People with disabilities are one of the largest minorities in the United States yet were treated as a sub-class without human rights

PBS - Lives Worth Living

PBS – For most of American history, they occupied a sub-class of millions without access to everyday things most citizens take for granted: schools, apartment buildings, public transportation, and more.

Some were forcibly sterilized under state laws. Others were committed to horrifying institutions where they were left and forgotten.

After World War II, however, things began to change, thanks to a small group of determined people with an unwavering determination to live their lives like anyone else, and to liberate all disabled Americans of the limitations their government refused to accommodate.  

Independent Lens Watch online through Thursday, October 27. (1:20:59)

Lives Worth Living traces the development of consciousness of these pioneers who realized that in order to change the world they needed to work together. Through demonstrations and inside legislative battles, the disability rights community secured equal civil rights for all people with disabilities. Thanks to their efforts, tens of millions of people’s lives have been changed.

Watch Like an Emancipation Proclamation for the Disabled on PBS. See more from Independent Lens.

This film is an oral history, told by the movement’s mythical heroes themselves, and illustrated through the use of rare archival footage.

The story features Fred Fay, who suffered a spinal cord injury at age 17 in 1961, and simply refused to be relegated to life’s sidelines just because he couldn’t walk. He fought tirelessly for decades for equal rights, access, and opportunity for the disabled, including advocating for programs allowing the disabled to live independently. (Fred died August 20, 2011; the film is dedicated to him.)

Also featured is Ed Roberts, who founded the independent living movement in Berkeley and is also considered a father of the disability rights movement.

Echoing footage of Martin Luther King marching in Selma, we see protestors climb from wheelchairs and drag themselves courageously up courthouse steps; we watch as quadriplegic activists maneuver their chairs in front of public buses that are not equipped to accommodate them.

The film ends with the dramatic battle for the Americans with Disabilities Act, one of the most important pieces of civil rights legislation in America’s history. The thousands of individuals who came together to change attitudes and laws demonstrated the power of humanity, cooperation, and self-determination, and what can be accomplished against seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

Canada lacks a Canadians with Disabilities Act and enforcement. Canadians with disabilities have legal rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms but they must hire their own lawyers to obtain those rights.