Disability Rights
Disability Rights in New York
1968—2017
Ongoing
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In 1935, a small group of activists calling themselves the League for the Physically Handicapped staged a “death watch” at the Works Progress Administration offices in Manhattan. Their demand was New Deal jobs for New Yorkers with disabilities–which they won.
This unprecedented direct action was one of several early but disparate efforts by New Yorkers to push back against disability discrimination, from blind activists in the 1920s and returning World War II veterans to parents of children with cerebral palsy.
The modern disability rights movement, comprised of a wide range of people with physical and intellectual disabilities and influenced by other social movements, took off in New York in the 1960s. Longstanding advocates pushed for the nation’s first municipal office focused on the disability community in 1968. Two years later, a new generation of activists founded the Brooklyn-based grassroots group Disabled in Action.
Together they fought for new policies and legislation including the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, which took effect in 1992. Disability rights activists in New York also waged prolonged campaigns for mobility-enhancing features like curb cuts at sidewalks, lifts for buses, and elevators at subway stations. Recently activists brought CIDNY v. MTA, a 2017 lawsuit alleging that inaccessible subway stations violated New York City’s Human Rights Law. Under the 2022 settlement, half of the city’s 472 subway stations will have alternatives to stairs by 2035, and nearly every subway station will be wheelchair accessible by 2055.
Activists have continued to mobilize for access to the city’s built environment, created resources to live independent visible lives, and formulated a proud disability identity. In the process, they made a more inclusive city for all, and helped expand thinking about the diversity of human bodies and minds.
Meet the Activists
JUDY HEUMANN
JUDY HEUMANN
IDENTIFICATION CARD FOR JUDY HEUMANN
Brooklyn-born Judith (Judy) Heumann is often regarded as the “mother” of the disability rights movement. A wheelchair user due to polio contracted as a toddler, Heumann was denied access to public school until fourth grade. She trained to be a teacher at Long Island University but was denied a teaching license based on mobility. After suing the New York Board of Education and co-founding Disabled in Action, she became the first teacher in New York who used a wheelchair. Heumann later helped lead the national fight for disability rights.
Image Info: Identification card, Long Island University. Late 1960s. Courtesy of Judith Heumann’s husband, Jorge Pineda.
JERMAINE GREAVES
JERMAINE GREAVES
JERMAINE GREAVES—BLACK DISABLED LIVES MATTER
Amidst the surge of protests following the 2020 murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others, activists organized a Black Disabled Lives Matter demonstration in Harlem. New York-based organizer Jermaine Greaves (front left) stated that he did not see himself or other Black people with disabilities reflected in Movement for Black Lives protests, even though many Black people with physical or intellectual disabilities encounter police. Formed during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, Black Disabled Lives Matter also reflected conversations about health, race, and disability justice.
Image Info: Madison Swart. Disability Solidarity: Black Disabled Lives Matter. October 24, 2020. Courtesy of Madison Swart.
Denise McQuade
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Denise McQuade
This photograph shows disability rights activist Denise McQuade being recognized for decades of organizing for access to public transportation. In 1981, McQuade sat in on the bottom step of a city bus equipped with a new wheelchair lift. Lifts had been installed on some buses, but keys for drivers to operate the lifts had not yet been distributed. After a seven-hour sit-in, a key was brought and McQuade boarded the bus. Her protest of the city’s rocky rollout of accessible buses was covered in The New York Times and commemorated by the Disabled in Action Singers’ song “Denise and the MTA”.
Image Info: ca. 2021, courtesy of the United Spinal Association
Objects & Images
Ceremony for signing Local Law 58
Ceremony for signing Local Law 58
Three years before the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, New York amended the city’s administrative code with the passage of Local Law 58 of 1987. The law mandated architectural accessibility for building entrances and interiors and for other physical structures like water fountains and parking spots. This photograph of the bill signing includes Mayor Ed Koch, far left, and Carol Ann Roberson, Director of the Mayor’s Office for the Handicapped (now the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities), second from right.
Image Info: Joan Vitale Strong. Ceremony for signing Local Law 58. August 5, 1987. Courtesy of Municipal Archives, City of New York.
Injustice Anywhere is a Threat to Justice Everywhere
Injustice Anywhere is a Threat to Justice Everywhere
This photograph shows activists at the Disability Independence March in Manhattan in July 1993. The march celebrated the Americans with Disabilities Act, which had passed in July 1990 and taken effect in July 1992. Participants include local activist Harry Wieder (second from left), Judy Heumann (third from left), and national disability rights activist Justin Dart Jr. (in hat and tie). The march ran nearly every year for several years and then ended. In 2015, the annual Disability Pride Parade began a new annual march.
