>From the web page
http://www.sfsu.edu/~hrdpu/chron.htm

         A CHRONOLOGY OF THE DISABILITY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

1817-
The American School for the Deaf is founded in Hartford,
Connecticut. This is the first school for disabled children
anywhere in the Western Hemisphere.

1832-
The Perkins School for the Blind in Boston admits its first two
students, the sisters Sophia and Abbey Carter.

1841-
Dorothea Dix begins her work on behalf of people with
disabilities incarcerated in jails and poorhouses.

1841-
The American Annals of the Deaf begins publication at the
American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut

1848-
The first residential institution for  people with mental
retardation is founded by  Samuel Gridley Howe at the Perkins
Institution  in Boston.   During the next century, hundreds of
thousands of developmentally disabled children and adults will
be institutionalized, many for their entire lives.

1854-
The New England Gallaudet Association of the Deaf is founded in
Montpelier, Vermont.

1860-
Simon Pollak demonstrates the use of braille at the Missouri
School for  the Blind.

The Gaffaudet Guide and Deaf Mutes' Companion becomes the first
publication in the United States aimed at a disabled readership.

1861-
Helen Adams Keller is born In Tuscumbia, Alabama.

1862-
The Veterans Reserve Corps is formed by the U.S. Army. After the
war, many of its  members join the Freedman's Bureau to work
with recently emancipated slaves.

1864-
The enabling act giving the Columbia  Institution for the Deaf
and Dumb and Blind the authority to confer college degrees is
signed by  President Abraham Lincoln, making it the first
college in the world expressly established for people with
disabilities. A year later, the institution's blind students are
transferred to the Maryland Institution at Baltimore, leaving
the Columbia Institution with a student body  made up entirely
of deaf students.  The institution would eventually be renamed
Gallaudet  College, and  then Gallaudet University.

1869-
The first wheelchair patent is  registered with the U.S. Patent
Office.

1878-
Joel W. Smith presents his  Modified Braille to the American
Association of Instructors of the Blind.  The association
rejects  his system,  continuing to endorse instead New York
Point, which blind readers complain is more difficult to read
and write.  What follows is a "War of the Dots" in which blind
advocates for the most part prefer Modified Braille, while
sighted teachers and administrators, who control  funds for
transcribing, prefer New York Point.

1880-
The International Congress of   Educators of the Deaf, at a
conference in Milan, Italy, calls for the suppression of sign
languages and the firing  of all deaf teachers at schools for
the deaf. This triumph of oralism, is seen by deaf advocates as
a  direct attack upon their culture.

The National Convention of Deaf Mutes meets in Cincinnati, Ohio,
the nucleus of what will become the National Association  of the
Deaf (NAD).  The first major issue taken on by the NAD is
oralism and the suppression of American Sign Language.

1883-
Sir Francis Galton in England coins the term eugenics to
describe his pseudo-science of "improving the stock" of humanity
 The eugenics movement, taken up by Americans, leads to passage
in the United States of laws to prevent people with  various
disabilities from moving to this country, marrying, or having
children. In many instances, it leads to the
institutionalization and forced sterilization of disabled
people, including children. Eugenics campaigns against people of
 color and immigrants lead to passage of "Jim Crow" laws in the
South and legislation restricting immigration by southern and
eastern Europeans, Asians, Africans, and Jews.

1887-
Anne Sullivan meets Helen Keller for the first time in
Tuscumbia, Alabama.

1890s-1920-
Progressive activists push for the  creation of state Workers'
Compensation programs.  By 1913, some 21states have established
some form of  Worker's Compensation; the figure rises to 43 by
1919.

1901-
The National Fraternal Society of  the Deaf is founded by alumni
at the Michigan School for the Deaf in Flint. It becomes the
world's only  fraternal life insurance company managed by deaf
people. Through the first half of the century, it advocates for
the rights of deaf people to  purchase insurance and to obtain
drivers' licenses.

1902-
Helen Keller, the first deaf-blind  person to matriculate at
college, publishes her autobiography, The Story of My Life, in a
serial 1903 form in  Ladies' Home journal in the latter part of
1902, as a book in 1903.

1907-
The first issue of the Matilda Ziegler Magazine for the Blind is
published.

1908-
Clifford Beers publishes A Mind That Found Itself, an expose of
conditions inside state and private mental institutions.

1909-
The New York Public School System adopts Modified, or American
Braille for use in its classes for blind children, after public
hearings in which blind advocates call for abandoning New York
Point.

The National Committee for Mental Hygiene is founded by Clifford
Beers in New York City.

The first folding wheelchairs are introduced for people with
mobility disabilities.

1911-
Congress passes a joint resolution (P.R. 45) authorizing the
appointment of a federal commission to investigate the subject
of  workers' compensation and the liability of employers for
financial compensation to disabled workers.

1912-
Henry H. Goddard publishes The Kadikak Family, the best-seller
purporting to link disability with immorality and alleging that
both are tied to genetics. It advances the agenda of the
eugenics movement, which in pamphlets such as The Threat of the
Feeble Minded creates climate of hysteria allowing for massive
human rights abuses of people with disabilities, including
institutionalization and forced sterilization.

1918-
The Smith-Sears Veterans Vocational Rehabilitation Act
establishes a federal vocational rehabilitation for disabled
soldiers.

1920-
The Fess-Smith Civilian Vocational Rehabilitation Act is passed,
creating a vocational rehabilitation program for disabled
civilians.

1921-
The American Foundation for the Blind is founded. Helen Keller
becomes its principal fund raiser, (Robert Irwin becomes
director of research, 1922 executive director in 1929.)

1927-
Franklin Roosevelt co-founds the Warms Springs Foundation at
Warms Springs, Georgia. The Warm Springs facility for polio
survivors becomes a model rehabilitation and peer counseling
program.

The U.S. Supreme Court, in Buck v. Bell, rules that the forced
steril-ization of people with disabilities is not a violation of
their constitutional rights.  The decision removes the last
restraints for eugenists; advocating that people with
disabilities be prohibited from having children.   By the 1970s,
some 60,000 disabled people are sterilized without consent.

