Significant Figures in the Disability Movement
Jesha Le
Judy Heumann, a disability rights activist who was diagnosed with polio at 18 months. Second, Wade Blank, the founder of American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation (ADAPT) in Denver. Third, Ed Roberts, an American activist diagnosed with polio at the age of 14. The people stood up and stood out for the rights of persons with disabilities.
Judy Heumann was a civil rights advocate for persons with disabilities. As an infant, she was diagnosed with polio. Polio is a viral disease that can affect nerves and can lead to partial or full paralysis. As a child, Judy wasn’t allowed to go to school with other children. She went to school before there were civil rights for students with disabilities. She attended a university that wasn’t designed for students with wheelchairs. She helped organize a group for disabled students to fight for ramps at school. She wanted to become a teacher, but wasn’t allowed to due to her disability. She filed a lawsuit and received her teaching certificate. In 1973, Judy began work in Berkeley, working with other Disability Advocates at the first Center of Independent Living. She led a twenty-eight day sit-in protest about the Rehabilitation Act at a federal building in San Francisco in 1977. In 1981 she helped start the World Institute on Disability (WID). President Clinton appointed Judy Assistant Secretary of The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services (OSERS). She became responsible for all special education and rehabilitation programs for people with disabilities in the United States. After she left that position, she became the Advisor on Disability and Development at The World Bank.
Another leader was, Wade Blank, a civil rights activist who claims to have “freed” people with disabilities. Wade had first experienced people with disabilities when he got a job working with young people with disabilities in a nursing home. While working there, he realized it wasn’t right for people with disabilities to have to live in an institution. He helped to start a Center for Independent Living in Denver, Colorado. He helped many disabled people progress in the right to move out of nursing homes and institutions. Although he helped progress the right to move out, there were still many things communities had limited a disabled person to be capable of. One major issue was public transportation. In 1978, Wade organized the first demonstration to demand buses for disabled people. During this demonstration he was accompanied by nineteen people with disabilities that blocked traffic in an intersection in Denver. This launched the start of ADAPT (American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation). After some years of ADAPT expanding it changed its name to American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today. Since 1990, ADAPT created and helps advocate rights to have in-home personal assistant services instead of having people in disabled homes.
In 1953, Ed Roberts became disabled by Polio at the age of 14. Ed could only move two fingers. When he got older he learned to use his fingers to operate a power wheelchair. He also had to use an iron lung and respiratory machine to help him breathe. After two years of being in the hospital, Ed moved home. He didn’t have any civil rights to go to school, so his family fought schools to allow him to attend. Eventually, Ed was allowed to go to school with other kids. After high school, Ed wanted to study political science at UC Berkeley. He had to fight again just to attend school there. The school wasn’t accessible to people using wheelchairs and none of the dorms had floors strong enough to carry the weight of Ed’s eight-hundred-pound iron lung. He finally started attending the university in 1962 and lived in the campus’ hospital. After he went to school there, more disabled students were allowed to attend. They started a disabled student organization to help make the campus more accessible to disabled students. In 1972, Ed helped the group start the first Center for Independent Living. He served as the director of the Center for Independent Living in Berkeley, then became the first person with a disability to serve as the Director of California’s Office of Vocational Rehabilitation.
There were many leaders in the persons with disabilities movement, but these three stood out. They helped change the way disabled people were treated and taken care of. Judy Heumann helped create ramps for students with disabilities. Wade Blank helped make it so people with disabilities didn’t have to live in an institution. Ed Roberts helped fight for the rights of disabled students to attend school. Each person made a difference whether they had a disability or not.
