"Nothing About Us Without Us": Disability Rights in America

“The blind, the deaf, the lame, and the otherwise physically disabled have the same right to privacy that others do; not only the right to rent a home or an apartment, public or private housing, but the right to determine their living arrangements, the conduct of their lives; the right to select their mates, raise their families, and receive due protection in the safe and secure exercise of these rights. … the world in which the disabled, too, have a right to live is also on the streets, the highways and byways, in public buildings, and other public places, in the schools and colleges, in the public service and private callings, in the factories, shops, and offices, in short, in all the places where men are, go, live, work, and play.” —Jacobus tenBroek, 1966 (1). The concept of legal rights for people with disabilities is rooted in the...