A history of the struggle for disability rights in the US. It is a story of shifts in consciousness and shifts in policy, of changing focuses on particular disabilities such as blindness, deafness, polio, quadriplegia, psychiatric and developmental disabilities, chronic conditions, AIDS, and of activism and policymaking across disabilities.

The history of disability rights mirrors the history of the country. Each World War sparked changes in disability policy and changes in medical technology as veterans without limbs and with other disabilities returned home. The empowerment of people with disabilities has become another chapter in the struggles over identity politics that began in the 1960s. Today, with the expanding ability of people with disabilities to enter the workforce and a growing elderly population, issues like longterm care are becoming increasingly significant at a time when HMOs are trying to contain health care expenditures. The author, Doris Zames Fleischer has been a member of the Humanities and Social Sciences Department at New Jersey Institute of Technology since 1988. Frieda Zames, Associate Professor of Mathematics Emeritus at New Jersey Institute of Technology, has been a disability rights activist for over twenty-five years. Both sisters live in New York City.

Personal Notes
Preface
Acknowledgments
Chronology
Abbreviations and Acronyms
1. "Wheelchair Bound" and "The Poster Child"
FDR, the "Cured Cripple"
League of the Physically Handicapped
The March of Dimes
Parent-Initiated Childhood Disability Organizations
The Poster Child and the Telethon
Changing Views of Disability in the United States
2. Seeing by Touch, Hearing by Sign
Blindness and Deafness: A Comparison
Sign Language and Oralism
Braille and Talking Books
Sheltered Workshops
The Lighthouse
Mobility for Blind People: Guide Dogs and White Canes
Jacobus tenBroek and the National Federation of the Blind
NYC Subway Gates: A Controversy in the Blind Community
NFB: Trailblazer for Sections 504 and 501
NFB and ACB: Different Approaches to Blindness
Deafness as Culture
American Sign Language
The Gallaudet University Uprising
Black Deaf Advocates
Education of Deaf Children
Helen Keller, the Social Reformer
3. Deinstitutionalization and Independent Living
Deinstitutionalization
Early Accessibility Efforts in the Colleges
Ed Roberts and the Independent Living Movement
Proliferation of the Independent Living Concept
Characteristics of Independent Living Centers
Independent Living as an Extension of Rehabilitation
Evaluation of the Independent Living Movement
Independent Living and the New Disability Activism
4. Groundbreaking Disability Rights Legislation: Section 504
The Cherry Lawsuit for the Section 504 Regulations
Section 504 as a Spur to Political Organizing
ACCD, Propelling Section 504
The Section 504 Demonstrations
The Transbus Controversy
Accessible Transit and New York City
Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART)
California Accessible Buses
Mainstreaming Public Transit
The Civil Rights Significance of Accessible Transportation
5. The Struggle for Change: In the Streets and in the Courts
Disabled In Action
New York Lawyers for the Public Interest
Recognizing Disability as a Civil Rights Issue
Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund
The Need for Disability Rights Attorneys
ADAPT
Justice For All
6. The Americans with Disabilities Act 88
Enacting the ADA
The ADA and Section 504
Title I: Employment
Title III: Public Accommodation
Title II: Public Services (State and Local Government)
Title II: Public Transportation
Title IV: National Telephone Relay Service
Title V: Miscellaneous
The Supreme Court and the ADA
The Myth of "The Disability Lobby"
Backlash
Every American's Insurance Policy Log
7. Access to Jobs and Health Care
Employment Discrimination
Affirmative Action
Disability Employment in Corporate America
Employment of People with Developmental Disabilities
Employment of People with Psychiatric Disabilities
The Criminalization of People with Psychiatric Disabilities
Different Approaches to Psychiatric Disabilities
Mangled Care
A Two-Tier Health Care System
People with Special Needs in Managed Care
An Arbitrary Patchwork
Falling through the Cracks: Children with Special Health Needs
Long-Term Care in the Community
Health Policy Reforms
The Nexus between Jobs and Health Care
8. "Not Dead Yet" and Physician-Assisted Suicide
Opposition to "the Death Train"
The Supreme Court
AIDS Activists
Pain Management
Focus on Cure: A Pernicious Message
The Eugenics Movement and Euthanasia
The Politics of Physician-Assisted Suicide
Netherlands "Slippery Slope" vs. U.S. "Political Strategy"
First-Year Report on Physician-Assisted Suicide in Oregon
Legalizing Disability Discrimination
Dangers of an Inflexible Law
"A Better Solution"
The Distinction between Severe Disability and Terminal Illness
9. Disability and Technology
Universal Design
Accessible Taxis
Teletypewriters and Relay Systems
A Clash of Cultures
The One-Step Campaign
Wheelchair Ingenuity
Accessible Classrooms and Laboratories
The Computer as an Accommodation
Psychopharmacology
Bioethical Dilemmas
The Internet and a Miracle Baby
Medical and Genetic Information
"Slash, Burn, and Poison"
Transforming Scientific Orthodoxy: AIDS Activism
Toward a New Vision: Three Queries
10. Disabled Veterans Claim Their Rights
Legislation and Self-Advocacy
Rehabilitation: The Man, Not the Wound
Paralyzed Veterans of America
Automobiles: Opening "New Vistas"
The Pattern of Denial
Atomic and Chemical Guinea Pigs
Holding a Nation Accountable
11. Education: Integration in the Least Restrictive Environment
A "Quiet Revolution"
Enforcing the IDEA: Early Efforts
Least Restrictive Environment
An Appropriate Identity
The IDEA in the Courts
The Special Education Controversy
Somnolent Samantha
A Microcosm of the Real World
12. Identity and Culture
Three Strands of the Movement
Disability Pride: Celebrating Difference
Changing Perceptions and the Media
Assessment of the Movement
A Stealth Movement
Notes
Index