Travis D. Casper
EDAC 631
Dr. Bo Chang
9/22/19
Assignment #3:
History of Adult Education,
Disability
Studies,and the Disability Rights Movement
from 1960-early
2000’s
1.
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Your Name
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Commented On
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Travis D. Casper
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Jackie Davis
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Bob Phelps
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2. Introduction:
While
much was happening socially before 1960 in the United States, the period of the
1960’s through the early 2000’s is a period packed full of civil, social, and political unrest, upheaval,
and change. From the Bay of Pigs and the Cold War to American involvement in
the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, the founding of the Black Panther
Party and the Summer of free love in 1967 to the passage of the Rehabilitation
Act of 1973 to the Carter Administration and its dealings with the disabled community
as they tried to get something done on a piece of legislation (which my father
was part of by working with the Carter Administration, but as a private citizen
in the business world) that would eventually become the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 to what seemed to be the end of the Cold War
highlighted by President Reagan’s impassioned plea to Gorbachev in Berlin that
saw the fall of the Berlin War in the late 1980’s to the passage of the
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) legislation by Congress and the
subsequent signing of the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 on July 26,1990 by then-President George H.W.
Bush and its aftermath. Also occurring during this same timeframe and lasting
throughout almost the entire timeframe was the Disability Rights Movement, an
upstart, grassroots movement that began during the hotbed of radicalism at the
University of California at Berkeley, also known as UC Berkeley (some of us who
grew up at some point within the timeframe presented here also called it
Berzerkley) in the 1960’s.
Indeed, the disabled community
has had a long and arduous journey to be recognized as people worthy of respect
and capable of being part of the workforce and society in general. Nowhere has
this been better documented than in a book published over two decades ago
entitled “No Pity: People
with Disabilities Forging a New Civil Rights Movement” by Joseph P. Shapiro
(Shapiro, (1993). This book documents the historical relevance of the
Disability Rights Movement during the time I have chosen to study and use in
writing this paper. I have had the good fortunate to have read Shapiro
(1993)’s book as it was required reading for a class I took in Political
Science at Ball State University in the Fall of 2016. This course dealt with
issues pertaining to people with disabilities and was taught by Mr. Greg
Fehribach, “who himself was present at the official signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 on July 26,1990 by then-President George H.W. Bush” (G. Fehribach, personal communication, 2016).
There
are several important takeaway points from this enlightening book according to a review of Shapiro’s book done by Leighty (1994), which states:
1)
Joseph
Shapiro, a writer for U.S. News & World Report, starts book, No Pity, with
the line "Nondisabled Americans do not understand disabled ones" (p.
3). The sentence indirectly conveys book's purpose: to tell the stories of
disabled people in order to create a greater understanding of the needs of the
disabled. In the process of showing that disabled
people are entitled to equal rights, Shapiro describes the increase in their
self-awareness and political awareness that led, part, to Congress's passage of the Americans with Disabilities (ADA) in 1990.
2)
For
the most part, Shapiro succeeds in showing the need to eliminate stereotypes
without appearing to preach to the reader. He accomplishes this, not only
through the narratives of the challenges particular individuals have had to
face, but also through the subtle reminders throughout the book that disability"is the one minority that anyone can join at any time" (p. 7).
3)
Shapiro
treats the ADA not as the culmination of the civil rights movement for the
disabled but rather as part of a continuing process. Shapiro uses the ADA to
demonstrate the power of the disability rights movement and its "hidden
army.”
4) Ironically, when Congress passed the bill,
liberals "narrowed the scope of the accommodations to be made, making the
bill more palatable to business and therefore more likely to become law"
(p. 114).
5) The realization that "more than one in
seven Americans had a disability that would be covered under the ADA" (p.
117) kept business from opposing the bill too vociferously and gave the bill
necessary political support. No business "wanted to look like a bigot
fighting a civil rights bill" (p. 116). (pp. 1953, 1955, 1957, and 1958).
3.
