Chapter 3: The Uneven March of Progress

manualism

teaching deaf people through sign language.

oralism

the belief that verbal articulation is necessary for deaf people to be educated and achieve social acceptance.

American Sign Language

the visual language of natural signs, manifested by the countenance, and the attitudes, movements, and gestures of the body. based on French Sign Language.

developed its own syntax, abbreviations, facial and gestural expressions.

eugenics movement

a social philosophy that advocated public intervention to regulate the genetic composition of the population by encouraging the breeding of parents thought to possess “good genes” and by discouraging the breeding of parents

Buck v. Bell

a 1927 Supreme Court decision that declared involuntary sterilization of disabled people, particularly those considered cognitively impaired, constitutional.

freak show

people with disabilities, deformities, and other oddities who were displayed for public amusement.

progressive movement

movement during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that believed people and social institutions have the responsibility to ameliorate the impact of inequalities and injustices that were associated with industrialization and urbanization.

medical rehabilitationists

individuals (particularly disabled people) need to be changed

social rehabilitationists

society needs to be changed

cripples

those with mobility impairments. considered physically disabled and economically dependent.

hospital-school

combination of a hospital and school, primarily for the purpose of vocational training and bringing “pupil-patients into conformity with nondisabled norms.”

War Risk Insurance Act

(1914, 1917) extended workers compensation to soldiers injured during war. physicians served as gatekeepers of those benefits.

Disabled American Veterans of the World War

formed in 1920, an advocacy organization that counseled veterans and helped them negotiate the government bureaucracy that controlled access to resources.

Paralyzed Veterans of America

formed in 1946, advocacy group of disabled veterans who noted the affinity and disparities between disabled veterans and disabled civilians. protested racial bias in veterans programs.

National Mental Health Act

enacted in 1946, created National Institute of Mental Health

Social Security Act of 1935

program under FDR that provided benefits for the unemployed, elderly, widows, destitute children, blind people, and children with disabilities. expanded to include disabled adults in 1940.

Social Security Disability Insurance: 1956 amendment to SSA that created a federal cash-benefit program for workers who acquired a long-term disability.

Supplemental Security Income: 1972 amendment that added federal cash-benefits for those with very low income

Medicaid: 1965 federal-state program for low-income families who need medical care

Community Mental Health Centers Act of 1963

downsizing of institutional facilities and expansion of community services.

deinstitutionalization

the policy of moving people from institutional confinement to the community and closing all or part of these facilities.

ADA Amendments Act (2008)

defined disability as a physical or cognitive impairment that “substantially limits” a major life activity, but notes that mitigating measures such as assistive devices, auxiliary aids, medical therapies, and supplies (other than corrective eyewear) have no bearing on whether a disability qualifies under the law.

required that courts focus less on whether the complainants have an impairment that qualifies as a disability and more on whether they had been subject to discrimination.