Disability Timeline Vocational Rehabilitation



Disability Timeline Vocational Rehabilitation

|1917 |Smith-Hughes Vocational Education Act adopted by U.S. Congress. |EMP L&P PHY REH | |

| | |USA | |

|1918 |Smith-Sear Veterans Vocational Rehabilitation Act authorizes Federal Board for Vocational Education to rehabilitate disabled World War I |EMP L&P PHY REH |Pelka, ABC-Clio Companion |

| |veterans. Precedes civilian vocational rehabilitation and offers more generous provisions. Spending almost $650 million, rehabilitates only|USA |to the Disability Rights |

| |about 10% of 329,000 veterans it enrolls. | |Movement. |

|1920 |Fess-Smith Civilian Vocational Rehabilitation Act passed by Congress, providing federal funding for state vocational rehabilitation |EMP L&P PHY REH |Pelka, ABC-Clio Companion |

| |programs for disabled civilians. |USA |to the Disability Rights |

| | | |Movement. |

|1922 |Rotary International and Rehabilitation International founded. |CHAR PHY REH USA | |

|1922 |Veteran's Bureau opens first hospitals. |INST L&P MED PHY | |

| | |REH USA VET | |

|1927 |Warms Springs Foundation co-founded by Franklin Roosevelt at Warms Springs, Georgia, for post-polio rehabilitation. |CHAR INST MED ORG |Pelka, ABC-Clio Companion |

| | |PHY REH USA |to the Disability Rights |

| | | |Movement. |

|1935 |Social Security Act, passed by U.S. Congress August 1935, includes provisions for federal financial assistance to state governments to |BLI L&P PHY REH |Pelka, ABC-Clio Companion |

| |support Aid to the Blind and medical rehabilitation of physically disabled children. Also expands federal support of state vocational |USA |to the Disability Rights |

| |rehabilitation programs. | |Movement. |

|1938 |Sheltered workshops vastly increase in number following passage of Fair Labor Standards Act. Ostensibly job training and employment |BLI DD EMP INST |Pelka, ABC-Clio Companion |

| |programs for blind and visually disabled workers, sheltered workshops are actually authorized by this law to pay such workers sub-minimum |L&P PHY REH USA |to the Disability Rights |

| |wages in substandard work environments. | |Movement. |

|1939 |Social Security Act Amendments authorize federal financial aid to state vocational rehabilitation programs. |EMP L&P REH USA | |

|1942 |Henry Viscardi, American Red Cross volunteer at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., trains amputee soldiers to use |AMP MED PHY REH |Pelka, ABC-Clio Companion |

| |prosthetic limbs. When Red Cross and Army eliminate his program, Eleanor Roosevelt and medical rehabilitation pioneer Dr. Howard Rusk |USA VET |to the Disability Rights |

| |protest.. | |Movement. |

|1942 |John Tracy Clinic founded in Los Angeles. Oralist program instructs deaf and hard of hearing children in speech reading and oral |DF INST REH USA |Berkowitz, Disabled |

| |communication.Federal policies also perpetuated separate rehabilitation programs for civilians and veterans, despite FDR’s efforts during | |Policy, 169-170. |

| |World War II to introduce a unified system. | | |

|1943 |LaFollette-Barden Act (Vocational Rehabilitation Act Amendments), adds physical rehabilitation to vocational rehabilitation program |EMP L&P REH USA |Berkowitz, Disabled |

| |objectives and provides funding. Federal policies also perpetuated separate rehabilitation programs for civilians and veterans, despite | |Policy, 169-170. |

| |FDR’s efforts during World War II to introduce a unified system. | | |

|1944 |Howard Rusk, M.D., establishes rehabilitation program for disabled airmen at U.S. Army Air Force Convalescent Center, Pawling, New York. |MED PHY REH USA |Pelka, ABC-Clio Companion |

| |Though medical establishment scorns it as “Rusk’s folly,” his comprehensive approach to treating physical, psychological, and social |VET |to the Disability Rights |

| |aspects of experience of disability will reshape postwar rehabilitation medicine. | |Movement. |

|1945 |Consultant for Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and Speech Impaired, Boyce R. Williams, hired by federal Office of Vocational Rehabilitation. For |DF L&P REH USA |Pelka, ABC-Clio Companion |

