Pediatric Rehabilitation Member Community Lecture Series: Disability Education: History (On-Demand)-Session Recording

Video Transcription

Video Summary

Dinesh Ratnasinghe’s lecture surveys the history of disability and disability advocacy in the United States, emphasizing how that history shapes disability culture and identity today. He traces a long record of exclusion and exploitation, including institutionalization, inaccessible education and workplaces, “ugly laws,” eugenics and forced sterilization, and Nazi atrocities against disabled people.<br /><br />The lecture also highlights resistance and progress: blind and Deaf communities’ efforts to preserve language and access; disabled veterans’ advocacy; the 1935 League of the Physically Handicapped sit-in; the independent living movement led by activists including Ed Roberts and Judith Heumann; the 1977 Section 504 sit-in; and the Capitol Crawl that helped build support for the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), signed in 1990. Later milestones include the Olmstead decision, the ADA Amendments Act, and the ABLE Act.<br /><br />Ratnasinghe stresses that change has often come late and through collective activism, including allyship. He invites rehabilitation professionals to reflect on their role in supporting patients, families, and disability communities. The session concludes with reading recommendations and previews a future lecture on models of disability.

Keywords

disability history

disability advocacy

Americans with Disabilities Act

Section 504 sit-in

independent living movement

eugenics

Olmstead decision

disability culture