In the 60s, a man named Ed Roberts moved into a house on the UC Berkeley campus with a group of disabled friends. Until that time, few disabled people lived on their own. They noticed that disabled people could not get around town at all. In a wheelchair, it was impossible to get up onto the curbs. Getting the city to make "curb cuts" became the first step for the disabled community.

ADAPT (American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit) is a group that was founded to fight for disabled people's rights. If you are in a wheelchair and need to take the bus, but it has no wheelchair lift, guess what? You can't take the bus. It's that simple. So President Jimmy Carter told bus companies that they had to put wheelchair lifts on all their buses. But then in the 80s, Ronald Reagan changed the law, saying they didn't have to. But just because you are in a wheelchair does not mean you can't fight back.

In 1983, ADAPT sponsored a national protest to fix things. After more than seven years of organizing and protests, 60-65% of the country's buses had lifts.

For 124 years, at Gallaudet University, a school for deaf students, there had never been a deaf president. In 1988, students thought that would change. But instead, the Board of Trustees chose the only hearing candidate. The students didn't think that made much sense.

So they led a week-long protest, and eventually, I. King Jordan, a deaf candidate, was chosen. When a reporter asked him if he thought that being deaf would affect his work, Jordan responded, "Deaf people can do anything hearing people can do…except hear."

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was created to prevent discrimination against disabled people. Before, if you were in a wheelchair, you could be asked to leave a restaurant or movie theater because people thought you were a fire hazard. And if you didn't leave, you could be arrested for trespassing! Of course, none of that would matter if you couldn't get your wheelchair into the theater in the first place!

People argued that it would cost too much money to make changes to public structures. But again, activists protested and the ADA was passed in 1990.

The biggest problem for disabled people today is finding care. Right now, 75% of Medicaid money goes to putting people in nursing homes and other institutions. Only 25% helps people get in-home nurses and attendants. So if a disabled person wants a personal attendant but the state doesn't have any of that 25% funding left, he/she has to live in an institution or pay for the attendant him/herself.

Having a personal attendant means keeping independence from an institution, which would give care, but take away all privacy and freedom.

Now, ADAPT calls itself American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today. They drafted a bill (MiCASSA) that has already gone to Congress. It would allow disabled people to choose how they want to use their Medicaid funding.

The medical field and nursing homes do not want to lose their Medicaid money. But there will still be a need for care; it will just take a different form.

Jennifer

Please email me at: Jennifer1@ustrek.org