Joanne R. Pompano
The Disability Rights Movement asserts that people with disabilities have the same rights as every citizen. However, throughout history most individuals with disabilities enjoyed few rights or opportunities. Society viewed disabled people with pity and fear or treated with cruelty and ridicule. Discrimination and prejudice trapped countless disabled individuals in poverty, confined them to institutions, and prevented them from enjoying all the freedoms and participating fully in society.
In pre-industrial times, people with disabilities were dependent on others and were often objects of pity. They were dependent to others for all their needs and decisions about their life. Their families, doctors or social workers would speak for them, label them, and take care of them. Often they were unable to support themselves or their families and became recipients of charity. Society denied their rights, equality, and the possibility of integration.
In medieval Europe, disabled people were associated with evil, witchcraft, and the Devil and so were often victims of religious superstition and persecution. In this period, people believed that a child born with disabilities was the result of a mother who supported satanic beliefs. Fueled by hearsay, tales, and superstitions these notions often were examples used by those in power. In fact, in the Bible, the authorities declare that the blind man who comes to Jesus has been born blind because of the sins of his parents.
The beliefs and practices toward people with disabilities that were prevalent in Europe followed settlers to the New World when they migrated to find freedom. In the early years of the United States, society isolated persons with disabilities from society and they often lived their entire lives in hospitals or hidden away by their families at home. At the time, there was a paternalistic view toward people with disabilities. The family and doctors were the primary decision-makers while the person with the disability had little input into his or her own life and destiny.
After the Civil War, there were large numbers of disabled veterans. Because of poor sanitation and primitive medical practices many soldiers lost limbs. Others who witnessed this long, brutal war were discharged but with unresolved mental health problems. Society was not prepared for the number and seriousness of the causalities. During this period, the rate of institutionalization increased because there were no treatments available.
In fact, during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries there developed a large-scale segregation of disabled people away from society into institutional settings such as asylums, hospitals, workhouses and prisons. Often these settings included conditions of intense abuse. Often they were the life-long homes for disabled persons.
In the late nineteenth century, there was a huge growth of heavy industries such as iron, steel and the railways. These workplaces required employees with a higher level of physical fitness and dexterity as a prerequisite for employment. In addition, the age of industrialization brought with it the rise of the factory system and waged labor. It was necessary for workers to complete tasks according to specific standards and within time limits. Anyone who could not meet the required standards because of a disability was unemployable even though they might have contributed previously under other work conditions. Disabled individuals, excluded from the work force, had few other options. The result was that there was again a large increase of those unable to work and again an increase in those institutionalized.
The rise of social Darwinism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries also played an important role in the oppression of disabled people. Charles Darwin published Origin of the Species in 1859 and The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex in 1871. In this text, Darwin talks about how civilized men "build asylums for the imbecile, the maimed, and the sick" while the medical field "exert their utmost to save the life of everyone to the last moment." He concludes: "Thus the weak members of society propagate their kind. No one who has attended to the breeding of domestic animals will doubt that this must be highly injurious to the race of man."
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Such discussion encouraged society to see the birth of disabled children as a threat to preserving the purity of the species.
However, the beginning of the nineteenth century also saw the organization of groups that advocated rights for the disabled and an end to oppression. In fact, there was a dramatic change in attitude toward the some disabled individuals after the 1920's. However, it was not until the late 1960's, when the movements for civil rights, gay rights, and women rights were applying collective political pressures, that disabled people began to unite on a large scale to gain their own rights.
Disability Rights in Post War America
The involvement of the United States in World War I and II had a profound affect on society's view and treatment of people with disabilities. The modern advances in pharmaceuticals and medical techniques allowed many more soldiers to survive the wounds from the war and return home.
Disabled soldiers were a difficult group to ignore. There was a desperate need for rehabilitation training, both physical and mental, to assist the amputee, blind, or shell-shocked ex-soldiers. The U.S. Congress passed the first vocational rehabilitation acts in the 1920's, to provide services to World War I veterans with disabilities.
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On the other hand, many stereotypes and prejudices continued. In 1927, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Buck v. Bell that a Virginia statue permitting the forced sterilization of disabled people was constitutional.
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By 1938, 33 states allowed sterilization. There were more than 63,000 disabled people sterilized without consent between 1921 and 1964.
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The influx of disabled veterans coming home from World War II brought disability rights issues to the forefront again. Further increases in pharmaceutical and medical procedures saved severely wounded soldiers. Thousands of disabled soldiers that would have died on the battlefield in past wars returned home and wanted to get treatment and rehabilitation and re-enter the work force.
There were 671,000 American soldiers wounded in World War II.
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The returning soldiers were often hardened battlefield soldiers who had fought to guarantee rights for people in distance lands. They returned home expecting and demanding no less for themselves. They banded together and formed support groups, such as the National Paraplegia Foundation, to demand assistance and opportunities.
The pressure and persistence worked. Congress passed numerous pieces of legislation, such as the Vocational Rehabilitation Amendments of 1943 and 1954 and Social Security Amendments in the 1950's.
The success of support groups for veterans encouraged the parents and families of disabled children to become vocal advocates. They formed organizations, such as the Association for Retarded Children and National Foundation of Cerebral Palsy. The groups, not only raised money for research and care, but also helped make others aware of the problems faced by disabled people and their loved ones.
Despite the successes, most people with disabilities continued to encounter social prejudice and sanctioned discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodation. School systems barred students from public schools and sent them to live in institutions where they learned such activities as chair caning or making brooms.
In addition, laws prohibited people with certain disabilities from marrying in most states. Moreover, depending on the type of disability, many Americans were confined, sometimes for their entire life, in state institutions and nursing homes. As recently as 1979, it was legal for some state governments to sterilize disabled persons against their will.
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The Independent Living Movement of the late 1960's was an important part of this broader movement for disability rights. This movement was based on the premise that people with severe disabilities should have the same freedom to choose living accommodations in the community as their non-disabled peers.
The Independent Living Movement fought for the adaptations and assistance that was necessary for the most severe of the disabled to live successful in the community such as
services aides to assist with homemaking tasks and personal care, job and school related issues and assistance to help individuals participate in community activities. The independent living movement also advocated for the removal of architectural and transportation barriers that prevent people with disabilities from participating fully in their community. For instance, wheelchair-lifts, ramps and curb cuts provided wheelchairs easier access in the community.
These advances were all life changing for individuals with disabilities. However, they did not gain broad civil rights until the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990. The ADA guarantees that no person with a disability can be excluded, segregated or other wise treated differently than individuals without disabilities. With this Act, Congress identified and ensured full participation, inclusion and integration of people with disabilities as a national goal.
