In a constantly evolving world of technology, social media and instant news access, it’s hard to understand how some individuals may still feel as though they are not seen or heard.
Tweets or Snapchats are sent to spread awareness, knowledge or news in fractions of a second.
In a world of instant access, why do millions of Americans with disabilities still feel invisible? Has America fulfilled its promises to this community?
The history of people with disabilities in the U.S. starts, as does much of our history, in a dark and segregated way. Children with disabilities would be sent away at a young age, denied access to public schools, marriage and sometimes were sterilized.
Conditions of absolute filth — leaving residents in their feces, unsterilized living arrangements and overcrowding — often filled institutions such as Willowbrook State School for disabled children, which shut down in the 1970s. Once family members stood up for those in the facility, more attention was drawn to the care of those with disabilities need.
The Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law under President George Bush in 1990. The Disability Rights Movement held sit-ins, campaigns and protests to gain these fundamental rights, yet 30 years later, those impacted by disabilities continue to face numerous struggles.
Before this law, businesses, public areas and schools didn’t need to accommodate people with disabilities. Despite federal law, those with disabilities are still facing a lack of equity.
Beyond catching up on laws and policies, the ADA was designed to make our community more visible. Despite laws that grant us accessibility to a facility, young PWDs still do not see people like them on TV or in movies.
We are in your communities, we shop at your businesses, we vote and elect leaders but lack government representation.
Campus life strives to include students with disabilities, supporting them in any means possible through the McBurney Resource Center and Faculty Notification Letters, which provide classroom and testing accommodations to students.
These resources are imperative to our success in a world that wasn’t designed to include us.
Campus organizations such as Advocates for Diverse Abilities work to combat this problem, but the COVID-19 pandemic makes activism for at-risk students difficult.
UW has space for students of color on social media — just not on campus
The ADA being signed into law did not end the discrimination — instead, it knocked down a few walls that have lead to a new generation of activism.
As Robert M. Hensel once said, “there is no greater disability in society than the inability to see a person as more.”
While the U.S. may not have succeeded in all of its original promises, it’s not too late to support the millions of people living with a disability in the U.S and within our campus community.
Brelynn Bille is a freshman ([email protected]) majoring in community and nonprofit leadership and political science.