Highlights:
According to King (1993),
“people with
disabilities are the largest, poorest, least educated, and least employed
minority in the United States. Researchers estimate that among adults
with disabilities, almost 60 percent of men and 80 percent of women were not employed at the beginning
of 1990” (p.44). Moreover,
Kruse and Schur (2002), as quoted in Beegle & Stock, 2003,
p. 807 find both increases and decreases in disabled employment
rates associated with the ADA, depending on how disability is defined. A fundamental problem with these and similar studies of
public policies with such broad coverage (for example, the Civil Rights Act of
1964) is that because the policy was implemented at the federal level and
covers nearly all disabled persons, it is difficult to identify a comparison
group of disabled individuals that can be used to control for changes in the
relative outcomes of the disabled that are unrelated to the legislation (Beegle & Stock, 2003, p. 807).
Furthermore,
in an additional piece of research that corroborates my claim above, I came
across an article by Acemoglu
& Angrist (2001) that found that
“although
the ADA was meant to increase the employment of the disabled, the net
theoretical
effects are ambiguous and the decline in employment of the disabled
does not appear to be explained by increased transfers alone, leaving the ADA
as a likely cause” (p.915).
How exactly does all of this
ongoing social and political change relate to the history of adult education? There
are many facts to the answer for this question. Leighty (1994) has a part of
the answer to this question. Leighty (1994) states:
The Act also set
limits on the accommodation required, based on the size of the business.
Moreover, many accommodations were simple and inexpensive, such as placing a
desk on blocks to accommodate a wheelchair user (pp. 115-16). Accommodation
might even require only creative thinking.
The disability rights movement continues beyond the enactment of the ADA
(p. 141). Shapiro's book demonstrates that in order for disabled people to
achieve the goal of "common respect and the opportunity to build bonds to
their communities as fully accepted participants in everyday life," they
must continue to struggle to overcome irrational prejudices and stereotypes (p.
332). Shapiro's book provides important insights necessary to ensure that the
movement toward equality for disabled Americans continues (p.1958).
More
evidence of the many facets to the answer of the question I posed above can be
seen by a quick review
of “Chapter 14: Disability as an Issue of Marginalization within the
book
entitled “Global Issues and Adult Education: Perspectives from Latin
America, Southern
Africa, and the United States” written by Tonette S. Rocco (pp.169-181).
Dr. Rocco states the following in answer
to my question posed above:
One theory of
disability, well articulated by Charlton (1998), is the comprehensive theory of
disability oppression. This theory flows from the Sociopolitical model and the
five faces of oppression (Young, 1990). Disability scholars (Charlton, 1998;
Gleeson, 1999; Linton, 1998) explain oppression using the five faces of
oppression, which are exploitation (i.e. disabled people working in
sheltered employment), marginalization (i.e. when people are not allowed
to be in public places or see needed materials for some reason), powerlessness
(when disabled people aren’t allowed to choose for themselves or aren’t
hired for a job because the hiring manager believes that the disabled person
can’t do the job for any number of reasons), cultural imperialism (i.e.
when things must be done for or on behalf of a disabled individual for any
number of reasons), and violence (i.e. abuse, in its many forms, that
happens to individuals with disabilities) (Rocco, 2006, p.174).
Furthermore,
Rocco (2006, as cited in Merriam, Courtenay, and Cervero (2006), pp.176-178)
states
Adult educators
and the field of adult education can examine how we support disability
oppression through action, omission, and benign neglect. We can critique our
support of disability oppression through the four concepts that form the basis
of a comprehensive theory of disability oppression:
(1) political
economy, which has as its basis class. Class is economically based, but it can also be derived from status rather than money (I will explain my position on
that
notion later in this paper in my answer to question #5). When we write about social justice,
discrimination, and equity, it is frequently from the view of race or gender. Rarely is disability theory included in our curriculum or considered an
important equity issue.
(2) Culture(s) and
belief systems--Our belief systems also include notions that accommodations are
unfair, such as recording classes or extra time on tests and should only be
provided to those truly disabled (Again, I disagree with this notion and will explain my position on this issue later in this paper in my answer to question
#5).
(3)
(false)consciousness and alienation-- False Consciousness and alienation
concepts where the individual feels less worthy or capable are reinforced
regularly by narrow views of learning and are exemplified by few challenges to
established test and evaluation procedures such as standardized test scores
being predictive of academic success (I agree with this notion and will explain
my position on this issue later in this paper in my answer to question #5).
