Podcast
Disability Rights Movement
Defining Disability & Models of Disability
Reflection
Before reviewing the following slides, reflect on your definition and understanding of social movements.
What is a social movement?
How do you know it is a social movement?
Social Movements
Key topics include:
Types of social movements
Conditions needed for a social movement
What makes a successful social movement
Social Movements
Social Movements: conscious, collective, organized attempts to bring about or resist large-scale change in the social order
Classified by 2 factors
What is the scope of the intended change? Is it a group of people or entire society?
How much change is intended by the social movement? Is it limited or radical change?
For additional information: https://opentextbc.ca/introductiontosociology/chapter/chapter21-social-movements-and-social-change/
Types of Social Movements
| Instrumental | Expressive | |
| Reform | Reformative: partial change within the social structure via policy reform | Alternative: partial change in individuals via individual reform |
| Revolutionary | Transformative: total change of the social structure | Redemptive: total change in the individuals |
Reform movements—try to bring about limited social change by working within the existing system, usually targeting social structures such as education or medicine and directly targeting policy makers
Revolutionary social movements seek fundamental changes of the system itself
Instrumental movements seek to change the structure of society, such as the civil rights and the environmental movement
Expressive movements attempt to change individuals and individual behavior
Resistance Movements: seek to prevent or undo change to the social structure
How do social movements begin?
Social movements do not generally arise from a stable social context, rather they arise out of a changing social order
Arise from the structure itself, primarily the result of social and economic deprivation
Relative deprivation—a perceived gap between what people expect and what they actually get
Structural Conditions Needed for a Social Movement
Particular structures are more likely to generate certain kinds of social movements than others
People will become dissatisfied with the current structure only if the structure is perceived as oppressive or illegitimate
Must be a growth of a generalized belief system
Dramatic events sharpen and concretize issues
Movement gains momentum with the mobilization of leaders and members
Forces in society respond to the social movement either by accepting or suppressing it
What makes a successful social movement?
Generate change in 3 areas
Culture: educate people, change beliefs, change behaviors
New organizations or institutions
Influence initiatives by altering the structure of political support
Limit resources to challengers
Change the values and symbols used by supporters and challengers
Social policy and legislation
Movements often organize or mobilize around certain policy demands
Disability Rights Movement
Key Topics Include:
History of the disability rights movement
Key policies and protests
History of the Disability Rights Movement
Has a long history dating back to the 1800s
Gained more popularity in the 1900s
1930s: League of the Physically Handicapped organized for employment in the Great Depression
Argued that labeling people with disabilities are “unemployable” helped poor relief programs to segregate them and allow job discrimination to occur
https://www.nps.gov/articles/disabilityhistoryrightsmovement.htm
https://www.adl.org/education/resources/backgrounders/disability-rights-movement
History of the Disability Rights Movement
1940s:
National Federation of the Blind
Successfully fought for “white cane laws” and “guide dog laws”
Psychiatric patients formed We Are Not Alone
Supported patients transitioning from hospital to the community
1960s: influenced by the civil rights movement
Many wanted to join forces with other minority groups to demand equal treatment, equal access, and equal opportunity
Followed a similar pattern: challenge negative attitudes and stereotypes, rallying for change, and lobbying for self-determinations
Independent Living Movement
Led predominately by wheelchair users with physical disabilities
First independent living center: Center for Independent Living (CIL) in Berkeley, California
Began as an organization of students with disabilities at University of California
Students on Berkeley’s campus organized a political group called Rolling Quads
Wanted the university to remove architectural barriers that prevented wheelchair users from moving freely on campus
Launched the Physically Disabled Students’ Program (PDSP) in 1970
Organizers decided to create a new organization to serve the broader community (CIL)
Independent Living Centers opened throughout the country during this time
Deinstitutionalization Movement
Successful during the 1970s
Horrific conditions where states confined individuals
Lawyers who focused on these horrific cases argued that institutionalization:
Deprivation of liberty
Pointed to the origins of institutionalization in the U.S. to the eugenics period
That institutionalization was prejudiced against disabled people
That mental disability is a label attached to certain socially deviant people and that many people institutionalized are not mentally ill or intellectually disabled
That the institutional environment itself was a cause for mental illness
Deinstitutionalization Movement
Largely led by nondisabled lawyers at first
As more people were deinstitutionalized, people started to organize their own advocacy groups
Multiple groups formed during the deinstitutionalization movement
People First
Psychiatric survivors movement
American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today (ADAPT)
Where are we now after deinstitutionalization?
Watch 5 Ways the U.S. Mental Health Care System is in Crisis (closed captions provided)
Reflect:
What are the ways the mental health care system is in crisis?
