July is Disability Pride Month. The month of July is Disability Pride Month due to the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) being on July 26, 1990. This year the ADA will only be 36 years old. Not many people are aware that July is meant to celebrate the anniversary of the ADA and people with disabilities. Disability Pride Month was first recognized in 2015, and we have a lot to celebrate because we worked very hard to get where we are today with the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.
People with disabilities come together to fight for what we need in order to lead full and productive lives. This is why we celebrate Disability Pride Month! Other minorities used to join in our fight for rights as well. During the 26 day Section 504 Sit-in, the Black Panther Party played a vital role; they delivered hot meals and vital medications to the disabled advocates. The participation of the Black Panther Party was the reason that the sit-in lasted as long as it did, due to the power and water in the building being turned off. The oppressed minorities created a human chain.
There are no more human chains to be formed. People with disabilities are no longer acknowledged by other oppressed minorities. We are not seen, we are not heard, we are not listened to. We are being mocked by our president, and the rights that we have fought so hard for are being stripped away. We are moving backwards. And the worst part is, that no one knows. Anybody who does not have a disability or does not know someone with a disability is not aware of how far backwards we are slipping. However, this is news that concerns everyone, because… The minority of people with disabilities is the largest minority and the only minority that anyone can become a part of at any time of their life, and if you live long enough, you will become a part of the disability minority.
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act was signed into law in the year of 1973. The law protected people with disabilities from "being excluded from participation, being denied benefits of, or being subjected to discrimination [based upon their disability] under any activity or program receiving federal funding (Cone, n.d.). However guidelines for the law were not enforced. Between 1973 and 1977 the disability community filed a federal lawsuit to enforce accessibility regulations; the judge saying that needs regulations must be issued, but not when they must be issued. This development ignited people with disabilities to take action in order for the regulations to 504 to be signed. On April 5, 1977, over 100 disability rights activists sat in the San Francisco federal Health Education Welfare (HEW) building for 26 straight days. The 504 Sit-in is an example of how the disability community can band together and fight for what we need. The sit-in not only resulted in the first civil rights law for people with disabilities, but also mandated physical accessibility in all federal funded programs, schools, and workplaces. The law also paved the way for the ADA!
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act was the first time that exclusion and segregation of people with disabilities was recognized as discrimination. However, Section 504 did not enforce accessibility to programs that were not receiving federal funding, therefore denying access to many organizations. This prompted the National Council on Disability (NCD) to release a report in February 1986 that addressed recommendations for federal laws and programs that affect people with disabilities. This report resulted in the first draft of the Americans with Disabilities Act. In April of 1988 the first draft of the ADA was signed into legislation by Senator Lowell Weicker of Connecticut and Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa. This federal recognition put disability activists and the NCD into action. The president of the National Council on Disability, Justin Dart, traveled to all fifty states. As he traveled, he united people with disabilities as well as documented the discrimination and inaccessibility faced in their daily lives. This documentation was published as the "discrimination diaries." Leaders of organizations such as the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF), Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, and Epilepsy Foundation came together to form a team of people with disabilities to support passage of the ADA. However, the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act came to a stall. In March of 1990, over 1,000 activists gathered in Washington D.C. to protest. Many disabled advocates left their mobility aides at the bottom of the capitol steps to crawl up them, which is known as the "Capitol Crawl." The "Capitol Crawl" was to bring awareness of the barriers that people with disabilities face on a daily basis. This protest opened the eyes of congress. On July 26, 1990 George HW Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act into law!
After the passage of the ADA, the Titles to the law had to be implemented, and made effective. This occurred between the years of 1991 and 1994. Title I of the ADA prohibits all employers who have 15 or more employees from discrimination against qualified people with disabilities in all aspects of employment. Aspects of employment include recruitment, hiring, training, bonuses, promotions, pay, and benefits. Both Title II and III require equal access for people with disabilities. However, Title II covers state and local governments, while Title III applies to private agencies. Title IV of the ADA requires that telephone services nationwide have telecommunication relay services, which allow those who are D/deaf as well as those who have speech impairments to communicate over the phone. Title IV also requires closed captions on the TV.
These laws are tumbling down. Decades of work for disability rights activists and advocates are being withdrawn. Businesses are not going to need to be ADA compliant, and people with disabilities are not going to be able to live in their communities. So, this Disability Pride Month we must celebrate how people with disabilities fought for our rights from the ground up. I ask you to join us in celebration and the next battle to come.
