1. Salon One:
Good evening. My name is Bryan Dooley. I am a journalist, amateur historian and a
local disability advocate active locally, statewide and nationally. Katherine Foster invited
me to discuss a major part of US and world history that not many people know about,
which is the history of people with disabilities. I have talked to many people and they
acknowledge that disability can happen to anyone at any time, and yet they do not know
anything about it. This makes it unique, as a minority. People with disabilities make up
the largest minority in the United States. Disabilities do not discriminate. You can find
people with disabilities in every socio economic status, every race, every political party,
every age, every gender, every sexual orientation, every religion, and the list goes on.
As a historian, it is very interesting to study the variety of viewpoints and the diversity
represented in disability. However, the lack of awareness about disability history is also
very frustrating to me as an advocate. Each person is or will be affected, but few are
taught the history.
I was born into a large and supportive Irish Catholic family in nineteen ninety, a very
important year. When I was 9 months old, two of my aunts, who are doctors, noticed
that I was not hitting developmental milestones at the same time their children were.
They convinced my mother to talk to a doctor. I was then diagnosed with Mixed
Cerebral Palsy. Nineteen ninety was slightly before the internet was a household name,
so my mom and my aunts had to go to the library to research Cerebral Palsy. Back
then, there were no online support groups or instant access to information. The first
place I went for help was Amos Cottage. Winston was fortunate to have such a place;
other towns were not as lucky. Somehow, my mother heard about The Childrens
Center, but initially, she did not want me with all those handicapped kids. She had a
variety of jobs, but after my diagnosis she decided to become a nurse, so she could
better help me. From ages 1 to 2, my aunt took care of me. In nineteen ninety two, at
age two, my mother enrolled me in the Childrens Center. That was the best place for
me at that point in time. They opened doors like assistive technology for me and trained
me to use a wheelchair. I was given many different therapies and I learned very basic
academic things like the alphabet and numbers. I have been told that this is where I

2. began to tell stories and was very creative. I stayed there until I was six, when they
called my mother in and told her that I was showing too much academic ability to stay
there. We still joke that they threw me out.
In nineteen ninety six, I went to Bolten Elementary School and continued with my
therapies outside of school. Bolten had a relationship with the Childrens Center, so I
attended programs there and knew a few of the staff people, before I actually enrolled in
Bolten.
In third grade, I had major surgery on each leg. I experienced some setbacks, but
eventually rallied.
In the late nineties, I became one of the first riders at Riverwood Therapeutic Riding
Center.
I am lucky to have had very fitting teachers throughout my education. This started at
Bolton. This is when I had my first experience with one on one assistants, which were
provided by the school, as part of the I.D.E.A. laws. One of my personal care assistants
(p.c.a) from elementary school, wound up marrying my mother and the other one, I still
communicate with. I feel lucky to have good relationships with my p.c.a. .No one ever
wants to leave. It must be my striking good looks.
I attended Meadowlark Middle School in Lewisville and yes, I was slapped by the
Bishop. There was also a major controversy when the woman assigned to be my
teacher refused to have me in her class. Apparently, she had a negative experience
with another student with cerebral palsy. She felt that we were all alike. I was removed
from that class and placed in a different classroom. I wound up with a great teacher.
Thankfully, it all worked out well. I continued with outside therapies, as well.
There was one major difference in middle school. I shared a space with another boy
with more severe disabilities than I had. I was mean to him and made fun of him. I’m
actually still mad at myself about that. At some point, I apologized to him and we
became friends. I began advocating for him. During seventh grade, I met my first
mentor, who also had Cerebral Palsy. He was in law school at the time and is now
practicing law in Winston. He inspired me to use academics to open up opportunities for

