All disabled people have the right to equality before the law (CRPD Article 5) and to full participation in political and public life (Article 29). The disability rights movement transformed how the world understands disability—from a medical problem to be fixed into a civil rights issue demanding equal access and inclusion. This page centers disabled people's expertise and is informed by disabled-led organizing globally.
Every legal protection disabled people have today—from accessible buildings to employment rights to education inclusion—was won through organizing, protest, and political struggle. Understanding this history shows that rights are never given; they are taken through collective action. The movement continues today, fighting new battles while defending hard-won gains.
This page covers:
- Roots of the movement in earlier organizing (1940s–1960s)
- The rise of cross-disability activism (1970s)
- Key protests and direct actions
- Major legal victories (Section 504, ADA, CRPD)
- International disability rights developments
- Tensions and debates within the movement
- Ongoing organizing and current struggles
After World War II, several developments set the stage:
- Disabled veterans organized for benefits, rehabilitation, and recognition
- Parent groups formed to demand services for children with intellectual and developmental disabilities
- Polio survivors built networks and challenged medical control
- Blind and Deaf organizations continued advocacy begun in earlier eras
- Civil rights, feminist, and anti-war movements provided models for direct action
By the 1960s, disabled people began organizing across disability categories:
- Disabled students demanded campus access
- Activists connected disability discrimination to broader civil rights struggles
- Early disability studies scholarship emerged
- International exchanges connected US, UK, and Scandinavian activists
The founding of the Berkeley Center for Independent Living (1972) marked a turning point. CILs spread across the US and internationally, promoting:
- Self-determination and peer support
- Consumer control of services
- Cross-disability solidarity
- Political organizing
See The Independent Living Movement for full history.
¶ Section 504 and the 1977 Sit-Ins
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (1973) was the first US civil rights law protecting disabled people. It prohibited discrimination in any program receiving federal funding.
But the regulations to implement Section 504 were delayed for four years. In April 1977, disabled activists occupied federal buildings across the country demanding action.
The San Francisco Sit-In lasted 25 days—the longest occupation of a federal building in US history. Key elements:
- Over 100 disabled protesters occupied the HEW building
- Black Panther Party provided food
- Labor unions, LGBTQ+ activists, and civil rights groups showed solidarity
- Deaf and blind protesters, wheelchair users, and people with psychiatric disabilities worked together
- Judy Heumann, Kitty Cone, and other leaders coordinated nationally
The regulations were signed on April 28, 1977. This victory proved that direct action worked.
- 1975: Education for All Handicapped Children Act (later IDEA) guaranteed public education
- 1978: Amendments to the Rehabilitation Act strengthened independent living programs
- White House Conference on Handicapped Individuals brought activists together
- Disabled in Action, American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities, and other groups expanded organizing
¶ The 1980s: ADAPT and Direct Action
American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit (ADAPT) was founded in 1983 in Denver. Led by Wade Blank and disability activists, ADAPT used confrontational direct action tactics:
- Blocking inaccessible buses
- Occupying transit authority offices
- Getting arrested to draw media attention
- Demanding lifts on all public buses
ADAPT won the fight for accessible public transit, which was included in the ADA.
In 1990, ADAPT shifted focus to community attendant services, becoming American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today. Campaigns included:
- "Free Our People" marches to close nursing homes
- Occupations of state capitols and federal buildings
- Advocacy for Medicaid community services
- Ongoing fights against institutionalization
- Deaf President Now (1988): Gallaudet University students shut down campus demanding a Deaf president, winning appointment of I. King Jordan
- AIDS activism: Disability and AIDS movements intersected as activists fought for treatment and against discrimination
- Psychiatric survivor movement grew, challenging forced treatment and demanding alternatives
- Parents and self-advocates pushed for community inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities
The campaign for the ADA brought together:
- Independent living centers
- ADAPT activists
- National disability organizations
- Parents' groups
- Veterans' organizations
- Civil rights allies
Key leaders included Justin Dart Jr. (who toured all 50 states gathering testimony), Patrisha Wright, Evan Kemp, and many others.
On March 12, 1990, over 1,000 disabled activists marched from the White House to the Capitol. Dozens of wheelchair users got out of their chairs and crawled up the Capitol steps to dramatize the need for accessibility.
Eight-year-old Jennifer Keelan's image crawling up the steps became iconic.
The ADA prohibited discrimination in:
- Title I: Employment (businesses with 15+ employees)
- Title II: State and local government services
- Title III: Public accommodations (businesses open to the public)
- Title IV: Telecommunications (relay services)
- Title V: Miscellaneous provisions
President George H.W. Bush signed the ADA on July 26, 1990.