1929-
Seeing Eye establishes the first dog guide school for blind
people in the United States.

1932-
The Treaty of London standardizes American and English braille.

Disabled American Veterans is chartered by Congress to represent
disabled veterans in their dealings with the federal
government.

1933-
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the first seriously physically
disabled person ever to be elected as a head of government, is
sworn  into office as president of the United States. He
continues his "splendid deception," choosing to minimize his
disability in  response to the ableism of the electorate.

1935-
Congress passes and President Roosevelt signs the Social
Security Act, establishing federal old-age benefits and grants
to the states for assistance to blind individuals and disabled
children. The act also extends the already existing vocational
rehabilitation programs established by earlier legislation.

The League of the Physically Handicapped is formed in New York
City to protest discrimination against people with disabilities
by federal relief programs. The group organizes sit-ins, picket
lines, and demonstrations, and it travels to Washington, D.C.,
to protest and meet with officials of the Roosevelt
administration.

1936-
Passage of the Randolph Sheppard Act establishes a federal
program for employing blind vendors at stands in the lobbies of
federal office buildings.

1937-
Herbert A. Everest and Harry C. Jennings patent a design for a
folding wheelchair with an X-frame that can be packed into a
car trunk. They found Everest & Jennings (E & J), which
eventually becomes the largest manufacturer of wheelchair in the
United States.

1938-
Passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act leads to an enormous
increase in the number of sheltered work- shop program for
blind workers.  Although intended to provide training and job
opportunities for blind and visually disabled workers, it often
leads to exploitation of workers at sub-minimum wages in poor
conditions.

1940-
The National Federation of the  Blind is formed in Wilkes-Barre,
Pennsylvania, by Jacobus Broek and other blind  advocates. It
advocates  for "white cane laws" and input by blind people into
programs for blind clients, among other reforms.

The American Federation of the Physically Handicapped is founded
by Paul Strachan as the nation's first cross-disability,
national political organization. It pushes for an end to job
discrimination and lobbies for passage of legislation calling
for a National Employ the Physically Handicapped Week, among
other initiatives.

1942-
Henry Viscardi begins his work as an American Red Cross
volunteer, training 1944 disabled soldiers to use their
prosthetic limbs.  His work at Walter Reed Army Medical Center
in Washington, D.C., draws the attention of Howard Rusk and
Eleanor Roosevelt,  who protest  when ViscardiR17;s program is
terminated by the Red Cross and the military.

1943-
Congress passes the Vocational Rehabilitation Amendments, known
as the LaFollette-Barden Act, adding  physical  rehabilitation
to the goals of federally funded vocational rehabilitation
programs and providing funding for certain health care services.

1944-
Howard Rusk is assigned to the U.S. Army Air Force Convalescent
Center in Pawling, New York, where he begins a rehabilitation
program for disabled airmen. First dubbed "Rusk's folly" by the
medical establishment rehabilitation medicine becomes a new
medical specialty.

1945-
The Blinded Veterans Association  (BVA) is formed in Avon,
Connecticut.

President Harry Truman signs Public Law 176, a joint
congressional resolution calling for the creation of an annual
National Employ the Handicapped Week.

Boyce R. Williams is hired by the federal Office of Vocational
Rehabilitation as Consultant for the Deaf, the Hard of Hearing,
and the Speech Impaired. He begins close to four decades of work
at OVR, designing and implementing educational and vocational
programs for deaf Americans.

1946-
Congress enacts the Hospital Survey and Construction Act, also
known as the Hill-Burton Act, authorizing federal grants to the
states  for the construction of hospitals, public health
centers, and health facilities for rehabilitation of people with
disabilities.

The Cerebral Palsy Society of New York City is established by
parents of children with cerebral palsy.  This is the first
chapter of what will be come the United Cerebral Palsy
Associations, Inc.

The National Mental Health Foundation is founded by
conscientious objectors who served as attendants at state mental
institutions during World War II.   It works to expose the
abusive conditions at these facilities and becomes an early
impetus in the push for deinstitutionalization.

1947-
Paralyzed Veterans of America  (PVA) is founded at the
Birmingham Hospital in Van Nuys, California, by Fred Smead,
Randall Updyke, and other delegates from Veterans Administration
hospitals across the country.

The first meeting of the Presidents Committee on National Employ
the Physically Handicapped Week is  held in Washington, D.C.
Its publicity campaigns, coordinated by state and local
committees, emphasize the  competence of people with
disabilities and use movie trailers,
billboards, and radio and television ads  to convince the public
that its "good business to hire the handicapped."

Harold Russell wins two Academy Awards for his role in The Best
Year of Our Lives.

1948-
The National Paraplegia Foundation is founded by members of the
Paralyzed Veterans of America, as the civilian arm of their
growing movement. Foundation chapters in many cities and states
take a leading role in advocating for disability rights.

The disabled students' program at the University of Illinois at
Galesburg is officially established. Founded and directed by
Timothy Nugent, the program moves to the campus at
Urbana-Champaign, where it becomes a prototype for disabled
student programs and then independent living centers across the
country.

We Are Not Alone (WANA), a mental patients' self-help group, is
organized at the Rockland State Hospital in New York City.

1949-
The first Annual Wheelchair Basketball Tournament is held in
Galesburg, Illinois. Wheelchair basketball, and other sports,
become an  important part of disability lifestyle and culture
over the next several decades.

Timothy Nugent founds the National Wheelchair Basketball
Association.

The National Foundation for Cerebral Palsy is chartered by
representatives of various groups of parents of children with
cerebral palsy. Renamed the United Cerebral Palsy Associations,
Inc., in 1950, it becomes, together with the Association  for
Retarded Children, a major force in the parents' movement of the
1950s and thereafter.

1950-
The Social Security Amendments of 1950 establish a federal-state
 program to aid the permanently and totally disabled (APTD).
This is a limited prototype for later federal disability
assistance programs such as Social Security Disability
Insurance.

