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THIS DAY IN
DISABILITY HISTORY
April 5th, 1977 — Disability rights activists in 10
cities, including Washington, D.C., and San Francisco, stage simultaneous
sit-ins at the local and federal offices of the departments of Health,
Education and Welfare (HEW). The activists demand enforcement of Section 504 of
the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 that made it illegal for a contractor, school or
other entity that received federal money to discriminate based on disability.
On April 28th, the regulations were signed into law.
April 13th, 1992 — John Hockenberry writes a
stirring ADA op-ed for The New York Times about his inability to see
“Jelly’s Last Jam” on Broadway. Upon publication, Hockenberry
would receive a pro bono attorney and sue the theater to make it accessible.
Hockenberry, later a correspondent for NPR, ABC and NBC, would make
Off-Broadway more accessible when he wrote his one-man play
“Spokesman.”
April 15th, 1817 — The first school for the deaf is
established. The American School for the Deaf (ASD), the first institution for
the education of the deaf in America, is founded in west Hartford, Conn. by
Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc. It became a state-supported school
in 1819. Thomas Gallaudet’s grandson would found Gallaudet University, the
first liberal arts university for the deaf.
April 20th, 1948 — Pat Figueroa is born. Patricio
Figueroa, Jr., is a leading independent living activist for the disabled and
was born in Catano, Puerto Rico. He was also the director for the first CIL in
New York State, the Center for Independence of the Disabled in New York, Inc.
(CIDNY) in 1978. He organized an all day long take over of the headquarters of
the New York City mass transit provider, which turned the tide of public
sympathy toward people with disabilities who wished to use the subways, and
surface fix-route buses. Figueroa was referred to as the “Che Guevara of
the disability rights movement” by staffers of former NYC Major Ed Koch.
He is also an author, a surrealist artist, and co-founder of this publication
Independence Today.
April 27th, 1996 — Not Dead Yet, a disability rights
group opposed to assisted suicide, is founded. The group comes into existence
shortly after Dr. Jack Kevorkian is acquitted in the assisted suicides of two
women with non-terminal disabilities.
April 29th, 2003 — Jeffrey Sutton is confirmed as a
federal judge on the Court of Appeals’ Sixth Circuit. As an attorney,
Sutton argued at the Supreme Court against the Americans with Disability Act
(ADA) in a case that would narrow rights for people with disabilities who work
for states.
May 5th, 1937 — Evan Kemp, one of the primary
architects of the Americans with Disabilities Act, is born. Kemp, an attorney
who has Muscular Dystrophy, in 1981 was the first national voice to criticize
Jerry Lewis and the Muscular Dystrophy Association. In 1990, he would become he
first visibly disabled chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
May 13th, 1964 — Stephen Colbert is born. The
comedian, writer and “conservative” TV pundit, who is deaf in one
ear, appeared in “Strangers with Candy” and “The Daily
Show” before landing his satirical role on Comedy Central’s “The
Colbert Report.”
May 18th, 1980 — Ian Curtis commits suicide. Curtis,
the enigmatic lead singer of the gothic punk band Joy Division, leaves behind a
wife and infant daughter. Curtis had severe epilepsy that was getting
progressively worse. His group had been hailed in the United Kingdom for
recreating and redefining punk music. A biographical film on Curtis, directed
by Anton Corbin, is due out in late 2007.
Compiled from various sources by Michael
Reynolds
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Mike Reynolds is a disability rights activist, writer, and
film maker Cerebral Palsy. He lives in Lewiston, Maine
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