Finally, (4) we
use our power in other ways too; for instance, few adult educators situate research on disability in critical theory. Disability is seen as an unfortunate
condition, not socially constructed in the way we know race, gender, and class
to be. As educators, few of us attempt to bring disability as an experience or
as a theory into our classrooms.
Hopefully, this introduction will stimulate
adult education to trouble the notion of disability in the same ways we examine
race, gender, and other power relationships (pp.176-178). I will also address
the power issue in my answer to question #5.
Moreover, Clark (2006) disagrees with
one of Rocco (2006) statements above. She states the following in her rebuttal
to one of Rocco (2006), as cited in Merriam, Courtenay, and Cervero
(2006), pp.176-178) statements above:
Underscoring
my idea of an interdisciplinary relationship between adult education and
disability studies is my belief that the disability experience is a socially
constructed category, replete with phenomenological possibilities for research
for adult education theorists, scholars, and practitioners, and that we can
conduct our analysis through disability studies, which is presently heralded as
an emerging field of
inquiry (Albrecht, Seelman, & Bury, 2001; Monaghan, 1998) (pp.308-309).
However, Clark (2006) agrees with
Rocco (2006) on the following:
Yet,
in the face of all this evidence, adult education as a field has inadequately
explored the notion of disability as an issue of oppression, or as a socially
constructed phenomenon, and how it affects, impacts, and/or constrains the adult learning context (Clark, 2003,
2005). Finally, other power issues, such as being stigmatized because of sexual
orientation (Harley, Nowak, Gassaway, & Savage, 2002) or economically
disadvantaged,being socially isolated and/or institutionalized because of
physical, intellectual, or mental disabilities that are contested by disability
studies scholars and that are inherent to the tension between the normal and
abnormal bodied experience within disability studies literature, remain
underexamined by adult education scholars (DuBois, 1998; Gadbow, 2002; Gorman,
2000; Ross-Gordon, 2002). I argue that disability studies and adult education
share an intersecting interest in issues of learning, asymmetrical power
relationships, hegemony, race, gender, class, education, social and
self-agency, identity construction, contestation and representation, sexual
orientation, adult development, and social change, just to name a few. However,
we would use the construct of the disabled learner as the rubric lens for
examining these issues (p.310).
As
I think has been clearly stated in this paper, adult educators
have been dealing with issues related to
many of the events I mentioned in the introduction of this paper, such as
college student protests and sit-ins regarding individual and group views on
the Vietnam War, with examples such as
the Black Panther Party, the protests, sit-ins, and other events happening at
universities and college campuses all over the United States (especially at UC
Berkeley in the 1960’s, Kent State University, etc.), the Civil Rights Movement
and the Civil Rights Act of the mid-1960’s signed by President Lyndon Baines
Johnson, and other events that came to fruition because of that movement, the
Summer of free love in 1967 and its possible association with the” HIV/AIDS
epidemic” and discussions years after that occurred that are addressed by Irene
Ellen Chadibe, in chapter 17 entitled The Role of the Church in Combating
HIV/AIDS (pp.209-218) and by Gillian Attwood in chapter 24 entitled Adult
Education and Social Capital: Supporting Communities in the Context of HIV/AIDS
(pp.295-306) in the book entitled “Global Issues and Adult Education:
Perspectives from Latin America, Southern Africa, and the United States,” the passage of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
and how educational institutions would respond to its tenets in order to
accommodate members of the disability community who were being educated at
their institutions as well as looking for suitable, appropriate employment, culminating
with historic signing of the Americans
with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 on July 26,1990 by then-President George
H.W. Bush and its aftermath and how educational institutions would go about
ensuring compliance with the new law.
4.
