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soc_puppetI needed to do a five-to-seven minute history presentation for my Intro to Human Services class (with visual aids), and pick a topic from a pre-selected list; I chose the ADA, and presented on Wednesday. I got 100% 😃
Anyway, here's what I wrote, for anyone interested: The History of the ADA
The fight for disability rights in the United States has had a long and difficult history. From disabled immigrants being turned away at Ellis Island out of fear that they would be a drain on local resources [1], to so-called “ugly laws” passed after the Civil War, designed to keep visibly poor and disabled people out of sight [2], disabled people have faced many challenges. However, disabled activists and their allies have also made tremendous progress.
Inspired by the civil rights movement, disability rights activists began to organize in the mid 1900s. While many individuals and organizations had previously self-segregated based on type or origin of disability—from sensory to mobility related, congenital to work or war related in origin, and so on—the civil rights movements inspired disability activists to look past these artificial barriers and team up to better fight the more relevant barriers to their own best lives [3].
One of these fights was for the 1973 Rehabilitation Act. While the New Deal did a lot of good work, disabled individuals were not specifically included in it, nor were some other marginalized groups. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act sought not only to change that by recognizing disabled people as discriminated against, but to extend the rights of access and accommodation in all government buildings and services.
While the Act itself was passed in 1973, it took four years for Section 504 to be enforced, with disabled activists protesting all over the country. Most notable was the sit-in at the San Francisco Health, Education, and Wellness building, which lasted for twenty-five days and had support from outside groups, including the Black Panther Party. To this day, the 504 sit-in holds the record for the longest occupation of a government building in the United States. [3]
Unfortunately, while securing the enforcement Section 504 was a great victory in itself, it only extended to government buildings and services; the private sector could still legally discriminate against people with disabilities, and frequently did so. Polio survivor and vice-chair of the National Council on Disability Justin Dart Jr and his wife, Yoshiko, went to work in 1981 to collect the stories of disabled people around the United States in hopes of creating legislation that would finally address the problems they faced. [4] Together with Lex Frieden, an executive director of the National Council on Disability [5], they helped draft the bill that would ultimately become the Americans with Disabilities Act. While the bill's primary sponsor was Congressman Tony Coelho of California, it ultimately ended up with over two hundred co-sponsors [6].
At the same time, businesses fought hard against the ADA, claiming that making accommodations and remodeling would be too expensive; as one example, Greyhound Busses claimed that adding lifts to all of their vehicles would bankrupt the business. Churches and other houses of worship also opposed the bill, saying that it was an overreach of the government, breaking the separation of church and state. [7] Nonetheless, activists, as well as Coelho in the House, Iowa's Tom Harkin in the Senate, and their congressional supporters, continued to fight. One of the more significant moments was known as the Capitol Crawl, when members of the activist group ADAPT left their wheelchairs and hauled themselves bodily up the steps to the capitol building, "creating," as the GovFacts page describes it, "a powerful visual symbol of the barriers they faced daily". [8]
In 1990, after a drawn out fight and more than a few concessions, the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law by President George H. W. Bush. Private businesses were now legally required to accommodate disabled individuals, and any who still faced discrimination had the power to take the offending businesses to court. Because of the ADA, any building where we may be employed as a social worker must be disability accessible; we may also be required to provide materials in Braille, employ a sign language interpreter, or any number of other accommodations. [8]
Unfortunately, for all of its strengths, the Act still falls short of the ideal of true equality for people with disabilities. Creator of the Disability Pride flag, Ann Magill, told me: “[The ADA] provides a "Letter of the Law" for companies and govt. agencies to follow, and thereby giving them an out on not following the spirit of the law. For just one example, the law says there must be curb cuts at every corner. The development I live in has curb cuts at every corner... and zero sidewalks connecting them.” The ADA also has very little enforcement power, aside from giving individuals the power to sue—a complex and lengthy process at best. [9]
Disabled individuals also face problems the ADA doesn’t address: Those receiving social security benefits will lose them if they get married, even if the person they would like to marry is also surviving on social security benefits. The enforcement of this is so strict, individuals seen as domestic partners (or “holding out as married”) can have their SSI checks reduced or eliminated entirely, regardless of whether a legal marriage has taken place. [10] In addition, unless an individual has one of the recently introduced ABLE accounts, they can have no more than $2000 in their bank account or risk losing benefits. Additionally, paying disabled individuals sub-minimum wage in certain jobs is still legal in thirty-four states, including Iowa [11]. These things can make it difficult, if not outright impossible, to save any meaningful amount of money! These are among the things we may be called on to help our clients with as social workers.
Still, regardless of how far there is left to go, we cannot ignore the great progress that has been made. Instead, we should use it to inspire us in the continuing fight for true equality.