| |nearly four decades will plan and oversee educational and vocational programs for deaf Americans. | |to the Disability Rights |

| | | |Movement. |

|1946 |Hill-Burton Hospital Survey and Construction Act, authorizes federal grants to states for hospital construction, including rehabilitation |INST L&P MED REH |Pelka, ABC-Clio Companion |

| |hospitals. |USA |to the Disability Rights |

| | | |Movement. |

|1948 |Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine founded by Dr. Howard Rusk in New York City to implement the treatment approach he pioneered with|INST MED PHY REH | |

| |disabled World War II veterans in rehabilitation of disabled civilians. |USA | |

|1950 |Mary Switzer named as Director of federal Office of Vocational Rehabilitation. Promotes independent living. |REH USA WOM |Pelka, ABC-Clio Companion |

| | | |to the Disability Rights |

| | | |Movement. |

|1950 |United Cerebral Palsy Associations (UCPA) Telethon, 15-hour broadcast in Chicago. |CHAR ORG PHY REH | |

| | |USA | |

|1951 |Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine at New York University Medical Center headed by Howard Rusk, M.D., begins operation. Staff members |PHY MED REH USA |Pelka, ABC-Clio Companion |

| |include people with disabilities. Develop improved prosthetics and assistive technology such as mouth sticks and electric typewriters. | |to the Disability Rights |

| | | |Movement. |

|1951 |United Cerebral Palsy Associations Telethon relocates to New York City. |CHAR DD ORG PHY | |

| | |REH USA | |

|1954 |Vocational Rehabilitation Amendments adopted by U. S. Congress initiating new types of federal grants to establish professional training |EMP L&P REH USA |Berkowitz, Disabled |

| |programs in universities and subsidize research on rehabilitation methods, and enable counselors to attend the new programs at public | |Policy, 171-172. |

| |expense. As early as FY 1955, the program created more than 1,000 traineeships. By 1965, some forty colleges and universities offered | | |

| |graduate degrees in rehabilitation counseling; by 1980, the number approached one hundred. In time, a master’s degree in rehabilitation | | |

| |counseling became a prerequisite for entering the profession. The 1954 federally financed program raised rehabilitation counseling to a | | |

| |profession. | | |

|1963 |Deinstitutionalization and community services for people with mental disabilities. President John F. Kennedy calls on Congress for |DD EDU L&P PSY REH|Pelka, ABC-Clio Companion |

| |legislation to reduce, “over a number of years and by hundreds of thousands, [the number] of persons confined” to custodial institutions. |USA |to the Disability Rights |

| |He proposes the creation of ways “to retain in and return to the community the mentally ill and mentally retarded, and there to restore and| |Movement. |

| |revitalize their lives through better health programs and strengthened educational and rehabilitation services.” | | |

|1963 |Mental Retardation Facilities and Community Health Centers Construction Act passed by U. S. Congress to provide federal grants for building|DD L&P PSY REH USA|Pelka, ABC-Clio Companion |

| |both public and private nonprofit community mental health centers. | |to the Disability Rights |

| | | |Movement. |

|1965 |Vocational Rehabilitation Amendments of 1965: Establish National Commission on Architectural Barriers to Rehabilitation of the Handicapped.|ACT DF L&P REH USA|Pelka, ABC-Clio Companion |

| |Authorize sign language interpreters for Deaf vocational rehabilitation clients. Expand existing vocational rehabilitation programs. | |to the Disability Rights |

| |Support construction of rehabilitation centers. | |Movement. |

|1967 |National Theatre of the Deaf founded with grant from federal Office of Vocational Rehabilitation. |CUL DF REH USA |Pelka, ABC-Clio Companion |

| | | |to the Disability Rights |

| | | |Movement. |

|1968 |Architectural Barriers Act (P.L. 90-480) adopted by U. S. Congress on August 12. Requires that most buildings and facilities designed, |ACC L&P REH USA |Pelka, ABC-Clio Companion |

| |built, altered, or leased with federal funds be accessible to people with disabilities. Justified as promoting vocational rehabilitation | |to the Disability Rights |

| |because architectural barriers are considered the greatest obstacle to employment. But this  act will come to be regarded as the first | |Movement. |

