The Disability Rights Movement

Shapiro received the Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellowship to study the disability rights movement, which is the subject of this book. He examines the impact of technology on aid for the disabled, the need for nursing-home reform, and the potential for backlash as the public become aware of the costs of implementing the ADA. This book tracks disability rights legislation from the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to the ADA 1992, which requires businesses to provide access for the handicapped and bans employers from discriminating on the basis of disability. It describes two ways people with disabilities come to be treated poorly in institutions and as the result of pitiable images. Shapiro interviewed hundreds of people for this report, with a helpful