Disability Awareness Throughout the Year "If you believe people have no history worth mentioning, it's easy to believe they have no humanity worth defending" ~ William Loren Katz By L. Scott Lissner Like many spend part of New Year’s Day transferring important dates from last year’s wall calendar (Van Gough) to this year’s (Japanese wood block). In the act I come across the commemorative days and months that the editor’s chose to include. I have always had mixed feelings about awareness months. It seems more reasonable to promote awareness around the calendar with a monthly lecture or performance series rather than a whirlwind of events jammed into a single month. Still, celebratory months, weeks or days do have their appeal and impact. I recently stumbled on a website that has compiled a good list of celebratory months but seems to share my mixed feelings. http://aware.easilyamused.org/ is the home of February is National National Awareness Month Awareness Month! I thought you would find the site useful. Below I have included some significant disability related dates that fall outside of the October when we typically celebrate Disability Awareness in the America. I hope you will find them interesting, and that each month of the 2011 will bring you more good than bad: JANUARY: Make January 23rd Ed Roberts Day WASHINGTON - Disability rights advocate Ed Roberts, renowned in the Bay Area, nationally and internationally, was honored by Congress today, thirty-three years after he and Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez) both advocated for civil rights for people with disabilities at protests in San Francisco. Miller introduced H Res 1759 to declare the support of the House of Representatives of a national “Ed Roberts Day.” The bill passed the House today by a vote of 386 to 8. “Ed’s lifetime of advocacy was critical in the struggle for civil rights for people with disabilities,” Miller said after the resolution passed the House. “Ed’s commitment remains a tremendous inspiration and I’m honored to sponsor this resolution recognizing his work. “Having known Ed and being able to call him a friend was an honor and a gift for me - as was working with him back in 1977 at the protests in San Francisco,” Miller continued, referring to the 1977 disabled rights protest, and the subsequent Congressional meetings, both held at the Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) building in San Francisco.

In addition to supporting the establishment of Ed Roberts Day, Miller’s legislation acknowledges the accomplishments Roberts made in helping reduce barriers, increase access and improve lives for persons with disabilities. Roberts, who passed away in 1995, was a long time disability rights advocate and California resident. After contracting polio as a teenager, Roberts relied on a respirator to breathe. He became the first student with significant disabilities to attend UC Berkeley, where he began advocacy efforts and helped found the campus’ Physically Disabled Students Program. In 1975, Roberts was named the Director of the California Department of Rehabilitation and played an important role in the sit-in calling for the implementation of regulations which would establish rights for people with disabilities. Roberts later co-founded and became the President of the World Institute on Disability. The full text of H Res 1759 http://georgemiller.house.gov/media/EDRobertsFinal_xml.pdf FEBRUARY: Virginia Apologizes for Compulsory Sterilizations On February 16, 2001 The Virginal General Assembly passed a resolution apologizing for the state’s forced sterilization of approximately 8,000 its citizens between 1924 and 1979 and Virginia’s role in America’s eugenics movement “RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, That the General Assembly expresses its profound regret over the Commonwealth's role in the eugenics movement in this country and the incalculable human damage done in the name of eugenics; and, be it RESOLVED FURTHER, That the General Assembly urge the citizens of the Commonwealth to become familiar with the history of the eugenics movement, in the belief that a more educated, enlightened and tolerant population will reject absolutely any such abhorrent pseudo-scientific movement in the future.” MARCH: DPN - Deaf President Now During the week of March 6th 1988 civil disobedience triggered a watershed event in the 124 year history of Gallaudet University and the country. Student and alumni protests lead to the appointment of the first deaf president in the first university founded to educate the deaf. Since