| |federal law mandating disability rights. | | |

|1970 |Developmental Disabilities Services and Facilities Construction Amendments adopted by U. S. Congress. Establish first legal definition of |DD L&P REH USA |Pelka, ABC-Clio Companion |

| |developmental disabilities. Authorize grants for services and facilities to rehabilitate people with developmental disabilities. Authorized| |to the Disability Rights |

| |creation of state “Developmental Disabilities Councils.” | |Movement. |

|1973 |Vocational Rehabilitation Act: After President Nixon twice vetoed bills to reauthorize the federally supported, state-run vocational |ACT L&P REH USA |Berkowitz, Disabled |

| |rehabilitation system, Congress overrides his objections, passing the act on September 26. It establishes several important innovations: | |Policy, 178-180. |

| |(1) while maintaining the traditional emphasis on vocational rehabilitation of people with physical disabilities, it gives priority to | | |

| |those with “severe handicaps.” But it leaves the definition of that concept vague. In general, it refers to a disability so significant | | |

| |that it substantially limits an individual’s capacity to function within his or her family and community. Rather than providing a clear | | |

| |definition of “severe handicap,” the act relies on numerous specific examples, including blindness, cancer, deafness, mental retardation, | | |

| |and paraplegia. (2) The act also authorizes Client-Assistance Programs, ombudsmen within but independent of state rehabilitation agencies | | |

| |to safeguard consumers’ rights. In 1984 Congress will make these programs a requirement for federal funding. Disability rights advocacy | | |

| |groups, particularly those for clients with mental disabilities, play an important role in staffing client-assistance projects. (3) Title | | |

| |V, Section 501, mandates affirmative action in federal hiring handicapped persons. This section is never enforced. (4) Section 502 | | |

| |establishes the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board. (5) Section 503 obligates private contractors or subcontractors| | |

| |receiving $2500 or more in federal funds to develop affirmative action plans regarding employment of people with disabilities. This | | |

| |provision is never enforced. (6) Section 504 prohibits discrimination against “otherwise qualified” handicapped individuals in | | |

| |federally-funded programs. It is the first legal measure barring discrimination against people with disabilities. The U.S. Department Of | | |

| |Health, Education and Welfare’s Office of Civil Rights, rather than its vocational rehabilitation division, is tasked with drafting the | | |

| |implementing regulations. This ensures that 504 will be promulgated as a civil rights law rather than an element of vocational | | |

| |rehabilitation. It also generates a new definition of “handicap.” Whereas the vocational rehabilitation program emphasizes employability, | | |

| |the 504 regulations define a handicapped person as an individual who has a physical or mental impairment that limits one or more major life| | |

| |activities, an individual who has a record of such an impairment, or who is regarded as having such an impairment. The regulations and | | |

| |subsequent litigation give rise to a disability rights concepts such as “reasonable accommodation,” “reasonable modification,” and “undue | | |

| |burden.” These terms and concepts will be incorporated into the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Drafting of the 504 regulations | | |

| |drags on for four years. It becomes a focal issue and organizing tool for disability rights activism, for the first time uniting a range of| | |

| |disability constituencies and organizations in a cross-disability political alliance through the American Coalition of Citizens with | | |

| |Disabilities. | | |

|1974 |First Client Assistant Project (CAPs) established to advocate for state vocational rehabilitation agencies’ clients. |ACT L&P REH USA |Pelka, ABC-Clio Companion |

| | | |to the Disability Rights |

| | | |Movement. |

|1975 |First National Conference on Independent Living convenes in October in Berkeley, California, co-sponsored by Berkeley Center for |IL L&P ORG REH USA| |

| |Independent Living and federal Rehabilitation Services Administration. | | |

|1986 |Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1986 add supported employment as “legitimate rehabilitation outcome.” |DD L&P REH USA |Pelka, ABC-Clio Companion |

| | | |to the Disability Rights |

| | | |Movement. |

|1987 |Rehabilitation Services Administration Commissioner Justin Dart forced to resign after testifying before congressional committee that |ACT PHY REH USA | |

| |federal bureaucracy is dominated by outdated and paternalistic attitudes toward people with disabilities. | | |

Resource:

Institute on Disability University of San Francisco

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