The Power of Advocacy

1
The Power of Advocacy

• Jac Brennan
• Southwest ADA Center
• With sincere thanks to
• The Museum of disAbility

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About this presentation

• This presentation is divided into two parts
• The first part deals with the history of
  disability advocacy
• The second part deals with the history of
  disability law.
• Much of the information in this presentation was
  shared by the Museum of disAbility.

3
Language

• The disability community advocates the use of
  people first language when speaking about
  individuals with disabilities. This is a
  relatively new idea.
• Because much of this presentation deals with
  history, there are many outdated and downright
  incorrect terms used to describe different
  disabilities. These are historical references and
  have been left in the presentation for historical
  accuracy.

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The History of Advocacy

• Advocacy for individuals with disabilities has
  taken many forms over time.
• Historically, individuals with disabilities were
  not seen as people who could advocate for
  themselves.
• Family members were the first advocates for
  people with disabilities.

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Early Advocacy

• The goal of early disability advocacy was to
  provide shelter from an uncaring world, to
  provide a place of asylum.
• When these institutions began to fall short of
  providing for the basic needs of the individuals
  in their care, changes in the provision of care
  were advocated by family members, as well as
  social reformers, politicians, and doctors.

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Advocates who made a difference

• Dorothea Dix (1802-1887) was an influential and
  important reformer of the mental illness systems
  and prison systems in the United States. Her
  efforts led to the establishment of 32
  institutions .

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Josephine Shaw Lowell

• Josephine Shaw Lowell (1843-1905) was the first
  woman to head the New York State Board of
  Charities and Corrections. She also worked to
  establish the Newark Custodial Asylum for
  Feeble-Minded Women in 1878.

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William Letchworth

• William Pryor Letchworth (1823-1910) was an
  advocate for feeble-minded, epileptic and "the
  unfortunate classes." Letchworth helped to
  establish Craig Colony for Epileptics in 1896 and
  Letchworth Village for the Feeble-minded and
  Epileptics was named in his honor.

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Craig Colony

• Letchworth advocated for spacious grounds , a
  home-like environment, adequate medical staff,
  and vocational and educational opportunities for
  the residents.

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Groups Formed to Meet Needs

• The Crippled Children's Guild established a
  summer camp for crippled children, and provided
  educational opportunities that would lead to self
  sufficiency.

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Parent Groups

• Concerned parents started organizations like the
  National Association for Retarded Children .

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Kennedy Family

• The Kennedy family was influential in
  establishing a broad range of programs that
  benefited individuals with mental retardation.

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Burton Blatt

• Burton Blatt was an educator, author, and
  advocate for individuals with intellectual
  disabilities. His 1966 book, Christmas in
  Purgatory, exposed the horrid conditions in
  institutions.

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Wolf Wolfensberger

• Dr. Wolfensberger's (b.1934) theory is Social
  Role Valorization. The major goal of SRV is to
  create or support socially valued roles for
  people in their society.

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Having a Job
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Taking part in elections
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Making a Statement
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Stigma Free Advocacy
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Self-Advocacy

• Overcoming the attitude that people with
  disabilities are "broken" or "need to be fixed"
  remains a major focus of the modern disability
  advocacy movement.
•  

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Part II Disability and the Law

• There has always been a relationship between
  individuals with disabilities and the law.
• Legislation to address beggars and to provide
  for the poor was implemented, in part, to address
  this social need.
• The poor, the criminal, and individuals with
  disabilities were often lumped together, and were
  once known as the "defective, dependent and
  delinquent" class.
• As the understanding of what "disability" means
  in society changed, laws to provide services and
  access to society began to become part of the
  cultural landscape.

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449 B.C.

• An early legal reference to people with cognitive
  disabilities can be found in the Twelve Tables of
  Rome, published in 449 B.C.
• "If a person is a fool, let his person and his
  goods be under the protection of his family or
  his paternal relatives, if he is not under the
  care of anyone."
• This mention of disability in the Twelve Tables
  relates the need for a form of guardianship that
  would be provided by the family.

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1601

• Elizabethan Poor Laws were passed from 1583 to
  1601 in order to aid the deserving poor,
  orphaned, and crippled.
• The 1601 law laid some of the burden on society
  by charging a "poor rate" on property owners.
• Queen Elizabeth's government divided the poor
  into 3 groups. The disabled poor were placed in
  the group labeled "helpless poor" and received a
  sum of money or food -- a precursor of SSI and
  SSDI.

