Disability Protests

by Barnartt, Sharon N.; Scotch, Richard

• ISBN13: 9781563681127
• ISBN10: 1563681129
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-10-29
• Publisher: Gallaudet Univ Pr

Summary

Part and parcel to the civil rights movements of the past thirty years has been a sustained, coordinated effort among disabled Americans to secure equal rights and equal access to that of nondisabled people. Sharon Barnartt and Richard Scotch's new book offers an incisive, sociological analysis of thirty years of protests, organization, and legislative victories within the deaf and disabled populations. The authors begin with a thoughtful consideration of what constitutes "contentious" politics and what distinguishes a sustained social movement from isolated acts of protest. The numbers of disability rights protests are meticulously catalogued, revealing significant increases in both cross-disability actions as well as disability-specific actions. Political rancor within disability communities is addressed as well, including the thorny question of who is "deaf enough" or "disabled enough" to adequately represent their constituencies. Disability Protests concludes by reviewing the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and the 1

Author Biography

Richard Scotch is Associate Professor of Sociology and Political Economy at the University of Texas at Dallas.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Introduction	xi
One History of Disability in America: How Collective Action Became Possible	1	(30)
Collective Consciousness and a Profile of Issues	31	(26)
The Social Basis for Movement Formation and Mobilization	57	(9)
A Profile of Contentious Actions: How Success Became Possible	66	(43)
Cross-Disability and Impairment-Specific Protests: Social Movement Unity and Disunity	109	(30)
Changes in Protests over Time: Increased Heterogeneity, Decreased Societal Attention	139	(21)
The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act: The Effects of Cross-Disability Successes	160	(32)
The Deaf President Now Protest: The Effect of an Impairment-Specific Success	192	(22)
Looking to the New Millennium	214	(8)
Conclusion: Against All Odds and Contrary to the Conventional Wisdom	222	(3)
Appendix A: List of Acronyms	225	(2)
Appendix B: Methodology	227	(16)
References	243	(18)
Index	261