The Association for Retarded Children of the United States
(later renamed the Association for Retarded Citizens and then
The Arc) is founded in Minneapolis by representatives of various
state association of parents of mentally retarded children.

Mary Switzer is appointed Director of the federal Office of
Vocational Rehabilitation.

1951-
Howard Rusk opens the Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine at
New York University Medical Center.  Staff at the Institute,
including people with disabilities, begin work on such
innovations as electric typewriters, mouthsticks, and improved
prosthetics, as adaptive aids for people with severe
disabilities.

1952-
The PresidentR17;s Committee on National Employ the Physically
Handicapped Week becomes the PresidentsR17; Committee on
Employment of the Physically Handicapped, a permanent
organization reporting to the President and Congress.

Henry Vicardi takes out a personal loan to found Abilities,
Inc., a jobs training and placement program for people with
disabilities.

1954-
The U.S. Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka,
rules that separate schools for black and white children  are
inherently unequal and unconstitutional.  This pivotal decision
becomes a catalyst for the African-American civil rights
movement, which in turn becomes a major inspiration to the
disability rights movement.

Congress passes the Vocational Rehabilitation Amendments,
authorizing federal grants to expand programs available to
people with physical disabilities. Mary Switzer, Director of the
Office of Vocational Rehabilitation, uses this authority to fund
more than 100 university based rehabilitation related programs.

The Social Security Act of 1935 is amended by Pub. Law 83-761,
which includes a "freeze" provision for workers who are forced
by disability to leave the work force.  This protects their
benefits when they retire by not counting the years between the
time they cease working and their retirement, thus freezing
their retirement benefits at their  pre-disability level.

1955-
Harold Wilke becomes the founder and first executive director of
the Commission on Religion and Health within the United Church
of Christ General Synod in New York.  In this capacity he works
to open religious life and the ministry to women and people with
disabilities.

1956-
Congress passes the Social Security Amendments of 1956, which
creates a Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI)  program
for disabled workers aged 50 to 64.

Accent on Living begins publication.

1957-
The first National wheelchair Games in the United States are
held at Adelphi College in Garden City, New York.

 Little People of American is founded in Reno, Nevada, to
advocate on behalf of dwarfs or little people.

Gunnar Dybwad is named executive of the Association for Retarded
Children.

1958
Congress passes the Social security Amendments of 1958,
extending Social Security Disability Insurance benefits to the
dependents of disabled workers.

Gini Laurie becomes editor of the Toomeyville Gazette at the
Toomey Pavilion Polio Rehabilitation Center.  Eventually renamed
the Rehabilitation Gazette, this grassroots publications becomes
an early voice for disability rights, independent living and
cross-disability organizing, and it features articles by
disabled writers on all aspects of the disability experience.

 The American Federation of the Physically Handicapped is
dissolved at a convention in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Participants organize the National Association of the Physically
Handicapped, Inc. to take its place.

1960-
The first Paralympic Games, under the auspices of the
International Paralympic Committee (IPC) are held in Rome,
Italy.

Congress passes the Social Security Amendments of 1960,
eliminating the restriction that disabled workers receiving
Social Security Disability Insurance benefits being aged 50 or
older.

1961-
The American Council of the Blind is formally organized.

President Kennedy appoints a special PresidentR17;s Panel on
Mental Retardation, to investigate the status of people with
mental and develop programs and reforms for its improvement.

The American National Standards Institute, Inc. (ANSI) publishes
American Standard Specifications for Making Buildings Accessible
to, and Usable by, the Physically Handicapped. This landmark
document becomes the basis for all subsequent architectural
access codes.

1962-
The President's Committee on Employment of the Physically
Handicapped is renamed the President's Committee on Employment
of the Handicapped, reflecting its increased interest in
employment issues affecting people with cognitive disabilities
and mental illness.

Edward V. Roberts becomes the first severely disabled student at
the University of California at Berkeley.

1963-
President Kennedy, in an address to Congress, calls for a
reduction, "over a number of years and by hundreds of
thousands, (in the number) of persons confined" to residential
institutions, and he asks that methods be found "to retain in
and return to the community the mentally ill and mentally
retarded, and there to restore and revitalize their lives
through better health programs and strengthened educational and
rehabilitation services."  Though not labeled such at the time,
this  is a call for deinstitutionalization and increased
community services.

Congress passes the Mental Retardation Facilities and Community
Health Centers Construction Act, authorizing federal grants for
the construction of public and private nonprofit community
mental health centers.

South Carolina passes the first statewide architectural access
code.

John Hessler joins Ed Roberts at the University of California at
Berkeley, other disabled students follow. Together they form the
Rolling Quads to advocate for greater access on campus and in
the surrounding community.

1964-
The Civil Rights Act is passed, outlawing discrimination on the
basis of race in public accommodations and employment, as well
as in federally assisted programs.  It will become a model for
subsequent disability rights legislation.

Robert H. Weitbrecht invents the "acoustic coupler," forerunner
of the telephone modem, enabling  teletypewriter messages to be
sent via standard telephone lines. This invention makes possible
the widespread use of teletypewriters for the deaf (TDDR17;s,
now called TTYR17;s), offering deaf and hard-of-hearing people
access to the telephone system.

1965-
Medicare and Medicaid are established through passage of the
Social Security Amendments of 1965.  These programs  provide
federally subsidized health care to disabled and elderly
Americans covered by the Social Security program. The amendments
also change the definition of disability under the Social
Security Disability Insurance program, from "of  long-continued
and indefinite duration" to "expected to last for .. not less
than 12 months."

Vocational Rehabilitation Amendments of 1965 are passed,
authorizing federal governments for the construction of
rehabilitation centers, expanding existing vocational
rehabilitation programs, and creating the National Commission on
Architectural Barriers to Rehabilitation of the Handicapped.

William C. Stokoe, Carl Croneberg, and Dorothy Casterline
publish A Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic
Principles, establishing the legitimacy of American Sign
Language and beginning the move away from oralism.

The Autism Society of America is  founded by parents of children
with autism in response to the lack of services, discrimination
against children with autism, and the prevailing view of medical
"experts" that autism is a result of poor parenting, as opposed
to neurological disability.

