NOW
1990
1977
1973
1968
THE RECORD
HOW THE RAMP GOT BUILT
Disability rights in the U.S. weren't handed down — they were forced into law by disabled organizers, over decades, often at real personal cost. This is a working timeline, not the whole story.
1968
ARCHITECTURAL BARRIERS ACT
The first U.S. federal law requiring buildings and facilities built or leased with federal funds to be accessible — decades before "accessibility" was a mainstream word.
1975
EDUCATION FOR ALL HANDICAPPED CHILDREN ACT
Guaranteed disabled children the right to a public education — later renamed IDEA.
1988
DEAF PRESIDENT NOW
Student-led protests at Gallaudet University forced the appointment of the school's first deaf president in its 124-year history.
MARCH 12, 1990
THE CAPITOL CRAWL
Roughly 1,000 activists marched from the White House to the Capitol; dozens abandoned wheelchairs and mobility aids to crawl up the Capitol steps, dramatizing inaccessible public buildings just months before the ADA vote.
1973
SECTION 504, REHABILITATION ACT
The first federal civil rights language for disabled people: no one with a disability could be excluded from a federally funded program. It sat unenforced, unsigned, for four years.
April 5–28, 1977
THE 504 SIT-IN
Disabled activists occupied federal buildings nationwide to force the signing of Section 504's regulations. The San Francisco occupation, led by Judy Heumann and Kitty Cone with organizers including Brad Lomax, held the federal building for 28 days — the longest occupation of a U.S. federal building in history. The Black Panther Party, Delancey Street, Glide Memorial Church, and other coalition groups kept protesters fed and supplied.
JULY 26, 1990
AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT SIGNED
President George H.W. Bush signed the ADA — the first comprehensive civil rights law for disabled people, covering employment, transit, public accommodations, and government services.
2005–2010
DISABILITY JUSTICE FRAMEWORK
Disabled organizers of color — including Patty Berne, Mia Mingus, and Stacey Milbern of Sins Invalid — articulated "disability justice," widening disability rights to center race, gender, queerness, and interdependence.
NOTHING ABOUT US, WITHOUT US.
DISABILITY RIGHTS MOVEMENT SLOGAN, ADOPTED INTERNATIONALLY
HELP KEEP THE STORY MOVING FORWARD
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