then, DPN has become a symbol of self-determination and empowerment for deaf and hard of hearing people everywhere. For more information: http://aaweb.gallaudet.edu/About_Gallaudet/History_of_the_University/DP N_Home.html APRIL: Sit-in Wins Disability Rights Regulations On April 5, 1977, thousands of "the disabled" converged on Department of Health, Education and Welfare offices around the country to demand that the equal rights legislation Congress had passed 5 years earlier be implemented. In San Francisco they took over the HEW Office and started what became the longest sit-in occupation of a federal building in U.S. history At 7:30 A.M. on April 28, 1977 they celebrated victory. The rules implementing Section 504 were signed by HEW Secretary Joseph A. Califano. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 is a civil-rights provision. It does not provide funding for any programs or activities; rather, it is a requirement that accompanies federal financial assistance to organizations such as schools and universities. Any organization that receives federal grants - for any purpose - must comply with section 504. Section 504 laid the ground work for the ADA. "The San Francisco 504 sit-in did not succeed because of a brilliant strategy by a few disability leaders. It succeeded because the Deaf people set up a communication system from the 4th floor windows inside the building to the plaza down below; because the Black Panther Party brought a hot dinner to all 150 participants every single night; because people from community organizing backgrounds taught us how to make collaborative decisions; because friends came and washed our hair in the janitor's closet sink. The people doing disability rights work in the 1970s rarely agreed on policies, or even on approaches. The successes came because people viewed each other as invaluable resources working towards a common goal." (Corbett Joan O'Toole, Ragged Edge Online October 19, 2005) A Look Back at 'Section 504': San Francisco Sit-In a Defining Moment http://www.npr.org/programs/wesun/features/2002/504/ The 25 Day Siege That Brought us 504 http://www.independentliving.org/docs4/ervin1986.html

The Section 504 rules: More to the story http://www.ragged-edgemag.com/0102/0102ft6.html MAY: Section 504 Regulations issued May 4, 1977 Forced Sterilization of Disabled Upheld by U.S. Supreme Court In Buck vs. Bell (May 2, 1927) the United States Supreme Court upheld a Virginia statute that provided for the eugenic sterilization for people considered genetically unfit. The Court's decision, delivered by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., included the infamous phrase "Three generations of imbeciles are enough." Upholding Virginia's sterilization statute provided the green light for similar laws in 30 states, under which an estimated 65,000 Americans were sterilized without their own consent or that of a family member. Virginia’s Sterilization Act was repealed in 1979. JUNE: First Deaf Commencement from First Deaf College In 1864 Congress authorized the Columbia Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb and Blind in Washington, D.C. to confer college degrees; President Abraham Lincoln signed the bill into law. The school’s Superintendent Edward Miner Gallaudet, the son of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet founder of the first school for deaf students in the United States, was made president of the institution. That year the school had eight students enrolled. The first commencement was held in June 1869 when three young men received diplomas signed by President Ulysses S. Grant. In 1954, the name of the institution was changed by Congress to Gallaudet College in honor of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet. JULY: Anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act, July 26, 1990. Irrational Prejudice Against the “Mentally Retarded” Cleburne v. Cleburne Living Ctr., 473 U. S. 432 (July 1, 1985) In this case the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that zoning laws cannot prohibit group homes from being in a residential area. Cleburne Living Center was denied a special use permit that the court found to be irrationally based and discriminatory under the Equal Protection Clause of

the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court declined to grant those with intellectual disabilities the status of a suspect class, finding that the "rational relation" test for legislation was sufficient protection against invidious discrimination AUGUST: Justin Dart’s Birthday, August 29, 1930 First National Convention of Deaf Mutes The National Convention of Deaf Mutes meets in Cincinnati, Ohio on August 25, 1880 to “deliberate on the needs of the deaf as a class”. The first major issue taken on by the new organization was oralism and the suppression of American Sign Language. The convention eventually became the National Association of the Deaf (NAD). SEPTEMBER: From Eugenics to Genocide What became known as the T4 Program, and set the stage for the Holocaust began with Hitler’s euthanasia decree, dated September 1, 1939; it read as follows: “Reich Leader Bouhler and Dr. Brandt are charged with the responsibility for expanding the authority of physicians, to be designated by name, to the end that patients considered incurable according to the best available human judgment [menschlichem Ermessen] of their state of health, can be granted a mercy death [Gnadentod].” This effort began in 1933, less than six months after Hitler became Chancellor, with the "Law for the Prevention of Progeny with Hereditary Diseases" A law that established a policy mandating the sterilization of anyone with suffering from diseases considered hereditary including mental illness, cognitive disabilities, physical deformity, epilepsy, blindness, deafness, and severe alcoholism. The scientific and social basis for Nazi eugenics program was largely imported from the eugenics movement in the United States where laws in twenty-nine states forced sterilizations on more than 30,000 people, most under state care in medical, mental or correctional facilities between 1907 and 1939. Forced sterilization and the systematic killing of the disabled where Germany’s first steps in the Holocaust. The T4 euthanasia program was both a rehearsal and justification for Nazi Germany's subsequent genocidal policies and extended the ideological justification for eliminating

