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Disability Rights Movement

For many people, the disability movement began in the 1990s, due mostly to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). They are wrong. For others, mostly those who are disabled, the disability movement began in the 1970s. They, too, are wrong. The disability movement began around the middle of the 19th century, gaining impetus after the American Civil War, from which many people returned with disabilities. The effects of rampant industrialization, though, first brought the disabled into the public arena. Since then, society has tried to keep the disabled out of the limelight and in their place. What is their place?

Definitions

There are many different definitions depending on what one is looking at. Over the years, especially since the 1960s, organizations have made adjustments to what they would consider disability. But these definitions have little to do with why there has been activism by people with disabilities. The disabled have, throughout history, fought against exclusion and prejudice.

Most every nondisabled person will eventually become disabled, probably due to illness or disease, though accident cannot be ignored. At this writing, it is estimated that, at around 54 million, the disabled make up the largest single minority in America. But this number—approximately 20% of the population—is misleading;54 million is only the number of disabled who are capable of working but are disallowed. Many people with disabilities are working. There are some who don't work and others who can't, mostly children. Many are retired;others have a disability but don't consider themselves disabled. So the number of disabled is somewhat greater than this figure. Yet, in the end, what is normal raises a big question.

Social Stigma

The definition of disability within society goes far deeper than numbers or looks, behavior or physical ability. The definition of disability includes social perceptions—bias and prejudice. These ideas stem from ignorance and fear, according to the literature. Within the public sector, a disabled person is someone who can't function like—and looks different from—the norm. The majority considers itself normal. Because people with disabilities can't do what normal people can in the same way, they are considered inferior or deficient.

People with disabilities are beggars and indigents. The disabled are objects of shame, pity, and ridicule. As such, they should be kept out of sight. Incarcerated, institutionalized, euthanized, prevented from being born, forbidden to marry, sterilized;some of these historical solutions are still practiced. Some children with disabilities are still forbidden schooling. The general population sees disability as a deficit in the individual that is in need of fixing;that is, these people need to be normalized. Many of these images hold even when society has caused the disability, such as due to war or workplace accident. Many of these images are medieval.

More than the physical barriers that keep people with disabilities from living a normal, full life, it is these social attitudinal barriers that are the greatest hurdle to enjoying a good life and that need to be overcome, while the nondisabled enjoy a better or more productive life because of accommodations for the disabled: automatic doors, telephones, typewriters, American football's huddle, the umpires' hand signals in baseball.

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