1920 - The Fess-Smith Civilian Vocational Rehabilitation Act is passed, creating a vocational rehabilitation program for civilians with disabilities. This was very much a response to the number of disabled Vets returning from WWI.

1935 - Congress passes and President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Social Security Act, establishing federal old-age benefits and grants to the states for assistance to blind individuals and disabled children. The act also extends the already existing vocational rehabilitation programs established by earlier legislation.

The League of the Physically Handicapped is formed in New York City to protest discrimination against people with disabilities by federal relief programs. The group organizes sit-ins, picket lines, and demonstrations, and it travels to Washington, D.C., to protest and meet with officials of the Roosevelt administration.

1938 - The American Federation of the Physically Handicapped is founded by Paul Strachan as the nation’s first cross-disability, national political organization. It pushes for an end to job discrimination and lobbies for passage of legislation calling for a National Employ the Physically Handicapped Week, among other initiatives.

1946 - The first meeting of the President’s Committee on National Employ the Physically Handicapped Week is held in Washington, D.C. Its publicity campaigns, coordinated by state and local committees, emphasize the competence of people with disabilities and use movie trailers, billboards, and radio and television ads to convince the public that its “good business to hire the handicapped.”

1950 - The Social Security Amendments of 1950 establish a federal-state program to aid the permanently and totally disabled (APTD). This is a limited prototype for later federal disability assistance programs such as Social Security Disability Insurance.

The Association for Retarded Children of the United States (later renamed the Association for Retarded Citizens and then The ARC) is founded in Minneapolis by representatives of the various state association of parents of mentally retarded children.

Mary Switzer is appointed Director of the federal Office of Vocational Rehabilitation.

1951 - This is a 1951 letter from someone in the nurse’s office at Carlstadt, New Jersey Public School #1 and sent to the New Jersey Parent Groups for Retarded Children. The canceled envelope from the letter is stapled to the bottom of the letter.

The Letter reads:

“Dear Sir: We have, in our community, a family in which two of the three children are definitely mentally retarded. One is 12 years of age and the other is 6 years. They are unable to benefit from formal education but the mother demands that the Board of Education provide.

It has been recommended that these children be committed to a state institution, but this the mother has refused to do and apparently has been unable to accept the fact that her children cannot be taught in the Public or Trade schools.

Do you have any literature, or suggestions which might aid us in helping this mother accept, and resolve her problem?"

1952 - The President’s Committee on National Employ the Physically Handicapped Week becomes the Presidents’ Committee on Employment of the Physically Handicapped, a permanent organization reporting to the President and Congress.

1954 - The U.S. Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, rules that separate schools for black and white children are inherently unequal and unconstitutional. This pivotal decision becomes a catalyst for the African-American civil rights movement, which in turn becomes a major inspiration to the disability rights movement.

Congress passes the Vocational Rehabilitation Amendments, authorizing federal grants to expand programs available to people with physical disabilities.

This is a black and white photograph of about twenty disabled veterans in wheelchairs. The men are waiting in a line on the sidewalk along the wall of an office building. The wall looks like the facade of a government building, with smooth grey stone and tall, barred windows. The men wear clothes of the 1940s and 1950s: wide lapels, white socks and dark shoes, cardigan sweaters. One man smokes a pipe and is wearing a suit with a wide striped tie and Argyll socks. The men hold signs that say: "How Dare They?"; "Keep Faith in Disabled Vets"; "How About the East Orange VA Hospital"; "We Did Our Share, Treat Us Right": "PVA"; "Don't Break Promises".

Mary Switzer, Director of the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation, uses this authority to fund more than 100 university-based rehabilitation related programs.

1956 - Congress passes the Social Security Amendments of 1956, which creates a Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program for disabled workers aged 50 to 64.

1961 - President Kennedy appoints a special President’s Panel on Mental Retardation, to investigate the status of people with mental and develop programs and reforms for its improvement.

The American National Standard Institute, Inc. (ANSI) publishes American Standard Specifications for Making Buildings Accessible to, and Usable by, the Physically Handicapped. This landmark document becomes the basis for all subsequent architectural access codes.

1962 - The President’s Committee on Employment of the Physically Handicapped is renamed the President’s Committee on Employment of the Handicapped, reflecting its increased interest in employment issues affecting people with cognitive disabilities and mental illness.

Edward V. Roberts, generally accepted as the father of the modern Disability Rights Movement becomes the first severely disabled student at the University of California at Berkeley.

1963 - President Kennedy, in an address to Congress, calls for a reduction, “over a number of years and by hundreds of thousands, (in the number) of persons confined” to residential institutions, and he asks that methods be found “to remain in and return to the community the mentally ill and mentally retarded, and there to restore and revitalize their lives through better health programs and strengthened educational and rehabilitation services.” Though not labeled such at the time, this is a call for deinstitutionalization and increased community services.

John Hessler joins Ed Roberts at the University of California at Berkeley, other disabled students follow. Together they form the Rolling Quads to advocate for greater access on campus and in the surrounding community. The Rolling Quads use the civil rights movement happening in Berkeley as the structure and model to develop and begin the modern disability rights movement. At that time they, along with many others had been living in a hospital on the Campus. Today, the old hospital that housed the disabled student's program is the location of the UC Berkeley School of Business.

1964 - The Civil Rights Act is passed, outlawing discrimination on the basis of race in public accommodations and employment, as well as in federally assisted programs. It will become a model for subsequent disability rights legislation.

Robert H. Weitbrecht invents the “acoustic coupler,” forerunner of the telephone modem, enabling teletypewriter messages to be sent via standard telephone lines. This invention makes possible the widespread use of teletypewriters for the deaf (TDD’s also called TTY’s), offering deaf and hard-of-hearing people access to the telephone system.

1965 - Medicare and Medicaid are established through passage of the Social Security Amendments of 1965. These programs provide federally subsidized health care to disabled and elderly Americans covered by the Social Security program. The amendments also change the definition of disability under the Social Security Disability Insurance program, from “of long-continued and indefinite duration” to “expected to last for not less than 12 months.”

Christmas in Purgatory by Burton Blatt and Fred Kaplan is published, documenting the appalling conditions at state institutions for people with developmental disabilities. This photographic essay about the state of institutions in America is still available today. Many of the photos used in this presentation are from Christmas in Purgatory.

1968 - The Architectural Barriers Act is passed, mandating that federally constructed buildings and facilities be accessible to people with physical disabilities. This act is generally considered to be the first ever-federal disability rights legislation.

1969 - Niels Erk Bank-Mikkelsen from Denmark and Bengt Nirje from Sweden introduce the concept of normalization to an American audience at a conference sponsored by the President’s Committee on Mental Retardation, helping to provide the conceptual framework for deinstitutionalization. Their remarks and those of others are published in Changing Patterns in Services for the Mentally Retarded.