the "unfit" from society to other categories of perceived “genetic” threat to society. The gas chambers and accompanying crematorium designed for the T4 campaign where later utilized to murder Jews, Roma, Sinti and other undesirable and the architects of the T4 program became key figures at among killing centers of Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka Further Information: A Teachers Guide to the Holocaust Includes a section on Handicapped: Victims of the Nazi Era, 1933-1945 The Holocaust History Project The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide Robert Jay Lifton The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies including The exhibition of the "Hospital" in Hadamar, Crying Hands: Eugenics and Deaf People in Nazi Germany Horst Biesold Resistance and Resistance on the Plinth Liz Crow, Roaring Girl Productions People with Disabilities and the Nazi T4 Program: A Partial Bibliography Brenda Brueggemann OCTOBER: National Disability Employment Awareness Congress designated each October as National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM). The Office of Disability Employment Policy has the lead in planning NDEAM activities and materials to increase the public's awareness of the contributions and skills of American workers with disabilities. Various programs carried out throughout the month also highlight the specific employment barriers that still need to be addressed and removed. This effort to educate the American public about issues related to disability and employment actually began in 1945, when Congress enacted a law declaring the first week in October each year "National Employ the Physically Handicapped Week." In 1962, the word "physically" was removed to acknowledge the employment needs and contributions of individuals with all types of disabilities. In 1988, Congress expanded the

week to a month and changed the name to "National Disability Employment Awareness Month." Find out more at http://www.dol.gov/odep/programs/ndeam2010.htm Disability Awareness Week What is it? States are taking an important step in the promotion of further understanding and awareness of disability history and the disability rights movement by designating a week (or more) to acknowledge the role and contributions of individuals with disabilities in our society. During an established Disability History Week, states will require their public schools to infuse instruction and activities related to disability history into the existing school curriculum. Why? It is important that our youth understand history in order to appreciate how individuals with disabilities were once viewed and treated. During Disability History Week, students will be provided with the opportunity to learn how people with disabilities were instrumental in changing history, and how they became active participants in changing societal attitudes about their needs, desires and capabilities. By teaching disability history in schools, we are taking the necessary steps to ensure that history is not repeated and that there continues to be movement towards an even more accessible society in future generations. When? Many states are following the precedent set by West Virginia in establishing the third week of October as Disability History Week. Thus far, all states are targeting the month of October, which is also National Disability Employment Awareness Month. More can be found at http://disabilityhistoryweek.org/ or http://www.yodisabledproud.org/site/c.mfIPKROxFqG/b.5536853/k.88E9/D isability_History_Campaign.htm NOVEMBER Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected the 32nd President of the United States in1932 The League of the Physically Handicapped

In November of 1935 approximately three hundred members of the New York League of the Physically Handicapped picketed at the New York headquarters of the Works Progress Administration demanding that "handicapped people receive a just share of the millions of jobs being given out by the government." After three weeks of protest forty League members were offered jobs. While members of the league were suspicious that the job were meant to weaken their efforts, they gained momentum and convinced the WPA to remove the “PH” designating that an applicant was “Physically Handicapped”. To learn more visit http://www.disabilityworld.org/10-12_00/il/league.htm DECEMBER: International Day of Persons with Disabilities The annual observance of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, 3 December, aims to promote an understanding of disability issues and mobilize support for the dignity, rights and well-being of persons with disabilities. It also seeks to increase awareness of gains to be derived from the integration of persons with disabilities in every aspect of political, social, economic and cultural life. The theme of the Day is based on the goal of full and equal enjoyment of human rights and participation in society by persons with disabilities, established by the World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons, adopted by General Assembly in 1982. The official title of the Day was changed from International Day of Disabled Persons to International Day of Persons with Disabilities by General Assembly resolution 62/127 on 18 December 2007. For more visit http://www.un.org/disabilities/default.asp?id=1540 Disability History Month in the UK The UK’s first Disability History Month took place from the 22nd November to 22nd December 2010 The month was intended to “Give voice to our history, celebrate the lives of disabled people and recognizing our multiple identities and the need to resist all forms of discrimination For more visit http://www.ukdisabilityhistorymonth.com/ And for good measure: A History: Disability at Ohio State