Congress establishes the National Technical Institute for the
Deaf at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New
York.

1966-
Frederick C. Schreiber becomes the  executive secretary of the
National Association of the Deaf.

 President Johnson establishes the President's Committee on
Mental Retardation.

 Christmas in Purgatory  by Burton Blatt and Fred Kaplan, is
published, documenting the appalling conditions at state
institutions for people with developmental disabilities.

1967-
The National Theatre of the Deaf  is founded with a grant from
the federal Office of Vocational Rehabilitation.

1968-
The Architectural Barriers Act is passed, mandating that
federally constructed buildings and facilities be accessible to
people with physical disabilities. This act is generally
considered to be the first ever federal disability rights
legislation.

1969-
Niels Erk Bank-Mikkelsen from Denmark and Bengt Nirje  from
Sweden introduce the concept of normalization to an  American
audience at a conference sponsored by the President's Committee
on Mental Retardation, helping to provide the conceptual
framework for dein- stitutionalization. Their remarks, and those
of others, are published in Changing Patterns in Services for
the Mentally Retarded.

Silent News is founded by Julius and Harriet Wiggins as a
newspaper for deaf people.

1970-
The Insane Liberation Front is organized in Portland, Oregon.

The Developmental Disabilities Services and Facilities
Construction Amendments are passed.  They contain the first
legal  definition of developmental disabilities and authorize
grants for services and facilities for the rehabilitation of
people with developmental disabilities and state "DD Councils."

Nursing home resident Max Starkloff founds Paraquad in St Louis.

Disabled in Action is founded in New York City by Judith
Heumann, after her successful employment discrimination suit
against the city's public school system.  With chapters in
several other cities, it organizes demonstrations and files
litigation on behalf of disability rights.

The Physically Disabled Students Program (PDSP) is founded by Ed
Roberts, John Hessler, Hale Zukas, and others at the University
of California at Berkeley. With its provisions for community
living, political advocacy, and personal assistance services, it
becomes the nucleus for the first Center for Independent Living,
founded two years later.

Congress passes the Urban Mass Transportation Assistance Act,
declaring it a "national policy that elderly and handicapped
persons have the same right as other persons to utilize mass
transportation facilities and services." Passage of the act has
little impact, however, as the law contains no provision for
enforcement.

1971-
 The Mental Patients' Liberation Front is founded in Boston, and
the Mental Patients' Liberation Project is founded in New York
City.

The National Center for Law and the Handicapped is founded at
the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, becoming
the first legal advocacy center for people with disabilities in
the United States.

The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama hands
down its first decision in Wyatt v. Stickney, ruling that people
in residential state schools and institutions have a
constitutional right "to receive such individual treatment as
(would) give them a realistic opportunity to be cured or to
improve his or her mental condition." Disabled people can no
longer simply be locked away in "custodial institutions" without
treatment or education. This decision is a crucial victory in
the struggle for deinstitutionalization.

The Caption Center is founded at WGBH Public Television in
Boston, and it begins providing captioned programming for deaf
viewers.

The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 is amended to bring people
with disabilities other than blindness into the sheltered
workshop system. This measure leads to the establishment, in
coming years, of an enormous sheltered workshop system for
people with cognitive and developmental disabilities.

1972-
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, in Mills
v. Board of Education, rules that the District of Columbia
cannot exclude disabled children from the public schools.
Similarly, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of
Pennsylvania, in PARC v. Pennsylvania, strikes down various
state law used to exclude disabled children from the public
schools.  These decisions will be cited by advocates during the
public hearings leading to passage of the Education for All
Handicapped Children Act of 1975.  PARC in particular sparks
numerous other right-to-education lawsuits and inspires
advocates to look to the courts for the expansion of disability
rights.

The Center for Independent Living (CIL) is founded in Berkeley,
California. Generally recognized as the world's first
independent living center, the CIL sparks the worldwide
independent living movement.

Passage of the Social Security Amendments of 1972 creates the
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program. The law relieves
families of the financial responsibility of caring for their
adult disabled children. It consolidates existing federal
programs for people who are disabled but not eligible for Social
Security Disability Insurance.

The Houston Cooperative Living Residential Project is
established in Houston, Texas, becoming a model, along with the
Center for Independent Living in Berkeley, for subsequent
independent living programs.

The Judge David L. Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law is
founded in Washington, D.C, to provide legal representation and
to advocate for the rights of people with mental illness.

The Legal Action Center, with offices in Washington, D.C., and
New York City, is founded to advocate for the interests of
people who are alcohol or drug dependent. Today, it also works
on behalf of people with HIV/AIDS.

Paralyzed Veterans of America, the National Paraplegia
Foundation, and Richard Heddinger file suit to force the
Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority to incorporate
access into their design for a new, multibillion dollar subway
system in Washington, D.C. Their eventual victory becomes a
landmark in the struggle for accessible public mass transit.

Wolf Wolfensberger et al. publish  The Principle  of
Normalization in Human Services, expanding the theory of
normalization  and bringing it  to a wider American audience.

The Network Against Psychiatric Assault is organized in San
Francisco.

The parents of residents at the Willowbrook State School in
Staten Island, New York, file suit
(New York ARC v. Rockefeller) to end the appalling conditions at
that institution. A television broadcast from the facility
outrages the general public, which sees the inhumane treatment
endured by people with developmental disabilities. This press
exposure, together with the lawsuit and other advocacy,
eventually moves thousands of people from the institution into
community-based living arrangements.

 Demonstrations are held by disabled activists in Washington,
D.C., to protest the veto of what will become the Rehabilitation
 Act of 1973 by President Richard M. Nixon. Among those
organizing demonstrations in Washington and elsewhere are
Disabled in Action, Paralyzed Veterans of America, the National
Paraplegia Foundation, and other groups.

Madness Network News begins publication in San Francisco.

1973-
The first handicap parking stickers  are introduced in
Washington, D.C.

The first Conference on Human Rights and Psychiatric Oppression
is held at the University of Detroit.

