It was a snowy evening...

Today is the 33rd anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)! This is the U.S. Law that prohibits discrimination of Americans with Disabilities. It is also Disability Pride Month!

[Image Description: A black and white picture shows a group of people with disabilities crawl up the steps of the U.S. Capitol to draw support for the Americans with Disabilities Act, March 12th, 1990. One person crawls with their crutches. Some people crawl near other people who are standing. © The Tom Olin Collection ]

I like to think about the histories.

✨✨ In 1964, people of the U.S. demanded and fought hard for the Civil Rights Act, which legally prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. People marched, organized, educated, and laid the groundwork that we continue to use and expand on today.

[Image Description: A black and white photo of people protesting down Constitution Avenue during the March on Washington on Aug. 28, 1963. They hold signs that say "WE DEMAND EQUAL RIGHTS NOW!" Hulton Archive/Getty Images]

The Civil Rights Act legally prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. So, it forbade discrimination on the bases of these things in hiring, promotion, and firing in public accommodations and federally funded programs. Notice that I write legally because when something gets put into law, it doesn’t mean that it immediately (or ever) gets put into practice.

So, the Civil Rights Act in 1964 was and continues to be extremely important. Notice though, that on the list of prohibited discrimination categories, disability is not included.

✨✨9 years later in 1973, The Rehabilitation Act is established through much advocacy, which legally provides equal opportunity in federal government and federally funded programs, and prohibits discrimination on the basis of either physical or mental disability. Section 504 of this act mandates equal access to public services, like housing and transportation.

[Image Description: Protestors walk and wheel at United Nations Plaza in San Francisco on April 5, 1973. One person holds a sign that says "Sign 504 Now" in handwritten letters. Credit...Anthony Tusler]

✨✨In 1977, the 504 sit-ins took place. I feel inspired by Kitty Cone's recounting of what happened. A disabled activist and one of the leading organizers of the sit-ins, she explains how after the establishment of The Rehabilitation Act in 1973, there were still no regulations issued to establish equity for disabled citizens. Cone writes:

"A sit in meant people would go and stay, until the issue was resolved definitively.

The San Francisco federal building sit in, the only one that endured, lasted 26 days and was critical in forcing the signing of the regulations almost unchanged. It began with a rally outside the federal building, then we marched inside where between 1 and 200 people would remain until the end. The composition of the sit in represented the spectrum of the disability community with participation from people with a wide variety of disabilities, from different racial, social and economic backgrounds, and ages from adults to kids with disabilities and their parents...

We set up committees to take on different tasks such as rally speakers, media, fund-raising, medics, monitors, publicity, and outreach. The outreach committee was very successful in garnering broad community support: from churches, unions, civil rights organizations, gay groups, elected politicians, radical parties and others.

The work of that committee proved to be invaluable once we were inside the building. Those organizations built support rallies outside the building and the breath of the support made it more difficult to move against us. The International Association of Machinists facilitated our sending a delegation to Washington. Politicians sent mattresses and a shower hose to attach to the sink.

Glide Memorial Church and the Black Panther party sent many delicious meals that nourished us between days of coffee and doughnuts..."

[Multiracial coalitions undergirded the strength of the 504 sit-in; unidentified person with Sue Knight and Ursula McGuire. Photograph by HolLynn D’Lil, author of Becoming Real in 24 Days.]

✨✨1 year later, on February 9, 1978, I was born. It was a very snowy evening in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. Jimmy Carter was president. Stayin' Alive by The Bee Gees was the number one song. I was born with a broken leg. They thought I might die so they had a priest read my last rites.

[This is a photo of Jeremy's mother, a beautiful woman with brown hair cut in a bob and red dress, holding baby Jeremy, looking down at him with love and determination in her eyes]

In the midst of these important national changes and fights for justice, I grew up. I did not have access to equal spaces in classrooms, transportation, or workspaces. It was very lonely and it was also very good.

✨✨Bring us forward a bit to 1990... I was 12 years old, in 7th grade. I was finally done breaking bones all the time because my bones had grown strong enough, and I had also gotten many rod surgeries, so I was pretty. damn. happy. at this point in my life. My childhood of being in the hospital all the time had ended. And...

✨✨The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is established! This is a civil rights law that prohibits discriminiation against individuals with disabilities in all public areas of life, including jobs, schools, transportation, and all public and private places that are open to the general public. The purpose of the law is to make sure that people with disabilities have the same rights and opportunities as everyone else.

[Image Description: A black and white picture shows a group of people with disabilities crawl up the steps of the U.S. Capitol to draw support for the Americans with Disabilities Act, March 12th, 1990. One person crawls with their crutches. Some people crawl near other people who are standing. © The Tom Olin Collection]

[This is a photo of Jeremy, a white man with orange hair and an orange striped shirt. He sits in his wheelchair in the middle of the street shouting in to a microphone and there are two other people in wheelchairs next to him. Behind them is a Northampton Police Car.]

✨✨I feel very grateful for the legacies of activism that come before me, and that continue to surround me, fighting, working, organizing for civil rights. With all of you, I hope to continue to fight for the rights of all people. Though I identify as an activist now, starting rallies, heading commissions, and now running for office, I feel that existing in my body has always been an act of resistance, a form of activism. When I was born, the world thought I was ready to die. However, I am here, and I am excited to continue to reimagine a world with you all that is made for all of us.

Yours,

Jeremy Dubs