Disability History Timeline

Celebrating 30 Years of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Disability History Timeline

450 BC - 1600's

Icon with a drop of blood

  • Purging and bloodletting, with roots in ancient Greek medicine, treated mental and physical disabilities.
  • Lepers chapels house people with disabilities.
Artwork from the Middle Ages, showing healing of a leper
Artwork from the Middle Ages, showing healing of a leper.
  • “Mad houses” cage and chain people with disabilities.

1700's

Icon of a medical kit

  • Disability understood within a ‘medical model’, to be cured or treated.
  • “Lunatic” asylums hide people with disabilities where they are neglected and/or ignored.
Illustration of a 'madhouse' from the 1600s
Illustration of a ‘madhouse’ from the 1600s.
  • 1774: Madhouses Act imposes regulations on privately run facilities.

1800's

Icon of a stethoscope

  • Freak shows put people with disabilities on display.
  • State hospitals house those with physical and mental disabilities.
Black and white photograph of a state hospital for people with disabilities.
Black and white photograph of a state hospital for people with disabilities.
  • 1836:
    • Benefits for disabled veterans begin after Revolutionary War.
    • First “Sheltered Workshop” for people with visual disabilities established.

1900-1950

Icon of a handicapped symbol

Photograph of FDR in a wheelchair with a young child.
Photograph of FDR in a wheelchair with a young child.
  • 1932: The first President with visible disabilities, Franklin D. Roosevelt, is elected, but the public is shielded from the extent of his disabilities.
  • 1935: Social Security Act provides cash benefits, medical and therapeutic services for people with disabilities.
YMCA poster, reading: "Don't Pity a Disabled Man - Find Him A Job".
YMCA poster, reading: “Don’t Pity a Disabled Man – Find Him A Job”.
  • 1945: First National Employ the Physically Handicapped Week, which later becomes National Disability Employment Awareness Month.
  • 1948: Congress passes legislation prohibiting discrimination in federal employment for people with physical disabilities.

1950-2000

Icon of a briefcase

Photograph of disability rights protesters.
Photograph of disability rights protesters.
  • 1960’s: Disability rights movement begins encouraged by the examples of the Civil Rights and Women’s Rights Movements.
  • 1963: The Community Mental Health Act was meant to help those who were “warehoused” in institutions move back into their communities.
  • 1970’s: Activists file legal challenges and hold protests focused on fighting for equal rights for people with disabilities.
  • 1927: The Center for Independent Living was founded at Berkley, California and led by disabilities activist Ed Roberts.
  • 1973: The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 establishes equal access for people with disabilities through removal of architectural, employment and transportation barriers in federal establishments.
  • 1975: The Education for Handicapped Children Act of 1975 (later, IDEA) guarantees a free, appropriate, public education for all children with disabilities in the least restrictive environment.
  • 1977: San Francisco activists hold 28-day sit in calling for federal civil rights for people with disabilities. Measure is signed that year.
Alan A. Reich speaking at the UN.
Alan A. Reich speaking at the UN.
  • 1981: United Nations commemorates the first International Year of Disabled Persons. Alan A. Reich becomes first person to address U.N. General Assembly from a wheelchair.
  • 1982: The National Organization on Disability (NOD) is founded by Alan Reich to continue the momentum to promote disability inclusion.
  • 1984: Voting Accessibility for the Elderly and Handicapped Act ensured equal access to the polls.
  • 1986: NOD and Harris issue disability “gap surveys,” the field’s first authoritative data source comparing quality of life compared to non-disabled.
President Bush signs the ADA into law.
President Bush signs the ADA into law.
  • 1990: President George H.W. Bush signs the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) into law, enshrining equal access and non-discrimination.
  • 1990: Federal government issues regulations mandating wheelchair lifts on public buses.
  • 1995: American Association of People with Disabilities is created, advocating for legal rights for people with disabilities.
  • 1996: Mental Health Parity Act bans health plans from imposing unwarranted dollar limits on mental health benefits.
  • 1998:President Clinton signs Internet accessibility law, giving people with disabilities access to all electronic and information technology in the federal sector.
  • 1999: The Supreme Court’s Olmstead Decision affirmed right to live in the community rather than in state run institutions.

2000-2020

Icon of a graph with a rising arrow

  • 2008: ADA Amendments Act clarifies and broadens the term “disability.”
  • 2013:
    • The Section 503 Rule Change to the Rehab Act requires federal contractors to begin affirmative hiring of people with disabilities with a goal to reach 7% workforce representation.
    • ABLE Act allows for savings accounts that don’t hinder people with disabilities’ Medicaid & SSI benefits.

"“I believe we were doing the right thing back then and I think it’s true – still is. It’s something I’m very proud of, perhaps proudest of when I was president.” Pres. George H.W. Bush