A Brief History of the Disability Rights Movement
The ongoing struggle by people with disabilities to gain full citizenship is an important part of our American heritage. The disability rights movement shares many similarities with other 20th-century civil rights struggles by those who have been denied equality, independence, autonomy, and full access to society.
According to the U.S. Census, there are more than 54 million people with disabilities in the United States. Historically, the condition of having a disability has been viewed as tragic. Through ignorance and fear, people with disabilities were typically labeled beggars or indigents. The word "handicap" itself is said to derive from "cap in hand," an activity associated with panhandling.
By the 19th century, it was common for people with disabilities to be institutionalized, and they were looked upon as patients or clients who needed curing. This practice had the effect of excluding people with disabilities from the larger society and implied that something was inherently and permanently wrong with them. It provided no room for integration, and perpetuated myths of inequality.
In the first half of the twentieth century, as thousands of WWI soldiers returned home, the first vocational rehabilitation acts were passed in the 1920s to provide services to WWI veterans with newly acquired disabilities. But perhaps the biggest changes within the disability rights movement came with the civil rights movements of the 1960s. As African Americans, women and other social minorities gained political consciousness, so did people with disabilities.
The Civil Rights of People with Disabilities Became Protected in Law
In the early 1970s, people with disabilities lobbied Congress to put civil rights language for people with disabilities into the 1972 Rehabilitation Act. The Act was vetoed by President Nixon. After a group of people with disabilities marched on Washington, a revised 1973 Rehabilitation Act was passed. For the first time in history, the civil rights of people with disabilities were protected by law.
Parallel to the disability rights movement was a movement in the 1970s to provide access to educational services for children and youth with disabilities. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), called for a free and appropriate public education for every child with a disability, to be delivered in the least restrictive most integrated environment appropriate.
Despite changes in rehabilitation and education law, people with disabilities did not achieve broad civil rights until the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990. This landmark federal anti-discrimination law ensures equal access to employment opportunities and public accommodations for people with disabilities. With this act, Congress identified the full participation, inclusion and integration of people with disabilities into society as a national goal.
History of the Protection and Advocacy System
The Disability Law Center is Utah's Protection and Advocacy agency. The Protection and Advocacy (P&A) concept was initially triggered by a series of local television news broadcasts, which Geraldo Rivera did for the ABC News affiliate in New York City. Rivera's investigative reporting exposed abuse, neglect and lack of programming at Willowbrook, a state institution for people with developmental disabilities on Staten Island.
These broadcasts galvanized the state's senior senator, Jacob Javitts, to action, incorporating P&A Systems in the renewal of the federal developmental disabilities legislation enacted in 1975. Although originally established in the early 1970s to address public outcry in response to the abuse, neglect and lack of programming in institutions for persons with developmental disabilities. The purpose of the P&As has expanded greatly over the past twenty years, and Congress has created distinct statutory programs to address the needs of different populations of persons with disabilities.
There is a P&A in each state and territory of the United States that provides protection of the rights of persons with disabilities through legally based advocacy. The Disability Law (DLC) is the private non-profit agency designated by the governor to protect the rights of people with disabilities in Utah.
About the Disability Law Center
The Disability Law Center (DLC), established in 1978, is the only statewide disability agency in Utah that provides self-advocacy assistance, legal services, disability rights education and public policy advocacy. The DLC has broad statutory powers to safeguard the rights of people with disabilities.
The DLC has a long and rich history as part of the disability rights movement in Utah. We have provided legal assistance, self-advocacy training, outreach and public policy advocacy to more than 67,300 people with disabilities over the past fifteen years. Through a series of landmark cases and cutting-edge advocacy, we have helped transform our community to a place where all people are welcome regardless of their abilities.
A Few of the DLC's Landmark Cases
Lisa P. v. Angus - Filed in 1989, this class-action lawsuit required the Utah State Developmental Center to follow a set of evidenced- based principles to determine the most appropriate least restrictive environment for its residents. As a result of this case, an additional 220 people with developmental disabilities successfully moved into the community.
Bangerter v. Orem City Corporation - Filed in 1993, this suit helped to ensure that cities and local municipalities could no longer use restrictive zoning practices to keep group homes and other residential support services for people with disabilities from freely locating in particular neighborhoods.
Fike v. Betit – In 1997, the DLC prevailed in this administrative court hearing which established that Utah's Medicaid agency can no longer routinely deny augmentative communication devices to people with expressive language disabilities on an arbitrary basis.
Hubble v. Medicaid - In 2000, the DLC helped overturn the state Medicaid agency's de facto denials of cochlear implants for people who are hard of hearing or Deaf by successfully appealing a series of administrative law decisions which denied the technology to people over a certain age.
Decker v. Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) - Settled in 2006, this class-action lawsuit helped to ensure that local city governments abide by the provisions in the ADA that make public sidewalks and thoroughfares accessible to people with disabilities.
Disability Law Center Current Areas of Focus
Some of the legal services provided to individuals with disabilities by the DLC are in the areas of:
Abuse and neglect in long term care facilities
Accessibility
Housing discrimination
Voting access
Medicaid or insurance denial of assistive technology
Education issues (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act)
Clients and applicants of Vocational Rehabilitation
To get help from the Disability Law Center, call 1-800-662-9080 (voice) or 1-800-550-4182 (TTY) to speak confidentially with one of our Short Term Assistance Advocates. They will provide you with the information and/or assistance you need. Office hours are Monday through Friday 8:30a.m. - 5:00 p.m. You can also send an email to info@disabilitylawcenter.org