Passage of the Federal-Aid Highway Act authorizes federal funds
to provide for construction of curbcuts.

Passage of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 marks the greatest
achievement of the disability rights movement .   The act --
particularly Title V and, especially, Section 504 for the first
time, confronts discrimination against people with disabilities.
 Section 504 prohibits programs receiving federal funds from
discriminating against "otherwise qualified handicapped"
individuals and sparks the formation of "504 workshops" and
numerous grassroots organizations.  Disability rights activism
seize on the act as a powerful tool and make the signing of
regulations to implement Section 504 a top priority.  Litigation
 arising out of Section 504 will generate such central
disability rights concepts as "reasonable modification,"
"reasonable accommodation," and "undue burden," which will form
the framework for subsequent federal law, especially the
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

The Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board
is established under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to enforce
the Architectural Barriers Act of 1968.

The Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities is organized to
advocate for passage of what will become the Developmentally
Disabled Assistance and Bill of Rights Act of 1975 and the
Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975.

1974-
The first U.S. National Wheelchair  Basketball Tournament is
held, as well as the first National Wheelchair Marathon.

The Boston Center for Independent Living is founded.

Halderman v. Pennhurst is filed in Pennsylvania on behalf of the
residents of the Pennhurst State School & Hospital. The case,
highlighting the horrific conditions at state "schools" for
people with mental retardation, becomes an important precedent
in the battle for deinstitutionalization, establishing a right
to community services for people with developmental
disabilities.

The first convention of People First is held in Salem, Oregon.
People First becomes the largest U.S. organization composed of
and led by people with cognitive disabilities.

The first Client Assistant Projects (CAPs) are established to
act as advocates for clients of state vocational rehabilitation
agencies.

North Carolina passes a statewide building code with stringent
access requirement drafted by access advocate Ronald Mace.  This
code becomes a model for effective architectural access
legislation on other states.  Mace founds Barrier Free
Environments to advocate for accessibility in buildings and
products.

1975-
The first convention of American Association of the Deaf-Blind
is held in Cleveland.

Congress enacts the Community Services Act, creating the Head
Start program, with the stipulation that at least 10 percent of
program openings be served for disabled children.

Congress passes the Developmentally Disabled Assistance and Bill
of Rights Act, providing federal funds to programs serving
people with developmental disabilities and outlining a series of
rights for those who are institutionalized.  The lack of an
enforcement mechanism within the bill and subsequent court
decisions, will, however, render this portion of the act
virtually useless to disability rights advocates.

 The Education for All Handicapped Children Act (Pub. Law
94-142) is passed, establishing the right of children with
disabilities to a public school education in an integrated
environment.   The act is a cornerstone of federal disability
rights legislation.  In the next two decades, millions of
disabled children will be educated under its provisions,
radically changing the lives of people in the disability
community.

 The American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities is
founded. It becomes the preeminent national cross-disability
rights organization of the 1970s, pulling together disability
rights groups representing blind, deaf, physically disabled, and
developmentally disabled people.  It hires Frank Bowe as its
first executive director, begins a major study of the current
status of Americans with disabilities.

 The Association of Persons with Severe Handicaps (TASH) is
founded by special education professionals responding to PARC v.
Pennsylvania (1972) and subsequent right-to-education cases.
The organization will eventually call for the end of aversive
behavior modification and the closing of all residential
institution for people with disabilities.

The Atlantis Community is founded in Denver as a group housing
program for severely disabled adults who, until that time, had
been forced to live in nursing homes.

The U.S. Supreme Court, in OR17;Connor v. Donaldson, rules that
people cannot be institutionalized against their will in a
psychiatric hospital unless they are determined to be a threat
to themselves or to others.

Mainstream:  Magazine of the Able-Disabled beings publication in
San Diego.

The first Parent and Training Information Centers are founded to
help parents of disabled children to exercise their rights under
the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975.

Edward Robertson becomes the Director of the California
Department of Rehabilitation.  He moves to establish nine
independent living centers across that state, based on the model
of the original Center for Independent Living in Berkeley.  The
success of these centers demonstrates that independent living
can be replicated and eventually results in the founding of
hundreds of independent living centers all over the world.

The Western Center on Law and the Handicapped is founded in Los
Angeles.

1976-
Passage of an amendment to Higher Education Act of 1972 provides
services to physically disabled students entering college.

 The Transbus group, made up of Disabled in Action of
Pennsylvania, the American Coalition of Cerebral Palsy
Associations, and others, and represented by the Public Interest
Law Center of Philadelphia, files suit  (Disabled in Action of
Pennsylvania, Inc. v. Coleman) to require that all buses
purchased by public transit authorities receiving federal funds
meet Transbus specifications, making them wheelchair accessible.

 Disabled in Action pickets the United Cerebral Palsy telethon
in New York City, calling telethons "demeaning and paternalistic
shows which celebrate and encourage pity."

The Coalition of Provincial Organizations of the Handicapped is
founded in Winnipeg, Canada, later becoming the Council in
Canadians with Disabilities.

The Disability Rights Center is founded in Washington, D.C.
Sponsored by Ralph NaderR17;s Center for the Study of Responsive
Law, it specializes in consumer protection for people with
disabilities, joining the Justice department in anti-trust
action against the Everest & Jennings Company.

The Westside Center for Independent Living founded in Los
Angeles as one of the first nine independent living centers
established by Ed Roberts and the California Department of
Rehabilitation.

1977-
President Jimmy Carter appoints Max Cleland to head the U.S.
Veterans Administration, making Cleland the first severely
disabled (as well as the youngest) person to fill that position.

Disability rights activists in ten cities stage demonstrations
and occupations of the offices of the federal department of
Health Education and Welfare (HEW) to force the Carter
Administration to issue regulations implementation Section 504
of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.  The demonstrations galvanize
the disability community nationwide, particularly the San
Francisco action, which lasts nearly a month.  One 28 April, HEW
Secretary Joseph Califano signs the regulations.

The White House Conference on Handicapped Individuals brings
together 3,000 disabled people to discuss federal policy toward
people with disabilities. This first ever gathering of its kind
results in numerous recommendations and acts as a catalyst for
grassroots disability rights organizing.

