Disability Studies and History Influence Culture

Disability Community

25% of population depending on the stat you see

either congenital or collected along the way

can be visible or invisible

the only minority group anyone can join at any moment

Siloed

community tends to be collected under the same type of disability and community spaces tend to be led by non-disabled people

Inspiration Porn

coined by Stella Young “I am not your inspiration thank you very much”

becomes super important as you work on projects, work within systems to support clients from the disability community

Language

shapes how we understand things

can work to be mindful of the words they use and how they use them both with clients and in documentation

Person first

person is described first, and then the disability

Ability first

disability is used as an adjective

Pre-industrialization (1600-1700)

disability was more largely accepted

roles — ranch hands, basket weavers

Industrialization (1820s- early 1900s)

priority on production, heavy migration into cities, and ugly laws

Ugly Laws

San Francisco enacted these laws on July 9th, 1867 deemed it illegal for “any person, who is diseased, maimed, mutilated, or deformed in any way, so as to be un unsightly or disgusting object, to expose himself or herself to public view”

Eugenics

coined by Sir Francis Galton

working to removing “bad” genes from the social gene pool by forced sterilization

1927 Carrie Buck vs Bell

Supreme court rules in favor of states rights to forced sterilization due to her being “sexually promiscuous and an imbecile”

Jacobson v Massachusetts

three generations of imbeciles are enough; supreme court rules that forced sterilization did not violate the 14th amendment

Post WWII 1918-1920s

Voc Rehab to help support military members + injured factory workers with job training and placement

Ed Roberts

had polio and lived in an iron lung

applied to UC Berkeley and was denied on the grounds “we tried cripples before and it didn’t work”

Section 504 of the Rehab Act of 1973

increase provisions to support disabled people in employment

504 prohibits the discrimination from programs that receive federal funds

504 Sit in

led by Judy Heumann and Ed Roberts

how important connection is and the power of camp

Yoshiko and Justin Dart

collected stories of people from around the community to create the ADA

1988

ADA introduced into the 100th congress in Lowell Weicker of Connecticut

Capitol Crawl

March 12th, 1990

ADA signed into law

July 26th, 1990 by George H. Bush

Discrimination towards the Disability Community

the idea that disability is negative and undesirable and be fixed

pervasive in all aspects of society/leads to inequality

Internalized ableism

when people with disabilities believe this about themselves

Lateral ableism

when people with disabilities believe this about each other

Equality

recognition of others as equals who are entitled to the same things

Equity

understanding that people have varying needs and circumstances and to achieve the same outcome different resources are necessary

Stereotypes

one attributes certain characteristics to an entire group of people

Ethnocentrism

the tendency to put our own group at the center

Staring

difference than glance or look; unfamiliar and establishes a social hierarchy

Radical Visibility

being intentionally loud on their disability