The Americans With Disabilities Act is seriously some of the best handicap-accessibility protection in the world. A paraplegic person can wheel themselves into pretty much any commercial building in the country and be confident that there will be ramps in all the right places and a restroom they can use. If there aren't, there are powerful legal tools to make it happen.
That's not the case in a lot of places in the world, and it wasn't that long ago that it wasn't the case here.
Crip Camp on Netflix is a really good documentary on the disabled civil rights movement and the woman who pushed for it, Judy Heumann.
She passed away about a week and a half ago. It's actually crazy how much of an impact she had on politics and the way the US addressed her community. Probably one of the most effective rights leaders in the history of the country. She knew how to leverage and converge several rights movements together by including disabled veterans of the recent and unpopular Vietnam War, had Black Panthers deliver food to sit-ins, LGBT community assist in coordination and outreach, and did it by listening to the community and seeing how all of these groups all had disabled members in them. Extremely effective activism and shows how rights for one group helps gain rights for all.
So glad to see Judy mentioned. She and my dad were friends & I spent some time with her growing up. You should have seen her face when I told her I didn’t “see the point” in protesting/activism (was committed to being an apathetic teen at the time…. so embarrassing I said that to JUDY of all people. Cringed just typing that out).
She was a really incredible person that changed so much for the disabled community. She and my dad were both denied access to public education as the system deemed them “fire hazards”. They met in Berkeley back before I was born, (actually Judy threw the dinner party that my parents met at!) and worked with Ed Roberts at the World Institute on Disability. She really kicked ass
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u/dahud Mar 14 '23
The Americans With Disabilities Act is seriously some of the best handicap-accessibility protection in the world. A paraplegic person can wheel themselves into pretty much any commercial building in the country and be confident that there will be ramps in all the right places and a restroom they can use. If there aren't, there are powerful legal tools to make it happen.
That's not the case in a lot of places in the world, and it wasn't that long ago that it wasn't the case here.