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Since everyone is choosing the most significant events and "Best of's" for the century, I decided to do a bit of reflection of my own this week. As much as I tried to pick a person or event that was most significant, I could not. I thought that highlighting a series of events, such as the disability rights movement, would be easier. We have made tremendous strides in the last 25 years. I doubt that those celebrating the dawn of 1900 could have predicted such feats! Legislation such as Section 504, IDEA, ADA, and our personal victories have provided a chance for us to contribute to and participate in society! Although none of our lives is perfect and we have many barriers in attitude and policy still to tear away, most of us enjoy freedoms that people with disabilities in 1900 would not have dared to ask for or even dream! How useful would these rights have been, however, if such powerful technologies had not been developed in this century also? I would have great difficulty asserting my rights without technology, and I know many others in the same position. So, I declare the co-evolution of the disability rights movement and modern technology to be the most significant outcome of the 20th Century. Disability rights and modern technology almost seem destined to have converged into the field of assistive technology. In fact, my research in the two areas reveals an almost eerie coincidence. In 1962, Ed Roberts, who used a wheelchair and an iron lung due to polio, demanded access to the campus at the University of California-Berkeley. Roberts fought for accessible housing on campus and formed the first group advocating for rights for students with disabilities. Robert was instrumental in the creation of the Center for Independent Living in 1972, serving as Executive Director. With Roberts' lead, rights for individuals with disabilities snowballed. In 1973, the Rehabilitation Act prohibited discrimination against people with disabilities at federally funded institutions. Two years later, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 (re-authorized in 1990 as the Individual with Disabilities Education Act-- 1DEA) acknowledged that children with disabilities were entitled to a free, appropriate public education. In Albuquerque, NM in 1975, another Ed Roberts, this one the head of a company called MITS (Micro Instrumentation Telemetry Systems), began selling the Altair 8800, one of the earliest commercially available personal computers, through mail order. It was the Altair on which Paul Allen and Bill Gates wrote the first version of the BASIC programming language, marking the beginning of the Microsoft Corporation. Go To Page: 1 2
The copyright of the article 20th Century Triumph: Disability Rights + Computer Technology in Assistive Technology is owned by . Permission to republish 20th Century Triumph: Disability Rights + Computer Technology in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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