Judy Heumann was a civil rights advocate for persons with disabilities. As an infant, she was diagnosed with polio. Polio is a viral disease that can affect nerves and can lead to partial or full paralysis. As a child, Judy wasn’t allowed to go to school with other children. She went to school before there were civil rights for students with disabilities. She attended a university that wasn’t designed for students with wheelchairs. She helped organize a group for disabled students to fight for ramps at school. She wanted to become a teacher, but wasn’t allowed to due to her disability. She filed a lawsuit and received her teaching certificate. In 1973, Judy began work in Berkeley, working with other Disability Advocates at the first Center of Independent Living. She led a twenty-eight day sit-in protest about the Rehabilitation Act at a federal building in San Francisco in 1977. In 1981 she helped start the World Institute on Disability (WID). President Clinton appointed Judy Assistant Secretary of The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services (OSERS). She became responsible for all special education and rehabilitation programs for people with disabilities in the United States. After she left that position, she became the Advisor on Disability and Development at The World Bank.
Another leader was, Wade Blank, a civil rights activist who claims to have “freed” people with disabilities. Wade had first experienced people with disabilities when he got a job working with young people with disabilities in a nursing home. While working there, he realized it wasn’t right for people with disabilities to have to live in an institution. He helped to start a Center for Independent Living in Denver, Colorado. He helped many disabled people progress in the right to move out of nursing homes and institutions. Although he helped progress the right to move out, there were still many things communities had limited a disabled person to be capable of. One major issue was public transportation. In 1978, Wade organized the first demonstration to demand buses for disabled people. During this demonstration he was accompanied by nineteen people with disabilities that blocked traffic in an intersection in Denver. This launched the start of ADAPT (American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation). After some years of ADAPT expanding it changed its name to American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today. Since 1990, ADAPT created and helps advocate rights to have in-home personal assistant services instead of having people in disabled homes.
In 1953, Ed Roberts became disabled by Polio at the age of 14. Ed could only move two fingers. When he got older he learned to use his fingers to operate a power wheelchair. He also had to use an iron lung and respiratory machine to help him breathe. After two years of being in the hospital, Ed moved home. He didn’t have any civil rights to go to school, so his family fought schools to allow him to attend. Eventually, Ed was allowed to go to school with other kids. After high school, Ed wanted to study political science at UC Berkeley. He had to fight again just to attend school there. The school wasn’t accessible to people using wheelchairs and none of the dorms had floors strong enough to carry the weight of Ed’s eight-hundred-pound iron lung. He finally started attending the university in 1962 and lived in the campus’ hospital. After he went to school there, more disabled students were allowed to attend. They started a disabled student organization to help make the campus more accessible to disabled students. In 1972, Ed helped the group start the first Center for Independent Living. He served as the director of the Center for Independent Living in Berkeley, then became the first person with a disability to serve as the Director of California’s Office of Vocational Rehabilitation.
There were many leaders in the persons with disabilities movement, but these three stood out. They helped change the way disabled people were treated and taken care of. Judy Heumann helped create ramps for students with disabilities. Wade Blank helped make it so people with disabilities didn’t have to live in an institution. Ed Roberts helped fight for the rights of disabled students to attend school. Each person made a difference whether they had a disability or not.
David Plate
There have been plenty disabled people in our nations history, but who fought for their rights and their freedoms throughout the years of 1890-1990? There have been plenty People such as Alexander Graham Bell, Helen Keller, and JFK are all major activists or inspirational heroes that we have in our nations history. These people were all major people in the movement for disabled rights. In the following paragraphs I will show you how these people stood up and fought for disabled rights. In short, I’ll explain how these people pushed the disabled rights movement forward.
Some disabled rights activists in 1890-1930 were people such as Alexander Graham Bell, and Helen Keller, but had many more. The person I found fighting for disabled rights in the 1890’s was Alexander Graham Bell, who in this decade established a deaf school “In Boston, he opened a school for teachers of the deaf in 1872”, he also “founded the American Association to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf in 1890” (“Friend or Foe”). The next person on the list is Helen Keller who went to college was deaf and blind; in fact she was the first deaf/blind person ever to go to college, and get a bachelor of the arts degree. She remains an inspirational figure to this day for deaf people everywhere. The next person was Frida Kahlo, who became disabled but still made a lot of paintings and artwork through her disability. The last person is Franklin D. Roosevelt who actually was crippled from the legs down for a time; he founded the National Ed for Paralysis, as well as the “established a polio treatment center to help other polio sufferers.”(“Franklin D. Roosevelt”). These people were only some of the many in this time period who impacted disabled rights.
