Category: Success Stories

By Matthew Louis LaGassa Published May 25, 2023

Reviewed by Victoria Wells

 

About the Author:

Matthew Louis LaGassa (born March 2002) was diagnosed Autistic when he was two years old, and has always thought of his neurodivergency as a core part of his identity. Outside of his internship here at CIL, he’s a Junior year student at Rollins College, majoring in in English and minoring in Writing, with a knack for analytical essay writing. In his spare time, he enjoys reading, videogames, tabletop roleplaying games, and baking.

 

This July, specifically July 26, 2023, is the thirty third anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Though much still remains to be done to make the United States a truly equitable society for its citizens with disabilities, the work done in the name of this act, and the Independent Living Movement that led to it, is undoubtedly noticeable in the present day.

To celebrate the people and the movement that got us to this point, we at the Center for Independent Living in Central Florida would like to tell you the histories of:

• the Independent Living Movement,
• the people behind it,
• the creation of the first Center for Independent Living,
• the Americans with Disabilities Act,
• and our very own center.

 

The Independent Living Movement:

Beginning with the movement’s shared roots “with the [ongoing] African American civil rights struggle and with other movements of the late 1960’s and 1970’s,” the Independent Living Movement believed in the empowerment of individuals with disabilities. This empowerment was accomplished through “the formation of community-based groups of people with different types of disabilities who worked together to identify barriers and gaps in service delivery[,]… and to influence policy makers at all levels to change regulations and to introduce barrier-removing legislation,” (WILS, 2017). These guiding principles of community-based individual empowerment would remain foundational to the movement, paving the way for Ed Roberts, who in turn paved the way for us.

The People Behind it:

As a Polio survivor, Ed Roberts “had virtually no functional movement and used a respirator to breathe.” Upon his admission to The University of California at Berkeley in 1962, he was required to “live in the campus medical facility, Cowell Hall,” (Hayman, 2019).  During this time, Ed developed a sense of community with his fellow students with disabilities “based on the barriers and discrimination that they all faced.”

Inspired by the political activism of the decade, these students organized into The Rolling Quads, and with the help of “Jean Wirth, an English teacher at the College of San Mateo in San Mateo California,” established the “Physically Disabled Students Program.” This created provisions for Personal Assistance Services, wheelchair repairs, emergency attendant care and help in obtaining whatever financial services were available” (WILS).

The Creation of the First Center for Independent Living:

Following this program’s establishment, Ed founded the Berkeley Center for Independent Living in 1972 (WILS; Hayman). This center was the first of its kind, and its core values of “dignity, peer support, consumer control, civil rights, integration, equal access, and advocacy,” have since remained “at the heart of the independent living and disability rights movements,” serving as the founding principals of vital legislation and successive centers alike (Hayman).

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA):

Like Ed Roberts and the Berkley Center for Independent Living, the history of the Americans with Disabilities act began long before its first introduction to Congress in 1988 (Mayerson, 1992). The shift in public policy that had paved the way for the act occurred in 1973 “with the passage of Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act. Section 504, which banned discrimination on the basis of disability by recipients of federal funds,” marked the first time Congress recognized that people with disabilities required legislation to remove societal barriers and provide the necessary accommodations (Mayerson). When the Section 504 regulations were issued on May 4, 1977, the movement spent the following decade educating the public on disability discrimination, and involving themselves in Supreme Court litigation, all paving the way for the regulations that would be provided by the passing of the ADA (Mayerson).

The act was initially introduced “in April 1988 in the 100th Congress,” and once more, the community mobilized “to educate people with disabilities about the ADA and to gather evidence to support the need for broad anti-discrimination protections” (Mayerson).  Once the new ADA was introduced in the 101st Congress on May 9, 1989, the community further mobilized: “A team of lawyers and advocates worked on drafting and on the various and complex legal issues that were continually arising;… a lobbying system was developed using members of the disability community from around the country; witnesses came in from all over the country to testify before Congressional committees” (Mayerson).

The community retained their sense of perseverance against proposals and amendments that threatened to weaken the ADA.  Finally, the Bill was signed into law on July 26, 1990, at last codifying accommodations for people with disabilities as “no longer a matter of charity but instead a basic issue of civil rights,” (Mayerson).

Historical Fun Facts about the ADA:

1. Prior to being signed into law, the ADA was first introduced to Congress in April, 1988, followed by a revised version of it in May the following year.
2. Both times the ADA was introduced in Congress, people with disabilities mobilized to show their support by educating communities of its importance, solving the complex legal issues that kept arising, and a lobbying system of community members nationwide testifying in its favor in front of congressional committees.
3. On September 25, 2008, the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA) was signed into law and took effect at the start of the following year. This act clarified and broadened the original act’s definition of disability, making it easier for people with disabilities, now including people with cancer, diabetes, epilepsy, and more, to qualify for the ADA’s protections.

Fun Facts about the Impact of the ADA:

1. As part of Title I’s prohibitions on discrimination in the workplace, employers, government included, are required to provide reasonable accommodations for employers with disabilities. Common examples of said accommodations include providing large print, braille, or audiotape versions of written materials and for people who are seeing or hearing impaired, or sign language interpreters.
2. The ADA’s requirements for accommodations extend to schools, enabling students with disabilities to receive accommodations in their classes and exams, such as large print dictionaries for people who are legally blind, or extended time for people with Autism or other disabilities that make it difficult for them to focus.
3. Thanks to Title III’s prohibitions on discrimination in public places, accommodations like wheelchair ramps and accessible parking have enabled people with disabilities to access locations that were previously unavailable to them.

Our Very Own Center:

The creation of the Centers for Independent Living continued throughout these many years of civil rights fights leading to the over 400 that exist around the United States today, all championing the five core services – advocacy, information and referral, independent living skills, peer support and mentoring, and transition- in the way that aligns best with our communities.

Beverly Chapman, a lobbyist, tireless disability advocate, columnist for the Orlando Sentinel, and more, is additionally responsible for the founding of our CIL in 1976, and served as our first executive director. Keep learning about our history and Beverly’s here:

History

The ideas at the heart of the first Center of Independent Living, the affirmation of civil rights that is the ADA, and the perseverance of the disability community and their friends that lead the country to it, resonate in our community to this day. We at the Center of Independent Living in Central Florida are proud to carry on those ideals in our work everyday.

 

References

• About Us. CIL. (n.d.). Retrieved February 9, 2023, from http://cilorlando.org/about/about-us/
• Hayman, B. (2019, May 31). Independent living history. Access Living. Retrieved February 2, 2023, from https://www.accessliving.org/newsroom/blog/independent-living-history/
• History of independent living: The 1st Center for Independent Living. WILS. (2017, August 14). Retrieved February 2, 2023, from https://w-ils.org/about-us/history-independent-living/#:~:text=In%201972%2C%20the%20first%20Center%20for%20Independent%20Living%20was%20founded,controlled%20by%20persons%20with%20disabilities.
• History. CIL. (n.d.). Retrieved February 9, 2023, from http://cilorlando.org/about/history/
• Mayerson, A. B. (1992, July). The History of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund. Retrieved February 7, 2023, from https://dredf.org/about-us/publications/the-history-of-the-ada/