Crip Camp and Disability Rights Movements

This week we watched the documentary Crip Camp, which depicts how a camp for disabled youth inspired a lot of the work done in the disability rights movement over the last fifty or so years. Much of the film centered around the legislative advocacy accomplished, focusing particularly on the passing of Section 504.

Being that Autism Spectrum Disorder is considered a developmental disability, the autism rights movement and the disability rights movement go hand in hand, with the latter often acting as an umbrella. The documentary shows the Capitol Crawl Protest from March 12, 1990, which led to the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). According to Autism Society, the ADA guarantees equal opportunity for individuals with autism in public accommodations, employment, transportation, state and local government services, and telecommunications. There is no doubt that the autism rights movement would not be where it is today without the hard efforts of many of those Jened campers as well as the continued effort of those fighting for disability rights today.

After watching the documentary and having discussions in class, I have thought a lot more about the legislative side of activism. Much of my focus for the social media project was on #ActuallyAutistic, which mostly encompasses advocacy at the personal level instead of on a broader scale such as the law. For the second project, however, I think the history of movements would be virtually nothing if not for the passing of legislature, and I will therefore take into greater account the legislative activism and signing of bills related to the autism rights movement.

For now, I found this graphic about the legislative history of autism from Autism Society.