disability rights movement

Examples of disability rights movement in the following topics:

• Civil Rights of People with Disabilities

  • Disabled Americans face limited access to public places and institutions that civil rights legislation seeks to address.
  • To address these concerns, a disability rights movement has introduced a range of legislation and law suits.
  • The disability rights movement became organized in the 1960s, concurrent with the African-American civil rights movement and feminist movement.
  • Throughout the 1970s and 80s, the disability rights act gained increasing visibility and a number of policy successes, including increased accessibility of public places and increased resources for people with developmental disabilities.
  • The act provided comprehensive civil rights protections modeled after the Civil Rights Act.

• Equality

  • Social equality must include equal rights under the law, such as security , voting rights, freedom of speech and assembly, property rights, and equal access to social goods and services.
  • For example, sex, gender, race, age, sexual orientation, origin, caste or class, income or property, language, religion, convictions, opinions, health or disability must not result in unequal treatment under the law and should not reduce opportunities unjustifiably.
  • Within the United States, racial and gender equality issues have been particularly prevalent and the catalyst for much social and political reform through the work of the feminist and civil rights movements.
  • Equality of opportunity - as an ideal - ensures that important jobs will go to those persons who are most qualified, rather than go to people for arbitrary or irrelevant reasons, such as circumstances of birth, upbringing, friendship ties to whoever is in power, religion, gender, ethnicity, race, caste, or "involuntary personal attributes" such as disability, age, or sexual preferences.
  • The concept of equal opportunity has moved beyond employment practices and is now applied to broader areas such as housing, college admissions, and voting rights.

• Civil Rights of the Elderly

  • The elderly, or senior citizens, are vulnerable to civil rights abuses due to a propensity for sickness, disability, and poverty.
  • Because of a propensity for illness, disability, and lack of employment, the elderly are faced with unique civil rights challenges.
  • Discuss the civil rights issues that affect the elderly in the United States

• Abolitionism and the Women's Rights Movement

  • Many women involved in the early abolitionist movement went on to be important leaders in the early women's rights and suffrage movements.
  • Two of the most influential were the anti-slavery or abolitionist movement, and the women's rights movement.
  • These were also closely related as many of the women who would go on to be leaders in the women's rights movement got their political start in the abolitionist movement.
  • Women involved in the early abolitionists movement also began to connect demands for equal right to their own lives and experiences, advocating for expanded education, employment and political rights including suffrage.
  • The 1848 Seneca Falls convention is one of the key early moments in the suffrage and women's rights movement in the US.

• Jim Crow and the Civil Rights Movement

  • The Civil Rights Movement aimed to outlaw racial discrimination against black Americans, particularly in the South.
  • The African American Civil Rights Movement refers to the social movements in the United States aimed at outlawing racial discrimination against black Americans and restoring voting rights to them.
  • The Civil Rights Movement generally lasted from 1955 to 1968 and was particularly focused in the American South.
  • Key events in the Civil Rights Movement included: the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955-1956), which began when Rosa Parks, a NAACP secretary, was arrested when she refused to cede her public bus seat to a white passenger; the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School (1957); the Selma to Montgomery marches, also known as Bloody Sunday and the two marches that followed, were marches and protests held in 1965 that marked the political and emotional peak of the American civil rights movement which sought to secure voting rights for African-Americans.
  • Civil Rights Movement.

• The Feminist Movement

  • The feminist movement (also known as the women's movement or women's liberation) refers to a series of campaigns for reforms on issues, such as women's suffrage, reproductive rights, domestic violence, maternity leave, equal pay in the workplace, maternity leave, sexual harassment, and sexual violence.
  • One of the most important organizations that formed out of the women's rights movement is the National Organization for Women (NOW).
  • Although passage failed, the women's rights movement has made significant inroads in reproductive rights, sexual harassment law, pay discrimination, and equality of women's sports programs in schools.
  • As a whole, the feminist movement has brought changes to U.S. society, including women's suffrage, the right to initiate divorce proceedings and "no fault" divorce, the right of women to make individual decisions regarding pregnancy (including access to contraceptives and abortion), and the right to own property.
  • The feminist movement also helped to transform family structures as a result of these increased rights, in that gender roles and the division of labor within households have gradually become more flexible.

• Leadership

  • Martin Luther King, Jr. is an example of an unofficial leader of a social movement--the Civil Rights Movement was a diffuse political movement, not a discrete organization, but King became the figurehead of the movement through his charismatic and influential leadership.
  • A social movement is group action aimed at social change.
  • For example, the Civil Rights Movement was a diffuse and widespread effort toward social change, involving many formal organizations and informal groups.
  • Still, many consider Martin Luther King, Jr. to be the leader of the Civil Rights Movement because of the highly influential and public role he played in influencing policies and opinions.
  • Differentiate between the different kinds of leadership structures in interest groups and social movements.

• The Women's Suffrage Movement

  • The Women's Suffrage Movement refers to social movements around the world dedicated to achieving voting rights for women.
  • The Women's Suffrage Movement refers to social movements around the world dedicated to achieving voting rights for women.
  • In 1869, the Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution which gave black men the right to vote, split the movement.
  • Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton refused to endorse the amendment, as it did not give women the right to vote.
  • As women received the right to vote, they began running for, and being elected to, public office.

• The Women's Rights Movement

  • The women's rights movement refers to political struggles to achieve rights claimed for women and girls of many societies worldwide.
  • Whereas first-wave feminism focused mainly on suffrage and overturning legal obstacles to gender equality (i.e. voting rights, property rights), second-wave feminism broadened the debate to a wide range of issues: sexuality, family, the workplace, reproductive rights, de facto inequalities, and official legal inequalities.
  • Movements emerged which demanded freedom of religion, the abolition of slavery, rights for women, rights for those who did not own property and universal suffrage.
  • However, the changing of social attitudes towards women is usually considered the greatest success of the women's movement.
  • However, the movement did fail, in 1982, in adding the Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution, coming up three states short of ratification.

• The First Spouse

  • Lady Bird Johnson pioneered environmental protection and beautification; Pat Nixon encouraged volunteerism and traveled extensively abroad; Betty Ford supported women's rights; Rosalynn Carter aided those with mental disabilities; Nancy Reagan founded the Just Say No drug awareness campaign; Barbara Bush promoted literacy; Hillary Rodham Clinton sought to reform the healthcare system in the U.S.; and Laura Bush supported women's rights groups and encouraged childhood literacy.
  • Lady Bird Johnson pioneered environmental protection and beautification; Pat Nixon encouraged volunteerism and traveled extensively abroad; Betty Ford supported women's rights; Rosalynn Carter aided those with mental disabilities; Nancy Reagan founded the Just Say No drug awareness campaign; Barbara Bush promoted literacy; Hillary Rodham Clinton sought to reform the healthcare system in the U.S.; and Laura Bush supported women's rights groups and encouraged childhood literacy.
  • First Ladies Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush (standing, left to right), Lady Bird Johnson, Pat Nixon, Rosalynn Carter, and Betty Ford (seated, left to right) at the dedication of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, November 1991.