Reshaping Reality

In Part One, I discussed the oppression disabled people faced in America. I then shared two activist actions to show how disabled people and other groups worked in solidarity to win the day.

Now let us visit yet another crucial moment in American history.

The Capitol Crawl and Fight for ADA

In 1990, a bill was drafted that would end discrimination against disabled people in all arena of life: accommodations, expanding anti-discrimination for employment, commercial facilities, transportation, communication, healthcare, and even independent living. Before this point, the only protections Disabled people had was the bare minimum of an obscure regulation known as Section 504. (Covered in Part One).

The demand for this bill to exist had been leveraged by several Disabled activists and their allies from all walks of life. Advocacy groups had met with Congress people and pushed for the draft to finally go through the committees.

However, the bill moved slowly through Congress, and disabled activists had had enough.

On March 12, 1990, hundreds of disabled protesters marched from the White House to the Capitol. Part of the “Wheels for Justice” campaign, activists planned several days of demonstrations.

They marched or wheeled themselves, or friends and family assisted them. As they marched, they chanted:

“ADA NOW! ADA NOW!” 

“What do we want?”  

ADA!”  

“When do we want it?” 

 “NOW!” 

Once they reached the Capitol, where Congress meets, they left behind their mobility aids and crawled up the steps.

This became known as the Capitol Crawl.

The police arrested one hundred and four protestors that day.

The following video highlights the speeches of several activists, and the Capitol Crawl. Disabled people wanted the world to see the barriers. To see the harm of it. To call for the vote, for the freedom to finally participate fully in American society.

The next day hundreds of disabled activists from ADAPT took over the Capitol’s Rotunda, and demanded Congress pass the ADA.

They chanted, “VOTE. VOTE FOR ADA” again and again. Demanding ADA be passed.

Police arrested over a hundred of them. Those arrested had to wait outside for an accessible police wagon as none had been at the Capitol that day.

With the vote still not being held, on March 14, over three hundred protestors the Congressional offices of those on the Judiciary committee, the committee room itself, and various other offices. They sat down, or laid down side by side.

“ADA NOW,” they chanted.

Many stayed even after the Congressional day had ended and were prepared to continue the protest as a sit-in. However, police arrested the remaining protestors.

These were not the only demonstrations and protests, as many more happened across the country. People banded together to assist disabled activists, once again forging solidarity across race and class lines. For many protests, they’d sing “We shall overcome!”

In July of 1990, their prediction came true. American Disability Act was finally passed. Disabled people had full rights under the law.

Again, this is one of many demonstrations disabled people did in the fight for civil rights. They often worked together with other groups like the Black Panthers and other Black activist groups, the LGBTQIA groups like STAR and Butterfly Brigade, and worker unions.

This fight for justice and the solidarity of these groups banding together can happen again.

Those in power want us to think their power is absolute. They want to drown us in their fast and deadly actions, so we don’t know what to do or where to start.

Except we do know where to start.

We start with our most vulnerable. We start with those who will die if the federal services were to suddenly stop.

If Medicaid lost all funding,

If Medicare ended,

If Social Security was looted and destroyed,

who will die first?

People like me. Disabled people of all walks of life. Disabled people of any race. Disabled people of any gender, of any sexual orientation, or any citizenship status.

And we will not stand for it. We won’t sit idly by as we die. We will fight.

Anyone can become disabled at any time. The government can label you disabled at any time. It has happened before. As I wrote in my article about the insane asylums, people who fought for liberation often were committed with made-up mental illnesses or other diseases or imprisoned.

I fear that will happen again. We are already seeing the rhetoric surge forward. Trans people are being re-labeled as mentally ill again by Facebook and other companies. The erasure of trans people and censoring of Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI), which impacts disabled and non-disabled people alike, are being conducted by those in power in Washington D.C. We see it as the “Make America Healthy Again” commission uses outright eugenics language, and calls us disabled people — people with adhd, autism, asthma, chronic illness, autoimmune, etc. — a “dire threat to the American public.”

We must stand up against the injustice. We are not alone in this fight.

We are all in this together. As history has shown us, when we band together, when we fight in solidarity with one another, when we do not leave anyone behind, that is when we win.

The fascists are few. We are many.

Do not forget our history.

I’ve crawled up steps before in protest. Will you join me when it comes to that again?