Disability History Crash Course

Open captions. Eye contact. Proper closed captions. Audio description. ~1 minute.

From the video's info section:

Lawrence Carter-Long is the director of communications at Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF). In this video interview, he shines a spotlight on how the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) came to be through the persistent work of disability activists. “The draft legislation for the Americans with Disabilities Act was put together in the mid-’80s. And then, right, 1990, over 20 years later, what did it take to pass that law? Disability being disruptive. Disabled people saying, ‘No, no, no. We’re not going to be taken for granted, we’re not going to be left behind, and we’re going to show you how determined and how dedicated we are.’ Those are decades between advances, decades between real progress. We’ve waited long enough. The time to be included, the time for this to change is now. And you can be a part of it. You should be a part of it.”

BTW, that Disability and Philanthropy Initiative is another thing the Biden Administration has done to try for more equity for marginalized groups -- including the Disabled.

It's arguable whether or not the philanthropy model is a good thing (personally, I've grown increasingly skeptical of it in my radical middle age). But this is another example of how the Democratic Party and the Republican Party are not the same.

Anti-vaxxer extremist RFK Jr, the US Health Secretary, is now actively trying to collect medical records of folks on the autism spectrum. First, he used dehumanizing and infantilizating language to insist people with autism won't 'pay taxes and live a 'normal life' which we all know is ableist bullshit and is literally a precursor to genocide. This man is a monster.

Disability Timeline

A non-comprehensive list of important events about the Disability Rights Movement from 1800-1990

1815-1817 - Formal Deaf Education Begins in the U.S

1829 - Louis Braille Invents the Raise Point Alphabet

1907 - Eugenic Sterilization Law for People with Disabilities is Enacted

1932 - Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Person with a Disability, Elected President

1934-1940 - National Federation of the Blind Founded

1935 - Social Security Act Signed into Law

1939 - Nazi Program Kills Thousands of People with Disabilities

1946 - National Mental Health Foundation Founded

1947 - Paralyzed Veterans of America organization founded

1954 - Brown v Board of Education

1963 - Community Mental Health Act signed into Law

1965 - Medicaid Assistance for People with Disabilities and those with Low-Income

1968 - The Architectural Barriers Act of 1968

1973 - Disabled in Action, PA founded

1974 - Last of "Ugly Laws" Repealed

1975 - The Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act Enacted

1975 - United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons

1978 - National Council on Disability Established

1982 - United Nations Encourages Global Equality and Participation for the Disabled

1990 - Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is signed into law.

This is a friendly reminder that none disabled people often do benefit from the same accommodations disabled people benefit from.

Some people don’t want to hear this but sometimes accessibility is not sustainable or eco-friendly. Disabled people sometimes need straws, or pre-made meals in plastic containers, or single-use items. Just because you can work with your foods in their least processed and packaged form doesn’t mean everyone else can.

This is a fascinating article about how the Medici, who had a hereditary mobility condition, adapted the architecture of Florence for disability access:

Florence’s Medici had a family curse: an agonizing hereditary medical condition causing torturous joint pain and severe mobility restrictions, so it was agony to stand, walk, or even hold a pen. Yes, Renaissance Florence, cradle of the Renaissance, was run by disabled people from a sickbed. The famous Cosimo had to have servants carry him through his own home, and used to shout every time they neared doorway. When asked, “Why do you shout before we go through a doorway?” He answered “Because if I shout after you slam my head into the stone lintel it doesn’t help.”

US people with disabilities in the supplemental security income (SSI) program can't have a penny over $2K in their bank account at any time in order to keep their benefits.

You know this economy. That amount is completely unlivable & makes it hard for people with disability to save for the future or have a safety net for emergencies.

A new bill would raise the max to $10K (or $20K for married couples). It would make a world of difference.

Show support by contacting your reps.

Edit: Had the word petition on the mind, mistakenly called it that.

yes, there are that many really disabled people on the internet actually

When I was less sick I used to think, "It seems like such a large portion of people on the internet are disabled, it can't possibly be that large of a percentage of the population" and then let my ableism demons tell me it was because they were faking (the same ones that told me I was faking, until I made myself really ill.)

But now that I'm sicker and wiser I realize I was logically just wrong because

The internet is disabled people's lifeline. There are more disabled people on the internet because OF COURSE. People who aren't disabled can be less chronically online because they don't have to be. This is textbook selection bias!

But actually also I was almost right, because there are way more disabled people in society than you would think! They're just systematically hidden and excluded from public spaces for abled peoples' convenience! 🙃

Anyway maybe this will help you understand and/or explain to abled friends and family.

I'm sharing a few articles on disability rights. It's the history of forced sterilization in the United States. I think they give good insight and need more circulation.

Independent Lens

Unwanted Sterilization and Eugenics Programs in the United States

A shameful part of America’s history.

