History of Legislation

As people's values towards persons with disabilities changed, U.S. Federal laws were changing too. Originally, the American ideal of strong, independent, productive citizens meant everyone was expected to take care of themselves and there was no federal support for people with disabilities. Private agencies helped as much as they could, but it was not governments' place to intrude into private lives that way, and especially not it's place to find jobs for the unemployable. Except for wounded veterans. If a man was injured protecting his country, the government owed that man for his sacrifice.

Before about 1900, this was not much of a burden because almost all wounded soldiers died. You may have seen pictures from the Civil War of doctors operating in open tents, wearing only aprons over their regular clothes - no gloves or masks. The picture below shows wounded soldiers outside a "hostpital"/barn. Nobody knew much about germs, infection, and sterilization back then. Soldiers were lucky if the doctor wiped off his scalpel with a rag between patients. More than 80 percent of the wounded soldiers died. In that kind of war, there is no such thing as a minor wound - any cut, illness, or bullet wound could kill you.

 All that changed in WW I - a war bigger than any ever fought before. With millions of men fighting, there were far more wounded soldiers than before, and doctors now knew how to keep more of them alive. After the war, U.S. towns and cities suddenly had lots of physically disabled veterans wandering around without jobs. American values wouldn't stand for the European approach - building large institutions where the veterans and their families could live for free. Instead, Congress helped them get back to work by passing the Soldiers Rehabilitation Act of 1918. This law provided retraining for wounded veterans so they could become productive citizens again. A farmer who lost a leg fighting in France might find himself trained as an accountant. A factory worker whose lungs were burned by mustard (chlorine) gas in Belgium might find himself taking courses to be a pharmacist.

The program was so popular with the voters that two years later Congress expanded it to include civilians. Now anyone with a serious physical disability could get guidance and training for a new job, and states began creating Vocational Rehabilitation Agencies to run the services.

These laws did much more than help people - it was the first time the government had assumed responsibility for helping people in need. That paved the way for the all social services we have today - Social Security, Medicaid, welfare, veterans' benefits, federally funded programs in schools, and even civil rights legislation. The history of these types of programs begins with the Soldiers Rehabilitation Act in 1918.

But the government was not just giving away money. In America, people had to earn their own way, and rehabilitation services were only for people with physical disabilities who really wanted to work.

Vocational rehabilitation workers had a range of standard, "acceptable" jobs for which they would train people, and they carefully selected only people whom they thought would succeed. People with the "right kind" of disabilities could get training for different careers, and there was only one list of careers from which they could choose, including chair caning like the gentlemen above are doing. Everything went by the numbers, and it was only for people with physical disabilities. Under the "medical model" of disabilities, this all made sense. But people with problems like depression, mental retardation, "epilepsy", or cerebral palsy continued to live isolated from their communities, depending on family and friends to survive.

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