3. myself. Back then, people thought I might make a good lawyer, as I had similarities to
him. After that point, I did not make any grades lower than an A, until college. This was
a good thing and a bad thing.
Fast forward to high school in two thousand and five. I knew I needed something to do
outside of classes, besides being actioned off as an eligible bachelor. Since, I was good
at writing, I wanted to try the high school Journalism class. I got an A in the class, but
when it was time to sign up for the actual newspaper, the teacher took me aside and
told me that I could not be a staff writer on the paper. She said that because it was more
than writing, there are pictures, making corrections, and setting up the print for the
paper. Looking back, my family, and I should have fought them on the grounds of the
Americans with Disabilities Act. Instead, I wrote an article over Christmas vacation to
prove the point that I could produce good work. The teacher loved the article, and my
column, “Observations from Below”, became one of the most popular parts in the
newspaper. Because of my column, a lot of people started to talk to me, and I
developed friendships. If I had not been stubborn, I probably would not have written my
first column, and I would not be writing today.
While I am on the subject of high school, I should mention I was discouraged from
taking A.P. classes, despite the fact that I only made As in high school. I graduated
from high school as a member of the Honor Society, and went on to Guilford College. In
college, I had a very supportive first year English teacher. I happened to show her a
collection of my high school writings. She encouraged me to join the newspaper.
Because of the things that my high school journalism teacher said, it took me two years
to build up enough confidence to join the paper. For the teachers in the room, please be
careful what you tell students. It can stick with them longer than you realize, both the
positive and the negative. I joined the newspaper and loved the experience.
Newspapers have different levels. There are staff writers, who are on the lowest level,
and then in the case of my college paper, there are Senior writers and editors, and the
Editor in Chief, who is the student in charge. Just like everyone else in the class, I
began as a staff writer. I impressed my professor and editors. Soon I was appointed a
Senior writer. I still think this is one of my biggest successes, because the professor is

4. not the one that makes the choice of senior writers. It was other students, who had the
power to pick me.
Imagine if I had listened to that high school teacher, who I should point out, meant well.
I wouldn’t be giving commencement speeches or writing for the Camel City Dispatch
and Huffington Post today, and I would not have had the major impact on Guilford that I
was able to have through mainly the newspaper. In addition to the paper, I was in
student Government and served on many important school committees. Each of these
activities took time, and I had to keep working hard, and I met my goals. I graduated
with many scholarships and honors, as well as a 3.88 G P A. I would not have had any
of these accomplishments without a very big village of family and friends, who continue
to support me. I come from a large Irish family. I type very slowly myself. I talk and other
people write it down for me. My aunt did most of the college typing. My mom and
grandparents advocated for me and provided personal care. I also had a host of other
assistants.
I consider myself lucky to have been born in nineteen ninety, after the A D A was
signed. My predecessors were not as lucky.
There has always been a dichotomy of both negative and positive belief systems
regarding disability. Unfortunately, the negative has been more prominent and is better
known.
Most of my presentation comes from Parallels In Time: A History of
Developmental Disabilities and books like No Pity: People with Disabilities Forging a
New Civil Rights Movement and A Disability History of the United States (ReVisioning
American History).
According to documents gathered by Partners in Policymaking, the earliest recorded
reference to disability dates back to fifteen fifty two B.C., by the Egyptian Papyrus of
Thebes. Ancient Greek and Roman civilizations also thought negatively about people

