The Section 504 Sit-ins: H.E.W. vs Disability Rights

By Willa Reising

Section 504 was a historic law in the history of disability rights; however, it took almost four years for the law to be implemented after the secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Caspan Weinberger had passed the law in 1973. The law was passed after a sit-in took place at the Lincoln Memorial in 1973 by 800 disabled people. However, without the law being signed and implemented by the secretary of H.E.W., nothing could change for people with disabilities [1]. The reason it was not signed and implemented was because it was an expensive project that would make public transportation, schools, universities, and federal buildings accessible to people with disabilities [2].

The inability for the law to be implemented until 1977 caused an outcry from the disability community who were still not treated as equal citizens in the United States. Thus, during the four years that it took for the law to be signed there were lawsuits and lobbying from different groups including a lawsuit against United Airlines because they only allowed four blind people on their 727 flights. This lawsuit was led by Dr. Kenneth Jernigan of Des Moines who was the president of the National Federation of the Blind. Other lawsuits were by 12 organizations against the Urban Mass Transit Authority of the Department of Transportation for failing to require low floor buses. Lastly, a group of disability rights activists lobbied in Washington, D.C. for employment and social security benefits [1].

The Carter administration was sworn in January of 1977 and a new secretary of H.E.W. Joseph A. Califano Jr. was appointed, however he stated that he needed two and a half months to review section 504 until implementing it. In April of 1977, the disabled community were done with waiting for the law to be implemented, thus a coalition group would protest with a sit-in at the ten different H.E.W. offices in the country [2].

The longest sit in would be at the H.E.W. office in San Francisco which was the office of the secretary of H.E.W. Califano Jr. The sit-in in San Francisco would last for three weeks and during this time these protesters were fighting for their life. They worried about receiving their meds, food, and they were unable to bring their ventilators, catheters, and other necessary health equipment. The office workers and the law enforcement also treated these protesters like children by giving them cookies and juice. This was because disabled people were seen as fragile, non-assertive, and child-like. However, by showing law enforcement and office workers that they were not giving up was significant in destabilizing the stereotypes of disabled people [3].

An example of another H.E.W. sit in was in Eugene, Oregon at the vocational rehabilitation office where eight to ten handicapped people took turns occupying a room. These protestors in Eugene moved into the testing room to cause more of a disturbance with one protestor stating that they caused a disturbance because they wanted real teeth in this law and real action to take place [4].

The law was finally implemented on April 28, 1977, by Secretary Califano Jr. and according to the newspaper The Oregonian the demonstrators woke up happy and excited but also stated that this was not going to change things overnight, however it was a step in the right direction. Section 504 stated that:

No otherwise qualified handicapped individual in the United States… shall, solely by reason of his handicap, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination in any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance [5].

This meant that no institution that received federal financial assistance like schools, colleges, or libraries could deny a handicapped person from participating in it because of their disability. Thus, these institutions would have to create programs which assist people with disabilities and make these institutions accessible, including ramps and special education. However, even after the law was implemented some institutions still did not think it was necessary to make themselves accessible to disabled people. An example was in the fall of 1977 when Rudd Public Library in Iowa, stated that they did not need to build ramps at their library because no one in the town was in a wheelchair. The federal government and local state government informed them that “you can’t ever tell when you might have a handicapped person.” [6] Thus, the library had to build ramps for their library’s entrance.

The Section 504 sit-ins of 1977 were a significant event in the history of disabilities because not only were the protesters successful in their sit-in, but also their protest went against a stereotype that disabled people were weak and not assertive. They disapproved of this by continuing their sit ins even though for many the sit ins risked their own health because they could not receive their medication or other things like ventilators. Yet they persisted and in less than a month since their protest started the Secretary Califano of H.E.W. signed and implemented the law.

References:

[1]. Schultz, Terri. “Thousands Are Picketing, Filing Suits and Lobbying for Promised Equal Protection of the Law: The Handicapped, A Minority Demanding Its Rights.” New York Times, 13 April 1977.

[2]. Hicks, Nancy. “Handicapped Use Protests to Push H.E.W. to Implement '73 Bias Law.” New York Times, 11 April 1977.

[3]. Grim, Andrew. “Sitting-in for Disability Rights: Section 504 Protests of the 1970s.” National Museum of American History, 8 July 2015.

[4]. “Disabled Join HEW Protest.” The Oregonian, 15 April 1977.

[5]. “Advertisement Mercy College.” The New York Times, 6 November 1977.

[6]. Kneeland, Douglas, E. “Library in Town Without Wheelchairs Told to Install Ramp.” The New York Times, 30 October 1977.