If the laws that guarantee people with disabilities the right to public education and to live in the community are no longer meaningfully enforced, do these rights still exist?
There are 7.5 Million current students with IEPs, about 15% of public school students, and about 70 million disabled adults in the United States. Historically, enforcement of the IDEA, ADA and the Olmstead decision has depended on individual and class action litigation. Even before recent rulings, our systems reflected longstanding structural ableism and a medical model of disability designed to filter out certain populations such as Black and Brown people and people with disabilities .
Civil rights in the United States have always been fought for, defended and expanded with collective action. Disability rights are civil rights.
What would happen if people with disabilities lost the right to public education and to live in the community?
If community supports are cut, many people will remain with aging family caregivers for longer than is sustainable. Weakening enforcement of disability rights will shift costs onto families, especially women, who continue to provide most unpaid caregiving. The loss of millions of workers would shrink the labor market, trigger massive drops in income tax revenue and dramatically spike applications for assistance as working class and middle class families are pushed into poverty. Weakening enforcement also increases the risk that people with disabilities will experience poverty, homelessness and incarceration.
What do we mean when we talk about historical institutions and people with disabilities?
State asylums and similar facilities existed until the early 1990s in some places. Here children were sent to Belchertown State School and adults to Northampton State Hospital. Generations of people grew up with the idea that people with disabilities should not be seen in public. We deal with this bias to this day.
We have more people institutionalized per capita now than in 1860 when the census mentioned a rise in institutions. Even though, there are no longer any state asylums and large institutions have mostly disappeared, institutionalization has become decentralized into new isolating forms, with a similar loss of autonomy and community participation.
When people lose housing, community supports such as transportation and in home care, education, health care or legal protections they are more likely to end up in jails, prisons, juvenile correction facilities, nursing homes and homeless.
Why should people without disabilities care?
Disability is a natural part of the human experience. Not everyone becomes disabled at birth. Aging, accidents, illnesses, diseases can happen to anyone.
The universal design of accessibility features serves everyone. Parents pushing a stroller can use a wheelchair ramp. We all deserve to live in a society we can rely upon.
Disability rights are social infrastructure. Millions of people, including parents can work, employers can hire workers, schools can educate children and communities can function. When supports disappear, the effects ripple outward.
What can we do?
Support organizations like The Arc of Massachusetts, Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund, National Disability Rights Network, Massachusetts Commission for Protection of Persons with Disabilities, Massachusetts Office on Disability
Follow and participate in local SEPAC, advisory boards and committees.
Report discrimination and document violations. Contact elected officials when enforcement agencies or disability funding are threatened. The ARC has easy to use email forms for advocacy on specific issues. The Federation for Children with Special Needs has guidance and resources.
Additional reading:
Belchertown State School Friends Association records, from UMASS.
We Belong in the Community, Not Institutions from DREDF
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