5. with disabilities. Some of the most famous philosophers that our society still respects,
such as Aristotle and Plato, were also some of the most disparaging. Aristotle believed
there should be a law against rearing deformed children. Rome had an abandonment
law. Children with deformities were left with their feet bound to die in the woods or
thrown in the river to drown. Plato advised that those with disabilities be put away “in
mysterious unknown places,” according to (Goldberg & Lippman nineteen seventy four).
Enter the Ships of Fools. Platos allegory of a ship without a pilot, taken over by the
deranged, frivolous and oblivious without any knowledge of where they were going. On
the contrary, early Christianity viewed people with disabilities as pure and full of grace.
Sadly, this changed and they were then viewed as possessed. The bible states that one
cannot be a priest if they are disabled (Leviticus). They do not tell you that in Sunday
School. Because these attitudes still persist, there are only a few priests with
disabilities. The negative view was more pervasive and represented and is now referred
to as the Religious model of disability.
During the Middle Ages, people with disabilities were looked upon with indifference,
negligence and fear. According to Parallels in Time, a project the Minnesota Governors
Council on Developmental Disabilities, the first Asylum was founded in seven hundred
eighty seven. A.D. by Datheus, archbishop of Milan. The Roman Catholic Church began
establishing hospitals, homes for the blind and aged and orphanages. “Idiot Cages”
were placed in the townsquare to “keep the people with disabilities out of trouble.” They
served as entertainment. Some even became court jesters or the Kings fools. Ships of
Fools became a reality. People that were deemed a burden on society were loaded onto
ships and taken to other ports where people paid to view them, eventually they were
abandoned and left to fend for themselves.
The seventeenth century began a time period that historians called the Enlightenment.
Also, known as the Age of Reason, the ideas that created America came from this time
period. We think of it as positive. However, it was more of a mixed bag for people with
disabilities. The focus on science led to more treatments and less focus on the idea that
disabilities were punishments for sins.

6. Thomas Hobbes (fifteen eighty eight to sixteen seventy nine), John Locke (sixteen thirty
two to seventeen oh four) and Jean Jacques Rousseau (seventeen twelve to seventeen
seventy eight) all theorized about human nature. One main idea was that people were
ideally blank slates and it was society that corrupted them. There were several
successes at teaching both deaf and blind people, and a famous success in teaching
Victor, the Wild Boy of Aveyron, also known as the Wolf Boy. This paved the way for
educating other people with disabilities.
In seventeen hundred ninety eight, Thomas Malthus (seventeen sixty six to eighteen
thirty four, a British clergyman and economist, published the "Essay on the Principle of
Population." He argued that population multiplies geometrically and food arithmetically.
Therefore, the population will outstrip the food supply. In addition to cutting the birth rate
by sexual restraint and birth control, Malthus advocated that all people "defective" in any
way, who look, behave or function differently than the rest of society, should be
identified and eliminated. Therefore, only those who are "normal," who can make the
greatest contribution to society, would survive.
The idea that one must look "normal" or make a specific contribution to society in order
to live is not new with Malthus. This "Return on Investment Syndrome" recurs
throughout history, stating the ability to be productive and repay society for what one
receives, rather than what one can contribute, determines that persons worth.
Despite Malthuss ideas, people with disabilities took part in key events in American
history. One significant example is Governor Steven Hopkins, despite some form of
muscular disorder, signed the Declaration of Independence. He was noted to have said,
as he signed, “My hand trembles, my heart does not."

7. There were places where disability was considered a normal part of life. According to
author Nora Ellen Groce, “From the seventeenth century to the early years of the
twentieth, the population of Marthas Vineyard manifested an extremely high rate of
profound hereditary deafness. In stark contrast to the experience of most deaf people in
our own society, the Vineyarders who were born deaf were so thoroughly integrated into
the daily life of the community that they were not seen—and did not see themselves—
as handicapped or as a group apart. Deaf people were included in all aspects of life,
such as town politics, jobs, church affairs, and social life.”
With the industrial revolution of the 18th century, vast amounts of people flooded into
cities. Children represented a large portion, often working twelve to sixteen hours per
day. Pauper children were often contracted to factory owners for cheap labor. To rid
themselves of "imbecile" children, parish authorities often bargained with factories to
take one "imbecile" with every twenty children.
In the mid eighteen eighties, the famous PT Barnum began beauty pageants and in
turn, to show contrast, he collected “freaks” and the freak show was born. Rosemary
Garland Thompson and others wrote about freak shows. Barnum offered people with
disabilities jobs. This was a double edged sword. It gave them incomes and made them
famous, but they had little other choice. One of Barnums greatest attractions was
General Tom Thumb. Thumb stood only twenty five inches tall and weighed only fifteen
pounds. Barnum made a spectacle of Thumbs wedding to Lavinia Warren, also a tiny
person. Thumb rose to celebrity status and great wealth, but only out of his own
exploitation.
Generally, people with disabilities in the early nineteenth century lived in harsh
conditions, especially in industrial areas. These people often were put into
poorhouses, or almshouses. Wealthier parents tended to keep their children with
disabilities at home.
Warning Out was common nineteenth century for individuals with disabilities and
others considered deviant. Warning out was informing an unwanted newcomer that

