Disability Futures

If you aren't familiar with the last historic watershed, the Section 504 Sit-in marks the day in April 1977 when more than 150 disabled men and women did something unheard of. On crutches and in wheelchairs, they converged on the US Federal Building, struggled up to the fourth floor and began a 25-day sit-in at the office of the Health, Education, and Welfare department to demand that the Carter Administration implement a four-year-old law protecting the rights of people with disabilities. 

If you think it's an inconvenience to spend a single night on the hard floor of a federal office building, imagine doing it for nearly a month. Now imagine that you arrived at the sit-in courtesy of a wheelchair. 

The protesters didn't bring food to last for a month-long siege so they were supplied by supporters on the outside—including the Black Panthers, who showed up with home-cooked meals. 

The sit-in galvanized disabled Americans across the nation and is still remembered as "the heart and soul of the disability rights movement." 

The specific target was Section 504 of a 1973 law intended to guarantee the rights of people with disabilities. Finally, on April 28, 1977 (with disabled activists still holding their ground in the Federal Building), HEW Secretary Joseph A. Califano signed the Section 504 regulations—a major victory on the path to passage of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, which provided full protections against discrimination. 

In addition to the printed material, the exhibits also feature video screens that come alive at the touch of a button with background information on the sit-in, scenes from the extended occupation, reports on the spread of other protests across the country, moments of political theater, interviews with occupiers and activists, "untold stories" and, finally, "victory speeches and protest songs." (See video clips below for one of these enthusiastic hand-signed sing-alongs.) 

A quote from organizer Kitty Cone, emblazoned on one of the exhibit panels, reads: "In the face of government ignorance, we persisted and won." In another quote, activist leader Judy Heumann recalls how "blind people, deaf people, wheelchair users, disabled veterans, people with developmental and psychiatric disabilities and many others, all came together. . . . We overcame years of parochialism." Also on display is a popular campaign button that insists: "Nothing about us, without us."