Charities Assist the Disabled in the Quest for Civil Rights

The Disability Rights Movement: From Charity to Confrontation
by Doris Zames Fleischer and Frieda Zames

Despite the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, threats to the civil rights of disabled people persist, write the authors of this book.

According to 1994-95 studies, more than 20 percent of Americans are disabled, write Doris Zames Fleischer, of the humanities and social science department at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and Frieda Zames, associate professor of mathematics emeritus at the institute. And the population of disabled people is likely to increase, say the authors, who are sisters, because of technological advances in health care and because people are more likely to become disabled as they age. Yet “despite the social and political gains achieved by disability activists in the past 20 years, the educational challenges ahead are significant,” the authors write.

This comprehensive history of the disability-rights movement, based on interviews with approximately 100 activists in the field, looks at legal decisions, public policies, and changes in health care and medical technology for the disabled. It chronicles changes in the public’s attitudes toward the disabled, from the advocacy of the 1930’s through passage of the landmark disabilities act just 11 years ago.

The book contains information about the charities created by disability activists, the legislation such groups supported or helped pass, and the health-care facilities created to assist in advocacy for the disabled.

Publisher: Temple University Press, Attn: Order Department (083-42), 1601 North Broad Street, 305 USB, Philadelphia, Pa. 19122-6099; (800) 447-1656 ; fax (800) 207-4442; http://www.temple.edu/tempress; 278 pages; $79.50, hardcover; $24.95, paper; I.S.B.N. 1-56639-811-8, hardcover; 1-56639-812-6, paper.