8. he or she was not welcome in the town. "Passing on" was another popular practice.
This entailed loading people onto a cart and dropping them off in the next town.
America had its own practice of this at Ellis Island. According to The A M A Journal Of
Ethics, authorities conducted their own medical screenings. which consisted of
marking people getting off the boat. After a brief examination, if a disability was
suspected, the authorities marked that person with chalk. People who had been
chalked were turned back. There were situations where every other family member
was admitted, except for the person suspected of disability. So much for your huddled
masses.
In the nineteenth century Jean-Etienne Dominique Esquirol (seventeen eighty two to
eighteen forty), a famous psychiatrist in France, provided the first major change
regarding the concept of intellectual deficiency. Esquirol divided intellectual deficiency
into two levels: idiocy and imbecility. He defined "imbeciles" as "generally well formed,
and their organization is nearly normal. They enjoy the use of the intellectual and
affective faculties, but in less degree than the perfect man, and they can be developed
only to a certain extent."
Esquirol defined "idiots" as persons with little or no intellectual functioning: "Incapable of
attention, idiots cannot control their senses. They hear, but do not understand; they see,
but do not regard. Having no ideas, and thinking not, they have nothing to desire;
therefore, have no need of signs, nor of speech." Esquirols concept, though limiting,
provided some consistency to the terminology used to describe persons with disabilities.
By the middle of the nineteenth century, society was much more aware of persons with
disabilities. In an era of scientific and economic progress, social reformers alerted
society to the often horrible living conditions of its many outcasts.
The Romantic poets Wordsworth, Keats, Byron, Shelly, and Coleridge, were influenced
strongly by Rousseaus call to return to nature and celebrate the worth of the individual.

9. The poets praised the restorative potential (clean air, fresh water, open spaces) of living
a simple rural life. This rationale may have later justified locating institutions in the
countryside.
An increased interest in persons with disabilities in the early part of the nineteenth
century found its way to social practice by eighteen fifty. At this time, social reformers
such as Dorothea Dix were advocating for better services for all persons with
disabilities, many of whom were living in appalling conditions.
Dix spent her early years teaching children. Later in life, while teaching Sunday
school at a Massachusetts house of corrections, she was appalled by the living
conditions of the women inmates. As a result, Dix spent the next two years visiting
jails, almshouses, poorhouses, and asylums across the United States. According to
Parallels in time, she observed: "More than nine-thousand idiots, epileptics, and
insane in these United States, destitute of appropriate care and protection. Bound
with galling chains, bowed beneath fetters and heavy iron balls, attached to drag-
chains, lacerated with ropes, scourged with rods, and terrified beneath storms of
profane execrations and cruel blows; now subject to jibes, and scorn, and torturing
tricks, now abandoned to the most loathsome necessities or subject to the vilest and
most outrageous violations."
Since a woman could not address Congress in eighteen forty eight, Dix had Samuel
Gridley Howe, a well-known social reformer, present her speech. Her specific appeal
that the United States set aside five million acres of land throughout the nation to
accommodate persons with disabilities was passed by both houses of Congress but
vetoed by President Pierce. Through her passionate appeals, and with only the best
intentions for persons with disabilities, Dix helped to prepare the way for public
institutions.
During this time, several other countries established training schools for children with
disabilities paving the way for institutions there as well.