Influential Factors:
I
hope it is clearly evident thus far in regard to the main social events
occurring during this
time period I’m reviewing in this paper. Several of my
sources highlight the main individuals
involved in the Disability Rights Movement, such as Shapiro (1993)’s
book, Leighty (1994)’s review
of Shapiro’s book, Clark’s article, and Meldon’s article. Examples are as follows: Leighty (1994) talks about individuals such as “Ed Roberts,
T.J. Monroe, and others” (pp.1953-1954). Further, Meldon’s article “discusses
the efforts of Roberts, John
Hessler, Jean Wirth, Dr. Franklin Kameny, Kitty Cone, and I. King Jordan along
with community
organizations such as the National
Association for Retarded Children (NARC), the American
Coalition of Citizens
with Disabilities (ACCD), DREDF
(Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund), ADAPT (Americans
Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation, later changed to Americans
Disabled Attendant Programs
Today), and the CIL (Center for Independent Living), Cowell Memorial hospital supported the
"Rolling Quads" and the "Disabled Students Program” at
University of CaliforniaBerkeley”(pp. 1-4). All of these
individuals and organizations contributed to the disability rights movement
during the time period I’m studying for
this paper. Many of these
community organizations are still in operation to this day.
5.
Implications:
The implications of this time period
in history are vast and far reaching. The authors of these
articles and the book I used
all have their own personal viewpoint that they shared with us in their
article
or book chapter. The social
and political history during this time period I studied was
fascinating and
very eye opening from the
perspective of those authors who gave us viewpoints
connecting disability
studies and the disability rights
movement to adult education. One thing I
found to be illuminating was that
Rocco(2006), as cited in Merriam, Courtenay,
& Cervero (2006)
and Clark (2006) had opposing viewpoints when it came to whether or not “the
disability experience
is a socially constructed category”(Clark, 2006,p.308). Furthermore, I can also personally
comment
here on some of what Rocco (2006)
stated in Chapter 14: Disability as an Issue of Marginalization
within the book entitled “Global Issues and Adult Education: Perspectives from
Latin America,
Southern Africa, and the United States” that “Class is economically
based, but it can also be derived
from status rather than money” (Rocco, 2006,
p.176). Indeed, Rocco (2006) is correct in regard to
this statement.
Personally, it’s a combination of both for me and I’d assume it would be
reasonable to
say that it’s this way for all individuals with disabilities
based on King (193)’s statement above in the
beginning of this paper as well as
the fact that most disabled people collect government benefits
from entitlement
programs like Supplemental Security Income (SSI, and/or Social Security
Disability Insurance (SSDI) and are forced to live on that money plus a meager
amount of wages
from any kind of employment. However, I disagree with Rocco
(2006) on point two above that
“notions that accommodations are unfair, such as
recording classes or extra time on tests”(p.176). I
believe that “notions that
accommodations are fair” (p.176) because the accommodations are
necessary to
level the playing field with regard to differences between individuals with
disabilities
and those individuals who are nondisabled, particularly in the
classroom and/or workplace setting. In
essence, accommodations make it easier
for individuals with disabilities to succeed in school or in
the workplace. In
regard to Rocco (2006)’s point three above, I believe that “standardized test
scores
are NOT predictive of academic success” (p.177). I personally didn’t do
well on “standardized tests”
for various reasons and yet I’m pursuing my
doctoral degree now. Ball State
University’s
Educational Studies department will soon no longer require
applicants for admission to their
educational programs to submit their national
test scores. Finally, on point four above, I agree with
Rocco (2006) that we
need to “us attempt to bring disability as an experience or as a theory into
our
classrooms” (p.177). This is one reason why I want to enter the professoriate
academy in the future.
In conclusion, Clark (2006) states
Disability
Studies accepts the disabled body as fact, whereas adult education has rendered
the
disabled
body as invisible. Central tenets of an interdisciplinary relationship between
adult education and disability studies would be to make visible the cultural representations
of disabled people with phenomenological inquiries of the body and/or the
senses and to embed the concept of social and political empowerment that gives legitimacy
to disability.
In
doing so, we would initiate and sustain critical
analyses of the body, examine and investigate interlocking systems of oppression
(Tisdell, 1993) and hegemony with respect to ableism/disabiism versus
normal/able-bodied, and work to disrupt the misrepresentation of outsider others
(p.316).
Indeed, for the sake of our future, we must
continue our quest to do just what this statement says—
and rid ourselves
of the bad things in life and focus our energy and strength on life’s positives.
