In the face of injustice, people band together to work for change, and through their influence, what was once unthinkable becomes common. This title traces the history of the disability rights movement in the United States, including the key players, watershed moments, and legislative battles that have driven social change. Iconic images and informative sidebars accompany compelling text that follows the movement from the work of early activists to bring dignity to the lives of people in institutions through the fight to make society adapt to the needs of people with disabilities and up to new legislative triumphs in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. Features include a glossary, selected bibliography, Web sites, source notes, and an index, plus a timeline and essential facts. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Essential Library is an imprint of ABDO Publishing Company.

People with disabilities have faced great struggle and inequality. This volume explores the ways in which people with disabilities have fought for their right to equal access, equal opportunities, and equal treatment. Key figures and events are highlighted to give readers a well-rounded sense of the movement. Photographs and primary sources bring the movement to life. Readers are challenged to think about what could be changed in the future to help people with disabilities live a full, fair life.

The passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990 was hailed as revolutionary legislation, but in the ensuing years restrictive Supreme Court decisions have prompted accusations that the Court has betrayed the disability rights movement. The ADA can lay claim to notable successes, yet people with disabilities continue to be unemployed at extremely high rates. In this timely book, Samuel R. Bagenstos examines the history of the movement and discusses the various, often-conflicting projects of diverse participants. He argues that while the courts deserve some criticism, some may also be fairly aimed at the choices made by prominent disability rights activists as they crafted and argued for the ADA. The author concludes with an assessment of the limits of antidiscrimination law in integrating and empowering people with disabilities, and he suggests new policy directions to make these goals a reality.

Provides an overview, chronology of events, glossary and annotated bibliography for disability rights in the United States.

The recent history of the American welfare state has been viewed with dismay by those on the left because of the steady contraction of benefits under both Republican and Democratic administrations. In contrast, Jennifer L. Erkulwater describes the remarkable success of advocacy for the disabled at a time when the federal government was seemingly impervious to liberal policy innovations.Since the War on Poverty the American public's support for social-welfare policies has gradually eroded as conservative politicians have gained power and demographic changes and uncertain economic growth have enhanced pressures for fiscal retrenchment. Yet, the past thirty years have also seen a dramatic expansion of disability benefits. This book is the first to examine how entitlements for the disabled have fared in the wake of the disability-rights movement. This movement initially fought to end the institutionalization of the severely disabled and moved on to claim that antidiscrimination laws would allow the disabled to work and become less dependent on welfare. It also had a profound impact on entitlements.Erkulwater demonstrates that the Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income programs enacted between 1972 and 2000 succeeded because policy elites switched from welfare-based approaches to the civil-rights rhetoric used by the disability-rights movement. The work of liberal advocates who sought to end the segregation of the disabled in custodial institutions and integrate them into their home communities contributed to the growth of programs providing financial assistance to disabled citizens and to the recent controversies surrounding the future direction of disability policy.

There is great diversity of definitions, causes and consequences of discrimination against persons with disabilities, yet there are fundamental themes uniting countries in their pursuit of human rights policies to improve the social and economic status of those with disabilities. In this volume are twenty-five important articles examining historical, contemporary and comparative issues crucial to the advancement of disability rights. The volume foreshadows the future of disability rights as a medium for ensuring that those living with disabilities participate as equal citizens of the world.

This practical volume offers models for participatory action, coalition building, university-community collaboration, and program development. It lays out a step-by-step plan for a capacity-building approach to community empowerment. People with Disabilities: Empowerment and Community Action presents tested strategies for empowering a wide variety of people with disabilities, including Latinos, the aged, the developmentally disabled, low-income schoolchildren, and patients with chronic diseases.

Crippled Justice, the first comprehensive intellectual history of disability policy in the workplace from World War II to the present, explains why American employers and judges, despite the Americans with Disabilities Act, have been so resistant to accommodating the disabled in the workplace. Ruth O'Brien traces the origins of this resistance to the postwar disability policies inspired by physicians and psychoanalysts that were based on the notion that disabled people should accommodate society rather than having society accommodate them. O'Brien shows how the remnants of postwar cultural values bogged down the rights-oriented policy in the 1970s and how they continue to permeate judicial interpretations of provisions under the Americans with Disabilities Act. In effect, O'Brien argues, these decisions have created a lose/lose situation for the very people the act was meant to protect. Covering developments up to the present, Crippled Justice is an eye-opening story of government officials and influential experts, and how our legislative and judicial institutions have responded to them.

About the publication The African Disability Rights Yearbook addresses disability rights within the foundational structure laid down by the inaugural issue. The structure comprises a tripartite division between: articles; country reports; and shorter commentaries on recent regional and sub-regional developments. The African Disability Rights Yearbook aims to advance disability scholarship. Coming in the wake of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, it is the first peer-reviewed journal to focus exclusively on disability as human rights on the African continent. It provides an annual forum for scholarly analysis on issues pertaining to the human rights of persons with disabilities. It is also a source for country-based reports as well as commentaries on recent developments in the field of disability rights in the African region. The African Disability Rights Yearbook publishes peer-reviewed contributions dealing with the rights of persons with disabilities and related topics, with specific relevance to Africa, Africans and scholars of Africa. The Yearbook appears annually under the aegis of the Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria. The Yearbook is an open access online publication, see www.adry.up.ac.za About the editors: Charles Ngwena is Professor, Department of Constitutional Law and Legal Philosophy, Faculty of Law, University of the Free State, South Africa. Ilze Grobbelaar‐du Plessis is a senior lecturer and holds the degrees BIuris LLB LLM LLD from the University of Pretoria. Helene Combrinck is Associate Professor at the Centre for Disability Law and Policy, University of the Western Cape. Serges Djoyou Kamgais is Senior Lecturer at TMALI (UNISA). Table of Contents Stigma as barrier to the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Africa Mark Mostert Realising the inclusion of youth with disabilities in political and public life in Kenya Lucianna Thuo Reading ‘disability’ into the non-discrimination clause of the Nigerian Constitution Ngozi Chuma Umeh Legislative mechanisms for combating violence against children with disabilities in selected African jurisdictions: A critical appraisal Enoch Chilemba My right to know: Developing sexuality education resources for learners with intellectual disability in the Western Cape, South Africa Rebecca Johns Colleen Adnams (Re)thinking sexual access for adolescents with disabilities in South Africa: Balancing rights and protection Paul Chappell The development and use of Sign Language in South African schools: The denial of inclusive education Willene Holness Implementing article 33 of CRPD: Tanzanian approach Abdallah Possi SECTION B: COUNTRY REPORTS Angola Eduardo Kapapelo Gabon Christophe Tchudjo Victorine Maptue Toguem Senegal Abdoulaye Thiam Seydi Ababacar Sy Sow SECTION C: REGIONAL DEVELOPMENTS The jurisprudence of the committee on the rights of persons with disabilities and its implications for Africa Innocentia Mgijima The right to work and employment in Southern Africa: A commentary on how selected employment laws fare against article 27 of the CRPD Dianah Msipa BOOK REVIEW Don Kulick & Jens Rydström Loneliness and its opposite: Sex, disability, and the ethics of engagement (2015) Paul Chappell

Provides an overview of rights and laws enacted to protect and accommodate people with disabilities and those interested in learning more about disability and the processes required to apply for these benefits, disability compensation benefits for veterans, information on how to find government and local disability programs and services, and other resources.