10. If by chance someone with a disability did make it into this country, or was born here,
they were often put in these institutions, because they made other “normal” people feel
uncomfortable. During this time, there were also constitutional laws called Ugly Laws,
from the eighteen sixties all the way to the nineteen seventies, that stated that if you
acted or looked differently and were out in public after a certain time, your punishment
ranged from fines to being thrown in jail.
Everyone with disabilities was forced into the same place whether they had a
physical, mental health or learning disability. This was the beginning of what we now
call the Medical model of disability. Even though these places were created by well-
meaning doctors and other professionals, the conditions were terrible. This model
viewed the people with disabilities as the problem and the medical community with the
idea that they should all be fixed.
Here are some pictures of the inside. Notice they are not as beautiful as the outside.
Who in this room has a dog or cat? Have they been “fixed”? What if I told you that
around the same time as institutions were popular, there was a very famous fake
science called eugenics. I will briefly describe it as forced sterilization of people with
disabilities. In reaction to the often unproven theory that disabilities would automatically
be passed on to future generations there was an infamous Supreme Court case in
nineteen twenty seven called Buck vs. Bell. One of Americas most respected Supreme
Court Justices, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., wrote an opinion, which approved laws
allowing states to perform surgery in order to prevent "feebleminded and socially
inadequate" people from having children. The Buck case was the first and only time in
Supreme Court history that an intrusive medical procedure - involuntary sterilization -
was endorsed as a tool of government eugenic policy, which can be found on the
internet buckvbell.com.
How does it make you feel when I tell you, America, France, and Britain were
leaders in the world in this science? In addition, when I tell you Hitler sent doctors to the
United States to learn how the science worked. A quick note about North Carolina, NC
was third behind Virginia and California in the number of sterilizations. The program in

11. NC did not end until nineteen seventy six. Today there is a ten million dollar fund to pay
to the victims in NC.
When eugenics was not enough for Hitler, he turned to killing people with
disabilities. This happened before the Holocaust when Hitler began rounding up and
killing Jews.
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, The T-4 Program, also called T4
Euthanasia Program, the Nazi German effort—framed as a euthanasia program—to kill
incurably ill, physically or mentally disabled, emotionally distraught, and elderly people.
Adolf Hitler initiated this program in nineteen thirty nine, and, while it was officially
discontinued in nineteen forty one, killings continued covertly until the military defeat of
Nazi Germany in nineteen forty five.
In contrast, the President of the United States at the time had a disability, just as
many other presidents. The most obvious example is Franklin Delano Roosevelt (F D
R), who contracted Polio at the age of thirty nine. Given his severe disability, it is
interesting that F D R and the people around him, did not fully accept his disability.
There were almost no pictures of F D R taken while using his wheelchair and only two
well-known instances where he allowed the extent of his disability to be visible, once at
a military hospital and the other time was at a historically black college. In contrast,
Eleanor Roosevelt gives the experience with polio credit for his empathy for people
during the Great Depression. F D R founded a special place called Warm Springs, for
“old polios” and “new polios” to receive treatment. He felt a sense of comradery with the
“polios.” This is an early example of what would become the social model of disability.
Patients began to realize that their disability wasn’t much of a problem, given a few
simple accommodations. F D R did a lot to help people with polio by starting the March
of Dimes. They had yearly birthday celebrations for F D R to raise money for the
organization, which eventually led to the cure for polio being discovered.
While American society went out of its way to downplay F D Rs disability, one of the first
grassroots disability groups called The League of the Physically Handicapped was
engaged in demonstrations and civil disobedience to highlight the lack of jobs and other

