THE DISABILITY RIGHTS
MOVEMENT
Some times I look back to assess the progress the disability
rights movement (DRM) has made since I have been involved. It is over 30 years
since I became involved. I wore a younger man’s clothes back then, bell bottoms
and long hair were still around and I my heart was split between my hate for
the Nixon War on
The DMR movement has made some progress, a lot of progress for people with disabilities, as my friend tells me. He put s it in perspective: Why the DRM is the only movement that called for not only social and attitudinal changes, it called for physical changes (removal of architectural barriers), it demanded changes in the way we communicated (both people with blindness, and those with deafness wanted inclusion), and it demanded that the press or media change its perception, if not image of us. Pity my ass, not me. There has been progress.
But not enough, and not sustained.
As such the DRM movement has demanded or I should say, made the greatest demand on the American Political, and governmental system. And why not? Among our numbers are men and women who had made the ultimate sacrifice for this country, veterans. We all know how we venerate our war heroes. But tell me, what’s the f---ing difference between a veteran in a wheelchair and someone who had been send to earth with some dreaded birth defect, or worst contracted polio. Some people will say about $2,400 per month in benefits, that’s the difference. So, is that to say that the DRM is solely an economic struggle for parity with disabled veterans?
I hope not. I remember sitting my ass for a week in a federal building risking bedsores on my buttocks to force Joseph Califano, then Secretary the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, to sign the much fought for Section 504 Regulations of the 1973 Rehab Act. No the DRM is much more than economics for me. And here is where the problem lies; you see every PWD has his own “impression” of what the movement is about. Unlike the Black Civil Rights movement, which was essentially about equality, the DRM is 54 million person personal crusades. That is to say, my problem is my DRM.
Have you ever been at a meeting of disability advocates—or now a day’s listserv groups—and seen or read how people push their own agendas to the detriment of the “original goal” of the group? Somehow everyone’s plight should be at the top of the agenda…”the me first mentality”. Eventually the group is put asunder by its own internal struggle for control of its agenda. Remember the struggles of the U.S. Coalition of Citizens with disabilities, late 1970’s and early 1980’s? A victim of the me first syndrome.
To return to my original thesis, we must look back in the past to see how far we have come, and to determine where the hell we’re going. And that’s the problem. We’re going in 54 million directions. One national group which prides itself in their slogan…”Not just responding to change but leading it.” Okay, leading us to where, and for what gains. NCIL as a vehicle for the DRM has been a dismal failure. It does very little to keep the ILCs focus on their true mission, advocacy, it takes its directions from large disability organizations and coalitions, which for decades see PWD as dollar signs. Now, let me just say that I was once the executive director of a major ILC. I was until last a few years a member of NCIL. I give to several disability organizations, AAPD, and others. Now, my money goes to ADAPT. You see ADAPT, for all their misguided ness and misdirection, is not only leading change they are “forcing” the national agenda. Without Justin Dart, there is no one national leader that people follow, except for the ADAPT leadership, Bob Kafka and company.
Now I admit, I am a little left of center in my political views. But NCIL or AAPD cannot come close to the effectiveness of ADAPT. And maybe ADAPT has the agenda a little out of order, but I rather have a slightly skewed agenda, than no agenda all. A misguided agenda lead by PWD is better than the agenda of coalition of voluntary providers.
Now, you know ADAPT’s goals are predominantly for people in wheelchairs. The blind, the deaf and others are not their focus. Whereas, this can be perceived as a weakness of ADAPT, it is also their strength. You see the ILCs are supposed to serve PWD regardless of disability, or better said all disabilities. This is doable, and achievable. But few centers actually do. To get vulgar, all most ILCs are into is “pimping and whoring.” Show us the money, we’ll serve them.
And now the ILCs want to serve the mental health survivors community. There are huge sums of money in some states to provide services to this community, whose public image is, of course, associated with every heinous criminal act. In the disability pecking order, I regret to inform my friends with mental health issues, they are at the bottom of the ladder, and that they have a huge public image problem to overcome. Imagery and the media is a subject for another time. And so is how mental issues fit into the ILC philosophy. For now, all we need to know is that the DRM would be the best kept secret since “Deep Throat” of the Watergate scandal fame.
Whereas we have made progress in many aspects, and dimension of disability, our rights are being eroded daily. The ILCs who should be leading, training, and setting the agendas are becoming small cerebral palsy type voluntary agencies. Where is NCIL when it comes to philosophy? Where is ILRU, when it comes to training new directors to take over as the old ones age out or worst, pass on?
What little gains were promised by the
"There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there
must never be a time when we fail to protest".--Elie Wiesel