Image Info: Tari Hartman Squire. Injustice Anywhere is a Threat to Justice Everywhere, 1993. Courtesy of Tari Hartman Squire.
Center for Appropriate Transport pamphlet
Center for Appropriate Transport pamphlet
Longtime bicycle activist George Bliss created this pamphlet to propose an “alternative transportation station” in Manhattan’s East Village for emissions-free vehicles. Bliss imagined a research center for developing the cars of the future, along with social spaces and repair services for bicycles and wheelchairs. Transportation and disability rights activists have often overlapped when proposing a more accessible city.
Image Info: George Bliss. Center for Appropriate Transport pamphlet. ca. 1980s–1990s. Museum of the City of New York. Gift of Kate Dunham. TCN2022.35.
Button
Button
This button is the logo for Disabled in Action, a pivotal disability rights group founded by Judy Heumann and others in New York in 1970 and still in existence today.
Image Info: Unknown maker. Disability Rights Button. ca. 1980s–1990s. private collection.
Willowbrook State School, Building 2
Willowbrook State School, Building 2
The turn toward independent living rather than institutionalization for people with physical or intellectual disabilities has been a major component of the disability rights movement. In 1987 the Willowbrook State School on Staten Island closed after decades of protest and lawsuits over its conditions and treatment of youth with disabilities.
Image Info: Vincent Juliano for Allied Chemical Corporation. Willowbrook State School, Building 2. ca. 1960s. Archives & Special Collections, The College of Staten Island/CUNY.
Roll-In Demonstration at Penn Station’s Taxi Stand
Roll-In Demonstration at Penn Station’s Taxi Stand
New York City can be a uniquely challenging environment to navigate, with its urban density and a reliance on public transit that has long been inaccessible to anyone who does not use stairs. In addition to longstanding campaigns for mobility-enhancing features for buses and subway stations, advocates have worked to make taxis accessible. The taxis for All campaign launched in 1996, and a 2011 lawsuit led to disability etiquette training for drivers and a current taxi fleet that is partly wheelchair accessible and can be hailed using an app.
Image Info: Philip Bennett. Roll-In Demonstration at Penn Station’s Taxi Stand. April 22, 2004. Courtesy of Philip Bennett.
My Ear Broke
My Ear Broke
New York-based artist, director, and author Chella Man made his hearing devices into art pieces as part of his “Big Deaf Project.” His multifaceted identity, which includes being deaf, trans, Jewish, and Chinese American, has manifested in a range of projects using fine art, film, and social media to raise visibility and promote inclusivity for people with disabilities and queer identities.
Image Info: Chella Man. My Ear Broke. ca. 2020s. Collection of Chella Man’s “BIG DEAF” Scans.
Braille panel, Saw Mill Playground
Braille panel, Saw Mill Playground
Installation of braille panels at playgrounds across the city began in 2013 with a collaboration between Parks Department ADA Coordinator Chris Noel and disability advocates such as Edith Prentiss and Carr Massi, who sought to increase sensory and educational playground elements for all children. New York is home to the nation’s first playground constructed for children with and without disabilities, the Playground for All Children, which opened in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens, in 1984.
Image Info: Monxo López. Braille panel, Saw Mill Playground. 2023. Courtesy of Monxo López.
Elevators are for Everyone
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Elevators are for Everyone
This graphic was created by disability rights activist Jessica Murray and has appeared on postcards, signs, and t-shirts at protests by the Elevator Action Group and others. The image and phrase “Elevators are for Everyone” reflects the longstanding idea in the disability rights movement that everyone benefits from increased access. Murray and others have also formed the NYC Disability Rights Archive (nycdisabilityrightsarchive.com) to collect historical images and artifacts from the disability rights movement in New York City.
Image info: Jessica Murray, Creative Commons (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Key Events
| National | Year | Local |
|---|---|---|
| Paralyzed Veterans of America and Eastern Paralyzed Veterans Association founded in New York | 1946 | |
| 1968 | Mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Handicapped established; city Human Rights Law amended to include disability | |
| 1970 | Disabled In Action founded in New York | |
| Section 504 of the National Rehabilitation Act passed without enforcement | 1973 | |
| 1987 | Willowbrook State School closes; New York City passes Local Law 58 mandating accessible buildings | |
| Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) signed into law, takes effect in 1992 | 1990 | |
| 1996 | Taxis for All campaign launched in New York | |
| 2017 | CIDNY v. MTA lawsuit leads to long-term subway accessibility plan released in 2022 |