Passage of the Legal Services Corporation Act Amendments adds
financially needy people with disabilities to the list of those
eligible for publicly funded legal services.

The U.S. Court of appeals for the Seventh Circuit, in Lloyd V.
Regional Transportation authority, rules that individuals have a
right to sue under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
and that public transit authorities must provide accessible
service. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in
Snowden v. Birmingham Jefferson County Transit Authority,
undermines this decision by ruling that authorities need provide
access only to "handicapped persons other than those confined to
wheelchairs."

1978-
Fiesta Educativa, Inc., is founded in  Los Angeles by Hispanic
parents of children with disabilities.

Adaptive Environments Center is founded in Boston.

Disability rights activism in Denver stage a sit-in
demonstration, blocking several Denver Regional Transit
Authority buses, to protest the complete inaccessibility of that
city's mass transit system. The demonstration is organized by
the Atlantis Community and is the first action in what will be a
year long civil disobedience campaign to force the Denver
Transit Authority to purchase wheelchair lift-equipped buses.

Title VII of the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1978
establishes the first federal funding for independent living and
creates  the National Council of the Handicapped under the U.S.
Department of Education.

On Our Own:  Patient Controlled Alternatives  to the Mental
Health System is published. Written by Judi Chamberlin, it
becomes a standard text of the psychiatric survivor movement.

 The National Center for Law and the Deaf is founded in
Washington, D.C.

Handicapping America, by Frank Bowe, is published.  The book is
a comprehensive review of the policies and attitudes denying
equal citizenship to people with disabilities, and it becomes a
standard text of the general disability rights movement.

1979-
The U.S. Olympic Committee organizes its Handicapped in Sports
Committee.

The U.S. Supreme Court, in Southeastern Community College v.
Davis, rules that, under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act
of 1973, programs receiving federal funds must make "reasonable
modifications" to enable the participation of otherwise
qualified disabled individuals. This decision is the Court's
first ruling on Section 504, and it establishes reasonable
modification as an important principle in disability rights law.

Marilyn Hamilton, Jim Okamoto, and Don Helman produce their
"Quickie" lightweight folding wheelchair revolutionizing manual
wheelchair design.

The Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF) is
founded in Berkeley, California, becoming the nation's
preeminent disability rights legal advocacy center and
participating in much of the landmark litigation and lobbying of
the 1980s and 1990s.

The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill is founded in
Madison, Wisconsin, by parents of persons with mental illness.

Self Help for Hard of Hearing People, Inc., is founded in
Bethesda, Maryland, by Howard "Rocky" Stone.

1980-
Congress passes the Social Security  Amendments, with Section
1619 designed to address work disincentives within the  Social
Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income
programs. Other provisions mandate a review of Social Security
recipients, leading to the termination of benefits of hundreds
of thousands of people with disabilities.

Congress passes the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons
Act, authorizing the U.S. Justice Department to file civil suits
on behalf of residents of institutions whose rights are being
violated.

The first issue of the Disability Rag & Resource is published in
Louisville, Kentucky.

 Disabled Peoples' International is founded in Singapore, with
the participation of advocates from Canada and the United
States.

The WomynR17;s Braille Press is founded in Minneapolis to make
women's and feminist literature available in braille and on
tape.

1981-
The International Year of Disabled Persons begins with speeches
before the United Nations General Assembly. During the year,
governments are encouraged to sponsor programs bringing people
with disabilities into the mainstream of their societies.

In an editorial in the New York Timer, Evan Kemp Jr. attacks the
Jerry Lewis National Muscular Dystrophy Association  Telethon,
writing that "the very human desire for cures can never justify
a television show that reinforces a stigma against disabled
people."

Publication of Images of  Ourselves:  Women with Disabilities
Talking by Jo Campling and Ad Things Are Possible by Yvonne
Duffy highlights the concerns of women with disabilities.

1981-1983-
The newly elected Reagan Administration threatens to amend or
revoke regulations implementing Section 504 1983 of the
Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Education for All Handicapped
Children Act of  1975. Disability rights advocates, led by
Patrisha Wright at the Disability Rights Education and Defense
Fund (DREDF) and Evan Kemp, Jr. at the Disability  Rights
Center, respond with an intensive lobbying effort and a
grassroots campaign that generates more than 40,000 cards  and
letters. After three years, the Reagan Administration abandons
its attempts to revoke or amend the regulations.

1981-1984-
The Reagan Administration terminates the Social Security
benefits of hundreds of thousands of disabled recipients.
Advocates charge that these terminations are an effort to reduce
the federal budget and often do not reflect any improvement in
the condition of those being terminated. A variety of groups,
including the Alliance of Social Security Disability Recipients
and the Ad Hoc Committee on Social Security Disability, spring
up to fight these terminations. Several disabled people, in
despair over the loss of their benefits, commit suicide.

National Black Deaf Advocates is founded.

The parents of "Baby Doe" in Bloomington, Indiana, are advised
by their doctors to deny a surgical procedure to unblock their
newborn's esophagus, because the baby has Down Syndrome.
Although disability rights activists try to intervene, Baby Doe
starves to death before legal action can be taken.  The case
prompts the Reagan Administration to issue regulations calling
for the creation of "Baby Doe squads" to safeguard the civil
rights of disabled newborns.

The Telecommunications for the Disabled Act mandates telephone
access for deaf and hard-of-hearing people at important public
places, such as hospitals and police stations, and that all
coin-operated phones be hearing aid-compatible by January 1985.
It also calls for state subsidies for production and
distribution of  TDDs (telecommunications devices for the deaf),
more commonly referred to as TTYs.

The National Council on Independent Living is formed to advocate
on behalf of independent living centers and the independent
living movement.

1983-
The Disabled Children's Computer Group (DCCG) is founded in
Berkeley, California.

Ed Roberts, Judy Heumann, and Joan Leon found the World
Institute on Disability in Oakland, California.