[2] - https://youtu.be/yk0rWUthTaY
[3] - A Disability History of the United States by Kim E. Nielsen
[4] - https://www.cdrnys.org/blog/advocacy/a-short-history-of-justin-dart-jr-father-of-the-ada/
[5] - https://www.rosariumhealth.com/blog/the-torchbearer-for-disability-rights-lex-frieden
[6] - https://adalive.org/episodes/episode-83/
[7] - https://www.civics101podcast.org/civics-101-episodes/ep113
[8] - https://govfacts.org/history/the-americans-with-disabilities-act-of-1990/
[9] - Interview with Ann Magill
[10] - https://howtogeton.wordpress.com/holding-out-as-a-married-couple-ssi-regulationsv/
[11] - https://www.gao.gov/blog/some-states-are-eliminating-subminimum-wages-people-disabilities-what-does-mean-workers
Notes: The class has an emphasis on the idea that we're going to be social workers, and one of the objectives of the paper was to explain how the topic tied into social work, so that's the reason for those lines.
Side note, one of my classmates picked the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiments, and her presentation was both fantastic and available on YouTube! Great use of humor to balance out a very dark topic. If you've got about six minutes, I recommend giving it a watch 👍
Anyway, here's what I wrote, for anyone interested: The History of the ADA
The fight for disability rights in the United States has had a long and difficult history. From disabled immigrants being turned away at Ellis Island out of fear that they would be a drain on local resources [1], to so-called “ugly laws” passed after the Civil War, designed to keep visibly poor and disabled people out of sight [2], disabled people have faced many challenges. However, disabled activists and their allies have also made tremendous progress.
Inspired by the civil rights movement, disability rights activists began to organize in the mid 1900s. While many individuals and organizations had previously self-segregated based on type or origin of disability—from sensory to mobility related, congenital to work or war related in origin, and so on—the civil rights movements inspired disability activists to look past these artificial barriers and team up to better fight the more relevant barriers to their own best lives [3].
One of these fights was for the 1973 Rehabilitation Act. While the New Deal did a lot of good work, disabled individuals were not specifically included in it, nor were some other marginalized groups. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act sought not only to change that by recognizing disabled people as discriminated against, but to extend the rights of access and accommodation in all government buildings and services.
While the Act itself was passed in 1973, it took four years for Section 504 to be enforced, with disabled activists protesting all over the country. Most notable was the sit-in at the San Francisco Health, Education, and Wellness building, which lasted for twenty-five days and had support from outside groups, including the Black Panther Party. To this day, the 504 sit-in holds the record for the longest occupation of a government building in the United States. [3]
Unfortunately, while securing the enforcement Section 504 was a great victory in itself, it only extended to government buildings and services; the private sector could still legally discriminate against people with disabilities, and frequently did so. Polio survivor and vice-chair of the National Council on Disability Justin Dart Jr and his wife, Yoshiko, went to work in 1981 to collect the stories of disabled people around the United States in hopes of creating legislation that would finally address the problems they faced. [4] Together with Lex Frieden, an executive director of the National Council on Disability [5], they helped draft the bill that would ultimately become the Americans with Disabilities Act. While the bill's primary sponsor was Congressman Tony Coelho of California, it ultimately ended up with over two hundred co-sponsors [6].
At the same time, businesses fought hard against the ADA, claiming that making accommodations and remodeling would be too expensive; as one example, Greyhound Busses claimed that adding lifts to all of their vehicles would bankrupt the business. Churches and other houses of worship also opposed the bill, saying that it was an overreach of the government, breaking the separation of church and state. [7] Nonetheless, activists, as well as Coelho in the House, Iowa's Tom Harkin in the Senate, and their congressional supporters, continued to fight. One of the more significant moments was known as the Capitol Crawl, when members of the activist group ADAPT left their wheelchairs and hauled themselves bodily up the steps to the capitol building, "creating," as the GovFacts page describes it, "a powerful visual symbol of the barriers they faced daily". [8]
In 1990, after a drawn out fight and more than a few concessions, the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law by President George H. W. Bush. Private businesses were now legally required to accommodate disabled individuals, and any who still faced discrimination had the power to take the offending businesses to court. Because of the ADA, any building where we may be employed as a social worker must be disability accessible; we may also be required to provide materials in Braille, employ a sign language interpreter, or any number of other accommodations. [8]
Unfortunately, for all of its strengths, the Act still falls short of the ideal of true equality for people with disabilities. Creator of the Disability Pride flag, Ann Magill, told me: “[The ADA] provides a "Letter of the Law" for companies and govt. agencies to follow, and thereby giving them an out on not following the spirit of the law. For just one example, the law says there must be curb cuts at every corner. The development I live in has curb cuts at every corner... and zero sidewalks connecting them.” The ADA also has very little enforcement power, aside from giving individuals the power to sue—a complex and lengthy process at best. [9]
Disabled individuals also face problems the ADA doesn’t address: Those receiving social security benefits will lose them if they get married, even if the person they would like to marry is also surviving on social security benefits. The enforcement of this is so strict, individuals seen as domestic partners (or “holding out as married”) can have their SSI checks reduced or eliminated entirely, regardless of whether a legal marriage has taken place. [10] In addition, unless an individual has one of the recently introduced ABLE accounts, they can have no more than $2000 in their bank account or risk losing benefits. Additionally, paying disabled individuals sub-minimum wage in certain jobs is still legal in thirty-four states, including Iowa [11]. These things can make it difficult, if not outright impossible, to save any meaningful amount of money! These are among the things we may be called on to help our clients with as social workers.
