The disability rights movement aims to improve the quality of life of people with disabilities. Accessibility and safety are the most important issues that this movement faces to reform. Access to public areas such as city streets and public buildings and restrooms are some of the more visible changes brought about in recent decades.
A noticeable change in some parts of the world is the installation of elevators, wheelchair ramps and other access points allowing people in wheelchairs and with other mobility impairments to use public sidewalks and public transit more easily and more safely.
Access to schools and workplaces have also been a major focus of this movement. Adapting the technology to enable people to work as they could not have before. Access in classrooms has helped improve education opportunities and independence for people with disabilities.
The right to have an independent life as an adult, sometimes using paid assistant care instead of being institutionalized, is a major goal of this movement, and is the main goal of the similar "independent living" movement. These movements have allowed more people with disabilities to be active participants in mainstream society.
History
The disability rights movement began in the 1970s, encouraged by the examples of the African-American civil rights and women’s rights movements, which began in the late 1960s.
One of the most important developments was the growth of the Independent Living movement which emerged in California. Another crucial turning point was the nationwide sit-in conceived by Frank Bowe and organized by the American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities in 1977 of government buildings operated by HEW in San Francisco and Washington DC that successfully led to the release of regulations pursuant to the Rehabilitation Act. Prior to the 1990 enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act was the most important disability rights legislation in the United States.