Important Actors
The president that signed the Americans with Disabilities Act into law (Ability, 2021).
Who is President George H.W. Bush?
These events contributed to an increase in respect and recognition of people with disabilities after 200,000 were killed in the 1930s (Ability, 2021).
What are WWII and the Holocaust?
An act that required that public transit vehicles have wheelchair lifts (Ability, 2021).
What is the Urban Mass Transit Act?
A journalist who recorded an expose on the horrors of a state hospital
Who is Geraldo Rivera (FilmRise Documentaries, 2014)?
In 1927, the Supreme Court ruled that states could allow this operation on people with intellectual disabilities (Ability, 2021).
What is forced sterilization?
The first law that marked exclusion and segregation of people with disabilities as discrimination and banned disability discrimination in a way similar to other civil rights acts. (Ability, 2021)
What is the Rehabilitation Act of 1973?
This advocacy group fought for accessible public transportation and the end of unnecessary institutionalization (Ability, 2021).
Who is ADAPT (Americans Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation)?
American cities implement these from 1860-1970, making it illegal for people with "unsightly" disabilities to appear in public (Ability, 2021).
What are ugly laws?
A law that prohibits discrimination against those with disabilities at schools that receive federal funding (Lee, 2025).
What is Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act?
A former president planned to create a task force to "de-regulate" regulations to allow for disability discrimination in order to "ease the burden" on businesses (Ability, 2021).
Who is Ronald Reagan?
This state hospital was exposed for neglecting and abusing residents, with some even getting parasites, pneumonia, and hepatitis (FilmRise Documentaries, 2014).
What is Willowbrook?
A law that ensures that public schools meet the needs of students with disabilities (Lee, 2025).
What is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)?
Considered to be the father of ADA, this man traveled around the country explaining the injustice and discrimination that people with disabilities experienced (Ability, 2021).
Who is Justin Dart?
The event in which 60 people with disabilities tossed aside their wheelchairs, walkers, and crutches and dragged themselves up the stairs in the act of protest (Ability, 2021).
What is the Capitol Crawl?
An act signed in 1990 that prohibited discrimination by schools, employers, and those that offer goods and services (Lee, 2025)
What is the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)?