12. issues for people with disabilities. None of the founders of this organization were
wheelchair users, but they all had some other kind of disability. I found this text which
came from one of the Leagues pamphlets. Other than the word choice, it could have
been written today. The same issues still exist. We have come a long way, but we have
so far still to go.
The nineteen fifties ushered in a grassroots movement of parents. Parents began to
come out of their shells and seek support from other parents who were experiencing the
same things. They formed organizations that still exist today, like the Arc and UCP. It
helped that well-known individuals, like the Kennedys, were also coming forward. They
wrote essays and began the push for community services. The Parents Movement laid
the groundwork for many of the civil rights legislation. Brown verses Board of Education,
Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Children et al. verses Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania et al., Mills verses Board of Education and Wyatt verses Stickney, were
prominent cases.
Fast forward to the nineteen sixities. People with disabilities finally had enough and
began fighting for their civil rights using the same techniques as African Americans,
women, lesbians, gays, and Native Americans.
This man, Ed Roberts, sued U C Berkeley and won, so that he could attend school
there. He helped start the first campus group of students with disabilities and the first
Center for Independent Living (CIL) in Berkeley, California. He is known as the father of
Independent Living.
Vocational Rehabilitation told him NO “You are too crippled to work.” Roberts
attended college at UC-Berkeley. While at college, Roberts started a group of students
with disabilities called the Rolling Quads. Eventually, he established the first Center for
Independent Living.
After leaving the CIL, California Governor Jerry Brown appointed Roberts Head of
the VR program. This was the same program that told him NO many years before. As a
person who studied Roberts, I think of him as similar to Martin Luther King, Jr. for his
ability to give speeches and motivate people.

13. I think of Judy Heumann as being similar to Rosa Parks because she is famous for
her actions. Heumann is from New York. Even though she contracted polio in her youth,
she attended Long Island University. While there, Heumann served on the Student
Government and trained to be a teacher. A friend advised her to tell VR that she wanted
to be a speech pathologist because they had better accommodations than teachers did.
Heumann completed her degree and began the requirements to become a licensed
teacher. She passed the two main requirements, but failed the required physical task.
The examiner thought she would be a fire hazard because she would not be able to get
the children out in a fire. In response, Heumann sued the school system and won the
case. As a result, she went into more advocacy work. Heumann founded a group called
Disabled in Action in NY. The group used aggressive techniques and, because of their
success, Heumann caught the attention of Ed Roberts. He asked her to become the
Assistant Director at the Berkeley CIL.
During this time, President Nixon signed into law the Rehabilitation Act of nineteen
seventy three that protects qualified individuals from discrimination based on their
disability. The discrimination requirements of the law apply to employers and
organizations that receive financial assistance from any Federal department or agency,
including the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). These
organizations and employers include many hospitals, nursing homes, mental health
centers, and human service programs.
Nineteen seventy five was a watermark for important legislation. Both the Disability
Assistance and Bill of Rights Act and the Education for all Handicapped Children Act,
which later became the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, were passed. They
dramatically changed the legal landscape and increased opportunities for people with
disabilities. The DD Amendments recognize that "disability is a natural part of the
human experience that does not diminish the right of individuals with developmental
disabilities to enjoy the opportunity to live independently, enjoy self-determination, make
choices, contribute to society, and experience full integration and inclusion in the
economic, political, social, cultural, and educational mainstream of American society"
(Section 101). State Developmental Disabilities Councils are required to conduct
"systemic change, capacity building, and advocacy activities" (Section 124).

14. In nineteen seventy three, Nixon accidentally signed one of the most powerful
pieces of the law into effect. It was a few sentences, folded into the end of a law, that he
did not read before signing. Under the law, no program receiving federal funds could
discriminate against people with disabilities. Section five o four forbids organizations
and employers from excluding or denying individuals with disabilities an equal
opportunity to receive program benefits and services. It defines the rights of individuals
with disabilities to participate in, and have access to, program benefits and services. It
is suspected that a democratic staffer who stuck it in there. We need more civil rights
heroes, even accidental ones!
The mid nineteen seventies ushered in the social model theory of disability.
Heumann helped organize the largest sit-in of a Federal building in San Francisco to
force regulations of Section five o four. The sit in was the longest and most peaceful
occupation of a federal building ever. This was necessary because four years after the
law was signed, the Secretary of Health Education Welfare, had not yet written any
regulations to go along with the new law, which basically made the law null and void.
Heumann achieved her dream of having an impact on education by becoming an
Assistant Secretary of Education under President Clinton. Today, Heumann works in
the State Department where we have exchanged emails.
The A D A began in nineteen eighty six under Ronald Reagan following the Civil
Rights Restoration Act (CRRA) in nineteen eighty four. Reagan vetoed the CRRA citing
that it allowed for too much government interference in private businesses, however,
Congress overruled his veto. The bill overturned a previous Supreme Court ruling that
said that only those departments and programs that received federal funds were
required to comply with civil rights laws. The new law would restore the provision that if
one part of a business or organization received federal assistance then the entire entity
would have to comply with all civil rights laws, including Section five o four. Many people
with disabilities realized the importance of the legislation, and arrived in Washington to
observe, and put pressure on the politicians to vote to override the presidents veto. In
their presence, the presidents veto was overridden by a large margin. The late nineteen