American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit (ADAPT) is
organized at the Atlantis Community Headquarters in Denver,
Colorado.  For the next seven years ADAPT conducts a civil
disobedience campaign against the American Public Transit
Association (APTA) and various local public transit authorities
to protest the lack of accessible public transportation.

The National Council on the Handicapped issues a call for
Congress to "act forthwith to include persons with disabilities
in the  Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other civil and voting
rights legislation and regulations."

The United Nations expands the International Year of Disabled
Persons into the International Decade of Disabled Persons, to
last from 1983 to 1992.

 Sharon Kowalski is disabled by a drunk driver near Onamia,
Minnesota. Her parents, discovering that she is a lesbian,
refuse  to allow her to return home to her lover Karen Thompson,
instead keeping her in a nursing home. Thompson's eight-year
struggle to free Kowalski becomes a focus of disability rights
advocates and leads to links between the lesbian and disability
rights communities.

The Job Accommodation Network (JAN) is founded by the
President's Committee on Employment of the Handicapped to
provide information to businesses with disabled employees.

1984-
The Baby Jane Doe case, like the  1982 Bloomington Baby Doe
case, involves an infant being denied needed medical care
because of her disability. The case results in litigation argued
before the U.S. Supreme Court in Bowen v. American  Hospital
Association, and in passage of the Child Abuse Prevention and
Treatment Act Amendments of 1984.

George Murray becomes the first wheelchair athlete to be
featured on the Wheaties cereal box.

The U.S. Supreme Court rules, in Irving Independent School
District v. Tatro, that school districts are required under the
Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 to provide
intermittent catheterization, performed by the school nurse or a
nurse's aide, as a "related service" to a disabled student.
School districts can no longer refuse to educate a disabled
child because they might need such a service.

 The National Council of the Handicapped becomes an independent
federal agency.

Congress passes the Social Security Disability Reform Act in
response to the complaints of hundreds of  thousands of people
whose Social Security disability benefits have been terminated.
The law requires that payment of benefits and health insurance
coverage continue for terminated recipients until they have
exhausted their appeals and that decisions by the Social
Security Administration to terminate benefits be made only on
the basis of "the weight of the evidence" in a particular
recipientR17;s case.

 The Voting Accessibility for the Elderly and Handicapped Act
mandates that polling places be accessible or that ways be
found to enable elderly and disabled people to exercise their
right to vote. Advocates find that the act is difficult, if not
impossible, to enforce.

1985-
Wry Crips, a radical disability theatre group, is founded in
and, California.

 The U.S. Supreme Court rules, in Burlington School Committee v.
Department of Education, that schools must pay the expenses of
disabled children enrolled in private programs during litigation
under the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, if
the courts rule such placement is needed to provide the child
with an appropriate education in the least restrictive
environment.

The U.S. Supreme Court rules, City of Cleburne v. Cleburne
Living Center, that localities cannot use zoning laws to
prohibit  group homes for people with developmental disabilities
from opening in a residential area sole because its residents
are  disabled.

Gini Laurie founds the International Polio Network, based in St.
Louis, Missouri, and begins advocating for recognition of
post-polio syndrome.

 The National Association of Psychiatric Survivors is founded.

1986-
The Air Carrier Access Act is passed, prohibiting airlines from
refusing to serve people simply because they are disabled, and
from charging them more for airfare than non-disabled travelers.

The National Council on the Handicapped issues Toward
Independence, a report outlining the legal status of Americans
with disabilities, documenting the existence of discriminating
and citing the need for federal civil rights legislation (what
will eventually be passed as the Americans with Disabilities Act
of 1990).

Concrete Change, a grassroots organization advocating for
accessible housing, is organized in Atlanta, Georgia.

The Employment Opportunities for Disabled Americans Act is
passed, allowing recipients of Supplemental Security Income and
Social Security Disability Insurance to retain benefits,
particularly medical coverage, even after they obtain work. The
act is intended to remove the disincentives that keep disabled
people unemployed.

The Protection and Advocacy for Mentally Ill Individuals Act is
passed, setting up protection and advocacy agencies for people
who are in-patients or residents of mental health facilities.

The Society for Disability Studies is founded.

The Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1986 define supported
employment as a "legitimate rehabilitation outcome."

1987-
The Alliance for Technology Access  is founded in California by
the Disabled Children's Computer Group and the Apple Computer
Office of Special Education.

Marlee Marlin wins an Oscar for her performance in Children of a
Lesser God.

 The AXIS Dance Troupe is founded in Oakland, California.

The DisAbled Women's Network (DAWN) is founded in Winnipeg,
Canada.

The US. Supreme Court, in School Board of Nassau County, Fla. v.
Arline, outlines the rights of people with contagious disease
under Title V of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. It establishes
that people with infectious; diseases cannot be fired from their
jobs "because of prejudiced attitude or ignorance of others."
This ruling is a landmark precedent for people with
tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and other infectious diseases or
disabilities, and for people, such as individuals with cancer or
epilepsy, who are discriminated against because others fear they
may be contagious.

The Association of Late Deafened Adults (ALDA) is founded in
Chicago.

1988-
Students at Gallaudet University in  Washington, D.C., organize
a week-long shut-down and occupation of their campus to demand
selection of a deaf president after the Gallaudet Board of
Trustees appoints a non-deaf person as president of the
university. On March 13, the Gallaudet administration announces
that I. King Jordan will be the university's first deaf
president.

 Deaf Life begins monthly publication in Rochester, New York.

The Technology-Related Assistance Act for Individuals with
Disabilities (the "Tech Act") is passed, authorizing federal
funding to state projects designed to facilitate access to
assistive technology.

The Fair Housing Amendments Act adds people with disabilities to
those groups protected by federal fair housing legislation,  and
it establishes minimum standards of an adaptability for newly
constructed multiple-dwelling housing.

The National Council on the Handicapped issues On the Threshold
of Independence and a first deaf of the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA), which is introduced into Congress by
Rep. Tony Coelho and into the Senate by Sen. Lowell Weicker.
The Congressional Task Force on the Rights and Empowerment of
Americans with Disabilities is created by Rep. Major R. Owens
and co-chaired by Justin Dart Jr. and Elizabeth Boggs. The task
force begins building grassroots; support for  passage of the
ADA.

