A Disability History of the United States

In Chapter 7, Nielsen examines disability in the years 1927-1968, specifically focusing on the issues of employment and labor relations, community and relationships between different groups of people with disabilities, and organizing and activism. Despite the economic collapse and devastation resulting from the stock market crash of 1929, “the activism of people with disabilities and the federal policy changes generated in response to the Great Depression created new opportunities for people with disabilities” (131). One of the earliest examples of disability activism was the formation of the League of the Physically Handicapped, which began protesting in 1935 for equal access to jobs with the Works Relief Program. The National Association of the Deaf similarly battled the Works Projects Administration, the New Deal agency that employed millions during the Depression, because of its stance that deaf people, like other types of people with disabilities, were unemployable.

Nielsen also examines the ways in which disability-specific communities formed based on activism and common experiences. Chief among these was the deaf community, which had grown strong in the early 20th century because of its common linguistic identity and the many schools that existed. Unlike other types of people with disabilities, however, the deaf community rejected making alliances with other groups because they “insisted that deaf people were not disabled people” (136).