Disability Rights Movement

In 1817, the American School for Deaf was founded in Hartford Connecticut. This was the first school for disabled children in the Western Hemisphere. Although this was not the beginning of the Disability Rights Movement, it was a start to society, making it possible for people to realize that there were those with disabilities out there in the world and something had to be done. The Disability Rights Movement fought for equal access, opportunity, consideration, and basic human respect along with dignity for those born blind, deaf, or anyone with other forms of physical or mental disability. The purpose of social movements is to provide social change regarding a specific issue in which a particular group of …show more content…

This act provided equal opportunity for employment within the federal government and federal funded programs without discrimination on the basis of both physical and mental disabilities. In 1975, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act was passed to guarantee equal access to public education for children with disabilities. After decades of campaigning and lobbying, the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed in 1990 and ensured equal treatment and equal access of people with disabilities to employment opportunities and public accommodations. It served to prohibit discrimination when it came to employment, services given by state or local governments, places of public accommodation, transportation, and telecommunication services. This act that was passed was the main aspect in the Disability Rights movement that made it possible for change to take place.

The Resource Mobilization Theory is a great way to show how the organization and its members used their resources in order to succeed with the movement. For much of its history, the Disability Rights Movement did not have organizational members meaning resources had to have taken place. The Rehabilitation Act of1973 had an advantage because it was already in the government. The resource used in the Disability Rights movement was the government and our veterans. This was the commencement to the whole movement and this is what gave it a head start. Today, we have so many