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1750

• The Acts and Laws of His Majesty's English Colony
  of Connecticut in New England in America provided
  An Act for Relieving, and Ordering of Idiots,
  Impotent, Distracted, and Idle Persons.
• This act stated that those considered "idiots,
  impotent, distracted, and idle persons" should be
  cared for by their closest relative. If such a
  person had no relative, then the town or the
  colony itself took direct responsibility.
•  

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1907

• The first Compulsory Sterilization Law was passed
  in Indiana. Even before the law was passed,
  illegal sterilizations were performed at the
  Indiana State Reformatory.
• People who were confined to state institutions
  were subjected to the procedure. Several other
  states followed Indiana's lead by implementing
  forced sterilization laws.
•  

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1927

• Buck v Bell. Supreme Court upholds the
  sterilization of defectives.
• "Three generations of imbeciles are enough"
  stated Justice Oliver Holmes. In an 8 to 1
  decision, the court legitimized Virginia's law on
  sterilization that was not repealed until 1974.
• The case legalized eugenic sterilization laws
  throughout the entire United States.

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1932

• Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected President
  in 1932.
• President Roosevelt had post-polio disabilities
  and used a wheelchair for mobility.

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1945

• National "Employ the Handicapped Week" was
  created and signed into law by President Truman
  as Public Law 176.
• The week was established to create more awareness
  of the possibilities available to employ people
  with physical disabilities.
• In 1962, "Employ the Handicapped Week" expanded
  to include all disabilities and was later changed
  from just one week to a full month in 1988.

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1963

• President Kennedy signed the Mental Retardation
  Facilities Construction Act in 1963, granting
  federal dollars for the construction of mental
  retardation research centers, education for those
  involved with children with disabilities, and the
  construction of mental health centers.
• This law was a result of the findings of the 1962
  report from the President's Panel on Mental
  Retardation.

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1968

• Congress passed the Architectural Barriers Act in
  1968. This act declared that any building
  receiving federal funding had to be accessible.
• The Architecture Barriers Act is considered one
  of the first federal laws supporting disability
  rights.

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1970

• Developmental Disabilities Services and
  Facilities Construction Amendments were passed,
  giving states responsibilities to establish
  comprehensive programs to provide services for
  people with developmental disabilities.
• It also offered the first legal definitions of
  developmental disabilities.

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1972

• The Pennsylvania Association for Retarded
  Children filed suit against the state of
  Pennsylvania. PARC was persuaded by Dr. Gunnar
  Dybwad, a very active advocate for the right of
  the disabled, to pursue the litigation.
• PARC v. Pennsylvania resulted in the
  establishment of rights for children with
  disabilities to have access to a free and equal
  public education.

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1973

• The passage of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act was a
  large victory for the disability rights movement.
  Disability discrimination is addressed, and
  prohibited, for the first time in Section 504 and
  applied to any entity receiving federal funds.
• This law would provide the outline for the future
  Americans with Disabilities Act.

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1975

• The Education for All Handicapped Children Act,
  Public Law 94-142, was passed.
• It mandated a free education for children with
  disabilities, regardless of the seriousness of
  the disability.
• Included in the act were provisions for a free
  and appropriate education, individualized
  education programs with parental involvement,
  establishment of due process proceedings, and
  provision of services in the least restrictive
  environment.

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1980

• The Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act
  was passed.
• It allows the United States Justice Department to
  sue states act on behalf of persons in
  institutions for violating their rights in
  mental health facilities.

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1984

• The Voting Accessibility for the Elderly and
  Handicapped Act, Public Law 98-435, was passed in
  1984.
• Polling places are required to be accessible for
  individuals with disabilities.

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1985

• In City of Cleburne v. Cleburne Living Center,
  the Supreme Court ruled that zoning laws cannot
  prohibit group homes from being in residential
  areas. The court ruled that such a practice is
  discriminatory under the "Equal Protection
  Clause" of the Fourteenth Amendment.

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1990

• The Americans with Disabilities Act was passed.
• The ADA provides civil rights protection to
  individuals with disabilities, and access to
  equal employment opportunities, state and local
  government programs, places of public
  accommodations, transportation, and
  telecommunications.
• It is the most comprehensive civil rights law for
  individuals with disabilities.

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1990

• The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
  passed in 1990. Known as the IDEA, the act was an
  extension of the Education for All Handicapped
  Children Act. The right to a free appropriate
  public education, in the least restrictive
  environment, is part of IDEA.

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1996

• In 1996 , the re-election campaign of President
  Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore reached
  out to the disability community. President
  Clinton won reelection in a landslide and
  garnered many votes from individuals with
  disabilities.

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2002

• In Atkins v. Virginia, the U.S. Supreme Court
  ruled that it is unconstitutional to execute a
  person who has mental retardation who had been
  convicted of murder. Reasoning behind the 6-3
  decision was based on the Eighth Amendment's
  prohibition of the use of "cruel and unusual
  punishment."

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Future

• Disability law and the legal, service, and human
  rights of individuals with disabilities continue
  to evolve.
• Strong advocacy creates strong law.

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Justice

• Justice consists not in being neutral between
  right and wrong, but in finding out the right and
  upholding it, wherever found, against the wrong.
• Theodore Roosevelt
• 1916