15. eighties seemed to be a pivotal time for disability rights. The A D A was in its first stages
of drafting, and Congress overrode President Reagans veto of the CRRA.
Curiously after vetoing the CRRA, Reagan appointed thirteen people to a committee
he named the National Council on the Handicapped. The A D A would go on to become
one of the most powerful pieces of Civil Rights legislation in the history of the United
States. Realizing the opportunity that the Council had presented, the disability
community began organizing and informing politicians, people with disabilities, their
friends, and families about civil rights protection.
Like both President Nixon, and Carter before him, Ronald Reagan had a mixed
legacy in regards to disability rights. His early actions attempted to weaken disability
rights policy, but at the same time, the A D A was being conceptualized by a committee
within his administration. As in many other areas of his policies, Reagan tried to
deregulate the governments control of businesses in terms of accessibility. If not for the
many letters from advocates, parents, and other officials, Section five o four could have
possibly lost its legal power when other parts of businesses were deregulated. In
addition to being a law, Section five o four could be seen as a government regulation of
business. The main figure associated with the A D A was a polio survivor named Justin
Dart.
Dart was a leader in many of the civil rights movements. He founded several
businesses in Mexico and Japan with the intent to hire women and people with severe
disabilities in nineteen fifty six. Dart, whose family was close friends with Reagan,
strongly opposed Reagans attempts to deregulate Section five o four in the early
nineteen eighties. Reagan selected Dart to be a vice-chair of the National Council on
the Handicapped. Dart and his wife Yoshiko traveled around the country, visiting
activists in each state. Because of his travels, he and the others on the Council began
drafting what would become the A D A. The A D A was based on the Civil Rights Act of
1964 and helped to strengthen the Section five o four.
Also, during the late nineteen eighties, Dart took part in a very important initiative,
which included another nationwide trip encouraging people with disabilities to document
their experiences with discrimination and inaccessibility in “discrimination diaries.”
These journals “served not only as testimonials of discrimination, but also to raise

16. consciousness about the barriers to daily living, which were simply tolerated as a part of
life.” These documents inspired and educated the American public and politicians.
Another poignant illustration of barriers was the Capitol Crawl in March nineteen ninety.
Sixty activists abandoned their chairs and other A D Aptive equipment and dragged
their bodies up the steps of the Capitol building in an attempt to get congresses
attention. Some people believe it to be the thing that made Congress finally sign the A D
A into law. On July 26, nineteen ninety, with Justin Dart sitting beside him on the
podium, President George Herbert Walker Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities
Act into law. The bill was sponsored by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA).
In nineteen ninety five, Justin Dart founded Justice for All (JFA) an E-newsletter in
association with American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD). Advocates
from across the country are educated and called to defend the rights of people with
disabilities by contacting their individual congressional representatives. Members of the
AAPD continued what Dart started. “As founding member Justin Dart said, ‘AAPD gives
us the opportunity for harmonious unity and will help create the strong voice needed to
overcome thousands of years of attitudinal and physical barriers.” In nineteen ninety
eight, Justin Dart was awarded the nations highest civilian award, The Medal of
Freedom, by President Bill Clinton.
To put things into perspective, I was eight years old. My generation, along with those
before me, continues to fight for expanded opportunities. I implore you to join us in the
fight. It has always taken a village. I hope you will consider sharing what you have
learned with others. Education is the key.
I will talk more about the laws and discuss some key local disability groups and
organizations in my next Salon. I hope you will join me.
Thank you for coming.