American Civil Liberties Union

Immigration Detention and Coerced Sterilization: History Tragically Repeats Itself | ACLU

The ICE detention story reflects a long pattern in the United States of the coerced sterilization of marginalized populations, particularly

I've been disabled for almost 29 years. Here's what I've learned.

Tablets sink and capsules float. Separate out your tablets and capsules when you go to take them. Tip your head down when taking capsules and up when taking tablets. Liquigels don't matter, they kinda stay in the middle of whatever liquid is in your mouth.

If your pill tastes bad, coat it with a bit of butter or margarine. I learned this from my mom, who learned it from a pharmacist.

Being in pain every day isn't normal. Average people experience pain during exceptional moments, like when they stub their toe or jam their finger in a door, not when they sit cross-legged.

Make a medical binder. Make multiple medical binders. I have a small one that comes with me to appointments and two big ones that stay at home, one with old stuff and one with more recent stuff.

Find your icons. Some of mine include Daya Betty (drag queen with diabetes), Stef Sanjati (influencer with Waardenburg syndrome and ADHD), and Hank Green (guy with ulcerative colitis who... does a bunch of stuff). They don't have to be disabled in the same way as you. They don't even have to be real people. Put their pictures up somewhere if you want; I've been meaning to decorate my medical binders with pictures of my icons.

Take a bin, box, bag, basket, whatever and fill it with items to cope with. This can be stuff for mentally coping like colouring books or play clay or stuff for physically coping like pain medicine or physio tape.

Decorate your shit! My cane for at home has a plushie backpack clip hanging from the end of the handle and my cane for going places is covered in stickers. All of my medical binders have fun scrapbooking paper on the outside. Sometimes, I put stickers and washi tape on my inhalers and pill bottles. I used my Cricut to decorate my coping bin with quotes from my icons, like "I've seen enough of Ba Sing Se" and "I need you to be angrier with that bell".

If a flare-up is making you unable to eat or keep food down, consider going to the ER. A pharmacist once told me that since my eye flares can make me so nauseous that I cannot eat, then I need to go to the hospital when that happens.

Cola works wonders for nausea. I have mini cans of Diet Pepsi in my coping bin.

Shortbread is one of the only things I can eat when nauseous. Giant Tiger sells individually-wrapped servings of shortbread around Christmas or the British import store sells them year-round. I also keep these in my coping bin.

Unless it violates a pain contract or something, don't be afraid to go behind your doctor's back to get something they are refusing you. I got my cardiologist referral by getting in with a different NP at my primary care clinic than who I usually saw. I switched from Seroquel to Abilify by visiting a walk-in.

If you have a condition affecting your abdomen in some way (GI issues, reproductive problems, y'know) then invest in track pants that are too big. I bought some for my laparoscopy over a year ago and they've been handy for pelvic pain days, too. I've also heard loose pants are good for after colonoscopies.

Do whatever works, even if it's weird. I've sat on the floor of the Eaton Centre to take my pills. I've shoved heating pads down my front waistband to reach my uterus.

High-top Converse are good for weak ankles. I almost exclusively wear them.

You can reuse your pill bottles for stuff. I use my jumbo ones to store makeup sponges and my long skinny ones to hold a travel-size amount of Q-Tips.

Just because your diagnostics come back with nothing, it doesn't mean nothing is wrong. Maybe you were checking the wrong thing, or the diagnostic tool wasn't sensitive enough. I have bradycardia episodes even though multiple cardiac tests caught nothing. I probably have endometriosis even though my gynecologist didn't see anything.

You can bring your comfort item to appointments, and it's generally a green flag when someone talks to you about it. I brought a Squishmallow turkey (named Ulana) to my laparoscopy and they had her wearing my mask when I woke up. I brought a Build-A-Bear cat (named Blinx) to another procedure and a nurse told me that everyone in the hall on the way to the procedure room saw him and were talking about how cute he was. Both of those ended up being positive experiences and every person who talked to me about my plushies was nice to me. If you don't feel comfortable having it visible to your provider during the appointment, you can hide it in your bag and just know it's there, or if you're in a video appointment, you can hold it below frame in your lap.

Get a small bucket, fill it with stuff, and stick it in your bed (if you have room for it). I filled a bucket with Ensure, juice boxes, oatmeal bars, lotion, my rescue inhaler, etc. in October 2023 in anticipation of my laparoscopy and I still have it in my bed as of January 2025.

If your disability impacts your impulse control (e.g. ADHD, bipolar disorder), you should consider setting limits around your spending -- no more than X dollars at a time, nothing online unless it's absolutely necessary, and so on. Or, run these purchases by someone you trust before committing to them; I use my BFF groupchat to help talk sense into myself when I buy stuff.

Feel free to add on what you've learned about disability!