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Areas
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Summary
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Social Background
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Period packed full of civil, social, and political unrest,
upheaval, and change. From the Bay of Pigs and the Cold War to American
involvement in the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, the founding of
the Black Panther Party and the Summer of free love in 1967 to the passage of
the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to the Carter Administration and its dealings
with the disabled community as they tried to get something done on a piece of
legislation (which my father was part of by working with the Carter
Administration, but as a private citizen in the business world) that would
eventually become the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 to what
seemed to be the end of the Cold War highlighted by President Reagan’s
impassioned plea to Gorbachev in Berlin that saw the fall of the Berlin War
in the late 1980’s to the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act
(ADA) legislation by Congress and the subsequent signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
of 1990 on July 26,1990 by then-President George H.W. Bush and its aftermath.
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Highlights
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One theory of disability, well
articulated by Charlton (1998), is the comprehensive theory of disability
oppression. This theory flows from the Sociopolitical model and the five
faces of oppression (Young, 1990). Disability scholars (Charlton, 1998;
Gleeson, 1999; Linton, 1998) explain oppression using the five faces of
oppression, which are exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness,
Cultural Imperialism, and violence.
We can critique our support of disability oppression through the four
concepts that form the basis of a comprehensive theory of disability
oppression:
(1) political
economy, (2) Culture(s) and belief systems, (3) (false)consciousness and
alienation, and (4) our use of power
(Rocco, 2006, p.176-178)
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Influence Factors
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U.S. Civil Rights Movement
Organizations:
NARC
DREDF
ADAPT
CIL
Influence Factors
Rolling Quads
Individuals:
Ed Roberts
T.J. Monroe
John
Hessler
Jean
Wirth
Dr. Franklin Kameny
Kitty Cone
I. King Jordan
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Implications
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Vast & Far reaching due to so
many viewpoints and the social/political history & movements of the time.
This led to many significant changes that occurred in the U.S. during this
time period that we still see going on in some form or another in American society
today.
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References
Acemoglu, D., & Angrist, J. (2001). Consequences of
Employment Protection? The Case of the
Americans with
Disabilities Act. Journal of Political Economy, 109(5), 915-957:
doi:10.1086/322836
Attwood, G. (2006). Adult Education
and Social Capital: Supporting Communities in the Context of
HIV/AIDS.
In S.B. Merriam, B.C. Courtenay, & R.M. Cervero (Eds). Global Issues and
Adult
Education:from
Latin America, Southern Africa, and the United States (pp.209-218). San
Francisco:
Jossey-Bass.ISBN:
978-0-7879-7810-5
Clark, M. A. (2006). Adult Education and
Disability Studies, an Interdisciplinary Relationship:
Research Implications for Adult Education. Adult Education Quarterly: A Journal of Research and
Chadibe,
J.E. (2006). The
Role of the Church in Combating HIV/AIDS. In S.B. Merriam, B.C. Courtenay,
& R.M. Cervero (Eds). Global Issues and Adult Education: Perspectives from
Latin America, Southern Africa, and the United States (pp.209-218). San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass. ISBN: 978-0-7879-7810-5
King, A. S. (1993). Doing the Right
Thing for Employees With Disabilities. Training & Development, 47(9),
44.
Kruse and Schur (2002. In Beegle,
K., & Stock, W. A. (2003). The Labor Market Effects of Disability
Discrimination Laws. The Journal of Human Resources,
806-859.
Leighty, C. (1994). Michigan Law
Review, 92(6), 1953-1958. doi:10.2307/1289622
Meldon, P.(2017). Disability History: The Disability Rights
Movement. National Park Service. U.S. Department of the Interior. Retrievedfrom https://www.nps.gov/articles/disabilityhistoryrightsmovement.htm.
Rocco, T.(2006). Disability as an Issue of
Marginalization.
In
S.B. Merriam, B.C. Courtenay, & R.M.
Cervero
(Eds). Global Issues and Adult Education: Perspectives from Latin America,
Southern
Africa, and the
United States (pp.169-181).
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. ISBN: 978-0-7879-7810-5
Shapiro, J.P.(1993). No
Pity: People with Disabilities Forging a New Civil Rights Movement
New
York, New York USA :Three Rivers Press
