Social movements and activism as a method to reach for power in a world content with sidelining us.
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Non violent social movements can and have shaped policy. People with disabilities’, for example, right to work is a result of strategic, organized, collective public disobedience. Through actions like marches - even crawls - sit-ins, and social demonstrations advocates fought for the right to work. Restricting non violent protests and these acts from civil society would then also restrict some of the main ways policy has been propelled forward. Social movement theorists have stated the importance of networks such as colleges, social media, work, unions or more.
The disability rights movement has risen and settled in waves that span across time. The first disability rights organization was formed in 1880 and movements have continued to mobilize to the present day. Access and the right to work were key themes in each movement. Structures were built for one type of body only, making them inaccessible to others with limited mobility automatically segregating them from the richness of participation; participation, whether it be in education, playground fun, or the workforce. Richness was lost in both a figurative and a literal sense. Those with disabilities couldn’t work in the structure as it was. The rise of capitalism further conflated social life and job status. The fusion of wage labor, productivity, and independence further segregated disabled workers. In this paper, I will briefly describe some of the networks, tactics and goals of the disability rights movement. I will then briefly describe the longest sit-in; the Section 504 sit-in.
Because there are so many different types of disabilities and because each organization defined itself based off of a single disability, early on there wasn’t much cross-network communication between organizations. In fact, some groups even discriminated against certain disabilities in order to prop themselves up and reach their ultimate goal of participation in society. For example, in 1880 the National Association of the Deaf overturned a civil service commission ban on hiring deaf workers. One of the tactics used in protesting equal employment was to exemplify their physical ability, citing language as the only difference between them and the majority of the population. This focus on physical ability created division between them and others who had mobility disabilities. The organization dwindled out after reaching their goal of overturning the ban. Yet their accomplishments shifted it from being illegal to legal to hire deaf workers.
Nothing was given easily, we had to continuously apply pressure to be seen and heard and for systems of society to change.
The 1930’s brought another wave of disability rights movements. Several organizations were formed at the local and national level. The National Association of the Blind, formed in the
1930’s, was the second to work the tactic of separating themselves from those with mobility issues. They focused on the fact that they were physically able to work and should be allowed to. Thus, within this singular movement for disability rights, they created divisions between themselves and other organizations to distinguish themselves.
Yet at the same moment in history, polio had just spread rampantly for a decade prior and was still not eradicated. The President himself had a mobility disability due to polio and was a wheelchair user. This greatly paved the way for those with mobility disabilities to begin to gather and organize. The president founded Warm Springs Polio Rehabilitation Center, which provided a very important gathering place for others with polio. The group Polio Crusaders formed from attendees of the rehabilitation center. The demographic was largely middle class and white. Before 1964, black disabled citizens' segregation was compounded which has lasting impacts today. I will expand on this more in future blogs.
The 1970’s gave rise to yet another wave of the disability rights movement. The legislation Rehabilitation Act was signed into existence in 1973 and there was an awareness of cognitive liberation; the feeling that things could really change. However, by 1977 Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act had still not been promulgated. The sit-in for Section 504 promulgation paved the way for future legislation to be passed supporting those with disabilities. Lastly, the successes of the 1970’s paved the way for the Americans with Disabilities Act to pass in 1990.
Main Goals
In one sense, there can be an analysis of the waves of protest through time. In another sense, there can be an analysis of the goals of the various movements. There were three main mobilizing factors of the disability rights movement. One main focus was the ability to work. The second was on deinstitutionalization. Prior to the 1970’s, parents were strongly encouraged to place disabled children into an institution. There they lived separate from society. However, most of the people there could get their needs met at home, with some additional assistance. Advocates mobilized to take people out of the institutions and provide better care for them at home, focusing on at home care and benefits. There was also a focus for better services within state run institutions.
The third mobilizing factor was independent living. The focus was on providing assistance for disabled individuals so that they could live as independently as possible. Access to education, employment, and public transport were all key aspects of independent living. The third mobilizing factor was civil rights activism. Here, the focus was on anti discrimination and equal opportunity. This gave rise to something called full citizenship; political participation, physical access, and social and economic citizenship (Patterson, 2018).
Longest Sit-In
In 1977, the sit-in at the Department of Housing, Education and Welfare (HEW) began. Nixon’s administration had failed to promulgate Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. This Act was the first general disability rights legislation in the United States and was directly modeled after Section 601 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Section 504 was the anti discrimination portion of the Rehabilitation Act.
On April 5, 1977, Judith Heumann and the organization Disabled in Action, led a march from the capital building to the HEW office. Demonstrations were held outside HEW offices in 9 different cities, but the San Francisco sit-in lasted the longest. Advocates left two days after HEW Secretary Califano signed regulations for Section 504, on April 30. They sat in for a total 25 days. Within this time frame the city cut off the power to the building.
The Section 504 sit-in is an important event in history. It illustrates perseverance. Perseverance was nothing new for this group of people. Each day they persevered through a different lived experiene. In addition to this, they also faced the burden of a disabling society. Even still, that burden didn’t stop them from persevering through the discomfort and through the barriers; both physical and ideological.
They were successful in promulgating the Section 504 legislation which laid the foundation for the Americans with Disabilities Act.
In Conclusion,
In general, the disability rights movement is rich, with organizations forming throughout almost every decade since 1880. These movements have used traditional forms of lobbying as well as focused marches, protests and even public displays of protest such as sit-ins and the ADAPT’s “Capitol Crawl”. Each one of these mobilizations was simply a call for participation in the life of one’s society.
Anyone with a disability knows how important community, social life, and the ability to be a part of it is because they know what it means to be segregated from it. The successes of these movements are many, and yet there is still work to do.
Bibliography
Barnartt, S., and Scotch, R.K. (2001) Disability Protest: Contentious Politics 1970–1990. Gallaudet University Press, Washington, DC.
Brown LD. Civil rights and regulatory wrongs: the Reagan administration and the medical treatment of handicapped infants. J Health Polit Policy Law. 1986 Summer;11(2):231-54. doi: 10.1215/03616878-11-2-231. PMID: 3745838.
Greene, Kyra R. Disability Rights Movement (United States). Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2013.
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration & Management. “Section 504, Rehabilitation Act of 1973”. US Department of Labor. https://www.dol.gov/agencies/oasam/centers-offices/civil-rights-center/statutes/section-504-rehabilitation-act-of-1973. Accessed 27 Feb. 2021.
Patterson, Lindsey. The Disability Rights Movement in the United States. The Oxford Handbook of Disability History. 2018.
Percy, Stephen L. Disability, civil rights, and public policy : the politics of implementation / Stephen L. Percy University of Alabama Press Tuscaloosa 1989
Scotch, Richard K. “Politics and Policy in the History of the Disability Rights Movement.” The Milbank Quarterly, vol. 67, 1989, pp. 380–400. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3350150. Accessed 27 Feb. 2021.
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