¶ Limitations and Ongoing Struggles
The ADA was a major victory but had limitations:
- Courts narrowed definitions of disability in the 1990s–2000s
- Enforcement relies heavily on individual lawsuits
- Many businesses remain inaccessible
- Web accessibility was not explicitly addressed
- Employment rates for disabled people remain low
The ADA Amendments Act (2008) restored broader protections after court decisions had weakened the law.
See ADA History for detailed coverage.
Disability rights organizing spread worldwide:
- Disabled Peoples' International (DPI) founded in 1981, connecting movements across countries
- European Disability Forum and regional networks emerged
- Global South movements organized despite fewer resources, often challenging Western-dominated frameworks
- UN attention grew through International Year of Disabled Persons (1981) and subsequent decades
The CRPD, adopted in 2006 and entered into force in 2008, is the most comprehensive international disability rights treaty. Key features:
- Drafted with significant input from disabled people ("Nothing About Us Without Us")
- Covers all areas of life: education, employment, health, legal capacity, community living
- Establishes monitoring mechanisms
- Ratified by over 180 countries (though not the United States as of 2025)
The CRPD represents the global consensus that disability is a human rights issue.
- UK: Disability Discrimination Act (1995), Equality Act (2010)
- Australia: Disability Discrimination Act (1992), NDIS (2013)
- Canada: Charter of Rights protections, Accessible Canada Act (2019)
- South Africa: Post-apartheid constitution includes disability rights
- India: Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act (2016)
- Brazil: Law of Inclusion (2015)
- Japan: Act for Eliminating Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities (2016)
Each country's movement has its own history, leaders, and ongoing struggles.
¶ Tensions and Debates Within the Movement
The disability rights movement has faced internal tensions:
- Parents vs. self-advocates: Parents' organizations sometimes conflict with disabled people's own priorities
- Cross-disability tensions: Different disability communities have different needs and priorities
- Race and disability: White-led organizations have often marginalized disabled people of color
- Professional vs. grassroots: Some organizations became professionalized, losing activist edge
- Charity vs. rights: Tension between organizations focused on services and those focused on systemic change
Since the 2000s, disability justice organizers—many of them disabled people of color, queer, and multiply marginalized—have critiqued mainstream disability rights for:
- Centering white, middle-class experiences
- Focusing on legal rights without addressing poverty, racism, and other structural issues
- Prioritizing employment and independence over interdependence and care
- Neglecting multiply marginalized disabled people
Disability justice, developed by Sins Invalid and others, offers a framework that centers:
- Leadership of multiply marginalized disabled people
- Intersectionality and anti-capitalism
- Collective access and interdependence
- Wholeness and worth beyond productivity
Disabled people continue organizing around:
- Healthcare: Medicaid defense, coverage for services and equipment, medical discrimination
- Community living: Closing institutions, expanding home and community-based services
- Employment: Ending subminimum wage, fighting discrimination
- Education: Full inclusion, adequate services, fighting school-to-prison pipeline
- Voting: Accessible voting, fighting disenfranchisement
- Climate justice: Accessible emergency response, centering disabled people in climate planning
- Police violence: Disabled people are disproportionately killed by police
- COVID-19: Fighting for access, opposing triage discrimination, long COVID recognition
- Technology: Web accessibility, AI discrimination, digital inclusion
- ADAPT: Continuing direct action for community living
- National Council on Independent Living (NCIL): Network of CILs
- Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN): Autistic-led advocacy
- National Federation of the Blind: Blind advocacy and services
- National Association of the Deaf: Deaf rights and culture
- Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law: Legal advocacy
- Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF): Legal and policy work
- Sins Invalid: Disability justice arts and activism
- Harriet Tubman Collective: Disabled Black and POC organizing
¶ Sources and Further Reading
- Joseph Shapiro, No Pity: People with Disabilities Forging a New Civil Rights Movement
- Doris Zames Fleischer and Frieda Zames, The Disability Rights Movement: From Charity to Confrontation
- Sharon Barnartt and Richard Scotch, Disability Protests: Contentious Politics 1970–1999
¶ Section 504 and the Sit-Ins
- Kitty Cone, writings and oral histories
- HolLynn D'Lil, documentary work on the 504 sit-in
- Judy Heumann, Being Heumann (memoir)
- Lennard Davis (ed.), The Disability Studies Reader
- Arlene Mayerson, "The History of the ADA"
- Justin Dart papers and oral histories
- Sins Invalid, Skin, Tooth, and Bone: The Basis of Movement Is Our People
- Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice
- Mia Mingus, writings on disability justice
This page centers disabled people's expertise and is informed by disabled-led organizing globally. For questions or to suggest additions, see How to Contribute.