Was the deinstitutionalization movement successful? Why or why not?
Rehabilitation Act of 1973
Addresses disability discrimination
First time people with disabilities were protected under law
Section 501 supports people in federal workplaces and organizations receiving federal tax dollars
Section 503 requires affirmative action: supports employment and education
Rehabilitation Act of 1973
Section 504 prohibits discrimination in the workplace and in their programs and activities
Written but not implemented
Regulations remained unsigned for years
Led to protests by sitting-in at federal offices
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
1975 Education of All Handicapped Children Act
Right to a public school education
Mandated full inclusion into mainstream education classes
Renamed in 1990 to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
Still wanted children included into mainstream classes
Included the fights for parents to be involved in educational decisions
Congress passed over 50 pieces of legislation between the 1960s and 1990 to protect people with disabilities
Deaf President Now Protests
1988 “Deaf President Now” protests at Gallaudet University
Only American university specifically for Deaf students
Called for a Deaf president and a majority Deaf Board of Trustees
Week-long protest
Result: appointed the first Deaf president
Video: Gallaudet University Protests (4 min)
https://www.nps.gov/articles/disabilityhistoryrightsmovement.htm
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/stories-44700814/the-deaf-protest-that-gripped-america
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA):
Originally created in 1990
Seen as one of the greatest legal achievements for people with disabilities
Supported by both democrats and republicans
Prohibits discrimination in: employment, services, places of public accommodation, transportation, and telecommunication services
Mandated to provide reasonable accommodations
We will discuss the ADA more in-depth during the week on work!
Reflection
Do you believe the ADA is effective? Why or why not?
The ADA: Is it effective?
Positive Changes:
Street corners with curb cuts
Public transit with automatic lifts
Subway systems with elevators
Public buildings with automatic doors
Interpreters more accessible compared to decades ago (pre ADA)
The ADA: Is it effective?
But did it change lives??
Large obstacles for finding a job
Some studies found that 20 years later, the ADA may have reduced employment
Bias, stereotypes, and discrimination still exist
Technology is still inaccessible for people who are blind or Deaf
Websites
ATMs
Communications with 911
Disabled people don’t have the right to marry without losing disability benefits
Unemployment rate is still high
Unemployment rate for people with significant disabilities has not changed over the past few decades
About half of people with disabilities are still not working
Many people give up on finding a job, which changes the official unemployment rate count
Disability Pride
Disability Pride: the idea that disabled people should be proud of their disabled identity
First Disability Pride Day was held in Boston, MA in 1990
Coincides with the same year the ADA was signed into law
Read or listen to Shapiro’s New York Time’s article Disability Pride: The High Expectations of a New Generation
Disability Rights/Culture/Pride Paradigm
Disability Rights/Culture/Pride Paradigm created by Steven Brown, Institute on Disability Culture (1995)
Tensions in the Disability Rights Movement
Key Topics Include:
Universal vs. Minority Group Model
Professionals
Independence & Welfare
See this week’s reading for more in-depth discussion on this section of the PowerPoint
Universal vs. Minority Group Model
Tension over the coverage of disability civil rights laws
One response: use society’s construction of disability to create affirmative action remedies
Another response: the disability label is arbitrary and policy should pursue the entire population “at risk” for illness and disability, such as by using universal design
Critique Of & Reliance On Professionals
Tensions over the role of professionals
Activists criticized nondisabled professionals who worked on disability issues
Argued that disabled people could make their own choices
Example: welfare and receipts of benefits depended on compliance that was dictated by rehabilitation counselors and welfare caseworkers
Many activists also relied on the assistance and endorsement of professionals who shared their views
Ex: nondisabled lawyers to bring disability rights cases, psychologists opposed to institutionalization, etc.
Independence & Welfare
Activists argued that disabled people don’t want charity, pity, or government handouts
Want to live in the community and work
Despite the tension on the role of independence, people within the movement did agree that they did not want pity
Independence was defined as “the ability of people with disabilities to make their own choices concerning how to live their lives, what services to receive, and how and where to receive them” by the independent living movement (p. 25)
Assistance (i.e. with transportation, hygiene, etc.) does not necessarily compromise their independence
Some disagreed with the independent living movement: believed in self-help and individual responsibility
Independence & Welfare
Welfare:
Many agreed to move away from welfare programs as a response to disability
Disagreement from both the left and the right
Left: argued welfare programs were a way to ”buy off” the group and prevent them from protesting existing power arrangements
Right: argued that welfare programs promoted a culture of dependence
Reflection
What type of social movement(s) is the disability right movement? What are some examples?
Is is the disability rights movement successful? Why or why not?