Still, regardless of how far there is left to go, we cannot ignore the great progress that has been made. Instead, we should use it to inspire us in the continuing fight for true equality.
Sources
[1] - https://15minutehistory.org/podcast/episode-92-disability-history-in-the-united-states/[2] - https://youtu.be/yk0rWUthTaY
[3] - A Disability History of the United States by Kim E. Nielsen
[4] - https://www.cdrnys.org/blog/advocacy/a-short-history-of-justin-dart-jr-father-of-the-ada/
[5] - https://www.rosariumhealth.com/blog/the-torchbearer-for-disability-rights-lex-frieden
[6] - https://adalive.org/episodes/episode-83/
[7] - https://www.civics101podcast.org/civics-101-episodes/ep113
[8] - https://govfacts.org/history/the-americans-with-disabilities-act-of-1990/
[9] - Interview with Ann Magill
[10] - https://howtogeton.wordpress.com/holding-out-as-a-married-couple-ssi-regulationsv/
[11] - https://www.gao.gov/blog/some-states-are-eliminating-subminimum-wages-people-disabilities-what-does-mean-workers
Notes: The class has an emphasis on the idea that we're going to be social workers, and one of the objectives of the paper was to explain how the topic tied into social work, so that's the reason for those lines.
Side note, one of my classmates picked the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiments, and her presentation was both fantastic and available on YouTube! Great use of humor to balance out a very dark topic. If you've got about six minutes, I recommend giving it a watch 👍
no subject
Date: 2025-09-27 08:14 pm (UTC)I think I have your third source around here somewhere... Haven't read it in a while, though.
So... The teacher gave you 100% ... How did your classmates react? (especially the marriage equality bit)
no subject
Date: 2025-09-27 10:34 pm (UTC)My classmates seemed pretty interested overall! Honestly, all of the topics were interesting. IIRC, they laughed at the sheer WTF of "and zero sidewalks connecting them". During the after-presentation questions, one of the students raised her hand to talk about how she'd never heard of the marriage equality thing—and was preempted by the teacher saying she'd never heard about it!
We all agreed that it's deeply messed up, and were like, "WTF, where are disabled people supposed to even get healthcare and support if their social security stuff is taken away? Especially if they marry each other? What even is the logic?!" I explained that the government probably plans on disabled people marrying someone who has excellent healthcare through their job—something that's happening less and less nowadays, and we're not even going to get into the "pre-existing condition" bullshit of before Obamacare. (I didn't mention that disabled people not getting needed healthcare was probably a feature rather than a bug, mostly because I wasn't sure how much it would be rocking the boat. In retrospect, it probably would've been an acceptable level, especially since on of the other groups did their presentation on Eugenics, so I'll be keeping that in mind for the rest of the class.)
Anyway, the teacher went on to suggest that sometimes social work can be done through trying to get laws changed, and if we thought any of this was unfair, trying to get it fixed was a path we could take. Which I thought was pretty cool of her.
no subject
Date: 2025-09-27 11:43 pm (UTC)Indeed it was.
BTW, I don't know if you saw these Tumblr posts, but
Turns out that the guy who first coined the phrase "The Social Model of Disability" (as I found out on Wikipedia), was Mike Oliver: a spinal chord injury survivor who went on to get his degree in Sociology.
no subject
Date: 2025-10-04 02:04 am (UTC)😮 I'll have to read more about him!
no subject
Date: 2025-10-04 04:32 pm (UTC)(Though I might buy myself a more cheerful book for my birthday ...)
no subject
Date: 2025-09-29 05:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-10-04 02:03 am (UTC)Good Job
Date: 2025-10-07 08:39 pm (UTC)Got lots of info in, and your social-worker tie-ins are good hooks for your audience.
One of the positive things for me about being disabled has been the time to read some history.
I strongly recommend Corbett O'Toole's My Fading Scars. She was there at the 504 sit-in and at least 45 other important turning points. She makes a point of using plain language in her history, and she does a great job of moving the spotlight from a few leaders to the communal efforts of tens of thousands.
Kim Neilsen's book is also very reliable.
Re: Good Job
Date: 2025-10-08 02:29 am (UTC)😮 Rec noted! I'll add it to my wish list... somewhere. Dunno when or if I'll get around to reading it, but it can't hurt to have a copy on my shelf, virtual or otherwise!