Congress overturns President Ronald Reagan's veto of the Civil
Rights Restoration Act of 1987. The act undoes the Supreme Court
decision in Grove City College v. Bell and other decisions
limiting the scope of federal civil rights law, including
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

The U.S. Supreme Court, in Honig v. Doe, affirms the "stay put
rule" established under the Education for All Handicapped
Children Act of 1975, under which school authorities cannot
expel or suspend or otherwise move disabled children from the
setting agreed upon under the child's Individualized Education
Program (IEP) without a due process hearing.

The National Parent Network on Disabilities is established as an
umbrella organization for the Parent Training and Information
Centers.

1989-
The federal appeals court, in  ADAPT v. Skinner, rules that
federal regulations requiring that transit authorities spend
only 3 percent of their budgets on access are arbitrary and
discriminatory.

 The original version of the American with Disabilities Act,
introduced into Congress the previous year, is redrafted and
reintroduced. Disability organizations across the country
advocate on its behalf with Patrisha Wright as "general" and
Marilyn Golden, Liz Savage, Justin Dart Jr., and Elizabeth Boggs
as principal coordinators of this effort.

The Center for Universal Design (originally the Center for
Accessible Housing) is founded by
Ronald Mace in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Mouth: The Voice of Disability Rights begins publication in
Rochester, New York.

The President's Committee on Employment of the Handicapped is
renamed the President's Committee on Employment of People with
Disabilities.

1990-
Altered States of the Arts is founded.

 The Wheels of Justice campaign in Washington, D.C., organized
by American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit  (ADAPT),
brings hundreds of disabled people to the nation's capital in
support of the Americans with Disabilities Act ADAPT activists
occupy the Capitol rotunda, and are arrested when they refuse to
leave.

The Americans with Disabilities Act is signed by President
George Bush on 26 July in a ceremony on the White House lawn
witnessed by thousands of disability rights activists. The law
is the most sweeping disability rights legislation in history,
for the first time bringing full legal citizenship to Americans
with disabilities.  It mandates that local, state, and federal
governments and programs be accessible, that businesses with
more than 15 employees make "reasonable accommodations" for
disabled workers, that public accommodations such as restaurants
and stores make "reasonable modifications" to ensure access for
disabled members of the public.  The act also mandates access in
public transportation, communication, and in other areas of
public life.

The Autism National Committee is founded.

The Committee of Ten Thousand is founded to advocate for people
with hemophilia, and their family members, who have been
infected with HIV/AIDS through tainted blood products.

The Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act is
passed to help localities cope with the burgeoning HIV/AIDS
epidemic.

With passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, American
Disabled for Accessible Public Transit (ADAPT) changes its focus
to advocating for personal assistance services and changes its
name to American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today.

The Education for All Handicapped Children Act is amended and
renamed the Individuals with Disabilities; Education Act (IDEA).

1991-
Jerry's Orphans stages its first annual picket of the Jerry
Lewis  Muscular Dystrophy Association
Telethon.

1993-
The American Indian Disability  Legislation Project is
established to collect data on Native American disability rights
laws and regulations.

Communication Unbound, by Douglas Biklen, is published, leading
to a great increase in the use of Facilitated  Communication.
The method becomes controversial when it results in accusations
of physical and sexual abuse by teachers,  caretakers, and
family members of people with communication disabilities.

The Glen Ridge case comes to trial in New Jersey, and three men
are convicted of sexual assault and conspiracy, and a  fourth of
conspiracy, for raping a 17-year-old mentally disabled woman.
The case highlights the widespread sexual abuse of  people with
developmental disabilities.

Robert Williams becomes commissioner of the Administration on
Developmental Disabilities, the first developmentally disabled
person to hold that post.

The final federal appeals court ruling in Holland v. Sacramento
City Unified School District affirms the right of disabled
children to attend public school classes with non-disabled
children. The ruling is a major victory in the ongoing effort to
ensure enforcement of the Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act.

1995-
Justice for All is founded in Washington, D.C.

When Broke His Head... and Other Tale of Wonder premiers on PBS.
The film is, for many, a first time introduction to the concept
of disability rights and the disability rights movement.

The American Association of People with Disabilities is founded
in Washington, D.C.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, in Helen L. v.
Snider, rules that the continued publicly funded
institutionalization of a disabled Pennsylvania woman in a
nursing home, when not medically necessary, and where the state
of Pennsylvania could offer her the option of home care, is a
violation of her rights under the Americans with Disabilities
Act of 1990. Disability rights advocates hail this ruling as a
landmark decision regarding the rights of people in nursing
homes to personal assistance services, allowing them to live at
home.

Sandra Jensen, a member of People First, is denied a heart-lung
transplant by the Stanford University School of Medicine because
she has Down syndrome. After pressure from disability rights
activists, administrators there reverse their decision, and, in
January 1996, Jensen becomes the first person with Down syndrome
to receive a heart-lung transplant.

1996-
Congress passes legislation eliminating more than 150,000
disabled children from the Social Security rolls, as well as
individuals who are alcohol or drug dependent.

Not Dead Yet is formed by disabled advocates to oppose Jack
Kevorkian and the proponents of assisted suicide for people with
disabilities. The Supreme Court agrees to hear several
right-to-die cases, and disability rights advocates redouble
their efforts to prevent a resurgence of "euthanasia" and "mercy
killing" as practiced by the Nazis against disabled people
during World War II.  Of particular concern are calls for the
"rationing" of health care to people with severe disabilities
and the  imposition of "Do Not Resuscitate" (DNR) orders for
disabled people in hospitals, schools, and nursing homes.

Sen. Robert Dole becomes the first person with a visible
disability since Franklin Roosevelt to run for president of the
United States. Unlike Roosevelt, he publicly acknowledges the
extent of his disability. He is defeated by incumbent Bill
Clinton.

Georgia voters elect disabled candidate Max Cleland to the U.S.
Senate.

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