doors to prevent access.
Image Credit: ADAPT Online Museum
ADAPT Protest: September 27, 1989
ADAPT protestors took over the Atlanta Greyhound Bus terminal, shutting down operations to urge the company to buy buses with accessible lifts.
Image Credit: Tom Olin
Capitol Crawl: March 12, 1990
Wheelchair-using ADAPT protestors, as part of their "Wheels of Justice" campaign, left their wheelchairs behind and physically crawled up the Eastern steps of the U.S. Capitol in a demonstration of both the building's physical inaccessibility, and the inaccessibility of the government to its constituents.
Image Credit: Jeff Markowitz
The Capitol Crawl is one of the most significant and highly publicized events of disability activism in American history.
Video Credit: Stephanie K. Thomas, ADAPT Online Museum
What can we learn from the history of protest surrounding disability rights?
Accessibility and protection from discrimination for disabled people is a civil rights issue.
Disabled Americans deserve the same opportunities to live, learn, work, and thrive in our society as able-bodied Americans.
Image Credit: Star Tribune
Disability rights activists coordinated direct action that led to the passing of the ADA.
Without the work of grassroots community organizers across the country, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 would not have been possible.
Image Credit: Tom Olin
While the ADA was a landmark act of justice for disabled Americans, we still have a long way to go.
Even today, thirty years later, the ADA has yet to be fully implemented. Many historic buildings have yet to be renovated, and new construction tends to meet the bare minimum of compliance requirements.
Image Credit: Stephanie Keith, Getty Images
Take, for example, the William & Mary campus:
Map Credit: Grace Elman
Almost every path on Old Campus has stairs, and some buildings remain completely inaccessible for those with mobility impairments because they lack an access ramp.
