From Good Will to Civil Rights: Transforming Federal Disability Policy

Front Cover
Temple University Press, 2009 - Law - 230 pages
Now that curb cuts, braille elevator buttons, and closed caption television are commonplace, many people assume that disabled people are now full participants in American society. This book tells a rather different story. It tells how America's disabled mobilized to effect sweeping changes in public policy, not once but twice, and it suggests that the struggle is not yet over.
The first edition of "From Good Will to Civil Rights" traced the changes in federal disability policy, focusing on the development and implementation of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Richard K. Scotch's extensive interviews with policymakers, leaders of the disability rights movement, and other advocates, supplemented the sketchy official history of the legislation with the detailed, behind-the-scenes story, illuminating the role of the disability rights movement in shaping Section 504. Charting the shifts in policy and activist agendas through the 1990's, this new edition surveys the effects and disappointments associated with the Americans with Disabilities Act, passed in 1990, in the context of the continuing movement to secure civil rights for disabled people.
 

Contents

A Civil Rights Law for Disabled People
2
From Good Will to Civil Rights
11
The Genesis of Section 504
40
Writing the Regulation for Section 504
59
Advocacy and the HEW Regulation
81
Policy Dissemination
84
Symbolic Victories The Evolution of Section 504
84
Epilogue
84
Appendixes
84
Notes
84
Index
Copyright

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About the author (2009)

Richard K. Scotch is Professor of Sociology and Political Economy School of Social Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas.

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