The next time period was 1940-1960 with people such as the Kennedy’s included in it. The first person was a young lady by the name of Rosemary Kennedy. When she was born, she had a slight disability, but nothing more than that. She went through a surgical process that left her even more disabled, “a new form of brain surgery that would come to be known as a prefrontal lobotomy”(Rosemary Kennedy). They later hosted the Special Olympics in her honor. An organization that helped the disabled was the ARC, which found 7.2 million people with an issue that made them mentally retarded. The last person in this era was JFK, who before, and during his presidency supported disabled persons everywhere. He helped these people so much because of his sister.
My final time period was the 1970-1990 era. People such as Ed Roberts were in this time period. Ed Roberts was a kindhearted man who established a center of Independent Living for the mentally or physically disabled. He himself being disabled from the legs down due to polio, had trouble getting around himself but like many before him he kept pushing the movement forward. An amazing quote from this man is, “I'm tired of well meaning noncripples with their stereotypes of what I can and cannot do directing my life and my future. I want cripples to direct their own programs and to be able to train other cripples to direct new programs. This is the start of something big”. Another person was Gini Laurie, who made a Polio network of people. Then finally, the most important person of all, George Bush, who in 1990 finally signed the Americans with Disabilities act. This act was the first declaration that people with disabilities were equal to others in society.
In conclusion there were and are many people who support this cause. All of these people pushed the act into existence by their own examples of disabilities, and supporting it full heartedly. All of their support and care for these less fortunate people made their equality possible.
Some disabled rights activists in 1890-1930 were people such as Alexander Graham Bell, and Helen Keller, but had many more. The person I found fighting for disabled rights in the 1890’s was Alexander Graham Bell, who in this decade established a deaf school “In Boston, he opened a school for teachers of the deaf in 1872”, he also “founded the American Association to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf in 1890” (“Friend or Foe”). The next person on the list is Helen Keller who went to college was deaf and blind; in fact she was the first deaf/blind person ever to go to college, and get a bachelor of the arts degree. She remains an inspirational figure to this day for deaf people everywhere. The next person was Frida Kahlo, who became disabled but still made a lot of paintings and artwork through her disability. The last person is Franklin D. Roosevelt who actually was crippled from the legs down for a time; he founded the National Ed for Paralysis, as well as the “established a polio treatment center to help other polio sufferers.”(“Franklin D. Roosevelt”). These people were only some of the many in this time period who impacted disabled rights.
The next time period was 1940-1960 with people such as the Kennedy’s included in it. The first person was a young lady by the name of Rosemary Kennedy. When she was born, she had a slight disability, but nothing more than that. She went through a surgical process that left her even more disabled, “a new form of brain surgery that would come to be known as a prefrontal lobotomy”(Rosemary Kennedy). They later hosted the Special Olympics in her honor. An organization that helped the disabled was the ARC, which found 7.2 million people with an issue that made them mentally retarded. The last person in this era was JFK, who before, and during his presidency supported disabled persons everywhere. He helped these people so much because of his sister.
My final time period was the 1970-1990 era. People such as Ed Roberts were in this time period. Ed Roberts was a kindhearted man who established a center of Independent Living for the mentally or physically disabled. He himself being disabled from the legs down due to polio, had trouble getting around himself but like many before him he kept pushing the movement forward. An amazing quote from this man is, “I'm tired of well meaning noncripples with their stereotypes of what I can and cannot do directing my life and my future. I want cripples to direct their own programs and to be able to train other cripples to direct new programs. This is the start of something big”. Another person was Gini Laurie, who made a Polio network of people. Then finally, the most important person of all, George Bush, who in 1990 finally signed the Americans with Disabilities act. This act was the first declaration that people with disabilities were equal to others in society.
In conclusion there were and are many people who support this cause. All of these people pushed the act into existence by their own examples of disabilities, and supporting it full heartedly. All of their support and care for these less fortunate people made their equality possible.